Just a Dream Chapter 1: Oddities, a harry potter fanfic

This will be my one disclaimer, please reference this for the rest of the story. I am not perfect and fantastic, like JKR I am simply borrowing her characters and story for my own fun. Thanks!

Just a Dream

Chapter One: Oddities

I was caressing her beautiful face. It was more world weary and heavy than it had once been, but, still vastly beautiful. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled at me. I ran the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip slowly, once, and then again. I replaced my lips with the thumb and kissed her gently. I knew without a doubt that this woman was worth all the sacrifice, all the time, and all the love that I had to give. A deep sense of protection welled up in me, as usual where this particular witch was concerned. The need to protect her, and love her was absolute.

She pressed a little closer to me, my hand threading into her wild curls, before drawing back and regarding me with her deep brown eyes. As soon as we made eye contact I felt a searing jolt in my left arm.

My eyes flew open and my right hand grasped my left forearm. I looked down and grimaced. My arm was still marred by the disgusting dark mark I had taken mere days before. I blinked a couple of times, trying to clear the weird dream from my mind. I had dreamt the exact same scenario three nights in a row now. What the hell was I doing dreaming of Hermione Granger anyway? I hated that stupid mudblood. I groaned rolling onto my side and then out of bed. I hurriedly got ready for the day and exited my room. I found my parents in the dining room, eating breakfast, along with a couple other death eaters that seemed to perpetually haunt the halls of Malfoy Manor.

"Good morning, Draco," my mother attempted to smile at me from across the table. I nodded to show I had heard her.

"Mother, Father, good morning." A house elf appeared with a plate of breakfast for me.

"We're going into Diagon Alley to get your school things today." My mother informed me. I nodded again. There was an uncomfortable silence that fell over the room, it was normal these days.

Soon enough Mother and I were in Diagon Alley buying school supplies. It seemed that the pall that hung over Malfoy Manor was present here as well, people darted around keeping to themselves quietly as they did their shopping. No one made eye contact with anyone else and the tense atmosphere was palpable. That was until the flourishing WWW joke shop came into view. It was like sun breaking through a heavy cloud bank. I longed to go toward it, but knew I couldn't. A Malfoy could not be seen as a patron at a Weasley business. So, Mother me and instead ventured further into the mire, toward Knockturn Alley.

We were headed for Borgin and Burkes; there was something there that I would need for my task. A broken Vanishing Cabinet, whose twin resided in Hogwarts. All I had to do was repair it, and I could bring my backup into the school. I had this odd feeling that we were being watched while I was in the shop that I couldn't shake.

My eyes glanced up and out of a window where I could have sworn that I saw some bright red hair disappearing from view quickly. I shook my head at myself and refocused on Mr. Borgin, who was explaining to me the spellwork that would be needed to repair the cabinet. It was intricate tricky spell work, but, I had no choice except to rise up to the challenge.

By the time we arrived back home that night my head was swimming with questions, doubts, and new information. I ate my dinner silently before retiring to my room for the night.

She drew back and her eyes bore into mine. "Draco, what are you thinking?" Her voice drifted wearily to my ears, as though it had to travel a great distance to be heard.

"What do you mean, love?"

"You can't do this. You are not a killer; you won't be able to kill Dumbledore. He's setting you up to fail."

"I have no choice. I have no choice! My life is on the line and that of my family too."

"You always have a choice Draco. You know there are people that would admire your bravery and help you."

"Bravery…I'm not brave at all." I felt her hand on my face, patiently waiting until I looked up at her.

"You might not think so, but you are, and you will be – braver than you could know." I felt my brows furrow at the cryptic response.

"Tell me what to do." She opened her mouth to respond, but my arm was on fire – it was all I could focus on. I didn't hear her response.

I was ripped from sleep again with the burning of my arm. I pressed my burning arm against my forehead and willed it to cool down. My mind flitted back to the dream. It had changed. She never spoke to me in the previous dreams. I knew that dreams could be pretty significant, and knew I had to talk to someone about these ones. The question was who? I couldn't trust most people I knew. I sighed and tried to calm my racing heart and mind. I pushed out of bed and went to my bathroom, getting ready for the day slowly and thoughtfully.

