Hanging By a Moment Chapter Seven
Disclaimer: Jolie, Jamie, Jesse, Joel, Bradin, Priscilla, Piper, Paige, Kristen, Paul, Belle, Clarissa, and Madrigal are mine. Draco, Blaise, Graham, McGonagall, and Pansy are J.K. Rowling's. "I Can Dream About You" is property of Dan Hartman's and his record label.
Chapter Seven: I Can Dream About You
I can dream about you
If I can't hold you tonight
I can dream about you
You know how to hold me just right
I can dream about you
I'm gonna press my lips against you
And hold you to me
You know you've got me spellbound
What can it be
I don't understand it
I can't keep my mind off loving you
Oh, now baby, I'm caught in the magic I see in you
There's one thing to do
I can dream about you
If I can't hold you tonight
I can dream about you
I Can Dream About You by Dan Hartman
"And you'll never guess what Jolie said..." Jamie rambled on to Draco, who had given up on listening around the time that Jamie had explained what drove Jolie to dye her hair such contrasting shades.
"Shut up!" Jesse snapped, throwing an emerald green pillow at Jamie's head. Jesse, being a beater, had such good aim, that not only did it hit Jamie square in the head, it bounced and hit Paul. Paul, whom Draco thought could be Jesse's clone with dark brown hair instead of blonde, just laughed and then threw it back at Jamie.
"Hey!" Jamie growled, but did nothing about it. He never did.
"You deserved it." Paul replied.
"You are going with Belle?" Jesse asked.
"Of course." Paul answered.
"Belle?" Draco asked.
Paul nodded. "Girlfriend. Fifth year Ravenclaw." He answered in a truly Slytherin way; providing as little information as possible while still answering the question. Draco hated that, even though he knew very well that he was champion of the no-information-short-answer.
"Oh." Draco said, for lack of anything better to say.
"Who are you going with?" Paul asked accusingly.
"Kristen." Jamie answered before Draco could.
"Thanks." Draco hissed.
"I introduced them." Jamie told Paul and Jesse, completing missing the fact that Draco's sarcasm was for answering for him, not a genuine thank you for introducing him to Kristen.
"And how is Blaise taking this?" Jesse said, rising to his feet.
"What do you mean by that?" Draco hissed, a little more pissed off than he should have let on.
"Nothing," Jesse replied. Draco thought he saw Jamie and Jesse exchange a look, Paul looked less than enthusiastic, but Paul did not know Blaise or Draco as well as Jesse and Jamie, not saying that Jamie and Jesse knew all of their fellow quidditch team that well.
"Trade you half of my tuna salad for half of your peanut butter and jelly." Kristen said, waving around half a wheat bread sandwich.
"Sure." Draco said; giving her half of his sandwich even though there was no way that he was touching the tuna fish. Tuna and peanut butter didn't mix. He suddenly felt angered at Kristen for being so stupid and he did not know why. Why should it matter that her taste buds were from a different planet?
"Aw, first year puppy love," Pansy Parkinson crowed from behind the bench that Kristen and Draco were sitting on.
"Hi Pansy." Kristen replied, once she swallowed the bite of her new found peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Pansy looked downright pissed. Draco smiled knowing that his date was angering her. Maybe she would finally leave him alone. He doubted that. The one person he wanted to pay attention would not give him the time of day. Since the night she had stormed out of the Great Hall, which was only a mere two days ago but it felt like forever to him, she had given him the cold shoulder, ducked down a different corridor, or flat out pretended that he did not exist when they were in groups. How could she avoid him like that? They were the lone sixth year Slytherins. They had to stick together. She did not even have a right to be pissed. What he said was truthful. Blaise and he did not have many other friends. Without the quidditch team, he really would not have any friends other than her. Now he did not even have her. He had Kristen.
"McGonagall gave us this horrendous assignment, I have to write like three feet on transfiguring a flower into fireworks and what the ramifications are if the flowers are not truly transfigured before they start exploding." Kristen rambled on, trying to fill the empty silence. "Did you have that assignment last year?"
"No." Draco answered, even though he honestly did not know. Like he cared about transfiguration or McGonagall. That was a Gryffindor class.
"We had that assignment." Pansy hissed, plopping down on the bench across from them. "I helped you with it, remember?"
Draco snorted. "The day you helped me with homework? Pardon me, my father never had to bribe any governors to make sure that I stayed with this class and was not moved to the one a year below us."
