With wide eyes Harry watched Draco walk up to his fri . . . no, they weren't his friends, were they? Did Draco even have a real friend? They were just followers. Harry shook his head, before turning to leave. He didn't get very far before he realized he hadn't said anything back to the blonde. Usually, he would have some sort of comeback. Things just weren't the same. He didn't have it in him to pretend.

Harry looked back, grinning despite himself when he saw Draco smack Crabbe in the back of his head. "Don't you dare think about doing something like that again. Don't you know that Gryffindor bat is always watching these hallways?"

Crabbe gave Draco a dumb look, "No, Draco."

"Well, she does, so be careful next time, and don't do anything unless I tell you to do it first, understood? You can't make me look bad. I am a Prefect," Draco snapped. Harry almost expected Crabbe to answer, "yes master."

With a sigh, Harry finally turned away from the trio. His head was in the clouds as he started to head only Lord knew where. The brunette thoughtfully chewed on his lower lip, trying to think of something he could do about Draco. Was there anything he could do?

"Hi, did you just smile at Malfoy, Harry?"

"Ah, Jesus, Luna!" Harry practically jumped when the girl seemed to appear out of thin air. "Don't do that," he said with a groan.

She just smiled.

"What did you ask?" Harry looked at her. She was pretty. He tried to see if he could find any attraction. There wasn't any. So he turned his thoughts to the other girls around him. He couldn't find one girl that he had an attraction toward. Just gay, then. Figures.

He rubbed the back of his neck before the two of them started to walk together. Luna was okay. Harry liked her, despite her strangeness. Everyone was strange in this magical world. Harry the most strange of all.

Harry felt like he was becoming more of a friend with Luna, especially after what happened at the Ministry of Magic.

"I asked if you smiled at Malfoy?" Luna repeated.

"Well, he hit Crabbe, a fine change I think," Harry answered. He blushed, feeling annoyed that he was flustered over smiling at somebody. Though the somebody was Draco. It wasn't like he had been having mushy thoughts or anything, though. He was just amused when he saw Draco scolding Crabbe. Yeah, that was it.

"I think you should try a mistletoe," Luna murmured in her sing-song voice. "Beware the Nargles, though."

Luna patted Harry on the shoulder, before taking a turn that would lead her to the Ravenclaw house. "Good luck Harry."

"It's not even Christmas," Harry groaned. What the hell did Luna know? She had not been a part of his dream! There should be no way she could know!

Then again, Harry reasoned, Luna did seem to know things she shouldn't know. It was pretty creepy in fact, but Luna was a good person and Harry doubted she would tell anybody. God, he hoped he was right. He knew Dumbledore and the twins knew because they had been in the dream.

Harry shuddered to think of Dumbledore knowing. In his dream, Dumbledore had loved to gossip.

"Dumbledore wouldn't do that to me," Harry told himself. "But the twins . . . "

'Don't think about it, don't think about it. Pretend nobody knows. Nobody knows.'

'Draco knows . . .'

'No, I said pretend nobody knows and that includes Draco.' Harry knew he was beating himself up, but he couldn't help it.

Escaping back into the Gryffindor common room, Harry lost himself in one of the oversized chairs. He reclined back, putting a hand over his eyes.

'What a day . . . really what a lifetime. It's hard to believe I have two lives, one that is real and one that my sorry mind made up.' Harry sighed.

Day one back in the real world and Draco Malfoy avoided him all day, which was unusual for the normal Draco, and when they had met . . . Harry had a feeling deep inside that somehow Draco was defending him. Harry had hoped that Draco was affected by Dream Harry and Dream Draco's relationship. In a way, Harry had given real Draco a taste of what a real friend could feel like.

"Blimey Harry, what are you doing asleep in the common room!"

"It's very unhealthy, you know."

Harry was startled awake when two sets of arms started to shake the life out of him. "Easy easy! I'm awake." The brunette rubbed his eyes; they widened when someone shoved his glasses on his nose and Fred and George came into full view.

"What are you doing here?" Harry mumbled. His cheeks flushed brightly for more than one reason. The twins knew about his feelings for Draco.

One of the twins, Harry could never really tell them apart, started to pull a pout. "Is it such a crime to visit your brother's best friend?" he asked.

"Yeah, I mean, any friend of our wittle brother is a friend of ours, right Fred?"

"Right you are, George!"

"Why would you be visiting me?" Harry asked, "and let go of me," he half snapped.

With sheepish looks, the twins backed away from Harry. Now that he was free from their hands, Harry stood up. He groaned as he stretched and cracked his back. Why didn't anyone wake him up and send him to his dorm room?

As if reading his mind, Fred smirked. "You looked too cute to wake up. George and I have been scaring off anyone who dared to try."

"Ah! Don't call me cute and what the hell do you mean? You just woke me up, didn't you?"

"Oh, yes."

"Besides we let you get enough sleep before waking you, sleeping beauty."

Flushed, Harry crossed his arms. "Stop calling me names! Now why are you even here? It isn't family visitation day or anything; you graduated a year ago."