I would be going back to Hogwarts the next day, and researching dreams would be easier there, I decided. I hoped that the dream wouldn't get any more intense, and that I could handle them until I got them figured out. The day went by quickly and soon I was dreading falling asleep again. The dream was going the same until -

"You might not think so, but you are, and you will be – braver than you could know." I felt my brows furrow at the cryptic response.

"Tell me what to do!"

"You know what to do. I'll help you, just be patient."

"You're going to help me?"

"Of course, I lov-"

I was wrenched into reality and I frowned. At least this morning didn't bring the searing pain in my arm that always accompanied these dreams. I groaned, rolling out of bed to face the day.

I was on the Hogwarts Express hurtling towards the school in next to no time. I was sitting with my regular group – Blaise, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle. I was arrogantly going on about how next year I wouldn't be stuck in charms class when our compartment went black. When the darkness cleared I noticed shifting above us. Fucking Potter trying to listen in, why? Like everyone in the school didn't know by now that he had that stupid invisibility cloak. I deftly switched the subject away from what we had been talking about and carefully controlled the conversation until we arrived at school.

I waved everyone on ahead of me and turned back to the 'empty' compartment. "Didn't your parents ever teach you that it's rude to eavesdrop Potter?" I asked, shooting a stunning spell at him. He toppled from the rafter above and his eyes, which were stuck open, were on me. "I suppose they didn't have the time did they Potter? They died when you were still a baby." I snarled and stomped on his face, hearing a sickening crunch. I laughed and flung his cloak back over him before making my way off the train.

I was almost late to the great hall, but made it to my seat before the sorting ceremony started. I noticed Potter enter the hall after the sorting had finished, and dinner had almost concluded. I was a little annoyed that he wasn't chugging back to London, but I smiled to myself anyway. What a git he was. Just as dessert appeared Snape approached the table to talk to me. "Sir," I nodded acknowledging him.

"Draco, after you get the first years to the common room, you have patrol with Granger on the first floor. I fought an eye-roll.

"Yes sir." Ne nodded curtly before walking a few feet away and talking to Pansy. The headmaster stood and excused everyone from the Great Hall, everyone stood. I walked toward Pansy and we gathered up the first years to lead them to the Common Room. Pansy threw me a sidelong glance as we walked to the dungeons. "Do I have something on my face Pans?" I asked. She smirked and shook her head.

"I was just looking at you. Who do you have to patrol with tonight?" She asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Granger," Pansy looked sympathetic. "Who are you on with?"

"Padma," She shrugged, "She's not so bad."

"She's a bloody gossip though." I responded. Pansy nodded and chuckled.

"She does have a bit of a big mouth, better Padma than Granger though, she's horrible.

"Of course Patil is better than Granger, they probably have to keep the weasel and her separated." I snorted.

"Ew! Foul Drake, I don't want to think about those two together!" I laughed at her response. I didn't want to think about Granger and Weasley together either it was gross, but it also made me feel angry somehow. I couldn't quite name the emotion, but, it made me uncomfortable. "Okay, twerps, this is the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room."

"You need the password to get access, it will be posted in the Common Room when it gets changed, which is usually once every two weeks or so. Do not give it out to anyone outside of Slytherin house. The password now is Salazar; it will be changed to something less generic tomorrow, so make sure you find out what the new password is!" Upon saying 'Salazar' a portion of the wall behind me opened up. We ushered the first years in.

"Being in Slytherin is a great honour." Pansy said when the kiddos were gathered in front of us.

"We always look out for our fellow Slytherin's – house pride is huge here. If you're lost or confused about homework, or some Gryffindor punk is hassling you, you let anyone of the older students know, or come to Pansy or myself."

"While you are here at Hogwarts, this Common Room is your home, and all the other Slytherin's are your family. Do not leave messes around the Common Room, and do not let us catch you losing house points for Slytherin! Girls, follow me to the dorms!"