"That is a lie!" Pansy screeched, although Draco knew it was true. He had heard Mr. Parkinson complaining about his youngest daughter. Her older sisters were held in high esteem by her parents, Pansy seemed to be a bit of a failure (just because of her stupidity) compared to them. Piper Parkinson was clearly her father's favorite, although Piper had been dead since Pansy was a year old, somehow she had died with something involving the Dark Lord's plans going wrong, she was at the wrong place at the wrong time or something. Paige Parkinson was married to a prominent Death Eater, Draco could not remember which one; it really did not matter to him. Priscilla Parkinson had graduated only the year before and was a brilliant transfiguration student, Draco knew that she was an illegal Animagi for the Death Eaters. Nobody would ever suspect a fluffy white cat of being so evil. Now that Draco thought about it, if Pansy had a paper written for transfiguration, it was probably either written by or stolen from Priscilla.
"Pansy you never helped me with a paper. You must be confusing the situation with Priscilla helping you."
"Priscilla is a stupid prat." Pansy hissed, sounding like an evil cat, only not being able to transfigure into one. Draco noticed she didn't try to deny it. She knew that Draco had caught her and that he would know if she was lying. Best decision in her case would be to drop it and pray that no one would continue the conversation. Normally Draco would not give anyone this satisfaction, but this was Pansy, and he would do anything possible to end this conversation as soon as he could.
"Whatever." He answered, taking a bite of the half of sandwich left in his lap. Tuna fish, gross.
"What are you doing?"
Draco jumped out of skin. He was sitting in a dusty, rarely visited portion of the library; the middle of the Ancient Languages section. How did she find him?
"Studying." He answered, thrusting the piece of parchment he had been writing on into his bag.
"You were writing something." Kristen said, sitting on the chair next to him, resting her head in her hands, giving Draco her undivided attention.
"Homework." He answered.
"For what?" She asked, perkily. Why would she not shut up?
"Uh, potions."
"Then why are you in the Ancient Languages section?" She kept asking questions, as if she was suspicious, but Draco was not under the impression that that was why she was asking. She just wanted to know what was going on in his life. Weird and very annoying.
"It's quiet over here." Draco said, trying to subtly hint that it was no longer quiet thanks to her.
"Oh, yeah it is." Kristen replied, clearly not getting that he wanted to be left alone. The more he hung out with her, the more he noticed the relation between her and Jamie.
Draco turned back to the potions book that he had left lying open in front of him as his cover. Kristen just watched as he pretended to read. Why wouldn't she leave? It couldn't possibly be interesting to watch him study. He just wanted to be alone. Not alone. Just away from most everyone else.
"Are you going to watch me study?" Draco asked her, no longer caring about subtly.
"If you don't mind." Kristen answered with a smile.
"Um, it's kind of distracting." He replied.
"You find me distracting?" Kristen grinned, clearly taking this as the biggest compliment ever. "Okay, I'll leave, but come find me when you're done, okay?"
"Sure." Draco answered, although he was pretty sure that he had no intentions of going to find her.
"I'll see you later, my little bookworm." She teased, wrapping her arms around his neck and planting a kiss on his lips.
"Kristen, we're not dating." Draco said when she pulled away, suddenly hit with the feeling that he didn't want her to leave. He didn't like it, nor want it. He wanted her to go; he wanted to want her to go. But he didn't.
"Not yet anyway," she said with a smile and walked out of the Ancient Languages Section knowing very well that she had toyed with his heart.
Draco felt flushed. Why, why did she do that? He liked the kiss. He liked kissing. He liked kissing her. He wanted to be kissing someone else though. Someone that certainly didn't want to kiss him. But here he had someone that wanted to kiss him and someone that he now wanted to kiss back, yet he still wanted the one that didn't want him. What was wrong with this picture? He had the perfect opportunity for a relationship with someone that wanted one and yet he was holding out for what he couldn't have. Why was he so stupid?
He pulled the rolled up piece of parchment out of his lap. He no longer knew what to say in his letter to Blaise. He would try and finish it later. Later. When he was supposed to meet Kristen.
"So are you and Kristen official?" A crisp, cold voice behind him muttered, sending a chill down his spine. Why did people always approach him from behind? Couldn't anyone just ever walk towards him and avoid the creepy factor? Apparently that would be too much to ask.
"What?" he asked, turning around to face his accuser, she was standing behind the emerald green sofa.
"Are you dating Kristen?" Blaise asked, her perfectly sculpted eyebrows arched. "You have Pansy in hysterics, you heartbreaker."
"I'm not dating Kristen." Draco answered, his thoughts immediately trailing back to their first kiss a mere two days ago. And their next kiss that night and their next kiss even later that night…this list continued for awhile.
"So you're just snogging her?" Blaise asked, sitting next to him on the sofa.
"What, no-" Draco tried to explain but stopped. Blaise was sitting next to him. That was odd. Blaise was talking to him. Even odder. Then it hit him harder than a bludger to the head.
"So who are you going with?" He asked, looking at her.
