Disclaimer: blah blah blah. I do not own harry potter. Blah blah blah.
~*~
Thank you's
~*~
Hikari no Suta: in response to your first review: hehe, I've read that story too. I think. I thought it was pretty cool. In response to your second note: if you do not know what you're talking about. . .here's a solution-fuck off! Yippee skippee. If you had bothered to read correctly, you would have noticed that Draco was taught to apparate by his father a few years earlier. You also should have known that the Malfoy's don't exactly follow the rules. So yes, I know that it is illegal to apparate until you are graduated from Hogwarts, but if you know how, and someone is trying to kill you. . .wouldn't you just go ahead and get the hell out of there? Yeah. So don't review me unless you know what your reviewing, please. Dumb ass.
hippogriffs-rock: Harry is going to get what he deserves, believe you me. Ginny's just there. I like the girl and all. . .but I don't know enough about her to keep writing her in. It would just get boring. Not that this fic isn't boring anyways. . .jeez, my last chapter sucked.
The Lost Weasley: hehe, nakie Draco. *drools a little bit* mwahahaha. . .
dEsTiNy: awww. . .thank you so much! You have just become one of my favorite reviewers! *grins*
killing-dance: be patient, lol. I like to make Harry look like a jerk once and awhile, lol.
Love: I guess you'll find out now about what happens this chapter. . .well, after a couple of more thank you's, that is.
Draco's one and only: *sighs* I wish I was Hermione to see Draco naked too. . .*drools all over again*
Sony: hehe thanks sony. YOU CANNOT GO OUT OF TOWN FOR MONTHS!!!! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT! NO! damn you being a singer and a model and an actress and all that good stuff. Damn you to. . .awww I can't damn you Sony. I wuv ya!
Sumeragi Kousei: Down with Harry!! Hehe, I love him. . .just not in this fic. . .yet, at least. I dunno, we'll just have to see.
SIAS: *laughs* don't I feel like a bit of a dumbass, eh? Hehe. *hides because I have no common sense*
Zaccyzac: awww, zac, didn't you like to see draco naked? Oh wait, you're not gay. Never mind.
Midnight-Primrose Riddle: you make me smile. :-D hehe, every time you review me its in all caps and all excited and everything. It makes me happy. Yippee skippee!
Ellie Love: why thank ya thank ya. But I could not wait to get to your review, cuz I got make you a shout out. Everyone who is reading this, go check out her account. She has a bunch of really good songfics, some will move you to tears, I swear. She likes a lot of Buffy, too. I don't really like Buffy but oh well. All her Harry Potter fics are good. . .and they would be even better if she finished any of them!!! Darn you! Finish the fics! You're song fics are good, but I also wanna know how the real fics turn out!! Lol, come on, write, girl!
Jenie: I don't know what I would do if I got to be alone in a bathroom with a naked Draco. *sigh*
Raven Black: ok, so you didn't review. . .but I don't care, you need to be ungrounded!! And write you're stories! Go do it now! I order you!
~*~
A/N: sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I had finals this past week and other stuff, but well lookie here, its chapter 9.
~*~
Chapter 9
~*~
Hermione rushed from the bathroom as quickly as her legs would carry her, which wasn't very fast, mind you, since her nervousness in the bathroom had caused her knees to wobble for all they were worth. She ran through the empty corridors only stopping when she came to the portrait of the fat lady that led into gryffindor tower.
She shouted the password desperately, in fear that her knees would buckle from her shaking. The portrait opened quickly and she ran into the common room only to come face to face with Ginny and Harry snogging. . .again.
She felt her legs shift under her, and suddenly she was on the floor, and Ginny and Harry were looking at her with strange looks on their faces.
She couldn't help it. She began to laugh. She laughed at her clumsiness, she laughed at her humiliation, she laughed at the bathroom incident, and she laughed at the two teenagers in front of her. She laughed until tears fell from her eyes and splashed onto her cheeks.
Harry stared at her with his mouth open, an incredibly confused expression on his face.
"Errr. . .Hermione? Are you. . .ok?" he asked apprehensively.
Hermione's shoulders convulsed with silent laughter, and soon she was laying sideways on the floor, her hands in front of her on the ground, trying to calm herself.
