Alex came to quietly, not opening his eyes. He was lying spread-eagled on a hard, smooth surface, surrounded by that peculiar sound that comes of there being no noise at all. As far as he could tell, he was uninjured, and all mental processes seemed to be working.

Then it occurred to Alex that he had passed out upon entering the Harry Potter fan room. Which meant that he had yet again embarrassed himself, even among fellow fans.

With a yelp, Alex scrambled to his feet, looking wildly about. However, he was not in the dining hall he had glimpsed through the door. He stood in a pure white room of modest size with a single door across from him, and not a Harry Potter fan in sight. It still seemed to be the convention building, but clean and empty.

Shaking his head in bewilderment, Alex cautiously walked towards the unmarked door, listening for any signs of life.

What had happened?

The last thing he remembered was opening the door to the Harry Potter area, and then everything had somehow...disappeared. He knew no better way to describe it. Perhaps this was how it felt to pass out? He had somehow assumed that there would be more dizziness involved.

Ill at ease in this strange, empty room, Alex opened the door a crack and peered out. Instantly, he withdrew his head, slowly easing the door shut again. Unless his mind was playing tricks on him, he had just seen a three-headed dog asleep, just a few dozen feet down the straight hallway.

A three-headed dog.

Alex took a deep breath, slumping against the closed door. Everything would be all right. This was just a dream. He brightened slightly. In fact, it was most likely another one of his fantastical Harry Potter dreams he occasionally experienced. They were always a bit insane, but it would end up alright if he just went with it. Soon he would wake up, probably in the first-aid area of the convention.

So with renewed confidence, Alex drew his wand from his robes and stepped out into the hallway. Instantly, the three-headed dog leaped up. It really was enormous, its shaggy black head looking down at Alex threateningly. However, Alex was ready. Any Harry Potter fan worth his salt knew how to deal with a hostile/random Cerberus: make music to put the creature to sleep. In a voice that quivered with nervousness, Alex began to sing the first tune that came into his mind. It was, of course, from the Harry Potter books.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald,

Or young with scabby knees…"

At his first few notes, the beast began to growl and stalked towards Alex with its tail twitching and teeth bared. However, as Alex's voice grew more confident, the dog's pace slowed and finally stopped. Its eyelids began to droop. Encouraged, Alex continued.

"Our heads could do with filling,

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,"

The three-headed dog heaved an enormous sigh and lay down in the middle of the hallway, settling its head on top of its paws. Still singing softly, Alex tiptoed past the beast and took the first turn in the hallway.

"So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot."

Having finished the Hogwarts song, Alex paused in his hurried steps and listened intently for any sounds of the dog. He hadn't been sure if his singing would qualify as music - his voice was mediocre at best. Also, the Potter books had only ever mentioned instrumentals as the way to calm a savage beast. However, Alex could hear nothing of the dog, and so it seemed to have succeeded. Truly, this was a very good Harry Potter dream.

Still with his wand drawn, Alex continued walking through the building, turning corners at random. It was eerily quiet, the lights growing ever dimmer as he proceeded. What I wouldn't give for a brighter light! he thought wistfully. Then, a realization struck him. Of course he could just make some light!

Pointing his wand in front of him, Alex murmured "Lumos", one of the most basic Harry Potter spells.

Instantly, the tip of his wand flared with a warm yellow glow, making the entire hallway seem more surprised that the magic had worked, Alex continued on his way. This was a Harry Potter dream, after all.

He encountered nothing for the next several minutes, except for the occasional yellow insect buzzing across his path. He was beginning to grow bored. Was it even possible to become bored in dreams? Alex sighed. If his dream was going to continue in this vein, he would rather just wake up.

Then, crossing his path on a distant corridor, he saw it. A giant wasp was hovering a few feet above the ground with twitching antennae brushing the ceiling, emitting a grating whine. Its yellow abdomen and wicked-looking stinger glinted in the dim lighting.

Though Alex was more than fifty feet away from the gigantic monster, he recoiled. What was that creature? It didn't come from the Harry Potter universe - this entirely was out of his comfort zone.

Quietly, lest he attract the attention of the menacing insect, Alex backed away, turning into another corridor as soon as he could, not daring to stop until all sounds of buzzing had faded away. At that, Alex stopped and stood in the middle of the hallway, thoughts churning. That thing had not been part of any of the Harry Potter books. This was not a canon Harry Potter dream like he had always experienced. And it could very well turn into a nightmare if Alex wasn't careful.

He needed some time to get his thoughts in order, and standing in a hallway where anything could appear was clearly risky. He needed a nice quiet spot where he could think without feeling so exposed, or even better, snap out of this unsettling dream. So Alex entered the first room he could find, and, after a quick check to make sure that the room was empty, quietly closed the door.

