In that moment, Draco closed his eyes and all he could see was Hermione's face. A slight smile fluttered across his face when suddenly he was knocked hard to the side.
The death eaters' eyes went wide as they saw Harry push Draco out of the way while the green light flew over their heads. They were about to retaliate when something else drew their attention.
"Stupefy!" A voice from behind them called out. Quickly they turned to see Lucius fall to the floor.
"That was quite the noble yet foolish act, mudblood." Rodolphus spat as he turned his wand at her. The other followed, walking slowly towards the girl.
Harry then scrambled for the wands that Amycus had thrown to the floor and threw one back to Draco who realized what happened. The scrambling from behind them distracted them as the look to see Draco and Harry armed.
"Stupefy!" Hermione yelled as their heads were turned but Rodolphus sidestepped it.
"Stupefy!" Harry and Draco yelled at the Carrow siblings, one hitting its mark as Alecto fell over.
"Impedimenta!" Rodolphus yelled sending a red light hurling towards Draco.
Unable to move fast enough due to the crucio earlier, it hit Draco straight in the chest and threw him into a wall. He slid down the wall where he crumpled into an unconscious heap.
"Draco!" Hermione yelled as Harry threw another spell at Amycus. She was hit straight on and fell over next to her brother.
Hermione saw the blood slowly pooling around Draco and knew she had to act fast. Her breathing quickened as she pointed her wand at Roodolphus' back. He had just thrown a spell at Harry so this was her best chance. "Stupefy!" Hermione yelled, hitting Rodolphus square in the back.
He fell forward with a surprised look on his face as Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She looked around to see four death eaters laying frozen on the floor. She watched Harry walk over to each one and take their wands unable to believe what had just happened. Harry nodded his head towards Draco which snapped her out of it and her eyes fell on the blond against the wall.
She ran over to Draco and saw that the bleeding was coming from his head. He must have hit it hard against the wall. A couple of ribs seemed to be broken and his rasping breathingsuggested that he may have punctured a lung. She looked over the rest of his body but that seemed to be the worst of it.
Hermione felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped slightly. "Take him to St. Mungo's. I'll clean up here." Harry said reassuringly, his emerald green eyes softly looking at her.
She nodded and gingerly grabbed his arm, not wanting to move him more than necessary. "Thank you Harry." She said quietly.
Harry smiled sheepishly. "I will always do anything for you, Hermione. " He answered honestly, giving her a quick hug. "I will always come for you."
Hermione smiled back and then apparated herself and Draco to St. Mungo's. "Help!" She yelled as she appeared in the front entrance of the hospital. Draco was still unconscious next to her and she let go of his hand to seek help.
"Help! Auror down!" She yelled and suddenly three healers were running towards her.
The first healer that reached them came up to her. She was tall with chestnut hair and dark blue healer robes. She had a kind smile on her face and a clipboard in her hand. "I am Healer Henrietta Hartley. What happened?" She said as the other two healers ran to Draco.
"I am Auror Hermione Granger and that is Auror Draco Malfoy. We just came back from a mission against death eaters. As you see, he needs help." Hermione said quickly only remembering protocol to list names and rank at the last moment.
The healer nodded her head as the two other healers stabilized him and then levitated him down the hall. "Is he any relation to you?" She asked as she was taking down information on her clipboard.
"He's uh, he's my partner." Hermione stuttered. The healer gave her a strange look when she clarified. "My auror partner."
The healer nodded again and wrote everything down. "Ok, Auror Granger…" Her words suddenly stopped when she took a good look at the witch in front of her for the first time. She saw dried blood stains on the front of her shirt and bruises all over her arms. She looked a wreck and it made her wonder why she didn't notice it in the first place. "Um, Auror, are you alright?"
Hermione looked at her strangely as she recalled she must look a fright. She looked down at her bloody and torn shirt. "Well, I had a couple of broken ribs I think, but I tried to heal them. And I tried to heal most of my open wounds but you know, wandless magic is hard when you're in pain." She said quietly as she started to finally clam down from all that had happened. The adrenaline was now wearing off and all the pain from the last few days started to catch up with her. Each broken bone and bruise in her body started to cry out for attention.
"You healed yourself with wandless magic?!" The healer gasped. She gingerly lifted Hermione's shirt to see her abdominal area and quickly put it down when she saw the gigantic bruising. "Auror, I'm afraid you need to be checked in as well." Hermione's head started to spin and the healer watched her as she started to sway slightly.
Hermione nodded as the pain came back in full force. "Can you put me in his room, please?" She said as she doubled over in pain. Her arms wrapping around her torso and the healer put her arms around the falling woman.
"Of course, Auror Granger." The healer said as Hermione blacked out from pain and exhaustion.
***************
"Hermione? Can you hear me, Hermione?" A voice called out to her as she felt consciousness slowly returning. She opened her eyes to see Harry peering down at her, a large smile on his face. "You're awake!" He exclaimed as he watched her eyes flutter open.
Hermione smiled slightly as her eyes adjusted to the room. She recalled that she was still in St. Mungo's. "How long have I been out?" Her voice was hoarse.
Harry handed her a glass of water and she took a large gulp. He took it from her and put it back on her bedside table. "Two days. They healed your ribs completely, though they did say you did a mighty fine job for only having wandless magic." He answered with pride in his voice. "Most of your bruising is under control. Apparently you have fairly nasty scars along your abdomen that they were able to make less noticeable." He raised his eyebrow at that. "They said you would be out for a while as you seemed to be sleep deprived and exhausted."
