A/N: Whoa! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'm writing a play for Drama, I have like…4 projects due, and school just really, really sucks. Except for my friends of course. They kick ass. But here's chapter six. Love it, LOVE IT I SAY!!!!! Please?
Draco Angor
Chapter 6
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Hermione and I sat in the living room, neither of us making a sound or making eye contact with the other. A slight awkwardness had been hanging in the air between us since the tears had stopped trailing down my face. So, now we were simply sitting in the empty room, the only sound coming from the faint fire in the fireplace. The silence was understandable, of course. What could you say to someone when you had just spent an hour crying on their shoulder? So we let the silence hang there, neither one of us willing to shatter it. Then again, we didn't have to. Someone else did it for us.
"What're you two doing up?" Potter said from the doorway. He had apparently just woken up, for his hair was still disheveled and his eyes were slightly bloodshot. He still wore the crimson pajama bottoms he slept in, but he had added an oversized black shirt to his outfit as well. Hermione looked up at Potter from her spot on the overly stuffed chair while I simply glanced up at him before shifting my gaze back to my knees.
"Insomnia," Hermione answered for us both with a shrug. She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. "What time is it?"
"A little after three, maybe?" Potter replied. He looked down at his wrist as if expecting a watch to be there, but shook his head when he realized there was none. "Around there."
He let out a yawn before turning his head slightly and looking towards the kitchen.
"I'll be in there," He said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at his destination. "You two do whatever you were doing."
He turned and left, leaving Hermione and I alone again with nothing but the crackling of the weak fire filling the room.
"So does he have insomnia too?" I finally spoke up. The sound seemed to startle Hermione for a moment, who had been looking at the fire with a pensive look on her face.
"I don't think so," She replied, sitting back down in her chair before pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. "He has nightmares, but he usually wakes up pretty early anyway."
She smiled slightly before resting her chin on her knees. She stayed in that position for a moment before she yawned and began to shake slightly from cold. She lifted her head and looked around, her eyes settling on a blanket that lay next to me on the couch. She stood and crossed the room swiftly before grabbing the green blanket and wrapping it around her shoulders. Instead of walking back to her place on the chair, however, she sat down next to me on the couch. I lifted my gaze a bit and looked at her out of the corner of my eye. She was sitting in her previous position with her knees drawn up, turned towards me with her gaze turned towards the fire. She held either end of the blanket in her hands and crossed her arms, thus covering all of her lower body and most of her arms. She leaned her head against the back of the couch and closed her eyes. I fully turned my head towards her and opened my mouth, intending to thank her for her gesture of kindness earlier, but I couldn't bring myself. My pride wouldn't allow it. So, I just turned my gaze back to my knees and listened as Hermione's breathing became level. This went on for another half hour before Hermione let out a sigh in her sleep and slowly tipped herself in my direction until she was cuddled up to my side. A look of surprise appeared on my face before I moved my arm and allowed her to get even closer. I turned my head and looked down at her sleeping form. Her arms were curled up next to my side while her face rested against my shoulder. I didn't want to leave her there, so I carefully slipped one arm around her back and the other under her legs, standing and picking her up when I did so. I gently shifted her when I stood so she wouldn't wake and tried to think of where her room was. I knew she and Ginny slept in two rooms next to each other which were joined by a bathroom on the second floor, but I hadn't seen it and I barely knew where it was. As I was trying to pinpoint the location of her room, Hermione shifted again in her sleep, so her ear rested just over my heart. It took me two minutes to figure out where her room was, but when I had the location pictured in my head I quickly apparated up to it, taking Hermione along with me.
Her room was about the size of the one Potter and I shared, the only light filtering through a large window on the west wall. The dim moonlight cast an eerie glow about the place, causing the shadows to grow and contort. I walked over to the bed and set Hermione gently down upon the white sheets. I removed my arms and stood over the teenager as she rolled over onto her side and placed her arm underneath her head. I stood there for a few moments, simply looking down at the girl before I leaned forward and softly kissed her cheek before lifting my head slightly and whispering two simple words into her ear:
"Thank you."
I took a step backwards and stopped for a moment next to the window, looking outside at the snow-covered landscape and allowing a small smile to cross my face before I apparated out of the room and back into my own.
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Only moments after Draco had apparated out of the room, Hermione sat up in her bed and looked towards the window, a slight smile playing across her face. She pulled the green blanket closer to her and fell back down onto the sheets, lifting a hand and pressing it against her cheek.
"You're welcome," She whispered, before she rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face into her blanket, falling into a peaceful sleep within minutes.
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I landed in a sitting position on the large couch in the living room. I sat still for a moment before getting up and crossing the hall to the kitchen. Potter sat at the table, a bottle of butterbeer sitting on the table before him. His gaze shifted to me for a moment before it slipped back to the drink in front of him. I crossed the room and sat down across from my former classmate. We sat in silence for ten minutes before Potter spoke up.
"D'you want one?" He asked softly, gesturing at his butterbeer.
I shook my heads slightly.
"You sure?" He asked again. "They wake you up a bit."
I shook my head again. He sighed and shrugged.
"Fine," He muttered, taking a swig from the bottle.
We sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity before he, yet again, decided to speak.
"I can get you a potion that can stop your nightmares," He said, glancing up at me from under his shaggy bangs.
"From where?" I asked, my voice wavering a bit. To tell the truth, I wasn't even sure if I wanted the dream gone or not. Part of me felt like I…deserved it. Like I had done a horrible evil, and this was my punishment. I know in reality I probably hadn't (except for the childish comments at school, of course), but I couldn't help but feel that way.
"Hermione makes me a batch every now and then," Potter replied. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind making some for you as well."
I was silent for a moment as I contemplated my options. I could take the potion and get rid of my dreams, thus finally being able to find peace in my sleep. However, if I took this route, I knew that I would feel as if I was taking the easy way out, thus making myself feel even worse than if I had not taken the potion at all. On the other hand, though, I could not take the potion, choosing to remain in a constant state of waking sleep, frightened of the night and hiding from the day. And yet, I would feel justified in doing so, as if I was one step closer to gaining absolution for the sins I must have surely committed. So I had the choices of redemption through pain, or pain through hiding.
"No," I sighed. "I'll live with them."
Redemption had won for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. Small steps, I suppose. Small steps…
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A/N: Wow…I'm done…Sorry it took so long. As I said, school…and my friend has been over every weekend for the past two months or so, and that's when I usually write. She and I even put out a story! If you like Peter Pan, read it. It'll be interesting…in later chapters at least…But anyway, I'll get the next chapter out…eventually. Sorry. With testing, Beta Club, drama plays, and the National Honors Society, I find NO TIME to write. I can't even work on the book I'm writing…I haven't written in in in months, which sucks…But review please. I love reviews…reviews are niiiiiice….Have a good day! Bye bye!