Chapter Ten
Draco paced worriedly as Hermione tossed and turned bumping her head constantly on the hard stone floor, instead of laying peaceably still on the cloak Draco had stuck underneath it to prevent such a thing happening. He wrung his hands together and worried he hoped needlessly. It had been some time since he had found her in the corridor out like a light. He had come across her by chance when he had slipped out to steal something from the kitchen. His hunger apparating immediately upon seeing her, he picked her up and took her into the secret room where he was fulfilling his mission assigned by the great Dumbledore himself. Upon laying her down as gently as he could lay down a fully grown woman she began to toss and turn uncontrollably. He had tried to restrain her from hurting herself but to no avail and she had continued to thrash beyond his control. He had resigned himself to leaving a cloak under her head, rolling her on her side and trying to patiently wait out her fit.
Hermione felt as light as air, in fact when she gained enough courage she found herself like a bird floating in mid-air looking down upon a bloody battle. Above her a moon the colour of grass below, covered in congealed and fresh blood, loomed in the velvet cloak of the sky amongst the glittering silver stars. She almost felt poetic how the stars looked so much like the corpses that littered the ground before suddenly feeling nauseous at the horrible prospect of it all. She felt now powerless to help the people below, curses flying, lighting up the scene below like little green flamed candles, before they burst on the chest of their victims dying like a shooting star. Hermione felt like a puppet, strung up in the middle of nowhere, with full control over her appendages but unable to descend any lower. Then in an instant, as though someone had cut those strings, she began to rapidly descend towards the earth and the scene she had been watching earlier. She flailed her arms trying, unsuccessfully to ascend upwards to avoid her own, what appeared to be imminent, fate.
Just before she hit the ground there was a bright flash of light and Hermione found herself now flying as though she were a bird, gone was the bloody scene below and now it had been replaced by a blue sky and a golden sun warming her skin. When she looked below her she could see green grass and people going about their daily business cheerfully greeting one another like little ants building their colony. People were cheerful and pleasant to one another, not in fear of danger as things have been since the death of the schools most respected principal. She flew over what appeared to be a carnival in Hogsmede, people were raising flagons of brew towards one another. There was no violence displayed in this wonderful scene only peace, harmony and happiness.
After seeing that human kind as she knew it below her was safe, and only then that she dared to take a glimpse at what was by her side. In her previous vision she had been alone in the dark sky but now she was not as alone as she first thought she was. Shimmering in the golden sunlight was a head of pale white hair, the pale face turned towards her and smiled in her direction.
"We did it," Draco said in her dream taking her hand in his own and flying lower to inspect the cheerful scene.
"Did what?" Hermione asked quizzically unsure what he could possibly mean by this.
"The blood of the innocent will be lost when there is a loss of innocence itself," he answered confusing her further. Why must everything be in riddles she perplexed to herself.
"What do you mean? Is what I saw previously the future? Is this the future? What does it mean?" she pleaded trying to figure out this crazy dream of hers.
"Either a moon of blood or a sun of gold will rise, the future depends on you Hermione, the future depends on us. Action must be taken swiftly."
"On us?" She went to ask but some how he had gone, vanished into the thin air.
Hermione sat upright quickly her blood rushing to her head causing a slight headache, a sense of light-headedness and an overwhelming sense of nausea. Despite the darkness of the room lit only by a small fire in the fireplace, her eyes tingled savagely and were filled with brightly coloured dots. Before she could recover on her own a more than worried Draco was by her side holding her gently, one arm supporting her back and the other gently removing wet brown locks from her face, plastered there with her own sweat. She tried to speak but he hushed her gently lifting a glass of cool water to her lips that he had acquired while she was out cold herself which she drank thirstily not realising her own need for water before it had been offered to her.
Draco felt cold when she first looked at him. Her eyes seemed set deeper in her face and under them were dark bags that were not there before. It looked as though her unpeaceful slumber had taken many years from her. He could see the worry in her face and feel her clinging to him tightly.
"What did you mean?" She asked him croakily after drinking a few gulps of water. Draco was perplexed by her words and was more than unsure of how to go about answering her inquiry.
"I-I don't understand," he stuttered in reply. He wished he had not said a word after he answered her as he saw her face fall in defeat at his words.
"I'll never figure it out in time," she muttered to herself concerning him further. She was speaking in riddles as he had in her dream. On her awakening though she had an instinct that told her that it was more than just a dream. Draco had told her to be swift in her action but she was unsure how to go about solving the puzzle. She knew it involved her and Draco but that was all she could decipher of the code given to her in her dreams.
