This is a story I had to write to keep my sanity which means all my insanity is actually in this, so please read this in your own safety; keep your sanity after reading this story. Warning: Some dialogues or snaps in the story may not be coherent, hell the whole story is weird, but I can't be bothered to make it logical (and too lazy). Nothing is written or thought beforehand. I like to thank my beta-reader 'Camp Hogwarts' to keep my sanity in check, read her stories too as they are very wicked to read!
Just let the magic go.
Lil'Note: I know I'm crazy to try and win the Fairytales Competition by Mockingjaybird in HPFC forum. This is my entry. Please read and comment by review. Wish me luck and don't forget to enjoy!
Title: Dreams come true (or let's say they have to) / The Five Dream Travelers
[Summary: A little innocent vial of liquid send our heroes and companions to the parallel dream world of one of the travelers. The consequences have to end exactly as how the dreamer has dreamed to be able to return back in time, even if the fulfillment consists starving, kissing and murdering against their will.]
"Honestly what do you want me to say?" Ron said with his arms crossed and all red in the face.
"Maybe apologise?" Hermione looks at him in the eyes. Getting none she shrugs and turns around from the two of them.
"Ron didn't do it on purpose," The famous scar headed friend says, to try and convince her female friend.
"Should have known all the noise and fuss come from the Weasel and Mudblood. The old married quarreling couple. I truly don't understand why you are here, instead of making reds that wails all night long, because of no money to feed them. In the end you die unhappy, alone and with regret."
"Quite a vision you got, Malfoy. It reminds me of the muggle fairytale Snow White, where the princess lives with the seven dwarfs in an old shack. She did die happy though." All eyes look at Luna questionably, not understanding the association at all. She walks over to them and smiles to Malfoy. He cringes.
"Okay...So what's that you've got with you?"
"Oh this?" She shows the purple vial to Harry. "This makes dreams come true. The more the amount, the realer you'll feel the dream and the longer it works. It keeps nargles away from you too." She nods Harry knowingly. Malfoy laughs and points to Ron.
"Weasel, you should buy a few bottles of those to make your dream comes true. Let me guess you want to be a millionaire! In reality you may not be one, but at least you can get the feeling!"
"Shut up, Malfoy!" Harry holds Ron back by his sleeve.
"Shut it both of you." Hermione comes in between them. He smirks eyeing Ron.
"Oh right. You probably have no money to buy the feeling of a millionaire either." Ron storms to Malfoy like a bare teethed lion. Draco yelps and accidentally pushes Luna's vial towards the five of them.
"Oh oops." She says. "Ah well I see you in dream world." She smiles again and closes her eyes. Before anyone could reply, all suddenly faint and sink into the other world.
"My, my what a beautiful castle this is. I wonder whose dream this is." Luna looks around her room; a big wardrobe, a four-poster bed, a fireplace and a big mirror which took the whole wall on one side. Then her eyes lit up "Ah this must be my dream!" She goes over to the big mirror, inspects herself and her clothes before she quotes:
"Magic mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?" Luna then sees Hermione going around frantically, trying to have a clue what the hell is going on. She sometimes stops to eye the British guards, deciding to ask them something or not, but on the last moment she always judges against it. Luna smiles.
Let's help her find our friends. "Guards!" The door opens with two stoic guards.
"Bring me a hunter, please!"
0 O o
"Where the hell am I?" Her buzzy hair flares all up while she looks to her right and then her left. She suddenly sees the pond before her. Very unladylike she crouches there and gasps what she sees; a small crown and some weird medieval clothes.
"No..." She mourns, sits back and thinks hard what has happened the last time she has seen light. "The vial. Dreams. Argh!" Hermione looks around again for the hundredth time before she rises up and tries to find her friends. The guards, who looks like the British grenadier guards, don't even move a muscle when she passes, so she crosses the thoughts to ask them anything. For all she know they might be even puppets.
The further she drives herself away from her start place, the better view of her 'home' and not surprisingly she gasps. Hermione staggers a few steps back before she trips and plumbs down again on the grass. She never felt so discouraging to find someone.
o O 0
"Let me go, you runt!" Harry swings his arms and tries to free from the guards. Honestly this doesn't make sense at all; an officer suddenly points him, four British grenadiers march towards him. When he asks why he is arrested, nobody replies, only that the British queen wish to seek him. What are the British guards doing in a godforsaken place like this castle that he has never seen before. Not to say that this castle just doesn't exist in England at all. And the British queen wish to see him? The door opens to reveal the queen before him, who has her back to him as she's looking outside from the window. The British queen looks a tad too young compared to what he acknowledges.
