Dream Girl

THREE - WAY BACK

The rest of the summer went away with a blink of an eye. Luckily there were no more visits from Voldemort in the manor. Draco spent most of his days training with Bellatrix or on his own. It made him tired enough that he had no problems falling asleep at night. He was glad that the dreams with Alora started after he got better in Occlumency, so he could keep it as his secret even from his own family. Now he was practically an expert in it.

He left the manor only once. He and his mother visited Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley to shop for some supplies and also looking for something to help him with his task. His mother was terrified when Bellatrix told her about it. Of course his aunt was very proud of him, but his mother was just scared. And she was also determined to help him as much as possible. That's why he had to spend so many hours practicing with Bellatrix.

He was now positive that Alora is a real person and they became good friends, spending every single night together for almost a month. He still didn't know much about her and her status and to be honest he didn't really care about stuff like that anymore. But he knew his family still did. So he was determined to keep Alora as his secret as long as necessary, to keep her safe.

He wasn't afraid to go to sleep at night anymore. From the day he got the dark mark Alora was in his dreams every night, protecting him from his own nightmares. So he just wanted to do the same for her.

"Draco, are you coming?"

Draco shook his head to snap out of his train of thoughts. He looked around and saw that the train station was almost empty. Only a few parents were standing there so they could wave goodbye to their children. He looked towards the train window and saw Theo with an amused smirk on his face.

"If I didn't know you I would have thought you were in love. Come on, everyone is already here," Theo waved at him and disappeared back inside the train.

Draco stepped in and the train started moving as soon as the door shut behind him.

"Finally. You looked like somebody stunned you," Theo laughed again when Draco finally sat down next to him. Opposite of theme were Blaise and Pansy. Crabbe and Goyle were in the seats across the alley.

"Tough summer," Draco said with a neutral expression. He knew that he wasn't the only one in their friends group with Death Eater parents but he didn't know how much others knew about his task.

"Are you okay, mate?" Blaise asked with genuine concern. Draco immediately remembered the one discussion he had with Alora when she told him he should re-evaluate which friendship was real.

"I've heard you had a very interesting guest over the summer," Crabbe said with excited sparks in his eyes. Goyle was frantically nodding in agreement.

"I think I don't want to talk about it here," Draco said with the same plain expression. Crabbe and Goyle were looking disappointed whilst Theodore and Blaise were looking like they understood.

"What about you, guys?" Draco leaned back to his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. He wasn't exactly in the mood for talking. Luckily Pansy was more than happy to talk their heads off with all the things she did during the summer break.

Draco tried to listen at first but zoned out somewhere between her trip to France and the birthday celebration of her cousin. He was just thinking if he should go for a walk and by walk he meant go looking for one particular curly hair girl when their train car filled with some kind of opaque dark smoke. Everyone started coughing and cursing. Draco shot up on his feet but before he could do something about it the smoke disappeared.

"What was that?" Crabbe squealed with an unnaturally high voice.

"Probably just some first or second years trying to be funny," Pansy said with evident disgust in her voice. "Come on, Draco, sit down. We are almost in Hogwarts anyways," she pulled him down by his hand.

Draco pulled his hand away as she'd burned him, he couldn't help but compare her touch to Alora's. He was used to Pansy touching him. It was so obvious she was trying to get closer to him for several years now. He sometimes let her but never crossed the line and made them official. And he definitely didn't want to do it now. Not when he met Alora. Draco knew it was only in his dream but everything they did seemed to be so real. He felt stupid, falling for a girl he didn't even meet in real life. He knew she was helping him because of her gift but some small piece of his heart believed she would do it even if she had a chance to choose whose dream she'd appear in.

"What happened to you?" Pansy asked, hurt.

"A lot of things change during summer, Pansy," Draco said plainly, facing the window. In the corner of his eyes he could see Blaise's worried expression.

"Like what?" She spat at him, annoyed.

"I said, I don't want to talk about it here." Draco said through gritted teeth.

"Ugh! I thought this is our year! We should have fun and enjoy our last two years. And here you are, such a pain in the ass instead," she puffed again.

"I may even not be here to enjoy the last year with you," Draco retorted back sarcastically. Of course there were many reasons why that could happen. If he didn't complete his task, Voldemort would kill him. If he would complete his task, he couldn't imagine going back to the same place where that happened.

Pansy was taking a big breath, probably to spat another nonsense at him but Theo stopped her. "Pansy! Don't!"

Draco was surprised Theo defended him. He was his oldest friend but they weren't that close anymore even though they were part of the same friend group. They knew each other even before Hogwarts. Both of them were from well known pure-blooded families after all. But Theo was a more solitary type. He was never a big public supporter of his family views but he also never went publicly against them. Draco basically didn't know what Theo was thinking about this stuff.

Draco wanted to say something but he suddenly had this weird feeling that they were not alone anymore. He flicked his head up towards the storage space and was almost positive that he saw some movement there. But Pansy solved it for him, she stood up, angrily stomped away and sat down next to Daphne.

"Thank you. Her chattering started to be annoying like two hours ago," Blaise leaned forward so he could pat Draco and Theo on their shoulders, a big grin on his face. Draco gave him a half smile and turned his attention to the approaching castle.

When they finally arrived he took his time. Everybody else was slowly walking away, emptying the space until only him, Theo and Blaise left.

"You're not coming?" Theo asked him worriedly.

"Wait for me outside," Draco replied quietly without looking at them. Soon after he heard a soft thud of the door, hinting that he was now alone. At least it appeared like that. With a swift flicked of his hand he casted a body-binding spell somewhere up his head. Something big and heavy fell down from the storage space but he still could see anything. Draco crouched down and reached out with his arm, feeling some kind of slippery fabric. When he pulled for it he realized it was an Invisibility Cloak. There he was, Draco's oldest enemy...Harry Potter.

"It's not polite to eavesdrop, Potter," Draco said angrily. He was glad he didn't say anything about his mark or his task. He knew that it wasn't a good idea to talk about stuff like this in a public place. Not when Potter was running around with his stupid cloak. He stood up and looked down at Potter's stunned body. Draco was fighting with himself, all he wanted to do was stomp at his frozen face but he was trying to be better. His old self would do it without a blink of an eye but Alora believed he was a better man. And he wanted to prove it to her, even though she wasn't here to see it. So he just clenched both of his fists and left the train, leaving stunned Harry alone. The spell should have worn off before the train would leave the station anyways.

"You're good, man?" Blaise asked him immediately as Draco joined them.

"Yeah. All good."