She desperately tried to stifle her giggles as she answered him, "I'm just fine." She burst out laughing all over again. She had been tired of crying. It was all she ever did anymore. She didn't want her emotions to show so easily anymore. She wasn't going to wear her heart on her sleeve anymore. Instead, she would do the opposite. And at this moment, it was to laugh.
Harry gave her a cross look, one that told her that he didn't believe her at all, "Why are you laughing so much? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's good to see you laugh again, but bloody hell, I've never seen you laugh this much!" he told her.
She broke into another fit of giggles and lifted her arm to point at him. She looked straight into his eyes and replied, "Maybe I've lost it."
It was a joke, naturally, but Harry was wondering if she perhaps wasn't joking as much as she let off. After all, fifty percent of what a person says when they are joking is in fact true, that way you could say what you wanted without hurting anyone, and Harry got the idea that she might be doing just that.
He didn't say anything to her though, instead he just nodded his head and cracked a smile, to let her know he understood it was a "joke." Ginny sat back down on the couch while Harry walked towards Hermione.
Her laughter receded as he approached her steadily, warily. He was looking into her eyes, trying to find something in them that would tell him what was going on, and she, sensing what he was doing, went completely silent and shielded her eyes from her emotions within. She looked at him blankly.
He was extremely close to her now, and all she wanted to do was reach out for him, hold him, kiss him, love him. But she couldn't, and that angered her.
Harry noticed her eyes flicker with something. . .some sort of emotion, but he couldn't figure it out, for the look was gone as quick as it had come. Instead, he put his hands on her shoulders, and looked deeper into her eyes, and even though he couldn't tell what she was thinking, she knew without a doubt what he was thinking.
The look in his eyes was an apologetic one, a look that told her he was sorry for all the pain and hurt he had caused her, and with that one look, he took her into his arms and enveloped her in a tight hug.
At first she tried to resist it, she put her hands against his chest and pushed on him, but he only pulled her in tighter. She was defenseless. She didn't like feeling defenseless.
Her hands tightened into small fists, and began to lash out against his chest, silently pummeling him with an anger, a sadness, a fear. She couldn't let people get close to her again. Not this time. She remembered the last time she had gotten close to someone.
He had beaten her. The attack on Harry's chest slowed as she thought back to that night, and he caught her hands with his own, trying to disable her from hitting him. He glanced at her face, and noticed that her eyes were transfixed on nothing in particular, that they just stared into oblivion, as if there was something there that he could not see. He pulled her closer to him and watched her face all the while, wondering what exactly was going on with her.
Hermione's face went slack as the memories flashed before her.
~*~
It had been night. The rain had been pounding mercilessly. She had gotten out of the car after the movie, and ran down the path to her front door, sopping wet by the time she had gotten to the overhang of the porch.
The door opened at the same time that the lightening flashed, and for a minute she had thought she was staring into the face of pure evil. The thunder cracked loudly, causing her to jump, as she looked into the eyes of the man before her. . .her father.
He was staring at her venomously, as if he would attack her at any moment, if she moved one foot out of line.
"Its past curfew Hermione. Did I ever tell you what would happen if you ever missed curfew?" he spat vehemently. It was obvious that the man was drunk.
Hermione quivered slightly as she shook her head, wondering if he would ever let her in the house.
The burly man in the doorframe stalked out of the house briskly, slamming the door behind him.
Hermione stepped back, and asked him shakily, "Where's mum?"
He laughed heartlessly, shrewdly, almost. . .evilly. "Oh my dear child, didn't you know? She went to visit friends while you were missing curfew. I wouldn't expect her back for quite awhile if I were you." He advanced on her.
She tried to back away, but after only a couple of steps, she found her back against one of the pillars that held up the overhang. There was nowhere to run. She looked up at the man she had thought was her father with pure terror in her eyes.
"D-d-daddy. . .you're sc-scaring me," she whispered with fear.
He glared at her, "Don't you dare try to weasel your way out of this with that daddy nonsense, do you hear me? You messed up. Now you must pay the price. You must respect the consequences of your actions."
She smelled the strong aroma of liquor on his breath, "Y-your d-drunk, Daddy."
A hard calloused hand found its way to her face, striking her with such brutality that she fell to the ground. He tried to pull her up, but she scrambled away from him and stood over on the edge of the porch, staring at him with such panic.
