Harry Potter and all of its settings and characters belong to JK Rowling.
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Draco stepped from the fireplace into Hermione's room, his eyes scanning until he found her, slumped over her desk, fast asleep. When he and his mother had finally emerged after a long discussion of everything from her childhood to the aunt he'd never met to the plan she'd been waiting to act on all this time, Dumbledore had been the only one left in the dining room. He offered to escort his mother out and told Draco how to find Hermione.
His lips curled into a smile as he walked to her and saw what she'd been working on before succumbing to the exhaustion that must have come from two days of continuous Pepper Up potion, unusual magic, and what he assumed was little to no sleep. She had been organizing her thoughts on what had gotten her so excited after she'd raised the shield. There was a page in her looping handwriting sticking out from under her head.
THEORY: Common Magical Knowledge - Because our magic is merged it is possible that we both possesses the ability to perform all spells and magical skills known by either party.
Possible testing sites:
Room of requirement (too well known?)
My room (too small?)
Professor Snape's quarters (too risky?)
Logical order of testing:
1. Exclusive Spells
2. Wandless Magic
3. Occlumency
4. Something I can do (?)
5. Legilimency
6. Flying
Underneath that last one she had doodled a picture of herself on a broomstick which was now zooming across the bottom of the page. He brushed her hair from her face softly and bit his tongue to keep himself from laughing at the little ink letters that were smeared across her forehead. He couldn't leave her like that or she'd wake up with a terrible crick in her neck but he was loathe to wake her. As gently as he could he levitated her from the desk chair and put her on the bed. Once she was tucked in he sat and watched her sleep. It was far too early to risk sneaking through the middle of the Gryffindor common room so he settled in to wait, and while he waited he contemplated the sharp turn his life had taken over the last few hours.
A small sound brought him from his thoughts and his brow creased in worry as she tossed her head to the side still caught in sleep. He rose, thinking she was having a nightmare and preparing to wake her when another sound fell from her now parted lips and stopped him in his tracks. She moaned. And it was decidedly not in pain. He stood transfixed as he watched her body arch and little breathy sighs now punctuated her breathing. She writhed as if under the hands of a lover and the sight of it quickly stole his sanity. When his name tumbled from her lips he started to reach for her. She was dreaming of him. That was-
Not natural.
Cold clarity slid down his spine and he pulled his hand back with a barely contained curse. It was not natural, this sudden desire. He thought back to what she'd said earlier. Something about seeing how he would deal with having an overwhelming urge to kiss someone who probably wanted to kill him. An overwhelming urge. This wasn't her. It was the bond. Most likely his magic was creating it. Which meant no matter how much he ached for her, he couldn't touch her. Not like this. It would be the same as taking a girl who was drunk or dosed with lust potion.
Fuck. He fisted his hands in his hair and pulled sharply as she moaned his name again. He had to get out of here. His usually endless depths of control were in dangerously short supply and he paced, trying to think of how he could get back to his room without being seen. He was seriously considering forgetting about his room and using her fireplace to go back to Black's house just to get away when he spun and saw a door that hadn't been there on his last round of pacing. Desperate to escape he crossed the room and grasped the handle, just able to think clearly enough to open it slowly with his wand at the ready. What he found was a room he knew for a fact shouldn't exist.
It was sort of like a common room in that it had a fireplace and comfortable looking furniture, but it was about four times the size of a normal common room and it was filled with so much more. There were bookshelves everywhere, a large clear area with mats and dummies he assumed was meant for sparring, a small kitchen, a potions worktop, and several more doors. After ascertaining that no one else was there he pulled the door to Hermione's bedroom closed and breathed a sigh of relief at the barrier between them before setting out to explore this impossibility.
Hermione's bedroom wall was the outer wall of Gryffindor tower. She had a window that looked out over the courtyard. This was certainly not supposed to be here. He opened one of the first doors and found a bathroom the would put the Prefects' bath to shame. The second door led to what appeared to be the back of the Potions storeroom. The third door led to his bedroom. Bloody hell. He leaned his hand against the door frame, staring in shock at the rumpled bed he'd left this morning. Well that certainly takes care of her problem of finding a safe workspace. He realized she might be a bit apprehensive to wake to a door that shouldn't be there and searched around for something to write on. When a piece of parchment and quill appeared on the table next to him he spared a moment to wonder if this day could get any stranger before penning a hasty note and slipping it under her door.
He was almost positively not going to get any sleep tonight.
