Hermione and Draco were both relieved when Hermione's tests revealed there was nothing seriously wrong with her. Her healer did explain that he expected Hermione to suffer from a couple of headaches a month, but he was confident that things wouldn't be too bad with effective pain relief. He also discussed other methods of dealing with the headaches, such as herbal teas and ensuring that stress didn't play a major part in her life.
With the tests over and done with, Hermione had a small lunch before she tidied herself up for her friend's visits. According to Draco things had ran smoothly when he spoke to her friends that morning, but Hermione suspected something had happened between her friends and her fiancé. Draco definitely seemed on edge whenever she mentioned them visiting, she was just hoping that whatever had happened wasn't too serious.
Hermione was still no further forward with what had happened between Draco and her friends when a mediwitch poked her head around the door and informed her she had visitors. Hermione smiled widely as Ginny bounded into the room, followed by Harry and Ron.
"I'm so pleased you're okay," Ginny gushed, rushing over to Hermione and giving her a gentle hug.
"We're all pleased you're okay," Harry added as he embraced his friend.
"Not that anyone else can get in to see you," Ron muttered, shooting an accusing look at Draco who was sitting beside Hermione's bed.
"We can arrange visits with everyone over the next few days," Hermione said as she hugged Ron.
The healer had mentioned the possibility that she could be discharged soon, but until she knew for sure she wasn't going to mention the possibility. No doubt it would only lead to questions about where she was staying and it could possibly result in arguments breaking out and she didn't want her friends visits to be over before they'd even began.
"Speaking of visits, we were under the impression this would be a private visit," Ron huffed, glaring at the blond wizard who showed no signs of getting up and leaving the room.
"It's hardly public, Weasley," Draco retorted.
"It would be better if we were alone with our friend," Harry said pointedly. He wasn't sure how they were going to really get to the bottom of what was happening with Malfoy hanging around.
"Draco's staying," Hermione insisted as she reached out and grabbed her fiancé's hand. "You're going to have to get used to the fact he's a major part of my life."
"And I'm not going anywhere," Draco said, smiling at Hermione.
"Great, an afternoon with the ferret," Ron grumbled as he took a seat next to Hermione's bed alongside Harry and Ginny.
"If you don't like it, you know where the door is," Draco told the redhead.
"You wish," Ron snorted. "We're not going anywhere. Hermione's our friend and you can't stop us from seeing her now."
"Will you both stop it," Hermione scolded. "I don't want any fighting."
"Come on Hermione, you can't expect us to take the news you're with Malfoy without asking any questions," Harry protested.
"Questions weren't being asked, insults were being hurled," Hermione retorted. "I'm aware you're going to have lots of questions, but I won't stand for you insulting the man I love."
"But yet you're happy for him to insult us," Ron snapped.
"No-one is going to be insulting anyone," Hermione stated firmly. "Although if this bickering is going to keep up, I'll be sending you all away for causing me to get a headache."
Ginny shot both Harry and Ron a warning look, before turning her full attention to Hermione. "How are you feeling, Hermione? Malfoy said you were undergoing tests, is everything okay?"
"There's no serious damage," Hermione said as she explained about the headaches she would likely suffer from now on.
"That sucks," Harry said. "Can they not do something to make sure they don't happen?"
"There's not actually anything they can do," Hermione told her friends. "Headaches after a blow to the head are pretty common. Because it was such a severe blow I'll just be more receptive to them in the future. Luckily the healers can ensure that they never get too bad."
"I suppose it could be a lot worse. You have to look on the bright side," Ginny remarked.
"You do," Hermione agreed. She smiled at Ginny, pleased someone wasn't moping around. "A few headaches are a small price to pay for not sustaining any serious injuries."
"I guess you were lucky," Harry said thoughtfully. "You could have done yourself serious damage falling down the stairs. Especially since the stairs at The Burrow curve around and aren't straight."
"That's why I broke a few bones and had so much bruising," Hermione explained. "The healer was fully explaining everything this morning and he reckons the angle of the stairs contributed to the extent of my injuries."
"That'll be right, blame our stairs on making things worse," Ron grumbled.
"I wasn't meaning that Ron," Hermione said, sighing at her friend's defensive behaviour. "I was just pointing out that the design of the stairs makes falling down them more dangerous. I wasn't casting aspersions on your home."