"What do you want? Release me!" He searches for his wand. Shit.
"To be the hunter suits you, it feels different from being hunted, isn't it?" She looks at him.
"Luna! You're the British queen?" He shakes his head confusingly, but doesn't bother to think any further. "I'm so glad I found someone! Where are we? What happened? Where are the others?" The guards free him. He immediately strides his way to her. Luna gestures with her hand for the guards to leave, before she gives Harry her fully attention.
"You should look at this!" She excitedly takes Harry's arm and takes him before the grand mirror on the wall. "Luna, we have to find the-"
"Magic mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?"
"What?" All of the sudden the mirror shows a desperate Hermione all alone and curled up. "Hermione!" The mirror fades again and turns back into just a mirror. "Come Luna, let's go and get her." He quickly emerges to the door, but looks back when she isn't following.
"If I come, we can't go back." She simply says.
"What do you mean?"
Luna shows him her clothes by slowly swirling 360 degree on the spot. "I'm the queen, I have to stay here. I'll get some things ready for our return. I'll find you, Harry. Once you found everyone." He blinks a couple of times, not completely understanding what she means. "I'll find a way to get us back, don't worry, Harry."
"How?"
"You still remember the vial I spilled on you all? The only way to get us back is that the dream comes true and this dream is mine." Harry doesn't know whether to be horrified or not as they're talking about Luna, nonetheless he nods, he'll have to trust Luna. He opens the door. Or not;
"What kind of dream did you have?"
She smiles again. "I was reading muggle fairy tales as there were such a difference between the real ones and the children's ones."
Harry gulps. "Which one did you dream?"
Again Luna points to the mirror. "Snow White? And which of the two did you dream?"
"I probably dreamt the one I like the most." Harry goes white, he hopes he's guessing the wrong one. He closes the heavy oak door behind him.
0 O o
She sniffs a couple times and wipes her snot on her sleeve. Hermione stands up again and goes back to the direction of the castle. The best she can do at the moment is to know where she currently is and to know how she can escape from here.
"Hermione!" She gasps and stands absolutely still, hoping she's not hallucinating that Harry has called her.
"Harry" She quietly says. However she finally realises that her eyes are not tricking her, when the running figure comes closer and closer. She flings her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're here. Did you find the others?"
"No, the only person I found besides you is Luna."
"Where is she then? Why is she not with you?" She looks behind him.
"We've got no time, Hermione. Luna said she'll look for us once we found Ron too, to bring us back to reality."
"What do you mean, Harry?" She stops him from pulling her towards the woods. "We can't leave her behind. What if she gets hurt?"
"Don't worry about that. She's the bloody queen of this castle." Now that got her full attention.
"Harry, I'm not taking another step unless you tell me what is happening."
He sighs. "We have to go and get the others and just fulfill this dream as soon as possible or we might not get back."
"What dream?" She taps her foot impatiently while she crosses her arms.
"This Snow White fairy tale."
"What!" She couldn't believe her ears at all, letting everything sink in, she finally puts two and two together. "Hold on a minute. Luna is the queen, I'm the princess, then you're the hunter! You're going to kill me!" She shrieks which Harry puts a finger on each of his ear.
"Oh come on, Hermione. You know me, I won't kill you. And besides we both know that the muggle fairy tale 'Snow white' doesn't die from the hunter." He wants to continue, but suddenly shuts up for his own good.
"True I don't die from the hunter." He exhales a breath. "I'm going to die in the queen's hands!" He again plugs his ears with his finger.
"You know Luna won't kill you and besides she says she'll find a way. Let's go find Ron."
She huffs, but then goes to a thoughtful look. "If Luna is the queen, you're the hunter and I'm the princess, then that leaves only two more mains."
Harry looks up. "The dwarfs and?"
She rolls her eyes "The prince!"
"Oh, that's right." He then looks sideways and mutters "I hope."
"What did you say?"
"Let's go find Ron the dwarf." They both look at each other and burst in laughter. Running their way into the forest.
o O 0
Unbelievable! First he gets a rude awakening, then he receives the news that they want him to ride a stupid horse to find and court a girl? When did the Malfoys have to make an effort to find one? They should come to him in rows. How primitive is this country? He looks around at his servants. The only positive side of this, is that he still has servants and is currently living in a castle, well for a couple more minutes.
"Draco, are you still here? You should be on your way to the kingdom of Looney. They have-" He closes the door with a slam before he could hear more, not caring if he's being respectless to his so called mother, as for him she's not his mother at all. He goes to the mirror and eyes himself up and down; he still looks the same -thanks god for that-, but he's wearing some duke medieval robes and he has a sword. Draco eyes his sword that he wears on his side; better to have a weapon than none as he couldn't find his wand anywhere.
