Chapter One – Bad Dreams Make Concerned Friends
Harry and Ron were doing their last piece of Divination homework when Hermione finally caught up with them in the Gryffindor common room. She'd managed to convince Madam Pomfrey that she was feeling okay, and had been running all over the castle looking for them, even though she still felt a bit dizzy on her feet. Of course, her friends were making up their homework in the last place she thought about looking, when really, it should've been her first.
"How about if on Thursday I'll get attacked by an unknown object as Venus had aligned itself with Jupiter?" Harry was saying, scribbling it down onto his parchment.
Ron nodded, "Yeah, and on Friday I'll have a fall in luck because Pluto has entered the third house."
"Yeah, you will do. We have double Potions that day." Replied Harry.
"Hey guys!" Hermione skidded up to them, gasping for breath.
"Hermione! They let you out then?" Harry said, putting down his homework to look up at her.
"Heard anymore voices?" Ron muttered, not tearing his eyes away from his parchment.
Hermione sighed exasperated, throwing herself down onto an armchair, "No, but I think something's happening."
Ron rolled his eyes at Harry, muttering under his breath again.
"Look Ron, could you at least act like you care about this?"
Ron looked up at her, raising his eyebrows, "You think I don't care?"
"I think that we could be dead in two days time and you're being ironic detachment guy! It's something to do with you two and Draco, I just have this . . . feeling."
"Us and Malfoy!" Ron cried, "I don't think so! Unless it's us hurting him, then we've got nothing to do with your 'feeling'!" He made air quotes with his fingers, "this is stupid."
"It's not! I know this sounds a little strange, but I honestly think something is going to happen, soon." Hermione replied. She glanced at Harry, "Don't you believe me?"
Harry was frowning, looking totally confused, "I… I don't know what I believe."
Hermione sighed. She knew she should tell them about her dreams, but she had been sure that Harry would believe her, even if Ron wouldn't.
"Look, I promise that something is gonna happen. I just know it, okay. Now, will you both come with me and find Draco?" she asked.
Ron was outraged, "Hermione!" he shouted, making a few third-years turn round in surprise, "we know you're all trusty with that rat Malfoy now, but don't go dragging us into your little friendship."
"Ron, Draco saved my life."
"Yeah but his psycho dad didn't help much, did he?!" Ron replied.
Hermione answered, "That's not Draco's fault. Harry's on okay terms with him, why can't you be?"
"Because he's a Malfoy, Hermione. I don't like him, and I never will."
Hermione knew that getting Ron to help her would never be that simple when it came to Draco Malfoy, "You're so stubborn, can't you just help me?"
Ron jumped to his feet, gesturing wildly with his arms, "Help you with what?! We don't even know what you're talking about! You don't make sense, all you've done is hit your head falling off your chair and you think you're hearing breaths. Someone was probably just breathing loudly behind you or something!"
"Well fine, if you two aren't willing to help me, then I'll go by myself!" Hermione got to her feet, swayed a little and then stormed out of the common room, stopping only to push past some second-years blocking the portrait.
"She's crazy. Totally crazy." Said Ron, watching her retreating back.
Harry look indecisive, "Maybe we should go after her?"
Ron looked at his friend incredulously, "Harry, I don't want to be chasing Malfoy all around the school so Hermione can embarrass herself over some stupid thoughts she's having, do you?"
Harry sighed. He didn't know why, but he had a weird feeling about whatever Hermione was talking about. He knew she wasn't one to get excited about something if there was a chance it wasn't going to happen, but once again he seemed to be stuck in his least favourite place; between Ron and Hermione. He was thoroughly confused, "No. Of course not. But what if she's telling the truth?"
"Harry, how could she possibly be saying anything that's true? How could she know that anything was going to happen?" Ron replied. Sighing, he carried on, "If you ask me, Madam Pomfrey should've kept her in the infirmary a bit longer!"
They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes, both boys having various Hermione-related thoughts run through their heads.
Ron looked at Harry, "Fine! Let's go get her…"
~*~*~*~
Hermione felt like she was about to fall over. She was so dizzy, she felt it only a matter of time before she was making friends with the concrete floor. Trying to shrug it off, she made her way down into the Hall, praying that Draco would still be there. She did know the password to the Slytherin common room, but after a brief five minutes in there earlier in the year, she was hoping her search wouldn't have to come down to that.
