I'd Rather be in My Dreams Right About Now (Danny)

[zoeyshay]

Zoey yawned while walking up the steps and going to the girls’ dormitory to go the bed. It was already almost 11:00 and she had to have at least six to seven hours of sleep in order to function in the mornings. She ran her hand along the railing as she went up. She walked in and to her surprise: she was the first on there. She shrugged and changed into her pajamas: a black tank top and some random monkey pants that were extremely baggy on her. Her petite figure made the extra small pants look like extra large on her. The only reason she wore them was because they were very comfortable and the loved the cute little monkeys that were everywhere on them. She climbed in between the hanging red curtains of her four poster bed and slipped under the covers and closed her eyes. Soon, she drifted away into sleep.

Giant spiders roamed Hogwarts, terrorizing all the students. She skipped merrily into the common room, where she saw one of the giant spiders. She froze, petrified. She was scared of spiders a lot, and giant ones made the fear intensify. Her eye twitched as she saw a leg in its mouth. A leg. A moving leg. She felt like she was going to throw up before she saw the spider spit the body it was carrying in its mouth. Her eyes followed the falling body to the floor as her head processed who it was. Danny McKay. She had only met him a couple days ago ,but she thought he was a very nice boy and cared for him as a friend, and now she watched as her was just about eaten by a giant, hairy spider.

She took in a deep breath as she sat straight up, her eyes wide with fear. “It was only a dream. Only a dream.” She whispered to herself, calming down. She looked over to her small nightstand next to her bed, and on her clock it said it was 1 in the morning. She sighed and laid back down, closing her eyes and trying to fall back asleep. After a couple of minutes, she turned and tried to get into a more comfortable position. Zoey laid there, her eyes shut, but she just couldn’t go back to sleep. She opened her eyes and stared around the dormitory for a couple of moments before climbing out her bed silently and carefully opened the door to the common room. It creaked slightly as she opened it just enough for her little slim body to slip through before closing it and tip-toeing down the marble stairs.

The common room was empty as she looked around it. The fire in the fire place was still cackling, but looking weak as if it was going to turn into little embers in a half hour or so. She stepped off of the stairs and onto the hard, dark wooden floor. It made little creaking noises she walked softly to the couch nearest to the fire. Zoey took her seat on the left side of the couch and she made herself comfortable. She curled up into a ball on the couch and she took a pillow to place her head on. Her blue-green eyes focused on the fire cackling in front of her, trying to make herself drowsy. So far, it wasn’t working.

[Danny McKay G5]

Danny was in his bed looking up at the roof counting sheep. He couldn’t sleep at all for some reason, nothing important was happening tomorrow that he should be excited for that would keep him awake. Danny got up and looked at the clock it was 12 and he wasn't tried at all. He was going to change out of his sleep cloths, which was just a big shirt black shirt and black pajama pants but thought no one else would be up right now so he just grabbed his wand and quietly went down to the common room; he never went anywhere without his wand since the moment he first got it. Danny looked around the common room, It was as empty as he thought it would be, not a person in sight.

As Danny stood there, not tried and starting to get bored, he started to get hungry as well for no reason at all. He had nothing to eat up in his trunk and the only place with food around now was the kitchen with the house elves. Getting food from them was no problem, actually they loved it, the problem was getting to the kitchen. Danny was wide awake and hungry so he was willing to risk getting caught just for some food, he could always say he was sleep walking if he got caught.

Danny snuck his way from hall to hall and quickly down stairs, making it to the kitchen in record time. Danny hung out with the elves as they kept cleaning dishes and making food for tomorrow, it was funny to watch them love they’re jobs so much. After awhile they gave Danny a plate full of cookies and a glass of milk, they told him to go to sleep soon it was important for school. It was odd how much they cared for other people, they never seemed mean and Danny loved that about them.

Danny snuck his way back up to the common room, lucky for him the fat lady was in her portrait. After some sweet talking he finally got her to open up and not tell anyone he was out late, she was a nice lady when she was in a good mood. He walked in and saw someone now laying on the couch, it was a girl he could tell from this distance and he guess she was sleeping. Danny walked up slowly realizing it was Zoey, the girl he just met recently and Danny smiled. He also noticed she wasn’t asleep yet. “I seem to remember some story like this about some beautiful princess who could only be woken with a kiss.” He said smiling looking down at her from over the couch. “Care for a cookie? Or some milk?” He asked her holding out his plate as he walked around couch and sat down next to her. “So why are you up so late? if you don't mind me asking.” Danny asked wondering why anyone else would be up this late.

