When I fell asleep that night I had a strange dream. I was in the Forbidden Forest near the Lake. I tried to find a way out. Suddenly Tom appeared. He grabbed me.
"Run!" Tom exclaimed.
I ignored him and continued trying to find a way out.
"Ebony!" called another voice. I recognized it as Vampire's.
Tom transformed into a snake and started to slither around.
"Run!" screamed Vampire.
Out of nowhere, Draco came to me with his pointed vampire teeth. "Come with me," he said. Just as I moved toward him the snake jumped up between us, his fangs aiming at Draco's neck.
I awoke from the dream, screaming. Luckily, it was a quiet scream, so Willow didn't appear to be woken up. It was 6:06am. I was unable to go back to sleep, so I turned on my laptop. I looked up pictures of vampires. They were so sexy. I was so excited to know Draco was one of them, like me.
I left to take a walk in the woods. I thought about what Tom told me yesterday. Some students at this school were certainly remarkable. They weren't just Goths, they were vampires! I wondered whether to take Draco's advice to be smart and avoid him, or to let things go on as they had been because Draco was clearly awesome. I chose the latter because I was completely drawn to Draco. I realized in my dream I screamed out of fear for Draco's safety when the snake attacked.
I walked back once I was relieved that I made a decision about my relationship with Draco.
When I got up for school on Monday it was bright and sunny, to my despair. I ran into Vampire in the morning.
"Want to go out?" he asked.
"I'm not interested in you," I rejected him, "but I think Willow is." I went on with my day.
At lunch I looked for Draco around the school, but he wasn't there. In fact, I noticed that none of the Malfoys were.
When the day was over, Willow revealed something spectacular.
"Harry asked me out to dinner," she announced. "But we should go out soon too—maybe shopping in Hogsmeade tomorrow?"
"That's great—both your date with Harry and us going shopping. Let's do it."
I read a vampire book to make the afternoon pass faster. It was pretty effective, as I fell asleep after just a few paragraphs.
The next day at school the weather was sunny and the Malfoys were absent again. Right after school I met up with Willow and Pansy so we could go dress shopping in Hogsmeade. We walked over to one of the clothing stores there.
"Hargrid said he's taking you to the Yule Ball," Willow brought up while she was changing in a stall.
"OMG he's such a pedo!" I exclaimed.
"Yeah!" she agreed. "Maybe that's why Britney doesn't like you. She has pretty strong feelings for her Transformation teacher."
"Is it normal for the Malfoys to be out of school a lot?" I asked.
"Yeah, I heard it's a vampire thing."
Willow and Pansy both came out of their dressing rooms. Willow was wearing a black corset dress. Pansy was wearing a long black draping one. They looked so pretty. They brought their new clothes to the shopkeeper and bought them.
"I'm going to look for a bookshop," I told the girls as we exited the store.
"Ok. See you at the Three Broomsticks," Willow said.
As I tried to look for a bookstore I got lost. Trying to find my way back to the others, I was cornered by a group of men who have herded me into a deserted street. I wondered what they were after.
Before either I could scream, or the men can attack, a broom raced to my general direction, stopping just in front of me. It was Draco. I jumped on the broom. Draco flew away from the street and out of Hogsmeade. He appeared to be struggling to contain his anger.
"Say anything to distract me," he said.
"Hargrid said he's going to take me to the Yule Ball. I think I should use on him whatever spell he tried to use on me. Then he probably wouldn't bother me anymore."
"I'd heard about what he had been saying." He sighed. "I sometimes have a problem with my temper. It wouldn't have been helpful for me to hunt down the men who were about to attack you."
"Willow and Pansy will be worried about me. I'm supposed to meet them at the Three Broomsticks."
Draco flew me there.
"I'll take you out for dinner," he offered.
"Oh ok," I accepted.
Willow and Pansy came out of the restaurant. They were shocked to see me with Draco.
"I'll fly Ebony home," he said to them.
"Bye Ebony," said the girls.
"Bye guys," I replied. They left.
When Draco and I entered the restaurant we chose to sit at a private table.
"You dazzle people," I commented.
"Do I dazzle you?" he asked.
"You do," I admitted.
The waitress came to serve us. She appeared to be dazzled too.
"What can I get you two?" she asked.
"An orange juice and a chicken soup, please," he ordered. "And you?" he asked me.
"Whatever he's having," I told our attendant.
Our server left and returned quickly with our drinks.
"You look cold," Draco said concernedly.
"I'm fine," I said. But I was shivering.
He gave me his jacket to wear. It smelled amazing.
"I'm really fine," I maintained, "and I feel safe with you."
"Yeah right," he said.
"Sometimes your eyes are red," I commented, "when you're in a good mood. When you're in a bad mood your eyes are blue. I think I know why—I have a theory. I'll explain it to you later as long as you answer a few questions first."
"Sure," he agreed.
Our food arrived. I scooped up some soup with my spoon and began to eat my supper.
