Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and any of the characters mentioned hereafter. They belong to the incredible JK Rowling. I am not making a single cent out of this. I wish I did, and was.
[A/N: This is not as long as the first chapter. I don't think you'll like this very much. I hope you do, but I don't think you will. I'm such a little optimist, aren't I? :D
Thank you to those who reviewed the first chapter :) You guys rock!
Anyway, I was told by a friend my author's notes were too long, so, I'm keeping this one short, lol.
By the by, I am loving Atalanta's name, hehehe ]
In a life before this
Chapter 2: David and Atalanta
Next morning, Harry went straight to the library with one thought in his mind: to find out what his dream meant. He was halfway through Dreams and You by Kristal Kleer when Ron and Hermione found him.
`Skipped breakfast, have you?' said Ron, sitting next to him.
`Here, we saved you some waffles, but eat it before Madam Pince sees,' said Hermione, taking the seat opposite him.
Harry nodded, `Mm-hmm.'
`What's with you, mate? Don't tell me it's that dream again,' Ron asked, looking at the pile of dream-related books.
Harry ignored him.
`Did you have that dream again, Harry?' Hermione asked, worry in her eyes Harry didn't see, as he looked up too late.
`Yeah… but last night's was different. It was longer than usual. I still don't know how I died, or how Atalanta died, but I knew we were going to. And everything's so clear to me … except how she looks,' he said moodily.
`Atalanta? Is that her name?' asked Ron, suppressing what appeared to be the urge to taunt. Harry saw Hermione give him a warning look. Ron tried to busy himself by looking through one of the dream books.
`D'you want me to help, Harry? I can help,' offered Hermione.
`Yes, please. It's driving me insane!' said Harry loudly. He got a lot of "Shhhs" and "This is a library!" after that.
`Okay,' Hermione whispered, grabbing a dream book and looking at its content page.
After a while, Hermione spoke again.
`Here's something. There were deaths in your dream, weren't there?'
`Er, yeah… sort of. I didn't see it, exactly, but I knew she died. Why?' said Harry.
Hermione started reading from her book, `Deaths can represent either the death of a habit, or occurrence, but more often represents anger towards something or someone.' She looked up at him. `You haven't been particularly angry at anyone, or anything, have you? Or, stopped doing something?'
Harry thought hard, and then shook his head.
`I still hate Malfoy and Snape the same. And, I haven't stopped doing anything. No, I don't think that's it.'
The three of them fell silent again for a few minutes. It was Ron who spoke next.
`You "loved" Atlanta, didn't you?'
`Atalanta, Ron,' corrected Hermione, with a frightened look at Harry.
`Yes,' answered Harry.
Ron placed the book on the table, and began to read, `To dream of love, of being in love, suggests intense feelings carried over from a waking relationship. It implies happiness and contentment with what you have and where you are in life. On the other hand, you may not be getting enough love in your daily life. We naturally long for the sense to belong and to be accepted. Did any of that apply to you?'
Before Harry could answer, Hermione said, "Oh, of course! It makes sense, doesn't it? Harry doesn't have a girlfriend, so he dreams and yearns for love and happiness. It completely makes sense, doesn't it, Harry?' She turned to him, seeming relieved that they had finally figured it out.
`I guess,' he said unconvincingly.
`What, then?' asked Ron.
`It's just… she seemed so familiar, and the way I felt was so real… I just can't believe it was all a dream,' said Harry seriously.
`So you believe Luna Lovegood?' Hermione asked quickly.
Harry looked at her.
`What? N-no, I don't believe her. I've never lived another life, not to my knowledge, anyway,' he answered.
Ron was sniggering.
Hermione ignored him, and frowned.
`Alright, so you don't believe her. What do you believe, then? What do you want to believe?'
`I don't know what to believe,' said Harry. `You don't understand. The way I talked to her, the way she talked to me… it was... it feels overwhelming now. And I promised her I would find her…'
Hermione took a deep breath. It seemed that what she was about to say was causing her great difficulty to get out.
