Disclaimer: I know it … you know it too right?
Title: Time And Again By: GaiNax *coughs* annchanLast Time: "Well my theory is that; since Draco …" She coughed. Saying his name was weird … but it was pleasant. 'Pleasant?!' She thought. 'I don't think his name sounds pleasant' Hermione started making gagging noises with her throat but continued. "…Malfoy – since Malfoy is um… lost, Snape must've thought that Malfoy inhabited Ron's body so he gave us points."
"Funny…" they all laughed but Ron and Hermione stopped when Harry started twitching … he was changing again …
Chapter 9: Denial…(REVISION)
"Harry!" Hermione looked at her friend in shock. His eyes are changing into a light shade of blue and Harry's become taller. The physical changes are almost complete. "Ron, you've got to call Dumbledore…"
Ron stood there gawking at his friend, completely ignoring Hermione.
"RON! Wake up … go get Dumbledore!" 'Mione shrieked.
"Ok!" Ron dashed out of the Gryffindor common room to look for Dumbledore.
'What if we don't find a way to fix this?' Hermione sniffed. 'I won't get to see the raven haired boy I fell in love with … ok so I wouldn't mind if he had blonde hair' she kicked herself for thinking that 'blonde' would look good on Harry. 'I hope we find a way to punish that stupid, idiotic, conceited, self-centered, egotistical, evil, manipulative, cute, slytherin ferret… hold on, did I just say cute?' Hermione kicked herself again. 'That ferret isn't cute …' Hermione stared out the window, totally forgetting that Harry is in pain.
Harry stopped twitching and decided to see the outcome of his transformation. "Hermione!!"
"Huh? Oh sorry Harry." She looked at him with fear and amazement. He looked really weird with blonde hair … I mean who wouldn't if they look like themselves but then minute by minute they're turning into their worst enemy?
"What's wrong 'Mione … you seem distant."
"Oh nothing is wrong with me." She stared into his blue eyes and saw herself with someone … she blinked hoping that she was only dreaming but she stared into his eyes again. She saw herself with Draco … not Harry. 'What is going on?' Hermione rubbed her temples wishing her headache – which she just got – would go away. 'Why am I seeing Draco in his eyes …?"
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah … I just got a headache." Hermione lied … she got a headache and a bad case of dracoitis, whatever that was.
"Sure … you can lie all you want but one day it'll all come out."
"What makes you think I'm hiding something?"
"Codswallop!"
"Well for your information, Harry James Potter, I am NOT hiding anything …" '…not from you anyway.' She thought. She doesn't have a deep dark secret … it's not like she's pregnant or anything. She just didn't want Ron to know that the real reason she went to Bulgaria was to reconcile with Victor. She didn't want to break up with Ron … but things happen. She walked of the Gryffindor common room looking for solitude but while she was on the stairs it moved to an unknown place in Hogwarts. The stairs led her to door in the 5th floor. Hermione pushed the door open and in the room, she found a piano. 'How could there be any muggle things in this place?' she asked herself. She knew, by reading Hogwarts: A History, that there is no 'secret' music classes going on in Hogwarts … so why is there a need to have a piano situated in the school. She walked over the piano and played a tune. Then sung the song she wrote when she broke up with Victor.
"Oh just tell me how I can be
All that you ask of me
And still feel that I am free
Free to be who I am..
Oh just tell me how I can be
All that you ask of me
And still feel that I am free
Free to be who I am.."
Hermione sighed and left the room. She remembered the exact location just incase she needed some 'solitude'. She wandered back to her common room to see how Harry was doing.
"Hey 'Mione."
"Harry … are you okay?" She looked at her friend who was sitting down on his bed.
"Yes, of course I'm okay … after all I am Harry Potter, the boy who lived."