"Hey, have you seen Draco?" She asked a passing Seamus while she was stood in the door, scanning the crowd that was currently filtering out of the Great Hall. The excited chatter filled her ears and made her feel even dizzier, if that was at all possible.
"Yeah, he's still at the Slytherin table, I think," Seamus looked concerned, "Hermione, are you okay?"
Hermione nodded, hoping her death-like grip on the door frame didn't give her away, "Yeah, of course, I'm fine." She gave him a smile to certify her reply, but felt like the weak one she could only just manage didn't justify it enough. Time for a quick exit, "I'll, er, see you around."
"Bye." Seamus said, watching her with a strange look as she walked off into the Hall.
Draco Malfoy was sat at the Slytherin table, just finishing up his meal. The people he had been sitting with had long made their way back to their common room, but there was still a few other Slytherin's placed randomly around the table. They looked up, scowling as Hermione walked over to Draco as casually as she could manage.
Draco, of course, noticed something was wrong straight away. She hadn't even reached the table when he asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing too bad. Just that –"
But she was cut off as someone shrieked behind her, in the direction of the Hall doors. That was followed by another shriek and then some cries as people around them scattered. Hermione barely had enough time to turn around and see what the commotion was, when something ran past her.
Then it hit her. The breath. It pounded so loudly, she had to throw her hands to her ears to try and cover it up. It was all she could hear properly, everything else sounded so far away. Then there was a scream. It sounded so far off, that she didn't even realise it was coming from her.
My dream. Draco.
Draco was shouting something at her. What it was, she couldn't tell. She looked up to see what had run past her. She'd never seen anything like it before. It was barely four feet tall but its features seemed to go on forever, with long arms and legs that seemed like they could be bent in any direction. Its skin was a blue-purple looking colour that Hermione thought must have felt as coarse and rough as it looked. On top of its long, lanky neck was its head; small and perfectly round like a football. Its eyes were small and beady and slightly protruding, while its mouth looked thin and scabby, as if it just blended in with its skin. Out of its forehead came a long, spiky horn which looked much like an elephant's tusk. It was white and glinted in the light of the enchanted ceiling.
"Draco!" Hermione screamed. Her own voice sounded so far away, just like in her dream.
The thing was running at Draco, who was scrambling from his seat on the long table. It jumped at him, knocking him backwards and on to the floor, where they rolled straight into the wall behind.
Hermione wanted to run. She wanted to do something; pull that thing off of Draco, go and get Harry and Ron, something! But she didn't know what to do and she knew that even if she wanted to move, her legs wouldn't allow it. She was about to collapse. Her whole world kept going black. And that voice…
Hermione was only slightly aware as someone shouted something in magic and the thing went flying off of Draco, skidding on the floor a couple of feet away. Whatever it was, it must have panicked the thing, as the next time the world came into vision again, it had gone.
"Miss Granger. Sit down here." Someone had her by the shoulders, guiding her towards a seat at the Slytherin table. Dumbledore. Hermione looked up at him. He looked as he always did; not fazed by anything. She had always wondered how a man that had seen so much couldn't be bothered by everything he saw. Hermione felt a tear trickle slowly down her cheek. She didn't know when she had started crying.
"Hermione. Are you okay?" Draco was there. He wasn't dead. Relief flooded back, and Hermione burst into uncontrollable sobs.
"MALFOY!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
Ron and Harry were running across the Great Hall, having just come from the Gryffindor common room. They looked all sorts of confused as Dumbledore and the other teachers ushered the remaining students back to their common rooms.
"I… I…" Draco looked from Ron and Harry to Hermione, who was making loud crying noises, "I have no clue what just happened."
Harry would've laughed out loud at Draco's facial expression, had not he just walked in on mass confusion.
"Did you hurt her? What did you do to her?" Ron cried, stepping forwards. He was bright red with anger, not knowing what was happening.
Dumbledore was back. He stepped in-between the group of sixteen year-olds, placing a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder, who ceased the noises and let out only a few sporadic strangled sobs, "Mr Malfoy did not do anything that would harm Miss Granger. It was him that was attacked."
"Attacked?!" cried Ron in dis-belief, "By what?!"
