Draco jumped off of Harry and stared down at him in bewilderment. He had heard him mumble something but he was not sure what terrible jinx Harry had seemingly been trying to hit him with. He was glad the other boy had missed as he watched Harry curl into the fetal position, clutching between his legs. Hermione pulled out her wand and hurried over to Harry.
"Finite incantatum," she said, pointing her wand at the writhing boy. Harry stopped writhing and instead just lay still on the floor. "What did you do to him?" Hermione hissed, turning to face Draco. He backed away quickly, holding his hands up in surrender.
"Nothing," he protested, still backing away.
"I'll get Pomfrey," Ron said. He turned and sprinted up the marble staircase. Hermione crouched down next to Harry and put a hand on his shoulder. Harry was breathing hard, but whatever it was that had hurt him appeared to have stopped.
"Are you okay?" she asked gently. Harry shook his head.
"Ow," he said. Hermione snapped her head around and glared at Draco who had backed himself all the way up to the wall.
"Don't you even think about going anywhere," she said.
"I wasn't."
"Because you have to tell Pomfrey exactly what you did to Harry."
"But I didn't do anything. Harry did. He was trying to curse me." And in all honesty, Draco was a little hurt by this. He had thought they had been getting along quite well if the kissing had been any indication. But then, of course, Draco had to go and stick his foot in his mouth and insult Harry's mother. So, perhaps in a perverse way, Draco had done this to Harry. He sank down the wall to the floor and pulled his knees up to his chest.
"S'true," Harry muttered through gritted teeth. "He didn't do anything. 'Mione, can you get everyone to go away?"
"Of course, Harry." Hermione stood up and began to disperse the small crowd that had gathered around them. Draco made to stand up, but Hermione glared at him and he stayed sitting. "I don't care that you didn't curse him," she said. "You did still hit him."
"I know,' he said miserably once the Entrance Hall was empty again. "I'm sorry." Hermione stared at him. "What? I'm sorry that I hit him. And scratched him. And kicked him." He paused and then realized how that did not in fact make it sound any better. "It was his idea," he added quickly. Harry groaned from the floor. "Alright, it was my idea, but Harry agreed with me." Harry groaned again. "Oh, shush Harry. It's true. We both agreed that we had to have a very public fight." He scooted across the floor until he was sitting next to the other boy. He put a hand gently on his arm. "What did you do? What horrible pain were you trying to inflict on me?"
"I wasn't," Harry said. "I was just trying to-" But his explanation was interrupted by the arrival of Madame Pomfrey and a small brigade of house elves, who picked Harry up and ran him up the stairs.
"Come along," Pomfrey said, gesturing to Draco and Hermione. They looked at each other for a moment and then they both followed Pomfrey and the house elves to the hospital wing like some strange, sad parade.
…
"Right," Madame Pomfrey said once Harry had been deposited onto a bed. "Potter, what is it this time? What scrap have the pair of you gotten into now?" She peered down her nose at Draco. "What did you do to him, Mr. Malfoy?" Ron, who had walked over from where he had been pacing when they brought Harry in, crossed his arms and glared at Draco in what he hoped was a menacing manner.
"I… nothing," Draco stammered. "I mean, I hit him, but I didn't do any magic." He pulled out his wand and proffered it to the nurse. "Here, you can check."
"That won't be necessary. Harry is conscious, so it appears that he can tell us what happened." She turned to Harry who had resumed the fetal position, his hands clutched back around his still stinging crotch area.
"Well, Potter? What's wrong with you?" They all watched as Harry's face turned beet red in embarrassment. He muttered something so quietly that none of them could hear. Madame Pomfrey bent down next to him so that he could repeat what he had said in her ear. Draco watched as her face cycled through several expressions: concern, confusion, what seemed to be amusement and then back to concern. She straightened up, all business, and shooed Ron, Hermione and Draco away. As they backed away, she pulled out her wand and levitated a privacy curtain over to Harry's bed and then he was blocked from their view.
Draco sat down heavily on the closest bed and crossed his arms in front of him. Hermione looked down at him in both concern and interest.
"You're actually worried about him," she said. "Aren't you?" He hesitated for a moment before nodding. He slumped and then collapsed backwards on the bed, flopping his arms out wide to the side.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said.
"I wasn't asking you to." She sighed deeply and then perched on the end of the bed that he was sprawled on.
"If you're so concerned," Ron said, leaning over Draco and poking him forcefully on the chest. "Why did you curse him in the first place?"
"I didn't," Draco said. He was getting tired of having to protest his innocence over this matter. He sat up and folded his arms again.
"Well, then why did you hit him?" Hermione asked. "And why did you insult his mother?"
"Yeah," Ron agreed. "Why were you being such a arse? I mean, aside from the fact that you usually are an arse."
Draco narrowed his eyes as he fought to keep his composure. It would not do to react negatively right after being told he'd been an arse, because on reflection, it was probably true. And really, it had been true for years. And if Potter hadn't gotten drunk and been dared to ask him out, Draco probably would have had some sort of similarly pointless fight with Harry anyway. He took a deep breath. He was going to have to tell them the truth and it was going to be awkward.
