Draco sent the door flying open as soon as he unlocked it and stumbled inside. He merely stood still and silent for a moment, paralyzed.

What had he done?!

He staggered the rest of the way to the back of the cell to where he saw Jade, however, this time she was not in her usual position sitting up against the back wall waiting for him. Instead, he found her laying quite still on the floor with her back to him, but this didn't look like sleep to him. He carefully set himself down as well; his hands shook slightly and he cautiously began to nudge her and pull her over onto her back at the same time.

"Jade…?"

His body filled with rage that boiled in his chest. For a moment he thought that she may be dead, until he saw the weakly erratic rise and fall of her chest. He knew next to nothing about medicine, but he could see that as she tried to breathe, something prevented her from taking a full breath.

Snape had shown zero mercy; the girl was covered in external wounds, but god only knew what kinds of internal damage he'd caused. The only mild comfort in it for Draco was that it meant she had fought him with every ounce of power she possessed. Nervous now, he gently propped up her upper body into his lap and prodded softly around her neck for a pulse, feeling only slightly relieved when he found one. Draco had never realized how cold her skin was. It was freezing in the dungeons, though his school robes blocked out most of the chill. He could only guess what it felt like to be exposed to it twenty-four hours a day in nothing but jeans and a sleeveless shirt.

"Jade?"

This time he got a limp groan and felt a twitch of movement and let out a sigh of relief. She'd responded. And then he realized something strange—this was the first time he had ever really been worried about anything, let alone another person.

It took a few moments but there Draco sat, trying to bring her to until her eyes dizzily opened and still another until she was able to realize that he was even there. He heard her mumble something under her breath.

"What…?" He asked quietly. She eyes shut again in slight frustration, but she spoke again.

"Are they okay?"

He winced. She sounded miserable, but at least she was able to recall what was supposed to happen. He smirked a little.

"They're fine—they've been gone for a little over an hour, they're clear."

The corners of her mouth spread into a slow, but very pleased smile.

"Thank you." She was quiet after that, shutting her eyes again. Draco's face fell slightly and his gray eyes flicked down at her.

"Jade…? Are you okay…?" 'Stupid question, Malfoy.'

"I'll be fine soon. Just tired."

Draco did not buy it; she was only saying it to put his nerves at ease. Needless to say, it did not work and he affirmed it when she pushed herself from his legs to lean against the wall and did a miserable job at hiding a grimace of pain.

"This is bad, Jade…"

To this, half of her mouth twitched into a smirk and she gave a single shake of her head.

"Don't be stupid. It's no worse than it's ever been. You should go. It's late."

"I don't know. I really shouldn't just… leave you like this..."

"You can't stay down here. I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here if you come back," She shifted very slightly and let her head fall back against the stone wall behind her gently. Her brown eyes began to close but, opened briefly again and focused in on Draco's, "Thank you so much, Draco." And with that, whether she passed out or fell asleep Draco could not tell, but neither did he necessarily like. He carefully moved the rest of her body that he had leaned on his legs back onto the floor and sat there, placing his head in his palms.

It had started out as a good, selfless plan. He knew that it would involve some things that he didn't think were right, but he didn't think that things would go quite this far. Why did he let this happen to her? He knew well what Snape was capable of, how short his temper was, and who was at the receiving end of his temper, and he had agreed despite all of this. Draco was worried. Whether he realized it or not before did not matter—He and Jade had become friends.

He lifted his head slightly and looked down at her and felt indescribable fury flood his chest, making his hands burn and his head spin: the bruises on the front of Jade's neck from Snape's thumbs overlapped into a perfect V. She had been branded twice, now.

With an angry sigh, Draco rose from the floor and reluctantly left the cell, leaving Jade behind.

-

That night was quite possibly the worst night he had ever been through. He could not even think of falling asleep; it took more energy than he had to climb up the stairs to even get into bed.

When would all of this stop? He wanted to help, but what could he do? At the moment, he couldn't even think straight and he barely had a grasp on where he was—any idea that popped into his head was bound to be absolutely absurd, and doing something sketchy and reckless would do nothing but get him, and more so Jade, into an even bigger hole than the one they were in now. It was a nightmare, and he wasn't even lucky enough to be asleep.

-

After the first twenty minutes of his first class the next day, Draco's professor sent him to the hospital wing, saying that the boy was indescribably ill. This, to Draco, was a crock. Physically sick, no, but currently in his mind… well, he didn't know what he was, though "indescribably ill" was probably close to whatever it was.

Madame Pomfrey immediately gave him some sort of foul-tasting elixir, which caused him to fall into a dreamless state of slumber, something that had grown foreign to him as of late. When he awoke he found that several hours had passed, and for the first time in a long time he felt rested. The sleet outside continued to fall from the dreary December sky, which made him wonder about how far Marc and Charity were by now. They should be in town by now, or at the very least getting close—Which then made him think about how much of an uproar Snape and Talcizar were in at that very moment, having to have been aware of their absence for a few hours now.

