Erised

Chapter 5: Dream

Chapter 5: Dream

Hermione had a dream. A horrible one. In her dream, she was walking down a dark and deserted alley, quite clueless about what she was doing there.

Something about finding someone kept nagging her mind. She was here to find someone, but who? As she narrowed down the alley, she stumbled on a lump on the ground.

She lit her wand and looked down at the lump. It was a human. The human was face down, a hood covering the head. She shuffled a little closer, trying to figure out if the man was still alive. Her wand light caught a bit of golden blond beneath the hood, and she felt her stomach dropping.

'Was it Draco? Was he dead? No, no! He can't be!', she thought. She bent forward and turned the body around. Her heart stopped when she saw Draco, blood gushing out of his mouth, eyes wide open. He was as still as stone. She stood there, frozen, too shocked to cry.

Hermione woke up with a start. She looked around. She was still in her dormitory. To her left, Parvati was looking at her.

"Hermione, are you alright? I heard you sobbing", she asked, with concern.

Her touched her cheeks. They were damp. She wiped her tears and looked back at Parvati.

"It's fine. Just had a bad dream", she whispered.

"Oh, okay. Good night, then", Parvati said, and went back to sleep.

Hermione laid down on her bed, sleep escaping her. She gazed at the ceiling of her fore poster. What was the dream supposed to mean? Why Draco? She couldn't make sense of it. Was it some kind of a message?

She thought about how Harry used to dream about things that were actually happening. But that had been when a piece of Voldemort had been in his head. Surely, it wasn't the same thing.

She wanted to tell someone about this dream, but she knew she couldn't. She couldn't go up to her friends and tell them she dreamt about Draco, even if it was his lifeless body. The thought of Draco dying made her stomach clench. A fear swept over her when she thought of it, and she wanted to weep and wail out loud. Even the thought of his death made her feel like a part of her was dead.

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The next day, at breakfast, Hermione couldn't help but keep glancing at Draco, to make sure he wouldn't drop dead suddenly. It took all of her willpower to stop from flinging her arms around Draco and crying in his arms.

For their first period, Draco and Hermione had Ancient Runes together, and as they waited outside the classroom, Hermione pulled Draco aside in a corner where no one could see them.

"Draco, are you alright?", she asked with concern. For some reason tears were threatening to fall.

"Yes. Why? Am I not supposed to be?", he asked her sarcastically.

"No! I'm glad you are fine....and alive", Hermione almost wailed.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong? Am I supposed to be dead or something?", he joked. As soon as the words escaped his mouth, he felt a slap across his face.

"Don't you ever joke about this again!", Hermione hissed, tears running down her face. Draco looked at her dazed, his cheek still burning from where she had slapped him.

The next moment, Hermione was hugging him, sobbing on his shoulder. It took him a few seconds to register what had just happened. What had just happened?

He held her, not wanting to upset her further by asking questions. When she stopped shaking, he whispered in her ear.

"Hermione, tell me what's wrong. Why are you crying?", he whispered softly.

"It's just that....I had this dream", she whispered back, in the middle of her sob. "In the dream, I was walking down a dark alley, and....and...I stumbled on something....and...when I looked down....it was..you. You....were.....dead", her voice cracked at the last word and she clutched Draco tighter as a fresh wave of tears washed over her.

Draco stared at a space ahead. Hermione had dreamed of him being dead, and it had upset her. At that moment, she was weeping in his arms, possibly, glad that he was still breathing. But why would she care if he was dead, or not? Did she care about him?

Hermione took a step back from him and wiped the tears of her face. Draco stared at her, lost for words.

"Uh...we should go. The class has started", he said, still looking at her. He held out his hand, and Hermione took it.

They walked to the classroom, hand in hand, but separated when they opened the door. They got in, apologising for their lateness and sat down on two different ends of the classroom. Throughout the lesson, Hermione kept glancing at him with worry. Every time, he looked back and gave her a nod, assuring her he was still alive.

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"Why does Malfoy keep looking at you?", Ginny asked Hermione at dinner, in an irritated tone.

"I don't know", she shrugged and looked down at her plate. She couldn't tell Ginny that Draco kept looking because she kept glancing at him.

"Well, it's kind of creepy", Ginny said, glaring at Draco as he looked up again.

"Let it go Ginny, it's Malfoy", said Harry, picking up a potato from Ginny's plate. "He's probably plotting revenge or something", he said, trying pick another piece of potato from Ginny's plate. She slapped his hand away and shrugged.

"Quite possible", Ron muttered from across the table, his mouth stuffed with food as usual.

"Or maybe he's changed. Maybe he is trying to be a better person", Hermione suggested, still looking down at her food.

"Malfoy?! Better person!?", Ron laughed, spraying her with flecks of food. "People like Malfoy never change", he said.

"That's true. The battle might have affected him, but he's still too much of a Slytherin to change his ways", Harry said, scrunching his eye brows together.

Hermione sighed heavily. Her friends would never understand. Harry and Ron were wrong. Draco was trying to be a better person. She knew he was. She looked across the hall, when her friends wouldn't notice, and saw Draco staring back at her. He gave her a slight smile, which, would have been difficult to see from across the hall, if she hadn't known his expressions so well. She smiled back at him and he looked down.

That night, she could barely catch any sleep. Her mind was clouded with thoughts of Draco. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw him. She couldn't sleep. And it wasn't till the early hours of morning, when Hermione finally realised this. She liked Draco. A lot. Maybe even loved him.