"What about Draco?" She asked as Harry tried to suppress a look of surprise at the use of his given name.
"He's right here. I'm afraid he hasn't woken up as of yet. They said he had a few broken ribs but it was the blow to the head that is worrying them. He must have hit it hard when he hit the wall. They said they took care of the brain swelling and now it's up to him. His mother has been here quite a bit but she went home for some rest." Harry said, nodding his head behind him. "They said you requested to be put in the same room."
Hermione blushed slightly. "Yes, well, you see." She thought about the easiest way to put what she was thinking. "Being tortured with someone changes a lot of things." She finally settled on as her response.
Harry smiled. "Funny, he said something very similar." Harry said as he stood up. "I promised I would report to Gawain as soon as you woke up. When you're feeling up to it, I'd really like to know how you got out. And…" He said as he picked up the wand next to her bedside table. "…how you got my wand."
Hermione smiled. "Somehow, I'm fairly certain, it's a story that I'll be telling more than once. I'm going to need a new wand, though. I think they destroyed mine." A tinge of sadness crept in her voice for her lost wand. It was almost like losing a friend.
Harry nodded. "Well, get some rest. I'll be back right after my shift is over. I promise." He leaned over and gave her a kiss on top of her head.
"Thanks Harry." She said as he walked out the door.
She looked over at her current roommate and saw the outline of his body on the bed. She slowly sat up and steadied herself from the dizziness that accompanied sitting up for the first time in a while. She swung her legs over and stood up carefully. She swayed a little and used the bed to help her but after a moment she walked over to the other bed.
He looked clean and his platinum blond hair spread out underneath his head. His face was relaxed and he looked like he was peacefully sleeping. They had cleaned him up well and most of the bruises were faded on his pale skin. She saw his arm that had been burned and winced at the memory. Her hand reached out and softly grazed the scar. She took the chair that Harry was sitting on and slide to his bedside, holding his limp hand in the process. She sat down and stared at him for a moment longer.
"Hey Draco." She started softly. "It looks like it's my turn to tell a story." She smiled at the memories of him telling her about his life while she was sick. "I'm going to tell you the story about how I escaped and showed up just in time."
Hermione sat on the floor by the door when she heard the whoop of a Carrow sibling. Instantly, she knew that Draco and Harry had been captured. She stood up quickly trying to think of a way to help them. She would not let them die like this. She looked around the room when she saw the shards of mirror, broken from the fight she had with the death eater. She ripped a piece of blanket from the bed and wrapped it around a small pin like shard of mirror on the ground. She heard Lucius talking to them down the hall and she knew she didn't have a lot of time.
She went to the door and stuck the piece of glass into the lock. She played around with the lock until she finally heard it click. Suddenly she was thankful for the time she spent as a child learning how to pick her door lock when she accidently locked herself out of her bedroom. She smiled as she tried the handle and felt it turn. She returned to the broken mirror and wrapped the blanket around the largest shard on the floor. With it as her only weapon, she opened the door widely and came out to the hallway to see no one was there. She crept down the hallway and she could hear laughter coming from downstairs. She kept her back to the wall, her weapon in front of her as she made it to the main staircase. She was about to descend when something caught her eye. There was a wand on the floor, sitting against the wall. She made a bee line for it and her eyes widened as she realized it was Harry's wand. Relief washed over her as she had a better weapon than a simple shard of glass. She put it down and cast a spell on her feet to keep her steps from making any noise. She felt a bit of joy at holding a wand again for it had been so long.
She took the first step down the stairs and it creaked under her weight. To her, it sounds as loud as an elephant stampede and she held herself against the wall, barely breathing. When she was sure no one had heard, she cast a spell on the stairs, to keep them from creaking. With that, she practically ran down the stairs and stopped when she reached the top of the stairs to the dungeons. She heard the death eater that was in her room and froze as she heard Draco announce that he was Rodolphus LeStrange. Again, she whispered a spell on the stairs to keep them from creaking as she slowly made her way down them.
She heard Draco defend her and she stopped in her tracks. She felt herself flush as she heard him lunge at LeStrange and then cringe as she heard his father crucio him. She picked up her pace and was almost at the bottom of the stairs when she heard him yell at his father.
"If you hadn't captured me and left me in a cell with Hermione, I might not have fell, as you put it, for a muggleborn." She heard Draco yell. Her heart quickened and she felt herself flush again. She couldn't stop the smile on her face but it quickly disappeared.
"That's it, this ends now." Lucius declared and she made her way practically stumbling to the floor.
The rest seemed to go in slow motion. She peered around the corner and saw all the death eaters pointing their wands at the two prisoners. She saw Draco with his eyes closed a strange smile on his face while he was waiting to die and then she saw Harry who looked at her with slightly wide eyes. She raised Harry's wand and she heard Lucius yell the killing curse. She watched Harry leap to the side and push Draco out of the way. She watched as the death eater's pointed their wands and she heard herself stupefy Lucius.
"I brought you to St. Mungo's as soon as I could." She squeezed his hand as she reached the end of the story. "So, you see Draco, I heard you. I heard what you said about me. And I feel the same way. So you need to come back to me, so I can tell you that." A tear fell down her cheek as she watched the unmoving wizard. "Please come back to me, Draco."
From the doorway, Narcissa Malfoy eavesdropped on the story that saved her son's life. A tear escaped as she wiped it away quietly. She smiled and walked away, not wanting to ruin this private moment.
A/N: Look at that! Two updates in one weekend! :-) I had a little extra time and this chapter has been layed out in my head for a while. Anyway, THANKS for the reviews! Please continue! ~Chrissy
