Chapter 24 - Floating

As Hermione sprinted down the corridors with Malfoy floating behind her like some sort of demented balloon, Hermione had the disturbing realization that she was truly an idiot. Of course, she had been completely knackered when she decided it would be a good idea to knock Malfoy unconscious and levitate him through Hogwarts to the hospital wing, but how would Madam Pomfrey know that Malfoy had back pain? Hermione certainly couldn't tell her, and she had been in the hospital wing enough to know that Madam Pomfrey didn't typically check such things.

Hermione grimaced in frustration as she levitated Malfoy towards the hospital wing as quickly as she dared. She had also, when formulating this plan, forgotten that Malfoy had put a timer on her ability to restrain him. Of course, knocking him unconscious might not technically count as a restraint, but Hermione didn't want to test her luck on a technicality.

The halls were not empty, and Hermione had to do some quick wandwork to avoid having Malfoy bludgeon a group of shocked third-years she passed. Under other circumstances, the reactions of her Hogwarts peers to Malfoy's limp form zooming down the corridors would have provided immense amusement, but really, she was just thankful they didn't try to intervene on Malfoy's behalf.

Hermione's chest burned from her run. How long had it been? How much further did she have to go? Would she make it before Malfoy woke up and took back her ability to curse him?

Hermione would have scowled if she weren't so busy trying to breathe. Who knew how Malfoy might retaliate, but she had no doubt that he would. To think she was doing this for his own good… She must be barmy. She certainly never wanted to hear him say she only thought of herself again.

She rounded another corner with Malfoy and cried out in alarm as she watched Malfoy's body barrel into Luna Lovegood at full-speed. Hermione stumbled over her own feet in her effort to stop and collapsed, heaving. Luna, true to her ethereal nature, did not cry out like most would when she crumbled with Malfoy to the ground. Instead, Luna simply stared at the unconscious Malfoy with wide eyes, then pulled herself back up and scanned the corridor, as if looking for something or someone.

"She's looking for me, isn't she?" Hermione said to herself after she caught her breath. She slowly stood back up and searched for her wand, which she realized was no longer in her hands.

"Accio Hermione Granger's wand," Luna said suddenly, and Hermione watched as her wand flew from the floor nearby to Luna's grasp. As soon as Luna held it, Luna pointed her own wand at it. "Prior Incantato," she said. Hermione and Luna watched as echoes of Wingardium Leviosa, Vermillious, Stupefy, Reparo, and Vermillious appeared in that order. At Luna's feet, Malfoy began to groan and pull himself together.

Luna aimed her own wand at Malfoy just as his eyes opened to look at her. "Stupefy," she said with a small smirk, and Malfoy slumped back over. "Good morning, Hermione. My scatterblot said this would be an auspicious time to walk the corridors," she said conversationally before casting her own Wingardium Leviosa on Malfoy. "Now, where to?" Luna asked as if she hadn't just cursed Malfoy with no instructions whatsoever from Hermione other than the last spells in Hermione's wand.

Hermione gaped, not sure how to address this. Luna clearly intended to help her, but Hermione had no way of speaking with Luna… She wasn't even certain she would be allowed to reclaim her wand from Luna, since Malfoy had only given her permission to reclaim the map. Hermione walked over to where Luna stood by Malfoy's levitated form and attempted to touch her wand. Her grasp went right through it, and Hermione groaned.

"That's right," Luna said. "The curse prevents you from communicating directly, but Ginny did tell me there were ways around it, including morse code. She gave me the translation just a few minutes ago." She frowned and set Hermione's wand on the ground. Hermione eagerly reclaimed it now that the curse allowed it. "You sent sparks out earlier. Can you do so now?"

Hermione cast the spell. She could see the sparks, but Luna did not react to them. Hermione was not very surprised. Malfoy had said they were to be used in the classroom only. Hermione wondered if she might use them in any classroom, which would give her another opportunity to communicate. It would certainly be worth testing later, provided Malfoy didn't outright take her wand away for forcing him to Madam Pomfrey.

