The stranger
It was a day before the party and Harry couldn’t remember the last time he got a full night's sleep. He hadn’t spoken to his brother since the first time he had seen the man in his dreams.
Since then he had been plagued with them.
Some dreams were of places he recognized, places from his own childhood. It would be comforting if the man wasn’t there, he stood in these dreams watching Harry. Assessing his movements.
Most of them were of places he didn’t recognize, like the rocky beach, or the orphanage. In these dreams the man would chase him off, curse him, kill him. After every death he’d wake up more terrified, hurting.
He’d looked through the library about dreams, dream curses, dream meanings, and he came back with nothing.
Wool’s orphanage was nowhere either. It was definitely not a magical orphanage, at least not one in Britain.
He closed his book, another dud, there was hardly any information on dream curses. He’d probably have to go to the restricted section for that.
As he walked out of the library he caught view of James and his gang strutting down the hallway.
James had been trying to talk with him for a while, Harry had been so tired and irritable every time James tried to engage with him he’d essentially run off.
He knew his brother and his brother's mind whenever Harry was acting off would always automatically go to either someone hurt Harry, or someone turned Harry against him in some way. He didn’t want to deal with having to defend himself to his brother. So he opted to ignore him.
However, he knew Remus had a pass to the restricted section and he couldn’t survive another night without good sleep. So he decided to approach.
He immediately regretted his decision as James upon seeing him, grabbed him harshly by the shoulders and shoved him against a wall.
“What is wrong with you Harry!? I’ve been trying to get your attention for ages. Why aren't you talking with me? Are you hurt? Did one of your classmates do something to you!?”
James squeezed his shoulders, he knew James meant well, that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt though.
Harry scowled and looked past James twords Remus who was standing behind him, “Remus you have a pass to the restricted section in the library yes?”
Remus nodded, a confused look on his face.
“Do you mind if I use it?”
James looked aghast, “don’t ignore me! I’m your older brother! And what’s this about the restricted section? Is someone corrupting you?”
Harry didn’t respond, he did attempt to wiggle out of James grasp. Sadly it wasn’t working.
“Are they trying to get you to find information for them? I’ll kick their asses Harry, don't let them manipulate you!”
Eventually Harry had enough, he couldn’t reach his wand and he didn’t want to curse James. So he went for the next best option, knee to balls. A move Harry had seen James use in Sirius many times.
James collapsed to the floor allowing Harry to slip out of his grasp and take the slip of paper Remus was holding out to him.
“What do you need in the restricted section?” Remus asked as Sirius clutched his shoulder to keep himself from falling to the floor due to excessive laughter.
“Nothing too crazy, just having trouble sleeping. Don’t worry about me,” he turned around to leave but before he did he glanced back over at his older brother. “I’m not sorry James, the next time you have a question for me ask it kindly or not at all.”
He held his head high as he walked back into the library. Maybe Regulus had rubbed off on him a little, younger Harry would never dream of speaking to his dear brother like that.
He spent lunch in the library's restricted section, he found no useful information. The only thing that made him slightly hopeful was something about dream linking. It mentioned powerful wizards skilled in legilimency could link their dreams.
But that made no sense to him, who would want to go into Harry’s dream? And from the little he read this required some sort of consent, or active participation on both ends.
Harry was sure he wasn’t doing any sort of ritual to enter someone else’s dream, and he had never even heard of legilimency before.
He walked to class deep in thought, not paying attention to the world around him.
“You look completely out of it man,” Harry looked up to see Barty already at their usual charms seat.
“Just tired.”
“I know you’ve been saying that for weeks, you can always ask for dreamless sleep. I’m sure the matron will give it to you.” Barty said, fiddling with his quill.
“I guess,” Harry did know that. He already tried dreamless sleep, it hadn’t done anything. “Where’s Reggie?” Harry glanced at the seat next to him which was absent of his best friend.
“Not sure,” Barty said licking his lips, he did that when he lied.
Harry raised an eyebrow but nodded all the same. If it was important they would tell him, he was sure of that.
