From Dreams to Reality

Chapter 12______________________________________________________________

Draco bent down and kissed her softly on the lips to help calm her as she trembled slightly on the spot.

"Another dream?" he asked her lightly, looking carefully into her troubled brown eyes. Hermione slowly nodded. "What happened?"

"This young woman was walking through a deserted graveyard, when suddenly, Voldemort jumped out from behind this huge, stone angel," Hermione said, coming close to tears. "He was wearing all black and his face was covered in shadow from the hood of the cloak, but I could - I could still - I could still made out his bright red eyes." Her lower lip trembled violently and she swung her arms around Draco's neck and cried into his shoulder. "He - He killed her!"

Draco awkwardly held onto her in silence, not wanting to make her even more upset. As her sobbed slowly ceased, he kissed the top of her bushy head, encouraging her to lift her head to meet his eyes, so he could gaze down at her.

"Thank-you for this, Draco," Hermione said, wiping away the tears in her eyes. "I was going to go to Harry and Ron, but I just..."

"Shhh..." Draco said, as tears built up in her eyes again. He looked around at all the closed, emerald curtains to make sure his dorm mates were still asleep. "Come and sit down, Hermione - calm down a bit."

Hermione nodded and sat down on the edge of his bed. She looked down at the floor and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. Draco moved his arm so it rested on her shoulders. "The dreams are getting so vivid, Draco," she said, looking up at him. "They're more detailed then they were before, more realistic."

"Shhh..." Draco said again. He pulled her closer to him and allowed her to rest her head on his shoulder. "Don't think about it. We'll go tell Dumbledore in the morning."

Hermione cast him a gaze full of appreciation and lent up a bit. She rested her lips on his in a gentle kiss for a moment, before pulling away. "Thank-you," she whispered again. Draco gave her a small smile before leaning down to capture her lips with his again.

He kissed her softly and slowly at first, as though he was not all that sure what he was doing was the right thing, but became more confident as she responded, kissing him back sweetly. His arms encircled her waist, pulling her closer and he slowly and gently guided her down so her head rested on the pillows. He continued to kiss her, the intensity now growing to a fiery passion. His tongue danced with hers and he vaguely knew that this was the best kiss he'd ever experienced. He reached for the hem of the white top she was wearing and pulled it up. He broke the kiss as he pulled it up, over her head, so she was wearing only a lacy white bra on her top half.

"Draco?" Hermione whispered, catching some breath. She watched as Draco stared down at her, sprawled there on his bed.

"I'll be back in a second," he whispered in reply and he left and headed into the bathroom.

Hermione sunk her head deeply into the pillows and wondered what on earth she was doing. She wasn't ready for this. She still liked Harry. She looked down at herself, wearing the bra and pale blue skirt she had previously fallen asleep in. She wasn't ready for this at all and yet, her body ached for it. What was it that Draco had that no one else did? Even when Harry kissed her, she didn't feel the way she did now, with her heart beating a million times a minute and as though there was fire surging through her veins...

Draco returned, looking down at her with a mixture of emotions as he unbuttoned his shirt and let it fall to the ground. He lay down next to her and placed a soft kiss on her swollen lips. They gazed into each other's eyes for a moment and Hermione came to a decision.

"I really think I should go, Draco," she said, sitting up. "I hope you understand?" Draco gave her a small, understanding smile as she brushed her fingers over his muscular chest. Hermione pulled on her top. "Goodnight, Draco," she whispered, giving him a light kiss on the lips before leaving the dark dormitory and making her way back to her own.

In the hospital wing, Hermione rolled over, muttering something indistinguishable, as Harry and Ron watched her.

"So, what happened?" Ron asked in a whisper.

Harry gazed down at her with a rather worried expression. "I'm not really sure," he replied truthfully. "We were, er, kissing not far from Dumbledore's office and she sort of went all limp in my arms and when I looked down at her, I found her unconscious."

"You were kissing her?" Ron repeated. Harry slowly nodded, his expression rather depressed.

Draco, who sat on a bed at the other end of the infirmary, angrily clenched his teeth as he listened to the conversation while waiting for Madam Pomfrey to give him his check up. He had the great need to punch something, preferably Harry. How dare he kiss Hermione! And how dare she kiss him back!

He gazed at Hermione's form in the bed and felt guilt surge through his body. It was his fault she had kissed Harry back. He had been rather cold to her after the other night, when they'd kissed and not because her wanted to be. His father had come to see him during his second night in the hospital wing. Threatening to kill both him and Hermione if he found out any more about the "relationship" going on between them. Now he thought about it, maybe he should've told Hermione about it rather than act as though they were still hateful enemies - then she may not have kissed Harry...

After Madam Pomfrey had checked his few wounds, Draco left the hospital wing, glaring at Harry as he passed by him and Ron, sitting beside Hermione's bed. He'd come back later to see her...

