Lucid Dreaming

Title: Lucid Dreaming
Rating: R-ish?
Pairing: SS/HP
Disclaimer: Someone who isn\'t me owns Harry Potter. I promise to buy the next book if she promises not to sue me. Deal?

A/N: My second, and slightly more daring, foray into Harry Potter fiction. General idea is this is an assignment for Divinations class and things get a little out of hand. Whoops.


Things you need to know...

Blah blah blah blah = the assignment
Blardy blah blah = Harry\'s dream
Blah rawr blah = what Harry wrote about the dream.
Blah blah black sheep = Trelawney\'s response.

~*~
Monday Night

First night: put yourself in a lucid dream that foretells the future of a family member.

Harry was surprised at how easily lucid dreaming came to him and decided it would be fun to look into his cousin\'s future. Surely anything he learned would only be amusing, Dudley\'s only real future was to follow in his father\'s footsteps and be perfectly average as well as cowardly bully.

The dream shifted as dreams do, showing a Dudley that looked remarkable like the one Harry knew but the fat of childhood had hardened into what would be Dudley\'s adult bulk. Instead of the normal threatening sneer the other boy wore perpetually around Harry, Dudley looked pale and rather scared. A black shadow hung over the boy, one that seemed almost familiar to Harry. As Harry watched Dudley began sobbing in great, loud, hitching breaths and pleading for forgiveness.

Harry felt pleasantly smug and urged his dream awareness closer to find out the cause of Dudley\'s alarm, only to find that dream Dementors were tormenting his cousin. However, they weren\'t created out of Dudley\'s subconscious but constructed by an outside force or person. Harry could almost feel it… but he was becoming increasingly distracted by Dudley\'s torment. So, Dudley had nightmares about that evening. Good. Satisfaction roiled through Harry, causing him to wake up.

~*~

I dreamt about my cousin having nightmares. I think that maybe I was dreaming about what he\'ll be frightened of in the future. Maybe. I also think My dream has shown me what my cousin will fear in the future so that I will better understand why he acts the way he does. The end.

~*~

Harry, I think you could do better with your summaries and what it\'s divinatory meaning is. Please, on your next assignment, try to do a better job or I\'ll be forced to assume that you are making up your dreams. I foresee that you will have a very powerful dream this evening if you are open and receptive to it. Your grade for this paper is a C-.

~*~

Tuesday Night

Second night: put yourself in a lucid dream that foretells the future of a friend.

Ron, Harry, and Neville were walking along a corridor that kept changing, constantly shifting and rearranging itself to confuse the boys. Before they knew it they were standing in the potions classroom, gathering ingredients but Harry couldn\'t remember what potion they were supposed to brew. Fear coursed through him, Snape would know that he was unprepared... and that was when Harry realized that this was a dream.

Their potion was half finished and it was the correct color, consistency, and had the right smell - like lily of the valleys and jasmine. The scent was thick and cloying making it hard for Harry to concentrate. Snape, almost as if he had been conjured, appeared at Harry\'s elbow and the boys first became aware of his presence when his distinctive voice rippled across them.

\"I see that allowing you an extra partner hasn\'t managed to give you enough brains to create a simple vanishing potion,\" Snape hissed, the barb hit its mark in each of the boys, as each was certain it was meant for him alone.

\"S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-sir...\" Neville began, his voice barely above a squeak.

\"What is it Longbottom? Try not to mangle your speech too badly and you might want to loose the stutter if we are to hear your excuse for incompetence before old age claims us,\" Snape\'s venom was now turned on the weakest of the three.

\"Leave Neville alone,\" Harry snarled, his voice raspy and harsh.

\"I\'m sorry, Potter, did you say something?\" Snape inquired, his silky tone striking at the green-eyed boy.

\"He told you to leave Neville alone. He didn\'t do anything wrong,\" Ron chimed in, rising to Neville\'s defense.

\"Ah, it seems Mr. Longbottom is in need of two saviors as his incompetence defies the abilities of one mere mortal. Fifteen points from Gryffindor,\" Snape continued, his inky gaze spearing each boy in turn. Anger and injustice rose in Harry as his professor\'s words cut into the three of them. There was tittering from the Slytherin side of the classroom and Harry\'s gaze slid sideways to see Malfoy mocking them. Without thought Harry drew his wand and leveled it at Draco.

A firm, warm hand covered his own and his nerveless fingers surrendered his wand to his professor\'s embrace. Strangely enough there was no malice at this, even though Harry knew his waking self would rage horribly if Snape took his wand in real life. Harry turned helplessly toward his friends, Ron\'s face was suffused with a bright redness while Neville\'s face was as pale as holly wood.