"Draco!" The door swings open and a plump woman with a beautiful jeweled crown comes in, his so called mother. "Draco, you come with me this instant and you're not escaping from me this time. She's our only hope to restore this country." She completely manhandles Draco and drags him outside while he's trying to struggle free from her or his grasp, he's not sure anymore because of her strength.
"Let me go now. I'll tell father about this."
She throws him outside the gate, his horse already waiting for him. "That'll be useless, considering he has agreed with me as soon as I showed him the letter. You should leave as soon as possible"
"A letter?" She throws the piece of paper on the ground before him.
"Read it on your way there." He eyes the folded letter curiously.
"Don't let my son get in until he has fetched that princess."
She nods to the guards, which makes one of them yell "Close the gate."
"Bon voyage, son!" She waves without looking back. He immediately stands up and runs toward the iron gate, but it closes right before his eyes.
"You'll regret this!" He yells back and bangs loudly on the gate a couple times, before he realises he forgot the most important thing to ask; Where he is and where kingdom Looney lays. He stamps with his feet on the ground in frustration, when the letter catches his eye again. He picks it up and reads through the content, his right eyebrow goes up. Draco angrily crumbles the letter and throws it against the gate, which strikes back but doesn't go further than an inch before it falls onto the ground. He then growls, picks it up again and ascends the horse. "You're lucky I can ride horses," He mutters and then he rides with full speed to where he should be.
o O 0
"Okay, where should we start looking for him? Any suggestion?" She looks at Harry with high expectation.
"Well we both know the story, normally the hunter gushes her away, in which she runs far away and finds the dwarfs' home."
"So we have to walk aimlessly to find the house?" He lopsided grins her as answer which she looks up into the sky exasperated . "If I look at the situation now, it seems more that we are lost than that we are searching!" She looks at the trees on her left, the trees on her right, the trees behind her and the trees in front of her. Did I mention she's surrounded by trees?
"Don't worry, Hermione. We'll find him, it's the best we don't lose each other sight."
"Well as long as we stay with each other-" For some reason the ground beneath her has suddenly disappeared. "Aaaargh!"
"Hermione!" Harry cries out when he sees her disappear deep into a hole.
She surprisingly or luckily feels the soft thud when she lands on the ground than the expected bone-breaking fall.
"Hermione!" He looks from the edge of the hole. She shakes the dirt off like a dog that has come out of the water.
"Harry!" "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" "Stay there, I'll find a way to get there!"
"Wait, Harry!" She coughs and sees the dust particles flying around by the small sun ray that is trying to creep inside. She slowly stands up while she covers her mouth to protect herself to breathe the dirt and dust in. Hermione examines the place by touching her surroundings, until a small opening in her prison catches her attention. In curiosity she makes the hole bigger and bigger until she finally discovers a house on the other side of the river. She cheers in delight. "Harry!" But there was no answer. "Harry!" She yells again. As the curiosity gets the bigger of her, she steps over the rock and takes her time to go over that house as she isn't sure whether it's the right one or not.
"Hello?" She rounds the house, but gets the feeling there is nobody outside, and knocks on the door. "Anyone there? Ron?" The door suddenly creaks open without knocking, she shudders and wants to crawl back to her dark spot. However with much thoughts and courage she opens the door and sticks her head inside. The house is simply almost empty; there's no seven beds, seven chairs with a long table nor anything that you think there should have been as in the fairy tale. "This is probably not it." She sighs and wants to go out until she sees a fridge. Fridges mean food and she's so hungry. She opens it, but finds nothing at all. Hermione drops onto the ground and almost cries. This is not a dream but a damn nightmare.
"Hermione? Is that you?" She turns her head to find Ron on the doorway.
"Ron!" They both give each other a hug. "We were looking for you, but we couldn't find you until I fell from a fissure."
"We? Harry was with you? Where is he now?"
"We've lost each other, because I fell." She mutters the last part, he pinches her hand reassuringly. "Harry is probably looking for you, we should go back and have a look." Ron runs swiftly to the door with her on his heels when Hermione looks at the sky. She feels that it's going to be night soon which means if they go out now, the more dangerous and the higher the chance to get lost. Maybe they'll never be able to get back then.
"Ron, wait! We shouldn't go at dusk. It might be dangerous!" She finishes off weak. It sounds so selfish even to her own ears, but sometimes someone has to think logically about the situation.
