In My Dreams [Draco Malfoy]

chapter fourteen: the third task

INDIGO

By the time we arrived at breakfast the following morning, Aria had been watching my every move for nearly an hour and was onto me.

"I saw you leave the dorm last night," she said once I had begun chewing a mouthful of fruit. "You took some money and put on your trainers, then didn't come back for an hour. Everything alright?"

I nodded. "Had some trouble sleeping," I said.

This was our code for 'I had a vision' when we were among people who didn't know about me. Or, at least, when we were with Stephen and Su Li, who remained out of the loop. I was exhausted anyway, so it would be believable enough. When I looked in the mirror this morning, the dark circles under my eyes had been especially frightful.

"You needed money and shoes because you had a hard time sleeping?" asked Stephen.

I knew he would ask that. Aria might not think highly of Stephen's intelligence but even a moron could see that didn't line up with Aria's question.

"Just needed some fresh air," I lied.

And Stephen knew it was a lie because he just stared at me.

I stared right back and he groaned.

"I should have known you wouldn't say," he sighed. "My mistake."

"Will there ever come a day when you trust us enough to tell us the truth, Indie?" Su Li asked gently, taking my hand from across the table.

"I don't keep it from you because I don't trust you," I said, giving her hand a loving squeeze. "I keep it from you because it's dangerous for you to know. Aria only knows because she figured me out."

Stephen gawked at Aria, while she nodded and grinned like the smug little terror she was.

That was true. She had confronted me with it during Second Year, when I had had a vision of Colin Creevey and Justin Finch-Fletchley being petrified. I had been terrified and denied it for a whole week before I had another vision and woke up screaming with her right beside me. It was hard to deny that a seer after she saw me scrambling to write down what had happened in it, and we went to the Common Room so I could tell her everything without worrying about our several other roommates overhearing.

I told her then exactly how dangerous this kind of knowledge was and what people might do to keep others from having it. But she had just shook her head and said we were in this together, that I could tell her anything and she was there for me. I had cried for nearly twenty minutes before falling back to sleep and woke up like a puffy-eyed baby possum.

To this day, it's one of my favorite memories. It was when I finally figured out that it was okay for a person like me to have friends.

"So you've left clues?" Stephen asked, his eyes lighting up with hope.

"Not intentionally," I said. "But that isn't an invitation to figure me out too."

"I don't know much more than you do anyhow," said Aria.

This was also true. Even though I have a vision almost every other night, I've only told her about two since she found out about me—the first being the vision of Hermione Granger and Penelope Clearwater's petrification I had that same year, and Sirius Black's encounter with dementors Third Year. If I don't have to say, I won't, but it would still be best for as few people as possible to know about me at all.

"Well, I can't help being curious," he said, sucking up a spoonful of jello. "Maybe you should reserve a spot for me when you start your newspaper company, Indie. I can be part of your celebrity news team. Finding what kind of skeletons you have in the cupboard would be great training."