TRUST, harry potter¹

ch. 6 - sweet dreams

'A storm in the cloud,

And a fear in her eye.

A shake in her voice,

And a nightmare inside.'

-G. Lee

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Another flash outside brought her to jump, shaking increasing as thunder rumbled in the distance, clutching the duvet tighter as the sound soon followed the light.

Never before had she witnessed a storm this bad. Of course, last year there was the occasional rumble, though Ad never paid much attention to it. However, this was a lightning storm, and just added to the list of scary things she'd been through.

So there she sat: knees pulled to her chest as her sheet lay mangled at the foot of her bed, duvet wrapped around her resembling that of a burrito, eyes wide open, trained on the window of raindrops.

Beyond this sight was the rolling hills of Hogwarts and beyond, as well as Hagrid's hut and the entrance to the Forbidden Forest, though it was barely visible, what with the dark of night and clouds of grey. They could be seen, but only if lightning were to strike—for a split second, that is.

Her room resembled the darkness from outside, mind making up figures and faces to replace the pitch black of her wall, mistaking ordinary objects for monsters alike, letting out a soft whimper as thunder struck once more. The flames from the small fireplace close to the window muddled the shadows leaking on the wall, twisting, turning and distorting. She swore there was a face within the crackling wood, even if it was merely how the wood shaped.

Poor Addie couldn't take this anymore, so she slid out of bed in her lonesome room, dragging the duvet from the bed, leaving a robe-like trail behind as her feet patted the soft carpet. Hand reaching the doorknob, she cringed as the old wood creaked after it opened, dipping out of the scary room urgently.

The common room eased her stress a little, as the larger fireplaces brought more warmth than her own, lighting the shadows. Weirdly enough, her eyes didn't ache with tiredness yet, even if it was about one in the morning, she felt wide awake, unable to fall back asleep with the thunder and the shadow figures and the face in the fire—

She continued, duvet wrapped around her shoulders, dragging itself along the carpet. Adeline's legs forced a gap between the blanket edges as she practically bolted up the staircase leading to the boy's dorms.

Retracing the steps she had taken earlier, Ad reached the top of the staircase, averting her eyes to anywhere but the large window stricken with the cold darkness, wandering to the correct room, tiptoeing down the hall. Paranoid would be a word too gentle, as she frantically checked around, vowing not to keep her back turned for too long a time, before finally reaching the door.

She opened it swift enough to not creak, a flash of light blaring beyond the window, halting her swing before it hit the wall behind. However, as the room was darker than hers was and her coordination at that moment was, well, terrible, it hit the wall anyway, most likely leaving a dint. Ad seemed to have luck on her side, however, as the sound of lightning echoed louder than any previously, effortlessly blocking the bang that surely would've woken students.

Squinting proved useless to see but she did it anyway, the darkness spilling all around, ditching the duvet at the door, she crept through the room with about five sleeping boys, arms outstretched with caution, making her way to Harry's bed.

"Harry!" She whispered frantically as thunder launched again, jumping, shaking the blanket-covered figure. "Harry, get up!"

"Get the bloody hell off me, Addie, Harry's in the other bed!" Ron mumbled sleepily, pulling the blankets closer, burying his head deeper to the pillow.

"Which one?"

"That one!" He grumped, sighing, too lazy to point, curling up beneath the covers. "Beside the window."

Moving over to said spot, Adeline shook the figure.

"Harry! Please, wake up!"

"What—Addie? Is that you?" He rolled over and squinted up at her, clearly continuing having trouble processing the situation, his voice tired and lightly croaked, though nonetheless a relief to her.

She felt around blindly with shaky fingers on his bedside table until she reached his glasses, handing them over, even if really they did no help to see her as he put them on, now sat up.

"What's the matter? Are you alright?" Harry asked, concern clearly lacing his voice, thunder growling in the distance, glancing over her pitch-black silhouette for any wounds, outlined by the moonlight streaming from the window.

"I-I'm scared." Adeline whispered, hands fiddling anxiously.

"Of what?"

"The..." She looked to the window and nodded to the landscape beyond. "That."

"You mean the storm?" He grinned though she could not see, lightly amused, restraining himself from letting out an 'aww'.

"Yeah." Ad yelped once more, slightly jumping as the thunder roared louder and for longer, eyes wide. "Please? I'm scared."

"Okay, uh, let's get you back to bed then." Harry shoved off the maroon covers, showing off his white T-shirt and red fleece pyjama pants,

"Okay." She whispered, hugging his arm for comfort, again missing his smile with the dark, as they made their way across the floor quietly, grabbing her abandoned duvet once they reached the door.

The two cascaded the stairs in silence, the only noises being their feet patting the soft carpet, the popping of the fires, thunder of the storm and Adeline's occasional sniffle. They reached her door, with Adeline needing to enter first as one could only come in with her permission; a special charm Dumbledore had placed over it for her protection last year. This resulted in Ad clinging to Harry's arm like a Koala, moving into the room side-first.

Addie only let go of him once they were right at her bed, crawling in, and once settled, Harry brought the scrunched and kicked sheets back over her, distributing the duvet on top.

"Night, Addie." He whispered, turning to leave, yet as thunderstruck and she squirmed again, Ad called him back.

"Wait—" Harry turned around at her voice, eyebrows lightly raised in question, only her head visible from the covers, chin overlapping. She looked adorable. "Can you stay? Please?"

His heart warmed, nodding gently, setting himself down on the nearby, cushiony armchair, resembling a newer version of the ones in the common room. Once comfy, he turned his head to her slow-breathing figure; already asleep.

"Sweet dreams, Ad."

a/n:

*whispers* cutiesss

SO, it's reaching the end of term so we've had a bit of homework and assessments—which is why the chapter was a few days late (I feel like I say that every chapter.)

So yeah, sorry about that.

Thank you all for reading, voting, commenting—all that shiz, it really means a lot :)

I hope you all liked the chapter!

-G