. . .
Hermione flung out her right arm and stepped back to avoid the purple bus that had appeared out of thin air.
Stan stepped out and began, "Welcome--"
"I get it, Stan. You don't have to do this every time."
Stan closed his gaping mouth. "I know, Miss Hermione. But what else do I come here for, eh? Got nothing else to do on this here transportation. She could run fine by herself." He laughed as he took her change, "Well of course, Ernie--"
Hermione ran away from several sliding chairs and sleeping people that looked just about ready to fall over. There was only one seat left on this floor and she couldn't stand heights more than she couldn't stand the Knight Bus.
She made her way towards the back, grabbing onto a pole in time and nearly missing a wart-nosed old man and his sniffling wife. She straightened her bag and sat down in the unoccupied seat, sighing from relief. If only she could travel some safer way--
The bus lurched forward in a motion unlike any Hermione had ever experienced. The bus moved so fast that everything inside of it seemed to stop for a moment. Time stopped. Hermione marveled as the chairs seemed still and it was the bus that slid from underneath them.
But then time caught up. Speed up. And Hermione was thrown into the air with unprecedented force. She collided with something hard and pain shot through her torso. She looked down at herself and her vision became hazy. She saw something strange but didn't realize what it was. Everything blacked out and her head dropped forward.
The ringing in her ears stopped. Silence.
. . .
The first thing Hermione saw when she woke up was the second floor of the Knight Bus-- it had caved in. The bus' windows were shredded and the bus was half as full as it had been the last time she was conscious. For the first time, Hermione counted in "bodies". People and chairs were strewn across the floor, and surprisingly, everything seemed less crowded than before.
A burst of pain shot through Hermione's side and she looked down in horror. A long metal pole was sticking through her abdomen. She gasped, suddenly unable to think. Blood and bile rose in her throat and she fought to keep it down.
She looked up, about ready to laugh in misery, but what she saw put a stop to that. An unwillingly tear rolled down her check.
Across from her was Draco Malfoy. From what Hermione could see, the metal pole went through her, and through him.
He looked like he was sleeping. His back leaned against the side of the bus and his head rested at an angle. Although it couldn't have been that comfortable if he was sleeping with a stick poking out from behind him.
Hermione looked at him, and a surge of terror ran through her body.
What if he was dead?
Screams filled Hermione's head. A fever stirred within her.
"Malfoy," she whispered. Her voice was coarse.
He did not move.
"Malfoy." Her voice had raised a little in pitch and a little in volume.
But he was as stoic as ever before.
"Malfoy!" She cried out, a little desperately.
What if she was alone?
Hermione could have sworn that she saw his nose twitch. False hope sparked within her. She looked at him closely.
He sneezed. All over himself.
Hermione's eyes widened as he opened his own. They were unfocused and it seemed like he was looking just past her. But then his eyes widened too--
"What the hell?" His voice was weak. Hermione was scared by how weak it was.
"I think we may be victim to an accident," she said tentatively, looking down at herself. Hermione wasn't sure whether he had recognized her just yet.
He looked down, too. "Great." If Hermione had been any more out of it, she wouldn't have been able to identify the sarcasm in his voice.
"Are you okay?" Hermione winced as he tried to shift a little.
"Just fine, Granger. Thanks for asking." Well, he knew who she was, she'd give him that. Hermione felt the anger rising inside of her but she decided to let it one pass, given the situation they were in. Draco gently returned to his original position, slouched against the side of the bus.
"You probably shouldn't move."
"Really? I never would have guessed."
Hermione frowned. "We should call for help. Doesn't look as if anyone else is conscious."
Draco nodded grudgingly. He reached into his pocket for his wand. It had disappeared. He cursed violently.
Hermione's heart sank. She looked around for own wand but she, too, seemed to have lost it in the crash.
Hermione spotted a cell phone not too far away. It looked like it belonged to a young woman who didn't seem to be moving. She reached for it but it was to far away. She tried to inch closer, but this solicited a hiss from Draco as her movement caused the pole to move awkwardly inside of him.
He grimaced in pain, "What are you doing?"
"Getting help."
"That's hers," he said as his eyes traveled over the suspiciously serene body.
Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "It doesn't look like she's going to be using it anytime soon."
Draco was silent.
She motioned to him that she was going to move forward again. He sighed in resignation. Hermione used her hand to pull herself towards the phone. Draco maintained the stiffness in his upper body and moved carefully along with her.
Supporting herself, she grabbed the phone with her other hand and flipped it open. She let out a little shriek and she dropped the phone loudly. Pain coursed from her forearm to her right wrist, the muscles tensing and pulsing. The blood in her head pounded.
