Been a while, I know. My apologies.

Disclaimer-Clearly, I am not JK Rowling. Deal with it.

Hermione settled herself down in the Great Hall, beside Harry and Ron. Ginny was nowhere to be seen, but the popular redhead was most likely held up with friends.

Upon inner reflection, Hermione had never had such an eventful first day at Hogwarts.

Not that it was particularly eventful past the whole Draco fiasco, or, perhaps her Transfiguration class, but, in truth, that was enough for Hermione. She just wanted to go back to her nice common room, sit in front her her fireplace, and start her homework. Nothing like a few solid hours of study to calm the nerves. Not that anyone ever believed her when she said that, but, she had long ago realized that she really wasn't like everyone else.

Not that she cared in the least.

Hermione picked at her Sheppard's pie, listening to Harry retell the story of Transfiguration to Ron, who had, due to a new interest in Divination (thanks to a new crush) dropped transfiguration. Ron was surely regretting his decision right this time, due to the absolute shock that splayed across his face. Although, in all reality, Ron was most likely regretting dropping Transfiguration when the object of his crush walked into Divination class with her new boyfriend.

Hermione let her mind wander, knowing the whole story, seeing as it was about her. Her thoughts instinctively went to Draco Malfoy, Slytherin prince extrodinaire. The blond haired prat, who had been a complete and total dick to her the entire time at Hogwarts.. She wanted to be happy that something terrible had happened to him, but she just couldn't. It wasn't her style, or a personality trait that she shared with Harry and Ron, to say nothing of the rest of the school. She just never really wished bad things to happen to people. Whenever she was angry at someone, she usually made it perfectly clear to them by yelling, in the case of Ron, or punching in the case of Draco. Not that she had made a habit of punching people, even though it had felt fantastic.

But this, what had happened to Draco...Hermione couldn't get the image out of her mind, and, whenever it popped up, she felt supreme pity and compassion towards her arch enemy. Not that she liked that term, it was more of a Harry thing, but there were plenty of times during her school years when she could have called him that.

"Hermione?" Harry said, his voice implying that he had been trying to get her attention for some time now.

"Yeah" Hermione said, startled, wondering how long she had been lost in her thoughts for. This had been happening more frequently since her parents had died, but had started to abate in the last few days.

"I've been trying to get your attention for a while. Are you alright?" Harry asked, worry lighting his emerald eyes.

"I'm perfectly alright. Just zoned out for a minute. What were you saying?" Hermione brushed off the worry of her friend, knowing that he truly did mean the best for her. She just didn't want to tell her two best friends that she was worried about Malfoy. Especially since they didn't realize that she had the right to be worried, after how she found him that morning. To say nothing of his concern at the funeral in the summer.

"I was just asking you who the Head boy was." Harry said, giving her one last look of concern.

Hermione looked at her two friends, trying to figure out how they would react. "Its Draco Malfoy. As we knew it would be, so don't bother acting surprised." She said, with somewhat of a smile, lessening the sting in her words.

Harry and Ron looked about to say something, but at that moment, to Hermione's relief, Ginny showed up, and plopped down at the table beside Harry. The conversation turned back to Quidditch, seeing as they were all members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and Hermione tried despretly to follow the conversation.

Draco woke to the sound of someone shuffling around his room. He knew that he was at Hogwarts, so it couldn't be his mother, or the house elves, so he stayed perfectly still, as his mind worked furiously to figure out who in the hell would invade his space.

Or, as a better question, who the hell figured out the password to his rooms, in such short time.

Draco shifted his body, ever so slightly, so that he could see the intruder. He slid his one eye open-having learned the trick not to be noticed as a child-and looked around the room.

Which was, without a doubt, NOT his room at Hogwarts.

The room was white, pure white, with a pale yellow trim around the middle. There was a curtain on the one side of his bed, and he could see another identical one across the room.

The person that had been shuffling around came into view, and that was when he knew, without a doubt, that he was at St. Mungo's. The woman, rather, the medi-witch, wore a medium length white dress, a white hat atop her brown curls, and flat white shoes. She was checking charts that hung around the room, and added to them, using her wand to check on her patient, whi was hidden from Draco's view from his own curtain.

Draco relaxed, knowing that he was reasonably safe where he was, but knew not to let his guard down, since he still had no idea WHY he was there in the first place. He mentally went over his body, feeling the skin and bone underneath, searching for whatever had brought his here.

His stomach was queasy, his throat was raw, and all of his muscles were sore, as if he had just spent a few hours running rather then sleeping, which is what he suspected he had been doing. He felt the rest of his body, and knew that he was wearing one of those godawful hospital gowns, the ones that if you didn't tie it properly, your arse hung out the back.

The shuffling moved closer to his bed, and he knew that the nurse was coming to check up on him. He opened his eyes, wanting the nurse to know that he was awake, and, more importantly, get some answers. Upon reflection, he was very confused. What in the hell was he doing at St. Mungo's? If he had been hurt, which was fairly apparent, why hadn't he been treated by the nurse at Hogwarts? Did Snape know that he was here? Most likely, since he was head of House. Who had brought him here? Most importantly, WHY had they, whoever they were, brought him here?

"Good Morning Mr. Malfoy" The medi-witch said, breaking into his thoughts. She had brown curls, that went to her shoulders, deep brown eyes, and pert lips, which were smiling down at him.

He stared at her for a few moments, feeling somewhat drawn to her. Or, rather not her, but someone else with brown curls, and darker eyes.

"Good Morning, Miss...?" Draco let the question hang, while trying to figure out why he had thought of Hermione, of all people, at a time like this.

"Miss. Meredith Gentry, but you can call me Merry, if you'ld like." She smiled big and warm at him, which made him feel a bit more at ease. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"I am a little sore, but, I feel alright." Draco figured it would be best to be honest, since she was here to help him. "I have a few questions, actually Merry, would you mind ?"

"Oh, of course!" Merry said, " but I'm going to run my tests while we talk, since I need to get on with getting your breakfast." She pulled her wand out, brought out, what he assumed, was his chart,. and started waving the wand over his body.

"First off, I'd like to know what happened to me to be here in the first place."

"Oh. Hmm. I don't know for sure, which is why we are keeping you here for a few days, but I will tell you what I can. You got here early this morning, by the Headmistress of Hogwarts. She mentioned something about a dark curse, and then you were brought to the curse breaker's ward, a few rooms down actually. As far as I know, the healers got most of the curse out, but some of it lingers, like a bad cold, which is why you are here, rather then back at school, under the care of the nurse there." The wand still moved up and down his body, displaying different colors, and patterns, and she wrote it all down.

"What was the symptoms when I arrived?" had he been comatose? That would have been ideal, for all involved.

"You were convulsing, and I saw your face. It was a mask of pain and terror. I wont deny it, I will never forget the sheer anguish on your face." She looked at him seriously. "We all thought you were a goner."

"Did the Headmistress mention who had, erm, found me?" Draco had absolutly no recollection of the previous night, so he was not sure who had, in fact, found him. For all he knew, he might have walked right into the Great Hall, raving.

"I remembering hearing that it was the Head Girl." Merry said, distracted.

Hermione had found him? Found him convulsing?

Son of a bitch.

end transmission