Title: What Lies Ahead?

Author: Keiko

Rating: R

Pairings: Harry/Draco, Ron/Hermione cameo

Spoilers: Books 1-4

Warnings: Slash

Summary:  Harry and Draco get an unexpected glimpse into the future.  If I say anything else, it will give away the plot.

Chapter 5

Immediately after Harry left, Draco paced nervously for a few minutes before resuming the search for Snape's elusive potions book.  Draco was quite nervous that without his invisibility cloak, that careless Gryffindor might be seen by someone or even worse, blown up by his future self, thinking it was some crazy plan of Voldemort's.  If only that bloody git had just warned him instead of assaulting him, he would have dropped the Time Tuner like a hot potato and would be safe back in his common room, resting after supper.  Instead, he was stuck in a dusty storage room, looking for a moldy-old book, suffering from hunger and desperately wanting a bath, after the long, sweltering journey he had to endure in coming to this room in the first place.  Draco only hoped that Harry was successful in determining the date and time and returning as soon as possible.

After fifteen minutes, Draco finally found Snape's book.  It was indeed the last book on the last shelf.  Just his luck.  He scanned through its pages briefly to see why the Potions Master wanted the book so badly; however, nothing within its contents interested him.  Draco put the book down on the trunk Harry sat on earlier and began to search the shelves for a more exciting read.  After all, Draco did enjoy reading and who knew how long Harry would be. 

The minutes seemed to crawl agonizingly, as Draco scanned through book after book, without finding anything that piqued his curiosity.  Finally giving up on reading, Draco decided to search the room further.  He made a promise to himself that he would not touch anything, no matter how enticing the object may be.  Draco had certainly learned his lesson the hard way.  Once Draco began his carousing, the time seemed to speed up slightly, much to his delight, as he gazed at shelf after shelf of rare and valuable, magical gadgets, baubles and devices.  Draco didn't recognize half of the things in the room, so he tried to keep a mental picture of the most intriguing objects so that he could research them in the Library the next time he was there.  He was especially keen to find out about an orb that was floating in mid-air and changed colors randomly, like a detector of some sort.

There were even some Muggle devices scattered about the shelves, much to Draco's surprise, and he was sure Harry could tell him what those were upon his return.

Speaking of which, Draco realized that Harry had now been gone for over three hours.  Where the hell was he?  Draco was getting extremely tired and he was beginning to sneeze excessively from all of the dust in the room.  He walked back over to the mirror Harry had shown him earlier that day to inspect his eyes and nose.  If his pale features showed any signs of redness from the sneezing, there was going to be hell to pay.  Luckily, his perfect features were still just that.  Even the fatigue had not begun to show yet.  As he stepped back from the Mirror of Erised, however, he noticed that Harry's reflection was still next to his, as it had been previously, when Harry had called him over to it.  Draco quickly thought to himself that the mirror must really be broken or his eyes were playing tricks on him.  Draco walked away from the mirror and found an armchair close by, where he decided to sit and relax until Harry came back.

"If Harry comes back," Draco thought to himself.  "Of course, he'll be back.  He's the Boy-Who-Lived.  If he can survive Voldemort every year, he can surely discover the date and time and get his arse back here safely."

With his thoughts now being a bit more positive, Draco settled down more comfortably in the chair and soon fell asleep.

Draco had no idea how long he had been napping, when three knocks on the door awoke him from his boredom-induced slumber.

"Finally, Harry's back and he better have the information or I'll hex him into next year," Draco muttered to himself as he reluctantly left the comfort of the chair and went to open the door.

!!!!!