Through a Long and Sleepless Night – Chapter 3
She felt two things when she woke up the next morning: the sun's rays slicing through the single window in her bedroom and a pair of eyes watching her intently.
Sneaking her hand out from under her comforter, she inched her fingers onto her nightstand, reaching for her wand. Grasping onto the engraved handle, she sprung up, pointing her wand where she thought the intruder to be.
"Ginny, wait!"
She flinched when she saw the Body-Binding Curse hit a very taken aback Hermione.
The brunette went rigid, falling back against the wall. At least she didn't fall to the floor, Ginny thought with a grimace.
She muttered Finite Incantatum and helped her friend steady herself before sitting on her bed.
"Hermione, what are you doing here?"
The older girl brushed some dust off of her cotton pajamas and sat down next to Ginny on the bed, running a hand through the ponytail at the nape of her neck. "I wanted to make sure that you were okay this morning. I know that you had a bit of a rough night last night."
"I'm fine. I went back to sleep shortly after you left. And just, for my sanity, don't be in my bed room when I first wake up. Considering that we're in the middle of a war, I hope you can forgive me for being on the defensive when I suspect someone to be in my room."
The other girl giggled, blushing crimson with embarrassment. "Yeah. Sorry about that. I'll keep that in mind the next time I want to talk to you in the morning."
He crept back in the way he left: jumping up to grab onto the last rung of the latter, pulling himself up to grab the ascending rungs until his feet found purchase. Once standing on the outside stairwell, he ran up to the third floor where his room was, gently sliding the window open and poking his head inside, quickly searching for his companion. Satisfied that the brooding older man was nowhere in sight, the young man swung one leg into the room, then the other, eventually shimmying the rest of his body through the narrow window.
He righted himself, brushing the dirt and dust off of his pants and shirt, before fiddling with his hair, putting strands back in their proper place.
He took one step forward before he heard the older man's voice booming through the room.
"Draco! Come into the sitting room right now before I decide to send you back to the Dark Lord!"
So close, Draco thought, cringing as he trudged into the sitting room.
He entered to find his older chaperone comfortable in a cushioned armchair, reading that morning's paper with a glazed look in his eyes. His eyes moved quickly over the contents; scanning them, but not really absorbing the words written.
He never removed his gaze as he addressed his reluctant ward, taking the occasional sip from his morning tea as the blond boy spoke.
"I was bored," Draco whinged. He paused for a moment, noticing how childish he sounded. "There's nothing to do here, and I thought it would be fun to explore the city." His tone immediately went back to sounding patently uninterested by everything around him.
The young man was loathe to stand in front of his former professor and be lectured about how irresponsible he was for sneaking out when he was probably wizarding Britain's most wanted seventeen year old. But Draco didn't care. He was more interested in learning more about that portal. And, if he was honest with himself (which he rarely was), he needed to get in contact with the Weasley girl to see if he wasn't going crazy and he really experienced what he just experienced.
Snape allowed the top half of his newspaper flop down over his pointer fingers, eyeing the young Malfoy as he folded the broadsheet.
"You're not going to tell me where you were, are you?"
Draco picked at a piece of lint on his blazer in reply.
"I deserve a medal after all of this."
The blond continued to blankly stare at the older man, who sharply exhaled through his nose before flipping back up his newspaper to continue to read.
Draco assumed that he was excused and went back to his room.
Upon entering, he found a small, pudgy owl hopping along the sill of the lone window, a scrap of paper clutched in its sharp beak.
"So wait. Run that by me again."
Ginny was having a rough time attempting to explain last night's encounter to Hermione as she was still struggling to understand exactly what was going on. She hadn't told anyone about her recurring dream, especially considering the content of it. The fact that Malfoy had popped up in it last night was as much of a surprise to her as it was to him meeting her.
As Ginny repeated what happened, she realized that what troubled her the most was how insistent he was on the dream being his. And that whole portal thing. She told him she was used to the strange things that came with being a witch (or a wizard, in his case), but the implications of that portal of his was by far the strangest thing she had ever heard of.
"You know, it's times like these that I really value having you as a friend," Ginny told the brunette in front of her.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You only say that because I'm one of the few people that actually enjoys doing research."
"That, and I know that I can trust you to not tell my brothers or Harry about this. You know how they are — the mere mention of the name 'Malfoy' and they go into some rage-induced frenzy."
The other girl smiled at this. "I know; I know. And I won't breathe a word of this to anyone. Besides, if what Malfoy experienced is not some freak occurrence, do you know what this could mean for not just wizards, but Muggles as well?"
Ginny shrugged. "I mean, besides the whole dream-hopping thing? I haven't a clue."
"You're almost as hopeless as Ronald." Hermione laughed.
The redhead glared at her friend. "Hey! At least I can do my own homework and I'm not as oblivious to certain things as he is."
Hermione blushed at the pointed look that accompanied Ginny's last statement. "Yes, well, baby steps, Ginny. Baby steps."
"If it makes you feel any better, at least you're not in my position."
The older girl cringed as she thought about her friend's unfortunate predicament. She then pursed her lips before replying. "Harry was an idiot. I understand that he wasn't trying to step on Dean's toes, but he should've known that you would've given him more than a chance if he had let his feelings be known."
Ginny sighed, annoyed that she knew how her newest ex-boyfriend's mind worked. "It's his whole need to do what's right. He didn't want to be seen as the Boy-Who-Ruined-a-Friend's-Relationship."
She felt her friend place a hand on top of hers, giving it a squeeze of support. "I know he meant well by breaking up with you for now, but I do think it was rather short-sighted of him, to be honest. Voldemort knows that any of us could be used against him, not just you."
She giggled at Hermione's words, enjoying the way the other girl indulged in her righteous annoyance at Harry. "Has anyone told you that you're truly the brains of the whole outfit?"
The brunette witch smirked. "I've only been told that since my first year, but it does feel nice hearing it every now and then."
Ginny leaned over to wrap her friend up in a hug. She didn't know when she would have another moment like that with her again. "I know you already know, but I need to say it. Please be careful, 'Mione. I don't know what I'd do without my future research partner and sister-in-law."
Hermione laughed at the two implications. "I do like the idea of dedicating some time to the dream portal once certain things have calmed down, but don't you think you're being presumptuous about that last bit?"
The younger girl snorted. "You know I'm not. My brother is painfully aware of the fact that you're a girl. He just needs some sense knocked into him. Maybe literally." She paused as she tilted her head up in thought. "Have you ever considered punching him like you did to Malfoy?"
She grinned at her friend's bark of laughter, only to devolve into her own giggle fit as Hermione tried to look somewhat embarrassed at even entertaining the thought.
"I haven't, Gin, but I will admit that your suggestion does have some merits."
"Let's maybe see what happens during your little quest to save the word, hm? If impending, life-threatening doom doesn't do the trick, you can always circle back around to my idea."
This time Hermione leaned over to envelop Ginny in a hug. "Well, if it does come to that, just know that I'm telling Ron it was all your idea."
A/N - Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you're enjoying this. :)
I'm still working on As You Wish, as well as another chaptered fic that I've yet to post anywhere, but I've been doing some heavy edits on some of the later chapters of AYW and I needed something a bit different just to give my brain a break lol.