Chapter Text
Harry crouched behind the grave marker, Sirius by his side, and concentrated on maintaining the shield he had cast. He felt exhaustion pulling at him, but Moony had almost reached them, he only needed to hold on a little longer. Harry pulled on the last of his energy to reinforce the shield only to watch a streak of green light pass through his spell as if it wasn’t there and strike Moony, who collapsed at his feet. As Harry stared in horror at Moony’s lifeless body he heard a cold high voice.
“Find the boy. Bring him to me.”
Suddenly, Death Eaters were dragging Harry out from behind the grave marker that he had been sheltering behind, his invisibility cloak gone. Sirius leapt to his defense only to be cut down by another flash of green light. Harry was bound to a gravestone again and as he struggled against the ropes holding him, Voldemort loomed over him.
“Don’t worry, Harry Potter, you will have your chance to face me soon, but first I have a traitor to deal with.”
Voldemort turned away from Harry to watch one of his Death Eaters who was being dragged forward by two others. The wizard’s mask was dislodged when he was thrown to the ground at Voldemort’s feet, revealing the pale face of Severus Snape.
“Did you really think that you would be able to get away with this betrayal, Severus,” Voldemort hissed as he raised his wand-
“Harry Potter, wake up, you is having a bad dream.”
Harry started awake and stared blankly at Dobby’s worried face for a moment before looking around his bedroom. He was at home, Moony, Sirius, and Dad were safe, it was all just a dream. He sat up and rubbed his face, trying to shake the images of the graveyard from his mind.
“Thank you, Dobby,” Harry said with a wan smile.
“Dobby is happy to be helping, Harry Potter. Dobby will be getting Harry’s Moony for him. Harry’s Moony will be helping Harry Potter feel better so that he can be getting more sleep.”
Dobby disappeared with a pop. Harry fell back onto his pillow and tried not to think about the nightmare that Dobby had woken him up from. As he lay there, Godric slithered out of his Vivarium and made his way onto the bed. When Moony came into the bedroom he found Harry stroking his snake, who lay coiled upon his chest, as they hissed to each other.
“Are you all right, Harry? Dobby said that you had a bad dream,” Moony asked as he moved the desk chair to sit beside Harry’s bed.
“Moony!” Harry sat up suddenly, dislodging Godric who hissed his displeasure before settling down again on Harry’s lap. “You’re ok! I mean, I know you’re ok, it was just a dream but it seemed so real …” Harry leaned forward and flung his arms around Moony as soon as he was seated, burying his face in Moony’s shoulder. “I dreamed that we were in the graveyard and you and Sirius were killed by the Death Eaters,” he continued in a muffled voice, “and I was captured again, and Riddle had figured out that Dad was a spy …”
Moony rubbed Harry’s back. “Ssh, it’s ok, I’m here, your Dad’s sleeping soundly in his own room, you’ll see him in the morning, and Sirius will be here for lunch as usual. We’re safe.”
Harry drew back embarrassed, “I know, it was just a dream. It … it just seemed so real … I know it’s stupid to get so upset over a bad dream. It’s not like I’m a little kid ...”
“It’s not stupid, Harry,” Remus said gently. “You went through something traumatic and it’s going to be a while before you feel safe again. Just give it some time and keep seeing the Mind Healer. And don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it, even if it’s in the middle of the night. Now do you want to get up for a while, maybe have some tea or something, or do you think you can get back to sleep.”
Harry settled himself back onto his pillow and yawned, “I think I can get to sleep again.” He hesitated and then mumbled, “Would you … do you mind staying until I fall asleep again?”
“Of course not,” said Remus, and Harry drifted off again with Godric a comforting weight draped over him and Moony nearby.
Harry didn’t revisit the graveyards in his dreams again that night, instead, he found himself walking down a long, dark corridor that seemed to stretch on forever until it suddenly ended in a locked door. Harry knew that there was something important behind that door, something that he desperately wanted but he woke up before he could remember what it was. Godric hissed sleepily as Harry carefully moved the snake off of himself before getting dressed for the day. Harry rubbed his forehead and then stopped as he realized his scar was prickling uncomfortably and had been since he got up. Almost as soon as he noticed the pain it faded again. Frowning to himself, Harry tried to remember what he had been dreaming about when he woke up as he headed down to the kitchen.
“Good Morning, Harry,” Remus said as he brought the bacon he had just fried to the table. “How did you sleep? I hope that there were no more nightmares at least.”
Harry sat down and started serving himself from the food laid out before him. “I didn’t have any more nightmares but I had an odd dream and when I woke up my scar was hurting again.”
Severus frowned, “Your scar was hurting? Did you do your Occlumency exercises before you went to sleep?”
Harry nodded, “I did, and my shields feel intact.”
Severus’s wand appeared in his hand and he pointed it at Harry, staring him in the eyes. ”Legilimens!”
Harry felt his dad pushing at his mental shields, testing them for any flaws that might have let Voldemort through, before withdrawing again. Severus sat back with a thoughtful expression.
“You’re right. Your shields are intact, yet it seems that you are still eavesdropping on the Dark Lord’s thoughts somehow. What happened in your dream?”
Harry described the corridor he had found himself in and the locked door that prevented him from reaching his goal. Remus looked over at Severus.
“Well that confirms that we’re right about what Riddle’s been after,” he said. “He must be really obsessed if Harry’s been picking up on it.”