\"Detention, I think, for you Mr. Potter. You must learn never to threaten another student in my class. If memory serves me I made it quite plain that there would be no foolish wand waving within the confines of this room,\" Snape hissed, a thread of pleasure worming its way into his dark, honeyed tones. A shiver of anticipation spiked through Harry, so deep and painful that it woke him.

~*~

Last night I dreamed that I partnered with Ron and Neville in potions and we got in trouble. Professor Snape yelled at us and then I tried to hex Draco Malfoy for laughing at us. Then Professor Snape took my wand from me and gave me detention. After taking points from Gryffindor.

Well, I don\'t think I did this one quite right. I managed to dream about my friends but that greasy git I mean, Professor Snape was in it as well and it really only told me that I would have to serve detention with the sadistic Professor. Again. I mean, I serve detention because of potions at least once every other week so this isn\'t really a surprise in my future. And he picks on, I mean, he isn\'t really fair to Neville most of the time. The end.

~*~

It appears that you are trying harder with your divination skills Mr. Potter, for which I award Gryffindor five points (to help make up for the ones you will lose when your dream comes true). You might want to look into the hidden meanings of your dreams; perhaps your Professor represented a darker force at work in your life. I fear that you are in terrible danger as several planets are aligned against you. Your grade is a C+; I really do want better descriptions of the actual dream. So I may better guide you to avoid the pitfalls that surely await you.

~*~

Wednesday Night

Third night: put yourself in a lucid dream that foretells the your own future.

Harry\'s waking self had been dreading this dream more than any of the others, and his sleeping self was more than a little shocked to find that he was in a dark room that had the unmistakable feel of Hogwarts and safety. There was no detail to any furnishings and the walls and ceiling were shrouded in unpenetrable shadows. In front of him on a scarred wooden desktop was a piece of parchment and his quill. Harry picked up the quill and as he did so a chalkboard appeared in front of him. Snape\'s spidery handwriting began sprawling across the board listing ingredients that Harry had never heard of which, when combined correctly, would create a tricky dreamless sleep draught.

Harry began copying as fast as he could but the recipe would continue before he could get all the ingredients and instructions down. He groaned in frustration, knowing that this would cause him no end of trouble with the potions master. Conjured from thought, Snape appeared standing in front of the chalkboard, holding the black raven quill that he normally used. The professor was drawing the tip of the feather across the bottom of his chin, fascinating Harry.

\"Mr. Potter, shouldn\'t you be taking notes for my class?\" Snape spat into the silence, causing Harry to jump in his seat.

\"Sir, the board is going to fast, I can\'t keep up with it,\" Harry protested, but there wasn\'t any real dispute in his tone. His dream body was remarkable relaxed.

\"Are you trying to make excuses for your inability to follow simple instructions or are you impressing upon me your lack of wit and sensibility?\" Snape asked, his night colored eyes gleaming in the half-light of the room.

\"I\'m trying to tell you that you aren\'t being fair,\" Harry responded with the familiar anger he was used to when dealing with Snape. This is how he was accustomed to feeling around his potions teacher - angry, frustrated, and unsure. A strange, unidentified coil of dread had begun unspiraling in Harry\'s gut; a new form of contempt perhaps.

\"I didn\'t believe that you were naïve enough to harbor the idea that your life would be anything but unfair, Mr. Potter. To be honest I don\'t see the point in teaching the Boy Who Lived useless information that won\'t be instrumental to him,\" Snape replied, his tone low and even. It was not at all what Harry ever expected Snape to say, or to even hint that Harry\'s life was already destined toward hardship and insurmountable odds.

\"What do you suggest I learn then, Professor?\" Harry demanded, his voice shaking on the last word.

\"Poisons might be beneficial, or even learning the darker potions. Wouldn\'t you like that special treatment, boy?\" Snape asked but his voice wasn\'t the unpleasant snarl Harry was expecting.

\"No, sir. I don\'t like being different. I don\'t like being marked by Voldemort and constantly hounded because of it,\" Harry responded as honestly as he could. He forced himself not to flinch when Snape reached out one pale hand and brushed his bangs away from the scar on Harry\'s forehead.

\"Marked, indeed,\" the older man snarled. Anger, so recently banked, flared to life in Harry again and he knocked his professor\'s hand away from him. Harry\'s scar throbbed and pulsed with a life of it\'s own and Snape grabbed his own forearm where the Dark Mark would be. Terror flooded through Harry, was his scar somehow activating the Mark that Snape bore? Was he endangering both of them?

\"Sir, does yours hurt too?\" Harry squeaked his voice high and reedy with fear.

