Chapter 6
Draco knew nothing of dreamwalking. What he did know was that his head was pounding, his mouth tasted like sand and every muscle in his body screamed in pain.
"The chocolates will help," Luna said helpfully. Draco took in the box of chocolate on his bedside table with no shortage of suspicion. The teacup sat drained next to it.
"How do I know these aren't drugged too?" he asked, irritably, sitting up against the headboard. Luna laughed. "I didn't drug you, Draco. You agreed to test the dream solution. You just don't remember because memory loss is one of its main side effects."
"A likely story," Draco sniffed, inspecting the box closely. With a small smile, Luna tapped the observation window with her wand. The surface shimmered for a moment, and Draco watched Luna extract a memory from her mind, placing it directly onto the liquidy rectangle floating where the glass used to be. Instead of pulling them into it like a pensieve would, the memory remained fixed on the makeshift screen, like those muggle projections Pansy told him about.
Draco couldn't help but be a bit impressed.
In the next moment, the memory played, showing Draco that he did indeed agree to participate in a trial of the dream solution and happily signed the waivers Luna handed him before crawling into bed and drinking the blue liquid that swirled ominously in the teacup that now sat empty beside the box of chocolates.
"Fucking mysteries," Draco grumbled, grabbing the box of chocolates. Luna walked into the room and sat on the armchair, waiting politely while Draco polished off the sweets. He scowled when he immediately felt them working, his headache disappearing in an instant and his body and mind feeling refreshed.
"Alright," he sighed. "What's dreamwalking?"
In the hours that followed, Draco learned everything there was to know about the subject, of which, there wasn't much. Apparently dreamwalking was invented by a German seer named Yesenia Unwirklich in the 16th century, as a desperate attempt to see her lover one last time - if only in her dreams. The original concept closely resembled modern muggle ideas of lucid dreaming.
Except, being a witch, she took it a bit further.
Yesenia is said to have used her gift of sight to locate the deathly hallows, whose powers Draco was mildly surprised to learn at the age of 25, were not simply the machinations of a bedtime story, but in fact, quite real. After finding the resurrection stone in her dream, she successfully brought her husband back to life in the real world - only for death to claim him again. Her own death soon followed, after which the craft was lost, attempted only a few times by some more industrious wizards and witches over the centuries, none of whom were able to replicate her results.
"But why look for it in a dream? Doesn't the stone allow you to bring back the dead anyway?" It did, Luna explained, but its whereabouts were lost for centuries and being a seer, Yesenia was able to divine its location. It was a happy accident, seeing as she didn't set out to do it, but she desired being with her lost love so strongly that her dreams showed her the way. It would have taken her ages to get to the stone in the real world, so she chanced using it in her dreams, and the rest was little-known history.
By the end of the day, Draco's headache was back in full force.
"So, what exactly does this have to do with potions again?" He asked Luna. "Well, one of the industrious wizards who attempted dreamwalking was Professor Snape," she explained.
"Why would Snape be interested in dreams?" Draco scoffed. He'd never known the man to be introspective.
"Well, it's not so much the act of dreaming he was interested in as the ability to bring back a loved one, through dreaming." Huh. Draco hadn't known the man to be capable of love, either.
"Of course, he was no seer, and the craft was lost with Yesenia..." Luna continued.
"Of course."
"So, he invented a potion to communicate with the dead, instead."
"I'm sorry, he what?" Draco sputtered.
Not only was that all kinds of illegal, but the ramifications if it had ever gotten into the wrong hands...Draco shuddered. He always thought of Snape as someone somewhat responsible, but he was starting to wonder whether he'd known the man at all at this point.
"That vile concoction you drugged me with was created by Snape? How did the Department of Mysteries get its hands on it?"
Luna smiled. "Why, it came to me in a dream." Draco suppressed the urge to roll his eyes out of respect for his friend.
"Anyway, that's why we need you. As you witnessed, the potion has some unpleasant aftereffects, and doesn't quite accomplish what we're looking to do."
"Which is?" Draco prompted. Luna gave him a funny look. "Classified, naturally, Draco."
"Naturally. Well, I'm sorry Luna, but I'm a bit past the point of doing things that are asked of me simply because I might be capable of doing them. So if you can't tell me why-"
"Now if you were on our team, that would be a different story. There are no secrets between members of the Dream Team, you know," she said innocently. Draco didn't bother hiding his eye roll this time.
"I should have known this was just another ploy by Parker to get me to join you lot. Listen, this has been fun and all, and bonus points for the bedtime story, but I've got actual work to do back in my own office," he said, getting up to leave.
"It wouldn't be forever, Draco, just a few months! And it would be lovely to work together, don't you think?"
Draco stopped in his tracks, looking back at Luna's hopeful expression. Conniving witch. "How's this, Luna? I'll sleep on it, alright?" he said with a placating smile.
"That's all I ask," she beamed.