Draco walked into his room and dropped his satchel on the ground. He was exhausted after quidditch practice and all his school work lay unfinished on his desk from earlier. The weather was awful and he was soaked through to his skin, his blonde hair plastered to his forehead. He knew he would have to get up and do his homework but he just wanted to go to sleep. He wanted to dream that dream again. He rolled over to his side, now trying to forget the dream. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the dream, but...it made him feel so many things. It made him feel ashamed of himself, and of his father. It made him frustrated. He'd already ruined any chance he would ever with Hermione because of what his father had taught him about muggle-borns. He closed his eyes, trying to forget the various times he had teased and tormented her but the darkness only made the recollections more vivid. He opened his eyes quickly feeling a surge of guilt. He had to distract himself somehow…maybe a shower. He got up and walked through the door to the boy's bathroom, closed the door, and began to run the water.

            Hermione, on the other hand, was in her room on her bed with the curtain drawn around her. She was looking down at a large glass ball, pondering what she was about to do. She lay back for a moment, staring up at the cover of her bed. It was Gryffindor red, trimmed with gold. She closed her eyes and played back a few memories she'd been keeping in storage over the last few months. She remembered him watching her in the library. When did any Slytherin spend copious amounts of time in the library like she did? Never until Draco. In her mind she had become comfortable using his first name. Lately he had fallen silent, no dragon claws or teeth bared.  He spent his time reading books non-stop and all his friends had deserted him. She wondered what was so important to him that he had seemingly changed so drastically. She didn't want to flatter herself, but she had the idea that it was to do with her. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Not as bad as her, as she was currently considering invading the sanctity of his mind to find out what was going on. She sat up. Could she really do this to him? He would never know, after all. He would just fall into a gentle sleep for a few minutes while she looked around a bit. And it wasn't like she was going to use the information against him; she just wanted to know why he was acting so strangely, after all, he could be plotting to do something sinister. That was reason enough, if anyone ever found out. Yes…that would do.

            Draco stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He went to the linen closet and pulled out a pair of emerald green boxer shorts and slipped them on, drying himself quickly. He rubbed his hair dry-ish and a put on a black t-shirt. He knew he would have to make an attempt at his Defense Against the Dark Arts homework; the essay was due in two days. He hung his towel to dry and shut the bathroom door. He sat down to do his essay: "The persecution of muggles by wizard-kind in the last century, in no less than 800 words. Please explain how and why three separate incidents of your choosing occurred, and what happened to the offending wizards." The shower had cleared his mind, but the world appeared to be against him. But he was well-researched at least, with all those muggle-rights books he had been reading. He had discovered that there was no reason for muggle-borns to be treated any differently than wizard-kind, and furthermore it was highly illegal to use your magic against them as they were defenseless. He began to write, but suddenly his head felt heavy. Just a few minutes, he thought. I'll just sleep for a few...Then he thought he heard a girl say "Don't worry" softly before he blacked out.

            Hermione cursed. She hadn't meant to knock him out…damn. Never mind though, no lasting damage done. He might wake up with a bit of a headache, but he could attribute that to the extra sleep. She had her hands on the glass ball and began to look through his most recent memories. Here was today at lunch. He was reading a book on muggle rights. They did have that essay due in D.A., but when had Draco ever researched before he had to? She saw herself smiling and chatting to Harry. She suddenly felt so sad, and she realized it was not her feeling but Draco's. And it wasn't just sadness, there was a yearning, regret…She pulled away from the memory, a little surprised. She found a memory of quidditch practice and found nothing threatening or violent. He wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing, just going through the motions. This disturbed Hermione greatly and she wanted to leave him, to think about this for a little while but something made her press onward. Draco was in bed now, and he closed his eyes. Then he opened them and there she was, watching over him. Hermione blushed deeply wondering how far she should go with this. It was a dream and it was not right to keep watching. On the other hand, it involved her directly. Hell, she was right there. No, she had to ride it out, no matter how scary the dream might get. She let the dream carry on for almost half an hour before she became aware how long she'd been in Draco's mind. She pulled out carefully, softly and put the glass ball away. She stared at her bedside table and curled into the fetal position, and began to cry softly.

            Draco slowly woke up, looking around him. He had heard someone…it sounded like Hermione. She had told him not to worry. He must have been dreaming already though. He didn't understand his dream at all. Just lunch, quidditch practice and his favorite dream. He liked that he had the Hermione dream, but he found it odd that he had it so early in the night. He had to be in really deep sleep usually. And he remembered a feeling of fear, but he wasn't afraid. For some reason he had tears in his eyes and he couldn't understand why.