Class commenced and Regulus was nowhere to be found. Harry hadn’t remembered him ever missing a class, not once in all their four years. It made him uneasy, but Barty didn’t look too nervous, at least no more than usual, which made him less worried.
Class ended swiftly, it was entirely uneventful. Harry and Barty both tended to read ahead in the book so they hardly needed the lectures.
They walked out of the classroom chatting about tomorrow’s party, Barty was hardly talking though. A very one sided conversation. The conversation fizzled out entirely when Barty stopped in his tracks.
Before them Regulus stood, a blush covering his face, he was staring at the floor. Harry had never seen the boy so anxious before.
He turned to Barty to ask what was happening to see that he had walked off, leaving only him and Regulus.
“You weren’t in class. You aren't following in your brother’s footsteps are you. As much as I like Sirius I don’t think I could handle you being like him.” Harry said jokingly to ease the odd tension in the air.
Regulus chuckled along with him, it was stunted though, not a full laugh.
For a moment neither of them said anything, they stood awkwardly in the empty hallway.
“So- em, you know the Yule party is tomorrow,” Regulus started.
Harry nodded in response.
“I was just wondering, I think we should go together,” he said quickly. “the two of us, I mean, together, to the party,” he added.
Harry hadn’t thought of that, “Reggie what a perfect idea!”
Regulus’s eyes lit up and the anxiety in his posture disappeared. “I’m glad, I thought you wouldn’t want to.”
“No, no, it’s perfect. I’ve been struggling with excuses rejecting people all week, if we go together as friends it’s the perfect explanation. Absolves me of any guilt, good idea. I hated having to worry about going alone.”
Harry patted the back of a shocked and a bit sullen looking Regulus before he bid goodbye.
He had research to do.
‘legilimency is the process of magically navigating another wixens mind. The mind is full of layers inner layers holding more secretive information and outer layers holding daily tasks.
A legilimency is one who practices legilimency. Some have an innate talent for the practice, such as Salazar Slytherin. One of the four founders of the Hogwarts school.
Legilimens will use eye contact to gain access to their victims' memories. In some special cases Legilimency has been shown to work when two people are not in the same room together, such as in dreams, however the research has not had clear conclusions.
Some objects and animals can hold the ability such as Wampus cats.’
Harry sighed skipping ahead a few pages, only skimming the words till he found something useful.
‘The antithesis and only clear counter for legilimency is Occlumency. Occlumency is the act of clearing one’s mind to avoid memories being found.
It has been practiced since medieval times and can prevent a Legilimens from accessing thoughts or feelings from a person.
Most methods of Occlumency rely on the practitioner clearing their mind to create a blank empty space. This involves suppressing not only thoughts but also emotions. This can take years to perfect and is based on the practices of monks meditation in the far east.
An offshoot of Occlumency involves providing fake or altered memories in the place of real ones. This can be used as counter measures to defend oneself against an attacking enemy.
The effectiveness of this method is based entirely on the wizards themselves and the capabilities of the Legilimens. A talented Legilimens can tear down most mind shields.’
“Mr. Potter you best be going. The library is closing,” the librarian said behind him startling him out of his reading induced trance.
He looked around to see the library completely empty except for him and the librarian.
“Right, sorry madame. I’ll be going.” He quickly put the book away then headed for his dorm. As he walked he was filled with thoughts of what he had read.
When everyone was hunkered down in their beds. He figured, based on the book, his best course of action would be meditate before bed. He had never meditated before but now was as good a time as any.
He sat on the plush bed and closed his eyes. Clear your mind, clear your mind, he began to chant in his mind. It took about ten minutes for Harry to realize that wasn’t going to work.
The more he thought about clearing his mind the more he thought about the things in his mind he needed to clear.
A different approach was needed and for this he considered something he had heard Euphemia and her friends talking about at their women’s luncheons he used to always be invited to.
It was the act of envisioning a serene environment, setting yourself up in those surroundings, focusing on just that. Then gradually simplifying that space until you are alone in nothing.
