A/N: ahhh, chapter 10!!!! Hahahaa. YAY. I'm so proud of myself. (:

Disclaimer: I don't own HP, but i DO own some spaghetti that my momma's making for dinner (:

Chapter 10—Lucky

I headed downstairs, rubbing my eyes sleepily and looking forward to my warm four poster bed. I pushed open the door, nudged Sebastian off my pillow, and changed into my jammies. I was just about to crawl under the covers, when a very pale and frightened looking Ashley spoke.

"V, there's something I have to tell you."

"Wait 'till morning," I said immediately.

"No, V," she said urgently. "You have to know now."

"All right," I said, grumbling a little bit.

Although she had insisted that I had to know 'now'', she hesitated and her eyes darted around the room nervously.

"You can't tell anyone, V. You have to promise me."

"Swear."

She didn't look altogether reassured, but continued anyway.

"I've been having these dreams, V. They're not good. Something's going to happen." She took a deep breath. "Do you know why I switched to Hogwarts in the first place?"

I shook my head.

"It's because of Aiden Moore. We were—erm—you know... together. And—er—"

It's because of a guy. So typical.

"—well he just turned out not to be who he said he was."

She shifted uncomfortably and refused to meet my eyes.

"Okay, Ash," I said in my slow, calm therapist voice. "Give me all the details, and start from the beginning."

She looked up at me, her eyes distant.

"It was my first year at Durmstrang. And as you probably know, Durmstrang is located in the far, far north, but Bulgarian was the language everyone used outside of class. And since I definitely didn't speak Bulgarian and I had a hard time figuring out what the hell those Bulgarian accents were saying, I didn't have many friends. I was the stupid English girl that no one wanted to talk to because they didn't want to A, bother themselves by having to speak English all the time to someone or B, they wanted nothing to do with me at all. So yeah, I was pretty pathetic. There was this other English kid, and as you can probably guess, his name was Aiden Moore. But unlike me, he had friends. He played for the Quidditch team, and was second only to Krum. And of course, he spoke perfect Bulgarian. So basically, there was me, the stupid English loser, and then there was him, the smartass English Quidditch player. Oh yeah, and he was three years older than me. So uh, he was in his fourth year by the time I came."

I interrupted her here; there was something very important I had to say.

"Ash, I honestly can't imagine you ever being stupid."

She smiled a little ruefully.

"That's 'cause he taught me everything. Like I said, he was a fucking whiz kid. He practically could've taken his N.E. in his fourth year. He's pureblood, too. I guess that's why he was so smart. His parents had really high expectations for him."

"What I can't figure out," I said, smirking a little bit, "is why a smart guy like Aiden Moore would go for a dumb English kid like you."

She swatted at me.

"Isn't it obvious, V? He fell for my natural charm."

I snorted so loudly that Parkinson groaned and rolled over in her sleep, muttering, "Mm, Draco."

Okay, I really didn't want to know what she was dreaming about.

"Anyway," said Ashley, "he approached me some time around Christmas and we totally clicked. We were instant friends, although he didn't often like to hang around me because... well you know, I was the English freak."

I pursed my lips.

"But when we were together, it was like... I don't know, would you think it was cheesy is I said it was like heaven? Yeah, you would. The point is, it was really amazing. He had the best stories to tell and he was always joking around... and then in our third year, he finally snapped when one of his friends called me a—actually, I don't know what he called me. He said it in Bulgarian and Aiden would never tell me what it meant. It sounded bad, though. Anyway, he hexed Vanchev. I heard that he had to stay in the hospital wing for two weeks before he was back to normal. But yeah, I started to join in Aiden's group of friends. They were never really my friends, though. I think they just put up with me just 'cause they loved Aiden so much. And at the end of my third year—"

She cut off, blushing furiously.

"Whoa," I said, awestruck. "French kiss at thirteen, Ash? You hussy."

"Shut up," she said, still scarlet-faced.

"Did you want to describe it to me?"

"No!"

"Shame."

"Moving on," she said forcibly. "I stayed at his house over summer—"

I cut in again. "Please tell me you're still a virgin."

"Of course I am!"

"Then by all means, continue."

She huffed angrily, but plowed on. "I stayed at his house over summer and went to the Quidditch World Cup with him. And you heard about the Dark Mark, didn't you? Of course you did. And the poor muggles being tortured... well, Aiden and I hid from the Death Eaters, though it was only because I insisted on it. Aiden said that we were perfectly safe since we're both pureblood."

