The Darkness that Dreams Are Made Of

…The Seed Of A Dream…

Harry sat in one of the chairs of the common, surrounded by those he called friends. Ron and Hermione stood at the center of the group, looking at the blank face of Harry Potter.

"Harry?" Ginny questioned softly.

Harry didn't answer.

"Don't bother Ginny," Hermione ordered, "He hasn't talked since we brought him up here."

"What's wrong with him?" Someone asked.

"That bloody ferret, that's what wrong," Ron snarled, "He's got Harry under a spell of some sort, perhaps even the Imperius,"

"Ron! That's preposterous! And illegal mind you." Hermione tittered.

"This is Malfoy we're talking about not some stupid prank just for the hell of it! Malfoy's already a deatheater for all we know!"

"No, you are quite mistaken," Harry whispered softly, his eyes dancing in the flames of the fire grate, "he's not one of them. He has that much pride left at least. He wouldn't give himself up to Voldemort."

Everyone in the room shuddered at the sound of his name and Harry frowned slightly.

"Why did you do that?" Harry questioned, "I feel you have no right. Anyway, you all know I can throw off the imperius better than anyone, there are no other spells that would work in the way you are hinting at."

"He's right you know, I looked it up myself," Hermione stated smoothly.

Ron sighed, "Then what other explanation is there?"

Before the posed question could be answered, Harry stood.

"I know you all think well of me and think you are helping but you are not. I must go. Draco will think I broke the promise. I am terribly afraid he will think I broke the promise I made to him."

"Promise?" Ginny asked softly as Harry made his way towards the portrait entrance.

Harry paused before the tunnel and turned back to face his friends and allies. He smiled slightly, silent thanks for them not having tried to stop him again.

"Yes, a promise. I promised him that I would never leave him. I don't intend to let that promise slip through my fingers now."

And he was gone.

*In the Slytherin common…

Draco also sat in a chair of the common, although he was surrounded by those his father bribed to be his 'friends' and he hadn't moved, nor spoken since Harry had been pulled away from him.

Crabbe and Goyle stood on either side of Pansy, the bitch had taken quick hold of the reins when Draco had dropped them. She looked at him with mixed sympathy and ice, her eighteenth birthday had been but a few days ago, before she came back to Hogwarts.

She frowned suddenly and slapped Draco for all she was worth, he slumped back in the chair, his cheek now sporting a red painted handprint. She pulled up her sleeve roughly until it revealed the venomous glare of the dark mark.

"That was from the master, he is very disappointed in you Draco. He told us to tell you that you will be ready when the time comes. That if you refuse again there are a million ways more painful than death that he would enact upon you." She sneered viciously, clenching her fists at her sides childishly. "I hope you never die and that you are tortured until your mind and body breaks, that you are disgraced from your family and beaten by your fathers own hand."

At Pansy's last statement Draco gave a harsh bark of laughter.

"It does not matter Pansy dear, for I have been dead for years and you at least are not truly dead, unless those rumors about your father having his way with you are true."

Pansy ground her teeth together and slapped Draco yet again. Closing her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, she managed to compose herself.

"Throw him outside, along with his belongings. Change the password and no one is to ever let him in again. I will report to the master, and as far as anyone is concerned, none of this happened."

Crabbe and Goyle hoisted Draco between them and threw him out upon the hard unforgiving ground, soon, his trunk followed and a few other necessities.

"Draco?"

Draco looked up and smiled slightly through his tears, taking Harry's proffered hand.

Harry pulled Draco up and held him against himself, pulling his fingers through Draco's hair.

"Come lets go."

Draco nodded and left go of Harry reluctantly. Harry cast a quick levitation spell on Draco's belongings, towing them behind them as they made their way back to the Gryffindor tower.