"Harry-and-I-are-kind-of-seeing-each-other," he said quickly and then looked down at his hands, not daring to look either of them in the eye.
"I'm sorry, what?" Hermione asked. Draco steeled himself and looked up at her.
"We're secretly kind of dating," he said more slowly. This had clearly not been what either of them had been expecting as both of their mouths dropped open in unison. "Surprise," he added, bringing his hands up and waving his fingers in what he had heard described as "jazz hands".
"So then why did you hit him?" Ron asked.
"To keep up appearances. As I said, we're secretly dating. Kind of. I'm not really sure if you could call it dating, really. It's only been a few days. But we can't have the rest of the school finding out. Let alone the rest of the world. I mean, just imagine what the papers would say if they knew."
"So you figured if you had a loud, public fight then we would all still think you hated each other?" Hermione asked. Draco nodded.
"Well, it worked," Ron said. Draco allowed himself a small smile.
"Until you apologized," Hermione pointed out. "But that was after everyone had left."
"Yes, well, he wasn't supposed to get hurt like this." Draco's forehead knotted in concern as he looked towards the privacy curtain. "How are you two so calm? He could be dying."
"He's not dying," Madame Pomfrey announced as she came back around the privacy curtain. "But he is in some discomfort. You may see him now." She bustled off and the three of them fought to see who could get to Harry first, jostling each other out of the way as they made their way behind the curtain.
Harry was pale and had the blankets pulled all the way up to his chin, but he was awake and alert again, and no longer in the fetal position.
"Oh, Harry," Draco and Hermione cried at the same time, both of them rushing to his side and attempting to hold his hands. Ron watched them with a bemused smile on his face. He could tell that he was going to have trouble getting used to this other side of Malfoy that the blond seemingly had. Who knew he could be civil? Or that he even had a tone of voice that was warmer than his usual icy timbre?
"I'm fine, guys," Harry said.
"What happened?" Draco asked. "What horrible curse did you try to hit me with?" He straightened up, crossed his arms in from to his chest and frowned down at Harry. To his surprise he watched Harry's face turn red in embarrassment again and he squirmed uncomfortably under the covers.
"It wasn't a curse. It was," and then he mumbled the rest of his sentence into the duvet.
"Harry," Hermione said, immediately adopting the demeanor of a mothering hen. "You can tell us. It's ok. We're your friends."
"Yeah, Draco already mentioned you two were, ah, involved," Ron added, perhaps a little coldly.
At this statement, Harry pulled the covers up over his head and hid from them. Draco looked back and forth between Ron and Hermione. Neither of them seemed to have a clue what was going on either, which made him feel a bit better. But he was also getting impatient. He reached over and yanked the blanket down from Harry's head.
"Oh come on, Potter," he snapped. "What happened?"
Harry looked up at the three of them and shook his head.
"I can't," he squeaked. "It's too embarrassing."
"Was it an engorging charm?" Draco hazarded. It was the first thing he could think of that might be embarrassing and/or painful in the lap area. Ron sputtered with laughter.
"No!" Harry cried. "It was nothing like that!"
"Well, what then?" Draco asked. Harry sighed, deflating as he resigned himself to the humiliation.
"It was a cleaning charm. I got a little, ah, excited in all the rolling around on the floor."
"Oh my," Draco said. He was both amused and horrified at this - horrified only at the cleaning spell, of course. Ron stopped laughing and looked pained.
"What did you use?" he asked. "Tergeo?" He leaned down close to Harry and continued speaking softly in the hopes that Hermione would not hear (though she did). "Because between you and me, mate, that's what I use and this has never happened to me." Harry shook his head, looking miserable.
"I used the first one that came to mind. Scourgify," he said.
"Oh, shit. Ouch," Ron said. "Harry, I'm sorry. I feel like I've let you down as a best friend, not teaching you the right 'male clean up after yourself' spells." Harry shook his head.
"No, Ron. You explained the spells to me. I just panicked and used the wrong one." He slapped a hand to his forehead. "Merlin, I feel so stupid." Hermione patted him gently on the arm.
"It's ok, Harry," she said. "Accidents happen. And it's not like this is the first time Malfoy has sent you to the hospital wing." At this, Harry looked over at Draco whose mouth had dropped open in hurt surprise. "What?" Hermione asked, glancing at him. "You both know it's true. I'm just glad that this time you weren't hurt out of malice. I mean, aside from the large bruise you've got developing there." She touched him gently on the side of his face and he flinched.
"You should see the other guy," Harry joked. Draco's hands flew to his face in immediate concern and he glanced around wildly, looking for a mirror. Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
"Malfoy, your face is fine. It's nothing that Madame Pomfrey can't fix when she comes back." She glanced over at the clock on the far wall of the hospital room and flinched in surprise. "Ooh, Harry. I have to run. I've got Arthimancy in fifteen minutes and I need to get to class. Feel better." She squeezed his hand and then began to hurry out of the hospital wing.
Ron made up the first excuse that came to his mind so as not to get stuck with the pair of them alone.
"I need to go see a man about a dog," he said and scampered after Hermione.
