Ok I lied… not a two shot, but still short story, the whole story is only going to be over the expanse of a few days, not including flash backs.

Chapter is Beta'd

Enjoy.

Chrys

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The next morning Hermione stood still in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic. She was talking to her friends, who had also arrived a few minutes early. Ron, Luna, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione stood talking while awaiting their usual sixth, Draco. Most mornings were spent like this. Arriving a few minutes early, catching up, passing along any news someone had heard, before they were split up to work on their separate files.

Hermione was uncomfortable to say the least. What she really wanted to do was to go back home curl up under her blankets and cry, much like she had done the night before. She had spent hours crying, with nothing but her cat to comfort her. She had even decided that she hated him, and that if he died of his illness she wouldn't care. She spent the rest of the night trying to convince herself of this, only to find that as soon as she stepped one foot out of the fireplace in the Ministry, she quickly searched to find him. He wasn't there of course, but that didn't stop her probing looks.

Harry was telling some story about something, that had everyone intrigued but her, when Draco stepped out of the far right fireplace. Hermione froze. Her heart felt like it was beating wildly and not moving at all at the same time, and she wondered if just the sight of his face could kill her. She was pulled out of her thought process as he came towards them, stopping every few moments to have a coughing fit. He was even paler than the day before, his clothes hung limply on his body, as if even they were sick. Draco Malfoy looked like shit… and she bet he felt like it too.

"Dude, what are you doing here, you look like hell… Go home." Harry said when Draco came near them.

"Thanks, but we've got shit to do… Dark Wizards to catch…" He didn't make eye contact with Hermione, in fact she was sure he didn't even look at her.

Draco fell into another coughing fit, and while Luna was sure he had swallowed a Kippy, Hermione knew better. "Ron, you two just finished the case you were working on right?"

When Ron nodded she continued on, "The Carson file is on my desk. In fact it should be the only file on my desk. Do you think you and Luna could take a look at it and see what you can come up with… Malfoy is in no condition to work, and probably won't be for a few days."

"Sure 'Mione." Ron answered, pulling Luna along so that they could start working.

"Ginny could you tell Carlyle, that we won't be in for a few days? Tell him the Carson file is the only thing we had, and I already gave it away. And that if he needs anything just to send an owl."

"No problem, Hermione. Carlyle, has been telling you two to take a break for some time now anyway, I doubt he will mind." Ginny gave Hermione a hug and a quick peck on the cheek.

When Harry and Ginny left as well, and Draco had finally started breathing again, completely unaware of the fact that everyone else was gone. Hermione grabbed his arm and dragged him to the nearest Fireplace.

"Where are we going… I just got here?"

"You are in no condition to work, Malfoy." She stated as she shoved him into the fireplace and called out "Draco's Flat."

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As soon as they arrived at his house she pushed him towards his bedroom door, telling him to get into his pjs, and back into bed. Her voice held no room for question, or argument. This was probably the first time in his entire life that he didn't dare try and defy her.

Slinky was standing in the living room, shining the silver, when Hermione entered. "Did he eat at all this morning?"

"No Miss," the elf answered.

"Would you be so kind as to prepare the same food as yesterday?"

"Of course Miss." Slinky snapped her fingers and all the silver disappeared. The elf popped up and went into the Kitchen.

Hermione took a few calming breaths before she entered his bedroom. She was surprised to find that he had done exactly as she told him to. He didn't look very happy, and was still coughing up his right lung, but at least he was in comfortable clothes and in bed.

Before he could say anything she spoke. "Look, Malfoy. You don't need me. You obviously don't want me. And you don't give a shit about me, and you know what… that's fine. But I will not have my PARTNER, slowly die while we attempt to catch Carson. So you are going to lay in this bed, eat what I tell you to eat, sleep as much as possible, and when you are better, then, and only then am I going to leave, and let you get on with your sad little existence."

She was ranting… he could tell that she was even more mad than the first time he had called her a mudblood. Somehow… for an unknown reason, he respected that anger… maybe because he understood anger, and pain. Those were two emotions he had always been tied to, and he respected anyone in that current state.

He stayed silent, still wouldn't look her in the eye, and didn't say a word.

Slinky came in then, levitating a tray of food and placing it down on Draco's lap. "Is there anything else I can get you Master Draco, or Miss Hermione?"

Again Draco said nothing, and left Hermione to tell Slinky that they were fine.

