Harry woke up to tangled sheets and cold sweat covering his body. Images of Voldemort still flashed before his eyes as he sat up and covered his face with his hands. The remaining feelings of hatred and mirth simultaneously coursing through his body - his heart pumping wildly in response. Someone had yet again messed up, Voldemort had yet again punished them. He rubbed his hands up and down his face, groaning, in an attempt to freshen up a bit before trying to go back to sleep.
Over the last few months following Voldemort’s rise to power after Cedric’s- Cedric’s death.. Harry’s mind had been consumed with recurring snippets of Voldemort’s life ; whether it be emotions, or a full-on view of what he was experiencing at the time. The Occlumency lessons he was taking with Snape were meant to help him stop these things from happening but that was the furthest thing they had accomplished so far. He loathed going to Snape’s office, hated that it was him trying to help him (when he was obviously just being forced into it by Dumbledore) and felt boiling, hot anger run through him whenever he would spit out insults towards Sirius or his father. All of this, of course, never helped him to concentrate or clear his mind as he was supposed to.
It was all very exhausting to say the least. When it wasn’t Voldemort it was Cedric he dreamt about and when it was neither of these it was flying exam papers chasing him feverishly. He let out an annoyed puff and was about to fall back onto his pillow when he heard a disembodied voice floating towards him. He flinched and turned his head to the right, his hands resting on the mattress, and found a pair of squinting brown eyes meeting his. Much like Ginny's.
“Harry?” Ron's voice sounded gravelly as he called his name. He rated his face on his hand. He cleared it before speaking again. "Are you awake?"
"Yeah" Harry said. Voice a bit brittle.
"Did you uh… dream with You-Know-Who again?" Ron said.
Harry gave a big, exasperated sigh. "Yeah"
"Oh" A pause. "Are you.. Okay?"
"Fine"
Another pause.
"You can tell me, you know? I won't judge. I mean I know I wouldn't exactly be hopping around if I was sharing thoughts with him" Ron said.
A forced laugh came from Harry.
"I'm your best mate, Harry. I might not be the one you'd typically come to for these things but you can always tell me and I'll try my best to help"
"I know, I just- It's just very annoying. Almost every night is the same and then if I'm lucky it's some more during the day- It's fine, though. It's nothing" Harry said.
"Is it really?"
The words seemed to float timelessly in the space between them.
Harry thought about this for a moment as he looked at the moonlit drapes of his four-poster. Gaze shifting away from Ron. Was it fine? Not really if he was being honest. It was all becoming too much as of late. And by as of late he meant the whole of his fifth year, which was shaping up to be his least favourite one at Hogwarts.
"No, I guess not" Harry admitted. "I just- I think I just want it all to stop and have a moment of peace, y'know? I guess sometimes it's.. I don't know, too much maybe" He huffed.
Ron gave a hum of understanding. "I know. It's been hard on all of us. It's okay to want it to stop, I would think it's only natural"
There was a pause in which Harry supposed Ron was thinking of what to say next. He knew his friend wasn't the most adept at comforting people so he appreciated he was trying so hard for him. He felt a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
When Ron spoke this time he did it with a most determined look on his face.
"Harry, listen. I know it's hard but you're one of the strongest and bravest people I know. A Gryffindor through and through. You'll push through this and whatever else might come for us and come out unscathed, I know you will. Everything will be OK" Ron said.
He looked intently at Harry now. "And- And if it ever gets to be too much again, too hard, you've got us remember? Me and Hermione. We're a team, we're in this together" He paused again for another moment, his face twisted in thought as he fixed his gaze on Harry.
"Harry and even if we can't be there for you, for whatever reason, you'll still be fine. You just take a deep breath and remember who you are and all you've done. Believe in yourself like everyone who's ever loved you does. Do it and you'll come through. I know. We all do"
Harry stared. He hadn't expected this, maybe some 'it's okay’s' and 'you're safe's' but not this. Come to think of it, the fact that he was underestimating Ron was pretty mean of him. It wasn’t that he doubted anything of what he said, he’d definitely proven himself by actions in the past - What he wasn’t expecting was for him to actually say it. Hermione was usually the one who had a way with words. He was definitely happy to hear this from Ron, though. It calmed the anxiety looming over him, made all the remaining emotions Voldemort had imprinted on him disappear. Even if he had already known all this deep down, never actually doubted it, it had made all the difference. Much like the balm he had seen Aunt Petunia use on Dudley's wounds and that he no longer needed for, even though he never got any in the first place.
A laugh rose up from his throat as he smiled wistfully.
"Thanks, Ron” A pause. “Thank you. I appreciate that" Harry said.
"Don't mention it" Ron smiled back.
"Harry?"
"Ron?" Harry said.
"Don't uh.. You don't have to pretend you're fine if you're not in front of us, OK? We love you and quite frankly we'd be pretty crappy friends to ignore you when you're going through hell" Ron said
Harry nodded in response, still smiling. "Thank you"
Ron nodded back. "We should go to sleep now, we've got double potions tomorrow and if Snape catches us dozing off we're done for"
Harry chuckled "Right" He said and rubbed his face. "Hey did I, uh- Did I wake you up before?"
"Oh yeah, but never mind. I was having this horrible nightmare where the ink on my table vanished during the O.W.Ls and whatever I did to stop it leaving just made it so much worse that the bloody glass container ended up disappearing along with it, too! Lucky i woke up or the whole table might have vanished, too” Ron said and groaned.
Harry laughed once more. “Let’s pray that doesn’t happen during the O.W.Ls, then”
“I think i’d die” Ron said
Both of them shuffled back properly into bed. Harry laying back down and drawing the covers up over him again, Ron simply going back into a sleeping position.
“Night, Ron” Harry said.
“Night” Ron said.
Harry didn’t have much trouble falling asleep again and when he did, he did it without sharing his mind with Voldemort. He instead dreamt about the upcoming Quidditch match and the large bouts of pumpkin juice he would drink at breakfast the next morning. Like a normal kid.