Group Reunions!
The end of the summer arrived with far less of a bang than Draco had expected. The confrontation with his father? Now that was something he would have preferred to avoid, but the rest of it… was more than he could have ever asked for.
Griphook and his research work were on schedule, with a few expected hurdles. Sirius was out and about, Remus was happily nesting in Snape’s cottage (that sounds so wrong), Snape was on cloud nine, full of love. Draco had at least a couple of weeks of summer with great eye candy, as expected of a budding teenager (have you seen Bill? Need I say more?). Harry was happy and gay (not that kind of gay, you prats…), but yeah, no pun intended. That black guard dog of Harry was the only remaining mystery in his life right now. And even that wasn’t really that bad. No, Draco was not freaking out that Archie fellow had a skull tattoo… not really worrying. Right?
“Darling, it’s time,” Narcissa motioned them towards the Floo, and Draco realized something.
(“Hey, Vii! Harry never got called for blowing up his aunt, did he?”
“You really need to work on those observational skills, dear.”
“I can do with less sass, thank you.”
“Well, Harry has been busy with those Gastrell’s, and they are really good at fooling Petunia. So Harry spent most of his time at their place, hence no blowing up the aunt.”
“Why do I feel like that will come back to haunt me?”
“Hmmm… you can’t really be sure of that. You have changed so much, so I can’t really say much about it. But if I had to guesstimate from your previous experiences??? Yeah! It probably will come back to bite you in the ass.”)
That was great to know. (Not really)
“Draco!” As per norm, as soon as Draco flooed into King’s Cross, he was engulfed in a bearry hug. (Get it? Bear + Harry = Bearry. Ha! See what I did there.)
“Splendid to see you, old boy,” Fred said, manhandling Draco out of the hug.
“Marvelous!” George exclaimed, pushing Fred aside to get to Draco. “Absolutely spiffing,” George said as he pulled Draco’s robes apart to see the snakeskin vest underneath.
“Oi!” Harry slapped George’s hands away. “Go look for your own. He’s mine,” and started to fuss with Draco’s robes.
“So, I’m guessing–”
“It fits nicely–”
“Not too tight–”
“Or uncomfortable?” George and Fred interrogated, completely ignoring Harry.
“Nope! No complaints at all. It’s great actually. I did some of my own tests and it did really well,” Draco replied, remembering how great the vest had done under his Reductos, Difindos, Incendios. He had even asked the elves to go to town on it with any and all sharp items, projectiles, or sharp projectiles they could get their hands on. One of the elves even had used a guillotine they had found in one of the rooms in the dungeon. Draco couldn’t help but regret not being able to see his father's face when he found the fourteenth-century artifact chipped.
“Good to hear–”
“Always nice to hear–”
“The success stories.”
“Does anyone have any idea what they are on about?” a very confused Ron whispered to Neville, who was equally confounded.
“That’s enough, boys,” Molly pushed the twins aside to look at Draco and Harry. “How are you both doing?” she asked, bursting with excitement. “I’m sure you have heard the exciting news.”
Draco felt his face split into a grin as he turned to Neville. “You told them,” just as Molly moved Percy to the center of the group.
Molly gushed about Percy becoming the Head Boy and how proud she was that Percy was carrying on the family traditions.
Honestly, Draco had forgotten all about it. (What, he’s a side character, you can’t honestly expect Draco to remember all that stuff.)
“And last,” Fred mumbled, and Molly went on a rant about how she never expects such things from basically her other useless children. (Honestly, someone needs to teach her about emotional abuse and stop her from bullying her children.)
“Wait… Why are you looking at Neville?” Ginny frowned. Draco could see her smelling drama.
“We were too busy finalizing the contracts and stuff to actually announce it during summer. We were planning to tell you guys on the train,” Neville said abashedly while Blaise looked oddly proud.
“Sorry I didn’t want to ruin your surprise…” Draco felt embarrassed now.
“Contracts and stuff?” Pansy inquired.
“Announcing?” Ginny repeated to herself.
“We?” Fred and George echoed. Blaise smirked and kissed Neville’s cheek.
“Oh my god!” Ginny released a screech like a banshee.
“Oh my god,” Luna repeated in their small voice.
“You did it!” Pansy gasped and screamed at the same time. (Now that was talent.)
(Where the hell did they come from, Draco thought to himself.
“Like I said, gotta work on those observational skills, pretty boy.”
“And like I said… shut up.”)
“Yes, we did,” Blaise said haughtily, raising Neville's hand to kiss his wrist right next to the betrothal band. It was a beautiful two-toned spiral bracelet. The chains, one black and one silver, were interwoven and connecting the both ends with an emerald gem, locking the bracelet in place.
