The Nightmare

[Death of Korzan]

"Let's all take a deep breath." Percy said, his pre-pubescent voice indeed coming across as the most calm in the room. "Someone take Jacob and sit him down, get him a cup of Hot Chocolate or some of that Muggle Pepsi, it's good stuff." The boy smiled, turning back to the girls as the First Year he was speaking to originally began to move towards the nigh-on hysterical boy. "Now, what happened in the nightmare, in detail? My mother's a seer, so if we tell the teachers I could also send an owl?"

[Minkasha]

Nothing reached Jacob. He stood firmly in place, chest bouncing up and down like a yo-yo being strung back and forth. His heartbeat culled his hearing, his breathing was getting heavier. The look in his eyes was dilated and he had stopped talking entirely. Saundra approached slowly with her hands nearing him and braving to touching. Inches from touching him, the blonde Hufflepuff buckled and collapsed, passing out.

“I think he’s hyperventilating!” Saundra said with worry, kneeling down to her friend. “I’ll run to grab an adult” Saundra told Percy and the girls, running off urgently. Her voluminous red hair waved behind her.

[P.K.]

Dawn shook her head. "I don't know." She responded to Ingwe looking to Jacob as he collapsed to the floor. This was a horrible mess all around. What was going on? Dawn felt even more confused and concerned now if she was really dreaming that about someone else grandma... And their dreams did in fact mean something... had it already happened? or was it going to?

Dawn keeled down next to the boy as Saundra said she would look for an adult. "Right." She felt at the boys face before looking to Percy. She didn't want to repeat the story, but she did, relating what she had told Ingwe to Percy with a trembling and troubled tone.

[Death of Korzan]

Percy listened to the recalling of the girl's nightmare with deep intent, his calm, young brow furrowing with concern after the mentioning of the Cruciatus curse's use and location of the nightmare - usually his own bad dreams had been in imaginary places or places that did not seem right, but the detail Dawn had been able to place upon the location was troubling to say the least. The Three Forbidden Curses were banned in almost all Wizarding nations - and for good reason - and if anything, as the son of an Auror, the idea of someone using them painted worry over all of his features.

"Yeah...we should definitely go and tell a teacher or something." Percy spoke softly, placing his hand on Dawn's shoulder to comfort her as much as he could - not knowing her beyond this encounter and a small greeting at the Hufflepuff table after the Sorting Hat had spoken. "Hopefully it's just a bad dream, but...you went into a lot of detail there." The American boy spoke, finishing his sentence softly and out of earshot of Jacob, lest the hysterical boy still hear him despite his state.

[ｒａｂｂｉｔ]

mood:

Astyrd had been up for a while now. The nightmare had woken her.

Well, perhaps, more specifically, the pain of the nightmare had woken her. Not only had Astryd seen the poor shopkeeper tortured under the curse, the searing pain of the Cruciatus Curse leaked into the legilimens through the dream and left the girl nearly immobile in bed. When it had passed, or perhaps when Astryd had gotten as much of the occlumens charms back into place around her mind as she could manage, the redhead had sat upright and pulled a leatherbound notebook into her lap.

She pulled the quill from it's spine and flipped open the book, writing down every last detail of the dream she could recall; dreams were such fleeting things and often times they warped after waking, so for accuracy it was of dire importance that it's written down. Astryd kept a notebook at her bedside for just this purpose. Many of the dreams were her fellow student's; mundane things, their anxieties and wishes, things that slipped through her charms whilst they slept.

This nightmare was something else.

Groggy with sleep she'd desperately need to get through the rest of the day, Astryd pulled herself from the bedsheets and slid her feet mostly into her slippers. She'd find her head-of-house and he'd help her sort it out; it wouldn't be the first time, though this would prove to be far more dower of a situation. Her nightclothes were disheveled but she wasn't awake enough to pull on a robe. In her clutches she carried the notebook and she shuffled out of the sleeping dorms into the common room. Where would she find Professor Grimm in the wee hours of the morning was unclear, but she'd set to it anyway.

It was still dark out. She could tell because the windows of the common room weren't overflowing with their usual sunbeams. As her slippers quietly moved over the well-worn and honey-colored floors of the commonroom, she slowly looked around and what she saw brought the sixth year to a halt. There were a lot of students awake. She glanced out the windows again to gauge the time. Maybe half past six? Classes didn't start til nine in the morning at Hogwarts, and breakfast and morning mail were usually closer to seven thirty or eight. Astryd slowly licked her lips and let her eyes dart over the students gathered.

