Dreaming in Reality
Lions and Snakes go Spastic
Chapter 2
By Kalibrit

A/N – Thank you to everyone that has reviewed. Your comments mean a lot and I'm glad that you are enjoying this story.

The Lions

Common Room

Harry walked through the portrait hole and was met by a wall of faces. Only a few showed disgust, most were just shocked. Ron still looked furious. Harry looked for his other best friend. Hermione, at least, never ignored the fact that Harry was gay, as evidently Ron had. She was one of the shocked faces. She quickly made her way through the crowd and grabbed Harry by the hand.

"Come on." She pulled him quickly through the crowd to her room. As Head Girl she had her own suite. She closed and locked the door. No one was going to interrupt them. To be on the safe side, Harry added his own silencing and locking charms. He took a quick look around to make sure that there had been no portraits added to the room.

"So, Harry, anything you want to share?" She gave him a look that said he'd better spill his guts or she would rip them out of him.

Harry opened his mouth to speak but then shut it quickly. How was he supposed to explain. 'Well you see, I had a dream.' Yeah Right. He took a seat on the couch, staring into the fire.

"Harry, you know you can tell me anything and I'll listen and I definitely won't judge you."

"I know 'mione, I trust you with my life, with my soul and with my sanity. If you were a guy I would have snatched you up in a second. I never told anyone this, but when I got back to Hogwarts, I started having these dreams. Every night I would 'wake up' in this room and there would be this man there, and we would talk. We talked about my past, his past, but I never saw his face. I found out so many things, plus when I would have my visions, I would go into these dreams and he helped with the guilt. You know since fourth year I've felt guilty at times about Voldie being back. Most of the time I'm okay, but as the visions become more frequent, it became so hard. And talking to my dream guy helped with perspective. Over the weeks, we shared everything. Well everything except his identity."

Hermione Granger was without a doubt one of the smartest witches in Hogwarts. She also, after seven years, was one of the few people that could say they knew Harry Potter. Not the boy who lived, but the actual young man that was 'just Harry'. She knew that one of the few things out of life he wanted was to be accepted and loved for who he is, not because he had a scar on his forehead. She also knew that since last year, he was cynical enough to protect himself from some glory hound. Or someone like Lucius Malfoy.

"What happened three weeks ago, you were as happy as I've ever seen you, but then…then you just shut down and we, I couldn't reach you. Tonight, that light came back into your eyes. You know, right before you mauled Mr. Malfoy."

Harry felt the blush burning its way up his neck. This was perhaps the one person he could tell the whole story to, however,

"I'll tell you what I can," Harry paused and looked at her. She nodded to indicate she understood.

"Three weeks ago, I received a message that Lucius was compromised and he was going to try to get away from Voldemort. That was the last I heard before I saw him tonight. I didn't know if he was dead or alive and the longer without word, the worse it was." Harry felt bad that he couldn't' tell her the whole truth right away, but he had to find out what happened from Lucius.

"So now what happens?" Hermione asked, laying back on her pillows, pulling Harry down so his head was in her lap. She started running her fingers through his hair.

"I don't know, I have to finish school. Dumbledore is going to be monitoring what we do. He told us not to have sex! Like it is any of his business. I still have to figure out how I'm going to defeat Voldemort. Now I have to worry about how this latest bit is going to handled. Is it going to cause a huge scandal? Am I being a bit too cynical to think that it is going to be on the front page of the Prophet soon. I don't think that it is too conceited to say this. Sometimes it seems that if I fart it shows up in the Prophet."

Hermione couldn't restrain the snort that bubbled up. It was true, the most ridiculous stuff was reported to the papers.

"Well, we will weather whatever the papers throw at you just like we always do." She hugged him.

"Burn them, burn them in effigy." They shouted together.

The Snakes

Severus glided through the dark hallways. Lucius followed behind silently. He practically see the sparks flying about the potion master. He knew that Severus would not make a scene in public, but would wait until they were behind closed doors. He wasn't really looking forward to the confrontation. The intense ... relationship between Harry Potter and Severus was well known to anyone with connections to Hogwarts.

Severus closed the door behind Lucius and placed all of his normal wards, plus some extra locking and silencing charms. Stalking over to a cupboard, he poured himself a whiskey and one for his...guest.

"So," he said quietly, taking a sip from his drink.

"Yes, Severus?" Lucius drawled.

"What the HELL are you thinking. Getting involved with the Potter brat? I didn't think you were THAT desperate. He's just a spoiled little shit that should have..."

"Don't!" Lucius hissed. "Don't speak about things you don't know. You've never bothered to get to know any FACTS. You've based every opinion of him on the shadow of his father and godfather. The moment he stepped foot on these grounds you've made his life a living hell."

"Did he tell you this? Just because I don't worship him and kiss the bloody ground he walks on doesn't mean that I've been unfair to him."

"Really? Think back to the first potion's class. Asphodel and wormwood? Draught of the Living Death? That's a NEWTs level potion. Hell you took points off for breathing and you weren't unfair?"

"Oh please, he's had everything he'd ever wanted, I was in no way going to bow down at the alter of the almighty Potter."

"You have NO idea what you are talking about. He didn' know anything of our world until he was eleven. He was raised by muggles that..." Lucius growled and broke off, he wasn't about to divulge all of Harry's secrets, especially to this man.

Severus stared at Lucius. The man had been his friend throughout the years. He was almost sure that Lucius was aware of Serverus' duties to Dumbledore however the blonde Slytherin had never done anything to betray him. He couldn't believe that the Slytherin could sucked into the gravitational pull that was Potter. He thought that the other man was smarter than to fall for all the 'hoopla' that was PotterWorld.

He couldn't have been that wrong about the little brat.

Could he?

TBC

Comments welcome...not sure about this chapter. If there is anyone interested in being a beta (grammer and content) please let me know.