It seemed to be a small conference room of some sort, with folding tables and cheap plastic chairs piled in the corners. He sighed, sitting down cross-legged in the center of the room and closed his eyes. What was going on in this demented mind of his? He must have somehow bumped his head upon entering the Harry Potter fan room. Was he going insane?

A barely perceptible hiss interrupted his thoughts. Alex's eyes flew open just as a small creature's jaws snapped shut directly in front of him. Alex fell backwards with a yell, hands flailing in front of his face. Alex's hand inadvertently slapped across the creature's thin chest, and it gave an indignant screech. Where had the creature been hiding? After all, he had just carefully scoped out the entire room.

The creature was a small, misproportioned humanoid, with ink black skin and sharp white teeth. It seemed to be wearing the tattered remains of a jester's outfit, complete with a pointy hat and cheerful-looking green shoes. The creature looked like a goblin - the kind that carried away small children. It snarled at him, crawling on all fours, and though it barely reached his knees, Alex was terrified. He was quite sure this thing wanted to kill him.

The goblin-thing gave out a low hiss, creeping towards Alex in a decidedly predatory fashion. It stared at him malevolently through pale slitted eyes. Alex thought desperately for some kind of solution. Magic. Feverishly drawing his wand, Alex yelled, "Stupefy!" and gave the wand an assertive flick.

Nothing happened. What kind of Harry Potter dream is it if you can't perform a simple Stunning Spell? Alex thought hysterically. Magic didn't work, there were unfamiliar monsters around: this was most certainly a nightmare. The quickest way out of the dream was probably to let the creature "kill" him. He would then wake up, and this terrifying experience would be over.

However, Alex's survival instinct would not allow him to commit suicide, even in a dream. So Alex continued backing away from the prowling goblin-thing, feeling for a possible weapon. His groping hands seized upon an overturned chair. Not a wand, but it would have to do. He brandished the chair at the creature in what he hoped was a threatening manner. "Get back! I don't want to hurt you, just stay away!"

The monster stopped, watching the chair. It cocked its head. Then, deciding that Alex was more tempting than the chair was frightening, it sprang.

Yelling in fear, Alex swung the chair defensively, attempting to bat the creature away. One leg of the chair connected with the creature's head with a sickening thunk. Alex recoiled at the impact, dropping his makeshift weapon. Both the chair and the creature fell to the floor, and there was silence.

Alex crept forwards cautiously, ready to jump back at any moment. The chair lay on its side, one leg bent backwards. The creature was sprawled with its limbs at odd angles, glassy eyes staring upwards, a thin trickle of a tar-like substance coming from one ear. Quivering, Alex looked a bit closer. Its chest was not moving. It was unmistakably dead.

Alex stepped back quietly, in shock. The black stain that was now spreading across the floor was all too real. This was not a dream. Either it was a terrible, hallucinatory nightmare, or godforbidpleaseno, it was real.

Whatever this was, it was bad, and Alex wanted out.

This is a building, right? So there must be an exit. All I need to do is get out, and everything will be fine. As he remembered, the convention building was not terribly big. If he picked a direction and stuck to it, he was sure to eventually reach some kind of exit.

Still shaking, Alex set off yet again, this time sticking to the walls and looking fearfully around every corner. He had several near misses, once barely avoiding a troll-like creature stumping down a nearby hall, and once hastily turning from a corridor from which a peculiar humming sound was emanating. However, the building itself seemed relatively normal, with the occasional, albeit unlighted, exit sign to point Alex towards his goal.

Eventually, Alex found a door that he was pretty sure led outside. There was an unlit exit sign right above it, and he could go no further in that direction. Cautiously, Alex put an ear to the unmarked door. Nothing. It seemed to be safe.

Alex took a deep breath, remembering for a moment how he had dithered over a similar door in the convention building just a few hours ago. The stakes were much higher this time, but now, Alex felt strangely calm. He had already gone through so much - nothing could surprise him now. He turned the smooth knob, and the door opened soundlessly. When Alex saw what was outside, his eyes grew wide in shock.

He could not see the parking lot he had expected - everything was shrouded with a white fog so thick that he could not even make out the ground. It gave him the strange sensation that he was floating, miles above and away from anywhere. Before Alex could pluck up his courage to step out, a figure appeared from the mist.

She seemed to step delicately across the fog, as if it was as solid as the ground. Now that the woman's features were clearer, he recognized her as the convention employee who had given him directions. She still had her clipboard. She reached Alex, who was still standing on the threshold of the door, dumbfounded. They stood facing each other for a moment, and before Alex had time to formulate a question, she shook her head, smiling distantly, as if he were a wayward child. In a soft fluid motion, she began to close the door in his face, and at the same time, darkness swirled at the edges of Alex's vision. The last thing Alex remembered was the ground rushing forward to meet him and the door in front of him shutting with a gentle click.