Disclaimer: I own nothing from the world of Harry Potter – much as I'd like to – it all belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter Eleven

Draco followed Madame Hooch towards the Hospital Wing, ignoring her orders to go back outside and join his team. It was only when he got to there that the Teacher managed to stop him following her by ordering him to stay outside and then placing locking charm on the door in an attempt to keep him out. It only took him a few seconds though to realise that he could probably break the charm. Pulling his wand from his pocket and pointing it at the door, he muttered the charm to open it, then hearing a satisfying click, stepped forwards and pushed the double doors open. Madame Pomfrey was on him in an instant.

"Out, Mr. Malfoy. There was a locking charm on those doors for a reason-"

"But-" he began to protest, trying to catch a glimpse of Siobhan.

"No! Out!" Her final decision made, she pushed him back out into the corridor and locked the doors again with a stronger charm.

"I just wanted to know if she was okay!" Draco called, hoping that someone would hear him through the closed door. After waiting a few seconds and receiving no reply, Draco kicked the door angrily and then sat down beside it with his back against the wall, knowing full well that if it was Harry in there, his friends would be allowed to go in and see him. The thought angered him even more and he pulled the protective pads off his wrists and shins and tossed them at the wall opposite, watching them fall down to rest beside the two brooms he had put there, one of which tore his attention away from the Hospital Wing and whatever it was that was going on inside.

Looking round briefly at the doors to make sure no one was coming out, Draco reached out and picked up Siobhan's broom for a quick inspection. It had a nicer finished look to it than his Comet360 and a gold line ran from one end of the wood to the other. The name of the broom – Demon – was printed in red lettering near the front of it and was written in such a way that anyone who didn't know what the name of the broom was wouldn't have been able to read it.

Draco looked up as the doors to the Hospital Wing opened to find Madame Hooch looking down at him disapprovingly.

"Why are you still here, Mr. Malfoy?" I thought you were told to leave."

"I wanted to make sure Siobhan was alright," he replied, rising from the floor to see if he could look over her shoulder and into the room. Without giving him an answer, the Quidditch Instructor shook her head and walked off. Taking this as a sign that it was okay to enter, Draco grabbed everything from the floor and stormed through the doors. Madame Pomfrey jumped and looked round for the source of the noise, her eyes narrowing when they settled on him.

"Is she alright?" he asked hurriedly, running to the side of her bed.

"She only fell off her broom," the Nurse replied, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. "She'll be feeling just fine in a few hours." Draco nodded and then looked up at the Nurse to thank her. The startled gasp that escaped her stopped him though.

"What have you done to your face you silly boy?" she demanded, walking round the bed and arriving at his side in only three long strides. Draco brought his hand up to touch his cheek only to have it slapped away.

"What do you-"

"The whole right side of your face is bruised," she explained, pushing him into the chair beside Siobhan's bed. "Stay there while I go and get something to put on it." Draco watched as she crossed the room to her office and then when he was sure she was gone, he stood back up and looked at Siobhan. Her Quidditch Kit was folded up at the end of the bed and she was in one of the school Hospital gowns. He could see that there were bandages wrapped around her through it and caught sight of another on her left shoulder.

"I thought I told you to sit down," Madame Pomfrey said, walking back over to him and grabbing his shoulders to turn him back round to face her. He resisted the urge to laugh when he saw that she barely came up to his chin.

"Why has she got a bandage on her shoulder?" he asked as she rubbed a thick, foul smelling paste on the side of his face.

"Well don't you think you might have broken a few bones if you'd fell from that height?"

"Didn't anyone try to stop her fall?"

"Minerva slowed her down a little, but the bones in her shoulder are weak – so she's probably broken it before. The impact broke it again." Draco started to nod to show that he understood, but all that earned him was a slap on his good cheek and an order to keep still. He said nothing more until she was finished and was finally given a piece of wet cloth to hold on his face, which would apparently help the paste to take effect.

