Author's Note: Rowling's characters and settings are not mine. I owe
credit to her for some of the text in the flashback.
Broken Fantasies
Harry groaned. "Ugh. Why is it that every year we have Double Potions with the Slytherins? Its just not fair that I have to have Snape and Malfoy together! My life sucks." Ron nodded fervently and Hermione said, "Oh, I'm so sorry your life sucks, Harry. Draco does give you a pretty hard time, doesn't he?"
"A hard time?" said Harry, exhasperated, "he gives me more than a hard time, let me tell y—wait, Draco?" Oops. That was the third time that week that Hermione had slipped and called Malfoy, Harry's arch rival, by his first name.
"Er, Malfoy, sorry." Despite her sorry outward appearance, however, she was grinning inside. She was quite looking forward to talking to Draco for the next three hours, as she always did.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione filed into the dungeons with the rest of the class and found a table near the back.
"Morning, Hermione!" said a voice inside her head.
"Hey Draco! How are you this morning?" she sent back telepathically.
"Great. Chipper even. I had an awesome dream last night."
"Oh really." Hermione smirked. "What about?"
"Tell you in a minute." Snape had just called the class to attention and, as this was the N.E.W.T. level class, they didn't want to miss a word.
"The Occunox Potion is one of the most complicated potions you will ever make in your Hogwarts career. This potion, made correctly, will give the drinker perfect vision in the dark. Made incorrectly, however," Snape's eyes passed over Harry, "it will cause permanent blindness and, sometimes, the growth of extra limbs." He looked like nothing would please him more than an extra arm growing out of Harry's head. "We will also be using stinging nettles picked at the full moon. These plants contain especially potent magical properties, so I advise you be extra careful and wear your dragon-hide gloves. Instructions are on the board. Begin."
Hemione slipped on her gloves and began crushing nettles. "So, your dream......" she continued the conversation.
"Oh, well, is was just about the time we found out about each other, except I was kissing you, Potter and Weasley weren't there, and there was no hitting involved." Hermione stifled a giggle and glanced over to see Draco smirking too. Harry looked at Hermione strangely, but then ignored her behavior as weird girl hormones. Hermione, however, wasn't paying attention to Harry. She was recalling when she'd found out that Draco was telepathic like she was.
FLASHBACK Hagrid turned around and hurried back toward his cabin, face buried in his handkerchief.
"Look at him blubber!"
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing just inside the castle doors, listening.
"Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"
Harry and Ron both made furious moves toward Malfoy, but Hermione got there first—SMACK! When she'd hit him, a jolt suddenly ran up her arm and a voice said, "Wha—what? You're a......" inside her head. Then the voice laughed. I know that laugh, Hermione thought.
"Yep, that's right. Ol' Malfoy has yet a new means of torturing you. Heh, heh." This made Hermione even angrier, but she couldn't say anything in front of Harry or Ron, so she settled for, "Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul—you evil—"She swung back her hand to slap his face again, but Ron grabbed it. "Get off, Ron!" Hermione pulled out her wand. "You wouldn't," said the voice again. "I would," she sent back. Malfoy looked at her furiously for a moment then said, "C'mon" and skulked away with his goons. When they got to Divination, Hermione was still fuming about Malfoy, and Professor Trelawney's attempts to enter her mind telepathically during the next hour set her off so much that she walked out in a huff. She knew she would regret it later because Trelawney had been helping her hone her powers and get better at communicating with other Telepathes, but she was too angry to do anything else. Walking back to the common room, Hermione passed the Transfiguration class and heard Malfoy's voice again. "Hey, er, Hermione. Uh, sorry about earlier."
"What?" She had no idea what else to say. Was he serious?
"What do you mean 'what'? For the smartest witch in our year, you are pretty dense. I'm apologizing, Granger. I'm really glad to finally have found a way to talk to you, the only person with intelligence comparable to mine. I'm tired of having to talk to those buffoons Crabbe and Goyle. They're highly loyal, but very thick." She couldn't believe it. Draco Malfoy, pureblood-loving, Muggle-hating, biased, evil, Draco Malfoy was apologizing to her. And he was a Telepathe. Telepathes were extremely rare, although Hermione knew that Hogwarts was home to at least three. Well, four, now. And he's making it sound like he feels that they're kindred spirits. Malfoy laughed, "For once Hermione Granger doesn't have the answer. Oops. I got to go. McGonagal is coming my way and I have a frog to Transfigure. If you'll excuse me......" His voice faded away. Hermione stood there for a moment, totally stunned. She then set off running toward the Gryffindor common room. END FLASHBACK
"So, same time tonight?" Malfoy's voice brought her back to earth with a thump.
