Never A Memory

~Happy Nightmares, Mr. Smith~





On the other side of the world...

***



Draco watched the raven-haired man with the brilliant green eyes gaze at the dead man who looked so much like him. He wanted to scream in frustration but couldn't make a sound.



Draco didn't know why he was so angry at the dead, white-haired man but a loathing that bordered on hate churned inside of him. Draco turned his glare towards the dark figure with the green eyes. His mind screamed that he knew both of them, but no solid memory was forthcoming. Suddenly, the green-eyed man turned towards Draco, his handsome features troubled with a mixture of surprise and confusion. Draco's scar exploded with white hot pain and he struggled not to lose sight of the man through the fire searing through his head.



The man's hair tumbled in unruly, black locks all around his face and his bright green eyes fairly gleamed while they searched the darkness. Draco tried to call out to him but no sound came out of his mouth. Something moved in Draco's mind and his scar erupted with a fresh wave of pain. Trembling, Draco tried to move forward towards the searching green eyes and the moving thing in his mind pushed him back.



The man frowned, his eyes turning a grave sort of forest green, and turned away, leaving the cell and Draco's sight of him. Draco roared in his mind, rattling his surroundings until they shimmered and dissipated. Shouting his anger, Draco woke from his dream and clawed at his scar.



A Betty rushed into the room and grabbed Draco's arm, inquiring urgently if he was all right.



"I'm fine!" Draco screamed and jerked his arm away, frustrated tears gathering in his eyes. "Get away from me!"



A Betty-boy stumbled into the room and the Betty turned and whispered urgently to him. Draco sat up and threw his legs over the side of the bed, burying his head in his hands. He squeezed his eyes shut against the pain emanating from his scar and tried to concentrate on breathing.



"Mr. Smith," the Betty called softly. "Alex is going to fetch you some water and something that will help you rest. Will you be all right while he's away?"



Draco nodded but didn't look up until he heard the door shut behind them. Draco stood up on trembling legs and went to his window. The Eagle Owl peered back at him, the shrewd yellow eyes bright and intelligent.



"Please," Draco whispered. "Please...bring me something that will help me remember."



The magnificent bird bellowed a hoot before spreading his massive wings and taking flight. Draco sat at the table by the window and reached for his notebook, hugging it to his chest for a moment before placing it on the table to write in it. He opened the notebook to the second page and, in his elegant scrawl, began to jot down what he remembered from his dream.



He quickly wrote about the cell, the green-eyed man who was already in it talking to the silver-haired man in the corner, the hunchbacked, shriveled man who came in with the black-clad monsters, how they sucked something pearly and white from the silver-haired man, and how the green-eyed man had acted like he felt Draco in the room even though he couldn't see him.



And Draco wrote about how he hated the silver-haired man that looked like an older version of himself. The man's hair was much longer than Draco's, but the pale, pointed face was the same. They shared the same cold, gray eyes, the slender yet powerful build, and the same white-blond hair. The man even looked like Draco when he sneered.



And Draco hated him. It ate at Draco that he didn't understand why, but he knew. He knew that knew that he knew.



He finished the passage with a description of how his scar burned when the green-eyed man looked at him. The green-eyed man. Draco remembered that everything about this man hit him as extremely intense. The perfect angles of his face were intense. The pure green of his eyes were intense. Even his coloring was intense; black hair, pale skin, and green, green eyes.



It was the green he remembered the most. No one at St. Mary's had eyes that color. Usually, "green eyes" were dusted and tamed by a myriad of other colors. Not this green. It was pure and bright and wild.



Draco closed his notebook and looked around his room, searching the darkness for an answer that was not forthcoming.



Alex, the Betty-boy, knocked on his door once before entering. Draco looked up expectantly and the Betty-boy took a step inside the room, carrying a cup of water and a large blue pill. Draco eyed the pill warily but took it when the Betty-boy handed it to him. He placed the chalk-tasting thing in his mouth and used the water in the cup to help him swallow.



Suddenly, a woman shrieked behind the Betty-boy and the Eagle Owl swooped into Draco's room from the main hall. The owl flew around Draco once before dropping something at Draco's feet. The Betty-boy shouted and jumped back when they saw it was a snake. The snake twisted and hissed before rearing back his head and glaring around him. The snake's yellow eyes came to rest on Draco's surprised face and hissed.



