Title: Dance Fever and Some Bad Dreams
Disclaimer: Totally uncool! I just found out that some other chick owns all these characters! How much does that suck. Well their not mine people.
A/N: Ok my readers I must inform you that things may get a little darker since we're moving to the Voldemort side of the story. But please don't fret I'm going to make the winter ball a load of fun for ya'll. But get into a slighter serious mode and ENJOY!
Chapter 18: Sharper Images
I had ran as fast as I could getting a small bag of clothes and hurrying out of the common room before the vast flow of students came washing in from dinner. I found my way to the Slytherin common room after I had recited the Serpentio password.
I have to say that I was on the better hand of luck that night because hardly anyone was in the common room. That is except for one Slytherin boy who was asleep on the couches. I tip-toed around him and made for Draco's door.
"Is that you Pansy, Darling?" I stopped dead in my tracks with my back to the boy, "Pansy?" he moaned again. I looked over my shoulder at the sleeping Slytherin and saw his eyes were still closed.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Sleep talker. But just when all the adrenaline had left my body I was grabbed from behind and pulled into chamber. I was just about to scream when a large hand smothered my mouth, but as soon as I recognized the large hand covering my mouth and I stopped struggling.
Once we were in the safety of his room, the hand left my mouth as Draco stepped in front of me to shut his chamber door. I put down my bag and turned to face his room once again.
I hadn't thought I would be back here so soon but I had no problem whatsoever with my early return……
"You, Miss Granger, are pretty strong when you get scared." Draco chuckled, turning away from the door to me while cradling his ribs. I winced at the thought that I had probably elbowed him a bit in the ribs.
"Sorry about that." I muttered sheepishly and blushed. His only reaction was to grin and murmur,
"I'm glad I can still make you do that." I looked at him with question on my face,
"Make me do what?"
He walked slowly over to me with desire written on his serious face and touched my warm blushed cheeks,
"That." He whispered as my blush deepened. His serious face broke into another chuckle of amusement.
I felt my heart beginning to race just then when his fingers touched me. Just then I was itching to reach up and kiss him like I had in the library. He could apparently read my yearning to touch him because he began to close the distance between us. He stared straight down into my eyes as he moved in. Even now that I had kissed him more times then I had thought I ever would my heart still raced just as fast if not more then the last time.
He always had some new way of moving closer to me, whether it is lying in a hospital bed, being pulled into the shadows, pushing me off a bed and more. Tricky, tricky, man……
It was when his eyelids began to lower and his lips were almost on mine that all the sudden I felt something weird in my throat and then……
Hiccup!
I saw him jerk back in surprise.
Crap……Hiccup!
His face went from one of surprise to one of the purest amusement. He began to laugh softly at my out of place Hiccups. I could then feel my face start to burn with embarrassment as I tried to explain myself,
"I think I'm a little hungry."
His laughter settled as he asked,
"You get Hiccups when your hungry, do you?" As a response I nodded and shrugged. He grinned and turned to his night stand next to his bed. He opened the drawer and rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a bag of chocolate sea shells. He looked over at me, "Will these do?"
I smiled and nodded again, not trusting myself to say something and have it come out only to result my embarrassment……
Hiccup!
……so much for that.
Draco's POV
Never in a million years would I have thought that, one night, I would be spending my time with Hermione Granger eating chocolate sea shells on my floor and enjoying it as much as I was now.
We had been talking about everything from her favorite ice cream flavor (strawberry) to how she liked her eggs cooked (scrambled with a little of cheese).
Her hiccups had long since past but still we sat on the floor nibbling at the chocolate sea shells talking about the most absurd things, which didn't seem quite so strange when they came from Hermione's mouth,
"When was the last time you looked up in the sky?"
"We see the sky all the time……" I prodded, but she shook her head and interrupted,
"No, I mean simply stare up at the sky and take it in?" She stared into space biting her lower lip in frustration, "I haven't looked at the sky recently." She murmured more to herself then me, "You know, I used to look at it all the time." She came back to me and smiled at her memories locked in her head, "Every chance I got. But the bother was that there were always too many lights at night."
I thought about her staring up out her window at night and her biting her lower lip in the same cute frustration that I loved. Just the thought made me smile. Then I found myself hearing words that I was saying but not really thinking about,
"You should come to the Manor. It's in the country so there are hardly any lights near by."
"You'd let me go to the Manor with you?" the surprise on her face hurt somewhat, yet I pushed it aside and reassured her,
"Of course! Maybe for part of Christmas break you could visit me." Her smile grew as she kissed me on the cheek,
"I would love to."
