A/N. Hey guys! I know that it's been forever and a day since I've updated this thing but this summer was not as relaxing as I thought it was going to be. I've finally moved out of my house and into my own place, so I will hopefully have a lot more time to write now! So here is the long awaited seventh chapter. Enjoy :D
The next morning, Draco was terrified to leave his room. After what happened the day before with his dream about Kate, he was worried that something along the same lines would happen again. Finally after pacing back and forth in his bedroom for fifteen minutes, he finally talked himself into leaving his dorm. He decided just to skip breakfast and head straight to his first class.
He spent the entire day waiting for something to happen, but to his surprise, nothing did. And in a way, he couldn't help but be grateful that he didn't see Granger once the entire day.
Lucky for him, he hardly saw her that entire week. Every once in a while they would cross paths in the common room, and they had a few classes together, but not a single word or look was exchanged between the two.
By Thursday he was back to his usual arrogant self. He had decided that what happened was just some strange coincidence, and he was sure that it was never going to happen again.
By the weekend, he had pretty much forgotten about the dream all together and had slipped back into his normal schedule.
It was nine thirty Sunday night and Draco Malfoy was sitting in the heads common room finishing his homework and eating dry cheerios with a glass of milk. He was enjoying the warmth that was radiating off the fire, and was looking forward to a good nights sleep.
About fifteen minutes later he heard the common room door open and close, then the sound of someone plopping down on the couch across from him.
When he looked up from his work, he saw Granger also working on some schoolwork. He had two choices, he could either annoy her until she leaves, or just let her be. He decided that since she hadn't bothered him all week, that he would just leave her alone for now, unless she did something to piss him off in some way.
After a few minutes of silence, Draco started hearing a noise that was coming from in front of him.
He glanced up over his book to see Granger humming some kind of tune. He took some cheerios and tossed them in his mouth as he contemplated what exactly the tune was.
After a few seconds, he shrugged and went back to working on his essay. But soon, he unknowingly started humming the tune along with her, with his mouth still stuffed full of cheerios.
Across from him, Hermione was in a completely different world, once again reliving an old memory. Suddenly she noticed that Malfoy was humming along. She was shocked that Mr. Pureblood Malfoy himself actually knew a muggle song, one of her favorite songs as a matter of fact.
"When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bay," she sang almost inaudibly, but being just loud enough for Malfoy to hear. "Oh I want to be there in my city."
"Ooh oh ooh, oh ooh oh." Draco finished off the last bit.
Suddenly he was back in his dream from a week ago, and he tossed another handful of cheerios into his mouth. After a few seconds of reminiscing, the light went on in his head.
When he first realized what song it was, he started chocking on the cheerios that were now blocking his air passage, causing all the papers he was holding to fly everywhere.
Hermione had no idea what to do, one second they were sharing some kind of mutual moment of peace. But now Malfoy was choking on his cereal, and she didn't know what she should do. Should she go over and perform the himelick maneuver and save his life, let him cough them up himself, or just let him die an almost humorous death.
Malfoy kept coughing trying to get them up; finally he hacked them up and sent them flying across the gap between them, covering Hermione in semi soggy cheerios.
Malfoy sat there staring at her in complete shock. Everything had been going so well. It had been almost a week since he had that dream and he thought that he had been in the clear. But apparently he was wrong. He was sending daggers at the girl across from him.
The saying 'if looks could kill' came to Hermione's mind at that exact moment, and she honestly thought that at any second Malfoy would jump across the coffee table between them and strangle her to death.
"YOU!" He said pointing an accusing finger at her. After a few seconds of silence, he picked up one his heavier textbooks and started hitting himself in the head with it.
Hermione was shocked; this was the strangest thing that she had ever seen him do. One second he looked like he was going to kill her, and the next he was physically abusing himself. Now she hated Malfoy with the passion of a thousand suns, but she didn't want to see hurting himself. So she quickly got up, and yanked the book out of his hands.
"What is wrong with you?" She asked with a hint of concern in her voice.
"YOU!" He yelled, "You, this is all YOUR fault! God you have no idea how much I want to hurt you right now."
At that comment, Hermione's look of concern disappeared from her face and was replaced by one of fear. Hermione started slowly backing away from the enraged Slytherin.
He slowly got up and started walking towards her until he backed her against a wall. He put his hands on each side of her head and he took a deep breath. He was so close that every time he breathed out, she could feel it across her face. He had long past her comfort zone.
Looking down at her, he leaned in and spoke. "Do not under any circumstances, EVER talk to me. If you are anywhere near me, I don't want to hear a single word come out of your mouth. Do you understand?" He said making sure to keep eye contact with her.
