Waking up in the Hogwarts hospital wing with a searing headache was something that would happen to Harry Potter, not Draco Malfoy. But amazingly enough, that wasn't his main concern when it did; his mind rang with alarm at the realization that his wand wasn't in either his hand or his pocket. He looked around franticly only to find it conveniently placed on his bedside table. He gave a sigh of relief and attempted to sit up, but the cracked feeling at the back of his skull forced him to lie back down. He choked on a sob of pain as he finally came to comprehend the full damage that had been done to his body.

His spinal cord felt stretched, some of his ribs had been broken and he was having trouble breathing properly. Draco tried to roll onto his side so as to feel less nauseated, but his arm and shoulder couldn't support the weight, which led to him uttering a loud noise somewhere between a cry and a yell. A girl sitting across the room whipped around, looking slightly panicked.

With some difficulty Draco recognized her, Hufflepuff, his year, charms class. He couldn't give a hoot about her name. Her expression of surprise was quickly changed into one of dislike, which he attempted to return---though he had a feeling his physical agony was ruining the effect. She stood up and drew the curtain around whomever it was she was sitting beside and walked over to another girl who was attending to someone else. She began to whisper making Draco feel uncomfortable; he was sure they were referring to him and his many injured limbs were making it impossible for him to blast a hex at them.

The whispering stopped and the other girl came over to Draco. He groaned as her features became recognizable… Lovegood, the only pureblood that came close to being as bad as a Weasley. Luna sat down beside him and gazed at him silently. Two second of this was too much for Draco to handle.

"What do you want, Love-ggood?" he said in the best bored tone he could muster. He was going well but in the middle his voice crack with another ripple of pain and the –'good' came out like a strangled squeak.

"Are you hungry?" she said. Draco looked at her incredulously. "What?"

"Are you hungry?" she repeated calmly. "I think you should be, judging by how thin you look…"

Draco looked around to see if anyone was witnessing what he was going through. Or was this their plan? Slow torture, that's what it was, being around someone like her, slow agonizing torture. In his mind he fumbled through a list of various insults that would shock, revolt and deflate her, but something about the utter calm of her eyes made him veer towards a less mind taxing tactic.

"If I say yes will you leave me alone?" he growled. She nodded slowly and Draco fought looking overly relieved. Rule number six hundred and forty seven of being a pure blood prick: Avoid showing emotion.

"I have to go anyway; you've been out for a while now… I suppose I'd best tell everyone that you're up."

"Alright then, I'm starved." He was too, though he hadn't realized it.

"I thought so," Luna said as though she was speaking to younger sibling. The sound of it made him want to vomit. Draco rolled his eyes as she flicked her wand, making a food tray float over to him. She moved over behind his head absently to frump up his pillows. Draco patiently curled his fists into balls as her hair brushed his cheek, he turned his head in disgust as she stood back up. Something about unnecessary niceties always filled him with the urge to hit someone.

"There, eat up. I'll be back as soon as I can," she said with small tone of accomplishment as she gestured at the food and turned drifted out of the door.

Draco waited until she was out of sight before pulling the food tray before him. Well, this was hardly dignified, he thought and as he brought a spoonful of soup to his lips. Before he could even swallow it, a bitter taste filled his mouth that had nothing to do with the soup. He suddenly felt sick; he placed the tray onto the nightstand and sank back into his pillows. Dignified… That was a word that seemed to have left his list of credentials long ago. He sulked; the thought of the last Cruciatus Curse that the Dark Lord had performed on him was still fresh in his mind. He had been too weak… too weak that it had nearly killed him. At the time, he'd been wishing that it would.

Before more agonizing memories could leak into his brain Luna walked back in with her wand in her mouth, a bag and cauldron in tow. She settled in a corner of the ward in the most distracting part of his visual field. A moment later a small table went levitating through the air and landed near her. The sound of clanking glass jars and ruffling leaves drifted from her area as he saw fragments her actions: She took out the bag's contents and laid them out on the table. Draco was not pleased with what appeared to be happening.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" he said disgusted. She turned, tearing the wings off of dried damselflies. She looked as though she was just realizing that he was there. "They told me they'd see you later after they'd finished. So I thought you should relax a bit more, this—" she waved at the concoction she was brewing "should help."

She began crushing the wings in the most careless manner he'd ever seen in his life; he was sure Snape was turning in his grave. Draco scowled, Snape, he'd gotten off easy. He got to just die while Draco was left to suffer in the hands of the 'do-gooders', who he was sure, liked him about as far as they could throw him… which wasn't very far.

Luna was making quick progress with the potion, several things had been added and it was now issuing a faint wisp of green smoke. The aroma filled his nostrils: it was disgusting.

"You're not actually planning on forcing me to drink that, are you!" he said hissed. Luna shook her head slowly with a small grin. "Oh no, of course not, it's to help you relax. It also wards off Palonist's."

Draco blinked. "What?"

"Palonists; nasty little devils that cause a bad case of stress and can make you very uncreative!" Her eyes were the widest he'd ever seen them, she looked absolutely shocked at the very idea. Draco shook his head… she was crazy. It was a plot after all… well they were going to have to try harder than that.

"Is that so?" he said with a straight face.

"Oh, yes," she nodded as she finished the potion that was now issuing purple fumes and smelling slightly better. She seemed delighted but frowned when she caught sight of his food tray. "You didn't eat."

"Huh?" he muttered. Draco felt a little light headed, but warm and cozy like he did at home during the summer… He only partially replied." I'm not too hungry now… I'll- you know… later…" He sunk farther into the bed and dozed off. Luna quietly packed up her things and levitated the table back to where it had been. She then walked over to Hannah Abbot, the other girl sitting next to Ernie Macmillan who was sleeping soundly.

"How is he?" Luna asked quietly.

"Better," Hannah whispered back. She looked over Luna's shoulder. "How is it with Malfoy? He seemed his usual self when he woke up."

Luna shrugged. "We'll see, Harry doesn't want to see him right now and Professor Lupin said that he'd talk to him when he was ready."

Hannah nodded and looked back down at Ernie. "I suppose we will see, won't we…"