The Dream Trilogy Book One: To Dwell On Dreams (A Harry Potter FanFiction)

Chapter Thirty Three

Chapter Thirty Three

Sitting by the roaring fire, Harry was struggling to stay awake. They'd magically removed the freezing lake water from their clothes and hair, then conjured a mini inferno in the portable cauldron Harry had packed from home. Seamus had done his best to heal their cuts and bruises, but even his medical skills couldn't hide the drawn out exhaustion weighing them down. 

On the upside they were all much cleaner now. 

"How much more?" muttered Parvati sleepily. Her head was on Seamus' shoulder and her eyes gazed into the middle distance as she spoke. Draco looked to Harry and raised his eyebrows. 

"What do you mean?" Draco asked her.  

"How many more tasks, how much further to walk?" Parvati said, blinking and focusing properly on Draco. She was shuddering even in the warmth of the fire. "I don't think I can take much more of this." 

"You're doing really well," said Seamus reassuringly, rubbing her back. Hermione watched her from beneath tangled hair, her body pressed close to Harry's and Draco's for warmth. As had become the trend, Seamus and Parvati were the other side of the tunnel, but the hostility that had been present before seemed to have dissipated.  

"I just-" began Parvati. "I know we've made it this far, but only just. I've almost died like five times in the last few hours, what else is waiting to jump out at us?" 

Draco pulled at his drying blond fringe. "I'm not going to lie," he said slowly. "But hardly anything has been how I thought it was going to be. So if I were to guess on distance, I'd say we were nearly there." 

"But you don't know what else we've got to get though," finished Harry sympathetically. Draco looked warily about the group. 

"I doubt it." 

Parvati looked back at Seamus. Harry braced himself for another fight, but Seamus just shrugged. "Well," he said. "We kinda knew that before, didn't we? We aren't going to learn any more about what's ahead by hanging around, I say we get moving and just get on with it." 

Parvati gave him a weak smile and nodded, then turned back to face the other three. "Right," said Harry, struggling to find his voice. "Okay then, I guess we should...start walking again then?" 

The other three nodded and began collecting their things. Harry turned to help Hermione to her feet, but was surprised to find Draco already doing it. Hermione gave Harry an inquisitive look as Draco carried on up the tunnel, apparently oblivious. "Just be thankful he's being nice," offered Harry. 

Parvati picked up the cauldron and reduced the flames until it was merely smouldering contentedly. She then placed herself in the middle of the group to keep them all at least a little bit warm.  

A few minutes later they came upon a puzzle of sorts, involving dice, a jar of frogspawn and a key amongst other things. Hermione solved it in under five minutes, keeping a hold of the old looking key afterwards, fingering it reassuringly. In the distance Harry could see something shimmering, and as he got closer he blew out a sigh of relief as he recognised the block of mist from the maze last summer. "This is fine," he told the others. "It's disorienting, but just keep walking with your eyes closed and you won't have anything to worry about."  

"Are you sure?" asked Parvati sceptically. Harry gave her a confident smile.  

"I'll go first, watch." 

He edged into the mist, instantly feeling like the world had turned upside down. He kept his breathing steady, placing one foot in front of another, until before long he was out the other side. He could see the blurry outlines of his companions through the couple of meters of mist, and he waved encouragingly for them to come through. Hermione was next, followed by Parvati, Seamus and eventually Draco.