Author's Note: Thank you guys, as always, for your gracious love and support on this story. I'm just always so thrilled to hear your theories, and I will just say that the details in this story are important! ;)
Over the past two months, myself and Kyonomiko have had the privilege of working with some wonderful writers on the In Another Life Dramione AU Fest - it's only on AO3 right now so you'll have to google it, but we're sharing two amazing Alternate Universe Dramione fics per day until March 14th. Hop over there and give them some love!
Alpha cred to Kyonomiko.
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Harry Potter franchise.
Hermione jumped awake with a sharp breath, images racing and flashing beneath her eyelids and she tried to cling to them, keeping the dream fresh in her mind for as long as she could.
She sat up in bed, heart racing as her breath expelled in short bursts. She glanced to the side to see Malfoy seated upright, his back against the headboard and his legs bent before him. His light blond hair hung in his eyes as he stared down, his fingers picking at the comforter. In the light of the moonlight through the curtain, he seemed to glow a pale translucence.
His grey eyes slid to her. "You alright?"
"I think so," Hermione said, massaging her temples. "You were awake?"
"Yeah," he breathed with an absent shrug. "Couldn't sleep. Thinking about tomorrow."
Hermione moved alongside him and he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her against his side. "You need some sleep."
He shook his head, his eyes dull as they fell to the comforter again. "I'll be fine." Hermione frowned, knowing he was still beating himself up over the possibility that Hikari had come down with the magical illness. "Did you have another strange dream?"
"Yes." She nodded, trying to cling to the images as they faded away. "It was Lothal – the crescent shaped carving on the pillar near the docks –"
Malfoy's eyes widened as he turned his attention to her. He prompted her to continue with a gesture of his hand.
Hermione squinted, trying to remember the last of the vision. "The moon was out – we were in Lothal at nighttime. That's it… that's all I can recall."
He blew his cheeks out with an exhalation. "It must be significant. The crescent, the moon…"
"You've been focused on the crescent," Hermione said, shaking her head. "What if it really is a clue?" She pressed her fingertips to the side of her head, leaning into her hand. "The people of Lothal were great engineers, and they studied the tidal movements extensively in constructing the dockyards –"
"The turning of the tide is controlled by the pull of the moon," Malfoy said quickly, his hand tightening around her. "Merlin, Granger – we need to go."
They stared at one another for a tense moment, and Hermione could almost see the thoughts flying through his mind as her own encompassed her brain. Her gaze flickered out the window to see the moon high in the sky. "Now."
They leapt from bed and dressed, stumbling around and tripping over one another – Hermione laughed as she caught her foot on his and he grabbed her before she could fall, stealing a quick kiss.
Then they were ready to go, both a little disheveled, and took the Portkey to Lothal in the dead of night.
Draco frowned as he paced the dock in Lothal, glancing across the way at Granger as she scoured the pillar with the crescent. He ran his fingers across the bull on the pillar nearest him – the vision had seemed so significant, but they had been in Lothal for nearly an hour now and hadn't found anything other than what they saw every day.
Granger approached, shaking her head as she collapsed at the base of the pillar, folding her legs beneath her. "I wonder what the vision was meant to show me."
"You can't see anything now?" Draco asked, taking up a seat on the ground beside her.
"No," she sighed. "I've been trying to access the trigger in all the ways it's worked in the past, but nothing. It's as if they're being withheld – as if there's something different I need to see instead."
Draco blinked at her, his eyes stinging. "So this ability is sentient now?"
"I don't know what to think," she said, shaking her head. She released a sound of frustration. "Why is it so impossible to figure anything out?"
"You saw the crescent in the vision," Draco stated, waving a hand. "So there must be something to that."
"Yes," she agreed, "but there's nothing here that isn't here during the day. Maybe the vision wasn't about it being night at all."
He shook his head, feeling a swell of disappointment wash over him. He had been so sure it was an important clue – the last time Granger had awoken from a vision, it had actually been connected to something she had already seen, and they knew it had been legitimate.
This one could have been something else.
Drao tilted his head back, pressing it against the stone of the pillar, and stared up at the clear moon overhead. He breathed, "Should we just go, then?"
Granger followed his gaze, tucking into his side. "Let's wait for a while – I feel like we should wait."
Even as she spoke the words she yawned, her eyes pressing shut as she brought a hand to her mouth. Draco snickered and slung an arm around her in the chill air of the night. "Or we could go back to the hotel and get some sleep."
"You weren't even sleeping," Granger said, jabbing him in the chest with a finger.
"But you were," Draco returned in a breath, feeling his lips tug into a smile. "And I'm starting to feel tired."
She shook her head, her eyes flickering to meet his. "I just feel like we need to wait."
