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Seasons of War	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9694 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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Chapter List
- 13
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- 15
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Chapter Fourteen�Memories and Nightmares
�Memoria arboris.�
The incantation caused a spiral of yellow light to take form around the table he was touching his wand to. Harry sighed. He hoped it was the right spell this time. One reason the spells to read objects� memories were hard was that the second word of the incantation had to change to reflect what kind of object one was talking about. He thought he had used the right word to read something made of wood, but he wasn�t sure.
The yellow light turned the color of an old bruise as it sank into the table. Then it came back up and lay on the surface of the wood like a shimmering liquid. Harry frowned and tapped it with his wand, wondering if he needed to push it into the table.
The liquid became light again and rose up in front of him like a snake that was considering a bite. Harry found himself instinctively forming his lips for Parseltongue and had to shake off the impulse. He waited, and the yellow light waited and swayed, and then ducked into his wand and ran up his arm.
Harry closed his eyes. Images were coming to life in his head�cloudy images, but he would take that over the absolute lack of response any of the other times that he had performed the spell. They had to do something with these spells soon, or Draco would start hinting that he should make his mind similar to Nihil�s again. He already looked as though he was thinking of it at times.
The image that came to life didn�t make sense at first, because it looked like a brown wall. Harry frowned. Was Draco thinking of Malfoy Manor in some really strange light when he sat here?
The perspective seemed to pull back from the object a bit, and Harry finally made out a slab of beef lying on a plate. Or, at least, the plate was clear. The food on it could have been almost anything, from beef to half a sandwich. But it was more than Harry had ever seen before, and it made sense that Draco would be hungry; he�d left this memory right before breakfast.
Harry opened his eyes and gave a small smile. He was making progress in the less complicated type of object-reading, then: what people had been thinking about when they touched the objects. He still hadn�t attempted the more complicated kind, where the objects would tell you everything that had happened in their immediate area at a certain time, like memories in a Pensieve. But he was getting there.
�Harry? Can I talk to you?�
Harry whirled around, and then relaxed. He and Draco had modified the wards the other day so that they would sound an alarm if someone tried to enter besides a member of the comitatus. If this was Holder, Robards, or any of the other Auror instructors, Harry would have been warned long before they get close enough to duck in.
And they wouldn�t have called you �Harry,� he thought, as his brain caught up with his ears. He dragged a chair over for Hermione and looked at her expectantly as she sat down in it. �Sure, Hermione. What�s the matter?� he added.
Hermione certainly looked as if something was the matter. Her hair straggled around her face, and she had obviously stood up and come straight here without bothering to do more than maybe splash water on her cheeks. Maybe not even that, Harry thought, watching her as she leaned back and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
�I�ve been having dreams,� Hermione said, clasping her hands tight. �Dreams that leave me feeing horrible and like I�m drifting in the dark. It�s so hard to wake up from them, and afterwards, nothing feels quite real.� She stared at him, and Harry was shocked to see that she was trembling. It seemed the dreams had scared her more than she was letting on. �I�m afraid they have some connection to Nihil, and I thought I�d come to you and tell you, since you�re the most experienced with visions of him.�
Harry knelt down in front of her and peered into her eyes. He was half-waiting for a reaction, as had sometimes happened when he looked into mirrors and received a flicker of a vision in response, but there was nothing more than Hermione staring at him, tired and heartsick and hopeful.
�I don�t know if the dreams are connected to Nihil just from your description of them,� Harry said slowly. �What do you dream about?�
�Darkness, most of the time,� Hermione said, and shuddered, her arms wrapping around herself. Harry hugged her and found that she was still shaking, her skin colder than it should be and covered with sweat. �I feel like a corpse that someone is picking apart limb by limb. I dreamed that I was in light last night, but all that changed was that I could see it happening. They took me apart from the feet up until there was nothing left.� Her voice became a wavering thread and then stopped.
�I�m sorry,� Harry said gently. �That does sound horrible, and it sounds like it�s probably Nihil. If he can�t get through to me anymore, or he�s afraid to try, then he might turn around and start inflicting dreams like that on some other member of the comitatus.�
Hermione nodded. Her eyes were shut tight, as if keeping them that way would also keep her from having to have the dreams again. �But what can I do about it?�
Harry hesitated for a moment. Then he decided that tactics which hadn�t worked for him might well work for Hermione, since she had more patience and discipline. And even if the visions he used to have from Voldemort were visions and not dreams, they still came at night and were indistinguishable from dreams for a long time.
