Provocative

Chapter 2: Silver Snakes

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, except for Kira. The ENTIRE plot, however, was compiled by who? Me!

A/N: I do believe this chapter is a bit shorter. The mystery is unfolding!

Panting, Hermione lay on her bed. Everyone else in her dorm was asleep. She thought about waking Kira up and telling her everything that happened, but after a few minutes of contemplation she decided she'd keep it to herself for a while.

She couldn't figure out what Draco was pulling, no matter how hard she tried. She came up with various theories, none of which she thought were plausible.

What am I going to do! …Wait a minute! What the heck do I get out of this bet!

Hermione soon realized that she had no reason to take on Draco's dare. Except that if she stole something of his, it would be hilarious, not to mention a nice little bit o' payback for earlier. Thinking about what had transpired this evening, Hermione began to worry that Draco would tell the school about what had happened. But would he admit to making out with a "mudblood"? She decided he wouldn't. He wouldn't want to ruin his rep.

Hermione finally decided that she would steal something from Draco. Tomorrow, even though it may cause some embarrassment, she was going to clearly define the terms of their bet. She'd probably steal something from him even if he didn't agree to the bet.

With her peace of mind finally settled she fell asleep and dreamt a strange dream.

Fog, smoke, dream effect, etc…"

"Daddy…?" Hermione could hear herself calling out to her father. She looked the same as she looked now, but she could instinctively tell that she was not even one year old. There was a man lying on the floor before her, blood pooling around him, a thick puddle of death. He was clutching his heart, his body writhing in agony. He had dark brown, nearly black hair and chocolate eyes. He looked up at her and she could feel herself looking back. This was her father.

"Daddy!" she yelled again as she ran towards his mangled body. She dropped down beside him, her knees sinking in the blood draining from the gaping wound on his chest. When she looked closer at his chest she realized that he wasn't clutching his heart. He was covering the hole where his heart should have been!

Her eyes widened in horror as she took in the terrible state of her father. He was gasping for air. Hermione consoled him as best she could. She didn't know what to do. The man had no heart! There was no saving him without his heart. So she stroked his hair back and sat with him.

"Hermione…"it was a horse whisper.

"Yes daddy, what is it?" Hermione asked anxiously. He tried to speak for several more seconds before he simply smiled and was gone. Hermione laid her head on his chest and cried. She soon felt something hard on her head. She looked down and saw a small medallion hanging from her father's neck. It was a dragon! She peered down at it until the dream faded.

Light was streaming in through the curtains that surrounded her bed. She opened her eyes a crack and when the light blinded her she squeezed them shut. She felt restless and her mind was clouded. There was something she was trying to remember but she couldn't quite grasp it. Speaking of grasping, what was she holding? She turned onto her stomach and looked at what she was holding. It was a silver dragon medallion.

Her entire dream from the night before came flooding back. Her father! What a horrible dream it was! Was it real? She was now holding the same necklace she had dreamed about. Maybe she was still dreaming. But everything was too real. She didn't know what was going on, but she was determined to find out.

She went over every detail of her dream many times, looking for any little scrap she may have missed that would explain the necklace in her hand, but to no avail. Library time! She thought with a smile. But her smile was quickly replaced with a frown as the events of last night came rushing to mind. A small blush painted her cheeks. She still had to deal with Malfoy today!

She was still tired and the thought of Malfoy as well as her horrible dream had put a definite damper on her day. So she rolled onto her side and tried to recapture that wonderful feeling between sleep and awake where all sorts of things happened but her efforts proved futile. She was just giving herself a headache. I hate when I wake up early on a Saturday! So she got out of bed and decided that the first event of the day should be a shower. After that she'd grab some toast or something and head to the library for a few hours. Then maybe she'd check out that weirdo tower again. She tried to ignore the fact that she was deliberately avoiding talking to Malfoy.

Before going to take a shower she locked her newfound necklace in her trunk. The other girls were all still asleep and wouldn't even know about the necklace, but she wanted to take certain precautions anyway.

Now that she was clean, she was ready to face the day! She unlocked her trunk, unable to believe the fact that none of her dorm mates were up yet. Then she realized it was probably only 8:30 and it was only the second day of school, so they were still used to late summer mornings.

