the lucky one // harry potter

treacherous

"EXPELLIARUMS!" Harry screamed as he shot up from his bed. Panting, he instinctively touched his forehead where his scar laid. He closed his eyes as he tried to process whether or not he felt pain sourcing from the mark or just a headache. His heavy breathing echoed in his ears as he removed his hand from his forehead, now slick with his own sweat.

He reached over to his nightstand to grab a Calming Draught; next to his bottle sat an empty Dreamless Sleep Potion. It used to allow him endless hours of peaceful slumber, now he's lucky if he gets six.

Harry wanted nothing more than to sneak down to his godmother's potion supply closet to get another potion to allow him to sleep through the night. However, he knew the dangers in overusing the Dreamless Sleep Potion-
psychosis, coma, death, permanent drowsiness, and addiction- and he also knew how observant Adeline would be if her potion's cabinet was missing any potions.

So instead Harry just gave up on sleep and begrudgingly got out of bed. The Healers at St. Mungo's said he should have be able to ween off the potion by now and sleep normal, but after four years Harry has still noticed no improvement in his nightmares. If anything they've been getting worse again as the Potion has less and less effect on him.

Even on an uncharacteristically exciting day like this one, Harry couldn't find relief. So now he was stuck being awake at 6 a.m, and having to wait anxiously twelve hours for his first date with Isabel.

He wrote in his journal for a bit about the dream he had before awakening. It was the same old-same old he has grown accustomed to: Voldemort coming back, Voldemort killing everyone, holding people he loved as they died, etc etc. He never re-reads the old dreams, just writes them down to try and let them go. But even that is hard to do when he knows there are still free Death Eaters roaming the Earth- all with a vendetta against him.

When he was done accounting his trauma once more, Harry headed downstairs to cook breakfast for Adeline, Remus, and Teddy. His anxiety for his upcoming date was channeled into his cooking of a full breakfast spread.

"Woah Harry, going all out for breakfast, today?" Remus asked as he entered the kitchen.

"Yeah." Harry mumbled while attempting pancake art for Teddy.

"Is it some holiday I don't know about?"

"Yeah it's the anniversary of me fucking your mom."

"Oh that's not..."

"He has his date with Isabel tonight." Adeline answered from the kitchen entrance. "Poor little fawn is scared of fucking it up."

"I am not scared I am excited." Harry replied unconvincingly.

"Mmkay." Adeline hummed as she grabbed a piece of bacon off the counter.

"I don't like you." Harry grumbled as he flipped the pancake to reveal a fucked up mess of colors vaguely resembling Elmo.

"Well I like you. But apparently pancakes don't." Adeline snarkily countered.

Harry turned to look at her with a defeated face, "I cook a nice breakfast for you all and this is how you treat me."

"Baby, you didn't cook this for us and we both know it." Adeline said sympathetically. She noticed the dark circles around his eyes and quickly grew concerned, "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine." Harry replied as quickly avoided her eyes.

"The Dreamless Sleep Potion should really be helping with the nightmares. I don't understand why it isn't for you anymore." Adeline said as potential solutions flashed across her face.

"No. I am not going to be your guinea pig for a new potion." Harry said reading her mind.

"I'm her guinea pig all the time." Remus piped up as he returned from waking Teddy.