AN: Hello all! I appreciate the reviews I've gotten and I hope you will all still be interested in this by the time this chapter is over. It's pretty slow, but it's necessary to advance things with Harry and Hermione's relationship. Things are going to pick up and the main plot will be put into full gear if not by the next chapter then certainly the next.

I am listening to Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" as I am writing this; truly a brilliant song and band. I just felt like throwing that into the conversation. How's that for random?

Disclaimer: Don't own a thing except for the plot.

Warning: Um…yeah…I believe you have my stapler and I will have to set the building on fire because I asked for a pina coloda and they gave me a mai tai and there was salt on the glass, big grains of salt.

Previously: "Malfoy?" she said with fear.

He wobbled as he turned around and it was then that she realized what he had done. The letter opener was still in his chest and blood freely flowing from another puncture wound.

"Help! Someone help!" she screamed.

He looked at her directly and shouted, "Wake up!"

Her eyes opened.

Distractions

She could feel her body drenched in sweat.

"Granger, wake up!"

Without thinking, she sat up and clasped to whom ever had woken her, crying. She was just glad to be out of her nightmare. It didn't even register that she was hugging bare, male torso.

"What has gotten into you?" the person asked, almost disgusted.

She inhaled a deep breath to try calming herself down then she looked up.

"Malfoy!" she screamed pulling away fast and getting as far from him as she could, "you're not…" the dream was flashing before her eyes and it was a shock to see him standing there.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I'm not what?"

She pulled her knees to her chest and was quivering with fear. She could feel her heart racing towards her throat.

A thud came from the Common Room.

"Draco? What's going on? What was all the screaming?" Pansy appeared in the doorway.

"Nothing Pans. Granger's just had a nightmare."

Pansy glared at her.

"What happened?" Hermione croaked.

"You were screaming a lung out," the Slytherin girl said as Malfoy sat on the bed.

The moon shone brightly through the windows and its light flooded the room, calming her down. Though she was still shaking, her heart was beginning to slow down a little.

"I came in here to see what was going on," Malfoy continued.

She wiped off the sweat from her forehead and ran her fingers through her matted hair.

"Do you need to go the Hospital Wing?" he asked.

She didn't answer because she didn't know.

"Granger?"

"I don't…think so," she replied looking at him. Did he care?

Nodding, he got up off the bed and told her to get some sleep.

"I'm sorry I woke you," she said as he was nearly out the door, "thank you for coming in here."

He gave no reply as he left.

Hermione fell back on the damp bed and began to silently cry. She felt cold and sick to her stomach. She didn't know what to make of these episodes and was too frightened of them to try to remember.

After a long while, her body finally calmed down to where she could stand up to take a shower. Sitting up and putting her feet on the floor, she used the nightstand to help keep her steady.

As she walked towards the door, she passed the garbage can not noticing the empty glass vial of dreamless sleeping potion she had taken only a few hours before.

Her mind was going out of control, turning over the events of the past two days. She felt that there must be something to these, for the want of a better word, dreams.

"But Malfoy kill himself?" she thought as she entered the Common Room.

Tip-toeing across the room, she was glad to not run into either Slytherin. It was quiet and the long shadows looked scarier now than they had on previous nights. A creeping sensation that came out of nowhere crawled up her spine and she quickened her pace. All she could see was Malfoy picking up the letter opener.

Getting to the bathroom door she opened it quickly and rushed in, feeling safer locked away than in open space. As she leaned against the door she felt extremely foolish for being so frightened.

"Get a grip!" she hissed at herself and kicked the door with her heel.

"I am not going to let this get to me," she told herself as she walked toward the tub and turned the water on.

The hot water helped her forget how tired her body felt, but neither Harry nor Malfoy were far from her thoughts.

Breakfast that morning was an odd affair. Deciding that she wasn't going to tell anyone about her latest episode, Hermione was understandably quiet and hoped Malfoy would do the same. But Harry was unusually lost in thought. She often caught him giving her sideways glances every few minutes.

An owl flew overhead and dropped the Prophet on the table. She opened it and spread it out before taking some eggs and toast.

"Something on your mind?" she asked him as he was gazing dully at his plate.

He straightened up and looked at her.

"Nothing important. Just not feeling like myself today."

She accepted his answer and went back to her paper.

"How about you? You're quiet."

She shrugged her shoulders and continued reading as she answered.

"Mmm…I'm just a little tired."

"Have you had another episode?" he asked worriedly.

"Nope," she replied not looking at him.

"He doesn't need to know."

"You aren't pushing yourself are you? I mean…"

"Harry, I am fine," she snapped and felt sorry for it. She didn't like yelling at him.

"I'm sorry. I know you're concerned, but I am truly fine."

She wasn't sure if she was trying to convince only him. He looked upset. Ever since Ron's death, they became more dependent on each other and being irate wasn't helping matters.

Folding her paper and shoving her empty plate away, she looked at him and placed her hand on his.

"Let's get some air."

Snow fell delicately to the ground as they walked. Winter had come exceedingly early this year and Thanksgiving was still weeks away. Usually, Hermione would be thrilled with the year's first snow, but the boy next to her and that blonde haired arse were filling her mind.

Harry looked downhearted and she hated seeing him like this. She wanted to see him smile more than anything but the way things were going, she wanted to see him cry, yell about how angry he was, or anything that would show he wasn't completely lost to her.

The trees, though thin and gray twinkled in the light from the ice that covered the branches. She heard laughter and saw some students having snowball fights. She let a smile grace her lips and for a moment believed that she and Harry would get on with life. If other's could get through losing their loved ones, certainly two of the saviours of the wizarding world could.

Harry. There was something he wanted to say but he looked as though he didn't want to say it.

