Have you ever been in one of those dreams where at the end, you have no idea what is going on, but you still want to see the end of it, even when, at multiple moments during the night you wake up and force yourself to go directly back to sleep so that you can get back to your dream. You have a little thought of, "I hope this dream goes back to where I left off." Those are the best dreams. They are the ones you can remember, and you find yourself telling your friends about the next day.
You just had one of those dreams.
Your body starts to wake up and you're at the end of the most glorious dream you have had in ages. The entirety had been spent falling. Free falling under your own will. You like that sense of control. The power you had to take the step off the towering building. The ground is in the distance, and all you can think about is the onslaught of wind and emotion that you feel as you fall.
You scream as you are falling, and some more conscious part of you wonders if you are screaming out in real life. Your stomach churns. The ground below is starting to come into focus. You can see it. You know in your mind that before you hit, you'll wake up.
Your eyes widen when you realize that you are not waking up.
The ground below you shifts suddenly into clear blue water, and you are thrust deep into the depths of a blue sea.
You feel like the wind has been driven from your lungs, and as you surface from the water, you breathe deep.
The sun is shining down lazily upon you. You are alive. You smile. You wake up.
It is the day after the welcoming feast, and you are back at Hogwarts. It is a Saturday and you realize you have nothing to do today. Spectacular.
–
The first thing Harry noticed when he opened his eyes was the silence. The drapes were drawn around his bed, so it blocked his vision of the rest of the dormitory. There was something more though, the silence. He couldn't even hear Ron's snores. A silenced bed curtain wasn't that new for Harry. He figured one of the house-elves, Dobby most likely, had done it during the night when they had been cleaning.
Throwing the covers off of himself, Harry took a deep breath to clear his lungs of sleep. It was then that Harry's day began.
Pulling the curtains back on the side of the bed that faced Harry's bedside table, Harry sat on the edge of his bed. The room around him was dark still, it appeared that everyone else was still asleep. A snort from Ron seemed to confirm this.
"Good," he thought. He put his glasses secure onto his nose, and then he opened the drawer of his bedside and removes his photo album. In the front cover of his album rested the packet of wafers, his new reason to smile. On the next page was a picture of his father and his mother, and you could see Sirius in the background. It had always been Harry's favorite picture in the album.
He made a mental note to himself to go speak to Hagrid at the next possible time, he really had to thank him for the pictures.
–
This morning, instead of one wafer, Harry now had two dissolving under his tongue as he took his morning shower. He'd grown used to Aunt Petunia's shampoo, so this morning he'd called for Dobby to bring him a bottle of his own. It was a lavender-vanilla mixture, and it was pure heaven for Harry.
He spent an entire hour in the shower, since the magical properties of the pipes didn't allow the water to run cold, just enjoying the hot water beating down on his head, and the bliss that was seeping through his body as the hallucinogen dissolved under his tongue.
By the time he'd made it out of the steam filled bathroom, there was a smile on his face and Seamus was just making his way to the bathroom.
"M-mmorning, Harry," he said through a large yawn.
"Morning, Seamus," said Harry. "Lovely morning isn't it?"
Seamus looked at the smile on Harry's face and started to feel uncomfortable. He made a quick glance down his front to make sure that everything was in its right place, and he wasn't potentially flashing Harry with more skin than his pajamas would allow.
"Yeah... Lovely morning Harry," Seamus said, if not a bit wary now. Harry was still grinning, and it didn't appear that it was going to disappear anytime soon. "So, um... I'm just gonna go get a shower, you know..."
"Yes, you do that," said Harry, already walking off. He hadn't even noticed how freaked out Seamus had been at the end of their conversation.
He was pretty hungry at the moment and was heading out of the dorms. As he passed Ron, he could hear the loud snoring that seemed to occupy the area where the teenage boy was. It was very loud, and it annoyed Harry slightly. He didn't even think to wake him up as he stopped by his own bed to pick up his sunglasses.
His world sufficiently darkened, he felt that he was ready to greet the rest of the student body.
–
He made his way through the empty common room to the portrait, head filled with thoughts of a massive monster composed of all the students, called the Student Body. "That'd be freaky to have to fight."
Harry occupied himself during his walk down the marble staircase by imagining himself fighting against the giant, writing form of the Student body. He had his wand out, conducting the battle in his head like a conductor at an orchestra, jabbing hard to emphasis his point when he cast a particularly nasty spell.
He'd just made it down to the final length of the staircase, when the suit of armor in front of him transformed into a white rabbit, which proceeded to run into the Great Hall. Harry ran after it, laughing up a storm when the rabbit transformed back into the suit of armor and fell to the floor.
There in front of him was his Head of House, Professor McGonagall.
