A/N: I think there may only be one chapter left. I can't believe I am so close to an ending. I also can't believe this story took me over a year to complete. Embarrassing.

Hope you like the chapter.

In all of his years as a healer, Draco had never had to give any patient's parent's bad news. He always healed his patients quickly and got them home good as new. Even in the case of prolonged magical illnesses or dark curses, Draco seemed to have a natural ability to cure. No, Draco had never had to tell anyone's parent's that their child was in a coma, and he wasn't about to start now.

So he made Potter do it.

"You know them," Draco insisted. "They'll take the news better from you. Trust me, I'm a healer. I know these things."

Draco didn't know these things, as he'd never been in this situation.

Potter was resistant. He crossed his arms. "It's the doctor's job to do that sort of thing."

"Doctor? What are you on about, Potter? Anyway, just go tell them. They're already here, they know something is up." Draco was almost ready to beg. He just couldn't face her parents, their eventual tears, their questions. He had work to do, he needed to remain emotionally uninvolved for the moment.

"Malfoy, you need to-"

"What I need to do, Potter, is get this potion ready. Hermione doesn't have much time. Now go tell her parents before I use the imperius curse and force you to." Draco wasn't very good at the Imperius curse, but Potter didn't need to know that.

Potter left the office, grumbling some choice words about Draco under his breath.

Draco couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of Skelegro before. It had been right in front of him. If he'd only noticed it sooner, if he hadn't resisted Hermione's help, she may have already been cured. She could have been out of the hospital and they could've started a real relationship. Draco could almost laugh at the fact that Hermione had managed to outsmart him, even though she was dying. It was the dying part that prevented the laughter.

Hermione had been unconscious for a little more than a day now. He had been forced to admit that she would probably not wake up again unless he managed to cure her. He didn't know how long the coma would last before she would be unwakeable and he didn't want to think about it. He hadn't stopped working on the potion to eat or sleep and he wasn't planning to until he had a product he was ninety-nine percent sure would work.

Time was always working against him. If only he could just add Skelegro to one of his existing prototypes, but no – the ingredients wouldn't mix properly. Things had to be reconsidered, toxicity tested, and there was the compatibility of the components to consider.

Draco worked tirelessly into the night – Potter returned briefly to inform him that Hermione had not woken up and that her parents were insisting on staying in the room with her. Draco noticed that Potter's eyes were red and puffy. Normally this would be something Draco could make fun of, but it was hard to do when Draco felt the same way.

Finally, when the second day was turning into the second night, Draco came up with something he was satisfied with. If he was going to stake his life on any cure, it would be this one. It should work. It had to work. It couldn't not work. He didn't even want to think about the consequences of it not working.

Hermione's room was crowded, almost to the point of angering him. The room wasn't huge, and with her parents, Potter, two Weasleys, and Longbottom, there was hardly room to move. He was surprised Hermione wasn't waking up just to scold them all about fire regulations, or something. Surely they were breaking some rule.

"I thought you had to watch your brat," Draco commented to the more female of the Weasleys. Well, the more female of the Potters, he supposed.

Ginny glared at him, but the tears in her eyes lessened the effect. "He's at his grandmother's."

"Do you have something?" Ron asked, indicating the bottle Draco held.

"I certainly hope so," Draco responded, walking to Hermione's side. Her parents were sitting in chairs next to her bed, and her father was grasping her hand. It was a painful sight. Her mother, like Ginny, had tears in her eyes and on her cheeks. Hermione just laid there, oblivious to the pain of those surrounding her.

Since she was unconscious, Draco needed to magic the potion into her body. There was a spell for unconscious potion administering, also useful in the rare case that someone's mouth stopped working, and he used it expertly. Hermione's breathing was slow and even.

The only thing left to do was wait.

Hermione heard voices around her, but she couldn't open her eyes. She felt like the world was spinning; she couldn't remember where she was or why, and she couldn't make out who the voices belonged to as they continued to speak, obscenely loud, above her.

"Potter, I need you to take off the bandage. Do it – don't give me that look, just do it!"

A gagging noise, multiple voices talking at once.

"What should we do?"

"Is that – a leg?"

"Go and get another healer – now! The first one you see! Then get Astley, and be quick about it!"

"What are we going to do?"

Hermione tried to stay conscious, but something was dragging her back under, and she heard one final sentence before everything went black.

"Hold on, Hermione."

Once again, Hermione came into consciousness, but it felt different this time. There weren't frenzied voices shouting above her. She heard quiet whispering to her left, but she couldn't make out the words. She felt as if she could open her eyes. She blinked slowly, and the world was blurry; she couldn't make out where she was. She continued to blink, and she heard a voice call out loudly beside her.

"She's awake!"

But she felt tired, so incredibly tired. Her eyes were too blurry to see and so she closed them. She felt someone grab her hand, and she tried to squeeze back, but she lacked energy. Her hand gave a weak twitch.

"Hermione, can you hear me?" said a familiar voice, but many familiar voices were talking to her, all at once, their voices swirling together in her head, and she was annoyed by them. She felt like batting the voices away, because her head hurt and she couldn't focus. She squeezed her eyes shut and wished she had enough energy to cover her ears.

Finally the voices stopped trying to talk over each other, and one strong, confident, joyful sounding voice echoed in her ear.

"Hermione, you're going to make it, but we had to make a few sacrifices…"

It was the last thing she heard before the darkness pulled her under once again.