"Dangerous? We've been through many more dangerous times than these!"
"But if the three of us goes missing, maybe nobody will be able to go back."
"I've never thought I'll hear that from you. Are you coming or not?" When she doesn't respond, he huffs and smashes the door shut. She has no idea why her feet is disobeying her to go with him, as he has said they have been through more difficult times. She goes to the single bed in the room and let herself cry into sleep. All alone again.
0 O o
"I'm looking for the kingdom Looney, you know which way I should take?" He asks the merchant who was walking down the road.
"Of course, chap. I'm a merchant who's well known in the whole country. What am I saying, the whole world!" He barks, cackling madly which Draco rolls his eyes.
"Very interesting. So which way?" He asks uninterested. The merchant abruptly stops laughing and points the direction.
"It's that way!" Draco crosses his arms, not believing the merchant.
"Are you sure it's that way?" The man angers "Of course I am, didn't I tell you I'm the greatest merchant in the world? How can a merchant like me not know the road?" He shakes his hand, mutters something about disrespectful youngsters and goes back on the road. Still not believing that man, he takes the folded letter from his pocket, studies it for a bit until he suddenly realises something. He turns the paper around and sees something totally anew. He curses a few original words and control his horse towards the right direction. There'll be no sleep tonight.
o O 0
Hermione slowly opens her eyes, for some reason she thought that her alarm clock has waken her up as she keeps hearing the tapping, which are increasing in ferocity. She wants to close her eyes again, until she hears someone calls her name.
"Hermione?" She immediately jolts up and runs to open the door. There she sees Luna in a beautiful gown that matches her blond hair and blue eyes. "Caring for some breakfast?" She holds the basket before Hermione's eyes which are now fixated on it. Luna smiles, invites herself in and puts the basket on the table. "Have those two left you behind?"
Hermione casts her eyes down. "Ron went to search for Harry, but I didn't go."
"Don't worry, they'll be fine like they always are. Eat something and let's go find them together." She takes some fruit and some pancakes out. "Here eat this, it's from the garden. You have to eat something to gain some strength to find them." She hands Hermione an apple which she gratefully takes and gives Luna a smile. After a bite Hermiones all of a sudden grabs on her throat and eyes Luna for help. "Don't worry you'll be fine." Hermione shakes her head while she tries to stable herself by sitting down and coughing the piece of apple out, but fails miserable and falls on the foot of Luna.
On that very moment Harry and Ron run inside, all dirty and ravaged. "Luna!" Both call and then turn in shock when they see what have happened to Hermione. "Omg, you killed her!" Harry points.
"What? Kill?" Ron runs up to her and tries to motion her awake, but no response. He then heaves her up in bed, feels her pulse but feels nothing.
"What have you done?" Ron yells while shaking Luna by the shoulders.
"I thought I could trust you!" Harry also yells to Luna.
She just smiles and looks at the basket full of food. Their eyes turn to where Luna is looking at, both boys' mouth guiltily begin to water of hunger. "Don't worry, she'll be fine like I said, just eat your breakfast. He should be here soon."
Ron's ears perk up "Who?"
"Oh you'll see, someone we know." They both look at each other, not knowing what to do. "Don't let the pancakes get cold. I'll explain while you're eating." With that comment Ron seems to have got a start shot to eat breakfast. While he eats, he thinks that this will be first and the last time that he'll ever skip a meal.
"Why can't you tell us who we're waiting for? And are you sure it's a bulletproof plan that Hermione will wake up and that we can go back to the real world? I don't want her to die." Harry takes a bite of the waffle, while he waits for her answer.
"To be honest I can't follow what you guys are talking about." Spitting a few crumbs while Ron asks the question.
Harry looks at him and starts to explain. "Well we're currently in Luna's dream and this is dream is actually called after the fairytale 'Snow White'. It's a muggle story that the princess gets killed by the queen because of envy." Harry answers.
"What killed? What about the resurrection?"
"Well there are two ends, one about Hermione getting kissed by a prince." Ron spat his orange juice, right on the time that Harry luckily dodges the waterfall. "What prince? Who's the prince?" Ron looks at Luna.
She looks at her watch. "Well he is quite late, he should have been here by now. Normally the climax takes a couple years before the prince kisses the princess awake."
On that Harry chokes on his food. "I didn't know about that detail."
"You told me one, what's the other?"
"That Hermione is able to cough the apple piece out on her own?" Harry questions while he looks at Luna.
She nods. "Those are two ends that we can use as I can't really remember the end of my dream."
"How the bloody hell can she do the last? She's dead, isn't she?"
