Title: Dance Fever and Some Bad Dreams

Disclaimer: None of the Harry potter characters are mine. No. Not even Draco.


~~~~~~~~Chapter 12: Changing It Up and One More Sad Story

"The Winter Ball! This joyous night will be coming up in a couple of weeks and we must get started on the dances that will be taking place!"


Mrs. Shnopsie's eyes swept our class with excitement. I couldn't help but notice that they lingered a half a second too long on the little space between Draco and me standing closer then we usually would have.


"And for the Winter Ball I have discussed the topic with Professor Dumbledore, and we will be having a dance competition!" a tidal wave of whispers washed over the class as the girls leaned over to another giggling and the boy exchanged looks of horror and muttered curses under their breath.


I glanced over to Draco and was slightly amused by the frightened look on his face. Though when Draco met my gaze his fear dimmed and he flashed me his lop-sided grin that always made my temperature rise more then a few degrees.


Although I couldn't help but feel pity and concern twisting in my stomach whenever I looked at his dark circled eyes. His brilliant silver blue eyes were becoming more of a tired gray in the past couple days.


I had noticed that Mrs. Shnopsie was staring at Draco and me once again with that twinkle in her eye.


I did my best to bring down the blush in my cheeks and stare right back at her with the same stubbornness that I had before. Even though I knew I had feelings for Draco I wasn't sure that the whole school was ready to know. Not even the nosey Mrs. Shnopsie. From the hastened glances from Draco to me in the halls in the past two days since that unforgettable kiss, I think he felt the same way.

It was almost as if the moment we broke away from that kiss that we had created a solemn pact not to express our feelings in public. We may be ready to have feelings for one another but the school wasn't ready to find out. Not yet. I could only imagine how upset Harry, Ron, Padma, Parvati, and not to mention the whole of Gryffindor would get. I just wasn't ready. Yet.



Mrs. Shnopsie smiled and went on speaking out to the class, "I am sure those of you that have beautifully mastered the dances that we have gone over will be very excited about this……" she beamed at Harry and Cho, who sitting comfortably against each other. They had been so graceful and had picked up every step that Mrs. Shnopsie had taught, "And then there are the other people who have not exactly mastered the grace and rhythm of dance, who I will work with……"


She shot a friendly wink at me, "but I can honestly say you all have improved since the first dance class. And as a reward……I am allowing you to select any partner of your choice for the Winter Ball!"


There were mixes of smiles and rejoicing from those who had gotten unsatisfactory partners and frowns from those who didn't. Many of the girls' eyes turned to Draco and to my utter surprise many of the guys eyes flew over to me, including Malcolm's.


Then Mrs. Shnopsie called out, "Well what are you waiting for? Go on and choose your partners!" There was a sudden shuffle of feet and rustle of robes. I snapped my head over to face Draco's panicked eyes.


If I grabbed Draco's hand people would wonder, 'why had a Gryffindor Muggleborn take the hand of a pureblood Muggle-hater?'

I could see the same clocks ticking away in Draco's head as he stared into my eyes. No. I wouldn't let the school become an influence on my actions. I was reached out my hand and made to hold his when all the sudden, right from under my nose, someone else grabbed his hand and I felt an icy cold hand snatch mine.

I glared up at Malcolm whose hand was wrapped over mine, "Be my partner, Herm girl?" I looked over my shoulder to where I saw Parvati had been the one to steal him away, "Hermione?" I heard Malcolm's voice coming from the back of my mind. I looked back up to him and was about to bark a firm, 'no' when that awful Mrs. Shnopsie came up behind me with a clipboard and quill and grinned,


"No surprise here!" she scribbled our names onto the partners list and glided over to another couple.

This was not happening! I would not let Malcolm come near me let alone touch me! I was about to make my way to Mrs. Shnopsie when she shouted out, "That's all for today, class! See you all tomorrow!" And before I could push past the students and burst out of the Great Hall, she had disappeared.


I hissed a mouthful of colorful language under my breath as the students began to scatter out of the Hall, "Well that was expected." I didn't even have to turn around to know it was Draco's deep voice.


"What do you mean?" I asked, still hopelessly looking around for Mrs. Shnopsie. Draco walked up beside me.


