A bad dream
Author notes:
Okay so, here is chapter 7, I hope you like it!
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When the clock hits 11:55 Pandora pulls her quilt off of her and tiptoes out of her bed, towards the door, the moment she’s out, she silently closes the door behind her hoping she didn’t wake up any of her roommates.
She then makes her way to the boys dorm and quietly opens the door, walking over to Evan’s bed which she climbs into, when he wakes up he simply moves to the side, making more space for her whispering, “happy birthday Panda”
“Happy birthday Ev” she whispers back before falling asleep.
When she wakes up, everyone else are already awake, she knows because she can hear them talking in Barty and Regulus’ end of the dorm.
“What is your sister doing here? Is she okay?” Regulus asks.
“Awe, is our little cold hearted Reg worried about our little Panda?” Barty coo’s
She can almost sense Regulus glaring at him for that, “don’t call me that, how many times do I need to tell you that?”
“I still don’t understand why my sister can call you it but we, your own roommates and best friends can’t”
Pandora sits up, rubbing her eyes, still not fully awake but knows she needs to intervene before they fight about this… again.
Evan is the first to notice her, “Panda! Great, you’re awake! Can you please tell these two idiots that it’s just a birthday tradition and that you’re fine? They don’t believe me when I tell them”
“Wait… It’s your birthday?” Barty asks confused.
Pandora looks at her brother with a raised brow.
“I did tell you.. Didn’t I?” he tries to defend.
“No, you didn’t” Regulus just says.
“You really didn’t mate,” Barty agrees.
Evan just shrugs and looks between the three of them, “oops?”
Pandora sighs with a small smile, “well it is and he’s right. Every year at midnight I sneak into his bed so we can be together when we turn a year older.”
Pandora doesn’t know where or when it started, but she does know it’s her who started it, probably when she was very young. She just always felt like they came into this world together on this day, so they have to be together. Them, together, always and forever, and this tradition reminds her that no matter what she will always have her brother, her best friend from the womb, the person who has always and will always stick by her side no matter what happens.
Regulus blinks a few times and when she looks at Barty and Evan it seems like they don’t notice and she’s sure Regulus doesn’t want them to notice, so she’ll ask him about it later.
“That’s nauseatingly sweet,” Barty teases them with a wide grin.
Evan hits him with a pillow and Barty dramatically falls back on the bed, “ouch Ev, how could you betray me like that. Attacking an innocent boy.”
“Oh please. You? Innocent?” Regulus says, rolling his eyes which makes Pandora giggle.
She gets up from the bed and walks over to Regulus' bed who simply moves to the side. Both of the other boys stare at them, blinking a few times before Evan says, “why am I not surprised?” at the same time that Barty says, “I feel betrayed”
She looks at them with furrowed brows, “what are you talking about”
“Nothing” they both sigh at the same time, so she just drops it.
“Sooooo” Barty starts with a mischievous smirk on his face which makes Pandora smirk in return, she loves Barty’s mind and she loves the ideas he comes up with when he gets like this, “since it’s our favourite twins birthdays today we should skip and do something fun.
“I can’t just skip school, I need to keep up with my studies” Regulus adds in.
“You can do it this once” Barty says.
“No!”
“Come on Reg, just this once” Evan tries.
“I can’t… I really can’t”
“Hey Reg,” Pandora says calmly, “it’s okay if you don’t want to and we’ll respect that” she sends Evan and Barty a look to shut up when they open their mouths to protest, before she turns her attention back to Regulus, “we will, I promise, but it would be really nice if you did want to, but in the end it’s completely up to you”
Regulus closes his eyes and sighs deep before opening his eyes, “fine, I’ll come.”
“Hell yes!” Barty exclaims, pumping his fist into the air.
Evan smiles widely and hugs Regulus but he quickly pushes him off, and Pandora simply watches them all with a smile, she’s sure this will be the best birthday ever.
She finally looks at Barty when they’ve all calmed down, “so what were you thinking?”
Barty’s smirk returns to his face, “glad you asked”
“This was your great idea Crouch?” Dorcas asks, looking around before looking at him.
Dorcas was a bit difficult to convince to skip, but still easier than Regulus.
Without even looking at the others and just knowing they’ll follow him in (which Pandora does) Barty walks into the kitchen, claps his hands together and turns to his friends, “we’re baking a cake!”
Pandora starts jumping up and down, clapping her hands excitedly, “a brownie! A brownie! Please say we can make a brownie!”
“What’s a brownie?” Dorcas asks with a small smile gracing her lips as she watches Pandora’s excitement with fondness.
“It’s a muggle cake! I’ve heard it’s like salty and sweet at the same time! I’ve always wanted to try one!”
