Nightmare 2/2
Draco stormed out of Harry and the Weasley's compartment. For some reason, Harry's mocking look still kept bothering him. For some reason, it felt like someone had caught him doing something embarrassing, even though he hadn't been doing anything like that. He had only been trying to befriend the Boy Who Lived and ended up insulting the Weasley out of reflex.
Even so… why did it feel like this?
"Malfoy," Crabbe and Goyle said while hurrying after him, though their running speed was about the same as their normal walking pace. "What happened?" Crabbe asked, not understanding why Draco had suddenly left like that earlier.
"Nothing. I just don't feel like staying near a blood traitor," Draco said while making up a random excuse before turning around. "We should just head back to our compartment…"
But he didn't finish speaking because the moment he turned, someone crashed into him, making him take a step back from the impact.
That immediately annoyed Draco.
"You… don't you have eyes?" he said in an annoyed tone while lifting his gaze only to find the wild brown hair of a girl, who was rubbing her forehead in irritation from the hit she had just taken.
When she opened her eyes, she met Draco's while giving him a serious look, equally annoyed from the collision.
"I don't have eyes? You're the one standing in the middle of the hallway blocking the entire thing," the girl said in a completely bossy voice.
Seeing the bright eyes of the girl, Draco couldn't help falling silent, still frowning, which only made him look more annoyed.
Even so, the girl didn't seem afraid of the Malfoy heir even a little, staying right there in front of him.
Crabbe and Goyle, seeing this, looked ready to step forward and teach the girl a lesson.
But Draco, without even looking at them, simply raised one hand to stop them.
Seeing the girl's confrontational expression, Draco couldn't help feeling a slight amusement. Like watching a tiny creature trying to bare its fangs at you.
But he quickly pushed that thought out of his head.
"Be more careful next time," Draco told her before gesturing for his lackeys to walk past the girl and continue toward their compartment.
But he couldn't stop himself from giving her one last glance while passing beside her.
As he finally reached his compartment and, with a warning from the older students, all the younger students returned inside since the Express was about to depart.
Just when Draco was opening the door to his compartment, his gaze drifted toward the one beside it when he saw another girl entering hers.
Feeling Draco looking at her, she turned her eyes toward him.
Blonde hair, quite beautiful even at such a young age, but a gaze so cold it felt like it could freeze your blood, without a single trace of emotion on her face.
Her eyes met Draco's, making Draco feel uncomfortable beneath the girl's stare.
"Daphne Greengrass," Draco muttered while recognizing the young girl, giving her a nod in greeting.
But she simply looked away, completely ignoring him as if she wanted no contact with anyone in the world, and entered her own compartment without looking back.
After that, Draco entered and remained seated.
For some reason, his mind kept thinking about the faces he had met today.
And no matter how much he tried to understand why, they kept appearing in his mind, yet he still felt like something was wrong.
Why did he keep thinking about it?
While his mind remained distracted, his body moved on autopilot, simply giving random responses to whatever Crabbe and Goyle said to him or staring absentmindedly through the window at the moving scenery outside the Express.
…
"SLYTHERIN!" the Sorting Hat shouted without even touching a single strand of Draco's hair.
That snapped Draco out of his thoughts, since he had been completely on autopilot.
And instead of feeling pride at being chosen for the house he expected, now more than ever he felt like something was wrong.
He didn't feel happy.
While familiar faces from several pure blood families applauded his arrival, Draco's mood only worsened as the hours passed.
Even inside the Slytherin common room.
Where all the young pure bloods introduced themselves while bragging about their families, except for a few, like Greengrass, who simply ignored everyone and walked straight to her room.
Draco also wasn't very enthusiastic while watching everyone preen around like peacocks showing off their feathers just to praise each other.
…
The next morning Draco woke up, got dressed, and went upstairs for breakfast. The Slytherin common room was located in the dungeons.
A somewhat damp place that made Draco uncomfortable.
As if he truly wouldn't have minded being in another house with a common room somewhere higher up.
Maybe Ravenclaw.
Without realizing it, as a first year student, Draco walked through the strange castle corridors without getting lost and even paused for a moment waiting for the staircases that moved on their own, knowing they would lead him somewhere else as if he already knew the path by memory.
Going from class to class with ease, never getting lost and always arriving exactly when he needed to.
Taking lessons calmly and easily, even earning some points for Slytherin that caused the respect of his housemates to increase.
But Draco didn't care about that in the slightest. For some reason he himself didn't understand, he felt terrible.
Simply allowing himself to drift through days in his automatic state.
