From Dreams to Reality

Chapter 2_______________________________________________________________

It was quite late in the evening when Dumbledore arrived, though he didn't stay long. He had come to see Draco's condition and get a story on what had happened. Everyone in the small lounge room, Dumbledore, Hermione and Hermione's parents listened to his tragic story with intent, but no one reacted the same way to the story as Hermione did.

The whole of his story, all the details and descriptions, were like her dream, only it was being told, rather than seen. She didn't understand how this was true. It was as though she had had a premonition of some sort, but Hermione didn't believe in that. It frightened her though. What if it happened again? What if she had another dream tonight and wakes up in the morning to find that the same thing had happened in another case? Hermione didn't know how to express these feelings and questions to anyone...

Dumbledore left after giving Hermione a bottle of a greenish-yellow, pain-easing potion and instructions to give Draco about half a glass of it every twenty-four hours until he was better. He preformed an anti-Appariating/Disappariating charm (to keep Lucius from finding Draco) on the house and told Draco that he was to stay at the Granger residence for the rest of the summer holidays. This made neither Draco nor Hermione happy at all.

Once Dumbledore had left, Hermione found herself quite amused by Draco's fascination with the television, as her parents watched one of their favourite programs. She had given him a dose of the potion and he seemed to be feeling a lot better since. However, her father was getting rather frustrated with all of Draco's constant questions about electricity and wiring.

Hermione approached Malfoy on the couch. "Malfoy, get up," she said reluctantly. "If you're going to be staying here, you have to know where everything is. Come on."

Draco slowly got off the couch and followed her into the passageway, a vacant expression on his face.

"You should be taking Muggle Studies, Malfoy," Hermione said. "All those questions were started to annoy my dad and believe me when I tell you it's not a good idea to annoy my dad, especially when he's trying to watch TV."

"Where's your bathroom?" Draco asked, looking up and down the passage at the several doors. Hermione led him to the end of the passage and stopped in front of a door to their right, labeled with a small plaque saying "bathroom".

"You can access the toilet from in there. There's also a door in the laundry you can access through if someone's in the shower or something," she said. Draco nodded and headed into the bathroom.

Hermione stood outside, waiting until he was finished and when he had, she led him to the door at the very end of the passageway, which had a sign on it that said "Hermione's Room" written in enchanted letters that flashed from gold to red and back again.

"Oh, wonderful, Gryffindor colours," Draco said sarcastically in a spiteful tone. Hermione gave him a cold look before opening the door to reveal her neat and tidy room. She entered with Draco right behind her and sat down on her freshly-made bed.

"This," she said with a small smile, "Is my room."

"I gathered that by the sign," Draco smirked, pointing to her open door. Hermione gave him another cool look.

"If you need something during the night or anything, you'll find me here. Just knock first before you enter. At night, while my parents are asleep, knock lightly. Their room's right next door and they can hear even the very slightest of sounds, so be careful," Hermione said. A thought suddenly struck her. "How are you going to get all your stuff here? I mean you can't go back home with your father there. Dumbledore didn't even say anything about that."

Draco frowned and sat down on Hermione's desk chair. "I could always send an owl to my house-elf, Penya. She'd do whatever I asked her to, even if it was written in a letter. I'd have to ask her to do it without my father knowing though."

Hermione gave a bit of a guilty smile. "I don't have an owl, though," she said. "I am due for an owl from Harry, however. Hedwig usually stays here for a few hours after bringing me a letter. We could always use her and I'll just tell Harry that I needed her for something," she suggested. "I used Ron's owl when I sent that letter to Dumbledore. I'm sure Harry won't mind."

"Fine," Draco said stiffly. "We'll use your wonderful boyfriend's owl."

"Malfoy," Hermione said warningly. "It's our only chance of getting your things here. That is if your house-elf can read?"

"Penya can read," Draco assured her. Hermione looked surprisingly impressed. "My mother taught her. Mother can't handle paper work, so she taught Penya to do it for her." Hermione opened her mouth to speak. "Granger, I don't need your stupid house-elf rights crap right now, so don't even start."

"I was only going to say that your mother should be doing her own paper work," Hermione muttered, before closing her mouth.

> * <

Next morning, Hermione woke to the sound of something tapping on glass. She gave a great yawn and stretch and looked over at her window, where the tapping was coming from. She climbed out of bed and headed over. She opened her blinds, letting the fresh summer sunshine shine in, into her room. A beautiful snowy owl was sitting outside on the sill with a letter tied to her leg. Hermione opened her window and Hedwig flew in, her right wing tickling Hermione's ear.

Hedwig landed softly on Hermione's messed up bed and cheerfully held out her leg. Hermione made her way over and untied the letter from it. Hedwig then flew over to Hermione's desk and perched herself on the top of Hermione's chair. Hermione smiled at the owl and went over to give her a light pat.