“Great!” Barty announces with a grin, “guess we’re baking a brownie or whatever it was Panda said.”
Pandora calms down slightly, turning to a house elf with a smile, “excuse me, could you help us find a recipe for a muggle cake called brownie?”
“Of course miss Rosier” the house elf answers politely, she does a little wave with her hand and a piece of paper shows up in the elf’s little hand, she then gives it to Pandora with a big smile on her face.
“Great! Thank you so much. Now, where can we bake this so we won’t be in the way. Is there anywhere no one is working”
“Oh no miss, that’s quite alright. We’ll just move so miss can be wherever miss wants.”
“I promise, we want the place where no one is working, please. We don’t want to disturb your hard work.”
The little elf seems to hesitate at that, “but miss do not want to work there, it’s too small and cramped. Do miss not want a proper work space?”
“No, no, we really want that place I promise.”
It takes a while where the elf seems to think about it before with a sad sigh telling them to follow her, which they do. It’s in a corner in the right side of the kitchen. It is a bit small, but still more than enough for the 5 kids, who just want a fun little day.
She smiles and thanks the elf who shortly after leaves them alone.
“Why Panda? Why?” Barty groans.
“Why what?” She asks, confused.
“Why would you not say yes to the best workplace in the kitchen? It’s your birthday for Salazar’s sake. You deserve the best place, not a cramped corner.”
Pandora huffs and crosses her arms, “because Barty, these wonderful elves work hard all day to make food for so many kids every single day, they need a lot of space and I don’t wanna be in the way.”
“I agree with Pandora, we’re guests in their kitchen and shouldn’t disturb their work.”
Barty rolls his eyes, “of course you bloody agree with her, when don’t you?!”
“No, it’s not just them Barty. I agree too. We’re just here for fun, they have to do this. We shouldn’t interrupt their work more than we already do.” Dorcas joins in.
“Alright guys, let’s just start. This cake doesn’t bake itself” Evan interrupts before it breaks into a fight, which Pandora is extremely grateful for. Everyone hums their agreements and as people start taking out ingredients Evan sends her a wink.
Pandora loves her brother, the way he knows what she needs. He may not care much about arguments, but she does, so he does what he can to stop them before they happen so it won’t overwhelm his sister.
She gives him a small smile as she helps bringing the ingredients out and they begin making the cake.
She looks around and everyone is deeply engrossed in what they’re doing, well this is boring, she should do something.
The idea hits her and she smirks as she cups her hand and scoops some flour out of the bag with it before throwing it at her brother, who gasps in mock shock which makes her giggle.
“Oh you did not!” He says with a massive grin, he covers his finger in butter and as Pandora tries to run away giggling, Barty grabs her and holds her in place as Evan comes over and smears the butter all over her face as she squirms in Barty’s arms.
“Well that’s not fair” Dorcas says, taking a handful of the butter and shows why she’s on the quidditch team as she throws it with dead point accuracy at Barty, who tries to wipe it off before running towards Dorcas with a pie in his hand, but she manages to turn his hand around so it smashes into his face instead.
He licks around his mouth, “mmm, that’s a good pie!”
“Ew, you’re disgusting,” Dorcas laughs and with that a food fight breaks out and Pandora has no clue what’s going on except that she’s having the best birthday ever as she dodges and throws.
Suddenly something hits Regulus who’s been watching from a corner and everyone stops dead in their tracks. Is regulus going to be mad? He’ll probably leave now, he hates getting dirty.
But he doesn’t leave, he simply picks up the bag of flour, walks over to Barty and pours it on him.
“Hey! It was Evan who hit you, not me!”
Regulus shrugs, “too bad, your face was annoying. Much better now that I can’t see it properly.”
“Oi” Barty exclaims and with that the food fight continues.
“So, how was your birthday?” Evan asks once they’re walking back, covered from head to toe in food.
“Really good. Definitely my best birthday ever,” she tells him excitedly. “What about you?”
“Yeah, it really was the best birthday ever.” He wraps his arm around her shoulder as they walk.
“Thank you,” she tells him honestly.
“For what?”
“For being my brother and my best friend.”
“Of course, Panda. I love you, you know?”
She nods, “I know. I love you too.”
She feels him squeeze her shoulder lightly and with that they continue walking in silence, behind their friends who are talking to each other. Pandora watches them chat excitedly and happily, she realises how lucky she is. Not everyone finds their chosen family, let alone at mere 12 years old. She’s so grateful to have them in her life and now she doesn’t know what she’d do without them, especially Regulus which is funny considering how only a few months ago, she absolutely hated the boy.
Months after her and her brother's birthday she’s walking towards the train station alone. She decided not to go with anyone because she wanted to clear her thoughts.
