Little Memories

Draco found himself standing in the middle of a pitch black room. He had no idea of how big or small it was, just that he was in it. The air around him was sweltering hot and he could feel the sweat beading up on his forehead almost instantaneously. His breathing grew labored as he felt he was filling his lungs with pure fire each time he inhaled. He had to squeeze his eyes slightly shut to try and protect them from the intense heat. Despite this fact, he still felt a sharp shiver travel the length of his spine when an eerily familiar voice whispered with a frigidly cold breath against the shell of his ear,

“You’ve forgotten me, Draco.” He shuddered and would have sworn the temperature in the room had taken a downward turn if it weren’t for the fact he was still sweating profusely. He slowly turned in a circle, but couldn’t see or feel anything around him. He jumped suddenly as he felt ghostly cold hands slowly sliding around his stomach and thin, yet powerful arms locking firmly around his torso. “I gave you all that I could,” the breathy whisper continued against his ear, “everything I had…and it wasn’t enough.”

Draco fought against the arms around his waist but his hands merely sunk through them and came in contact with his own shirt instead. The sepulchral fingertips dug a bit into his skin, growing more painful as seconds passed. A bony chin pressed slowly into his shoulder and a cool, smooth cheek pressed against his warm, sweat-dampened face.

“How easily you neglect those who would die willingly if you told them to,” she cooed, a shudder wracking his body once more. A slow breath of air was drawn in and Draco could feel a thin body press against his back for a moment. “Do you know what happens when you neglect your friends and allies, Draco?” The voice asked through an unseen snarl. Draco finally found himself brave enough to answer her, but wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer.

“No,” he said simply and the frigid girl slowly slipped away. He turned slowly and gasped lightly at the sight in front of him. Charlotte Adelyn Goyle stood before him, her entire body glowing a yellow-orange light in a sort of aura that surrounded her. She was as beautiful as ever, yet the expression she wore was a terrible one. She looked absolute blemish-free and luminescent, garbed in a flowing white dress. A warm breeze blew past them and Charlotte’s perfect ringlets bounced slightly in it as she glowered at him. This low rumbling noise began echoing through the space they were in and it was then that Draco realized that she was surrounded by large flames that licked at her skin, but did not burn her. The unbearable heat that he felt was radiating off of her in waves and he immediately knew that he was not going to like the outcome of this dream one bit.

“They burn,” she replied in a slow whisper. As soon as the last consonant left her mouth and vocal chords, the heat that surrounded Draco grew to such an intensity that he thought his clothes and skin would be scorched. The beautiful Charlotte in front of him succumbed to the fire and turned ugly, blackened, and charred. His mouth fell open and his eyes widened despite the heat that assaulted them as the once gorgeous being in front of him incinerated instantly on the spot, leaving behind a figure made of ash in it’s stead. The flames that ate away at her fell as soon as they came and her form crumpled into a heap of smoldering ashes. Draco felt his heart thud against his ribcage as he stared down at the pile of ashes in absolute horror. Exactly four heaving beats of his heart later, a ghostly, shapeless figure swirled up from the ashes and flew at Draco, letting out a breathy, raspy, yet blood-curdling scream.

Draco woke with a jolt and he took in a ragged breath of air in almost immediately. He stared up at the dark canopy of his bed, a hand over his chest and his heart still hammering away at his ribcage. Sweat and tears rolled steadily down the sides of his face his body shook uncontrollably as the intensity of the dream hit him full force. A door opened somewhere in the room and soft footsteps marched rhythmically over to his bed. Hastily, he wiped away the tears and sweat from his face as Daphne, the absolute last person he wanted to see next to Lord Voldemort, pulled back the curtain of his bed. She stared at him with an agape mouth for a moment, her eyes wide.

“Draco!” She screeched, sitting down on the side of his bed. “You better get up or we’re going to be late for class!” He rolled his eyes and slowly sat up, shooting her a look that clearly said he didn’t want to bother with her nit-picking and dim-witted ways. Of course, she wouldn’t ask him if he were alright or if he felt well, since he had overslept by a great margin for no seeming reason. He dragged a hand over his face and let out a heavy sigh before looking over at Daphne, who had her lips pursed tightly together and her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at him.

“Look…just wait for me in the Common Room, okay?” He asked in a voice thick with annoyance, but also sleep. Daphne merely scoffed, rolling her eyes, and stomping out of the room without another look or word to Draco. He sat in the silence of the room one more and raised a shaking hand to his forehead, letting out an equally shaky breath of air as he tried to calm himself down. He felt like he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown, like his lungs were seizing up on him, and he needed to stop the feeling before it got any farther. Reluctantly, after he felt confident he wouldn’t pass out, he pulled himself out of the sheets and hastily got dressed.

Unfortunately for Draco, Daphne was waiting for him in the Common Room, her arms still crossed over his chest and her foot tapping impatiently. She turned and scowled at him with her dark green eyes, but didn’t say a word. She merely flipped her long, dark brown hair over her shoulder irritably and lifted her book bag strap over her shoulder. As soon as the door to the Slytherin Common Room shut behind them, the warning bells rang and let them know that they had five minutes to get to the Transfiguration room all the way on the other side of the school.