\"No, it simply knows that the same hand bestowed both, like calls to like,\" Snape answered, almost as if the words were being pulled from him unwillingly. Then Snape\'s eyes focused on Harry and they held an unnamed depth to them that frightened Harry more. Panic fluttered with dark wings within him as Snape reached for him again. One potion stained finger trailed along Harry\'s cheek in a gentle caress. Harry could feel his heartbeat pulsing in his temples and throat, choking him awake.

~*~

I dreamed that I couldn\'t get my potions work right and Snape Professor Snape scolded me for it but didn\'t take any points from my house. I told him he was being unfair but he wouldn\'t listen (like always) but he was almost nice about what I should be learning. You know, stuff to help me defeat Voldem You-Know-Who. And he looked at my scar, which made it kind of hurt but not really. I don\'t know how to describe it any better than that. He said something that was, I think, in a Snape-ish way telling me that he understood about my scar. But he\'s such a jerk at times that I can\'t always tell what he means. Please don\'t take points off for me calling another teacher a jerk, but he is. I mean, he\'s just not nice. To anyone. Which is why my dream was so weird because at the end of the dream he did something to my face that was totally unlike him. It was really strange. That\'s all I remember.

I think it means that Professor Snape isn\'t the big meanie that we all think he is but he can be a right bastard he still isn\'t nice. Maybe he\'ll actually teach me something useful. Well, he kind of already has but I mean something really useful. Like something that will help get rid of You-Know-Who. Either that or I\'ve gone crazy in my sleep. I suppose that the dream could be warning me that I\'m in a lot of trouble and that I\'m just going to wind up getting myself killed, no matter what I\'ve learned here in school. Isn\'t that just dandy? The end.

~*~

You are progressing nicely with your divination of dreams, you are producing more detail in your summaries and you are trying to view the meaning of the dream from several different angles. You might have hope as a prognosticator yet. I am curious as to what the pain your scar meant; perhaps danger is closer to you than you think. Look in the recesses of your dream and read the underlying meaning. Perhaps you should approach the headmaster about special lessons for yourself? Your grade is a B. Beware of darkened places, a great terror awaits you there! I am very concerned for you.

~*~

Thursday Night

Fourth night: put yourself in a lucid dream that foretells the future for one of your teachers.

At first Harry thought the dream had failed, he was nowhere and was alone. He had a fleeting moment where he thought that perhaps this was a fortuitous failure. Then, out of the mist came Snape, his robes billowing around him.

\"Well, what do you want this time, Mr. Potter?\" Snape demanded in his normal accusatory tone.

Harry licked his lips but didn\'t say anything. There was something strange about this dream; it didn\'t feel like he was totally in control of it. Snape seemed to be looming larger than before, seemingly Harry was as small as he had been when he started at Hogwarts. The logical part of his mind told him that he was taller now, still nowhere near the stature of his professor, but no longer a small, skinny boy.

Perhaps this dream is showing me that I\'ll always feel intimidated by Snape, or maybe he will always see me as a child. Harry\'s eyes traveled up and down the potion master almost as if he was trying to understand the man through visual clues. But Snape was as austere as always.

\"You don\'t feel the need to acknowledge when one of your teachers is questioning you, Mr. Potter?\" Snape lashed out his eyes blazing with anger, his mouth twisted in a familiar sneer.

Still, Harry didn\'t answer. The dream made no sense. There was nothing here that would give him a clue to Snape\'s future; he must have done something wrong. Unless Snape was doomed to try and torment Harry for the rest of his life. The thought made Harry feel a small amount of pity for Snape, shocking his dream self. Never before had he felt anything toward his teacher that wasn\'t animosity, anger, or cruel indifference. Perhaps Snape was becoming more like a person to Harry, he was slipping out of the realm of being a two-dimensional character that lived to torment school children and steal away house points.

With a swiftness any viper would envy Snape reached out and clamped his hands on Harry\'s shoulders, his fingers digging in mercilessly. Harry could feel the pain in a detached manner, still stunned from his revelation. Snape was a person. One who existed beyond what Harry knew of him, one who would continue to change long after Harry had left the school.

\"You\'re only doing that because that\'s what I think you would do,\" Harry announced, lifting his head to meet Snape\'s steady gaze. Shock and amazement transformed the man\'s face for a fleeting instant before it resumed the normal, pinched lines that Harry was used to.

\"Impertinence as well as disobedience,\" Snape growled, his tone low and menacing, the exact right thing to say that would normally send Harry into a rage. But anger had left him, and all the boy had was sense of the inevitable.

