Waking Nightmare (OPEN)

[HARRIETT POTTER]

Harriett read the newspaper about a creature eating people's souls through their dreams. There was an advertisement for help placed by an anonymous person. Based on the article, it appeared that not many people would even talk about what was happening in Hogsmeade. There was a little bit of information on the article on what they thought the creature was. Harriett went to the library to find out more. What you found was not much, but at least it was useful. You hold up the article that you ripped off the front of the newspaper in your hands and read it once again.

BEWARE, THE SOUL EATER!

Hogwarts had indeed been locked down. Yesterday, the Headmaster made a decision and stated to the students and staff that it would be too risky to be letting anyone out of the school while the threat of the Nybbas going to Hogwarts was possible. There was a RUMOR around the school that Hogwarts had its first casualty. He did not say whether or not he would be taking care of the problem, but Harriett had taken it upon herself to attempt to do it. It was causing so much strife and misery she couldn't bare sitting by idle while more and more people fell into the hands of the Nybbas. She had heard a rumor that the most common victims were children because they were so naive and were easily lured in by the villainous whispers of the creature.

The way she left the school was with the INVISIBILITY CLOAK which was passed down to her by her PARENTS, a present to the eldest child. It had been a family heirloom for quite some time and came in handy for things such as this. But Harriett never misused it for selfish deeds. This was anything but selfish. However, there were friends of hers who had known of her plans and had decided to tag along, and would not take no for an answer. At first, she was nervous about it, but then she realized she was happy to have friends along. They needed to discuss how exactly they would lure the creature in.

[RHONWEN WEASLEY]

It was amazing just how much trouble Rhonwen willingly placed herself in. Even more so that she had little trouble with doing it when she put her mind to it. While there were moments when trouble found her, it was more often that she would seek it. This would be one of those moments, considering how the situation. The school had been on lock-down due to some crazy event in Hogsmeade, though Rhonwen hadn't gotten all the details. In truth, she had only heard about the Nybass through overhearing her sister talking about it.

A creature that could attack through dreams. Scary as it was, Rhonwen couldn't help but be curious as well. Not to mention that being in the school all day and not able to go out was boring. Of course, it wasn't as if she was in too much of a hurry to leave and see for herself. In fact, she hadn't even thought of going anywhere in till she noticed how strange Harriet was acting. Which was how she managed to get to join the expedition. Her only hope was that her siblings wouldn't get too mad at her. But then, if they managed to stop this creature, they would likely praise her...right?

Keeping her cloak tightly wrapped around her, Rhonwen looked around with a blank expression, unsure as to what they were supposed to do next. It was the rest time she'd actually done something like this, so naturally she looked up to Harriet to lead. Then again,she looked up to Harriet for everything.

"Its so quiet here.....pretty spooky....Not that Im scared or anything.....not really..."

[HARRIETT POTTER]

"Hogsmeade is always scary at night. But there are a lot of people who have fallen victim to the creature we're after, so that probably adds to the creepy factor. Makes this place seem more of a ghost town than it already is. Don't worry. It'll be fine."

The fifth year smiled encouragingly at the girl as she reassured her. She knew Rhonwen was scared. Harriett had been a little worried. Rhonwen was so young and if anything were to happen to her, she would be in huge trouble! Especially with her family. Her family was so huge. Harriett was good friends with many of the Weasleys but you just never knew. Family was family and no matter how close you were to them, if something bad happened, it was never a good thing. But the girl was so persistent! Not to mention a bit nosy. Harriett had thought she had been careful and secretive enough. Perhaps that's what gave it away? Harriett was never secretive. In the distance, she heard an extremely faint screeching and paused where she was. She listened hard for the noise again but she heard nothing more. Harriett glanced at the windows of the homes, all either closed or pitch black. The howling of the wind grew and creaking noises from the old homes could be heard. Harriett was not afraid of any of it. It was as if she was immune to fear. A few years ago, however, she would have probably pissed in her own pants.

"We have to get to the inn."

Harriett walked up to an inn called "Three Broomsticks Inn". There was a man sprawled in the middle of the floor in a drunk stupor as they entered. There was a woman behind the bar cleaning some glasses. She looked stern and weary from work. Harriett put some coins on the table. Gold, to be exact.

