"Starry Night"
Inspired by the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Disclaimer: Based on characters that are owned by J.K. Rowling, not I.
Hermione was more bored than she ever remembered being. Her roommate Stacy had dragged her to this crowded, loud, club on a perfectly good evening claiming that it was going to be fun. Those were Stacy's exact words: "It's going to be FUN." Hermione knew she would never trust Stacy again. Everyone knew that Hermione wasn't, and was never going to be, a party person.
Hermione yawned for what must have been the tenth time in so many minutes and looked at her watch. She shook her head incredulously and looked around. What were all these twenty-somethings doing dancing at eleven forty-five on a Friday evening? Sleeping, sure. Watching TV, sure. But dancing? She'd never understand.
She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned in her seat to see Stacy looking at her with unfocused eyes. "Hey, Herm, how's it going?" she asked, and Hermione smelled the alcohol on her breath.
"I'm bored out of my brain, Stace, but I don't think I'm the one to be worried about right now." Answered Hermione, wrestling Stacy's wine glass from a firm grip as she stood up.
Stacy wobbled unsteadily on her feet. "Aw, come on, Herm, live a little!" She said loudly.
"Living's great and all," said Hermione moodily, "but someone's got to drive."
Stacy waved Hermione's words off with a flick of her thin wrist. "Anyway, Herm, I was talking to that gorgeous guy over there"--she jerked her blond head towards a tall man in a gray sweater sitting with his back to them at the bar--"and he said he wanted to talk to you." She giggled girlishly. "Looks like your night may be looking up."
Hermione groaned. "Stace, the last thing I feel like right now is talking to a complete stranger for an hour. Can't we just--" Hermione was cut off by a short waiter holding a tray of drinks.
"Refreshments?" He asked courteously.
Stacy reached out to take one, but Hermione grabbed her wrist. "What are they?" Hermione asked uncertainly.
The waiter gave mischievous and obviously practiced smile. "A secret of the house, I'm afraid."
"Ooh! I've heard of these!" shrieked Stacy excitedly. "Come on, 'Mione, take one."
The waiter turned to her expectantly, and, grudgingly, Hermione took one of the small glasses. The waiter gave a small bow and offered the tray to a group near Hermione and Stacy.
Hermione held up her glass suspiciously. "Stace, any idea what's in this?"
Stacy rolled her eyes. "Of course not Herm, it's a secret!" She giggled maddeningly.
"Of course," said Hermione blandly, "a secret."
Stacy took a whiff from her own glass. "Smells pretty strong," she said happily.
"Listen, Stace, I'm not sure if you need anything strong at the moment," said Hermione, absentmindedly watching the waiter's progress through the crowd.
Stacy pouted. "Don't be such a spoilsport Hermione!" she said, her words slurring slightly.
"Stace, I'm not drinking this stuff, and neither should you. Let's just go home, okay?" said Hermione hopefully, watching the waiter approach the man in the gray sweater.
"Go home?" said Stacy, sounding horrified, "'Mione, trust me, a strong drink is exactly what you need."
Hermione laughed sardonically. "Alright Stace, maybe another time, but this party is killing me bit by bit as we speak, so let's get going...PLEASE?"
Stacy frowned and looked over at the man in the gray sweater. A mischievous grin spread across her face. "Okay, Herm, I'll make a deal with you."
Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Oh?"
"If hottie over there drinks this stuff, you drink it too, AND we stay a bit longer."
"And I should accept this because...?"
"Hold your horses, Herm, I didn't say the other part of the deal!"
"Alright, what's the other part of the deal?"
"If he DOESN'T drink it, neither of us drinks it and we can go home." Stacy waited for Hermione to refuse.
Hermione hesitated and looked towards the man at the bar once again, to see that he had not yet accepted the drink from the waiter. As his back was turned, Hermione couldn't make out what he was saying, but it didn't seem as though he was too keen to try a drink of which the contents were unknown.
"Alright, Stace, I accept." Hermione said as her friend raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Yay!" said Stacy delightedly. "Now let's watch, shall we?"
The two turned to the bar and watched intently as the waiter tried to tempt the man into taking the drink. It looked as though Hermione was going to win when a third man approached them and tapped the man in the gray sweater on the shoulder and told him something that Stacy and Hermione couldn't make out from where they stood. The third man walked away and the waiter raised his eyebrows expectantly. Hermione bit her lip, hoping against hope...but the man took the drink.
Hermione closed her eyes resignedly. When she opened them again, the waiter had disappeared and Stacy was grinning at her annoyingly. She looked sadly back to the bar to see the man swirl the drink around in its glass, hesitating.
After several seconds, he sighed, as if in a position as helpless as Hermione's, and downed the glass's entire contents in two gulps.
Hermione looked away, defeated. "Okay, Stace, you win." She said, deeply irritated. She looked down at her glass uncertainly, wrinkling her nose, and drank the whole thing in one go. The liquid stung her throat as she swallowed and she immediately felt a headache coming on. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to block out the indescribably loud music that she suddenly noticed was being played. She opened her eyes to find that her vision was blurring, she couldn't hold herself up properly anymore, everything was so bright...
...Hermione found herself...floating...in a dream world of some sort. Objects were disproportionate, light radiated from everything she saw...people around her laughed...no one was sad or bored or unhappy in any way...this was the way it should always be...happy.
