I do not own Harry Potter or Inception.
Full copyright rights go to their respected owners.
Chapter One:
Dreams Feel Real When We're In Them
Classes were particularly boring today, despite Hermione Granger's enthusiasm and obvious ambition in Magical Architecture. They were learning about the long term affects of using magic to hold up an entire building – and Hermione couldn't help but think about her dear friend Ron Weasley who's house, the Burrow, was held up by centuries of pure blood magic.
Hermione's hand shot up as she noticed an obvious flaw in her professor's theory.
"Sir, please. I do believe that your theory is flawed." Hermione fiddled nervously with her wand. "Surely buildings can be held up perfectly fine for centuries using original and pureblood magic?"
"Are you suggesting, Miss Granger, that all old architecture has more chance of holding up in this century than buildings that were built this year?"
"Yes I am because the magic has had more time to fuse together and mould to shape the foundations of what it is enchanting."
There was a silence in the classroom as Professor Tura considered her words.
"I do suppose you are right, Miss Granger." The entire class stared at Hermione, who had blushed a fierce shade of red. "Class dismissed."
Hermione began to gather her things when Professor Tura called her over.
"Miss Granger, there is someone I'd like for you to meet." Her Professor gestured to someone at the back of the classroom. They were leant against the door frame and Hermione scowled immediately upon recognising the trademark peroxide blonde hair.
"I believe and I have already met." Hermione informed scathingly, as Draco Malfoy walked towards her and her Professor. He was dressed in black trousers and a plain crisp white shirt, un-tucked from his belt. Despite the obvious differences to his former elegance, he still looked like the pompous brat Hermione knew from Hogwarts. Even though they had made amends after the War and Hogwarts, they had made it pretty obvious to each other they wasn't going to suddenly be best friend material.
"Believe me, Granger, I do wish there was someone else other than you, but I suppose you're going to have to do." Draco leant against one of the desks and folded his arms over his chest, watching her intently with silver eyes.
"Sir, what is he talking about?" Hermione heatedly rounded on her Professor, who simply chuckled.
" has a job offer he would like to discuss with you." Professor Tura folded his hands on his desk and waited for the explosion from Hermione. Hermione rounded on Draco and couldn't help the interest that leaked into her voice.
"Some kind of work placement?" Hermione asked, watching with knitted eyebrows as Draco beckoned for her to leave the room with him. She glanced at Professor Tura who dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
"Not exactly." Draco replied once they had left the confines of the Magical Architecture classroom. They walked in silence down the halls of the Ministry, Hermione unsure of what to ask now.
"Well what is it then?" Hermione asked, stopping short and waiting for him to turn around.
"It's top secret, Granger. Hence why you have to come with me to somewhere private." Draco rolled his eyes and set off down the corridor again, not slowing his fast pace when Hermione had to jog to catch up with him.
"I don't even know what department you work in." Hermione admitted as they stepped into the gold shuttered elevator and pressed the lowest floor.
"Department of Mysteries."
"I work in security, Granger." Draco said, sipping his tea from the white china cup as they sat outside a little café. Hermione held her cup in her hands to warm her fingers, the cool Autumn breeze icing her skin. "A special kind of security."
"You're talking about dreams, aren't you?" Hermione said, as she raised the cup to her lips. Draco nodded.
"Doesn't surprise me that a know it all like you knows about that, even if it is top secret." Draco's lips curled into a smirk.
"My best friend does work in the same department, Malfoy." Hermione rolled her eyes at him but couldn't help the light hearted smirk that she sent his way. "I know that the Department of Mysteries studies dreams now."
"True, and he's the one who has employed me." Draco watched as Hermione's mouth dropped into an 'O'
"Really? And why are you employing me and not Harry?"
"Because I need to form a team." Draco folded his hands on the table.
"Tell me about this job offer then." Hermione asked, tucking her wavy hair behind her ears and looking at him intently.
"I work with the mind and it's true what they say, that we only use a fraction of our brains to it's full and true potential when we are awake. But when we are asleep, our mind can do absolutely almost anything."
"Such as..?" Hermione interrupted, much to Draco's annoyance.
"Imagine, Granger, that you are designing a building, something you do consciously. But sometimes it can feel like it's designing itself, if you know what I mean?"
"Yes I do, like I'm discovering it." Hermione's eyes lit up. "Like, a genuine inspiration."
"Exactly. But in our dreams our mind continuously does this until we leave the dream. We create and perceive our world at the same time but we don't even know it's happening-"
"Because it's subconscious." Hermione interrupted again and Draco nodded.
"We don't know it's happening so it allows us to get right in the middle of that process."
"I don't understand." Hermione's eyebrows knitted together in frustration., "How?"