"Uh..." She mentally pulled the strings at a few of her charms and felt around the room. They knew about the nightmare, too. Her eyes flashed over the face of Dawn, the beautiful scarring and Astryd's brow knit together.

The older student announced, "I'll be right back with Professor Grimm."

And in her slippers and all, Astryd turned and left the Hufflepuff common room and went to find Professor Grimm. The hallways of Hogwarts were barely waking up themselves, some of the portraits still snoozing in their frames. She knocked firmly on the door to Caelin Grimm's office and his quarters within, all connected to the charms classroom. Her notebook was tucked under her left arm and she bounced nervously on the balls of her feet.

[G]

by rabbit & G

The door to Grimm's office opened almost instantly, the tall Professor greeting Astryd with a smile that held a hint of strain. Saundra sat inside, looking worried herself.

"Miss Elkridge, come in," he said, stepping back to allow her through the doorway. The cozy, cluttered room was in its' usual state of disarray, the teapot in it's usual place atop the coffee table.

"Sit down, sit down. Would you like a cup of tea?" he said, pouring her one without waiting for her response and handing it to the clearly shaken girl. "Now, what's going on? Can I presume this is about the nightmare?" As Astryd's Head of House, Grimm was aware of her legilimensy, and given the early hour and the notebook tucked under her arm, it seemed reasonable to deduce that she was here for the same reason the second year had come.

Astryd nodded in answer to her his questions, taking the tea by the saucer and sitting down even as she lifted the cup to her lips to sip. After swallowing, she held the cup and saucer in her lap a moment and then hurriedly set it down on the coffee table. The witch pulled the notebook out from under her arm and flipped it open to the pages upon which she'd written down the details of the nightmare.

"Whether she got it and I picked it up or it channeled through me to her, I'm not sure. It's all there, and the pain..." She passed him the open book. Astryd had a fair complexion to begin with but upon recalling the pain of the curse, she became absolutely pallid. She raised a gently trembling hand to push her bangs away from her face and then reclaimed the teacup and took another drink. What was it about a good cuppa that soothed the nerves? Her eyes darted over to the second year and gave her a sympathetic little smile.

"She wake you?"

"Oh no, it's fine. That's what I'm here for, after all - to support my house." He took the notebook, returning Astryd's smile, but his brow quickly furrowed as he read her account of the nightmare.

"Hmm, well; it was definitely the same dream for both of you. That's certainly concerning. But lets' not jump to any wild conclusions before we have any facts; we'll contact Mister Skelters' family immediately - if this nightmare is prophetic, we can give them some warning, at least."

Turning to rummage through the piles of parchment on his desk, he withdrew a clean piece, taking up quill and ink and scrawling a polite, concise note in loopy cursive. Rolling the parchment tightly, he plucked a piece of string from underneath the mess and deftly tied it.

"I believe you have an Owl, Saundra," he said kindly, and the girl nodded. "Very good - take this up to the owlery and send it off, straightaway. I'll go and make sure Jacob is alright."

The second year agreed, looking relieved to have something useful to contribute to the situation, and hurried off.

"Now, Astryd - will you accompany me back to the dormitory? Oh, and here," he said, taking something else from his desk, and breaking off a piece to offer to the older girl. It was a dark, rich chocolate.

The redhead blinked down at the offering then stood to accept it after replacing the cup and saucer on the coffee table. She was surprised by the offer and stammered, "Oh- aha... Ah, thank you, professor."

Half of her wanted to treasure the offering forever and the other half of her said: chocolate. The part that insisted on eating it won, and also appeared to be the part that was coming out of her sleepy stupor in the whirlwind of the morning. She promptly reminded herself she was standing in her favorite professor's office in her nightclothes and she hadn't even taken down her hair from it's bun, let alone combed it out or washed her face. Astryd ate the chocolate, savoring the dark bitterness and trying to push the panic away.

With that, she took the lead, reclaiming her notebook before leaving with Professor Grimm to head back to the Hufflepuff dormitory. Caelin Grimm followed, gently steering the conversation to less troubling subjects as they walked. When he had arrived at the dormitory, promptly pushing tea and the warming, calming honeyduke chocolate onto everyone and hearing their accounts, he reassured the young Skelter boy and did his best to keep him calm until Saundra returned from the owlery.

"You see, all taken care of," he told Jacob, and, encouraging the second years' to return to their game, he had made to leave. Before he returned to his classroom, he pulled Astryd aside to speak to her out of earshot from the younger students.

"Will you keep an eye on Dawn, and let me know if either of you have any more of these nightmares?" he had requested; the first confirmation that despite his calm manner, he was concerned. Then he had strode off, needing to prepare for the day ahead.