Draco wanted to scream. He wanted to vomit. Six random inanimate objects, two of his favorite fruit green apples, two grasshoppers, three parakeets, and he still couldn't mend the Vanishing Cabinet. It was beginning to wear him out. The cabinet had absorbed lots of his time, energy, and magic. He was tired both mentally and physically. He didn't know anymore of what should he do. He was alone in this. Nobody could help him. Time kept ticking. It was May 8th and he hadn't made significant progression.
So there he was, standing and clutching the sink in the boys bathroom, head bent down. The dark grey vest he wore a moment ago was stripped off and was neglected to the floor. Draco felt so desperate. Tears were threatening to fall so Draco scooped cold water from the basin and brought it to his face. He looked at the mirror hanging on the wall installed before him. It was a wrong move. As he stared at his own miserable reflection, panic began to rise again.
And then, shoulders shaking, involuntarily he cried.
"Malfoy?"
Draco gasped and looked up into the mirror. Over his shoulder he saw Harry Potter was staring at him. Draco wheeled around. Tears streaming down his pale face were forgotten.
"A...are you all right?" Harry asked cautiously.
Draco drew his wand. Anger arose. He lost self-control. He couldn't think clearly in his panic, and shame arose of being found in weakness state by his enemy. Rival. Enemy, rival, who was Harry Potter to him? He couldn't think clear. According to Wizarding World in UK, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter were archenemies.
In a blink, Draco threw a jinx to Harry. Instinctively the raven haired boy pulled out his wand and blocked Draco's jinx. In return, Harry casted Expeliarmus toward Draco but Draco blocked that spell quick and threw another jinx to Harry.
"Stop, stop!" the ghost Moaning Myrtle, had been hiding in one of the toilets since Draco's arrival, screamed to the fighting students. She swung frantically in the air, screaming.
"Malfoy stop! I didn't—" Harry's sentence was cut by a dark incantation Draco was spelling out.
"Cruc—"
"Sectumsempra!" Harry moved his wand wildly, casting a spell Draco never heard of before.
The spell hit Draco. Blood spurted from his chest in a fashion where his flesh was sliced deep diagonally by invisible sword. The hit was so abrupt that he didn't have time to process what was happening. Reacting to the shock, his body fell backward onto the floor.
"Malfoy! No...no no no!" Harry called his name in panic. Draco felt dizzy and a stabbing pain on his chest. Moaning Myrtle the bespectacled ghost screamed in high pitch. A second later Draco lost consciousness.
~o~
It was dark when Draco opened his eyes. He was lying in a comfortable bed, covered with unfamiliar white blanket. Warm and spicy odour surrounding the air. There was unmistakably only one place associated with such scent; the hospital wing. He didn't feel the pain on his chest anymore. Only tingling sensation, perhaps it was healing. He took off the blanket from his upper body. His chest was wrapped in white bandages and nothing more. Draco pouted slightly in the dark, displeased that he wasn't wearing any shirt.
Draco touched the bandaged wound with his fingertips gently. He sighed. If only he wasn't tired and ran out of magic strength back then, he wouldn't be in this situation. Even though he didn't recognise the spell casted by Potter previously. That must be an ancient dark magic. Or maybe Potter invented it. Maybe he should do a research at the manor's library. Maybe he should kill Potter.
Draco reached blindly on the small table on the left side of his bed and was relieved when his fingers found his wand. He grabbed the Hawthorne wand and felt a tug on his wrist as he took his wand. Madam Pomfrey had bound his wand to him, preventing it to fall far from its master. How thoughtful of her.
Draco was about to cast the time detail when he heard a heavy thud on the floor to his right side. Draco immediately sat up. Wand raised in steady position.
"Ugh!" The fallen object grunted.
Draco recognised that voice.
"Potter," Draco bellowed. Came silence from the floor. Draco lowered his right foot to the direction and toed the Invisibility Cloak covering Harry off.
Harry raised his head to meet Draco, eyes rounded. The moonlight was sufficiently illuminating the room. Draco could see Harry's startled face. No voice came out from Harry's mouth.
"It wasn't enough in the bathroom?!" Draco's expression darkened. "Now you want to attack me when I'm unaware and in defenseless state?"
"What— No! No, Malfoy, I wasn't planning to attack you! And, and I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Harry rose from the floor, shaking his head. His hands were waving frantically, face affrighted.
"Yes, you meant it! It's a dark spell and it only worked if you really meant to hurt your target!" Draco wanted to punch the raven git, but his chest was hurt when he tried to stand up. He hissed and clutched his wand. A jinx was about to spill out of his mouth when he heard a door being opened.
Harry yanked the Invisibility Cloak from Draco's foot and quickly covering himself with it. Madam Pomfrey emerged from her office.
"Mister Malfoy, you awake?" Came the soft voice from the stern but kind Hogwarts hospital matron.
"Madam Pomfrey," Draco answered. Then, as he looked at her direction did he realise that he was the only student currently occupying the hospital wing. "How long have I been here?"