"That's exactly what Draco said, too," I mused.

"Yeah, boys are pretty dumb. But anyway, the next year was the Triwizard Tournament, right? Aiden was one of the representatives for our school. Did you know that you could bring a guest? And Aiden chose me. I remember seeing you with Draco." she smirked now. "You guys were kissing during the second task, weren't you?"

It was my turn to blush. "At least I was fourteen."

"Fourteen is not much better than thirteen."

"Whatever. Are you going to tell me your story, or can I go to sleep now?"

"Hey, you're the one that wanted the whole story with all the details. Okay, so he didn't get picked. But you knew that. Krum got picked, much to Aiden's disappointment; he always comes second to Krum. And so yadda yadda yadda, your brother won, Diggory died, and drama. Then Dumbledore says that Moldy Voldy's back and everyone starts saying how you and your brother are barking and Dumbledore's going senile. Igor Karkaroff disappears and is found dead a month later."

Her face turns solemn now.

"You know who killed him, V?"

"Erm, do I want to know?"

She rolled her eyes. "It wasn't me. I might be pure evil, but I'm not a kill-old-guys-with-goatees kind of person. But Aiden is."

At that precise moment, Sebastian had crawled into my lap and nuzzled up against me. Her words didn't sink in right away.

"Wait, what? So Aiden killed Karkaroff?"

"Yup," said Ashley, still looking grim. "He's officially a Death Eater now, last time I heard."

"Wait—you said Aiden went to the Triwizard Tournament? Which one was he?"

"Dark hair, pretty tall, fucking handsome, and totally ripped with blue, blue fucking blue eyes. That one."

"Don't know him."

"Wouldn't expect you to. You and Draco were sort of lost in your own little world that year, weren't you?"

"Oh, shut up."

"No, you shut up. I'm not done with my story yet."

"Oh, right. What happened to Aiden after that? Are you still talking to him?"

"What? No way. You think he'd still date someone like me once he's all big, bad Death Eater? Fat chance," she snorted.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's all right. He was a dick."

I raised my eyebrows. "Mr. Dark Hair Pretty Tall Fucking Handsome and Totally Ripped with Blue Blue Fucking Blue Eyes was a dick?"

"Yeah, totally."

"Uh, can you say sour grapes?"

"Sour grapes," she said promptly. "I have no clue what that means, anyway. Is it one of your muggle wisdom things again? Anyway, he really was a complete dick."

"Really," I said, disbelief coloring my tone.

"Really," she said defiantly.

We stared each other down. But I, of course, had much practice with Harry, and won easily. She broke down without a few moments.

"All right, all right. He's not a total dick, although he is a pretty big one, you've got to admit. I really, really liked him, V. If he hadn't turned out to be such a douche bag Death Eater, I might've even come to love him."

"Oh. My. Merlin. Ashley Turner is talking about love. Somebody call the Daily Prophet."

"Shut up, I'm serious. It really scares me that I might've loved him. Because now... V, I'm having dreams about him. And before you say anything, it wasn't at all sappy, gushy and mushy. They were dark dreams, V. I keep seeing something. Some snake-like dude that I'm guessing is probably You-Know-Who and then there's Aiden looking all man-ish and hot as usual. And they're talking about something. A plan of some sort. And it involves you and Harry. The Harry part doesn't surprise me at all, since that snake dude is always trying to kill him, but it was the part about you that got me thinking. What would a scary evil mastermind like You-Know-Who want with a pathetic nitwit like Vanessa Potter, I asked myself. And the idea came to me in one marvelous stroke of brilliance—"

"Do you have any modesty in that body of yours, Ashley Turner?" I asked.

"Of course I do. But wouldn't you much rather hear about my stroke of wisdom than the habits of my mind? Both are fascinating, of course, but we can talk about that later."

I rolled my eyes.

"What would he want with Vanessa Potter? Well, obviously she's of no real use herself, but Harry is really, extremely protective of her and duh Voldy can use her to get to him! How was that, V?"

"I'm glad you think I'm useless."

"Why thank you, I'm pretty glad myself."

"So... that's the end of your story, right?"

"Yep."

"I can go to sleep now, right?"

"What? No! Don't you want to ponder the deeper meaning of my story toss and turn restlessly?"

"Uh, no. Yeah, I really just want to go to sleep right now. I'll ponder the deeper meaning tomorrow."

