Much to Hermione's dismay, the severity of her injuries required her to stay as a patient in St. Mungo's for three more days per Erin's orders. She would be allowed to do her rounds and that was it. No one, however, informed Draco of this so the following day he showed up at Hermione's lab, ready to work, only to find there was no one there. He waited for twenty minutes before walking out of the lab and taking the lift to the main floor. There he was informed that Hermione was still checked in as a patient but was seeing visitors if he wanted to go up. The MediWitch gave him Hermione's room number before bustling away to greet other patients. The last thing Draco wanted was to see her but he also wanted to yell at her for not bothering to inform him that she wouldn't be working. With that thought in mind, he strode through the hallways until he reached her door. He knocked before letting himself in.
Hermione heard the knock at her door and quickly hid the book and parchment she'd had out under her pillow. She was shocked when she saw it was Malfoy who came through the door.
"Skipping work for a little headache, Granger?" he said, skipping pleasantries. "How very lazy of you."
"Oh hush, Malfoy," she replied. "You know as well as anyone that if I wasn't under strict healer orders to remain in this room I'd be down in the lab working."
"So what am I supposed to do?" he wanted to know. "I can't very well go about working with you if you're here and not there."
"Actually," Hermione said biting her lip. "There was something I wanted to ask you."
"Whatever it is, the answer is most likely no," he replied.
Hermione pulled the book and parchment out from under her pillow and held them out to Draco. He scowled at them but moved forward and took them from her. "What's this rubbish?"
"I need you to brew this potion," she told him. "You have to follow my instructions very precisely otherwise it may not work."
"Finally, the reason I was supposed to be a part of this bloody project," Draco said looking at the parchment. "What is this? I've never seen these ingredients combined together before."
"I created it," Hermione said proudly. "It needs to be mixed right away though and since I'm here I obviously can't do it."
"When did you decide you trusted me, Granger?" Malfoy looked at her suspiciously. "You wouldn't let me within a hundred meters of your precious work and now you're asking me to be a part of it."
"You saved my life," Hermione said matter of factly. "This is how I'm repaying you."
"I did it to save my arse, not to be nice or anything like that" Draco told her. "If you'd died they would have pinned it on me for sure."
"Either way," Hermione said waving her hands in dismissal. "You did and I'm grateful and confined to this room, so you'll have to work with me."
"Fine," Malfoy said. "I assume you want this done now?"
"Yes," Hermione replied excited. "Bring it straight here as soon as you're done."
"Yes, Granger," he said in a mocking tone. "Anything else while I'm busy doing your work for you?"
"You could brew them all, actually," Hermione said thoughtfully. "You're supposed to be a brilliant potions master, let's see if you actually are."
"All of what?" Draco asked looking at her as if she'd grown a second head.
"All of the potions in the book," she replied. "There's only six others, they're right at the front, the rest are just ideas for others."
Malfoy stared at her in disbelief. "You want me to spend today brewing seven different potions?"
"Yes!" Hermione said. "Then I no longer owe you, we are working together as your rehabilitation requires, and if you screw up, well, let's just hope that doesn't happen."
Unsure of how to respond or react Draco simply stared at her for another minute, then at the parchment and the book, then back at her. Then, without a word, walked out of the room.
Hermione let out a sigh of relief as soon as he left. She was hoping that if she surprised him, he wouldn't argue and it had worked. He didn't even ask what the potions were for, which was a question she wasn't prepared to answer. But now, her patients would have what they needed, Malfoy would have what he needed, and she would too.
As Hermione congratulated herself, a very confused Draco made his way down to Hermione's lab. Why the hell had she all of a sudden decided he would be allowed to brew not just one but seven potions, one of which Hermione herself had never brewed. She did hit her head, he rationed. Perhaps it had knocked more than a few screws loose. She was probably temporarily insane, he decided. And he'd be a fool not to take advantage of it. It felt like it had been years since he'd brewed a potion and he was itching to do it. He got down to Hermione's lab area and, once inside, realized he had absolutely no idea where she brewed potions. He wandered through the lab and found what looked a great deal like Snape's potions classroom at Hogwarts. "This isn't creepy at all," he muttered to himself. He walked to the back of the room where there was an open doorway. He walked through and his jaw dropped at the sight. The room was massive and had shelves from floor to ceiling. But it wasn't the room that shocked him but how empty the shelves were. He walked through looking at the labels seeing that even the most basic ingredients were severely depleted. Draco looked for the ingredients that he needed and found just enough to make the potion Hermione had created. Shaking his head he walked back into the potions room and made a mental note to yell at Hermione for not keeping her potions room properly stocked. He grabbed the equipment that he needed and set to work brewing the potion. It wasn't complicated, as far as he could tell, but it required a very specific order of ingredients. Slowly he began the process of brewing the potion. Once he reached a point where it had to boil, he began the other potions in the book, surprised that he'd never heard of any of them either. He moved back and forth between all of the potions smoothly like a dancer. He muttered to himself every once in a while but he was so wrapped up in what he was doing he completely lost track of time. Six hours later Draco was exhausted but all of the potions were done exactly to Hermione's directions. He put them all in vials and, as soon as he was done, Linda appeared in the doorway.