He picked up the bat that had been leaning against a chair and threw it at her. It hit her hard, and she tumbled off the porch, hitting the muddy ground below her with a sickening splat.
Her father ran down the steps of the porch and was soon down by her, still with a look of pure animosity in his eyes. She looked up at him in terror, and before she knew what was happening, he was ripping off his belt, and had her pinned on her stomach in no time. He pulled up her t-shirt so that the only thing between her and the belt was air and her bra strap.
She quaked. No sooner had she wondered what he was about to do when she felt the hard leather slap against her back. She screamed out in pain, but her terrified yell was lost in the storm, gone with the wind.
The belt lashed into her back again and again, getting harder and faster with each blow. Blood trickled down the bright red flesh, mixing with the rainwater and mud. She could hardly breathe, and her back was getting tremendous white, puffy whelps where it had been hit. Long slivering whelps snaked across her back, leaving no room for anything else.
Her father finally receded and let her up, "If you ever put a foot out of line again, girl, you will get something much worse than that. You can count on it." With that, her father turned quickly on his heel and walked back to the house.
Hermione lay in the mud, her back scorching with pain, and a heat she had never felt before. It was as if it were on fire, and she shrieked into the raging storm as darkness fell around her.
~*~
Harry had become startled as he heard the girl in his arms shriek. Her face had gone from slack and emotionless to one filled with anger, hatred, rage, pain, fear, and pure terror. It was stark white, and her eyes were wide, her mouth open still from the shriek she had just let out.
Ginny had jumped up from the couch and rushed to the two of them, confusion in her eyes. She watched as Harry shook Hermione, trying to get her to snap out of the trance she was in. Ron too, had heard the shriek and had come racing down the stairs, his hair disheveled, and a small amount of dry drool on his cheek.
He bounded over to where the three were standing, two of them with horror and confusion on their faces, and the other with just plain horror on her face.
He reached out for Hermione, and leaned over to her, with his hands on her cheeks, brushing the fair skin lightly, trying to soothe her from her troubles. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her forehead, and then her cheeks, trying to get her to do anything at all, to snap out of it someway.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, Hermione took a step back from those around her. She looked from one, then to another, then to the other. Her face hardened as she looked at them, her eyes narrowed, and she turned on her heel and walked down to her prefect's bedroom.
Her three friends watched her retreating form in shock. What was going on?
~*~
Draco stared at his reflection fearfully. For once in his life, he was in fear of what was going on with him. He'd never felt anything like he did now before. Even when he was with his father, when he was being beaten to a bloody pulp, he had never been this scared. He felt as if something was going to happen if he didn't do anything. Something bad.
He dressed quickly and he hurried out of the bathroom towards Dumbledore's office. Why he was going to the old bat's office, he didn't know, he just felt that that's where he need to go at that moment.
He stood in front of the gargoyle that blocked him from his headmaster, searching his mind for anything that the professor might use as a password. He racked his brain for anything to use, and he was becoming extremely frustrated when Dumbledore himself appeared at his side, as if he had popped up out of nowhere.
"Could I be of any assistance, Mr. Malfoy?" Draco heard the headmaster say.
Draco nearly had a heart attack from seeing Dumbledore right next to him, "P-Professor. I, uhh, err, I'm actually not quite sure why I'm here. . .I just. . ." he trailed off.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Ah, yes, Mr. Malfoy. Follow me."
Dumbledore led Draco into his office after stating the password (beetle berry bandit) and motioned for Draco to have a seat before seating himself in front of him.
"Something tells me that there is something that's bothering you. Perhaps, something you have never felt before, correct?" the old headmaster asked him.
Draco nodded silently.
Dumbledore smiled knowingly, "It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return, Mr. Malfoy, but what is more painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let that someone know how you feel. . ." the old wizard trailed off.
Draco looked up suddenly, his eyes meeting Dumbledore's in shock. Did he just read his mind?
"How did.how did you know?" he asked sheepishly.
Dumbledore stood and walked around for a bit. Draco was getting frusterated at the old wizard's pacing when he finally stopped and looked at the teenager before him, "Let desire be your destiny, Mr. Malfoy. You need to stay open. Lightening could strike."
