Disclaimer: Nothing that you actually recognise is mine. This story was inspired by a drama series though there are more differences than similarities between the drama and this story.
Summary: Maybe you can teach them how to share a ward... Draco and Hermione had to share one when he got his arms in slings and she got her legs in casts. Now, doesn't that make a perfect match? DMHG, definitely.
Please enjoy!
Do You Know How To Share A Ward?
Chapter One
"You really expect me to condescend to have my privacy robbed from sharing my ward with another wizard?" This loud argumentative voice stirred the occupant of ward 10-01. Next, there was the sound of the ward's door being pulled open and someone was being led into the dimly-lit ward. This definitely got the attention of the occupant.
Another voice, belonging to a Mediwitch most probably, answered the question posed. "Well, sir, the ward is not yours technically and I assure you that disruptions to your stay in this ward will be minimised; we will see to that. And also, please be acquainted with the lady in the ward." She proceeded to flick on the lights. They only shone their normal brightness after having flashed a couple of times, causing dull aches in the back of the dweller of the ward's eyes for she had been too used to the semi-darkness from before.
She sat up straight in her bed and proceeded to strain and bend to have a look at the doorway, only to be greeted with a thoroughly unwelcoming sight. The Mediwitch explained to a rather stunned Hermione apologetically, "I'm sorry, Miss Granger, but the hospital is really packed, what with the pesky virus infecting people everywhere and you might have to -"
"I have to share a room with her?" A very unpleasant Draco Malfoy was standing behind the Mediwitch, an obvious look of utter distaste and, of course, disdain fouled his face.
This earned him a badly-veiled look of impatience from the plump Mediwitch. "It is very regretful that it seems as though the world has come down with the virus, isn't it?"
Malfoy did not bother to even look guilty. Why, everyone knows that it was the lab accident in his company's premises that resulted in the virus outbreak, rendering those who had caught it to have no control whatsoever over their throat movement and over-active salivary glands; saliva practically dripped in pools from their mouths and nothing could go down their throats! It ultimately caused severe dehydration, hunger and not to mention the blazing humiliation to those infected and they had to be rushed to St. Mungo's for a cure to preserve their life and what was left of their dignity. That was nothing incurable of course but the more vexing bit was that the virus was easily contagious for some unknown reasons, but wizards and witches were looking into the whole epidemic...
All the trouble and nuisance because of one Malfoy's failed investment. Even though no evidence could be found by the ministry to bring Malfoy to court, tabloids and rumours had been relaying detailed stories about some explosions and all the whatnots in one of Malfoy's labs, which was conveniently near the first case of the curious infection.
"Is there really no other room for him to stay in?" Hermione inquired, struggling to be polite in the presence of an annoying face. They could dump him inside one of those rooms where saliva spewed like fountains for all she cared, actually. "I don't mind transferring to another ward if it means putting more distance between me and him." She ended her plea with a scowl threw directly at Malfoy. It was not her fault that she didn't like him even after Hogwarts. He hadn't made the effort to be nice to her and she figured that she wasn't interested in a sudden change in their relationship, or lack thereof, either.
Malfoy all but snorted. "Thank you for the sacrifice which you seem to want to make so willingly, Granger. I've always known you to be the know-it-all with a big heart. You have no idea how I just need the uncontaminated air for my arms to heal nicely!"
Hmm. Hermione only noticed the slings holding up his arms then as the Mediwitch's head had largely obstructed those slings from view. She realised that he had probably broken both his arms... Ha, the joy! Didn't that wicked bastard had it coming! "For your information, I am not doing it for your filthy sake. I merely want my environment to be as dirt-free as virtually possible lest your unneeded presence affect my legs in any sort of unhealthy way."
Hermione was sure that Malfoy was all geared up for a late-night quarrel session with his old enemy when the Mediwitch, looking tired and exasperated, exclaimed, "There is no need for changing of wards and this rule applies to both of you, Mr Malfoy, Miss Granger." She regarded both of them with a stern expression. "Please, settle for this already Mr Malfoy. This is the only Class A ward -"
The addressed Malfoy was about to open his mouth when the Mediwitch hastily corrected herself, "No, this is the only, only, ward that we have left in the hospital so just make do with it. There'll be someone to follow up on both your conditions next morning. So till then, have a good rest, will you two please. You need it." With that and yet another warning glance from above her spectacles, the witch left these injured people to their dismal fate of having to share the ward for at least a day or two. Ah. What was life without adversity?
The door was still ajar and cold wind was gently carried through the room, ruining the effect that the heater had had on the ward. "Would you please close the door, Malfoy?" Right. She could live with this. She could live.
In response, however, Malfoy's eyes just widened considerably, much to her irritation. Why couldn't he follow one simple instruction that wouldn't even hurt either of them? The insufferable jerk suddenly asked, "What? You really are just going to accept this completely insane arrangement and... and sleep in the same room as me? Wait. Ah, how can I miss that! Of course it is no problem for you... I am the pureblood here whereas you are the -" What a smart bloody aleck.
"I dare you to continue with that sentence, Malfoy." Hermione held up her wand and pointed it menacingly at Malfoy's pale face. The situation made her smirk very unkindly. She had thought it bad that she wasn't able to walk for some time because of some freakish Quidditch accident... but Malfoy was worse off, what with him being in no condition to use his wand till his arms heal. What was a wizard known for his blood so pure if he couldn't use his magic? This might lend fun to this event of sharing a ward with him, though!
At the lack of reply from the glaring Malfoy, Hermione smirked even wider. There was no doubt that he was seething - and didn't he look particularly comical standing there with a look that cried 'murder!' with his two arms slung across his chest like that? Hermione could almost giggle. Yes, it was really quite despicable of her to make use of such a situation to her advantage but well, a girl could always do with some revenge in whatever form on name-callings, insults and more stupidity done to her. "And the door?"
Grunting and possibly cursing under his breath, Malfoy turned to make a move to push the door close with the side of his body when an almost-grinning Hermione flicked her wand at the door, causing it to close rapidly and ultimately made Malfoy nearly lose his balance and stumble, unfortunately banging into the wall only and not crashing down onto the solid ground. Had she gone a little... too far, she wondered.
"Merlin! You stupid ugly Mudblood!" The insults just poured out of his mouth as soon as he righted himself. His face emitted a scary I'm-going-to-Avada-Mudbloods warning. "Wait till I get my hands on you!" Okay. So maybe she did not even go far enough.
"Right, let's jolly well wait for that, shall we?" A sweet smile was flashed in his direction and it definitely did further fuel his desire to kill. "But on second thought, those limp things of yours that are your pathetic arms are taking so long to heal I'm -" An obnoxiously loud yawn escaped Hermione's lips. "- growing so very tired. The Mediwitch told me that I need some rest so... I'm turning in. Have a very good night, Malfoy." Hermione cast an innocent look at Malfoy, who was still at the doorway, leaning against the now-closed door.
She turned her back to Malfoy and buried herself deeper into the sheets as she tried to remember when the last time she had been so evil to anyone was... There was really no recollection of it at all. Perhaps only Malfoy was vile enough to incur such evilness from her. Interesting.
Hermione let her eyelids flutter to a close but she was vaguely aware that something was off. What was it that - oh, the lights. She had been too satisfied with playing Malfoy like a fool that she had forgotten to switch off the lights. Goodie; switch off the lights and have Malfoy grope in the dark!
Chuckling to herself, Hermione shifted again to reach for her wand which she had placed on the bedside table on her right out of habit. Having landed her palm on the empty table surface, Hermione's good humour vanished instantly. Where in the world was her...
"Lost something, Granger?" Hermione looked up to see - surprise, surprise - Malfoy taking his sweet, happy revenge. There on his bed laid her poor lonely wand. That scheming git had rolled her wand down onto his bed when she had her back turned! She glared at the table touching both the beds; it was positioned right in the middle between the two beds.
Stupid habit! Stupid legs suspended in heavy, rigid cast! Stupid judgement of letting her turn her back against a once-Slytherin. Stupid, stupid, stupid Dreadful Malfoy! Ah! And stupid limitation of her vocabulary!
Hermione bolted upright in her bed and lashed out angrily, "You have no right!"
"I don't indeed but why does it matter?" Oh, how she wished she could just reach up and rip off that insolent smirk from his detestable face. But no, he was standing a little too far from her and by estimation, should she try and reach out to him, she could well fall onto the ground and give that brat much pleasure to indulge in! The horror! "Besides, it's only fair that you don't use your wand when I can't use mine."
This got Hermione to roll her eyes for being exposed to such witlessness. Trust someone who openly discriminated against Muggles and anything or anyone related to comment on 'fairness'. "Right, Malfoy, let me know when you truly understand the meaning of fairness and equality. But for now, please return me my wand."
"Say please."
"I did! Poor bloke, you deaf?" Hermione retorted shrilly.
Malfoy mock considered, "I suppose you did. But I just need something more specific. So 'please' who?"
Hermione rolled her eyes yet again and gritted out a reply, "You don't expect me to say 'please, my great, fabulous pureblood master', do you? Because that would be totally indecent and that would really reveal how much you yearn for a Muggleborn's appreciation of your oh-so-superior self."
A cold, hollow laugh from Malfoy. "What if I say yes?"
"Then you can go rot in your own sadistic world and don't bother me ever again." Hermione replied evenly.
"Sure, Miss Granger, and you won't see your wand ever again, then." He deliberately pushed the wand nearer and nearer the edge of his bed further from Hermione with one foot while he managed to balance himself on the other. Hermione noted that evil glint in his eyes as they both kept eye contact, each daring the other to break the tension between the two as the air seemed to sizzle in their line of vision. Before Hermione could react by doing or saying anything at all, the annoying piece of breathing crap had succeeded in murdering her wand by pushing it over the edge of his bed.
"Oh, you conniving... git!"
"I'm positive you have better things to say about me, Granger. Why don't you drop the pretence already?" Didn't he look mightily please with himself? The nerve of him!
Hermione issued her threat, "I can really just butcher you without the need for a wand!"
"Yeah, but first work out a way to get to me, why don't you?" Malfoy helpfully suggested, eyeing the distance between the two of them and then glanced at her legs which were 'preserved' in those thick brownish moulds made of magical dough or something like that - this sight added to his absolute delight. "So, what happened?" he nodded at where her legs laid.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him - like he sincerely wanted to know. "I'd love to make small talks with you of all people, Malfoy. However, please choose a time that isn't designated to active nocturnal animals to initiate such talks. Good night." Heck the lights. Her willpower could lull her to sleep. Maybe she could get the Mediwitch or wizard to help her pick up her wand the next morning...
She could feel herself drifting off to sleep, succumbing to the tiredness that had washed over her entire body as she tried to relax after a day of injuries and mess... A deep slumber was about to set in when seemingly out of nowhere, a voice rudely made her more awake again. "What?"
"I said, switch off the lights. I can't sleep with the lights glaring down at me like that!" Ever the spoilt boy.
"Well, that's just too bad, isn't it?" Hermione smiled a little, an arm of hers draped across her eyes.
"Switch them off!" He demanded annoyingly.
"Deal with it." Came her curt response.
There was a noise that indicated shuffling of his body on his bed. Good, at least he was trying. Now, if she could just enter dreamland...
"Off the lights. I would even say 'please' if you would just turn the bloody lights off." Someone should stuff him up before leaving him here with her.
Hermione finally lifted her arm and looked at him. He looked quite pitiful. His blanket was haphazardly lifted to cover only his legs since his arms could not operate to lift it up to his chin; his eyes were squeezed shut as he faced the ceiling, looking as though he could turn blind from the light. "I'd like to help but there is no control buttons within my reach!"
Malfoy deigned a look at Hermione. "Are you bloody kidding me?"
"What?" She was getting wearier and wearier of this.
"Those are buttons behind you!" He sounded almost amazed by her utter lack of observant skills.
Slowly, Hermione turned to look at the wall behind her bed... So Malfoy was actually right. There was a panel of buttons there... She could make out the controls for the heater, lights... There were some more unknown buttons and a very prominent fire-engine-red emergency button to summon Mediwitches and wizards to the ward. The same set of controls was available behind Malfoy's bed too, she saw. The only thing was that Malfoy's hands didn't look nimble enough to be able to press those buttons...
What a pity.
But she wasn't to blame for not noticing the buttons! She had just moved in hours ago and even then, she was in a state of semi-paralysis with all the pain attacking her poor legs.
Gingerly, Hermione reached for the button which had a muggle light bulb drawn on it and soon, darkness settled in the quiet ward. Hermione was more than grateful that now she could finally have some well-deserved sleep... She was so grateful; in fact, she could smile in her sleep despite her sharing the same ward with Malfoy at the time.
Hermione thought she heard some provoking remark along the lines of "Learn to be more observant next time, Mudblood" but decided that it was just a figment of her imagination - or maybe it was really Malfoy but in any case, the sleep that was settling in was so alluring... so...
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MERLIN! Granger sure could snore! Was that how she was taught at home? To snore without a care for the world when her Mudblood self slept? How her dorm mates survived those seven years with her in Hogwarts was a great mystery indeed!
Draco glared at the dark ceiling, cursing the crass Granger.
KRRRrr...
Oh there she went again. He was quite asleep until he heard this offending noise that kept repeating itself. Draco turned to his left and took an angry look at Granger. He could barely make out the outline of her form but he knew she was peacefully in a nice sleep already, probably dreaming of how she turned into a superwoman and saved the world from cockroaches... Darn her for snoring as ungracefully as that when she was sharing a ward with a light sleeper like him.
Draco squeezed his eyes shut, briefly wondering at the same time why the hell humans could not flip their ears close like they could with their eyes... It was silly of him to think that he could block out any of the noise without the use of his hands. His maimed hands.
When an unusually loud snore sounded from his left, Draco finally decided that he would have no more of this and shouted, "GRANGER!"
A ringing silence set in... and then a faint snore... So she's deaf in her sleep, wasn't she?
"GRANGER!" He raised his voice yet a notch higher. "Granger, Granger, MUDBLOOD GRANGER!" Yes, desperation was the word.
She still did not stir, unless you count snoring again as stirring but Draco didn't think so. Why did this woman have to be so hard?
Still unable to get over the incessant snoring, Draco thought hard and deep what he could do to grab some time for his sleep. He glanced at the buttons behind his bed. A peculiar, large red button beckoned to him. Draco knew better than to not heed the button's beckoning and so, he surged towards the button and aimed the top of his head at it.
He could feel his head connect with the protruding button and with a forced push later, the button was not protruding anymore... Instead, a short, significant blare of siren rang in the room. Next, he could hear a few 'pops' at the doorway and a gasp from the bed on his left, signalling the entrance of some Mediwizards or witches and the awaking of Granger respectively.
Two birds with one stone, he thought. But of course, neither party that he had invited would be happy with what he had done just to get their attention...
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A/N: I shall confess that I had intended this to be a one-shot but it was dragging long as I typed... Now I really have to get a head start with my revision for my last paper taking place just three days later! To anyone who's interested, I predict that this will be a short story and I will finish it in a few chapters. Do give me some time!
If you found faults in this chapter, let me know; I'd be more than glad to correct my stupid mistakes [: I could use with some beta-ing! Much thanks to YY for helping me beta and skim through the text and play MSN games with me!