He smirked. They deserved every bit of drama that they were experiencing and undoubtedly more. Sitting up in the bed, Draco wiped his hands down his face and stood, groggily looking around for wherever the nurse had put his belongings.

"Where do you think you're going, Mr. Malfoy?" Madame Pomfrey asked from the other side of the room where her short figure stood, busily folding piles of white sheets. He looked over at her inquisitively.

"I'm leaving."

"Of course you're not! I'm afraid you'll be spending the night here, dear. Back in bed with you," She said, hastily ushering him back to the bed that he had just left. Draco was dumbstruck—spending the night in the hospital wing? And tonight of all nights? He had no clue what state Jade would be in by now, and his insomnia-induced paranoia was beginning to spout out worst case scenarios. His head gave a sudden unfortunate pound as he slumped back down in the bed. He had to do something, but what? And how?

He looked out the window once more and growled in sheer anger and frustration. Winter holiday was coming in a little under a week—the time in which everyone went home to their families; the time in which his family was expecting to see him home, at the Malfoy manor—the last place and people he wanted to see.

-

The night passed painstakingly slow, and it was now nearly midnight. Madame Pomfrey had been around about half an hour before to check on him, and he had pretended to be asleep. Seeing that he was fine, she left for bed and Draco was finally alone.

'It's about damned time…' He thought to himself as he wrenched the covers away from his body and got out of bed once more. As a second thought, he pulled a blanket off of the bed as well and haphazardly tucked it under his arm. As quietly as possible, he left the hospital wing and made the familiar trek across the school.

Once more Draco found himself plodding down the cold stone staircase, the echo of each of his own footsteps reminding him of the hell he was in. Dazedly shuffling the rest of the way across the large dungeon, he shifted the blanket under his arm to lift his wand and unlocked the door to Jade's cell.

Upon entering, the dim torches ignited and Draco's mood did not improve much. Jade was asleep in almost the same position he had left her in and from what he could see in the dimness of the light, the time had only allowed the bruises and whip-like welts and gashes on her body to become more pronounced. From the way she was slumped and breathing, Draco confirmed his suspicion that she had chest injuries—more than likely a broken rib.

He furrowed his eyebrows together in frustration; he'd remembered when one of his ribs snapped in a Quidditch fall the previous year. The pain had made every movement unbearable, and he'd only had to deal with it for a few hours before that horrid potion fixed it. He felt helpless; he was useless when it came to medical spells and charms and he'd probably kill her in the process of trying to help. Sighing, he took his usual position on the floor with his back to the wall and his legs crossed, but this time something in him made him do something different. Carefully turning to his side, he slipped one of his arms under Jade's knees and the other across the back of her shoulders and lifted her a little, bringing her closer and propped her up in his lap, draping the blanket over her. He smirked sadly as her head drooped forward and rolled against his shoulder; like a ragdoll's. She must have felt some part of this, and her eyes slid open into a mild squint and he felt her body tense hard, startled, and then relax slowly when she picked up her head.

"Draco…?"

"Yeah, it's me." He said with a weak smile. She still sounded terrible, if not worse than yesterday and his guilt grew so strong it made him queasy; her left cheekbone was swollen and gray, a small cut on the outer curve of it—injuries that he had not yet been able to see the night before.

"What the hell… are you doing?"

"I'm staying with you for a while."

"You don't have to do that." She felt terrible; guilty. She knew that Draco felt responsible for Snape's most recent violent, very angry assault, but he had no reason to and that only made her feel worse. It wasn't his fault. Now he was going to spend more time in the freezing, damp cell because he felt responsible, because of her.

This time, Draco had to strain to hear her but even when he did he was silent for a moment afterwards.

"I want to. Try to get back to sleep."

"I'm fine, though. You're gonna get sick down h—"

"Don't." He cut her off gently, his voice quiet, "Go back to sleep." After a brief moment of staring up at him, puzzled, she reluctantly obeyed and almost instantly she fell still against his lap again. He sighed and shut his own eyes.

Granger was right. This was quite possibly Jade's last stretch as much as he hated to admit it, and he felt like there was nothing he could do but sit there and wait for the worst to come. This was the last thing he wanted to do. Sure, he had watched Crabbe and Goyle beat up countless people in the past six years, but this was the first time that one of his friends was the one who had taken the abuse. This was far more severe than any of the kids in the past who had been knocked over the head for some pocket change or test answers. This was torture.

He looked down at Jade, and shut his own eyes. He had to do something, and whatever he did had to happen before it was too late.