Abruptly Luna walks to the door and opens it to look outside. Both males look at each other not understanding at all. "Here's the prince!" She says and claps her hands in delight. Both boys' eyes grow like sausages and they scramble to the door to see a horse galloping with high speed to their way, because of the quickness they can't really see who it was on the horse. Luna waves to the rider. "Hello, Mafoy."
"What!" Both said unison.
The horse slows down and stops before her. She pets the horse by stroking her and leads the horse to the river for a drink. "You're quite late, but still on time."
"Well maybe you should have drawn where my castle lays too and not only the 'N'!" Draco yells for the unrighteous comment. "And instead of thinking of my horse first, what about me? I'm dying of thirst and hunger." He complains. When he gets no reply from whatsoever he points Ron. "You! Get me water and something to eat."
"What! Never. Take it yourself." He goes back inside.
"Malfoy do you know what you have to do here?"
"What I have to do? No. I'm here to get back, Scarhead!" Harry shakes his head and also gets back inside.
Draco's eyes immediately flash to Luna. "What do I have to do?"
"Nothing much, I'll tell you once inside. There's breakfast." Draco doesn't have to be told twice about breakfast. He rode the whole night long without a single drop of water and a crumb to eat. He just wants to get back as soon as possible. Once inside he looks at Hermione who's laying on the bed like a dead person. Only muggles can sleep through so many noises.
"So the mudblood finally decides to die?" Ron immediately stands up to defend her friend, but Luna beats him to it.
"Actually she's in a state that we have to do something about if we want to go back."
He doesn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean?" He asks slowly, eyeing Luna.
"Do you know the muggle fairy tale Snow White?"
"No."
"Well-"
"You have to kiss Hermione!" Ron tactlessly finishes for Luna.
"What? Bloody hell I rather kiss my horse than her!" Draco glares at Luna as if he got tricked by her, she only smiles to him.
"If the outcome would have been the same I rather want you to kiss that horse than her, that's for sure! But that's not the case and I loathe to admit it."
"Tough luck, it's not going to happen!"
"You don't want to go back?"
"Not in that way, I need to take care of my dignity and pride! I rather kill myself!" With that he takes his own sword to make it fully clear. Ron couldn't stop himself anymore to hear all those bullshit and charges towards him with a war cry. Draco paces a few steps back and sheets his sword back to prevent himself of a suicide. Truthfully he didn't want to die young and handsome yet.
"This makes me think of the situation, before we come here." Luna whispers to Harry, who looks at them with awe.
"Um, Yeah." He then goes up to Ron and tries to prey him off Draco, but with no much luck. "Look out, don't hurt Hermione!"
Right on the moment the words left Harry's mouth, Draco slips and tries to steady himself by grabbing the first object. However he takes the hand of Hermione which pulls her from the bed. She falls face first right on top of Draco, his hands automatically encircles her waist to steady the impact on him, and unconsciously he presses her closer to him. Because of that pressure the piece of apple comes out of her mouth. Hermione coughs a couple times and turns her head which connect their lips in a full lipped kiss.
Everyone goggles and let the sight sink in, when a warm sensation fills them again and they get transported back in time. However this time, everyone gets transported back the way they left the dream world; Harry still has his hands on Ron to stop him from attacking, Hermione is fully kissing Draco in a total shock and Luna stands behind the couple, opposite Harry and Ron.
Harry sees how Luna retreats her foot, he looks up while she smiles innocently to him. Hermione pushes Draco away and both wipes their mouth with their sleeves.
"Unbelievable, how did this happen!" Draco points his finger to Ron while he still covers his mouth and looks away in disgust.
"Me? It's you who was clumsy and took Hermione with you!"
"Ronald Bilius Weasley, why can't you just hold back your anger? Things like these would have never happened!"
"You're giving me the fault? Well be grateful that we're back in time. Malfoy had to kiss you anyway!"
Harry beckons him that he has made a mistake by saying that. He gulps as he sees Hermione's anger flare.
"Honestly what do you want me to say?" Ron says with his arms crossed and all red in the face.
"Maybe apologise?" Hermione looks at him in the eyes, but shrugs and turns around from the two of them and faces Draco who's still muttering quietly "I kissed a mudblood." to himself numerous times.
"Quite an adventure, wasn't it? Luna tells Harry. He doesn't respond, but slaps his front instead and blinks what they have just said. This looks too much of a déjà vu.
And the circle is complete! Like it? Hate it? Happy with the outcome? I have to say I almost killed Draco with his own sword, but he's too chicken to do that even when he talks big about pride. Worth a chapter 2 or series? Just tell me!