Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love with my dance;
Singing oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.
"Tomorrow shall be my dancing day", William B. Sandays, John Gardner
It was the same night, after the corridor incident, that Draco got his first nightmare.
He was tired but somehow happy when he had gone to bed. He had seen how Pansy had approached Potter in the common room, watched Longbottom get up and Pansy take his chair. He'd had an excellent view of Potter's profile from where he was sitting and he had seen how Pansy dropped her head into her hands, how Potter's face was apologetic and surprised. And then, after some time, Pansy had stood up and come over to sit next to him.
"Potter's crazy!" she exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, is that news to you?"
"And you were right," she said, ignoring his comment. "He forgave me just like that."
"Told you." He had hugged her then, the happy and relieved smile on her face warming him inside.
"So you did." She laughed. "But you still need to wait for me for breakfast."
"Damn."
He had been so relieved and glad for Pansy as she sat there with him the whole evening, even partaking in Draco's discussions with Granger as they studied together. The look on Granger's face the first time Pansy had spoken directly to her, without a sneer on her face, was priceless and Draco had to bite his tongue in order to not laugh out loud.
He had gone to bed with a smile on his face, which was unusual for him, but as soon as he had fallen asleep in his dark dorm unpleasant and terrifying dreams had come.
He woke up with a jerk, cold and sweaty, with his heart hammering hard against his ribcage. And the worst thing was that he couldn't, for all the treasures in Gringotts, remember what he had dreamt. It all just seemed like a faded memory. The feeling was still with him, but he didn't know what had caused it.
The clock said that it was one in the morning, and with a sigh Draco tried to get back to sleep.
He tossed and turned in bed for what seemed like hours, and felt how he was too tired to stay awake, but too tired to fall asleep. When his clock said thirteen past three in the morning, Draco gave up and turned on his lamp and pulled out a book that he read until breakfast.
He watched as Corner woke up an hour before he and Theo usually got up, and how the Ravenclaw jumped behind the door as he realized Draco was awake. Draco just rolled his eyes at Corner's paranoid expression, pathetic really. Corner moved quietly and slowly, as if sudden movements would offend Draco.
"Really, Corner," he said, making the Ravenclaw jump again, which was a bit satisfying. "Neither I nor Theo have done anything to you for half a year, do you really think we're going to hex you first thing in the morning?" he asked from where he was sitting in his bed.
"You never know with Slytherins, now do you?" he fired back.
"No, you never know about Slytherins, and that's because you never bothered to learn. You, just like everybody else, grouped us all into the evil madmen category."
"But you are, a - "
"Then why, if I'm so evil, have I been chosen as a warrior of light?" Draco cut him off.
Corner blinked at him then mumbled, "You probably put a spell to the Goblet or something..."
"Please," Draco drawled, "if you think about that for even just a second you'll find that it's absurd, you're a Ravenclaw for Merlin's sake. Think for once, will you?"
"I don't have to take shit from you."
"But I have to take it from the entire school. That seems fair..." Draco mused.
"Why are you awake anyway?" Corner asked in a tight voice.
"Because I can't fucking sleep because of this fucking Lucia-shit, you bloody Neanderthal!"
Corner stormed out of the room, and came back fifteen minutes later, because as Ravenclaw's were wont to do, he had forgotten his bag.
Draco sighed and shifted back, slammed his head against the pillow, and stared up the ceiling waiting for Theo to wake up.
Malfoy had behaved oddly all day. He looked like he hadn't slept all night, and yet he didn't close his eyes even once. Harry noticed that he had managed to stay awake during Magical History which was unusual for anybody that wasn't Hermione.
When they had come back to the common room for the evening he had sat down at the now usual table with Hermione and Parkinson. But after about ten minutes, Harry had heard Parkinson's voice complaining loudly.
"Draco! You can't even read properly! Go to sleep!"
"I. Can't." he snapped.
"Maybe you can just sit down on the sofa and close your eyes for a minute or two? Just rest for a little?" Hermione suggested softly.
"I never thought I'd see the day when you two ganged up against me."
