Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter! Thanks for reading and reviewing. Enjoy!

Hermione POV:

As she slowly gained consciousness she was aware of a peculiar warmth fanning across her feet and lower legs. She felt warm and safe as she nuzzled deeply into the comfortable object behind her head. Was it a pillow? She thought of the princess in a book she had read previously who spent her nights in a gigantic bed with many pillows, cocooning herself in comfort. Hermione couldn't remember feeling this relaxed or comfortable, for she had slept on a thin pile of hay with a blanket over it every day since she was little. Now, she felt just like the princess in the story.

Slowly turning she felt the pillow continue down her right hand side. As she tried to return to her dreams, she reached around to hug the pillow, only to jump back in shock and pain. Her eyes flew open and she came face to face with something silver with large dark grey spikes. Quickly rolling onto her back, Hermione's breath caught in her throat as she took in her surroundings.

She was surrounded by a body, encased in a sea of silver scales. The scales seemed to be reflecting the soft torchlight that lit the room that she was in. There was one larger source of light a distance away from her, but she barely noticed. The being before her was overwhelming in its silent strength, commanding her attention. She craned her neck to take in all of the majestic being in front of her. From the tip of the tail to the frighteningly large wings, Hermione was surprised that such a ferocious looking creature could be so comfortable. True, she had been sleeping on the cozy underside of the creature, away from the fearsome spikes. Scales most certainly should not have felt as pleasant as they had. Her musings were stopped when she felt the creature's chest rise and fall, causing the warm feeling to fan out across her feet again. Her eyes snapped to the head of the creature, seeing the familiar face of the dragon.

Her memories from the day before quickly rushed back to her. What kind of a freak was she? She had seen hundreds if not thousands of animals, including the dragon, outside her window as she sang. She had never had any powers like her mother, so how could she have caused such a strange event to occur? It must have had to do with the book she read. It had brought her this beautiful dragon who had saved her from her lonely isolation. Her own personal angel, dangerous and deadly as it may be. He had saved her, if only for a brief moment in time. She was free.

She studied its face with immense curiosity. Its face was angular but not harsh. There were dark grey horns and sharp spikes on its head, but the dragon seemed almost peaceful in its slumber. Its face itself was free of any spikes or horns, though it was still angular. She noticed a strip of lighter silver scales starting from the beginning of the dragon's neck and continuing down the dragon's body. The lighter silver was mostly concentrated near the dragon's belly, tapering off near the head and tail. The dragon was so fiercely beautiful that she had to restrain herself from trying to stroke its face. She wished more than anything to see the dragon's eyes, but her subconscious told her that waking the sleepingdragon was not a very wise idea. Slowly, she tried to pull her feet away from the repeated bursts of hot air that came from the dragon's nostrils so that she could try to fall back asleep. She tried to be very careful, but as soon as she had pulled her legs away, the dragons head raised and its eyes snapped open.

Swirls of silver blue and dark grey met her own chocolate brown gaze. She watched in fearful curiosity as alertness quickly flickered through the dragon's eyes and confusion, anger, curiosity, realization and finally frustration soon followed. The dragon seemed to open and close its mouth many times, similar to how Hermione would when she was at a loss for words. In the end, the dragon let out a long puff of smoke as if frustrated. Before she could stop herself, fits of giggles slowly escaped her mouth. Slowly Hermione's chuckles grew to a full bellied laugh; she just couldn't help herself! Honestly, the absurdity of her mind. She actually thought a dragon was for a loss for words! She had certainly read too many fictional stories in her alone time.

As she slowly composed herself, she gazed back at the dragon with slight apprehension. It was a dragon for god's sake, surely it was just waiting for its next meal: herself. However, when she looked back towards the dragon, she saw that its head was cocked to the side with an expression of playful curiosity on its face. Goodness gracious she was going insane. She was trying to place the feelings and emotions of a fearless dragon.

She tried to stand so that she could check for any escape routes, but the dragon tightened its tail around her, preventing her escape. Trying to prolong her seemingly inevitable death, she tried to distract the dragon. The dragon had freed her from her dreadful tower, and she wished to have a few hours to enjoy that freedom.

Looking straight into the dragon's eyes, she straightened her posture and spoke in a confident voice to her savior soon to be killer.

"Hello dragon. I'd just like to thank you for freeing me from my dreadful existence in that tower, where my heartless mother was my only companion. I appreciated your quick actions as well when you saved me from falling to my death at the bottom of my tower. I would be forever indebted to you if you could continue to show your acts of great kindness towards me by not eating me for your next meal. I can make a lovely companion if you need someone to keep your company. Oh who am I kidding, you can't even understand a word that I'm saying. You're just going to eat me anyway. Well, go on then. Get on with it." Hermione said.

And then, the strangest thing happened. The dragon threw back his head and puffed smoke out of its nose in brief puffs. A corner of its mouth seemed to pull up at the sides. If she didn't know any better, she'd say it was laughing.

Draco POV:

Draco couldn't remember a time where he had laughed so freely. He couldn't help it; her rambling was by far one of the most adorable things he had ever heard. She convinced herself that just because he 'couldn't understand her' that she should suddenly accept her death? Even telling him to hurry it along? It felt wonderful to have someone talk to him, anf it was even better that she could make him laugh.

It had taken him a while to remember what had happened. She was one of the most beautiful women that he had ever seen in his entire life. He had flickered through many emotions upon seeing her; she was an intruder, a beautiful, intriguing, and now, apparently, bold intruder. Draco had felt extreme anger at her intrusion into his home before he had remembered how she had captivated him the previous night. Her voice had opened her soul to him; her song seemed to permanently attach itself to his innermost heart, weaving a melody around the broken pieces. It had broken the cage he held around his emotions, and it felt so good to be free. Free to feel more than just careful indifference. Draco always sought to hoard anything that would bring brightness to his day, and she embodied anything and everything he could ever need. She was what he had been searching for all these years.

