A Sleepless Night ((Pyro))

[Fiona O'Reilly S5]

"This place is familiar to me, almost like I've been here many times before. But I don't know where I am. A cellar of some sort or maybe it's a dungeon in our castle. What am I doing here?" I turn around at the sound of footsteps. They had appeared out of no where for there was no door in or out of this dungeon. Standing before me is a familiar face, deathly pale, almost as if they were transparent. "Ma?" I ask. I know it's her, but it can't be she died almost 6 months ago. Da was still alive, but Ma wasn't supposed to be. She had killed the man in Da's body. The icy voice hits my ears like finger nails on a chalkboard, "To follow your father means death, but following your enemy means life. The Dark Lord shall not win, my darling. Follow your true path...the path of righteousness..." the voice of my Ma drawled on. Before she finished though a green light appeared and she was destroyed. I looked down at my hand, my wand was the culprit. I had just killed her...

Fiona sat upright in bed quickly. She was pouring sweat from every part of her body. She was breathing quickly and her bright red hair was plastered to her body. She looked around her, everyone was asleep. It was after midnight, everyone was going to be sleeping, but not Fiona. How could she sleep after that image, after that nightmare. Dottie woke slightly at the movement of the bed and meowed softly. Fiona ssh-ed her and moved from the bed toward her wardrobe. She pulled on some real clothes and grabbed a sweater. She needed some fresh air. She didn't care if she got caught at the moment. She just needed to be away from sleep and all that came with it.

Fiona stepped out of the dormitory and headed through the common room and out into the dungeons of Hogwart's castle. She curved her way through the halls trying to make the least amount of noise possible. All she needed was to get caught by Filch. Then things would certainly go wrong for her. The silence of the castle gave Fiona chills. Why had she had that dream? It had been over 6 months and why had she been the one to kill her ma. Her ma had committed suicide after she thought she had killed Fiona's da. There was no way she Fiona could have killed her ma, unless there was something that Fiona didn't know about. That was entirely possible since she was only 15 years old and her family thought it was funny to keep things from her, but Fiona didn't know of anything that would be kept from her. She was old enough to understand everything. There couldn't possibly be anything that her family would deliberately hid from her.

Fiona pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind as she heard a slight rustling in front of her. She didn't want to find Filch. She dodged into a dark corner and waited for the rustling to go away. She pulled out her wand quietly and waited in silence. If it wasn't Filch she would give the person a quick curse. She didn't want to get in trouble and she was definitely not in the mood to deal with people's stupid pranks. She held her wand in ready stance and quietly crept back into the lighted corridor.

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

"Why? Why have they come back?" Pyro wondered to himself as he exited the kitchen. Another restless night of dreams. They had escalated, the mocking Death Eaters had grown larger, became more defined. They had started becoming physical in his dreams now. At first they had just been mocking, taunting, and insulting. But now he could feel them shoving him from behind. Every time he turned to get at them they disappeared and reappeared behind him.

He had awoken in a cold sweat once again, just like he had the previous night, and the night before that. His throat was dry, he needed something to drink. The dorm could give nothing but some cold water from the faucet and his throat was yearning for something warm. He had climbed out of bed and put on a shirt and some light shoes and than left the dorm. Pyro had found the Kitchens on accident during his second year. He had rarely visited the kitchen, finding the elves there bad company, but tonight was different.

When he exited the kitchens he held a steaming cup of Hot Chocolate. He had placed a lid on the cup so that he would easily be able to carry it and walk so he wouldn't have to worry about spilling it as he walked. His mind wandered, barely noticing where he was going. His feet scrapped lazily across the ground as he walked, the chocolate milk relaxing his body and chasing away the itch in his throat.

Pyro rounded a corner when a movement caught the corner of his eye. He quickly spun back behind the corner, not pausing long enough to identify whatever it was that had move. He quickly crouched down and pulled his wand out of his boot. He stood and spun back around the corner, wand out in front of him. He was about to utter a spell when he recognized the person on the other end. "Fiona!" He said in a hushed whisper, quickly putting his wand down. "Trying to kill me?" He asked, realizing that he had probably surprised her as much as she had him.

[Fiona O'Reilly S5]

Fiona jumped at the sound of her name. She squinted and realized it was Pyro. "Me trying to kill you? Are you daft? What are you doing walking around the corridors at night?" Fiona asked as she tried to calm her breathing. She couldn't believe that it had been Pyro walking around. At that thought she realized her last question could easily be reversed to her and she wasn't quite ready to answer such a question. She lowered her wand and stuffed it back into her pocket. Realizing that they both would have some explaining to do she quickly cut in before Pyro could respond to any of her demanding questions. "Look I'm on my way out to the grounds, care to join me?" Fiona asked. She didn't know if he cared to join her, but she didn't wait for him to answer her either. She moved around him and started off toward the doors leading outside.