Draco stared at him, his mind back on the dream that he had had. "Lightening could strike. . ." he repeated slowly. Draco looked up at Dumbledore, the words spilling out of his mouth in a rush, "What if. . .what if this girl. . .was sad? I mean, really, really sad? What if I don't know what to do to help her? What if she gets so lost in her pain that she can't ever return? What if. . ."
Dumbledore lifted a hand to stop him, "Mr. Malfoy, sometimes when the door of happiness closes, another one opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door, that we don't see the one which has been opened for us until it is too late."
Draco was getting angry. What the hell did that mean? Dumbledore must have noticed his frustration because he explained.
"Apparently, Mr. Malfoy, this girl that you have fallen for. . .she wasn't always this sad, was she?"
Draco shook his head, "she's never been like this until this year."
Dumbledore nodded and then continued, "Something happened to her this summer, something horrible. Something that has caused her to turn her. . .back. . .on the world. She is still so lost about what happened this summer, that she forgets to look ahead. What happened this summer is the closed door, Mr. Malfoy. . .and you. . .you need to be the other door for her. If you really love this girl, you need to be there for her, and force her to see the open door, otherwise she will go crazy looking back on the closed one. Lead her, Mr. Malfoy." The headmaster paused, and as if he read Draco's mind (again), he stated, "Dreams are predictions of the future, Mr. Malfoy. If there is something you do not like about a dream, that aspect of it needs to be changed."
Draco stared at the wizard, "Do you know who I'm talking about Professor?"
The old wizard nodded silently.
Draco's eyes veiled his uneasiness as he spoke, "why her. . .why did it have to be her?" he asked more to himself than to Dumbledore.
"The heart has reason which reason cannot understand, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco nodded slowly. He still didn't understand anything, the only thing he did understand was that he needed to help her, and he needed to help her fast. He stood up rather quickly, and he swayed a little as his brain began working again.
"Thank you, sir," he told the headmaster as he rushed out of the office.
He heard Dumbledore call out to him as he left, and the phrase stuck with him as he jogged back down to the slytherin common room: "Love conquers all, Mr. Malfoy, love conquers all."
~*~
A/N: holy hell that was long. Hmmm, hope you liked it.
~*~
Thank you's
~*~
Hikari no Suta: in response to your first review: hehe, I've read that story too. I think. I thought it was pretty cool. In response to your second note: if you do not know what you're talking about. . .here's a solution-fuck off! Yippee skippee. If you had bothered to read correctly, you would have noticed that Draco was taught to apparate by his father a few years earlier. You also should have known that the Malfoy's don't exactly follow the rules. So yes, I know that it is illegal to apparate until you are graduated from Hogwarts, but if you know how, and someone is trying to kill you. . .wouldn't you just go ahead and get the hell out of there? Yeah. So don't review me unless you know what your reviewing, please. Dumb ass.
hippogriffs-rock: Harry is going to get what he deserves, believe you me. Ginny's just there. I like the girl and all. . .but I don't know enough about her to keep writing her in. It would just get boring. Not that this fic isn't boring anyways. . .jeez, my last chapter sucked.
The Lost Weasley: hehe, nakie Draco. *drools a little bit* mwahahaha. . .
dEsTiNy: awww. . .thank you so much! You have just become one of my favorite reviewers! *grins*
killing-dance: be patient, lol. I like to make Harry look like a jerk once and awhile, lol.
Love: I guess you'll find out now about what happens this chapter. . .well, after a couple of more thank you's, that is.
Draco's one and only: *sighs* I wish I was Hermione to see Draco naked too. . .*drools all over again*
Sony: hehe thanks sony. YOU CANNOT GO OUT OF TOWN FOR MONTHS!!!! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT! NO! damn you being a singer and a model and an actress and all that good stuff. Damn you to. . .awww I can't damn you Sony. I wuv ya!
Sumeragi Kousei: Down with Harry!! Hehe, I love him. . .just not in this fic. . .yet, at least. I dunno, we'll just have to see.
SIAS: *laughs* don't I feel like a bit of a dumbass, eh? Hehe. *hides because I have no common sense*
Zaccyzac: awww, zac, didn't you like to see draco naked? Oh wait, you're not gay. Never mind.
