Nightmares (HP) (Drarry)

one: awoken

Harry gasped as he shot up. His shaking hands fumbled for the glasses on his nightstand, and he slid them on his face with uneasiness. He looked around and sighed in relief. He on his bed in Grimmauld Place. Not in the graveyard with Cedric and Voldemort. He was fine. He was safe. He was with with his friends, the Order.

He was safe, he repeated again, willing himself to believe it.

He was going back to Hogwarts very soon, and Harry hoped the nightmares would let up then. He didn't have high expectations, though. Better to not risk disappointment.

He set his glasses back on his nightstand, the world going blurry again, and tried to go back to bed. He wanted as much rest as possible before everyone else arose. He needed to be able to function at the trial the coming morning. Sleep never came to him again that night. He lay in bed for hours on end, toeing on the edge of sleep but never falling.

Harry couldn't decide if it was a blessing or a curse.

∆¶∆

Harry was just happy to make it to Hogwarts in one peace, really. Or at all. He wasn't expelled- te thought of the trial's results brought a smile to his face, though Albus Dumbledore ignoring him entirely dimmed it. Seeing his four poster bed brought tears to his eyes.

He was so glad to be back at Hogwarts. He was home.

Everyone else had settled in for the night, getting some shut eye before classes started the next morning. Harry lay awake, though. He wanted to join them in slumber. But he was afraid. What if...what if the nightmares persisted even at Hogwarts?

Part of him didn't wanna risk it- he had nightmares every night at the Dursley's and at the Grimmauld Place, why should Hogwarts be any different? But he needed to sleep. He thought that maybe he was in a familiar place, his home, that the nightmares would not come there. He really hoped that was true.

But, just in case, Harry cast a Silencing Charm over his bed. (On some occasions, he awoke screaming. Though they were few and far apart, he really didn't want to risk it.) Just a precaution.

Taking off his glasses and setting them beside his wand, Harry relaxed as he muled over the latest events of the day. They had a new Defense Againist the Dark Arts teacher. Harry got wack ass vibes from her. She was not trustworthy in the slightest. Harry recognized her from his trial. She had pushed to expel Harry.

She was a short woman, with a weird little "hem, hem," she would do when she decided it was the right time to interject. She wore all pink, and it was honestly the most unsettling thing about her.

Dolores Umbridge. That was her name.

Harry pushed away thoughts of the putrid woman, welcoming sleep as a wave of tiredness washed over him.

He prayed to whatever god there was to let him sleep peacefully. As it turns out, there was no god, because Harry did not get his wish.