New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

12/24/10 You're in Hogwarts, Dummy! Do a RC!
This dream starts with a FA, as I wake up in a bed that's not my own. I roll over and lie there for a couple of minutes, then I realize I am hearing people outside of the curtains surrounding my bed. I sit up in bed and put on some clothes right there in bed before pulling the curtains aside and getting up. My roommates are in the room, they say hello to me, but it seems I have slept in a bit, and it is already time to get moving. The four of us go down into the common room where there are a lot of people talking to each other, there is a photo on the front page of Umbridge. The focus on the story is the substandard teaching going on at Hogwarts and how the students are completely disrespectful and there needs to be more discipline going on in there. That isn't what everyone is talking about, however. In spite of Umbridge's intent, her arguments were weak and had easily been rebutted by an annoyed Albus Dumbledore. To further detract from the impact of the story is the fact that there are large colored letters on Umbridge's forehead that spell out LOSER. I wonder if she has found any reprieve from having the announcement on her face… And of course since the photo is a moving one, the word on her forehead is flashing animatedly from red to blue to green to yellow… So her story is having minimal to no impact with any of the readers.

I go with everyone else down to the great hall where breakfast is being served, I look around when I get there and I spot MoSh over near the Gryffindor table talking to Harry and Hermione, Ron is there as well, and he also appears to be talking to everyone. On a whim, I go over to the group of them and give MoSh a big hug. MoSh hugs me back, and says he's glad to see me, too… what's up. Ron seems to have wanted to say something since I first put my arms around MoSh, and now he lets his big mouth run off… "Come on, now," Ron says, "That is just too disgusting, not only are you talking to a Slytherin, now you're hugging one? What's next, are you going to start snogging right here in the middle of the great hall?! Because if you do, I think I'm going to puke." MoSh says he has had just about enough of Ron's talking shit about his friends, Ron says MoSh should choose better friends then. MoSh says that does it, and he punches Ron in the face. Ron goes down pathetically easily, and he is holding his nose, which is bleeding. Ron asks if MoSh has gone mad, MoSh says he is just sick of Ron's attitude problem. MoSh says Ron keeps saying the Slytherins are a bunch of rude assholes, but the only one around here he sees acting like an asshole is Ron himself! Ron is mad, and he is looking to Harry and Hermione to back him up, but neither of them seem willing to do it. He asks what their problem is, or are they siding with the Slytherin lover? Hermione seems really hesitant, and she is trying to word what she says as gently as possible, she says that maybe Ron could at least give me a chance before assuming he knows me. Ron says he can see what was going on here, we're all tournament contestants, so anything he says is automatically wrong because he's not in the tournament, he adds that he doesn't need anyone, and storms off in a serious huff. Hermione starts to follow Ron, calling after him to wait, Ron calls back to leave him alone.

It is silent between all of us for a couple minutes, everyone is looking in the direction Ron stormed off in, I say I didn't mean to cause any problems, it's just that MoSh and I are friends regardless of which house we were each put in, and that's not about to change just because he's in Gryffindor and I'm in Slytherin. Hermione says it's not my fault, she says Ron is going to have to grow up eventually… although she really didn't see the need for punching Ron in the face… MoSh says it just pisses him off when Ron starts badmouthing me. Draco comes over behind me and asks me what I am doing over here with these… I look at him, hoping he won't say something incredibly rude, I think he is about to do just that, but he sees me looking at him and stops. He asks what I am doing over here, he says he has been waiting to talk to me. I say ok, and I say goodbye to MoSh, Harry, and Hermione to head over towards the Slytherin table with Draco. He doesn't stop at the table, however, he continues to a corner of the room where there aren't any other people. When we get there he speaks quietly, he asks how his parents are doing. I tell him they are fine, perfectly safe. I say if he wants to visit them, that can definitely be arranged. He says he would like to. I tell him we can do it after classes, or definitely sometime over the weekend. He seems satisfied with that, and we head back to the Slytherin table. Draco asks what I was doing hanging out with the Gryffindor tournament contestants anyway. I tell him MoSh is my friend, so I will be talking to him sometimes. But don't worry about anything, my friendship with MoSh has no bearing on the tournament. We finish our breakfast and then leave the great hall to our first class.

