Unofficial Portkey Archive

Somnium Insidiae
by cali-chan.

#3

When he saw her fall to the floor, he felt the air escape out of his lungs. With a terrified scream he ran to her, kneeling beside her and praying to every god that could help him that she'd be ok. If something happened to her, he wouldn't ever forgive himself. It was his fault that they were there, his fault that they'd been attacked, and his fault that she might be... But no. She wasn't dead. She COULDN'T be dead...

Then the lack of air forced him to wake up.

When he opened his eyes, he found that there was a pillow covering his face and that Ron was somewhere in the room laughing madly. Frowning, he threw the pillow at him, even if it was mostly possible that he hadn't hit him, because his vision was, as it was every morning, completely blurred.

Stretching his hand towards the bedside table, he grabbed his glasses and put them on. "Shut up," he told Ron, who was sitting on his bed, wearing green boxers and a white shirt, and had only one sock on.

"You sure were hugging that pillow tight, Hary," he said, putting on the other sock at last. "I'm sure you and Cho were having a great time there inside your head."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Ha, ha. You think you're so funny," he comented, leaving his sheets to the side and sitting sideways on the bed, with his feet on the floor. "In fact, it's pretty weird. Cho wasn't in my dream. Quite the opposite, there was this girl..."

Ron looked at him curiously, arching one brow. "This girl? What girl? Do I know her?"

Harry shook his head, still frowning. "No. I don't even know who she is myself. But she's been in my dreams since some time ago..."

Ron stood up, walking to his trunk to get his clothes out. "That's weird, Hary. You're dating the prettiest girl at Hogwarts, and here you are, dreaming about an imaginary girl." Choosing a pair of black pants, he turned towards Harry again. "Tell me, this girl X... does she at least look good?"

Harry was doubtful when he answered. "Actually she's nothing spectacular... From what I remember, she has brown hair, kind of frizzy, coffee or honey-colored eyes, not too tall..."

"From the neck down, man!" the redhead exclaimed; he obviously hadn't been thrilled with the description he'd been given.

"I wouldn't know what to tell you," Harry answered, shrugging. "The dreams don't focus all that much on that aspect."

"Then don't make a big deal out of them," Ron replied, as if it were the most logical thing in the world, while he looked for a shirt to go with his black pants. "Just worry about the asian bombshell that's waiting for you outside in the corridor."

"You're right," Harry admitted, standing up too, to get dressed.

He really didn't know why he cared so much about those stupid dreams... He had never believed in Divination. All those things were a fake. Dreams were random images, it wasn't as if his subconscious was telling him something. The "girl X", as Ron dubbed her, didn't exist. He shouldn't be affected by her. He was happy with his life as it was. He didn't have to worry about silly stuff like that.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Before any of the two boys could approve, a little red head peeked in. "Harry, I gotta tell you that..." she started, and when she noticed the second person present on the room, her eyes got wide open. "Ron!" she exclaimed, and ran up to the tall boy, without even closing the door behind her. "Hello! I hadn't seen you since... uh, since yesterday!"

"Gwynn! You can't just barge into our room like that!" Harry exclaimed, glaring at the girl, a little annoyed. She didn't mind him for a minute, so focused as she was with the Weasley's youngest boy. Ron, by the way, had already spent some seconds looking at Harry with the international, standard "save me, best friend" expression.

"Um, green looks really good on you," she continued, blushing a little. "But then, any color looks good on you..."

*She's obviously never seen him wearing one of his Chudley Cannons t-shirts...* Harry thought, very amused. "Gwynn, what do you want?" he tried to stop her again, but she continued talking as if he'd never spoken.

"You know, Mum is planning a family outing to Hogsmeade this afternoon, and I was wondering if you'd like to come with us, you know, since you're almost part of the family. Well, not really family, no, it's not as if you're my brother or anything. It's just that, you know, you're important to me- to US, and since Mum and Dad are going to be busy with Harry, maybe you and I could hang out meanwhile..."

At the moment, Ron was already covered in cold sweat. The girl had taken a hold of his arm and that did NOT make him feel comfortable at all. "Uh... Gwynn, listen-"

"Family outing?" Harry interrupted them, feeling somewhat threatened. That wouldn't be a plan of his mother's to find out about the Cho thing, would it? "What family outing?"