The cold air was refreshing and Fiona could feel some of the tension in her body disappearing. Things had become so odd lately, with her nightmare, her da's reappearance, and her own quest for power. The cool air cleared away many of these thoughts and instead left her feeling refreshed. She looked over to see if Pyro was following her or if he had decided to take off back to the common room.

((A little short, but I realized that I can't really god mode you and I wanted to get us outside, so here's my way of doing that.))

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro arched an eyebrow, he was about to reverse that question on her when she cut him short. She gave him a vague answer to his unasked question and than moved around him and down the hall. Pyro turned with her and watched her for a bit as she walked down the hall. Out the grounds? At this time of night? Pyro was a bit skeptical of her answer. It wasn't a common practice to be roaming the halls at this hour, nevertheless roaming the grounds. The threat of loosing house points usually kept most insomniacs inside their commons, but Slytherin shared the common gift of not caring to much about getting caught by Filch. He decided not to press her to much on the issue. She had her own reasons for not being able to sleep this night, just as he did, and the fact that the two shared a mutual friendship was enough for him. It just occurred to him that he hadn't spotted Fiona around lately. The chosen hadn't had any recent activities as of late. Pyro hadn't spotted many of the members lately anyway.

With a sigh and another sip of his cup he quickly fell into step behind Fiona. He sure wasn't going to get any sleep this night anymore, why spend it in the boredom that only the common room could provide? He stepped outside onto the grounds a few steps behind her. The air had a visible calming effect over her, which only reaffirmed Pyro's early thoughts about her sleep being interrupted. He sat quiet for a bit and than stepped up to her. "Do this often?" He asked with a raised Eyebrow.

[Fiona O'Reilly S5]

Fiona took in a deep breath of the refreshing air. The last time she had found herself outside like this was when she kept having nightmares about watching her parents die, now it wasn't too different and yet it was. The image of her mother's face swam into her eyes and she felt a shiver run down her spine. She felt the goose pimples rise on her arms. The tension had returned slightly, but now it was more creepy than it had been before. She crossed her arms and rubbed at them slightly trying to ease the tension away. She didn't know why she had that nightmare, but all she knew was that she didn't want to have it again. Something about it told her that she wouldn't be content for very much longer. Fiona's thoughts continued to wonder until she heard a voice near her. She looked over slightly ashamed that she had forgotten that Pyro had been right behind her.

"Sorry my mind was wondering. But in answer to your question, not recently. It's been awhile since I've had to clear my thoughts in the middle of the night," she sighed "What about you? Do you usually walk through the corridors in the middle of the night waiting to scare people half to death?" Fiona asked with a slight cock of her head. She wondered if he would answer her more straight that she had just answered him. She just had a habit of being cryptic, especially over things she didn't understand herself. However, it wasn't like she could fully explain herself or her reasonings for wanting to head outside. She just felt like the silence of nature would be more comforting than her dorm room full of sleeping girls. There was just something about that which reminded her more of death than the silence of nature. Why she didn't know.

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

((Terribly sorry about how long it took me to reply))

The night air seemed to have an instant relaxing effect on Fiona. Pyro decided to stand quietly by and allow Fiona to compose herself and get her thoughts in order. She stood there for a long moment, Pyro thought that he was forgotten and was about to clear his throat to bring her attention to him when she seemed to notice him again. Pyro shook his head and dismissed her apology. His own mind was threatening to wander at that moment also. The nightmares were understandable, but why had they started to grow worse? During his first round of dreams they had practically remained the same, until time slowly made them fade away, but they had come back tenfold and now were steadily beginning to grow.

He shook himself out of his contemplations and brought his attention back to Fiona in time to hear her question. The hint of a smile crept onto Pyro's lips and he shrugged. "Of course, I love to stalk through the night. Hoping some poor little young ling walks by to provide me with a night of fun." A slight breeze kicked by and made Pyro's braid lift of his back slightly. He sighed, and became serious for once. "Only for the past few days." He replied quietly not removing his gaze from her. "The need to clear my thoughts has been slowly becoming a close friend of mine."

[Fiona O'Reilly S5]

((don't worry about it, I understand completely))

Fiona smiled as Pyro talked about stalking through the night. Fiona’s smile faded at Pyro’s abrupt change of tone. She looked away. It seemed they had something in common as of late. She sighed quietly and looked out at the darkness of the lake. She could just make out the ripples of the lake. The dark moving water seemed black from where they stood. She wondered if the giant squid was “It seems we both have need to clear our thoughts,” Fiona forced a small smile as she turned back to look at Pyro. She didn’t know what to say, but her thoughts were screaming out to tell him about her dream. She forced the thoughts to subside. She didn’t want to talk about the horrors of her nightmare. It was the reason she chose to go outside. She wanted to clear the thoughts from her mind, not dwell on them or talk about them. She rubbed her hands together to warn off the chill that had started to set in before she spoke again. Maybe her thoughts would clear faster if they were spoken aloud?

