DRACO'S POV

I snapped out of my shock and ran right for her, with Harry following close behind me. I dropped to my knees right beside her. "Please be okay Bella. Please! Don't leave me, you promised!"

Snape and Dumbledore rushed over, totally forgetting about all of the other students who were starting to panic and scream. "We need to get her to the hospital wing immediately!" Dumbledore shouted in panic.

Snape picked her up and ran toward the hospital wing with Dumbledore, Harry, and I following behind. We ran as fast as we could, trying to keep up, but Snape was faster and when we arrived outside of the hospital wing, Snape was pacing outside of the door anxiously.

"Severus, what happened?" Dumbledore asked, trying to maintain his calm.

"Madame Pomfrey said no visitors," Snape replied bitterly. "But it's not looking so good right now."

I gulped as what he said sunk in. Bella might not make it, and it would be all of my fault if she didn't. If I hadn't have been so stupid she would have still been here, right next to me.

"What do we do now?" Harry asked, clearly shaken.

"We wait," Dumbledore said sadly. I could tell that he was trying to keep everyone sane, but he was having trouble staying focused himself.

I sunk to the floor and put my head in my hands. I couldn't get the picture of Bella covered in blood out of my head. This was all my fault! If I had never believed that stupid lie then Bella never would have left early. I might never even get the chance to make everything better between us. I hadn't noticed that I was sobbing until Harry came over and patted me on the back awkwardly.

"She'll be alright," he said, though his voice was filled with worry and shook with skeptism.

"How can she be alright?" I asked. "How can she recover from all of those horrible injuries? Did you see how bad she looked? How can she possibly live through that?"

"Because she's Bella," Harry said with a strained chuckle. "She's a fighter, and she won't stop fighting. She's brave and fearless and she'll come back to us. I bet half of those injuries are from her being stubborn and refusing to do what they wanted."

"How can you be so confident?" I asked, wishing that I was able to think like that and that I could know without a doubt that Bella would walk away from this okay.

"Because I have known Bella my whole life. She'll be fine. I am worried like crazy and I can't help but wondering what if she dies. But I need to stay positive and look on the bright side."

I sighed heavily. "I wish I could have your attitude."

We waited outside for three hours until Madame Pomfrey came out looking exhausted. We all ran up to her and waiting with bated breath for her to tell us what was happening with Bella.

"Is she alright?" Snape demanded wasting no time on chit chat.

"She is barely alive," Madame Pomfrey whispered brokenly, and tiredly. "It seems as if she was beaten very badly for days. She has several deep gashes as if she were pierced with a knife, and her right leg is broken very badly, and she has also lost a huge amount of blood."

"But she'll be alright?" I asked unable to hold off that question for a second longer.

"Yes, but it will be a long and painful recovery."

"Can we see her?" Dumbledore asked.

Madame Pomfrey nodded, looking warily at Snape who probably would have cursed her if she didn't let us in. "Go ahead, but try to keep the noise down. She needs her rest."

We walked through the doors and saw Bella sleeping on the bed in the far corner, hooked up to many machines. We all rushed over to her side. She still looked so broken, but at least all of the blood had been wiped away from her face and her cuts had been covered up with band aids.

"Oh Bella!"Snape cried. He got down on his knees and put her small hand in both of his. "Please be okay Bella, you have to come back to me. I am so sorry for everything I have done to you," Snape begged.

We all watched Bella, waiting for some response. Snape lightly brushed his fingers across Bella's cheek and her eyes slowly fluttered open.

She looked around the room and her eyes landed on Snape. "It hurts daddy," she said in a strangled tone that made my heart ache.

"I know baby, I know. But it will all go away," Snape promised.

"It hurts a lot," she said, gasping in pain. "Please make it stop!"

"We're trying Bella. Madame Pomfrey said it would be a slow and painful recovery," Snape explained, sounding frustrated that he could not give her more information.

"What happened Bella?" Harry whispered, trying to keep the pain out of his voice as he gazed at Bella's battered body.

Bella turned her head, searching, until her eyes met Harry's. "I was tortured for hours at a time," she said, tears streaming down her face, probably reliving the horrible experience in her mind. "They cut me and beat me and hit me everywhere. It never seemed to stop."

"Who did this to you?" Snape demanded in a furious tone, and I knew that he would definitely kill the people who had done this to his daughter. He would hunt them down and wouldn't stop until he found them and put an end to their evil ways.

"They were..." But Bella couldn't finish her sentence because she passed out. I looked anxiously at Madame Pomfrey, looking for some sort of reassurance.

"She's in an extreme amount of pain," Madame Pomfrey said. "A simple conversation takes a lot of energy out of her. I suggest that you all get some rest and come back tomorrow morning."

We all nodded and silently walked away, without saying a word to each other. Snape kissed Bella's hand before walking out and Dumbledore stayed back to thank Madame Pomfrey for having such bravery and courage to save Bella. Harry and I just silently walked out and went our separate ways.

When I arrived in the Slytherin Common Room everyone was anxiously waiting for me, waiting to hear what the story was and what had happened to Bella.

"Is she alright?" Someone asked.

"No," I said. "She's in a lot of pain and she is barely alive. It seems that she has been tortured for days."

Everyone gasped. "Who would do this?" Some third year boy asked from one of the couches.

"I don't know," I said and I walked up to my dormitory before anyone could ask me anything else about Bella. Looking up at the sky from my window I said, "Please Bella, you have to be okay. You have to come back to me."

