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The nightmares wouldn’t end. Harry clutched his head, damp with sweat, chest heaving as he kicked off the covers, waking his husband beside him.
“What is it, dearest?” Thor asked him, sitting up and rubbing Harry’s back soothingly, not wanting to intrude too much upon his space.
“I can’t get him out of my head. I mean, he’s dead. All I can see is the battle: flames, smoke, and the screams of dying people. Even now, I can smell the copper of the blood that soaked the battlefield. It’s so real in my dreams that I can almost taste it.”
“Shall we dream walk together?” Thor asked him as if this was something normal he requested every day. Harry had no clue what he was talking about.
“Dream walk?”
Thor kissed Harry’s forehead and wiped away some sweat with his thumb. “You fall asleep in my arms. I’ll enter your dreams. I’ll walk with you, help you through it, and we can defeat your enemy once and for all.”
“I’d like that,” Harry sighed. “Anything to get these damn dreams to stop. I wake up feeling like I haven’t rested at all.”
They nestled down once Harry had cleaned up and had a cup of tea, Thor quiet and contemplative beside him on the sofa. Now in bed once more, it seemed to take Harry forever to get back to sleep, but Thor was a patient, steady presence, and his body and life force hummed with a soothing energy, lulling Harry into a deep, tense dream.
Harry was lucid, aware he was dreaming. That had never happened before. He’d always felt entirely out of control in his dreams, as if the waking nightmare never ended. Thor was by his side in no time, taking his hand.
“How is this possible?” Harry asked Thor, confused.
Thor just smiled that enigmatic smile of his. “In dreams, anything is possible. Let us begin.”
Instantly the grounds of Hogwarts in all of its glory surrounded them with the smoke, blood, and smells, the horrid sounds, the horror of battle, and all that came with it. A giant stomped towards them, ready to strike.
“Thor, watch out!”
“Use your wand!” Thor told him calmly, and Harry was going to protest that he never had his wand in his dreams, yet there it was. He uttered a spell, blasting the giant backward onto its arse.
“That – that’s incredible!” he cried, just as another giant and some lovely spiders came chittering at him from all directions.
“Again! Do it again, my love!”
Harry uttered more spells, waving his wand around them and blasting them all in a burst of roiling smoke and hot air. One could practically smell the burning of the spider legs as they died in agony.
“You – it’s you. You make me strong,” he told Thor above the din surrounding them.
“No. You need some encouragement to believe in yourself,” Thor replied. “Onward.”
They trekked through the grounds, almost silent observers of the happenings, and time seemed to slow down to a crawl until Harry could see each blow or blast coming, easily avoiding it.
“What happens next?”
“A Death Eater – I don’t know which one he is – comes at me, casts the Cruciatus at me, and then I’m on the floor writhing in pain.”
“This one?” Thor gestured, and Harry nodded, time speeding up again. “Now, what will you do?”
Harry barreled into the Death Eater just as the man raised his wand, pummeling him with his fists until they were bloody and the man’s face was a mere pulp beneath him.
“I think you got him, love,” Thor said gently and helped Harry off the man, wiping the blood on his jeans.
“God, that felt good. I’ve always wanted to do that.”
“Let’s continue,” Thor encouraged, and they went deeper into the grounds.
A snake slithered out of the darkness, shrouded in smoke, opening its mouth full of fangs as if ready to strike.
“It’s Nagini!” Harry panted in fear.
“What happens with this one?” Thor inquired.
“She squeezes me to death after she bites me.”
“Let us calm the beast together,” Thor told him.
“How? Can you do this? I didn’t know!”
“It’s only a dream. Anything is possible in dreams. Give me your hand.”
Harry and Thor joined hands, and Thor led Harry toward the beast. He started chanting in an old language, and Harry found himself speaking parseltongue, understanding he was singing it a lullaby.
Slowly, the snake’s head weaved back and forth, its mouth closed, and at last, its head dropped to the ground as it fell into a deep sleep.
Harry practically slumped in relief. “Oh, thank Merlin.”
“But this is not your biggest fear, is it?” Thor asked him gently once more, and Harry shook his head.
“You know it’s not. Voldemort is always there right before I wake up. He kills everyone I love and lets me live so I know the pain of living without them.”
The brutal honesty almost broke Thor’s heart. “Let us defeat him together.”
“But how? He’s so powerful!”
“Only in your mind do you give him power. He does not truly have it over you.”
As if on cue, as they began walking again, Voldemort stepped from the shadows.
“The Boy Who Lived, come to die!” he cackled and raised the Elder wand.
Harry’s friends and remaining family came out from behind him and, one by one, offered themselves up like a sacrifice so that Harry might live.
“No, not again! No!” Harry dropped to his knees and covered his eyes. “I can’t do this again. Please let me wake up. Please, Thor. PLEASE!”
“No. Come. It would be best if you defeated him once and for all. Summon the lightning with me!”
Thor yanked Harry up by the back of the jacket and grabbed the hand with his wand, pointing it at the sky. Storm clouds rumbled and shook the earth beneath them; a great spark lit the heavens and split from its perch, arcing down to strike the thing known as Voldemort. His entire frame enveloped in high volts of electricity, Voldemort seemed to freeze in place, everyone around them frozen as well, like in a poorly timed cartoon.
“Now!” Thor shouted, and they released the power together, Harry falling tiredly into Thor’s waiting arms.
Where the monster stood was a pile of charred ash.
“I – I did it – I defeated him. WE defeated him.”
“And so you have. Come now; you are emotionally and mentally, and spiritually drained. Let us sleep. When you wake, we will process all that has happened and move on with our lives.”
“No more nightmares?”
“No more nightmares, my love.”
“Thank Merlin. And thank you, Thor.”
“You are most welcome.”