Pandora can’t believe it’s been a whole year since she started at hogwarts… Or almost a whole year that is. She’s really going to miss the place so much, it’s become her home over the last 10 months and even though she’s of course missed her parents dearly, she still can’t wait to come back in september.
Though there is one big reason she’s excited to go back home besides seeing her parents again, and that is meeting her new baby brother.
Felix is his name. She got a letter from her parents a few weeks ago that he had now been born and given the name Felix Rosier. She loves him already and hasn't even met him yet.
She finally stops and looks at the train, before looking back at where she came from with a sad look. She can’t see the castle from here, but she still knows it’s there and she’s really going to miss it. With a sigh she turns back to the train and enters.
It takes her a while to locate her brother and their friends, because they decided to go to the train separately, Pandora wanted to properly say goodbye to her roommates. She even tried saying goodbye to Hannah, without luck might she add. Hannah did accept the wizarding world a few days, maybe a week into the year, but she never did change her dislike for Pandora or any of their other roommates, despite sharing a dorm together for almost a year.
Pandora has seen the blonde around the school with other friends though, so luckily she’s not lonely, she’d feel terrible for the girl if she not only was ripped from the only world she knew but then didn’t even manage to make any friends there. She couldn’t imagine 7 years at Hogwarts completely and utterly alone, how horrible that must be.
She shrugs away the thought as she finally finds her friends. Regulus is sitting by the window reading, Evan is sitting beside him watching Barty and Dorcas fight about something, she has no clue what it could be about, but those two always argue about something so she doesn’t put much thought into it.
She sits down between Evan and Regulus.
“What are they fighting about now?” She whispers to Regulus.
The black haired boy simply shrugs, but it’s Evan who answers, “Barty joked about killing his father this summer and Dorcas got mad, saying it’s not something to joke about, that he could end up in azkaban.”
“Yeah and I don’t get why she’s so mad! I can do what I want and say what I want, plus I wasn’t joking,” Barty adds in, clearly they weren't whispering as well as Pandora thought and she felt her face heat up from embarrassment.
“See! That’s what I mean! He’s being a bloody idiot and refuses to admit it!” Dorcas exclaims.
“Why are you even defending him, Dorcas!”
“I’m not defending him! I’d love to see him dead!”
“Sure sounds like you are!”
“How is not wanting you in azkaban the same as defending your father?!”
“Awe do you care about me Meadows?”
“Piss off, Crouch! You can’t just piss me off and then joke around like everything is fine.”
“You’re sounding like Reg, right now.”
“Don’t call me that,” Regulus interrupts.
Dorcas huffs, “I’m going for a walk.”
“But, we’re on a train?” Evan says confused.
“Well there’s the halls aren't there?” Dorcas responds and before anyone can say anything she’s gone.
Pandora levels a glare at Barty, “you have to apologise.”
“What?!” Barty exclaims confused, his head whipping towards her, “why do I have to apologise? She’s the one who got involved with something that doesn’t concern her!”
“Of course it concerns her, you idiot. You’re her friend, she cares about you,” Pandora scolds, which is so unlike her that it manages to make Barty look away embarrassed. “So when she comes back you better apologize, understood?!”
He gets over his embarrassment quickly, “what makes you think you can-” but he never gets to finish because Evan interrupts.
“Don’t test her when she’s like this mate. Pandora may be a sweetheart, but if she begins scolding you, you’ve fucked up. Just do what she says.”
Barty looks between the three, who’s now all looking at him. Pandora is still glaring.
“Fuck it! Fine! I’ll apologise! Are you happy now?”
Pandora’s face softens and she smiles at him gratefully, “very. Thanks.
“Whatever. This is stupid.” He mumbles under his breath, but she doesn’t comment on it. She sees Evan open his mouth probably to retort back in her defence, but she finally resolved one fight, she doesn’t want another one, so she sends him a look, silently telling him it’s fine and to leave it. He doesn’t look like he wants to, but he seems to realise it’s what she wants so he simply nods and sits back.
Pandora who’s now super tired lays down, her head on Evan’s lap and her feet on Regulus’. None of them protest, they simply lets her do it and slowly she falls into a deep sleep, before Dorcas is even back.
When Pandora wakes up she’s inside a dark place, she doesn’t know where she is or how she got there. Last she remembered she was on the train with her friends back home to London after finishing her first year at Hogwarts.
It’s so dark she can’t see anything, but the place feels like dark magic, it feels wrong in so many ways. She feels her throat close, it feels like something choking her. What kind of dark magic is this?! She’s terrified as she heaves, her throat closing more and more, soon she won’t be able to breathe anymore. She’ll die here. Alone. Where are her friends even? Will they know what happened to her?
