Disclaimer: the only time in my life when I will ever own the wonderful world of HP is when I'm charged with being clinically insane, in other words JK owns everything (including any familiar things you might see) but the plot. Seeing a pattern yet?

Sorry that I updated a later than I said I would! I just kept writing and writing, then the chapter got waaay to long so I spilt it into two.

Thanks to everyone that favourited or followed this story! A special thanks to the reviewers! I loove reviews! All of you amazing people are the reason I am updating! I also welcome constructive criticism with open arms, it helps me improve my writing, so feel free to point flaws out to save me from embarrassment!

Chapter 2: The Hospital Wing

Hermione was woken by the sound of obscenely loud clinking. There was a dull throbbing in the back of her head and she felt extremely drowsy, wanting nothing more than to throw the covers over her head to block out the bright light that was assaulting her eyes.

"Ah you're awake miss. Granger."

Her focus shifted to the woman standing by the bed she was lying in. Madam Pomfrey was next placing a greyish coloured liquid on the stand next to bed.

Hermione brought her arms to either side of herself and used them to prop herself up. Her limbs screamed and shook in protest at the movement. The moment she put weight on her arms, they gave out from under her causing Hermione to give out a little yelp in surprise. She fell back on her bed and groaned when jolts of pain went though her. The throbbing in her head intensified as she landed on a pillow that seemed to be as soft as a rock.

"Does you're head hurt Miss. Granger?"

Hermione nodded.

"Must have hit when you fell." Madam Pomfrey stated before she took out her wand and pointed it at her forehead, "Episkey."

Hermione's head suddenly felt very hot, then, as quick as it had come, it went away. She slowly exhaled all when the pain in her head disappeared all together.

It was then that Hermione took in her surroundings. Rows of beds with pristine white sheets with separators between each one. She recognised the Hospital Wing with a start and mentally scolded herself for not noticing something as important as her surroundings, sooner.

"W-what happened?" Her voice sounded groggy from just having woken up.

"It seems, Miss. Granger, that you fainted. A student found you lying unconscious in the corridors and brought you in here." Madam Pomfrey said, her back to her as she busied herself with the viles on her stand again.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"For a day."

"A day! What about my cla-"

"Miss. Granger," Madam Pomfrey said, holding up a finger and stopping her mid-rant. "Don't worry, your teachers have been notified about your condition and have given you time to catch up on the work that you've missed. Classes for today end in around ten minutes, so there's no point of you to be fussed about it. Everything's sorted."

Hermione visibly relaxed, "Thank you."

"I checked your vitals earlier on and it seemed that everything was in perfect health, though you fainted from what seemed like lack of strength. Here, I want you to drink this Invigoration Draught," Madam Pomfrey picked up the vile of greyish liquid and handed it to Hermione, before she could get her grasp on it though, Madam Pomfrey added, "I do however, suggest that you try to sleep more, eat more, and drink plenty of water to make sure this doesn't happen again."

"I will, I guess I was just getting to focused on studying already." She lied, and threw back the Invigoration Draught.

Just then, the doors were swung open with a loud 'bang', nearly causing Hermione to choke on the Draught, and two third years ran it, one carrying an infant in the crook of their arm. Immediately, they both started to explain what had happened at the same time.

Hermione only heard bits of their jumbled ramblings, "...potions... shrinking potion... tripped... spilt..." At this point their voice got too hysterical for her to hear the rest, but she didn't need to hear it to understand the situation.

So did Madam Pomfrey it seemed, and headed towards them, muttering something about how dangerous our curriculum was.

Hermione watched them for a bit, not sure of what she should of with herself. She eased herself out of bed, and was just about to leave when Madam Pomfrey turned around and said, "Don't leave just yet, I'll tend to these students first then I'll check to see how you are."

Not having the energy to reply, Hermione simply nodded her head again in consent. She sighed and went to lie down when she noticed a that at the far end of the room, was a single occupied bed. The curtains were drawn around it so you couldn't see who was behind them.

A frown graced Hermione's features. She felt the inexplicable urge to go and investigate, though she knew full well that it was not she had authority to and that the curtains were probably drawn for a reason.

She tried to ignore it and lay back down to wait for the Draught to kick in. It didn't seem to working at the moment, she felt as exhausted as she was before.

