Here We Go Again (Sierra Lestrange Book 3)

Chapter 17: CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I did a contest, would anyone enter?

A camp Christmas Eve can be fun sometimes. Other times, not so much. I'll let you guess which one it was.

Nico and I woke up fairly early. It had been pretty rough night. Both of us had kept waking up in the middle of the night, having awful nightmares.

Nico wouldn’t tell me his, and I didn’t want to tell him mine. He’d go into full overprotective younger brother mode.

I dreamt that I was standing in the grass, next to the lake at Hogwarts. The sky was dark and the air was full of bright fluorescent lights. Bodies littered the ground, though none of them were easy to make out specific features. I couldn’t hear anything, but faces were contorted in tears and screams.

Then the weirdest thing happened. I appeared. I saw myself shooting the fluorescent lights from my wand, other bodies hitting the ground when the light hit them.

My wand was drawn and blood was dripping down my face and my arms. My expression was fierce and one other thing I was terrified to see on it. Heartlessness. I didn’t care who I was hurting. The expression on my face was pure hatred.

She bent down next to the only definable body on the ground. My mother. Bellatrix Lestrange. My mother was dead. The other me bent down and took out a dark black knife. I had never seen it before.

I looked like I was going to stab her already dead body. Anger was evident on my face.

Another indefinable alive figure came and put a hand on my shoulder. She whispered something to the other me. I sheathed the knife and stood up to fight again.

The dream changed. I was now standing in a long white room. Bodies were carefully layed out along the hall.

But this time, the faces were definable. My heart nearly stopped. It was everyone from camp I cared about. Nico, Percy, Annabeth, Luke, Danni, Bryan, the Stolls. But the line went on. Hermione, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George, Peter, Neville, and Luna. All of them, lying dead on the ground.

Then I saw one more thing. Me. The other me. The bleeding had stopped, but it was obviously only supposed to be a little while after the battle at Hogwarts. I was alone. I knelt down next to Ginny, a tear slipping down my cheek.

Then a cold, reptilian voice sounded in my ear. Had enough yet, little girl? Seen enough of what is to come? All of your friends will lie dea. It’s useless to resist any longer. If you join us, your friends will be spared. If not, then you're place will be returned. The daughter of Hades will truly be alone.

That's when I woke up. I refrained from screaming, but only barely. Nico was awake and was sitting at the edge of my bed looking worried. "Are you okay?" he asked, looking worried. I felt a lump in my throat.

I grabbed him into a hug. He seemed surprised for a minute, then hugged me back. I needed it, after a dream like that. "Are you alright?" he asked after we released. I nodded, though I wasn't.

"You seemed so freaked out. What happened?" he asked. I shook my head. "It was nothing," I muttered. "Sure didn't seem like nothing." I shook my head.

"I'd rather not talk about it." He frowned. "Are you sure?" I nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure. It was just a dream," I said, though I knew it wasn't.

We both got up and got dressed in our usual clothes. Me in dark jeans, a camp t-shirt over a black long sleeved shirt and black boots and Nico in his aviator jacket, camp tee, black jeans and black sneakers.

We left the cabin for breakfast. Not exactly the Christmas Eve morning you'd normally want but hey, nobody's perfect.

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