Draco had drifted off once more and Jo had finally taken her leave for the evening to get some much needed rest. Hermione was used to the quiet, but for some reason it felt oppressive rather than comforting.

"Counting on me?" She whispered to herself. She jumped at the sound of her own voice shattering the silence. She looked around, hoping nobody had noticed. Draco was grimacing, but his breathing was shallow and quiet. She surveyed the room, but nothing seemed out of place. She breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't felt this on edge in months. Not since they were out in the Forest of Dean, running for their lives. It was the same silence as back then - lonely, stifling, distracting. She could feel the stress weighing down her heart. And like that time, she felt adrift without any answers.

Hermione's thoughts drifted away from that melancholy as she began to rearrange ice packs around Draco. He couldn't stay in the water of the bath forever, so he was back to his bed and ice pack arrangement. She tried to ignore the fact that he was shirtless - it was to keep him from overheating, after all. But every time her hand accidentally brushed against his skin as she was moving ice packs, she couldn't help but look for just a moment. When had he gone from a skinny nobody to this?

She shook her head, chasing the thoughts away. She was here to give Jo a break, and to help keep Malfoy safe. That was all.

"You really should go to St. Mungo's, you know. I can't be here all day…" She whispered to him. "Besides, why would you want me to protect you? You can't stand me." She looked at his face, wishing she could gain some sort of answer, but all she could see was his pain. She had played his words through his head on repeat for the last hour since Jo had left. How was she supposed to protect him? And from whom? She didn't have enough answers to be helpful, and she wasn't sure if she even wanted this responsibility. What did she owe to Draco Malfoy?

If she was being honest, she knew she owed him plenty. It wasn't empty words that she had testified for him over the summer. He had kept them from being killed. Moreover, he had kept her from dying at the hands of Bellatrix. She hadn't spoken about it to anyone, but she remembered. She would never forget that day.

The scurry of a mouse caught her attention, and she turned away from Draco, suddenly embarrassed for talking to him in this state and thinking about their past. She watched the mouse run across the room, watching interestedly as it was clearly looking for a way to escape once it saw her move. It squeaked fearfully, and ran along the edges of the wall, looking for a way out. Finally it slipped from Hermione's sight. She understood the mouse, looking for an escape. It was a feeling she was beginning to know intimately.

"I can't even go a single school year without all THIS, can I? I thought now that Harry was gone...now that Voldemort is gone…" She could feel tears of frustration welling up, hot and irritating in her eyes. She clapped her hands over her mouth, surprised by her own outburst. It had been far too loud.

"Wouldn't life be so boring, Granger?" Malfoy's voice was so quiet she almost missed that he had spoken.

"Boring sounds rather nice, after all I've been through. It gets rather tiring to have people trying to kill you all-" Her voice faded off as she turned to look at him.

"Yeah, I guess I agree with you there. Staring death in the face long enough might put you off of excitement for a bit…" He forced a smile, though his eyes were squinted against the pain. "Any ideas yet on what's happening to me?"

Hermione pulled the chair up next to his bed and sat down, bringing one of the large tomes from her bag over and plopping it open on her lap. "I'm still not totally sure. You said you remember being hit with a spell, but you didn't hear it. I suppose the caster could have muffled your hearing so you wouldn't know what they said…"

"Granger, that makes sense. I genuinely don't know...what was said." He agreed, his breathing labored. "But I remember the pain I felt. And it wasn't this. It wasn't this burning…"

Hermione looked up at him, her eyebrows knit in a confused expression. "Do you think the person cast two different spells?"

"It's possible. I was in a ton of...pain...but it felt familiar. It felt like…"

Hermione's eyebrows raised. "The Cruciatus Curse?" Draco nodded. "I suppose that makes sense. Others have passed out from the pain. But that doesn't explain what's happening now. Not at all. Which means we are back to square one-"

"Don't say that, Granger. It isn't square one if you...have more information to work with. Why would someone...not just finish...finish me off with...when they had the chance? Someone wanted me to suffer." Draco could barely get his words out. Hermione reached her hand out and almost gasped from how hot he felt. Draco hissed through clenched teeth when she touched him. "Your hands are freezing, Granger."

"Well good…" She snapped, and put the book down to busy herself with changing his ice packs. He was beginning to heat through them even faster. "We're running out of time, Malfoy, and I really don't know what to do about it."

"Just shut up and think, then!" He shouted, his pain clear on his face. "You want to do so much talking instead of doing what you're good at."

Hermione's eyes narrowed, but she chose not to respond. He was clearly in pain, and honestly he had said much worse to her over the years. In fact, he had almost complimented her, in his own brazen way. He watched her as she moved around the bed, casting freezing spells on each of the packs. She could feel his eyes following her, but she didn't look up. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"What are you thinking?" He asked out of the blue as she finished the last casting.

"It must have been two spells. Or at least, two separate instances of magic. But I still don't know what the fire spell could be. Nothing I have found does this. No fever spells, no potions. Maybe the Sweating Sickness, but nobody ever figured out what caused that, either." Hermione couldn't keep her frustration from showing through.

"What if it's not a normal spell?" Draco suggested.

"If it's not a potion or a spell, it would have to be a cursed object. Wouldn't someone have found it when they changed or bathed you?" Hermione said. Their eyes met, and Hermione blushed. "Neither Jo nor Madam Pomfrey have mentioned it."

"Have they checked me for magical objects?" Draco asked. Hermione shrugged, but it felt like they might be onto something.

"Specialis Revelio," Hermione said, waving her wand to the incantation. Draco began to glow softly as the spell checked him for magical objects. Slowly the glow began to concentrate around the ring finger of his right hand.

"Brilliant, Granger. 10 points to Gryffindor…" Draco said, lifting his hand towards her. "Now how do we remove it?"

"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you can't just take it off?" Hermione said. Draco shook his head. "No, I rather thought not. This will definitely be a job for the auror's then…" Hermione said. "I've got no experience in breaking dark curses, and I don't think it's the kind of thing we can just mess around with."

"So we wait?" Draco asked, his face drawn and tired.

"We wait. I will speak to McGonagall first thing in the morning. Tomorrow...Tomorrow you should be back to normal." Hermione told him, putting as much confidence as she dared into her voice.

Draco reached out his left hand and took hers. She tried not to flinch from the heat difference.

"Thanks, Granger."