“What?” Harry demanded. “What is Riddle after?”
Severus and Remus exchanged a look.
“Dumbledore doesn’t want Harry to know,” Remus said but his tone of voice indicated that he didn’t think this was a serious consideration.
Severus snorted, “You know how well it went when I tried to keep Harry out of things in his first year at Hogwarts.” He turned to Harry, “The Dark Lord is after some information that he didn’t have before, and the Order is trying to keep it from him. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to tell you everything before Cedric gets here. Eat your breakfast before it gets cold and we’ll talk about it some more this afternoon when Sirius is here.”
Cedric soon arrived and helped himself to the last of the bacon, while the others finished their meal. After breakfast, Severus headed down to his lab grumbling about the number of potions he had to work on in between the usual summer replenishing of Hogwarts stores and Voldemort’s demands. Harry fetched his school books and Godric from his room and sat down at the kitchen table to work on his summer assignments, while Cedric and Moony played a game of chess and answered Harry’s questions whenever he needed help. Finally, Harry finished the essay he was working on and closed his books.
“I think I’m going to go for a walk,” Harry said as he stood up, picking up Godric who looped himself around Harry’s shoulders.
“Good timing,” said Cedric as his king surrendered to Remus’ forces. “I’ve had enough of losing to Professor Lupin today.”
“I’m not your Professor anymore, Cedric, you can call me Remus now,” Remus said.
“Sorry, Prof- I mean Remus,” said Cedric.
“You could call him Moony like my friends and I do,” Harry said with a grin from the doorway to the living room.
“I think I’ll stick to Remus,” said Cedric. “You know, Fred and George kept accidentally calling him that in class. The nickname made a lot more sense a few months into the year when we made the connection between the days when Professor Lupin was sick and the nights with a full moon.”
Remus looked startled. “You realized that I was a werewolf that early? Why didn’t you say anything?”
Cedric shrugged, “We had a house meeting to discuss it and the upper years taking N.E.W.T level classes with you made it clear that they wouldn’t stand for anyone doing anything that would risk us losing the first decent Defense Professor that we had had in years. Everyone in my year agreed with them, we had our O.W.Ls to think of, after all, so it was decided that Hufflepuff would keep your secret.”
“I hope we get a decent teacher this year. I would be pretty miserable to get another Lockhart for my O.W.L year.” Harry said from the living room. “Come on, Cedric, let's get going so we can be back in time for lunch.”
When they had left the house Harry asked, “Did you go to the last Order meeting?”
“Yeah,” said Cedric. “But I can’t tell you anything about it, Dumbledore’s orders.”
“I know,” Harry said. “It's just so frustrating ... all of you are busy doing stuff for the Order when you’re not guarding me and I’m not even allowed to know what’s going on. Even Ron and Hermione are at least staying at Headquarters even if they aren’t allowed into the meetings.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m not doing anything for the Order other than guarding you. The other members all insisted that I should finish school first,” Cedric informed Harry.
“That does make me feel better.” Harry looked down the street. “We’re almost to the park, it’s nice to have a green space to go to other than my backyard but I wish I had somewhere I could fly. I’m going to be so out of condition when we get back to Hogwarts.”
“From what I’ve heard about your first time on a broom I don’t think you need to worry about being out of condition, Harry,” Cedric said ruefully.
“You did beat me the only time we played against each other,” Harry pointed out. “Although, I’m not planning to let that happen again.”
The two boys continued to talk about Quidditch and the upcoming school year as they wandered into the park and settled themselves in the grass. Harry was sprawled out on his stomach watching Godric slid through the grass hunting for unwary prey while Cedric leaned back against a nearby tree when their conversation was interrupted by a shriek from over by the swings.
“Look, Mummy, there’s a snake!”
Harry quickly gathered up Godric and sat up to watch a little girl come running across the grass towards him with her mother in pursuit.
“Is that your snake?” the girl asked when she reached Harry, her eyes shining with delight. “Can I pet him?”
Harry smiled at her and extended the arm that Godric had wrapped himself around, “As long as you’re gentle with him. His name’s Godric.”
“Hello, Godric, my name is Sally,” said the little girl as she carefully stroked Godric. “You’re beautiful and so soft.” She looked at Harry, her eyes wide. “I didn’t know that snakes were soft.”
“Sally, don’t bother the young man. You can’t just run away from me like that,” Sally’s mother scolded as she caught up with her errant daughter.
“But Mummy, he’s got a snake and he let me pet it,” protested Sally. “Did you know that snakes are soft? I want a snake just like Godric, he’s beautiful.”
“Maybe when you’re older,” Sally’s mother said, she looked down at Harry. “I’m sorry about Sally. I’m trying to teach her that it’s not polite to bother strangers but she’s never met anyone with a pet snake before.”
“That’s alright,” said Harry. “Godric is always happy to have an appreciative audience. It was nice to meet you, Sally, but Godric and I need to go home for lunch now.”
Once they were out of earshot of Sally and her mother, a puzzled Cedric said, “The Muggles didn’t seem surprised that you had a snake. Do Muggles really keep snakes as pets?”
“Yeah, Muggles keep all sorts of animals as pets,” said Harry. “Although, I’ve never heard of a Muggle with an owl.”
When they arrived back at 8 Hadon Gardens, Harry invited Cedric to join them for lunch but he had made plans to spend the afternoon with Cho, so after Sirius arrived Cedric said his goodbyes and left.