"That's not how it sounded," Ron muttered.
"Don't be so stupid, Ron." Ginny shook her head at her brother. "You know Hermione wasn't meaning anything personal. It's very obvious to me that falling down our stairs would present different problems than falling down a straight set of stairs. The same as falling down stone stairs would be different from falling down wooden stairs."
"Exactly," Hermione agreed. "Now can we forget about stairs? I'm okay, and I don't want to discuss my accident."
"Accident? Does that mean you don't think we pushed you?" Ron asked, glaring at Draco before turning to Hermione.
"Of course I don't think any of you pushed me," Hermione said. "I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of things and there'll be a reasonable explanation."
"Maybe you should tell your fiancé that," Ron spat. "He's practically accusing our family of putting you in hospital."
"I wasn't accusing anyone," Draco said. "I was just being cautious. Even you have to admit something dodgy is going on regarding Hermione's missing ring."
"It is strange that's its missing, but that doesn't mean we had anything to do with it," Harry answered.
"Someone took it, and I intend to find out who," Draco replied. "I won't rest until we know the truth."
Before either Harry or Ron had the chance to reply there was a knocking on the door and a healer poked his head around the door. While Harry, Ron and Ginny thought the healer was Hermione's healer and had come to check on her both Draco and Hermione knew the healer was the one who'd been treating Snape.
"Sorry to disturb you, I was looking for Lucius," The healer said.
"He's at home," Draco told the healer. "Is there anything I can help with?"
"I've just had word from the Ministry and they've managed to analyse the venom from the snake that bit Mr Snape. They think they've stumbled upon an antidote, but it requires several ingredients from across the globe and some of those ingredients are expensive and hard to come by," The healer explained.
"Money isn't an issue," Draco said firmly. "Nor are resources. Do whatever you have to do get the ingredients for the antidote, we'll foot the bill."
"Are you sure you don't want to check with your father first?" The healer asked. "It will be very expensive and the antidote isn't guaranteed to work. We're only about eighty percent sure it's the right one."
"I don't care if there's only a tiny chance of saving him with the antidote, we're doing it. I want you to do everything in your power to save Severus. And as for money, I know father wants him better as much as I do so he'll happily pay anything that needs to be paid. However, if he won't foot the bill, I will. I guarantee whatever the cost, we'll pay it."
"I'll get right onto it," The healer said. "Hopefully we'll have some news within a few days."
"Thank you," Draco said to the healer before he exited the room.
"I didn't know Professor Snape was still alive," Ginny said once the healer had left the room. "I thought Madam Pomfrey said he was only just clinging onto life when she examined him. I got the impression he wouldn't last very long."
"The healers managed to stabilize him, but time's running out," Draco said quietly. "The longer he's in a coma the harder it will be to wake him. Hopefully this is the breakthrough we need and the antidote will save his life."
"He'll be okay, Draco," Hermione said reassuringly as she squeezed her fiancé's hand.
"I hope so," Draco sighed.
Harry and Ron watched the tender moment between their friend and the wizard they'd loathed since first year in silence. It was clear to them both that Malfoy was deeply affected by Snape's condition, and even though they didn't like the blond wizard they saw no reason to say anything and come across sounding spiteful and petty.
"How about you tell us how you got together," Ginny suggested as the silence started to drag on.
"And why you didn't tell us," Ron added.
"We got together in school, back in fourth year," Hermione explained, mentioning the project they had worked together on and the friendship that had formed as they completed the work. "And as for telling people, it just wasn't a good idea."
"By the time we got together and were secure enough to contemplate telling anyone, The Dark Lord was back," Draco said. "With him around it was too dangerous to let people know about us."
"What was so dangerous about telling us?" Harry asked Hermione. "It's not as if we would have gone running to Voldemort and told him all about it."
"I know you would never do anything like that, but telling anyone was a risk. If anyone knew word could have spread and before you know it the wrong people would have known," Hermione answered.
"If The Dark Lord had known about Hermione, she would have been in danger," Draco told the Gryffindor duo who still looked unimpressed that their friend had kept quiet about who she was dating. "He wouldn't have thought twice about using her against me, just like he did with my mother."
