Dream Connections: Chapter 15

Family Matters

Hermione sighed heavily and slumped forward in her chair, allowing her head to thud against the table. It had been three days, and their search was still fruitless. She, Harry, Ron, and Pansy had spent every waking moment in the library, only occasionally checking on Draco. He'd kept getting worse, and they were worried that he would only last another day or two at best.

True to her word, Hermione had missed classes for both Monday and Tuesday, but exams would be coming up very soon, and, though she'd practically memorized the material for all her classes, her crunch time was upon them. "We really need a breakthrough here. It's been forever, and we haven't found anything at all." Hermione's voice was almost completely muffled by the table, but the others heard and agreed.

"Library is closing, children." Madame Pince had taken pity on the group, and wasn't yelling at them sternly like she would otherwise. She was actually being quite helpful. Case in point, she dropped a stack of books on the table then and whispered. "Perhaps you lot could study elsewhere. Hopefully, these books will help."

Hermione smiled gratefully and glanced at the titles of the books. "Guys," she said in awe, "these are the medical books from the restricted area."

Pansy's eyes widened and she shot a look to Madame Pince, who shrugged and went about her job. "We have to look at these somewhere."

Harry shrugged. "There's always the room of requirement, but someone might be snogging in there now."

Pansy sighed, but suddenly had an idea. "Why don't we go to Draco's room? Nobody would bother us like when we went to Hermione's. Honestly," she sighed again, "I never knew Gryffindor first years were so needy."

"I think Hermione just babies them." Ron frowned. "I mean, we never went running to Percy all the time."

Hermione stuck her tongue out at Ron and made a rude gesture with her hand before turning to Pansy. "Draco's room sounds like a good idea."

Harry told them to all go ahead without him, since he was going to make a stop at the Hospital wing to see how Draco was doing, and headed out before everyone else had packed up.

Hermione was engrossed in one of the books Madame Pince had provided when Harry dragged into Draco's room. At the sound of the statue moving, she glanced up, however, spotting her emotionally exhausted best friend. "I think we have this covered for tonight, Harry." She gestured to Pansy and Ron, who both had books propped open in their laps. "Why don't you just go up lay in Draco's bed for a while? I think you need the rest."

Harry was about to object when he saw Ron and Pansy solemnly nodding their agreement. "God," he thought, "I must look a mess." He trudged up the stairs anyway, and flung himself onto the bed, falling asleep nearly instantly.

Hermione yawned and stretched. It was way past curfew and they still hadn't found anything. These books were looking far more promising than the others, but she still wished she knew exactly what she was looking for. Pansy had fallen asleep in one of the arm chairs and was snoring softly, a book still open and clutched to her chest. Ron wasn't asleep, but he was getting there. Hermione could tell he'd been on the same page for the last half hour.

"That's enough for tonight." Hermione announced loudly. "I'll just get Harry and we'll get going. You two stack these books in piles according to read, unread, and unfinished."

Ron and Pansy moved slowly, reaching toward the books as Hermione made her way up the stairs. When she reached the top, she saw Harry sleeping so peacefully, she didn't really want to wake him yet. Instead, she decided to satisfy her curiosity and take a peek around. She was certain that the prefect rooms were the same, even though Draco claimed his was different. Tiptoeing around the room, she tried to make as little sound as possible. Unfortunately, her foot suddenly connected with something heavy and quite solid, and she let out a howl of pain.

Harry woke with a start, looking around bewilderedly. "What the bloody hell? Hermione, what are you doing?"

Sheepishly, Hermione bent to retrieve what she'd injured her foot on. "I didn't want to wake you. So, I was just taking a look around when I stubbed my toe."

Harry shook his head groggily and ran his hand through his hair. "I don't think Draco would really appreciate you snooping around, Hermione."

Hermione didn't answer, however. She appeared deep in thought, staring blankly at the piece of wood in her hands.

"Hermione, what the hell is wrong with you?" Harry slipped off the bed and over to where Hermione stood perfectly still. "Hermione… I said"—

"Of course!" Hermione shouted suddenly. She turned quickly, almost stumbling into Harry, who she hadn't noticed had moved. She thrust the piece of wood into his hands and raced down the stairs. "Come on! For goodness' sake, Harry!"

