Trapped in the Wake of a Dream

Harry was standing at the edge of the Quidditch pitch. It was almost dark, the sunset splashing the sky gold and pink. He was leaning against the Quidditch equipment shed, just watching it, quietly. He was peaceful, in this moment. Peaceful and serene.

He didn't seem like he was waiting for anything, nor like he had anywhere else to be. Just leaning against the dark wood building, watching the sun fade behind the mountains far off. He didn't seem surprised, either, when a pale cheeked, blonde haired boy walked up and stood next to him.

"Quiet out here, don't you think?" Draco asked smoothly and softly. His voice didn't have a harsh, hateful or even annoyed quality. It was just one person talking to another.

"Yeah, but I like it. It's far different from the hustle and bustle of the castle," Harry replied. He walked over, feet padding on the grass softly, and put his arm around the other boy. He kissed him softly and turned back to the sunset, not letting go.

"I love you, Harry," replied Draco, and everything faded into darkness.

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Harry awoke with a start. He had apparently been kicking and thrashing in his sleep because his sheets were tangled and his blanket was on the floor. He mustn't have been screaming, though, because no one else was awake. All the better, he thought, that they didn't hear me screaming 'Draco?!?' disbelievingly.

His mind was still screaming it. Draco Malfoy? MALFOY? Where had that dream come from? His mind was full and confused. It hadn't felt like a dream, it felt real. Like his visions from last year. But his visions were always of the present, and this clearly wasn't the present. He looked around the same age, but he hadn't been outside that night, he knew he hadn't. If he didn't know better, he'd think it was the future.

Harry knew he was gay. Very gay. He was certain of it, absolutely certain. He also knew he found Draco rather attractive. But who wouldn't? All he found attractive of Draco was his eyes, and his quidditch muscles, and his gorgeous blonde hair. This year, Draco had taken to NOT slicking it back all the time, but letting it hang, framing his face. It was gorgeous. He was gorgeous.

But he was still a prat. One who had made Neville very upset yesterday. Harry felt a rush of anger. He hated the Slytherin, no doubt. But he was hot. He couldn't ever imagine what had happened in his dream ever occuring in real life; Draco was, in short, an asshole. But he was hot...

How many times had he thought that? Harry shook his head to clear it, and headed off for a cold shower to drown out his thoughts.

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Ron heard Harry get up in the middle of the night. Usually he slept through everything, but he was sleeping pretty lightly when Harry got up, and so Ron got up as well. It was early, 3 in the morning. They had gone to bed not quite 4 hours before that, the three of them all being exhausted. He saw Harry head off to the showers, so seeing as he was awake, he went down to the common room. He figured he would go sit by the fire and relax.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he realized the common room was not empty. In the corner at a lone figure, reading some parchment, curled up in one of the large chairs. It was Hermione.

"Hermione! It's 3 AM - what are you doing up?" Ron asked, surprised.

She looked tired indeed. "Viktor sent me a letter - he's having some... problems," she said, hesitating.

"Oh, so, that's why you're up, because Vicky's having some TROUBLES?" he replied nastily. He had woken up and come downstairs to find Hermione pouring over a letter from Krum, something he didn't want to see.

"Ron, if you sent me an owl like this, I would do the same thing. So just SHUT UP for once! Why do you care so much if he sent me this?" she jumped up, her cheeks blotchy and pink.

"I don't care! I just think you should.. be sleeping or something," he finished lamely. He knew it wasn't a very good argument.

"Ron Weasley, all you care about is the fact that I'm talking to him at all! I know you're jealous, I don't know why, but don't you dare go on attacking me for no reason! I'm allowed to talk to whomever I like! And you can't stop me!"

Hermione gathered her things and stormed up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Ron, too stormed up his stairs, and lay fuming in his bed. He was so angry, but he was calming down fast, and he felt bad. There they were, arguing again. Why? Because he had to open his mouth. He hated Hermione talking to Krum. Not because Krum was a bad guy, but because Krum wanted to be more than friends with Hermione.

Ron, in a way, already looked at Hermione as his. Something that would never go away, but be there at the time he was ready to ask her out, or whatever. He just didn't quite realize this yet. She did, however. The hours passed, and he got up early, sitting in the common room waiting for her to come downstairs.

When she did, she looked just as mad as she did last night.

"Hermione - I wanted to ap-" began Ron. He didn't get any further.

"Ron, I've thought about this long and hard. I've been waiting since our third year, three years now. I've been waiting for you to, I don't know, ask me out? Spend some time with me? Realize your own goddamn feelings for me? But no, of course not. You're too damn thick to understand it. Everyone knows you like me, even I do for fuck's sake. Yet, you don't," Hermione paused.

"Hermione, I know I have feelings for you." Ron replied.

"That's even worse!" she cried.

"How is it worse?" he asked, confused.

"Because you know you like me, yet you STILL don't ask me out. What are you waiting for? You just think I'll sit here and wait as long as it takes for you to muster up your courage and do it! That I'll wait til I'm in a rocking chair for you! But I won't! You just think I'm yours for the taking, whenever you will find convenient, but it's not true. Dean Thomas asked me to Hogsmeade next weekend, and I'm going to go with him." She finished this proclamation with a large intake of breath. She had quieted down a bit by the end.

Without even waiting for him to reply, she walked past him and out the portrait hole for an early breakfast.

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On the way down to the Great Hall, she ran into Neville.

"Hey Neville, how are you?" she asked. "Heading down to breakfast?"

"Well, I forgot the sinking step on the stairs last night, so I spent the night there. I was going to head to the dormitories for some sleep, but if everyone else is getting up, I probably won't get much anyway. And I'm hungry, so yea, breakfast sounds good." He stuttered a little.