"I'm not talking to you," Gwynn muttered, giving him one of those lethal glares. A second later, she was back to looking at Ron with the most innocent gaze possible. "Anyway, I thought maybe we could go to Zonko's, because, you know, I really want to go, but my parents won't let me go alone, they say I might get in trouble with those jokes. And I know that you really like them, so..."

"GWYNN. For goddsake, can you simply tell us what you came to tell us and leave?" Harry exclaimed, standing between her and Ron, to see if he could stop the little babblemouth for once.

The girl frowned. Even though it had no effect, because on her a frown didn't look threatening, but somewhat cute. "Mum says to hurry and go down to have breakfast, because she has to talk to you." Craning her neck to look behind her brother, she gave Ron a bright smile. "Bye, Ron! See you this afternoon!" and with that, she left the room, a skip in her step.

Ron fell on his bed and covered his face with his hands. "I can't take this anymore. I can't take it, I can't, I can't..." he murmured to himself, but Harry could hear him. He thought about saying something, but he was more worried about his mother's plans this afternoon. And above that, his strange dreams. He knew he shouldn't be thinking about that, but he couldn't help it.

Harry decided when coming down from the Tower that it would be best not to say hi to Cho that morning. He was risking her getting mad at him, but he didn't want anybody (that is, his mother) seeing them being affectionate in the middle of the Great Hall. At least not until the news of their dating were of public knowledge.

At that moment he was sitting in his usual seat, moving his breakfast around his plate, without paying much attention to what was happening around him. In front of him, Ron and Ginny were discussing about her skirt being so short that "I can't see why you bother putting it on" and that Ron was too much of an overprotective brother who had to learn to "keep you nose out of stuff that aren't any of your business," and they kept trying to bring Harry in onto the conversation, but Harry wasn't in the mood. He had other stuff to talk about...

The first thing that came to his mind was that she had to be dead. He had seen her on the floor, pale and still. And when he woke up, he felt so empty that it was hard to doubt that something that big had really happened. After that, he'd try to convince himself that it couldn't be. In his dreams she looked so real, so full of life, that she couldn't have died just like that. And lastly, he'd get angry at himself for thinking about it. She was just a dream, she didn't exist, and as such she couldn't be alive or dead. He couldn't lose his time thinking about those things. His thoughts were a vicious cycle that repeated itself all throughout breakfast.

He was about to give up on his muffins, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Good morning, Harry."

Harry turned towards the sound, to find his mother looking at him with a smile and a suspicious gleam in her eyes. "Uh, hi, Mum. Did you want to talk to me?" Harry noticed that Gwynn peeked out from behind his mother's waist, with her eyes wide open, furiously shaking her head while pointing at herself.

"Oh, yes. I wanted to tell you that we're going out tonight. We'll go to Hogsmeade and have dinner as a family. What do you think?"

"Um, just great, Mum," he replied, feeling that all the eyes in the room were on them and their conversation. "Just don't let it be too early. I have to finish my Transfiguration and begin working on my Potions essay..."

"Oh, don't worry about that, honey," she replied, smiling even more. "You have time. Besides, you have to go invite your girlfriend-- Cho, is it?"

At hearing that question, Harry looked so much like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck that his mother couldn't help but start laughing. Behind her, Gwynn shook her head even more frantically. Lily, seeing her kids' expressions, continued speaking. "You shouldn't be so surprised, Harry. I sleep in the same bed as your father, after all."

With that, Gwynn sighed, relieved, and decided that she could get away without being accused of anything. Harry tried to say something without stuttering. "Er, Mum, look, I can explain..."

"Don't worry, Harry," she interrupted him, smiling sweetly at him as she ruffled his hair. "It was going to happen someday, right? I'm sure she's a wonderful girl. I just want to get to know her better, really. I have to welcome her into the family..." she said with a wink. Harry blushed. "Don't forget to invite her, ok?" she continued and with a last smile she bid him (and his friends who had witnessed all of it) goodbye, and turned around to go up to the teachers' table.

Harry looked at Ron, somewhat disconcerted. "Well, that went better than I expected."

The sixth-year Gryffindors were in the Common Roon, bending over tables, thrown on the floor or lying face-up on the couches while working on a certain Transfiguration project that was worth 30% of their final grade. Professor McGonagall had been reminding them for a month that they were supposed to finish by that monday, but of course they had waited until two days before to start working on it. They had a long way to go, no doubt.

"Does anybody have the list of the problems one might find when transfiguring caterpillars into inanimate objects?" Dean asked, looking around at his classmates' faces for an answer.

