Patient was not a word ever used to describe Draco Malfoy. The second he'd been put on notice to wait for Snape, his nerves were jangling. He couldn't finish his dinner and had quickly pushed it aside. Not long after, an elf had appeared and cleared off the table. Draco had gotten out of the way so he could pace melodramatically.

His memory was suddenly stung by the sight of Hermione with her throat cut and he had an irrational impulse to run to her room to make certain she was all right. He stopped halfway to the door. That blood... that damned nightmare! It couldn't be called a nightmare. It had been too real. Everytime he saw the scaly lips of the Dark Lord kiss his father's cheek it made his stomach roil.

Draco couldn't stop the tight unease of his belly and he ran to Snape's bathroom falling to his knees in front of the commode and emptying what little of dinner he'd eaten. Closing his eyes, he could see the dream as stark as any memory against his eyelids. The blood flowed down over Hermione's chest and spread across her belly until she collapsed into it. The snake kissed his father. Again his stomach tried to purge itself and Draco's body trembled.

A cool washcloth was pressed to his forehead and was followed a second later by a glass of water. "Just swish it in your mouth and spit it out." Draco did as he was told and did not question the potion now being brought to his lips. He smelled it and knew it was an anti-nausea.

"Can you tell me what's got your stomach so tied in knots, Draco?" Professor Snape leaned against the edge of the sink. He'd seen Draco like this before. It was a habit of the boy's to bottle up his emotions until they literally made him sick.

Draco closed the lid of the toilet, flushed it and then stood shakily to his feet. "Sir, would you legilimens me?"

This startled Snape. Draco had no problem coming to him to talk which was sometimes a problem itself when he was just whining about Gryffidor injustices or about the unfairness of the other teachers. It worried him that something... was it that bloody Odd Room, he cursed inwardly. There was something more than just bottled up emotions. "I can, but tell me why, first."

"A nightmare... but... it's far too real, sir. You need to see it. Please?"

"Come out here, then, and sit down before you fall down." Draco led the way out of the bathroom and headed for the chair in front of the fireplace. He was almost there when his legs did falter. Snape caught him and helped him the rest of the way to the chair. A new shudder went through Draco's body. Snape was now very worried. An anti-nausea potion would take care of the normal, nausea induced tremors. The boy was clearly frightened.

"Are you ready, Draco?" Draco simply nodded. Tilting up Draco's head, Snape caught the boy's silvery grey eyes with his own. He whispered, "Legilimens."

Snape didn't have to sift through anything. The nightmare was there, stark and malevolent. Snape couldn't understand the fear as at first all he saw was Hermione. Beautifully dressed and smiling up at Draco. He could feel Draco's budding feelings for the girl. There was also guilt for the way he'd treated her in the past.

"This is what you bring into our home, Draco?" Lucius Malfoy stood behind the unwary girl, his wand pointed at his son. Draco had not heard the freezing charm that bound him fast in place upon the stairs.

"Please, father, don't..." Draco pleaded.

"A filthy mudblood," Lucius spat. The elder Malfoy's wand became a dagger, a dagger that slit silently across Hermione's throat. For a moment she stood as the blood spilled down over her dress, changing the lovely white flowers into red. Tears ran from her eyes and down her cheeks as she sank down upon her knees.

Snape watched the rest of the dream, feeling Draco's revulsion as the Dark Lord kissed his father's cheek. What stunned Snape more was when he saw Lucius bring his cane down upon him. He felt the sharp blow of that snake headed cane and it nearly drove him to his knees, both in the dream and in the safety of his room. Snape truly feared for his death as Lucius raised his wand to invoke the killing curse, but it was Draco who sent the curse instead. It was Lucius that the acid green death burned into.

Snape stumbled away from Draco breaking the connection. Just as Draco's stomach had rebelled, so did Snape's. He removed the anti-nausea potion from his pocket and downed a dose.

"Do you see, Professor?" asked Draco in a small voice. "Hermione... I want to make certain she's all right, but I'm afraid to."

Snape took a deep breath, conjured a chair, and sat across from his godson. What the hell was that he'd just seen? That was no nightmare! It had the clarity of a penseived memory. Snape knew it wasn't, though. Lucius was, unfortunately, alive and well in their future. Hermione, of course, was playing Gobstones with Harry and Ron. He'd checked on them moments before arriving to find Draco sick in his bathroom. That dream had been as clear as the one he'd suffered the night before that caused him to run out into the rain. His scar had been burning a clear summons and he would have gone if Lyrica had not awakened him.

"Draco, have you had any other dreams like this since we've been here?" Snape asked slowly.

Draco shook his head. "Not me. But the others had dreams last night." While Snape listened, Draco related the vague content of each of the dreams Harry, Ron and Hermione had. His blood had turned to ice when Draco told him that Harry's scar had bled during the original dream and as he was telling it.

"Why do you think they felt so real, sir?" asked Draco.

Snape shook his head. "I really cannot say, Draco. However, if you or the others have dreams again like this, you must tell me at once, understand?"

Draco nodded. "But what if they don't want to talk to you?" Draco knew Harry would certainly be reluctant to mention such dreams to Snape.

"If they tell you, then tell me." Draco nodded at the steel in his godfather's voice. Snape wanted to pursue what this nightmare meant, but he had another problem to deal with. "Mr. Malfoy, we have something else we need to discuss now."

Draco sat up stiffly and swiped at an unseen tear. He was doing his best to show a brave front to his head of house.

Draco Malfoy was a pale imitation of his father. He spouted his father's words as though they were recorded within him. He was a bully and did his best to put the fear of Malfoy into everyone in Slytherin. Snape knew it was all a sham to hide and protect the child deep within. There were no visible scars, but Snape didn't need to be a Legilimens to see the damage Lucius Malfoy had inflicted upon his son. It was as visible as any physical scar would have been. He had also witnessed the boy's injuries when Draco did not measure up to expectations. The Odd Room had awakened a great vulnerability in the boy. It had ripped through barriers that Snape himself had taught the boy to protect himself when he had to face his father. Those barriers were gone and if they found their way home, a weakness was revealed that could easily kill Draco.

Snape had hoped this day would never come, but he knew it was the nature of sins to eventually rise to the surface. He was not worried about how the boy would react to his part in the story. He worried for Draco and whether or not he would have the fortitude to deal with the truth. Draco coughed slightly; his impatience showing. Snape could not be the boy's godfather in this discussion and so he swept aside that persona for the part of him that was of flint and steel; the spy.

"This afternoon you declared that should we be fortunate to find a path back to our time, you would not be going with us." Snape crossed his arms over his chest and frowned deeply. "Where did you get the idea that you had a choice in the matter, Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco bristled at the challenge and he took a deep breath. With his heart beating far too loudly, he nodded and then spoke up clearly. "You know my father and where his allegiance lies. I think you know, too, or at least suspect what he has had planned for me since my birth." Snape nodded an encouragement to continue. "I deserve to live my own life, sir, and to make my own choices. I like the taste of what I've been given here and I do not want to turn my back on it. I refuse!"

Draco had never spoken so forcefully, nor so concisely to Snape before. It was a pity that Lucius Malfoy would never see or acknowledge this side of his son. As Snape had always guessed, there was a strength in him, a tiny spark that had continued to burn through years of abuse. When he'd seen Draco on his first day in school, he had thought that he'd be dealing with a nastly little carbon copy of Lucius. What he soon came to realize was that the son of the Death Eater was hiding himself in an elaborate masquerade. A masquerade as complex as his own.

"Mr. Malfoy, all of us have a terrifying future to return to. Potter is destined to destroy Voldemort if the Dark Lord does not kill him first. Mr. Weasely and Miss Granger are daily putting their lives and the lives of their families in danger just by being his friends. I know, too, that your danger is as great as theirs for you've been promised to the Dark Lord when you are of age. When he has you in his grasp, Mr. Malfoy, the torture he has been waiting so long to inflict will be worse than your greatest nightmares."

"Torture?" growled Draco. "I believe my father has more than prepared me for that!"

Snape slowly shook his head. "Trust me, boy, your father has only given you a taste of what the Dark Lord is capable of." Snape remembered all too well at being the recipient of such cruel measures; his 'lord's' idea of affection for his followers.

Draco gave Snape a wary glance. In the same breath that his father often told him to trust the man seated across from him he would denigrate and insult the man's loyalty to Voldemort. In his family, Snape's dual role had been no secret. The wizard played the role of Dumbledore's lackey so well that Draco rarely knew where he stood with his professor. Up until last year he'd been certain that Snape reported everything about him to Lucius. When he realized that his head of house wasn't acting as Lucius Malfoy's spy, he'd become more frightened then ever of the man. But, then he began to watch him. The younger Malfoy soon began to suspect that there was more to the potions instructor than he, and more than likely his own father, knew about.

He knew Snape had no affection for his father. His father was quite free with jeers and insults about the man. He also knew that Lucius Malfoy was jealous of Snape's closeness to the Dark Lord; a position that the elder Malfoy desired so desperately that his son would be the sacrifice for that position. Draco felt more disoriented than ever as he listened to Snape's words. Was there something missing? Had he misinterpreted what he'd seen and heard the last three years? Then, there was Potter. Draco knew that Potter had come close to grave injury, even death in the three years he'd attended Hogwarts. Draco wasn't sure quite when he'd realized this, but Snape was protecting Potter. It was knowledge Draco had never given his father.

Draco's eyes narrowed, and his question was filled with more suspicion than he was aware of. "If you believe you understand me, Professor Snape, then why do you question my resolve to stay? Or are you here merely to make certain that I am preserved for my father's plans?" Draco smiled smugly, knowing full well that what he said next could very well blow up in his face. "Is it possible, sir, that the only reason you're so stubborn to return is to make certain my father doesn't usurp your favor in the eyes of Voldemort?"