Someone was speaking, but Hermione wasn't really sure what he or she was saying, and didn't really care. She drifted through all the laughing people and stumbled over something...she didn't comprehend what had happened until she realized someone had caught her...someone whose features were blurred...but the someone's eyes shone through the blurriness, they...sparkled. Hermione found herself smiling just looking into those eyes...
The person spoke--it was a man. His voice was deep and made Hermione feel so at ease...
He lifted her onto her feet, and Hermione saw him put his hand to his forehead and wondered if he had a headache...she asked him if he did, but her voice sounded far-off, and not like her own...the man mumbled something and took her arm, leading her somewhere, she wasn't sure where...
An unwelcome blast of cold hit Hermione as the stranger led her outside. The sudden change in temperature made Hermione's head hurt even more, but this didn't bother her...life was good. Hermione found that in her new, happy state, thinking wasn't required, and realized that her thoughts were so simple and that complex ideas were impossible to think about...so she didn't try. A simple world was fine with her. Hermione suddenly realized that the strange man was still standing next to her. He was looking at the sky dreamily, so Hermione looked up...and gasped at what she saw.
The night sky was pitch black, but seemed to glow with life. It was not filled with stars, but sparkling magnificently with...diamonds...and they all seemed to be alive...they moved...they glimmered happily...it was better than any sky Hermione had ever seen.
She looked once again at her companion and found him smiling lazily, the diamonds in the sky reflected in his already shimmering eyes. She giggled and boldly snuggled up to him to stay warm. The stranger didn't look surprised or act as if Hermione was doing something out of the ordinary; to the contrary, he wrapped an arm around her waist in a comforting way.
Time passed slowly by with Hermione as content as anyone could possibly be. The stranger didn't speak again, obviously realizing that it had little if any effect on Hermione, but took her arm gently and led her away from the building where the party raged on. Hermione didn't even bother wondering if she should trust this person before her, the thought didn't even cross her mind that he might be untrustworthy. It wasn't possible.
The man led her to the bank of a river. The stars were perfectly reflected on the glassy surface of the water. It was amazing. Hermione could tell the man was smiling, though his features were blurred. He sat on the grassy slope that was the riverbank and gestured for Hermione to do the same. She did so, smiling at her kind companion. Hermione leaned back on her hands and felt something smooth and flat against her palm. Looking under her hand, she found that the thing was a rock, the type she used to skip across water with her father when she was a child. Smiling at the memory, Hermione looked at the rock thoughtfully. With the rock in her right hand, she quickly leaned forward and flicked her wrist so that the rock skipped perfectly three times across the silky surface the river. Giggling at the now disturbed water, Hermione once again snuggled up to her newfound friend for warmth. He smiled and looked down at her with a mixture of amusement and liking.
Time in her world slipped by with changing speeds, and Hermione suddenly found herself sitting near a bridge, watching the water of a grand fountain trickle quickly down the stone it was made of. The sound of the rushing water was soothing, and Hermione closed her eyes in comfort. When she opened them again, she saw that the water of the fountain was changing colors constantly--it was like a rainbow made liquid. The strange colors of the fountain didn't surprise Hermione; nothing did anymore, it seemed. She leaned her head back and looked at the beautiful stars that did slow and intricate dances around each other.
Looking at the bridge, Hermione saw her new friend leaning on a cast-iron railing, watching a boat pass under him contentedly. Hermione went over to him and waved at the laughing people on the boat. They all smiled back.
A breeze whistled past Hermione and her companion, rustling the grass on the riverbanks and transforming it into green waves that rolled like the ocean. She stood transfixed for a while before her friend gently pulled on her arm and led her towards the street. She looked across it to the buildings on the other side and found them swaying slightly to a lyric-less tune playing softly in her mind. Cars zoomed back and forth in front of them in a blur of colors. Soon an old yellow taxi pulled up in front of them with the passenger reading a newspaper--no--the taxi was made out of newspapers and the passenger was reading a yellow book--no--the passenger had left. Hermione and her companion squeezed into the back and were gone.
The taxi stopped in the parking lot of a beach. Waves rippled onto the shore slowly as the water displayed a near-perfect picture of the sky above. Hermione sat on a bench facing the water and her friend sat beside her. They stared at the water and, as usual, said nothing. Hermione glanced at the man next to her to find him looking at her with a small smile. She returned the smile. Indescribably slowly, they leaned towards each other and got caught in a gentle kiss. A rush of delight filled every inch of Hermione in that instant. For some reason this complete stranger, this odd night...
...were perfect.
Hermione woke up with the worst headache she'd had in years and a terrible crick in her neck. She was so stiff that she didn't think she'd ever move again. She slowly and apprehensively opened her eyes and found that she was on a beach somewhere and the cool breeze made her teeth chatter. How on earth did she end up here? Something moved under her and she looked down. She was lying on a person?! How did this happen? She sat up and looked at the person's face as he opened his eyes and stretched. He looked around in confusion and then turned to Hermione. His eyes widened and Hermione gasped.
"Malfoy?!"
The End.
AN: Hope you liked. I know it's a little, erm, different, but what do you expect from a story inspired by the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"? Those of you who have heard it understand what I mean. Here're the lyrics, just so you can see why the story's kinda weird:
Picture yourself on a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (3x)
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies,
Everyone smile as you drift past the flowers,
That grow so incredibly high.
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore,
Waiting to take you away.
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds,
And you're gone.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (3x)
Picture yourself on a train in a station,
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.