Coloring outside the Lines (Dramione)

Chapter 4: Inquiry

The first week of school flew by. Hermione enjoyed her classes as she always did. She had gone to watch the Quidditch try outs because she liked to support her friends. Luna had come to the try outs in her oh so famous lion hat to cheer on Harry and Ginny. This year, Harry was the captain of the Gryffindor team and Draco was the captain of the Slytherin team. The first big game, Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff was coming up in a few weeks and the whole school was bustling with excitement. Hermione couldn't believe that she was finally starting to have a normal year of school. 

The only thing that Hermione couldn't shake was the dreams. Every night, she would wake up screaming, and the dreams only seemed to be getting worse each night. It had gotten to the point where she and Draco had moved a chair into her room so that Draco could sit until she fell back asleep before moving on to his room. She had noticed that he genuinely had seemed to change, but she couldn't figure out why he was suddenly being so kind to her. 

It was Saturday afternoon and Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Harry and Neville were sitting at the Gryffindor table enjoying lunch. They were laughing and talking about the first Quidditch game coming up and Hermione was having the best time. She looked up from her plate of food and locked eyes with Draco who sat at the Slytherin table all the way across the Great Hall. He smiled at her quickly before looking back to Blaise Zabini who seemed to be talking his ear off about something. 

"So Hermione" Harry started, "Do you want to come back up to the Gryffindor common room after lunch? I need to talk to you." Harry looked at Ginny and gave her a worried look. 

"Why can't we just talk here?" Hermione inquired. 

"We just can't" Ginny piped up, her mouth full of food. 

Hermione nodded her head and looked towards the big doors of the Great Hall. That's when she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. 

"Hello guys" the familiar voice of Ron said. Hermione turned around and saw Ron's smiling face, but the smile was masking what seemed like fear in his voice. 

"Ronald what in Merlin's name are you doing here?" Hermione exclaimed. 

"Well 'Mione, Harry sent an owl, said he needed to talk. He sounded pretty serious so I came straight from the Ministry." Ron responded. 

Ron sat down and they all started laughing together. Hermione looked up and saw Draco staring at their table. He had a look on his face that she couldn't quite place her finger on... could Draco be jealous? 'No' she thought to herself, 'he can't be jealous... he's probably just got a bad taste in his mouth.' 

After lunch was over, the Golden Trio and Ginny walked up to the Gryffindor tower. When the Fat Lady opened the door for them, Harry ran around the whole tower making sure that nobody was there before sitting down on the couch next to Hermione and Ron. 

"Harry" Hermione said, "what ever is the matter with you? You look panicked." 

Harry looked from Hermione to Ginny to Ron and sighed. Then he started talking. "Well" he said, "It's about the dreams. They've been getting worse and worse. But not only that... whenever I wake up from my dreams my scar burns like crazy. But it's impossible because Voldemort is dead. I watched him die... and I broke the Elder Wand, and yet, the scar burns." 

The others looked at him in disbelief. That's when Ginny piped up and said "Harry's not the only one who's dreams are getting worse. I keep seeing Fred die over and over again, but it's not only that... in my dreams I also see the Dark Mark looming in the sky." Ginny shivered at the thought. 

"What about you, 'Mione" Ron said, "Have your dreams been getting worse?" 

"You guys there is a completely logical explanation as to why your dreams are getting worse. It's because we're back at Hogwarts and the memories are being brought back." Hermione said, avoiding Ron's question because she didn't want to admit that her dreams were also getting worse. That's when Ron said something that caught all of their attention.