Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and all else aforementioned in the other tedious disclaimers.

I apologize for how I write "Than" for "then". I guess my English isn't up to par, but I will proofread a few times before I post now just to make this story easier to read. Yep!

~* 9 *~

There was a long, painful silence, after which Hermione shouted:


"What did you do that for!"

Draco didn't reply, he yawned and then returned to his cot, falling asleep almost instantly. Hermione stared at his body, lying in utmost comfort on his cot, uncaring of anything. She clenched her fists angrily.

" Harry." Hermione said, and Harry replied from the hallway:

" I should go."

" Don't be mad! He - - you know how Draco is!" Hermione rolled her eyes. " Harry?"

" I should go." He repeated, this time a bit shakily. " Seems that Malfoy's jealous… you… and him… you didn't…?" Harry couldn't even say the rest of the sentence. His voice faltered away and the only sound left was an angry creak from Draco's cot.

" No! No, Harry, please…" Hermione reached her hand under the door. She felt Harry's brush over hers and then envelope her hand. Hermione saw this as a sign to continue. " I can't stand it in here, alright? I can't sit still. I've never felt this bored in my life. Even my books don't occupy me." Hermione's eyes slid to the side to see if Draco was asleep before going on: " He seems to flick me off all the time, no matter what I do. I tried being rude back at him but it all bounces off of him, as if it didn't bother him at all. I tried being nice, too, and the only response I get is some sort of crude, profane retort."

" Who cares?" Harry asked, plainly. "It's just Malfoy."

Hermione nodded slowly. " I guess." She added: " I need to be at least mildly friendly with him in order to leave the room."

" After some time, Professor McGonagall is going to realize this isn't working, and then you're free to go." Harry reasoned.

Draco clenched at his pillow, wishing to block out the annoying buzz of Harry's voice, like a fly in his ear.

" I hope." Hermione could only say.

" Remember to eat well, okay? No matter how proud you are, eat." Harry urged her.

" I will." Hermione felt a blush cross her cheeks. " Come back soon, okay?"

His fingertips reached under the door to caress her hand. " Not even a pack of wild griffins would chase me away, Hermi." Then, he stood and the sound of his retreating footsteps were a heartbreaking clatter for Hermione. " Bye." Harry said, simply.

" Bye and good riddance." Draco whispered into his pillow. His face felt oddly heated.

~*~

The next morning, Hermione woke up to see Draco gone. He wasn't in his bed, and when she looked around the room quickly, her eyes still blurred with sleep, she could have easily missed him, standing silently in front of the hologram window. She blinked curiously and then asked, roughly:

" What are you doing?"

He looked at her. Perhaps the steam had escaped Hermione since she was speaking to him, however rudely it was. He shrugged in reply and then dipped his finger into the hologram. His knuckle popped as his hand was pushed back instantly.

" Are you going to go in there?" Hermione said, sarcastically. " Stay out of this, this is my secret."

Draco shook his head. " Your secret? That's my wand in there! Are you going to go get it for me?"

She shook her head, admitting the truth.

" Then this is my secret, too. I want my wand back." Draco turned back to the window. " Besides, I can fit through that window better."

" I'd like to see you try!" Hermione shouted.

" I will." He replied, smugly. He leaned forwards, and prepared to jump in.

" No! Wait!" Hermione shouted.

It was too late. Draco released himself from the ground, propelling himself with a massive lurch of his legs. His head flew through the window immediately, fluttering the hologram slightly. His hands grabbed the windowpane and pushed him in farther, and then he used his knees to bounce even farther inside. He was in, completely gone.

" You idiot…" She whispered, frightened. Where did he go?

She approached the hologram and then cocked her head to one side. " Draco?" She whispered, fearfully.

He didn't reply from inside the room.

" What's in there?" She raised her voice.

No reply.

