Dreams and Lies

PART ONE

Draco
Malfoy plucked at his black slacks as Hermione plodded alongstyle='font-size:10.0pt'> beside
him. He was sick of her presence but remained silent knowing that now was not
the time to ditch his shadow. He just
wanted to be alone. But he knew better
than to fight her at this stage. Granger
would never let him return to his simple solitude and he hated her even more
for not just letting him go back under his own terms.

"Listen Granger,"
Draco finally said after they finally passed out of sight of the Channel waters.
"There's a few things I style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>want to pick up. I'll meet you back at
the school on time like a good little boy."

"I'll go with you,"
Hermione offered intending to stick with him.

"I want to go alone,"
Draco gave up being polite as he glared at her.

Hermione shook her head,
"I have to go with you Draco. It's
--"

"Orders," He bit out
derisively with a sneer. "Let me guess, style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>Dumbledore or McGonagall gave them to
you?"

Hermione looked guilty when McGonagall’s
name was mentioned. Draco was
not surprised although he had to admit that he felt better for snapping at
Granger even though it would do nothing for him other than to have her be an
even more overbearing shadow. He turned
his back on Hermione and trudged up towards the picturesque village. Once there he bought some
apples and a deep
green sweater of fine wool from a street vendor. He style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>could feel Hermione's eyes on his back
but he refused to acknowledge her.
He was at least going to pretend that he was by himself and if style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>she got all huffy that was just too damn
bad. After all, he had wanted to be by
himself and ignoring her was the next best thing.

He
pretended to peruse the other carts and booths even though he knew he was not
going to buy anything else that day. He
had no wish to remember this particular part of the journey but if it served to
piss Granger off then that was just fine.

"Ready
Granger?"
Draco asked walking off back towards the shore, not caring if she responded,
almost hoping she would remain silent.

"Where are you going?"
Hermione demanded crossly.

"Back towards the
beach," Draco stared evenly at her. "I figured we style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>could apparate
to Hogsmeade and walk up to the castle, unless
there's something wrong with
that? Or did McGonagall give you orders
on where we should apparate from too?"

She even had the grace to blush
at his remark. He once more turned
his back to her and stalked off. After a few moments he heard style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>her footsteps behind him.

The two apparated
back to Hogsmeade, into the back of the class=SpellE>Weasley'sstyle='font-family:"Times New Roman"'> Wizards Wheezes. Fred looked up from
where he was tinkering
with a new product. Draco was a little
surprised he still remembered that Harry had taught him to distinguish
between the twins. Fred had
slightly smaller ears and a tiny freckle
on his chin whereas George had a freckle on his temple.

"Hello Hermione,"
Fred nodded to the girl with a friendly smile. "Would you mind
helping George out for a bit?
He's trying to restock some of the shelves while I work on this. We're a bit short handed
today."

Her eyes flicked to Draco as
she tried to decide what to do.

"I'll watch him,"
Fred offered.

Hermione finally gave in and
moved up front and out of the back leaving the two young men alone.style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Draco shifted his packages from one arm to
the other.

"She means well,"
Fred shook his head apologetically as he made sure that Hermione really had
gone to help George. "She really does."

Draco said nothing, merely
leveled his cool gaze at Fred.

"I can tell you're getting
annoyed with her following you around everywhere," Fred explained with an easy grin. "No
worries though. I can fix that problem
for you real fast. Come with me."

Curious Draco followed the
older Weasley twin into the other back style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>room. Fred moved to a shelf and muttered
something under his breath that
Draco did not quite catch. The shelf soundlessly detached

itself from the wall and he
could see a set of stairs going down into the darkness.

"It's a new tunnel George
and I put in," Fred said proudly stepping back to let Draco in for a
closer look. "It goes
out near Hagrid's hut. Now get going if you want to
leave Hermione behind
here. I can keep her busy for a bit longer."

Draco did not ask why because
he did not want to know. He did not say
thank you but he took the flashlight Fred offered to style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>him and went down the stairs. He heard
the shelf moving back in place,
just barely. He clutched his two parcels under his arms and style='font-family:"Times New Roman"'>moved off towards Hogwarts.