“Oh great,” Daphne snapped as she snatched Draco’s hand in hers and roughly began to tug him behind her up the dungeon stairs. “We’re going to be late and it’s going to be entirely your fault,” she continued with a venomous look over her shoulder to Draco. He was about to point out to her that she really didn’t need to wait for him, but he was far too concerned with the contents of his dream. He knew it had meant something, but he wasn’t sure of what.

As Daphne pulled him along, they passed through a third floor corridor shortcut and he noticed Charlotte and Jackson standing outside of the closed Charms classroom door. Daphne took the time they didn’t have to stop, scoff, and let out a muttered “whore”. Charlotte’s bright blue eyes snapped from Jackson, who was laughing at something she had said, to the two of them, as if she knew they were there and an insult had been thrown her way. Her eyes shot into Draco’s and he watched as she delicately lifted her hand to her heart. She looked concerned for a fleeting moment before she looked back at Jackson and they both disappeared into the Charms classroom. Just as the door closed behind them, the bell ran and let them both know that they were late.

“Well, you were right,” Draco said loftily, causing Daphne to turn her scowl over to him, “we’re late but it‘s not all my fault.” She grit her teeth together and pointed a threatening finger in his face before turning and continued to lug him behind her. Draco, however, found a bit of humor in her anger and wore at small, amused smile on his lips even after Professor McGonagall had informed him of an impending detention if he were late to class one more time.

The rest of the day passed by slowly as there wasn’t a minute of Draco’s day that he didn’t replay a part or the entirety of the dream he had. For a moment, while he sat in Potions pretending to listen to Professor Slughorn ramble on, he seriously considered taking his dream to Firenze. Maybe, he had thought, the centaur could help him find out what it meant before it was too late. Upon further thought, at lunch, while Daphne sat at his side and talked with her friends like he wasn’t there, he decided against it. The dream delved far too much into his personal life and he didn’t think he’d like anyone but himself knowing that he secretly pined for Charlotte to be his once more. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wished he had never stopped taking that potion Charlotte had made for him over the summer. He knew that she knew about this dream somehow, or that he was still having nightmares, by the simple gesture of her placing her hand over her heart.

He was relieved of Daphne’s obnoxious and drab company by the excuse of Quidditch practice. He had told her a little white lie and said he needed to get there as early as possible to plan maneuvers and stratagems to beat Ravenclaw in their next match, when really he just wanted to be free of her. If she wasn’t going to use him for the one thing she normally did, she just wasn’t that pleasant to be around. Sure, he thought she was pretty to look at, but that was the extent of his attraction toward her. Her personality was horrible and every day he found himself comparing her to Charlotte. Every day he found himself realizing that no one could match to the radiance that was Charlotte Adelyn Goyle.

So, two class slots before the rest of the team was supposed to meet for practice, he made his way through the grounds to the Slytherin Locker Room. Draco hadn’t suspected anyone to be there to interrupt him and he was ready to be alone to evaluate the rotten situation he was in and to try and decipher his horrible dream. Or, at least, he wanted to try and figure it out on his own, but he knew that was a stretch since the only person he knew to be able unwind the complicated meanings of dreams seemed to hate him.

The moment he pushed open the heavy wooden door to the locker room, a very peculiar noise met his ears. That sound was followed by another, more curious, one. Draco slowly closed the door behind him, making no noise as a gasp resounded from his left. That gasp was followed by a small noise; a noise Draco knew that he heard many times before. He slowly began to creep around the row of lockers that separated him from the noises, his brow furrowed curiously. A low groan echoed through the metal lockers around them and Draco grit his teeth together.

As he rounded the lockers, he laid his eyes on the one thing he definitely didn’t want or need to see. A pale, muscular back was all he noticed first, then the pale, spindly hands that gripped into his skin; complete with an overly familiar snake ring on one of the fingers. He then took in the mess of brown hair as one of those spindly hand slid up and tugging at that hair. Draco’s stomach churned as he watched the man bury his face into her long, slender neck. She tilted her head back, blonde ringlets falling wantonly over her face. Her lips parted as she took in another gasp. Draco figured by now things had gone far enough and he crossed his arms over his chest, stepping out completely from behind the row of lockers. He cleared his throat and they shot apart like they both had been shocked.

“Well then, Goyle and Nott,” Draco mused as he glanced between the two of them, hiding all the emotions he had coursing through him at the moment. Charlotte had her arms crossed over her bare chest and her head lowered slightly. Theodore had moved slightly in front of Charlotte as if to block her half-nakedness from view. They were both shirtless and it seemed they had intentions for their pants to go next.

“Really, Nott?” Draco asked with a raised brow and a humored expression, causing the boy to look up at him and clench his hands into fists. “Don’t try and act like she has modesty. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before and we both know she has no modesty.” Draco looked over to Charlotte to gauge her reaction and she was looked up at him, genuinely appearing hurt for a moment before anger hid that emotion from him.

“It’s a lot more than you have,” she spat back before turning and picking her bra up from the floor and hastily putting it back on. Draco glanced between the two of them emotionlessly as they scrambled to put their shirts back on.

“You know,” Draco said with a smirk as he continued to look at them, “I think this merits you two having practice. As long as you’re here, why not? I want you dressed by the time I get out of my office and absolutely no snogging.” He turned and walked away from the two of them, slamming the door to his office behind him. Charlotte and Theodore exchanged a look before reluctantly doing what they were told.