From Dreams to Reality

Chapter 18______________________________________________________________

Draco woke early the next morning with the sun rising outside the window near his bed. He smiled and pulled Hermione closer to him, kissing her on the top of the head as he reminisced on the events of the night. He could hardly believe that he and Hermione had gone so far, that they had slept together and been the closest that two people could ever get. The thought numbed his mind with nothing more or less than great happiness.

Hermione stirred in his arms and slowly opened her eyes with a small smile curving her lips. She let out a moan and ran her hands over Draco's bare chest, her smile growing wider. "Good morning," she whispered, giving a tiny yawn.

"'Morning," Draco responded, pulling her closer to him again. "You should probably go, you know," Draco said softly. "Best leave before everyone starts waking up and sees you."

"I don't want to go yet," Hermione replied stubbornly, absently running her foot down his leg and causing tingles to run through Draco's body.

He honestly didn't want Hermione to leave; he just felt it would be best for her to get out of the Slytherin quarters before one of his fellow Slytherins woke up and saw her.

"Do you want to get caught in bed naked with me, then?" Draco asked in a less-than-soft tone. "Have them run off and tell my father we're sleeping together so he has another reason to kill us both?"

"Draco, your father's in Azkaban," Hermione said, frowning at him.

"How are we supposed to be sure, what with Fudge and everyone else not telling us his whereabouts or what condition he's in?" Draco stated. "He could be sitting at home drinking tea and patting our pet python for all we know!"

"You have a pet python?" Hermione asked, interested.

Draco gave a small, slightly lop-sided smile. "No, but we did when I was younger," Draco replied. "Father killed it, because my mother forced him after I was rushed to St. Mungo's with a nasty bite on my stomach." Draco lifted the blankets to allow Hermione to look at two small, round scars on the left side of his well-toned torso, evidently made by the snake's fangs. "I was seven at the time."

Hermione ran a finger across them and Draco watched with pleasurable content. She smiled and snuggled in even closer to him.

"I love you," she whispered and gave him a small kiss. "And I don't want to leave."

"Hermione," Draco said warningly, "You're going to get caught and then everyone will know about us and Dumbledore will most likely take away your privilege of being allowed access to the Slytherin quarters and this dormitory."

Hermione knew he was right and couldn't quite understand her sudden stubbornness. She wasn't one to wake up at six o'clock in someone of the opposite sex from another houses' dormitory and not leave immediately. She should've been panicking and rushing frantically to get her clothes on and leave as quickly as she possibly could. But no, she was lying in Draco Malfoy's bed with nothing more than a blanket covering her naked form and refusing to leave.

She moaned against Draco's chest and kissed it softly. "I guess I should go, then," she said stubbornly, throwing her half of the blanket off and opening one side of the curtain so she could gracefully get out of bed.

Draco watched with content as she pulled on her nightgown before getting out of bed himself and searching for some clothes to wear. He'd only just pulled on a shirt and pair of pants when the door of the dormitory burst open. Draco cursed loudly as Hermione frantically tried to hide herself behind the curtains of his bed.

It was too late, though. Pansy Parkinson, the one who had entered, stood, mid-step in the centre of the large room, staring at the spot of the curtains Hermione's face had been. Her over-glossed lips were formed into a circle of great shock and disbelief on her pug-like face.

"Dr-Draco," she stammered. "Is that - was that - Is that Hermione Mudblood Granger hiding behind those - those curtains?" She shakily pointed at the place Hermione's face had disappeared behind. "Wearing a nightgown with her hair more unruly than ever?!"

Draco looked at the curtains and placed a fake frown on his face. "Hermione Granger?" he repeated. "No."

"Don't lie to me, Draco!" Pansy screamed shrilly, causing the other occupants of the dormitory to wake abruptly with great grunts. "I saw her! I saw her!" Pansy's eyes filled with tears. "Did you sleep with her, Draco?!"