" DRACO!" Hermione grumbled, and with an angry huff, she looked around the room to change into her clothing. She might as well crouch in the corner and change, since Draco was no longer present, in a sense. With a tingle going up her spine, she stripped off her nightgown and quickly pulled on her underclothing and shirt. She searched for her robes, and having found them, Hermione put them on as well.

Now that she was dressed more appropriately, she walked towards the window and then thought hard. Should she go after him? Perhaps he was playing a dirty trick on her. Maybe there was nothing in the other room, maybe it was a dusty old room with book shelves and nothing else.

" Draco, do you hear me?" Hermione asked, and then she reached her hand into the hologram. She felt a hand grasp hers, and she was being pulled in, full-throttle.

~*~

A warm sunlight licked at Hermione's face. She could see a bright orange light through her eyelids. Someone brushed a few escaped strands of her hair from her face. Hermione's hands shot up and she felt her forehead. She must have bumped into something, for she felt the wet glisten of blood on her forehead.

" Well, you're not dead." Draco's voice pierced her thoughts.

Hermione's eyes fluttered open to see him crouched over her, his eyes studying her face.

Hermione gasped and then slid back, pulling herself to a seated position a few feet away. " Where am I?" She gasped, looking around. They were in the middle of a massive field, the grass blades bending and shimmering in a sea of dancing green colors.

" I don't know. Do I look like some sort of atlas?" Draco hugged his knees up to his chest in a protective stance, a vestige of whatever remained of childish fright and thought inside him.

They exchanged glances. They were both equally afraid, judging from the way they both trembled.

" Do you think…" Hermione whispered. " … that we were transported into a memory?"

" A memory?" His eyebrows lowered notably until there were dark shadows playing over his eyes, with the way the sun hit the side of his head.

" I heard that people can seal a memory of theirs inside a room, if they so choose. It's an ancient ritual, from the very first witches and wizards." Hermione explained. " A memory is formed inside someone's mind, or a couple blended memories. Past, present and even future memories can be sealed. After time, memories grow distorted…" She clutched at the bleeding spot on her head. " I doubt that Lily and James Potter would have lived in the center of a field… the memory grew old, distorted."

" We shouldn't be here." Draco whispered, fearfully. " How do we get out of here?"

" I don't know." Hermione cried out, in desperation. " I don't even see where we came in from!"

" Neither do I." Draco admitted.

" I'm scared." Hermione said.

" Same here."

She smiled at him, for the first time in a truly friendly way. Maybe Draco wasn't a completely spoiled and hollow vessel of Lord Voldemort just yet. Hermione sighed and then decided she should tell him about her dream. Draco listened with somewhat good listening skills (he interrupted her twice, after all), and after all was said, Draco exclaimed:

" You don't mean… we're going to live through fragments of Potter's parent's memories?"

" I mean just that." Hermione retorted.

" No way. I want out!" Draco hissed. He stood up and the field began to rush by them. " What the…?"

Hermione grasped at him, trying to keep themselves from being pulled apart. Perhaps it sickened her, but they had to hold hands, because if they'd be split apart, then there'd be little hope of finding their way out alone.

Draco squeezed her hand tightly and then closed his eyes. Hermione did the same.

The feeling of hundreds of wind currents, blowing from a hundred directions at once, hit their bodies. Draco was even more frightened than before. Hermione felt him shiver as they were propelled through a memory portal. Hermione had read many books on memory rooms. They worked mysteriously, like rooms locked in time, spinning back and forth between someone's memories. They were usually activated only after the person who created the memories died. The rooms vanished when someone else invaded the memories and then lived to carry the truth of the past on.

It was a scary reality, and Hermione couldn't wait until she could leave. Draco's warm and strong hand over hers jerked back quickly, almost in disgust, and he said: " It's over."

She looked around. They were standing in a school. Hermione looked closer and saw it was Hogwarts. Hogwarts was so beautiful! It was completely decorated with lovely flowers and banners. Draco motioned outside at a huge Quidditch match going on.

They ran towards the Quidditch field, pushing by students.