Unconsciously, her eyes shifted back to the far corner of the room. Who was behind it? And why did she want nothing more than to run over to see?

She looked over to Madam Pomfrey and saw that she was still feverishly fussing over the infant third year student. She wasn't even so much as glancing I'm Hermione's direction.

At this, Hermione nervously bit her lip and made up her mind. She gingerly lowered herself to the ground, then proceeded to hobble to the bed. As she got closer, her curiosity won over and she completely forgot about her weak state.

When she reached the bed, she hesitated before she slowly pulled back the curtain.

She peered inside, her gaze landing on the ashen face of a boy. She would not have recognised Draco Malfoy had it not been for his iconic white blonde hair. Hermione looked over her shoulder to see if any one had seen her, but attention was still trained on the third years. She looked from Malfoy to Madam Pomfrey, who was busy looking for something, and back again. Without a second thought, Hermione stepped inside the curtain and realised that this was one of the few times that she had seen him without having him insult her. For some reason, she couldn't help but take this opportunity to study him. At the moment, he was just another ordinary boy, not Draco Malfoy, muggle hater extraordinaire.

Gone was his ever present smirk or scowl, replaced with a peaceful expression, one that Hermione had never seen on him before. She could have sworn she saw his eyelids flutter, but she dismissed it. On close examination, she could see that his skin was absolutely flawless, something that Hermione knew many girls tried, and failed to achieve. His eye lashes were surprisingly long, a feature that yet again, many girls wished they had. His face shape was sharp and angular, but this only added to his aristocratic look. He was almost pleasant to look at. Almost.

Her gaze drifted lower to his torso. When she saw the Slytherin quidditch robes he was wearing, yesterday's incident came back to her and she cringed. That hit with the bludger had been a hard one, you could have almost heard the snapping of ribs from the gruesomeness of it. While now, he looked perfectly fine, Hermione shivered wondering what had to have been fixed and knitted back together for him to be back at this state. He was probably in an awful lot of pa-

"Checking me out Granger?"

Hermione nearly jumped in shock when she heard the presumably unconscious blonde speak, with his infamous smirk gracing his lips. She stared at him wide eyed and couldn't help but gape. At her reaction, Malfoy's smirk grew in what looked suspiciously like amusement. This snapped Hermione out of her daze, and she composed herself again.

She put on her most business like voice and prepared to bluff whatever came out of her mouth, "Of course not, but as a fellow Head, it's my duty to check to see your health and if it will possibly affect our schedule."

"How considerate of you." He dead panned. He was still smirking, but the amusement didn't seem to reach his eyes. They themselves were unreadable and seemed completely detached to the emotions he was showing.

"So, uh, how are you?" She asked this mostly because it went along well with the lie he told, though a minute part of her was asking because she was genuinely concerned. These past weeks, she had caught him, more than once, staring off into space, just like he had at the quidditch game. Something was bothering him.

"I'm fine." Malfoy replied, not missing a beat.

"Right." Hermione couldn't keep the sarcasm from her voice. She looked him in the eye, and said in a soft voice, "Now how are you really?"

He didn't answer her straight away this time. Instead, his eyes narrowed slightly and he stared at her intently, gouging whether or not she was sincere or if she had ulterior motives. He must have decided on the latter, because when he finally replied, he wore another unconvincing smirk, "As I said Granger, I'm perfectly fine. My condition won't disrupt the oh so important schedule."

Hermione was tempted to push him a little bit further for taking a jab at her, but decided to leave it. What was going on in Draco Malfoy's personal life was none of her business.

She sighed and looked around, noticing for the first time how bare it looked. There was not one get well card, or get well chocolate, or anything really. She knew that Slytherins didn't often show affection towards others, but she was expecting something. Wasn't he the so called "Slytherin Prince" after all? Malfoy didn't seem to notice this, and continued staring at her, non plussed.

Hermione, determined not to squirm under his gaze, turned around to leave, drawing open the curtain and stepping out. Before she let the curtain fall back into place though, she looked over her shoulder to the blonde Slytherin and said in her sincerest voice, "Get well soon Malfoy," and left. She completely missing the look that came over Malfoy's face.

Hermione walked back to her bed and sat down on the edge of it, waiting for Madam Pomfrey. She started swinging her legs and humming to give herself something to do, not noticing that she no longer felt tired.

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