Day 17

The cold morning light filtered onto her skin through the leave over, Hermione's eyes blinked furiously, trying to focus her vision, her eyes were scratchy as if she hadn't slept at all, but she had, she had in fact passed out while it was still afternoon the previous day.

Her mad dash without rest had caused her to all but collapse in exhaustion, she had barely climbed into a tree and bind herself to the branch before losing consciousness.

She had not encountered one quintaped, somehow she thought they might be intelligent enough to realise both encounters had ended bad for them, so maybe they had avoided her as much as she wanted to avoid them, Hermione untied herself then scrambled down the tree fluidly, she glanced around her, then swiftly satisfied her hunger and thirst before casting the point me and then taking off hurriedly again.

She knew she was only a few hours away, yet she couldn't get her feet to move fast enough through the jungle, couldn't get her arms to slice the sword through the brush quick enough, yet she pressed forward.

Not faltering once.

Her face and hands and neck stung from all the cuts and gashes across her skin, yet it didn't deter her from her mission, she moved forward, sure step one after the other at a time.

It was mid afternoon that Hermione finally reached the familiar piled rocks and boulders, she was absolutely exhausted, her hands actually trembled as she climbed up to the opening.

She sidled through the opening and sunk down exhausted, unclasping the sword from around her hips and dropping the rucksack where she sat, raking a trembling, dirty and bloodied hand through her hair that had mostly escaped its confines and were standing in all direction on her head.

She made out the slumping figure of Draco against the far wall, her stomach muscles clenched nervously when she realised he hadn't reacted to her arrival, fisting the rucksack in one hand she crawled over to his prone form, dragging the rucksack over, the sound of it scraping over the dirt like chalk on a blackboard, causing her to grit her teeth with her over sensitised senses.

Reaching the pale man she was relieved to see the open and clearly drunk up water containers, as well as the empty wrappers from the bars, her fingers instantly went to his neck to search for his pulse, visibly relaxing when she felt it, weak but there nonetheless.

Hermione instantly set to work, depositing the entire contents of the rucksack in a pile by unceremoniously turning the sack over to have the contents dumped out.

She hastily sorted through it, getting the potions she wanted, dittany and blood replenishing, unstoppering the blood replenishing potion she opened his slack jaw and poured the liquid down his throat, her face plastered with worry and anxiety by his lack of any form of response.

Then she proceeded to open up the nasty wound, flinching at the obvious infection, then with a swipe of her wand she cleaned her own hands and the wound and started to pour the dittany, her hands shaking noticeably as well as she spilled quite a bit of the dittany, but she didn't stop till she saw the wound colour starting to change and the tattered flesh starting to knit.

Hermione sat back, taking deep breaths to calm herself, lifting her still shaking hands to watch them, dropping them in frustration when they wouldn't stop shaking.

Getting clean bandage Hermione then rebandaged the now, already better, wounds, then shimmied him down to lay flat again, sitting on her bum next to him.

Her hand resting on his chest, taking in his haggard breathing, weak and uneven, she looked how her hand still trembled, then looking at his pale drawn face she could see some colour in his lips again, the blood replenishing potion already working.

The shaking hand lifted from his chest to softly trace the contours of his face, his brow, cheekbones, jawline and lips, then moving to trace his nose, he had such aristocratic features she noticed, refined and delicate, yet still strong and masculine, his now very dirty hair was covering his forehead, she gently swiped it out of his face, tucking a stray behind his ear.

His lids were so pale, they were almost translucent, the delicate veins blue and red through the skin of his lids, his lashes only a shade darker than his impossibly blonde white hair, yet long and thick, brushing his cheek bones almost.

He was really attractive she realised, in a lot more ways than just physically, her heart hammered in her chest, fear that he might not wake up from this, that she might have been too late.

Her hands started trembling all over again, she felt his pulse once more, breathing deep when she felt it was slightly stronger now.

"Be strong Draco... I'm here, I'll not let you go." She whispered as she once more stroked some of his hair from his face, then sighing deeply she shifted to sit against the wall rock next to him, her eyes never leaving him for a moment.

Xxx

It was dark when Hermione felt herself dropping down sideways against the rock she had sat against, she immediately righted herself and realised she had dosed off, frantically she took in Draco, lightning her wand in the process to cast light.

His chest was now rising and falling smoothly, rhythmically, his breathing stronger and steady, she felt her tense shoulder muscles slowly relaxing, then she realised his cheeks now also had colour again.

Hermione's urgent fingers found the now familiar point at his throat and could almost laugh with joy when she felt the now very strong beat of his pulse, without thought she leaned over and brushed her lips in a feathery kiss over his lips, smiling at his still sleeping face as she pulled back once more, her hand cupping his cheek.

"Told you Draco... Your not going anywhere."