"I mean, she's been wanting us to get together since the beginning. And now she wants to make sure that we have something." This statement could easily be laughed at and thrown aside. Yet I felt a prickling feeling all over my arms and a large part of me agreed with Draco.


The moment I got off the carriage with Draco she had been looming a distance away just watching us. Then there was at the first night in the Great Hall where she had said that she was partnering us up as she saw fit, she had looked straight at me. But what really got to me was why would she want to? She has some hundred other students to play matchmaker with. Why was she doing this with Draco and me?


I turned to Draco and once again was shot with pity for his darkening eyes. It hurt to see him not being able to relax and regain energy in sleep. I wanted to know why he didn't go to sleep. What could be so horrible in his dreams to keep Draco Malfoy from closing those precious eyes and sleeping? Part of me craved the answer and as for the other……

I didn't quite feel as though I would like the answer and would not want to hear it. I caught my hand from rising up and touching the darkness around his eyes. Instead I looked away from him, to the ground.


A moment later I felt Draco's fingers gently raise my head from under my chin and he whispered, "Meet me in the Great Hall two hours after dinner and I'll tell you why."


"Hermione!" I jerked away from Draco and looked around to Padma and Parvati standing by the stairs. Feeling flustered from the simple touch from Draco's fingers, I waved called out in a short breath,

"I'll be right there!" I made sure I was a good three or four feet distance between Draco before I looked up at him again, "Two hours after dinner then."


Draco smiled and yet the smile hardly reached his gray eyes. I took in one last look at him to quench my intense longing to be kissing him and brushed past him to Padma and Parvati.

~*~*~*~

Dinner dragged by at a sluggish pace. I twisted around in my seat next to Ron and Ginny when it was about halfway into dinner and he still hadn't arrived, judging by his empty seat in between Crabb and Goyle.


I turned back to my cold untouched chicken noodle soup,

"Hey Hermione, you sick or something?" asked Ginny while she ladled some more soup into her own bowl, " You haven't touched your food."


I put on a smile for Ginny, " I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Ginny didn't seemed convinced. Just to please her, I ate some spoonfuls of the cold soup, and gave her one last forced smile, "See. I'm ok."


Ginny narrowed her eyes at me as though trying to see past the smile and into my heavy mind of worry for Draco. I had been having resent day dreams of Draco lying on a cold stone floor eyes shut tight, brow covered in sweat, lips trembling from fear just as well as the cold, and……Him……that creature that has struck fear into the hearts of the wizarding world. Voldemort. He was standing over Draco with his cackle the sound of stinging wipes only a hundred times worse.


"Hermione?" I blinked once……twice……before meeting Ginny's concerned eyes. "Tell me what's wrong."

"I just have a lot on my mind." I took a sip of water in attempt to soak by dry throat, when I heard from Ginny,

"Like Draco?" I sputtered and regained my composure in hopes that I didn't attract too much attention, "Don't act so surprised, Hermione. You may be a little better at hiding your feelings. But Draco definitely doesn't have what it takes to fake he doesn't like you. You should have seen him on the first night back at Hogwarts. He couldn't keep his eyes off you."

I stared at Ginny in amazement. The girl had sharp wandering eyes. I shook myself mentally and whispered back to her always checking that no one was listening, "Ginny, your some what right. Draco and I……well……it's not……it's just……complicated. And he didn't even like me until about a month into school. Honestly, I suspect it was just because I changed my hair style." I automatically felt a hurt in my heart.


The thought that Draco just liked me because I changed my hair created a sting so torturous I wished I had never thought the thought. But when I looked back at Ginny, she was giggling with her eyes twinkling with laughter.


"Hermione, you smart. But not that smart. He hasn't just liked you since the beginning of this year……he's liked you since you got together with Crumb in Fourth Year."


"What?" I asked blankly.