Dumbledore looked at each of them, "That, I do not know just yet. It was some sort of demon, but I am hoping it is not the one we teachers are expecting."
"A demon?" Harry said, "What do you mean 'what we are expecting'? What's going on?"
"I saw it!" Hermione cried all of a sudden, causing the others to jump at her unexpected words, "I was going to tell him!"
"Oh no!" Ron moaned, "This isn't about those stupid voices again, is it?!"
Dumbledore cocked his head, "Voices? Miss Granger, would you care to explain?"
"I – I keep hearing these… breaths. They are so horrible. They block everything else out so that it's all muffled, like I'm not hearing anything but them." Hermione replied, "I knew they were going to attack Draco. I saw them –"
"Saw them!?" Ron cut her off, "you didn't say you saw anything!?"
"Mr Weasley –" Dumbledore warned, to which Ron fell silent.
Hermione carried on, her eyes focused on the floor as everyone else stared at her, "I keep having dreams. They tell me what's going to happen."
"Like premonitions." Dumbledore said, more to himself than the people around him.
"Yes, like premonitions. I see what is going to happen, and then it happens. They're making me feel so tired and so dizzy. The first time I fainted, in Potions, I had dreamt all of what happened. Then just now, I dreamt it earlier. I came down her to warn Draco, but I was too late." Hermione sniffed, trying to stop herself from bursting into tears again.
"Professor?" Draco said.
"Yes, Mr Malfoy?"
"What do you think that demon is?"
Dumbledore fell silent for a moment before saying, "Right now, I cannot exactly say for sure. I think I may have seen one a few times before, but at this moment I am as clueless as you three. We will find out soon, I am sure."
"Where did it go?" Hermione asked, looking around.
Dumbledore looked thoughtful. Hermione could tell he was choosing his words very carefully, which made her feel even more worried. It wasn't like Dumbledore to hold back from telling them anything, "Again, I cannot say." He looked from Harry, to Ron and then lastly to Draco, "Now I trust that you three can take Miss Granger back up to the Gryffindor common room? I want you all to be very careful and stick together. No loitering around any corridors or rooms, just take Hermione straight up to her dormitory. Then I would like you two – Harry and Ron – to escort Mr Malfoy back to his common room. Make sure he gets there okay." The Headmaster looked at the protesting expressions on the two Gryffindor boys faces before adding, "I want no arguing. Just do it." He gave them all one last expression-less look and walked over to where the other teachers were sat discussing something. They all looked quite nervous and were sending the teenagers worried looks.
"Come on, you heard him. Weasley, you get her other arm." Draco spoke, bending down to Hermione. He slung one of her arms over his shoulders and circled one of his arms around her waist.
Ron looked as if he was about to argue, but decided against it. He wasn't happy about taking orders from Draco, but seeing as he had no other ideas of how to get Hermione up to the common room; he did as he was told.
"Potter, you go get the doors." Draco instructed as him and Ron lifted Hermione up from the seat and proceeded to walk across the Hall carefully with her. If Hermione hadn't have felt so much like she was about to fall over, she would've been rather embarrassed at the tight hold the two boys had on her.
It took longer than Harry had expected to get up to the common room after they'd gotten stuck half-way up on a moving staircase that had refused to move back.
"Trust you bloody Gryffindor's to pick the tallest tower," Draco groaned as they arrived at the Fat Lady portrait. He ducked down to free himself of Hermione's arm, leaving her leaning on Ron, "Well I'm sure even you two can get her to her dorm safely now." He glanced at Ron, who Hermione was clinging to as if her life depended on it, and winked at him, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Weasley."
"Hey!" Harry called as Draco walked off down the corridor, "Where are you going?"
"To bed, Potter. Unless you want to come with me, I suggest you take Hermione up to her bed before you get shouted at for loitering." Draco called back, running a hand absentmindedly along the wall as he walked.
"Dumbledore said me and Harry had to take you." Ron replied, even though he wouldn't have cared if seven demons had jumped on Draco right then.
"I know what Dumbledore said, but I don't need you two to protect me." Draco said, turning to look at them but carrying on walking, "Forgive me if I'm wrong Weasley, but I think that if you ever saw a demon, you'd probably throw a shoe at it and then run away like a weasel. Actually, I think the shoe part's giving you too much credit."
"Fine!" Ron shouted after him, "But don't come crying to us in the morning when you get killed!"
