Chapter 8

Wow, we really must have screwed up that potion bad, Pansy thought as she sat in the common room trying to finish up a transfiguration essay. Snape said we weren't going to see dreams. But wait a had the same dream? Is that even possible? By now Pansy had given up hope of finishing her essay. It was almost time for dinner.

"Hey Pansy, you coming or what?" said Draco as he headed out of the common room. Pansy put her essay away and headed out of the common room after him.

As they were walking through the dungeons and making their way to the Great Hall Draco spoke, "Well?" he said expectantly.

"Well what?" said Pansy confused. Her mind was on a certain green-eyed boy.

"Which memory did you see?" he replied as thought this were obvious. "Was it anything good?"

Pansy quickly thought of a believable lie. "Oh, I didn't see anything interesting. It was stupid. It was just a memory of him flying on his broom. He was probably practicing quidditch, or something. What did you see?" she said, wanting to change the subject.

"Oh." Said Draco looking thoroughly put out at not having any blackmail material on Harry. "All I saw was the little Weasley. Longbottom must have been staring at her the whole time in his stupid memory."

"Oooh, really? He must like her."

"That's a scary thought."

Pansy laugh and for the first time in a while she felt like everything would be fine. Her happiness was short lived when they reached the Hall and she remembered that she had to meet a certain boy after dinner. She walked in the hall with Draco and sat down, determined not to look in the direction of the Gryffindor table.

He saw her walk in the Hall with Draco. He wanted to catch her eye and make sure that she remembered about the meeting but she wasn't looking at him. Ron and Hermione, who were trying really hard not to be too couple-like around Harry, noticed that he was staring in the direction of the Slytherins.

"Hey Harry, what are you looking at?" Ron asked.

"Pansy," he said truthfully.

"Why?" Hermione asked surprised.

Harry wrestled for a moment about whether or not to tell them. Well, they are my best friends. If I can't trust them, who can I trust?

Hermione saw his hesitation. "Come on Harry, you know you can tell us anything, right?"

"Alright." He started with the 'dream' and ended with what had happened in potions that morning. He didn't, however, tell them what he thought had really happened, what he had seen on the muggle news. By the time he had finished, they were both sitting there with their mouths hanging wide open. He decided to break the silence first. "Well, what do you think happened?"

"I don't know Harry. I mean, sure, you remember a dream so it's like a memory, but it didn't actually happen, and Professor Snape said we would only be able to see things that actually happened so." Hermione trailed off.

"But don't you see Hermione, that's what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid that it actually did happen." As he said this he felt his worry increase.

"Oh, come on mate, you would never do that. Besides, don't you think Pansy would remember if you tortured her in the middle of the night?" Ron finally said.

"Not if she was sleeping too." Harry replied.

"How could you do that and sleep at the same time," Ron asked confused.

A small gasp from Hermione told Harry that she was now thinking what he had been thinking since this morning. "But Harry, it couldn't be. Both of you?"

"It's the only explanation."

"What's the only explanation? Both of them what?" said Ron looking from Harry to Hermione.

"Now isn't the time to talk about it, Ron," said Hermione in her stern voice. "Do you think she'll meet you, Harry?"

"I hope so. I have to tell her." He turned around to look at the Slytherin table. He saw her eating and talking without a care in the world. He didn't want to, but he had to tell her what he knew.

Across the Hall, she felt someone staring at her. She looked up from her plate and her blue eyes met green ones. She gave him a small nod to tell him that she still remembered about their meeting and went back to her food.

After another thirty minutes, the Hall began to empty as students returned to their common rooms. Harry decided to leave before Pansy so that he could think about what he was going to say. Before he left, Ron and Hermione wished him luck. Pansy saw him leave and remained seated for a few more minutes. Then she got up and walked out of the Hall. The walk to the library seemed to go by much quicker to Pansy than usual, probably because she really didn't want to go. 'If he knows something then you have to find out. After this, you don't have to talk to him again.' She couldn't have been more wrong. She reached the doors of the library and hesitated, and then she slowly pushed them open. She saw that it was almost completely empty, this she was grateful for. She knew that Harry wouldn't want anyone to see or hear them so she walked straight to the back of the library which was totally deserted. She began to walk in between the book shelves looking for him, when she heard someone call her name. She turned around and saw him sitting at a small table in the corner, next to the window. She sat down wishing she hadn't come. There was a minute of awkward silence before Pansy decided to speak.

