A/N: Hello all! A thank you to rabradley09, StormWitch1985, Annbee, Snowflake Dazzle, and CinderellaAtTheBall for commenting on the last chapter, your reviews mean the world to me.

Also a thank you to everyone who has been reading this far!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

As always, enjoy!

Chapter 14

Hermione had been in the infirmary too long.

Most of the professors would come and go, and Professor Snape had taken to sitting with her after Harry and Draco had been told to go to their rooms. He would bring a tattered old journal with potions staines soaked though the paper.

Snape, Hermione had noticed, had a tendency to tap rhythmically when he was thinking.

"What kind of pain do you have?" Snape asked, his eyes still on his journal, "Soreness, muscle pain, nerve pain…"

Hermione sighed. He had been asking these questions since he started visiting her. What kind of pain do you have? Is your breathing restricted? When did you start noticing symptoms?

He would ask and Hermione would answer to the best of her ability.

Except for one thing. She never spoke about what Bellatrix had done to her, about how her mutilated arm hurt.

"I feel like my bones are all broken and jelly at the same time." Hermione answered.

"And sleep, do you get nightmares?" Snape asked, he's quill scratching away.

"Don't we all?" Came her weak reply.

For the first time, Snape looked up at her, his eyes focused on her with intensity she had never seen from him. "Yes, we do."

He would go back to scratching away in his journal with his quill. He would then leave once the sun had begun to rise and Hermione would often wonder if the Bat of Hogwarts slept.

Madam Pomfrey would then come in and feed Hermione her potions. Draco would come in and let Hermione heal him, then he would read to her. Harry would come next and sit with her until Pomfrey would kick him out. McGonagall would come in during lunch once or twice a week and talk to Pomfrey about her condition.

This was Hermione's life now. People she cared about and began to grow to care about would come in and out of the infirmary while she withered away.

Madam Pomfrey would encourage her to walk a few steps a day. It would be up in the air who walked with her, Harry would always offer, letting her lean on him while they walk, encouraging her as they walked from one end of the infirmary to the other. Draco had walked with her a few times when Harry wasn't there, and rarely, when Harry and Draco didn't walk with her, Snape would.

It had been in the last few days that Hermione couldn't move, her muscles wouldn't allow it. She instead would lay in bed and work her muscles best from her position in the bed.

And Snape would ask her the same questions, asking if anything was changing or gettin worse.

No, she would say, Nothing has changed.

Hermione didn't mention the hallucinations.

Sometimes she would be sitting with Harry or Draco, and sometimes it would be Bellatrix cackling bedside her.

When it was Bellatrix, Hermione would just close her eyes and wait for it to pass. Sometimes it would take and hour, sometimes a day. Either way, the results were the same, she would close her eyes and focus on smaller, and inconsequential things. She would try and will the hallucinations away.

One morning, once Snape had left with his usual curt nod, Draco took his seat beside Hermione.

"You're looking better this morning," Draco said, brushing his thumb over Hermione's pink tinged cheek.

"I feel a bit better," Hermione said, "Whatever Snape gave me last night must have helped."

Draco looked over his shoulder towards Madam Pomfrey's door. He slipped his hand into his robes and pulled out a handkerchief punched up around something.

"My mum sent me a basket of Cauldron Cakes," Draco whispered, handing her what Hermione expected to be Cauldron Cake, "I want to give you some, since we shared yours."

Hermione gave a soft laugh, "Madam Pomfrey would be so upset." Hermione unfolded the white cloth and slowly started to pick the Cauldron Cake apart, savoring every bite. "These are so good." Hermione whispered, "Your mum made them?"

Draco nodded, picking up a chunk of cake and lifting it to Hermione's mouth. "Eat as much as you want. I'll bring you more if you want some."

Hermione smiled, nodding as she put another piece in her mouth. Hermione finished the cake and Draco folded the handkerchief and put it back into the pocket he took it out from.

She was thankful he had stopped lurking in the shadows of the infirmary. He would just watch for days then, one early morning, he sat down next to her and asked her if he could read to her.

Hermione had nodded, and he had been visiting her ever since.

A chill ran through Hermione, pulling her out of her musings, and she immediately wrapped the blanket around her tighter. Her arm with Mudblood dug into it much like it had the night she was tortured. She knew that what was to come next, what almost always came next.

"Something wrong?" Draco asked.

"It's cold." Hermione whispered. Her head was spinning, and slowly, it wasn't Draco sitting there, Bellatrix has made her third reappearance that day.

But this time it was different. All other times the hallucinations would come in and out of focus, but this time it was too real. She reached out in an attempt to see if she would feel the crazed woman wild hare and, to her silent relief, her hand went right past a tightly wound coil.

"I'm hallucinating," Hermione said after some silence.

"Hallucinating." Draco repeated, "Do you need me to call Madam—"

"No no," Hermione said, wrapping her blanket tighter around herself, "it'll go away."

Draco gave her a skeptical look as the hallucination flickered from Hermione's sight, but said nothing. The rest of his visit, Draco looked pensive as he read to her, his brows slightly drawn together.

As their time together came to an end, the hallucination fading hours before, the crease between Draco's brows only got deeper. Hermione reached over and smoothed it with her thumb, relishing in the boys warmth. Draco took her hand brushed his lips against her knuckles.

"That day in potions," Draco whispered, "when you are screaming. Was that a hallucination, too?"

Hermione stiffened but nodded. Draco gave her a long, thoughtful look.

"Who did you see?" He asked.

"Bellatrix," came Hermione's answer.

Draco began fiddle with his fingers, "And just now?" He asked in an almost childlike way, "Who was I?"

Hermione didn't answer, but apparently that was enough for Draco.

The main entrance of the infirmary opened then shut loudly. Harry stepped into Hermione's peripheral view.

"Herms," He said, "you okay?"

"I'm fine, Harry," Hermione said, "I'll see you tomorrow, Draco."

Draco nodded, he stood up and left. There was no soft kiss on the cheek, no shy looks as he left.

He just walked away.

Harry looked at the back of Draco's head oddly, "What's up with him?" He asked, jabbing his thumb in the blond's direction.

"I don't know," Hermione said, "but I think I might have offended him."

Harry sat beside her with a shrug and pulled out another letter from Ron. Hermione closed her eyes to listening to Harry's calming tone when she eventually drifted to sleep.