We talked for a little longer and Herm made me take my Dreamless Sleep Potion, when Hermione tried to stifle a big yawn behind her small hand. I glanced at the clock sitting on my nightstand and stared in disbelief. 3:37am!
I looked back to Hermione who was trying to hide how tired she really was. When she noticed I was staring at her she straightened up and smiled weakly. I grinned and shook my head a little,
"You should really get to sleep, pet."
At this her tired smile turned into a frown as she shook her head hastily,
"I don't want to." She crossed her arms and made no move to rise from the floor. I chuckled under my breath at her fierce cuteness,
"You're falling asleep as it is, sweet." I tried again, "All you're going to accomplish by sitting there, is falling asleep on the ground and messing up your neck and back tomorrow."
She simply tilted her chin up slightly and shook her head,
"I don't want to go to sleep yet." She said firmly. I rolled my eyes and motioned for her to scoot over my way. She looked at me for a moment with suspicion in her eyes. Yet ever so slowly she inched her way over to me.
I sat with my back resting on the side of my bed and leaned into it. I motioned again for her to sit between my legs, "So if you do go to sleep on me, your neck won't kill you in the morning."
She chewed on her lip for a moment before crawling between my legs. She was about to lay with her back on my chest when she looked down at my ribs with sleepy concerned eyes.
I shook my head, "Don't worry about it, love." She hesitated before resting her back gently on my chest and giving out the smallest of sighs.
A few minutes had gone by before I stared down at her and saw that her eyes were closed and her chest was gently rising and falling. I smiled and was about to carry her up to the bed when she murmured,
"I'm just resting my eyes." I rolled my eyes and laughed inwardly so as not to disturb her.
I looked down once again and saw her bruised hand resting on bent knee. She had the sweetest hands. I found my own hand reaching out and holding it. With the little awareness that Hermione had left in her she, in turn, lightly stroked the back of my hand with her small thumb.
It was only when I noticed that her thumb had been still for a quite a while that I realized she was asleep. I began to shift very slowly, so as not to wake her. I found to stand up with her in my arms and I then placed her pretty well in the center of my bed.
It was a little bit of an effort getting her under the covers since she kept shifting around the bed.
What a sweet little thing.
I stepped back and was beginning to feel the affects of the Dreamless Sleep Potion work its sleeping work on my body. I took a stray pillow from my bed and tossed it on the floor and was about to crouch down and go to sleep when Hermione mumbled,
"Stay with me."
I stared up at her closed eyes and wondered if she were simply talking in her sleep. My question was answered as her eyes opened sleepily and she asked again, "Please?"
I glanced down at the pillow on the floor and then the empty space beside her. I smiled at her and took the pillow off the ground and laid it back in its proper place on my bed.
I removed my shoes and pulled off my shirt, having never felt the need for clothing while I slept, and I was about to unbutton my pants when I remembered that I wasn't alone tonight.
Hermione smiled and shrugged at my decision before lifting the edge of the covers for me. Just then I caught myself wondering why she was excepting me into her life. She didn't need anyone to take care of her- especially me.
She was more independent than most girls her age, yet there she was opening up to, of all people, me. I beamed inwardly as I slid under the covers enjoying the warmth coursing through my body. The Sensation was made better when I felt her cheek rest on my shoulder and her arm lay across my chest.
I slowly fell into a deep sleep breathing in the scent of her flowery angel hair……
"Draco!" my eyes flew open to see Pansy standing right over me with her nose almost touching mine.
"Bloody hell!" I shouted as my head snapped to look to where Hermione had been sleeping. No one there. I pushed Pansy from my face and sat up in my bed looking around franticly to see if Hermione was anywhere in sight.
Had she left without waking me? What time is it? Perhaps she wanted to let me sleep in.
I threw the covers off myself and tried to get up when I felt Pansy forcefully push me back down on the bed. "Oy! Bugger off, Pans!" But she didn't heed my warning.
Instead she attempted to crawl onto me. I knew if I threw her off she would realize something was not right with me. And when I thought about Hermione pushing me away in the Great Hall I resisted from pushing Pansy off and risking her suspecting something strange.
She grinned devilishly at me and persisted to lower herself to kiss me. Yet right before her lips touched mine I closed my eyes and a sharp image of Hermione flashed across my mind.
My eyes snapped open and I threw her to the side making her land with a thump on the edge of the bed. I jumped up and strode to the bathroom and turned the faucet on cold.
"What's up your arse?" Pansy whined as she picked at my pillow. I didn't bother to answer. I cupped my hands letting the water fill them before tossing it on my face and running my fingers through my hair, "Draco, something is not right with you."
