Chapter Three; The Dreamcatcher
Young Richie Weasley walked through the forest with his faithful canine companion by his side. He was starting to feel rather sorry that he ever wandered off in the first place. He wanted to go back home to be with his parents and the rest of his family, but he had no idea where he was going. He felt streams of tears flowing down his cheeks as he (since he deemed this to be a life threatening situation of being inside a dark woods by himself) continued walking through the woods with the light of his wand to guide him.
He remembered when he was about six or seven years old and that Chase had told him a story about the dreamcatcher, he just secretly hoped and prayed that his brother had been making it up to scare him. Meanwhile, Harry had been on his way back home when suddenly he heard somebody sneeze from behind him.
He quickly turned around and unexpectedly became face to face with the spirit of his deceased wife. "Ginny?" he questioned with uncertainty and disbelief while she rubbed her eyes to try and get rid of the magical dust that still remained inside of them.
"Harry? Is that really you?" Ginny asked before she finally cleared her eyes and blinked them a few times.
"Yeah," Harry began. "my question is is it really you? Or am I asleep?" he wondered.
"No Harry, you're not dreaming. I'm really here. I'm an angel. And I heard your prayer. God sent me here to watch over Richie." She explained while she turned and looked around while fluttering her wings. "Oops, I forgot about these. Now that I'm back here on earth, I can't really go walking around like this now can?" she said while glancing back at her wings and leaving her dearly departed husband speechless.
Harry just simply watched her with his mouth gaped open while she turned back around and grinned at him before snapping her fingers. Within a sparkling twinkle of light she changed her wardrobe to a pink T-shirt with a black jumper, blue jeans, and pink and black tennis shoes upon her feet. "How do I look?" she asked him.
"You look great but_" Harry began after he shook his head and found his voice again.
"First of all before I do anything I just wanted to let you know besides Richie and Beethoven, you're the only one who can see me while I'm here." She told him.
"Why?" he questioned.
"Because you're the one who prayed for me to come back, Richie is the one who I'm supposed to help, and animals can always sense things that humans can't." she replied. "Anyway Harry, I also very much need your help. Our nephew is in danger." She said. "Have you ever heard about the legend of the dreamcatcher?" she asked him.
"No," Harry began with a shake of his head. "who is he?" he wondered.
"It's a she, or rather an it actually. It's similar to a boggart. Fred and George always used to tell me that story on Halloween to tease me about it when I went out trick-or-treating." She told him.
"Well, what is it then?" he asked her.
"It's a shapeshifter that usually takes the form of an old woman. A pale and wrinkly old woman with boney hands and a black hood. Whenever she finds a young witch or wizard alone in the woods at night by him or herself, she opens her hood and tilts her head back and a loud and petrifying scream comes out of her mouth and then,.." she began before taking a rather long pause. "she traps them inside her body until she can let them out inside somebody's nightmare. She traps them there." She told him worriedly.
"Wait a minute, I have heard that story before. Hermione told me that it was one of the stories that Beedle the Bard wrote. She told me that it was common for him to write stories based on real legends, hence The Tale of The Three Brothers." He told her as she simply nodded.
"Yep, sounds like Hermione." She said.
"We've got to find Richie." Harry said immediately afterwards.
"No Harry, I've got to find Richie. That's what I was sent here to do. You have a job of your own. You have to get back home to be with our children." She told him.
"Well alright, but are you you'll be able to find him? After all, he's my nephew just as much as he's yours." He said.
"Don't worry Harry, I'll find him. Beethoven will be the first one to alert him of my presence, and then I'll just follow the sound of his barking. I won't let anything happen to either of them I promise." She told him before she disappeared before Harry could have the chance to ask her if he'd ever see her again.
That's when suddenly Ginny reappeared inside the woods and started calling Richie's name. "Richie!" she hollered on the top of her lungs through her hands. "Richie, it's your Aunt Ginny where are you!?" she yelled figuring that she would be able to explain her return from the dead to him later because right now she just wanted to find him and make sure that he was safe. A few seconds later she saw Beethoven sprinting towards her, except he had been alone. He halted in front of her and began to whimper.
"What's the matter boy?" Ginny questioned while she gently stroked his fur trying to calm him down. "Where's Richie?"
The next morning Hermione showed up on Harry's doorstep saying that the boy and dog had never returned home. "Oh no," Harry began. "I sure hope that nothing terrible happened to him. Ginny assured me that she would find him." He told her.
"Yeah I know, Ron and I are very worried about him." She began with a nod before it finally started to sink into her what he had just said. "Wait? What!?" she exclaimed.
"Ginny's an angel." Harry began. "she appeared to me last night because I asked her to." He explained.
"Really? Are you sure you weren't dreaming?" Hermione wondered.
"Positive." Harry began with a nod. "I pinched myself after she disappeared just to make sure and I was awake." He told her.
"Well gee Harry, I really hope you're right." She said. "I don't know what I'd do if anything ever happened to Richie or any of my other children." She told him.
"Don't worry Hermione, Ginny will watch over him. She promised, and you know as well as I do that she's never broken a promise. I just hope and pray she finds him before the dreamcatcher does." Harry said while he looked away into the distance