Luna gently set Malfoy back down on the ground, shoved her wand behind her ear, and dug into her bag. After a moment, she pulled out a very familiar, yet bizarre, pair of glasses that Hermione had not seen in many years. What had Luna called them? Spectral Glasses? Luna put them on, looked around, and frowned with disappointment. "The spectrespecs were only designed to reveal wrackspurts, but I had hoped they might reveal you as well. Can you drop your wand again? I want to see something." She took off the spectrespecs and put them back in her bag.

Hermione dropped her wand without question. She and Luna were never very close despite not having many other friends, but she knew Luna was clever and trustworthy. She also rather suspected she knew what Luna was getting at, and if Luna was right...

Luna's eyes immediately went to the wand when it clattered against the ground. "I thought so. Pick it up again?"

Hermione picked it up again, and Luna pulled out a copy of the morse code translation from her bag. "That will do it. I suppose you don't need me to explain that waiting to pick it up can be a long dash, and picking it up immediately can be a short dash, correct?"

Hermione took the time to spell out, "Of course," in morse code using her wand and Luna's own copy of the translation. Hermione had left her copy with the map, not thinking it would be relevant away from it.

Luna smiled serenely. "I look forward to chatting with you again, Hermione."

A few minutes of wand-dropping morse code later, Hermione and Luna were walking along the corridors together towards the hospital wing at a comfortable pace with Malfoy stupefied and levitated by Luna. They could not easily maintain the correspondence while moving, but Luna was quite happy to chat at Hermione regardless.

"I'm so very delighted to have found another method for communicating with you," Luna said. "I spoke with Ginny this morning during our study break, and I think I have an idea for a way to speed up the translation process. I do hope spending so much time with only Malfoy to speak to has not been very awful for you. He is rather off-setting on the surface, but he is not truly cruel."

"He imprisoned you at his manor!" Hermione blurted out in response before she remembered Luna couldn't hear her.

Luna smiled serenely. "I expect you're recalling that I was imprisoned in his home, but that was how I discovered his kindness. He dared not trust Mister Ollivander with his disgust at the circumstances, but he knew well that my word would never be taken seriously, and he was rather lonely. The other Death Eaters were very cruel, after all."

Hermione froze in step a moment as her heart thudded with an odd sense of deja vu. Had she not felt something similar before developing her feelings for Malfoy? Had Luna discovered feelings for Malfoy as well?

Luna walked on with no awareness that Hermione had fallen behind, and Hermione had to jog to catch back up. "He would stun Mister Ollivander on his way in and then sit with me to chat until someone came, and, of course, he would have to be cruel to me then, but he never meant it. It was very sweet, in a way. I felt rather sorry for him."

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Hermione struggled to breathe despite her tightening chest. Malfoy's relationship with Luna was none of her business. On an objective level, she even could recognize that this was a good thing. Malfoy had been looking for allies, and Luna was a touch odd, but there was no question that Luna would see Malfoy exactly for who he was and not at all for his title or past. Luna was simply like that. Luna had always been like that. Luna was even pureblooded, so Malfoy had no reason to look down on her blood status… unlike Hermione.

Hermione felt her eyes water as bitter jealousy stabbed her heart. "This is a good thing," she muttered to herself. "You don't belong in his world. You don't even want to be in his world, not really." She wanted nothing to do with the snobbery of the wizarding elites who were too paranoid to even see a mediwitch when their back hurt for fear of exposing a weakness. It seemed a miserable way to live.

Malfoy's blond head brushed up against her as Luna slowed down around a bend, and Hermione reflexively smoothed his hair out from where it had fallen in his face. His hair was soft, and Hermione felt the trickle of a tear down her face. She clenched her fists against the flood of emotion as she continued walking and tried desperately to recall the conversation she had with Ginny just earlier that morning, but the fog of her fatigue and stress prevented her from recalling more than the impression that she had decided to distance herself from Malfoy. The details escaped her.