If Blaise was to believe the bracelet was unbreakable and would only open with a spell selected by Neville and his partner with an additional drop of blood from both. Very arcane but romantic and apparently in with the girls if the oohs and ahhs were any indicators.
The next few minutes were lost to congratulations and cheers. Even some surrounding groups were there to congratulate them. Draco stood to a side and smiled at his friends' happiness. He did not miss Harry grilling Fred and George (Even Percy at one point) about the significance of the band. He watched Harry give his own Mer-gem bracelet an inquiring look and Draco belatedly realized he had been touching his Forget-Me-Not pendant absentmindedly.
As the announcements of boarding started, Harry came back to Draco as they started their goodbyes and moved to the train. Percy must have said something awfully boring because Fred and George started on their time as they had tried to lock Percy in an Egyptian tomb.
“That must have been something,” Draco said, not really paying attention, his focus on Remus’s sleeping form as they entered their compartment. He wondered where Sirius was. He was supposed to hold fort at Grimmauld, but Snape had told them he would be leasing a place in Hogsmeade, so maybe Sirius would be staying there. Draco should have given Sirius the two-way mirror for easy communications.
(“You could always ask me.”
“How? You can’t talk to Sirius, can you?”
“No, but I can ask Zii about it.”)
“Weren’t you supposed to be there?” Harry nudged Draco as they sorted their luggage. Draco tried to focus on what they were talking about as all the Weasleys, all five of them (Really it was too many Weasleys at the same time… and not even in a good way), burst into laughter.
The rest of the group looked at them in confusion as Fred explained between laughs. “Oh! He was there alright.”
“He was just too busy making googly eyes at Bill,” George finished.
Draco turned red and grumbled at the Weasleys and their gossiping ways, meanwhile Harry blinked a couple of times as if to comprehend what the twins had just told them, as the rest of them broke out in laughter as well.
“But… isn’t he too old?” Harry frowned.
“Not that old. He’s 20,” Draco shrugged. Again there were snickers from the peanut gallery as this time Harry started grumbling.
“Who do you reckon he is?” Ron asked, pointing at Remus.
After the initial chaos (also when Draco realized Remus had cast a Muffliato at them), everyone had settled down. Percy had gone for “Head Boy duties,” and the twins had left to join Lee and Angelina. Vince and Greg were with the twins for once. Neville, Blaise, and Theo were huddled next to the window opposite Remus, lost in their own world discussing something or another. Every now and then, Blaise would say something, Theo would second that, and Neville would turn red. Draco was sure he was missing something but didn’t want to cause unwanted attention on them.
Luna was braiding Ginny’s hair as Pansy slept with her head on Luna’s shoulder. Ron and Hermione sat next to Remus, and Harry and Draco were sitting next to Theo on the other bench.
“That would be Professor R. J. Lupin,” Draco declared nonchalantly. As Ron and Hermione looked at him inquisitively, he pointed at the trunk on the luggage rack.
“Wonder what he’s going to teach,” Ginny asked, following the conversation.
“He teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Luna replied in her melodic voice.
“And how would you know that, honey?” Pansy asked in a sleep-rumpled voice.
“I just do,” Luna replied with her sweet smile, and no one questioned her. Luna was like that sometimes, all knowing and shit.
“Did you guys know about the rumor? That the Defense Against the Dark Arts position is jinxed?” Hermione asked.
“I would say our whole school is jinxed with the way the last two years have gone by,” Theo grumbled.
“Harsh!” Draco mock gasped and shrugged. “But true…”
“Trolls? Three-headed dogs? Basilisks? And now mass murderers. I totally don’t know what you mean…” Blaise mused.
“I mean we decided to be friends with this trouble magnet, what could we say.” Draco waved at Harry.
“Oi!” Harry elbowed him. “I’m not a trouble magnet.”
“I beg to differ,” Pansy perked up. “The troll, the three headed dog, the stone situation, the basilisk, the chamber thing… all had been about you one way or the other so far. Even the mass murderer thing.” Pansy counted on her fingers as the others hollered “Hear, hear.”
“What mass murderer thing?” Hermione piped up.
“Sirius Black,” Neville said as if that explained everything. Draco saw Remus twitch out of the corner of his eye. So he was listening in.
“I mean he’s supposedly after Harr–” Ron started, but Draco cut him off.
“No, he isn’t.”
“What? What do you mean?” Now Draco was the focus of everyone.
