1. The Dream

They Hear Him at Night

Viopathartic

I’m writing a lot of one-shots these days…perhaps because they’re much easier to write. Novel length stories take a lot of time with all the planning and future chapters needed to be thought up. With one-shots there is only one chapter and then done.

I got the idea of this one along time ago but never really thought of typing it all up and posting it. The idea floated into my head once again a few days ago so I finally decided to post it.

It may be a bit bland…but hey, a girl could try.

I’m writing this author’s note as I’m typing the story and not after like I usually do. I don’t know how long it will be so….here it goes.

They always hear him.

They hear him at night.

Two boys lay awake in their separate beds, blindly gazing up at their ceiling. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan couldn’t sleep. They never could when Harry couldn’t.

The Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, the Boy-Who-Conquered. Harry Potter was their friend and roommate of several years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He defeated You-Know-Who at the age of 17 and won rewards for saving their world from mass destruction.

But he also got something unwanted.

“Hermione! No…no, please…not her…get away….get away!”

He was having The Dream again. Dean and Seamus could never forget that one. The dream where Hermione was taken away and Harry couldn’t stand it. He’d scream and cry her name as if losing one of his arms or legs. Such pain, such despair.

“Don’t touch her. Don’t---no, no…” sobbed Harry.

Dean and Seamus were never unfamiliar with Harry’s nightmares. They knew all about them since first year. The only difference now was that every time Harry Potter cried out louder, it got even more difficult for them to lie still at night.

In first year, they made fun of Harry behind his back. Who still had nightmares when you were eleven years of age? Especially the Boy-Who-Lived! They would hear him at night, babbling inaudible words in his dreams and they wished he would just shut up.

In second year, Dean and Seamus thought Harry had gotten over his dreams from first year. They slept peacefully and woke up refreshed for their classes.

In third year, the dreams were not as bad. Harry still muttered in his sleep but he didn’t move around much.

By fourth and fifth year, Dean and Seamus knew things would get even worse. It was all clear when Harry had woken up one night and vomited all over his mattress, claiming that he was a snake and had just attacked Ron’s father. They found out that his dreams were becoming real. And deadly.

Next year, they heard Harry had taken classes to learn how to fend off invaders in his mind and immediately noticed the silence in their dormitory every night when they slept. They thought it was over—that they wouldn’t have to hear him again.

But they were wrong.

It was after the battle when his dreams—nightmares—started up again; far worse than before. Sometimes, Harry forgot to cast his Silencio wards. And they’d hear him shouting through his closed curtains, images from the Last Battle tormenting his mind.

Hermione was captured for a short time before the Last Battle and was tortured by Dolohov, the same Death Eater who had hit her with that unknown spell in the Department of Mysteries. Harry was in a state during her kidnap. He was angry inside but never let it out. He ordered Dobby or Winky to give him his food in his bedroom. He let no one in his room to console him or try to get him out of the room. Not even Ron. Not even Ginny, his ex-girlfriend.

The only time he did come out was when Dolohov was sighted near Hogsmeade. He left without a word and so, the Order of the Phoenix had no other choice but to follow him.

He found Dolohov. The Aurors discovered him in an alley, limbs severed perfectly by an unknown spell.

On that very same night, Harry fought You-Know-Who. And he won.

At first, his roommates thought about the fact that they could only hear Hermione’s name in Harry’s nightmares. The young wizard had seen far worse than his friend in the state he found her. He saw torture and death.

Why Hermione Granger?

Was it because Hermione was his best friend and she was hurt because of him?

Or….

…was it because he was witnessing his love getting tortured again and again while he could do nothing but watch?

Harry never said a word about his nightmares. Did he even know how tortured he would sound when screaming Hermione’s name? Did he know that he cried during his sleep?

He asked his dorm mates one time after they shook him awake from The Dream.

Do I talk in my sleep?

They answered truthfully: No.

He screamed in his sleep.

Dean and Seamus were very good at lying.

It was almost uncanny to see Harry wake up in the morning and go about classes normally. He laughed and fooled around. His laughs were much better than his screams.

