May 1997
Hermione jumped off the common room couch as Harry emerged through the portrait hole.
"You've been gone so long, Ron went off to bed..." she paused and looked at him. He stared at her ashen and visibly dismayed. She stared at him as he stared wildly back at her "what happened?" She repeated her eyes frantically searching his face, letting her eyes drift to the blood on his hands "are you alright?"
He moved over to the couch and sat down, Hermione following suit grabbing at his bloody hands "Malfoy... bathroom... Snape..." he stared at her.
"You didn't?" She clasped her hands to her mouth and looked at her best friend who started to tell her the story of how he found Draco in the bathroom and how he used the spell he had found in his potions book and how he tried to stop his bleeding before Snape came in.
"Harry..." Hermione sighed and wrapped her friend in a hug tightly.
"Snape gave me detention with him every Saturday for the rest of the year."
"As well he should have! You almost killed a student harry, all because you're caught up in thinking he's a death eater!" Her eyebrows knitted together and she pulled away to look at him "I told you that spell was dangerous. You didn't know what it did before you used it and if Snape hadn't been there—" She shook her head. If Snape hadn't been there, she'd have lost her boyfriend and her best friend would have been hunted down by the entire slytherin population if Lucius Malfoy didn't hear of it first. She sighed and pulled out her wand casting a cleaning spell on his hands "maybe you should get to bed. It's been a long day."
"You're right." His green eyes searched her face and she held his gaze for a moment before he broke away and went up stairs to the boy's dormitory.
She waited a few moments before she jumped up off the couch with the book she had in hand and slipped through the portrait hole, ignoring the grumbling fat lady behind her. She checked the time on her watch, ten after ten. It was early enough to still be coming back from the library should she be stopped and the book in her hand proved where she had been. Only it had been hours before. She slipped down a corridor and another one, narrowly avoiding peeves while dancing around Mrs. Norris.
She reached the large doors of the hospital wing and opened them with surprising ease before she slipped into the long room.
Lying in the middle of the room in a bed by the window was Draco. He was lying flat and as far as Hermione could see he was asleep, his chest rising and falling slightly with each breath he took. She sighed in relief, he was safe and now she could rest easily tonight. She turned around and put her hand on the handle but jumped when a voice called our behind her.
"Miss Granger?" She turned around and smiled at the witch before her "it is well past visiting hours and curfew and you look healthy..." the witch eyed her and sighed "you do have a knack for breaking rules don't you? If it wasn't for Harry Potter—"
"Draco and I are partners in charms. I heard the news and I wanted to come see for myself." She eyed Madame Pomfrey before casing a longing look toward Draco.
"Go ahead dear." She sighed "I don't get you in here as often as the others and while you do have a knack for breaking the rules you don't do it that often. Besides as head girl—-"
Hermione smiled and nodded before rushing past her and sitting on the chair that sat on the side of Draco's bed, probably occupied by Pansy a few hours earlier.
.xx.
Draco opened his eyes and saw her sitting there cross legged with her elbows sitting in the crook of her knees, one hand holding an obscenely large book while the other held her wand with an illuminated tip.
"You're here..." He croaked and she jumped, he wasn't sure if it was fright or excitement.
"Where else would I be?" She smiled and grabbed his hand. Her hand was warm and soft and everything he dreamt of when he was dying in the bathroom.
"Am I dead?" He groaned as he sat up slightly.
"Only just." Hermione lamented before giggling slightly. He wanted to grin back at her, he loved to hear her laugh but his chest hurt. The giggling in his ears stopped and he looked over at her where joy was just a few seconds ago, concern replaced it "I'm sure you're in a lot of pain. I can get Madame Pomfrey for you—" she started to stand up
He grabbed her hand "no." He breathed "stay. Please." Hermione nodded and sat back down after grabbing a potion off the table.
"Madame Pomfrey said you'd be in here about a week." She unscrewed the top to the bottle that resembled skele-grow but Draco knew better "what Harry did—" she paused "—it was dark magic and it's just a precaution, keeping you here." She held out a spoon and he stared at the green liquid sitting on top of it "if you don't want me to get Madame Pomfrey you're going to have to take this. It'll make you sleepy but you'll be able to sleep."
He shook his head wincing as he sat up a little higher "what time is it?"
She looked at her watch and back up at him "three twenty two."
He groaned "you just be exhausted—"
She shook her head and he watched as her curls gently bounced around her "no, it's okay. I want to make sure you're fine and besides... I'm furious at Harry. He found that spell written in a potions book and he just goes and uses it on you?" She snorted and he quirked an eyebrow "this whole year he's been convinced that you joined the death eaters! How absurd is that?!"