"You already decided this, Hermione Jean Granger. You committed to stay away from him. He's bad news for you, and it's too much too soon." That's right. She had despised him not even three days ago now. The absurdity of her intense affection for him after having ignored him most of the school year struck her suddenly. "I must be mad as a hatter… A complete nutter. Has the curse deprived me of all common sense?"

It was with great relief that Hermione found the doors to the hospital wing when she looked up from her diatribe.

"We've reached the hospital wing now," Luna said and paused at the door. She opened the double doors and carefully levitated Malfoy inside. Hermione followed them and noted that Luna held the doors open a few seconds longer before shutting them, likely making sure Hermione had had time to come through.

Madam Pomfrey had been at the bedside of a second year Hufflepuff boy who appeared to have branches for arms and roots for feet, but she hurried over when she saw Luna and Malfoy come in and eyed the stunned, floating Malfoy warily. "May I help you?"

"Draco Malfoy has back pain," Luna Lovegood explained. "Which bed should I put him on?"

Madam Pomfrey's jaw wobbled, as if she wasn't quite sure what the appropriate response was. "Err, any free one should be fine. Why, precisely, is Mr. Malfoy arriving unconscious and levitated if all that troubles him is a bad back?"

Hermione stayed back, wondering if she should leave now or wait until she knew Malfoy's back was treated. She wobbled on her feet from exhaustion, and she longed to sit down and rest. Her heart warred within her, longing to discover the extent of Luna's relationship with Malfoy while eager to escape his presence… and yet she also needed to know how he would respond to her impulsive decision to force treatment upon him.

Luna lowered Malfoy gently onto an empty cot. Once Malfoy was settled, Luna faced Madam Pomfrey. "I didn't ask. Would you like me to?"

Madam Pomfrey frowned, confusion etched into every crease of her face. "Ask who? Mr. Malfoy?"

"Oh no," Luna said and smiled. "Hermione, of course. She's the one that originally stunned and levitated him, after all. I just bumped into them and decided to help when she said he needed to see you for his back."

Madam Pomfrey's eyebrows shot up. "You say Ms. Granger did this to Mr. Malfoy? Ms. Lovegood, are you certain it wasn't Peeves up to his usual antics?"

"Quite certain, though I suppose I could be wrong. Hermione? What kind of umbrella stand was at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix?"

Hermione frowned, walked closer, and began the tedious process of spelling out 'troll leg' in morse code by dropping her wand repeatedly next to Luna. Luna held out her own translation sheet and tracked Hermione's wand appearances to each letter while Madam Pomfrey looked on in bewilderment.

"Troll leg. That's correct," Luna confirmed after a moment before putting down the translation to eye Madam Pomfrey. "You see, I don't think it very likely Peeves would know such a thing, though I could be mistaken. Should I ask her why she stunned and levitated Malfoy to bring him here? The answer does seem rather obvious though."

"Does it?" Madam Pomfrey replied vaguely.

"Yes. She was either protecting him from the grindelwisps that like to plague the halls and leap on the backs of unsuspecting students, which worsens back pain, or she knew he would not come willingly." Luna crossed her arms and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I wonder which one it was."

Hermione shook her head in disbelief, amazed at Luna's tenacious fascination with all things imaginary. Madam Pomfrey seemed equally mystified, though she quickly blinked and focused back on Malfoy. "Well, in that case, perhaps I should run diagnostics and treatment before I innervate him."

"I'll see myself out then," Luna said and began walking away.

"Wait," Madam Pomfrey cried, turning to Luna once more. "Might you teach me how you communicated with Ms. Granger? I would like to know if she's staying, among other things."

"Of course," Luna said, returning to Madam Pomfrey's side.

Hermione watched as Luna pulled out the page and touched her wand to it. "Geminio," Luna said, and a duplicate immediately appeared. Hermione's jaw dropped. Why hadn't she thought to do that for herself? Luna handed the copy to Madam Pomfrey and gave Madam Pomfrey a quick rundown of how it worked. "And so you see, when Hermione leaves her wand on the ground longer, it is a long dash, and when she picks it up quickly, it is a short dash."