"What's wrong?"
"I think my wrist is broken."
Hermione looked fearfully at Draco. She had never broken anything in her entire life.
Draco stared at her fixedly. "My ankle's broken."
"What?!"
"When I woke up, I had been sitting on it. Now it's swollen and I can't move it properly."
"Great. Just great." Hermione muttered, adopting Draco's sarcasm. She leaned forward to pick up the cell with the hand that was not fractured, "At least the phone isn't broken."
She dialed 9-9-9.
"Who are you calling?" He asked shrewdly.
"Police." Hermione replied.
"Are you crazy?! Calling muggles for help on the Knight Bus?"
The call was going though. Hermione explained patiently, "Accidents don't often happen in the magical world. At least, not on the Knight Bus. Trust me, I should know." Hermione gave him a placid look. "This must have been caused by something in the non-magical world. In that case, we have to inform the muggle police." She paused, quietly considering, "Anyways, we need help."
"So call someone who can actually help us."
"Know any wizard with a cell phone?"
Draco didn't say anything.
"That's what I thought."
There was someone on the line, "9-9-9, Emergency response."
"Yes, there's been an accident--" Hermione held the phone to her body to cover the mouth piece.
She whispered to Draco, "Where are we?"
"You think I know?" This time Draco rolled his eyes. "Hmm, let me hazard a guess. Somewhere in muggle London?
"Can you look out the window?"
"Hello, have you heard of something called a broken ankle?"
Hermione sighed. If he couldn't get up, she couldn't get up. And that meant that they were stuck here until someone came for them. Almost in reminder, a sharp pain invaded her body. "We're somewhere in... London." She started to panic. What the bus had taken one of their oh-so-frequent detours? "I think. I mean, I'm pretty sure."
She looked at Draco, he looked just as frantic as she was. What if the police didn't know where they were? What if they couldn't make it in time. Hermione wasn't sure, Draco was losing blood and Hermione suspected that she didn't look much prettier. A spasm wracked her heart. The magical community didn't even know about this yet. What no one found them in time?
"Don't worry, miss. We've tracked your location. We're on our way now."
Hermione closed the phone, shocked. She didn't know the meaning of relief until just then. Hermione did not want to die here, now, with Malfoy.
"So?" His voice was anxious.
"They're on their way." Her voice sounded dazed, even to her. She seemed to be looking on this from the outside, like all of this was a dream. Detached. Of course, it would all be over soon and then it would be just like a dream. All this-- talking-- it didn't matter, because they were safe now.
"They're..?"
"Technology. Amazing isn't it? They have a tracking system for cell phones."
"Muggles," Draco said in awe. He sounded almost as surprised as her.
His face changed rapidly and he looked apprehensive again. "You didn't tell them that we were injured."
Hermione waved away at him (and at the rising feeling in her chest). "They always bring doctors in cases of emergency."
Draco tried to shrug it off as easily as she did, "Yeah, always."
And like an answer, the call of sirens approached. As the ambulances came closer,, Hermione started to spaz again. What if now the muggles found out all about the wizarding world? No one tends to simply forget a purple, triple-decker, unauthorized bus every time they see it. Meaning? "Shit. We're screwed."
Draco turned away from the sound of the sirens and locked eyes with Hermione. He could tell that she had been thinkingly exactly what he had been thinking. At this point, if he was able to move, he would scramble up and get the hell out of there. However, as it happens, he was incredibly immobile at the moment. The polite wording for: he was stuck in a graveyard with the mudblood.
The police burst in with guns. Hermione recoiled while Draco stared amazingly at the weapons. After a few minutes of chaos, the police backed off and the paramedics were sent in. Bodies were taken away but as far as Hermione and Draco could tell, none of them showed the slightest signs of life.
A paramedic stopped in shock when he saw them. Without a word, he examined the injuries. Hermione felt strangely self-conscious. When he was done, he simply stared at the pole.
Draco shot Hermione an inquiring look. Hermione didn't respond. She was starting to get frightened. She knew the only answers the paramedic could bring were answers that she did not want to hear anyway.
"Sir?"
At first the paramedic didn't notice Draco was talking to him.
"If you have something to say, just say it." He gestured towards Hermione, "You're scaring the lady more than you know."
"Okay," the paramedic took a breath, finally focusing on both of them. "In order to operate on either of you, we have to separate you two. In order to do that, we have to move one of you backwards off the pole." He spoke to Draco.
"Can't you just pull the pole out of both of us?" Hermione cut in.
