His Angel

Chapter 21

Harry's eyes snapped open as he stared up at the roof of his four poster bed, his heart hammering against his ribs painfully.

It took a long time to convince himself to calm down as his hand instinctively felt for Fleur at his side, his panic mounting when he felt no one there before he remembered that she was miles away in France.

His hands were shaking as he pulled himself up to a sitting position, leaning against the wall and pulling his legs up to his waist as he locked his arms firmly around them. Taking deep, steadying breaths he forced himself to calm down, trying to get rid of the haunting images in his mind.

It was only the second day since he'd arrived in Hogwarts and already he was slipping back to his old nightmares which had returned with a vengeance. The moment he closed his eyes, he was plagued by images of the night of the third task; Fleur's body, the look of shock on the death eater's face he killed, Voldemort, his mother...it was like a sickening movie that was lying in wait to play every time he surrendered himself to sleep.

Reaching over the bedside table he glanced at his watch and groaned. It was still 3 in the morning but it wasn't like he could roll over and expect to go back to sleep.

After quietly getting changed into normal clothes and stowing his school robes into his bag along with the diary Fleur had given him, he hesitated for a moment before taking the framed photo of her and putting it inside his bag along with the rest of his things after gazing longingly at it for a few seconds. He didn't want to leave any of his things out where anyone could get to them.

Professor McGonagall made it clear that although he was now a 6th year for all purposes, he was still going to share the dorms with the 5th years since they were assigned by age. Seeing as he'd only turned 15 he didn't fall in with the other 6th years age wise.

When he'd reached the Gryffindor common room after the welcoming feast it was clear that their treatment of him was no different than the rest of the school who thought he was mad and dangerous. At the dorms Seamus and Dean had been conversing quite loudly about how they didn't believe that he could have achieved his O.W.L's so soon and how they believed it was a plan by the ministry to remove him from Hogwarts as soon as possible for the safety of the other students.

He quietly crept out of the dormitory, going down the spiraling staircase into the common room. The Fat Lady spotted him and without a word swung open to let him out. She already knew from her experiences with him from last year that he hardly spent time inside the Gryffindor tower and it heartened him that she promised to not tell Professor McGonagall about his wanderings.

"Don't get caught." She said warningly after he'd climbed out of the portrait hole as she swung herself shut again.

He smiled slightly before giving her a mock salute making her chuckle.

"Go on then, Filch is due in this corridor any moment now." Slipping on his cloak he beat down the familiar path as he'd done so many times last year out to the grounds.

The first day of lessons wasn't bad. It only consisted of Charms and Ancient Runes, both of which he had with Daphne. Katie was the only 6th year female he knew and she had been thrilled to find him in class with her but was wary of Daphne unsurprisingly. Even after introductions were made it was clear that neither of them wanted a lot to do with each other.

He wasn't fazed by the glares he was getting from the class which consisted of the 6th year Gryffindors and Slytherins. He didn't even know the 6th year Gryffindors at all. The only few he vaguely recognized from his past few years in Hogwarts was a tall blonde, heavyset boy who he'd seen during past Quidditch tryouts and two girls that he'd seen constantly around Katie.