"I guess that makes sense," Harry admitted begrudgingly. He knew exactly how Voldemort had used Narcissa to control Draco and he shuddered to think that Hermione might have been targeted in the same way.
"But why did you never tell us after the final battle?" Ginny asked. "I would have thought that the pair of you would have been thrilled to be reunited."
"We were, but with everything that had happened we didn't want to appear selfish by celebrating our reunion," Hermione said. "We applied for our marriage licence and decided to wait until things settled down to tell people. Last week we got our licence through and since Fred's picking up and things are more settled we decided it was time to tell people about us."
"Only you had your accident before you could tell anyone," Ginny said.
Hermione nodded. "I wish it could have been different, I never wanted you to find out about Draco and I accidentally. I always planned on sitting you all down and explaining everything in a civil way."
"That probably would have been easier to digest," Harry admitted. "This whole thing has been rather shocking. Not only were we worried about you after your accident, but then you were mysteriously moved and we couldn't see you."
"Then Malfoy comes along and claims to be your fiancé," Ron added grumpily. "You can't blame us for being wary."
"I guess things haven't exactly been ideal," Hermione sighed, wishing things had gone as she'd planned. Her friends still might have taken the news badly, but at least she would have been able to tell them about Draco herself.
"Not that's he's helped matters," Ron spat, glaring at Draco for what seemed like the twentieth time that afternoon. "He shouldn't have kept us from seeing you, they're hardly the actions of someone trustworthy."
"I'm not going to apologise for moving Hermione and limiting her visitors," Draco said. "Something happened to her at The Burrow, and I wasn't taking any chances about who could have been involved. For all I know someone could have reacted badly to the news we were a couple and lashed out."
"None of the family know what happened to Hermione," Ron seethed. "Don't you dare go accusing us. More likely it was your family trying to pin the blame on us."
"Enough," Hermione called as she rubbed at her head that was starting to ache. "I don't want all this fighting, I want us all to get along."
"That's not possible as long as he's accusing my family of hurting you," Ron declared as he stood up. "I'm sorry Hermione, but I won't be visiting where he is again."
Giving Draco one final death glare, Ron turned around and stalked out of the room. Hermione watched him leave sadly and looking at the hurt expression on her face, Draco felt guilty. He hadn't meant to wind Ron up, but the redhead just grated on him and to be fair it had been Ron who had started things.
"Don't worry about Ron, he'll come round," Harry told a visibly upset Hermione.
"We'll talk to him and make him see sense," Ginny reassured her friend.
"What if he doesn't?" Hermione asked. "What if I've lost him?"
"Then he wasn't a very good friend in the first place," Draco muttered, unable to help himself from speaking.
"Malfoy's right," Harry said, grimacing at having to agree with the blond Slytherin. "If Ron values your friendship he'll come round. I have to admit, I'm not particularly sure about your choice of boyfriend, but I won't abandon you. You're my friend Hermione, and that won't change. Even if your taste in men leaves a lot to be desired."
"Thanks Harry." Hermione smiled at her friend as he stood up and gave her another hug as he prepared to leave.
"I don't think your taste in men is that bad," Ginny whispered to Hermione as she also gave her a hug. "Malfoy's pretty hot."
Hermione chuckled as Ginny stepped back and offered her a grin. Saying goodbye, and promising to be back to visit again soon, Harry and Ginny left in search of Ron. Once her friends had gone, Hermione turned to Draco who was sitting sheepishly at her bedside.
"I'm sorry," He announced before she had a chance to speak. "I didn't mean to cause trouble, but I wasn't going to apologise for moving you. We still don't have a clue what happened to you."
"I know it was Ron who started it," Hermione admitted. "And I don't expect you to apologise for moving me. It may have been slightly heavy handed, but I know you were just trying to do what was right for me."
"If it helps, I'll make more of an effort with Weasley next time I see him," Draco offered.
"If we see him again," Hermione sighed. She still wasn't sure if Ron would ever come round to the idea she was involved with Draco.
"If he doesn't come round, it's his loss," Draco told his fiancée. "But I'm sure he will. My guess is he cares about you more than he hates me."
As she settled down to have a nap, Hermione hoped that Draco was right and in the end things worked out with Ron. She was also hoping that Harry and Ginny could make him see sense and her friendship with Ron could be salvageable.