Once Again In Dreams

Chapter 1

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Draco absently fingered the small ring in his hand as he worked out a particularly difficult Arithmancy problem. He put down his quill for a moment and looked at it. He no longer remembered where it had come from, but he had kept it anyway. It had somehow just always seemed important. The ring seemed to center and calm him whenever he held it or wore it, so he kept it near him most of the time. He often carried it in a small pouch under his robes during class. Recently he had begun to remember small bits of the day he got the ring. It was something about black hair….Draco pulled himself back to his Arithmancy and continued his homework. Suddenly Blaise Zabini walked in a slammed his Potions book down on the desk. He grinned widely.

"Time to tutor, Draco."

Draco made an annoyed hm-ing sound and turned to look at Blaise.

"Take a seat. So, what's the problem today, Blaise?"

"Oh, same as usual," he replied suggestively. "I just can't get this stick to stand up."

"Simple," Draco replied, ignoring the very unsubtle innuendos. "Just say Wingardium Leviosa; but remember to swish and flick. And it's not Wingardium Leviosa, it's Wingardium Leviosa," he said, imitating Hermione's speech to Ron about the spell in their first year Charms class. He was surprised he still remembered it, but it was probably only because right after, Seamus had blown his feather up and burned his eyebrows off. Again.

"Aw, c'mon Draco," Blaise pouted. "Why do you keep avoiding it?"

"Avoiding what?" Draco asked, avoiding what Blaise very well he was avoiding.

"I know you want me. And I really want you. Badly. Please just let me have a go," Blaise whined.

"Nope, sorry," Draco replied, matter-of-factly. "I'm currently off the market. You know that."

"But Draco! What Marcus doesn't know won't hurt him! We could just have a one-off, yeah? He'd never have to find out!"

Draco sighed. "I would much rather keep things easy. That means that I'm not going to have sex with you; because having sex with you would complicate things and then I'd be in a load of trouble if Marcus found out. Besides, my mother would never forgive me. She's already having a hard enough time accepting that I'm gay, and I really don't feel like having her think I'm a bloody prick as well."

"Really? Let me suck it off for you then," Blaise said, his eyes lingering longer than they should have been on Draco's lower regions.

Draco sat confused for a few seconds before realization and then annoyance graced his features.

"Try it and I'll hex you into oblivion with curses you've never even heard of, Blaise."

Blaise sighed. "Still playing hard to get, huh? Well, I'll stop for now, but I'll be back later to get cozy on the couch. You better get prepared," he crowed. "I can get pretty rough when I'm in love."

"Oh, please. You don't even know the meaning of love," Draco muttered to himself.

"Hmm? What was that? A confession of your eternal love for me? A marriage proposal? Oh, Draco! I accept!"

"You bloody git! Stop it already. And no, it wasn't! I'll be damned if I ever propose to you. No offense, but…..yecch." Draco shuddered. He really didn't like that mental image of himself in a wedding dress with a tiara, garters, and high heels on. Do you really hate it? the voice in his head asked slyly. "Yes, I do."

"Huh? Yes? You mean you really want to marry me? Oh, Draco!" Blaise threw himself on Draco and attempted to smother him in kisses. That attempt landed him on the floor, unable to move because Draco hit him with Petrificus Totalus.

He really needed to stop talking aloud to himself.

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Harry rolled over and bit his lip as pain shot up his arms and legs. It felt like they were on fire. He carefully opened one eye and groaned as pain again shot through him.

"Harry! Are you alright? You took a big fall in the Quidditch game yesterday," he heard someone in the vicinity say. He managed to mumble out a short response despite his headache, his inability to move without it being painful, and the fact that he really couldn't move much at all.

"I'm alright 'Mione. As long as I don't move I'll be fine."

He had discovered sometime during the night that he hadn't been able to get up all the way. He had only been able to move his arms about one foot out in any direction. It was the same for his legs and torso. His head couldn't even move that far. He could only raise it about half a foot. Unfortunately, this inability to move had become a problem when he had badly needed to go to the bathroom. He'd had to yell rather loudly for Madame Pomfrey, who had shuffled in sleepy-eyed and then clicked and fussed over him like a mother hen after letting him go to the bathroom.

Harry shifted slightly and winced.

Ron walked up and looked worriedly at Harry. "Hey mate, you alright?"

Harry smiled and turned his head to look at Ron. Sometimes he wondered if Ron would be perpetually standing by his bedside in the Infirmary because he got injured so much in Quidditch.

"I'm fine, Ron. Thanks"

He slowly sat up and clenched his teeth as he felt his entire torso burn with pain.

"How long have I been in the Infirmary?"

Hermione jumped in just as Ron started to speak. It had been a bad habit of hers for quite a while.

"Two days. We were really worried! You fell about one hundred feet from your broom. Dumbledore had to slow you down and cushion your fall."

Harry laughed a little and sighed.

"Good old Arresto Momentum. I've been on the receiving end of that several times," he said smiling crookedly. It was quite a nice smile.