She quickly nodded unable to look away from him.
Swiftly he backed away from her, walked across the room, went up to him dorm, and slammed the door behind him.
Immediately Hermione slid down to the floor. Never in her entire life had she ever been as scared as she was moments before. Sure she knew that Malfoy disliked her, but she had never seen him that angry. She didn't even know what she did to make him so mad at her. One thing was for sure; she would never forget the coldness in his steely eyes.
After sitting alone on the common room floor for another ten minutes Hermione picked herself up and went up to her room, leaving all of her schoolwork down stairs.
As soon as she closed the door behind her, she went straight to her bed and laid down. Within minutes she was fast asleep.
But what was happening in the dorm across from hers was a whole different story.
As soon as Malfoy slammed the door behind him he put a silencing charm over his room and started throwing everything he could get his hands on. Once he was satisfied with the damage he had caused, he fell down on his bed. Immediately after he hit the bed he grabbed a pillow to cover his face and screamed into it.
He didn't even understand why that had made him so angry. He couldn't even think of another time in his life when he had been that livid.
When he started thinking back to what had just occurred the first thing that popped into his mind was an image of the look on Grangers face when he had cornered her. Sure he had been mean to her in the past, but he had never seen her look so scared.
Any other day, Draco would of felt a bit of remorse for the girl, but in his opinion she got what she deserved.
Looking at the time, he saw that it was only 10:15. He knew one thing was for sure; he was not going to bed that night.
But what was he going to do for the next nine hours.
Around 6:30 the next morning, Hermione woke to the sound of the shower running in the bathroom. Why in the heck was Malfoy up that early? At the though of his name, everything from the night before came flooding back to her.
As soon as she heard the shower turn off and his bedroom door close on the other side, Hermione figured that she might as well get up.
As soon as she got into the bathroom, she put about four different locking charms on his bedroom door.
Hermione couldn't help but think about what had happened the night before. She was trying to think of what could of set him off. The only thing that she could remember happening around that time was that she was singing that song. But why would he get so mad about here singing a song.
When she got out of the shower, she quickly dried off and got dressed for the day.
Before leaving her room, she peaked her head out of the door, just to make sure that Malfoy wasn't lingering about. When she decided that the coast was clear, she ran as fast as she could for the portrait hole. As soon as the portrait closed behind her, she breathed in a sigh of relief.
"Oh good morning Ms. Granger. What's got you in such a hurry on this lovely day?" Alexander asked when he saw her out of breath. She jumped when she heard his voice, afraid that it might have been Malfoy.
"Oh good morning Alexander, um I just didn't particularly want to run in to Malfoy. I would rather not ruin my day this early in the morning." She finished with a smile on her face.
Alexander frowned as she started to walk down the hall. He was hoping that this boy would figure some things out before it was to late.
When Hermione finally made it down to the great hall, she was relieved to see that Harry and Ron were already sitting down at the Gryffindor table eating their breakfast.
She went over and sat across from Harry and silently started filling her plate with food.
After a few minutes of silence, Hermione screamed when someone tapped on her shoulder. Suddenly, everyone in the hall was looking at her, even a certain Slytherin across the hall. When she made eye contact with him, he glared at her as if saying 'you better stop looking at me or you will regret it.'
Quickly she reverted her eyes back down to her food.
"Dang Hermione, it's only me." Ginny said as she sat down next to her.
Once everybody went back to their own conversations, Hermione decided to take a chance and took a glance over at Malfoy. To her surprise, Malfoy didn't look too good. She was a pretty good distance away from him and she could see the bags under his eyes, his hair wasn't as neat as it usually was, and he just looked like had hadn't slept last night.
Across the hall, Draco got the feeling that someone's eyes were burning a hole in the side of his head. When he looked up, he wasn't to surprised to see Granger suddenly looking down intently at her plate.
Sick of being surrounded by people, Draco decided that he'd rather be to class early then be surrounded by all the people talking around him.
Once Draco got down to the dungeons, he was happy to find that the class was empty. He immediately went over to his seat and put his head down on the desk and closed his eyes.
He had never been this tired in his entire life. Why was it that he didn't go to sleep last night? Then he remembered; it was because he was too afraid that he would have another dream about 'her'. The sad thing was that he would have to go to sleep sooner or later.
All the sudden Kate and him were walking down the hallway of their primary school hand in hand. Class had just let out and the two best friends were heading to recess.
