Chapter Name: Fools Give You Reasons But Wise Men Never Try

Disclaimer: I own only Tempest, Ford, a dog, and some gerbils. But not Harry Potter and Co.

Thanx to Nestrik, Quicksilver Fallen, Kaelli Karali, and Rei.K, you guys are my MAIN and GREATEST reviewers!

Onward!



Draco was laying in his bed staring at the ceiling.

"Gone, gone, gone." He thought, "She's all gone..."

Someone tapped on the door.

"Draco?"

"I'm asleep." Draco called out, forgetting to be his usual, sarcastic, arrogant self, going back to is childish five-year-old self.

The door creaked open and Ford walked in.

"The ball is cancelled. Dumbledore said that they were going to have a Memorial Ball instead tomorrow night." Are you going to come?"

"I might."

Ford paused. Then he asked softly, "Are you okay?"

Draco hesitated. Was he okay? Okay that his mother died? Or okay that he killed someone's father?

"I'll come." Draco said, "But I won't dance."

"Are you okay?" Ford asked again.

"I'll be fine. Just leave me alone alright?"

"Okay. If you need anything just call. I'll be in the Common Room. Classes are cancelled today too."

Then Ford walked towards the door. As he was about to close the door and go down to the Common Room he stopped and turned around.

"I'm sorry this had to happen to you Draco. You didn't even get to say good bye."

Then Ford left the room shutting the door softly behind him.

"Yeah, I didn't say good bye. I was too busy killing people." Draco whispered to the closed door.

Soon Draco dozed off. He didn't really remember falling asleep but before he had time to dream Xena was prodding him awake.

"Oh great." Draco said making a face, "Just the thing to lighten my mood...a letter from Voldie."

Draco ripped open the letter. It wasn't from Voldemort. It was from his father.

Draco,

You did excellent at the battle son. I can't believe you managed to kill Arthur Weasley! But let me get to the point of this letter. During the battle your mother was killed. By who I do not know. We probably never will know. Her memorial service will be held on the fifth of November at the Mansion at 12:00. Our Lord has decided to hold off for a while on the destruction so you won't receive any letters from him until around Christmas time. Take a well-deserved break son. And remember no one must no about your actions.

Father

"At least I don't have to worry about any more bloody letters." Draco thought to himself.



*~*~*~*~*



Draco lay in his bed all day, staring at the ceiling. No sunlight came in to dry his minuscule tears. The sky was a very angry, gray color. The Gods were punishing those who had participated in the battle. The air had the silent, still feeling of that before a storm.

Draco's mind wandered through the tiny unexplored corners and forgotten attics of his brain. Then he remembered his strange squid dream and the ghost girl talking Latin.

"It's doing the world a lot of good because my end is near." Draco pondered aloud. Then he pondered the events that had taken place after his dream.

"I became a Death Eater, killed some pathetic Muggle lover, and my mother died." Draco was silent for a moment. "My END is near? Maybe it meant the end of my carefree days when I wasn't worried about killing and being killed. Well why didn't my stupid dream say so? It would've made Ford and I a lot less worried!

"Should I tell Ford? Then he would know what I am....but if I don't tell him he'll be worried for the rest of my life."

"So?" exclaimed a voice in his head.

"So what?" Draco thought to the voice.

"Come on!" it exclaimed, "who cares if he's worried? That's his problem to be worried about some low-life Death Eater!"

"Shut up and go away!" Draco thought to that annoying little voice.

"I can't, Loser. I'm your conscious."

"Well then stop talking AND LET ME THINK!"

"Fine! Fine! I'll be quiet now!"

"Good!" Draco said aloud.

Draco was almost certain that his dream meant that it was the end of his relaxed days.



*~*~*~*~*



The next day Draco got out of bed for lunch. He hadn't eaten anything since before the Hogsmeade attack and he was very hungry.

Draco sauntered importantly through the Hogwarts corridors and entered the Great Hall. It was alive and cheerful, full of students whose parents actually cared about them

Draco sat down and looked around for Crabbe and Goyle. Maybe they could lighten him with their stupidity so that Draco knows that he's not the stupidest person in the world.

"Where are Crabbe and Goyle?" Draco asked Blaise.

"Didn't you hear?" Blaise asked looking surprised.

"Hear what?" Draco was becoming annoyed

"They went to Hogsmeade yesterday..."

"And?"

"They were dressed in all black and some Ministry worker thought they were Death Eaters..."

"So?" Draco was becoming VERY impatient.

"He killed 'um!"

"Really?"

"Yep!"

"You sound overjoyed." Draco drawled

"So do you!" Blaise pointed out.

Draco didn't know what to say to that so he buttered some toast and crammed it in his mouth.

Then there was a HUGE crash of thunder and a blast of air whipped out the torches. Lightning flickered the Great Hall with an unnatural light.

Many of the first year girls screamed in a very high-pitched voice that reminded Draco of mermaids.

Draco took out his wand and said, "Lumos!"

Many of the Prefects and older students and teachers had already done that.

"Can I have silence?" Dumbledore asked loudly.

Immediately the Hall fell silent.

"Thank you." Then Dumbledore clapped his hands and the torches were relit. Now that the first years had stopped screaming everyone could plainly hear hail and rain pounding on the ceiling. Also now that the torches were light again everyone looked up and saw massive balls of ice and huge drops of rain pelting the enchanted ceiling.

The older ones hushed some of the younger students. Comforting words went through the hall as several students murmured to their little brothers and sisters.

Draco sighed and grabbed some more pork loin. When he was finished eating Pansy called for him.

