The Dream Trilogy Book One: To Dwell On Dreams (A Harry Potter FanFiction)

Chapter Two

He checked his watch. It was still before curfew, but only slightly, so he decided to risk it without going back up for his invisibility cloak and ventured out into the main body of the school. 

The portrait of the Fat Lady yawned. "Oh goodness me," she murmured. "What time is it?" 

"Just before seven," whispered Harry kindly. "Go back to sleep." 

The Fat Lady muttered something about pineapples and snuggled down against her frame as Harry clicked it carefully shut. With any luck he wouldn't run into anyone else, or if he did they would be as easy to encourage back to sleep. It was a Friday and he didn't fancy starting off the weekend in detention.  

He thought about seeing if Hermione was in the library, but figured he would probably see her at breakfast anyway, so turned the other way and headed towards the owlery, careful not to tread too loudly and keeping his wand unlit so as not to attract attention.  

He always got a fluttering sensation of apprehension when he thought about messaging his godfather Sirius Black, and every time he had done over the past year he had almost talked himself out of it. But having Sirius was like what he'd imagined having a family might be like, if that family was a wrongly accused murderer on the run from the ministry, living on the outskirts of Hogsmeade in a dank cave with a hippogriff. Harry pulled a face as he slipped down a hidden passageway, and figured there was probably no one else in the world that had a family like that, but all he had to compare it to was a lifetime with the Dursleys. Being related to flesh-eating slugs would probably be a step up from Harry's aunt, uncle and cousin though, so he was quite happy to have Sirius any way that he came.  

He knew dropping him a note put him in a small amount of danger, but everything Sirius did came with the risk of being caught Harry argued with himself. And the sick feeling in his stomach from the dream wasn't going away, so he figured just a quick chat would possibly help. Besides, Sirius was always delighted to hear from him.  

It didn't take long to ascend to the tower where all the students' owls were housed, and as it was so early most of them were still awake, hooting softly and ruffling their feathers. Harry couldn't help but creak the old door as he moved inside, but he hoped there was no one close enough to hear him. "Hedwig," he said gently to the parliament of perched birds, stepping carefully around the droppings over to where an old desk stood with a stack of parchment, quill and well of ink. Within a moment his faithful pet owl had hopped off her stand and taken to the air, flying past the other hundreds of birds to come rest on his shoulder.  

He only took a minute or two to pen his short message. "Dear Padfoot," he began, using Sirius' nickname in case the note got intercepted. "Had a funny dream, just wanted to check you were okay. H." Hedwig stuck out her foot obediently for Harry to tie the strip of parchment too, and she flew out the window within seconds.  

Harry felt better for even just writing the note, and headed out of the cold owlery to slowly wander down to the Great Hall. It wasn't long until breakfast would appear, and after being awake and shivering for almost an hour he was looking forward to some hot tea and toast. Sirius would probably rip it out of him for being a wuss and sending that silly note, but Harry didn't care. In fact the thought made him smile. 

The hall was a under half full when Harry arrived, but he wasn't that surprised to see Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table, a space between them saved for him. 

"Hey!" said Ron through a mouthful of eggs. "I was starting to think you'd been kidnapped by trolls!" He swallowed and grinned as Harry sat down. 

"And I can see you mounted a search mission immediately," he said dryly, making Ron laugh. Hermione rolled her eyes. 

"The Fat Lady said you'd already gone out." She reached under the table and pulled up a familiar bag to plonk in Harry's lap. "I made the boys go back and get your things."