Moony Returns

Unknown

Harry was walking down a dark hallway in the flickering of the raised torches. The constant dripping of water onto the cold, ancient stone, echoed through the tunnels. The further he walked the colder it became; it felt as if the very life of his surroundings were being sucked out of the air. After what seemed like a daylong trek Harry reached a small stone archway, half covered in moss from the streams of water coming down around it. He touched the cold stone and stepped through the archway.
On the other side was a massive room, easily the size of the great hall, but that is where the similarities ended. The room was roughly hewn, there were no smooth arcs, no enchanted ceiling; instead whoever built this seemed to have just blasted the rock into submission. All around the massive cave were huge shelves filled with books, scrolls, and a multitude of other archaic items. It wasn’t exactly a library, nor was it a home; it appeared to be some sort of museum, or a private collection room.
Harry continued forward, walking straight, the room was in disarray so he was often forced to work his way around a broken table or a pile of books. As he worked his way around the room Harry was searching. He wasn’t sure what he was searching for, but he knew that was why he was here. He continued to wind his was through the shelves, looking down each one only briefly before continuing on. About halfway across the room he was looking down another hallway when something caught his eye. As he pushed past a stack of scrolls his heart began to beat more quickly. Blindly now he started to race towards the glimmering object. As Harry neared, nearly running now, he reached out his hand desperate to grab hold of the object that had drawn him here. He was close enough to see the small box with the glimmering interior when he stepped on a scroll and lost his grip on the damp floor.
He made a desperate last gasp effort to snatch the little box but missed and slammed into floor.

Harry’s head crashed into the wall of his bedroom as he slid across the wood floor. It was pitch black in his room as he tried to pull himself up from the floor. He crawled across the floor using the edge of the carpet to guide him to the lamp on the table. He sat on the floor with his back against the wall, still clasping his forehead. Outside his door he heard Tonks running down then a moment later she burst through the door in her nightgown holding her lit wand.
“ Cor Harry, what in Merlin’s name happened to you, your bleeding all over the place! Are you alright?” Tonks gasped when she saw him laying there in the corner.
Harry grimaced, “yeah Tonks, I’m fine. I just fell…when I was going to get some water. I guess I should have turned the lamp on before I got out of bed.” Harry lied quickly; he didn’t want her to know that he was having more of his crazy dreams.
“Looks like you sliced open the same spot again Harry, her get up on your bed and I’ll patch it up. Up we go!” She helped Harry up onto the bed, stepped back, and flicked her wand. The blood disappeared from his hands and forehead and the abrasion sealed itself up. “There we are, right as rain. Now if you don’t mind I’m going to go back to bed, I need my beauty sleep.” Tonks said yawning as she walked out of the room.
Harry sighed as he tossed and turned in his bed. He couldn’t even get a decent night’s sleep with all these dreams. It was the death chamber one night and then the next it was the same little glass box. As he turned over for the hundredth time he hoped that Ginny would write back soon with some sort of solution and maybe could tell him what to do to help get rid of these dreams. As he sat there in this bed he thought despairingly of the unsettling dreams he would soon become prey to once again. At least in real life you could run away from the bad thing, in dreams you had to sit and watch the event play out, trapped in your own mind.

Harry woke from a fitful night’s sleep to Pigwidgeon tapping on the window incessantly. Harry sat upright but had to lie back down as his temple throbbed from his little accident that evening, magic might have stopped the bleeding but the pain was still there. This time Harry got up more slowly, pulling on his robe as he stumbled to the window and threw it open nearly knocking Pig out of the sky. The diminutive little owl hopped cheerily onto the sill, gratefully laying down its large load. He dropped an envelope with what Harry knew to be Ginny’s handwriting, and a small brown parcel.

Dear Harry,
First off I did not know where you were, but trust me Dumbledore sure got an earful when mum figured out that your Aunt and Uncle’s place had been attacked. Dumbledore said something about security, and maintaining a discrete status; rubbish if you ask me.
Now onto the dreams. I know that mine must seem like daydreams compared to yours, but yes, I did get them after the whole thing with Tom. It’s funny, you were actually in my dream, not in a bad way, but I just always saw you fighting Tom, and when you got bitten I thought you were going to die. It was that exact same thing for a whole month, finally mum ask for Madam Pomfrey to give me some sleeping potion; that didn’t do much though, just made things blurrier. I know this may sound stupid but from what I can tell the only thing that’s helped me is writing about it. Something about just letting it out, all the fear and worries, has helped me get over it for the most part. I’ll still have them some times but they aren’t as bad.
I hope this helps Harry. I really do feel bad that you’re alone in that awful place. But don’t worry; Ron and I are bugging mum so much that she’s bound to let us come over soon. If you can try and convince Dumbledore it might help.