"I don't want you sitting here all day," Madame Pomfrey said, sternly. "So if she isn't awake within the hour, I expect you to leave." Draco nodded, even though he had no intention of doing any such thing and sat back in the chair, holding the cloth to his face as he'd been told to. Satisfied with his answer, Madame Pomfrey strutted back to her office, closing the door behind her. Draco had just began to relax again when the double doors to the Hospital Wing opened, making him look round, only to find David McDonald making a beeline for Siobhan's bed.

"Is she alright?" he asked, obviously eager for an answer when the same question had been dismissed the last time.

"Fine," Draco replied, gruffly. David nodded and walked to the opposite side of the bed to where Draco was standing.

"She never pays attention to everything that's going on in a Match," he said, a somewhat accusing tone to his voice. "You should have warned her that Bludger was coming-"

"I don't think I like the way you just put that statement, McDonald," Draco replied, glaring up at him.

"I'm just saying," he shrugged. "You should have told her that the Bludger was coming-"

"Between her being behind me and then beside me, I don't think I had much time. Do you?"

"If you'd have pulled up and out of the way, she would have probably looked round to see why and then moved out of the way too. Then it wouldn't have hit her-"

"And loose the game? I was preparing myself to take that hit to win. It's not my fault that she pulled up beside me and took the hit instead," Draco hissed, rising from his chair. "You think I wanted her to get hit?"

"Well maybe you were preparing to take that kind of risk to beat us-"

"You don't know me very well, do you McDonald?"

"I know you well enough to know that you're an evil, twisted, Slytherin-"

"May I remind you that Siobhan is also in Slytherin, so you went out with one of those evil, twisted-" Draco paused as comprehension seemed to dawn on him and he laughed. "Oh, I see what this is about. You, McDonald are jealous that your ex has gotten someone and you haven't." Their voices had been lowered to whispers up until this point, but David raised his in protest.

"That is not what this is about!"

"Oh, I think it is," Draco replied, smirking.

"I'm concerned for her well being, that's the beginning and end of it, Malfoy," he argued.

"Are you?" he sneered, leaning across the bed. "Or are you just afraid of me and my Father?" David had the grace to snap his mouth shut, which told Draco more than all the words in the English Dictionary ever could have.

"Well frankly," Draco continued. "I don't give a damn what you think of me and I also don't think it's any of your concern who Siobhan is dating. Personally, I think she'd have the same opinion-"

"Don't pretend to know her better than me-"

"Oh don't worry," Draco smirked, thinking back to the conversation about the book Siobhan carried around with her. "I don't have the pretend." David opened his mouth to argue back, but the sound of a door opening stopped him and both boys turned round to find a few of the Players of the Australian Team standing in the doorway.

"Is she alright?" Frances asked, looking at Draco.

"She's fine," David replied before the Slytherin could even open his mouth.

"She'd be a lot better if you left," Draco snapped, looking pointedly at David, who was once again cut off, this time by Madame Pomfrey.

"I don't remember saying that she could have more than one visitor. I've permitted Mr. Malfoy to stay here, but I want the rest of you out."

----

Harry, upon deciding that he couldn't delay talking to Hermione about what happened at Hogsmeade longer than he already had, offered to go with her on her walk to the lake that evening. Ron stayed behind after much persuading from Aeryn to finish his Potions homework, so it left the two of them alone.

"Harry, where in Merlin's name are we going?" Hermione asked for the umpteenth time, following him through the woods.

"I've already told you," he replied, smiling. "It's a surprise."

"Well are we nearly there? When you offered to come down to the lake with me, I didn't really expect it to involve trekking through the woods for twenty minutes."

"Well you need a little excitement in your life, and it's not been twenty minutes. Closer to eighteen."

"Don't you think I've had enough excitement in my life?" she asked, laughing.