Hermione chuckled and then patted his leg carefully.

"Yes, Harry, you certainly have. Do you think you'll be okay to leave with us?"

Harry moved a few of his limbs to test his pain tolerance. He'd probably be able to make it through the day feeling like daggers were poking at every inch of his body. After all, he'd been Crucioed before. That was worse. Much much worse.

Just then, Poppy Pomfrey hurried into the room carrying several potions bottles filled with brightly colored, clear liquids.

"Oh, no. He's not going anywhere unless he takes a pain numbing potion twice a day. As you can see, Mr. Potter isn't exactly in top condition right at the moment. If you want to leave you'll have to take a supply of these," she said, holding up a potion bottle filled with a crystalline violet liquid. "And make sure you take it at breakfast and dinner every day. If you don't, I'll know," she said, giving Harry a severe just-try-it look. "I'll have you drink one now too, so you can move without feeling like you're about to die."

Harry took the offered potion and tipped it to his mouth, taking a small test sip. He immediately spit it all out, spraying it over the bed and onto Ron, who started to wipe the stuff off his face while giving Harry and Hermione a disgusted 'Yecch.'

Madame Pomfrey sighed and shook her head. She turned and started to walk back to her office. As she did, she said over her shoulder, "I never said it would taste good."

Harry looked at Ron apologetically. He grimaced and gulped the rest of the vile potion down. It tasted like sweat, vomit, and horrible lemonade. He gagged and stuck his tongue out to try and wipe the taste off. It didn't work. Despite the taste, the potion seemed to be doing what it was supposed to be doing. Harry could already feel the pain all over his body fading away into a nice, comfortable warmth. Unfortunately though, it had still tasted nasty.

"Ugh, I think I'm going to puke."

Ron started to look slightly green and took a few steps back.

"Mate, if you're gonna be sick, do it in the bucket next to you."

Harry bent over the side of the bed and above the bucket that was, indeed, beside it, and waited a few minutes. When he didn't throw up or otherwise dump bodily fluids into the bucket, he untangled himself from the sheets and tentatively swung his legs down from the bed and onto the floor. It was very cold, but given that it was winter and the floor was stone, it was pretty much inevitable. He pushed himself up and stood for a few seconds before slumping back down onto the bed because of the effort it had taken. Apparently the potion only took care of pain, and didn't help him get back his strength. He'd probably need one or two of those before he left, as well.

"Hey, Herm?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"Do you have any strengthening potion back at the dorms?"

"Well….I think I have a small bit of it for when I'm sick. You probably need it, don't you?" Hermione said, looking sympathetically at Harry.

"Yeah. Could I use it? I can help you make more later, if you need help."

"Of course Harry. You can have some potion, but there is no way I'm letting you help me. You really are quite terrible at Potions; and you need to get your strength back. Don't overdo it. I'll get Madame Pomfrey to get you some now. She'll supply you with more later, I'm sure."

Harry nodded slightly and then shifted, he was really tired. What had happened to make him fall yesterday? He didn't know. Maybe someone had knocked him off his broom. Maybe he had been hexed again. Maybe it was just an accident. He didn't know. It could have been any number of things that had caused him to fall.

"Hermione? Do you know who we were playing yesterday for the match?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Gryffindor was playing Slytherin. It really was quite bloodthirsty, as usual. Slytherin was actually winning by quite a lot when you fell. I imagine Malfoy was working quite hard."

Suddenly Harry had a short flashback...

"Want some cake? It's chocolate," he offered.

"Could I?"

"Well, I just offered didn't I? Of course you can! Here, just use my fork." the blonde haired boy said, rolling his eyes.

Harry blushed. "O-Oh. Right."

Harry took the fork and cut a small bite of the cake off, spearing it and hesitantly putting it in his mouth.

The boy looked at him. "It's not poisonous, y'know."

"Oh, well. No. It's just...I've never had chocolate cake before."

The blonde stared at Harry in awe. "You've never had cake before?"

"No." Harry answered sheepishly.

"Well now you have. Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's really good. I wish I could have that for dinner every day." Harry said wistfully. "It's better than what my aunt and uncle feed me."

"Why couldn't you?"

"Because it's chocolate cake! How could I have chocolate cake for dinner?"

"Well, you just make whatever your dinner is chocolate cake. It's not hard."

"How can you make chocolate cake out of dinner?"

"Easy, you just do a spell."

"Hmm. That boy looked a bit like Malfoy...I wonder..."

"Harry? Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah Hermione. I'm fine."

Just then Madame Pomfrey came back with the strengthening potion and handed it over to Harry.

"Drink up. You'll need your strength for the rematch tomorrow."

Harry obliged and quickly threw back the potion. He grimaced. At least it didn't taste as bad as the pain-numbing potion had. Carefully he got up and out of bed. After changing in the bathroom, he followed Ron and Hermione out of the Infirmary. It would be a long day tomorrow.