The Legend of Deltarune

Chapter 4: Palace of Pandemonium

Harry woke up fully convinced that the previous day had been a dream. He was sure that whenever he chose to open his eyes, he would be back in his four-poster bed in the Gryffindor dorm, ready for a normal day of classes. He could practically hear the birds outside and the sound of Seamus, one of his dormmates, snoring.

However, when he opened his eyes, he was met with the view of Draco Malfoy having shared an air mattress with Harry on the floor, the world completely different from the one he knew. God. At least he was well-rested.

The passage of time was clear, even if there was no real sun to prove it. Instead, outside the window, all the crystals in the sky that had previously formed stars were now all clumped together in a large ring of light, mimicking a hollow sun. Brightness changed, however, it did nothing to the general colour scheme, still making Harry's skin abundantly hot pink.

Despite it all, even if this world wasn't a dream, the sight of an extremely unkempt Draco Malfoy was worth Galleons. He had never even seen the boy without products in his hair, much less spotted him in a wrinkly shirt. The boy who had acted all high-and-mighty since he was a small child for his status and glory was now lying across from him, quite frankly, looking like a mess. It was amusing, to say the least. Perhaps even on the cusp of endearing.

Draco suddenly let out a low noise, startling Harry who had not realized that he was also awake. He suddenly realized how close he was to Malfoy's face.

"Good morning," Harry said, backing away an inch or dozen.

"Your breath is horrendous," Draco said groggily, a grimace on his face and his eyes still closed.

Harry grinned. He inhaled deeply before exhaling like an exhaust pipe, blowing as much air as he could manage onto Draco's face while barely stifling his laugh.

"Oi," Draco sleepily whined, however, Harry couldn't help but notice Draco's mouth twitching upwards.

"Good morning you two," it came from the door.

Harry quickly sat up, startled, looking back at Daniel, who had come into the room with a smile. For some reason, Harry felt like he had been caught doing something he didn't want anyone to see. Perhaps being friendly with Malfoy was still on Harry's internal Never-To-Do list.

Daniel smiled patiently as Draco slowly sat up too, looking much less awake than Harry did. Now that Daniel wasn't wearing the dark cloak he had been wearing the day before, Harry noticed that he was a rather cute and plump boy, with fiery red hair reminiscent of the Weasleys. He wasn't wearing his glasses yet, which was disorienting to see his eyes looking so small.

"There's toast — and I've made tea!" Daniel said, "But get dressed first. We've got a lot of work to do."

Breakfast was spent discussing their plan for The Grand Scheme. There was also a lengthy discussion of what The Scheme was. The first step was to make their way to the castle, and they figured they could pick up from there.

"Break into the palace?!" Harry said in shocked response, nearly dropping his piece of bread.

"Well, why not?" Draco asked, "That is where the way out is, right? How else are we going to get home?"

"He's right, the only way home is by closing the Dark Fountain from the tallest tower — we need to go to it," said Daniel. "The Empress will not be roaming the palace, and I know for a fact that the guards focus on protecting it from the outside. All we need is to figure out a way to enter."

"Yes, but treason just seems a little risky when Royal Guards are already looking for us," argued Harry.

"What, scared Potter—?"