Dean clenched his eyes shut and gripped his blanket before deciding that he may as well sleep on the couch. First: Wake him up. He opened his eyes again and saw Seamus already grabbing his pillows and blanket. Seamus noticed his friend watching and gestured for him to follow. As they headed over to Harry’s bed, they came upon Ron who was sitting upright in bed but wasn’t moving. His eyes were on his best friend who continued to cry out Hermione’s name.

“No. I’ll wake him up,” he whispered, his tone lacking any emotion.

Dean glanced worriedly at his friend. “Ron—“

“I know.”

Seamus and Dean couldn’t fathom how disturbing it might be for Ron to hear that his best mate was screaming his girlfriend’s name at night.

They talked to Ron once and trying to discuss the nightmares with him. Ron listened intently for a moment because he also heard it at night. But then he waved it off, saying how it was natural for Harry to do it after the war.

The two of them couldn’t believe his nonchalance. But they realized that maybe—just maybe—Ron didn’t want to accept the fact that Harry was in love with Hermione Granger.

As Ron stood up from his bed, they left the room without another word.

The next morning, Dean and Seamus complained about back pains from their sleep on the couch.

Harry, who was tying his trainers when they arrived, noticed them and asked why they weren’t in bed.

“We had to do some late night homework,” answered Seamus, grinning to make their alibi more believable. Harry smiled and just shook his head, grabbing his bag as he headed out to breakfast.

Harry sat down across from Hermione, grabbing an apple from the basket that was positioned near her. Hermione glanced up from her book and smiled warmly at him.

“Hey Dean, hey Seamus,” greeted the girl before giving her attention to Harry who was “eating too little”.

The doors opened again and everyone watched as they observed Ron making his way down the aisle of the Great Hall.

“Oh, morning Ron,” she said, though not as warmly as she greeted Harry. Ron smiled nervously as if he didn’t mind and instead of kissing her cheek, he inclined his head.

Dean and Seamus shot knowing looks at each other as they watched Ron put a hand on Hermione’s back and whispered a few words in her ear. Hermione seemed surprised and nodded. She shot a look at Harry who merely shrugged. He watched Hermione’s retreating form as she left the Great Hall, his gaze filled with longing. Then Harry shook his head and proceeded to cut his omelet.

A few minutes later, Hermione came back, looking confused. Slowly, she took her seat across from Harry again, staring at the surface of the table. She appeared to be very pale and it seemed as if she had just learned something that scared the wits out of her.

Dean and Seamus knew Ron had told her.

Harry immediately took in her expression. “Hermione?”

“Ron broke up with me,” she said simply and Harry couldn’t say anything to that.

“I’m sorry.”

Hermione shook her head. “No—I’m not…no, it’s just…”

“Are you alright Hermione? Do you want me to talk to him?” Harry asked, his voice wavering. He thought she was traumatized by the breakup but truthfully, Hermione didn’t care at the moment.

Hermione shook her head, as if Harry shouldn’t be asking her the question. She reached across the table and grabbed his hand before he could react. She stared at their entwined hands, studying the shape of their hands together. Then she glanced up and examined his face. His complexion was pale like a ghost and his lips were thin and cracked. There were dark bags under his eyes, bringing the attention away from his emerald colored orbs. She stared into them.

“No, Harry…are you alright?”

After few moments where Harry stared at Hermione, he bent his head so that it was very close to hers. They touched foreheads and he whispered words that Dean and Seamus couldn’t hear from where they were seated.

Then he got up and extended his arm, palm opened. Hermione nodded and grabbed on to that hand. Harry and Hermione walked down the aisle of the Great Hall together.

Harry already begun to speak and Hermione leaned against him, hands still attached and listening fixedly.

Later, the boys learned that he had told Hermione about his nightmares.

Dean and Seamus were glad that everything was now in the open and that all was cleared.

Ever since Harry and Hermione had gotten together, they could no longer hear him at night.

Okay. So it’s five pages, which is the shortest I’ve ever written for my stories on Portkey. I hope you liked it. If you didn’t then…well, I don’t know. I’m pretty neutral on what I think about this one.

Oh and people keep saying that I’m not gonna continue Operation CoJacks. WHO THE HELL SAID SO?

I’m nearly finished with the next chapter of Operation CoJacks and Chapter 5 of A Club is coming along. I just started school so I might not be updating so soon (not that I was ever a good updater).

Alrighty…I have to go,