"Draco!" Her shrill voice sounded through the hall.

"At least she's waited until I'm through eating to bother me." Draco though.

"Draco come here!"

"No! You come here!"

Pansy sauntered up to Draco and leaned forward next to him, laying her elbows on the table.

"Greg and Vincent's memorial service will be held on the fifth of November at 12:00." She said with tears shining in her eyes. Greg and Vincent, of course, Goyle and Crabbe.

"Oh." Said Draco "So is my mothers...I guess I can't go then." Draco tried to say it with remorse so Pansy wouldn't think he didn't WANT to go, which he didn't.

"Oh, well," Pansy said with regret etched into her snobby face, "I guess I'll see you in the Common Room for the Ball at 7:30 alright?"

"Pansy," said Draco flatly, "I'm not taking you."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going but I won't dance."

"Well! Then I'll just go with Blaise!" Then Pansy huffed off.

"Poor Blaise." Draco mused. "I wonder if he'll take her? Probably not..."



*~*~*~*~*



At 7:45 Draco decided that he should get going. He only had on a pair of Hogwarts robes...nothing special since he wasn't going to dance.

Draco swaggered down to the Common Room where April and Ryan (two seventh years) were hiding in a corner making all kinds of noises. Draco sneered at them and continued on his way.

Down the magnificent corridors he went, through endless tunnels of portraits. Then he was in the Great Hall.

The tables had been removed and instead, there was a huge dance floor with couches and chairs along the outer edges for people to rest on. There was also a huge table filled with candy, meat, fruit, and punch.

Draco looked around for a solitary corner where no one would bother him. He sat down in a shadowed corner, after pulling a chair to that spot, confident that no one would see or bother him.

Draco looked around for anyone he knew. Ford was jabbering to some fourth year girl Draco had never seen, that was, obviously, his date. The girl didn't look so pleased; she was wiggling her foot and not listening to a word Ford was saying.

"Do you want to dance?" Draco heard Ford ask the girl. Ford had noticed that she was looking bored.

"Are you going to talk the whole time?" the girl snapped.

Ford looked surprised, "Not if you don't want me to Bethany!"

"Then lets go."

Bethany nearly dragged Ford on to the dance floor, forcefully guiding his steps.

Draco smirked and looked around some more.

Pansy, he saw, was dancing with Blaise. He wasn't looking too happy. Pansy was leaning her head against his shoulder. Blaise was looking around uncomfortably.

Draco smirked again.

Madam Hooch was dancing with Dumbledore, McGonagall was a funny sight with Hagrid. Snape, of course, wasn't dancing.

Then Draco saw the weirdest thing in his life.

Snape went up to Prof. Sinistra and asked her to dance.

Draco saw the astonishment on her face before her face softened and she took his hand.

Sinistra was talking quietly to Snape and he would reply with a nod of his head.

Draco had to tear his eyes away from the hilarious scene before his eyes.

After half an hour of watching people dance Draco's eyes began to grow weary. He was debating whether to go get some food or go to bed when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Draco spun around to see Tempest at his side.

"D-d'you want to dance?" she asked nervously, her hands fidgeting.

Draco looked down at the small creature in front of him. A first year asking a sixth year to dance? It must've taken her a lot of courage. He looked into her endless black eyes and saw that they were actually pleading with him.

"Fine but not in the middle of everyone or something like that...we'll dance where no one will notice us easily."

Tempest sighed and her frail body and features relaxed. Draco grabbed her hand, which was icy cold, and led her to were no one was dancing. He put his hand on her waist and held her other hand in the air. It was a good thing he was so short or else he would have to put his hand on her shoulder and she would have to put her hand on his hip.

It was a slow song and Draco led her along skillfully. He had taken dancing lessons the summer after his third year so that he would be prepared for the Yule Ball.

When the song was over Draco pulled away and led Tempest over to where he was sitting.

"Thank you!" Tempest said quietly.

Draco waved his hand dismissively. "No problem kid."

"Well..." Tempest said. Then all words left her and she held out her chilly hand.

Draco reached for it. His hand went right through hers.

"What the--?" Draco drew his hand away.

Tempest looked at him with sad eyes as he recoiled.

"I had to tell you sometime...I'm a ghost Draco."

Draco's eyes went wide and he backed away. Professor Talmange's words came back to him: "Ghosts know the future."

"What were you doing in Professor Snape's class a couple months ago?" he asked trying to wear off the shock. "What were you trying to say?"

Tempest shook her head. "I'm not strong enough to tell." She whispered so quietly that Draco had to lean his ear right next to her lips.

Then her image wavered in and out of view.

"Good bye." She said. Then she disappeared.

Draco stared at the spot where she had been. Will he ever see her again? Where did she go? What does she have to tell me? He thought. Then he realized that ghosts also go back and forth in time a lot. Isn't that what Prof. Talmange said? 'Time will do funny things if you are a ghost' Draco felt certain that he would see her again. Then he could ask her what she was trying to say. But why had she come to him? What did she need to tell him? Was it something to do with his family? Hogwarts? He decided not to try to give these questions reasons.

Suddenly Draco felt very tired as if he had been awake for a week without sleep. He slowly walked zombie-like up to his dorm. He then collapsed onto his bed, his mind with the wavering image of Tempest upon it.



You were right Kaelli Karali! She IS a ghost! But why did she come to Hogwarts is the next question!!! Good job! This is my longest chapter yet and I feel proud of myself!! Next chapter coming up soon!!!! PS The title is from some song lyrics I've heard but I don't know what the song is or the tune...

BEEFYWPAC