Draco tilted his head to one side, watching the snake watch him and suddenly images began banging through Draco's mind. Images of a young, black-haired boy with round glasses and a thin stick in his hand, standing before him on a blue table with golden moon patterns embroidered into it, staring and hissing back at a snake similar to this one. Then images of green and black snakes buffeted him. Every where were decorations of green, black, and white. Snakes and dragons were painted on walls, stitched into banners, and engraved into bed posters. The images were gone as quickly as they came and Draco found himself stepping back as the Eagle Owl swooped back through, picked up the snake, and ripped its throat out with his large, sharp talons.



The Betty-boy lunged forward, trying to grab the owl, but Draco grabbed his arm and threw him back. "No!” Draco shouted. "Don't!"



The Eagle Owl circled the room once more before flying back out into the main hall and disappearing in the Ward. Draco found himself praying that the bird made out without an altercation with any of the Betties.



Draco let go of the Betty-boy and turned to look at him, confused that his face was swimming in his gaze. Draco's knees buckled and gave out. The Betty-boy caught him and carried him to his bed.



"Sweet dreams, Mr. Smith," was the last thing Draco heard before the darkness claimed him.



***



The next day, Draco chewed thoughtfully on a spoonful of oatmeal and tried to remember if he'd tasted anything as terrible as the pile of mush in the bowl before him. Of course he could. It was the pile of mush he'd had for breakfast yesterday. It was a different kind of 'terrible' though. Mettle had called it 'grits' and gobbled his up right away. It had taken Draco a full hour of choking past his gag-reflex long enough to consume most of the bowl's contents. Today seemed a little better in that it may only take roughly three quarters of an hour to choke past his gag-reflex.



Draco sighed and looked up when he heard a bit of commotion towards the entrance of the Cafeteria. Draco stood, happy for an excuse to get away from the terrible pile of mush; and Mettle and Bane were instantly up and pushing a way through the gathering crowd for Draco. Approaching the Cafeteria's entrance, Draco could make out the figure of Nina Rolter, one of the few female patients in the Ward, following three Betty-boys who were carrying her luggage towards the Ward's entrance.



Catching her eye and seeing her pause, Draco walked up to her and offered her an interested smile.



Nina smiled shyly back at him. "They're releasing me today."



Draco's fair brows arched skywards. "Are they, now? I had heard they didn't do that often."



Nina was quiet for a moment, her soft brown eyes darting around them. Finally she leaned in. "They won't let you go if they think you're crazy," she whispered. "You mustn't let them think you're crazy."



Draco nodded gravely as she stepped away again. The Betty-boys had paused and were calling for her. Nina started towards them but stopped again and returned to Draco. Nina reached out and grasped both of Draco's hands. "Nobility isn't about being better than others," Nina said in a hushed voice. "It's about being better than you used to be."



Draco blinked and tried to his pull his hands away but she wouldn't release him.



"You must understand," Nina whispered fiercely. "You must understand."



"All right, Nina," Draco murmured.



Nina let his hands go as suddenly as she had taken them, turned on her heel, and walked away. Draco stared after her and thought about what he'd written in his notebook this morning and the night before. The more he thought about it, the madder it sounded.



Draco knew he wasn't crazy...but his memories definitely sounded crazy.



Draco turned and strode back to Bane and Mettle. He glanced once at Mettle before lifting his eyes to Bane's cruel, icy blue ones. "I need a notebook. A blank one. One that looks identical to the one the Doc gave me."



"Consider it done," Bane replied.



***



Later that evening, after Draco had showered and brushed his teeth, a Betty knocked on his door and came in. She handed him a glass of water and a large blue pill.



"I don't want it," Draco said.



"Doc's orders," the Betty replied cheerfully. "You can take it up with him next week."



Draco grabbed the pill and the glass of water, put the pill to his lips, and drained the glass of water. The Betty lifted her chin to inspect Draco's mouth. Satisfied, the Betty took the glass and left the room, closing the door neatly behind her. Draco walked back into his bathroom and tossed the pill, having never left his fingers, into the toilet. As he flushed the toilet he heard his bedroom door open and close again. When Draco emerged from the bathroom he saw a new notebook had been place on his bed.



Quickly, he sat on his bed and scribbled a few notes about random things, pretending those things may have triggered some memory and lying about déjà vu. Then Draco placed the notebook on his nightstand and looked over at his window in time to see the Eagle Owl land on his window sill. Draco smiled mischievously at the owl and the bird responded by raising his black ear tufts.



"Good night, bird," Draco murmured, pulling the bed covers over his body and laying back against the pillows. "Let's see what other little pearls my dreams will have for me tonight, eh?"



The Eagle Owl hooted softly but made no other movement, ever the patient one.



***





A/N:



thrnbrooke: Thank you. I'm very excited that you're paying attention. Everything will be explained in due time, I promise.



alexkim: Your reviews are lovely. Thank you.