Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Chapter 5: Mione the Dreamer

DISCLAIMER: Yet again, nothing you see here is mine. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit in a cupboard and cry over that fact.

A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks to my 2/3 reviewers so far, especially rizahawkeye21. The reason why Draco has to take the potion is so that he becomes really powerful, I think it's in Chapter 2. And I'm really glad you're liking the story (so far, anyway). To my anonymous reviewer – Thanks for reviewing, I'm glad you like the character of Toni, she's actually based on someone I know, so that review was really great! Juliet, I'm glad you're enjoying it too! Anyway, on with the story:

Draco sat where he had fallen and smiled as he watched Granger bid a hasty retreat up the stairs. It had been an extremely successful day; not only had he managed to get Toni into bed (despite what he'd told her he'd had a very good time); but he had also managed to kiss Granger. That wasn't too terrible either. There was definitely passion now, however what he needed next was for that passion to turn into love. On her part at least.

Maybe an apology from Perfect Potter would be in order.

Standing up, Draco wandered towards the stairs leading to the girls dormitory. As his foot hit the fourth step however, a piercing alarm split the air and suddenly the steps below his feet disappeared, replaced by a long smooth slide. His face registering the astonishment he felt, his legs gave way beneath him and he slid down the few feet to land in a heap at the bottom. Rather painfully actually.

What the hell had just happened? That never happened in the Slytherin's Dungeon, he'd been in the girls rooms plenty of times.

"Hermione!" he shouted up the stairs, "Hermione! I need to talk to you!"

Damn it! He thought. Apologizing to her for the whole Toni thing was crucial! Then she would see that he really felt for her and wanted her to be happy, and she would forgive him. All that kind of crap. But to apologise to her in true 'I'm a nice guy' Potter style, he needed to see her. Then she could see look into his eyes and see how what he'd done was tearing him up inside, he didn't mean to hurt her, blah blah blah.

Hermione lay on her bed, staring out the window at the darkness, watching the occasional snowflake stick to the glass before melting. She was trying extremely hard to block out Harry's shouting about how they needed to talk.

Did that actually just happen? Did I really just kiss Harry? Did I actually enjoy it?

Truthfully, she'd always had the suspicion that Ron liked her, not Harry. She, along with most of Gryffindor house, had believed for a while now that Harry and Ginny would get together. They certainly flirted enough. Even Ron, notoriously overprotective of his baby sister, was impatient for Harry to finally ask Ginny out so he could do his big brother speech ("If you hurt my little sister in any way, I know a nice secluded spot to bury your body. After I've cut off your balls and fed them to Crookshanks of course").

Guess Ginny's out of the picture now, she thought ruefully.

Unable to stand the yelling any longer, she sighed and climbed off her bed. Why did she have to deal with shit like this at 3am?

The stairs, Hermione noted, still hadn't turned back into stairs, showing why Harry hadn't tried to get up them again. Come to think of it, why had he tried in the first place? He knew that boys weren't allowed in the girls dorms.

She stood at the top of the slide and looked at Harry, who still hadn't put any clothes on, "Harry, it's 3am. Please can't we just go to bed and talk about this in the morning? Surely you're tired by now? I mean, you have had a busy night."

She couldn't resist throwing that in there.

"Hermione, look, please just hear me out. Please?"

He looked so earnest that she sighed and slid down, landing gracefully on the carpet. Ignoring the hand he offered her, she stood up, brushed down her pyjama bottoms, gave him a dirty look and stalked past him, to throw herself down on the sofa in front of the dying embers of the fire.

"OK then. What?"

"Well, first of all, I am so incredibly sorry about the whole sleeping with Toni thing" Liar, a little voice in his head whispered. "She came on to me, I swear" Liar. "I don't really know what happened, she just kind of cornered me, and started talking to me, flattering me, and the next thing I knew she was kissing me." Liar. He'd kissed her. "And I guess one thing led to another, but I really regret it." Liar.

He stood in front of the fire, looking down at her with what he hoped was a repentant look in his borrowed eyes.

"Carry on." She said coldly, although he could see in her eyes that she was beginning to thaw. Any reason to hate Toni even more was always welcomed by Hermione.

"And I am really sorry about the way I talked to you before I left," Liar, "I really don't know what came over me." He gave her a smile that said he truly regretted it. "But…"

"But what?" She prompted as he trailed off and lowered his eyes to the floor.

"But…There's one thing I'm not sorry about. And that's kissing you. You have absolutely no idea how much I've wanted to do that for so long, and tonight…Seeing you standing there…I just couldn't help myself. If you tell me that you didn't enjoy it too, then I'll shut up, I'll go to bed and I'll never mention it again. But can you honestly tell me that that kiss meant absolutely nothing to you, Mione?"