"Do you want to talk?" she asked hopefully.

He seemed to be lost in thought and after a bit she stopped walking.

"Harry?"

He turned around and looked at her with an expression she couldn't quite read. Walking up to him, she saw how sad and tired he was and felt so much sorrow for him.

"There's nothing wrong," he answered not looking at her and of course she didn't buy it.

"You can always talk to me, you know that?"

He huffed in frustration and was about to speak when…

"Look out!" someone yelled as a large ball of very cold snow hit the side of her face.

"Ouch!" she coughed as she rubbed her cheek. Dean was running towards her.

Harry took her chin in his cold hands.

"Are you okay?" he asked as though she had nearly died, "are you hurt?"

Seeing him so serious made her laugh; quite a lot. But Harry seemed to take the hint to calm down and laughed too.

"Hermione, I'm sorry. My aim's terrible," Dean said out of breath as he reached them.

"It's alright, Dean," she chuckled, "I've been hit by a snowball before. Besides, I think it was my fault for not paying attention."

"You haven't seen Neville, have you?"

"No, why?" Harry asked.

"I'm afraid he's been a casualty and I can't find him anywhere," he said looking around. His robes were covered in big round blotches of snow.

"Casualty?" Hermione asked, "are the mature, seventh year Gryffindors having a snowball fight?" she finished with a playful smile; hoping to get in on the game. She could sense Harry was also interested

"Why? Does the 'mature' Hermione Granger and the famous Harry Potter fancy a little action?" he joked.

"Certainly," Harry replied, " if you've got room for two more we'll avenge Neville for you, if you like."

"That'd be great! We're up against Seamus and Ernie so be careful."

As Dean brought them up to speed they went off in search of Neville. Hermione was grateful for the diversion.

"I am soaked to the bone!" Harry laughed as Hermione and Dean walked into the warmth of the school. They found Neville captured by Ernie.

"I can't believe we won! You guys were great," he replied.

Hermione was feeling elated. The fight had lasted a good two hours and she had been a major contributor to their success. Her bones ached and every inch of her was numb, but what made her the happiest was seeing Harry thoroughly enjoy himself.

"I didn't know you had an arm on you, Hermione," Dean continued.

"I play American baseball over the summer. It's a lot of fun."

"What's baseball?" Dean asked.

"It's a muggle sport," Harry answered.

Hermione yawned and stretched.

"Hey, I have got an idea," Dean said, "I'll go get some people together and we can all go to Hogsmeade for some hot butterbeer, just us Gryffindors."

"That sounds fun," Harry said.

"You guys go ahead, I'm a little worn out," she replied.

"Oh please," Dean gave her a pout and Harry followed suit.

She was tempted, but not catching her death of cold sounded a little more pleasing.

"You boys don't want a girl to tag along. I am going to get warm and take a nap."

They relented and said they'd bring her back some goodies. Harry followed her back to the Head's Common Room entrance. His mood had lifted quite considerably.

"You sure you won't come with us?"

"No, that's ok. I am just tired."

He stepped forward and gave her a wet hug. But the hug was more than a hug goodbye for a couple hours. Harry seemed to have melted into her.

"Did you really mean what you said?" he whispered.

"About what?"

"That we'll get over Ron's death?"

She held him tighter, willing him to be comforted and giving him strength.

"Love, I know it hurts. You and I hurt. I don't think we'll ever get over it, but we will get through it and after a while it won't hurt so much," her voice started to shake.

After a long time, Harry broke their embrace and kissed her red cheek. She felt him breath shaky words on her cheek but she couldn't hear them. Looking into his eyes, she already knew he needed her, but in that moment she realized she needed him.

"Well, you need to get going and I need to sleep," she said looking deep into his eyes.

"Yeah. Sweet dreams."

She watched him walk off and a chill went up her spine as she turned around and said the password. As she entered the Grandfather Clock in the corner chimed. Lunch would be served in a while so she started a fire and got into warmer clothes.

Thankfully it was a Saturday and she had nothing to do but read. Sitting on the couch, she put her slipper covered feet on the table and sighed contentedly with a large book in her lap. But as she did, her eyes drifted downward.

Underneath the table top there were a lot of papers and books that looked oddly arranged. Taking her feet down, she bent over to get a better look and moved the papers out of the way to reveal a book that seemed to have been purposely hidden. Looking around to make sure no one was in the room, she picked it up.

Beautiful was the only word that came to mind and it was a poor adjective. The thick, brushed leather bound book was a rich, emerald green that was so deep in color that her eyes drank it in like water. She ran her fingers over it. The texture was soft and was warm to the touch.

Down in the corner she saw the Slytherin House snake writhing upwards in dark silver. It faced an even more menacing, smoky black dragon with billowing clouds coming from its nostrils.

The two figures were staring each other down and in between their eyes, though it was small, were the letters, "DM." She wasn't so tired anymore.

AN: So there you go. I apologize if this one is boring. I know it seems that this chapter is nothing but filler until the end, but it is important because it deals with the subplot(s) a little more. I have to admit I don't like this one but it gets the subplot moving which is going to help the main plot's point in the long run.

This is all I have written down/planned out so far, so I don't expect another one for a while.

Incase you haven't noticed, Malfoy is not in the story that much and when he is, the interaction is kept to a minimum and is "cold." That is for a very specific reason and I have to keep that to myself for the time being. Just know that we will be getting to the heart of the matter in a different way than most fanfics do. Everything will be answered at the end and I will probably have a large author's note at the end to fully explain and answer any questions. I just love a good mystery, don't you?

As per usual, let me know what you think. I hope I haven't bored you guys yet. I know I'm not that good of a writer so it all may seem incredibly bland. That's something I am going to work on. Please forgive and bear with me. I am all ears.