Blessed Chapter 2: Dreams
Author's Note: Hey guys welcome to chapter 2 of Blessed! I request you guys please ignore any Hope puns that I may intentionally or unintentionally weave into this story. HOPEFULLY they wouldn't be too bad ahahaha *shot* Enjoy the chapter and please if you have the time let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I own nothing expect the original plot of this story. I do not own Harry Potter or Final Fantasy 13-2
3rd Person P.O.V
Harry desperately pleaded for the escape of sleep. The entire night he lay awake, fitfully tossing and turning as the boys around him remained in a peaceful slumber. The blankets wrapped around him seemed like a cage as they trapped his arms and legs close to his body. But eventually a restless sleep did in fact pass over the boy when the earliest rays of sunlight began to sprawl across the grounds of Hogwarts.
In his hazed mind Harry saw himself suspended in what reminded him of a starry night sky and he found himself enclosed in a series of rings that turned endlessly. Where exactly was he?
Harry found that he could move freely in the strange space. He spun around a few times in search of anything that could get him out of his predicament and registered a quick flash of white pass through his peripheral. Shocked Harry turned around once more, slower this time, and found a young man floating towards him in the sky. The man appeared to be in his mid-twenties with shockingly snow-white hair and a uniform complete with a blue tie.
"Hey!" Harry called out to the man as he floated towards him. "Where are we?" the man stopped his travels but didn't reply instead he looked in Harry's direction as if he wasn't there at all. The man's eyes didn't focus on the wizard; it was if he was looking right through Harry.
"Hello?" Harry asked as he waved a hand right in front of the confused man's face.
"Is someone there?" He questioned as his eyes darted back and forth.
"Yes, right in front of you." Harry answered.
"I'm afraid I can't see you." The young man admitted.
"But you can hear me…." Harry remarked becoming confused himself.
"Strange….. I wonder why that is….." The man trailed off.
"Well I am dreaming right now." Harry realized.
"A dream…. Just like Serah!" He gasped.
"Who's Serah?"
"That doesn't matter just yet. More importantly are you the boy with the lightning-shaped scar?" The man questioned in a surprisingly calm voice.
"Yeah….How did you know about that?" Harry asked. He was used to hearing people immediately recognize him because of his scar but it was weird that this man had to ask if he was the 'boy' with the scar not 'Harry Potter' or the 'Boy Who Lived'. It made Harry think that the man who was occupying this strange tunnel with him didn't know the significance behind what he was asking.
"You see…." The man trailed off and began to hesitate with his words as if carefully crafting his next phrase. "You and I share a very important gift".
"A gift, what kind of a gift?"
"A very rare one… in fact I only know a handful of people who have it. It truly is a very special gift but…. not all people see it as such. They want to punish you for it." The way the man's eyes darkened as he spoke these words resonated with Harry; whatever the man was talking about it affected him very personally.
"Who are 'these people'? what do they have against us? What gift do we even have?" Harry demanded his frustration growing.
"I know that you must have a lot of questions and rightfully….. it's just…." He started suddenly looking quite overwhelmed by the situation. "You'll have to wait a bit longer…. I have to get to your world first."
"My world? Weren't not even from the same world?" Harry cried in disbelief throwing his hands up in the air as a forfeit to whatever god, spirit or supernatural power he must have angered to deserve this punishment.
"Yes, you and I are from separate worlds and in order for me to teach you about your gift and how to handle the challenges you will soon face I need to get to yours. Once I am there I promise I'll answer any questions you have." The man assured. Harry began to rub his temples to ward off the headache that he felt coming on and took a deep breath before speaking once again.
"How are we going to do that?" Harry sighed.
"I sadly haven't the faintest clue. Unless there is some way you could perhaps… lead me there?" He asked hopefully.
"Well it's not like you can even see me….How could I possible-" Harry scoffed until an idea choked the words out of him midsentence. "Wait….I have any idea!" He exclaimed pulling his wand out of his pajama pocket.
"What?" The man asked looking around to see if his environment had been altered at all.
Harry drew his wand and pointed his outstretched wand arm in front of the man's feet. He gradually slowed his breathing and cleared his mind. He began to only allow his thoughts to be filled with the happiness he had once experienced.
"expecto patronum," The wizard casted softly. A familiar soft blue light emitted from the wand's tip like smoke and eventually converged into the shape of a majestic stag in front of the man's widened eyes. As soon as the incantation was done the man in the suit smiled and began to softly shake his head.
"It's just like a guiding light." He commented fond of Harry's work.
"So if you can see that I figure that if I try to wake up but cast this spell right before I do maybe it'll work as a marker or something…. then you'll be able to find your way out?" The young wizard proposed.
"Sounds like a plan." He nodded.
"Alright then, let's see if this'll work." Harry laughed as he began to prepare himself for the patronus again.
"Wait! Before you go… can you tell me what your name is?" The man requested with a flicker of panic. "So that when I get to your world I can find you…." He elaborated.
"Harry Potter. And yours?" Harry asked
"Hope Esthiem at your service." He chuckled lightly.
