Prologue
“Draco,” says a voice, low and melodic. “Draco, please,” continues the voice, growing slightly frantic. “I need your help. Tell me you’re here. Please .”
I’m here, Draco thinks, because this is a dream and there’s no need for talking in dreams. He knows that, somehow, because dreams are just something he knows. I’m here. Who is this?
Draco hasn’t had a dream he couldn’t control, a dream he was completely lost in, in years. It’s unsettling.
“Oh Merlin,” says the voice, so familiar that it sends shivers down Draco’s spine. Draco turns, this is another thing he knows to do, and there is a blond haired man in front of him.
Draco frowns. “Father?”
The man laughs but it is only vaguely cheerful, as if haunted by something only he can see. “No. No, Draco, I’m not your father.”
The man is right. He looks like him, yes, but different also. His hair is short and slightly wavy unlike his father’s long straight hair. He is not gaunt, exactly, but it is obvious he doesn’t eat enough. His eye bags are dark, a startling purple against his pale skin. He’s pretty in a depressing way and only carries traces of his fathers regal aura.
He is wearing a Muggle T-shirt and jeans.
This is not his father.
Draco squints his eyes and their surroundings flicker and shutter until they are covered in fog. “Who are you, then?” He demands, not caring if he sounds rude. The man blinks and the fog dissipates, leaving them in the sitting room of Dracos chambers.
“I’m you,” he says and goes on to explain.
~~~~
“I think I’m going insane,” Draco said, emphasizing the insane because he really might be losing his gobstones.
Theo hummed, sitting criss cross at the foot of Draco's bed and reading another one of his books.
“I’m serious!”
Theo gazed up from his book and raised a single eyebrow. Knowing his mother taught him how to do that didn’t make it any less disconcerting. Draco tried not to squirm. “Well, explain. Vince and Greg will be here soon and I expect that you don’t want them to know.”
Draco nodded. “They’ll get too worried and tell Mum and Father.”
Theo’s lips twitch up but he forces them back into a straight line. “What if I tell? I think they’d believe me. You do look like the type to be off your rocker.”
“As if,” he says confidently. “This is too interesting. Besides, I can just blackmail you to keep quiet.”
Theo seems to consider this for a moment before breaking out into a grin and shrugging. “Alright, true. So what is it, Mr. Crazy-Pants?”
“Well,” Draco starts, not really sure how to go about this. “I had this dream….”
“So? Your dreams are always weird.”
“Yes, well, that’s the thing. This dream was especially weird. I, um, well, you see...”
Theo rolled his eyes. “Quit stalling, Draco.” It is unbecoming , adds his father’s voice.
Draco pouts. “Fine. I think I may have met my future self,” he says, in a rush. If anyone will believe him, it’s Theo.
Theo cocks his head to the side. “In your dream?” Draco nods. “Hm. Weird but not impossible, I think. You sure it was really your future self and not just a product of your imagination, though? That sounds much more likely.”
Draco leans back against the headboard. “That’s what I was thinking too, but you know how I am with dreams. I could just tell .”
“Hm. Mum did say that you might be a Dream Diviner. She says you have latent dream magic surrounding you, whatever that means.” He thought for a moment. “ And that type of stuff usually reveals itself right before your teen years so.”
Draco nodded vigorously. “Right! Exactly! So I’m not crazy!”
“Ehhh,” Theo made a so-so gesture. “That’s still on the table.”
Draco threw a pillow at him.
“Maybe you’re insane,” Draco said, minutes later when Greg and Vince still hadn't arrived and Draco had shifted to lay down on the bed so he could see the constellations above.
“Hm?”
“Actual sane people would think I’d lost it if I said something like that but you just accepted it. I could be lying, y’know.”
“You’re not. You think it’s uncouth to lie about dreams. You think it’s against the rules of the universe.” Theo smirked. “Besides, Mum is a Diviner. I’m more used to this stuff than other people.”
“Oh, right,” Draco said, not completely paying attention. He idly traced the constellation he was named after.
“You should talk to my mum about this.”
“Yeah. I don’t want Mum and Father to know about this though. Er, at least about the part where I’m talking to future me. The Dream Diviner part is fine, I think.”
Theo glanced up at him. “Since when do you keep things from your parents?”
Draco rolled his eyes. “Since forever. Remember all that blackmail I’ve got on you? Never spoken a word of it. Not yet anyways.” He smirked but it dropped fast. “Besides, future-me says not to and I’ve got a feeling.”
Theo nods. “Your dream instinct-feeling-thing,” he says, mushing the words together like that will help it make any sense. Theo knows about Draco’s instincts when it comes to dreams. They’re good. Real good. Draco doesn’t get why but he supposes it has to do with the ‘latent dream magic’ Miss Rosalind, Theo’s mother, speaks about sometimes. “Alright. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to trust future-you though. Even current-you is a big pain in the arse and a huge liar.”