Midnight-Primrose Riddle: you make me smile. :-D hehe, every time you review me its in all caps and all excited and everything. It makes me happy. Yippee skippee!
Ellie Love: why thank ya thank ya. But I could not wait to get to your review, cuz I got make you a shout out. Everyone who is reading this, go check out her account. She has a bunch of really good songfics, some will move you to tears, I swear. She likes a lot of Buffy, too. I don't really like Buffy but oh well. All her Harry Potter fics are good. . .and they would be even better if she finished any of them!!! Darn you! Finish the fics! You're song fics are good, but I also wanna know how the real fics turn out!! Lol, come on, write, girl!
Jenie: I don't know what I would do if I got to be alone in a bathroom with a naked Draco. *sigh*
Raven Black: ok, so you didn't review. . .but I don't care, you need to be ungrounded!! And write you're stories! Go do it now! I order you!
~*~
A/N: sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I had finals this past week and other stuff, but well lookie here, its chapter 9.
~*~
Chapter 9
~*~
Hermione rushed from the bathroom as quickly as her legs would carry her, which wasn't very fast, mind you, since her nervousness in the bathroom had caused her knees to wobble for all they were worth. She ran through the empty corridors only stopping when she came to the portrait of the fat lady that led into gryffindor tower.
She shouted the password desperately, in fear that her knees would buckle from her shaking. The portrait opened quickly and she ran into the common room only to come face to face with Ginny and Harry snogging. . .again.
She felt her legs shift under her, and suddenly she was on the floor, and Ginny and Harry were looking at her with strange looks on their faces.
She couldn't help it. She began to laugh. She laughed at her clumsiness, she laughed at her humiliation, she laughed at the bathroom incident, and she laughed at the two teenagers in front of her. She laughed until tears fell from her eyes and splashed onto her cheeks.
Harry stared at her with his mouth open, an incredibly confused expression on his face.
"Errr. . .Hermione? Are you. . .ok?" he asked apprehensively.
Hermione's shoulders convulsed with silent laughter, and soon she was laying sideways on the floor, her hands in front of her on the ground, trying to calm herself.
She desperately tried to stifle her giggles as she answered him, "I'm just fine." She burst out laughing all over again. She had been tired of crying. It was all she ever did anymore. She didn't want her emotions to show so easily anymore. She wasn't going to wear her heart on her sleeve anymore. Instead, she would do the opposite. And at this moment, it was to laugh.
Harry gave her a cross look, one that told her that he didn't believe her at all, "Why are you laughing so much? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's good to see you laugh again, but bloody hell, I've never seen you laugh this much!" he told her.
She broke into another fit of giggles and lifted her arm to point at him. She looked straight into his eyes and replied, "Maybe I've lost it."
It was a joke, naturally, but Harry was wondering if she perhaps wasn't joking as much as she let off. After all, fifty percent of what a person says when they are joking is in fact true, that way you could say what you wanted without hurting anyone, and Harry got the idea that she might be doing just that.
He didn't say anything to her though, instead he just nodded his head and cracked a smile, to let her know he understood it was a "joke." Ginny sat back down on the couch while Harry walked towards Hermione.
Her laughter receded as he approached her steadily, warily. He was looking into her eyes, trying to find something in them that would tell him what was going on, and she, sensing what he was doing, went completely silent and shielded her eyes from her emotions within. She looked at him blankly.
He was extremely close to her now, and all she wanted to do was reach out for him, hold him, kiss him, love him. But she couldn't, and that angered her.
Harry noticed her eyes flicker with something. . .some sort of emotion, but he couldn't figure it out, for the look was gone as quick as it had come. Instead, he put his hands on her shoulders, and looked deeper into her eyes, and even though he couldn't tell what she was thinking, she knew without a doubt what he was thinking.
The look in his eyes was an apologetic one, a look that told her he was sorry for all the pain and hurt he had caused her, and with that one look, he took her into his arms and enveloped her in a tight hug.
At first she tried to resist it, she put her hands against his chest and pushed on him, but he only pulled her in tighter. She was defenseless. She didn't like feeling defenseless.
Her hands tightened into small fists, and began to lash out against his chest, silently pummeling him with an anger, a sadness, a fear. She couldn't let people get close to her again. Not this time. She remembered the last time she had gotten close to someone.
