It was darkness, a glimmering darkness.
Except for the faint blood-colored haze, it seemed that nothing could be seen in front of him. This feeling is like being under a ray of light, but with your eyes closed tightly, the only thing in your field of vision is the hazy red and black caused by the light penetrating the eyelids.
Harry didn't know where he was, and he couldn't tell whether everything he saw was a dream or fiction, reality or fiction.
He seemed to open his eyelids and take a look at where he was. But those eyelids seemed as heavy as lead, stagnant and weak, unable to be separated even for a minute and a half.
"Where is this... warm or cold? Day or night?"
He didn't know, he had no way of knowing anything. He just felt that his whole body seemed to be enveloped by a majestic force, and some kind of pain from the heart was constantly steaming throughout his body, as if he was in hell and was being burned by the fire of hell.
It was an unstoppable pain that forced him to keep his curled up body and endure it silently, hoping that this seemingly endless torture would come to an end at some point.
In the midst of endless pain, time seems like a meaningless concept. I don’t know how long it took, maybe seconds, minutes, hours...or years? In short, at a certain moment, he seemed to hear a slight sound of footsteps coming from far away, one step after another, calm, relaxed, unhurried, and walking lightly in front of him.
"Who is it? Who's there? Help me..."
Harry screamed silently in his heart, but he couldn't even move the corners of his mouth, so how could he open his mouth and try to communicate with others? However, he could somewhat feel that the other party seemed to be squatting down in front of him, and a look that seemed to be substantial was looking at him.
"Who is that? Who is it?" He endured the pain and anxiety and secretly said in his heart, "No, you are fine with anyone, just help me...save me..."
"I think you don't need anyone else to save you..." Just when Harry was about to give up shouting, the other party responded as if he finally heard his voice, "Just like 'him', he can save himself." Yes, sometimes you can only be yourself."
The voice echoed in Harry's ears, sometimes very far away and sometimes very close. It was erratic, but it made him feel a subtle sense of familiarity.
"W-what do you mean? Who are you? You..."
"Who am I? Is it important to you?" The other party gently interrupted him, his tone was calm and unhurried, "I am just an insignificant passerby to you. I have more important things waiting for me. Let me do it, and you... child, of course you are the same... "
While the other party was saying these irrelevant words, he slowly stood up straight again, as if he was about to take steps to move forward. Harry had a hunch that if he missed the other person at this moment, he might never see each other again in the future.
"Wait!" he shouted in his mind, "please tell me, what should I do? How can I leave this place?"
Under Harry's strenuous shouting, the man seemed to pause. He didn't know if the other party looked back for a moment, and he didn't know if the other party would say anything more.
After a while, while Harry waited silently, the voice sounded again.
"... Life is like a test, the answer is always in the book, isn't it?"
The other party only left such a sentence, and then continued to take his next step, moving forward step by step without hesitation, and gradually moved away from him.
"Test? What? I-"
Harry shouted suddenly, but after shouting a few times, he was shocked to find that he had sat up. As for the last words just now, they actually came out of his mouth.
In shock, he suddenly opened his eyes.
The hazy curtains, the dim interior, and the soft mattress sitting under your buttocks—isn’t this your own bedroom? Just across from his bed, Ron was pulling his face out of the pillow in a daze, looking here with a dull look on his face, and there was even a trace of crystal saliva hanging from the corner of his mouth.
"Harry..." Ron muttered inarticulately, "I asked you to hand over the answer just now, but why did you ignore me? Hmm... If our seats are close enough for the next game, remember to hand over the answer. show me… "
"Oh, I know, I will give it to you—"
Harry tugged on the collar of his nightgown and found that his whole body seemed to have been soaked in water, and every inch of his skin was covered in sticky cold sweat. After hearing Ron's sleepy murmuring, he had no interest in paying more attention to it and just made a casual remark.
"Well, thank you... Then I'll go to the examination room first."
