𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐓𝐀 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐀

Chapter 10

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;

I would my true love did so chance

To see the legend of my play,

To call my true love with my dance;

Singing oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,

This have I done for my true love.

"Tomorrow shall be my dancing day", William B. Sandays, John Gardner

It was the same night, after the corridor incident, that Draco got his first nightmare.

He was tired but somehow happy when he had gone to bed. He had seen how Pansy had approached Potter in the common room, watched Longbottom get up and Pansy take his chair. He'd had an excellent view of Potter's profile from where he was sitting and he had seen how Pansy dropped her head into her hands, how Potter's face was apologetic and surprised. And then, after some time, Pansy had stood up and come over to sit next to him.

"Potter's crazy!" she exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, is that news to you?"

"And you were right," she said, ignoring his comment. "He forgave me just like that."

"Told you." He had hugged her then, the happy and relieved smile on her face warming him inside.

"So you did." She laughed. "But you still need to wait for me for breakfast."

"Damn."

He had been so relieved and glad for Pansy as she sat there with him the whole evening, even partaking in Draco's discussions with Granger as they studied together. The look on Granger's face the first time Pansy had spoken directly to her, without a sneer on her face, was priceless and Draco had to bite his tongue in order to not laugh out loud.

He had gone to bed with a smile on his face, which was unusual for him, but as soon as he had fallen asleep in his dark dorm unpleasant and terrifying dreams had come.

He woke up with a jerk, cold and sweaty, with his heart hammering hard against his ribcage. And the worst thing was that he couldn't, for all the treasures in Gringotts, remember what he had dreamt. It all just seemed like a faded memory. The feeling was still with him, but he didn't know what had caused it.

The clock said that it was one in the morning, and with a sigh Draco tried to get back to sleep.

He tossed and turned in bed for what seemed like hours, and felt how he was too tired to stay awake, but too tired to fall asleep. When his clock said thirteen past three in the morning, Draco gave up and turned on his lamp and pulled out a book that he read until breakfast.

He watched as Corner woke up an hour before he and Theo usually got up, and how the Ravenclaw jumped behind the door as he realized Draco was awake. Draco just rolled his eyes at Corner's paranoid expression, pathetic really. Corner moved quietly and slowly, as if sudden movements would offend Draco.

"Really, Corner," he said, making the Ravenclaw jump again, which was a bit satisfying. "Neither I nor Theo have done anything to you for half a year, do you really think we're going to hex you first thing in the morning?" he asked from where he was sitting in his bed.

"You never know with Slytherins, now do you?" he fired back.

"No, you never know about Slytherins, and that's because you never bothered to learn. You, just like everybody else, grouped us all into the evil madmen category."