He had beaten her. The attack on Harry's chest slowed as she thought back to that night, and he caught her hands with his own, trying to disable her from hitting him. He glanced at her face, and noticed that her eyes were transfixed on nothing in particular, that they just stared into oblivion, as if there was something there that he could not see. He pulled her closer to him and watched her face all the while, wondering what exactly was going on with her.
Hermione's face went slack as the memories flashed before her.
~*~
It had been night. The rain had been pounding mercilessly. She had gotten out of the car after the movie, and ran down the path to her front door, sopping wet by the time she had gotten to the overhang of the porch.
The door opened at the same time that the lightening flashed, and for a minute she had thought she was staring into the face of pure evil. The thunder cracked loudly, causing her to jump, as she looked into the eyes of the man before her. . .her father.
He was staring at her venomously, as if he would attack her at any moment, if she moved one foot out of line.
"Its past curfew Hermione. Did I ever tell you what would happen if you ever missed curfew?" he spat vehemently. It was obvious that the man was drunk.
Hermione quivered slightly as she shook her head, wondering if he would ever let her in the house.
The burly man in the doorframe stalked out of the house briskly, slamming the door behind him.
Hermione stepped back, and asked him shakily, "Where's mum?"
He laughed heartlessly, shrewdly, almost. . .evilly. "Oh my dear child, didn't you know? She went to visit friends while you were missing curfew. I wouldn't expect her back for quite awhile if I were you." He advanced on her.
She tried to back away, but after only a couple of steps, she found her back against one of the pillars that held up the overhang. There was nowhere to run. She looked up at the man she had thought was her father with pure terror in her eyes.
"D-d-daddy. . .you're sc-scaring me," she whispered with fear.
He glared at her, "Don't you dare try to weasel your way out of this with that daddy nonsense, do you hear me? You messed up. Now you must pay the price. You must respect the consequences of your actions."
She smelled the strong aroma of liquor on his breath, "Y-your d-drunk, Daddy."
A hard calloused hand found its way to her face, striking her with such brutality that she fell to the ground. He tried to pull her up, but she scrambled away from him and stood over on the edge of the porch, staring at him with such panic.
He picked up the bat that had been leaning against a chair and threw it at her. It hit her hard, and she tumbled off the porch, hitting the muddy ground below her with a sickening splat.
Her father ran down the steps of the porch and was soon down by her, still with a look of pure animosity in his eyes. She looked up at him in terror, and before she knew what was happening, he was ripping off his belt, and had her pinned on her stomach in no time. He pulled up her t-shirt so that the only thing between her and the belt was air and her bra strap.
She quaked. No sooner had she wondered what he was about to do when she felt the hard leather slap against her back. She screamed out in pain, but her terrified yell was lost in the storm, gone with the wind.
The belt lashed into her back again and again, getting harder and faster with each blow. Blood trickled down the bright red flesh, mixing with the rainwater and mud. She could hardly breathe, and her back was getting tremendous white, puffy whelps where it had been hit. Long slivering whelps snaked across her back, leaving no room for anything else.
Her father finally receded and let her up, "If you ever put a foot out of line again, girl, you will get something much worse than that. You can count on it." With that, her father turned quickly on his heel and walked back to the house.
Hermione lay in the mud, her back scorching with pain, and a heat she had never felt before. It was as if it were on fire, and she shrieked into the raging storm as darkness fell around her.
~*~
Harry had become startled as he heard the girl in his arms shriek. Her face had gone from slack and emotionless to one filled with anger, hatred, rage, pain, fear, and pure terror. It was stark white, and her eyes were wide, her mouth open still from the shriek she had just let out.
Ginny had jumped up from the couch and rushed to the two of them, confusion in her eyes. She watched as Harry shook Hermione, trying to get her to snap out of the trance she was in. Ron too, had heard the shriek and had come racing down the stairs, his hair disheveled, and a small amount of dry drool on his cheek.
He bounded over to where the three were standing, two of them with horror and confusion on their faces, and the other with just plain horror on her face.
He reached out for Hermione, and leaned over to her, with his hands on her cheeks, brushing the fair skin lightly, trying to soothe her from her troubles. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her forehead, and then her cheeks, trying to get her to do anything at all, to snap out of it someway.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, Hermione took a step back from those around her. She looked from one, then to another, then to the other. Her face hardened as she looked at them, her eyes narrowed, and she turned on her heel and walked down to her prefect's bedroom.
