Chapter Four I'd Rather Be Dreaming Than Living…
Aspirations, longing for, trance, abstraction, reverie. Ideas, emotions, sensations and series of images.
There are certain things that should linger in the dream world and others that should never enter there. What ever be the will of the unconscious being, things never remain the way you want them to.
Seamus wrapped his arm around her waist, but continued to throw the rocks until all the stones were at the bottom of the lake. He then turned to Elizabeth as she pushed back his hood; her hand traveled down to rest on his shoulder, the other held his upper arm. He bent his neck and kissed her, lightly at first, but then more deeply and passionately. He played gently with the hair on the nape of her neck; twirling it around his fingers, sending jolting shivers up and down her spine, his other hand kneaded her lower back with gentle pressure.
Their foreheads were pressed against each others. Elizabeth looked up, and Seamus, bending his neck, looked down at her. She smiled at their closeness, as he searched her eyes with a small smile, his hand caressing her jaw. It did not take long for her to get lost in the deep blue pools that were his eyes.
The moment passed as the sun sank beneath the hilly horizon, and hand in hand the two walked up to the castle, through the vacant corridors and up to the deserted Gryffindor common room. Seamus lingered at the bottom of the girl's dormitory staircase, holding Elizabeth close to him, trying as hard as he could to ward off the inevitable goodnight. Elizabeth played with the material of his robes, feeling his sweet breath wash over her.
"I'd best be getting to bed." Elizabeth said softly after a few minutes. She pulled back, though still in his arms.
"Couldn't we just…" Seamus searched for a word. "Crash here tonight?" he nodded towards the red furniture surrounding the waning fire. The warm orange glow cast upon the couches by the coals gave them a comfortable, inviting look, making Elizabeth feel even more tired.
Elizabeth just smiled. "Seamus we can't." Her eye lids drooped, "Look at me; I can barely keep my eyes open. I'll be a wreck tomorrow if I don't go to bed soon." She leaned forwards and rested her head against his chest. Seamus held her head in place with his hand, resting his chin on it rocking gently back and forth; he kissed the top of her head protectively.
Elizabeth breathed in the familiar scent of soap mixed with his faint cologne. Before the warm blanket of sleep enveloped her, she snapped her eyes open and rolled her head up.
Seamus's lips brushed hers. "Goodnight then." He whispered, his voice was pained, and he watched her walk towards the first stair.
Elizabeth shuffled up the spiral staircase to her dormitory, leaving Seamus to gaze after her.
She was greeted by Parvati's light snoring and Lavender's deep, rhythmic breathing. Hermione sat cross legged on her bed; her time table perched on one knee, a stack of books piled precariously on the mattress beside her.
"I shouldn't have left it to the last minute." She smiled. And went back to putting tabs into one of the books, marking out where new chapters started. "I don't really want to sound like the nasty prefect," She added without looking up. "But you two shouldn't have been out for so long."
"We were just taking advantage of the last bit of the break." Elizabeth yawned, tossing her robes onto her chair, and putting on her pajamas. She sighed, "Back to classes, this week went by too quickly."
"I know what you mean." Hermione agreed. "I haven't gotten to do half of the studying that I'd wanted to." She read an incantation from one of the books and with a flick of her want, a tray of tea and biscuits appeared from nowhere, then she made it disappear. Smiling at her accomplishment, she put the books on the floor beside her book bag, and changed into her night gown.
Elizabeth crawled under her bedclothes and blew out the candle on her bedside table. "Night." She said to Hermione who was crawling into her own bed.
"Goodnight." Hermione said, blowing out her candle, throwing the dormitory into darkness.
Elizabeth woke with a start.
Had it been a dream? She was indeed laying in her bed in the dark dormitory, but what had happened in order for her to get there?
Crawling from under the covers, she lit a small candle threw on her dressing gown and slipped out of the dormitory. Hurrying down the stairs, she wondered how she was to convince herself that it wasn't a dream.
By the time she'd reached to common room, Elizabeth decided that she would go to the hospital wing to see.
Climbing silently from the portrait hole, Elizabeth saw that The Fat Lady wasn't there. She briskly made her way to the hospital wing without any interruption. She stole into hospital, heart sinking as she saw the partitions. Emerging around the screens, she sighed deep and sat on the edge of the bed.
"It was just a dream." She said aloud to the sleeping Seamus.
Placing the candle on his bedside table, Elizabeth hunched over and covered her eyes with her palms.
Silent tears rolled from her eyes. She knew that the dream was too good to be true. It was so vivid, she wished she would have stayed in the common room and slept on the couch with him. She was sure that she wouldn't have believed that it was real had she done that in her dream.
She reached her hand out and wrapped her fingers around Seamus's. If only I had insisted on him coming up to the castle with me that night. Then none of this would have happened.
Her shoulders shook as she tried to regain her composure. I've got to get back up to bed. But she couldn't move, she didn't want to leave Seamus. The sound of footfall brought her face up from her hands.
"Miss Thornburn! What are you doing here, its past midnight." Madam Pomfrey came around the partitions, and stopped at the sight of the girl. Her expression softened as she saw Elizabeth's tear streaked cheeks. "What's this all about?"
"It was just a dream." Elizabeth said, her exasperated voice trembling. She wiped her tears on the sleeve of her robe and looked down at Seamus. His chest rose and fell softly with each breath. "I guess I just have to be more patient."
"If you're alright, you should be off to bed." The matron said coming over and checking Seamus.
Elizabeth watched for a moment then bent over Seamus and kissed his cheek. "I'll be back this afternoon." She whispered.
Picking up her candle, she headed for Gryffindor tower. As she rounded the corner to the Fat Lady's portrait, a movement ahead caught her eye. Thinking it was Mr. Filch, the caretaker, she shrank into the shadows of a suit of armor.
Watching the figure draw near, she realized that it was a student. Not just any student, it was…
"Neville what are you doing?" Elizabeth asked, emerging from the shadows.
Neville, after jumping about a foot in the air, looked wildly around for who said his name, wand out. He turned to Elizabeth and, fortunately for her, recognized it was her before raising his wand.
"Sorry." He muttered stowing his wand in the pocket of his robes. "Why are you out here?"
"Not fair, I asked first." Elizabeth said, leaning against the cold stone wall.
"I think we both know why we're out here." Neville sighed, leaning next to Elizabeth. "I was just going to see him." His voice sounded tired. Elizabeth couldn't help but notice how much he had matured since the duel at the Department of Mysteries last year.
"Yah," Elizabeth exhaled deeply. "I just got back. You know, I had this brilliant dream that he came up to the castle with me that night. Do you ever wish you could just go back in time and warn yourself about something?"
"All the time." Neville nodded.
"So how often have you been doing this?"
"Doing what?" Neville asked, feigning confusion.
"Going to see him in the dead of night." Elizabeth finished.
"Too long," Neville shook his head. "Almost since he came back. Why did they bring him here?" He caught the shocked expression on Elizabeth's face. "Not meaning that it's not nice having him close, but he'd almost be better off at St. Mungo's."
"Madam Pomfrey said they hope he's going to recover quickly, and be able to jump back into his classes." Elizabeth answered, wishing that it was that simple.
"I guess" Neville wasn't convinced, but before Elizabeth could come up with something better to say a nearby noise made her jump out of her skin.
"We'd better go back to bed." She whispered, turning to the portrait at the end of the corridor. Neville turned in the opposite direction. "Neville where are you going?" Elizabeth asked.
But Neville didn't say anything. He looked over his shoulder at her, put his index finger over his lips, and disappeared down the dim corridor, off in the direction Elizabeth had come from.