"Mister Potter. School has hardly even started, and here you are causing trouble. What did that suit of armor ever do to you?"
"Well, Professor," said Harry, "It ran away from me, it must've had an important date to make. Not that I can blame it for running, really, rabbits have the best hobbies.
Seeing the look of confusion on McGonagall's stern face, Harry kept talking, "So, is there anything else you want with me Professor? I didn't really intend to change the armor into a rabbit, my magic just got away from me. I'll keep a tighter leash on it next time. "I also won't try to take on the entire Student Body next time. Tricky beast it is," he thought.
McGonagall seemed to recover a bit in Harry's lull, was able to respond, "Whatever the reason for your Transfiguration, Mister Potter, don't let it happen again. Mister Filch has enough problems as it is trying to clean up after Peeve's damages." And then she smiled. "All of that aside, how are you Harry?"
Harry, who was now imagining a larger battle with several Student Bodies, each composed of social cliques, responded with a half-hearted, "Fine, Professor." McGonagall took his half hearted response as Harry being still troubled by Sirius' death, and gave Harry a pat on the shoulder.
"It'll be okay, in the end, Harry. You'll see." With that, she gave Harry his schedule for the year. This seemed to clear Harry's head of all battles, as he took it in. He'd just walked over to his table in the Great Hall, other students were there too, each giving Harry a glance as he walked by.
That goofy grin on his face seemed to put everyone off. Everyone knew of Sirius's death. Everyone. They had all seen how Harry acted at the end of the year feast. Like his best friend had been shot. So, it made everyone wonder what it was he had to be so happy about.
Meanwhile, Harry was back to battles. His schedule hadn't contained any secrets, and his class load seemed pretty much the same, so Harry had started a fight between Bacon and Sausage. Currently, the bacon had the high ground, and was lobbing bits of egg at the sausage, which was taking cover behind their pancake fortresses. There was cries coming from behind the fort by those being caught in the line of fire.
A small crowd had gathered, several first year Gryffindors along with people from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. They all seemed to get a kick out of it, Luna more so than the rest of them, who had just introduced an entirely new aspect to the breakfast warfare. Hash browns.
Each one let out a cry as they ran at the bacon offenders, only to be cut down by fork lances. The Bacon wasn't playing any games. It meant to win.
Several of the teachers present watched on from their tables, McGonagall seemed to be ignoring Harry, in favor of letting him have a bit of fun, and Flitwick was beside himself in glee. McGonagall had to keep telling him that he was an adult and not a kid, and that he shouldn't get himself involved in a food fight.
Harry was pretty caught up in the fight. Luna had introduced a new competitor and he wasn't about to let her win. When mail came in, though, the battle was over.
Hedwig flew down to greet Harry, and she started laying waste to Harry's bacon soldiers. The sausage gave out cries of victory, but it quickly turned to squeals of shock as one of their own was picked off by a now hungry Luna.
"Something about food battles just make me ravenous," she said to Harry, taking a large bite.
Harry was going to respond, but a beam of sunlight hit his framed face, causing him to look up at the morning sky that was being reflected by the great ceiling above. It was bright. Very much so, and even with his sunglasses on, it seemed to only dim it by half.
The drug in his system made him yearn to be up there floating around in all that light. And what little appetite he had was gone. He had to be in the sky, it was the only logical course of action. The Great Hall had suddenly shrunk down to the size of a broom closet and Harry was itching to get out of it. So, without speaking to anyone, he got up and left.
Like the rabbit, he had a very important date to make.
–
He'd wandered aimlessly once he'd made it outside of Hogwarts. The outside was a welcome sight after coming from the stifling confines of the Great Hall. He had all the space in the world out here, no one to intrude on him, and no one to ask him questions. In the distance he could see the Quidditch Pitch.
An idea struck Harry in the form of a sharp bird call. Looking up, Harry could see them flying about, playing with one another, and then further up he could see several birds flying higher.
He wanted to be like those birds. He needed to be like those birds.
With a destination in mind, Harry quickly made his way over to the Pitch. Realizing he didn't have his broom on him, he quickly pulled out his wand and summoned it. Accio!
His need for freedom had lent power to his spell, and already he could hear the whooshing sound the broom made as it cut the air to join him.
His broom was there now, Firebolt, gleaming in its gold foil inlaid on the handle. It was all in one motion that Harry grabbed the handle and mounted. Pushing hard with his legs he was shot like an arrow into the air.
The loss of the ground beneath Harry's feet gave Harry what he'd been craving, the freedom of being in the air, being one of the birds. It was amazing.
He'd been flying directly into the air since he'd gotten onto his broom. The air around him was chilling quickly, and it was having to take bigger and bigger breaths to replenish the oxygen in his body.
