Message in a Bottle

Chapter Nineteen

She was having another one of her nightmares again. He could tell by the way she was turning and flipping around on the coach where they had fallen asleep. He was kneeling by her side, squatting on the floor after having gotten up to give her more space to turn. He stroked her hand with his thumb and kissed it gently but this only caused her to toss and turn even more. It was late in the morning, nearly six and time to get up so he shook her gently. He knew she liked to take a shower and to take her time getting ready on school mornings and breakfast was in an hour and one half.

She seemed to have been startled by Draco's shakes as she bolted right up and began panting for air. She grabbed the first thing she could which happened to be Draco and she clung to him with all her might, crying hysterically the whole time. "So much blood," she panted. "There were so many of them..."

Draco was confused by her fragmented sentences. He had figured that she would have been having nightmares about Riley again but most of those nightmares didn't include blood let alone other people.

"Never a moon so dark...cloudless...silent and alone..." she wasn't making any sense to him so he patted her back and whispered.

"Sh...it's all right," he told her. "It's okay. I'm here now." She clung to him even more tightly, using all her strength. "Come now. We have to get you ready for school. It was just a dream."

"No!" she screamed. "You NEED To save them, Draco! You have to! It's all my fault. You have to save them!"

"How?" he asked, going along with her, knowing that she was not in the right state of mind. "How can I save them? What do you want me to do?"

She stopped clinging to him and pushed back, looking straight into his eyes. He looked into her eyes as well and could see that she hadn't gotten much sleep. Her eyes were red and puffy. Blood shot.

"Stop him! You have to! He's after them! They're going to die and it's all because of me!"

"Who? Who's going to die?"

She stood up, ran to the window and threw the curtains wide open letting in the morning light. She breathed a sigh of relief that he could not comprehend.

"Hermione, what's going on? What was that all about?"

Silence. They stared at each other for a few minutes. Finally, she walked over to him and kissed his cheek softly. "You are good to me. Too good. I don't deserve you."

She began walking to the bathroom.

"Hermione, what are you talking about? How can you leave without telling me why you just had a nervous breakdown?"

She looked at him with weary eyes. "I did not sleep so well last night. I made the mistake of letting my dream get the better of me."

"That wasn't a dream, 'Mione! That was a full blown nightmare!"

She sighed once more. "Whether it was a dream, a nightmare, or a premonition...it has passed and it is time for me to shower now. I'll see you for breakfast."

"But..." however she was out of hearing range before he could say anymore. He silently cursed under his breath for women's ability to avoid matters that they did not wish to discuss. He sat on the couch and took out some last minute homework he had forgotten to do, filling time until the shower was available.

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They walked down to the Great hall for breakfast hand in hand. Now Hermione had relaxed a little about being seen with him and people knowing about their relationship but she still wanted it to be a secret. If people made their own assumptions then that was up to them but she wasn't just going to be giving away the information voluntarily.

When they reached the Great Hall, he squeezed her hand and they split apart, walking to their own tables. Harry scooted over to make room for her and she sat down, sandwiched between Harry and Ron and sitting right across from the school gossips, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown.

"Morning," Hermione greeted them, receiving warm smiles back. "What's up?" It had been so long since she had spoken with the girls except for when she would catch them breaking curfew, sneaking out of the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff dormitories after obviously breaking the schools number one rule: NO SEX! She only docked them points once or twice, usually too tired to listen to them whine after only one month of school.

"Is it true?" Lavender asked Hermione.

"It's a joke, right?" Parvati added. Hermione said nothing and just stared. "I told you, Lav," Parvati smiled. "Our Hermione would never."

"Oh Merlin, you had us so worried!" Lavender grinned with a relieved tone. "You have no idea how scared I was when I heard Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bullstrode talking about it! I nearly broke down and cried. I mean, how could them know before me and Parvati when you're one of our best friends?"

"I'm confused," Hermione admitted. "What did you hear?"

"A bad rumor," Parvati sighed sadly. "It would have been the juiciest gossip this school has ever seen had it been true. Don't worry though. I squashed it before it spread and ruined your good name."

"But what was it about? I don't get it!"

"They said," Lavender began. "They said that you and Malfoy..." she paused for a second for dramatic effect, giving Hermione time to sweat. "Well they said that you two had pledged your allegiance to he-who-must-not-be-named and were set to get the Dark Mark during the Christmas Holidays."

"WHAT?"

"Well as you can guess, the idea of you getting the Dark Mark seemed so absurd as it was but there was more. It was the fact that you were getting it done as an engagement present for him! You can only imagine how terrified I was. I mean, Pansy and Millicent do know everything about the workings of the Dark Side and I was thinking, why would they make this up?"

Hermione didn't hear anymore than that though because she was already passed out on the floor.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

That night, Hermione and Draco stood in front of the burning fire with their fathers faces outlined in front of them. "It's not happening! Not this soon! Too much is going on and I won't throw away my life. Not now and quite possibly not ever!"

"Hermione, calm down!" her father ordered. "Nothing is happening TODAY."

"I know what that means. That means that you want to trick me into thinking I have nothing to worry about just to shut me up meanwhile you make plans for me to get the Dark Mark and to get married all in a matter of two months or less."

"It will happen eventually, yes," he replied. "And it could happen soon but there's no need to get so excited about it just yet."