Draco shrugged, even as his eyes seared and he forced them to stay open. He stared up at the brightness of the moon for another long moment; it was a full moon, and a chill crept down his spine. "Then we'll wait."
As if reading his thoughts, Granger asked, "Do you think I had a dream about the crescent because the moon is full tonight?"
"Might have done," Draco said, pensive. "If they were so fixated on the tides, you're right – they were probably fixated on the phases of the moon as well. At this point, I'm not ready to discount anything that might lead us somewhere."
He didn't say the last thought that passed his mind as surely as it twisted and tugged at the nerves already dancing in his stomach. Especially if the team were falling ill.
She dropped her face to his chest, and her curls tickled Draco's jaw as he swept them to one side, staring down at her.
The time in Pakistan – and now India – had been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks. He couldn't quite wrap his head around how everything had come to pass, between he and Granger, and with the case in general.
Weeks of struggle and no answers, but somehow he wasn't alone anymore. And he didn't know what that would mean for their return home – wasn't sure he wanted to know yet.
But Granger had been the one who wanted to tell Potter about him. Draco wasn't entirely sure how that all played in either. Whether things would change once they were no longer working on a case together.
He didn't think Granger was that type of girl, but he didn't know her that well yet on a personal level, and outside of a professional capacity. The girl he thought he had known at Hogwarts had been so deeply affected by the occurrences of the war, that he didn't recognize the child she had once been anymore.
But that was probably the case with most people who had fought in the war, and who had been forced to grow up too soon.
"What are you thinking about?" Granger murmured against his shirt, her words thick with fatigue.
His lips tugged into a smirk. "Breakfast."
"You weren't," she scoffed, shoving into him with her side. Her sleepy eyes turned to him, narrowed. "Be honest."
The smile fell from his face, a jolt of uncertainty chasing through him. "I was thinking about you – about us."
"Oh," she whispered, her lips parted. "And what about us?"
Draco's mouth felt dry and he swallowed, his throat bobbing. He gave his best attempt at a flippant shrug, even as his heart raced, and he was sure Granger could feel it. "Just about what's going to come of all this when we go back home."
His stomach twisted when she sighed. "I'm not sure yet."
"Right," he grit out, his hand flexing on her shoulder.
She was blinking up at him, and Draco glanced away. She whispered, "I'm not good at this."
Despite himself, Draco snickered. "Hermione Granger – not good at something. It must be a first."
"Flying," she breathed, settling against him again. "I wasn't any good at flying. And I'm not really good at these sorts of things – with boys."
He laughed. "I remember you in first year flying class. Swotty Granger couldn't fly." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Honestly? I'm not very good at these things either."
She withdrew from his chest, tugging his hand between hers as she sat against the pillar alongside him. "I wanted to tell Harry for a reason. Because I didn't want this to be a secret."
There was a tension hovering in the air between them, and Draco curled his fingers around her hand. "So maybe you want to see where this goes, once we go back home."
"I think so," she admitted. "I guess I haven't dated anyone since eighth year, and that was a bit of a disaster from the start, to be honest."
Draco nodded, his eyes flickering to hers. "I remember."
He couldn't be certain in the pale light of the moon, but Draco thought he saw her cheeks flush. "Even you saw that mess of a break-up?" She released an irritated breath, shaking her head. "It was terrible, truly. The more time passes, the more I wonder whether I wasn't only with Ron because it felt safe, after everything we had been through. But I don't think I ever really… felt about him like that, do you know?"
"I know what you mean." He released a tight breath, wondering how they had come to be having this discussion. "I've never felt that way about anyone, either."
"Not Parkinson," Granger mused, drawing on the back of his hand with her fingertips.
Draco scoffed, cracking a grin. "Definitely not Pansy. She always wanted to date me, but I think it was more about my family name than anything else for her." He shrugged. "I wasn't in a very good space, mentally, during the later years at school. Dating wasn't exactly top of my mind. And then eighth year… I was just there to get my NEWTs and get out."
"You didn't date at all?" Granger asked, her voice quiet.
He swallowed, shifting on the hard ground. "I had a bit of a thing with a seventh year when I was in sixth. But it didn't last long. We didn't have much of an emotional connection – or maybe I just wasn't prepared to let her in at the time. We went our separate ways without any hard feelings."
Granger sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I can understand that. I thought I had that connection with Ron – but obviously not. And I think if we had stayed together, it only would have grown worse."
He turned towards her, dropping his face into her hair. He asked, "Why did you break up?"
He didn't think he was imagining that Granger's face flushed pink that time. "It was a ridiculous reason, really."
Draco hummed, feeling his lips twitch with amusement while he waited.
"Ron got upset," Granger said, and he had to strain to hear her, "because he thought I had been saving myself for him."