"Two days. You should go back to sleep. Lie down," Madam Pomfrey told him. She casted medical monitoring spell on Draco. "And you still need to be here for another couple of days it seems. Your physical wound is healed. Professor Snape had applied dittany to your chest first, so no worries about scar. However, your magic core and energy are weak…"
Draco noticed Madam Pomfrey's suspicion about his drained magic. He immediately excused himself to rest before the witch asked him about it.
"Thank you, Madam. I am feeling very tired. I will sleep now." And Draco closed his eyes, tilting his head away from the witch. A minute later he heard a door closed. Draco opened his eyes.
"I...I'll go back to my dorm," Harry whispered from Draco's right side.
The Slytherin then remembered that Harry was there. He reached out blindly and caught Harry's cloak. Draco unraveled Harry Potter the second time that midnight by pulling the Invisibility Cloak covering the Golden Boy.
"Malfoy, what are you doing?!" Harry grabbed his cloak back to cover his body before Madam Pomfrey spot him.
"You are afraid of being caught here but you had the guts to slain me close to death?!" Draco gripped Harry's forearm. His own act caused Draco to tense and he was pale instantly, remembered something. His Dark Mark! Draco's head spun to the left and he looked down at his left forearm. He relieved when he saw his left forearm was covered with bandage. Must be Severus' doing.
Draco tightened his grip on Harry.
"You were going to throw an Unforgivable Curse at me! I was panicked!" Harry grabbed Draco's right wrist that was holding him. "I didn't mean it to happen. I didn't even know what that spell did!"
"Then how did you know that spell?" Draco wouldn't let go of Harry's arm. Both sixteen year old teens were squeezing each other's arm now.
Harry pressed his lips tight, refused to tell Draco. He tried to pull Draco's hand off of him, but Draco gripped even tighter.
Draco knew Harry was a stubborn person. Draco wouldn't get an answer.
"What are you doing here?" Draco asked another question instead. He saw Harry was taken aback by the sudden change of subject. The Gryffindor looked hesitant, but then opened his mouth.
"I just wanted to make sure you're okay. Snape said you've been handled by Madam Pomfrey…" Harry shrugged.
"If you knew I was under the care of the right hands, why the need to check on me? Unless you didn't trust Professor Snape's words and the capability of Madam Pomfrey…" Draco held Harry's eyes. Or spying on me, Draco's eyes accused.
Harry mumbled something with low voice that Draco couldn't make the words.
"What was that?" Draco asked. But before he got any reply, he heard the matron's office door adjoining the infirmary being opened.
Draco let go of his hand from Harry and got back to lie in bed, eyes closed, slowing his breath, pretending to sleep. After what it felt like a minute, sound of footsteps walking away to the office direction fainted and finally gone. And when the nurse was nowhere to be seen by Draco, so was Harry Potter.
~o~
Draco was awakened by the sudden pain on his left forearm. It was very brief, but the pain made him bit his lip to bleed. Draco held his left forearm. It was no doubt the pain was from his Dark Mark. A call from the Dark Lord? Or simply a reminder? Then Draco remembered the Vanishing Cabinet.
It was the fourth night of his stay in the hospital wing. Draco casted Tempus. Eleven at night. Slowly and carefully Draco sat up and lowered his feet to the cold floor. He didn't want to alert anyone in the infirmary. Especially not a certain Gryffindork who was currently sleeping on the bed next to his, covered with Invisibility Cloak. Draco knew the Boy Who Lived did that secretly every night during his stay in the hospital wing. He could sense him, even when it's only faintly. The Slytherin blond still couldn't find the answer of why Harry did that. He better stay alerted and kept an eye on Harry Potter.
Wearing his tailored black trousers and white shirt folded on the small table, Draco sneaked out of the hospital wing. Keeping eyes open for any Prefects on duty (but they were likely had returned back to their respective dorms at this hour) and Filch, Draco stealthily sprinted to the seventh floor.
It was on the fourth floor when Draco was passing the room of Library's Restricted Section suddenly a cold hand pulled him into a shadow.
"Your mother came to me, asked me to protect you. Yet here I found you lurking around the castle past curfew ruthlessly!" Severus seethed.
"Professor Snape," Draco greeted in calm whisper, relieved. "What are you doing here?"
"I should be the one asking you the question, Draco!" The Head of Slytherin House hissed.
"What are the consequences Potter got for attacking a fellow student near to death?" Draco ignored him. He knew his godfather acknowledged what he intended to do that night.
Severus studied Draco's face.
"I gave him detention every Saturday at ten for the rest of the term," Severus replied. "Stay careful, Draco." Severus squeezed Draco's arm briefly then disappeared into the shadow along the corridor. Draco returned to his trip toward the seventh floor.
His magic and energy were returning back, almost fully today. Draco tried again with the Vanishing Cabinet. When he opened the cabinet, he found an old copy of Advanced Potions book in it. Someone must have put it there while Draco was resting in the hospital. Quite alerting, to know someone else could find the cabinet. Draco tried to transfer the book to the cabinet's twin kept in one of the Malfoy Manor rooms. Then he tried to transfer the book back into the cabinet in Room of Requirement.
The book returned as a whole.
Maybe it was all about the good state of magic core and stamina. He would try a living being next time. Draco felt giddy.