Disclaimer:
again I do not own any of the characters nor do I own the setting... I only own the plot.
"Hermione!" Draco yelled,.Hermione plunged into the water without warning, and he was starting to get frantic. He took a deep breath and dived in.
Hermione flailed and kicked, but the blasted Grindylows won't let her go. They held on to her ankle firmly. First there were only a few, but more came. It meant like it was a feast for the sea creatures. She tried to break lose, but they were too strong.
Draco suddenly appeared at her side, trying to pull her up with him. But the Grindylows wouldn't let her go. He tried to fend them off, but still, no avail. Hermione felt she was already loosing air, but she tried her best not to pass out. She can't afford to pass out.
Draco was already feeling worried and mad, he pointed his wand at the creatures and shot a nonverbal Stunning Charm. The creatures froze and Draco can finally pull her up. "We – better hurry and get back.." he said, trying to catch his breath, "Before any-more of them – can come. Hold my hand."
Hermione nodded and took hold of Draco's hand, while he used his wand so they can get faster to the shore of the lake. Both of them were tired and Hermione was badly bruised.
"Thank – you." she said once she got hold of her breath.
"No problem." he reached out and grabbed their clothes, passing Hermione's uniform to her.
Hermione tried to stand, but then fell with a loud thud. "Ow..." she moaned. She looked down and saw that her ankle was swollen and bleeding.
"What?" Draco turned around, his shirt still unbuttoned. "I gotta take you to the Hospital Wing." he said. He took her clothes and wrapped her robes at her back. He wrapped his own robes at her front, to hide her body, and placed both their shoes safely on her front.
"Just support me and I can walk." she said trying to shrug off the cloaks.
"Fat chance." he picked her up like a baby and started to make his way to the castle.
"Put me down!" she hissed as they entered the castle, students were starting to look at them.
"Again. Fat chance." he didn't care walking barefooted around the castle.
"People are starting to stare!"
"To hell with them. I'll hex their heads off if they try to stop me. You need to be in the Hospital Wing; you're starting to pale." and he walked faster.
Although touched by his words, she couldn't help but feel embarrassed with the whole situation, carrying her in his arm like a child. She had to admit, she was starting to feel dizzy.
"Madame Promfrey!" Draco yelled, pushing the door with his shoulders and laid Hermione on the nearest bed.
"Good heavens, child. Indoor voices please." the medi-witch said as she rushed towards him. "What seems to be the pro- Oh my. What on earth happened?"
"Grindylows. Later. Heal her. Now."
"Right." she went back to her office, moving quickly, coming back holding a basin and a flask of blue potion. "Aguamneti!" She said, filling the basin with water. "Mr. Malfoy, kindly clean the wound as I ready the potion and the bandages."
Draco took a cloth and dipped it into the water. He tried his best to clean the wound as gently as possible, but it was hard. The wound was big and fresh, the blood that dried on the skin was hard to remove.
"Move, Mr. Malfoy, and hold Ms. Granger's hand." Promfrey instructed. "I'm sorry, Ms. Granger, but this will hurt." she warned before tipping the flask and letting the potion fall.
Madame Promfrey was right, it did hurt. Hermione suddenly grabbed Draco's hand in pain, but she did not let a sound escape her lips. She felt as though the wound was burning inside and out.
The medi-witch then bandaged her ankle carefully, "Sorry about that, but that potion was to burn away any poison that the Grindylow might have injected, your ankle is broken as well. It will feel stingy all night, so be prepared. Mr. Malfoy, sit down so I can tidy you up as well."
Hermione felt relieved that her ankle was taken care of immediately. If there was any poison injected in her wound, it'll be a lot harder, and much more painful than it already was.
"Mr. Malfoy, kindly turn around so I can get Ms. Granger into ward clothes." Draco turned around, giving the women some privacy. "Now, both of you wait here." Madame Promfrey waved her wand and made to cup of hot tea appear on the bedside table."Drink some tea and the Head of your Houses will be here shortly." and she left them alone.
"Do you think we'll get detention?" Hermione asked as she sipped her tea.
"I wouldn't worry about that right now. Are you all right?" Draco asked.
"Yes, but the wound burns. Thank you. You saved my life today."
"No problem." he grinned and took a sip of his tea as well. "I told you it was safer to bring a wand."
"Oh, torment me will you?" Hermione laughed. "I just thought we won't need it since I didn't think we'd get that far into the lake."
