Chapter 16
Dear Harry
How are you? I hope that you are having a nice Summer and are enjoying your time with Mr Black (it's all over the daily prophet). I don't mean to be too forward in writing this letter, I just wanted to thank you for everything this past year, you've saved my life and helped me so much.
Best wishes,
Ginny.
Dear Ginny,
There's no need to thank me! I am glad to have you as a friend and fellow Slytherin. My summer since staying with Sirius has been amazing, thanks! What about yourself?
Best wishes,
Harry.
P.S. Greta sends her regards
Dear Harry
My summer has been okay, I know that you don't get along well with my brother Ronald, and at the moment, neither do I. He continues to believe that I intentionally set the Basilisk on him, and wont stay in the same room as me without an adult. My brothers, Fred and George, are worshipping me though. They try and use the 'heir of Slytherin' card to jump queues and drop threats (with some success), which is pretty cool!
Best Wishes,
Ginny.
P.S. tell Greta I said hi.
Dear Ginny,
I don't know your twin brothers very well, though I could say I'm acquainted with them through pranks! They would probably get along with Sirius, he pranks me all the time too! Did I tell you? When I first moved in, Sirius wasn't sure which colour I liked, so he painted all the rooms different colours and let me pick. I obviously chose green, I'm a true Slytherin, after all.
Best Wishes,
Harry.
Ginny stared at Harry's latest letter with wide eyes. The words seemed to blur on the page, and in her mind, she could hear Harry speaking them. Not real Harry, that is, dream Harry. Since the night of the first dream, she would often, at least every second night, appear in the beautiful field. Sometimes Harry was there waiting for her, and would smile delightedly as colours bloomed before them once they were in each other's presence. The two would amble along, talking about home life and school life and everything else under the sun. The next morning, Ginny would always wake reluctantly, desperately trying to spend a few moments longer in the presence of Harry, even if it was just a dream version.
But that letter. Those words. She knew Harry had said them before, in the very first dream. There was no coincidence there. Her mouth suddenly felt dry, and the corner of the letter scrunched as her hand fisted anxiously. It had to be nothing, it had to be. People didn't just share dreams.
Nonetheless, that night, Ginny shut her eyes and fell asleep with a new purpose.
"So, I thought you were just a dream." she said to dream-Harry as they sat by the stream, the boy shrugged,
"I think you might be the dream." he responded, eyes twinkling as he threw a wink at her, she snorted,
"Ok, if you're so real, when you write a letter to me tomorrow, say, oh, I don't know, something I'll recognise" she said, Harry's brow furrowed,
"Like what?" he asked, Ginny shrugged,
"Something about Greta maybe?" she thought for a moment, "Just say, Greta went on a trampoline."
"Why?" he asked, clearly perplexed,
"Because if you do it, then I'll know your real." she tried to explain,
"But, if that makes me real, then you're the not real one and real Ginny will think I'm weird." Harry said.
"No, I'll just think that you put Greta on a trampoline." Ginny argued, "Besides, I am real, I'm pretty sure you're the not-real one." Harry frowned, before shrugging.
"If you say so…" he said dubiously, "How are things going with your brother, by the way?" he asked, tilting his head slightly to catch her expression. Ginny shoved her hand into the cold water roughly and scowled,
"He's still afraid of me. It's my fault, if I'd just kept my mouth shut in front of the snake then-"
"Then it would have bitten him." Harry cut her off, "At least he came out uninjured. You did the right thing." a hover-fly skimmed the water, trailing the barest of ripples in it's surface, Ginny focused all of her attention on that. Harry was right, but it still stung to see her brother flinch away from her. "Hey, if I turn out to be real, then what's your response to me going to be?" Harry asked suddenly, Ginny shrugged,
"I don't know, I thought of your one, you suggest something." she said. It didn't really matter anyways, dream-Harry couldn't be real, and the previous conversation had sapped what energy she had to discuss it. Harry grinned,
"Okay, how about, Harry is the greatest." Ginny glanced at him, arching an eyebrow,
"No."
"Harry rocks?" he suggested, before puffing out his chest, "Harry is a rock?"
"No and no." Ginny responded, a small smirk twisting at her lips, "I'll just say that I know you and dream-Harry are the same person. You clearly can't think up anything on your own." Harry laughed, splashing water at her.
Ginny woke up with a smile on her face.
Dear Ginny,
Greta went on a trampoline. It was awesome.
Best wishes
Harry.
Ginny read the letter, then she made herself a tea. Then, Ginny read the letter again, and sat down with a thud as all of the strength left her muscles, before taking another sip of tea, and reading the letter for a third time. Her world seemed to be spinning, and she pinched herself to make sure she wasn't still asleep.
Then, Ginny stood up, and wrote a letter.
Dear Harry
How in the name of Merlin did you end up in my dreams. What does this mean?
Ginny.
Harry was at breakfast when Errol, the Weasley owl crashed through the window. Sirius lifted his glass of juice with a practised ease as the bird skidded across the table top, wings flailing. Harry rolled his eyes as he caught the bird and untied the letter from the his leg, feeding it a rasher of bacon absentmindedly as he did so.
"So, how's your lady-friend?" asked Sirius, waggling his eyebrows suggestively at Harry as he did so. The man had made jokes every time a letter arrived from any of his female friends, much to the young boy's annoyance, but he paid extra attention to Ginny's letters, laughing as he muttered to himself, "Potters and redheads" which Harry didn't really understand but scowled at anyway.
As his dark eyes scanned the letter, Harry's face went slack momentarily, paling slightly.
"What's wrong kiddo?" asked Sirius, leaning forwards anxiously, Harry shook his head,
"She's… She's the girl of my dreams!" he exclaimed, standing up suddenly, breakfast forgotten. Sirius blinked, surprised,
"His father didn't realise Lily was his until fifth year…" he muttered to himself, watching perplexed as Harry ran up to his room, presumably to write a letter to the Weasley girl.
Dreaming that night was different. Harry and Ginny, who had been sitting shoulder to shoulder a mere day previously, stood several feet apart staring at each other in abstract fascination.
"So… Neither of us are figments of the other's imagination." Harry said slowly, Ginny nodded.
"I don't understand how this happened." she said, brow furrowed, "But I can't tell my parents, they'll freak out! Say it's dark magic or something." Harry frowned in understanding,
"It's not exactly hurting either of us, we could just- I dunno'- keep it secret." he said, Ginny nodded.
"It's kind of cool, in a weird way." she said, smile beginning to form, Harry nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, if either of us is in danger, we could just fall asleep and tell the other person where we are!" Ginny snorted,
"After the Chamber of Secrets I want to stay well away from danger." Harry nodded in agreement at this statement.
"I know, it was just a hypothetical, you never know." he said, Ginny stepped closer, nudging him with her shoulder. She couldn't quite escape the dream-like quality of their location, it still didn't feel real.
"Lets go sit by the stream." she said, Harry nodded with a grin, and the two ambled deeper into their dream-world, quickly slipping into the playful banter that they had become used to through the nights.
Both children awoke the next morning smiling.
Hi! Sorry it took so long to update, I've been really busy, but hopefully my updates will be more frequent from now on! Please read and review
I've been reading Senseless Apprentice by Vladimir Nabokov, It's awesome you guys should check it out, it's a really good Slytherin-fic!
Thanks for reading!