"Perhaps I might try it before you go?" Madam Pomfrey asked next. Malfoy began to stir behind her, and with a quirked frown, Madam Pomfrey quickly turned, cast a wordless stupefy, and Malfoy collapsed back into the cot. Madam Pomfrey cleared her throat. "Hermione, will you stay a bit longer for us to chat?"

Hermione smirked at Pomfrey's casual handling of Malfoy and began the process of communicating she would stay.

"Okay, so that was a y… an e? And an s, she said yes!" Madam Pomfrey announced with delight and triumph. Hermione grinned at Pomfrey's exuberance.

"That was very well done, Madam Pomfrey. You will need to keep this from Draco, however. Hermione does not want him to know," Luna said.

Madam Pomfrey frowned, glanced at the translation sheet, then looked to Malfoy. "I see. Well, Hermione, you are welcome to sit in the next cot over while waiting for me to finish with Malfoy, and then I hope to have quite a conversation with you. This curse you are under is the like I've never heard of in all my years as a healer!"

Luna began to head for the exit, but then paused by the cot that contained the 2nd year Hufflepuff student, who had been very quietly watching everything. "I don't think you'll say anything about this, will you, Rowan?"

The boy shook his head slowly and carefully in such a way that Hermione was not sure whether the child feared or respected Luna more, and Hermione rather wondered what Luna had done to make such an impression on the younger student who was not even in Luna's house.

Luna beamed. "I knew I could trust you. Thank you!" she said, and exited the hospital wing.

Hermione watched with amusement and interest as Madam Pomfrey also seemed to need a moment to recover from Luna's ways before focusing again on her patient. "Well, let's see what's going on with Mr. Malfoy's back," Madam Pomfrey said, and diagnostic spells floated up above Malfoy, appearing and disappearing more quickly than Hermione could track. "Good, no curses other than the stunning curse. No illnesses. He has been drinking. Unexpected, given the hour, but nothing too dangerous. He does have fatigue, however, and like you said, lots of back pain. Well, nothing a little wandwork can't fix."

Madam Pomfrey waved her wand in a series of intricate maneuvers while muttering incantations under her breath, and Hermione found herself wishing Madam Pomfrey would slow down and explain what she did so that Hermione could learn as well, but really, her eyelids were so heavy, and she was so very tired. Hermione yawned and only realized she had stretched out on the cot when her head fell against the pillow.

Madam Pomfrey pulled up the diagnostics again and said something, looking back at the cot Hermione was in as if she expected Hermione to listen. However, Hermione found she was far too tired to comprehend much of anything. Of course, she needed to stay awake, for some reason. That's right, Madam Pomfrey had questions for her, and she had forced Malfoy here against his will. She should be awake to know how he reacted and how many of her freedoms he would take away in his fury.

Of course, that meant she might not be able to answer Madam Pomfrey's questions after all. How awkward.

Hermione yawned again.

Well, at least Malfoy's back wouldn't hurt him anymore, and he would know she had done something for him that did nothing to benefit her. She could also let Malfoy know that Luna was someone he could trust too, and then that would be another thing she had done for him. Did the curse compel her to do things for him? That didn't seem right. No, she had been annoying him all night, hadn't she? That was why he had been so angry. Maybe he wouldn't be angry now.

Hermione smiled at that thought and realized her battle against sleep was futile. She was exhausted, and whatever Malfoy did or felt would happen regardless of whether she was awake for it or not. She closed her eyes.

"Rennervate!" Madam Pomfrey announced. There was a bright flash of red light that forced Hermione's eyes open just in time to see Malfoy's eyes blink open and hone in on hers from the cot next to hers. Then sleep took her, and she knew no more.


It was weird not posting last week, but I definitely needed the break. Things have been very busy.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always, thank you for your support and reviews, and I hope you let me know what you think!

Next chapter will post in 2 weeks on March 6, 2020. :)