She sighed. "The moral of my brilliant story, V, is that you should be thankful for what you've got."

"What have I got?" I asked, confused.

"Uh, hello? Draco! You know, you are the reason some boys go to sleep crying at night, all right? Because you don't appreciate them."

"I do too appreciate them."

"No, you don't. Not really. Just think of it this way, V. The next time Draco pisses you off or makes an insulting comment, just think, Well at least he's not a fucking dick that's going to abandon me for You-Know-Who. Because—take it from someone who cares, V—Draco would never do that to you. Like, never, ever, ever. Remember on the first day of school when I accused you and Draco of being one of those mushy gushy lovey dovey couples? That was me and Aiden before. I guess I was kind of jealous that you'd have someone like Draco, but now since I know you better and actually somewhat like you; it would totally break my heart if something came between you guys. I'm serious, feel lucky that your Draco's not Aiden and would never be a Death Eater."

"Yeah," I said distantly, thinking of what Harry had said to me in the library only a few minutes ago. "Lucky."

"What?" asked Ashley suspiciously. "You've got your I'm-not-totally-paying-attention-to-you-because-I'm-thinking-about-something-else and your I'm-not-telling-you-something look on, and when those two looks come together, that means trouble. So tell me, because it's not fair that I just poured my heart out to you right there and you're still keeping stuff from me. So spill the beans, Sherlock."

I sighed, hating her inability to be fooled, and 'spilled the beans'. I told her everything Harry had told me, and watched as her face became more and more apprehensive.

"You don't believe him, do you?" I demanded. "Because just a few minutes ago, you told me that there was no way he would he would become a Death Eater."

She rolled her eyes. "Nah, I just told you that to make you appreciate him more. Harry's theory makes sense. Have you seen his left arm lately?"

"No," I said stiffly. "Now I have a question for you: does everyone go around gawking at people's arms except me?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

I glared at her.

"Anyway, another reason why it makes sense? Explain where he disappears to every night."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused. "He doesn't disappear."

"Yeah, he does," said Ashley, nodding knowledgeably. "After we all go to bed, and Blaise is snoring away, Draco sneaks back down to do... whatever it is that he does."

I raised my eyebrows. "And you know this... how?"

"None of your beeswax," she said breezily. Then, she looked at me seriously. "All joking aside, something bad is going to happen. I can feel it."

"Something bad? What kind of bad?"

"How the hell should I know?" she snapped. "I'm not a fucking Seer."

"All right, all right, sorry," I apologized hastily.

Ashley huffed at her angrily and shot me a glare before collapsing onto her bed. I distinctly heard her mutter,

"Fucking Trelawney."

I smiled faintly and lay back onto my pillow. Despite what I had told Ashley, I was thinking about what she had told me.

So Aiden Moore was her first kiss, and now he was a Death Eater. Wow, that must really suck. So she wanted me to appreciate Draco. At least he isn't a Death Eater... yet. I rolled onto my side, staring at the rolls of fat on the sleeping Sebastian.

I wondered if Ashley had truly gotten over Aiden as easily as she claimed.

I wondered if Ashley had ever cried herself to sleep over him before.

It was likely.

Then again, it wasn't.

Draco was disappearing after we went to bed? I had a sudden urge to climb out of bed and see for myself whether or not he was in his dormitory. But then again... did I really want to know? No, I decided, I didn't.

I closed my eyes and memories flashed before my closed eyelids as if they were imprinted there.

Draco was taking my hand and pulling me into his arms; Draco was laughing and kissing my nose; Draco was joking and making me laugh so hard that tears run down my cheeks. Draco was sneering and bullying first years; Draco was taunting my friends, insulting their families; Draco was hexing a second year Gryffindor. I couldn't understand how these could all be the same person.

I don't know when my thoughts shifted into dreams, but I was now aware that the Draco Malfoy standing in front of me was not the Draco I loved.

This Draco was smirking, a smirk that was completely unfamiliar to me and nowhere near as endearing as my Draco's.

He raised his left arm, the sleeve of his robes pulled back to reveal the Dark Mark branded into his arm. He pointed the wand directly at me, and grinned, revealing several small, pointed teeth.

"You never should've trusted me, V," he said in a voice that strangely resembled Kreacher's.

My vision started to tunnel, pulling me away from Draco. I opened my mouth to scream, and reached for him; I didn't want to be parted from him, not even when he was this peculiar, dark version of himself. I screamed again, fighting desperately against the unknown forces dragging me away.