“-Dora! Pandora!” She suddenly hears and she tries to yell back that she’s here, but she can’t. She can’t say anything. The darkness is choking her. People are here to save her, but she can’t even let them know where she is. She just hopes they manage to find her in time.
“What’s wrong with her?!” She hears.
“Pandora! Wake up!” Another voice says and with that her eyes fly open. She didn’t even know they were closed, but when she finally looks around she’s not in the dark evil place anymore.
She’s back on the train, her friends standing around her, clear looks of worry on their faces. Her brother is holding her and she feels the patch on his shirt is resting on getting wet.
“Are you okay, Panda?” Evan asks her, stroking her back to calm her down.
It takes a long time for Pandora to answer, but they don’t rush her, she just sits there, protected by her brother, sniffling, until finally she says, “I don’t- I don’t know. It was dark, so dark and I couldn’t breathe. The darkness was choking me. I couldn’t breathe. I was all alone and I was going to die.” She looks at her brother trough her blurred eyes, “it was so dark.”
Evan nods with a small smile, “don’t worry Panda. It was just a bad dream. You’re safe. You’re okay. I promise.”
“No I- It felt so real. It was real. It had to be. I could feel it like I was actually there.”
“I know, but I promise that it was just a bad dream. You trust me, don’t you?”
Pandora nods without even thinking, of course she trusts him. She trusts her brother with her life and he wouldn’t lie to her. If he says it was just a dream and that she’s safe then that’s the truth.
It was just a bad dream, you’re fine, you’re safe, you’re here, she tells herself while taking deep calming breaths.
It takes her a few minutes, maybe hours, she has no clue, but she finally ends up calming herself down while her brother strokes her back soothingly.
She looks up at her friends, “sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you. Just had a nightmare.”
“Are you okay?” Dorcas asks carefully.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I promise.” She answers and she’s not lying, she is okay now. The dream still felt too real, but it was just a dream. “What’s the time?” She asks when she realises it’s gotten dark outside.
“We’re almost there,” Barty answers and she nods with a smile.
“I’ll go change then, I don’t want to be in my school uniform when we get there,” she tells them and walks out to find a bathroom before they’ve even answered.
It was just a bad dream, you’re fine, you’re safe, you’re here. She repeats in her minds when she enters one of the train bathrooms, clenching her eyes shut, leaning against the door, repeating the sentence in her mind over and over again.
When they got off the train station it was their house elf, Beanie, who was there to pick them up, the twins said goodbye to their friends before letting their Beanie apparate them home.
They spend all afternoon with their new brother and all evening unpacking, or they were supposed to be unpacking, but Pandora was just going around her room, going through the things she had missed during her 10 months away.
Later that night, after they were told to go to bed and Beanie had tucked them into bed, Pandora is laying there, staring at the roof. She’s spent hours tossing and turning, but she just can’t seem to fall asleep. Whether it’s because of the nightmare or because she’s gotten used to not sleeping alone, she has no idea.
After a long time she finally gives up, she gets out of bed and silently makes her way to her brother’s room. She doesn’t knock, just opens the door.
“Panda? What’s wrong?” He asks, voice raspy with sleep.
“I’m not used to sleeping alone anymore, can I stay with you?”
That seems to wake him up and he makes space for her beside him on the bed, she walks over and gets into the bed, pulling the covers around her.
He’s turned on his side so he’s turned towards him and her towards him.
“Everything is okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine. I’m sorry I woke you. It was just weird to have my own room for the first time in 10 months.
He nods, “okay good.” With that he closes his eyes and no more than a few minutes later she hears his breathing even out which indicates he’s asleep.
She closes her eyes too and to the sound of her brother's breathing, she too falls asleep. This time with no nightmares or bad dreams in any form.
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End notes:
1 chapter left and then it’s been a year for them in this fic, if I make a chapter of their summer break, I don’t know yet!
I was supposed to put this out yesterday because I did finish it, but I was way too tired so now I’m doing it from the train.
This was actually supposed to be chapter 7 and 8 separate, but I could not get enough word for chapter 7, so I made it one chapter.
Anyways about the fic, what do we think the dream was about? If it was a dream, who knows (I do)
The Rosier twins birthday traditions >>>
I love this friendgroup sm.
Also Barty “joking” about killing his dad, dw you’ll get to one day.
Regulus only giving in when Pandora asks is my roman empire, I love them sm!
I’d again like to point out that the dream will be very important for the story and so will what she tells herself after.
Pandora not being able to sleep alone anymore is adorable.
Yeah I think that’s it. I’d love to read your thoughts on this chapter. Love reading the comments.
Tiktok: BlondeRegulusBlack
And thank you sm to my beta reader Mira!