When they finally made their way onto the playground, there were kids running amuck everywhere, but as usual Kate and Dylan began making their way to their little spot in the woods.
Before they could make it though, some kid who was running across the playground ran straight into Dylan causing him to fall down on the ground.
"Draco!" Blaise said causing him to wake up.
"Didn't get enough sleep last night?" Blaise asked as he took his seat next to him.
When Draco looked around he saw that the majority of the class had already arrived, including Potter, Weasley, and Granger who were seated directly in front of him.
He couldn't believe that he had been dreaming about Kate. How was that even possible, he couldn't of been asleep for more than ten minutes? This was going to be a long day.
In front of the blonde, Harry was contemplating what was going on with Hermione this morning. She had been on edge, she freaked out at every little movement and sudden noises. Plus she was being unusually quite.
"Hermione are you okay?" Harry asked her.
She had heard him but was pretending she didn't. For the first time in her life she was hoping that Snape would hurry up and get to class. She knew that Malfoy was right behind them and she really didn't want to some how piss him off again.
After a few seconds he tried again. "Hermione?" But she still pretended to be immersed in her book.
Finally he grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. "What going on with you today?" But immediately after he finished his sentence, the door to the potions classroom flew open and Snape came gliding in.
Without saying a word, Hermione turned back around in her seat, but not before Harry saw her shoot a worried glance behind her.
When Harry turned to see what she was looking at, he saw Malfoy glaring at the back of Hermione's head. How had he not guessed this in the first place, Malfoy was the reason Hermione was acting differently today.
Through out the rest of the lesson Harry watched Hermione very closely, but she never said a single word. Snape had asked the class a number of questions, but her hand never went up to answer any of them.
What had Malfoy done to her?
For the rest of the day, Hermione hardly paid attention in any of her classes. Instead she found herself daydreaming about being a kid. Anything to keep her mind off of what happened the night before. When she wasn't daydreaming she would be looking out of a nearby window or closely examining any surface that was in front of her, and Harry took notice of all of this. He was worried about her.
It wasn't until later, when Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and him were all sitting in the Gryffindor common room, that he decided to try and confront her again.
"Hermione?" He asked the girl sitting next to him.
"Hmm?" She answered back; more comfortable talking now that Malfoy was nowhere near her.
"What was going on with you today?" She could hear the concern in his voice, but there was no way that she was going to tell him what had happened. So instead she just lied.
"Oh, I just wasn't feeling well." She said with a warm smile.
Harry sighed, he knew that she was lying but he wasn't going to push the issue.
The group spent the rest of the night studying and doing homework. Hermione had been so busy that she had lost track of time. When she finally looked at her watch and saw that it was ten till eleven, she freaked out. She quickly got up and started gathering her things.
"What's the rush Hermione, it's not like you'll get in trouble for being out after curfew, you are head girl and all." Ginny pointed out as Hermione scrambled about organizing her things.
"Oh well umm," she stuttered. "I just want to get a good nights sleep, that's all." Finally ready she started running out of the portrait hole. "I'll see you all in the morning."
Ginny shook her head when the door closed behind her. "Something is strange about that girl." But she quickly dismissed the thought and went back to her work.
But Harry on the other hand was still looking at the portrait hole where she just left. Something was defiantly going on with her.
A few minutes after Hermione made her departure Ginny also excused herself to go to sleep. Now Harry and Ron were the only ones left in the common room.
"Hey Ron?"
"Hmm?" Ron said not bothering to look up from his parchment.
"I think I'm going to go for a walk. Don't wait up." With that Harry got up and left the common room.
As soon as Hermione had left Gryffindor tower she sprinted through the castle, making her way towards the heads dorm. The reason she was in such a hurry to get back was because Malfoy was patrolling that night and it ended at exactly eleven o'clock, and she did not want to run into him. So the safest bet was to get back in her room before his patrol even ended. But now she was pushing it, she had three minutes to safely make it.
Fortunately she made it back to the dorm with a minute to spare. She couldn't help but let out a sigh of a relief when she closed the bedroom door behind her.
Now that she was safe, she took her sweet time getting herself ready for bed.
Finally she got into her warm bed and turned out the lights.
While the head girl lay safely in her bed, Draco Malfoy was still walking lazily about the castle. Even though his patrol had already ended, his feet didn't seem to want to take him back to his dorm. At least walking around would surely keep him awake.
Little did he know that his peaceful stroll wouldn't remain peaceful for long.
Suddenly he found himself shoved up against a wall with a wand at his throat.
"What the hell?" Draco said when he saw Potter glaring at him.