Hermione turned away mumbling something about 'one of these days, his ego will get him killed'. She looked out the window wishing a miracle would happen. Ron and Dumbledore had been here a couple of minutes ago checking up on Harry but left because they had to find a charm to help him … a.s.a.p. She knew that there's nothing she could do … even though she is the smartest witch in Hogwarts, aside from the teachers. Her knowledge on these 'time' business is surprisingly very little considering that she excels and knows everything about every other subject. She felt someone's hand on her arm, she knew it was Harry since they were the only ones there. Everyone else were in Hogsmeade and had no clue that Draco is in the past changing things, they thought he was lost; eaten by some creature in the Forbidden Forest or with his father in those Death Eater meetings, either one makes people happy. It was good news to all the houses, even Slytherin that Draco is gone or either away for awhile. Although the Slytherins worship him, they never really liked him. They only worshiped him because he was Lucius Malfoy's son. 'Name can be a very influential thing' Hermione thought.
"Hermione don't worry about me, Ron and Dumbledore will find something."
~ * ~ * ~
'I have 10 hours left here and I still haven't accomplished what I've set out to do. Shit!' He shuffled around on his bed … actually it was still the guest room since Draco wasn't even born yet. Draco woke up and stood, looking at his father who was sitting on a chair mumbling things.
The shock of having his future son travel back to the past was quite a weird experience for Lucius. He sat still on the chair doing nothing. Only God knows what's going through his mind, whether it be good things or not. He even did the weirdest thing a couple of hours ago … he allowed James and Draco to stay with him. As for Lily, she's been through enough today so she just decided to rest trusting that neither of the three guys would do something to her.
Lucius stood from his chair looking normal, which isn't a good thing. "Draco, wake up! I want you three to leave right now!"
"Oh no please don't kick us out of your wonderful house…" Draco said sarcastically.
"You know I tried to be nice …"
"I guess you didn't try hard enough!"
Lucius walked over to Draco and was about to slap him but luckily Lily woke up in time and stopped him. "Stop it! I – I thought you were nice … a decent guy but all you did was prove me wrong. No one wanted to be your friend – no offense – but I went ahead and talked to you. Told you my secrets and other things no one knew about or even cared about. I told James, Sirius, Peter, Remus, Elizabeth, heck I told everyone that you were a nice guy but people always said that one day you'd betray me … stab me in the back but I said that it'll never happen since we trust each other. I even forgave you when you told the Slytherins my secret about being a muggle-born. I thought you, of all people would understand but I guess my secret was so funny that you just had to tell them. That's not what I'm upset about … it's what happened a few hours ago that upsets me. It's one thing to tell my secrets … but violate me. How could you? And now you're about to hit your own … err… future son? What the hell is wrong with you, your parents didn't love you enough as a child?"
"No they didn't. They may have spoiled me but never loved me Lily."
Lily stood there in shock. 'What kind of parents don't love their own child. There must be something mentally wrong with the Malfoys.' She thought. "I – I'm s… No I'm not sorry about your parents. Not being loved doesn't mean you have to do mean things to people. I'm not saying that you deserved it but …"
"How would you know? You live in a perfect world Lily."
"Sorry to interrupt but I think we'd better be heading back. I want go back to Hogwarts before it's late." James popped out of nowhere. Well actually he came from the room across the hall. The Malfoy's had a lot of rooms and most of them were vacant due to the fact that people were scared of them.
"It's about time you people left." Lucius looked at the three for one last time and walked out of the room.
"I guess we have to find our way out."
"No problem. I'm familiar with the house, don't worry there are no Death Eaters residing in the Malfoy manor. Just house-elves and us."
"That's good to know." Lily gripped Draco's hand tightly ignoring the deadly stare James was giving her. Oh how jealous he is…
The trio walked in muggle London looking for a form of transportation but they had no luck. They hadn't thought of bringing money since they were in such a hurry and they couldn't apparate either since it's against the law to apparate until you've graduated.
"I'm tired … can't we rest for awhile?" whined Lily.