Draco stuck his tongue out in the most uncivilized way he could manage and Theo laughed. “That’s why I’m gonna talk to your mum about this, dummy.”
~~~~
Draco and the man, the man who claims to be him somehow, sit across from each other.
The man tells him a lot of things. Things his mind isn’t sure he should believe but his heart and magic seem to completely trust. They almost seem to sing with content. It’s a vaguely off putting feeling.
He tells him that a lot of horrible things happen during his seven years at Hogwarts and the three years after. Every school year, Voldermort concocts a plan to invade Hogwarts and kill Harry Potter ( Harry Potter! Draco wants to ask more about this but the man looks too much like his father and looks so sad Draco has to keep quiet.) Every year, Voldemort fails and Potter becomes stronger and stronger until he eventually kills him and the war is won.
Or, at least, it is at first sight. Nearly all of Voldemort’s followers (including Draco's father, good lord, how did that happen?) are either killed or sentenced to Azkaban for an extremely long period of time. Draco doesn’t ask which happened to his father. He’s not sure which is worse.
The Wizarding World is in shambles and people are fighting and killing each other without second thought. Slytherins and Purebloods in particular are being targeted, a complete turn around from when Death Eaters were in charge. Future-Draco, after a deep breath, tells him that his mother is one of the casualties. Draco finds he cannot breathe.
There is no way any of this is real. Yet….
Future-Draco continues to explain that he had been on the wrong side of the war. He had tortured young students and attempted to murder the Headmaster. This all makes Draco feel very sick. He cannot imagine himself doing such things. He is fond of neither Dumbledore nor mudbloods but Draco considers death and torture a tad bit extreme. He had always assumed when his father spoke of getting rid of filth he meant exiling them from the magical world.
The only reason he is not dead is because of Potter. He says this with a sneer but Draco can tell it’s forced. There is a hint of gratefulness in those words that scares him for no reason he can decipher.
The man continues to tell him things. Draco finds that the fog is back and is the only reason his mind is not reeling. All he can do is take in the information.
~~~~
Draco tells his mother and father about the dreams he’s having and the possibility of him being a Dream Diviner. He doesn’t tell them the specifics of his dreams.
His mother is suspicious of his unusually tight lipped behavior but Father seems positively enthralled with the idea of having any type of Diviner in the family. Draco has never felt so proud.
They agree that he is to have weekly sessions with Miss Rosalind in order for him to be able to put his good skills to use.
He has never seen Miss Rosalind look so intrigued. Theo thinks everything unusual is a learning opportunity and he seems to have gotten this from her.
Draco tells Vince and Greg about this new development and they are ecstatic. The four of them go to Diagon Alley to celebrate, their parents trailing lovingly behind them.
~~~~
The weekly sessions are to start only after Draco has begun Hogwarts, which is in two months. Mum says that Miss Rosalind needs some time to arrange her things so she can focus on his studies.
Father has convinced Dumbledore to let Miss Rosalind borrow an empty office to teach in. Father scoffs when Dumbledore recommends Professor Sybil Trelawney to teach Draco instead.
Everyone knows that, while she is a Seer, she is a sham in every other way.
Draco remembers future-him saying he tried to kill Dumbledore and feels sick.
~~~~
Future-Draco tells him that Draco must change not only what happens to Draco and his friends and family (he is too scared to even consider what may have happened to Vince, Greg, and Theo let alone face the facts about what happened to his parents) but he must also change the fate of the Wizarding World itself.
Future-Draco tells him that the best way to do this is to befriend Harry Potter and work by his side to ‘right the wrongs of this world.’
Draco scoffs at how very Hufflepuff he sounds, but then sombers when he realizes the entire world may be resting on his shoulders.
He is not sure he can carry that weight.
~~~~
Draco tells Theo about the dream in detail. He ends up shaking and crying at the end of it, folding easily into the shorter boy's arms. He doesn't believe anything the man had said but the thought of it all is still unsettling.
Their parents find them curled up together in sleep and only wake them the next morning.
Draco would be embarrassed if it was anyone but Theo. Between Draco’s over active imagination and Theo’s slightly concerning home life, things like this have happened before.
~~~~
The second time Draco meet’s his future-self he is told about the Gryffindor Trio. He is reminded time and time again not to use words like mudblood in front of Potter.
~~~~
The third time Draco is told that he will meet Potter at both Madam Malkin’s and at the train. He is told not to bring up blood supremacy or insult any of Potter's friends which apparently include the savage gamekeeper and a filthy Weasley.
Draco is starting to understand why future-him is not fond of Potter. Hopefully, this time with a respectable pureblood as his friend he will understand who are truly worthy of friendship and who do better with pity or disdain.