�Do you remember when I was trying to learn Occlumency?� he asked. �I don�t think I can teach you it,� he added, when Hermione�s eyes popped open. �But I know one of the basic techniques. Clear your mind every night before you go to sleep. Try to think of nothing. Snape thought that was the key to me being free of Voldemort, and our connection probably ran deeper than any connection that Nihil�s managed to establish to you so far. Try that for a while, and then we�ll see what we can do, if Draco has a book on Occlumency.�
Hermione hugged him hard enough to make him rock on his feet. Harry patted her back and darted a look at the flap of the tent, hoping that no one would walk in and see them like this. Then Harry would have either a jealous Draco to deal with or rumors that might do as much damage.
�Thank you,� Hermione whispered. �Oh, thank you. I knew you would have the answer.� She pulled back and smiled at him. �I think this one of the reasons that Herricks and I have so much trouble accepting Malfoy as leader. He wouldn�t have come up with a solution like this.�
�Oh, I think he would,� Harry said. �He knows Occlumency. But he wouldn�t have been as nice about it.�
�And that�s what I need,� Hermione said, nodding. �Someone to be nice about it, not just someone who can tell me what�s wrong and how to fix it.�
Harry could do nothing but offer her a weak smile. They both knew that Draco wasn�t about to start being nice, especially to someone he still thought was trying to take Harry�s attention away from him.
Hermione left with a smile on her face, and Harry went back to trying to read the table�s memory. He would have practiced with some of the other incantations, but Draco had the list, and, shamefully, Harry couldn�t remember most of them.
Then he turned around and looked at the chair Hermione had been sitting on. It was made of wood, too, and it would have a strong image since Hermione had been there just now, not hours before.
Harry barely hesitated before he crossed over, tapped his wand against the chair, and murmured, �Memoria arboris.�
Once again he had to wait while the yellow light sank into the chair, returned as liquid, and then rose up in front of him. He thought it went a little faster this time, and it definitely went faster when the liquid lashed forwards and sank into him, flooding his mind with clear, sharp images.
The images were as horrible as Hermione had said they were. She floated in darkness, tears running down her face, while her bones separated from her body one by one under the influence of invisible pincers. Draco would have had to feel sorry for her if he�d seen this, Harry thought, gagging.
But he watched the dream all the way through until he got to the point when Hermione couldn�t cry anymore because her eyes were gone, and then he looked up, gasping, and dropped his wand on the chair.
�What�s the matter?�
Draco was there. Harry hadn�t heard him come in. He was staring at Harry as if he thought he�d have to defend him, his hand on his own wand, his eyes darting into the corners of the tent when Harry sat there, stunned and speechless.
�It was�a memory that the chair gave me,� Harry said, and swallowed. He wondered if he would be betraying Hermione�s confidence by talking about her dream to Draco, but since she was a member of the comitatus and they would have to ask to borrow the Occlumency books Draco might have, he didn�t think so. �Hermione came and sat here while she told me about nightmares that she thinks comes from Nihil. Then I saw the nightmare when I cast the spell that lets me read the memory of wood.� He shuddered.
Draco crossed over to him, a frown running over his face. �And you think it really comes from Nihil? Why?�
Harry told him the details and the feeling of cold that the dream had conveyed when he saw it, which wasn�t something that Hermione could really get across to him. �Plus, she�s had it more than once,� he ended. �I don�t think that she would have a reason to obsessively repeat the same dream over and over on her own.�
�It could happen,� Draco said, eyes half-closed and fingers stroking the back of the chair as if he could absorb the same memory himself. �But most of the time, cases like that mean someone outside your head has cast a curse on you.�
�Do you think he targeted her because she�s part of the comitatus?� Harry asked quietly. He was beginning to wonder if it wouldn�t have been a better thing for him to contact Nihil instead of Hermione having to suffer those dreams.
But he probably would have sent them anyway, Harry told himself after a moment�s consideration. After all, the whole point of reaching out to him would be to keep him from knowing I was doing it, and these dreams seem to be a separate plan.