"Here, Hedwig," she said, holding out an arm for the bird to hop onto. "We'll go get you a drink, shall we?" Hedwig gave a delightful hoot and hopped onto Hermione's awaiting arm. "Good girl."

Hermione exited her room and carefully carried Hedwig down the passage to the kitchen. She grabbed a small container out of the cupboard under the sink and filled it with water. She set Hedwig down on a bench, with the water, allowing the bird to have a good, nice drink from it.

Hermione quietly headed out of the kitchen into the lounge room and kneeled down next to Draco. "Malfoy," she whispered close to his ear, taking in the sweet aroma of his silver-blonde hair. "Malfoy, wake up."

Draco let out a moan and opened his eyes. "Mmm ... what is it, Granger?" he asked in an agitated tone.

"Hedwig, she's here," Hermione said, standing back up and heading back towards the kitchen.

"Hedwig?" Draco said, throwing the blankets off him and standing up.

"Harry's owl," Hermione reminded him. Draco wearily nodded as he entered the kitchen, to see the snowy owl sitting on the bench, a container of water in front of her. "You should send that letter you wrote to Penya now, because Hedwig will want to head back to Harry very soon, now she's had a drink."

Draco nodded and put his hand in his pocket, bringing out a small a piece of parchment. He handed the letter (which he'd written the night earlier) to Hermione, who tied it to Hedwig's leg with a small piece of string.

"I want you to send this to Penya the house-elf. She works in a mansion on the other side of the forest," Hermione said carefully to the bird. She looked at Draco to make sure she was giving the right instructions. Draco nodded and Hermione turned back to Hedwig.
"Penya the house-elf. Got that?" Hedwig gave a light hoot and flew, out of the kitchen, down the passage and out into the day's fresh air through Hermione's open window.

"I'll have to send Harry a reply some other time," Hermione sighed.

"Ohhhh, the poor scarhead's going to be so heartbroken," Draco smirked sarcastically. "He may never forgive you this time around, Granger. What are you going to do then, go after Weasley? Oh, wait, I forgot, you've already had him. Looks like Longbottom will have his chance at last!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Hermione snapped. "Harry and I are nothing more than best friends and that's not about to change, so get used to it."

"Oh, but you want it to change, don't you Granger?" Draco drawled, an odd glimmer in his grey eyes. "I've seen the way you look at him. You'd probably do anything for him, wouldn't you?" Hermione's cheeks went red and she didn't reply. Draco gave her a triumphant look, before turning around and heading back into the lounge, wanting to get a tiny bit more sleep.

Hermione headed back up to her room and sat down on her bed.

For nearly three years now, she had been trying to get Harry's attention, trying to make Harry notice her, but never had he. Ron had, but that hadn't lasted all that long. Harry had never even suspected that she like him, yet it was so obvious to the people around them. Draco was right when saying that she would probably do anything for him and that sentence had awakened her unhappiness. She wasn't really happy at all, unless she had Harry near her, or on her mind. Draco didn't know this, but it was likely that he would work it out at some point over the next couple of weeks, while he stayed here at her house...

Hermione ran her fingers through her bushy brown hair and sighed heavily. She was going to have to do something to stop all their bickering if they were to be spending the rest of the holidays in the same house together. He wasn't allowed to go anywhere at all, over that time, just stay here at her house, due to the possibility that his father might find him if he went anywhere else and she of course had been told to stay with him at all times...

Her thoughts traveled back to her dream and she gave a shiver as she remembered the events of Lucius' punishment. He was lucky to be alive and she knew it. She didn't know how she would've reacted if he had die, though, no one may never of found him, being in the forest. She gave another shiver. She'd hate it if she died and had no one know about it, until they sent out a search party to look for her... she trailed off and shook her mind of those thoughts.

How in Merlin's name could she have seen something in a dream that had happened in reality? The question had circled her mind since her realisation and never had she gotten a real, straight answer to it. She knew that Harry had had a few dreams in the last couple of years about Voldemort similar to this, but she had never felt, or believed that she would have one...

A tiny owl flying merrily into her room through her still-open window suddenly interrupted her thoughts. She reconised it immediately as Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon as it started flying around her light shade crazily. She had to stand on her bed to reach the minute owl, which was carrying a piece of parchment, larger than Pig himself, on his leg.

She carefully untied the letter and read it:

Dear Hermione,

I hope this letter gets to you quickly, because Harry is truly starting to drive me nuts! He's dying to talk to you about something - I don't know what - but he really wants to talk to you for some reason, and I want to see you. Anyway, how about it? Do you want to come and stay at my house for the rest of the summer.

Please reply as quickly as you can,

- Ron.

Hermione stared sadly at the note. She couldn't go and stay at the Burrow, not with Draco here at her house. She gazed at the words "He's dying to talk to you..." for a moment sulkily and frowned suddenly.

Why on Earth would he want to talk to her that badly?...