"We take over the creative part and that is where, you, Granger, come into this whole thing." Draco pushed his empty cup across the table. "You create the world of the dream. Design it like a building. You bring the subject into the dream, and they fill it with their subconscious."
"Really Malfoy." Hermione's tongue clicked against her tongue in disbelief. "How am I ever going to convince them it's actually reality?"
"You're a bloody witch, Granger." Draco glanced around their surroundings, a little café in the middle of a Muggle street. "Dreams feel real when we're in them, Granger. It's only when we wake up do we realise something was actually strange."
Hermione stared at him, trying to decipher his words.
"Okay, see it this way. You never actually remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up in the middle of what is going on in your dream.."
Hermione glanced around her, at the people walking by, going about their daily business. Some couples were holding hands, some individuals were talking on mobile phones holding shopping bags. Why was she in Muggle London?
Draco was watching her closely, and he could sense she was beginning to understand.
"I guess I know what you mean." Hermione nodded, not moving her eyes away from the people walking by until Draco's next question had her riveted in her seat.
"Explain how we got here then."
"We just came from the uh.." Hermione trailed off. "We were at Magical Architecture then.."
"Granger think about it. How did you get here? Where exactly, is here?"
"It's Muggle London." Hermione answered then immediately realised she'd said the wrong answer judging by Draco's tiny shake of his head. The proper answer dawned on her. "Wait, we're dreaming?"
"You're in a dream right now." Draco leant back in his chair and watched with amusement as Hermione's expression grew weary and disbelieving. "We're in the Department of Mysteries and this is your first ever lesson in shared dreaming."
Hermione began to panic, their cups beginning to tremble in their saucers. Draco reached out and grabbed her wrist. He could feel her erratic pulse rate under his pale fingertips and cursed under his breath.
"Stay calm." A deafening roar was heard all the way throughout the street, and Hermione jumped in her seat, just as the local newspaper store exploded inside, the papers scattering into the air like multicoloured butterflies. One by one, the shops and buildings down the street and around the corner of the café exploded, everything floating around the place like individual little shards.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion to Hermione, who couldn't help but glance around in awe at everything exploding around them, as they sat there at their little table, untouched and watching.
The explosion's grew closer to them and Draco instinctively bowed his head onto the table, not bothering to tug Hermione down with him. She had to learn. He could faintly hear her shouting;
"Malfoy, if it's just a dream, then why are you-" Hermione's voice was abruptly cut off.
Hermione's eyes shot open and her hands flew to her face, that only moments ago felt like it had been sliced repeatedly by glass.
"It's real, Granger. Hence why a face full of glass hurts." Draco was sitting opposite her, watching Hermione as she glanced around and slowly began to calm herself down. A bit sodding late for that, Draco thought amused.
"Yeah, a dream is never just a dream. It's real too." Another voice spoke out as it came closer to them both and Hermione wrinkled her nose when Blaise Zabini came into view, his hands in his pale slacks. He had a crisp white shirt under his grey waistcoat that contrasted sharply with his dark ebony skin. He smirked down at her.
"How did architects become involved then, Malfoy?" Hermione addressed Draco, turning her back on Blaise who just chuckled to himself.
"We need someone to design the dreams, of course. And we needed you in particular – we're both terrible at designing and you're trained in your field."
"I'm not trained to design dreams and rearrange someone's subconscious mind!" Hermione sat up in her chair abruptly and noticed the needle sticking into her wrist, attached to a clear wire. She followed it down to the briefcase at their feet, attached to various different things.
"Is that, some sort of Muggle contraption?" Hermione couldn't help but ask and Blaise grimaced.
"We're using it combined with magic, it has a much longer and profound effect." Blaise replied.
"Blaise, would you give us five more minutes, I need to teach her architecture." Draco asked and Blaise nodded, bending down to the contraption on the floor and fiddling with it a little bit, but Hermione had no idea what he was doing.
"We were talking longer than that." Hermione narrowed her eyes, which were aching with exhaustion.
"Five minutes in the real world is an hour in dream world." Draco shrugged and began to unfasten his button on his sleeve. "Are you ready to go back into it?"
"I won't get a face full of glass again, will I?"
"No I'll give you a kick."
"You had better not kick me, Zabini." Hermione snapped and both men laughed, causing Hermione to huff in exasperation.
"Not an actual kick, a kick. Like, dropping you backwards into a bath of ice-water or a sharp jolt. Something that would wake you up."
"Okay, you had better do." Hermione mumbled, settling back down on the chair. "I don't want to be stuck there forever."
Draco and Blaise exchanged a look that went unnoticed by Hermione. Draco hooked himself to the machine and waited for Blaise, who pointed his wand at the contraption and allowed his magic to seep into the wires connected to both the witch and the wizard, who's eyes rolled in their sockets.
Hermione and Draco were standing side by side in the same street in Muggle London, the café to their left.