Love,
Ginny

(P.S. Don’t blame yourself for a single thing. You didn’t do anything wrong. Anyone in your shoes wouldn’t have been a quarter as brave as you were.)

(P.S.S. Assuming Pig didn’t drop it I sent you a little diary, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try if it means you get a good night’s sleep.)

Harry smiled. For some reason reading Ginny’s letters put him in a much better mood that Hermione or Ron’s; he knew they were trying but sometimes they just didn’t know how to deal with what Harry was going through. Something in the light-hearted, genuine way Ginny wrote to him made it a little easier for him to take the advice she was offering. Harry picked up the small package that was the diary and tore off the wrapping. Inside was a hilariously gaudy pink diary with the word’s “Princess’s First Diary” written across the front. As he flipped through the pages another small envelope dropped out to the floor, once again it was in Ginny’s handwriting.

Hope you enjoy the colour. I told Fred and George that I needed a small diary for you and they were more than willing to help. Trust me this is not a pranked book of any sort (I had to sort through dozens that were though). This is from their section for little girls, apparently princess’s are in right now, don’t ask me how George knows that.
Anyhow, I’m not forcing you to do anything, but this really was the one thing that helped me. Let me know if there’s anything else that I can do to help.

-Ginny

Once again he smiled, admiring the twins’ new product. Yawning he looked over at the clock on the wall that showed it was almost six in the morning. Well it can’t hurt any, besides I’m not going to get any sleep if I keep having the dreams. He thought to himself as he cracked open the diary to page one and started to write.

The next day Harry sat at the desk in his bedroom after taking a shower writing in the little diary. The morning before he hadn’t written much but more just wrote whatever was on his mind. Tonight however he was intent on writing out the story, or at least part of it. It took him nearly an hour, and there were several times when he felt like crying, but when he closed the cover of the pink book he’d written down the majority of his fight with Voldemort in his first year at Hogwarts. Emotionally exhausted, yet cautiously optimistic, Harry turned off the lamp, took off his glasses, and went to sleep.

It was a perfect summer day out on the hill. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining brightly. A gentle breeze worked its way through the small tuft of trees further down the hill. It was a truly sublime place.
Harry was in bliss as hit sat on the blanket taking in his surroundings. He watched as a pair of birds danced in the air, merrily singing to each other. The world seemed to be completely at peace, there was no one who could take this place away from him. He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. A faint smell of strawberries wafted around him. Curious he opened his eyes looking for the cause of that familiar scent. When he looked behind him he saw that someone was sitting next to him. The odd part was that while he could tell it was indeed a girl everything else about the person escaped him. It was as if he could just see the shadow of the person and nothing else; the more he concentrated the more difficult it became to see her. The world was bending a melting around the mystery person as his mind struggled to comprehend who it could possibly be. Frustrated but confident that eventually he would find out who it was behind that veil he turned back around to once again soak in his utopian surroundings.

The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, England

Ginny woke up to a white owl tugging on one of her braids. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned deeply.
“Hello Hedwig. What do you have for me?” she asked the owl stroking its head.
The owl dropped the tightly rolled parchment then hooted softly.
“I’ll write back I promise, I care about him as much as you do.” This seemed to satisfy her as she hopped up to the window and took off. Pulling the blankets up close to fight off the morning chill she sat up in the bed and began to read Harry’s letter.

Thank you Ginny!
I just wanted to write you again to tell you that your plan worked! Right after I got the diary I started to write in it and the next night was the first time I didn’t have one of the same dreams. I still can’t get rid of them completely but every once and a while I will get a nice dream of me having a picnic on some hill somewhere. Something smells like strawberries and there isn’t a cloud in the sky, it’d be perfect Quidditch weather. I’ve never seen a more perfect place; I think I would be happy staying there for the rest of my life.
I can’t wait till I can come back to the Burrow, and I hope I will be soon, but with Dumbledore and the bloody Order breathing down my neck I might not come back too soon. I tried talking to Dumbledore but he’s harder to get hold of than anyone I’ve ever seen. I’ll sometimes hear him downstairs late at night, but by the time I make it down he is gone. The rumour around headquarters is that Tom is building an army and that this is just a temporary peace. Tonks said that everyone is gearing up for a war bigger than last time.
I’m not sure why I’m telling you this but I figured I owed you some information after saving me from these nightmares.
-Harry