"I'll be back in a few." She said in a strained voice and left the room.

She flooed back to her own house. She grabbed a few books she hadn't read yet, a couple of DVD's that Draco had mentioned a few weeks ago that he would be interested in seeing, and a small stack of fabric, meant for Slinky, so that she could sew her own clothing, and not have to wear old, ugly tea cozies. She also found cough drops in her medicine cabinet, and put them in the pile to go back to Draco's.

She changed out of her work clothes and into some more comfortable ones, a pair of jeans and one of Krum's old jerseys. She slipped on a pair of flip-flops and flooed to Draco's.

Leaving the fabric on the kitchen table for the elf, she went back into the bedroom and placed her stuff on the side table. Draco had just finished eating when she walked in, so she banished the table, leaving him only with a large bottle of water.

She threw the bag of cough drops at his chest, "Suck on those, they will make your throat feel better."

He caught them and read the bag. After making sure she wasn't attempting to poison him, he popped one into his mouth. "Thanks," he mumbled.

"Yeah," she answered attempting to keep her voice as flat and emotionless as possible.

He looked over at her, and for the first time that day caught her eyes. He saw pain, and he hated it. Damn it… why was it always him that hurt her? Why the fuck was he always so damn cruel?

"You went out and bought those movies I said I wanted to see?" he asked, looking at the stack in her hand.

Hermione blushed, "Um… No. My parents already had them, I just popped over to their house and borrowed them."

"You popped over? They live three hours away." Draco responded.

"I am a witch you know. I flooed over after work one night." She would have liked it if he had dropped the subject right then… then again being Malfoy, he couldn't do her that favor, could he?

"Hermione you hate the floo network. Especially when you have to floo far distances."

"So what? I went and saw my parents, had dinner with them, noticed that they had the movies you were talking about and grabbed them. This was of course before you informed me that we are just partners. I wouldn't have bothered." Damn it, had she said that out loud? Fuck, she had told herself to not show just how much his words had hurt her… but he could be so damn irritating most of the time.

Draco opened his mouth, but Hermione cut him off once more. "Look Malfoy, just pick a fucking movie, so I can put it on, and you can rest. I would like it if I didn't have to spend the rest of my life here nursing you back to health."

"I thought I wasn't Malfoy anymore."

Hermione wanted to die. "I guess you proved me wrong."

She didn't give him a chance to pick a movie, just grabbed the first one off the top and put it into the DVD player. Then she moved to the chair by his bed and tucked her legs underneath her. Pulling out a notebook she always kept on her and a muggle pen, she opened it up and began writing. She ignored Draco, she ignored the movie, she ignored everything, and focused on her writing.

Draco watched her. He knew he had been brushed off. It was funny actually, nearly every wizard or witch he had ever met, wouldn't dare brush him off. He was Draco Malfoy, powerful with or without his family, and wouldn't hesitate to curse you if you crossed him. But Hermione didn't care. She stood up to him, she ignored him, she screamed at him, and she gave just as well as she got. Every insult always had a come back, every question had an answer, and she always got in the last word. He used to find it infuriating… but now? It was different now. He respected her for fighting back; hell, he even enjoyed it.

"Granger?"

"What do you want?"

"You can't possibly be comfortable in that chair. There is plenty of room on the other side of the bed."

She was shocked into silence; it only lasted a minute. "I'm fine."

"Granger you hate that chair. You always ask me why I keep such an uncomfortable thing around. Come on, sit on the bed, I don't bite… hard."

She rolled her eyes, "Just watch the damn movie, or go to sleep, Malfoy. Don't worry about me." Not that you really do… she wanted to add, but felt it would be better if she held her tongue.

"Its not like I have the plague or anything. You've sat on my bed millions of times, why not now?" he was pushing, and in his own twisted way, attempting to apologize. If he could just get her comfortable and not be pissed off anymore, his apology would probably go over with a lot less screaming.

"Will you promise to shut-up if I do?"

At his nod she sighed and stood up, moving over to the other side of the bed and sat down, her back stiff against the headboard.

Draco gave a small smile and turned over so that he was facing her. She was expecting him to start talking again and swore that if he did, she would not be responsible for the spells that came out of her wand. Instead though he turned towards the television, and watched the movie.

He was asleep within an hour. Not even the action in the movie could keep him from drifting off. Once she realized he had fallen asleep she stopped the movie and turned the television off, so that when he woke up he would be able to skip a few scenes back and start from where he left off.

