It was two days before Harry awoke after Brian's brutal beating. He was shocked to find himself not only in the school infirmary but also to discover Remus beside him, looking as though he hadn't slept properly and hadn't moved from his side since Harry had been brought in. For a few brief moments, he wondered who had informed Remus of what had happened, convinced his parents wouldn't have. But Remus soon answered his unasked question once he discovered, with palpable relief, that Harry had woken up.
To his surprise, he learned that Brian had been punished for his actions, though not with expulsion as the teachers had wished. To do so would have required the Headmaster's authorisation, something he clearly had no intention of granting. Later, when his friends visited him, he heard about the entire school's reaction and the measures taken by his own classmates. He was rather amused that the twins had decided the youngest Potter brother was the perfect target for their pranks.
Indeed, everything that transpired during his stay in the infirmary was a surprise: from the various visits from teachers expressing their concern, to the sheer volume of well-wishes from some students for his swift recovery... Harry felt as though he had half a sweet shop in his bed; there were more sweets than he had ever eaten in his life, and many he had never even tasted. The only thing that didn't surprise him was the Headmaster's visit, as all Dumbledore wanted was for Harry to admit Brian hadn't done anything to him, so the punishment could be lifted. But for the first time, Harry decided not to let his brother escape his just deserts, nor to take the blame himself. This time, more people believed him rather than Brian.
It took five days before the Matron allowed him to leave her care, though with precise instructions that if he felt the slightest discomfort, he was to come and see her immediately. He didn't think it was strictly necessary; after all, Fawkes had aided his recovery by visiting him at night and healing some of his more serious wounds. But not wishing to upset or anger the woman, he assured her he would comply. Once out of her domain, Harry decided first and foremost to concentrate on his classes, which he had quite neglected during his time in the infirmary. He had a week's absence to catch up on, and while for anyone else that might not be much, for him, with a far tougher timetable than the rest, it was more than he could afford to lose.
While he had a lot of work, he had to admit that Brian keeping his distance was rather pleasant. It seemed he had learned his lesson well and, above all, kept well away from Harry. He was only seen during mealtimes, and during those periods, he remained at the Gryffindor table, trying not to attract anyone's attention, especially Fred and George Weasley, who had decided to continue punishing the youngest Potter, subjecting him to all their inventions (they had confessed to Harry that their ambition was to open a joke shop, selling their own products). Furthermore, the detentions he had each night had to be taken into account. From what Harry had heard, Snape, Filch, Professor Sprout, and Professor McGonagall took turns, each finding the most unpleasant tasks and keeping him busy until very late. Be that as it may, it was clear this wasn't what Brian had imagined for his time at Hogwarts.
So Harry divided his time between his various duties. Much of his time was spent in his room making the potion for Remus; after all, the full moon was approaching, and he knew Remus must have finished the reserve he had for the summer holidays. It was a pity he couldn't continue experimenting with potions, especially his quest for a lycanthropy cure, but with all his responsibilities, it was almost impossible. The same went for his lessons with Fawkes; he could barely manage any, as the bird pointed out, but with his classes and Quidditch training, things were very complicated... If only he could get a proper night's rest... but since leaving the infirmary, he hadn't ceased to have strange nightmares, though undoubtedly the worst began a week after Madam Pomfrey had discharged him.
Harry looked around, disoriented, not knowing where he was. He had thought he'd remained in his school dormitory, but now he could tell that was certainly not the case... in fact, this place couldn't even be described as magical... There was no doubt this was a completely Muggle site.
If he had to describe his surroundings, he would say he was in what appeared to be a Muggle housing estate, the kind typically found on the outskirts of large cities, though which specific city was a complete mystery to him. It must have been one of those for wealthy people, because the house directly in front of him was enormous and screamed 'filthy rich' from every angle. It was a three-storey house, quite grand, with a large garden, and it also had what seemed to be a rather expensive car... yes, they were obviously rich people.
