Nightmares

The first couple of weeks that Diana stayed with the Dursleys were uneventful. Diana stayed out of Petunia's and Vernon's way, and vice versa. They hardly ever spoke to each other; if they had to speak, they were coldly civil. Diana took to helping Harry with his chores for lack of much else to do. He was the only one that was happy she was there. Who can blame him; just look at the people he lives with she would think to herself.

One night she awoke to a strange noise. She couldn't place what it was, so she slipped out of bed to investigate. She walked out into the hallway and stopped in front of another door that she recognized as Harry's. She could now tell that the noise was whimpering. He was having a nightmare.

He was also speaking things in his sleep, which she could hear very clearly through the door, "Don't… please, not Cedric… help me, mum," he went on repeating those words. She stood there for a minute, her heart constricting in sadness for the boy. His voice sounded hoarse as though he had been at this for hours.

She went further down the hall, down the stairs and into the kitchen. She saw a light on before she even went in, and wasn't very surprised to find the piggy form of Dudley with his head stuck in the refrigerator. Diana politely, but impatiently, cleared her throat; the boy was startled by her presence and dropped his many candy bars and wrapped cakes. All the same, he squeezed himself farther into the fridge to give her room to slip into the kitchen. She looked in the cabinet for a clean glass; when she found one, she walked back to the fridge. Dudley immediately scrambled out of her way as she reached for the ice chest. When she scooped a liberal amount of ice into the glass, she walked to the sink and filled it with water, letting it run through the purifier that was attached to the faucet. She slipped past Dudley once more and headed back upstairs. She quietly opened Harry's door. He was tossing and turning on the bed; his blankets were twisted around his ankles and his shirt was noticeably damp from cold sweat.

Diana walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge next to Harry, careful not to spill the water. She started to gently shake his shoulder to wake him up, "Harry. Come on, Harry, wake up."

Harry jumped suddenly. His eyes flicked open and he reached for his glasses; when his eyes were focused, he finally was able to tell who was in the room with him, "Diana?" his voice was slightly hoarse.

"You were having a nightmare," she said in explanation, handing him the water.

He looked at the glass in her hand in confusion for just a second. The confusion was quickly replaced with surprise when he realized it was for him, "Thank you," he said, taking a sip. It was yet another act of kindness from a woman that wasn't even a blood relative that he'd known for barely a few weeks. He wasn't used to it. Diana left the room for just a second to get a clean towel from the bathroom. She handed it to him to wipe his forehead. Her maternal instincts kicking in, Diana began rubbing his back soothingly as he calmed down from his dream.

"You wanna talk about it?" she continued to rub circles in his back as he took another sip.

"Not really," he mumbled, but loud enough for her to hear.

"Alright, if that's what you want."

He could still hear the high, cold voice in his head. He could see the red eyes, just before his vision was engulfed by a bright green light.

"A few weeks ago, I saw a classmate of mine die," he said after a few minutes of silence.

"Oh my, that's horrible," no wonder he seemed so haunted when she first met him.

"It's my fault," he said, taking a shuddering breath.

"How could it possibly have been your fault?" she asked.

It would cause her to ask too many questions if he told her that he was the one that they were after, so he answered honestly without giving the whole truth, "I was there. I should have done more to stop it from happening."

"Look at me, Harry," Harry turned his face in her general direction but wouldn't look her in the eyes, so she tilted his chin up with her fingers, "I don't know what happened to your friend, and I'm not going to pressure you for details. But I'm a pretty good judge of character, and I know you're not the type to stand by while someone's in pain or dying. I'm sure you did all that you could have done. You probably did more than should be expected of someone your age," Don't I know it he thought to himself as she said the last part.

"Thank you, Diana," he still blamed himself. He didn't think there was anything that she could say to change his mind. But he appreciated that she tried.

"Do you get these nightmares a lot?"

"Every once and awhile," he wasn't meeting her eyes again, so she knew that he was lying.

