Chapter 17- Dreams
Lily awoke in her bed, drenched with cold sweat, her hair tousled all over the place. She had just had one of the weirdest dreams of her life. She had been in a house. Running up the stairs, with a small bundle clutched to her chest. Her heart had been racing so fast she could hardly breathe. She headed into a room and heard the words, "Fight me like a man and leave the baby alone." It was a man's voice coming from downstairs. Moments later she heard a scream. She ran faster until she reached a door which led to a nursery. It had yellow wallpaper and a crib in the middle of the room. She put the bundle, which turned out to be a boy, into the crib. She heard a small click which meant the lock on the door had been broken. She turned around to see a tall man with slits for eyes looking back at her. His eyes turned to focus on something else; the boy. Lily did not know who that boy was but felt like she needed to protect him above all else. She began pleading, begging for mercy, for him to take her instead. The man just shook his head and laughed. Laughed a cold, evil laugh that shook her insides. He began to scream something, his wand raised, when Lily awoke.
Lily shook her head, trying to think straight and put the pieces together. Flashes of her dream were going through her head. There was a man. No, two men. One she knew, and one she had only met once before. She saw glasses and untidy black hair. James! He would know what she should do. No one understood her better now than James. A year ago Lily would have cringed at the thought of that but now James was her only reassurance.
She was still in bed, thinking over whether to move or not. Her mind paced mentally. Then, a thought occurred to her. The dream seemed so real! What if it was only a dream though? What if she was imagining the worst of what could have happened in Hogsmeade? Maybe she and James and Voldemort were in the Shrieking Shack in her dream. No, the Lily and James she saw were older and more mature. And where would the boy have come from? Lily found herself trying to reason. Then, she stopped. She was the girlfriend of James Potter. She had to face the unexpected and unbelievable.
With that, she slowly got out of bed and walked out of her room. She stood in front of a large oak door labeled James. She had only entered his room once, and had been snooping through his stuff and came across a pensieve. If only she had known she would be meeting her mother's murderer within a couple of weeks. Lily was still standing in front of the door, unsure of whether she should knock or just go in. Lily's common sense of boys took over. She had read somewhere that men usually were heavy sleepers. This caused her to open the door. She walked over to the large bed in the room and saw that the figured underneath a huge bundle of covers was tossing and turning. James was muttering, 'Fight me. Don't try and take on a baby. Leave Lily and Harry out of this. It's my fight, not theirs. You want me don't you? Well, here I am.' It seemed as though Lily was not the only one who was having nightmares.
Lily sat on the end of his bed and looked at him. She tapped his shoulder, which was still turning a little, and saw that he had no reaction whatsoever to this. It seemed that Lily was correct in thinking that James was a heavy sleeper. She then nodded a little more vigorously but saw no effect.
"James, James, James," she said, raising her voice each time. Eventually, he awoke. He sat up straight with a dazed expression and saw a figure right next to him. He then realized that Lily was in his room.
"Well Lily, seems you couldn't resist me could you?" he asked cockily, trying to cover up the fact that he was having a nightmare. He hadn't wanted Lily to see him at a time where he was so vulnerable.
"Oh give it up James," she said rolling her eyes.
"Just making conversation. Geez. Ok, so what's really up?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"I know you were having a nightmare about Voldemort. I came in here because I woke up having a nightmare that was similar to yours," she said. His expression became more alert and aware.
"So, you think our dreams are related?" he asked her.
"Well, it seems like it. I heard you mumbling and it fit in pretty well with my dream. But we were both in different places in the dream. You saw it in your dream perspective and I saw it in mine," she said.
"Mine was really weird though. It was like we were living together or married or something and we had a kid. And then the door opened and Voldemort was there. It was like I knew he was coming but at the same time I didn't. Then I remember telling you to take the boy, Harry I think I said, and to run. I then like, challenged Voldemort to a duel. I was yelling at him and sending spells and then he was going to say something and you woke me up," he said. She nodded in understanding. James looked at her clearly after putting his glasses on. She looked a mess, her hair was sticking to her face and her eyes were red and puffy. She looked on the verge of tears. Yet, he had never found her so beautiful in his life. "What was your dream like?" he asked out of mere curiosity.
"It was along the same lines as yours. Well, I remember running up the stair with 'Harry'. Then I heard you yelling at Voldemort. And I got flashes of us all eating dinner together. Then I heard, then- I heard; James, you died in my dream," she said.It had been horrific to even dream about, let alone repeat. He looked at her. Dead? What could this all mean?
"Go on," he said in a whisper.
"I ran up to a nursery, where he followed. He seemed to want to kill Harry and push me to the side but I didn't want this to happen. I stood in front of him, blocking his path to Harry. And then I woke up. If I'm right, I am sure he killed me too," she said quietly.
They both sat on his bed, blankly staring at the wall. Lily had begun to cry and James just looked at her. They sat for over an hour like that. Crying, staring, thinking of all they had taken in.
"Lily," he said. She looked up at him.
"We have to tell Dumbledore in the morning," he told her. She nodded in agreement, looking him in the eyes.
"All we can do now is wait for the sun to rise," James told her.
"Come here," he said. She pushed herself over to him. They sat in each others arms until they saw the sun rise from the horizon.
A/N: I like this one, personally. Please review.