From Dreams to Reality

Chapter 7_______________________________________________________________

Hermione headed down to breakfast with Harry and Ron next morning, ignoring the conversation the two boys were having. Her mind hadn't really been focusing on the things around her; they were instead back on the Hogwarts Express. The way Draco had all of a sudden become curious as to what was going on between her and Harry greatly confused her. Here he was, stating that the summer had no effect whatsoever on the way he saw her, that they were still one hundred percent enemies and then, just as everything was going back to normal, he went and did something that Hermione couldn't quite put an explanation to. She didn't understand it at all. Why would he care about the feelings that she and Harry held for one another? Why was he so blunt when reminding her about the whole Flourish and Blotts affair, even though she knew he was right?

Hermione mentally sighed as she sat down at the Gryffindor table, next to a nervous-looking Neville. If she liked Harry as much as she thought, than why did she say she needed time to think about it? Even the friend factor shouldn't have stopped her from saying yes...

Professor McGonagall, who was coming around with the new timetables, suddenly interrupted her thoughts. Hermione took hers and looked down the day's column and groaned: double Potions with the Slytherins first - never a pleasant experience.

She finished her breakfast in silence, oblivious of the constant concerned glances from Harry. She left the Hall on her own, telling Harry and Ron she needed to get something from her dormitory and headed over towards the entrance to the dungeon, wanting some time alone. She headed down the dimly lit passage quietly.

She wished her thoughts would become clear to her. At the moment, they were no more than a worthless blur, even though she could identify little parts of it. All together, those things equaled something that seemed very peculiar to Hermione: somehow, Draco and his words were coming between her and Harry, which didn't seem right at all. Draco was her enemy and had been seen they'd met, no words that came from his mouth should change what both she and Harry wanted, much less him himself...

An absurd thought suddenly struck Hermione as an image of Draco's pale, still faintly bruised face came to view in her head: maybe she didn't see Draco as an enemy any more, maybe she saw him as something more than that now. Maybe she was really, truly starting to like him and that was the reason why she hadn't been feeling as attracted to Harry as she normally was. Maybe she was developing a small crush on him, even...

Her eyes widened and she stopped walking. She couldn't possibly, could she?

Movement to her right suddenly brought her back to earth and she saw the stone wall open to form a door and a tall boy stood just inside of the entrance as he pulled on his robes. Hermione took in the wet, silver-blonde hair and realised with a slightly panicky groan, that it was Draco, though the darkness surrounding him hid the fact slightly. Draco looked up at her and stepped through the door, the wall closing behind him immediately.

"Hello, Granger," he said in an expressionless voice. "I wasn't expecting to see you down here."

"Well, I was on my way to Potions," Hermione said back.

Draco looked up and down the passageway around them. "Why are you alone? Did Potter and Weasley decide they wanted to have their snog session alone today?"

Hermione's passive expression transformed into a glare. "You know very well that that isn't true, Draco," she said.

"Still Draco, is it? I thought we'd decided on going back to normal - act as though the summer never happened?"

Hermione just stood there, glaring at him, not saying a word. How could she act as though the summer never happened? She had discovered her gift of seeing real things happening through dreams and now she was stuck with it.

"Draco, I can't act as though the bloody summer never happened!" Hermione burst out suddenly. "The dreams - they're not going to stop now they've started and I'm beginning to think it's not possible for me to have good dreams anymore. They didn't stop with your father killing your mother, you know. I keep having these dreams about Death Eaters or You-Know-Who torturing or killing innocent people and from what Ron and Harry have told me, they truly happened. For all I know, the dream about you may not have been the first as I thought. I had dreams before that, but never were they as vivid."

"Maybe you should go visit Trelawny," Draco suggested, wondering why she was telling him this.

"I'm not going to see that fraud!" Hermione snapped. "At least I'm seeing real things, she -"

"I know," Draco interrupted. "Listen, Hermione, you've got to be having these dreams for some reason. It's only a matter of time before you'll be able to see things without even being asleep and for what I know, you can't stop that. It's a gift - a very rare and powerful one at that and it's very surprising that a Mudblood like yourself has it." He paused for a moment, looking at her face. She looked ready to start crying at any moment. "I'm glad you do, though," he continued in a quiet voice. "If you didn't then I doubt you would've helped me as much as you did."

A smile crept onto Hermione's face and Draco oddly felt his heart skip a beat or two, forcing him to look away. Hermione's next question brought his eyes back to hers, though. "Yesterday on the train, why did you act like you did? I mean, it was very odd and then when you walked in on Harry and I..."

Draco looked her up and down, wondering if she could take the truth. "I don't think Potter's the right one for you," he answered. "He doesn't deserve you. I know that you like him, but something must have caused you not to say yes to him when he asked you out. I tried to make you realise that."

"You did," Hermione said honestly, looked down at her feet. "That thought has hardly left my mind since." She watched Draco, looking at her in content. "We're not truly enemies anymore, are we?" she asked abruptly. "If we were, we wouldn't be talking like this. You wouldn't have wanted me to realise that Harry wasn't right for me and I wouldn't have taken any notice of your words like I have."

Draco opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of footsteps behind them caused him to close it and look around at Harry and Ron. "Hello Malfoy," said Harry in a cold voice, looking between Draco and Hermione suspiciously.

"No need to worry, Potter," Draco smirked. "Me and your little girlfriend here were only having a little chat - nothing to be concerned about."

Harry shot Hermione a look, only to have her smile innocently in response. He looked back at Draco. "I swear, Malfoy, if you hurt her in any way -"

"No need to worry, Potter," Draco said again, the smirk still in place. "I didn't touch Hermione here. We were just having a friendly chat about the holidays, which as you know, we spent together -" Draco paused to marvel the effect of these words - "She's had a few worries lately that I've helped her with."