"Sure."
"I'm looking forward to it. I wish it could be, well, real, though," Malfoy said hesitantly.
"This is real. What we have is real. Even though we can't really be with each other, this, us sharing our thoughts and dreams and everything with each other, this is real. That's all that really matters." Hermione said forcefully, despite a small quaver in her voice. She really did wish that they could be together physically, as a couple, but she didn't think the world was ready for a nice Draco Malfoy. Especially not after his father was put in Azkaban for being a Death Eater. True, he'd escaped that summer, but Draco wouldn't soon forget what his father was and what his father did. Strangely enough, hardly anyone seemed to know about Lucius's escape. It hadn't been reported in the Daily Prophet or been publicized at all. In fact, no one outside the Order of the Phoenix had even tried looking for Lucius. Draco and Hermione suspected it had to do with the dismemberment of the structure and the lack of security in the wizarding world now that Voldemort was back. But she still wished that the world could know who Draco truly was. It hurt her to hear Harry raging about how evil Draco was, and it hurt her even more when Draco insulted her out loud, no matter how much he apologized afterwards and no matter how much she told herself that he didn't mean it. It just reminded her of how separated they had to be.
Hermione sat down on her four poster bed. She took a deep breath. Then she listened hard. Relief swept through her as she heard four people breathing deeply in sleep. She laid down and began to create The Place in her mind. First she created the land. Then she put a lake in the middle, and a woodland forest around the lake. There were small flowers at the edge of the lake, and lilies on top of it and a light breeze rustled their petals. She stepped out of the woods and went over to a bench by the lake, the moon shining on her hair. Hermione smiled as she saw a silver-blonde head shining in the moonlight, waiting for her to come. Draco turned as he saw her coming and stood up, smiling. They embraced and kissed. When they broke away, Draco took Hermione's hand and led her around the lake.
"Come on. Before you got here, I found something really cool."
"Okay. What is it?"
"You'll have to wait and see," Draco laughed. They went onto a path in the woods. It was a favorite place of theirs; they often went on long walks on it, talking and laughing in their false paradise. Despite the fact that they had created the world in their minds, they still didn't know everything about it, especially if one or the other had some fancy in their head that was recreated in the wood. Hermione and Draco turned the corner.
"Oh!" Hermione gasped in delight. "Dragon fledglings! They're beautiful!" She ran over to pat a light blue one with crystals running down its back. "But what about their mother?"
Draco shrugged. "I didn't create her. Now we get to raise them."
"Oh, Draco," she ran over to hug him, "they're so beautiful. Thank you." She went back over to them and began petting them. "Can we name them?" she asked eagerly.
"I suppose so. Sure." He smiled at her excitement over what he considered a very small thing. But it made her happy, so he was happy.
"Okay. We'll call her Alynn," Hermione said, pointing to a pink dragon encrused with pearls. "And we'll call her Karynn," she said, pointing to the blue one. She pointed at the last one, a light green with emeralds on his back, "And him we'll call, um...."
"Arajj."
Hermione looked up at Draco and smiled. "Perfect."
"Shall we press on, then?" Draco asked, smiling.
She knew exactly what he was thinking. "Oh, I suppose so." She grinned. Draco held out his arm for her to hold on to and they continued walking down the path. They came to a familiar clearing and a small cabin came into view, smoke already furling out of its chimney. They walked inside.
Hermione flopped onto the couch in front of the fire and Draco said, "Coffee?"
"Sure." Draco waved his hand lazily and a tray with coffee and biscottis appeared on the coffee table in front of them.
"You just love doing that, don't you?" Hermione scooted over to him and put her head on his chest. "Gives you a power trip to be able to create stuff just by thinking about it, doesn't it?" She laughed.
"Not as much as this!" He stood up, scooped her off the couch, and flung her over his shoulder.
"Ahh! Help me!" Hermione said, giggling as Draco tickled her. He carried her up the stairs into the bedroom. He swung her onto the bed and took her face in his hands.
"Did you know you are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen?" he whispered.
"Have you looked in the mirror recently?" Hermione pulled him toward her and kissed him. "Did you know I love you?"