This introduced a new aspect to drug taking to Harry.
Before, things had been relatively normal. He'd even started the two wafer thing sometime during the summer. There was only one major problem for Harry in that situation. He hadn't considered what being in such a public place would do to him. Whereas before, he'd laid back on his bed and let the effects dance across his body, he now felt restless.
It didn't worry Harry much. Not that anything would. His body felt wonderful right now. Numb to everything, including the cold he was in now. He was so close to the sun here, the light seeping into his skin made him want to get closer. He felt like he could touch the large mass of light, which was still a great distance in front of him.
His perceptions grew narrow. He realized that he was too high in the air, and he couldn't go further.
His thoughts of touching the sun would have to wait it seemed.
He sighed just a tiny bit. That was all that he could do in such a low oxygen environment. Evening out his flight plan, he could see the pitch and the rest of Hogwarts laid out below him like a grand floor plan, done in three dimensions. The exterior secrets of the school were revealed to him, and that soothed his ache to touch the sun. He could also see the land that surrounded the school. He'd flown so very high. The ground below him was a patchwork of varying colors and textures that he could only just make out.
He looked fleetingly back up at the sun, and told himself quietly, "Some other time, Harry, some other time."
Then, looking back towards the ground, he had a new idea. His mind flashed back to the dream he'd had just that morning, and a large grin split on his face. Genius.
It didn't even take him half a second to let go of his broom handle and allow himself to fall off of it, backwards.
No longer in contact with his broom the magic that sustained it seemed to let go allowing his Firebolt to tumble behind him.
As soon as Harry let go, he could feel his heart rate increase. He knew what he was doing was stupid. He knew that if he didn't pull this off right, his body would be broken into millions of pieces.
He didn't care.
He'd finally turned himself over, and was facing the ground. Things were going too fast for him to think much of anything. The ground was quickly climbing up to meet him. There was no panic in his actions, and no matter how much his clouded mind wanted him to scream in fear, he wasn't going to allow it. His will was stronger than his fear. It was that simple. Harry was in control. No one else was. No one made him let go of his broom, and that was all that mattered. He'd done this on his own.
He was lost, he realized, in the swirling storm of wind and sound that assaulted his ears and he didn't want to be found.
The rising ground told him that he'd have to find himself soon or perish.
Harry moved with slow enough motion that by the time he had called his broom back to him, he was just feet above the ground. Once his hand touched the handle of the Firebolt, all sense of motion was stopped, and with that, the roaring sound in his ears too.
His head felt woolly. Almost like cotton had been pushed into his ears, and when he spoke he could hear the vibrations of his own voice as they worked their way up his jawbone and into his ear.
His laughing echoed in his own head, multiplied into a cavernous cacophony of sound.
A shrill female voice drowned out his laughter, followed by an even shriller male voice.
Jerking his head in the direction of the sound, he saw that it was Ron and Hermione. Behind them followed Luna at a more sedate pace.
"Harry!" Yelled Hermione, now that she was right on top of him, "What in the nine levels of hell were you doing?"
"Well, Hermione," said Harry, "I was just trying out a bit of skydiving really. Wasn't that obvious?"
Ron, despite his own concern laughed a bit. Hermione turned a glare filled look at him, and asked "Just what are you laughing at? He could have died, Ron!" Ron started to say something, but only made it to the pitiful, "B-but Hermione," before she cut him off.
"Don't even try, Ronald. You and I have to take responsibility for him now. Don't you see? He's high. He probably thinks all of this is all good fun, right now," she said, turning towards Harry again.
Harry smiled, "You bet your ass it was fun. I've a good mind to try it again." He made a short look back up at the sky and then continued. "Things are usually better with an audience, anyways, or so I've heard..." He was saying this out of the side of his face as he started talking to Luna, who had by now, caught up with the group.
"Luna!" Exclaimed Harry, "How nice of you to join us."
"The Nargles are talking about you again, Harry. They say you've really gone off your nut this time. They sent me out here to find you. These two here came along once they understood that I was looking for you."
"The Nargles said that about me? Said Harry, now totally ignoring Hermione in favor of Luna. "They said that about me, just after the support I gave them? The wound me, they really do."
"I don't think they mean any harm, Harry," said Luna, "It might have been actual concern they had for you, and I find that surprising really. Nargles are usually such pricks about such trivial things..." she paused, twirling her hair around one finger, "Which leads me to asking, what was it that you were doing that would concern a Nargle of all creatures? I mean, a Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, sure, they're softies at heart, it's just their name that makes them seem like they're mean, but Nargles?
Luna managed to say that all in one breath, and it amused Harry to no end.