"No. If we did that, both of you would start bleeding very quickly. Too quickly. Right now, the pole is blocking your injuries. Once removed, your organs will shift."
"So if you move us off the pole... we die?" The terror was unleashed.
The paramedic started at the ground. Hermione followed his eyes, losing focus of everything around her.
Hushed.
"Move me." Hermione's head shot up so fast, she thought she had whiplash. Draco continued as if nothing was off, "If anyone has to go, it should be me, so just move me--"
Hermione was astonished when the paramedic actually considered the idea. What rubbish was this? Hermione couldn't let--
"Your injuries are more extensive than the lady's." He turned to Hermione, who glared at him. "If we operate around the pole, she has a better chance of surviving."
Hermione's eyes turned hard and cold. "Are you kidding me? Are you serious? If you move him off the pole, he's going to die. DIE. Do you get that? Do you not get that?" She was in hysterics.
The paramedic looked taken aback. "Do you know him?"
"Do I know him?"
Is he really asking that question?
Hermione looked straight at Draco. "He's a foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach." Hermione almost choked on the words. They felt out of place. "But I won't see him die. Nor does he want to give up his life for me."
Draco stared back evenly at Hermione. Without taking his eyes off of her, he addressed the paramedic, "Could you excuse us for a minute, sir?"
Hermione felt uncomfortable under Draco's gaze. She glanced at the paramedic. He looked even more confused than before, but hurried out as fast as his feet could carry him.
Now she was alone.
"Granger," his voice was rough.
She avoided his eyes.
"Granger!"
La la la.
"Granger. Look at me."
She turned to face him. Inert.
"Get the surgery." Hermione didn't know whether to take that as a command or as... him caring. She shivered. It didn't matter.
"No."
"What?" he asked harshly.
"No." Her voice was definitive, "It's not right. It's not fair."
Draco sighed. "You're right, Granger, it's not fair." Hermione was taken aback by his change in tactic. "It's not fair either way."
Oh. "That doesn't mean anything."
"Look. You know as well as I do that the more we delay with these arguments, the less chance there is that either of us will survive."
"So you are educated." Hermione's mouth twitched.
"A bit." That was the first and last time Hermione saw Draco crack a smile.
Before she knew it, tears were falling onto the ridiculous metal pole that connected them. Although all reason pointed to the contrary, Hermione couldn't help but think that this was significant. "Why were you on the knight bus today?"
Draco snapped out of his thoughts, "Business trip." His face darkened slightly.
"I see." Never mind, it was all in vain.
"But you ride it all the time."
"Hmm?"
"The Knight Bus. You're a regular customer, right?" Draco smirked. "I saw the way you talked to Stan. Wasn't very polite."
Hermione scrunched her nose. "Stalking me, are you?"
Draco chuckled. "Oh, darn. You caught me." He said with humorously, "Well actually, the metal pole caught me. I think it's waiting for its fee."
"I'll just owe it one," Hermione felt another tear land in her hands. Before she knew it, Draco had scooted forward, the pole going farther through his body, until he was right in front of her. Hermione whimpered for him, though he seemed unaffected.
"See? I've already harmed myself enough. You need to live for the both of us."
He wiped the tear from her cheek, his hands were rough against her skin.
She cried. She couldn't hold it back. She didn't know why she was crying. Who was she crying for? Draco or herself? Then, she was enveloped by warmth. Everything was numb for a second. The world froze but Draco and Hermione were untouched, unharmed. For a moment, they were whole again.
. . .
She promised herself she would not look back at the Knight bus. But she had to know that it was still there. That he was still there. She turned her head, halfway, slowly. And then she looked.
It wasn't the Knight Bus at all. Well, sure, it was a night bus. But it wasn't purple and it only had two decks. Worst of all, it looked... normal.
Hermione freaked, "What the hell is going on around here?"
The paramedic cringed at her voice. He had hoped that she was would remain silent, what with all the trauma. Apparently, the guy was the easier to deal with than her. They should have kept him instead. "What do you mean, miss?"
"The bus! The bus we were on! Where did it go?"
The paramedic looked at her critically, "What are you talking about? That is the bus you were on." He pointed to the perfectly ordinary bus, "Maybe we should get a CT of your head before we go into surgery." He was all seriousness.
Hermione gaped at him. She looked back at the night bus. "What about all the people? Didn't they look out of place to you guys?" She only received a bewildered look in response. "Uh, their clothes? Long robes? Wooden sticks?"
"Miss, we need get you to the hospital. And quick."
. . .