Hey guys, sorry for taking so long. I know it's kind of short, I think anyways, but I promise more in the future.

Chapter 9

(Ron's POV)

"And what, pray tell, is wrong with that?" Harry suddenly spat and I felt an intense urge to put my face in my hand at the Cullen's obvious fail. Alice and Edward shared a confused glance but didn't reply as Harry continued on. "Do you even know him? He seems like an alright kid, Merlin, that is so- so- so stereotypical and juvenile!"

I cast a helpless glance at Hermione and she looked at a loss for how to defuse the situation. "Harry," Edward started to say, his brow furrowed in confusion.

Alice chose that time to park the car in front our house and Harry practically leapt from the car. He began to stomp towards the steps, obviously fuming as Alice and Edward looked at us in complete befuddlement. He wrenched open the door and slammed it behind him, clearly having a snit. "One of his father's best friends was a werewolf," Hermione explained quickly, "Harry and him were close, and he died during the final battle, leaving his infant son, who is Harry's godson, in the hands of little Teddy's grandmother. I don't think he's particularly over it..." She trailed off as she heard shouting inside.

Edward moved to go find out what was going on but I placed a hand on his arm, "Don't, Harry's just going to get angrier if you go after him. Let him blow off some steam having a shouting match with Draco. That's usually how we let it sort itself out."

Just as I expected there was shouting within our house and the sound of something fragile breaking, but it was Luna's feminine voice that was shouting back at Harry instead of Draco's. She was clearly telling him off for causing Draco some distress when he's so sick. I winced as the sounds got louder.

"Um, I'll go see what's wrong," I called as I ran towards the house, hoping I could somehow diffuse the problem, however unlikely.

As I entered the house Severus was walking up from his lab with a thoroughly pissed off expression, clearly the shouting distracted him and ruined a potion and they were all about to get it big time. "Stop," I suddenly shouted as he moved to go up the stairs.

Severus turned very slowly and levelled me with a glare, "What the bloody hell is going on?" he asked slowly in a deadly calm voice that made me freeze in place while the shouting continued upstairs, I felt like it had gone deadly silent.

I opened my mouth once without any noise escaping before I closed it and tried again. "Everything is alright, just go back to your lab... I will deal with Harry." I said calmly and slowly as if talking to an enraged animal. "I have everything under control." Something broke upstairs that sounded like glass, causing Severus raise an eyebrow at me as if to ask 'really?'

I smiled nervously, at him as I edged past him up the stairs, "Everything is under control," I called as I ran up the stairs. The first thing I noticed was that the hallway was a mess. The whole area looked like Luna and Harry had taken their rooms and strewn them about in the hallway. The next thing was that Harry and Luna were standing in the hallway chucking things at each other and yelling assorted things at each other.

"Hey, hey, hey," I called running between the two of them as Harry pulled back his arm about to throw a pair of scissors at Luna and Luna pulled back her arm holding a ceramic cup. "Everybody, let's just calm down," I whispered as the two glared at each other.

Luna huffed angrily, "Well then you tell him to stop bothering Draco when he's clearly sick and shouting at him like it's his fault his boyfriend hates werewolves."

Harry visibly fumed, "You just don't get it, how can he hate werewolves, I bet he doesn't even know them, the self-righteous git."

I turned to Luna, "Go back to Draco's room and take care of him." She nodded dropping the cup and disappearing into Draco's room. "Alright, look Harry," I started, taking the scissors from him and leading him into his room. It seemed he had calmed down some and was in his sulking stage. We sat down on his bed and Harry sighed as he lay down and looked at the ceiling. "Did it ever occur to you that you don't know these wolves? Maybe they are the bad kind. I know Remus was amazing and you loved him, Hermione and I loved him too, and Teddy is a sweetheart, anyone who sets eyes on him knows that," Harry smiled wistfully here and clearly was remembering that cute little boy. "But maybe, you know, these wolves aren't like that and Edward and Alice know that? I mean maybe they don't right, but you don't know them either. Maybe we can convince them werewolves aren't bad as a whole, bring Teddy over or something for them to see, but I think you both made a vast generalization on the behaviours of a species based on an incomplete survey of experience."

Harry turned to stare at me as if I had just announced the date of the apocalypse. "Where the hell did that come from?" he asked with some shock and horror.

I smirked somewhat smugly, "Well, you know, living with Hermione and Draco... one tends to pick up a few things," I said somewhat haughtily while dusking imaginary dust off me. Harry stared at me for a moment before bursting into uproarious laughter which caused me to snigger before joining him.

(Luna's POV) (Several hours later)

I sighed as I finished another chapter of the book I was reading out to Draco. It was his favourite as it was all about knights and dragons and fair maidens and all that. I thought it was sort of cute how he loved that genre.

"L-Luna," Draco suddenly rasped sitting up and coughing harshly, "Can't- breathe," he gasped and started coughing constantly and wheezing.

