Amidst the stressful situations he has had to deal with recently, Harry Potter finds solace in a boy he meets one day in the Shrieking Shack. They spend their nights together studying in the library, though most of the studying is Harry making the b...
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Jasper's vision was blurred as he opened his eyes, hearing a familiar voice call his name. It was his mother, sounding just as he remembered her. She spoke softly, her voice like wilted flowers, just as beautiful as she was in full bloom, but slowly slipping away into a memory.
Jasper knew exactly where he was now, as his vision focused, and his surroundings were no longer obscured from the fact that he'd just woken up. He was reliving his memory of the morning he departed for his third year at Hogwarts. He's had this dream many times before, and it always ends the same way.
Jasper will make his way through the memory of the day, up until when he has to say goodbye to his parents. He hugs his father first, but when he hugs his mother, she starts to vaporize, her body slipping through his fingers as he cries out for her not to leave him. The last thing he hears before his father pushes him through the brick wall onto Platform 9 ¾, is his mother saying "I love you" somewhere distant and untouchable.
The dream is always worse than the real event of her death, but Jasper has repressed the memory so far into the depths of his subconscious, simply to not have to experience more emotional turmoil. He spent the first half of his third year absentmindedly making his way through his classes, most of the time completely unaware of his surroundings, dragging himself through every day. He would sometimes "wake up" in places he didn't remember being in, and was constantly late to classes because of this, causing some worry from a few of his professors, and rather nasty looks from others.
His surroundings went dark, and somewhere far away he began to hear voices. Precisely two voices; a woman and a man. He recognized the woman's voice as Madame Pomfrey, but couldn't quite tell who the man's voice belonged to. He felt an extreme warmth run through his hands, just as the man's voice whispered, "Please be okay."
Those words were the last thing Jasper heard before he opened his eyes outside of his dreams. He was in the hospital wing, and Harry Potter was sitting next to his bed, with a very sad look in his eyes. Jasper's whole body ran cold, as Harry's head turned to look at Jasper, their eyes locking almost instantly.
"Oh! You're finally awake." Harry smiled gently, handing Jasper a glass of water.
He sat up and took the glass, now realizing he was extremely thirsty. He downed it almost immediately, and Harry let out a small laugh. Jasper looked down at the glass, now incredibly embarrassed, and set it down on the bedside table opposite Harry. Jasper opened his mouth, to speak, but then Madam Pomfrey walked out of her office with a pitcher of ice water.
Jasper let out a laugh, knowing that he was going to end up drinking the whole pitcher. Jasper's laugh caught all three of them by surprise, but both Harry and Madam Pomfrey giggled in reply. She refilled Jasper's water glass, and he sipped it slowly, now very conscious of how fast he was drinking.
"I brought your school bag, by the way." Harry pointed to Jasper's school bag, now placed against the end table next to his bed, "I will admit, I almost forgot about it. You gave me quite a fright when you fell right into me."
"My apologies." Jasper took a hesitant sip from his glass of water, hoping the few words he offered Harry would be enough; the latter simply smiled when Jasper struggled to find the words to keep the conversation going.
"There's nothing you need to apologize for. You just need to take better care of yourself, yeah?"
"Sure, dad." Jasper retorted sarcastically.
He was immediately embarrassed afterwards, and thought that he might've upset Harry, but when Harry let out a wholehearted laugh.
"Well, I'd better be off to my next class, but I can catch you up later, and get any notes for you from the Professors, if you'd like." Harry stood as he picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder.
"I would appreciate that." Jasper gave Harry a smile that looked more awkward than grateful, but Harry thought nothing negative of it, and smiled right back.
"I'll see ya later, Jasper." Harry gave Jasper a small wave, and smiled at Madam Pomfrey as he passed by her office on his way out.
Jasper said nothing for a good while; he was trying to make sense of why he was feeling so many different emotions at the same time. Madam Pomfrey notified him that she would be stepping out for a moment to do something, though Jasper wasn't quite paying attention to whatever the task was. He simply nodded in reply, and then she left. He waited until he could no longer hear her shoes clacking down the corridor, until it was just him and the single overwhelming thought in his mind.
"Three." He said to himself, staring up at the blank ceiling of the hospital wing.
Jasper felt so many emotions swirling around inside him, and they were getting worse by the second. The only thing that was helping the intense amount of pressure he felt in his body, was that he didn't have to worry about the full moon for another month. That gave him plenty of time to figure out what he was feeling, and why.
Despite that, he still felt uneasy. The only people who knew about his lycanthropy were the professors, minus Umbridge of course. She'd have Dumbledore sacked in no time if she were to find out that Jasper was attending school, even though he was a werewolf. Everyone who'd ever heard of Umbridge knew she was an awful crow of a woman, who hated all "half-breeds". Jasper walked on eggshells around her, knowing that one slip-up could cost him his wizarding education, and who knows what other awful consequences.
Jasper rolled onto his side, facing away from the door with his eyes shut tightly. He desperately wanted to disappear into the walls of the castle, maybe become a portrait while he's at it. The thought of being a portrait in the castle didn't sound so bad, though he would only want to be one in a high up area, where no one could bother him. Thinking about becoming nothing more than a portrait on a wall in the castle made him slightly depressed, though. The only people who would even notice his disappearance would be the professors; the students certainly wouldn't notice. They wouldn't even spare it a thought if Jasper vanished and was never heard from or seen again.
As Jasper began to feel drowsy, an image of Harry's smiling face shone through his polluted thoughts, and no matter what he did, he couldn't understand the reason why.
