The Nightmare Man's Journey

Chapter One

It was a lovely spring day. The sun was warm, the summer not far off, and all was very calm and lovely.

The Nightmare Lord, also known as Harrison, didn't care. What he did care about was the potion he had just poured into a goblet, hoping said goblet wouldn't melt in his hand. The potion was still bubbling away, almost to the point of fizzing. At least the smoke had cleared up, and the affects of said smoke had gone away. The room was only tinted a little bit green.

Alright, so it hadn't completely disappeared, but it was better than twenty minutes ago when the walls were oozing green and everything was slightly off-kilter. Also, there had been strange, buzzing sound. Or was it still there?

"What is in that goblet, master?"

Drat. Harrison looked up, and Elise had already taken her stern stance; feet steady on the ground, hands on her hips and a glare in her silvery eyes. A glare that said that no, he wouldn't be allowed to test the potion on himself.

"If I tell you I wasn't going to drink it, will I escape your nattering?" he asked.

"You were going to drink it."

"Was not," he lied.

"Was too," she replied. "Hand it over, master."

"I've just made it; I don't even know what it does!"

"Excellent point as to why you won't test it."

"Come on, it's just bubbling a little bit," he tried with.

"That's not a little bit, and it smells foul," Elise said. "Also, your eyes are glassy. The smoke alone is affecting you."

"It's gone now."

"So you admit it had an affect?"

Well, he had walked himself into that trap rather easily. So Harrison sighed and handed it over to her before rubbing his eyes. They were itchy.

"Will you be angry if I stab myself in the eyes?" he wondered a minute later when the itch was still there.

"Yes, I will be, master. Go take a walk outside. Poke at the plants in the garden."

"What? Why?"

He wasn't good with plants. Unless they were rotten trees that grew Dementors. Then he was very good with plants. Wait, did trees count as plants, or were they just trees?

"Because this is your third potion in the last six hours, and at this point you aren't even trying to make something useful."

She was right, he had just chopped up things to see what would happen if they mixed in a cauldron.

"Severus will be most displeased," Elise continued with.

"He always is when it comes to me and potion-making," Harrison replied.

"It's because you always drink the end results, no matter how sick it makes you."

"The last one wasn't so bad."

"By last one, master, do you mean the one where you passed out and nearly choked on your own vomit?"

Harrison shrugged and replied: