hogwartsexpressed | Nightmares & Revelations (CLOSED

A lot had changed since the end of the war. Harry hadn't gone back to Ginny as so many had assumed and they were both okay with that. More than okay, if he was honest. The only one who hadn't taken it so well... okay, the only two people who hadn't taken it so well were Molly and Ron. To them, they were supposed to be this giant happy Weasley family and well, Hermione and he had other aspirations.

After those months in the tent, after Ron had left them, Hermione and he had discussed their hopes, their dreams, their fears and even shared each other's beds. After the war, they hadn't let themselves or each other simply settle for the Ministry or to just get married and start having a family. They wanted and needed something bigger, where they could do more to the benefit of their society.

He had of course told Ron that nothing happened and to this day, he wasn't sure why he had insisted that nothing happened - maybe to make everyone else happy? But after it was all said and done, he knew how pointless that had been. Not only had their society changed but they had changed.

Hogwarts would always be his first home but neither of them felt ready to return to the scene of the war. Perhaps that was putting it nicely. They were done with the manipulations from Dumbledore and knew Hogwarts would only bring up bad thoughts and memories for the both of them. Instead, they had been approached by the International Confederation of Wizards to join their next recruiting class. It would be hard work, they were told, but they were used to that. After Hermione found her parents and returned their memories, they accepted the position and headed to Rome, much to Ron's disappointment and dismay.

They'd went in on a three bedroom flat of a wizarding world apartment complex, it wasn't as if Harry was hurting for money after the will reading of Sirius and his parents (whose had been buried intentionally by Dumbledore) and taking up his lordship. They had assumed they would use the other room for an office but when they met their fellow recruits, they realized there was likely another reason for it. They hadn't been the only ones from Britain to be approached by the ICW, imagine their surprise when Draco Malfoy had shown up that first day. Not only that, but in their training exercises, the three of them had been paired up a number of times and surprisingly (and unsurprisingly) enough... they worked really well together. It didn't take Hermione and him long to approach Draco about moving into the third bedroom.

The more surprising part was that he'd accepted.

It had been just over five months since Draco had moved in with them and he could honestly say they were starting to make headway.

It was just Harry's luck that the night Hermione was out of town working on assignment was the night he had his first nightmare since before they came to Rome. It was as it always was - Sirius' death, Voldemort's annoying monstrous face and Dumbledore's ever present manipulations - losing everything he loved and cared for. What he didn't know was that he was screaming, tossing and turning in his bed and his magic getting a little bit (a lot) out of control. Normally, Hermione was home and would be alerted the moment his magic got loose or that he was having a nightmare. But tonight, he was on his own. Or he might've been had the silencing spells on his room not broken on the onslaught of his magic, alerting Draco to the situation at hand.

Threaded | Flat

While the end of the war, and the end of Voldemort, had been freeing for many, it had changed Draco's life in entirely different ways. He had taken it as his chance for freedom, and when he had been approached in those days after his father was imprisoned, he had left Britain.

Going to the ICW when they offered hadn't even been a question. He had taken the chance in an instant. Seeing Granger and Potter across the room had been terrifying, even if he had fought not to show it. He didn't believe the ICW didn't know the wizard he had been in school, but they could reveal so much to everyone there.

And yet they didn't.

Then it was being British that drew them together, being the kids that had waged a war and won. It drew them together. What had been an uneasy truce was becoming a friendship.

Then Draco wakes up to screaming and things flying around his room and he grabs up his wand and runs for Harry's room, positive he's being attacked.

Instead he finds him asleep, thrashing in his bed and Draco wordlessly flings things out of his way as he dives to kneel beside Harry's bed.

"Potter," he snarls, a hint of the past in that word, shaking him without touching him, not even bringing his wand to play. His wordless spells are growing, something Granger has been helping him with, and he's using them now without even thinking about it. "Potter!"

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