Ginny giggled again and nodded, " I remember it perfectly. I mean after all, how many times do you hear a Malfoy talk so fondly about a Muggle? When you and Crumb finally asked you out at the end of fourth year, we were leaving Hogwarts on the train and I was looking for a compartment. And I headed all the way to the back of the train looking for you guys and I was about to open one of the doors to a compartment when I heard Draco talking to Crabb and Goyle. He was clearly mad and he went on saying how dumb, stupid, ugly, and dumb (again) Crumb was. He carried on like this for a while but then said that Crumb didn't deserve you; that you were above Crumb. Then his voice got real quiet and he said that /he/ was beneath you! I would have listened more but I heard Crabb and Goyle gasp and Draco seemed to come out of whatever trance he was in and told them to go get some pumpkin juice for him. So I took off."

Ginny batted her eyes, clasped her hands together close to her heart, and sighed, " It was /the/ sweetest thing I have ever heard."


Was this true? Could Draco have been jealous of Crumb the same way he was jealous of Malcolm? Why had he been so cold to me then?

Questions pounded the sides of my head with the impatience of wanting to be answered. I struggled to tame them all and look back at Ginny.

She beamed, "Save your questions for him, Herm. I'm only the ease dropper. I would have told you sooner but I didn't think that it would ever come up."

I went back to turning my head over my shoulder and checking if Draco had arrived and then turning back to my cold soup with a heavy heart when seeing that he was nowhere in sight. I didn't even snap out of my routine when the students started out of the Hall. I poured myself some coffee from the silver teapot in front of me when Padma and Parvati said they'd meet me up in the dorm rooms.

When all the students were gone and only the teachers remained I found Professor Dumbledore slowly making his way from the Head Table down to me,

"Why Miss Granger, may I ask why you are sitting here all by your lonesome?" I glanced up at Dumbledore before shrugging and sipping my coffee,

"Would it be alright if I stayed here for a while?" I asked into my coffee cup. Dumbledor chuckled a bit before nodding,

"Of course Miss Granger. I find there's nothing better to cure a head full of thoughts, than some coffee and silence."

I stared up at his twinkling eyes and smiled, "Thank you, Professor." He beamed back and nodded. He started on his way to the great hall doors when he spun around,

"One last thing, Miss Granger! Be sure to welcome the truth. Don't push it away. I know you well and you will struggle for another truth when you hear his."

What? Who? Did he know about Draco's meeting plans? And if he did, how did he know what Draco was going to tell me?

Without another word Dumbledore spun around again and walked out of the great hall with his cloak billowing out behind him, "Oh yes, Miss Ganger, I hope you don't mind If I blow out the candles? It would be a shame to let them burn all of the wax by morning."

I simply smiled and nodded. Dumbledore, seeing my approval took in his breath and then released a gentle blow that to my surprise made all the candles in the great hall flicker and die.

"Good night, Miss Granger." He winked, turned his back to me then left, leaving me completely alone. I looked up at the magical ceiling of sky and noticed that the moonlight was enough to set a soft blue glow on all it touched, including the fat flakes of snow that danced their way into the hall.

I sighed and put the warm cup up to my lips when I heard a swish of a cloak and footsteps by the entrance. My head snapped in that direction to see Draco practically trudging up the center of the Hall towards me. I jumped up from my seat and ran to help him.

I tried to help him onto the Ravenclaw bench. However, being the stubborn independent boy he always was, he refused my help and sank himself into the seat himself, " Don't get like that, Herm." He muttered with his eyes lightly closed.

"Like what?" I asked unable to take my eyes of his shadowed ones. Draco glanced out of one of his eyes,

"What I mean is, don't get all worried and start to pity me. I don't want you to just give me the……lovely attention I've been getting from you just because of pity." I couldn't help feeling warmth spread throughout my body when I heard he thought the attention I had been expressing to him as 'lovely'.

"I do not pity but I cannot say that I'm not a little worried, Draco." I put my hand on top of his and gently squeezed it, "Now, what did you want to tell me?"

Draco sighed and turned to me, " About……about the dreams-no nightmares that come to me in my sleep. And why I will go as far as to not sleep just to get away from the nightmares."

I tried looking him in the eyes. However this became very difficult since his eyes were hidden by the playful shadows of the moon. So with his eyes and mind shielded, I listened to him begin with, " It all really started at the end of fourth year. Once I got home my father called me into the parlor room. Said he needed to talk about something that would be a turning point in my life." Draco let out a grunt of laughter, "The truth was, I what he was going to say. I was to be a Death Eater. I knew that. But that wasn't all……no……that was just the beginning."


