The Red Rose That Has Green Thorns

I stood sat up slowly, looking around my room for anything strange. It seemed that everything was as it should be - a poster of the Chudley Cannons on my wall, a framed photograph of the extended family, everyone dozing, on my bedside table, knocked slightly askew by my restless slumber, my teddy bear that sits at the end of my bed was still there. My hair tumbled loosely around my face in messy, bed head curls, tickling my cheeks and neck distractingly, when I really didn’t need to be distracted.

A cool breeze swept across my exposed shoulders and arms, chilling me and sending a tremble up my spine. Goosebumps popped up along my arms as I turned to look at my billowing curtains. The Gryffindor red was billowing into the room in the cold outside breeze. The chill was snaking into my room through the open window.

I stood and crossed the room to close the window, wondering why it was open - I knew I wasn’t foolish enough to have opened them, not when it’s snowed a bit already. I locked the window’s latch, and turned around to examine my room once more. With a twinge of worry, I noticed my door was also open - just barely, but enough that I could see it moving with the breeze.

“Wand,” I muttered to myself aloud, hurriedly striding back to my bed, taking my wand from it’s easy-to-reach hiding place beneath my pillow. Gripping it tightly, I gave my room another quick search, seeing nothing. “Lumos!” I said so low I could barely hear it, and the room was lit brightly from the single beam of light. There was nothing in the previously dark room. As a precaution, I also checked under the bed and in my closet.

Sighing, I muttered, “Nox!” and the room was dark once more.

Perhaps my imagination was just running away with me. There was probably nothing wrong, and I was just overreacting. It didn’t explain why the window had been open, but that could have been wind juggling the latch and letting it loose.

“Probably nothing,” I reassured myself easily. The wind was a plausible suspect, after all. I kept my wand clutched in my right hand, but used my left to grab my current nighttime reading book, which was my tattered copy of Hogwarts, A History, and turned to go downstairs.

“Bloody Hell!” I heard, just when I reached the top of the stairs. I couldn’t help but to agree with the disheveled Scorpius, who was once more like a mirror of me - wand in his left hand, book in his right.

Exploring the common room with interest was a creature with awkward, bent wings. They were similar to bat wings in texture, if I had to make a comparison, but the membrane a bright, memorable green. The spines and the creature’s skin were a deeper green, with bright neon orange spots. He had large bulbous eyes, as we noticed when he turned to look, that were a neon green.

“I agree with that,” I said, directing it at Scorpius.

“This is such a twist! I never would have imagined this!” The creature bounced happily, leaving a drip of orange goop on the floor that started to singe the carpet.

“Hey! Be careful where you secrete, Spunky!” I said, lunging to correct the damage with an “Evanesco!” and a surprisingly effective, “Reparo!”

“I didn’t think ‘reparo’ would work on that,” Scorpius noted, at the bottom of the steps, looking at Spunky with faint recognition.

“I thought I was heading home, but this is not where I roam!” Spunky said, still cheery as he continued his examination. “It’s odd that I can touch and feel, when technically I’m not really real.”

I shared a confused look with Scorpius.

“Not really…real?” Scorpius finally asked, making his way to me while cautiously keeping an eye on Spunky.

“What do you mean by that?” I added, raising an eyebrow at Scorpius with a smirk. He just shrugged, not agreeing nor denying that he was a bit unnerved by my dream apparition made real.

“Well, didn’t you know? I don’t really show.”

He looked at us, seeing our blank looks.

“Umm…?” Scorpius finally sort of questioned.

Spunky let out a grunt of slight annoyance. “Surely you’ve read about the Imps of Dreams? We only appear when something is not as it seems.”

“You’re a Dream Imp?!” I couldn’t help but exclaim. “Y-you’re really, really, rare, then! So…why are you here? What’s not as it seems?”

“You’ve already figured out the problem in your dreams, the accusation was what was not as it seemed.”