She looked down to her notebook and realized she was done. The next month's calendar was done her grocery list, and all of her thoughts on the Carson case, which tomorrow she would attach to an owl and send it to Ron. She put the notebook down on the ground, and accioed a book from the other side of the bed, making sure it didn't hit Draco, on its way to her hand.

She scooted down so that she was more like lying, instead of sitting, and began to read about vampires in a small town of Forks. It really came to no surprise, due to the lack of sleep she had gotten the night before, when she fell asleep directly after the second chapter.

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Draco woke up slowly and noticed two things. The first was that he felt marginally better. Not great, but he did feel better. The second thing he noticed was that Hermione was pressed against his side, her head resting on his shoulder and she slept peacefully.

He smiled softly and tried not to move, so as to not wake her up. She really was beautiful, especially when she was asleep. Her guards were down, and she was relaxed, and all he wanted to do was snuggle up against her. Of course, Malfoy's didn't snuggle, but the urge was there.

He thought back to the first time she had slept in his bed. A half-blood witch had decided that killing Voldemort wasn't enough, and when she caught sight of Lucius Malfoy, had killed him on the spot. Draco's father hadn't seen it coming, and had no time to react.

Draco had expected the aurors to ignore the murder, due to who had been killed, and tell him that they "tried." Many of them didn't care, but Hermione did. Hermione hunted down the witch as if she had killed the Minister of Magic himself. When she had caught up with the girl, she had restrained her and was preparing to transfer her to Azkaban, when the girl had said something that broke Hermione.

"He deserved it."

Hermione had forgotten her wand and full out punched the young girl in the face, breaking her nose, and cutting a few of Hermione's knuckles. The girl had fallen to the ground, clutching her nose, and Hermione pulled her wand once again, forcing the girl to look up at her.

"No one, deserves to be killed out of the blue, walking down the street. He happened to be on his way to his son's Birthday party. Do you realize that you've killed somebody's father, somebody's husband? You are a coward to attack a man from behind, and kill him in cold blood."

Hermione had jerked the girl up then, and sent her to Azkaban. She made sure that the Ministry and the Wizengamot prosecuted her to the full extent of the law.

She had gone to Draco's house then to tell him the news. He had yelled at her for going without him, for taking on the witch by herself and forgetting about the partner rule. He stood there screaming, and she took every word of it, because she knew he was hurting. He stopped when he saw her hand, slowly swelling up, and covered in blood. He had lifted her hand and stroked his fingers across the knuckles lightly, before raising his eyes to her.

"You hit her?"

"I broke her nose… she tried to tell me that Lucius deserved it. While I've never been the biggest fan of your father, no one deserves to be murdered in cold blood. To be attacked from behind, by a person he had never done an injustice to. He didn't deserve it."

Draco was shocked into silence. He stood there holding her hand like that for what seemed like an eternity, until she had pulled a small box out of her pocket and handed it to him.

"This was found in your father's robes. He was on his way to the party, Draco, when she attacked…"

Draco opened the box to find the signet ring that had been on his father's finger for as long as he could remember. Lucius had disowned Draco when he failed in his sixth year. Lucius had regretted it every day from there on out but had been too proud to ask Draco for his forgiveness… until that night. The ring meant that Draco was his heir, his son, it was his way of apologizing. It would have been nice if he had lived to find out that his son's answer would have been one of forgiveness.

The memorial service was held two days later. Hermione attended with him, her hand firmly gripped in his. On his finger he wore the Malfoy ring, on her's, the bruises from punching Lucius' killer. She didn't' let go of his hand once. She knew that Draco did not enjoy public displays of affection, and yet she knew he needed something. Her hand in his had comforted him. She had stood next to him as he stared at the face of his father, and she had been the only one that heard Draco's painful whisper of, "I forgive you."

She had comforted Narcissa, held the reporters at bay, and helped him through his grief, without even being asked. Once all the others had left, he touched Lucius' tomb one more time before apparating them to his house. He hadn't let go when he had laid down on his bed, and she didn't pull away. Instead she had curled up next to him, both still in their clothes from the funeral, wrapped a protective arm around his waist, and held him. He had cried that night, and she hadn't judged him. She had laid there with him, and listened. He had told her that Lucius wasn't as horrible to his family as most people thought. Lucius wasn't solely evil, and did teach Draco a great many things besides being a Death Eater.