"Draco," I cried out in shock, sitting up next to him on the bed, "S-Severus," I shouted as I helped Draco out of the bed.

I heard footsteps running and Ron and Harry burst into the room, Hermione not far behind. "What happened?" Harry asked coming over to help support Draco with me.

"Can't-" Draco gasped, still coughing.

"He can't breathe," I answered for him, "Severus!" I screamed as Hermione bolted from the room.

Ron and Harry helped me get Draco into the hallway and we started down the stairs. When we got to the bottom Severus met us up and helped settle Draco onto the floor, "Draco, I need you to remain calm, breath with me," he told him looking into his eyes. As Draco began to try and breathe with Severus, Hermione ran to the phone and dialled for an ambulance by the look of it.

Five minutes later, Severus still was having to coach Draco's breathing with him and the ambulance arrived with Draco, Severus and the rest of them disappearing into it shortly after they realized nothing was wrong with Draco, no choking, etc, but that he just couldn't breathe properly. Once they were gone Harry, Hermione, Ron and I sat on the floor other in silence. Hermione eventually sighed and went to go call a pizza place to deliver. From the looks on the others faces, they didn't need me to predict for them that it was going to be a long night of waiting.

(Harry's POV)

The next day we were all rather subdued about Draco. It had been a long night of waiting up restlessly for Severus to come home, which he only did at five am this morning. He wasn't at all surprised that we were up waiting and told us that Draco's condition had worsened, his lungs were starting to fail and they had him on a machine now they helped him breathe. Luna was in tears, which was completely understandable and the rest of us were just depressed. Severus got his things together and asked that we go to school before we went to go see Draco.

I sighed as I walked through the halls alone. I didn't feel like being around other people at all, I just wished that I could go see Draco, maybe read him a story or sing him a lullaby, at least be with him if he was going to be gone soon.

"Harry," a familiar voice called from down the hallway and I turned slowly to look at Edward who was jogging towards me looking apologetic. "Harry, I am so sorry-" he started but I didn't let him finished, I just pulled him into a hug and rested my head on his chest. I started shaking and closed my eyes, willing myself not to start sobbing.

"Edward," I croaked out, "I'm sorry, I was stupid. I don't even care about the werewolf thing anymore. I'm sorry I got mad, it's just... Remus was a werewolf and he was the most gentle, sweetest man I knew and I know I don't know these wolves, but they don't seem so bad and Draco-" I let my voice cut off there. "Draco's in the hospital. His lungs are shutting down," I whispered and Edward hugged me back tightly.

"Oh Harry, I am so sorry about Draco." Edward whispered just holding me. People past us in the hall and I didn't even care that people were staring.

"I don't know how to save him," I whispered finally, "There has to be a way, maybe if he was turned-"

"Harry," Edward's voice sounded pained, "I know this is a difficult thing for you to hear, but if that was something Draco wanted, wouldn't he have suggested it? I know that you are willing to become a vampire, but what if that isn't something Draco wants? Especially if a certain special blond girl isn't one?"

I thought about this, it seemed logical; Draco couldn't live with himself if he had to live without Luna. I sighed in frustration, "I just don't want him to die," I whispered as he rubbed my back.

"None of us do, but while still searching for a way out of this, I think you all need to be prepared to acknowledge that this is a quickly arriving reality," Edward said softly as to not upset me and I sighed, nodding feeling devastated but knew he was right.

He let go of me slowly when he realized I had calmed down some and I looked up at him with a sigh, "So, do you actually know these werewolves or are you just making assumptions?" I finally asked and it was his turn to sigh.

"Well Harry," he said grudgingly, "I suppose that yes, we have made a lot of assumptions regarding them, but you see it's mostly them, they hate us... and I guess hate just breeds more hate." He explained looked at least a little embarrassed and reproachful.

I nodded slowly, "But that doesn't make it justified. You don't know them, they might be like Remus, you both just don't understand each other, yet." I said, pleading for him to understand my side.

Edward sighed, "But Harry, they smell," Edward groused teasingly and I slapped him in the arm, causing my hand to hurt a little and him to laugh, "Come on," he said pulling me down the hall.

Later that day Alice called home and told her family that Draco was in the hospital and that we were going to go visit him after school. Rose called her almost right after and told her that she would meet them at the hospital because she wanted to visit him too, apparently this was vastly irregular for Rosalie to care for another being outside her family so Edward and Alice were rather shocked, but I felt it was really nice of her.

