Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series is the sole property of JK ROWLING and a select number of Publishing Houses worldwide hold a limited amount of rights to its usage. I do not own nor do I make any profit from the writing and publishing of this story. The characters here-in are still hers. The idea behind the story is my own and as such is mine to do with as I please. Also, this chapter has not been beta-read, so I apologize ahead of time for any grammar and/or spelling mistakes.
See the end for an Author Note.
DURING
Hallucination Potter: Part 1
Draco woke without the dragon clawing at him. It had traded places with the mermaid's dry scream echoing in his head.
"How are you?"
He didn't remember meeting anyone recently. Nor did he remember getting a new place. This must be his mystery shag's apartment. "I'm not fine."
A snort.
It was such a small thing to recognize someone by, but Draco had heard that derisive snort so many times. It had been directed at him for all of his adolescent life.
Draco shot up. And promptly vomited over the side of the couch. He still had time to see the familiar mug of one Harry Potter. "What the fuck?" he croaked when nothing else came up.
Draco was in Harry Potter's apartment. It was too damn bright. Or he was hallucinating. Or in Hell.
"Do you need a fix?"
Draco wanted to glare at Potter, but he was so calm. So relaxed. Nothing like the real Potter. "I'm not high you wanker."
"Obviously not. Which was why I wanted to know if you wanted to be?"
Draco would have hexed the git if he could feel his fingers. Or find where Potter's wand was.
He had gotten high all of one time and the resulting crash back to reality had not been worth the brief respite.
Rather than tell Hallucination Potter that, Draco decided to slip back into his nightmares.
"Are you alive?"
He didn't look any less like Harry Potter in the dark. Draco's mouth tasted like cotton and vomit. A quick finger tap on his cheek had a fresh mouth charm clearing away the taste. When he looked back the bloke still looked way too much like Potter. "What's your name?"
What do you want it to be?
The dragon still didn't return. "I'm Harry."
He passed out again just to spite Fate. Wasn't there some law against kicking a person when they were already down?
Fuck he needed a drink.
"He looks dead."
"Leave him alone Colette. He might bite."
"Is he a vampire? That would be hot."
There was too much light. "Potter," Draco croaked.
"He smokes?"
"I didn't think so."
Draco wanted to be sick. Nothing was forthcoming.
"Alright, up we get."
A groan split open Draco's head. The dragon wasn't back yet, but his body ached anyway. Potter looked fantastic though. Harry sodding Potter never looked good. Maybe Draco had already had something to drink.
"Drink this."
Draco glared at the cup but he wanted a drink so bad. When he threw the small plastic cup back it didn't burn going down. But it tasted like syrup and dragon's piss. Draco said as much. Potter laughed. Wanker.
"How long is he going to sleep?"
"Leave him be, Letty. We had a rough night."
"I heard."
There was silence for a moment before the woman's voice returned. "Who do you think Dumbledore is?"
"I have no idea."
The darkness was thick around Draco. He would have thought he was dead if he weren't so cold.
Merlin he wanted a drink.
Draco managed to sit up and look around. He had no idea where he was. Whoever owned the parlor had quite an extensive library. Books lined every shelf along the wall behind him and on the mantel of the fireplace to his left. The couch he had been sprawled across was quite large for the small space, but his 6'3" frame had fit on it comfortably and there wasn't much more he could have asked for at the moment.
Except for a wand.
And a stiff drink.
"Hey."
He jumped off the couch and reached for a wand he didn't have.
Harry Potter snorted. He made the sound just as much as Draco remembered. "What are you doing?"
Draco sounded like shit. He probably looked it as well. He sure felt like it.
"This is my apartment. You've been burning off whatever you took for the past nine days. I expect you just drank a lot by all the bottles but your withdrawals were severe. What else were you on?"
Draco was dumbfounded. Was Potter trying to help him?
"Look mate, the sooner we get you at a decent baseline the sooner you can get back on your feet. This is assuming you actually want to."
"Don't lecture me," Draco snapped.
This might be a hallucination Potter but he was just as annoying as the real one. "I'm not going to be fine just because Saint Potter decided he needed to save me."
Potter looked highly amused. "I didn't say you had to be fine."
He jumped off the counter and held out a cup. "Trying to poison me are you Potter?"
His hand remained in the air. Draco took it. He was pleased to note that the drink smelled like honey. When he drank it there was also lemon. "This is good. What is it?"
"Stomach calming draught."
Draco arched an eyebrow. Sure his stomach had calmed significantly, but Potter was on the moon if he thought Draco was going to believe that. "Aren't you missing crushed bezoars? And powdered root of asphodels?"
Potter shrugged. He was really too calm. Why was he so nonchalant? He had a Death Eater in his parlor.
Draco took another sip of the draught. It really didn't taste of anything but honey and lemons.
And Draco had long since trained himself in the careful identifying qualities of poisons the world over.
Which left it as a random act of kindness. Which Potter didn't just do for people named Malfoy. "You're being freakishly civil Potter. I almost expect to drop dead at any moment."
His amused expression gave birth to a grin. "Okay I'll bite. What is a potter and does it have anything to do with plants?"
Draco choked on his draught. He knew it was poison.
"Letty and I have a bet going, you see. I'm pretty sure its a slang term for someone so disbelieving you attribute their actions to a sort of high, like the type you get from smoking. She thinks it's a person."
A hallucination then. Draco was having one of those surreal dreams where he met Potter again and they just started over.
He hated those dreams.
He hated waking from them more.
"Hey you still in there?"
Draco glared through his coughing fit. This one was annoyingly realistic. Or rather just annoying.
"You..."
"Me."
If Draco glared any harder he wouldn't be able to see the git.
"What's your name?" Potter asked.
Draco flinched. Say it! his thoughts commanded.
He had to swallow before he could speak around the lump in his throat.
"Draco."
Malfoy.
Harry arched an eyebrow as if knowing there was more to it. If this was a dream- one of those wretched, cursed dreams where he and Potter got to start over- he didn't want to start the same way.
"Black," he added.
Potter smiled.
"Draco Black," he said.
Death Eater.
Draco frowned.
"Cool name. You're far too pale for a name like Black Dragon though. You look more like a Regulus to me."
Draco couldn't help but stare at his hallucination.
"It means 'Little King'. It's actually a star in Leo."
Draco continued to stare.
"Leo is a constellation," Hallucination Potter said.
He finally snapped out of it at the amused upturn to Potter's mouth. "I know the constellations Potter or do you forget the namesake of the Black children?"
"Why do you keep calling me that?" Potter quickly added.
The fire blazing in the hearth filled the room with a cozy warmth that Draco wanted to slip into. If only he could silence the other half of his dream. "It is your name you twit."
"My name is Harry-"
"Oh yes, of course," Draco drawled out, stretching languidly on the couch. "'Ooh, ahh. Look it is the great and powerful Harr-"
"Harry Evans."
Draco froze mid stretch and carefully looked back up at Potter who was now leaning against the edge of the couch with a bemused expression. "Come again?" Draco said.
"My name," he drawled slowly and motioned to himself, "is Harry Evans. Nice to meet you."
Draco hated this dream.
Alright so this chapter is incredibly short. Shorter than the first one (prologue thingy). That's because this was just a good break for the story and I didn't want it to be way too long to wait for the next good natural feeling break. So there.