Her three friends watched her retreating form in shock. What was going on?
~*~
Draco stared at his reflection fearfully. For once in his life, he was in fear of what was going on with him. He'd never felt anything like he did now before. Even when he was with his father, when he was being beaten to a bloody pulp, he had never been this scared. He felt as if something was going to happen if he didn't do anything. Something bad.
He dressed quickly and he hurried out of the bathroom towards Dumbledore's office. Why he was going to the old bat's office, he didn't know, he just felt that that's where he need to go at that moment.
He stood in front of the gargoyle that blocked him from his headmaster, searching his mind for anything that the professor might use as a password. He racked his brain for anything to use, and he was becoming extremely frustrated when Dumbledore himself appeared at his side, as if he had popped up out of nowhere.
"Could I be of any assistance, Mr. Malfoy?" Draco heard the headmaster say.
Draco nearly had a heart attack from seeing Dumbledore right next to him, "P-Professor. I, uhh, err, I'm actually not quite sure why I'm here. . .I just. . ." he trailed off.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Ah, yes, Mr. Malfoy. Follow me."
Dumbledore led Draco into his office after stating the password (beetle berry bandit) and motioned for Draco to have a seat before seating himself in front of him.
"Something tells me that there is something that's bothering you. Perhaps, something you have never felt before, correct?" the old headmaster asked him.
Draco nodded silently.
Dumbledore smiled knowingly, "It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return, Mr. Malfoy, but what is more painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let that someone know how you feel. . ." the old wizard trailed off.
Draco looked up suddenly, his eyes meeting Dumbledore's in shock. Did he just read his mind?
"How did.how did you know?" he asked sheepishly.
Dumbledore stood and walked around for a bit. Draco was getting frusterated at the old wizard's pacing when he finally stopped and looked at the teenager before him, "Let desire be your destiny, Mr. Malfoy. You need to stay open. Lightening could strike."
Draco stared at him, his mind back on the dream that he had had. "Lightening could strike. . ." he repeated slowly. Draco looked up at Dumbledore, the words spilling out of his mouth in a rush, "What if. . .what if this girl. . .was sad? I mean, really, really sad? What if I don't know what to do to help her? What if she gets so lost in her pain that she can't ever return? What if. . ."
Dumbledore lifted a hand to stop him, "Mr. Malfoy, sometimes when the door of happiness closes, another one opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door, that we don't see the one which has been opened for us until it is too late."
Draco was getting angry. What the hell did that mean? Dumbledore must have noticed his frustration because he explained.
"Apparently, Mr. Malfoy, this girl that you have fallen for. . .she wasn't always this sad, was she?"
Draco shook his head, "she's never been like this until this year."
Dumbledore nodded and then continued, "Something happened to her this summer, something horrible. Something that has caused her to turn her. . .back. . .on the world. She is still so lost about what happened this summer, that she forgets to look ahead. What happened this summer is the closed door, Mr. Malfoy. . .and you. . .you need to be the other door for her. If you really love this girl, you need to be there for her, and force her to see the open door, otherwise she will go crazy looking back on the closed one. Lead her, Mr. Malfoy." The headmaster paused, and as if he read Draco's mind (again), he stated, "Dreams are predictions of the future, Mr. Malfoy. If there is something you do not like about a dream, that aspect of it needs to be changed."
Draco stared at the wizard, "Do you know who I'm talking about Professor?"
The old wizard nodded silently.
Draco's eyes veiled his uneasiness as he spoke, "why her. . .why did it have to be her?" he asked more to himself than to Dumbledore.
"The heart has reason which reason cannot understand, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco nodded slowly. He still didn't understand anything, the only thing he did understand was that he needed to help her, and he needed to help her fast. He stood up rather quickly, and he swayed a little as his brain began working again.
"Thank you, sir," he told the headmaster as he rushed out of the office.
He heard Dumbledore call out to him as he left, and the phrase stuck with him as he jogged back down to the slytherin common room: "Love conquers all, Mr. Malfoy, love conquers all."
~*~
A/N: holy hell that was long. Hmmm, hope you liked it.