For a moment Harry started at him with a puzzled look, then with a care and slowness that Harry almost never showed he lifted his hands and placed them on Snape\'s shoulders. A shiver ran through his teacher and his clawed hands dug in deeper to the spare flesh on Harry\'s shoulders.

\"I don\'t think you really want to hurt me. I don\'t think that you believe half of what you say about me. I think that there\'s more to you than you let us see,\" Harry breathed out, the words had an edge of reverence to them.

\"You are partially right, Mr. Potter, you do not think. Now unhand me,\" Snape shot back, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

\"You first, Professor,\" Harry challenged, a small smile playing about his lips.

\"Insolence as well,\" the other man noted in a bored tone, but didn\'t remove his hands.

Suddenly, Harry was aware of their position, how close they stood to each other, and the strangeness of the dream. What could he possible learn from all of this? There had to be more to it, unless he was right and this dream was a failure.

\"Sir, what do you want with me?\" Harry asked; nervous about what response he might receive.

Now it was Snape\'s turn not to answer, he just stared at Harry with inscrutable eyes that were as dark as the finest Indian ink. Harry was becoming more and more unsettled, and the more nerve-wracked he became the more strange thoughts that bombarded him.

\"I don\'t think little boys should ask questions when they aren\'t ready for what the answer might be,\" Snape finally said to him, his voice reluctant and strained.

\"In case you haven\'t noticed, I\'m not so little anymore. I wouldn\'t ask if I didn\'t want to know,\" Harry told him in a petulant voice that made him sound years younger than what he was.

Snape leaned his head closer to Harry so that his professor dominated Harry\'s field of vision. The taller man gave a slight sigh, the breath ghosted across Harry\'s skin making him shiver. Suddenly, Harry thought he knew what the answer might be and shock painted itself across his features. Snape noticed and began to move away, his hands beginning to release Harry\'s abused shoulders.

\"No,\" Harry told him and pulled Snape back to where he had been. Then, greatly daring, Harry lifted himself on tiptoe and kissed the man. It was clumsy and unplanned; it was also a shock to both parties who managed to almost mangle the kiss.

\"You...\" Snape began, only to be silenced by Harry\'s mouth, who thought he might know a way to make this kiss better. Harry\'s pink tongue sneaked out and lapped at his professors lips and suddenly Snape responded. The man was almost too gentle, which annoyed Harry to no end. Snape wouldn\'t be this kind, not the Snape Harry knew.

Harry, annoyed still, nipped at Snape\'s lower lip daring the man to release his restraint. And Snape did, bruising Harry\'s mouth with his passion as he licked at the boy\'s palate. Harry was surprised at the pleasant odor of Dragons Blood, camphor, and frankincense that clung to his professor.

Snape twisted Harry\'s head to the left and bit into the soft skin beneath the jaw then began to suck. Harry squirmed, the pain and pleasure forcing him out of the dream into the waking world. He bolt upright in his bed, hard as rock with latent pleasure swimming through his veins.

~*~


Last night I dreamed about Professor Snape. I dreamed that he was a different person than what he makes out to be in the classroom and we (the students) probably do underestimate him a lot. My dream started by not being anywhere recognizable, but I still think that I was in Hogwarts. Mainly we talked. Me and Snape Professor Snape. He explained some important things to me as showed me some stuff that I never would have thought of on my own. I think that he might actually be a really good teacher. He just likes to be a snarky bastard pretend to be meaner than what he is. Which is probably why he scares the snot out of the Slytherins. Come to think of it, he\'d probably have to scare them to keep that House in line. I think this dream was more for me to figure him out than for me to see his future. Well, I may have seen a little of that too but it\'s kind of fuzzy. Too fuzzy for me to write about.

I think that I was supposed to learn that all of my teachers have more a life than just teaching, I guess I should know that by now since so many have offered me special courses and have done a lot to save me when Voldem You-Know-Who has threatened me. I was kind of sad at the beginning of the dream so I wonder if something bad will happen to Professor Snape. That would kind of suck since I\'m just learning to appreciate him. And all my other professors. The end.

~*~

Harry, I am becoming increasingly alarmed by your strange fascination with Professor Snape. He is a Slytherin through and through, even though these are just dreams I worry that he may be exerting an unnatural influence over you. It is well known that he was thought to be a sympathizer with You-Know-Who and I wouldn\'t want him leading you astray by thinking that his type of life is glamorous. Now, I\'m not one to speak poorly of another teacher, but I think you must reconsider what this dream meant. It could have been a portent showing you that even those who appear to be good and true and loyal may be corruptible. The smoke scrying I did today was most emphatic that you are in Serious Trouble soon and I cannot stress how important it is that you stay away from those who might have Dark leanings. If this continues I\'m afraid that I will have to speak with the Headmaster to see if there is Dark Magic being used against you.

