"You Only Live Twice"

Sequel to "Leah"

by Dorthey Star

Chapter Four: Hopes and Dreams

          Hermione, after finding the dagger, ran, not knowing where she was going. She ignored the odd looks that were full of pity that the other Gryffindors gave her as she ran out of the common room. She ran down many corridors, taking turns by instinct. When she finally stopped, she had no clue as to where she was. She looked around. In the corner of the room she'd ended up in, was a mirror. The Mirror of Erised. Cautiously, Hermione stepped up. Although she'd never looked in it, she'd heard all about it from Ron and Harry. She peered into it.

          She was standing in the room, but she wasn't alone. It was her Hogwarts graduation-she could tell by the purple dress robes that she wore-and her parents were there, her mother looking very proud indeed. Draco, Harry, and Ron walked into her view, laughing and joking together. Hermione's mirror image's face lit up with a smile when she saw Draco, who promptly gave her a kiss. Ginny also came into the picture and received a kiss from Harry. And finally, a pretty girl-Hermione couldn't see her too clearly-came in and hung onto Ron. Hermione looked at the surroundings which had changed. They were in a graveyard-which was odd because they were all smiling and happy. There were two graves which could be seen clearly; one read TOM RIDDLE and the other read LUCIUS MALFOY. The real Hermione smiled.

          Suddenly, a knocking at the side of the door brought her out of her trance. Harry was standing there with the Marauders Map in his hand.

          "The other Gryffindors told me you'd ran off," Harry said quietly, glancing at the mirror.

          "Yeah, um, I had a nightmare and I, er, wanted to get away," Hermione lied. Somehow she couldn't bring herself to tell Harry the truth.

          "What'd you see?" Harry said, motioning towards the mirror.

          "In the nightmare?" Hermione asked, playing dumb in order to give herself time to think of something to say instead of she and Draco being together.

          "No, in the mirror," Harry said calmly.

          "I saw, well, I was in a graveyard and there were graves. Two of them. The names on them were Tom Riddle and Lucius Malfoy," she said, half truthfully.

          "Is that all?" he asked her, raising one eyebrow.

          "Yes," she said quickly. Too quickly. Silently she cursed herself for answering that fast. She took a few deep breaths and counted to ten slowly to calm her nerves which were shot as it was.

          "Do you want to know what I see?" Harry asked, standing in front of the mirror and looking into it.

          "Your family?" Hermione asked quietly. That's what he had seen before, she Hermione didn't think that his heart's desire was going to change that much…or would it?

          "They're in the background, but something else is in the foreground," Harry said, turning to Hermione, "It's-"

          "It's your heart's desire and very private. You don't have to tell me, Harry," Hermione said, quickly cutting him off, not wanting to know if he saw them together.

          "You told me what yours was," Harry said, sounding surprised that Hermione wouldn't listen to him.

          "Mine was pretty obvious…Listen, Harry, I need to talk to Dumbledore, so I'll see you later or something," Hermione said, and fled the room.

          As Draco walked down the hallway, he admitted it to himself. He still loved Hermione and probably always would. He also admitted to himself that Hermione hated him and that he was going to have to marry Pansy whether he liked it or not.

          Killing himself when Hermione had been murdered, had seemed like the only escape at the time. Now, when he thought back on it, Hermione was right. It was a stupid thing, but it relieved him of the pain for a little while. The pain of his father's beatings, the pain of loving Hermione, the pain of being engaged, the pain of losing Hermione. It had all been gone for a short while.

          Then that bloody Weasley had come along and brought them back to life. Sure, life on earth was all right. You could eat, feel the blissful oblivion of sleep, and feel sunshine on your skin, but it also came with the awful things, too. The feeling of waking up from a wonderful dream in the morning, the feeling of being hated, the feeling of eating too much, or eating the wrong thing. The worst of it was, when Christmas break came- and it would, in just a few short months- he would have to go back to his house and back to Lucius who had been released from Azkaban. His mother was a powerful witch, but she couldn't always be there to stand up for Draco. After all, he was almost a fully qualified wizard. He needed to learn to protect himself on his own and he knew his mother knew that.

          Draco sighed, and wished that he still had Hermione on his side. Life that summer had been perfect. He hadn't had to worry about Pansy, his father (very often; there was the rare occasion-and the fatal one-where he accidentally let something slip about his girlfriend), or any of his wizard and witch "friends."

          He was almost at the end of the hallway, when someone came crashing into him. He looked up into the frightened face of Hermione. Her eyes were blurred with tears which were also running down her face.

          "Sorry," she whispered, and quickly stood up. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and hurried on her way down the hall, the opposite way that Draco was headed. Whoa, he thought to himself, that was weird.

Disclaimer: yadda, yadda, yadda, nothing belongs to me, blah, blah, blah, it's all JK Rowling's except for the title, so on, so on, so on, the title belongs to whoever wrote the James Bond novels, ect, ect, ect.

Author's Note: I should be asleep, I'm tired, but this idea was bugging me all weekend! Draco's last thought describes this chapter…anyway, ahem.

What was Harry's heart's desire? Why was Hermione crying? Why is Draco all of the sudden so depressed? Stayed tuned for chapter five where you'll find out, well, I'm not sure, but I do know you won't find out Harry's heart's desire until later on. I have started switching from Hermione's POV to Draco's, and eventually I will add Harry/Ginny/Ron. It will make the story easier to tell later on. TTFN and don't forget to review!