The boy was wondering what he was doing there when he saw something that made his blood run cold: right in front of him, there was undoubtedly a group of Death Eaters, about to enter the house. Harry found he didn't know what to do, whether he should run and hide so they wouldn't see him, or go and warn the family who lived there. While he debated between one option or the other, one of the Death Eaters turned and looked directly at him. Harry thought he could no longer do either, but to his surprise, the Death Eater turned away again.
"All clear. No one to bother us."
"Very good... Let's have some fun for a while."
Harry was intrigued. How could he say there was no one? He had just seen him! Perhaps the most sensible thing to do would have been to leave and let the Death Eaters go their way, as they seemed to have ignored him. But he felt compelled to follow them, to find out what they were going to do, though he already guessed it; one didn't have to think long to know what a group of Death Eaters might want to do in a Muggle house: torture and kill.
He followed them inside the house, still without understanding how they could fail to notice his presence, and he watched as four separated from the initial group of seven and went upstairs, surely to drag the family from their beds and gather them in the living room... Yes, not long after, screams and struggles were heard, and then everyone appeared in the room, where they placed the Muggles right in the centre of what looked like a circle of Death Eaters.
The young wizard did not want to look; he knew what was going to happen, and he didn't want to witness what they were about to do. But even without knowing why, his eyes did not leave the macabre scene unfolding right in front of him. It was a young family... the adults couldn't have been more than thirty years old, and the children (twins) no more than six... He didn't want to look, he didn't want to see what they were going to do to them, but there seemed to be an invisible force that prevented him from looking away, let alone getting out of there as quickly as possible.
What happened next was not pleasant... The Death Eaters wanted to make them suffer, and the best way to torment the parents was to force them to torture their own children: they placed them under the Imperius Curse. While the mother harmed one of her children with a kitchen knife, the father beat the other with all his might. It was useless for the children to scream, to beg their parents to stop; they could not disobey the orders those dark wizards had given them. And with every cry, with every plea those children uttered, Harry couldn't help but weep; he couldn't bear it, nor did he want to. He didn't know how long it lasted, but finally, it seemed they grew tired and ordered them to kill them... At that point, death was a blessing for those screaming children, but for their parents, it was the greatest despair. As soon as the curse was removed, the man snatched the knife from his wife and stabbed himself, and the woman was not long in following him, though she was struck down by an Avada Kedavra thrown at her by the group's leader.
"We'd better leave before anyone sees us."
"Yes... but first... Morsmordre! Let those Ministry idiots know who's been here tonight!" laughed the ringleader.
Now, above the house, hung the well-known Dark Mark, announcing to the world that the Death Eaters had returned to action.
Harry woke up with a start, trembling and with tears in his eyes. Had it been a dream? And if it had been, why had he dreamed of such an atrocity? He knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep, no matter how hard he tried, so it was pointless for him to return to bed.
Seeing that it was still quite dark and that he couldn't leave his common room without getting into trouble, as curfew would still be in effect, he took one of his more or less complicated books and went down to the common room to start reading. Despite reading, or at least trying to read, his mind couldn't stop dwelling on his dream... why? Why had he dreamed that? He didn't even know the family, but now he knew their name: Grey.
The morning, and the awakening of the rest of his House, found him exactly as he had sat; he hadn't even turned the page... His mind had been spinning over the strange dream, and now he was much more aware of what had happened in it, and of all the details that had escaped him before.
"Harry, what are you doing here?" Athenea asked, sitting next to him.
"What? Oh, Athenea... Is it daylight yet? Yes, of course it is..."
"What's the matter? I've never seen you like this."
"Fairy... it's just that I was distracted."
"I've noticed that, genius, but what could have distracted you to such an extent?"
"A dream..." Harry replied after a few moments of silence.
"A dream?"
"Well, better said, a nightmare.... One of the really bad ones."
"Do you want to tell me about it?"
"No!" he replied sharply, though when he saw her expression, he added, "Athenea, it's a truly awful nightmare... I don't want you to have a hard time listening to it."
