Nightmare In The Slytherin Dungeon [Albus]

[Arabelle Selene Malfoy]

It was her nightmares that were acting up again. Actually, she'd been trying to avoid them through caffeine, preventing her from sleeping, thus, also nightmares. It wasn't so much for her own sake than the female Slytherins' that she shared a dorm with. Often times, she'd sleepwalk for a while before actually settling down which had gotten her dorm mates quite cranky. Alas, caffeine only went so far and soon enough, she found herself sleepwalking again. This time, for once, her nightmare wasn't about her murderous great aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, but of herself having failed her classes, disappointed her parents, disgusted Travis, and even James Potter didn't seem to fancy her in this dream. She soon quickly found that this nightmare was almost as terrifying as the ones of being killed by her aunt. She would never like to live in a world where she was hated an unappreciated for what was the point in living a world like that? She'd might as well commit suicide and everyone knew that was fairly worse then being murdered. This time, though, her feet seemed to take pity on her dorm mates and led her out of the Slytherin girls' dorm, away from causing destruction, and into the Slytherin Common Room where she promptly ran right into a sofa. Yelping, she opened her eyes, wrenching herself out of a scene where Travis declared their friendship over and into a scene where she was toppling over a sofa and hitting her head against the floor...Hard.

Groaning, Arabelle sat up to survey her surroundings to find out just exactly where her sleepwalking habits led her. The Common Room, she thought, was better than walking outside in the corridors in just her nightgown. That would be embarrassing...Especially if she might have walked herself over a balcony. Who had decided to unlock the Slytherin girls' dorm anyway? Pulling herself to her feet, she rubbed her sore head which was pounding as she waited for the angry shouts of woken Slytherins, yelling at her for waking them up. No shouts were heard. Wow, Arabelle marveled, The Slytherins must be heavy sleepers. Arabelle shuffled over to the door that led back into the girls' dorm and twisted the knob. Huh, figures the door would be locked then. One of the girls must have been awake, got annoyed at her, and locked in shut. Great...She was now wide awake and stuck in the Slytherin Common Room until morning. This was going to be fun.

The worst thing about night, though, was the dreaming. Often times, Arabelle slept through it, but when others were dreaming, it really took a toll on her legilimency. Walking over to the sofa, she sat down and pressed her hand to her forehead, enjoying the supply of coldness it gave for only a few seconds. Quietly, she sat listening to the thoughts collecting around her, wincing as new ones came in like bricks being thrown at her temple.

"Dammit, can someone just wake up and get me something to drink? Damn you, legilimency!" Arabelle whispered harshly. Her head kept pounding in response.

Sighing, Arabelle decided to make the best of her time and spotted a book set on a coffee table only three feet away from her. Grabbing it hastily, she read the title, "Albion". Happy, she settled down on the sofa and tried to ignore everyone's loud dreams, trying to shut her legilimency off for a while while she read.

It was a few good hours into the night when she heard footsteps coming into the Common Room. Bursting up, she whipped around with her wand in her hand, prepared to hex whoever it was, yelping as she whirled.

"Merlin!" She blurted out in surprise as she listened more closely to the footsteps. Maybe she was going paranoid, maybe she should try to go to sleep.

"Al-Albion?" She called out softly and hopefully, barely remembering to say "Albion" instead of "Albus". If it was Albus Potter, she knew the boy wouldn't be like the other Slytherins and laugh at her state of distress (and stupidity) and help her get back into her dorm...Or at least calm her headaches. If not, she would have been happy to just read with the quiet boy or chat. Either one. Actually, she wasn't sure if it was Albus yet because it was way too dark in the room to see.

"Lumos," She whispered, and as the light was conjured from the tip of the wand, she tried to confirm who the lurker was.

"What are you doing up so late?" The words spilled out of her mouth before she knew it. Yet, as soon as they did, she realized how hypocritical that sounded. Rolling her eyes at herself, Arabelle raised her wand higher, hoping she wasn't shining it in her companion's eyes.

