Fragments of the Sea

Ominous Oracles

Hermione woke up on the Gryffindor couch, with several worried faces surrounding her. When she stirred and sat up, holding her hand to her forehead, they all rushed to help her up. "How did I get here...?" she groaned. Seamus, who was leaning on the back of the couch, gave a feral growl. "The ferret was seen in here by the younger kids, supposedly carrying you. They told us he didn't try to start any conflict with them, but he might've just hexed 'em to keep 'em quiet," he elaborated. 

Hermione's eyes sparked with recognition as the memories flooded back to her. "Did he hurt you? No, I shouldn't even be asking that question. I should be out there bustin' 'im up right now." Seamus continued, though much of it seemed to be an eagerness to beat up the Slytherin. Hermione shook her head. "No- it wasn't him. We ran into each other in the library- he was with a Hufflepuff- and I got angry. Anyways, later on, I guess I fainted., and he carried me back, though Perci probably forced him to...I'm sorry- I'm rambling. Just...it wasn't his fault; they were helping me," she summed up, shaking her head. 

Who would've thought...first Draco apologized to her, and revealing a tender camaraderie with a Hufflepuff, then carrying her back right into the middle of the Gryffindor common room...Was Hermione sure she didn't have a concussion? Maybe someone had cast a Confundus Charm on her. But not even her intellectual, curious mind could come up with something like that.

Hermione noticed a not-so-foreign texture in her hand. Looking down at it, she discovered it was a paper scrap, with a deliberate, elegant cursive on it- the writer had obviously practiced their penmanship until they reached perfection. Hermione pulled her slightly scrambled mind back together. The strokes spelled out a message:

"𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓁𝑒𝑒𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝑔𝑜𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝑒𝒶 𝑔𝓁𝒶𝓈𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂 𝑜𝒻 𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓈𝒾𝓉𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓇. 𝐼𝓃𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝒾𝓉𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓁𝒾𝑔𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝑒𝓃𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝒾𝑔𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝑜𝓊𝓉, 𝒢𝓇𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇."

⇺⇷ஓΨஓ⇸⇻

Perci leaned against the side of a table, watching as Draco anxiously paced the enchanted floor. It was like glass, on top, but it gave the illusion of dipping down in the middle, making great use of the galaxy design beneath it, magnifying and illuminating pictures of constellations and planets on the walls. Perci couldn't help but notice that the planet Neptune seemed to follow her path around the room, and it made her lips twitch into a small smile. 

It quickly dropped from her face and she rolled her eyes. "Stop pacing," the daughter of the sea scolded her friend, "You're making me dizzy." Draco stopped and glanced over at her. "She's late. We should've just gone to Black Lake," he complained. Perci opened her mouth to protest, but she noticed the large door in the corner creaking open. 

"You're here," Perci said, surprised. "I'm here." Hermione's tone was just a surprised as Perci's. Draco walked up behind her. "And you're late," he stated. The Gryffindor spun around, and she stumbled backwards, towards Perci, and bumping into the table. 

"Draco." She kept the sting in her words, but there wasn't as much of a cut to them as earlier. "Good, you're more reasonable now. And using my first name, as well. I'm impressed by your diplomacy and tact, Hermione." Draco seemed impressed, but Hermione appeared insulted, as if he was mocking her. "Not like you would be cognizant of that. You don't know a thing about me," she slightly upturned her nose at the end of her sentence.

Draco sneered slightly and raised his eyebrow. "And here I thought I was supposed to be 'snotty pureblood', yet I'm not the one sticking their nose in the air. For your second point, I do know you. I was not friends with you for certain, but I've known you just as long as Potter and Weasley have."

"Guys- stop it. Both of you are acting childish. Now, Hermione, I believe you wanted answers, am I correct?" Perci inquired. The girl nodded furiously. "Then ask away. I only ask that you at least try to get along with Draco. If you forget your pasts, then I think you two could be great friends,." Perci smirked as Hermione attempted to keep her face from morphing into horror while Draco gave her a deadpan look over the lioness' shoulder. 

⇺⇷ஓΨஓ⇸⇻

Draco was sitting on the sizable, plush couch stiffly. His back was straight, and his white-blonde hair was primly smoothed back. Nonetheless, if you knew him well enough, and looked a little closer, you could see how his shadowy iron eyes had softened to more of an ashy cloud; how several of his bright locks were out of place, falling in front of his face.

Beside him, Perci laid in a more relaxed position. Her back was just barely arched backwards, melding into the cozy cushions and somehow keeping it's perfect posture. She'd crossed her legs over each other, and her arms were outstretched, the right one reaching slightly around Draco's shoulders, on the back of the couch. She was conversing with Hermione, who sat in a similar position to Draco, though with noticeably less practice put into it, along with a more disheveled appearance, and telling the girl short stories of her childhood.

The way Perci jumped from one tale to another, and spoke with an exuberant air implied that she had an abundance of ebullient and cheerful stories to chose from, Draco observed. When she'd shared the more serious parts of her youth with him at Black Lake, those stories seemed to far outweigh the detailed, yet scarce experiences of happiness.

Draco frowned as his mind delved deeper into the metaphorical maze. She truly wouldn't have had added so many details to the happy parts if they weren't memorable, right? And if they were so memorable, then Draco could also assume that one reason for that was that there were so few of said memories that she had to remember, that she memorized and treasured everything about them. Draco also noticed that many of the things she'd revealed were from her youth, and that he knew next to nothing about Perci's early life.

She had said that she was a pureblood, as was her mother, so why had she been raised in muggle society? Most pureblood families would never allow their offspring to do such a treasonous act, and pureblood parents were absent, but somehow managed to simultaneously be very present in their child's life. Perci had also told Draco that she often preferred wearing muggle clothing, which could be cause of her roots in their civilization, but it brought him back to the first question. 

It was slightly suspicious that she had grown up with a pureblood family, yet surrounded by muggles; that she'd grown up wearing T-shirts and jeans, but adjusted just as well as he had to wearing their schools robes and dark black sweaters with gold accents beneath them(even if she wore pitch black muggle jeans with them[if he hadn't teased her for anything in the 7 years previous, then she must've either done everything perfectly, or been really good at hiding in the shadows- possibly both].)

"Draco!" Someone was vigorously shaking his shoulders. "Snap out of it!" Perci yelled. When she saw Draco wince, she lowered her voice and explained what was happening. "Hermione left. She's also open to forgiving you, if you give her enough reason to. On a lesser note, we should probably get back to our dorms before morning. People are bound to notice if all 3 of us are showing up late- it's like we're recruiting one person from each house to join our late night army. Maybe next we should grab Luna Lovegood, for a Ravenclaw," Perci joked.

"But seriously, your dorm is even farther than mine, if I use my shortcut, so you should really get going. I'll see you in our classes tomorrow. Oh, also, I've got an inkling that there's a Charms essay coming up, so you may want a head start on that. Definitely didn't eavesdrop on Flitwick talking about it. Anyway, bye~" She grinned and sped of into the dark halls. 

Draco blinked and shook his head. He'd never understand the randomness that continuously poured from her mouth. She almost spouted as much nonsense as Lovegood. But, she was never wrong, so Draco briskly made his way to the Slytherin dungeons to get some shut eye. He'd have to start on an essay in the morning- he wondered if Perci had told Granger, knowing about her love of studying and getting a jump on homework. Draco quietly scoffed.

Even a war wouldn't change the bookworm's habits...