Josh woke up with a jolt, sitting straight up and breathing heavily. That unnatural green image seemed to be burned behind his eyelids. He shouldn't be able to remember it as well as he did, but it stuck with him for every nightmare after; it was only amplified after the incident in Hogsmeade.

Josh shut his eyes tightly, attempting to calm his breathing. Things were okay now, he didn't have to be afraid...

It took several minutes, plus several instances where Josh forgot to breathe and started gasping for air, but eventually he had calmed. He looked at the other beds around the circular dorm. Pete's legs dangled off the side of his bed; he seemed to be sleeping in a somewhat diagonal position. Joe and Andy had somehow wound up in the same bed, cuddling against one another as they slept soundly. Steven was so tightly bundled in blankets that you couldn't even see him. The curtains around Ryan's bed were drawn, making it impossible to tell if he was awake or asleep at this point.

Josh brought his hands up to press his palms against his eyes. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew that the skull and snake image would only haunt him again.

He slid his legs off the side of his bed and let his feet flatten against the cold floor. He shuddered as he reached back to grab his wand from under his pillow, but stood himself up to tiptoe out of the dorm room. Once he was in the hallway, he realized his chest was bare and his boxers were hung low on his torso.

"Accio shirt." He whispered with the half circle motion of his wand. He waited a moment before a shirt flew out of the dorm room and into his arms. He cried out softly out of surprise, clutching the fabric close to his chest. He shook his head before slipping the shirt over his head and continuing down from the dorm area.

Once down the stairs that lead to the dorms, he looked over the balcony that gave view to the common room. A dull fire burned in the front of the near empty room.

Near empty for the fact that one of the second years, Kellin, was asleep in front of the fire. He had books and parchment scattered out in front of him as he rested.

Josh let out a chuckle. He remembered his own frantic, late night study methods his first three years of magical education. This year, he had eased up on stressing over grades. He was even doing remarkably well with less studying.

Josh made his way down into the common room. He pointed his wand at Kellin, squinting one eye shut. "Rictusempra."

Kellin's eyes suddenly shot open. His hands shot to his sides as he began to burst into a tired and confused laughter.

Josh quickly swiped his wand up, ending the tickling charm and allowing Kellin to breathe properly. "Hey man," he couldn't hold back his own laughter, "I bet your bed is more comfortable than the floor."

Kellin yawned, looking around the room. "Where'd everyone go?" He asked, tiredly, as his brow furrowed in a tired confusion.

"Dude, it has to be at least three in the morning." Josh laughed. He pointed his wand at the spread out books and parchment, "Tergeo." All of the study tools piled into a neat stack behind Kellin.

"Three?" Kellin questioned, "Then why the hell are you up?" He lazily rubbed his eye before letting his arm drop at his side, "Why the hell am I up? I'm tired."

"Go to bed, Kellin. I'm sure that boyfriend of yours would like to hang out with you later if you don't sleep the day away."

Kellin sat still for a moment. After contemplation of Josh's words, he nodded. "Okay... Night, Josh." He pushed himself up before pulling out his wand and whispering a levitation charm directed at his notes and books.

Josh watched Kellin trudge off towards the dorms. Once the second year was out of sight, Josh looked around the common room. No light came through the long windows, due to the late hour. The house elves had already been through to tidy up, evident through the straightened pillows on couches and lack of dust on the most susceptible places.

Josh let out a breath of air. Maybe he could grab his broom and fly around a bit? Flying usually helped calm his nerves... Except for that last quidditch match against Ravenclaw. Josh was in a toxic state of mind that only allowed him to score a few of his side's points... At least he had Tyler to comfort him afterwards.

Tyler.

Just the thought of the Slytherin's name perked Josh up. Maybe Tyler would be awake at this hour? No, he was put of his mind to think that. Tyler enjoyed the coziness of the beds here, he'd never leave them if he could have things his way.

Still... It was always worth a shot.

With a small grin, Josh rushed over to the common room entrance. He pushed it open, but immediately bumped into a dark figure when he tried to exit. Both Josh and the figure landed on their butts, right in front of one another.