NOTES: Well...It's, like, midnight right now and I got a little carried away...Plus, an annoyed Arabelle is fun to write...xD, Notice the name of the book she's reading? failed attempt at humor
WORD COUNT: 830
TAGGED: Albus Potter :3/Albion Prewett

[Albion "Al" Prewett]

Albus was trying to sleep for a long time that particular night. He felt distressed since James had decided to disappear with their father's younger version plus aunt Hermione's and uncle Ron's. He couldn't help but think about which kind of trouble his brother had put himself into this time. What could be happening or if he needed his help and he didn't know. Anyway, if anything really bad had happened or was about to happen to them, Lily would've predicted it already. His sister saying nothing about the subject was what placed his mind at ease about it all. She had already displayed an uncanny sense to predict disaster in the family so far since she was granted her seer gift. Though as the nice middle brother he was, Albus still worried about his impetuous and a bit careless older brother.

He was trying to get himself tired enough to sleep by reading one of the books Professor Cavaliere had recommended him. It actually seemed to be more like a collection of manuscripts written by Giovanni himself. It was a very interesting read for the bright young boy and instead of doing what he wanted it to do, it actually just got him more awake by page turn. Those texts got him hooked up to their content. That was when someone started to touch his mind and disturb his focus on his current mental endeavor. Albus had been through similar situations before both by the will of friends and foes and even though he wasn't a master occlumens by far nor nearly as good at it as James was due to being a natural stubborn mule when he didn't want to do or allow something, he managed to keep that presence out of his mind, barely.

Albus, though, had an inkling of who that could be. He didn't believe actual Death Eaters were at Hogwarts besides the Carrows even nowadays. That presence could only be Arabelle, daughter of Draco Malfoy and Astoria Malfoy née Greengrass. Seeing her parents in this time frame as he could now, it was hard to think that boy became the Draco he knew so well. The older one was actually a nice and righteous man. Someone who could be trusted. This younger Draco was a git and a bit of a pushover even on Albus' point of view and he isn't one to judge others. Good that people evolve with time. Well, most do anyway.

Albus wondered sometimes why Arabelle had asked to learn legilimency if she couldn't manage to control it after all this time. For him, knowing how to defend his mind against external attack was a life or death thing. He didn't want to learn it, he just had to and he still wasn't very good at that, just barely good enough. Anyway, it wasn't his place to judge. It also wasn't the first time he got out of his way to try to help Arabelle. He felt sorry for her and he knew what it was like to have a magical ability you couldn't control to full extend. Albus didn't even know how unfreeze things he froze at will yet and the whole idea that he could stop the motion of objects just with his mind's will was still a bit terrifying. Though it was something only his siblings knew about. Even Harry was unaware of this development.

The middle Potter sibling just left the manuscripts he was reading beneath his pillow in order to hide them, donned a robe and left his dorm going in the direction of the Common Room taking another robe with him. Albus knew from their time together at the camp in the future that Arabelle was prone to sleepwalking and probably was in need of a robe to cover her nightgown. He left without making any noise as the quiet and sneaky, when he wanted to be, boy he was. Though it was impossible to reach the Common Room without making any noise. The natural humidity of the Dungeons made the three step stair that separated the boy's dorms ward from the Common Room very susceptible to be noisy when stepped on, though he tried to be as stealth as humanly possible. He didn't want to scare a possibly still barely awaken Arabelle.

Needless to say, there were some slight noises and his room companion had heard them. When he heard the voice he was expecting, he opened his mouth to reply. But before Albus managed to say anything a bright light from Arabelle's wand blinded him for a second. Photophobia naturally came with his bright green eyes unfortunately. In an instinctual move, he shook one of his hands in her direction and was afraid he had frozen her without wanting to do so. Though soon, before the two minutes time things generally froze around him when accidents happened, Arabelle showed a reaction to his presence by asking something that made the generally quiet boy let out a small laugh and then raised her wand.

"Yes, it's me. Thanks for getting that off of my eyes, Arabelle." Albus said in his usually nice and calm tone of voice. "I was reading and then we both know what happened. No need to go into it. I brought this for you. Thought you might need… and the company too." He added handing his spare male night robe to Arabelle. At least she might feel better wearing it, he hoped. "Nightmares again?" He asked her kindly. Albus, weirdly, was used enough to Arabelle's presence not to feel as intimidated by her as he usually did around girls close to his age who weren't his sister Lily. He still was his usual self, quiet and nice, though. This also wasn't the first time they had been in this situation since they've arrived in this time frame about an year and a half ago at the beginning of the last Hogwarts year.