"Why does everything look the same?" Hermione asked, walking off down the street with Draco following closely behind, watching her.
"It's the basic layout, you see. There's book stores, florist and the café. Do you remember seeing all this?"
"Not really. I didn't take much notice." Hermione smiled at a woman who passed by but she just carried on walking, only sparing Hermione a mere glance. Hermione frowned. "Who are all the people? Are they in the dream too?"
"No, they're projections." Draco shrugged, even though she had her back to him. "of my subconscious."
"This is your dream?" Hermione asked, whipping around and staring at him, shocked. "Why would you allow me into your dream?"
"This is your dream, Granger." Draco rubbed his temple. He could feel a headache coming on. "Remember, you are the dreamer, you build this world you are standing in. I am the subject, my mind feeds you what you need, like the projections of my subconscious. You can talk to the people if you like. That's what we do, to extract information. Such as secrets."
"I can feel a headache coming on." Hermione groaned and Draco chuckled.
"Why don't you try constructing something?" Draco suggested. Hermione looked around.
"Can I use Magic?" Hermione asked, pulling out her wand.
"I wouldn't, not in this dream. It's Muggle London, you don't want to expose us."
"But Malfoy this is a dream. My dream." Hermione pointed her wand at a car and levitated it in the air a few inches. Draco's subconscious stopped and turned their heads mechanically, watching as Hermione lifted the car higher with her wand.
"Granger stop." Draco hissed, pulling Hermione's hand down, the car falling with a smash back onto the concrete. "Now you've done it."
"What? It's just a dream Malfoy." Hermione pocketed her wand.
"You don't get it." Draco grabbed Hermione by the arm and led her away from prying eyes. "That was completely out of the ordinary, they're not used to seeing a car being lifted up into the air."
"IT'S A DREAM!" Hermione screeched, not understanding why he didn't get it.
"And they feel real when we're in them!" Draco screeched back. Hermione flushed and looked away.
"What happens now?" Hermione asked, as people had begun to purposely move to see the couple standing by the fruit and veg stand.
"We need to move." Draco walked back out onto the road and Hermione followed, but they stood came to an abrupt stop when they hit an invisible barrier. Hermione flattened her palms against it.
"I don't understand, why can't we go any further?"
"Because you've come to a mental block, you need to move it in order to pass through." Draco said, standing back to let Hermione explore the invisible barrier.
"Wait, I'm the architect, I can make it into whatever I want." Hermione felt along the barrier and envisioned a handle. Once she had found it she took hold of it and pulled, opening up a large mirror like door that opened up to the same thing she was staring at, only this time she found she could pass through it easily.
"Woah." Hermione said as she flounced off around the corner. "This is so amazing. Did you see what I just did?"
"I did it was pretty cool. Just be careful not to make huge changes because you'll attract my subconscious again. Remember, I am the subject, you're suppose to be attracting me not them."
Hermione nodded and continued on forwards.
"What happens when you start to mess with the physics of it?"
"It's what you've just done, you changed the space and feel of the dream when you created the door."
"Can I do something like..." Hermione asked and before she could even finish she'd already imagined the world she was standing on, ontop of the world she was standing on. The floor, rolled itself up like you would a rug so when Hermione and Draco looked up, all they could see was what they could see on their own level.
"What did you do?" Draco asked as they walked up on the road that was on front of them, instantly flipping them onto where the sky would have been.
"It's extraordinary, isn't it?" Hermione whispered. "It confuses me but it's so extraordinary."
"It is." They carried on walking, and Hermione began to notice Draco's subconscious staring at her again.
"Why are they all staring at me again?"
"Because they can tell that someone else is creating the world. They're not used to you doing this." Draco shoved his hands in his pockets. "The more and more you change things, the quicker my subconscious begins to realise the foreign nature of the dreamer."
"So they come to realise they're not in your dream?"
"Precisely. So be careful what you change and how quick you change it." Draco hurried to walk beside her. "They attack, like Acromantula on their prey."
Hermione shuddered.
"Are they going to attack us?" Hermione asked. "Or just me, seeing as how I'm the dreamer?"
Draco didn't say anything. Hermione created a bridge that worked like stairs, to get her from the road onto the stretch of dock up above them.
"So lazy." Draco tutted.
"What's the point in using the stairs when I can just make a bridge?" Hermione ran up the bridge, seemingly lost in the daze of architecture.
"Granger, be careful, if you keep on changing things, things will get ugly." Draco warned.
"Okay fine I won't change anything else." Hermione gasped as she was violently shouldered out of the way by a woman in a pink dress. She just passed Draco by.
"Mind telling your conscious to back the hell off?" Hermione snapped angrily.
"I can't control my subconscious." Draco rolled his eyes.