NEXT DAY

I woke up early the next morning and went straight to the hospital wing. Harry was sitting beside her, holding her hand and quietly mumbling something to her unconscious form. He looked up when he heard me approaching and smiled weakly.

"Hi, Madame Pomfrey said we could stay as long as we want."

I nodded and stood on Bella's other side. "Has she woken up again?" I asked.

"No, not yet," Harry whispered.

We both sat there, watching her sleep, hoping and praying that she would wake up soon and that everything would be fine. That we could just go back to how it was a few days ago when everything was perfect and we had nothing to worry about.

As we watched her, her head started to turn and her whole body started to shake. "No please! Leave me alone, don't hurt me!" Bella screamed out in her sleep and then she let out an ear piercing shriek.

"Bella wake up!" I yelled.

Her eyes snapped open, and she gasped, looking around the room with wide eyes, as if expecting the horrors of her dream to be in here, waiting to torment her.

"It's okay Bella, it was just a bad dream," Harry murmured.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"The hospital wing," I answered.

Bella's eyes flashed up to mine when she heard my voice. She looked sad and curious. "Why are you here?" She whispered.

"I'll leave you two alone," Harry said, sensing that the conversation was going to be uncomfortable enough without him listening in.

"Bella, I am so sorry for all of the pain that I have caused you. It's all my fault that you're in here. I hope that one day you will be able to forgive me, but I understand if you never want to see me again."

Bella listened as intently as she could to my confession and then said, "This is not your fault. Never think that."

"But if I hadn't said those awful things to you, you never would have left early," I protested, my voice rising.

"Draco, I was going anyway. They just would have hurt me on different days. And I forgive you, the whole time they were hurting me, I wanted you, I kept begging for you to come. For you to come and rescue me and take me away from that place."

I looked up at Bella and her face held nothing but sincerity. "You're sure?" I asked.

"Yes, I know you didn't mean any of those things you said. It was all Edward's fault," Bella assured me.

I bowed my head in shame. She was amazing and selfless and I didn't deserve her after what I had done, but I couldn't bring myself to leave her. She was such an important part of me and I never wanted to lose her.

"So you completely forgive me?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied forcefully.

I grinned. "Okay, I believe you, and I promise I will make it up to you somehow."

Bella groaned. "You don't have to do that."

I laughed. "I would kiss you if I wasn't afraid that I would hurt you."

Bella pouted. "You won't hurt me, now come here!"
I chuckled and bent down, trying to remember to be careful. Our lips met and at that moment I knew that everything was okay between us. All of the pain and the uncertainties had just vanished in that moment and I couldn't have been more glad. I had really missed this, missed her.

"I love you," I whispered when we pulled away.

"I love you too", she said, smiling.

The door burst open and Harry came striding in. "I see you two lovebirds have made up," he announced.

I blushed. "Yeah."

Harry smiled at me before turning to Bella. "How are you?"

Bella looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Do you really need to ask?"

"Right, sorry," Harry mumbled, looking down.

"It's okay big bro," she said, looking much better than last night, but still completely drained.

"What happened?" Harry demanded of her.

Bella's smile disappeared. "Death eaters, about ten of them, all hurting me."

"What about Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"He was on his way when I escaped," she answered.

"Who was leading this?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange," Bella said, wincing as if the name caused her physical pain. If I ever ran into Bellatrix, she would pay for what she had done to my Bella. I paid close attention as Bella continued. "Bellatrix did most of it, but all of the death eaters contributed. I got the knife that Bellatrix was using on me to cut free of the ropes. I ran to the door and barely made it out so I could apparate."

I grabbed Bella's hand, but she didn't seem to notice. She was probably reliving the dreadful memories from the past three days.

Putting my hand against her cheek I murmured, "Don't worry Bella. You're safe now and everything is going to be okay."

Bella smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. I knew that it was going to take a long time before she was back to normal.

The door burst open and Snape walked in and went straight over to Bella's right side, grabbing her hand.

"How are you baby?"

"A little better," she said.

I raised my eyebrows at her, she was clearly lying. She had to be in immense pain but she continued to insist that she was fine and that everything would be okay in no time.

"I'm glad," Snape said, giving a feeble attempt to pretend to believe her words. "And I thought that once you got better I could show you something."

"What?" Bella asked, looking at Harry and I, silently asking what this was all about. We shrugged our shoulders and Bella returned her gaze to her father.

"It's a surprise, but you'll love it, trust me."

"Okay," Bella said, trying to cover up a yawn.

"You need to rest," Snape scolded.

"All right. Goodnight everyone."

"Night Bella," Harry and I chorused.

We all walked out the door together and Harry immediately began questioning Snape as soon as we were far enough away from Bella. "What are you going to show her?" Harry asked Snape.

"Does Bella ever say anything about how I'm not always there for her?" Snape asked, avoiding the question.

Harry and I glanced at each other. "Sometimes," we replied.

Snape nodded. "I'm always working and I know I'm not always the best father. I want to tell Bella why and then I have something to show her that I'm sure she will enjoy."

I could tell that he didn't want to tell us, so I decided not to ask any more questions just in case he decided to play teacher and start handing out detentions. When we reached the end of the corridor Snape muttered a quick goodbye to us and hurried off.

"What do you think he's going to show her?" I asked Harry.

"No idea," he replied.

Harry and I talked for a while and then went our separate ways. I was still thinking about what I could do to make it up to my Bella for all of the pain that I had caused her.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thank you so much for all of the reviews! I really appreciate them and I love hearing them. I am so sorry that it took me so long to update. The next chapter should come out in the next couple of days. Thank you so much for all of your support and don't forget to REVIEW!