She shook her head softly emptying all the clutter that filled it so she could remember the reason for her coming here in the first place. She stuck her hand out to try and find the basket she had bought along with her only to find it missing. She looked around in the half light but her basket was no where to be seen.
"My basket," she said partially to herself and partially to her present company. Draco hit himself gently on the forehead for forgetting to notice if she had any belongings with her when he had found her and also for missing it when he went to the kitchens to fetch water and a small supply of food.
After shushing her gently, laying her back down and reassuring her of her safety, he made his way back out to the corridor where he instantly spotted the basket he had missed previously, not once but twice. The top was covered with a red and black tartan blanket and inside there were containers of food, along with a small stack of plastic picnic plates, a few matching cups, assorted plastic cutlery, candles, matches and bottles of butter beer. She had obviously been planning a picnic for the pair of them. Draco snatched up the basket and hurried back into his private sanctuary to find Hermione napping peacefully this time. It was then he was struck with a devious idea that was not so much devious or cunning as it was sweet and sincere. Unfortunately now his actions always had to have split ulterior motives behind them, due to his perilous mission set to him by the dark lord but also due to his affection for the woman he was sent after by the heir.
Hermione came too all alone again in a dimly lit room. She recognised where she was after a few dazed minutes and wondered curiously how she had gotten there. The last she could remember she was playing a captain on a pirate ship floating on a clear river in the middle of a desert. She shook her her head realising she had only been dreaming about the pirate ship, bringing her spirits down a little as she was quite intrigued by the idea of pirates and occasionally dreamed of life as captain of a ship feared in all the seven seas. She heard a door creak open behind her and a slimmer of pale light cast itself across the floor where she now was sitting, opposed to when she had previously been lying down.
In the door way stood and handsome figure that made Hermione's heart beat quickly. Dressed as always in a white linen shirt and a pair of cotton slacks was a blonde haired man with blue eyes and a face as pale as his white hair. He had almost a look of royal pomposity on his face and also looked remarkably clean for someone in his fugitive state. His shoulders were wrapped in a heavy grey cloak and his feet, normally bare now had a pair of softly worn leather shoes on them. He sauntered sexily over to Hermione and lifted her from the ground and into his arms in one smooth gesture. Hermione made no objections to her predicament, part of her did not have the strength to oppose the handsome rouge and the other part of her did not want to. Draco, still awkwardly holding Hermione bent down and retrieved her red wool cloak from the ground, dusted it off and placed it delicately around her shoulders. Hermione giggled like a school girl into her hands when Draco offered his arm to her like a gentleman escorting a lady. She took his arm and they, without a word left the dimly lit room behind them.
Draco, with months of observation and sneaking around led them swiftly through the maze of the castle until they, themselves were outside. He led Hermione past the Herbology green houses and around the Whomping Willow to sit beside the deserted lake. The sky above had cleared slightly to give them a brief glimpse of the lonely moon and the sparkling stars before the clouds swept them back into hiding. In front of them was the tartan blanket Hermione had brought along with her. Above them two candles lingered playing gracefully as they bobbed around in the cool, damp air. On the blanket a vast spread of food was lain before them. Draco lowered Hermione gently onto the blanket before plonking himself down with a vast lack of grace causing Hermione to giggle once again.
In the shadows two figures lurked. One observing the scene with great relish pleased that his plan was going accordingly, the other pleased that things were going on schedule. One of the mysterious observers ruby tinted eyes shone maliciously at the great evil he thought was under foot. His little puppet was doing exactly as he asked of him. The other, his pale hair tied up and masked under a cloak as black as night, eyes twinkled with delight, he could see the pair blossoming romantically under a lovers sky. Both figures pleased with what they saw turned and disappeared into nothingness, without even so much as a 'pop' to signify their presence and disappearance, as a soft rain began to drizzle over the two lovers dining, they continued to do so as if nothing was amiss in the world at all. Hoping beyond all hope that the sense of normalcy and euphoric happiness they were feeling would never come to cease.
A/N:
my sincere thanks to Satan in pink who is the only person who reviewed the last chapter
thanks to marmaldefever for pointing out my faults, everyone likes that, I'm curious as to if you read till the end or not,
told you the ball got rolling, loving this story keep reviewing, I'll keep on writing anyway as i have started to write more for my own pleasure AS NO ONE IS NICE ENOUGH TO REVIEW IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE!!!
anyway happy readings and i hope you enjoyed I'm sorry it took so long my computer is a dinosaur living in the ice age and i got a stupid virus in the registry and my dad downloaded a registry cleaner and most of them are viruses, but this is a text document and is unaffected so don't stress!
Lotsa love
Perfect butterfly blade