Ron said this with half-opened eyes, and then he retreated into the bed again, chirped and continued to sleep. From the looks of it, he seems to be planning to go back to his dream and continue taking his OWLs practice test!
Harry naturally didn't care about Ron anymore. He just stretched out his hand to cover his forehead and stood in a daze.
The lightning-shaped scar that had grown up with him since childhood was still aching. The unspeakable stinging pain was somewhat similar to the pain in the dream just now. It seemed to remind him all the time that it was not an ordinary nightmare without reason.
"... Could it be that this has something to do with Voldemort?"
Harry gently stroked the scar on his forehead, and the touch from his fingertips was as slippery and disgusting as he had felt in childhood, without any change.
After thinking aimlessly for a moment, he used Occlumency again to isolate his consciousness again. It wasn't until the tingling sensation slowly faded away with the isolation that he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At least, despite the palpitations, the magic Maka gave him was still useful.
After regaining his composure, Harry put down the hand covering the scar and frowned as he recalled the past conversations Professor Dumbledore had with him about such nightmares. Although a long time had passed, he could still vaguely remember Dumbledore once telling him that everything in the dream was probably real.
Perhaps, while he was dreaming about those scenes, that scene was also being played out somewhere in the world. And the protagonist of that incident was most likely Voldemort himself.
Now, Voldemort has been defeated by Maka - at that time, the corpses by the lake in the front courtyard of Hogwarts were all published in the newspapers, which is obviously not false.
According to Maka's speculation in St. Mungo's Ward after that, Voldemort was not really dead. This point seems to be corroborated with the nightmare he just had.
But in this case, where is Voldemort now
Of course, there was also the unknown person who claimed to be a "passerby" who appeared later. After that person said some incomprehensible words to himself... or to Voldemort, he left again. Who is that person? Enemy or friend? He really had no clue.
After making random guesses for a while, Harry took a deep breath, then opened the curtain on the bed and touched his glasses on the bedside table.
It was not yet dawn, but he really had no intention of continuing to sleep. After casually changing his clothes, Harry quietly walked out of the dormitory and sat down by the window in the common room outside.
The predawn temperature was still a little cold, but he had no desire to light the fireplace. The cool air can make his brain clearer. Even if he thinks about it, he can't get any reliable answer, but that is better than not wanting anything at all.
The moon was setting and the sun was rising, and the darkness of the night was gradually dispelled by the rising sun in the east. Harry just sat there, quietly waiting for the beginning of another day.
"Harry?"
As expected, Hermione was still the first to get up after him.
"Good morning, Hermione." Harry turned around and whispered, "I remember you said that your parents are both dentists? Do doctors pay attention to cultivating good living habits?"
"What are you talking about?" Hermione looked at him hesitantly, and asked after a while, "Since you woke up so early, why don't you seize the time to review more? You know, your history of magic can be It’s still lingering on the passing line!”
"Oh, please forgive me now..." Harry shook his head with a wry smile, but found that Hermione's everyday words made him feel more at ease, "Well, actually... I think there is something I I should discuss this with you.”
Hermione walked to the armchair in front of him and sat down while carrying her schoolbag, waving her hands nonchalantly.
"If it's about reducing the amount of review, there's no need to discuss it!" she said, "I'm doing this for your own good! If you don't want to fail the OWLs exam, just follow my arrangements honestly—"
"No, it's not this..." Harry covered his face and said helplessly, "Can you put aside the exam first? I really have something very important... Do you remember? I have done this several times before. Nightmare...about Voldemort!"
"What?" Hermione heard this and suddenly paused while taking out the book, "Are you having nightmares again? Where is your Occlumency? What did you see in your dreams?"
Logically speaking, Harry's ability to spy on Voldemort in his dreams would be of great help in finding Voldemort's whereabouts. But for Harry himself, it is very likely that there will be some unknown harm. As Harry's good friend, Hermione would certainly rather Harry close his consciousness to block the connection between him and Voldemort.
But since he had that kind of dream again this time, while being worried, Hermione naturally had the subconscious idea to use it to find out.