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Hermione woke to a strange mixture of contentment and angst. She reached out sleepily for something she thought should be next to her and was disappointed to find the space empty. She opened her eyes slowly and blinked in confusion as she realized she was still fully clothed. Why did I- Her thoughts snapped abruptly into focus as she took in the notes on her desk where she by rights ought to still be and the sunshine streaming in through her window. She must have fallen asleep... waiting for Draco. She groaned as she realized he must have found her at her desk and tucked her in before leaving. Damn it all. The only chance they'd had to be alone together and she'd let sleep take her.
She flung herself back on her bed in frustration. It was Monday morning, which meant an entire day of lessons with him where she had to pretend to despise him and no way to safely communicate about how they were going to meet. Her head fell to the side and she froze at the sight of a door that should not exist.
She sat up slowly, pulling her legs over the side of the bed and staring at the door that logic would suggest led into thin air. A small bit of parchment caught her eye and she jumped up to snatch it from the floor. Draco's handwriting stared up at her.
Meet me behind this door that shouldn't exist tonight after dinner. I think you'll find it the perfect place to test your theory.
Yours quite literally,
Draco
P.S. Don't believe a single thing I say to you today.
She smiled at that and went to reach for the handle when it abruptly disappeared. She cursed and ran her hand over the wall but didn't get much time to investigate as she suddenly heard the chime indicating that breakfast was about to begin and jumped at the realization that unless she used a bit of magic and started right now she was going to be late. Hermione Granger was never late and considering she now had a very good reason to not draw any unwanted attention to herself she was now quite glad that the door had disappeared. As soon as she thought it she turned to start summoning her school things and saw the door reappear out of the corner of her eye.
"Cheeky," she said with a small smile and could have sworn she felt a surge of amusement that seemed to be seeping up into her from the floor. She brushed that strange thought from her mind and rushed to get ready. She had enough strangeness to be handled without adding more.
Seven minutes later, with the help of charms and flat out running, she made it to the hallway leading to the great hall and composed herself before following a few straggling students to the doors. She felt a bit nervous. So much had changed since yesterday that she was afraid it would somehow show on her skin- Great Merlin's ghost! She abruptly changed course, almost careening into a third year Hufflepuff boy.
"Sorry!" she called over her shoulder as she hurried back down the hall and ducked around the corner into an alcove. She peered about, making sure she was alone before she pulled up the sleeve of her sweater to reveal the mark on her wrist. She tapped it with her wand and muttered a concealment charm.
She headed back towards the great hall, feeling rather pleased with herself for not only remembering that dangerous bit of information before she'd gone to push her sleeves up in Potions but for that fact that she would still be on time, when the dreamy voice of Luna Lovegood came from behind her and killed her short lived sense of relief.
"Ooooh! You've finally found each other!"
Hermione spun around, trying to keep the fear from her face but apparently doing a terrible job as Luna rushed to assure her. "Oh, don't worry, no one else can see it," she smiled as if that was a perfectly natural thing to say and turned to walk away.
"Wait!" Hermione grabbed Luna's arm and steered her away from the doors, glancing around nervously, "Luna, what exactly do you mean by that?"
"You and Draco Malfoy," Luna said as if puzzled by Hermione's lack of understanding, "You found each other."
"Merlin, Luna keep your voice down!" Hermione hissed and looked around again, "That is quite possibly the most dangerous information in this castle. How on earth do you know that?"
"Your souls are the same color." Luna smiled again, "I've been waiting ages for you to figure it out and today there's a link trailing from you into the great hall so I knew you finally did."
Hermione was dumbstruck. "You can see our souls?"
"Oh, not just yours. I can see everyone's soul. It's a spell my mother invented before she died. I do it every morning before breakfast so I can see all the colors. It's quite soothing. Professor Snape's is my favorite, although I suspect he thinks I'm a bit daft what with all the times he's caught me staring."
"Luna, does anyone else know about this spell?" When Luna shook her head Hermione smiled in relief, "Do you think you could teach it to me?"
XXX
Luna's soul was a bright beaming yellow, Parvati's was a deep forrest green, Neville's was burnt orange, and Draco's was indeed the exact same shade of crimson that hers was. That was as far as she got after walking into the great hall only one minute late before the sheer brightness of all the colors mixing in the room made her a bit dizzy and she'd hastily countered the spell. Soothing was not at all how she'd describe it. Testing on that definitely required a room with far less people and though she'd been sorely tempted to try again during Potions just to see what Luna meant about Professor Snape's soul she refrained. Being distracted while brewing an explosive potion was not in anyone's best interest and she'd already had her hands full trying to keep her eyes from fixing on Draco who was doing a far better job of feigning disinterest and disdain than she was.
Finally the day that seemed as if it would never end drew to a close and she was able to retreat into her bedroom. She stared for a moment at the door that should by all rights lead straight out into the open air high above the courtyard with a mixture of excitement and nerves before she grasped the handle and pushed it open.
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