[zoeyshay]

Zoey looked around at the sleeping portraits, at the Gryffindor notice board in the corner of the common room, and then she started running her fingers along the pattern on the couch she was laying on. It was a knitted zigzag type of pattern with orange and scarlet thread in it. Some of the strands of thread seemed to shimmer when certain flickers of the fire caused the dim light to shine of it a certain way. She closed her eyes, trying to at least snooze off a little, but it didn’t seem to work very well. The most she got was maybe a two minute snooze. Right as her eyes opened, someone walking into the common room. She sat up and looked over in the direction the person was coming from, and when they stepped into the light, she was happy to see it was the familiar Danny McKay instead of someone or something else, like a giant spider for example. She gave a small yawn.

She shifted her position from her sitting down to her sitting normally so that Danny’d have room to sit next to her. She welcomed him with a drowsy smile as he took her seat next to her as she took a cookie and dipped it into the milk before taking a bite. She swallowed. “Thank you,” she smiling softly at him. He asked why she was up, and not wanting to go into the detail of her dream, she just replied “Oh, just a bad dream.” Zoey took another bite of her soggy cookie. Soggy wasn’t a bad thing for her, she loved it when her cookies were dipped in milk for a long time. She was like her mother that way, just like most of the other ways of eating foods. Like french fries: she'd dip them in ketchup and then a milkshake. Or like potatoes in stew: she'd have to dip them in that A1 steak sauce and then mashed potatoes or else Zoey would never eat them. “What are you doing up, besides eating?” she asked him curiously, finishing her cookie.

[Danny McKay G5]

Danny just smiled back at Zoey, he was still wide awake but he could tell she had been asleep or was at lest was trying to sleep. She grabbed one of the cookies from his plate dunked it in the milk, and she thanked him as she started to eat. “No problem at all.” Danny said with a smile as he ate one of the cookies himself. He listened as she just said she had a bad dream, which was the reason she was still awake. Danny didn’t want to ask about it to much, he didn’t want to remind her of the dream anymore then she was, she might never get back to sleep then. “I’m sorry to hear that. I could go get a book full of lullabies from the library if that will help.” He said with a quite laugh, he didn’t want to be too loud and wake someone up.

Danny just smiled as she ask him what he had been doing up, besides just getting food. “That’s a good question…” He said thinking out loud, Danny still wasn't sure why he wasn't tired at all or why he couldn’t fall a sleep an hour ago but he was glad he didn’t now. “I’m not sure myself really, I just couldn’t fall asleep. I probably sensed someone was going to need company soon so I couldn’t go to sleep till my job was done.” Danny said smiling taking a bite of another cookie. “Then I got hungry so I went down to the one place with the best food, the kitchen.” He finished with a quite laugh still trying to wake anyone else up.

“Plus I love hanging around the house elves, they’re always so just nice. You ever meet them?” He asked Zoey smiling, not many people ever meet them. They always go about they’re day in the shadows laying food out for people and then cleaning up the mess later and the few that do meet them don’t really care, some people really just thought of them as servants, Danny personally just saw them as friends who love to cook and clean. “You really should meet them sometime, they are the nicest and happiest creatures you will ever meet.” Danny said thinking back to when he first met them.

It was the middle of the night and he was lost and some how ended up in the kitchen. The house elves just gathered around asking him questions. They asked if he was hungry or thirsty or if something needed cleaning. Danny hung out with them for most of the night till he fell asleep in the kitchen and woke up in his bed. He at first thought it was a dream till one night he went to see for himself and the same thing happened. The house elves all crowded around asking things and wondering why he returned because most students never come to they’re kitchen or if they do they almost never see them again.

Since then he always visited the house elves and even given them gifts on holidays, they would never accept anything big, so Danny normally just got them new mittens or cleaning gloves and they just loved them. Danny snapped out his thoughts smiling back to Zoey, he hated when he got lost in his own thoughts while talking to someone. “But if you every go to see them you have to invite me so I can introduced them all. I know all they’re names.” He said with a smile, knowing that it was true.

[zoeyshay]

Zoey nodded. She had known house elves had worked in the kitchen of Hogwarts, but she didn’t know that they were actually happy and cheery. She had always thought they would be depressed and sorrowful for having to work to feed so many people three times a day every day for months at a time. Even thinking about how much food they’d have to prepare and knowing that the house elves stayed in the kitchen for extended periods of time made her feel claustrophobic and sad. “That’s so sweet,” she said when he was finished talking about the house elves. “I thought they’d be resentful or angry at us because they have to feed us and we cause them so much work.” She said to him, taking another cookie and dipping it in the milk again before biting into it.

