Regained Moments

Chapter 1

Harry cried himself to sleep in his cupboard. Because of the cleaning supplies taking up most of the space there was no comfortable position for him to be in. The cramped space, the smarting cuts and aching bruises covering him only making it worse.

The stool he had been standing on had slipped, causing him to fall face first into the side by the sink, spilling the soapy water on the floor, and making his lip bleed as he accidentally bit his lip badly.

That alone would have been enough for him to be hurting, but he hadn't managed to clean up the water on the floor, or even knew he had left blood on the counter that he had to deal with, when Vernon came home. Harry had had no hope of fixing the stool he had been standing on though, no matter how much time he had been given.

Harry had given up hope by now that he would ever be happy with the Dursleys, and had learnt how little he could disturb the water without repercussions, but he had yet to give up hope that someone would come to take him away. He would sometimes have dreams of a man who was covered in scars who would always come with a man who could turn into a dog, and sometimes with a flying motorbike, but he would get punished if he said anything to the Dursleys about his dreams, although sometimes he would slip up.

He felt a sudden warmth, then he was in a bright, beautiful place. He could only assume he was dreaming because he had never been anywhere like this before, and it seemed far too nice to be somewhere he should be allowed to be.

He was inside, a beautiful forest and lake visible through a window set in the exposed brick wall that reminded of pictures he had seen of old castles. The trees were a mix of different ones, but they were all larger and fuller than Harry had ever seen before, and the lake reflected the invitingly blue shy, wisps of white cloud floating past so slowly it would be unbearable if you were in a bad mood. The glass of the window itself was set in small diamonds making up its arched shape, the glass seeming thicker at the base than at the top.

If it wasn't a bad thing to say, and if Harry was allowed to speak out of turn, he would say this place was magical. Harry knew he would remember if he had ever been in a place like this before, but it felt oddly comforting and relaxing, like he was finally home.

It was a very odd dream though, because somehow Harry felt extremely tired. He could only hope he wasn't going to wake up soon, he didn't want to leave this place, no matter what it cost him. Currently he had no energy to move from where he was on the windowsill, but if he could stay here longer he would be sure to explore the whole place.

"You can't have seriously decided to save that asshole?" A voice said from around the corner, making Harry more alert. This was his dream, right? Why were there people here?

"Really, Sirius? You would do that to a person? Actually, forget that, if you don't care about what you almost did to Snape then care about Remus. How could he have handled it if you had turned his fluffy little problem to punish Snape? You were the one with the bad intention, but Remus would have had to deal with the repercussions." Another voice said, sounding angry, but earnest, and like the person was trying their hardest to keep their voice down.

After a moment of heavy silence the second voice spoke again, this time much closer, terrifying Harry, but his limbs were so heavy that he couldn't move even if he wanted to.

"The others don't know about any of it, they never will, but don't you dare do that again. You're going to have to do all of Remus' work while he's recovering and you're the one who will have to explain why I was in the Hospital Wing this morning and wasn't with you all last night, and you had better make it believable." They said, finally rounding the corner so Harry could see the two people.

They both looked to be in their teens, the one currently talking, the second voice, had short hair, round glasses, hair as messy and dark as Harry's with skin only about a shade darker, and a rather noticeable scar that still looked red and irritated on their cheek. The other person, the first voice's owner, looked sheepish, long hair that was only slightly too thick and short to be all tied back in the ponytail, leading to rather thick sections framing their angular, pale face. Black markings were visible just at the base of their rolled up sleeves, and a stick of wood was on their right ear, holding the hair back, and definitely not something Vernon would be okay with. Both people felt familiar to Harry, more of a familiar sense of presence than their face, but still, weren't faces very like theirs in his dreams often?

"Hey," The one who looked rather like Harry said, seeming to have noticed the small boy on the windowsill, their eyes slightly down turned, and filled with a look Harry would certainly never see on the Dursleys. "Who are you?"

Their voice was far more gentle than when they were talking to the other, but simply having his presence acknowledged was enough to scare Harry. The other person was looking at Harry with much more suspicion, and Harry was trying hard not to cry, knowing that he wasn't supposed to. He tried to readjust his position, but misjudged the width of the windowsill, his hand that had his weight behind it hitting thin air, sending Harry sideways towards the floor.

"Careful!" The dark skinned one who seemed to be trying to be kind called out as Harry was slipping, rushing forwards and managing to catch him before he hit the ground.

Harry thought that if he hit the ground then he was going to wake up, and even if there were people in this otherwise perfect dreamland, it was still better than his cupboard or the Dursleys, so he was thankful to the strange dream person for catching him, but it seemed to be too late for this time limited dream as Harry felt like everything was floating away from him, no matter how hard he tried to keep a hold on his senses.

"Kid, are you okay?" The voice of the person holding him asked, their face and voice seeming panicked, but they were fading away into the darkness of Harry's mind even as they spoke. It was a nice dream while it lasted.