Hermione was still holding on to Ron, watching as Draco rounded to corner at the end of the corridor and disappeared. She didn't know if there would be any more demons, but she didn't want to risk it. As usual, she was scared for someone. For the first time, that someone was Draco Malfoy.
"Ron, please go after him. Harry, please." She looked up at her two friends, pleading with them for the second time that day.
Harry looked over at Ron, who sighed, "Okay, but if that idiot starts spouting off again, I'll come straight back."
Hermione nodded, eager for her them to hurry up and go after him, "Okay. Just go, I'll go and sit in the common room."
"Are you sure you can get in okay on your own?" Harry asked.
"Yes, positive. Just go already!" She freed herself from Ron's arm and lent on the wall for support.
Harry and Ron looked at her one last time before jogging off down the corridor, leaving her stood alone outside the Fat Lady portrait.
"Are you okay, dear?" The Fat lady asked, peering down at her.
"Yes, I'm fine," Hermione replied, sick of people asking her that. It wasn't as if she was ill or anything, why all the fuss? She quickly said the password to get away from the Lady, "Abracadabra."
Getting inside the common room was easier said than done when it came to how Hermione felt. She struggled to climb through the portrait; lifting a leg up from the floor practically guaranteed a fall. Eventually, she managed to clamber inside and fall into an armchair. She prayed that Harry and Ron had found Draco and for some amazing reason, were getting on okay.
~*~*~*~
"How can you live down here? It's all dark and dungeon-y and . . . Snape-like." Ron made a face, shuddering at just the thought of how many spiders could be staring at him in the dark corridor.
"I would've thought it'd be a step up from your little shack, Weasley. We Slytherins better watch out, you'll be bringing your whole family down for a look around soon." Draco replied, kicking what Harry hoped was a stone.
"Contrary to your belief, Malfoy, I do not live in a shack." Ron said as he tried to walk dead centre. There was no way he was going anywhere near the walls in this place.
Harry rolled his eyes in the darkness, listening as the two of them bickered. The only light came from the end of Draco's wand, which he was twirling round in his fingers like one of those baton throwers Harry had seen in some Muggle movie. They had been throwing comebacks at each other ever since Ron and him and had caught up with Draco half-way down Gryffindor tower. Ron's promise of turning back if Draco said anything to him was long forgotten and they both seemed perfectly content with arguing as they walked. Maybe, Harry had thought later, if those two weren't so happy to argue and had kept quiet, he would've heard it earlier.
"What's that?" Harry asked, his ears pricking.
Ron stopped mid-way through calling Draco about being a spoilt rat to say, "What? All I can hear if this idiot drone on and on."
"Well I wish that I couldn't hear your annoying drone." Draco retorted.
"Will you two just shut up a minute!?" Harry had stopped now, standing still in the corridor. Ron and Draco carried on, not aware he'd halted. Harry listened carefully, concentrating hard. It was there again.
"Weasley, could you not breathe so loud? You sound like the Hogwarts express!" Draco said.
"I'm not breathing loud!" Ron shouted back, "I think me and Harry should just leave you to go on your own now."
"Fine by me." Draco replied.
"It's not Ron breathing." Harry said suddenly.
"Harry? Where are you? Malfoy, can you do something useful with that wand and point it back over here?" Ron said.
"Use your own damn wand." Draco snapped.
"I would but I was in such a hurry earlier on to stop Hermione from finding you that I left it in the common room."
"Well then you're more stupid than I thought you were."
"Well if -"
"SHUT UP!" Harry cried, "Listen."
Ron and Draco closed their mouths, apprehensively listening to their surroundings. Harry was straining his ears. There was a sudden sound as some people walked across the corridor above them; their heavy footsteps pounding on the ceiling. Ron moved quickly as a spider fell from the roof near to him.
"Can you hear it?" Draco asked. He was staring up at the ceiling, looking around.
"I can't hear anything." Ron muttered, "You two are getting just like Hermione."
"I can hear it." Harry said.
It was a weird sound. Like someone breathing. Harry remembered what Hermione had said about the noises she heard, and found himself holding his breath in anticipation of something happening.
All of a sudden, something moved in the darkness. Harry didn't know what it was, but he felt something rush past him and slam into Ron, taking him down with a bang on the hard floor.