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Chapter 30 "The Dream"

"No!" Lily screamed, and her eyes popped open in the darkness. She reached out ahead of her to make sure there was nothing in her path so she could continue running when she realized it had just been a dream. Just a terrible dream. But one based on true events. She slumped back against the pillows in Severus' bed.

The hospital had been getting alot patients lately as a result of all the Death Eater attacks. It was always horrible to see these poor people, sometimes their bodies a mangled mess from the onslaught of different curses used on them, sometimes babbling incoherently about the horrors they had seen. And alot of the patients were muggles, whose homes and families were destroyed by Voldemort's followers.

But today, there was a patient that practically tore out her heart; it was a young boy who had been tortured with the Cruciartus Curse, and who knows what else. There were several deep lacerations all over his body, and he was crying out for his parents. He was brought in alone, along with a bunch of other victims by a group of aurors who had been at the scene of the attack to clean up the mess left behind.

Lily had been called over to help with the sudden onslaught of patients needing immediate attention. She reached out a hand to comfort the boy, and directed the aurors to a room to bring him to. But it was too late. She felt the child's hand grow limp in her own in that short moment, and looked down to see his face still glistening with tears and bright red blood. A look of fear was etched across his face, and Lily almost broke down right there; almost huddled in a corner in a fetal position and never wanting to come out. But then another Healer called her, and she knew it was no time to be weak. There were other people that needed help. It was too late for the boy, but not for the others. She rushed over to help her fellow Healer staunch the blood that was pouring out of a muggle man's chest wound, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself before diving in.

Apparently, that moment had stayed with her. She had been having nightmares about those poor people, but none as vivid as the one that had just woken her from her slumber. She tried to put it out of her mind, but it replayed again...

The little boy from the hospital was lying on the pavement. It was dark and cold, and all she could see was the boy, his hand outstretched for help. Tears wet his cheeks as he cried, joining the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"Take my hand." Lily said, reaching out. She would haul him up, wrap him in her arms and take him away from this terrible dark place. Just as her fingers brushed the boy's, a figure stepped out of the dense shadows and pointed his wand at the child.

"Avada kedavra" the figure screamed, and Lily stumbled backward, blinded for a minute by the intense green light of the spell.

She blinked rapidly, trying to get her eyesight back, and a chilling cackle filled her ears. The next thing she saw was the boy's body on the ground, limp as a rag doll, his mouth wide in an expression of horror. The man laughed again, and his red eyes glowed like burning embers.

Lily heart pounded in fear, and she turned and tried to run, but she couldn't because there was a tightening grip on her shoulder.

"Don't be upset." the man whispered in her ear. "It was a mudblood. It deserved to die. And you will be next."

Lily screamed and ripped away, running for her life. She looked behind her, and the man was laughing insanely, standing over the child's body, which began to instantly decay. His face seemed to melt as it decomposed, the flesh falling off, tiny maggots wriggling inside his eye holes. Lily faced straight again, too sick to gaze upon the boy anymore, and ran into the darkness.

Lily knew who the man had been, and his cackling laugh had followed her out of the dream and caused goose bumps to rise on her arms. The smell of the boy's rotting body filled her nose, and she took a deep breath so she wouldn't throw up on the bed.

Without realizing it, she reached over to the opposite side of the bed, searching for another human's warmth for comfort, but her fingertips only brushed cold sheets.

She choked back tears as she squeezed a pillow to her chest, pretending it was her sister, her mother, Severus, but those red eyes and the boy's dead face pierced through her mind and she stayed awake for the rest of the night.

I know, short chapter. I'll try to get another up today or tomorrow, but it might not happen, cause life gets in the way.