The Dream Trilogy Book Two: Tread On My Dreams (A Harry Potter FanFiction)

Chapter Three

Sighing, Sarah finally caved in to the jelly-babies, yanking the lid off the jar. She was aware of the way her appearance had changed since last November, but her and Greta had come to the conclusion it was her way of shedding the little girl who had found herself at the mercy of the Death Eaters. Her long black hair was all choppy now and she liked to streak it with different colours, normally purple or blue. Her ears now held several studs, there was a bar in her belly button and a small crystal on one side of her nose. Most of her clothes had gone to the charity shop in the village, and she and her best friend Natalie McDonald had spent long days poking around vintage shops for bargains to refuel her wardrobe with. Sarah liked the idea of giving the clothes she bought a second chance at life, even if it often meant being ripped apart and cobbled back together again.  

Sarah was aware her bad habits with food had meant she'd put on quite a bit of weight. Natalie told her sincerely that she'd been too damn skinny in the first place, so she wasn't to worry about it for a second, but it had taken some getting used to. She leant on the big wooden table and bit the head off a jelly-baby, which turned out to be yellow, her least favourite. She spat it into the bin then tried again, finding a much more pleasant pink one to dismember.  

Her weight was certainly not the only thing she'd had to get used to. The world was shifting dramatically everyday to the point she barely recognised it. With You-Know-Who's regime dismantled the world had to find its feet again quickly and fill the vacuum of power he had left behind. Gradually people began to accept they no longer had to live in constant fear, and curfews were lifted and Floo pathways opened up. But it was within her own family Sarah had noticed the biggest shift. She saw the way her father and mother acted. Her mum had been closer to the other Harry, and she and Sirius had known who he was before he'd returned home. Her dad had known nothing, and she could see the way he sided with her brother on the matter. There was a coldness growing between her parents that scared Sarah more than her time in Germany ever had. 

And Harry - well Harry was a stranger to her now. Greta said his distancing was part of his guilt at feeling responsible for what had happened to her, but she knew how angry he was at the other Harry, how bitter and twisted he saw it all and that was why he pulled back from everyone. He blamed them all for what had happened to Seamus, for what had happened to him and his body whilst the other Harry had been here.  

But that other Harry had faced death for Sarah, had crossed a continent and offered his own life for hers. She could not share her true brother's rage, and neither could their mum, and so he removed himself from them as much as he could. 

He didn't blame Parvati though, Sarah thought, biting into another jelly-baby and licking the chocolate from her fingers. He was always with Parvati bloody Patil. Sarah decided to put the lid back on the jar before she gave herself tummy ache, and poured herself some pumpkin juice to wash the sugar from her teeth. She had never been very fond of Parvati, but now she couldn't stand the silly girl. Her hysterics fuelled Harry's irrationality, and she always stank of cigarette smoke. Sarah had asked her mum a while ago if she was now Harry's girlfriend. She had scoffed something rude into her cup of tea and told her 'I certainly hope not.' 

A noise had Sarah's wand in her hand and the juice spilled on the table before her poor brain even had a chance to catch up. Her heart thumped as she tried to place it, remembering all the self defence moves Sirius had taught her. Now she was really listening, and not chewing or scuffing the wooden seats about, she could hear it again and again, almost rhythmically. It was an extremely faint tapping sound, like whatever was connecting was covered in cloth and muffled almost to the point of silence. Feeling the anger flare in her, Sarah stood and began edging her way towards it. The logical part of her brain knew the chances of there being intruders in the house was minimal. The part of her brain that was ordering adrenalin to fly around her system argued it had happened before and this time she would poke their eyes out if they dared mess with her.