A/N: Draco sits at her bedside everyday for the past month waiting for her to wake up. Drastoria. RxR. FxF.
Submission for:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments): Potions Assignment #4 - Write about someone getting poisoned then being cured.
Pairing God Challenge: Draco/Astoria
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
He sits at her bedside every day for the past month just waiting, just hoping that she would wake up and return to him. He watches her face for any movement, any hint of a smile or crinkle of a nose, but there is nothing. He squeezes her hand hoping from some response or reflex but she continues to lay there. She does not know he is out here waiting for her. She doesn't know the pain he is going through without her.
There are times when tears fall unknowingly down his face and pool underneath his chin to fall on their entwined fingers. There are times when he rests his head on her arm and begs her to just give him a glimpse of her eyes to know she's still in there. And there are times when he if all out of tears to shed and he feels like a ghost watching another. She is stuck in a place he cannot visit no matter how bad he wishes.
He can hear her tinkling laugh when he would say something delightfully funny or embarrassed himself in some way. He can see the way she would pin her hair up in the night before bed and release it in the morning. He can see the pure terror on her face and hear the high-pitched screams whenever there was a spider anywhere in the room. She looked to him as her knight in shining armour, but she would always be his saving grace.
He used to be in a dark place. Everyone knew who he was, everyone knew who his father was and after the war, no one wanted to know who him. Very few stuck with him and he was spiraling faster and faster into depression. He would drink before bed and with his morning coffee. He was a mess. It was pure chance that he met her at his favourite coffee shop one morning. She took one look at him and gave him the chance of a lifetime. She gave him the chance to redeem himself. She helped him to improve himself and move away from his past, to forgive himself and his actions.
It was because of his past and actions that she was the way she was right now. He had a received a letter in the post and he hadn't been at home to collect it. She didn't know that usually he checked his mail for poisons and curses, just waiting for him to open the envelopes. She had taken the letter addressed to him and accidentally cut her finger on the edge. She fell to the ground instantly, the letter falling out of her hand and her head cracking the tile.
He found her when he got home after work. He didn't know how long she laid on the kitchen floor but her body gone cold long before and her breathing was shallow. He hurriedly took her to St Mungos where they diagnosed the cause as a powerful toxin that put the victim into a deep sleep which, if left unattended, would slowly shut down their organs if they didn't die of starvation first.
He shakes his head every time he thinks of the horrible possibility. She wouldn't die. She couldn't die because of him. Everyday he fed her, everyday he clothed her and everyday he was at her side. He was never too far away, only in the shower or preparing her meals. He would help her and she wouldn't die on him.
The doors open and he jumps anxiously to his feet, the unsaid question always directed at the entering healer. Every day, the man would shake his head but today he smiled and held out the small blue vial. Tears fell in joy and hope streamed down his face. The antidote for the poison was a hard one to make, requiring rare and expensive ingredients to prepare but he didn't care. No expense was too much for her, and after a month of brewing, it was ready.
He runs back to her side and clutches her hands, whispering words of love as the healer administered the antidote. And then they wait. One minute, two minutes, ten minutes.
He looks at the healer worriedly. Wasn't she supposed to wake up by now? Was it brewed right? Were the ingredients right? Why was she still apart from him? Why was he still broken?
He scrunches up his eyes, trying to stop the tears. They wouldn't help him now and she wouldn't have wanted him to be doing this on her account. But he couldn't help it. The one chance he probably had to see her eyes light up again is gone.
There is a soft thumb against his cheek and he opens his eyes slowly. Her tired brown eyes meet his red ones and she gives him a small smile. She opens her mouth but no sound comes out. He smiles back and shakes his head slightly. No words need to be said now.
He leans in to kiss her cheek lightly, and then rests his head on hers. His heart is whole once more and a sense of peace washes over the both of them. She has come back to him. She is his once more.