“I would try it sometime, it’s just that Gryffindor is already losing the House Cup, I don’t want anymore house pints to be taken away for us wondering the halls at night.” She explained. Zoey was secretly a tad competitive about the House Cup. She enjoyed competing because it gave her another challenge in life. Challenges seemed to make life become more fun, like she was playing a big game. She yawned quietly again and blinked. Her eyes seemed duller because of her being very tired. As Danny seemed to zone out, Zoey did too, like her mind was sleeping but her body was fighting for consciousness. She came out of it quickly though, quicker than Danny had seemed to. She just pretended she didn’t realize him doing that as they went on. “You know all their names? How many are there?” she asked, her curiousity level rising.

(OOC;; Ugh, short again. Well, it's about 9:30 here and I woke up really early so maybe it's just that I'm tired. I should be back to writing well tomorrow when school lets out for the summer :'D)

[Danny McKay G5]

He just smiled when she said it was sweet how nice they were. He ate a couple more cookies as he thought more about the house elves. Danny listened as Zoey said she always thought the house elves would be angry or resentful for having to work so hard, Danny just laughed a little. “You would think they would be but they’re not at all. They love working, it crazy really but true.” Danny finished with a laugh, he always thought they would be mad too till he met them. “They refuse to be paid, well most of them there is one who gets paid, he’s special.” Danny said with a small laughing thinking about Dobby. “ They love the work, all the work. The cooking, cleaning and putting out the food.” He said with a smile.

Zoey wanted to go see them but was afraid of getting caught and losing more points for Gryffindor. Danny probably should have thought of this as he was going to get food, but the only thing Danny was thinking about then was how hungry he was. “I guess your right.” He said with a laugh thinking about the house cup. Gryffindor was already behind and if he lost more points for them a lot of people would be mad at him for it. “I guess we can go some other time, or at lest when we have points to spare.” He said with a smile looking down at his plate, it was almost empty but he was pretty full now so it was okay.

Danny just smiled and listened as she asked him about all they’re names and how many there were. “Well to be honest I don’t know all of there names, I’d say there is about twenty or so I’m not sure of they’re names when I talk to them, but there is an incredible amount of them in Hogwarts. You would be amazed.” Danny said with a smile as he tried to count how many there were in his head. “I’d have to say… over a hundred.” He said looking back at her but still trying to count them in his head the best he could. “ It’s very hard to count them, they never seem to stop moving.” Danny said with a laugh, Danny noticed she did seem to be getting a little tired. “Want to go to bed yet? I can tuck you in, if you like?” Danny said laughing and waiting for a response.

[zoeyshay]

“Dobby…” she thought aloud. Dobby… Zoey knew she had heard of the name somewhere before, but she couldn’t seem to think of it. Scanning through her memories and stories she knew quickly through her head, she remembered. She had read something about him in the library. She was bored one day, so she picked up a random book on important wizards, and she began reading of the legendary Harry Potter, and it said in the book that he had freed a house elf, Dobby, from a cruel owner in his second year. Zoey was a little surprised by reading this, but not much. She figured Harry Potter had probably done everything amazing while he attended Hogwarts, and probably did them better the she ever could. “Isn’t that the house elf Harry Potter freed?” she asked, trying to make sure she was right. She was almost positive it was, but she had asked just to be safe, because knowing her with her luck, she had a bigger chance to be wrong.

She continued to listen to Danny as she tucked some of her semi-wavy hair behind her ear. “A hundred? Oh my…” she said feeling as if she was half way breathless. How could so many creatures enjoy working in such a little room and working all the time? But then she started thinking about it in depth. Knowing Hogwarts with all its weird rooms, unexpected secrets and wacky surprises around just about every corner, the kitchen was probably much larger than the kind of kitchens she was thinking about. Zoey automatically thought of a kitchen of a small house, where it was only big enough to fit maybe four or five counter tops and the oven and refrigerator in it instead of the kitchen of a fancy restaurant but probably doubled or even tripled.

She smiled again, the smile the same as always expect for the little hint of weariness on her face and in her eyes. She shook her head slightly. “I don’t know what the other girls would do if they woke up in the night and saw a guy in our dormitory.” She stated, her smile slowly fading. “But thanks for the offer.” She said almost instantly while pulling on a warm smile, trying not to make him think she was refusing. She looked at the fire again and it was closer to burning out, a lot closer. Zoey stretched her legs outward before tucking them in so that she was seated in a criss-cross manner. She toyed with a strand of her wavy black hair that was sort of messed up, but in a neat way so it wasn’t extreme while she waited for him to finish his cookie.