�That would be the most likely scenario,� Draco said. �Which means he might target the rest of us. I reckon we should speak to Herricks and Ventus and Weasley as soon as possible.� He was frowning so hard that Harry thought he would leave permanent lines in his face. �I hadn�t considered he might strike back at us this way. I don�t know why.�
�I do,� Harry said. �Why should he? He�s favored physical strikes so far, and he has more enemies than the six of us. It would make more sense to attack the Auror camps and possibly manage to kill lots of people, rather than try to drive one person crazy.�
�I wonder if his tactics have changed,� Draco said, his head falling back as he leaned against the table. He looked half deep in thought and half-asleep. Harry hid a smile just in case Draco opened his eyes and thought Harry was laughing at him. �Or what he wants. What does he want, anyway?�
�That�s the question that we�re going to answer when we all master the spells that can read the memories of objects and go investigate the London Death Eater cache,� Harry said firmly. �We should work on that before Hermione�s dreams if we can�t come up with a good strategy to use against them.�
�Occlumency should work,� Draco said, with a dismissive flip of his hand. �I�m more worried about what these dreams indicate about Nihil�s larger strategies.�
Harry nodded without explaining that the Occlumency would hardly be unimportant to Hermione, and held out his hand. �I�ve pretty much mastered the wood. You were thinking about breakfast when you sat at the table this morning, and Hermione was thinking about the dream when she sat in the chair. Where is the list of the rest of the incantations?�
Draco raised his eyebrows, and left them there. He stayed still so long that Harry began to flush. �What?� he snapped. �I saw the nightmare, and there�s no way I could have imagined it; it was too horrible. Did I somehow read the memory you left wrong? I couldn�t see what kind of food it was, but��
�I was thinking about fucking you,� Draco said. �Not about food.�
Harry started to sag, but then remembered something Weston had said about these spells the other day. �But fucking me couldn�t have been the only thought in your head,� he said triumphantly. �If you were sitting here for an hour or more, which you were, you would have others. I just picked up on one of the others instead of the memory that you meant to leave for me.�
�But the fucking was the strongest one,� Draco said, folding his arms. �We have to be able to pick up the strongest memories, the ones bonded to the objects by emotion, because those will be the most important ones. Don�t be distracted by the weak images that you get. Try again with wood before I let you have the list of incantations.� He put both hands on the table and closed his eyes. �Try to read the memory that I�ll leave here for you right now. Trust me, it�s a strong one.�
Harry gritted his teeth and leaned back in the chair to wait. But he was already planning to steal the list when Draco wasn�t looking and copy the incantations. At least he could know the spells, even if he had to wait a while to master them all.
*
�I haven�t had any odd dreams,� Weasley said, and Ventus and Herricks both shook their heads simultaneously. Granger just clasped her hands in her lap and looked haunted, which Draco could understand if the dreams were as bad as she�d said.
�I�ve had none that I remember,� Harry said.
Draco nodded. He could believe Harry, because they slept close enough together that he would have noted any moaning or thrashing�well, any extra moaning or thrashing that he didn�t cause himself.
The problem was that he didn�t know if he could trust the others. Ventus wouldn�t consciously lie to him, but she might have the dreams and shrug them off because so little ever hurt or frightened her. Weasley and Herricks would lie on principle, because they might think that their dreams made them look weak, or they might not want Draco in possession of that much knowledge about them. And that made for another division in the comitatus, more distrust and Draco having to wonder if Nihil was gaining a foothold among them.
On the other hand, Granger�s nightmares were too strong and too constant for it to be a subtle means of gaining a foothold in her mind, and they seemed to be responding well to Occlumency. It was as though this was an afterthought for Nihil, Draco decided, something he had tried to see if it would work, but not something that would concern him greatly if it failed.
That made it all the more imperative for them to find out exactly what he was really doing, what was consuming all his attention.
�Fine,� Draco said, pretending to believe the rest of them for the moment. �How much progress are you making in the object-reading spells?�
�I can read stone, wood, and most kinds of metal,� said Herricks, with what Draco thought was justifiable pride. Assuming that he was telling the truth, of course.
Draco mentally rolled his eyes at himself. Maybe that�s Nihil�s real tactic. To try to make us doubt each other, when in reality we�re telling the truth, and tear ourselves apart from the inside with that distrust.
�I can�t read anything,� Ventus said, and only raised an eyebrow when Draco glared at her. �It�s not offensive magic.�
Which meant that she wouldn�t be good at it�or else that she wouldn�t put in the time and study necessary to make herself good at it. Draco had seen her do remarkable things on the battlefield, but that didn�t tell him whether she was really only good at battle magic, as she claimed, or whether she was only interested in battle magic and would neglect other areas of study without thinking.
�I can perform most of the incantations on the list,� Granger said, which was no surprise to Draco. He also thought she was telling the truth; she had always been honest, even when the honesty was on the point of not liking him or thinking he was plotting against Harry and the rest. He nodded and turned to Weasley.
Weasley flushed and stared at his hands.
�Well?� Draco asked, when he thought enough time had gone past to give Weasley the chance to answer fairly on his own.
�I can read wood,� Weasley murmured. �It�s like it responds more strongly to me than most other people. But I can�t read stone or any metal or cloth. The incantation burns away into the material, but it doesn�t come back.�
Draco clenched his teeth. Weston and Lowell had warned them about that, as well: that some people would be better at reading certain kinds of object memory, but that the price to be paid for their skill was an extreme incapacity in other kinds of reading. He could have wished that they wouldn�t have an idiot-genius like that in the comitatus, that was all.