"We'd like to have the inn to ourselves, if you please, ma'am."

The woman glanced at the gold and stared back up at Harriett, unimpressed. If Harriett didn't have the gold, the woman would have never let someone as young as Harriett and Rhonwen to stay in the inn. Harriett was wearing a black robe without the Gryffindor emblems that most of her coats carried. She was careful not to wear anything that would reveal to them that she was from Hogwarts. She wore a skirt that went down to her knees, black leather boots, a button up long sleeved shirt and a tight sweater, all underneath her warm winter robe. Her hair was long and unkempt, as usual. Her glasses were pressed close to her face. Her two front teeth bit down over her bottom lip, as usual.

"Whot's a couple of Kid's doin' 'round 'ere?"

Harriett pressed her lips closed, unwilling to reveal the reason they were there.

"There's nobody stayin'n this town, girlie. The place's all jours."

"Have you heard any rumors lately?"

Harriett pressed. The gold was enough for not only a room but for information as well. The woman froze and gave her a hard look. She leaned over the desk and sneered.

"There ain't aneh rumors we got that jou haven't heard already. Jou hear?"

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you!"

That being said, the woman snatched the gold from the counter and nodded up the stairs. Harriett hurriedly lead the way to one of the rooms and entered it. Harriett pulled out a small bottle from her robe and sat down on the bed. The green eyed girl let out a long, relieved sigh. She had prepare a [b]Sleeping Draught

[/b], a potion that caused the drinker to fall almost instantaneously into a deep but temporary sleep, and almost always to dream. The potion was extremely simple, but the simpler the stronger. A little potion like it could cause even a large dragon to be put to sleep.

"Do you (you all, if more people are joining) remember what we talked about?" [/blockquote]

[ALEXANDER HARRISON]

Normally, Alex wouldn’t even dream of trying to tackle a monster even if he knew he was capable of bringing it down, but this was a very special situation. The monster in question was doing something that really annoyed him, and one would think that killing innocent people would be reason enough but Alex’s reason was something greater than that. This thing was a threat to the one thing that he cared about above everything else: sleep. And when something threatened the best part of his day, Alex had to take a stand, and when he took a stand things got taken down.

This is why he was hanging out with a group of kids because they were going to do something to stop it, but he had his doubts about how effective the plan would be. Alex wasn’t really paying that much attention to the conversation, so he couldn’t tell you who said but one of them mentioned that it was rather creepy and their leader offered some motivational words. “Having fear is not a sign of weakness. Letting that fear control what you may say or do is,” he stated in order to justify any nervous feelings that they might be having at that moment.

Of course, fear wasn’t something that he was feeling at this moment as he was a monster, and he wasn’t afraid of something that he was. During the course of getting a place to stay, Alex was completely quiet as Harriett talked to the lady, and he was so quiet that it was almost as if he wasn’t even there. As soon as everything was paid for, they headed upstairs where things were going to become more interesting if one could call it that. “Maybe you should just run through it one more time just so everyone is clear on what we are doing.”

[HARRIETT POTTER]

Harriett pulled out other empty vials and poured some of the potions into them and proceeded to hand them to the others. As she waited for any of them to reply, she realized that they didn't really have a REAL plan. She had only told them as far as they had gotten. As for the sleeping and nightmare part... she figured that they would just have to see who could take the creature on in their dreams.

"Did you notice? The rumors were right. There are only adults left. It means the Nybbas feeds on the souls of the young. We are young, so once we go to sleep, it'll come right after us! You'll appear in your dreams just as you are now, which means you'll be carrying your wands, as well, right? When it appears, then you take the thing on!"

Harriett excitedly pumped a fist in the air as she finished the last sentence. She thought about Rhonwen and how young she was. Being a first year, she wouldn't really know many spells in which she may defend herself with. She was the youngest of the lot, so would the Nybbas go for her first? Harriett didn't know the answer, but hopefully it would be NO. If Rhonwen did happen to be the first victim and failed, it would be on Harriett or Alexander's hands to defeat him in order to get Rhonwen and the rest of the villagers back to their original states.