*

Hermione woke at around dinnertime to find Draco sitting there beside her bed. Her head was oddly pounding and her vision took a while to focus. She smiled at Draco and tried to sit up.

"What happened?" Draco asked.

Hermione looked at him carefully and decided to tell him the honest truth. "Harry and I had just left Dumbledore's office and he stopped me in the middle of a deserted corridor. He asked questions about you and me and I answered truthfully. Then we kissed and this really odd thing happened. My mind was sort of replaying events that involved us, starting with when you first turned up at my house over the summer and ending with..." She paused a moment, frowning. "A vision of you and me."

"Another vision?" Draco said. "While you were awake?"

"I think so," Hermione said, nodding. "Dumbledore had only just told me that stuff like this means my power is growing..." She frowned even deeper. "The thing is, I sort of had this same vision twice. I had it then, while kissing Harry and again while sleeping." She didn't express the fact that she believed that the vision may have been trying to tell her something. It seemed odd that only moments before she and Harry kissed, she had been trying to work out who she liked more, who was better for her and then, when she kisses Harry, she sees visions of Draco flashing before her eyes. Did this mean she liked Draco more, or was it just an odd sort of coincidence?

"What was the vision of you and me?" Draco asked, cutting into her thoughts. Hermione gazed over him.

"I had come to you, in your dormitory after having a dream about Voldemort killing someone. I was all shaken and you calmed me, then we - we..."

"We...?" Draco urged. Did she have a sex dream about them? Draco felt his heart beat faster against his chest at the thought.

"We - we kissed, you took off my top and then I left, not wanting it to go any further." Hermione's pale cheeks had gone slightly pink and she looked away. Draco smirked. It wasn't as good a dream as he had been hoping, but it was good enough. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, having a fair idea as to what he was thinking. "It wasn't a sex dream, Draco. Nothing close to one." Draco's smirk broadened and she glared back at him.

A short silence followed this, as Draco tried to form what he wanted to say into words Hermione would understand. "My father," he said finally, causing Hermione to look away from the window across the room and into his now-serious eyes. "My father came and saw me while I was in here and confronted me about the whole "you and me" issue. He must've seen the kiss the other night. We weren't very careful - kissing like that in front of my apparently unconscious and highly murderous father - he could've woken and saw us without us knowing and then acted as though he was still unconscious..." Draco took a deep breath before continuing, avoiding Hermione's eyes. "He said that if he finds out anything more is going on between you and me, he'll ... he'll kill us both."

Hermione stared at Draco. "He said he'll - he'll kill us?" she repeated in disbelief. "Why didn't you - why didn't you inform me of this earlier?"

Draco felt a pang of guilt again. "Because I didn't want to worry you and instead I - I was all cold towards you, acting as though nothing had ever really happened between us. I'm sorry about that by the way." He was still avoiding her eyes.

"Draco, look at me," Hermione demanded lightly. He slowly brought his gaze to land on hers. "This is really serious," she said. "If you had told me, then I would've gone to Dumbledore straight away. That day I did go and see him, he said he already knew about his attempt of murder on you, but he needs your story, Draco and you need to tell him exactly what his threats were. Your father may not be You-Know-Who, but I'm sure Dumbledore will use as much of his power as he can to stop your father from doing everything he's doing. He's a Death Eater, Draco. A highly dangerous Death Eater."

Draco gazed deep into Hermione's serious eyes, knowing she was right. "Fine, we'll go straight after you're allowed out of here," he said. "Pomfrey said you could leave once you were awake and checked over by her. She found nothing out of the ordinary wrong with you while you were asleep, so..."

He stood up and headed around the bed to the closed door of Madam Pomfrey's office. He knocked upon it twice until the door opened to reveal the matron, who seemed overly pleased to see Hermione awake.

After giving her a quick checkup, Madam Pomfrey allowed Hermione to grab all her stuff and leave the quiet infirmary, Draco by her side.

They headed straight for the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Sugar Quill," Hermione said firmly and the gargoyle hopped aside as the entrance was revealed. She looked at Draco, who stared at the statue in amazement. "There are some privileges with being made Prefect or Head Girl, you know," she said, as they headed on through and stepped onto the revolving spiral staircase.

"Obviously," Draco said. "I usually kick that gargoyle every time I pass it. I never knew it was the secret entrance into the Headmasters' office.

Hermione gave him a smile as they reached the top of the staircase and knocked on the large double doors, ready to see the Headmaster.

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Author Notes: There's chapter 12! I'm sorry for the slight wait! I hope you enjoyed, anyways! Please review!!!

I'd like to thank my beta-readers: stephanie and Samantha - your help is greatly appreciated! I'd also like to thank my good friend Orla-Destiny, for putting up the review forums and also for bringing me into the world of D/Hr (What a wonderful world it is!) with her brilliant fic When Enemies Interact - read it if you haven't already! It's fabulous!

> Fiery Punk Princess <