He started with the place he found most calming, the grassy field from his childhood. The one he would play in with James, the one he would collect bugs in.
He started with the full scene, his mother under the shade of a tree in the flowers. His brother flying on his broom on a clear day. A picnic blanket full of fresh foods. The bugs in the dirt, the bunnies in the grass, deer in the distance prancing through the wood.
It was all so calming.
Slowly he removed aspects, no more James yelling in the air, Euphemia gone from the shade of the tree. The little bugs in the grass flown away, the animals in the wood run off. He removed the flowers, then the trees, the grass, the dirt, the clouds, and sky. Till he was left alone, just himself. Then he felt finally okay enough to drift off into a deep sleep.
He opened his eyes to see the man, again, it hadn’t worked. They were in a place he recognized vaguely, not well though.
Knockturn alley, he had gotten lost here when he was young once. In front of a shop that read ‘Borgin and Burkes’, the streets were lit by flame and it was dark. The dream man stared at him with a smirk.
“You look frustrated,” he said. It was the first time in a while he had spoken to Harry so calm in a dream. He spoke like he was above Harry, like he knew something Harry didn’t.
“Hmm,” Harry said, not responding. If this was some kind of Legilimency attack, which now he wasn’t so sure of as the Occlumency mind clearing hadn’t worked, than this person probably wanted a response out of him.
He knew it from his own ordeals with his asshole classmates who wished to scare him out of their house. He also witnessed it with his own brother on him and his marauders' little pranks.
In the end all bullies really wanted was reactions from their victims.
Instead of giving this man a reaction he decided to walk around the alley and look for clues. Hopefully, he thought, something would give him some insight into this man’s motives.
“You won’t find what you’re looking for here,” the man sneered.
Harry ignored him.
He woke up as he had been for the last month, with a headache. It wasn’t as bad this time, maybe their was some benefits to the mind clearing.
“You have things to do you know,” Regulus said, he wasn’t looking at Harry, he was looking at the ground. He hadn’t looked Harry in the eye since he had asked Harry to go to the Yule party with him.
Harry chose to ignore that.
“I know but I have business… in the library,” Harry said. Upon seeing Regulus’s dejected face he added a poor “sorry.”
Harry turned away and went off to the library. He wasn’t often absent from class. But finding a way to sleep well in exchange for one unexcused absence seemed like an alright trade off.
Harry sat in the library alone and frustrated. He had been reading the same ten pages for the past three hours.
It just didn’t make sense.
The only option this intrusion into his dreams could be was Legilimensy, but that should have been fixed by him clearing his mind. Maybe this wizard invading his mind was just that powerful.
It didn’t make sense though, there was no reason this person would be invading his mind. Harry wasn’t controversial, he had been in the papers when he was five, sure, but he was taken out of the limelight by Euphemia and Fleamont. The Potters were a noble family, pure blooded, but they were by no means powerful or influential enough to be targeted. He didn’t even know this guy.
Beyond that the book he was reading on the topic made it clear that both people would have to have some sort of link to have such a strong connection over their dreams.
None of this made sense to him.
Suddenly the book he was reading was shut. He looked up to see a guilty looking James Potter, behind him Sirius Black there for moral support.
“Harry,” James started, “look I’m-“ he gave a pained expression. “I’m sorry.”
Harry looked unimpressed.
“Listen, I’m sorry other things are stressing me out, and you’re worrying me.” Harry rolled his eyes but James persisted. “Honestly you worry me. You skipped class today didn’t you.”
Harry didn’t respond.
“Reggie walked up to me, he told me you didn’t go to class, that you skived. You know him, it takes a lot for him to put aside his pride and talk to me.” Sirius butt in backing up James.
“See Harry,” James continued, “we are all seeing it. I see that look on your face, I know, I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions. I shouldn’t have immediately assumed someone turned you against me. It’s just hard for me to know that you don’t feel safe enough to come to me with your problems anymore.” James squeezed the last bit out like it physically pained him to say.