Classes go on without any problems, although I do notice that Ron is continuing to have a major league chip on his shoulder. He is not sitting with Hermione and Harry, he sits several rows away from them next to Neville Longbottom. I wonder how long Ron is going to stay pissed off this time. Ron is apparently so annoyed, however, that he screws up his potion in Potions class. There is a small explosion and a lot of foul smelling smoke coming from the vicinity of Neville Longbottom, but for once it wasn't Neville's doing… the foul odor and smoke clearly are coming from Ron's cauldron. So while Snape immediately starts yelling at Neville, when he got there he seems all too pleased to be yelling at Ron instead. Ron glares over at Hermione as if it is somehow her fault that he isn't sitting beside her to get help with his potion. Ron is doing a lot of talking to Neville, who seems a bit uncomfortable with whatever Ron is saying, but he is doing his best to hide that.

After Potions class is over, we are met at the door by McGonagall, who tells us that it is recommended for us to meet with Vegeta after we finish with lunch, Vegeta is going to tell us a few strategies that might help us in the next challenge. So after getting a quick lunch, Draco and I head out to the area where Vegeta does his training. Harry, Hermione, and MoSh are also heading there, I even spot Ron at a distance, watching the group of us as we go over to Vegeta. Vegeta is already out there waiting for us to come, he says the next challenge will allow us to take in only our wands, but obviously we will be taking our skills with us. He intends to make sure we have the skills that will help us with completing the tournament. He says contestants who have trained with him will have a distinct advantage over those who have not. Hermione asks if that is really fair to the other schools' contestants. Vegeta says of course it is, his training has been offered to all contestants, if the contestants from the other schools don't take advantage of it, that's their own fault. Draco makes some dumb comment about Ron being a dumb ugly git, and considering how Ron has been behaving here, I don't really have anything to say to deny it.

So we spend a good length of time training with Vegeta, the tournament participants have been excused from the class after lunch, so we have longer than the other students. Much of what Vegeta is teaching right now is focused on speed and agility, and then he adds in a few techniques for boosting energy levels, which in turn, will boost the power of spells cast with a normal wand. I do some of the training with MoSh, which Draco doesn't seem to like, but this time he keeps his mouth shut, not saying a single word about it. Vegeta's evasion training consists of avoiding large jets of fire that Vegeta is sending at us, this seems odd to several of the participants, others seem to understand, of course, MoSh and I know what is going to happen. Draco pulls me to the side just a bit and says Lucius had told him what the challenges would be before he got thrown in Azkaban… and this one involved stealing a golden egg from a mother dragon, so that must be why Vegeta is using fire jets for training… it's just like a dragon's fire.

There are still a couple of classes after the training is done, but those are also uneventful. In the class where Slytherin and Gryffindor are together, Ron continues to be extremely anti-social, shooting looks of anger at anyone who got too close to him except for Neville, and Neville looks like he is becoming rather uncomfortable around Ron, too… Right now Ron isn't doing too good in the friends department, since all of his friends are pretty much fed up with his attitude for now, though Hermione looks like she is really upset about the situation.

After the last class is over, I am thinking this day has been a very long day. Even though I think I have known all day, somewhere in the back of my mind, that this is a dream, I haven't been consciously thinking about or aware of the fact that I was dreaming. I have a sense of urgency, though, a sense that if I don't get Draco to see his parents soon, the chance will be missed. I tell Draco it has to be right away, or his chance to see his parents would be missed. He asks what about getting something to eat, and I say it has to be now, he can eat something with his parents, but we have to go. I lead Draco back to the Slytherin common room, which is completely empty now since most everyone else is in the great hall eating. So now what? I have to get Draco to see his parents… who are currently residing in my inner world so they won't be targeted by Voldemort… so I would open a portal… That doesn't seem like an easy task right now, considering I am not fully aware it is a dream, but I decide I can use a mirror. I end up rationalizing that I can't open just any portal while I'm awake, but I can use a mirror even if it is a dream. I open the portal using a full height mirror in the common room, then I lead Draco through it into my inner world. Q is there waiting for us, I think he knows I am about to wake up, and he says he will take Draco to see Lucius and Narcissa, and he will also take care of getting Draco back to Hogwarts, I could wake up if I need to. Wake up? Wake up from what? I'm not sleeping… I wake up, and kick myself for having that long a dream and not becoming lucid!