Draco was brought back to the present when Hermione shifted against him, her arm stretched across his chest and holding on to his shoulder. He smiled and enjoyed the feeling of her pressed against him.

He had lied the day before. He did need her. She was much more than his partner. She was his lifeline. He couldn't count the number of times Hermione Granger had saved his life over the past three years.

They laid there for a while, completely silent. Draco was watching Hermione, sucking on cough drops so as to not wake her up with his cough. He heard her mumble something, but disregarded it. That is, until the grip on his shoulder tightened and her body began to shake.

"No, Draco." She mumbled, "Don't leave…" Her hand tightened again and her voice broke, "Please."

"Granger wake up…" he shook her softly, only thinking about getting her out of her nightmare. "Wake up, your safe. It's just a dream… I'm not going anywhere."

Hermione popped up then, sitting up in bed looking disoriented and completely out of sorts. Draco put a hand on her shoulder and when she turned around and realized it was him, she jumped out of the bed and moved to wall on the other side of the room.

"Are you ok?" He asked, watching her, wondering what spooked her.

"Fine." She bit out. She took a calming breath before repeating herself; "I'm fine."

"Granger, what was…."

She cut him off, "Are you hungry… I'm hungry. I think I'll go get us some food. Yeah, food. I'll be back."

She stepped out of his room and closed the door behind her, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes. Fuck it all to hell… she hated that dream, and now it was even worse. She could see Draco moving farther and farther away from her, and no matter how fast she ran, or how loud she screamed, he always disappeared.

"Miss can I help you?" Slinky was in front of her.

"I… Um… Yeah. Can we have some soup please." She rubbed the bridge of her nose slightly and heard Slinky disappear with a pop. She couldn't be a coward… she needed to go back into that room and face him, like the Gryffindor that she was.

Hermione took several deep breaths before she went back into the room, taking a seat next to him on the bed again, picking up the book she had been reading earlier from the floor. She placed it on the table and sat there, her legs underneath the blankets, and her back against the headboard, ramrod straight. Her fists were clenched at her sides.

Draco stared at her. He was going to have to apologize. He knew that, he knew that he would have to make up for yesterday's harsh words. Of course it was just his luck that when he opened his mouth to do so, Slinky appeared, placing a tray over both of their laps with a steaming bowl of soup and a packet of crackers.

Draco didn't realize just how hungry he was until he could smell the soup in front of him. He quickly dug in, eating as fast as possible without throwing up.

Hermione ate slowly. By some logic the slower she ate, the longer it would be before Draco would ask her any questions. Some how her logic was flawed.

"I'm sorry. I was wrong."

She nearly got whiplash with how fast her head turned when she heard those words. She was shocked into silence.

"You are much more than my partner, Hermione. You are my friend, and I do need you, and your help. I hate letting people see me when I'm weak, especially people that mean a lot to me. And you do mean a lot to me. You should have beat the shit out of me for what I said yesterday."

She continued to stare at him. He needed her?

"The only reason I even tried to come to work today was to get you to force me back here. I knew you would. I wanted to talk to you, tell you I was an idiot." There was a pause in his speech, and he looked her directly in the eye waiting for her to do something… Merlin, she could have punched him across the face and he would have been happy… at least it was a response. "Please Hermione… Say something."

"You called me Hermione… twice."

"Well, that is your name isn't it?" He had a sad smile on his face, and it hurt her heart just to look at him.

"You've never called me Hermione before… ever."

"No time like the present to start then."

She shook her head, "Who are you and what have you done with my partner. Apologizing… admitting your wrong, calling me 'Hermione', maybe that fever is higher than I thought." She placed her hand against his head, but found it only slightly warmer than usual.

"My fever is fine… I think it broke while I was sleeping."

There was a pause. It seemed like a whole minute before Hermione scooted down so that she was lying down. "Did you want to finish watching the movie, or read?" Some how… that was it. The fight was over. Draco wasn't going to lose his partner… but both wanted more than they were currently letting on.

"The movie. It was getting interesting about the time I fell asleep."

She nodded and picked up the remote, turning everything back on and backing up a few scenes.

They lay like that for hours, watching movies, dozing on and off, relaxing. It was nice to have a few days off, even if you were in bed with the flu.

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Pretty please… makes the writer happier thanks… and don't forget to pet Draco Potter on the way out