`Harry,' she said cautiously. `I understand. Really, I do… but don't you think you… are sort of… sort of taking this out of context?'
`What do you mean, "taking this out of context"?' Harry asked, failing to notice his eyebrows furrow.
`I mean… you are forgetting this was all a dream. It all happened in a dream, therefore , it couldn't have been real,' she said slowly, as though talking to someone with a weapon.
Harry felt like shouting, but the mere look on Hermione's face stopped him. The fact that they were still in the library helped, too.
`I am not forgetting it was all a dream,' he said quietly. `I was just wondering why it was an especially, er, powerful dream.'
`Is it just me, or has the word "dream" finally lost all meaning?' said Ron. Harry felt a little guilty. He had forgotten Ron was beside him, or even there at all.
Harry sighed.
`Okay. I give up. Let's just… go down to the grounds, and maybe do some homework or something. I could use a little fresh air.'
Hermione smiled. He had to admit, he preferred a smiling Hermione to a frowning one.
`Great, let's go,' said Ron. `Quick, too, so we don't have to put these books back on their shelves.'
***
Harry, Ron and Hermione found themselves out on the grounds on a beautiful April morning doing homework. The sky was clear and blue, and the weather was just right. They sat comfortably under one of the Hogwarts trees near the Lake, where they stayed the whole morning. At lunch, Ron went inside the Great Hall and came back carrying a dozen sandwiches.
`Ron, I don't want three sandwiches. It's too much,' said Hermione, holding her third sandwich at arm's length.
`More for me, then,' said Ron thickly.
Harry lied down on the cool grass, looking at the sky through the branches. Hermione was now continuing with her homework; Harry could hear her quill make scratching noises against the parchment. Ron was flipping through reference books, as he finished Hermione's third sandwich. Everything was so peaceful and quiet.
He surveyed the sky some more, until he dozed off without even realizing it.
***
`Alright,' said Hermione. `I'm done. Are you done, Harry? Ron?'
When both boys failed to respond, Hermione looked around. She saw Harry first. No wonder, she thought, he's asleep. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, smiling. `You're not sleeping, too, are you, Ron?'
But Ron was completely engrossed in one of the pages of Literature and Magic by Candice Marie to hear her. He was so engrossed, in fact, his mouth was hanging open.
`Oh, for Merlin's sake, Ron, what is it?' Hermione moved behind Ron to read over his shoulder. Near the top of the page was three words that also made Hermione's mouth hang open: David and Atalanta
Hermione read through the page quickly, lingering on the more interesting sentences:
… is perhaps one of the most tragic love stories known today is the story of David and Atalanta…. David Wallace was… not known until recently to have been trained to hunt down and destroy dark wizards... Atalanta, daughter of dark wizard Seth Clare… Atalanta prevented David from killing her father. Seth was not aware of this… David realized Atalanta was not like her father… David and Atalanta fell in love... Seth found out about his daughter's secret, and disowned her. Then, had his minions kill her for her betrayal… also killed David in front of Seth… However, the two swore eternal love for each other, and promised to meet again… died April 20th, 1897…
Ron looked at Hermione.
`You don't think-'he asked her, breathless.
`I don't know, Ron…' Hermione took a deep breath, and tried to use her ever faithful logic to apply to what she had just read. `Look, we cannot jump into conclusions about this. Maybe Harry's read this, somehow, and he just forgot about it. I mean, really, you don't really believe Harry Potter was once "David Wallace", do you? That's rather farfetched, isn't it?'
`Yeah… should we tell him about it?' Ron jerked his head to Harry's direction.
`Of course. When he wakes up.'
Yet, Hermione could not use her logic to explain why April 20th, 1897 felt strangely important to her, nor could she use it to explain why a single tear made its way down her cheek the moment Ron had stopped looking.
***
Sources: Symbolism of death was taken from this lovely and interesting site: http://library.thinkquest.org/11130/data/interpret/symbolism.html
Symbolism of Love was taken from this fascinating site: http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamthemes/feelings.htm
I made up that book Ron was reading, obviously, to go with the story.
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