Only you - Theodore Nott

-3-

Gossip travels fast

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Everything was dark and cold. The darkness surrounded her like a palpable, inescapable force, and she felt an eerie, uneasy sensation. It was like a thick fog was covering all of her senses, and she couldn't shake the feeling of dread that filled her to the core of her being. Her only comfort was the deafening silence around her, like a grave. She felt herself falling and falling into the darkness, and it was as if she could not escape. The last thing she remembered before she woke up was a deep, deafening whisper calling out her name.

In the darkness of her dorm, she sat alone, searching for answers. The nightmare was persistent and constant, every night it came back to torment her. She couldn't shake it or escape it, nor did she know why it had started only once she arrived at Hogwarts. The realness of it haunted her, feeling like it was more than just a dream, like there was something more underneath the surface. She wondered why it felt so real, why it stayed with her, never leaving, just haunting her with questions that never seemed to have answers.

It was clear to her that there had to be some deeper meaning, some intent behind the dream that wouldn't leave her alone. She couldn't accept the idea of dreaming the same dream every night, like she was some plaything of someone's malicious scheme. What was the purpose, what was the intent? Who was tormenting her, and why?

Her wand was now her constant companion during the long nights, the light it gave, a source of comfort. It was a bittersweet routine that had become part of her life since the nightmares started; she woke up in the middle of the night with the nightmares still fresh in her head, and so she opted to quietly read in her bed until the morning came. The light of her wand was a companion during the torment, a source of comfort and a distraction from the darkness of her bedroom. She was trapped in a never-ending cycle of torment.

Once the first flickers of dawn lightened her room, she quietly got herself ready for the day ahead. She made her way around the dorm, being careful not to wake up her dorm mates, who were still sleeping the sleep of the innocent. Once she was presentable, she grabbed her stuff, still keeping to herself, and ventured out to the Great Hall for a quiet and peaceful breakfast in the early hours before it was filled with students for the day.

She had spent a fair bit of time thinking about the nightmares, and for a moment she considered writing to her father and telling him of her troubles. But she was still uncertain about the nature of the nightmares, and she didn't want to worry Sirius with her troubles. She chose to keep it to herself for now, in the hopes that the nightmares would simply go away on their own.

Suddenly, her thoughts were halted when she felt someone sit next to her. She looked at the intruder and saw it was Luna, her dorm mate, sitting with a bright smile on her face.

 "Good morning." Luna smiles welcomingly. "You woke up early again," the blonde observed. 

"Yes. I couldn't sleep any longer." She brushed off the subject, not wanting to draw attention to her dreams.

Astrid spent the rest of the morning talking to Luna. The blonde's friendly, bubbly presence was a welcome distraction for the girl, who had managed to put aside her problems for a while. The two talked about the ordinary things, the type of things that kept her mind preoccupied from the nightmares that haunted her dreams.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Later that day Astrid found herself in the library, seated at the table she always preferred to work at. She typically enjoyed keeping up with all the work she had to do for school. Fortunately, since the year hadn't yet properly begun, she didn't have as much work to get done as most, and so she took her work slower than usual. She had become so focused on her work that she didn't realize how quickly time had slipped away.