He averted his eyes and made sure that the left sleeve of his pajamas was pulled down. He didn't answer her and he didn't look at her, he let the air become pregnant with a loaded question. When she gasped he looked at her quickly, her hands were brought to her face.
"Draco..." She shook her head "you didn't—"
"I had to, you don't understand."
"So help me understand, Draco." Her eyes wildly searched his face.
He clinched his jaw and stared out the window ahead of him. Rain pattered at the windows and he wished he was close enough to watch the water drops race instead of answering her question because if he was truthful with himself, he didn't know why he took the mark. He didn't want it, he didn't like what it represented and he didn't like the man behind it. But his father had been so proud. He wanted to keep his mother safe. He closed his eyes.
"Because it is demanded of me that I do it. I've been given a job, I can't talk about it so don't ask me but I beg your forgiveness in advance." He muttered.
"I don't know what's going on Draco but you're better than what's on your arm." She reached over and he winced slightly as she touched the fabric over arm "you're not a bad person and you're never going to be a bad person. You are an exceptionally good person, Draco Malfoy."
.xx.
Her laughter filled the hospital wing as she clutched her sides. Her hair seemed to frizzle a bit and tears leaked out the sides of her eyes and what seemed like instantly, she stopped.
"That was..." she breathed and looked at him, her brown eyes filled with joy "...very good, Draco."
He shrugged and looked at her "Rictusempra isn't that hard."
"I know but we have to go over all the charms we know. Who knows what professor Flitwick is going to put on that test." She knitted her eyebrows and pulled her legs beneath her, resting her book between her legs.
He sighed and sat up, a lot easier than he had two days ago and he was thankful "I doubt he's going to make us tickle each other."
She shot him a look "you're lucky you're laid up in bed otherwise I'd tickle you!"
He grinned at her and looked down at the book on his lap, ignoring the sound of the doors to the hospital wing open.
"What is she doing here?"
Draco looked up to see Pansy standing at the end of his bed, Crabbe and Goyle behind her and Blaise behind them, lazily strolling in with a toothpick between his lips.
"We're studying." Hermione looked at her before she looked back to her book flipping a page "or did you forget that—"
"No one asked you, mudblood!" Pansy stomped and crossed her arms.
Draco watched as Hermione straightened her spine and shut her book "I'll see you later."
"Granger..."
She stood up and straightened her skirt and her sweater. In stolen moments in the library he had felt the soft thighs that her skirt had covered and her taught stomach that her Gryffindor sweater hid "no, you have company and one doesn't like to hold the company of the chauvinistic." She grabbed her bag and swung it over her shoulder before walking away from the bed.
Pansy stood rooted to the spot, her wand out and pointed to the chair Hermione had previously occupied. He watched as she cast a scorguify before she erupted into a fit of giggles. Her loud nasally laugh filled the hall and he turned his eyes to his witch who had her wand casually flung over her shoulder. She looked over her shoulder and winked before disappearing through the door.
.xx.
He reached over and grabbed her hand that hung limply at her side. She had fallen asleep sitting upright in the chair she had vacated a few days prior. Pansy had taken visiting Draco whenever she could, making sure Hermione wasn't there. Whenever she came in and saw Pansy she dropped off his class work and left often leaving Pansy in a fit of giggles before she cursed her name.
But she was here now, asleep in the most uncomfortable position with one hand clasped loosely around a book and one clasped between his fingers.
She opened her eyes and stretched slightly "Draco?"
He reached out and moved the book out of her hands "come here."
She groaned and shook her head "we're in school, Draco."
"So?" He gently tugged her hand and she stood up and laid down on the bed next to him. He wrapped his arms around her "I'm sorry about Pansy."
"I'm not worried about her." She mumbled, her hands gently resting on his forearms.
He sighed and buried his face in her hair "for the word—"
She sighed and snuggled closer to him. He prayed to Merlin that she didn't feel his burgeoning erection.
"It doesn't bother me. It hasn't bothered me for a long time." She sighed "wake me in an hour yeah? I have ancient runes and I can't miss it."
Draco nodded silently and pulled her closer to him, his eyes fixated on the door in front of him wondering what Blaise would say. Before he closed his eyes he cursed his friend for being mildly right at least twenty five percent of the time and made a vow to practice occulmency more diligently when he left the wing.
Authors note: I have outlined ELEVEN (this is probably a lie, probably less than that because I can't count which is why I write and don't do math) more chapters before we're completely done. Might be more but there's at least eleven more weeks of these two as we know them in this story. I'm so sad but excited to start on a new one!