Sorry if anyone got grossed out by the description of Ziva's leg, I'm really sorry! But please enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter Quote:
"This class is ridiculous."
~Draco Malfoy


Chapter 7

Ziva

The night was quiet as Ziva lay in her hospital bed. Madame Pomfrey had turned in about two hours ago, telling Ziva it was almost midnight. There was no light; even the moon wasn't shining its silver rays. The dark clouds were blocking it, a more recent, recurring thing. Ever since Harry Potter had claimed the Dark Lord was back, the weather had been acting strangely. There were less sunny days than before, and Hogwarts didn't have many sunny days in the first place.

Ziva would've enjoyed the silence had there been some form of light. It was just discomforting not being able to see anything. Of course, the castle wasn't completely silent. The ghosts-specifically Peeves-was roaming around, cackling for some unknown reason. His laughter sounded a bit psychotic, Ziva thought.

Soft, almost silent, footsteps entered the hospital wing. Ziva stayed still but her eyes roamed over to the entrance. No one was there. Her heart started to race. Who was making the footsteps? It was obvious someone else was in the hospital wing with her but who? They were invisible. The ghosts didn't make footsteps, not that she knew of.

"Ziva? Please tell me you're awake and not sleeping with your eyes closed because if it's the latter, that's really creepy," Draco's voice whispered. Although he frightened her immensely, she started to laugh.

"Bloody hell, Draco," she said. "Way to scare me."

"I heard what happened, I came to see if you were all right," he told her, sitting on the edge of the bed next to her. Ziva propped herself up.

"Madame Pomfrey fixed my leg up quite well. I owe it's incredible, current condition to her. She did the same thing I would've done had I actually been coherent enough to say the spells but I figured it was better to let someone more experienced fix me up. How did you hear?"

"Two ways. First, I heard Snape and McGonagall punishing Zabini and Pike. They have to clean out the animal cages in McGonagall's room for two months. Second, I heard your friends Jade and Elliot saying if they ever get Zabini and Pike alone, they'd hex the two boys until they couldn't anymore."

"Oh boy. They're not joking either. They will hex them until they're caught or until they run out of curses."

"I'm so sorry. I told them not to mess with you," Draco said softly, looking at the bed sheets.

"Why me?"

"You're sounding like Neville Longbottom," he commented.

"Draco. Don't insult Neville. I happen to like him quite a lot. Now answer my question, why did you tell them not to mess with me?"

"I told them because we're not supposed to hurt Purebloods. They believe in the Pureblood supremacy more than I do, and I believe in it pretty strongly. But I will admit I've become protective of you."

"Protective?" Ziva nearly squeaked. Why would he be protective of her?

"For one you're younger than me, two, you have a habit of getting into troublesome situations, and three, you are too nice for your own good," he explained shyly but firmly.

"Explain the third one. I'm lost."

"You shouldn't be talking to me. I'm a horrible person. You're nice to practically everyone except to people who don't deserve it… well, except me. I don't deserve it."

"Yes you do. Just because you might have done horrible things in your past does not necessarily make you a horrible person. You're hatred towards Muggles, that's been bred into you. You've been taught to believe it. You're loathing towards Harry Potter, you're probably jealous of him because he's so famous without even trying whereas the rest of us have to strive and achieve brilliant things to gain just fifteen minutes of recognition. But you can always change Draco. You changed for me, didn't you?"

His head snapped up to meet her gaze. There was complete doubt in his eyes. Whether it was doubt that she was being sincere in speech or if there was doubt about whether he was a horrible person or not, she wasn't sure, but he never stopped looking at her.

"Yes, I'll admit I'm jealous of him, and I'll deny I ever said that, but now I have something that he does too."

"What's that?"

"More like who."

"Who?"

He merely smiled and said, "I must be going. The boys will get suspicious if I'm gone too long. I'm pretty sure they were awake when I slipped out. I'll come visit you tomorrow night too. Get me word when you're out of the hospital and try not to get injured again, okay?"

"I'll try, but no promises," Ziva replied with a grin. Draco returned it, but he was hesitating about something. She couldn't tell if he wanted to say something or not. However, he said goodbye before putting the Disillusionment charm on himself and disappearing. Ziva heard him padding quietly out of the hospital wing. When she fell asleep, he tended to take up the majority of her dreams.


Jade

Jade was currently lying on the floor in front of the fire while Elliot rambled on about how charming Neville was earlier today.

"Elliot," Jade said, "He ran into a wall, tripped over his robes, and melted the bottom of his cauldron. Honestly, how is that charming?"

"It doesn't matter whether he's graceful or not!" Ellie snapped. "It's what matters on the inside. He means well, it just doesn't always work out for him."

"Let's go cause trouble," Jade decided, anything to switch the subject.

"Let's go see if we can find Zabini and Pike. They're going to pay for what they did to Ziva," Ellie declared.

Jade leapt up. "I say we make it where no one can see us."

Elliot got a mischievous gleam in her eye. She pulled her wand out simultaneously with Jade and they put the Disillusionment charm on themselves. They took each other's hands so they wouldn't get lost. The two girls left the Common room and to the Great Hall where most students had congregated for lunch. Jade and Elliot glided over to the Slytherin table and headed towards Malfoy. If their victims were anywhere, they'd be near the pale-face, blonde guy that hated Muggles.