Athenea stared at him for a few moments, distractedly, as if ruminating on what her friend had told her, obviously searching for a solution to the problem without making him feel worse than he already did. Finally, after a couple of minutes watching him carefully, she smiled with satisfaction before getting up and going up to her dormitory, leaving behind a very confused boy. When she returned, she was carrying what looked like a black notebook in her hands.
"Here," she said simply, handing him the notebook.
"What is it?"
"It's a diary, silly." Faced with his friend's expression, she added, "It's for you to write your dreams, not what happens to you every day... There are times when you have certain dreams that bother you, but you can't explain them to people, so what you can do is write them down; that way you'll feel much better."
"But I've only had one nightmare."
"Well, write it down, and when you have another dream, whatever it is... Even if it's silly, write it down. Then, when you reread it, you'll have a little laugh. Will you?"
"Okay, I'll try."
After that, he took the notebook and, without even waiting, opened it and began to write what had been bothering him for hours. To his own surprise, that dream filled three full pages, and in them, he explained in detail what had happened, how the Death Eaters had tortured and killed that Muggle family. When he finally finished, he could see that his friend had been right; he felt much better.
The following days he also had strange dreams about his day-to-day life, and although they didn't bother him, he also recorded them in his dream diary as soon as he woke up. Some were even quite funny, such as Brian being pranked in which he ended up transformed into a harmless reddish kitten... they provided a slight touch of humour, just as Athenea had told him.
The diary was a great idea because that way he could concentrate on other things, such as his studies, Quidditch, and his research... Like it or not, everything was much harder than in the other terms he had already completed beforehand. It wasn't until about a week after the nightmare that he noticed something very strange happening with his dreams...
"Poor things... They had to suffer so much," he heard Jonathan say over breakfast while reading the Prophet.
"What's wrong?" asked Harry.
"Last night the Death Eaters killed a Muggle family... in a rather cruel way, too."
"Will you let me read?"
"Go on... though I warn you it's quite gruesome reading."
Harry nodded absently, before picking up the newspaper and beginning to read the news. At first, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary: a small group of Death Eaters who had wanted to 'have a good time,' or at least a good time for themselves, had arrived around midnight and, after forcing them to stay in the room, tortured and killed them... It wasn't until they started describing the family members that Harry noticed something odd... a young couple and their two six-year-old twin sons. A little more frightened, he continued reading carefully until he found the family's name... the Greys.
The boy felt a knot in his stomach as he abruptly paled... then, putting aside the newspaper, he took his dream diary and opened it to the first pages where his nightmare was recounted, and began to compare facts between his notebook and the Prophet. The result made him pale even more.
"Harry, what's wrong with you? You're very pale," asked Athenea, looking at him worriedly.
"It's impossible... It can't be true..."
"Harry, you're scaring us."
"The nightmare... the attack... no way..."
"Harry!"
"I dreamed it..." he finally replied, looking at his two Hufflepuff friends.
"What did you dream about?" Jonathan asked.
"The attack on the Greys... I dreamed it."
"Come on... that's impossible."
"It's true!" he exclaimed in fright. "It was the nightmare for which Nea told me to start the dream diary!"
"Harry, do you realise what you're saying?" muttered Athenea. "If you really dreamed of the attack on the Greys, it's very serious."
"I know... I couldn't continue to keep silent, and I'd have to reveal my abilities."
"I think we're rushing," Jonathan cut in. "I think that even if Harry had really dreamed of that attack, it doesn't mean anything. It may not happen again, and then it wouldn't do any good..."
"What do you propose?" the girl asked, without taking her eyes off her friend.
"Harry, you stay quiet for now and keep writing your dream diary... If you dream of another Death Eater attack again and then it is confirmed, we will go to the Headmaster... But we'll just tell him about your dreams, alright?"
They both looked at him for a few moments before nodding rather reluctantly; they understood that such a precaution was necessary, but they did not like the idea of allowing other killings before trying to stop the Dark Lord and his followers from such attacks.