"Me neither. Now go sit at that empty spot next to Potter." Parkinson shoved him forwards.
Ron, who hadn't been following the conversation like Harry had, looked up in surprise from the chessboard opposite the couch where he was kicking Neville's arse, when Malfoy dropped down beside Harry.
"What are you doing here?" he asked offensively.
"Fuck off, Weasley," was all Malfoy said before he let his head fall back against the couch, showing off his pale throat in a way that would have made a vampire's mouth water.
Ron shot Harry a questioning look, but he shrugged and since Malfoy wasn't actually saying anything, Ron seemed to decide to let him be, and went back to the game. Though Neville kept shooting looking at Harry, as if to confirm something, and it was getting on Harry's nerves.
Harry kept his eyes firmly on the chessboard between his two friends, and restrained himself for turning his head to look at Malfoy beside him, even when the Slytherin started to breathe deeply, like he had fallen asleep.
Suddenly he felt a weight against his shoulder, and he turned his head to find Malfoy resting his head there. The blond was sound asleep, and obviously wasn't aware of what he was doing, and Harry felt himself flush and his heart beat furiously.
"He probably hasn't slept well," Neville said and Harry looked up to find both his friends looking at him and Malfoy.
"Or else he would never be caught dead like that." Ron laughed.
Harry was debating with himself if he should let Malfoy rest on his shoulder like that or if he should push him away. He looked down again at Malfoy and couldn't help but notice how his lips were slightly parted and how blond even his eyelashes where. He looked so vulnerable when he was asleep, and Harry felt a sudden, inexplicable, and slightly unwanted desire to put an arm around him and pull him even closer.
Thankfully, he was interrupted before he could even stop himself committing such an act of insanity. Unfortunately, the interruption was not one of the good sort.
"Harry!" a high-pitched, out of place, female voice shouted, making Harry jump and Malfoy jerk awake as his grey eyes flew up and looked around as if to question what the bloody hell was going on.
Harry wished he had an answer for Draco's unspoken question of why Ginny Weasley was standing at the entrance of the Eighth Year's common room. Her face was livid as she stared at Harry and Malfoy.
"Ginny! What are you doing here?" Harry stood up and walked towards her, not knowing what he should do when he got there.
"What are you doing is more like it! Letting Malfoy sleep on your shoulder like that!"
"How the hell did you even get in here?" Harry asked, bewildered and deliberately ignored her statement.
"Er..." Michael Corner hesitated beside Ginny.
"You let her in?" Harry was furious.
"She threatened me!" Corner exclaimed.
"Could you all just shut the fuck up?" Malfoy groaned from the couch. "Some of us are trying to sleep."
"Then go to bed, you Slytherin git," Ginny snapped.
"You shouldn't even be here, Mini-Weasel. If any of us told McGonagall it could cost you more than just detention."
"You wouldn't dare."
"Wanna try me? Leave," he said with a low dark voice that would have made Snape proud.
"Fine! Harry, walk me out?" It wasn't really a question. Really more of a demand, but Harry had to refuse even then.
"I – I can't, Ginny. I'm –"
Ginny's eyes widened as she looked at him, and a furious fire started to burn in her eyes.
"Fuck you, Harry." And with that, she stormed out.
"What did I tell you about bothering to think before you draw conclusions?" It took Harry some time to realize that it was Corner that Malfoy was talking to.
"Fuck you, Malfoy."
"Because if you had used that wonderful Ravenclaw brain of yours, you wouldn't have let your guard down and this would probably never have happened," he drawled and Harry had no idea what they where talking about. "Oh, and twenty points from Gryffindor for sneaking into the Eighth Years Tower." With that he got up and gave Nott who was sitting in a corner of the room a "I'm going to bed" and then went up the stairs.
Harry's head was whirling by the time he went to bed that night). (His brain was full of fleeting thoughts … Like how he had completely forgotten about Ginny the whole day, how the thought of Malfoy's sleeping face had made his stomach flip, and why the hell he still wanted to hold the blond in his arms.