I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS: J.K.ROWLING OWNS THEM. This is just a fanfic written by a huge HP fan.
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HERMIONE'S P.O.V
Why? That was the question on Hermione’s mind. She had blocked everything else out, only thinking about that one question. She couldn’t get over the shock that had coursed through her body since Harry had let it slip that Draco liked her. And she couldn’t help but ask the question ‘Why?’
Why on earth did Draco like her? There was nothing special about her, and she thought that even though he was able to make a mends with her and become friends after all these years of verbal abuse, she couldn’t understand why he would like her.
Hermione was shocked, but she couldn’t help but smile a little when she thought of Draco liking her. Over the past week she had been doubting her feelings as just being friendly. She had been inching closer and closer to him at any given moment and she couldn’t help but hold on tight so he wouldn’t let go when he carried her down to Madam Pomfrey earlier.
He had listened to her spill her thoughts all week since Dennis’s death, and he would hold her even if she was unattractively crying into his shoulder and making wet patches on his shirt. She had listened to him also, and scolded him for his foolish thinking towards Dennis’s death. During the week she had started to feel quite different about him.
She even made up the excuse of being cold when they were waiting for Madam Pomfrey earlier, just so she could sink into his warm embrace. But she hadn’t held it too long in case he thought she liked him or something. Even holding his hands felt great, it felt right.
She wasn’t going to say it was some stupid thing about it being destiny or fate because she didn’t believe in that rubbish, hence why she walked out of Divination all those years ago. But she did feel that the possibility of them being together – now that she knew he liked her – was right, and that it had the potential to be a good thing as it could clear bridges for him when it came to his past.
But she wouldn’t be with him just for the little matter of making the public see that he wasn’t bad, she would be with him because she wanted to be with him, because he made her feel better, made her laugh and made her feel happy.
Hermione scolded herself. They weren’t even together yet but she was thinking about it. But she didn’t scold herself mentally for one thing, she knew she liked Draco a lot, and now she knew he liked her too.
Hermione was snapped back to reality and brought out of her own mind when Draco nudged her side a little bit from where he was sitting on the bed. Hermione caught his eyes and held them there for about five seconds before there was a coughing noise from in front of her.
“Are the two of you even listening to me?” Professor McGonagall asked.
“Yes Professor, sorry. A lot has happened this weekend, my head’s just sort of exploding with information.” Hermione answered quickly and skilfully. She had a way with quick and witty answers.
“As I was saying, because we can most definitely rule out pregnancy as a cause of these dreams, we now know what’s causing them. As to why they are only affecting Miss Granger, I do not know. Perhaps it is because the item is closer to her room than it is to yours.” She had a quick pause and an inhale of breath before she continued.
“I have not been entirely honest with you as to why I asked you to keep the location of your room a secret, and to why Professor Snape is guarding it.”
“We knew there had to be something in there, you wouldn’t consider being the portrait to our common room the most important job in the school.” Draco said beside her, and he was right. They had discussed this often, and had searched the common room high and low, but they did not find anything out of the ordinary. “So what’s in there?”
“A few weeks before school started back, and just as we were finishing repairs on the school, we were in the Forbidden Forest, searching for rubble that belonged to the school when it was crumbled, so that the Centaurs didn’t have our rubbish in their way. Hagrid and I were negotiating clean up terms – so that they wouldn’t banish us every time we came into the forest – when I saw something shiny on the forest floor, slightly pressed into the ground by a Centaur hoof.”
She took a big breath in again, and looked directly at Hermione, “I know Harry should have been in here to hear this but because of that little incident I thought it wise to send him out. You must tell him all of this later.”
Hermione was growing anxious now, as she had a good feeling as to what it was she found on the forest floor, and she knew Harry wouldn’t be happy about it one bit. “Professor, the object isn’t what I think it is, is it?”
She gave her a long look before nodding her head, “It is indeed what you are thinking. I found the Resurrection Stone on the forest floor, slightly pressed in by a centaur hoof, as I told you. Professor Dumbledore’s portrait told me, after I had found it, that Harry had dropped it, and had no intention of going to find it, but because we now had it, it had to be hidden for safety as we didn’t want any of Lord...Voldemort’s –“ She shuddered at his name, as she always had –“Followers coming to find it to bring his spirit back. Even just having his spirit back, could cause more destruction in the Wizarding World. And that is something we do not want.”
“Hang on then, if you don’t want any of his followers going after it, why would you put it in our common room? People clearly still don’t trust me.” Hermione noticed Draco shoot Madam Pomfrey a deadly glare before continuing. “And why would the stone cause the dreams? It doesn’t do that sort of thing.”
“Mr Malfoy, if I did not trust you, do you think I would allow you to return for a final year and become Head Boy? Some people may not trust you but I do. It will take you a long time to regain their trust again. And the dreams, they would be caused by all the spells wrapped around the stone itself.” McGonagall swayed in the spot for a second and clasped her hands in front of her stomach, “We have many, many protection layers on the stone itself, so that it doesn’t look like the Resurrection stone and so that you will not be able to find it easily. However, having so many protection spells on this one little object can cause the one who is closest to it most of the time to have quite bizarre dreams. It’s a good thing you aren’t able to do wand less magic Miss Granger, otherwise we may not have Mr Malfoy here at all.”
Everyone was silent for some time, each with different things on their minds and Hermione’s mind in particular was focused on what object it could be in their common room. She had basically memorised it from top to bottom now, as she had with the Gryffindor tower and all of her way around the school so thinking about certain objects wasn’t too hard. But in her mind, she couldn’t quite think about what it could be. Could it be a book? A candle? A chess piece?
She didn’t have any desire to use the ring, but she was curious as to which object it could be.
“I can give you a potion that you must take once a week every night to stop these dreams from happening, and so that you’re normal dream pattern can start up again.” Madam Pomfrey spoke as she fluffed about the room, looking for specific ingredients. She stopped in her tracks and turned on Hermione, “Miss Granger, it is imperative that you take this once a week because if you miss even one, the dreams will return and will be worse than ever. Once you finish school however and are away from the stone, I have a potion that you can take and you won’t need to take them anymore.”
She rushed back into her little office and out of sight.
“Professor, you do realise that any Death Eater who is still alive and looking for this ring, could come here and potentially put all our lives at risk, don’t you?” Draco spoke quietly beside Hermione.
“Yes, I do realise that Mr Malfoy.” She replied.
“Then why don’t you put it in one of the lower vaults in Gringotts, like where all my money is? It’s supposed to be the safest place to store items.”
“I don’t believe it is the safest anymore Mr Malfoy, not after Miss Granger here along with Mr Potter and Mr Weasley broke into a Gringotts Vault to steal a precious item. If two young wizards and a witch can break into Gringotts, anyone can.” Hermione understood this perfectly, as she too didn’t think Gringotts was very safe anymore. She looked over to Draco who had an extremely worried look on his face. Hermione imagined he was most likely thinking about his vault.
“Don’t worry, I won’t break into your vault Draco. My robbery days are over.” She kidded to him and he weakly smiled. He still didn’t appear convinced, so she grabbed one of his hands in hers and held them between her own, stroking his fist softly in a comforting motion.
“All of this information I have just told you must stay quiet as it is important that no one finds out about the whereabouts of this stone. I do however want you to tell Mr Potter and you have permission to tell Mr Weasley also, as you have been through too much to leave him out at this point.” Professor McGonagall walked away from the two of them out towards the door, but turned once more to look back, “I am sorry that this is causing such horrible dreams for you, but it is important it stays hidden in that room.” With that, she was gone.
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