Sure enough, Zabini and Pike weren't far from Malfoy. They were joking around and smiling but Jade and Elliot were about to put a stop to it.

"You take Pike, I'll take Zabini; give them Jelly-legs and welts," Jade whispered to Elliot. Elliot squeezed her hand in understanding. The girls pointed their wands at their respective targets and cast the spells. The boys immediately realized something was wrong when welts started appearing on their face. They tried to stand up but their legs, which had been practically turned to jelly (hence the name of the jinx), made it impossible. The Slytherins collapsed to the floor, itching at their faces. The girls were thoroughly enjoying the show until Umbridge showed up. Then they tried to ditch the place. However, Umbridge shouted "Homenum Revilio!"

Jade and Elliot's Disillusionment Charm wore off, leaving them completely exposed. Umbridge sent Pike and Zabini to the hospital wing while she commanded Jade and Elliot to follow her. The girls swallowed but obeyed her with their heads held high. They would show no amount of fear.

When they reached her office, she told them to sit down.

"Your punishment will be to write I must not fight on paper," Umbridge said, handing them paper and red feather quills. Jade was about to write when she realized she had no ink. Pointing this out to Umbridge, the professor merely said, "Oh, you won't need any."

"How many times should we write it?" Elliot questioned.

"Until it sinks in."

The girls shrugged and started writing. At first, it started as a slight tickling on the top of her left hand. It progressed to an annoying, persistent itch. Finally, her hand burned. Jade watched in horror as the words 'I must not fight' etched themselves onto her hand. What type of black magic was this? This was cruel punishment, but she wouldn't give in. She shared a look with Elliot saying 'We're not going to give her the satisfaction of letting her know we're in pain."

The two Gryffindors steeled their nerves and kept writing until the paper was filled front and back. They stood up, handing their papers to Umbridge, with Jade saying, "I think it has sunk in enough."

Her voice stayed strangely even. She thought for sure it'd quaver. In reality, she really wanted to cry out in pain but Jade wouldn't let the toad have that satisfaction. Umbridge took the papers, smiled with a phony smile, and dismissed them. Once out of her office and out of the classroom, the two girls dashed to the hospital wing where Ziva sat on her bed, reading her books for the classes she'd missed. She looked up at the sound of her rushing best friends.

"What's got you two in a tizzy?" Ziva inquired, shutting her book but Jade noticed how her friend very carefully marked her place. "By the way, nice hexing on Pike and Zabini. Seeing them flailing around in here brightened up my day."

Elliot and Jade smiled a little. Elliot informed Ziva of what had just happened in Umbridge's office. The more she talked, the more murderous Ziva's expression became. At the end of Ellie's story, Ziva snatched their hands so she could look at the damage.

"She is the most wretched, most disgusting human-being," Ziva grunted, holding her temper in check.

"I don't know. Draco Malfoy is pretty bad," Jade commented drolly.

Ziva said nothing about him, but skillfully changed the subject back to their hands. "You need to go see Madame Pomfrey."

"But if we do, Umbridge will know we're in pain and we don't want her getting the satisfaction!" Ellie argued. Ziva looked ready to make a retort but then she smiled as another voice, a much older one, said, "What happened to your hand?"

"Hello, Professor McGonagall," Ziva greeted.

"Miss Herondale, how are you feeling?"

"Better by the day. I'm hoping to get out of here tomorrow."

"Good. It'll be nice to have you back in class. Jade, Elliot, what has happened to your hands?"

Jade and Elliot bowed their heads sullenly, reluctantly repeating the story of their earlier joke and their recent punishment. McGonagall called Madame Pomfrey over who practically flipped out; she ran to the cabinet to get some Dittany to relieve the pain and to create smaller, fainter scars.

"It's a good thing you girls came quickly. If I hadn't gotten this stuff on your hands when I did, you'd be likely to scar," Madame Pomfrey observed. Ziva gave a slight smirk to her friends but said nothing. Once the nurse had left, Jade muttered, "All right, so I'm glad she healed our hands because I didn't want to scar. Bite me."

"I'm not really a biting kind of person," Seamus's voice joked from behind Jade. She whipped around, her hair flushing to pink.

"God Seamus, way to scare me!"

"Sorry, Jade," he apologized sheepishly. Neville appeared a few moments later, carrying Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans.

"Thought we could share them while we talked," Neville said shyly. Ziva patted her bed, encouraging them all to sit down. The group discussed their classes (Seamus mainly talked about Potions and how he'd caused another explosion) while Neville elaborated on a second year (in Hufflepuff) who hadn't put his earmuffs on properly while handling a young Mandrake and had, like him in his second year, fainted.

At dinner, Madame Pomfrey made the group leave. They felt bad leaving Ziva alone but they had no choice. The girls wanted to go see her after supper as well but realized they had a ton of homework they had to do.

When she went to bed, Jade had nightmares, mainly because Draco was in them. He seemed to have a thing for Ziva in them but Ziva kept snubbing him. If Jade didn't hate him so much, she would've felt bad because his expression every time Ziva glared at him was a mixture of sadness, agony, and hopelessness. It was pitiful.


Please review :) SACarter, I told you that she'd get in trouble, just saying.