InsaneJournal

Advent Ficlet: Dreams (PG)
Title: Dreams
Author: zephre
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 716
Characters/Pairing: Harry/Luna, OC
Disclaimer: not my characters, no profit intended, just fan fun
Prompt: #15: chestnuts roasting on an open fire
A/N: written for adventdrabbles.  Directly follows The Return.


It was just after midnight the night before Solstice when a brief jolt from her wards woke Luna; she lifted her head from the pillows and brushed her long curls out of her eyes. A tiny black-haired girl stood pale and wide-eyed just inside the open door. 

"I had a bad dream," the seven-year-old whispered, twisting her hands in her nightgown. All of the children had free access to Luna's room; the wards were in place as alerts rather than locks.

"Abby?" she murmured, blinking. It had been many weeks since this particular child had come running to Luna's bedside suffering night terrors. "Come up."

Abby closed the door carefully then ran across and scrambled up into the tangle of pillows and duvet that crowded the double bed. She burrowed underneath the bedclothes and under Luna's arm, squirming back and forth in a chaos of knees and elbows. Luna bore it stoically until Abby settled. 
"Tell me about your dream."

Abby clutched at Luna's sleep shirt and shook her head.

"Abby, you're all right," Luna whispered, stroking the girl's hair. "It was only a dream. Tell me what frightened you."

"Fire," Abby whimpered at last.

Luna sighed and cuddled the girl closer. She and Harry had so hoped that Abby had moved past the worst of her trauma, after the house fire that had killed her Muggle family. "What kind of fire?" she asked quietly.

"It was the fireplace," Abby said, her voice muffled against Luna's breast. "There were faces in it, laughing faces, and it threw flames at everyone. They all caught fire. You caught fire."

That was different. Luna kissed Abby's head and thought back to the events of the evening. She had been distracted by her fight with Harry, and busy unpacking later, but there were a few possibilities. "Did you stay up with Loreena and Connor tonight?"

Abby nodded.

"Ah." Luna did not want to make Abby relive anything more, but she thought she understood. The older children had tried roasting chestnuts on the fire without supervision, and left the lid on a pan of whole nuts. The old pan had eventually burst as the nuts exploded, shooting debris and bits of char across the room. Most of the witnesses had thought it hilarious. Abby must not have made much fuss, but obviously it had been a frightening reminder.

"The fire is not going to attack anybody," Luna said firmly, "and tomorrow, I'll teach you how to make Aqualure Charms. We can put one in everybody's stocking, how's that? They'll ward off salamanders and fire nixies."

Abby's grip on Luna's shirt eased somewhat. "Good," she said sleepily.

Luna waited and watched until she was sure Abby had actually fallen asleep. Then Luna twisted her hair up and secured it with her wand, eased the girl into her arms, and scooted off the bed. She felt around with her toes until she located a couple of slippers, mismatched but comfortable enough, and padded out into the hall with Abby curled over her shoulder.

Abby shared a room with two other girls, who appeared to be sleeping soundly when Luna opened the door. Abby's bed was closest, and it took only a moment to tuck the girl back under her quilt and her Melody the Mermaid doll into her arms.

It was, of course, the moment that Luna shut Abby's door with a barely audible click that Harry appeared on the landing. She should have predicted it; his habit of wandering the house at night was well-known to the older residents. He looked surprised to see her, until he realized whose room she must have left.

"Abby?" he asked quietly as his long stride ate up the distance between them.


She nodded.

He looked thoughtfully from the closed door to Luna and back. "Serious?"

"She was frightened by the accident earlier," Luna explained, then shivered. She should have stopped for her dressing gown, at least.

Normally, she would not expect Harry to notice something like that, but it seemed they were both hypersensitive tonight. He turned back to the stairs. "The kitchen's warm. I was going to put on some tea." He looked over his shoulder, the invitation open on his face.

They had to talk sometime, Luna supposed. "Sounds lovely," she said, and followed.