[Danny McKay G5]

Danny could hear her say Dobby as she looked like she was in thought. Then she asked him if that was the elf Harry Potter had freed. Danny just smiled as he thought about Dobby for a second. “That’s the one, he was freed then was offered a job here.” Danny said smiling and finishing the cookie he was eating. “Dobby just can’t stop talking about Harry too. Almost every word that comes out of his mouth is about him.” Danny said with a laugh knowing it was true, Dobby was on of his favorite house elves but he liked all of them. He always seemed more bold then the rest but was just as kind still.

“Probably more then that actually.” He said in response to her being shocked at the number, he himself had a hard time believing it when he saw all of them at first. “ The kitchen is about the size of the Great Hall, well it could be bigger I’m not totally sure.” Danny said thinking about it then just shrugging it off, he would just have to check next time he went and see if it was bigger or not but he was pretty sure it was. Danny just laughed a little as she turned down his offer as he was sure she would, it being a joke anyway, no matter how brave he was he would never go into the girls dormitory especially when they were all sleeping.

“Yea, I was just kidding really. I don’t want to be beat up by all the Gryffindor girls tonight.” He said with a laugh, thinking about what would happen if he did wake them all up, it was a pretty scary thought. Danny for no real reason let out a small little yawn, he didn’t feel sleepy at all but for some reason yawned. He then ate the second to last cookie then pushed the plate toward Zoey. “Do you want the last one? If not we can just leave it out for Santa or something.” He said with a laugh watching as Zoey played with her hair.

[zoeyshay]

She smiled again as he spoke of Dobby. Something about house elves seemed to touch a nerve. Not a bad one, of course not, but one of those ones where if you hear the slightest thing bad about that subject, you could burst out crying or be extremely upset. Zoey had a lot of those types of nerves, more than the bad kinds. To be more specific, by bad kinds, she meant the ones where you get extremely annoyed with something very quickly because you hate it so much and you have such a low tolerance for it. He started speaking of the kitchen, and how it was probably the size of the Great Hall and her mouth dropped slightly. She closed her mouth almost as soon as it dropped, but her eyes were still gaping with amazement. Where do they hide these kinds of rooms? She asked herself that but it turned out to be a rhetorical question. Hogwarts was huge and so many secret rooms are hidden here easily. Hiding another huge room in Hogwarts was as easy like hiding a needle in a haystack.

Danny told her how he was joking about tucking her in and she blushed. Normally, she could tell jokes from being serious by just paying attention to the person’s face tone, but she was starting to really get tired so she didn’t really pay attention. “Oh.” Was all she could say, stretching her fingers before laughing at the remark afterwards. Zoey could easily see him being hit, slapped, punched, pushed and jinxed by the Gryffindor girls by doing something stupid like sneaking into the girls’ dormitory. It seemed like him. After all, he did say his family was cursed by troublemaking.

“I wonder what time it is now.” She thought aloud while turning her head to him. The window clanked, and she jumped, turning her head to the windows. It began to rain and the raindrops clanked against the windows at a faster rate. Clank Clank Clink. She sighed, knowing that if it was raining now, there was going to be more rain throughout the day. “There goes a beautiful day. Maybe it’ll the weather will be better tomorrow.” She hoped, turning her head back in the direction of Danny. She didn’t like the rain very much. She found it very annoying. It always ruined her hair, making it frizzy and wet and the rain made it look like an extremely bloated dog. And when she had to run through it and get back inside, it left her wet and cold, often shivering in class. She silently thanked the fact that she only had to go outside once during the day, and not anymore or else her hair would turn from a bloated dog to an obese gorilla. She made a mental note to put extra anti-frizz cream in her hair to keep it under control.

[Danny McKay G5]

Danny watched her face as he described how big the kitchen was and laughed a little. It was the same reaction he had when he first saw it. He had that reaction twice about the kitchen, once when he saw how big it was and a second time when the door was closed to it and he found out how to get inside. “I had that same reaction but that’s not as surprising as where it is and how you get into it.” Danny said with a laugh thinking about the trick to get in. “The first time I found it the door was left open so I just walked in, but the second time there was no door. It’s normally just a portrait of some fruit.” He said laughing a little looking around the common room for some reason then back to Zoey.

“But I’ll save how you get into it for later, I don’t want to ruin all the surprises.” He said with a laugh as he looked out the window, all he could see was darkness. Danny turned to look back at Zoey when her heard he ask what time it was. Danny wasn’t quite sure for himself so he looked around for a clock. “Umm… it’s almost two I think.” He said then turned back to the window which was now making noise. He could tell it was raining and it was only just getting faster. He could hear Zoey complain about the rain and how there went another beautiful day. Danny for one actually liked the rain. It always seemed relaxing, maybe not so much when there was thunder and lightening with it.