Draco shook his head and sighed, taking another sip of his tea. By the time that they were both finished with their cups of tea, Snape and McGonagall came bursting into the Hospital Wing, looking angry and stern.
"Explain yourselves." McGonagall snapped. "Poppy said that both of you was attacked by Grindylows."
"Yes." Hermione answered. "it was our free period and we were already done with out Herbology project.. We had nothing to do, our friends were still working on theirs."
"So we decided to take a little swim." Interjected Draco. "We didn't realize we were already too far from the shore, Hermione got attacked."
"And Draco saved me."
By using each others first names, both professors raised their eyebrows and stared at them. They never imagined the day that Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger would get along.
"very well, that seems to be all in order. With the Veritaserum that was in your tea, we have no choice but to believe your story." said Snape. "We shall let the other teachers know where you are, and that you will nt be joining any of your other classes."
"Both of you will stay here until tomorrow morning. Mr. Malfoy, it will be your responsibility to keep an eye on Ms. Granger. Good day."
Hermione was surprised as she watched the two professors leave them alone again. There was a truth potion in their drink. But her reaction was nothing compared to Draco's. "You all right, Draco?" she asked, looking concerned. "Is there anything wrong?"
"Nothing." he muttered. Glad that the effect of the potion only took a minute or two. "God thing we didn't get detention."
"Yeah.." she sighed. "too bad were going to miss the next class, though."
"C'mon, the next class is History of Magic! You can't be serious about feeling bad missing that. It's th most boring subject in this school! Plus, that's only one subject. It's already dinner after that."
"I know. But NEWTs are coming in a few weeks, and we can't afford to miss a subject now. I don't want to fail."
"You won't fail. You are the brightest witch in this school, I've never even seen anyone smarter than you." Draco laughed. "I'll become a vampire if you fail even one subject."
Hermione blushed and beamed, "Thanks, Draco."
"No need to blush you know." he smirked.
"Shut up!" she threw a pillow at him and hit him on the face.
"Hey! Be thankful you're injured, or I would've thrown this right back at you."
Just then the doors opened again, and a group of people barged in. Harry, Ron, Luna and Ginny went to Hermione's side. Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise went to Draco's side.
"What did you do to Hermione?" Ron spat.
"What did Draco do? What did Granger do to Draco?" Pansy shrieked.
"There was a yelling match that erupted in front of th e two. Try as they might, the eight people that were hollering at each other were louder than Draco and Hermione. They can't make them stop. "Everybody SHUT UP!" they both yelled at the same time.
There was a bang from the office and Madame Promfrey stood in front of them, looking angry. "What is all the noise about? What are you people doing here? Only four visitors per patient!"
"There are only four visitors, Madame Promfrey. There are two of us. We'll sort this out." said Draco.
"Alright, but do it QUIETLY!" she turned and went back to her office.
"Well, what happened?" Harry asked once Madame Promfrey was in her office.
"Hermione and I went for a swim, Potter," Draco said, rolling his eyes.
"Likely story.' snarled Ron, before Draco can continue to talk.
'Ron." Hermione snapped, "Shut up, he's telling the truth." Harry and the others gaped at her, while Malfoy's friends all smirked.
"You tell the story, Hermione." Draco said leaning onto his pillow, "It's your lot that won't believe me."
Hermione sighed and told them exactly what happened. "If he didn't save me, I wouldn't be here." Hermione smiled as Harry and Ron gaped at her. No one would even dare believe that she and Malfoy are already friends.
"How'd you get here? You can't have just walked." Ginny asked.
"He... uh- he carried me." she said with a shrug. Everyone smirked and raised their eyebrows. Crabbe, Blaise and Goyle even gave each other high-fives. Hermione could feel heat rushing to her cheeks, and tried her best not to blush.
"I can't believe I'm doing this, but... I think I owe you an apology, Malfoy." Ron said, shaking his head. "It was wrong of me to accuse you like that."
"No need, Weasley." Draco grinned.
"Since you and Hermione are friends already, you wouldn't mind having a truce with us, would you?" Harry asked.
"But we aren't enemies anymore, Potter."
"But I want us all to be friends. What do you say... Draco?" Harry said, extending his hand for a shake.
"Sure... Harry." Draco grinned and shook hands.
"Are we using first names now?" Luna spoke for the first time.
"Well yeah, if everyone is OK with that." Draco asked, looking around at everybody in the room, and all nodded in agreement.