She looked in surprise at him as he dropped down next to her on the sofa, since when had Harry, or anyone for that matter, called her Mione?

"Well?" His green eyes bore into hers. "Please, Mione, just say something. Anything."

"I thought you liked Ginny?" Smooth Hermione, very smooth. The guy just confessed to fancying you and you bring up Ginny. No wonder you're single

"Ginny?" Now, he was shocked, "Ginny? As in Wea…Ron's sister, Ginny?"

"Erm, yeah," she looked at him as though he was stupid, "how many other Ginny's do you know Harry? Besides you flirt with her enough. People are taking bets on how long it will be before you ask her out. Although…" She paused, a small smile on her face, "I guess that's not really gonna happen now, huh?"

"Well," he said, thinking as fast as possible, "the only reason I flirted with Ginny so much is so that it wouldn't be obvious to everyone that you're actually the one I like."

"Oh, Harry," Hermione sighed deeply, "Ok, I'll admit it, the kiss was nice…"

Yes! he thought triumphantly, and the Oscar goes to…ME!

"But, the thing is…You're Harry. Just…Harry. I don't know, I never for one minute thought you had feelings like that for me. You're Harry."

Yes, I think we have established the fact that I am Harry. Sort of. He thought impatiently, just get to the point.

"I am really going to have to think about this one, but I am way too tired right now, so please, can I just go back to bed and we'll discuss this later?"

"That's fine, Mione, but how are you going to get back up to your room? The stairs haven't turned back into…stairs."

"They'll turn back into stairs once a girl tries to go up." She said, staring up at him incredulously, "you know that Harry, you've seen it happen before."

"I…have?"

"Yeah, you have." She looked at him suspiciously. "It's also in Hogwarts: A History, but I don't suppose you would know that."

"Oh, right," he suddenly remembered, "Chapter 5 isn't it?" Idiot, Malfoy, you knew that!

"Since when did you ever read Hogwarts: A History?" Hermione looked stunned. "Come to think of it, since when did you read?"

"Erm…of course I haven't read…Hogwarts: A History, Mione, I just remembered…you telling me it."

"I told you that?"

"Uh-huh. You also told me that Slytherin was the only house that didn't have that precaution, because…um…Salazar Slytherin approved of the…erm…" Oh, shit, how did the book put it? "The carnal activities between his students, resulting, hopefully in…erm…the continuation of the pureblood lines of witches and wizards." Wow, I remembered that?

She looked at him, her mouth hanging open.

"What?" He asked worriedly, "Was that wrong?"

"No, that wasn't wrong, Harry." She slowly recovered from her shock, "I just can't believe you remembered that. I mean, I can't even remember telling you that, and here you are quoting it out of the book, almost word for word."

"Oh,…well, I told you I really liked you, so obviously I listened to you a lot, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"Well, I'm going to go to bed now, Mione. Sweet dreams." He stood and turned to go.

"Hold it."

Merlins beard! Women! What had he done now? He turned around.

"What?"

"What's with calling me 'Mione'?"

"Oh, that…erm, I just think Hermione seems so formal, you know."

Truthfully, he was just too lazy to say her whole name.

"I'll stop calling you that if you want?"

"No, that's ok," she said with a slightly happy look on her face, "I kind of like it."

"Ok then, night." He turned again and walked as quickly as possible towards the stairs, he didn't want her calling him back again.

But all she said was, "Night, Harry."

The moment she fell asleep again, the dream Toni's shouting had woken her from returned.

She lay on a huge bed, amid rumpled silk sheets of a deep green hue. Looking around, she saw Harry lying beside her. He was sleeping, so deeply that despite her shaking him and shouting, he didn't even move, let alone wake.

"He can't hear you, you know."

Gasping, she whirled round to stare at the end of the bed, where the figure who had spoken stood. The figure that looked curiously like the one laying beside her.

"Harry?" She gasped, looking from one to the other.

"Guess again, little Dreamer."

Suddenly, standing where Harry had stood just seconds before, now stood…

"Malfoy?"

"What's wrong, Dreamer? Surprised to see me?" He smiled at her confusion. "Don't worry, I'll explain eventually."

Turning back into Harry, he gave her a wave and laughed as she screamed "DRACO!"

She jerked awake, sweat congealing beneath her body. Although she couldn't remember her dream, she remembered screaming. Turning over, she lay with her eyes open for some time until eventually slipping into a restless sleep.