Josh frowned. He brought his wand up and recited, "Lumos."

The face of Brendon Urie was immediately illuminated before he used his arm to sheild the light. Josh's eyes widened in surprise. Why would Brendon, a Slytherin, be hanging out at Gryffindor tower at this hour? The only person he could imagine Brendon being here for currently refused to speak to the Slytherin.

"Josh? Why the fuck are you up so late?" Brendon asked as Josh rose to his feet.

"I could ask you the same thing." Josh replied as he extended a hand to help Brendon up. The Slytherin accepted with a gracious nod, grabbing hold of Josh's hand tightly. "What are you doing up here?" He asked once Brendon was on his feet.

A nervous laugh escaped Brendon's lips. "Ah... I-I know it's late and I shouldn't be up here-"

"You realize that Ryan is currently in a state of hating you, right?"

Brendon's face fell. He quickly attempted to hide it, however, with another laugh that only held a sad tone behind it. "I get that... I just wanted to talk?"

Josh crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway to the common room. "At three am?"

"Three thirty am." Brendon said, scratching the back of his head. "I've, ah, been trying to guess the password for half an hour..."

"It's been quite amusing." One of the portraits lining the walls outside of Gryffindor towel chuckled. It only fell into laughter when Brendon shot it a glare.

"I-I don't even know why I'm here, I should go back to my common room before Peeves catches me out in the open." Brendon shook his head, beginning to backtrack his steps.

Josh bit his lip. He had no idea if Ryan was up or not, but the same was to be said for Tyler. He didn't want to make a trip all the way down the castle in vein. "Wait, Brendon."

The Slytherin stopped his backpedaling. He gave Josh a questioning look, encouraging him to continue.

"I'll try and convince Ryan into talking if you can convince Tyler to come out of bed."

Brendon's brow raised at the offer. "Joseph?" He questioned, taking a step forward.

Josh nodded. "Yea, Joseph. Get him and I'll try and get you Ross."

Brendon bit his lip before nodding. "Alright. Fair enough. Give me twenty minutes."

"Done." Josh spoke as he backed into his common room. Brendon was hurrying down one of the moving staircases as the portrait entrance closed. Josh made his way up to the dorms two steps at a time while trying to fabricate a convincing argument as to why Ryan should talk to Brendon.

It wasn't going very well in his head.

Josh reentered the dorm to find it exactly as it was when he left. Quietly, he made his way over to the drawn curtains of Ryan's bed. "Ryan?" He whispered, "Hey mate, you up?"

The bed shifted, but no response came out. Josh reached out for the curtain in front of him, but it was suddenly pulled open. Josh jumped back as Ryan poked his head out into the room. Ryan looked wide awake. It was almost as if he hadn't been sleeping all night.

"Josh?"

Josh nodded as he tried to catch his breath. "Can... Can we talk?" He asked with steadily slowing breaths.

Ryan nodded. He scooted himself back into his bed and gestured for Josh to slip inside as well. Once in, Ryan whipped his wand out of nowhere. With it, he slid the curtains closed once again and whispered, "Muffliato."

"That way we can talk at normal level without waking them up." Ryan said as he tossed his wand to his pillow. He then turned to Josh, "So, why are you up? I've noticed it's happened a lot, recently."

Josh felt his cheeks heat up. "It's nothing... Listen, Ryan, I need to ask you something."

"Go ahead."

"What would it take for you to talk to Brendon Urie?" Josh asked quickly, flinching a bit at how quickly Ryan's expression changed.

Ryan had seemed at an even level of emotion before the question. Now, however, the look in his eye had dramatically shifted. A mixture of anger and sadness looked back at Josh as Ryan's hands tightened into holding fistfuls of bedding. "Not happening." He spoke in a voice with a slight shake to it.

Josh bit his lip. He really didn't want to continue to upset Ryan, but he had said that he would try to get a meeting for the Slytherin. "Just a quick exchange? I know you don't particularly get along anymore-"

"He left me at Christmas." Ryan interrupted with a tone that sounded on the borderline of explosion,"He wanted to take a break just so he could suck faces with some bloody Ravenclaw like I WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH!" The last of his words were screamed out as Ryan bent forward. Immediately after, he began to shake and sputter. Tears spilled from his eyes before he could hide them from Josh.