“I…” Fiona paused. She shook her head. Maybe it was better not to talk about such things, especially right now. The peaceful night would be broken with thoughts of horror. It would be impossible for her to calm herself down enough to go back to sleep. “I guess it’s better not to talk about what’s truly bothering us. I guess I’ll just say that dark have been my dreams lately.” Fiona felt the chill down her back as her mind saw the images replay once again. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to center herself enough to listen to Pyro. She wished her thoughts weren’t so focused and obsessed with trying to understand her nightmare. She opened her eyes again and turned her attention to Pyro. Hopefully she had cleared her mind enough to pay attention.

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro's eyebrow arched. So Fiona was also having dreams? This was a bit ironic. Two Chosen members kept up by their night time nightmares. Could there be a connection? Pyro's mind raced back to the attack last year. Fiona hadn't been there during the attack. She had shown up just as it had ended, she had been the one to help Pyro down to the hospital wing. He had been in bad shape. He had managed to dodge most of Bellatrix's spell but as he recovered another Death Eater entered, Avery, he had blasted Pyro back into a support beam. Breaking one of Pyro's ribs and puncturing a lung. Luckily, the wound was treated quickly and Pyro had made a complete recovery. The memory brought Pyro's blood back to a boil. He remembered now the anger he had felt that night, and at the revenge he would exact upon those two when he next faced them.

Fiona hadn't been part of that attack, but could she have witnessed something else that day to inspire nightmares? Pyro looked at her. "Do you remember last year, the Death Eater attack on the school?" He had to grit his teeth to hold back the growl in his tone. "If you don't mind me asking. Is that the subject of your dreams? Or is it something completely different?" Why was he asking her this? She couldn't possibly be having dreams about that time, but he had to be sure.

A lot of good things had happened due to that day. His anger at the Death Eaters had forced him to reach out to his father. To swindle his way back into the Blackfire family. Luckily his father had enjoyed seeing the new fire in the boy and had allowed Pyro back. Still, Pyro could not excuse the actions of the Death Eaters that day. He cared not for Voldemort, or even for the fact that they were Death Eaters. He cared only that they had attacked him, and he would get revenge.

[Fiona O'Reilly S5]

((Sorry it took so long to reply. Work is getting to be annoying like that))

Fiona bit her bottom lip at Pyro's question. How could she answer this question? The basis of the nightmare seemed to have nothing to do with what happened last year. However, she would not be having the nightmare if it hadn't been for the death of her mother, which had been caused by the attacks on the school last year. She had witnessed them yes, but were they to blame for her nightmare? She ran a hand down her arm before she finally decided on what to answer. She looked at Pyro, someone she considered a friend, and an ally. After all, he was a Chosen member and to her that meant everything. Could she trust him with her thoughts and feelings? Could she really tell him what was going on inside her without fear of someone else finding out? She half smiled at the thought. Of course she could. Pyro would not betray her. They were both part of the Chosen and if they could trust no one else, they could at least trust each other.

"I saw what happened that day. I remember it like it was yesterday. My dream doesn't exactly involve what happened that day, but the attacks are in a way related. It was because of the attacks that my parents are dead, because of the way I acted about them. My dream is about the death of my mother. I feel like something is coming. Something that can't be stopped. I don't know what and I don't know when, but I can feel it," Fiona said as she clenched her hand into a fist. The anger and the frustration she was feeling was rising. Things were too strange to be by coincidence. Fiona eyed Pyro cautiously. Was he having nightmares too? If he was having nightmares, maybe the rest of the Chosen was too. If that be the case then what do the dreams mean and why are they so important? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm her raging mind. She needed to quiet herself and think, not make herself more agitated.

Fiona opened her eyes and sighed quietly. The anger was subsiding, but it was still there. It was laying in wait for the moment she would need it. She looked out at the quiet grounds. They were familiar by sight, but unfamiliar in her mind. It was like staring at a friends face so long they begin to look foreign. That's what it was like. Everything around her was familiar, but foreign. She turned from the sight and focused her eyes back on Pyro. "I hope you don't mind if I ask you something as well. Are you having nightmares as well?" she asked. Her voice had come out much quieter than she thought it would. It was like the wind had stolen her words away as if they were dangerous. Maybe there was something more in the attacks than she had thought before. She waited in silent thought for Pyro's answer.