The only moments when he seemed to come out of that state were whenever he crossed paths with Greengrass from Slytherin, who had no interest in befriending anyone; Granger from Gryffindor, who was the typical know it all girl trying to answer everything in class and be the best in the year; and Harry Potter, who always seemed to give him an amused and mocking look every time they crossed paths, only causing Draco to get annoyed and throw a few contemptuous words at both him and the Weasley always standing behind him.
But that only increased Potter's amusement, making the anger inside Draco grow even more.
But not toward Potter specifically.
Not even Draco himself knew what he was really feeling it toward.
Like a bomb about to explode.
The days passed while this discomfort kept growing until Halloween finally arrived.
At this point, Draco truly didn't want to be near anyone.
This discomfort in his chest had grown so much it felt like he was suffocating.
Even so, for tonight's feast he couldn't stay hidden in his shared room all day.
So he simply put on his robes and left the dungeon heading toward the Great Hall.
Though he couldn't help taking the longer path in an attempt to avoid running into anyone while walking forward.
Although it seemed that wasn't going to happen.
Because in the hallway ahead of him, he could see two familiar figures.
The first, just like him, clearly didn't want to be around anyone, simply sitting by one of the windows staring at the starry sky with her cold gaze. She turned her eyes toward Draco before ignoring him again.
Daphne.
And the other, walking forward with her head lowered, though Draco could still recognize who it was since hair that messy could only belong to Hermione Granger.
Who was staring at the floor without paying attention to where she was going.
Every time Draco saw her, he only felt that irritation increasing even more.
Even more than when he saw Greengrass and Potter.
Which was why he had started avoiding all three of them.
But somehow, one way or another, he always ended up running into them again.
Draco simply rolled his eyes after seeing them.
He always ended up crossing paths with them. Or with that idiot Potter, who only seemed to enjoy making fun of him.
Even with all the traps Draco had tried setting up for him.
Draco looked away to continue walking without paying attention to either of them.
But the moment Hermione passed beside him, Draco heard Hermione's quiet sobs.
And automatically his body moved before he could stop it, grabbing her wrist.
Causing her to jump in surprise and raise her tear soaked eyes, meeting Draco's gaze.
And the moment Draco saw those tears, he completely froze.
And inside his mind, he heard something crack.
Like a mirror shattering.
Causing everything around him to seem frozen in time, even Hermione's tear stained face right in front of him.
In barely a second, Draco's face passed through multiple emotions while a powerful occlumency began reorganizing everything within him as his expression became more serious and controlled.
More mature.
"Have you been enjoying yourself?" Draco asked in a somewhat annoyed tone while turning around and seeing Harry Potter there, small once again, who seemed to have followed after Hermione.
But his gaze didn't land on him, but on the slightly older version standing behind him, around fifteen years old.
Without those ugly glasses and that horrible scar.
With an amused smile on his face while looking at Draco, who also seemed to emerge from inside the younger Draco still holding Hermione's wrist while staring at her carefully.
"A little," the real Harry said while looking at his best friend and then at the fake versions of themselves, passing over Hermione and Daphne. "Who would've thought that in a different life you'd take Carrow's place," Harry added with a hint of amusement and mockery.
Draco, hearing those words, completely frowned while a massive irritation at the comparison showed openly on his face.
The worst part was that it was actually true.
He had bothered Harry and his group the same way Carrow had bothered them in the past and present.
With the exact same complete disdain.
And he even had Crabbe and Goyle acting as his lackeys.
He had even challenged them to a duel.
But unlike Carrow, who at least actually showed up, Draco had set them up so Filch would catch them instead.
"Why didn't you wake me up sooner?" Draco asked in a tone full of reproach.
He truly hated having behaved like that, even if this was some kind of dream.
The worst part was knowing Harry would mock him about this for years.
"Hey, this is like a lucid dream. To gain control, you have to realize by yourself that you're dreaming. Though it's pretty well made. It took me a lot to get inside. But then I thought it was interesting seeing what Daphne, Hermione, you and I would've been like if everything had turned out differently," Harry said, clearly enjoying all of this.
Draco rolled his eyes.
"I'll get my revenge later. Get us out of here," he said, not wanting to stay inside this fake world for even one more second while rubbing his forehead tiredly.
Though his gaze ended up stopping on the young Hermione.
"Or that was the fault of my best friend in the whole world, Ron Weasley," Harry said in a playful tone, since in real life, if he had exchanged ten words with Ronald, that was already saying a lot.
But apparently things were different here.
Draco let out a snort.
Though his gaze turned dangerous for an instant.
Harry's did too. Even if they were inside an illusion.
Maybe the original Ron Weasley should be feeling danger right now without understanding where it was coming from.