“I don’t know, rainy days can be beautiful too sometimes.” Danny said with a smile looking back at Zoey. It wasn’t just because it was relaxing that Danny liked rain, he just found it fun to walk outside when it was raining as long as it wasn’t to bad. He had no real explanation for why he did but then again he couldn’t explain half the things he did, most the time. Danny looked back out at the window, it would probably be raining all day and he hoped it wouldn’t be to bad. “You could always just waterproof yourself, then you wouldn’t have to worry about rain.” Danny said with a laugh looking back to Zoey. "Still hungry? I'll sneak back down there and get something else if you like, just name it and they'll make it." He said with laugh knowing it was true. "I really don't know how they make it so fast." Danny added with a laugh.

[zoeyshay]

She laughed with him before he looked at the window which she was looking at a little while ago. He looked at the clock and she turned her head to look at it too, straining a little. Her neck and back muscles were sore probably from the lack of rest and the fact that she was going on 19 hours of no rest. It would have been 21 hours if it wasn’t for the two hours that she had gained from her restless sleep that had caused her to not be able to fall asleep again. She actually had partially forgotten her nightmare which was causing her to feel drowsier, along with the steady and somewhat relaxing rain that made the windows seem to sing with the patterns of the clanks. She figured it was almost time for her to go to sleep. She thought that being up a little bit more would make her tired enough to fall asleep and stay asleep, and she was also liking talking with Danny.

Zoey nodded in agreement that rainy days could be beautiful true. She couldn’t deny it. When she was a little girl and she was raining, she used to think that the rain was some mystical creatures’ tears, like unicorns or magical dragons. She didn’t like that she thought they were sad, and she’d often complain to her mother about how they were crying. That’s when her mother started telling her “rain is the angels crying in joy when another baby comes into the world.” It always used to make Zoey smile, like it was doing now. She mentally shook herself as she regained focus. “Well, my mother, she used to tell me that the rain was the angels crying in joy because a new baby just came into the world. She used to tell me that because I’d always complain that the magical creatures of my imagination, I forgot what they were called, but I used to always whine that they were too sad.” She said, smiling softly at the fact that she was a little cute when she used to say that, and her cheeks turned a soft pink.

She smiled at him and shook her head at the offer of more food. “No thanks.” She said, appreciating the fact that he was willing to sneak down to the kitchen and get more food. “I kind of think we should get back up to bed, or else we will sleep in all our classes tomorrow.” She said stretching and standing up. Her foot was asleep and she almost fell. She began giggling hysterically. “My f-foot is as-sleep.” She stammered through giggles, trying to explain her sudden laughing fit so she would seem insane. It started going away and she looked down and then back up at him. “Well, er see you tomorrow. G’night!” she said starting toward the marble stairs on the left, the ones that led up to the girl’s dormitory.

[Danny McKay G5]

Danny looked at Zoey as she nodded agreeing with him about the rain. He looked back out the window as the rain kept hitting it, debating in his head if he should go out in the rain later, if it was still raining. He just smiled thinking about it as he decided not to at the moment he would probably be too tired anyway from staying up most of the night. He turned back to Zoey as he heard her say something and listened to her talk about the rain. Danny laughed a little as she explained what the rain was or at lest that was what her mom said it was. “Sounds kind of like something my mom would say.” Danny said with a smiling, thinking about his mom and what she told him about rain. “She used to tell me the sky was full of dragons with big watering pails.” Danny said laughing thinking about how his mom explained it.

“I was always interested in dragons when I was little, well I still am, but back then it was all I would talk about. That’s probably why my mom said that.” Danny smiled as he tried to explain it. Talking about his mom started to make him a little home sick but he just shrugged it off. “ I used to sit out in the rain and try in look into the sky just hoping to see one, when I was little.” He said with a laugh, remembering how it acted when he was little. “ I never did see one.” Danny added as he looked back out the window; the rain was starting to make him a little sleepy.

He laughed a little looking back to Zoey as she mentioned going to sleep now before they both were falling sleep in class. “It depends on which classes, I might have fallen asleep in some of them to begin with.” Danny said with a smile as he watched her get up and almost fall down laughing. He was a little worried for a second till he realized what was happening and just laughed some more as she kept giggling. Finally she seemed to stop and she looked at him then said goodnight. “ Goodnight then, I hope you don’t have any more nightmares.” Danny said as she made her way back to the girls dormitory. “I guess I’ll try and go sleep too.” He said to himself out loud with a sigh as he got up to go to bed but quickly ran back to the common room with a piece of paper and a Muggle pen. Danny put the piece of paper on the empty plate all it said was, “Thanks for the food!” Then he headed back to bed to try and get some sleep.