"I think I figured it out. I love you too." He pulled off his shirt, revealing a ripped torso. Hermione giggled as she remembered the skinny boy she'd known in her first year. She had to admit it, Draco was the most handsome boy of their year. And he was all hers. Well, sort of. She shook herself. She wasn't going to let regretful thoughts ruin this night. Draco began unbuttoning her shirt. Hermione grabbed his hands and pulled him toward her to kiss him again. She loved his kisses. They might not be totally real, but they were good enough for her.
Hermione heard the birds singing outside her window and felt the sun beating down on her eyelids through the crack in her four-poster's curtains. She didn't want to open her eyes because she knew that when she did she would have to wake up to reality, like she had to whenever she fell asleep in Draco's arms. Suddenly someone tore back the curtains of her bed and threw a pillow onto her sleeping form.
Hermione sat up quickly, "Lavender!" She shook her head, put on her dressing gown and slippers, and headed toward the bathroom. As she showered she recalled the previous night. Every kiss, every caress found its way into her memory. And yet, there was still a thought nagging at the back of her head. Its not real. Hermione hated herself for thinking it, but she couldn't help it. She loved Draco so much, she couldn't stand the thought of losing him, and she was so afraid. If his father came out of hiding ...... If Lucius found out ...... If Voldemort came to claim the son of his most loyal...... And then there was the fact that the world still hated Draco Malfoy. After all, he was heir to a huge fortune, women threw themselves at his feet, and he was evil down to the core. Or so they thought. Hermione had seen the real Draco. The real Draco was kind, loving, tortured, and brave. But, with a name like Malfoy, he was tarnished and shunned.
Hermione stepped out of the shower and began to dry herself. As she tied the towel around her, she spotted something on her back in the mirror. She looked closer and saw it was a small tattoo of a green dragon. A tattoo Draco had given her in their fantasy world. "But, it couldn't......" She moved her hand over the ink. Hermione gasped in pain. It was real, for it was still tender from the needle used to give it to her. It had always been her experience that anything that happened in their world couldn't move out into the real world. All of the little gifts Draco had given her, jewels and silver and gold, any food that they ate, all of it disappeared with the fantasy. Hermione had no idea what could have happened. She quickly dressed and headed off for a place she hadn't been to since her third year. The classroom of Sibyll Trelawney.
Broken Fantasies
Harry groaned. "Ugh. Why is it that every year we have Double Potions with the Slytherins? Its just not fair that I have to have Snape and Malfoy together! My life sucks." Ron nodded fervently and Hermione said, "Oh, I'm so sorry your life sucks, Harry. Draco does give you a pretty hard time, doesn't he?"
"A hard time?" said Harry, exhasperated, "he gives me more than a hard time, let me tell y—wait, Draco?" Oops. That was the third time that week that Hermione had slipped and called Malfoy, Harry's arch rival, by his first name.
"Er, Malfoy, sorry." Despite her sorry outward appearance, however, she was grinning inside. She was quite looking forward to talking to Draco for the next three hours, as she always did.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione filed into the dungeons with the rest of the class and found a table near the back.
"Morning, Hermione!" said a voice inside her head.
"Hey Draco! How are you this morning?" she sent back telepathically.
"Great. Chipper even. I had an awesome dream last night."
"Oh really." Hermione smirked. "What about?"
"Tell you in a minute." Snape had just called the class to attention and, as this was the N.E.W.T. level class, they didn't want to miss a word.
"The Occunox Potion is one of the most complicated potions you will ever make in your Hogwarts career. This potion, made correctly, will give the drinker perfect vision in the dark. Made incorrectly, however," Snape's eyes passed over Harry, "it will cause permanent blindness and, sometimes, the growth of extra limbs." He looked like nothing would please him more than an extra arm growing out of Harry's head. "We will also be using stinging nettles picked at the full moon. These plants contain especially potent magical properties, so I advise you be extra careful and wear your dragon-hide gloves. Instructions are on the board. Begin."
Hemione slipped on her gloves and began crushing nettles. "So, your dream......" she continued the conversation.
"Oh, well, is was just about the time we found out about each other, except I was kissing you, Potter and Weasley weren't there, and there was no hitting involved." Hermione stifled a giggle and glanced over to see Draco smirking too. Harry looked at Hermione strangely, but then ignored her behavior as weird girl hormones. Hermione, however, wasn't paying attention to Harry. She was recalling when she'd found out that Draco was telepathic like she was.