He had tried many times to start conversation with her, but just couldn't find the right words. When he had finally settled on the right words, he opened his mouth, only to shut it quickly and huff in frustration. Of course, he couldn't talk in his dragon state. He was pulled from his frustrated musings when a genuine laugh came from his beauty. Not the polite chuckle he had experienced while in the pristine walls of the palace or a flirtatious giggle like Pansy used to fake whenever she was around him. No, this laugh was real. It was barely contained laughter that came straight from the belly only when someone found something truly hilarious. It was mesmerizing.

After her little rant and boisterous laugh, he decided that he would show her around his home. He liked her very much, and he wanted her to stay with him for as long as possible. It was foreign to him, the desire to share his life with someone else. He had been alone for so long.

Uncurling from his position around her, he rose to his full height. He saw the fear flash in her eyes, realizing that his stance could be very intimidating. Knowing there was a high chance he would regret his actions, he quickly spread his wings and flew out of the small opening at the top of his cave.

He flew for a few minutes until he found his secret spot under a giant tree. Over the years he had grown to calling it The Grandfather Tree. In its silence, it had given Draco the power to think rationally through his anger. The pain of solitude had been lessened by endless days spent under the calming branches. The Grandfather Tree was his place of refuge, and the guidance it gave through its silent wisdom always helped Draco to be at peace with himself.

He sat under the tree for a few minutes, watching the sun's rays flitter through the numerous leaves of the beautiful tree, like the millions of twinkling stars in the night sky. He silently told The Grandfather Tree the events of the past few days, wishing in his mind for the ability to adapt to human interactions for the first time in years. He wished the girl who had stolen his heart would come to accept his curse. When he had finished he carefully places his paw against the heart of The Grandfather Tree and uttered a small 'thank you'. He slowly picked up some human clothes from a chest hidden in the area created between the tree's large roots before ascending into the beautiful morning sky.

When reached his cave, he sat on top of the mouth of the entrance, with his claws clutching the sides of the gaping hole. Focusing his mind on the task ahead, he carefully remembered every detail of his human form. He had learned from many unsuccessful tries that, if he did not focus hard enough, something would be missing. Many times he had lost his toes or fingers or hair in the transformation. In some extreme cases he forgot to remember arms or legs, but only when he was truly distracted. The problem was, there was no turning back once he started. If he missed any detail in his transformation, Draco was stuck that way for the entire day.

Once he was satisfied with his transformation, he opened his eyes. He quickly slipped on the clothing and took a deep breath. This was it. Time for the introductions.

'She is very pretty. Try not to embarrass yourself too much Draco.' his inner voice teased him. He knew he was going to fail miserably at conversation, but come on! Even his mind was doubting him and teasing him.

He shook his head, closed his eyes, and jumped over the edge, hoping that the adrenaline rush from the fall would help him through his nerves.

Hermione POV:

It just… left. One minute the dragon was seemingly laughing at her, and the next it was gone. The dragon had looked right into her eyes before leaving, and she felt a spark of nervous curiosity. She suddenly wanted to know everything about the dragon. Its eyes held great wisdom and sadness in its swirling depths beneath the mirth she had seen moments ago. Before she could get herself into any more trouble, it had flown away. It rose to a very intimidating height before taking off through a hole at the top of the room she was in, and she was slightly afraid of its power.

As she was gazing at the dragon's exit point, the daylight streaming in from the hole at the top of the cave caused something to glitter from the corner of her eye. Looking down she shocked by the sight before her. Piles upon piles of gold, jewelry, and valuable items lay in every direction around her. She seemed to be standing in the only area that was free from any riches, a circle of space large enough to accommodate the dragon's size. Ancient scrolls and books lay in a heaping pile to her left, and she ached to unravel their secrets. She had to practice great restraint to keep her needy brain from searching for new information; she didn't know when the dragon would be back. Trying to keep her mind off of the books and scrolls, she carefully circled the area she was standing in, to look at the other treasures.

She spent a long period of time looking over the nearby items, being careful not to touch any of them. She felt it would be a terrible idea to actually touch any of the dragon's belongings. It seemed like there was almost a silent warning over the items. When she had come back to her starting point, she lifted her gaze to those treasures beyond her circle. The treasure seemed endless; it reached to the very walls of the cave. The walls were far from her; she could only tell that they were even there by the torches hanging from the walls. She wished to go exploring. A familiar feeling washed over her, the feeling of freedom just beyond reach. The excitement was right there, just out of her grasp.

Hermione was startled out of her musings by a large crash near the area with the strongest beams of light. Peering over at the source of the noise, she was shocked to see a man brushing coins and jewels off of his clothing. He was dressed in a loose white shirt with a black vest over it, and black pants. He was more handsome than any man she had ever dreamed of in her stories . He had strong facial features, and he was much taller than she was. What surprised her the most were his eyes. They swirled with color almost exactly like the dragon's.

His shy, deep voice spoke to her, halting all other thoughts from her mind.

"Right. Erm…Sorry about that... Good morrow my lady, my name is Draco. Draco Malfoy."

Sorry for cutting off, but it's going to have to stop there. I leave for my vacation tomorrow. Thank you all for taking the time to read my story! I really appreciate everyone who has reviewed. I'm starting on the next chapter, and I'll try to post it as soon as I get back from my vacation. Oh and the next chapter for my other story should be up around the same time. Thanks and please review!

Love,

~Dreaming~