Still ignoring her, I walked out of the bathroom and found a clean pair of pants and pulled them on. It was when I was shoveling through my drawers that I heard Pansy rise from my bed and make her way to my double doors of the balcony, "Draco, I know something is going on."
This caught my attention with a feeling of pulsing panic in my veins. My hands stopped searching for a shirt as I waited and listened for a hint or clue that she might really know what was going on.
"I'm not that stupid, Draco. I can see when you're frustrated as hell. I know when you get nervous……" I closed my eyes and an image of Voldemort flashed before my eyes. I opened them once more. What was going on? I blinked hard and rubbed my head.
Just take it easy, Draco. You're scaring yourself. I returned to searching for a shirt, "Tell me what's been going on. I know there's something."
As I found and slipped on my shirt I heard her hard footstep cross my room behind me.
The footsteps stopped and I felt her hands snaking around my waist from the behind me. I then felt her warm whisper in my ear as her hands tucked themselves slightly under the waist line of my pants.
I turned around to face her and by the look on her face it seemed she was finally expecting me to tell her. I leaned forward to her as she continued to let her hands freely roam my chest.
I placed my lips so they were just ever so slightly away from her ear and hissed,
"Go fuck a tree, Parkinson."
I pushed past her and stalked out the door.
My feet were heavy with frustration as I walked down to the Great Hall at a much faster pace then necessary. I did not concern myself with the serious suspicion Pansy felt. My mind lingered on those visions that I had just a few minutes ago.
Pansy was right, something wasn't right with me today. I rubbed my sore neck and walked into the full Great Hall. I barely noticed more than half the girls heads turn to look like sick puppies.
Yet there was only one girl I was looking for……
My eyes immediately shot over to the Gryffindor table where Hermione usually sat. But she was nowhere to be found. I kept walking to my table as I scanned the Gryffindor table again and again. But it was when I was about to sit down at my usual spot when I heard right in front of me, "Looking for someone?"
I glanced down and nearly caught my breath when I saw Hermione sitting among a bunch of tough looking Slytherins. She threw her legs over the bench and stood up, "I saved your spot for you."
I gaped down at her as she sat me down with my back to the table and I was still facing her. She grinned down at me with satisfaction. I tore my eyes from her only for a brief moment to look around at my fellow Slytherins. They hardly seemed to notice that Hermione, my polar opposite, was standing right in front of me at the Slytherin table.
The sounds of chattering went on as normal while Hermione stood in front of me.
"Herm, what are you doing?" I whispered trying not to move my lips.
Her eyes sparkled as she reached for my robes and pulled me to my feet. She looked at my lips so her eyes seemed half closed before she whispered back,
"This."
The space closed between us as our lips came together as if for the first time. At first I had been shocked that she had shown so much courage. My skin tingled as her fingers pulled my neck further down to deepen the kiss. It came to the point where we were holding on to each other like our lives depended on it.
But the moment ended abruptly when a sudden image of a pale Hermione with dripping wet hair was lying on a grass bedded ground completely still. The vision was brief but sharper than any knife.
My eyes snapped open and I broke the kiss with a gasp of raspy air. I looked around the Great Hall to see every students' eyes on me. I looked back to where Hermione had been standing to see she was no where in sight.
Then out of the corner of my eye I saw the same black panther who had attacked me, perched on the Gryffindor table, staring directly at me.
I closed my eyes and shook my head as though it would help flick away these images. Yet, it did no good. I opened my eyes once again to see the panther rising from it's crouched position to jump from the Gryffindor table to the Hufflepuff. Then leap to the Ravenclaw table. As it jumped onto the Slytherin table I stumbled back so my back was flattened against the wall.
The panther let out a hissing with it's teeth and just at that moment a the sharp image of Hermione lying motionless and wet on the grass split through my mind like a lightening bolt.
She was dead……
I shot up from my bed with glistening beads of sweat clinging to my forehead. I turned to look by my side and saw Hermione sleeping soundly curled near me. I glimpsed out the window to see the moon was still gently glowing. As an attempt to slow my breathing I lay back down and went over the dream in my head.
Yet the only thing I could really remember was that haunting vision of Hermione sprawled out on the grass with stone cold skin. I turned my head to reassure myself that she was still with me.
Sure as day she was there…… but for how long?
Boom! Viola! There's your chappy. Ok first thing I must say……I won't be keeping u guys waiting too long since I'm starting the next chappy Right NOW. Second, PLEASE Review! Those things are what keep me going. And third, please be NICE. I know I have grammar problems and stuff but simmer down a bit. I'll try and work on them. Alrighty, I'm off to start the new chappy! Byez, I love you all!