"How 'bout this: if you wake up from one of your nightmares, you come wake me up no matter how late it is, or if I wake up and hear you having one I'll come wake you up. And we can talk. It doesn't have to be about the dream. We can talk about anything to make you feel better or take your mind off the dreams."

He smiled at her thoughtfulness, not that he'd ever wake her up because of a nightmare, "Alright."

"I mean it, Harry. Wake me even if it's two in the morning. You shouldn't have to go through something like this alone," she added sternly, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

"Alright, I promise."

She smiled and ruffled his hair, "Now are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, I should be. Thanks again," Diana stood up to leave. She thought about it for a moment before she bent over and, moving his hair back, gave him a motherly kiss on the forehead.

He settled back under his covers as she left the room.

When she left the room, she almost ran into Dudley, who had been eavesdropping at the door.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, sternly.

Dudley stuttered stupidly for a moment before he attempted being sly, "What are you doing out here?"

"I'm going back to my room, and I suggest you do the same," she walked down the hallway back to her room and shut the door without another word.

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Diana was waiting up in her room when she heard the familiar sound of the front door slamming open as the brute came home. Luckily she had already helped Harry to make sure that all of his chores were done, so there was no chance that he would get yelled at, which still happened every now and then; though Diana was always there to make sure it never got too heated.

She made her way downstairs where she saw Petunia greeting her husband, "Excuse me, Mr. Dursley, Mrs. Dursley," she said politely when she got to the foyer. They both looked at her suspiciously, "May I have a word in the kitchen with the both of you?" Before they could protest, which she knew they would, she had already headed in the direction of the kitchen.

They knew better than to ignore her, so they had no choice but to follow. She was leaning against the counter when they got there; Petunia nudged Dudley out of the fridge and into the living room before closing the door.

"What's this about?" said Vernon in his usual rude, gruff manner. Petunia just nodded stiffly in agreement, obviously wanting the conversation to be over with.

"It's about Harry," Vernon began to redden at the sound of his nephew's name, "Are the two of you aware that a friend of his from school was killed and he saw it happen?"

Petunia seemed to pale slightly and averted her gaze to the tiled floor, but Vernon just became redder, "No we didn't! We never hear anything from that freak school of his!"

His reaction was no surprise, so Diana just kept on, "I thought you'd want to know that he's been having pretty bad nightmares about it. He blames himself for what happened. I thought maybe you could talk to him. He could probably use his family's support to overcome his guilt."

"You thought wrong. I prefer not to know what goes on in his head at night as long as he doesn't keep us awake with it!" Petunia just stood by and looked back and forth between the two.

Diana walked past both of the adult Dursleys on her way back to her room, "That's what I was afraid of."

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Later that evening, Harry came downstairs to watch the news. He was becoming anxious because he hadn't heard one word about what Voldemort was up to. His friends wouldn't give him any important information, so he was relying on the newspaper and television. He normally wouldn't bother with watching the telly, but knowing Voldemort, eventually he would start harming Muggles, and if he did that, it would definitely end up on the muggle news as an unexplained death, accident or disappearance.

Harry walked into the living room and sat down quietly on the couch so that his uncle wouldn't notice him. Unfortunately for him, his uncle lives to make his life difficult, and that includes not letting him watch the news.

"What are you doing, boy?"

"I just thought I'd sit and watch the news,"

"And why do you think there is anything for your eyes and ears on our news?"

"I didn't say there was; I just said I wanted to watch,"

"Not in my house you don't! Now get out!" his uncle bellowed at him.

Because of his uncle, he missed the first part of the news program, but hanging back in the doorway unnoticed, he did see something interesting: "And in international news, American Officials are baffled by the disappearance of Wonder Woman. The Amazing Amazon has not been seen in almost three weeks…"

Uncle Vernon quickly changed the channel, "I'll not have them talking about some unnatural American hussy in a bathing suit in my house," but Harry was able to catch a glimpse of the woman in the picture.