" Hey? Who's this?" Someone asked, angrily.

Hermione felt a hand on her shoulder. Draco and she spun around and faced a tall boy with a strikingly handsome but cold face, wearing Slytherin robes. He looked from Hermione's robes (Gryffindor) to Draco's (Slytherin) and then asked: " What have we here? A Slytherin and Gryffindor. How disgusting."

Draco looked lost at words. He simply said: " You're - - you're…"

" Lucius Malfoy." The boy laughed meanly. He put his hand on Draco's hair and ruffled it painfully. " What about you, kid? What sort of idiot would be fooling around with a Gryffindor, and an ugly fat one at that?"

Hermione was appalled.

" She's not too bad." Draco's words came out without reflection. Then, he grew serious again and he replied: " I'm Draco, and if you don't mind, we have to go."

" Sure, knock yourself out, kid." Lucius laughed and nudged one of his friends beside him. " Thank goodness that we're getting out of this dump at the end of this year. How degrading – a Gryffindor and a Slytherin."

Hermione and Draco slunk away through the crowds, and they found an abandoned area beneath some high-rising bleachers. Draco's cheeks were red and he looked dazed. " My dad - - he looks just like me, doesn't he?"

Hermione didn't know what she should reply.

" He's just like me, in everything." Draco looked a bit worried. " I'm pretty annoying, I guess, huh?" He laughed bitterly.

Hermione couldn't believe what he was saying. " You're your own self."

" No, I can see who I am…" He shook his head. " We gotta get this memory to go away. How do we get through a memory?" He asked.

" We need to find the aspect of this scene that Lily or James would have taken as a memorable moment." Hermione cited, remembering the passage of a book that she read just three weeks ago. Thank goodness she was freshly aware of what was going on, for Draco was obviously lost. " Haven't you read any books on these things?"

Draco looked at her with a sad smile. " The only books I've read were ones about the Dark Arts." He was so bluntly honest that she almost cried, though she didn't know why. " We don't have much of a variety in my father's library." Draco smirked. " Well, let's go."

Hermione nodded and followed him to the center of the field. Someone was being carried out of the field with an injury. Hermione looked at the man and she exclaimed:

" It's James Potter! He looks just like Harry!"

" Oh, how sad for him." Draco replied.

She nudged him. "Hey!"

" What? I'm being honest." Draco then broke into a run, approaching James Potter. He had a broken leg, it was obvious. James looked down at Draco and he exclaimed: " Lucius?"

" Nope." Draco shook his head. " My name's Draco."

" You look just like Malfoy." James looked down at the people carrying him out. " Hold on." They paused.

" Yeah, I get that a lot." Draco replied. " Listen, we need to know what happened."

" What? Haven't you watched the game?" James laughed. " I feel off my broom, but our team won thanks to me… that was a lucky dive I made, wasn't it?" He was asking some pudgy young man. " Eh, Longbottom?"

The young man nodded, and lost track of where his feet were moving. He tripped and James was jerked to the side.

" Where's Lily?" Hermione had just run up to Draco, for she wasn't the quick runner Draco was.

" Lily Evans, you mean?" James flushed. " She's right over there." He motioned towards the right. Hermione looked to see a slight girl sitting on the bleachers with worried eyes, looking at James as he was carried away. " Do you think she likes me? She's always afraid t o approach me."

Hermione was reminded of herself when she looked at Lily. Lily, though skinnier and shorter, was also holding a book. Small spectacles were balanced on her nose, for reading. She had lovely hair, though, and Hermione's stomach squeezed watching her. She was very pretty, that was undoubted.

Lily looked up at James and their eyes met just then. James waved to her. Lily's memory was sealed, happily.

 The world spun again and Hermione grabbed Draco once more to keep from splitting apart. Where were they being taken next?

~*~

A/N: A record-breaking long chapter so far, don't you think? So, how do you like the secret of the room so far? Hmm?