"I think I have them..." Harry said, going through the stack of papers that was on the table to see if they could find him. "McGonagall explained it last thursday..."

"Oh!" Parvati exclaimed, just remembering something. "That's true, Harry... I have your class notes, remember? You lent them to me yesterday and I forgot to give them back. They should be in my room..."

"Ah, don't worry, I'll get them," he replied, standing up. "Where are they?"

"In my bag, next to my bed," Parvati answered, looking back down to the book she was reading.

"Ok," Harry said, and walked bristly to the stairs leading to the girls' dormitory. He checked twice to make sure that he was entering the right room and opened the door, looking around to find the bag. It wasn't too hard. Even given the fact that Lavender and Parvati were the ones who slept there, the room wasn't as crowded as he would have expected. It was actually very spacious, and maybe because it was a girls' dorm room, it was clean and tidy.

Not wanting to lose more time, he picked up a green-colored bag from the floor, which he assumed was Parvati's, and looked inside until he found his Transfiguration notes. When he had them in his hand, he left the bag on its original place and rushed out of the room, but when he passed through the doorway, something made him stop.

Spacious...?

Again he looked around the room, stopping on each of the two beds, one on each side of the room. Everything was in place: clothes, books, personal objects, school stuff... Everything was there. Like in every student dorm room, everything they needed to spend those nine months in Hogwarts was there. There was no reason for anything to be missing.

Then why did he feel the room was so... empty?

Harry shook his head to get that idea out of his mind. That was ridiculous. He was thinking too much. It was probably just stress, due to all the projects and that night's dinner out. Yes, that must be it. He'd be better off relaxing and staying calm.

By the time three in the afternoon ticked by, Harry was convinced that he was never going to be able to concentrate. He rested his head on the table and stayed that way for a few minutes; even Lavender and Parvati started wondering why he looked so tired. Seamus and Dean wondered if having a girlfriend fried a guy's brain cells. Only Ron had the idea that maybe Harry wasn't thinking about Cho.

And his suspicions couldn't be more correct. In his mind there was no Transfiguration, no Potions and no girlfriend. He couldn't stop thinking about the girl in his dreams, about the strange sensation that he felt when he left Lavender and Parvati's room... and that somehow, he felt the two were related. But he didn't know how, because he couldn't even remember all that much about the dreams. The only thing he was sure of was that the bushy-haired girl was always in them.

At the same moment Harry lifted his head up, Neville walked through the portrait hole looking for him.

"Hey, Harry! Cho's waiting for you outside," he informed him. Harry nodded, standing up to go looking for her. His housmates whistled and laughed at him, but he didn't mind them.

Just as he walked out of the Tower, he found her. She was standing on the other side of the hallway, leaning against the wall, hands behind her back. "Hey," she greeted him, hugging him and kissing him. "Are you studying?"

"Yeah," he replied, taking her hand and guiding her outside for a little more privacy. "But it's ok that you came here, I was going to go looking for him in a while anyway."

She smiled at him, while they walked down the hallways towards the Main Gates. "It's just that you didn't talk to me during breakfast..." she pouted. "I missed you."

"Ah, hehe, that..." Harry took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He looked really tired. "I'm sorry. It's just that I haven't told my Mum, and I didn't want her to find out like that."

"Don't worry, I know how that feels," she said, softly passing a hand through her hair. At last they made it outside and, arm in arm, they walked slowly through the gardens. "Did you tell her?"

"Actually, my Dad told her. She took it really well, better than I expected. In fact, that's why I was looking for you. We're having dinner tonight in Hogsmeade and she asked me to invite you. She said she wants to get to know you better."

"That's great!" she exclaimed, happy. "We're going to have so much fun, you'll see."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," he replied, looking sideways at her. It was one of the eternal teenage fears that the parents were to embarass them in front of their girlfriends. "You know them as teachers, but as normal people, I guarantee you, they can be pretty weird."

"Oh, come on, Harry. How bad can it be? You love them anyway, right? Everything's gonna be fine, I'm sure you're just nervous," she assured him, always looking at the positive side of the issue. She was really glad to be meeting Harry's parents, she knew they were really important to him, and she couldn't think of anything better than having the opportunity to get to know the most important people in her boyfriend's life.