"No! We have to go now!"
"What's your hurry, Draco?" James asked.
"I realized that we don't have much time left. What I meant was that I don't have much time left. You know that I only have a couple of hours here and I'd like to spend the rest of it in Hogwarts."
"Oh but we already wasted so much time walking … why can't we take a cab?"
"Do you have money?"
Lily shrugged. "No …" she sighed. All of a sudden she felt a pair of arms carrying her. It was Draco. "Thanks … my feet really hurts."
'Sure it does Lily …' thought James. He didn't have a chance.
"Here we are Lily!" Draco dropped her on the ground. What manners…
"How rude! You just dropped me on the floor." Lily punched Draco on the arm playfully. She reluctantly entered the school. Half expecting people to come up and ask her what happened and half expecting no one even noticed she was gone.
"Lily… where have you been? It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we're having tea with Elizabeth, do you want to join us?" Lily's pal, Emerald Brown came up to her. Screaming excitedly about something.
"Who's Elizabeth and since when do we drink tea?"
"Oh she's a student from Beauxbatons. She came an hour after you went missing. She's really nice but she's only staying here for a few hours or so. She claims that she needed to talk to Draco, whoever that is."
Lily gasped. 'Does someone know Draco? She could be his girlfriend.' This thought worried her. Although she likes James, Draco had a mysterious personality that she'd like to get to know better and that can't happen if he has a girlfriend. She forgot the fact that he had only 3 days left here.
"Lily? What's going on?" The two boys walked in hoping a celebration for saving Lily but not one of them knew what really happened so they just thought that Lily had been in the Forbidden Forest doing her research or what not.
"Someone's here, and she's looking for you…Harry."
"No… she's looking for Draco, D-R-A-C-O not Harry." Chuckled Emerald oblivious to the fact that Harry Longbottom is actually Draco Malfoy.
"Right… Draco. Sorry about the confusion." Lily tried so hard to keep Draco's indentity between Draco, James, Lucius and herself. She didn't even know that Dumbledore knew of his existence as well. "Well let's invite Harry and James to tea."
"Sure why not?" Emerald smiled happily. Seems that she had too much sugar this morning.
All 5 of them walked to the Gryffindor common room, even letting Draco in. They walked over to an auburn haired girl, who obviously was Elizabeth.
"Salut! Je m'appelle Elizabeth. Comment ça va?" She reached out for their hands but they weren't so sure if they could trust her.
"My name is Harry." Draco looked at her with distrust but shook her hand nonetheless.
"You're not Harry…" She looked at him and smirked. "You are the one I'm supposed to talk to. I'm guessing the girl and the boy with you knows the truth?"
Draco nodded but everyone else in the room looked at her as if she was speaking a different language. On the other hand Lily and James were also nodding their heads.
"For someone who just came from France, you seem to have acquired an English accent pretty quickly."
"Well let's just say that I had to bend the truth a little to convince these nit wits that I am trustworthy, which I am … in most cases." She whispered to the three of them.
"Who are you? And what do you want with him?" Lily moved in front of Draco, ready to slap Elizabeth if she ever said anything else that is bad about her fellow Gryffindors.
"I'm Elizabeth. I'm not from the future or the past. I come from your time. Dumbledore had called me to go back to the past to tell you that you have 45 minutes left until you have to go back to the present time. I'm terribly disappointed in you, Harry, I never thought you'd do something as bad as taking advantage of Lily - "
"It wasn't him…" Lily defended Draco. "…it was somebody else." She remembered eavesdropping on the Malfoys' conversation about promising not to tell on him. Of course Lily Evans always keeps her word.
"Hmmm… whatever. It doesn't matter anyway. When Draco gets back, he'll be sent to Azkaban for changing time. I mean out of all the people who should be mad at him, you should be one of them. He did change the look of your son. If he wasn't here, your son would be called Harry and he'd look like James but thanks to Draco he looks like Draco. You see if he hadn't gone back in time, the so called 'somebody' wouldn't have slept with you and your relationship with James wouldn't have changed. You two would get married and your son would be the down fall of Voldemort. You shouldn't be defending him but you should be screaming at him."