Snape's eyes glittered. Behind their darkness, he felt a surge of pride for the boy. Draco was analyzing and calculating, his mind looking for the many layers of meaning behind a single word, or a well-phrased sentence. He truly was a Slytherin. The problem, though, was that he was far too arrogant and was revealing his own weaknesses to someone who could easily have been his enemy. Had Snape been Lucius the boy would have been bound by a silencing spell and subjected to the pain of the cruciatus curse.

"If I were, do you not think it was foolish to have shown your weakness for your sister to me, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape's voice dropped into the silken tones that sent terror down the spines of foes more deadly than Draco had ever encountered. Snape's smile only chilled his soul further. "Your father is not here, but I am, and believe me, I know a few tricks your father doesn't, and I would not hesitate to employ them." The look he settled upon Draco was predatory.

Draco was the most afraid of Snape he'd ever been in his life. He knew with stark clarity that if this man were truly as evil as many thought he was, here, back in the past, there was nothing to stop him from carrying out his threat. Draco felt the ice coursing through his veins, and he could not stop his body as it began to tremble. His mind screamed at him, Stupid, stupid git!

Severus Snape despised using such tactics upon a child, but Draco was not just any child. He was the Malfoy heir and Snape had never underestimated what Lucius had taught the boy. Catching the boy's chin in his hand, he forced Draco to look into his eyes and he whispered the spell deliberately so that Draco heard it. "Legilimens."

Draco jerked wildly in the grip of Snape's hand. This time he fought against the spell. A tear trickled down his cheek as he was certain he would know great pain, perhaps even death, as soon as Snape let him go. At the sight of the tear, Snape ended the spell, let the boy go, and turned away.

Snape had no intention of ripping through the boy's memories. He deliberately meant to frighten him, to show that this wasn't a game. Snape hated using such a distasteful tactic, especially after what he'd found when came back from his meeting with the headmistress. Snape was all too aware of the education Draco had gotten at his father's hands and as much as he was sympathetic toward the boy and cared for him, if Draco Malfoy were truly his father's son, then there was no more to be hoped for him.

"What are you trying to prove?" the boy whispered shakily. Part of him was wondering why he was still alive and not writhing on the floor in agony under the cruciatus curse. The other part of him wondered what had happened to the man that had cooled his forehead as he was sick, who gave him a potion to feel better. Then, there was Draco's Slytherin side that recognized the manipulation and wondered if he was supposed to learn something from it, or get trapped.

Without looking directly at Draco, Snape spoke softly, "It does not matter to me, Mr. Malfoy, if you stay here and make a life for yourself or go back to the one we left. Considering that our chances of returning are less than one percent, this discussion seems pointless. You ought to know before you choose your destiny that you are missing a vital piece of information that you must consider."

Draco swiped away the tear and did his best to compose himself. "What information, Professor Snape?"

Snape rose from the chair, faced the fire for several minutes. Draco did not twitch a single muscle and was almost prepared to not take another breath. Did he want this slip or information? If Snape knew something about his little sister, whatever it might be, he would be patient, for once in his life.

Snape turned slowly and placed his hands behind his back. "Elydree is alive and I know where she is."

Draco was certain his heart had just stopped. This was not what he had expected. If he'd been blasted with a killing curse, he would have not been as shocked.

"Mr. Malfoy, take a breath before you turn blue and faint."

Draco did so, drawing in a shakey breath. He stared at Snape. He had more than underestimated the man. He had made a grave error, and so it appeared, had his father. And then he said it. He probably should not have, but he had lost complete control and he had no choice. "You're not working with the Dark Lord. You're working against him." The awe Draco felt was reflected in his tone of voice.

Snape did not move and did not confirm or deny what Draco had said. He knew that he had just taken a dangerously calculated risk by showing his hand to the son of his enemy. He'd had no choice and when... no IF they should return to their time Draco's knowledge of Snape's duplicity could mean his own death. It was not a pleasant prospect to think of, but there would be time, possibly, to deal with those consequences.

"Did you not hear what I just told you, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Yes, sir. You said Elydree was alive and you know where she is." Draco realized that wasn't all that Snape had told him. Professor Snape had just given him the power of life and death over the potions master. It was NOT a good feeling.

Snape moved back to the table and sat down opposite Draco. He could clearly see the gears turning in the boy's head. Now it was time to speak of the little girl. "I have a story for you, Mr. Malfoy. Attend carefully." He noted that Draco's trembling had finally vanished. There was respect in the boy's eyes, and admiration as well.

"At the age of nine years old you were nearly tortured and beaten to death by your father for preventing him from crushing your sister Elydree's skull with his cane. I had been summoned by Lucius to bring a Healer for you, but your father had a more sinister duty for me to perform that night."