"Yeah, maybe that's it. Well, now I gotta go back to the Tower, to finish my Transfiguration project..." he started, feeling somewhat guilty. He had ignored her that morning, then he'd been so negative, and now he had to go so soon. He wouldn't win the best boyfriend of the year award, that was for sure. And they had only been dating for one day.

"Oh. I was hoping we could be together for a longer while..." she sighed, biting her lip. "But oh well! Studying comes first. We'll see eachother tonight. What time do I have to be ready?" she asked, an excited gleam in her eyes.

"Um, I'd say around seven," he answered, when they made it back to the Main Gate.

"Ok. I'll see you later, then," she said, and kissed him goodbye. With that, each took their own way, Cho on her way to her room and Harry back to the world of Transfiguration.

At about six, Harry excused himself to go change. He wanted to be ready early, so he could go pick Cho up and not make his parents wait too much. He spent a couple of minutes deciding what to wear. He normally wouldn't have cared about that, but it was his first real date with Cho and even if they had chaperones, he wanted to look good.

It only took him a little while to find what to wear. He quickly left aside every article of clothing that his mother had bought for him, and somewhere in the few robes that he had left after the scrutiny, he found a dark blue one that he thought he'd look good on, so he decided on that one. Black slacks and a white button-down shirt followed, and in a moment he was fully dressed.

Time to tackle the hair.

THAT took him fifteen more minutes.

As of now, he'd managed to make his black locks lie still. Not perfectly, but it was on its way. The only problem is that he was getting fed up with the sarcastic remarks the mirror threw at him (Harry had been pleading for years to his roommates to throw out that mirror, but Seamus had threatened them all with a slow death if any of them touched his personal "ego feeder". Of course he would, since he was the only one out of them all that the mirror treated nicely... If it weren't an "inanimate" object, anyone'd say it was in love with the young irishman), so he decided to just leave like he was.

But with one last look at his reflection, he realized that he'd left his room in a deplorable state. His books were thrown all over the floor, covered, of course, by the dozens of robes that he'd discarded when dressing. It was definitely colorful, but he was sure someone would trip on something when walking sleepily towards a good rest after the day's hard work.

He quickly went on to pick everything up, leaving the clothes in their place and putting the books on his bed. He was just to turn around to walk out of the room when one of the books, apparently put on an awkward angle, fell to the floor with a light blunt sound. Harry picked it up, eyeing it for a second. It was the "Hogwarts, A History" copy that he'd borrowed from his sister the day before to work on his Potions essay.

Focusing on the book for some reason, he made his way past the cover and looked at the "Gwynn R. Potter" that was written with blue ink on its first page, under the title.

Suddenly it seemed like something was out of place. Something that had to do with that book.

And the girls' dorm room.

It was ridiculous, and he knew it, but he couldn't help his legs taking him downstairs, across the Common Room, up more stairs and inside Lavender and Parvati's room without authorization. He wasn't even worried about the fact that his classmates, who were down in the Common Room, must've seen him and followed him to find out why he was running that way. He didn't even care that his parents and Cho must've been waiting for him at the Main Gate right then.

Before he could realize what he was doing, he had started to move the furniture. Parvati's bed was moved a little towards the right, close to the door, while Lavender's trunk took the space at the foot of the bed. The night table that was between the beds ended up to one side, and Harry put on it a couple of books taken out of Parvati's bag. He arranged the pillows differently. And finally, he put Gwynn's book over the bedspread. Agitated, he turned his back on the rest of the room and just focused on the corner that he'd just rearranged.

He could almost see her sitting there. Not Lavender, nor Parvati. But the bushy-haired girl that appeared in his dreams.

"I'm going crazy!" he told himself. He'd been in that school for six years and he was completely sure that Lavender and Parvati had never, NEVER, had a third roommate. How could he, then, remember clearly the way Hermione's bed was arranged?

And then his thoughts froze.

He knew her name.

Hermione. Hermione Granger.

author's notes--

well then, stuff starts getting weird. next time we're back to hermione and her sweetheart and THEIR weird stuff.

this was written pre-ootp so please just ignore the fact that harry just waltzed into the girls' dorm room as if it were his. i tried to come up with an explanation, but somehow they just sounded lame. so i figured it'd be better to just go on as planned.

this chapter hasn't been beta-ed or even spellchecked (suddenly my microsoft word does not have auto-correction for some reason) so forgive me for any typos you may find. and please review! i do my best to answer to every review i get. hopefully you're liking my fic.