Draco blinked, resisting the urge to laugh at Weasley's presumption, even as his nose turned up at the thought of Granger being intimate with Weasley.
"And you hadn't," Draco hedged, his breathing shallow.
It was a topic he had wondered at numerous times, but hadn't seen fit to ask.
She gave a minute shake of the head. "No, I hadn't. But it was before he even showed any interest in me, and it was hypocritical of him, given he'd slept with Lavender Brown in sixth year." She released a long breath, even as she snickered. "I told him I wasn't in a rush with him, even though I wasn't a virgin. And he thought –"
Draco swallowed a tight lump in his throat. "He thought you'd sleep with him anyway."
"He'd been hoping, I suppose," she said with a shrug. "He didn't push, but I could tell. And I guess I probably would have, eventually." She laughed, a soft, tinkling sound. "Maybe. Or maybe I would have realized anyway that there was a deeper reason I'd wanted to wait."
"You're smart," he teased, "I think you would have figured it out."
She scoffed, jabbing at his ribs with a finger. Draco grinned in return. He didn't want to say as much, but he liked the thought that she had never slept with Weasley, although it begged a different question.
"Who?"
She blinked at him, her brow furrowed. "Who what?"
"Who was it," Draco asked, his lips twitching.
"Oh," she said, glancing away, blushing once more. She gave that small, nervous laugh again. "It was Viktor."
He gaped at her, his eyes widening. "Krum. You slept with Krum."
Granger nodded, giving a little shrug. "He was nice. He was quite interested in the things I was studying, usually. He invited me to visit him the following summer and…" she broke off, glancing at him. "It never went anywhere, although it was fun while it lasted. I guess he made me feel less of a bookworm and more of a girl."
"Fascinating," Draco drawled, nudging her in the side. "And I'm not going to say I'm not a tad impressed."
Letting out a bright laugh, she turned to face him. "And you? Your seventh year girl?"
"Yes," he said, nodding. "A few times, but that was it." He grimaced, scratching the back of his neck. "And there was a girl in a pub, the night I found out my father was going to Azkaban. But I honestly don't even remember her name."
Something like pity or hesitation flashed through Granger's expression, and Draco caught the inside of his cheek between his teeth.
"That isn't something I'm proud of," he admitted. "But it happened all the same."
Granger sighed, giving his hand a squeeze. "I can understand that. I think we all faced things during the war – and in the aftermath. No matter the side we were on."
There was an honesty in her gaze that caused Draco to take a deep breath. He didn't know whether he would ever deserve someone like her. A silence fell over them until he said, "You're something else, Granger."
She brought the back of his hand to her mouth, pressing her lips to his skin. "And you're not as bad as you think you are."
A breath caught in his throat as he threaded his free hand into the base of her hair, dropping a lingering kiss to her lips. She pitched forward, deepening the kiss and carding a hand through his hair; Draco's eyes fell shut while his stomach roiled with something unspoken between them as he kissed her.
He tugged away after a moment, taking her face in his hands, staring at her. He opened his mouth to say something, and then sealed it shut again. Swallowing a breath, he said, "Maybe we should just go back to the hotel and get some sleep."
Something chased across her face and she looked up at the moon, shifted in the sky. She let out a breath of disappointment. "I suppose you're right, although I can't help but wonder what the dream was about then."
Draco shook his head. "It's hard to say." He rose to his feet and dusted himself off, reaching a hand down to help Granger to her feet. He tugged her up and brought her close to his chest; she melted into him, her lips finding his again as her hands grazed his chest.
Feeling a jolt in his core, he pulled her closer, his heart fueled by the feel of her pressed against him as her tongue teased his own.
It was as if the conversation about intimacy had opened some sort of floodgate between them, and Granger was kissing him with an intensity she never had before, her hands gliding through his hair, and Draco backed her up into the pillar, one hand meeting the bare skin beneath the hem of her jumper.
She released a whimper against his mouth, pressing herself tighter against him, and Draco wondered whether she might not want to go back to the hotel to sleep as his stomach twisted at the friction. He snaked his hand higher, his fingers grazing up along her side when she wrenched away. His eyes flew open to meet her darkened ones, and every nerve ending was singing with the awareness of her as he caught a breath.
But Granger's eyes averted, wide in shock, and stared beyond him. She whispered, "Draco."
Swallowing his surprise at her usage of his given name, he followed her gaze, and nearly leapt from his skin.
"Merlin," he breathed, reaching to run his fingers along the inside of the crescent carving. "Granger."
The moon was hanging high above them, and a beam of moonlight caught in the angle of the crescent, projecting forward into the open, excavated space of what had once been the warehouse along the docks.