“Just trust me… son of a Death Eater, cousin of a Black and all… it’s not true. It’s not as it seems. Sirius is not after Harry,” Draco held Harry’s hand, assuring him, and looked at the others daring them to contradict him.
“If you say so…” Theo said after a couple of minutes of tense silence and went back to his discussion with Neville and Blaise.
“I’ll tell you later. Promise,” Draco whispered in Harry’s ear as he put his head on Harry’s shoulder and tried to sleep away the journey. Ron was showing his Sneakoscop to the others as it went off. Glad to know the rat was around.
.....
The moment his vision focused, he looked around in astonishment, more likely shock and fear as well. How could something be so familiar and yet so new?
He knew there was a word for it. Not déjà vu because he was pretty sure he had never experienced this in person before. He had read about this for what felt like hundreds of times. He had looked at this view through his imagination and that awful rendition of a movie, but he had never lived through it. And yet somehow, someway, he knew this was what happened or will happen when that bloody war finally happens. Or the morning after.
"Jamais vu," the word flitted through his brain. He shook his head, trying to disperse the haziness. His ears were ringing, or was it buzzing? It was one or the other; he wasn't sure. He looked around again, trying to focus on something that could give him a hint of where he was.
He knew he was at the entrance of the Great Hall. Hogwarts had expanded the hall, and there were at least a couple of hundreds of students milling around. Some injured, some gravely wounded, some crying, and some consoling others. There were some who looked to be in a trance or just too numb to comprehend what was happening. Then there were the adults. Pomfrey had made some kind of makeshift med bay on one side, and he could see some extremely wounded bodies either writhing or screaming with pain or just lying unconsciously under Stasis Charms.
The hall itself was overcrowded and in shambles. There was glass and stone and woods littering the floor. The windows shattered. The ceiling charm seemed to be broken. He had a niggling dread in the back of his mind that if he moved forward, he would find Remus's dead body on the floor with the other sheet-covered corpses of the fallen. Yet his feet moved without his accord and despite his unwillingness.
Someone was covering a body of a girl he had a feelingthougth she was the Ravenclaw one who had cried the night before during the bonfire. He keptl moving forward, something screaming inside not to look at the body, that it was Remus, but thenyet somehow he saw a tired Remus consoling a crying student as a stone-faced Severus hugged and comforted a haggard-looking Sirius. His breathing relaxed a little. A wave of relief washed over him. The next person he recognized was Fred Weasley. But that couldn't be right. Wasn't Fred supposed to be lying on the floor with the dead? And yet somehow, Fred was controlling a broken George, and Luna and Pansy were hugging a crying Ginny. Ron and Hermione were huddled on one bench. And Mr. Weasley was keeping guard on a still Molly lying on the floor and partially covered with a white sheet. Draco startled…
This was all wrong. He was forgetting something. Draco moved faster out of the hall towards the stairs. Theo and Blaise were sitting on Neville's each side, each holding his hand. Draco looked up the staircase abandoned. Harry! Where was Harry?
He turned towards the main doors. A lone body was moving towards the forest. He knew it was Harry. He just knew it was him. Draco knew he had to stop him so he screamed and screamed. But his mouth was still closed. Try as he might he couldn't make any noise or even say Harry's name. So he ran. He ran after Harry. But Harry was too far away, and he was moving too fast.
He ran and ran but couldn't reach Harry. He tried screaming again, but just a muffled sound came out of his mouth, and then someone was shaking him. He startled awake, looking at a pair of green eyes.
"It's okay, you're okay," Harry was saying repeatedly in a soft voice, his eyes wide with concern.
"Harry," Draco called, finally able to say his name.
"It's okay. It was just a dream," Harry assured him, but Draco knew that was wrong. It wasn't a dream.
(“What the hell was that? Vii") he called Vii out as Harry brought him a bottle of water.
("I don't know what you're talking about. I cant read your dreams."
“Cut the crap, Vii. It wasn't a dream. What was it?”
“I really don't know. You're not supposed to have dreams. And whatever it was, you were behind a cover. I tried but couldn't reach you.”)
“Are you really better?" Theo asked quietly.
Draco looked around; everyone was looking at him with concern. He was in the train on his way to Hogwarts. It was getting chilly.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry for scaring you," Draco said, feeling sheepish. Remus was now sitting alert, and despite not having said a word, he was looking extremely concerned for Draco, worry clear in his eyes. "I'm okay, guys," he assured everyone, his eyes on Remus, making sure he heard him.
For a second, he thought he was back in the nightmare as everything turned foggy, and the compartment turned chilly.
The Dementors have arrived.