~*The Passion of a Dragon*~
By: xKatx
Author's Notes: Welllllll… nothing really to say except ENJOY! P.S. One line is from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet—I DON'T OWN IT!
Disclaimer: I don't own HP stuff—I'd be in the mountains right now if I did—I own everything you don't recognize.
Characters You Will Meet In This Chapter:
*no new characters*
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Hermione battled herself for the rest of the day over why she had even spoken to Malfoy. Now that he knew she was on speaking terms with him, he would start asking questions about the dream-questions she didn't have answers to.
It was about four-thirty when the last bell released the students from class.
"Hermione? Aren't you coming to the Great Hall? We're supposed to find out the houses tonight!"
"We've got half an hour, Ron. I'm only going to check something in the library. I'll be back in ten minutes, I swear."
Ron nodded as Hermione left her group of friends and jogged to the library. She entered the musty smelling room and made her way to the Hogwarts: A History section. There had to be about ten volumes, but luckily, the time spans of each book were written on the spines.
Hermione ran her finger along the spines until she reached the volume that spanned the dates 1800-1890.
She flipped thorugh the pages until she reached the chapter for 1880.
"Hogwarts, by now extremely well established, began to form its own prophecies, curses, and traditions. One such prophecy is the Coalesces Oracle…"
However, the paragraph ended there. The ink seemed to run together towards the middle of the page. It looked like water damage, but Hermione couldn't be sure. She informed Madame Pince, who assured Hermione it would be repaired by the following Saturday. She thanked the librarian and made her way to the Great Hall.
Hermione, discouraged at how close she'd gotten and then reached a dead end, sullenly made her way back to the Great Hall. Part of her didn't want to see which houses it was going to be. However, she knew if she didn't see it, she'd hear about it. She might as well witness it first hand.
"Great, 'Mione! You're just in time," Ginny squealed as Hermione made her way over to the Gryffindor table. The ceiling had turned a milky white, the loopy message still visible. The color, however, had changed to a deep red. Hermione shivered; it looked a little too much like blood.
The Great Hall was bustling with people moving around, trying to find the best angle to see the sign, when it came. The teachers sat at the Teachers Table, quietly talking amongst themselves. The Great Hall hushed, however, when someone said,
"Look!"
At that moment, two thousand pairs of eyes looked at the ceiling. The milky white swirled around and around, erasing the message, until it turned pitch black. Everyone held their breath as white writing looped across the black.
"Two houses, both alike in dignity...
...One for the powerful...one for the brave...
Only now, when they are destined...
...Will they deliver? Or will they fall?..."
Two seconds later, a golden and brown lion, rearing on its hind legs, appeared next to the writing. Another second passed, as everyone except Gryffindor wondered if their emblem would appear. Hermione hoped to see anything except the Slytherin serpent.
A moment later, a green and silver serpent wrapped itself around the lion, and another message appeared underneath the pictures.
"The lion... and the serpent...
Never meant to be...
Until now."
The students gasped, and seconds later, the hall buzzed with students talking and whispering. Hermione felt her heart drop from her throat into her stomach before returning to her chest. Gryffindor? And Slytherin? Who would it be? She only hoped it wasn't any of her friends; Lavender fancied Ron, Seamus fancied Parvati, and Ginny and Harry were already together. It was common knowledge--it had to be a seventh year. But which ones?
Draco, meanwhile, smirked at Blaise, who cursed.
"Damnit! I owe Potter a hundred Galleons."
Draco shrugged, "Never bet on something as unpredictable as 'signs.'"
"Yeah, yeah," Blaised muttered, digging in his pockets, "I better get this over with. Coming?"
"You go ahead," Draco said as he watched his friend walk over to the opposite side of the hall. Of all the houses, Gryffindor was the loudest, all indignant and unhappy that one of their own would have to take up with a Slytherin.
"Here you go, Potter," Blaise said, handing Harry a black pouch, "A hundred Galleons, just like we shook on."
Harry nodded, "Pleasure doing business with you, Zabini."
Blaise rolled his eyes and shot Harry a humorous smirk before nodding to the girls in the group.
"Ladies," he said, "Forgive me, I don't know all of your names?" He looked to Harry for assistance.
Hermione felt a little suspicious at Blaise's straightforward courtesy, but remembered he'd been brought up in a family who believed manners could get you far in life.
"This is Lavender Brown," Harry said, pointing to Lavender, "Parvati Patil, Hermione Granger, and my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley."
Blaise nodded, "Ahh, yes of course, now I remember."
"And you know Ron and Seamus," Harry said, motioning to the other two members of the group.
Blaise nodded again, "Well, ladies and gents, it was nice meeting all of you, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you all again."
Ginny couldn't help but smile at Blaise's genuinely friendly face, and Lavender nodded.
"Especially considering the prophecy is going to happen between Slytherin and Gryffindor," she told him.
Blaise winked, "Those Fates--sure know how to pick'em, don't they? Enjoy your dinner," he said as he gave them one last smile before turning around and walking back to Malfoy.
"He's nice," Ginny commented. Lavender nodded.
"I've always thought he was the sweeter of the Slytherins," Parvati commented, "Then again, I'm sure if you charmed Malfoy up enough-"
"Come on, Parvati!" Harry exclaimed as Seamus and Ron were beckoned to by Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom, "If you think he's so bloody hot, go snog with him!"