Once again Ginny had tears in her eye from reading one of Harry’s letters. He could be a complete moron sometimes, but every once and a while he says the right thing.
She looked outside her window at the perfect green hills in the background, the same green hills that were in her dreams, and from what she could tell, Harry’s too. She looked at the letter again and smiled allowing an old spark she thought she’s smothered long ago, flicker back to life.

Grimmauld Place, London, England

Having finally gotten a decent night’s sleep Harry felt like a new person. His senses seemed to be sharper, and when he looked in the mirror some of his lifelessness had gone. After writing a letter to Ginny, he decided to head down to the study to try and find out what that small box he kept seeing in his dreams was.
Tonks had left early for the ministry so he made himself some toast, poured some milk and headed into the library. All of the other Order members were out trying to gather information so Harry had the usually busy study all to himself.
He walked along the book cases trying to find a good place to start; supposedly Moody had gotten rid of the dark magic books but Harry was still cautious when he pulled out the first dusty tome. It was titled Ancient Antiquities and Artefacts and seemed to weigh a good fifteen pounds. He dropped it onto the nearby desk sending dust up everywhere, and cracked it open.
Soon there was a massive pile of books spilling all over the desk. Harry had spent almost five hours already looking for any mention of a glass box in either fact or fiction yet nothing, not a single word, had a relation to what he was seeing in his dreams. His stomach grumbled as he flipped another page of a small book with blood red pages titled The Moste Powerfulle Thinges. Looking at the clock Harry realized he’d completely missed lunch so he decided to make himself a quick sandwich and get back to reading.

