Disclaimer: It all belongs to JK Rowling.

Author's note: There is a method to my madness (I hope). Please, bear with me? Also I think I'm taking a few liberties with the Legilimens spell in this chapter. Let's just ah, all imagine that it works in this manner, all right?

Again, thanks for all the reviews. I intend to respond to a few of them soon, so to those with any unanswered questions, please wait a while.

Chapter 20: Legilimens.

It was late at night when, unable to sleep, Hermione found herself getting up from her bed and meandering opposite to Draco's in the dark, holding out her hands to feel for any furniture that might be in the way of her bare feet. She sat next to him on the armchair beside his bed, watching him as he slept, reminding her of how, so long ago it seemed, she had done the exact same thing, waiting by his bedside for him to wake up.

His blonde hair was uncharacteristically messy, the golden strands half-falling on his smooth skin and half spraying around his head like a halo. He turned under his blankets, and his hard, wiry arms moved to pull them higher up to his neck. He pouted as he slept, oblivious to the girl next to him whose heart was breaking just seeing him so unburdened and innocent, so soft and worry-free. And she knew she was being selfish and she knew that it was his decision to make, whatever reason it was that spurred him on to make it, but part of her couldn't help but want to scream at him to change his mind, to tell Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, that, sorry, his life was worth more than some Sleeping Beauty who might not ever wake up anyway.

Gasping, she brought a hand up to her lips and felt tears streak their way down from her cheeks. She was being absolutely horrible. Selfish.

"I'm selfish." She unknowingly said aloud.

"Wha? You want to sell me some fish? Gehway from me you dirry fishmonger, I'll have yer know that I'm a Maalfoy…" a half-asleep Draco slurred in his sleep, awakening to see Hermione staring down at him, tears falling from her face.

"'Ermione?" he wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up to look at her. "Granger you all right?"

And she couldn't. She just couldn't say anything to him. Because how do you explain that you're crying because, somehow, a single person has become so much more important than everyone else? How do you explain to someone that, even though you have a chance to make it up to the people you loved most, and who loved you enough to die for you, you don't want to take that chance because it might mean losing someone who has inextricably become so much more important? How do you explain that you suddenly don't mind failing, as long as you have that one person beside you, always.

"Why are you crying you silly girl?" and he smiled at her as she hiccupped her way to an explanation.

"I…I just…don't…I just don't want you to die!" she wailed as she threw herself onto him, causing him to expel his breath with an "oof!"

"Hermione?" He pulled her close to him, wrapping his strong arms around her into a tight bear hug, then moved his head backward so he could look at her more clearly. "Hermione don't be silly. Don't cry. Please don't cry." And he smoothed her rebellious hair down and wiped away her tears and all of it just made her feel as if she were seven again and had just thrown herself into her parents' bed after a particularly bad dream.

"Hermione," he said again, softly, "There's really nothing to worry about you know. It's not as dangerous as all of us made it out to be, especially now that Pomfrey's found a way to safeguard against Voldemort attacking my mind. So really, there's nothing to be afraid of. The worse that could happen is that the Weaselette might die," and at this Hermione wailed even louder as her guilty feelings assailed her.

"Um…not that she will of course" he corrected himself hastily, "and ah…there is a chance that I might still go into a coma, but that's okay because I know you're smart, and you can just learn Legilimency really quickly and then come in and get me!"

She couldn't help herself, she giggled at his ridiculous back-up plan.

"Now will you stop crying Granger? You've got salt-tears all over my shirt!" She pulled out his pillow from under him and smacked him in the face with it.

"Ow! Not the face!" he grumbled.

She settled back into his arms, reveling in the feel of him and they lay there contently for a few moments before she thought to ask, "Do you think you could actually do it though, as in, perform the spell on her?"

"Well…I'm not a particularly accomplished Legilimens, so I don't really know actually if I'll be able to break in. I mean, ha, the number of times I've been thrown out on my arse from Snape's mind are uncountable. And well…it's not as if I've performed it on anyone other than a few muggles…" she frowned up at him and he shrugged, "Well…fine I know you're against this sort of thing but their minds are much easier to read than the average witch or wizard. They don't have the protective barriers that we naturally have."

Her frown deepened and he threw his arms up exasperatedly, "Well it doesn't hurt when I try to read their minds, stop looking at me like that! Snape told me to practice this way!"

She lifted a skeptical eyebrow at him in what was a characteristically Draco Malfoy look and replied, "Oh right, blame it on Snape."

"Hermione…" he whined, "I thought that this was supposed to be the romantic last few moments before my dangerous deed tomorrow?"

Without any warning, he flipped her over so that now she was pinned under him and he was on top, the full length of his body pressing against hers, his arms on either side of her, causing her to give an undignified yelp. His hair fell over his pale face and he moved to kiss her lightly on her neck, making her catch her breath.

"You know…" he said huskily, "I may not survive tomorrow…"

She responded by kneeing him in the groin, and as he fell off the bed with a howl, she leaned over and yelled, "Draco Malfoy you are incorrigible!"

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"Mr. Malfoy I hope you were listening carefully to my explanations. You do know what to do now don't you? At any sign of trouble…any sign that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has sensed you, you are to get yourself out of there, you understand? Now we have a system that will sense her and your vital signs, and Hermione there will warn you if we notice anything amiss."

"Yes Madam Pomfrey," said Draco softly.

