The Long Lost Zabini

Chapter 6

After Ginny had left, the three worked to maintain their little routine. Though Ginny was clearly missed, everything went smoothly until the night before Hogwarts. The three of them had packed everything in the daytime, and were completely ready to leave for the Hogwarts Express the next day. It had been a fairly slow day, just packing and watching tv. They turned in pretty early, though, so they could wake up and catch the train.

Both the boys woke in the middle of the night to the sound of screaming that was coming from Hermione's room. They ran and flung open the door. There she was, thrashing in her bed and screaming as the result of some nightmare. They tried to calm her down or wake her up, but nothing seemed to be working.

Finally Draco had an idea. He decided to go into Hermione's mind and calm her down from there. He whispered "Legilimens."

It was Malfoy Manor. Hermione was looking up at the cruel faces of Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy. The latter looked a tad worse for wear, with unusually pale skin and purple bags under his eyes. There seemed to be a large fear factor in hosting the Dark Lord's forces at the Malfoys' ancestral home. Hermione tucked that information away for later. Even when being tortured, she had to think analytically. Anything to help the Order. Hermione looked away from Lucius and focused on her torturer. Bellatrix's eyes were filled with nothing but insanity.

The cold tile of the floor was almost refreshing against Hermione's wounds.

Her arm was being torn open, shooting searing pain through her body as she screamed. The word "Mudblood" was being slashed into her forearm. By magic or blade, Hermione didn't know.

She heard "crucio" yelled several times. The pain was so bad she couldn't distinguish it between each time the spell was shot at her.

The scene stopped and started replaying at the part when Draco came in. 'How many times has this replayed already?' Draco thought worriedly. This time, he pulled out his wand and made the vision of Ron disappear. Hermione started crying, so he bent down and pulled her up. He then kissed her gently. Hermione pulled away from the kiss. "Draco? What are you..." she trailed off.

Suddenly they were both shot from her dreamscape into real life. Hermione sat up, gasping. The boys were on either side of her bed. "Draco! You're, here... you were in my dream... y-you ki—"

Noticing what she was about to say, the blond interrupted, "are you alright?"

Hermione nodded weakly. "Just a stupid dream. I'm fine."

Blaise, after making sure his sister was really okay and fussing for a few minutes, went to go sleep in his room. Draco was about to leave after him, but Hermione quietly asked, "Draco? Can you... can you please stay?" He nodded and climbed into bed next to her. He wrapped his arms around her.

They remained like that until the morning, when Blaise yelled "Oi! Get off each other! We have to get to Platform 9 3/4!"

Draco and Blaise left the room and the three of them got ready to leave. Then they Apparated with their trunks onto the platform.

They walked through the wall to get to Platform 9 3/4, and got onto the Hogwarts Express early. Barely any people were there yet. The three sat in the back with a compartment to themselves. It wasn't long before Ginny and Harry joined them.

"Hey, Blaise and... Hermione." Hermione noticed that Harry hesitated a bit, finding it difficult to associate the name to her new face. "Malfoy," he said bitterly, nodding towards the blond.

"Hi, Harry. Has the last month been alright? Anything interesting?" Hermione was the only one bothering to converse with Harry as Blaise, Draco and Ginny had already struck a conversation.