Harry followed at a saner pace, looking questioningly at the object in his hands. It didn't look like anything special to him. In fact, he'd seen it before. It was just Draco's plaque that his mum had given him for Christmas. Harry turned it over in his hands, searching for some new clue that he hadn't noticed before. By the time he reached Hermione, Ron, and Pansy, once again seated around the fire, he had not had any new revelations about it—it was still just a piece of wood.

"Harry, would you hurry up? Show it to Pansy and Ron!" Hermione appeared gleeful, no sign of fatigue at all.

Harry placed the plaque on the table and sat down quietly. He was beginning to feel as though he were rather stupid because as soon as Ron and Pansy saw it, they both gasped. "What is it?" He demanded grumpily. "What is so bloody amazing about Draco's plaque?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione gestured wildly toward the plaque. "Narcissa said she couldn't interfere because it was a family matter. That made no sense to me, at first. I mean, why would we be able to interfere, but not her? She is family, after all. That is exactly why she couldn't, though."

"Hermione, you are not making the slightest bit of sense!" Harry shouted, becoming irritated very quickly. He had, after all, just been abruptly woken from the best sleep he'd had in what seemed like ages.

Hermione sighed, but Ron interjected, "She's making perfect sense, Harry! Narcissa was giving us a hint that took us entirely too long to figure out. She said it was a family matter. That plaque is from Draco's family tree. Remember at Christmas when I told you it meant he still had all the benefits and curses of being a Malfoy? I meant that literally. There are curses and charms and stuff that only apply to the Malfoy family. By marrying into the Malfoy family, Narcissa isn't bound by any of them, but she does have an obligation not to interfere with them either. So when she said she can't interfere because it is a family matter, she was telling us that it is one of those curses that only apply to the Malfoys."

"Wow, Ron, that was really smart of you." Harry smiled at his friend, who, in his opinion, had explained much less cryptically than Hermione.

"Always a tone of surprise." Ron smiled sheepishly.

Pansy stood suddenly and placed her fist imperiously on her hips. "That's all well and good for you guys. You figured it out. But what, exactly, did you discover? Nothing! You still have no idea what curses apply to the Malfoys! We're running out of time. So, while you guys are patting each other on the back, Draco is still dying!"

Hermione slapped her forehead emphatically and leapt from her seat. "Pansy is right. We have to get to work quickly. There's no time for a break now. We have to go back to the library. I think there is a section with books on all the oldest Pureblood families."

"But, the library is closed, Hermione!" Pansy cried, frustrated.

"Not to the invisible!" Harry smiled slyly.

"Great," Pansy muttered to her self, "now they've gone crazy." She shook her head slowly and pronounced as clearly as possible—"We haven't learned disillusionment charms yet, so there is no way we can be invisible."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other and cracked up laughing. "I have an invisibility cloak." Harry explained finally.

Pansy smiled and crossed her arms. "I should have known… but, anyway, time is short…"

"To the library!" Hermione shouted exuberantly.

It was Ron's turn to shake his head. "…her three favorite words."

Hermione and Ron went to the library to get the book on the Malfoy family, while Harry and Pansy crept silently into the hospital wing.

"That is a really useful map." Pansy gazed longingly at the Marauder's Map.

Harry smiled, but folded it up and returned it to his cloak. "You don't need to tell me how useful it is."

The two made their way over to where Draco still lay unmoving. He was thinner still and was extremely, unnaturally pale. Harry reached out to touch Draco's cheek, but withdrew his hand immediately.

"His eyes are moving very rapidly." Harry leaned closer to the boy's face, and whispered 'lumos.' After a quick inspection, Harry decided that Draco must be dreaming. "It seems so strange that he would be dreaming while we're all wide awake and worried about him."

"When was the last time you dreamed?" Pansy asked quietly, picking up on Harry's need for conversation.

"When I was in Draco's bed earlier, I had a dream that he was there with me. We didn't say anything to each other. We just lay on the bed and slept." Harry sighed, a soft smile playing at his lips. "It's nothing like my normal dreams of him."

"Ugh… gross, Harry." Pansy made a disgusted face, wrinkling her nose and sticking out her tongue. "You and Draco are always talking about those sick dreams you two have."

"Does Draco really dream about me?" Harry grinned happily.