Slowly, the curtains opened and Hermione looked at Pansy with an odd and uncertain expression on her face. She stood up and moved over to Draco, who merely stood beside her, staring at his dorm mates. An eerie silence filled the dormitory as everyone stared at the nightgown-wearing Gryffindor with looks of great disbelief on their faces.

"D-Did you sl-sleep with her, Dra-Draco?" Pansy asked again, wiping her red eyes.

Draco looked down at Hermione to see her only staring at the floor, biting her lip with her complexion pale.

"Yes," Draco said casually. Hermione looked up at him quickly, uncertain as to whether he was doing the right thing. Surely he could've come up with some sort of excuse? "Hermione and I slept together. Best night of my life to be completely truthful and I honestly don't care if you go blabbing it to the whole world. It's none of your business and it never will be. I love her and she loves me. What else can I say? I'm happy. I've changed. I'm not the same person as I used to be. I'm not the same person as my father brought up and created. I am sleeping with Hermione Louise Granger, a Mudblood, a Muggle-born, a Gryffindor, a person my bloody father is against me being with and I am enjoying every bloody minute I spend with her!"

The Slytherins in the dormitory and Hermione all stared at him in shock. It seemed to them as though such a speech had been building up inside of him for weeks and had finally been freed, let out. His breathing was ragged and he was staring at his fellow housemates with a mixture of anger and hatred and something else even he couldn't identify.

By his side, Hermione grasped his hand and leaned into his ear. "Thank-you," she whispered, before giving him a light kiss on the cheek and pulling away.

Pansy was staring at her with a look of nothing more or less than murder, before, eventually, looking away and walking quickly from the room. Once she had exited, Draco stared at his dorm mates with hatred.

"Show's over," he hissed and led Hermione out of the room, down the stairs to the common room and right out to the corridors of the castle.

*

By lunchtime, nearly everyone in the school knew about the Draco and Hermione affair.

No matter where they went, whispers followed their every move. Each had glares following them through the corridors, in the library, across the grounds. It was all extremely unavoidable.

Hermione had restricted herself to her quiet corner of the library, but even that wasn't helping. She could hear whispering voices talking about her from behind the shelves and some of the things she heard almost made tears well up in her eyes.

This was her fault, she felt. If she hadn't been so stubborn to leave, than perhaps Pansy would never have seen her sitting on Draco's bed. Perhaps she'd have already left...

As Hermione sat in the library, ranting with her own mind and regretting being so stubborn and thoughtless, Draco sat on his bed in his dormitory, stunning and recovering Neville Longbottom's toad, Trevor, who he had found in the hallway outside the common room. All his thoughts were centred on one person, one extremely hateful and cruel person he had once called his father and he had to restrain himself from performing Avada Kedavra on the worthless toad in front on him.

The amount of anger and hatred building up inside him was an awful lot greater than he had ever held. His reason being in a letter he had received straight after breakfast that morning, which was currently sitting beside him on the bed. It was only short, but its words were simple, yet evil at the same time. They burned red in Draco's eyes.

Draco,

Your insolence and despicably selfish deed has been done.

Expect no more than murder to be set upon you and that Mudblood slime.

- Your father, Lucius Malfoy.

Author Notes: There's chapter 18 for you!!! I really hope you liked it!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!!

I would like to note that the password into the Slytherin quarters that was mentioned last chapter - Caligatio - means "darkness" in Latin!!! I forgot to mention that and I had one person asking if it meant something, so...

HUGE thanks to all my wonderful reviewers! Your words and encouragement means a lot to me! Also, thanks (just as huge) to my beta-readers, Samantha and stephanie, for their great help and work!!! And thanks to Orla-Destiny for showing me the world of D/Hr first with her fabulous fic When Enemies Interact (www.astromonytower.org/authors/odestiny/WEI01.html) and also for putting the review forums up for me!!!

Next chapter: Hermione has another awful dream about Draco and, instead of going to Draco or Dumbledore about it first, she goes to another person she thinks will understand - Harry!

> Fiery Punk Princess <