Harry breathed out through his nose, he wasn’t really that mad at James. He was happy to see James apologize though, not that it would really change his behavior. He was the kind of person who could apologize all day in such a genuine way, and then do it again tomorrow with seemingly no remorse.
Harry knew him, in James’s head he was never wrong, everything he did was 100% justifiable. Sirius was the same way, if not worse. Harry didn’t know who had influenced who in that regard.
“It’s alright, I’m just tired, that's all,” Harry said. James nodded at that.
Harry looked up to see that James and Sirius hadn’t left, of course they wanted to sit around and talk. Though, it wasn’t like he was getting anywhere with his research. “Well, how are you guys?”
“Thank you for asking Harebear, I’m sure it’s soon yet that Lily will fall in love with me. I think she and snivellus had a fight, a perfect opportunity to swoop in and be her knight in shining armor.”
“Sorry Harry he’s been a bit delusional about this whole thing, I could never think to understand the mind of a man in love,” Sirius shook his head.
“Hey! Today I even flirted with her and she neither yelled or slapped me! I’m making progress!” He puffed his chest proudly, acting like this was such a grand accomplishment. Which for him, it just might be.
Harry knew he should keep quiet, he knew that, but he just couldn’t hold it in. “You know how different she is from you.”
James furrowed his brows.
“She grew up with muggles, half her life she was a muggle. They aren't the same, it’s a whole other norm and culture. I don’t think it’s something you’re prepared to be involved in, Snape knows her from childhood you know. They lived in a muggle neighborhood together, Regulus told me. Just leave them be. They understand each other better, in a way you will never be able to.” Harry said, sitting back into his chair gauging their expressions.
Sirius gave him a suspicious look, “Harry you’re talking like Regulus. Don’t start on this stuff.”
James' expression was dark, “don’t talk like that. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Sensing he messed up he decided to relent, even if he hadn’t said anything wrong in his mind it was best to keep the peace. “Okay, fine.”
“Just, you don’t really believe that slytherin shit do you? They are all crazy, you know. They hate muggles, they want to kill them. You don’t believe that?” James looked him deep in his eye like he was trying to see his very soul.
Harry scoffed, “No I don’t, whatever it doesn't matter anyways.”
“But you know if you hear any of them talking, you should tell us.” James said, scowling.
Harry sighed, he should have anticipated this, they just can’t have good things can they. “Please James.”
“I’m serious,” James said, Sirius shockingly didn’t make a joke out of it, instead he stood behind James nodding along. “There was another terrorist attack last week, Diagon alley. People are saying it’s that new dark lord. Harry don’t shake your head, it could be! They recruit at schools you know, that’s what happened when Grindelwald started gaining power, those fucking slytherin blood purest little shits will be the firsts to fold.”
“Yea,” Sirius riffed off of James, “I know my parents, I'm sure they’re up to something. This is real Harry, you’ll be caught up in it if you aren't careful.”
Harry stood up slamming his hands down on the table leading to a loud shhh from the librarian, which he ignored. “Really guys?”
“Harry we aren't joking, something’s brewing, it’s bad news. I don’t want you involved!”
Harry scoffed, “you have to be joking. Do you think I’m stupid! I’m not gonna turn into some worker drone for a dark lord, I know you haven’t fully trusted me since I was sorted into slytherin but I really didn’t think you thought that lowly of me. Sirius if you are having an issue with Regulus or your parents talk with them not me. And lastly, I’m a fucking slytherin, so keep your nasty comments to yourselves, I don’t want to hear it no matter how well intentioned you might be.”
Harry stormed off leaving the two older boys agape in his wake.
He was upset, upset that they thought he would join a dark lord. Upset that they thought Regulus would as well. Upset they grouped him in with his housemates. Upset that they thought all of his housemates were like that, evil blood purests.
Mostly he was upset at the possibility that they could be right. He couldn’t lie to himself, he’d seen signes, subtle, but there all the same.