Chapter 16 – The nightmare

The luggage was still open on the bed with everything neatly packed inside. The light in the room was off but the one in the bathroom was projecting a long jet of light on the luggage and on Ginny making her golden eyes gleaming in the semidarkness and her red eyelashes glimmering like many little flames.
Harry was prodded up on his elbow observing her body, her chest going up and down slowly with her breathing, sliding lazily his hand on her soft skin, tracing every curve that would meet his fingers.
It was one of those moments right after having made love in which he could enjoy that simple pleasure without feeling lust growing in him, he could observe her only savouring the pleasure of looking at something beautiful without feeling any need attached to it. He could cherish the fairness of her skin under his hands as only something soothing and relaxing.
It gave him a rare moment of peace bond to last only a short precious time.
'I'll miss you' he whispered laying down beside her.
She smiled, turning her head to look at him 'It's only one week'
'It will feel like a lifetime'
'It's still only a week'
Harry didn't answer rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling. It was only a week; it was true but for him, not accustomed in staying without her, was going to be a very long week indeed.
Ginny, sensing his despondency, lay her head on his chest 'You can take one of my dresses sprayed with one of my perfumes and pretend it's me' she said laughing softly.
Harry chuckled 'I may actually do that, you know. It's a bloody good idea' he said fiddling with a lock of her hair.
They were laying there, without speaking, enjoying the warmth of each other body when a terrified shriek pierced that stillness. It was followed straight away by a tearful wail 'Mummy! Daddy!'
Harry and Ginny sighed and said in unanimity 'A nightmare'.
Harry kissed Ginny on the forehead 'Don't worry. I'll go' he said grasping a pair of sweatpants.
'She must sleep in her bed' Ginny warned.
Harry smirked and glancing at her naked body an electric quiver told him the soothing golden moment had irrevocably passed.
'You betcha' he said naughtily.
Ginny sniggered and grasping the duvet disappeared underneath.
From Sunrise's room a steady whimpering could be heard, broken by some more plea for them.
Harry switched on the light in her room, she was in a sea of tears, shaking like a leaf, whining piteously for him and clutching convulsively her Teddy.
Softened by that sight, he sat on the bed and scooped her up 'What's wrong, sweetie? A nightmare?'
'The bad man' she wailed still trembling, crouching in a ball on his lap.
'Always this bad man, isn't it?' he said wearily covering her with the bed blanket 'You dream of him quite often.'
'He wants to hurt you, daddy' she whimpered, her lips wobbling and her green eyes full of tears and fears on him.
He held her tight trying to calm her 'It was only a dream, Siry. It doesn't mean anything'. Although, not understanding why, the word 'dream' triggered a creep that drove along his spine.
It took him a long moment to realise why and put the pieces together.
Normal dreams didn't mean anything, but her dreams could actually mean something.
He and Ginny were so accustomed to her nightmares that never gave them much importance imputing them to a childish whim of sleeping in their bed but having recently gained a new awareness of their possible meaning, if indeed genuine, the whole thing took a total new significance.
They were happening with an alarming frequency, especially in the last few weeks and they always involved this "bad man" wanting to hurt him most often but other member of the family too.
A cold sweat glazed his body while making this consideration. He looked at Sunrise still whimpering and the fear that gripped him made him almost want to run out from the room in an attempt to escape what it scared him.
But running away from a whimpering child wouldn't have solved the problem.
He gathered his strength and gulped, afraid to ask what he knew he must.
'Siry, what happened in the dream?'
But his child was unable to answer. She shook her head not enough words in her still scanty vocabulary, not a mature enough mind to transform what she saw in intelligible sentences and was only able to stammer 'he is wicked'.
Her eyes were very expressive however and Harry read in them something scary, something violent who Sunrise didn't understand in the first place. Those eyes became a mirror of his fears and brought to his mind all his nightmares about the graveyard.
Locked in that reciprocal gaze, Harry was suddenly aware that his daughter knew of those nightmares. When Ginny woke him up while screaming and trashing, Sunrise was screaming also. He didn't realise it back then all caught by his fears, but he realised it now. Her daughter was living them with him.
And unable to explain her nightmare, she was visualising those like the most similar thing to something she had never experienced in her short life.
Harry, opposite to her, was unable to see what she saw in her sleep but could nevertheless hazard a hypothesis. Because the fright in her eyes, the fear she felt was the same he experienced when waking up from one of those nightmares.
'Siry, what has he done?' he asked urgently 'Who does it want to hurt? Only me?'
And asking that question he was praying for a positive answer because with that knowledge he could live. He knew to be always endangered; it was full of Dark Wizards wanting to hurt him. It wasn't a new notion, nor an astounding one. His job was to make sure that they would never see the sun again in Azkaban, there were plenty of wizards there and outside who wished nothing better than to hurt him.
Although Sunrise shook her head confused.
'Who? Did you see?'
'Jamie…' she stammered scared looking about the room, heaving deeply 'Alby' she continued starting to fret, snuggling against him 'Me' she murmured her eyes filling with tears.
'Mummy' she concluded starting to shake again.