"Don't I have a say?"

"NO! My daughter will be wed to the one and only man I deem fit for her. That is Draco Malfoy. He comes from a great family and will soon be a member of my servants and one day, he will take over in my absence and you shall be the Queen of the Dark!"

"Father," Draco said, interrupting Hermione and Voldemort's conversation. "I'm not ready to get married." He was acting very calm but she could tell he just wanted to keep from angering his father TOO much.

"You're not getting married until you're out of school, don't worry," Lucius replied. "And thank you for being so mature and calm. We do appreciate it."

Putting on an act of being a good father in front of the Dark Lord, Lucius smiled warmly at his son, which caused Draco to practically gag.

Hermione sighed, ignoring her boyfriend and his own family problems for the moment. She didn't like the idea of an arranged marriage and the idea of getting the Dark Mark made her sick but they did have a point. She didn't have to worry about it yet.

"It's not even the idea of the marriage or anything though!" She suddenly added. "It's the fact that you're taking away my free will! I'm all grown up! I can make my own decisions. This is my life. Merlin knows I deserve to make choices on my own. If one day in the future, in the very distant future, I want to marry Draco and serve you in your pathetic battle then that'll be MY choice, NOT YOURS!"

"Calm yourself, Hermione," Voldemort warned. "I may be your father but I am still the Dark Lord as well! Respect should be given!"

"Yeah sure," she laughed. "You want me to respect you. I know. You said it a million times already but I would respect you much more if you treated me more like a daughter and less like one of your death eaters that you can boss around because I'm not!" she declared but after a second of thinking it over, she added, "at least I'm not YET!"

"Hermione, I'm warning you..."

"You want to know the truth? The truth is that I hate you. You make me sick. All you are is a murderer! You don't know how to be nice and you certainly do not know how to be a father. And do you care to know something else? I'm not going to be a death eater!" she reiterated for what seemed to be the twentieth time. "Harry Potter, your arch enemy, he's my best friend and I would never want to hurt him nor will I support you doing so. The aurors, the people you'll be fighting, the people you'll be killing - these are my friends. I love them dearly! I won't help you hurt them. It's bad enough that you got to my mother!"

"I've never hurt your mother!"

"Yeah right!"

"I think you need a good reminder of my strength and power. This behavior is unacceptable from my daughter!"

"Is that a bloody threat?"

"It's a promise!"

"This conversation is over!" she said, walking away from the fireplace.

"Far from it young lady," he said. She stopped walking and prepared to being the argument once more but when she turned around, there he was, standing right in front of her in the flesh.

"How did you do that? No one can apparate into Hogwarts. It's in Hogwarts: A History, all of the ten or so editions that I've read. They all say that flooing and apparition don't work at Hogwarts and only Dumbledore's office and the Head Tower and the faculty quarters are able to use floo communication."

"I'm a very powerful man, Hermione."

"Well go use your intimidation method somewhere else 'cause I'm not scared by you and your 'power'!" She used her fingers to mark the quotations around the word power to show how little respect he would receive from her. She smiled at her own confidence and let out a little chuckle.

"You find yourself humorous?"

"Quite. I think it's funny that you try to be so scary and dominating but really you're just a man like anyone else. You just know the dark curses better than most."

"Hermione," Draco said. "I think it's time we go to sleep. It's 2 A.M. and we have classes tomorrow. Just say goodnight now."

"NO!" she replied. "Not until he leaves! I need him to leave first so I know that we're safe and that the school is safe!" She looked at her father again now. "Be glad I don't report to Dumbledore that you're here right now."

"The old man doesn't scare me!"

"He should! He has triple the power and wisdom that you'll ever have! He's truly like a father to me where as you just share the same blood! I love him as my own family but you'll never see that kind of love from me because you don't know what a family even is!"

"I could be a good father if you gave me the chance!"

"Get out!"

"Who are you to order me..."

"GET OUT!" She screamed as he flew across the room. "LEAVE!" He stood up and laughed as she flung him across the room once more with her eyes. He rose from the floor once more only to be thrown into the fireplace.

"We'll discuss this later," he whispered, disappearing into the air.

She looked back to Draco with fear in her eyes, realizing what had just happened. She had lost her temper and in her rage she had picked up on wandless magic.

"I'm tired," she said while changing the subject before he could even bring it up. She walked over to the doorway to her room.

"Oh no you don't!" Draco said. "You got out of the conversation this morning. You can't get away with it twice in one day."

"But..."

"NO!"

"If I tell Harry and Ron that you're the reason I wasn't allowed to go to sleep, you're going to have hell to pay tomorrow!"

"I want to talk about this!"

"I don't," she said, walking to her room and slamming the door shut.

A/N...Sorry? Can I even say sorry anymore? I've said it a billion times, so many in fact that it seems like an empty word now.

Oh well. I'll say it again.

I'm sorry!

Now, as for the story...how are you guys liking it? Sound good? Is there anything you want more of or less of? I know Harry and Ron need a bigger role and it's coming just not yet.

I have a question for my reviewers. How old are you guys? I just want to see what kind of an audience I'm attracting and feel free to answer this in an anonymous review. I'm just curious.

Hope you liked the chapter and I can't wait to see your reviews. Thanks a bunch.

I loveyou all