Putting on the necklace she noted that the cool weight felt good against her skin and gave off a sense of calm and security. I think I like this necklace. She also grabbed some string from her bracelet making kit before leaving.

Hermione walked down to the Great Hall and ate a slice of toast with some cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on it. She noted that while most of her house still slept, a lot of Ravenclaw was up as well as a few Slytherins.

Grabbing a banana for later, she began her library search. She found tons of books on dreams. Some dreams foretold of the future. Some dreams were visions of the present. On rare occasions, some dreams showed images of the not too long ago past, but some even showed past lives! Some dreams were like little therapy sessions and helped you to deal with stress in your life.

There were many more kinds of dreams, but not once did she find evidence of a dream that left the dreamer with an existing piece of the dream. She searched for hours until, finally her head started to hurt with her growing frustration. She decided she needed a reprieve. As Hermione left the library she heard someone call her name. Turning, she found Kira running down the corridor towards her.

"Hey!" she yelled out to her friend.

"Aren't you just the early bird!" Kira exclaimed as she reached Hermione. Hermione grinned at her.

"What's the banana for? Planning on a fruit heist?" Why did everyone always think she was going to steal something?

"No" she said with a laugh. "I just like bananas!"

"I remember at the hotel you ate 3 or 4 bananas a day!" Kira laughed as she remembered all the jokes people would crack about Hermione and her bananas.

"So…what are you up to?" Kira asked, wondering what people did for fun at this school.

Hermione contemplated telling Kira where she was going. It would be really fun to have a friend come with her. Hmm…I don't see any harm in it.

"Well…"Hermione waved Kira closer. She didn't want any one else to find out about her little sanctuary. "I found the coolest place yesterday, and I'm going to go there now if you wanna come?"

"It's not like I have other plans!" Kira said, wishing she had more friends in the big school.

"Lets go then!" Hermione said, raising her banana high and earning snickers from the few people around her.

So, Hermione and Kira plodded on down the corridor, Hermione searching for the place she had gotten lost in. They looked for over 45 minutes, but neither of them minded. They made jokes and talked most of the time, which is probably why it took so long. But Hermione finally found it and made a mental note of her surroundings.

Kira pulled out her wand to light the dark corridor they wandered in until they found the rail-less stairwell. Hermione's excitement mounted with each step she took.

When she reached the circular room, the first thing she did was show Kira the awesome view from the balcony. Kira was as awed as Hermione. Then Hermione explained the weirdness of the tower and how it didn't show up on any maps or blueprints of Hogwarts. Kira was as astonished as Hermione. She told Hermione she wished she knew more about the school so she could help Hermione's investigation. Hermione told her to read Hogwarts: A History and they would go from there.

After chilling on the balcony for a few minutes, Hermione took Kira to the real mystery of the tower. The crazy invisible door.

She took out the string she had grabbed earlier and tied it around her banana. Then she tossed the banana through the wall.

"Oh my frickin' gosh!" Kira was at a lack for words after that. She'd seen some crazy things in her life, but this was just STRANGE!

"Yeah, I know!" Hermione nodded her head, agreeing with Kira's amazement.

"Yesterday I walked all the way through the door." Hermione remembered her fear at finding herself in a dark hallway.

"What was on the other side? And why did you use the banana when you could walk through it?"

"Well, I was being quite foolish yesterday when I went through the door yesterday. I didn't even realize I was doing it until it happened. And when I got to the other side, I couldn't see anything because it was so dark. I just ran back through the door."

Kira got a thoughtful look on her face. "Pull the banana back out."

Hermione did as she was told. They both inspected the banana carefully, but could find nothing wrong with it. If there were some strange creature on the other side, surely they would have done something to the banana. But it was totally intact.

"Well Polly," Kira often called Hermione Polly because she had a tendency to repeat what people said as a question and it reminded Kira of a parrot. "I think it's time we saw what lies behind here!"

Before Hermione could protest, Kira had walked through the door and pulled Hermione with her.

"Kira! We have to go back!" But Kira just stood there. Hermione turned her head and saw a vast corridor lit by hundreds of wall torches.

"Amazing…" Hermione whispered.

A/N: The whole banana thing was kinda odd…sorry. I don't know what came over me! 5 minutes later… I just had a thought…what if bananas was the key to the whole story! Come on…you know that's a great idea! LOL! Calming down now. I'm sorry. I had too much caffeine today!