Draco sat in silence, staring at the girl on the infirmary bed. He didn't recognize her.
Her hair was almost black, and lied across her chest and stomach in tangled strands, her bangs sloppily covering her face. Parts of it were still coated in blood. Her face was pale, almost as pale as he was, and she had the darkest under eye circles he had ever seen. Her lips had no color.
You could hardly tell it was Hermione.
"Stop following me, Potter." Draco spat at Harry, who had been walking behind him since he left the Slytherin Common Room.
"I'm not following you, ferret. I need Hermione." Harry said as he rolled his eyes.
"Got a crush, have we?" Draco teased.
"Got potions homework," he responded, too tired to fight with the cocky blonde.
Draco stayed silent the rest of the way. He still wasn't very fond of the Muggle born, but lately he had been very involved with his father and the Dark Lord, and she had been less annoying, so they shared their dorms in harmony for the most part.
When they walked into the Head Students' dorm, Harry gasped.
On the floor in front of the table lay Hermione. There were plates of food and water glasses on the floor, shattered, as if she had thrown them.
Harry ran to her and turned her over.
Her face was covered in crimson blood, as were her hands and parts of her clothes. There was a thick puddle of it on the floor next to her.
Draco rushed over and lifted her into his arms, not hesitating as he ran as fat as he could into the infirmary. She was much lighter than he expected her to be.
He bursted into the room, yelling at the nurses to aid her immediately.
When they laid her down on the bed, he could see tear streaks that had mixed in with the blood. She was barely conscious, muttering in a language that Draco thought sounded a bit like Latin. She was still crying.
"Mr. Malfoy what is the meaning of this?!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, walking swiftly into the room.
"We just found her.." Draco said in a total daze as he watched one of the nurses stick her fingers down Hermione's throat until she gagged and spit up more blood.
Hermione was fully awake. She started writhing and screaming, tears falling onto the bed. The nurses moved to hold her down, and Hermione was too weak to keep them off, but she still tried.
"Please! Please," she screamed into the room, "come back! Please!"
"DORMUS," McGonagall yelled over the chaos, pointing her wand at Hermione.
She stopped struggling and fell fully unconscious.
"Now, let's calm down a bit," one of the nurses said, "Mr. Malfoy, can you please explain to us why she is in this state?"
Draco stared at Hermione, shocked and frightened.
"No. I have no idea. I've never seen a spell that could do that to a person." He said softly.
"That's because there isn't."
They all turned to see Harry walking cautiously near all them, as if they might attack him. He held up a red plastic bottle with a screwy cap.
"She took too many of these." He said, showing them the bottle with only a few tablets left in it.
"What are they?" McGonagall asked, not willing to touch something that could cause what they had just seen.
"Pain killers. It's a Muggle medicine."
"Medicines are supposed to HELP people, not do... THIS." Draco yelled.
"She wasn't supposed to take that many." Harry said quietly, as if to himself.
"Then why-"
"She tried to kill herself, okay?! There was no magic involved. No spells, no hexes, no supernatural anything! She's obviously in some sort of haze and it was enough to make her not want to see tomorrow!" He yelled, outraged.
Harry was mad at the wizarding world for not understanding the dangers of pain killers, at himself for not noticing how lost she was, and mad at Hermione for doing this to herself.
"You should wipe the blood off of her face." Harry said, emotionally drained.
Draco sat on the cot next to hers.
What had happened to her?