The twins rolled their eyes at the same time. "Like anything could stop us from visiting if we felt like it. You of all people should know how we got in."

"Honeydukes secret passage, right . . . " Harry glared. "So explain yourself!"

Harry loved the twins, he really did, they felt like his brothers and not just Ron's, but he couldn't help being on edge a little. What did the tricksters have up their sleeves?

"Our latest inventions," Fred said. He tossed Harry a large paper bag and then smirked. "We give them to you free of charge. I dare say you will find them useful."

"Right, you will, ey Harry?" George snickered. "Nice dream by the way."

"Yeah, thought it was our dream for the longest time until little Ronnikins sent us a post by owl . . . "

"What did Ron tell you!?" Harry blushed, feeling his stomach bubble up in anger toward Ron. But wait, why was he angry? Ron knew that the twins knew of Harry's dream, so he probably had a reason to write them.

"Our dear little brother told us to be good, but have you ever known us to listen to him?" Fred seemed to be bragging.

"Right," Fred said, "go over our little inventions and maybe you will see something you like. "

"One can only hope." George grinned.

"Good luck, Harry dear," Fred said.

"Make sure you use at least one of our inventions and then send us a full report on how it worked," George added. With that, they quickly scrambled out of the Fat Lady's painting.

Inventions, Harry looked down in his hands.

"Wait until I get my hands on Ron," Harry grumbled.

"What did I do?" Ron asked as he walked into the common room. He rubbed his eyes, still obviously half asleep.

"Told your brothers to be good, you should know what they do when someone tells them to be good! Oh, they were good all right. Their version of it anyway. They gave me a bag of inventions to use on Draco, I have no doubt."

"Let's see then," Ron said, seeming to have woken up more.

"I'm not going to use them."

"Why not? They might help."

With a sigh, Harry sat down on the floor with Ron across from him. He dumped the bag and the two of them started to pick up the strange items, though some did look like normal everyday things.

"Love potion," Ron snickered. "To use on your most beloved. Effects last for one hour. The creator of this potion is not responsible for any intense jealousy, maiming, or death. Use at your own risk." This had to be a joke, right? It wasn't right to use that sort of magic on people. Then he remembered the Lavender Brown situation with Ron and shuddered. No, he wouldn't be using that potion.

"Truth-Be-Told," Harry said, rolling his eyes, "Subject will answer truthfully. One shot equals one question."

"Nice," Ron whistled.

"How did they manage to get Veritaserum? That must be what makes the person tell the truth." Harry looked down at the little package. Inside it was what looked like a Muggle squirt gun.

"It's Fred and George," Ron said, with a roll of his eyes. "So are you going to use one of these on Mal-Draco?" He asked, pointing to all the different items. There were so many to choose from.

"It's tempting but wrong."

"Yeah, you're right, so do you mind if I use one of these?" Ron asked.

"Ron, I just said it's wrong!"

"Oh, right," Ron answered sheepishly. There went his fun. Though unbeknown to Harry he sneaked one of the items into his pocket, before helping his friend gather them all up and returning them to the brown paper bag.

Ron was still having trouble believing Harry could be in love with Draco, but the redhead did love his best friend like a brother, so he decided to take what Hermine said to heart a little.

Maybe he would try to help . . . maybe. If Harry was right and Draco wasn't that bad, then Ron figured it was high time the blonde was able to be who he wanted to be.

For Harry, of course.

Day five back in the real world. Nothing much has changed, except one major thing. Draco doesn't have anything to do with me or my friends, nor does he let anyone push us around when he catches it.

Of course, he has reasons for "defending" us if you can even call it that. I heard him tell a startled Crabbe and Goyle once that Dumbledore had pulled him aside for not properly doing his Prefect duties and that was the only reason he was finally doing his job, he said his daddy would turn in his grave if he knew Draco was fouling up their name.

When he mentioned his dead parents, Crabbe and Goyle stopped complaining. Makes me wonder if they have a heart buried somewhere. This is all very weird, to say the least.

Hermione and Ron are the only ones who seem to understand why Draco is acting so un-Draco-ish. Oh wait, Luna knows, too. She had the nerve to go up to Draco in class once. I swear she has no sense sometimes. Then I heard her suggest something, I had no idea what, I nearly choked that she was trying to talk to him and Draco was too stunned to do anything because of whatever she had said to him.

But why is Draco acting this way? If he sees us, well, me, differently, then why can't he say something, or do something? I have every reason to believe Draco must think the dream is his own, so he must be very confused. But a dream is just that, a dream, so why is he letting it bother him so much? Could it be that Draco has always wanted to be my friend? That's silly, but not at all impossible.

It's too much to wish that he wanted to be with me in a romantic way too.

"Harry, you writing in that thing again?" Ron complained. He nudged Harry's shoulder. "I know you're gay, but do you have to start acting like Hermione?" The redhead smirked. It was obvious he was just teasing, but Harry blushed anyway.

"Hermione suggested it, Ron, and shut up."