FLASHBACK Hagrid turned around and hurried back toward his cabin, face buried in his handkerchief.
"Look at him blubber!"
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had been standing just inside the castle doors, listening.
"Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"
Harry and Ron both made furious moves toward Malfoy, but Hermione got there first—SMACK! When she'd hit him, a jolt suddenly ran up her arm and a voice said, "Wha—what? You're a......" inside her head. Then the voice laughed. I know that laugh, Hermione thought.
"Yep, that's right. Ol' Malfoy has yet a new means of torturing you. Heh, heh." This made Hermione even angrier, but she couldn't say anything in front of Harry or Ron, so she settled for, "Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul—you evil—"She swung back her hand to slap his face again, but Ron grabbed it. "Get off, Ron!" Hermione pulled out her wand. "You wouldn't," said the voice again. "I would," she sent back. Malfoy looked at her furiously for a moment then said, "C'mon" and skulked away with his goons. When they got to Divination, Hermione was still fuming about Malfoy, and Professor Trelawney's attempts to enter her mind telepathically during the next hour set her off so much that she walked out in a huff. She knew she would regret it later because Trelawney had been helping her hone her powers and get better at communicating with other Telepathes, but she was too angry to do anything else. Walking back to the common room, Hermione passed the Transfiguration class and heard Malfoy's voice again. "Hey, er, Hermione. Uh, sorry about earlier."
"What?" She had no idea what else to say. Was he serious?
"What do you mean 'what'? For the smartest witch in our year, you are pretty dense. I'm apologizing, Granger. I'm really glad to finally have found a way to talk to you, the only person with intelligence comparable to mine. I'm tired of having to talk to those buffoons Crabbe and Goyle. They're highly loyal, but very thick." She couldn't believe it. Draco Malfoy, pureblood-loving, Muggle-hating, biased, evil, Draco Malfoy was apologizing to her. And he was a Telepathe. Telepathes were extremely rare, although Hermione knew that Hogwarts was home to at least three. Well, four, now. And he's making it sound like he feels that they're kindred spirits. Malfoy laughed, "For once Hermione Granger doesn't have the answer. Oops. I got to go. McGonagal is coming my way and I have a frog to Transfigure. If you'll excuse me......" His voice faded away. Hermione stood there for a moment, totally stunned. She then set off running toward the Gryffindor common room. END FLASHBACK
"So, same time tonight?" Malfoy's voice brought her back to earth with a thump.
"Sure."
"I'm looking forward to it. I wish it could be, well, real, though," Malfoy said hesitantly.
"This is real. What we have is real. Even though we can't really be with each other, this, us sharing our thoughts and dreams and everything with each other, this is real. That's all that really matters." Hermione said forcefully, despite a small quaver in her voice. She really did wish that they could be together physically, as a couple, but she didn't think the world was ready for a nice Draco Malfoy. Especially not after his father was put in Azkaban for being a Death Eater. True, he'd escaped that summer, but Draco wouldn't soon forget what his father was and what his father did. Strangely enough, hardly anyone seemed to know about Lucius's escape. It hadn't been reported in the Daily Prophet or been publicized at all. In fact, no one outside the Order of the Phoenix had even tried looking for Lucius. Draco and Hermione suspected it had to do with the dismemberment of the structure and the lack of security in the wizarding world now that Voldemort was back. But she still wished that the world could know who Draco truly was. It hurt her to hear Harry raging about how evil Draco was, and it hurt her even more when Draco insulted her out loud, no matter how much he apologized afterwards and no matter how much she told herself that he didn't mean it. It just reminded her of how separated they had to be.
Hermione sat down on her four poster bed. She took a deep breath. Then she listened hard. Relief swept through her as she heard four people breathing deeply in sleep. She laid down and began to create The Place in her mind. First she created the land. Then she put a lake in the middle, and a woodland forest around the lake. There were small flowers at the edge of the lake, and lilies on top of it and a light breeze rustled their petals. She stepped out of the woods and went over to a bench by the lake, the moon shining on her hair. Hermione smiled as she saw a silver-blonde head shining in the moonlight, waiting for her to come. Draco turned as he saw her coming and stood up, smiling. They embraced and kissed. When they broke away, Draco took Hermione's hand and led her around the lake.
"Come on. Before you got here, I found something really cool."
"Okay. What is it?"