"What I'm wondering is, what're you all doing here? Don't you have classes?" asked Hermione.
"Free period.' said Ginny and Luna.
"It's History of Magic, do you honestly think Binns would mind? He can't even tell the difference of the after life and here."Pansy said, rolling her eyes. "All I do in class is sleep."
"So, who wants a dinner party here? I'm sure Promfrey wouldn't mind." suggested Blaise.
"Oh yes she would." interjected Hermione.
"Not if we cast a Silencing Charm and a Muffliato Spell."said Luna.
'I like the way you think, Luna.' Draco grinned. "let's go down to the kitchens and grab something to eat. But first, let me talk to Madame Promfrey, just to let her know I'm going down for a while." he said, and went to the office.
"Does this mean we can finally stop being mean at each other?" Crabbe asked.
"Duh." Blaise said, rolling his eyes. "You should really get a catch on, Vince."
"Stop picking on him, Blaise." snapped Pansy. They glared at each other but Blaise did shut up.
"Alright." Draco said as he came back. "Boys, we can go down to the kitchen. The girls can stay here."
"I'm getting my own food." said Pansy.
"Blaise can just get some for you." Draco smirked. Pansy and Blaise shot angry glares at Draco, but he didn't cringe. "Oh, fine you two. You can come Pansy. Anything you want in particular, Hermione?"
"No, I eat almost everything." she said.
Harry, Ron, Vince, Greg, Blaise, Draco and Pansy all trooped out of the Hospital Wing, leaving Ginny, Hermione and Luna alone.
"Alright, spill." Ginny said, sitting down at the end of Hermione's bed, as soon as the doors closed.
"What?" Hermione said, looking confused. "What're you talking about?"
"Oh, don't play innocent with me, Hermione. What's between you and Draco?"
"There's nothing between us!"
"But you have to admit that you are attracted to him." Luna said loftily.
"All I'll admit is that he's good looking. There's nothing more than friendship between me and Draco. Relationships are definitely out of the question." Hermione said sternly.
"You do know that physical attraction can lead to something more, right?" Ginny smirked.
"No.' Hermione said flatly. "He's cute, that'd all that I'm saying. I'm glad that he and I became friends... that we all became friends. WE finally pushed each others' differences aside. But there is definitely no way the he and I are going to be a couple."
"That's what Ron said about Luna in most of your fifth year, and half of last year." Ginny grinned.
"You know... The couple you least expect are usually the strongest." Luna said, smiling lightly.
"I know, Luna. But the chances of that are very little. He's not even attracted to me."
"How do you know that he is not?" Luna now had knowing, far away look that always gave Hermione the creeps.
Hermione was about to answer when the doors opened, and the others came in, carrying trays of food. Draco placed a large tray on Hermione's bedside table and took out his wand, casting a Silencing Charm on the door and directed a Muffliato Spell and Promfrey's door.
They all enjoyed themselves, laughing and joking with one another. Hermione knew that all the Hogwarts Professors only dreamed of seeing Slytherins and Gryffindors getting along with each other. It finally came true. Seeing that Harry and Draco were actually talking to each other as though they've been friends for a long time, proved that nothing was impossible now.
But Hermione couldn't shake off the conversation she had with Ginny and Luna. Luna may be weird, but she had this thing that always makes her right, or, rather, have an uncanny ability to see the truth is simple things. At first, Hermione always wondered how come Luna was in Ravenclaw, at first. She then learned never to underestimate the girl.
It was already near curfew when the others left (leaving only when Madame Promfrey went out of her office and found out about the party). They all said their good nights and Draco and Hermione was left to accompany each other in the night.
"Tired?' Draco asked as she stepped out of the bathroom, wearing Hospital Wing pajamas.
"A bit.' she said smiling, lying down comfortably on the bed.
"Does it still hurt?"
"No... just a bit stingy now. I think it's really healing. I'm sure we'll be able to get out first thing in the morning."
"That's good." Draco laid down on his bed and faced her direction. "We better get some sleep since we don't have anything else to do."
"U guess we should. Draco.."
"Yeah?"
"Thank you." she said sweetly.
Draco nodded, "It's actually you that I have to thank, Hermione."
"What for?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing... and everything." he said lightly and went to sleep.
a/n:
I'm sorry it took sooooo long to upload another chapter. My computer's broken and I'm having a hard time doing so.
Reviews will be much appreciated! Thank you!
Patz