"Oh, then that makes more sense, so what are you writing this time?"

"As if I'd say. What do you want?" Harry asked.

"Hermione said to tell you that she wants to borrow your owl to send a letter, do you mind taking it down, because I don't want to go into the owlry?" Ron handed Harry a letter. It was just a plain simple letter, though there was no name on it.

"It hasn't got a name," Harry pointed out.

"Oh, she said it's enchanted. Hedwig will know where to go," Ron chuckled. "She's brilliant, isn't she?"

"And sneaky," Harry muttered, rolling his eyes. He took the letter and then enchanted his journal so that it would fit in his pocket.

Harry watched Hedwig fly off, turning away before he could notice a small little detail. Hedwig was heading toward the Slytherin side of the building.

With a sigh, Harry decided to get ahead of himself and go to his next class early. Too bad his next class was Transfiguration with the Slytherins.

"What's the meaning of this?"

Harry nearly fell over when he heard Draco's voice coming from behind him. Draco sounded quiet and confused, and perhaps a little off guard. This was the first time Draco had sought Harry out like this. Swallowing, Harry turned to face the blonde, the boy he was in love with. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw that Draco was holding a letter. The one he had just given to Hedwig not fifteen minutes earlier.

With trembling fingers, Harry took the letter Draco was shoving at him.

Hello Draco,

I don't even have to say who I am, of course, the owl gives that away. So you might be asking yourself "why is Potter writing to me?" I'm wondering the same thing myself, even as I'm writing this, but I just can't stand this anymore. You're probably confused about everything, aren't you? You're probably even more confused because I know you're confused.

Are you wondering about the dreams, Draco? Yes, I'm calling you Draco. You will have to get used to that. Anyways, the dreams, and yes, I know about them.

I'm not the only one either, Ron, Dumbledore, Ron's twin brothers, and Hermione also know about them, Hermione only because I told her.

I know I'm not making any sense and I'm sorry. The dreams were mine, Draco. Don't ask me how this works, that is Hermione's area.

She's a very clever witch, I do say so myself.

But yes, I had this magical dream.

I can't really remember what Hermione called it, I can't seem to pay attention. When will I ever learn?

Right, so I had this magical dream, where I dreamed myself into an alternative life. Can you figure out the rest? All the people in my dream also remember the parts they were in. See simple, right?

So now you know and now you can stop being so confused. You don't have to act differently if you don't want to. I know that you are. The dreams are not yours, Draco. They're mine. Don't ask me to explain why I dreamed we had, well that. I won't lie and say my feelings are different in the real world, but I can't explain how they happened.

I can be your friend if you want me to be, if not feel free to shove me down the stairs the next chance you get, though somehow I don't think you can go back to the way things were before, can you?

Harry Potter

All color drained from Harry's face. He felt sick and he wanted to die, kill Hermione and then die, no kill Ron too, or maybe just Ron and not Hermione. Who had planned this? It was something Harry had written, of course; it was his handwriting for the most part, but the letter was altered a little, by Hermione no doubt, or maybe Ron had altered it, either way, someone was going to get an earfull later.

Harry had never intended to send the letter, of course! He had written it just to get some of his feelings out. Hermione told him writing things down helped. Now he had a sinking feeling why the girl suggested this in the first place.

"Potter are you just going to stand there or are you going to explain yourself?" Draco demanded, though his voice was shaking.

Looking up, green eyes met gray. Harry backed away from Draco until his back was digging into a desk. He knocked something over and it shattered around his feet, but Harry didn't even notice. He was afraid. Oh yes, Harry was one hundred percent terrified.

"I don't know how to explain myself," Harry finally snapped. The stress was at an all-time high. He squeezed his fists at his side, his nails digging into his skin. It was only when Draco advanced on him and smacked him upside the head in a strangely gentle way, that Harry realized he was cutting himself.

"I'm not about to say I understand anything," Draco snapped right back, "but stop doing that, damn it."

"Doing what?"

"Hurting yourself," Draco huffed. He seemed a little embarrassed, but he didn't back away.

Rather confused, Harry brought his hands up to his face and noticed they were bloody. "Oh."

"Oh?" Draco scowled. "You really are stupid, Potter. Give me your hands," He ordered.

Dazed, Harry held out his hands, watching as Draco put his wand tip near the cuts. Once his hands were healed, Harry pulled them away and blushed.

"We're not friends," Draco said in a soft voice that sounded like he wished otherwise. "The dream means nothing at all. I may not be evil like you've always thought, but that doesn't mean I want to start befriending your lot. Furthermore, these feelings can't be real."

Harry only shrugged. "Yeah . . . "

'Except they are real. I love you,' Harry thought, 'and you feel something for me too, even if it's not the same thing I feel.' He bent down and started to clean up the mess he had made, watching Draco out of the corner of his eye. The blonde seemed very, very troubled almost as troubled as Harry felt.

'If we're not friends then why do you defend me? Why do you care if I hurt myself?' Harry wondered though he didn't dare ask.