"Hermione asked me to take the potions to Luna," she said. "All but the, uh, special one?"
"What are these for?" Draco asked her.
"I don't know," Linda replied.
"You don't know?" Draco answered, agitated. "How do you not know?"
"Hermione is the only one who brews them," she said with a shrug. "Then she leaves with them."
Draco paused at that. She let him do something no one else did? His day was getting stranger and stranger. He took the vial that contained Hermione's new potion and left the rest for Linda to deal with.
"Clean this up," he told her and walked out of the room.
He liked interns, he decided. They were useful. He walked out of Hermione's lab area and made his way back to her room. He knocked and walked in to her room to find her fast asleep. She had a book open next to her and she'd curled herself around it. It was the first time he'd seen her completely relaxed he realized. It was also the first time he'd really had the opportunity to look at her. She was beautiful, shocking himself with the realization. Obviously he'd inhaled too many potions fumes. Either that or he was slowly losing his mind. He wasn't sure which he preferred. Unsure of what to do he cleared his throat and her eyes fluttered open. For a moment she just stared at him and he couldn't help but stare back. She'd been dreaming about him, she couldn't remember what, but seeing the real him meshed with the dream version and she couldn't help but stare. She looked away first, blushing a little and sitting up in the bed.
"I guess I fell asleep reading my book," she said sheepishly. "Did you need something?"
Draco didn't answer for a minute as he continued to stare at her. "Malfoy?"
He snapped out of it. "I brewed that potion you created," he said, taking it out of the pocket of his robe. "Here it is."
"Oh, thank you!" Hermione jumped out of her bed and raced to him. She took the vial from his hand and their fingers brushed. Draco felt a shiver run down his spine. He looked to see if Hermione felt something similar but she was excitedly chattering about the potion.
"It looks perfect!" she exclaimed. "I hope it works!"
She walked over to her bed and taking her wand from the stand next to the bed muttered a quick spell and the vial disappeared.
"Where did you just send that?" Draco wanted to know.
"To Luna," she said. "Did you brew the other potions as well?"
"Yes, your intern, Lucinda, took them," he replied.
"Linda," Hermione said with a laugh. "Her name is Linda."
"It hardly matters," he answered. "I left her to clean everything up as well."
"Malfoy!" Hermione scolded. "They're there to learn, not to clean up after you."
"Well she did," was his answer and they lapsed into awkward silence. It was the first time they'd had anything close to a normal conversation they both realized, and Draco immediately sought to rectify that.
"So who did you steal those potions in the book from?" Draco asked, meaning to sound nasty but it instead came out almost curious.
"I created them as well," Hermione told him. "Anything brewed in that lab is my creation."
Her mention of the lab reminded him about the poorly stocked ingredients room. "Well it must be difficult to do that without ingredients," he replied. "Bloody hell Granger you're out of everything."
"I use the majority of the funds I'm given from St. Mungo's and the Ministry for...other expenses," she answered vaguely. "There isn't a lot left for potions materials."
"What did you do with the 20,000 galleons Blaise gave you for last month?" He asked incredulously. "And I'm sure he's given you this months by now. Where is my bloody money going?"
Hermione turned her back to him and mumbled her answer.
"Oh come on, Granger," he said. "Face me and tell me."
"I said it's sitting in a vault in Gringotts," she replied, turning to face him again.
"What the bloody hell is it doing there?" He asked exasperated. "My pure blood money is too good for you?"
"I felt guilty accepting your money, Malfoy," she snapped. "You didn't even want me to have it so I was going to return it to you once the six months was over."
"How do I access the money?" he asked angrily. "How would I get it?"
"You want it now?" She replied surprised. "Very well, let's go to Gringotts in the morning and I'll release it to you."
"What's wrong with now?"
"Malfoy it's almost 8pm, surely you can wait until tomorrow to get your money," she answered surprised by his behavior.
"Fine," he said. "I'll be here at 9am and we'll go immediately."
"Fine, Malfoy," she said wearily. "Will you go now? I'm quite tired."
"9am, Granger, be ready." And he walked out of the room. She hadn't used the money, he thought. And they say she's the smartest witch of their year.
He was in quite a rush to get his money back, Hermione thought bitterly. Maybe he hadn't changed at all. With a sigh she grabbed her wand and the bag Ginny had brought her earlier in the day. She checked herself out of St. Mungo's and went home. She crawled in to bed and, across London, Malfoy did the same. Each fell asleep thinking of the other.