"I must be of some worth to the Nargle community then," said Harry laughing still, "Don't you think so, Luna?"
"Indeed Harry, I would be worried if I was you. They might be planning to infiltrate your body and use it to commit terrible crimes." She paused for a moment, and then in a much quieter voice, she adds, "Like line-dancing."
The look on her face made Harry shiver a bit. He enjoyed these nonsense conversations with Luna. They were a highpoint of the pretty towering day that he now seemed to be having.
The double dose this morning made it harder for Harry to think clearly, and so it was easier to have these conversations than the ones that Hermione and Ron seemed to want to have right now.
Coming to a decision, Harry crooked his arm for Luna to put it through, and asked Luna, "Care to join me for lunch? Then maybe we can go soothe the Nargles, and assure them that I'm alright?"
"They'd like that," said Luna, "I would also enjoy lunch with you as well."
Behind him, he could hear Hermione spluttering, "Harry," she said, "You're just going to walk away from me and Ron like this? Your friends?" Harry could hear the emphasis on the word friends in her voice, he decided that he'd had enough of spending time with those two today, and so he said, "No, I'll be walking away like this." He then turned back around, took Luna's arm back into the crook of his, and began to walk off in a jaunty manner, all the while ignoring Hermione.
--
Back at the castle now, Ron was stuck on what to do. On one hand, he found it extremely funny that Harry had the will to ignore Hermione, whereas, he'd just let in and let her control him. He was weak like that, and well, he just couldn't see where this new Harry was coming from.
He knew that Harry was on drugs. He'd not said anything about it to anyone, and he even knew where Harry kept his stash at. The free way that Harry interacted with people made Ron want to do just what Harry was doing.
He wanted to be like Harry. "It's cool" he thought, "and Harry hasn't come to any harm yet, has he? I'm sure I'll fare just as well as he has. I mean, anything he can do, I can do."
His mind made up, Ron goes to Harry's bedside and removes the packet of wafers. He'd not actually seen take them, so he had no idea what the dosage standard was. So, he figured he'd start out small, and put three into his mouth.
The taste was the thing that got Ron. How could Harry stand to let these things be in his mouth? Quickly breaking them up with his tongue, Ron swallowed the only partially dissolved substance.
He made it about as far as the third floor of the marble stair case, before the walls started closing in around him. The triple dose was kicking his ass, churning his stomach into a tumbling mess.
Sweat had broken out on his forehead, and a sickly laugh kept escaping his mouth against his will.
He didn't like this, not one bit.
Hogwarts was trying to eat him! He had to get out. Running screaming through the halls of Hogwarts wasn't that much of a bright idea.
People cleared the way for him as he made it to the exit for the grounds.
Running full out he was suddenly stopped by a mighty force.
It seemed that the Whomping Willow didn't much like its sleep being intruded upon. Ron got the full fury of it in a hit that knocked him backwards, and out of the reach of the tree.
–Somewhere in the distance, Luna and Harry were both walking with one another. They had been talking about consoling all the upset Nargles, when suddenly Luna turned to Harry.
"Harry, Ronald is in the infirmary. I think you should go check on him."
Harry asked, "Why, what for?"
"It seems," she said, "That he has insulted the Whomping Willow in some manner, and it has attacked him. I can hear it's yelling from over here."
While Harry was pretty interested in how Luna seemed to be able to hear the tree's anger, he figured he knew what Ron's problem was. It wasn't that hard to figure out after all the questions he'd been asking Harry this summer, once Hermione had told him Harry had been doing drugs.
"Well, I'm sure Ron's fine," said Harry, "Madame Pomfrey can patch up just about any manner of damage done. Although, if you think it important enough for me to go check on him, I will."
With that, Harry made off to the infirmary.
–
It turned out, that fine for Harry meant that Ron had three cracked ribs, a broken arm and a cracked hip. Not to mention various scrapes and bruises that he had sustained from the attack tree's limbs.
When Harry had finally made it to the infirmary to see him, he'd leaned in close to Ron's pained face and whispered, "Lesson learned, friend?"
Then he'd left.
Ron seemed to understand this for what it was. Harry wasn't mad at him, but he also wasn't pleased with him. Madame Pomfrey quickly had Ron vomiting up the contents of his stomach once she found the cause of his delirious plight.
She didn't ask Ron many questions about it. Students were known to try various things to help cope with the stress of school. And even now, knowing who his friends were, she just thought it was the added stress he was feeling over the concern he had for Harry Potter.
–
Harry fell asleep that night with his mind full of thoughts. He'd become aware enough to realize that Ron had done a stupid thing. Harry would have to be more cautious about how he did things for now on.