FULL SUMMARY: Dream after dream, Harry Potter sees a girl that just give him butterflies in his stomach; he is thoroughly convinces that this girl does to Hogwarts with him. His only problem with her? Every time he comes close to seeing the face of this girl, he wakes up from his dreams. So when he tells his best gal pal Elaine Port, she laughs and tries to convince Harry that maybe his so-called "dream girl" really is just in his dreams. Is Elaine right? Or is Harry's dream girl a reality?

DISCLAIMER: Though I find this completely unnecessary, I feel somewhat obligated to state that the Harry Potter franchise does not belong to me. Also, as you read the story, keep in mind that this is simply a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of their rightful owner's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

STORY DEDICATION: To swiftscout – the girl who used to mock my obsession for Harry Potter until she read the books cover to cover – this one's for you.

Chapter Sixteen - Escaping Reality

Harry lie in his bed with a frown on his face. Prior to the happenings of the day, he figured that Ginny's return would have bee one of the happiest moments of his life. Obviously, he thought wrong as he rubbed his eyes. He did not understand why she had started yelling at him the moment he crawled through into the Gryffindor Common Room.

"What the hell did I do wrong?" he sighed to himself, laying into the empty dormitory.

He thought back to the argument that they had before he dragged himself up to his dorm. Ginny had mentioned something about the letter he had written her. But why would she be upset about that? He thought that the letter was completely thought out and heartfelt! Or… at least, that was how he remembered feeling when he wrote it. So were the words on the letter reflective of how he felt?

"Dammit!" he cursed, thrashing around on his bed in frustration. He forgot what he wrote in the letter! "What the hell is wrong with me? Crap!"

Smacking himself in the face as he shut his eyes once more, Harry wriggled around on his bed, trying to get comfortable. The Gryffindor figured that he might as well drift off to sleep, seeing as nothing in his reality was going right.

"There are you are!" Harry called out to the longhaired beauty before him. He never noticed that it was long. In fact, he never took her hair color into consideration; he only over focused his attention on her face. "What are you doing all the way over there, though? You're usually here… with me."

"You said it, Harry," said the girl, not turning to face him. "You said it all last night. Your search is over. So why do you still feel the need to come to see me in your dreams? I thought-."

"Well, nothing is going right in my reality!" Harry admitted, allowing himself to look away from his dream girl. "Nothing at all! I figured that you would be the only one out there that could make me feel at peace…! I thought that maybe you could make me feel like… maybe I'm not a screw up!""

"… so what makes you think I can help you with that, my dear?" the girl said, finally turning to face Harry. "You said your search was over."

Still not looking in the direction of his dream girl, Harry sighed to himself as collapsed to the ground. "Because… you're the girl of my dreams!"

"Harry," the girl said as she stood before the balled up boy. "… you always talked about how the girl of your dreams made you feel. You always used to mention how she could make butterflies appear in your stomach with just the sound of her voice. You always used to say that – even thought you never saw her face – she could brighten the room with just her smile. You said that she had the voice of an angel and the heart of pure gold. You said all these amazing things about her…

"But… can you tell me something then, lover boy? Does Ginny really, honestly make you feel this way? Or are you trying to create something out of nothing because you have gotten sick and tired of searching for the girl of your dreams?"

Harry's head snapped up to face of his dreams. Why did those words sound so familiar? Why did those words already linger in his thoughts before she said them? Why? And why was it that her face was hard to make out? Was it because of the all the light that surrounded her?

"What are you saying?" Harry found himself asking the girl, suddenly very afraid of the words that might escape his dream girl's lips. "Ginny… is the one. She's the girl of my dreams…"

"Then, why do you continue to slip into these states?" she said, turning her back on Harry . "If she's the girl of your dreams, why do you have to find your escape to me? Did what I just said not mean anything to you?"

Jumping to his feet, Harry replied, "Yes! It does mean something to me! But why are you so determined to figure out why I'm here! I thought I told you why I was here! It was to escape the reality that I'm facing right now."

"Harry… dear," she sighed, "this is all just a dream! You can't keep coming here when things aren't going the way you want them to. Honey, if your search is really over… why don't you go out there and fix everything…"

"Because you can make me feel better! My subconscious has been trying to tell me something since the moment these dreams started and it was that you are the one who can solve all my problems."

"Harry, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your subconscious is an ignoramus!"

Why did that sound painfully familiar?

"I'm… being serious…" Harry said, his thoughts drifting. "Something's off about you…"

The girl turned to face Harry once again, her face not visible to Harry once again. "Don't you see, Harry? I'm the girl of your dreams… this is where I am meant to stay."

"What are you saying!" Harry cried, running up to her. "You're real! You're real! I know you are! What about this wild goose chase you've sent me on! You were the one who said we could meet at the Quidditch Pitch! You were the one who said Elaine would see in the end."

"Don't you get it, love?" she whispered sadly. "I merely exist in your dreams. You were the one who dreamt me up. You were the one who dreamt up the idea of meeting me in the Quidditch Pitch. I say and do all the things you wanted me to. You dreamt up everything… the way you wanted to see it unfold."

"No!" Harry shouted at her. "Then what makes this dream any different, huh? Why have you suddenly changed the way you are!"

"Harry, this is all your doing. Everything I am is all you make me out to be."

"No. No. No! You are the dream girl, but my dreams are not where you are meant to stay! You're everything I wanted and more… you have to be real!"

"Harry," the girl replied with a (finally) visible smile, "if I may say, far better than any dream girl is the one of flesh and blood."

Author's Note: This chapter of the story was written and published on March 2, 2014.

What d'ya think of that, huh?

This story is turned out to be a lot longer than I had planned it to be, but I hope that you guys are enjoying it now that I'm back from my hiatus (again). I apologize for that again, by the way!

Thank you for reading! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it. If you have any questions or comments, lemme know in the reviews. And even if you don't have a question or comment, don't forget to leave a review to let me know how I'm doing!

In the next chapter (or the one after that), we'll see what Harry wrote to Ginny in that letter and why it's upsetting her so. I love you, guys and I thank you for reading once again. Wooot! See you in the next story update.

- May