The darkness was closing in around me. I could no longer see my surroundings. I couldn't see anything but Draco's face, which was contorted with rage. His bared his sharp teeth, and spat out a curse. There was a flash of green light.

I blinked into the pale blue light or early morning, feeling severely disoriented. The sheets stuck to my skin uncomfortably; they smelled of sweat. I looked to my right, where my slumbering tabby should've been. He was gone.

"V?"

I turned and faced Ashley. What I could see of her face in the half-light was set in lines of worry. In her arms was Sebastian, his fur sticking out randomly. He mewled what I supposed was his Good Morning.

"Are you okay? You sounded as if you were having a seizure, or something," said Ashley.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Dude, you're like drenched in sweat," she said disbelievingly.

I shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "It was just a bad dream."

She nodded sympathetically. "Same here."

"The same one?"

She nodded.

"D'you reckon it's some kind of sign or something?"

She snorted. "This is life, V, not Sherlock Holmes: Crazy Vision Girl Edition."

"Clever."

"Aren't I? So what was your dream about?"'

"Draco."

"Oh merlin, don't tell me: you and Draco were having a romantic evening and things got really intense and virtually lost your virginity."

"Uh no," I replied, smirking. "Why, have you had that dream with Aiden?"

She blushed scarlet. "No, why would you think that?"

My smirk widened. She scowled at me.

"Are you going to sit there and smirk all day, or are you going to tell me about your non-horny dream so I can interpret it like the good little crazy vision girl I am?"

I sighed, but said, "He killed me."

"Ooh, bummer."

"That's your interpretation? You're a crappy Seer."

"Okay, number one: I am not a Seer. Number two: call me one again, and I will rip your tongue out your mouths. Number 3, I ain't I nterpretin' nothing unless there's a fat sack of Galleons waiting for me after it."

"Okay, now you're pushing it."

She smiled sweetly, reminding me horribly of Umbridge. "yes, I know."

A/N: Ugh, in case you guys haven't figured it out already, I live in California. And sunny, sunny California ain't so sunny, sunny anymore. The weather is such a fucking pain. I look out the window in the morning, see gray skies, and dress in a sweater. Two hours later, it's 90 fucking degrees. OR I look out the window, and it's bright and sunny like California should be. I dress in shorts, tank top and a nice little jacket. Two hours later, storm clouds come outta no-fucking-where and it starts to rain. I'm not even kidding. And the winds here are so annoying now. MY HAIR IS PERMANTLY TANGLED D: but enough about my rant on the weather, how was your day? Mine was crap. We had an earthquake drill today and like I said, it was fucking COLD and the wind was blowing my hair around into death knots (ouch). I wonder if you guys think it's weird to have an earthquake drill. Someone told me that people in the Midwest like Texas and stuff have tornado drills. Is that true? And people in hurricane regions have hurricane drills. And people in Washington, and Oregon, and Hawaii have tsunami drills. I think that's really weird. So do you guys think an earthquake drill is weird? I wonder why California doesn't have tsunami drills...

OH AND GrimmJowsGirll, you are NOT fucking awesome, you are FUCKING AWESSSOMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEE because I THINK you've read all my stories and reviewed. PRETTY SURE. Which is whhhhy, you're FUCKING AWESOMMMMMMEEEEEEE. I'm starting to feel that I cuss too much. It all started last Friday, when I went to Knott's Berry Farm. You know how it is on rollercoaster's don't you? –going up that huge, huge slope- "holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck." –tumbling down toward the earth- "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!" You don't? Wow, now I feel weird.

Oh, and who was the other guy that reviewed? One sec, lemme check. OH, JainaZekk621... man, you rock too (: I think you reviewed on most of my chapters, yeah? THANKS SOO MUCH (: I will make you cookies. I swear I will. And I will mail it over to wherever in the world you are and SCREW THE POSTMAN. It might take awhile though. Because I still have no clue how to turn on my freaking oven. Oh, GrimmJowsGirll, I will bake you BROWNIES. (:

Thanks for the reviews because I am a grateful author and grateful authors say thank you (: your reviews make my day and feedback is awesome. So drop a review, make my day, and in my world, you will rock the socks off everyone's dickless feet. (Did that make sense? No? Fuck—I MEAN... freak.. o__o no, it's just not the same.)