"Absolutely not, Harry James Potter!" Parvati said, sounding absolutely disgusted, "He's not my type! It's not illegal to fancy a guy's physique, is it, Hermione?"
Hermione, who had been daydreaming and not paying a bit of attention to her friends' trivial feud, shook herself out of her wandering thoughts.
"Huh? Oh, no, no of course not."
Parvati slapped Harry's arm triumphantly, "See? Told you."
"Hermione wasn't even paying attention. You could have asked her if the Earth revolves around the Sun and she probably would have replied the same."
"That's not true," Hermione objected, "I heard what she said."
"Oh really," Harry said, a sly grin on his lips, "What did she say then?"
"Verbatem?" Hermione questioned, and Harry shrugged, "Well... she said something like thinking a lad is hot isn't a crime or something like that."
"Close enough! Hermione wins, case closed," Ginny ruled, gaining a smile from Parvati and a raised eyebrow from Harry.
Before Harry could bust out with a mushy comment, however, Ron and Seamus hurried back over.
"Listen to this!" Seamus said, "It turns out Millicent Bulstrode likes Neville! That could be the prophecy!"
Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Lavender ,and Parvati all replied to this with loud bursts of laughter. Seamus turned beet red before growing annoyed, "What is so bloody funny?"
"N-n-n-neville and M-m-m-millicent?" Ron panted, "You've got to b-b-be kid-d-d-ing, mate!"
"Why is that so unbelievable?" Seamus questioned.
"Seamus, man, this is Neville and Millicent you're talking about. Why would Fate choose them? If you want my opinion, the person from each house is going to have power in that house. It's got to be the powerful ones. What else would any of the other students have to offer?"
Hermione was tempted to mention her dream, but decided against it. She knew if she talked about it, she'd be bombarded with questions she wasn't prepared to answer. So instead, she kept her mouth shut and listened to her friends' conjectures as to what kind of person could fulfill the prophecy for each house.
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The next morning, students were still talking about the signs of last night and that the two biggest enemy houses, Slytherin and Gryffindor, would be the ones to fulfill the prophecy.
Hermione arrived at breakfast that morning a little uneasy. She'd had another dream; it wasn't the same one, and she hadn't seen Malfoy in it. She'd seen herself standing on a balcony, and heard herself reciting the famous words of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She'd seen her 'Romeo', but hadn't been able to make out his face. It was blurred from her view. She'd awoken after she and her 'Romeo' had come close to sharing a kiss.
Now she sat in the Great Hall, forcing down as much oatmeal as she could. She'd lost her appetite in the past few days, her dreams freaking her out enough to make her forget about eating.
She'd just finished her pumpkin juice when someone shouted, "It's changed again!"
Everyone seemed to know exactly what that person was talking about, and in seconds every pair of eyes in the Great Hall, Dumbledore's included, were on the ceiling. It had turned a deep crimson, and in gold writing, flowing letters produced these words:
"Ay me! My only love sprung from my only hate!"
"Shit," Hermione muttered, her heart going in her throat. She'd had a dream... a dream with Romeo and Juliet in it, and now, here was a line from that same play! In the same place where the houses had been revealed only hours earlier. This was getting too creepy for comfort, and Hermione was certainly scared.
Her friends noticed.
"Hermione? You look like you've seen a ghost! Are you okay?" Harry questioned, touching her arm.
She looked down from the ceiling, and realized her breathing was very forced and shallow. She focused on breathing normally, and nodded, "I'm fine. I'm fine, Harry, just a little dizzy. I'll be all right in a minute or so."
Harry looked at her disbelievingly, but turned to their other friends and said, "You guys go ahead. I'll wait here with Hermione. If we're late, explain to McGonagall, okay?"
Ron, Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati nodded. Harry have Ginny a quick kiss before she left for her sixth-year Herbology lesson.
"Are you sure you're all right?" He questioned quietly, trying once again to get an answer now that no one was around.
Hermione took a deep breath, "Yes, Harry, I'm fine. I didn't get much sleep last night, that's all."
"Are you positive?" He asked, "You haven't been eating all that much..."
"That could be it as well," Hermione agreed, standing up and shouldering her bag, "Come on. We don't want to be late for Transfiguration."
Harry eyed her suspiciously, but agreed, slinging his bag over his shoulder and following her closely out of the Great Hall.
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Unknown to Harry and Hermione, a certain pair of silvery-gray eyes had witnessed the whole thing. As of late, Draco had begun to watch Hermione more closely. He'd seen the fear on her face when that line from Romeo and Juliet had shown up on the ceiling. He'd seen her try to cover it up in front of her friends. She'd probably claimed to be sick or something of that sort. That lie could work too--she was paler and thinner than she had been only weeks earlier, but she didn't look completely washed out.
He decided he was going to make an effort to be nice to her. After all, if she fell for it, it could be of use to him to have her as a friend and ally.
Little did he know, another pair of eyes had watched her, silently mourning the fact that his house hadn't been in the prophecy with Gryffindor. His plan would be a lot harder than expected; especially if she was the woman from Gryffindor to come into the fulfillment.
No matter, he thought, I can still get her right where I want her, and then the plan will fall into place even more nicely. The only drawback is if it destroys him because she fights it, she'll die as well.
He paused for a minute, watching her leave the Great Hall with Harry, Oh well, he soothed himself, two birds with one stone. Convenient no matter what. Revenge is sweet, he agreed with the age-old saying as he gulped down the rest of his pumpkin juice and made his way to Divination.