Chapter 41 ~ Dreams.

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Maxine smiled as Stefan entered the common room, her friend having been absent at dinner due to a Astronomy tutoring session, though she had often told him it was unnecessary. The common room was actually filled to the brim with laughing students as they congregated after dinner, but Stefan immediately spotted her in the corner where she had been reading a duelling textbook. He smiled similarly and made his way over to her, flopping down onto a seat and taking his bag off his shoulder. 

"How was Astronomy?" Maxine said at once. helping take his bag and hanging it on the seat. Her aim was to navigate the conversation around the subject of Theon and she got going straight away.

Stefan shrugged. "The usual. It was just identifying constellations. I really needed to work on it."

Maxine thumped him with a cushion in mock indignation. "You need to work on it! Have you seen me, Stefan?" She laughed. "You're perfect at everything, I still don't get why you put it upon yourself to take extra tutoring."

He laughed in return and thumped her with the same cushion. "I'm not perfect at everything." He denied with a grin. "And if you think you're bad at Astronomy, why not come to the tutoring sessions?"

She made a face. "I don't think I'm bad at Astronomy, I am. And I would do tutoring, only I couldn't take any more astronomy than I already do."

Stefan, finding much amusement in her grimace, laughed. "Point taken, you hate Astronomy." The cushion came back his way but he ducked. "How was your....evening?"

Tension came as he remembered her meeting with Theon but she steered around it carefully. "Fine. Juts been studying, basically. It was a shame you missed dinner, though. There were scones with jam and cream and-"

Stefan held a hand up to stem her words. "Please don't." He said with a laugh. "All I've had to eat this evening was a stale pumpkin pasty. You talking about food is like torture."

Maxine grinned in return, amused at his pained expression. "Ok, I won't. But it was gorgeous though." She looked at the corridor that lead to her dormitory and turned back to her friend. "D'you want something to eat now? I'm sure I've got some confectionary hidden somewhere."

Stefan shook his head. "No, don't worry - I'm gonna finish off this packet of chocolate frogs I've had for months." He stood up. "I'll turn in - astronomy exhausted me."

Maxine nodded. "Yeah, I'll do the same. Fauna and Rose are meeting up with Damian and Jack so I'll have no one to talk to anyway." She rose and picket up her jacket, also handing Stefan his bag. The two walked to the entrances to their dormitories and Maxine smiled at him as they both turned to go their separate ways. 

"Sweet dreams." Said Stefan with a grin, hitching is bag higher up onto his shoulder, which appeared to be sore from the wright of carrying it around all day.

Maxine smiled back. "The same to you. Only don't eat all those chocolate frogs - remember, chocolate gives you bad dreams."

He laughed. "I won't don't worry." His eyes grew soft in the dim light, feeling the old feelings between him and Maxine that had been stirred by Theon return. "Night." 

Maxine was still smiling as he turned away. Their bond was back. And she wasn't going to do anything to break it. 

*   *   *   *

Maxine was dreaming. A rare, strange dream. Usually her nights were filled with darkness and the few dreams she had never came back to her in the morning. But this one was different - not that she'd remember it. But it was clear and exact - and definitely not hers.

"You little nazi! Go back to the hellhole you came from!" 

Pain burnt through her body as a gaunt woman, source of the venomous words, beat her across the face. A man came, picking her up and adding to the blow. Then a face - a face she knew - approached, slipping and sliding in her view as she felt pain and dizziness.

"Cousins aren't meant to be like you. You're mad. A lunatic. You should be dead."

Medics swarmed into the room. Maxine felt herself scream a horrified scream she couldn't control. At once the two adults were covering her face, smoothing it before she was suddenly handed over to the nurses. She was in a house, a dark, damp house filled with angry and horrified faces. Suddenly she was speaking, but not in her own voice.

"No! No! Let me go! They're real, I swear it, they're real...." She was sobbing now, tears wet on her cheeks, to real to be an image of her sleeping mind. But the healers were taking her, the two adults wearing satisfied expressions and the child smiling vindictively. There was one woman in the corner, though, a weeping woman comforted by a younger girl with short hair and sad, dark eyes. The girl's face reminded her of someone she couldn't place and haunted her vision as she was taken out by the medics. She was still screaming, a scream that was not her own but was equally filled with the terror and panic she felt. 

And then it went black.

*   *   *   *

"Minx? Are you ok?" 

The soft, motherly voice echoed in Stefan's ears as he suddenly entered a strange, hazy dream that swooped in his vision. He felt fear, though, fear and terror as he looked up at the woman who's brown eyes shone with both affection and concern.

"Yes." 

But the word was a lie, an empty, hollow lie. The emotions became clearer and the vision to, and he realised he was sitting in the corner of a warm room, a group of other children and adults laughing by the fire. His arms were hugging his knees to his chest and his face partially hidden from view as he moved his gaze down again, off the woman. But she knelt down, unappeased.

"Come and join in, Minx. We're about to start playing Ludo, your favourite."

Stefan felt himself shake his head. Then the words poured out of his mouth, in a voice that was not his own.

"I'm fine. I'm just - thinking."

The woman smiled and reached up to ruffle his hair. She still had a look of concern in her eyes, but there was still warmth there. Stefan had never seen or known this woman, but he felt himself return the same warmth. Then she stood up, turning to retreat.

"Well I'll leave you to your thinking for now, Minx." The woman's laugh was pretty and amused. "Come and join in when you're ready." 

Stefan titled his gaze to watch her leave, then let the fear return and tears well in his eyes. He could see faces he knew in the group by the fire, but couldn't place them. The room was new to him as well, a cozy but dark lounge that he did not know. The vision was unclear and wholly new and he was lost to where he was and what was happening. But one thing was clear - the emotions - fear and panic and terror. Guilt for the lie he had just told. And then, as he closed his eyes, the image that flashed in his mind. A terrifying, animalistic face with great tusks and matted hair. A monster from hell.

And then it went black.