The Era of Aria Snape

48

Chapter Forty-Eight

I WAS RUNNING, my breathing unsteady. I didn't know where I was going, all I knew was that it had to be better than where I was coming from.

Flames and dead bodies decorated the ground where I had run from, I could hardly tell their red hair from the fire.

I thought I had escaped. I thought I would not have to see them die again, but where I stopped was worse. There was a large carving of Salazar Slytherin on the wall, one that I swore to never look at again.

I was in the Chamber again, this time I had no choice. I raised my wand, "Avada-"

Aria shot up, sweat dripping from her face, strands of hair sticking to her forehead. It took her a moment to realize that she was still in her dorm. Anna's light snores filled the room and Madison and Matilda's bodies lay motionless in their beds.

It was only a dream.

A nightmare, rather. One that had spooked her so much that Aria could not get back to sleep. She tiredly marched down the stairs that led to the common room and sat on the cool leather couch across from the fireplace.

A small movement from outside the window reminded Aria that the school had guests.

"Incendio!" A jolt of flames shot from her wand and into the fireplace, heating her.

With a sigh, Aria closed her eyes, praying to Merlin that sleep would find her before the morning.

ϟ

One minute Aria's eyes had been slowly closing and the next she found herself violently shoved, her eyes shooting open in fear. Familiar faces clouded her vision, Draco and Anna being amongst them, along with several other people who she did not recognize. "What are you all doing in my dorm?" She snapped and reached for her covers. Upon realizing that there were none, the events of the previous night shot through her mind.

The next few minutes were a blur. She had almost raced out of the common room to make it to breakfast in time but realized her fuzzy pajamas would be very inappropriate for her classes and had rushed upstairs to change into her robes.

With a knotted tie and a pair of mismatched socks, she sped out of the common room.

Aria arrived at her first class, Divination, on time after having skipped breakfast. She fell into her seat next to Anna and took a deep breath. "Has she said what our set work is yet?"

Anna pointed to the book on the table. "It's right there, The Dream Oracle."

The dream Aria had had the previous night came rushing to the front of her mind, she tried to push it away and focus on the class, but it would not budge.

Professor Trelawney cleared her throat, "You will find on the tables before you copies of The Dream Oracle by Inigo Imago. Dream interpretation is an important means of divining the future and one that may very probably be tested in your OWLS."

Perhaps, Aria thought, Divination might not be so useless after all. Maybe she would be able to find out what her nightmare had meant.

"Dream interpretation is a method of Divination that involves analyzing dreams. Turn to the first page in your textbooks and please remember to leave them on the tables for your next lesson."

Aria turned to the first page and began skimming over it. It wasn't anything particularly interesting.

"You will notice that one of the first things it tells you to do is create a Dream Diary. This will be a diary where you store your dreams, come to class, and analyze them. Of course, if you would rather just recite your dream, that's fine too, but many may not be comfortable with that particular method. However, for your OWLS you will need to remember a dream you had and then analyze it to its full extent."

Aria wondered if they could make one up. She certainly didn't want anyone knowing what went on inside her head. Her dreams ranged from nightmares like the one she had had the previous night to dreams about George, ones that she did not need everybody to know about.

"As we read this book, you will begin to understand different ways in which to interpret dreams. There are many symbols and colors to look out for and the role which you play in the dream. Are you the main character? Are you watching someone else? Can you even see yourself? These all mean a great deal of things."

They had only reached page ten when the lesson ended and Aria wasn't anywhere closer to interpreting her dream than she was before the lesson.

Then again, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to know what that awful dream meant. It could have meant nothing, although an aching feeling in her body told her to believe otherwise.

She wasn't going to dwell on it, though. All would soon reveal itself, or so she hoped.