He paused to bring his hand up to his head and rub his forehead tenderly, "Father sat me down and told me that I was to be Voldemort's very right hand man, his student. It was a surprise to myself that I wasn't thrilled or joyful but hesitant and it felt like the bottom of my stomach had dropped out from under me.

"Father told me that the ceremony would take place after sixth year was over. I stayed quiet most of sixth year contemplating the decision that I had to make. Would I go through with the ceremony and be someone who I didn't want to be? Or would I escape it? But at the end of sixth year instead of going back home I left a note with my driver saying that I would not go through with the ceremony.

"That I would not and never become Voldemort's student. Don't ask me why. I just felt that there was more in it for Voldemort than a great honor for me. That's why I ran. I took another train to Winchester stayed there for a few days before packing up and heading off to Salisbury. But it was the first night when I got to Salisbury that I had my first real nightmare.

"And right there standing in front of me was Voldemort hissing curses that I was stupid for running, that he would find me, and how he would keep coming back into my dreams taunting, hissing, screaming, and laughing. I thought they were just normal dreams but by the third time when he showed me that I could indeed be hurt in sleep. I have felt more pain in sleep than I have ever felt while awake."

Just listening to his words made my stomach twist with worry. I couldn't imagine how Draco could deal with this. I felt like crying for him. However I felt crying would stop him from telling any more information he wanted to share.

"I could never stay to long at any place. I knew that my father would have almost every one of his workers searching for me. I must have traveled all the way up to Shrewsbury, Whales, before I turned back to go to the Hogwarts Express. But traveling was good. Kept me moving. Left little time to sleep. And the less sleep, the better."

He turned to face me and smiled weakly, " Not now, it isn't." I whispered tracing the shadows under his eyes, "How long has it been since you got some proper sleep- which means more than an hour." Draco's eyebrows knitted together as he thought,

"More than an hour……Probably on the train. But that was a mistake." He said reaching up and taking my hand away from his eyes and instead holding it in his hand, " I told you no pitying for me. Ok?"

I nodded not saying a word. I looked away from his eyes and down to my hands. I wouldn't let him see how worried I was for him. For I could feel tears stinging at the edge of my eyes. What was wrong with me? This wasn't me. I don't cry over things. If I have a problem I do something about it.

Without another thought I stood up with his hand in mine and pulled him up, "Come on. You're getting some sleep" I could feel Draco resisting,

"But how?" He asked behind me. I dragged him out of the hall as he said this and then spun around to him and smiled coyly, "Draco, look whom you're talking to. I'm Hermione Granger. I'll find a way."

I expected him to roll his eyes or laugh at me but instead of anything like that his eyes brightened into his exciting silver blue, he grinned and pulled me into a lip-locking, heart melting, knee weakening kiss. Once he let me go he smiled at my flustering expression, " I know you will."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__________~~~~~~~~~~~

Sry for the really long wait, my readers. I just had a lot of tests that last week of school before break. And my break was totally filled up with all this crap. Oh ya! Happy New year! Ok to the story stuff. I know most of you guys are furious about the dancing partner switch-a-roo. However this will lead to (fun to read) complications. You can trust me when I say next chapter is going to be a sweet one where Hermione finds a way to help Draco sleep. MMMMmmmMM Draco ( starts drooling). Whoa! Got caught up in Draco dreams. Sry. Anywhoo This chappy I really wanted have Herm find out why Draco won't let himself sleep. And a lot of the upcoming chapters are gonna be based around the Winter Ball, Growing feeling between Draco and Herm, The Dreams, and what is this??? Could Malcolm be as bad as we all think. ( maybe, maybe not) But it doesn't matter what we think. Herm might see a different side to Mr. Malcolm that she might like…….uh-oh. Hehehehe.
Mucho luv!

103 reviews! YAY! Please Review!!!! Thanx @~^~~ ( crapped up rose)

Muse's Note: Now you people have to review my friend's story, then hop on over to MY story! It will either be called "Undercover" or "Some American Magic" (I might be changing it) and everyone is reading THIS story instead of MINE! NOW GO!!!! lol