"You'll have to wait and see," Draco laughed. They went onto a path in the woods. It was a favorite place of theirs; they often went on long walks on it, talking and laughing in their false paradise. Despite the fact that they had created the world in their minds, they still didn't know everything about it, especially if one or the other had some fancy in their head that was recreated in the wood. Hermione and Draco turned the corner.
"Oh!" Hermione gasped in delight. "Dragon fledglings! They're beautiful!" She ran over to pat a light blue one with crystals running down its back. "But what about their mother?"
Draco shrugged. "I didn't create her. Now we get to raise them."
"Oh, Draco," she ran over to hug him, "they're so beautiful. Thank you." She went back over to them and began petting them. "Can we name them?" she asked eagerly.
"I suppose so. Sure." He smiled at her excitement over what he considered a very small thing. But it made her happy, so he was happy.
"Okay. We'll call her Alynn," Hermione said, pointing to a pink dragon encrused with pearls. "And we'll call her Karynn," she said, pointing to the blue one. She pointed at the last one, a light green with emeralds on his back, "And him we'll call, um...."
"Arajj."
Hermione looked up at Draco and smiled. "Perfect."
"Shall we press on, then?" Draco asked, smiling.
She knew exactly what he was thinking. "Oh, I suppose so." She grinned. Draco held out his arm for her to hold on to and they continued walking down the path. They came to a familiar clearing and a small cabin came into view, smoke already furling out of its chimney. They walked inside.
Hermione flopped onto the couch in front of the fire and Draco said, "Coffee?"
"Sure." Draco waved his hand lazily and a tray with coffee and biscottis appeared on the coffee table in front of them.
"You just love doing that, don't you?" Hermione scooted over to him and put her head on his chest. "Gives you a power trip to be able to create stuff just by thinking about it, doesn't it?" She laughed.
"Not as much as this!" He stood up, scooped her off the couch, and flung her over his shoulder.
"Ahh! Help me!" Hermione said, giggling as Draco tickled her. He carried her up the stairs into the bedroom. He swung her onto the bed and took her face in his hands.
"Did you know you are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen?" he whispered.
"Have you looked in the mirror recently?" Hermione pulled him toward her and kissed him. "Did you know I love you?"
"I think I figured it out. I love you too." He pulled off his shirt, revealing a ripped torso. Hermione giggled as she remembered the skinny boy she'd known in her first year. She had to admit it, Draco was the most handsome boy of their year. And he was all hers. Well, sort of. She shook herself. She wasn't going to let regretful thoughts ruin this night. Draco began unbuttoning her shirt. Hermione grabbed his hands and pulled him toward her to kiss him again. She loved his kisses. They might not be totally real, but they were good enough for her.
Hermione heard the birds singing outside her window and felt the sun beating down on her eyelids through the crack in her four-poster's curtains. She didn't want to open her eyes because she knew that when she did she would have to wake up to reality, like she had to whenever she fell asleep in Draco's arms. Suddenly someone tore back the curtains of her bed and threw a pillow onto her sleeping form.
Hermione sat up quickly, "Lavender!" She shook her head, put on her dressing gown and slippers, and headed toward the bathroom. As she showered she recalled the previous night. Every kiss, every caress found its way into her memory. And yet, there was still a thought nagging at the back of her head. Its not real. Hermione hated herself for thinking it, but she couldn't help it. She loved Draco so much, she couldn't stand the thought of losing him, and she was so afraid. If his father came out of hiding ...... If Lucius found out ...... If Voldemort came to claim the son of his most loyal...... And then there was the fact that the world still hated Draco Malfoy. After all, he was heir to a huge fortune, women threw themselves at his feet, and he was evil down to the core. Or so they thought. Hermione had seen the real Draco. The real Draco was kind, loving, tortured, and brave. But, with a name like Malfoy, he was tarnished and shunned.
Hermione stepped out of the shower and began to dry herself. As she tied the towel around her, she spotted something on her back in the mirror. She looked closer and saw it was a small tattoo of a green dragon. A tattoo Draco had given her in their fantasy world. "But, it couldn't......" She moved her hand over the ink. Hermione gasped in pain. It was real, for it was still tender from the needle used to give it to her. It had always been her experience that anything that happened in their world couldn't move out into the real world. All of the little gifts Draco had given her, jewels and silver and gold, any food that they ate, all of it disappeared with the fantasy. Hermione had no idea what could have happened. She quickly dressed and headed off for a place she hadn't been to since her third year. The classroom of Sibyll Trelawney.