"Well I guess I'll see you on the other side, Hope." Harry said as he finally turned away from the man and raised his wand. He tried to raise himself as slowly as possible from the dream but the walls of the tunnel seem to fly by him too fast, he was barely able to cast his patronus before he awoke gasping for air in his bed at Hogwarts. Harry looked around the room to find the sky out the window still stained a dark orange, the boys around him still fast asleep, and a sinking suspicion he just made a terrible mistake forming in his stomach.
~Next Scene~
Harry's pounding headache seemed to pierce through his skull with every step he took towards the Great Hall. He had somehow managed to drag himself through all of his classes, yet the strange tunnel and the man he met in his dream remained in the back of his mind. Harry knew that he should probably dismiss his dream for exactly what it was; a dream, a mere figment of his imagination, yet something about that dream felt too real to be made up. When Hope had told him that he was in danger he believed him, and when he had asked for help, Harry felt he had to comply. Despite these feelings why did he doubt himself now? When he had been talking to Hope he felt he had been doing the right thing and now he just didn't know anymore. But on the other hand if what Harry had experienced was true Hope had yet to make it to Hogwarts. Did perhaps their plan go wrong?
"Hey Harry wait up!" called the distant voice of his best friend Ronald Weasley. Harry slowed his pace in order for his friend to catch up to him and soon his ginger hair friend was beside him shooting him a concerned glance.
"Aren't you hungry, mate?" Ron asked.
"Yeah I'm heading to the Great Hall right now…." Harry trailed off confused.
"Harry… you passed the Great Hall a long time ago." Ron informed.
"Really?" Harry asked becoming disoriented; he had really thought that he was in the right spot. "I supposed I just zoned out and didn't realize."
"It's OK mate." Ron comforted. "It's just we saw you pass by when he were sitting down for dinner that's all. Wanted to make sure you were coming."
"Thanks." Harry said nodding and turning back around. With every step he took his headache seemed to become more and more painful till the point where he felt his skull was about to crack open. But Harry wouldn't let his friends worry about him anymore, especially over something as trivial as a silly dream.
When Ron and Harry finally arrived at the seats Hermione and Neville had reserved for them at the Gryffindor table, Harry shot them an apologetic smile and sat down. The young wizard attempted normalcy despite the growing feeling that the world around him was blurring before his eyes.
"Harry, are you OK?" Hermione questioned with concern. "You look pale…."
"Are you kidding? He looks like he's about to faint." Ron said putting a supporting hand on his back to keep Harry from falling backwards. The boy was becoming light headed and everything around him seemed to spin.
"Perhaps we should take you back to the common room?" Neville suggested.
"I'm fine really... I'm just not very hungry is all." Harry assured but sadly his body failed him as he felt the sudden urge to vomit. "On second thought perhaps I should call it a night." He remedied as he let his friends help him to his feet.
"What happened to you?" Neville questioned.
"Did Umbridge slip something into your pumpkin juice?" Ron attempted to joke.
"Not the time Ron." Hermione scolded.
But before the trio could drag Harry out of the Great Hall something sounded from behind them that stopped the young wizards dead in their tracks. It sounded like thunder had struck nearby yet no one remembered the weather being anything but sunny that day. Next they heard the screams; surprised and shrill, yet they weren't the type of screams that were inspired by an infamous Weasley prank. Before they had the chance to turn around to see what was happening teachers began to corral the frightened mob towards the door.
"What was that?" Hermione yelled voicing her companions' thoughts, as she tried desperately to fight the flowing wave of people coming towards her.
"I don't know." Harry started. "But I'm not leaving until I find out!" he declared as he attempted to shoulder his way through the crowd.
"Wait Harry." Neville cautioned. "You were just about to puke; we should really take you back to the common room." Harry felt Neville's and Ron's hands clamp on his shoulders as they continued to escort him to the doorway, following the flow of traffic. He took a little solace in the fact Hermione promised to take a look at the site and report on it later. But then the students heard the thundering footsteps of Rubeus Hagrid approaching and any hope of seeing what the teachers were so desperately hiding from them was squashed.
That was until Harry managed to turn his head around enough in his friends' tight hold to see behind the wall that was Hagrid. What he saw was a floating structure composed of a foggy, white sphere that was surrounding by spiraling stripes of gold metal. As soon as Harry laid eyes on the structure his dizziness, his anxiety, all seemed to disappear. In fact he entered the strangest state of awareness; he had never been so alert in his life. All there was the strange floating object which had just emerged in front of Dumbledore's thrown. Was this some sort of sign that Harry's dream was real after all?
He didn't know how but Harry somehow managed to escape his friends' hold and run past Hagrid, he could faintly hear their shouts in the back of his mind, but for some reason his brain just didn't want to register them. Everything seemed to be silent for a moment and then suddenly all of Harry's senses seemed to double as he saw the structure begin to shimmer and the metal stripes began to rotate around the sphere.
Something became to form in front of the object as slowly, sparkles began to condense and gradually change colour. Everyone remaining in the hall stopped for a moment as they allowed the process to unfold in front of their eyes, and soon the shape that was forming could be clearly identified as human and before long Harry could identify exactly who this human was; Hope Estheim. Everything that had happened in the strange tunnel, in his dream was real and somehow, against all odds, Hope had managed to make it to Hogwarts.
~END CHAPTER~