"Well, it's been pretty uneventful lately. Anyway, stop moaning, we're here now." Grabbing her hand, he pulled her over a fallen tree and into a small clearing in the forest. He wasn't really sure where the water was going, or coming from, but there was a small waterfall in front of them and he pulled her over to sit by the edge of the river.

"How on Earth did you find this?" she asked, looking round.

"I spotted it when I was flying," he replied, nodding towards the sky. Hermione looked up too and Harry took it as a chance to look at her, trying to decide how best to bring up Hogsmeade. He came up blank and crossed his fingers.

"We need to talk about what happened last weekend," he blurted out, watching as her head snapped round to look at him. After a few moments of doing a very good impression of a fish out of water, she nodded.

"Why did we never try dating?" he asked, playing with a few blades of grass that he had pulled up as an excuse not to look at her.

"Because we had too much to think about," Hermione replied. "What with Voldemort and the Horcruxes. There wasn't any time-"

"So, you'd have gone out with me this year if we didn't have Voldemort to take care of?"

"I can't say that I didn't think about it." Harry nodded and swallowed nervously.

"Would…you have hit me?" he asked, curiously. "If I had actually kissed you before Ginny came along?" Hermione seemed to think about it for a moment before looking back at him.

"No."

"And…would you hit me if I kissed you now?"

"What do you think?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and smiling at him. He smiled back and then leaned forward to kiss her, smiling as he felt her arm snake around his neck to pull him closer. Their kiss only lasted a few moments before Harry pulled away and rested his forehead against hers.

"So, does this mean that you'll go to Hogsmeade on Valentines Day with me?" he asked. "As a real date?" Hermione rolled her eyes, smiled and then pulled him down for another kiss.

----

Draco came back from dinner to find Siobhan awake and sitting up bed, glaring at Madame Pomfrey.

"If looks could kill," Draco whispered, coming up beside the bed and making her jump. When she saw him though, she smiled and Draco responded by kissing her quickly while the Nurses back was turned.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, pulling a chair up and sitting in it.

"Fine," she replied, shifting so that she could see him better. "Where have you been?"

"She kicked me out to go to dinner. Figures you should wake up while I was gone. At least McDonald wasn't in here-"

"David?" Siobhan questioned raising an eyebrow in question.

"He was in here just as you came in, moaning about me and you being together," Draco replied, waving his hand to show that he didn't care about it all that much.

"So what happened?" Siobhan asked, bringing her hand up to the side of his face that – despite all the stuff Madame Pomfrey had put over it – was still bruised badly.

"Blaise threw a Quaffle at my head," he replied, frowning. "Not sure what provoked that. And what did you fly in front of the Bludger for?"

"I didn't actually see – or hear – it coming. I was too focused on getting the Snitch to care about anything else." Draco nodded, feeling somewhat annoyed with himself that David had known that but he hadn't.

"Don't worry about it though," she added, looking at him. "It wasn't your fault."

"How in Merlin's name do you always know what I'm thinking?" he asked, frowning. "I'm not that easy to read, am I?"

"No," she replied, smiling. "It's a gift."

"An annoying one-"

"Mr. Malfoy, I thought I told you to go back to your Common Room after you'd had dinner," Madame Pomfrey interrupted, walking over to the bed.

"I know," he replied, hurriedly. "But I just wanted to come back and see if Siobhan was okay. You said she would wake up around now-"

"Yes, yes, alright-"

"Can I leave yet?" Siobhan questioned, making to get out of the bed. Madame Pomfrey looked at the two of them for a moment before rolling her eyes.

"Mr. Malfoy, help her back to the Common Room, would you? I don't want her walking without support today with her ribs in that condition."

"Will do," Draco said, standing up and noticing for the first time that Siobhan was no longer in the Hospital gown, but in her own clothes. Not even bothering to question how she had got them, he put an arm round her waist while she supported herself with an arm round his shoulder.

"Next time," Siobhan said, sucking in a deep breath through her teeth and wincing in pain. "You can get hit by the Bludger and I'll help you back to Slytherin Common Room."