Before we left though Severus caught up to us as we were getting into our cars, "Wait," he called, "I just got a call from the hospital," our faces paled somewhat and the Cullens looked worried, "I feel I should warn you all, Draco is taking a new medication, and it will make him incredibly emotional, so be warned." He looked at us seriously at then and I actually had to stifle a groan because Draco was already a Drama Queen when he was sick; he didn't need this too. "As well, I feel I should inform you that as the disease progresses he will become weaker and weaker and there will be more and more pain. As well, near the last stages of the disease his hair will start to fall out and his skin will become dry and crapped and lose colour. I should warn you, these stages have started to become a reality and he is quite distraught. Don't ruin your voice singing to him Harry," Severus said his voice cold and monotonous in effort to not lose control of his emotions except for at the end when he smiled slightly at me.

The Cullens looked at me with some confusion, "Ruin your voice singing?" Edward asked looking confused and Alice suddenly squealed and clapped excitedly, "Oh Harry, you have a beautiful voice!" I blushed and awkwardly got into the car, ignoring their looks and the other's chuckling.

(Luna's POV)

I didn't think I could ever be as nervous or as upset as I was now for anything else, it would destroy me to do this again. I was so tightly wound up that I was practically bursting at the seams. I couldn't handle the thought of him dying, I really couldn't.

We had arrived at the hospital moments before and were heading toward his room and I clutched onto Harry's hand in a death grip. I still felt guilty for hurting him in that whole Bella affair, but I swore on my magic that I would pay him back, but right now I needed comfort.

Edward opened the door to Draco's room and we all slowly piled in. "Finally," was the first thing he'd said, I winced at the sight of him. Draco's hair had definitely thinned as well as his skin was drier and lost some colour. He also had small clear tubes going up his nose and down to his lungs to help him breathe. "Do you have any idea how boring it is here, all day, without you guys? The nurses are insufferable!" He cried out in aggravation.

"Sorry Drake, we needed to go to school first, Sev's orders," Harry said shrugging which caused him to cross his arms and pout like a child.

"Well it's not fair," he suddenly shouted. "I am stuck inside this tin can with nothing to do but slowly suffocate and I'm going to freaking die! You should just kill me."

We all looked sort of awkward for a moment; I felt my heart breaking at that cry. "Maybe you could be turned if you want," Ron suggested quietly, glancing at Edward, Alice and Rosalie, who had met us in the waiting room.

Before anyone could answer that Draco was shouting again, "I don't want to be turned! I just want to die, I hate this. It hurts, and my hair is falling out and my skin is all bloody dry and none of this lotion is God damn working!" He screamed at us and if it wasn't so depressing I probably would have laughed. "And I'm so damn pale, I am so dead, this sucks and my hair! My hair," he started sobbing and reached up as a reflex to pull it, something he did to relieve stress and cried out in anguish when his hand came down with a few of the hairs. "See! This is so... so... stupid!" he screamed and started bawling. "I'm- I'm," he seemed to gain some control of himself and I leaned in to hear him as he started whispering 'I'm' over and over again. I was taken aback when he suddenly shouted, "Ugly!" and started wailing and sobbing again.

I glanced at Harry who wasn't looking necessarily shocked but he was surprised, and a little bit amused. I turned back to Draco who was still sobbing as everyone seemed lost for words. I slowly walked around to his bedside and sat down beside him. I gently took his hands that were covering his face and held them in mine on his lap causing him to look over to me. I swallowed and took a deep breath as he stared into my eyes.

"Draco," I whispered but it was heard all around the room, "you're still the most handsome man I've ever known." I said this hoping that he would stop feeling so down on himself.

It didn't have the desired effect because he started wailing again, "No, no, you're lying, you're lying," he sobbed, "Oh Luna, you're so beautiful, so, so beautiful! I shouldn't be allowed to look at you," he cried, pulling one of his hands away and putting it to his face. "So beautiful," he whispered behind his hand.

I felt several visions passed through my eyes in which he or I tell the other that we love each other. I felt like I had suddenly been punched in the stomach. I took a deep intake of breath, oh my God, I thought feeling like a fool. These weren't visions of the first time we said it, just times we did. I could have told him any time. It didn't matter when I told him, I could have told him last year. I could tell him today.

I gently pealed his hand away from his face and replaced it with mine, cradling his face. I stared into his silver eyes for a moment, they stared back with a longing and sadness that I could hardly comprehend and I felt the breath leave my lungs at the sight, the sight of Draco Malfoy looking upon me with eyes made of desire. I leaned forward ever so slightly before resolving it with myself and closed the gap, kissing his lips softly.

Dear all the Gods and Merlin in the universe, Draco Malfoy had the softest lips of any man who ever lived or was to. It only lasted a second but it was like the world was held on pause for just a few seconds so that we could both acknowledge that what was happening really was happening. "Draco," I breathed, "I wouldn't care if you were the ugliest person in the world, I would still feel the same about you."

It was deadly silent after that, Draco just stared at me, his face somewhere between shock and joy and he glanced at Harry across the room, his mouth open. Harry merely grinned back at us before touching Edward and motioning with his head that they should leave. I turned back to Draco who was staring at me with an awed expression. I didn't notice the others leave either.