Your paper shows that you are trying very hard to master this very tricky sort of divination, you must relax your inner dream eye and allow the images it shows you to become clear and in focus. You must be trying too hard which is why details are fuzzy for you. Remember, relax the dream eye. I am so pleased with the progress you are making, your grade is a B+.

~*~

Friday Night

Fifth night: put yourself in a lucid dream that foretells the future happening somewhere on Hogwarts grounds.

Harry had been anxiously awaiting this dream all day, his dream self had pushed into the dream as soon as his head hit the pillow. A small spiral of fear curled at the base of his spine as he remembered what Trelawney had written on his homework that day but he vigorously ignored it. He already had a \'dream\' ready for her.

He was, of course, in the same unknown foggy area of Hogwarts that he had visited last night. Snape would be here soon. Harry could feel it, the way one knew certain things in dreams. His bones murmured the truth of the encounter as his dream self felt lightheaded with expectation. Harry wanted more than a kiss tonight. It would have to last him for a while. No, it wouldn\'t... Harry could dream about this any time he wanted. Every night until graduation he could tailor a dream to suit his needs. Harry laughed at the thought.

\"What is so amusing now, boy,\" Snape demanded in his peppery voice. Full of venom but unable to bother Harry in his dream.

\"I was thinking of all the thing I could do to you in my sleep,\" Harry taunted, his mouth curled in an almost smile.

\"I doubt that there would be much of interest in the nocturnal fantasies of one such as yourself,\" Snape yawned, almost as if the very idea was too boring for his tastes.

\"It\'s not my fantasies I\'m worried about,\" Harry responded with a small amount of heat in his tone. Suddenly Snape\'s eyes were riveted on the boy; they were coldly calculating and deadly.

Without warning Harry found himself wedged between a desk and the wall, the desktop digging into his side. It was the perfect counterpoint to the kiss that was being branded on him. His hands were scrabbling across Snape\'s robes as he tried, unsuccessfully, to get underneath them. Snape\'s long, elegant hands seemed to be everywhere, pressing and pinching and caressing. It was all bruising and arousing and Harry had never known anything like it, it was all that he had hoped for and damn it all that this was but a dream.

\"Please, sir,\" Harry groaned through clenched teeth as Snape\'s adept hand wiggled beneath Harry\'s robes.

\"For what are you begging now?\" the older man growled between administering love bites across Harry\'s collarbone. Somehow Harry\'s robes had become completely disheveled, baring all sort of strange bits to his professor.

\"I want to touch you too,\" Harry managed to gasp out as Snape\'s hand cupped Harry\'s swollen erection. With a deft movements that Harry couldn\'t fathom Snape was wringing the passion out of him with each flick of his fingers. It was delightful torment, bordering between pain and pleasure.

\"Perhaps next time,\" Snape murmured in Harry\'s ear before sinking his teeth into that perfect curve as his hand pulled and twisted in perfect counterpoint. Harry\'s hips bucked as in one heated moment he tumbled over the edge and reached his climax. He awoke with his sheets clinging to him from the hot, wet, stickiness of his orgasm. Damn the dream for being so short, and damn Snape for making it that way.

~*~

I was in the Great Hall in my dream and I was a little older and I was being given an award of special service to the school. I was also holding the house cup and the Quiddich cup. I was the Quiddich captain too.

I think that this means that I\'ll get to defeat You-Know-Who and that Gryffindor will win the house cup for my last year here at Hogwarts. Everyone knows that we have to pick a new Quiddich captain soon since Ron will be leaving early to begin his special training with the Ministry. I guess it\'ll be me and that we\'ll win the cup. I bet that good things are going to happen to me for the end of the term since so much bad stuff has already happened. The end.

~*~

Harry, after the other vivid dreams you had I was a little surprised at the blatant wish fulfillment in this one. I do wish you had tried harder on this dream as I was hoping it would help to reveal some of the darkness that is gathering around you. I fear that you are in mortal danger, yet you refuse to take these warnings to heart. I have already informed your head of house of the disastrous rune spread I had concerning you, so don\'t be surprised to receive a summons from Professor McGonagall to discuss your safety. You need to be more responsible with your divination practices and not just let the dream show you what you want to see.

While you followed the letter of the assignment, I can\'t help but feel that you\'ve left out something important. No matter, I already knew that this last dream from you wouldn\'t be quite up to par. I had already marked your grade as a C-, and I see no reason to change it. Do try harder on the next assignment, I would hate to award you the low grade that my morning tea leaves showed me giving you.