"Well Potter, what was wrong with the potion?" she asked.

Her question took him be surprise. "Nothing was wrong with the potion."

She was becoming impatient. "Of course there was something wrong with the potion. We weren't supposed to see dreams, remember."

"Pansy, don't you think it's weird that we had the same dream?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with it." She saw him take a deep breath as though he was about to say something very important and it annoyed her even more.

"Potter, do me a favor and stop acting like it's such a big deal. We screwed the potion up, who cares. We had the same dream, as weird as it was who cares. It's not like it really happened," she finished, saying this as though the very thought was laughable.

"That's just it, Pansy, it did happen."

She looked at him as though seeing him for the first time. "You know what, you're crazy. I'm leaving." She made to stand up but Harry grabbed her before she left her chair. "Let go of me."

"No, you have to listen to me. I can explain everything," he said without letting go.

"There's nothing to explain, it didn't happen. Now let go!" she said her voice starting to rise.

"Sshhh!" Harry hissed. "Just sit down and hear me out."

She knew she should have just left, but she didn't. She sat back down and looked at Harry.

"Thank you. Now listen, I know this is going to sound crazy but it's true. I saw it on the muggle news over the summer. It's called sleepwalking. The person is technically asleep, but they walk around and do stuff and they don't know that they're doing it."

Pansy was having a hard time understanding but she listened anyway. "What kind of stuff?"

"They do a lot of different things. They might walk out of their house and into the street or they might just walk into the Great Hall because they were hungry." Harry stared at her, willing her to understand. "Come on, don't you see?" He wanted her to understand so that he wouldn't have to say it out loud. As much as he thought it was, he didn't want it to be true.

"Wait," she said with a look of realization in her eyes. "You don't think that we were." she didn't want to say it. Harry nodded. "No, it's not possible," she said starting to panic. "You wouldn't-you couldn't," she didn't know what to say.

"I know. I'm really sorry," and he was. He wanted Pansy to forgive him.

"You're sorry? You're sorry? For torturing me! How could you-," she didn't even know what to say. She wanted to hit him and hard.

"Pansy listen, I promise I won't-

SMACK! She slapped him with all the force she could gather. She hated him for taking away the only place she could have been happy.

"You won't curse me again? Oh, of course you won't," she said sarcastically. "How can you promise that if you didn't even know you did it the first time?"

Harry, far from being angry that she had hit him, felt he deserved it. What he had done to her was far worse than a slap in the face. He looked at her and saw that her anger seemed to be spent. All he saw now was sadness.

They sat there for a while in silence, just looking at the window. Neither of them wanted to talk to the other. Then something entered Harry's mind that he had not thought about since he first woke up from the 'dream.'

"Why did you call me 'father'?" he asked curiously.

Pansy looked as though she had even forgotten he was there. "What?"

"You called me 'father', why?"

Pansy didn't know what to say. Just tell him, she thought. Why so he can laugh at me? I don't think so. "That's none of your business," she said finally.

"Your father doesn't hurt you, does he?" It suddenly dawned on him. "Was that why you were crying on the train," he asked shocked.

Pansy panicked. She didn't want anyone to know. She did the only thing she could think of, she lied. "No! And I said it was none of your business!"

"Funny, that 'no' sounded a lot like 'yes,'" said Harry with a frown.

"Well it wasn't," she said unconvincingly. She got up and this time he didn't stop her. "I don't need you to be my friend, you know. So do me a favor and tie yourself to your bed or something." Before she could stop herself she added, "I've been through enough. I don't need you trying to kill me to top it all off." Then she walked out of the library. Way to go; now he knows.

Harry walked slowly to Gryffindor tower thinking about what had just happened. He entered the common room to find Ron and Hermione kissing on the couch. He felt a stab of annoyance but no big rage. "Why don't you two get a room," he said through a yawn. The two wrenched apart.

"Harry what hap-," Hermione began but Harry cut her off.

"I'll tell you tomorrow. Ron can you come tie me to my bed? I'll explain later," he added seeing the look on their faces.

When Ron finished, he went to bed too. Harry fell asleep imagining Pansy being tortured by her father all summer. Maybe she does know what its like, he thought before he fell asleep.

Maybe he was sorry, she thought before she fell asleep.