Hermione couldn't help but pull out her wand and create a film of pinkish blue light that made you glow if you passed through it. She watched as a woman and her son walked through it and began to glow a bright indigo.
"Impressive but put your wand away now and stop-" Draco's sentence cut off suddenly as he spied a blonde haired man embracing a raven hair girl. Her bobbed hair was slightly tousled from the light breeze and she laughed, her pearly white teeth shining in the sunlight. She was holding onto the man's arms, which were wrapped lovingly around her waist. He was whispering into her ear and Draco noticed this made the woman look wonderfully happy.
"I recognise this dock!" Draco exclaimed suddenly, running after Hermione who was enjoying the view. "I used to come here sometimes, when I use to explore Muggle London."
"Yeah, I used to come here with my parents. I'd love it on here, watching the boats go by." Hermione watched the water ripple underneath the dock.
"Never recreate places from your memory. Never." Draco warned, eyeing the couple again.
"I thought you had to draw, design from stuff you know. Inspiration, almost like a muse." Hermione shrugged her shoulders at him elegantly.
"You're supposed to only take details from your memories like your favourite book or an ice-cream stand never entire areas Granger." Draco ran his hands through his hair in exasperation. "Shit, Granger we need to leave."
"Why can't I use entire areas? What's wrong with that?"
"It's the quickest way to lose your grasp on reality, what's real and what's not."
"Are you speaking from experience?" Hermione asked and Draco grabbed her elbow, yanking her around to face him.
"That has nothing to do with you. If you hadn't changed so many things Granger!" Draco yelled, and Hermione noticed the subconscious begin to crowd around them.
"Is that why you need me to build your dreams, eh, Malfoy?" Hermione screeched back at him before she was suddenly grabbed under the shoulders. Draco instinctively reached out for her, but he too was pulled back from her.
"Hey back off, back off from her!" Draco panicked, trying to fight off his subconscious.
"Let me go! Let me go! Please, let me go!" Hermione screamed, noticing one woman with raven short hair coming towards her, a wand in her hand. "Malfoy!"
"No! No! Baby, come on no!" Draco was yelling and Hermione raised her eyebrows, glancing a look at Draco, who was staring with anguish at the woman's face. Hermione turned around and recognised her with a sickening churn of her stomach.
"No! She's going to kill me!" Hermione screamed. "NO wait please wait wait-"
The woman raised her wand and hissed;
"Avada Kedavra!"
Hermione's eyes snapped open and she let out a scream. She remembered the emerald light of the Killing Curse as it hit her square in the chest.
"Hey, Granger." Blaise rushed forwards, grabbing Hermione by the shoulders as she began hyperventilating. "You're okay, just breathe."
"Get off me." Hermione tried to sound menacing but it came out a feeble murmur.
"What happened?"
"Pansy Parkinson killed me!" Hermione gasped, running her shaking hands over her face. "Why the hell didn't I just wake up?"
"There was still time left. You can't wake up from a dream unless you die. Or there's a kick just as the time is ending." Blaise shrugged. "You're going to need a totem. They're like a balance, they let you know if you're dreaming or in reality."
Draco hauled himself up from the chair and ripped out the wire in his wrist. He left the room into one of the back bathrooms. He could hear Hermione screaming at him; "Some subconscious you got there Malfoy!" Draco splashed his face with water before pulling out his totem; a spinning top from when he was a boy.
It spun on the surface before losing momentum and falling onto it's side. Draco let out a breath of relief. He could hear Hermione and Blaise talking, and couldn't resist standing by the door to listen.
"Why the hell was Pansy Parkinson there?"
"You don't know?" Blaise asked surprised.
"Don't know what?" Hermione was still breathing heavy, sweat beaded on her forehead.
"Pansy Parkinson was ." Blaise shrugged as Hermione stared at him.
"Pansy was his wife?" Hermione blinked. "What happened to her?"
"You didn't hear that either?" Blaise shrugged again. "She committed suicide." Hermione swallowed the lump in her throat.
"What why?"
"I don't really know. He doesn't talk about it." Blaise began to fiddle with the contraption again.
"Do you realise what's going on here? Malfoy has some serious messed up shit down there that he's not allowing anyone to see. I'm not about to open my mind to someone like that." Hermione ripped out the wire from her wrist, flung it on the chair and grabbed her Ministry robe just as Draco walked back into the room.
She hardly spared him a glance as she yanked open the door and slammed it shut behind her.
"She'll be back. Hermione Granger feeds on knowledge. And this is something she's never known before." Draco grabbed his own jacket. "Make sure you Owl George Weasley, we need our forger back here for Inception."
What do you think of the idea? I really enjoyed writing it! Obviously there are lines taken directly from Inception and the basic layout of this chapter was too but I like the concept and really look forward to developing it, but let me know what you guys think! I could always leave it as a oneshot? Please review!