Hermione noticed that his face was unnaturally whiter than usual as he walked forward and sat down on the chair opposite a dazed but awake Ginny. The Quiesco potion had earlier been administered by Madam Pomfrey and the girl seemed to her almost like a zombie now. She wasn't spewing obscenities at everyone in the room like she usually did when she was awake, but she wasn't quite asleep either, just perhaps…like how one would be sleepwalking.

She quietly walked across the room towards him, the heels of her sensible shoes clicking against the tiled floor and placed her hand on his shoulder, "You don't have to do this if you don't want to you know," she whispered.

"Well…" he gave a nervous laugh, "Now that you mention it, I kind of don't feel like doing this anymore actually. But, ah well, a Malfoy never breaks his word does he?" He winked at her and she had to smile at his false bravado.

She stayed where she was, by his side, and with the Weasleys and Shacklebolt looking on, Draco tried to focus and concentrated on looking into Ginny's eyes. Once he felt that he had obtained the proper concentration that was required for such a spell, he uttered a single word, "Legilimens."

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All at once he was thrown into a world that was thorny and dark, and right then and there he almost gave the Weaselette up for lost. But then he caught sight of something he thought he'd never see again; or, more specifically, someone.

Harry Bloody Potter. Without thinking, he leapt into the memories.

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And regretted it almost all at once, because surrounding him everywhere, in full color and surround sound, was that pouf Saint Potter himself!

Potter flying on his bloody broomstick, Potter hunched over the table doing his bloody homework, Potter standing over what seemed to be a bloody huge snake, Potter smiling, Potter seemingly gazing at something with a bloody stupid love-struck look, and Potter with his mouth puckered up so close that Draco almost screamed.

He belated realized that these were indeed the Weaselette's memories and that he was quite lucky that they weren't Voldemort's because on hindsight, both the girl and the monster were quite obsessed with the man, and images of Potter might very well mean memories of Voldemort's as well.

There were other…more…disturbing images of Potter to say the least and after having a few of them stare him in the face he was quite ready to bolt out of this god-forsaken place and leave. Naked Potter was not what he'd signed up for.

Just as he was about to though he began to notice a very strange pattern in some of the Weaselette's memories. There were areas and places where there seemed to be gaps in her memories, huge, black gaping holes where images should have been. There were almost…hollow echoing sounds coming from those images and Draco passed by them quickly, knowing them to probably lead to the other one's mind and memories. These gaps in her memories came more and more often till whatever memories the She-Weasel had finally just…ended with one last memory of a disgustingly happy and grinning Potter.

That's about it then, he thought. She definitely is still in here somewhere, but where?

He looked around him, the memories all blowing past like so much dust in the wind. And then he noticed something like an…entryway almost to the side of the black holes. Just as he had seen it however it flickered out of existence as if it were never there. After a moment, he realized that it had wavered into existence once again, now only a few hands lengths next to him. Unlike the black holes however this gap in the memories was a white-parchment like color, a blank slate one could say. Standing before it, he decided to take the plunge and walked in.

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Outside in the real world the occupants of the Infirmary stared at Ginny and Draco's vitals

"Are they doing all right Madam Pomfrey?" asked Hermione querulously.

"Well…there was a point where things were fluctuating a bit, not dangerously of course, but now…they both seemed to have stabilized, back to their normal states."

"Thank you so much Madam Pomfrey," said Hermione warmly as she let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Around her the Weasleys also seemed to relax as the bright, laser-like replicas of Ginny and Draco's bodies hummed and beeped.

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Draco felt a slight resistance to his entry as he moved in. But it was only that – a resistance as slight as perhaps a draft of wind on a cold winter's day. Stepping in, he surveyed the new world into which he had come to.

It was empty.

Empty as in, there was absolutely nothing there. It was a wide expanse of space, stretching as far as the eye could see. The space around him was that same white-parchment colour of the entryway, and for the life of him he could not figure out what this place was all about. He was flabbergasted. He turned around towards the entryway, wanting to leave this strange place, but realized then that it had disappeared.

Well bloody Merlin's balls. How the heck was he supposed to get himself out of this one?

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"How are they?"

"Stable so far, doing well."

"How long has he been in this trance?"

"About an hour and a half or so, perhaps, maybe longer."

A terse silence.

"How much longer has he got?"

"Till the girl wakes up? Thirty minutes."

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He tried charging against the 'walls', but after a few futile minutes realized that he was only going to injure himself if he kept up with this since there were no walls anyway and that he was just going to end up continually throwing himself onto the hard ground.

He smacked it for good measure. It was solid, firm. Why wasn't anything else in this world like this?

He'd already run what seemed to be hundreds of meters in one direction but he had still not come any closer towards the end or edge of this space. It seemed to stretch indefinitely.

For the first time since entering, he began to sweat.

That's it then, he thought. I'm getting the hell out of here. Sitting down in a cross-legged position, he tried to concentrate on leaving Ginny's mind.

He opened his eyes once again and the sight before him made his mouth drop open.

He was still here.

Why was he still here?

Why couldn't he leave!

"Not funny," he muttered to himself. "This is not funny at all, do you understand Weasley? This is not funny, so stop playing your stupid games! Let me out!" he shouted to no one in particular.

"Let me out let me out!" His voice echoed uselessly back to him, mocking him as he shut his eyes and tried to count to ten.

Just as he reached "nine" he felt a tap on his shoulder.

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And as he turned around to face the girl he had come in here to save, he found himself immediately transfixed by her frightened blood-shot eyes. And as he took a step forward, he found himself falling into them.

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"Down and down the rabbit hole, where it goes, no one knows."

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