When they reached the Great Hall and sat down, they saw not many people were there this morning, not at all. In fact, the only people at breakfast were a Slytherin named Blaise, and a couple of first year Hufflepuffs.

Neville and Hermione ate their breakfast in silence until Blaise walked over to them.

"What do you want, Zabini?" asked Hermione, standing up defensively.

"Hey, calm down," he replied, sitting down. "I just wanted to ask you if you understood that last Potions assignment."

"Yeah, I did," she said, sitting down slowly, her eyes still wary. "Why?"

"Well, I didn't, and I don't get the one we're doing now, either."

"Are you asking me for help?" she asked.

"Yes, I am. I know you're probably suspicious of me, but if I was trying to trick you in some way, why would I do it when no one was around?" he said quietly.

"I don't know, maybe you'll just wait til I'm alone to hex me!" she replied shrilly, standing up. "Or you'll find some way to embarass me in front of your Slytherin friends! I'm not in the mood for this!" She slammed her silverware down.

"Look, just meet me tonight, and I'll explain everything to you. I promise." Blaise looked so helpless, she couldn't help but calm down. She took her seat again.

"Okay, fine, whatever," she agreed irritably. Privately, she was asking herself whether she needed to see Madam Pomfrey, but she kept her expression cool and unconcerned.

"But, could we keep up the usual hate pretense? I don't want to seem like I'm going soft. It's not uncommon to get hexed in the Slytherin common room, for doing things stupid or un-Slytherin." he sounded almost ashamed.

"Well, I always thought a little inter-house relations would be quite healthy, though I suppose your housemates won't take to it so quickly. So yes, I suppose so. Meet me at the Room of Requirement at 7," she said, regaining her business-like tone. She hoped he knew where it was, because as she finished this last sentence, Draco Malfoy and his dimwitted friends walked into the Hall.

"Hey, Blaise! What are you doing over there?" he asked in disgust. By this point Blaise had stood up.

"Just fuck off, Granger." Blaise spat at Hermione, though he winked at her with his back to the Slytherin table.

When he got back to his own table, she heard Malfoy say, "Good one, Blaise, though you should have called her 'Mudblood'." This made Hermione get so mad she stood up. Neville, apparently hearing what Malfoy said, put a hand on her shoulder. She sat back down.

"God, I hate Malfoy so much. More than any fucking person in this castle." she stabbed her toast with a fork. It was very un-Hermione. She turned to Neville. "You won't tell anyone about me helping Blaise, will you? Harry and Ron wouldn't understand, definitely not right now." she thought back to her argument with Ron.

"No, but be careful, Hermione. There's a reason the Gryffindors don't get along with the Slytherins." Neville may have been quiet, brooding fears like any other normal person (Fears, as in Snape) but he was a Gryffindor for a reason. He was no coward, and he knew when to warn his friends.

"I know, but I really want everyone to get along. Even if that meant being civil to Malfoy. I mean, it is part of my duty as a Prefect, to try and get people to agree, to cooperate." she sounded weary. Shortly after, they both got up and headed back to the common room.

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Harry woke up for the second time that day. He had his shower, cleared his thoughts, and fell back asleep in his dorm. Waking up this time he knew it was much later, almost noon. Sunlight was streaming in the room.

He looked over at Ron's four poster, and saw that the redhead was sitting up, an odd look on his face. He looked as though he hadn't moved in quite awhile.

"Uh...Ron?" Harry asked cautiously.

"What?" Ron snapped. Oh, he was definitely in a bad mood.

"What's up?" Harry replied, concerned.

"I had a row with Hermione," came his grunted response.

"Oh... what was it about?"

"Well, everyone knows I like her. Including her, apparently. This isn't how I wanted her to find out." Ron was taking deep breaths.

"Ron, stop and explain what happened."

"Last night, when you went to the showers, I woke up and went to the common room. Hermione was up so I asked her what she was doing, and she was reading a letter from Krum. We got in a row and went to bed, and this morning we had another."

"Sounds like a lot has happened since I went back to bed," replied Harry dryly.

"So this morning, she tells me how she knows I like her and haven't asked her out, and says I haven't realized it yet -"

"But you have."

"Yeah, I know! So I was like, 'I know I like you!' and apparently that was worse." Ron moaned. "I can't do anything right!"

"How was that worse?" Harry, just as cluelessly.

"That's what I said, and she just said that if I liked her, why hadn't I asked her out, and that she wasn't going to wait for me forever or something."

"Wow. That sucks." Harry didn't know what else to say.

"I know, and the worst of it is, she's going with Dean Thomas to Hogsmeade next weekend! I thought he was with Ginny! I had that talk with him and everything!" exploded Ron. His temper was rising now.

"Hang on, him and Ginny broke it off a couple weeks ago because 'it wasn't working out' in her eyes. He's been pretty mopy, haven't you noticed?"

"Er, no...:" replied Ron.

Harry sighed. "Ron, don't get mad at Dean again, he asked out Hermione fair and square."

"I... but...it's just...," Ron spluttered. He sighed. "I know... But god, I wish it were me taking her to Hogsmeade. Me taking her out. I never even thought about it, I just thought..." Ron's head was in his hands.

"I know, mate, I know. I'll help you, okay? I think you two deserve to be together."

Ron looked up at him and smiled.

"Come on then, let me get dressed and we'll go down for some lunch, alright? It's gotta be about noon, right?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, it's quarter to," replied Ron. He sighed. "Okay, we'll go down for breakfast, well, lunch, and hopefully Hermione won't be there, I need to work some things out before I talk to her."