Blaise moved her long dark hair off her shoulder and arched her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
"You found a date." Draco stated, no longer asking, he was sure now that she had a date. "Who is it?"
"None of your business." She answered, this was infuriating him. He wanted to know. He needed to know. Mostly so he could go jinx the hell out of him.
"You know who I am going with." Draco reasoned.
Blaise snickered. "That's not my fault. If you didn't want me to know who you were going with than you shouldn't have (a) told Jamie and (b) snogged her all over the school."
Draco was furious. This was not fair. Who else wanted Blaise? He could understand why they would want her, but seriously did everyone not know that they were meant to be? They were meant to be!
Draco shivered. It was freezing in the dormitory. He sat up in bed. The window was open, Joel was gone. Off with Clarissa somewhere he imagined.
"Merlin, you scared me," Draco said, turning around after shutting the window.
"I'm sorry." She said, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning her head against his chest, her ear touching the English Quidditch logo on his tee-shirt.
"No, it's a good surprise." He assured her, hugging her back, smoothing out her dark brown hair.
"Good." She answered. "It's cold in here."
"Joel left the window open."
"He's with Clarissa."
"I would assume so."
"Why are you so cold?" She asked.
"I told you Joel left the window open." Draco repeated, rubbing her back, the two still hugging.
"Why are you so cold?" She repeated into his tee-shirt.
"The window." Draco said, this time pointing although her eyes were closed.
"Why are you so cold?" She muttered sleepily, her eyes still closed and her voice a mere whisper.
"Blaise?"
"Why are you so cold?"
"Why are you so cold?"
"Draco, why are you so cold?"
Draco sat up in bed, freezing and panicked. She was gone. He continued to breathe heavily for a few seconds before realizing that she was never there. Joel was there, his hair sticking up funny and his arm wrenched tightly around a pillow, half of his blankets on the floor. Draco turned the window, it wasn't open. That wasn't the reason he was so cold. Maybe Blaise meant something else after all.
"Blaise, you'll never guess what happened last-" Draco stopped after realizing that the girl on the sofa wasn't Blaise. It was Madrigal, the first year that did not look eleven in the least. But from behind the sofa, she had the same dark brown hair.
"Blaise isn't here." Madrigal answered in her sing-song voice. "She went to breakfast. Have you seen Bradin?"
"Bradin?" Draco repeated, unable to remember the boy.
"He's my age." Madrigal answered. Which was anywhere from what eleven to sixteen? Draco thought, but held his tongue.
"No, I haven't." He answered, not knowing Bradin if he had ran up and smacked him on the forehead. No, if he had done that, Draco probably would have remembered him. Never mind.
"He's probably with Nora." Madrigal sulked. Draco didn't have the patience or the desire to even bother asking who that was. He thought she might be the other first year, that would make sense, but he could not be bothered to remember the names of the first years he never dealt with.
Draco looked in the Great Hall, he suddenly had the burning desire to find Blaise; he had to find her. He had to make things right. He knew it. Blaise was all he had. She was his best friend. A best friend that he needed to get back.
"Draco!" Kristen called from her spot at the Ravenclaw table. "Come eat with us!"
Draco ignored her. Blaise was not at breakfast like Madrigal had said. Stupid Madrigal.
"Draco!"
Draco kept walking. He did not want to deal with her. He had no patience for her. Not anymore. Not when he was preoccupied with what he thought were the subliminal messages from Blaise in his dreams as silly as they sounded, deep in his chest he knew there was something behind them.
"Blaise?" He asked Graham as he passed by him at the table. Graham motioned to the food stuffed in his mouth and his older brother's significant other answered.
"Went for a walk." Clarissa replied, smacking Graham for having so much food in his mouth. He choked a bit.
Draco rushed out the side doors which led right to bridge where Blaise and Draco had their near death accident only weeks earlier.
He had to tell Blaise about his dream. He had to make it up to her before it was too late.
Draco froze in his tracks. It already was.
Author's Note: Yes, I know, this took forever for me to write. I hope to finish several more chapters now that winter break is rapidly approaching. I am going to start a new chapter this week, but seeing as how it is almost the holidays and I, like everyone else, have six bazillion things to do before then, I am not quite sure that I will have the next one posted this week. Hopefully, I'll be wrong about that but I don't think so, because I want to update my other stories as well. On that note, if I don't update before then, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy Boxing Day!
Also, I can no longer post the responses to reviews with each chapter, but if you have a question and you leave it in the review, I will respond to it. You can also leave comments or questions on my livejournal page or send me an e-mail or instant message, I'm always happy to talk. : ) Thanks for the reviews for last chapter and thanks in advance for the reviews for this chapter.
Love ya!
Preppy in Pink