Disclaimer: Again, I own absolutely nothing but the plot.

Chapter 7

Well, I must tell you, this was quite a surprise. Not an entirely pleasant one either. How had she known I was inside the room?

I shrugged these unpleasant thoughts away and sat down beside her, leaning back on my elbows with my legs stretched out before me. I'd disposed of the cloak, by then. Her question still rang in my ears. What *did* I want? Why had I followed them, when I could have just as well walked back to my Common Room?

"Nothing. Maybe the Gryffindor password. Helter-Skelter? And I'd thought Slytherins were the only ones stuck with idiotic passwords. " I said, as nonchalantly as I could. Now, it was my turn to ask questions. "How did you know it was me?"

"Because I saw it." Her answer was short and simple. And, quite strange.

"You saw me, you mean."

"No, I saw *this*. I saw everything." She made a sweeping gesture at the whole room. I didn't understand. Even now, I do not understand the entirety of her viewings. That's what she used to call them. Used to. Before she--

"You saw everything." I repeated. I didn't want to show how confused I was. And, I refused to ask her any more questions. I knew, somehow, that she would explain everything. She was that kind of person.

"My dreams, Lucius. I saw it in my dreams. But I don't think they're dreams. They seem too real. I don't know." She put her head in her hands.

"That's why you can't sleep. You don't want to." She nodded, not looking up.

"I'm afraid of what I'm going to see." She resumed staring at the fire. She laughed mirthlessly. "I'm beginning to sound like Trelawney, believing in fate and all that. What about you, Lucius? Do *you* believe in fate?" My answer was immediate.

"No." She looked at me, questioning, the same way she'd looked the other day in the compartment. I elaborated. "I believe we make our own fate. It's as simple as that. We don't walk along *The Path of Life* or anything. We make our own path." This time, she looked straight into my eyes. I don't like eye-to-eye contact unless I'm the one glaring and making people uncomfortable. And let me tell you, it took me a great deal of strength not to turn away.

"But there are" she searched for the right word "deviations, abnormalities with everything, don't you think?"

"Probably." I must have sounded a bit uncomfortable. What was her point?

"Then you believe some people's *paths*, as you call it, are different." I shrugged. "Do you think they can be so different, so diverse, that some of them *already* have a path carved out for them?" I was *very* uncomfortable by now.

"Maybe." Silence. Then I asked the question I'd been wanting to ask ever since we started this strange little conversation of ours. "Why are you telling me?" I *was* a Slytherin, a Gryffindor's sworn enemy, was I not?

"The fates have informed me" she began, in a misty imitation of Trelawney, to lighten up the mood. We'd all gotten used to Trelawney and her predictions, especially after listening to them for three weeks. Despite myself, I laughed out loud. Soon, she joined in. Our laughing must have woken somebody up, because we heard a loud thump coming from the boy's dormitory, followed by what seemed to be footsteps. I looked at her.

"Still sleepy?" I said mischievously. She shook her head. "Accio Silver Arrow!" I whispered. A moment later, my faithful broomstick flew in through one of the open windows. "How about a little tour around Hogwarts?"

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A/N: I know this chapter is a little short, but then the previous chapter was unusually long, for me, anyway. Reviews, anyone? : )