The Dream Trilogy Book Two: Tread On My Dreams (A Harry Potter FanFiction)

Chapter Fifty One

Chapter Fifty One

Draco sat on the side of the hospital bed, rubbing his thumb over his newly acquired scar. He was dressed back in his own clothes, having spent the best part of the last week in a pair of Harry's borrowed pyjamas, and he'd had a good, long shower in the medical ward's communal bathroom. The mobius strip under his thumb still tingled a little when he touched it, but it didn't stop him tracing the thin scar back and forth. His head had been hurting worse than ever since he'd regained consciousness, but he figured maybe concussion did that to you. Whatever the reason, he really hoped it would let up once he got back home, he didn't think he could take much more of this pounding.  

Dawn had broken not long ago, buttery sunlight beaming through the early morning fog that was winding its way through the grounds of Hogwarts school. Draco had watched it with a knot in his stomach, an empty detachment keeping his tired eyes open. He and Sarah were going home. He pressed his thumb down again but all he felt was a slight stinging. His heart was numb. 

His life had been split into two irreconcilable parts, and now the moment had come to choose between them. He thought of Hermione back home, probably worried to death where he and Sarah had gone, if they were okay. And he thought of Harry here, his brother, the person who gave him strength more than anyone else in his life had ever been capable of. It made his head hurt even more. 

He had Blaise at home too, who would be equally if not more worried about him, and his new friend Dean. Lily, Sirius, Remus. Even James maybe. Dobby. He had school again, which felt more like home than Malfoy Manor had ever done. He had his life.  

And this was the other's Draco's life, which Draco had absolutely no right to steal, no more than Harry had back in his world last November. He understood now how it wasn't really a choice at all, it was just what was right, and he was finding some consolation in being absolved of the decision. It didn't mean he wasn't sad.  

And guilty, crikey the guilt was all but eating him alive of what state he was returning the other Draco's life back to him. Every time he closed his eyes he saw his mother in the flash of green life, heard her screams in his ears. He inhaled deeply and pressed his thumb on his scar again. Not his mother, he told himself sternly. Narcissa. He'd already buried his mum, and didn't have the strength in him to do it a second time, that he would have to leave to the other Draco, whom he had no doubt would ever forgive him for what he'd allowed to happen. 

He thought of Potter, back home, the rage he carried with him now like a torch for Seamus Finnigan and the mess Harry had left behind him last November. He'd always argued it wasn't Harry's fault what had happened in the Black Forest, but he couldn't seem to bring the same conviction to his own doorstep. He would never forgive himself for what he had failed to do for this world's Narcissa Malfoy. 

Sarah opened the bathroom door with a bang, drying her choppy black hair with a towel as steam billowed out. Draco blinked and dragged his thoughts back to the present. Sarah was also back in her own clothes but currently minus any of her piercings or make-up, and Draco was struck by just own young she looked. She glanced at Harry, Ron and Hermione who were pouring over some parchment and talking intently, then came and sat by Draco. "How you doing?" she asked rubbing her head. 

Draco wrapped his hand around his scar and managed a smile. "Okay," he said honestly. "Just thinking." She nodded then picked up Hermione's brush from the bedside locker and began to detangle her hair. He knew she was also scared the spell wouldn't work and they would get stranded somewhere in between the two worlds, but Draco was less concerned about that. Dumbledore was a formidable wizard, and in this reality he'd never been wounded by Voldemort like he had in their own world. And his old friend Severus Snape had been asked to oversee the incantation, so between him and Hermione, Draco was sure they would get home with no trouble. He just wasn't a hundred per cent sure he wanted to.