"If you gentlemen would follow me," I sauntered off to the left, where a downward staircase took us down to a hallway. "At the end of this hallway is a communal bathroom for all the first years, and the other doors lead off to dormers, there will be three to a room, and your names are on the doors. Go ahead and get settled, you can also check the common room out, but do not leave the commons tonight. On your beds you will find a map of the school, and find that your belongs are all here as well. Any questions?" There were a couple of mumbled no's and I nodded. "If you have questions later I'll be in the Common Room from around ten-thirty till midnight, after I've finished rounds. Now, be good boys while I'm gone." I laughed ruffling the hair of the boy closest to me. He glared at me and I laughed harder as I made my way back up to the Common Room.

I quickly exited and made my way up to the first floor, I waited by the staircase for Granger to arrive. She took about five minutes. "Malfoy," She greeted.

"Granger," I was surprised when the name didn't come out as a sneer. It seemed to catch her off guard too.

"Sorry I'm late; I had one girl with a million questions." I shrugged as we set off.

"She's a girl after your own heart then." I put a scoff into my tone. Granger looked over with a glare. "It's no big deal, my boys had no questions, and I think I was early." I had been on many patrols with Granger the year before as well. It was hard to keep up complete vitriol the entire time. We were mostly silent as we paced the halls together. "We should check the Library before our rounds are over. There might be some last minute summer homework slackers in there." She nodded and we made our way into the library

"I'll go left, you go right?" She asked as we entered. I nodded.

"We'll meet up at the restricted section in twenty minutes?" She nodded. I knew that the Library catalogue was to the right, and once Granger was out of site I bee lined for it. I quickly flicked through until I found the cards for dream books. I was lucky; they were also on my side of the Library. I made my way around making sure all of the tables were empty, and there were no students hiding out in any of the stacks. I found the dream section and pulled one of the books I thought would help me. I'd fill out a sign out for it before we left. I finished my section and looked at my watch, quickly heading for the restricted section. Hermione was waiting there looking a bit disgruntled. "Did you find something?"

"Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbot were not studying in the zoology section." She scrunched her nose. I bit back a laugh. Every prefect had caught couples getting hot and heavy in the stacks – well couples could be found coupling all over the school.

"Foul, aren't I lucky they decided to fornicate in your section of the library?" She frowned and nodded her head at me.

"You know what those two are like." Unfortunately I did, they were kind of notorious for obscene sexual escapades. "It doesn't even make sense why they go all over the school; they are from the same house! They could just fool around in there."

"I heard she can't get off if there is no risk involved." I shrugged; Granger looked shocked and wrinkled her nose further. We turned toward the restricted section and poked around quickly making sure it was empty. "I just need to sign this out before we leave." I indicated the book I had in the crook of my arm. Granger raised an eyebrow, I held the book up and a very odd look crossed her face upon reading the title.

"Modern Magical Dream Interpretation: Prophecy or Psyche?" I shrugged. "Have you been having dreams Malfoy?" She asked. Something about the tone of her voice when she asked the question made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"Even if I had, I wouldn't tell you. But, this is for Pansy, she asked me to pick it up for her because she knew I would be up on first tonight." I could feel Granger's eyes watching me as I walked to the front desk and signed out the book. She was giving off really strange vibes. I wanted to ask her what she was staring at, but, I was afraid of the answer. Instead, we left the Library in silence her gaze still upon me. I took a deep breath in before meeting her gaze. "Do you have a problem Granger?" I asked.

"I – no – I just - no. No problem Malfoy, have a good night." I watched her retreating form with interest. It was a bizarre start to the year, and I knew it would only get crazier from here.

AN: Howdy Dowdy! Back with a new story after quite awhile of not posting. Just getting back in the groove with this chapter. The idea for this story hit me out of the blue today and I just started writing. So, who knows where this story will end up? The bit where Draco finds Harry in the compartment is mostly from the movie, because I remember that batter than the book, but, also from my head a bit... Anyway nice rambly AN to start this tale off right. ;)

Please, please drop me a review, it's important in the first couple of chapters to know how the story is being received and if it needs tweaks or what. Thank you for reading commenting and favving this story! 3

~WS