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro waited quietly for Fiona's answer. His grip tighten unconsciously on the cup in his hands. His body seem to tense up slightly as it did right before a good match. He hung on that silence eagerly, he had to know, had to find out of there was any connection. When Fiona did speak Pyro listened intently. Pyro's body relaxed, in a way. Fiona's news was good. They weren't having nightmares about the same incident, although the incident was involved somehow. It was bad news for Pyro, it meant his dreams were entirely alone, they were aimed at him alone. Yet there was a connection. Although her dream was different from his, it was all brought about by the same incident. At first Pyro had just felt the dreams were brought on by his self-hatred of the weakness that day. He had been wounded physically, and emotionally. Yet the return of the dreams made him believe differently. They couldn't just be coincidence, or just a creation of his subconscience. Could they? This bit of news from Fiona helped confirm that fact to him. He wasn't crazy, that much was for certain. The only thing now was to figure out what the dreams meant. Was Fiona right? Could something big be on its way here? If so how was Pyro and Fiona able to sense it?

Pyro turned his attention back to Fiona as she asked him a question. He glanced down at his cup and noticed it was empty. Sighing he set it down on a nearby rock. Should he tell her the truth? They were friends, and deep allies. A chosen member had to put their trust in the others, or else the group would be able to perform. Besides, Fiona had been more open with him than she probably was with others closer to her than him. Even if they weren't team members, he owed her this much. He nodded slowly. "Yea, I'm also having nightmares." He looked past her, up into the sky at the stars above. "Although, I bet I remember it in a different light than you." He glanced down. "As you probably remember I got hurt in that attack. If memory serves me you were the one to help me limp down to the Hospital Wing."

It suddenly occurred to him that Pyro had never properly thanked her for that. Had he not reached the wing in such quick order the damage could have been worse and more permanent. "Thank you for that." He nodded his thanks to her. "Although the physical wound healed." He placed a hand over his right lung. "The emotional wound stayed strong. I was beaten that day, rather badly. Anger fueled me and my sub conscience to the brink of self-hatred. I hated myself for being so weak and getting beaten so easily. Before I knew it I began to have nightmares about that day and how I was to weak to defend myself." Pyro undid the belt and slid off the sealed pitcher that was hung there. The liquid inside had grown quite cold by now. A quick flick of his wand had the liquid rewarmed and steaming in no time.

He began to pour himself more hot chocolate and continued with the story. "In time, the dreams faded. Until they were gone entirely. I accepted what had happened, trained and became stronger, and vowed when next I met those Death Eaters, I would be ready." Once his cup was refilled he closed the pitcher and looked up at Fiona. "But, in the past month, they've returned. And they've grown worse tenfold." He couldn't help but smirk. "Its hard enough to due class work when fully rested. Sleep deprivation is making it damn near impossible."

[Fiona O'Reilly S5]

Fiona listened intently to what Pyro was saying. Strange that he too was having dreams. It was like they were being warned about something, but the dreams were different. Fiona's had to do with guilt. She knew it. She had been responsible for her mother's death that day last summer. It was built up guilt that was giving her those dreams. She wanted nothing more than to believe that it wasn't her fault, but she couldn't allow herself to believe otherwise. She had been arguing with the man. She had felt his wrath on several occasions. She knew it wouldn't be long before her mother broke down and did something. She waited for that day, hoping her mother would take a stand against the man and when it did, Fiona realized it wasn't going to be the way she thought it would be. Now her mother was dead as well as the other man. Her guilt fueled the dreams, just like Pyro's resentment and hatred fueled his.

Fiona only nodded at Pyro when he thanked her. It seemed so wrong to thank her for something like that. Not when one was an ally. Not when one was a friend. Fiona stood in a bit of shock at the trust Pyro had just given her. She looked away from him and out into the night. She didn't trust her words at this moment. She couldn't trust herself. She had never thought of Pyro as weak. He was stronger than a lot of Slytherins in their year. He was trusted by her. She opened her mouth to speak still staring off into the night sky. "I thank you for your trust, Pyro. Many wouldn't dare speak about those things with another human being. However, just to let you know I never saw you as weak, especially after that attack. I watched it all unfold. You had no warning and there was no way anyone could have moved quick enough to counteract those curses. You were never weak Pyro. Never," Fiona said hard. She meant it. If Pyro thought himself to be weak then Fiona was definitely weak. She had taken her parent's death in a way that showed just how weak and baby like she was. She hung her head in shame. "If anyone is weak Pyro it is me. I couldn't stand my parent's death. I still can't. I show weakness every time I think about them or talk about them. Professor Foxcroft had pity in his eyes when he found out my fear of seeing their dead bodies again. Pity! I don't want people to pity me, I want them to envy me. I've acted like a complete and total baby the entire time, just because my parents died. What does that make me?" she asked as she turned her head up and looked at him. She decided if he was being totally honest with her than she would be with him.