Beside him Granger released a tight breath, her mouth parted in wonder as she followed the beam of light, her steps careful and soft, as if not to disturb it.
"How," Draco choked as he caught up to her, turning back to the crescent, and from the angle at which he now stood, the beam projected perfectly through the curve of the carved moon phase. She only shook her head, her gaze falling on the crescent-shaped light dancing on the floor of the warehouse.
"I don't know," she gasped, shaking her head. "But I think we need to go down."
Her eyes fluttered shut as if in concentration, and Draco knew she was trying to look into the past. Her fingers bumped into his arm, and he clutched her hand, threading their fingers. Her breathing was soft for several moments before her eyes opened again.
Frowning, Granger approached the light on the ground, bending down to touch where the light met the earth, her fingers brushing at the dust and dirt atop the old foundation.
"There are shaped stones embedded here," she whispered, picking the dirt out of the cracks with a fingernail. There were a series of stones pressed together in mortar. "But what are they for?"
Draco glanced at her and breathed, "Maybe it was an ancient version of the entrance into Diagon."
"Yes," she hissed, drawing her wand to tap on the stones. The dust quaked and jumped atop the stones but nothing happened. "Maybe it's a pattern."
Draco folded his arms, turning back to face the pillar. "The moon is moving quickly. The projection won't last long."
"And it must only work with the full moon," Granger whispered, her eyes wide. She clenched her free hand by her side. "The curve of the light encircles this stone… but what else?"
His gaze shifted to follow the opposite pillar. "Granger," he clipped, darting back to investigate. She caught up as he was running a hand along the broken surface of the other pillar. "Remember, this one was broken? Do you suppose it had a similar carving?"
Granger was silent as she stared between the far pillar and the floor of the warehouse, her hands tapping her sides in contemplation. "But it's been broken. Do you suppose it would have projected to the same spot?"
"It can't have," Draco said, "it would have faced the full moon from a different angle."
"So then where?" she choked. Her gaze flew to the angle of the moon again. "Already we're losing the correct spot."
His brain flying and attempting to process too much information at once, Draco paced to the broken pillar. "Go back to the warehouse. I'll see if I can simulate where the light would have shone from the other side."
She nodded with a tight breath and walked back into the warehouse; Draco could scarcely make out the shape of her. Staring at the height of the crescent carving, he shone a beam of light with his wand towards the floor of the warehouse.
A moment later, Granger's voice shouted, "No!"
Cursing under his breath, he reassessed the angle of the first pillar and tried to replicate it, again with no results.
He was too far, and the task too inexact to know which stone would have been encircled by the second crescent, but they didn't have time to come up with anything better. Striding back over with her gaze fixed on the pillar, Granger approached with caution, her eyes fluttering closed.
"I had a feeling," she whispered, her lips tugging into a smile, "that I'd be able to see this part." She snickered, reaching for his hand again. "I know – I sound crazy."
"This reminds me of a conversation we once had," Draco observed with a teasing grin, "wherein you refused to believe that seers were real."
One of her eyes snapped open and fixed him with a glare. "This is not the same thing."
He gave her a crooked grin with a facetious flicker of his brows.
"Yes!" Granger exclaimed, after another moment of silence. "I can see it."
Glancing back behind him at the angle of the moon, Draco breathed, "You'd better hurry." Granger raced back across the dockyard to the warehouse, dropping to her knees again. Whatever she could see remained elusive to him, as Draco could still only see the one beam of light, which was drifting and about to vanish, by his estimation.
"They intersect," she whispered, dropping down lower to remove the earth between two more stone tiles, her eyes squinting in the faint light of Draco's wand. She brushed the last of the dust away, turning to him. "These two are encircled," she said, gesturing to the first stone, and one a few spaces to the left of it. "And this one is illuminated in the light of both."
The moon dropped and the beam of light was gone, having lost the angle with the crescent it needed to project forward. Draco swallowed, staring at her. "Is it too late?"
"I don't know," she whispered, her free hand clutching at the stones. "I'm afraid to try it."
He crouched down beside her. "Before you forget." There was fear in her eyes as she stared back at him. "And whatever it is… at least we'll know."
"Right," she said, releasing a long exhale. Her hand shook as she tapped the stone to the left, then the one on the right, followed by the third that had been illuminated, between the first two and slightly above.
Granger released a sound of surprise and Draco leapt to his feet, pulling her with him, as the ground began to shake, the stones grinding against one another as they shifted and fell away. He took a careful step back, Granger wide-eyed beside him, and it took him a moment to realize a circular staircase was forming, leading into the ground below the warehouse.
They exchanged a cautious glance. The sudden silence felt insidious as the stones stopped moving, leaving only the curling stairwell down. Draco peered down inside, and there was only gaping darkness.