"Worries?" Harry and Ron repeated in unison.

"That's right," Draco went on. "You know - about all these dreams she's been having."

Harry turned to look at Hermione again. "Hermione, you could've come to us about that," he said, "not him."

"Oh ... I just ... You guys have other stuff on your minds with You-Know-Who and all and I didn't want to worry you further with some petty problem of mine about dreams," Hermione said. "It's nothing really."

"But this is pretty serious, Hermione," Harry said, looking at her with a worried expression. He went to continue, but the sound of many people heading towards them cut him short. They joined the small crowd of seventh year Gryffindors and Slytherins as they headed towards the Potions dungeon. Hermione walked along side Harry and Ron without a word.

They reached the Potions dungeon, where the door already stood open. They all filed in and took their seats, just as Snape arrived, looking his usual sallow-skinned and hook-nosed self. Hermione sat in the seat beside Ron at the back of the classroom, ignoring the constant glances from Harry.

"As I told you at the end of your last year, you will be studying some of the more difficult potions this year," Snape told the class in his deadly cold voice. Neville Longbottom, a forgetful, clumsy Gryffindor let out a whimper. "One of these potions being the highly difficult and restricted Polyjuice Potion in the later half of the year. But first you have to work on the properties of Love Potions. As you all may know, they are forbidden in this castle, but the Headmaster has said they have to be part of your curriculum." He said this in a tone that suggested he did not agree with Professor Dumbledore. "In this lesson, you will be testing the basic and simple ones - starting with the Single Kiss Potion." He held up a small bottle with a crimson-coloured liquid in it. "I will pull two names out of the hat on my desk. One will place one of their hairs in this potion and pass it to their partner to drink."

Taking a ragged old wizard hat off the desk he held it up and placed a hand in it. A moment later, he pulled a small piece of parchment out of it and scowled as he read the name upon it. "Miss Granger," he said sourly. "Step forward and remove one of your hairs and place it in this bottle."

Hermione slowly stepped forward and pulled a curly hair from her scalp and placed it n the bottle of potion that Snape was holding out. The liquid fizzed lightly and turned clear.

"As you can see," Snape said, his voice still sour, "The potion turns clear and flavourless when ready to be drank. It can be easily added to the drinkers pumpkin juice without them knowing and no difference would be made to its texture and flavour. The drinker would think it normal."

He placed a hand back in the hat and drew a second name. As he read the name upon it, his eyes darted from Hermione to the parchment in his hand, his expression becoming even sourer. "Malfoy," he hissed and the class suddenly broke into whispers.

Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat and she cast a look at Draco, who was standing there with Crabbe and Goyle, his expression emotionless. Close by him, Harry was giving him a glare unlike any Hermione had ever seen on his face. Draco stepped forward and over to Snape, who was beckoning the class to be quiet. Draco took the bottle from his hand without a word and raised it to his lips. Hermione watched him, her heartbeat becoming irregular. She knew what was to happen.

Draco drank down the whole potion and placed the empty bottle on Snape's table. An odd sensation ran through his entire body and he turned to face Hermione fully. Taking in her pale face, as she bit her lower lip in hesitation, he walked closer to her, aware of the classes eyes watching his every move. He stopped when he was less than a foot away from Hermione and bent down and gave her a very light kiss on the lips before pulling away. Hermione looked up into his stormy grey eyes, feeling slightly light-headed. He gave her a small smile and backed away to return to standing next to Crabbe and Goyle, who were looking at him in disbelief - very much like the rest of the stunned class.

After several more tests that involved all different types of love potions and students, they copied a great amount of information from the blackboard. Finally, the bell rang for morning break and the Gryffindors and Slytherins headed off towards the Great Hall to get a snack. Harry and Ron were greatly concerned by Hermione's silence.

"Hermione, you haven't said anything since Malfoy kissed you," Ron said, with a light shudder as he remembered. "Something's the matter and I know it."

"Hermione, is there something going on that you're not telling us about?" Harry asked, looking down at Hermione with a strange expression on his face.

Hermione stopped walking and turned to the two boys. "There's nothing wrong. I've just been drifting off into thought a lot lately."

"But why?" Harry asked. "What's causing you to drift off into thought? Do you have concerns about something? Does it have to do with these dreams you've been having?"

Hermione looked at him. "No, not entirely. I just don't understand how I -" She bit her lower lip. "I just don't understand any of my feelings at the moment. They're all confused and muddled and I can't understand what they're trying to tell me." She continued off up the passage, unaware of Draco standing in an alcove to her left as she passed.

*

Draco sat on his bed, absently fingering his lips, remembering the conversation he had overheard in the dungeon passageway. He didn't understand what Hermione had said about her feelings. How could they suddenly have become confused and muddled? Could she have been referring to her feelings about Harry? She had, after all, said that he - Draco - had made her realise that there had to be a reason why she had said no to Harry. Had she worked out the reason?

Draco moved uncomfortably. He honestly didn't know why he cared. It wasn't as though he was beginning to have feelings for her... He suddenly felt a tingling sensation on his lips and pulled his fingers away. He had definitely enjoyed that small little kiss, though, but he gathered that was only the effects of the Potion. It wasn't as though the reason he had questioned her about Harry was because he wished he were in Harry's position or anything. It wasn't as though she was on his mind every second of the day.

But he didn't believe all those things were entirely true. He had felt a hint of jealousy when he'd walked in on Harry and Hermione kissing on the train and she had been on his mind a lot lately. He also knew for a fact that the effects of the Single Kiss Potion didn't include the feeling he had had to spread through his whole body, wanting to just go back for more, wanting her soft lips to be on his for longer.

Draco ran his fingers through his hair. He couldn't possibly be falling for Hermione, could he?