DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Harry Potter books. JK Rowling does. This story is written solely for the purpose of entertainment. Song featured is the translation of the song orenji no Taiyou by Gackt Camui and Hyde of L'arcenCiel.
Warning(s): This is, in all aspects, a love story, so for those who are "allergic" to the love stuff, mushy-ness and all, do not, I repeat, DO NOT read this as it may just traumatize you... kidding! (;)
Dedication(s): This is for Laurie who loves Harry Potter... and also for Rageheart... thanks for being the best thing that ever came to my life...
Chasing Dreams: Chapter One
In the evening, I saw with you the orange sun
You looked like you were going to cry... eternal goodbye...
The cool autumn breeze flowed softly by, whispering endless tales of love and magic in his ears as he sat by himself on the sand, watching seagulls fly like white kites dancing on the afternoon sky. Looking straight ahead, he saw the red-orange sun setting on the horizon, already half gone. He closed his eyes, relishing the wave of emotion that surged through his body. He has never felt so peaceful as when he sits by the beach at sunset. It was his refuge, his sanctuary, a place where he can think without the stress he encounters in the school. How greatly he wished for time to stop and trap him there forever.
A soft soft... An image appeared on his train of thoughts.
'Again,' he thought, opening his eyes. Looking up, he noticed that the sky was already dark. The sun had completely disappeared. He stood up, brushing away the sand that clung to his jet-black robes, and wondered how long he lay there. To him it felt as if he's been there for an eternity and a second at the same time.
Realizing that it was getting late, Professor Lucius Draco Malfoy sighed and got on his broom. He better get back to Hogwarts else everyone will come looking for him.
Up in the sky, the cool wind on his skin, he let a small smile drift to his face. He always does that whenever he flies his broom. Even though he has been flying since he was eleven, the sensation of flying never failed to excite him. He loved to fly. He loved the feeling of cool winds and damp cottony clouds as he breezes swiftly through them. He loved being up in the air, where there are no walls to enclose him.
A few minutes later, Draco's thoughts drifted away without his notice as he passed darkening clouds one after the other.
Ever since he was but a little child, he has been having the strangest dream. In his dream, he would find himself standing on a sandy beach, watching the orange sunset on the horizon, when a beautiful lady ran barefoot past him. She was clad in an incandescent white robe, her golden hair flowing freely like the waters of the beach and so were her tears. And every time, he would wake up to find that he was only dreaming. Yet the dream was so vivid it was almost real. Water nymph, that's what he used to call the lady when he was a little boy.
Sometimes he would have the dream for a week then it would stop then back again when he least expected it. But recently, the dream haunted him every night. This time, he realized that there must be an explanation on why the dream keeps on coming back and he began to wonder what it meant. Who was the lady? Why was she crying? And more importantly, why was he having that dream over and over again?
He flashed his famous smirk. A Malfoy disturb by some strange dream… It's unheard of. He told himself not to think about it anymore.
'It will go away by itself,' he thought. 'It always does.'
Back inside the grey stoned walls of Hogwarts, Draco decided to get changed for supper, which will be served, as always, in the Great Hall. Silently he walked to his room, taking the familiar corridors that he had been passing through for years. He was about to enter his room when he heard a voice.
"Off to the beach again, Draco?" it asked.
He smiled, recognizing the voice. He turned and saw a tall young man with jet-black hair, emerald eyes and that very familiar lop-sided smile. "It's none of your business, Harry," he replied blandly.
Harry. Years back when he was still studying he would have sneered and called him Potter or Muggle-lover or whatever nasty word he could think of, but that was all behind him now. He has changed greatly. At twenty-one, Draco grew up to be a very respectable wizard. He was now an auror, a profession highly regarded but not needed in these days since Voldemort's defeat.
He could still remember those times when he fought with the greatest witches and wizards spawned in that era to determine the fate of both the wizarding and muggle world. He was only seventeen then, freshly graduated from Hogwarts. He was one of the newly pledged aurors to participate in the battle, fighting alongside the famous Harry Potter and his friends. The memory brought the feeling of pain and sadness to him, for he lost a great number of friends and comrades in that battle. It was also the same battle wherein his father, Lucius Malfoy, died.
It was bittersweet for Draco when he heard the news of his father's death. Although he felt happy that he was finally free from his father's tyranny, he also felt sad for he has lost someone dear to him. Draco loved his father even though he feared him greatly. There has always been that biased sense of love in their family.
Narcissa, on the other hand, went in great anguish. She could not accept her husband's death. In fact, she denied it and remained faithful on waiting late at night for her husband to return triumphant from the war. The obsession drove her mad eventually. She would strangle their house elves, break all glasses she could find, and sometimes even run naked around the mansion and out in the streets attacking anyone she meets. It was all Draco could endure to see his own mother lose her sanity. He tried reasoning with her but found that he could not reach her. No existing spell brought his mother back to him.
Even the house elves were afraid to go near her. In despair, Draco resigned from the Ministry and stayed at their mansion to care for his mother. And one fateful day, while Narcissa was running sky-clad through the forest near their mansion, a few hunters went there, hoping to catch deer. One of them, a young man named Morris caught a small glimpse of something moving behind some bushes. It was his first time to go hunting and he was excited, so he fired his gun at the bushes thinking that a deer might be hiding behind it. There was a single piercing scream and then silence befell the whole forest. Morris, frightened by the scream, haphazardly checked behind the bushes and found the naked body of a middle-aged woman. Her body, curled like a baby inside the mother's womb, was covered with blood from the open wound where the bullet entered. And so ended the life of Narcissa Black-Malfoy.
A year after that, Draco accepted a new position offered to him by Dumbledore, to become the new Potions Professor for Snape has decided to retire and live the remainder of his life peacefully. Since then, Draco has been teaching hundreds of students together with Harry who was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. They became good friends, often seen talking intently like they have never been enemies in childhood.
"Is it the dream?" Harry asked suddenly, breaking Draco's reminiscing. "You've been having the dream again, haven't you? The one with the beautiful lady you told me about? You said a week ago that it's been going on and off again."
"As I have said, Professor Potter," he said, emphasizing on Harry's title. "It's none of your business if I dream or not. I absolutely despise people who stick their noses in other's personal affairs."
"I am most definitely not being nosy," Harry defended, grinning profusely. "Had that beach been any of my business, Draco, I would have drowned you there a long time ago and be rid of all this."
Draco shook his head and smirked. "That is if I haven't drowned you first, Harry," he said, opening the door. "Anyway, I need to go get changed."
Harry looked at Draco's dusty robes and laughed. "I can see that," he teased. "You can't have your little student-admirers see you looking like that, can you? Your loyal subjects will be outraged when they see their precious professor wearing filthy rags. Your image will be stained…"
"Shut up, Harry," Draco said offhandedly.
"Why, Professor Malfoy," Harry feigned a gasp. "How rude of you!"
"Sorry, Harry," he sighed. "I'm just not in the mood."
"Oh alright," Harry replied exasperatedly. "See you at supper then, Draco. That is, if you're eating tonight."
"Sure," Draco answered lazily before closing the door behind him.
Harry absentmindedly strolled through the long corridors on his way to the Great Hall. He was worried about Draco. He has caught the Potions professor acting strangely in the past few weeks, staring out the window and choosing to be alone all the time. He wondered what was happening to his friend.
He was passing through the Headmaster's office when suddenly there was a crash and Harry found himself sitting on the floor.
"Bloody hell!" A familiar female voice muttered. Harry snapped out of his reverie. He knew he had heard that voice before and so he turned to see whom it belonged to.
TBC ()v