Lily clutched James' hand in order for support. She hadn't taken the news too well. 'My son … save the world… now it'll never happen.' She sniffed. "I don't care…"
"Well YOU SHOULD CARE!" Elizabeth screamed. All eyes were on her. She turned to the other people in the room. "DO YOU MIND? THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" Ahem. "Anyways Lily, I think you should care because without Harry, everyone in the muggle and wizarding world would be dead!"
"I could always marry James…"
"NO it's too late! Don't you know that you're pregnant?"
Lily shook her head. "Well … no. I haven't shown any signs of pregnancy yet. How do you even know that I'm pregnant?" She was so scared to even say anything anymore. She didn't want Elizabeth, if that's even her real name, screaming bloody hell again.
"I told you, I'm from the future and well things aren't going so well for Harry. Well Draco … you have 30 minutes left. I can't believe it's 15 minutes already. I guess you lose track of time when you're arguing." She laughed but no one else thought it was funny. They just thought that she was crazy. A crazy girl… Not only that outburst scared everyone but she after she laughed she disappeared. With a poof of smoke, she wasn't visible to anyone. Everyone thought that was weird because no one could apparate or disapparate in or out of Hogwarts. Who knows what everyone was thinking at the moment. Everything was just too weird.
"Lily, can I talk to you for a second?"
Lily nodded and followed Draco out of the common. James didn't stop them for he knew that he had already lost this battle.
Lily and Draco walked in the hall silently, not saying anything. There was nothing say to each other. Once they reached the outdoors, Lily stopped and faced Draco. She was mad and happy at the same time. Draco couldn't really tell the expression on her face. "Why didn't you tell me that you were just using me?"
"Honestly, would someone say anything if they were using that person. I mean you didn't tell me you were using me just to get James jealous."
"I didn't use you to get James jealous. I didn't need you to do that…there are other guys in this school too you know."
"That is just so dry. How blunt can you get? I mean 'I didn't need you to do that' … that hurts."
"Well accusing me of using you also hurts. Besides I – I actually do like you." Lily looked away. 'I hope he doesn't notice that I'm blushing…' She smiled to herself.
Draco pulled her to the lake to see the squids swim. "Too bad I didn't have another 2 hours with you… we could've watched the sunset together but instead, we get squid."
She laughed. "You know you're very different …"
"Are you calling me weird?"
"No, I'm saying that you're different from your father."
Draco smiled. 'Finally, somebody who actually gets me. I can never be like my father.' "Thanks, you're the first one to say that. Everyone always thought I was a copy of my father. They always assumed that I'd be living like him. But who would want to? He's a freak."
"I always thought Lucius was a cool guy. A dark, mysterious guy, the kind that every girl adores…"
"You liked my dad?" Draco laughed. "You deserve better than scum. You deserve someone like… I hate to admit it … but you deserve someone like Potter. James is a good guy."
Lily placed her head on his shoulders, wishing she could freeze the moment and spend her entire life with Draco. She totally forgot about James and the other guys who have courted her for the past 3 years. "Didn't you hear me before? I like you… not him. I don't know what made me like him… before. I don't really know what term to use but I just - I wish you weren't from the future…"
Draco didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. He just sat there gazing at the water with Lily until he had a few seconds left. He wanted his farewell to be spectacular. He took Lily's hand and leaned in. Closer and closer, he leaned in closer and kissed her on the lips. Not a passionate one but one you would give a friend. "I'm sorry Lily but I love …" Draco wasn't able to finish his sentence. He disappeared, leaving a very sad pregnant Lily standing near the lake…though his kiss wasn't all that great, it was one she wouldn't forget.
To be continued…