He was halfway through cutting a loaf of bread when he heard the distinct noise of the large front door swing open. He was about to call out when he heard the raised voices of an argument.
“We cannot allow this to continue Alastor! The cad is practically handing the Ministry to him. If we don’t do something soon we’re going to lose control-“
“Albus said we couldn’t interfere, and while I sometimes disagree with him I think he’s right this time Remus. Voldemort knows that we are still around but he still does not know our size. If we were to become involved at the Ministry we would do away with the one thing we have in our favour.”
“I’m not suggesting we stage a bloody coup!” Lupin shouted, “…I just think that we need to find better ways to manage who fudge is associating with.”
“If word got out that we were swaying the course of the government we would certainly not be gaining any favour with the public. They’re sceptical enough thanks to Fudge and Umbridge.”
“We’re reaching a point where we’re not going to have an option on what to do, so I’d like to act now while we still have some semblance of control.” Their voices were coming towards the kitchen now, “Plus Moody, you’ve heard the rumors. Voldemort has not lost any time in rebuilding his strength, but the problem now is that he will be more cautious when carrying out his plan. We face a completely different person this time, and he will not stop until…” Lupin voice stopped and Harry heard Moody’s wooden leg draw closer to the kitchen door.
“It’s just Potter.” Moody commented as he presumably scanned the room with his magic eye.
“Harry!” Lupin exclaimed and bustled into the room obviously happy to see him, it had been nearly two weeks sense he’d last been at headquarters and even then just briefly.
“Hey Moony, how are you? Is everything okay?” Harry asked as he hugged him. The werewolf certainly was looking worse for the wear. He had the start of a beard and had scratches all over his face and arms, not to mention that his travelling cloak seemed to be torn to shreds.
“Oh yes, yes. Moody and I were just arguing politics, seems to be one of the few interesting things that everyone wants to talk about these days. How are you holding up in here?” He asked as he sat down at the table and poured himself a cup of tea.
“It’s fine I guess. I met a girl, Emma, turns out that she’s going to be starting her first year at Hogwarts so I’ve been telling her all about the wizarding world.” Harry tried to sound enthusiastic and hid his face as he went back to cutting his bread.
After a moment of thoughtful silence Lupin set down his teacup. “I knew your father for too long Harry, not to mention Lilly. Now what’s wrong?”
“I know how Sirius felt Moony. This place is not a normal place to live. I mean sure if you could go outside all the time it would be more bearable. But unless I’m being escorted to the park, which I know I am, even though Dumbledore refuses to admit it, I am here in this dungeon of a house. You really do start to feel like a prisoner.”
Lupin stood up and walked over to Harry. “Listen. I can’t tell you how hard it is for me to walk into this place. Even today I had to remind myself of what I’m fighting for just to walk through the door. What you’ve gone through, and what you’re going through right this moment take an amount of courage I’ve never seen, even in an adult.” Lupin placed a comforting hand on Harry’s shoulder. “If I had my choice I would have adopted you Harry; no really, it was part of the will. If something were to happen to Sirius too then I would become your guardian. Dumbledore is still convinced that the blood magiv is the best bet, but to tell you the truth my faith was shaken in it when you were attacked at your Aunt and Uncle’s house.”
“Mine too.” Harry agreed, smiling slightly at the thought of having lupin as a guardian. “Would you be able to adopt me? I mean… your lycanthropy…”
“…Is indeed a problem. Fudge and your dear Dolorous have lobbied strongly for abolishing all forms of legal rights for werewolves, and it is nearly impossible to legal become your guardian.”
Harry turned around to face him; a wild idea forming idea, an idea that if it worked would be some of the first good news he’d heard in a long time. “What if it was possible? What if you could adopt me, would you?”
Without pausing to think Lupin replied with a wholehearted, “of course. I would owe it to your parents and Sirius.”
“Why don’t we try then? I really would prefer to have a better guardian than the Muggles. You wouldn’t have to do anything, I’ll use the money my parents left me. If it’s not legal we can just bribe everyone.” Harry paused, his face radiating excitement, “… I just want to have a family Moony.”
Lupin paused; he too was smiling, “well if you want we can bring it up with the Headmaster although I doubt he will agree to it. I give you my promise that I will try my hardest however.”
“Thank you Moony, you don’t know how much that means to me.” Harry smiled as he took a bite out of his newly finished sandwich. “Now why exactly are you here? I haven’t seen you in ages and then all of a sudden you show up with Mad-Eye yelling about overthrowing the ministry. Where have you been all this time?”
“Ah, yes, well…” Lupin stopped apparently trying to the find the right words, “Albus sent me on a mission with Moody to try and recover something that we believed to be stolen. In fact, we thought it was stolen the same night that the battle at the Ministry of Magic happened. It required our discretion to try and be as quiet as possible so that we might not alert Voldemort to its presence if he hadn’t yet found it therefore we were forced to travel as muggles, hence our rather delayed return. What we discovered is rather upsetting for our side, but I’m afraid I cannot tell you much more until we talk with the Headmaster about our discovery. I know you hate being left in the dark but I will make sure you get the full story soon.”
“I know, I trust you. Now what is there I can do?” Harry cut off the werewolf’s next sentence, “I need to do something Moony. I’m about to go crazy. I go outside and play with Emma but that’s it, and even then I’m being tailed. I feel like a prisoner. Tonks just keeps telling me to study but I’ve already finished my potions paper and there’s no way I am doing my History of Magic paper, you’d have to use the imperius on me.”
Lupin laughed and was about to speak when the doorbell rang. Harry stood up, dusting off the crumbs from his shirt.
“It’s probably Emma, she usually stops by at around this time. Here come on, she’ll want to meet you.”
Harry swung the large door open to let Emma in and closed it a moment later after checking that no one was watching them outside. “Hey Emma, how are you? Really quick before we leave I’d like you to meet one of my friends that I told you about. He used to be a teacher at Hogwarts. Emma this is Remus Lupin, I just call him Moony though. I bet he’ll be fine with you calling him that too.”
Emma stepped forward towards the grey haired man and held out her hand, “nice to meet you Mr. Moony. My name is Emmaline Massey.”
Lupin shook her hand graciously, “very nice to meet you, Emma. I’ve heard Harry talk about you before so it is great to meet you in person. Where are you two off to today?”
“I think we’re just going to head over to the playground, right Harry?” She asked looking up to Harry excitedly.
“Yep, you bet. Hey Moony, will you be here when I come back?”
“Most likely. Moody and I need to get cleaned up and then we’ll meet with Albus. I’ll ask him about what we discussed okay?”
Harry nodded as he headed for the front door, “you should try and stay for dinner. Tonks is going to be here and I know she can’t wait to see you.” Harry said with a slight grin on his face and then walked outside with Emma leaving a slightly stunned Lupin in the hallway.