"J-just g-go away!" Ryan sputtered through his uneven breaths. He didn't wait for Josh to leave before he was resting on his side, pulling his pillow over his head to muffle the sound of his sobs.

Josh felt horrible. He rubbed Ryan's back for an instance before scooting his way out of Ryan's bed. No one had been awoken by Ryan's outburst. The noise bubbling spell had worked great...

Josh left the dorm and made his way back to the common room. He felt worse than before. He knew about the breakup, but Ryan never preferred to talk about it. He never knew the extent of Ryan's hurt.

Josh slipped out of the common room and sat in the dark hall. The portraits that weren't sleeping, or absent from their frames, looked at him curiously. Fairly quickly, however, they went about their own business. The wait in the dark only lasted five minutes until a light could be seen bobbing up the stairs and voices could be heard.

"You don't understand, I was in the sleeping groove! That took me four years to properly set in."

"I get it, Tyler, that's all you've said since I jumped into bed with you."

A small smile hooked the corner of Josh's mouth. He pushed himself up to his feet as the two Slytherins finished climbing the steps. Tyler looked sleepy, but happy to see Josh. Brendon looked up and down the hall, as if expecting to see someone else.

"How are you, Jishua?" Tyler asked with a yawn as he stepped into the Gryffindor's waiting arms. He nuzzled against Josh with another yawn.

Josh wrapped his arms tightly around the skinnier boy. "Better." He mumbled. Tyler's mere presence was enough to distract Josh from the thoughts of his nightmares.

"Is... Ah, Ryan up?" Brendon asked, timidly.

Josh looked over at Brendon. Despite Ryan's absence, there was still a spark of hope in Brendon's eye. Josh felt guilty for the words that slipped past his lips. "Ryan's not going to want to talk to you for awhile."

That flame of hope behind Brendon's eye went out like a light. His lips pressed together as he simply nodded in response. He didn't say anything else before turning and going back down the stairs he had accended with Tyler.

"Brend-" Josh reached out, but the staircase had broken off from the ledge and was shifting to a new position. He sighed.

Tyler pulled away with a hint of confusion laced into his features. "What's wrong with Ryan?" He asked, "More importantly, did you have another nightmare? Melanie didn't know, she didn't mean to set you off." Tyler's hands brushed against the sides of Josh's face. He pressed them firmly against his cheeks before leaning in to Kiss Josh. "His name can't hurt you, baby..." Tyler whispered in a break from the kiss.

Josh didn't say anything in response. Instead, he closed his eyes and leaned in to continue kissing Tyler. He didn't want to think about that; he wanted to numb the event from his immediate thoughts. He wanted to focus on the movement of his and Tyler's lips...

---

Brendon sat on his bed in dismay. He should of known Ryan wouldn't talk to him. He had never explained himself to the Gryffindor. He had caused Ryan so much hurt.

"FUCK!" Brendon yelled, slamming his fists against the blankets he sat on. Why had he even started slipping love potion to Dallon? He was never interested in the Ravenclaw like that... Where the hell had he even gotten a love potion?!..

"What the hell, man?.." Frank pushed up from his pillows with a tired irritation. He looked around before his eyes landed on Brendon.

Brendon was shaking as he gritted out a soft apology. Frank, however, didn't seem to notice Brendon's distraught. He instead reached over to pull open the drawer of his bedside dresser. He slid his hand into the drawer in search of his liquorice wands. His hand patted around the drawer, but quickly brushed against a ribbon wrapped box.

The flash of snowy white hair crossed over his mind. He retracted his hand almost immediately. Hazel eyes broke through the pink haze in his mind. Those eyes didn't belong to Jamia, yet they seemed to hold more behind them...

The sound of Brendon roughly sliding the curtains around his bed pulled Frank from the thought. They quickly began to fade back into the pink haze as Frank looked over at Brendon's enclosed bed.

He mumbled under his breath as he settled back into his own bed. He let his eyes close, but the faintest image of snowy white refused to leave his mind...