“If she’s already figured it out, then why are you still in her dreams?” Scorpius asked him, in curiosity.

“And why are you here in real life…?” I mused aloud.

“There must be something else amiss, yet I don’t know what this is. As for how I am here in a solid form, I have no inkling for it is far from ‘the norm’.”

“There has to be a previous instance,” I said promptly, turning on my heel and running up the stairs to reach the bookshelves. I didn’t know what book to look for, but I picked one out at random, called Strange Phenomena of the Wizarding World, and Scorpius, who had followed me, took down a few others.

Within the hour, we were surrounded by a few small mountains of books, skimming through them. I had just reached Strange Phenomena of the Wizarding World, the first book I’d picked up, because it had been buried far beneath all the others.

“Apparating mishaps, no…” I said, reading down the index. “Mysterious disappearances, no…mysterious reappearances? Don’t think so…hang on, what’s this one?”

“They say talking to yourself is a bad sign,” a tired voice said from across the stacks of books.

“I prefer to think it just means that I’m too smart to keep it all in my head, thanks,” I retorted, jokingly, as I stared down at the index.

I hurriedly flipped to page 894 (it was a huge book…) and started to read.

Mysterious Occurences: Creatures of Legend Appear

There are many creatures known to be thought of as legend. Namely, the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, Nargles, Nymphs, and certain Imps.

I skipped ahead, and nearly fainted when I actually found something on Dream Imps - I’d not seen one word of them in any of the other…forty-seven books I’d looked through.

The Dream Imp is the rarest, and most legendary of Imps. Often, they are believed to be just myth, as they so rarely appear. They tend to vary in color, but the one thing that always stays the same is the poisonous pus that they secrete - it is a poisonous, bright orange in color, and very acidic.
There has been only a handful of incidents where one of these rare creatures has actually been seen outside of a dream. In these occurrences, the Imps themselves did not even know how or why they were in the living world. However, they can be pulled back into the dreamland, their home, if the human or humans they have come in contact with fall asleep. It will remain unknown, perhaps forevermore, as to how one of these legendary creatures can be pulled from the land of dreams and into our own.

“Here! I found something!” I cried, shoving a stack of books in front of me aside so I could see Scorpius.

I read the short passage aloud, then looked up.

“That’s more than I’ve found in every book put together.” Scorpius finally said.

“It’s not much,” I said, “but it tells us how to help Spunky get back into the dream world, or whatever you like to call it!”

“I’d still like to know why I’m here,” said Spunky, “yet I would rather be there.”

“Then let’s try to fall asleep,” Scorpius suggested, standing up slowly and gesturing toward the couch. I laughed, recalling how many times we’d managed to accidentally fall asleep together on that sofa, but nodded and headed down. Reaching it first, I conjured a few blankets and pillows.

“Now, how to lie down…?” I muttered, thinking.

“It depends on the quickest way to fall asleep,” Scorpius said, examining the sofa.

“I like to be all toasty and warm!” I said, laughing as I rubbed a chilled arm.

“Here,” Scorpius lit a fire in the common room fireplace - not that it was very close to the couch, but the warmth did permeate the air fairly nicely.

“I know the way you two should lay, if you want to fall asleep the quickest way!” Spunky said excitedly, as Scorpius rejoined me by the sofa.

With Spunky’s instructions, we found ourselves on the couch.

“This is kind of embarrassing,” I whispered, glad my head was turned so he couldn’t see the burning of my cheeks - though his bare chest might have felt them. My cheek was pressed against his chest, his arms around me and mine around his neck. Our feet were artfully tangled together, in a comfortable way, and though my torso was practically on top of Scorpius’, the rest of me was between his legs and the couch. The whole image was topped with a single throw blanket, and it was very comfortable.

So comfortable it would be easy to fall asleep, if Scorpius’ tired, “Hmm,” in reply to my
statement was anything to go by. “Sleep,” followed this, and I chuckled, snuggling closer to him almost unconsciously.

Sleep came easily.