�Fine,� he said. �Then we need to choose a time to leave when the rest of the instructors will be occupied and unable to stop us.�
�What about after that second demonstration of the new weapons tomorrow?� Herricks suggested. �Everyone�s going to be tired after that, or at least on edge, and more preoccupied with themselves. And they�ve promised that we can have the afternoon off from classes.�
The suggestion was a good one, Draco thought reluctantly, as much as he would have preferred that someone else propose it. Gregory, Portillo Lopez, and Holder had all been disappointed with the first performance of the weapons, because too many of the trainees were still nervous and hadn�t done well. They�d insisted that the trainees return to their normal classwork, but also continue to practice with the weapons until they could arrange another demonstration.
�Yes, all right,� he said, and then looked rapidly around the rest of the comitatus, almost hoping that someone else would come up with an objection that hadn�t occurred to him. �Well?�

�That sounds like it would work,� Weasley said. Ventus nodded and sent Herricks a proud look that made Draco�s throat curdle. It wasn�t that he was jealous, of course not, but Ventus had been the first to believe in him as a leader, and he could have used that undivided support at the moment.
�As long as we�re careful,� Granger said. �I don�t think Holder would take it kindly if we sneaked out of the camp so soon after using a weapon like that. She might think we were going after Nihil again.�
�We are,� Harry said, �sort of.�
�But we aren�t going to fight,� Granger said, giving Harry a sharp look, as if she assumed that the technical correction would mean he was disagreeing. And of course no one could disagree with the mighty Granger and survive, Draco thought, at least not without her nagging. �We�ll just read the object memories.�
�And battle any traps that Nihil might have left there,� Draco said. He had to admit that he was looking forwards to that part, and hoped Nihil had left some. It would use up some of the nervous energy that was bubbling up and down in his veins, unable to be used until they figured out what Nihil was up to.
�Yes,� Granger said, and smoothed her hands down her robes in a prim fashion. �But that�s not the same thing as saying that we�re going to fight him.�
Draco sighed and let it go. He could have used a smoothly working comitatus that would all trust and love and believe in him as Harry did, but he wasn�t going to get that. He would have to use the weapons that came to hand.
When the other had left, Harry remained in the center of the tent, turning his wand over in his hands. Draco watched him as he went to sit on the bed. Harry usually only looked like that when he had something to discuss but wasn�t sure how Draco would take it.
�Well?� Draco asked finally. He had an essay to write for Ketchum, and that meant he couldn�t wait for the rest of the evening for Harry to speak.
Harry started as though he had forgotten there was anyone else in the tent and looked up. �Hermione told me that the Occlumency didn�t work for the last few nights,� he said quietly. �The dreams have returned, and they�re worse now. She thinks that Nihil is using her bones to build something. Sometimes it�s a throne, sometimes it�s a machine that she thinks looks like a Muggle machine, but it�s always a weapon that he intends to use against us.�
�He can�t really be doing that,� Draco said. �Why would he be stupid enough to advertise his intentions like that?�
�Perhaps he doesn�t know that she can remember and sense the dreams,� Harry suggested, but shook his head when Draco gave him a harsh look. �No, I don�t believe that, either. He probably would have felt it when she tried to use Occlumency, at least. But what does it mean? Hermione might become tired and off-balance when she�s trying to fight him, but it�s not as though that would affect the rest of us.�
�It might if she turns against us,� Draco said quietly.
Harry jerked his head up and stared for a minute. Then he said, �But that has the same objection against it as him really building a weapon out of her dream-bones. It would be much better and subtler if we didn�t know that he was getting into her mind. And what about the oath we swore?� he added suddenly. �It would react against her if he managed to make her into a traitor that way, no matter how unwilling it was.�
Draco sighed. �Nihil�s biggest weapon has always been our lack of knowledge,� he said wearily. �We don�t really understand him, and he uses that against us at every turn. He also makes us spend our time worrying about nothing and jumping at shadows. I don�t think we can say, yet, what he intends with this, and that means trying to help Granger and otherwise not worrying about it.�
Harry stepped over to him and kissed him hard, then leaned his head on Draco�s shoulder and put his arms around him. �Sometimes I think that we�re not going to win this war,� he whispered.
Draco said nothing, contenting himself with a fierce embrace, but Harry�s words could have been his own.
*
polka dot: Draco doesn�t think of himself as just a trainee, which may be part of the problem.
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Seasons of War