Pansy smiled back, but soon appeared thoughtful. "He does, but he doesn't ever talk about it when you two are together. I guess it doesn't really matter then because he has the real thing."

"Same with me…" Harry sighed. "I don't even have the dreams when we're together. I only had them before we got together and when we were broken up for that bit."

Just then, Hermione and Ron stumbled through the door, out of breath, but smiling.

"That was fast." Pansy's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Well, Hermione knows the library pretty well, and on the way back we had to run from Mrs. Norris." Ron's smile widened as he held the book out to Pansy.

Pansy took it and sat on an empty bed. She flipped to the table of contents, perusing quickly. "Got it." She said, turning to nearly the end of the big tome. Once there, she shoved the book into Hermione's hands.

Hermione's eyes instantly began scanning the pages at an alarming rate. It was a particularly long section of the book, so Harry assumed there were many of the secret family spell things. "What are you looking for?" Harry asked, feeling rather useless.

"Shhhh," Hermione hissed without turning to him. After a few moments, however, she paused. "I was looking for anything that described a deathlike slumber or wasting away in a coma."

"Oh," Harry said quietly, "did you find something then?"

"Yes."

"What is it?" Harry perked up, but realized that Hermione didn't seem excited at all.

"It is something called the Despondent Dreamer." Hermione whispered solemnly. "The victim is normally put into a deep sleep like a coma and their mind withdraws into itself. The body just wastes away until it dies. The book says here that a Malfoy can place it on his or her self, like in the case of Dymphna Malfoy. She apparently was betrothed to someone other than her true love, so she cast it on herself to get out of the marriage. It says that she didn't want to live if she couldn't be with her beloved."

Ron looked puzzled for a moment, but soon asked if there was anything about reversing the curse. Hermione shook her head, looking at the book once more. "The only thing it says is that the dreamer will awaken if he or she can be convinced to. We've already determined that he doesn't respond to us talking or touching him, so I don't know what they are suggesting."

"Besides all that crap, why wouldn't Draco want to come back?" Pansy asked, confused. "Lucius cast that on him. I'm sure he'd want to come back, so how does that even work?"

"Well," Hermione sighed, "the book says that the dreamer is sort of depressed. They are made to feel like there is no hope for them and the ones they love. So, I suppose they don't think there is a reason to come back, since everything is so hopeless."

"Alright then." Harry massaged his temples gently. "So, there is obviously a way to communicate with him. We just need to figure out what it is. Is there anything else in that book about how we should go about it?"

"No." Hermione shook her head. "I told you everything it said."

Pansy placed her head in her hands and began rocking back and forth. Ron moved quickly to her side, and placed an arm around her shoulders.

A pessimistic silence descended on the group. Harry returned to Draco's bedside, intertwining their fingers, Hermione appeared frustrated nearly to tears, and Ron simply rocked with Pansy, occasionally rubbing her arms with his hands. It was after an interminable length of this, that Ron was nearly knocked in the face when Pansy suddenly sat up. "Wait! There's a section on special communication in there. I saw it when I was looking through the table of contents!"

Hermione jumped into action immediately, flipping to the appropriate page. Harry didn't gather around the book with the others this time, but opted to gaze longingly at Draco instead. He soon heard whispering start behind him, but didn't turn. It wasn't until he felt Hermione's hand on his shoulder that he tore his eyes away at all.

"What did it say?" Harry asked as calmly as he could. His fingers tightened in Draco's. He had to hope that there had been something useful in the book.

Hermione took a deep breath and looked at Pansy, who nodded. "We think you can talk to him."

Harry felt angry suddenly. It was as though his friends hadn't been there the past few days. "I've tried that, Hermione! We all have! How much of an idiot do you think I am?"

Hermione winced, but squeezed Harry's shoulder gently. "Harry, the Malfoys communicate through dream connections."

Author's Note Despite my new job, and all the stress that goes along with it, I have updated. Everyone should be proud of me. Of course, some people haven't been reading, so they don't know crap about crap, but I'm not naming any names. (cough) Azu Luna (cough) … A big shout out to my beta reader, Azu Luna, even though this hasn't been beta read. It's not her fault she's so busy at her new school in her new city with her new friends… (sob). It's okay. I'm cool. Review please, it will cheer me up.