I've dreamed the same dream for the past three weeks. I'm running in a dark forest. There's some sort of faint glowing in the distance and I'm running away from it. My eyes try not to even look at the ground, like it's something I'm trying to avoid. Suddenly there's a dog. It's the same dog every night. It's the size of a crouched over man with shaggy midnight colored hair. It looks at me before running off in the direction of the glowing light. I chase after it, following it towards the light. I can't keep up with it. It's always faster than me, bounding towards the growing light. Suddenly we're at a cave while the glowing lights move closer and there's something hiding in the dark. It always starts in the shadows but eventually it moves into the moonlight. A wolf, hesitant and scared. It looks up at me with its big amber eyes, as if it's begging me for something but I never know what it wants. The glowing grew closer, flickering until I understood what it meant. Fire.

There were voices, muffled shouts and screams. Their words were unintelligible and I didn't recognize the voices but I recognized them as being angry. The wolf looked at me, begging with its eyes. It couldn't used words but I knew exactly what it was trying to say. "Protect me. Keep me safe."

The fiery glowing continued to glare, lighting up the cave as it drew nearer. The wolf whined, pawing anxiously at the ground. Instinctively, I threw myself over it, protecting it with my body as the voices grew nearer. They were finally close enough that I could understand the words, "Kill the wolf!"

The massive dog stood at the mouth of the cave, guarding the wolf and I from the impending mob. The lights kept growing and the the voices became louder, more determined. The wolf bucked his head into my shoulder in worried distress.

The mob finally arrived at the cave, their torches raising the temperature of the dog growled protectively at the mob, his black shaggy fur standing on end as he bared his teeth. The mob pushed him aside easily, knocking him against the stone wall. He fell to the dirt floor with a defeated whimper.

The mob didn't look like people. They looked more like an army of shadows, almost like a cross between blurred ghosts and dementors. They glided across the ground, their torches flickering in the cold night air.

I closed my eyes, clenching the wolf more tightly as I could feel the shadow mob begin to loom over me. "Kill the wolf!" the shadows yelled once again like a collective battle cry.

And then I woke up, just the same way as I always did every time I had that dream. A light layer of sweat clung to my body and my heart continued to raise. "Damn," I breathed as I ran a hand through my sweat drenched hair. I looked at the clock on my bedside table. It was already 6:46 in the morning. My alarm would be going off in fourteen minutes so there sadly wasn't any reason for me to try to fall back asleep.

I rolled out of bed, deciding it made more sense for me to claim the bathroom instead before my roommates woke up. That was one of the biggest disadvantages to having four roommates. We were always clamoring all over each other in the morning to try and get extra time to prepare in the bathroom. Well, all the gossiping and backstabbing that came with living with teenage girls wasn't exactly fun either.

I managed to get in and out of the shower before I even heard any of my roommates began to stir. I'd learn to take quick showers during my Third Year when my roommates discovered makeup. Part of me wished we could go back to the days when the only thing we really cared about before breakfast was washing off the mud. How did lipstick, eyeliner, hair straightening spells, perfume, and vials of blemish remover come into our lives? I just wanted to go back to simpler times.

"Morning Lena," Lily Evans, one of my roommates and my closest mates, greeted me as I stumbled out of the bathroom while trying to button my shirt. "How'd you sleep?"

I shrugged, "I've had better."

"You going to be able to stay awake through Care of Magical Creatures?" she gave me an empathetic smile as the self proclaimed diva of our dormitory, Courtney Schmidt, claimed the bathroom. She probably had to smother herself in makeup so she didn't look like a troll for class. The blokes at school might have thought she was fit but all of her roommates knew what kind of a hot mess she was underneath her layers of paint.

I groaned. I had forgotten that today's first class of the day was Care of Magical Creatures. "Can I just skive off lessons today? I don't have their patience to work with Stoke and I'm tired of getting bit by that damn Niffler. Of all the creatures that we could be assigned, why would Kettleburn think that taking care of a Niffler would be a good idea?"

"Well at least you get to go outside," she pointed out. "Some fresh air might make you feel a little more awake."

I nodded, "Hopefully. If not then I don't know how I'm going to survive all of Stoke's flirting. Seriously, he's almost worse than the Marauders."

She balked at the idea. "No one could be worse than the Marauders. They're the worst of everything. They're -" Her face was beginning to turned as she began her ranting. She could really work herself up when she thought about them.

"I said 'almost'," I reminded her, wanting to stop her before she gained any momentum. If there was one thing that she could rant about all day then it'd be the Marauders, especially James Potter, their arrogant, boyish leader. James had been "in love" with Lily since halfway into our First Year. He'd been constantly seeking out her affection since then. Of course, she wasn't interested and he was a complete moron when it came to wooing her so there wasn't much progress on that front.

"Well, it could be worse. You could be partnered up with Black," she pointed out, recovering pretty well from her almost rant.

I nodded. Roger Stoke, my Care of Magical Creatures partner, was flirtatious but Sirius Black made him look mild. He was a serial flirt who barely ever actually took the time to date anyone that he'd been showing interest in. He was like a puppy. He'd gain interest in one thing but then his attention would be drawn to something else more shiny and he'd lose all interest in the first thing altogether.

"And you have a break before lunch," she continued to remind me. "You could get a nap in then."

I scoffed at the idea. It was only the end of September and our homework load was already off the charts. I already had foot-long essays assigned and it was only going to get worse as N.E.W.T.s drew closer. I'd heard horror stories of what Seventh Year was like but I'd always brushed them off as being melodramatic, exaggerated recollections. Now that I was in Seventh Year I realized that they weren't exaggerated at all. In fact, they were a bit understated.

"Yeah, and maybe I can get McGonagall to give me an extension on my essay recapping our last six years of lessons in her class," I commented sarcastically. "I'm sure that conversation would go well. 'Hey professor, do you think I could turn my essay in late? I decided that taking a nap was more important than my schoolwork. I hope you don't mind.'" I rolled my eyes, shaking my head, "I think her head would explode."

She gave me a playful scowl, "I was just trying to be optimistic. Excuse me for trying."

I waved her off, "Fine, fine, you're excused. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to breakfast before the bacon's all gone. Have fun trying to wrestle Courtney for some time in the bathroom. I think you'd have better like trying to get it away from an angry manticore."

"I'm Head Girl this year," she pointed out. "I'll just give her a detention for being inconsiderate to others.

That was true. Her Head powers might be enough to make Courtney move a little faster but I wasn't sure that the Headmaster exactly had that in mind when he assigned her as Head Girl. "Whatever," I waved her off. "Good luck with the troll. I'll save you some kippers."

She glared at me, throwing her pillow at me as I ducked out of the dormitory, school bag in hand.I always loved to tease her about kippers. She hated them with a fiery passion but that was Lily. Whenever she decided that she didn't like something or even someone then she'd put her entire being into despising it. If there was one thing that could said about her it was that she definitely didn't do anything halfway.

I skipped down the stairs, feeling slightly better about the day. My brain had mostly pushed the dream out of my thoughts and I was trying to think about the day in increment of hours. Only two hours of working with Roger, only five hours until lunch, etc. It really couldn't be as bad as I was worried it'd be... Right? Then again, that's what I thought about Seventh Year and damn, I was wrong. At least it could be worse.

I noticed Sirius chatting up a girl in the corner of the Common Room when I came down. I rolled my eyes at him and the ridiculous giggling harpy in front of him. Lily was right about Roger being a better alternative than him. I guess that proved that I really was right too then. Things really could have been worse.