"Malfoy I don't know what you did to Hermione, but lets get something straight! You need to stay the hell away from her. Even if she doesn't tell me if something happens, I'll know." Draco could tell that he was trying to make himself sound intimidating. This whole situation probably would scare the hell out of anybody else, but Draco wasn't just anybody. And he wasn't going to take any of Potter's crap.
"So if you do anything to harm her in anyway, you will have to face me. Got it?" Harry asked while digging his wand deeper into Draco's neck.
"Sure." Draco said sounding bored.
Slowly Harry lowered his wand and started to walk away satisfied with his work.
"Hey Potter!"
Harry turned around, but before he could even comprehend what was going to happen, Draco's fist met his face, causing Harry to collapse to the floor.
"Now lets get something straight Potter," Draco said as he massaged his knuckles and looked down on Harry. "If you ever touch me or even come at me like that again, you will surely regret it. And also, apparently you didn't get the memo; I don't take shit from anyone, got it?" And with that Malfoy left Harry alone and bloody on the floor. He was now officially sick of walking around the castle.
When he finally made it back to the common room, Draco plopped himself on the couch. He couldn't help but be satisfied at the fact that he had finally gotten to punch Potter. Serves him right for trying to threaten him.
But why exactly did he seek him out in the middle of the night like that. Usually Potter would just keep his mouth shut unless Draco did something to his, Weasley's, or Granger's face. But this time he went looking for him and actually threatened him for something that he knew nothing about. Draco knew that Granger wouldn't have said a word to that bumbling idiot. Draco had to admit, Potter had some guts to actually confront him like that.
Then it clicked. Potter had some kind of secret crush for Granger. It wasn't a secret that Weasley was in love with the girl; everyone in the school knew that. But what would happen if the red head found out that his best mate had feelings for the same girl that he was in love with. Oh this information could be useful.
If anyone could observe Draco Malfoy at that exact moment, they would see the gears turning in his head and his signature smirk dancing across his face.
He closed his eyes and started imagining all of the amazing and evil things he could do with this information. Before he knew it, he was no long scheming, but was off in a dreamland; or in Draco's case, a nightmare.
All the sudden Kate and him were walking down the hallway of their primary school hand in hand. Class had just let out and the two best friends were heading to recess.
When they finally made their way onto the playground, there were kids running amuck everywhere, but as usual Kate and Dylan began making their way to their little spot in the woods.
Before they could make it though, some kid who was running across the playground ran straight into Dylan causing him to fall down on the ground.
"Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. You see we were playing tag and…" But before the boy could finish the sentence, Dylan had gotten up and shoved the boy to the ground.
After staring at Dylan for a second, the boy got up and ran away from them.
When Dylan looked over at Kate, he could see the disappointment that was etched on her face.
"Why did you push him?" She asked.
"Umm because he ran into me and knocked me to the ground." He answered back.
"But he didn't mean to knock you down. It was an accident."
He sighed. "You're right." He mumbled to her while he looked down at his feet.
"I also think that you should apologize to him." She said as she pointed to the boy who was now crying by a tree.
"Okay." Dylan knew that what he did was wrong, and Kate was right; he needed to apologize. The boy did say sorry to him, and he really didn't mean to run into him in the first place.
Slowly Dylan made his way over to the child. When he finally got to the boy, who he now remembered name was Alex, he didn't really know what to say.
"Umm Alex?" He started off.
When Alex looked up at him, Dylan could see a look of fear on his face.
"Umm, I wanted to apologize for pushing you over. You didn't mean to run into me and, I'm sorry." Dylan held his hand out to help the boy up.
Alex examined his hand for a second, and then he decided to take it. "I'm sorry again for knocking you over in the first place."
"It's okay. Friends?" Dylan asked with a smile on his face.
"Friends." Alex said before he ran off and continued playing with the other children.
Suddenly Dylan felt someone grab onto his hand. When he turned to see who it was, he was happy to see it was Kate with a smiling back at him. Kate always brought out the best in him. With that the two children continued their journey to their favorite spot.
When Draco woke up the next morning he generally felt well rested. But when he remembered his dream from the night before, the good feeling went away.
"Oh bugger." He covered his face with one of the pillows on the couch and groaned. He knew what he had to do.
A/N. YAY chapter seven is complete. For some reason I get more written when school is in session. Also I have two little plot bunnies hopping around in my head right now, one that has been there for months now, but I refuse to start another story until this one is finished. Especially since this one will probably wrap up sooner then my other one.
Well thanks for reading! So what do you all think that last line means? Tell me I love to hear your theories!
:Dani
