Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, nor anything affiliated with it.

Author's Note: Warning! This chapter contains some minor graphic desciptions, please be warned! It may be a little too descriptive, sorry.

Draco's POV

I'm in the airport again and I feel like I'm frozen in place. Hermione is in front of me surrounded by Death Eaters and she appears much more scared than when this actually happened. All of a sudden Alecto Carrow throws a Crucio at her. I try to scream at her to move, to push her out of the way, anything to prevent her from having to feel the pain of that curse again. No one deserves to endure that curse at all never mind twice. However there is nothing I can do but watch as she falls onto the floor and writhes in pain. Her screams echo in my head and the sight of her contorted body is burned into my mind. I feel more helpless than I did when she was in the Manor. My heart pangs at every scream she makes.

I tear my eyes away as I can't bear to look at her in so much pain anymore. Instead I look at the twins. Amycus just laughs at her while Alecto has a wild glint of happiness in his eyes as he contorts his face in a grin of some sort.

"This is your fault you know Draco. If you hadn't betrayed us, your second family really, we would have spared your little Hogwarts group today. But you did, you left us behind for your new mudblood girlfriend and blood traitor friends." Says Amycus.

Alecto stops the Cruciatus curse but just a quickly as he stopped it, he casts Sectumsempra at her. Her body thrashes once more as the cuts dig deep into her skin. I feel as if I've been hit instead of her and stumble backwards. Once I've caught my balance, I can't move once again. My eyes are drawn to the blood the pools around her broken and sweating body. By now she's already passed out from the combination of extreme pain and blood loss. The Death Eaters around her jeer and hurl insults at the almost lifeless body of the girl I love, and I can't help but feel so broken inside.

I suddenly wake up with a start, breathing heavily and feeling really hot. I open my eyes and I'm greeted by the harsh white lights of the hospital wing in Hogwarts. I attempt to sit up but I feel a hand push my shoulder back down.

"Don't try and sit up yet Malfoy, Madame Pomfrey needs to check you over first and your body needs a couple moments to adjust. I still need to ask you about the incident at airport so you can't hurt yourself too much yet." The voice sounds weird and I can't quite place it at first. Then I blink a few times to let my eyes adjust and I see Potter staring down at me. His hand is on my shoulder and I realize that he's the one who pushed me down.

I look around the room and see that I'm in one of beds in the back corner. Lying in a bed adjacent to mine is a still unconscious Hermione. Ignoring Potter's words I sit up and lean against the pillows behind my back. I look at Hermione and see that there is a thick bandage around her head as well as a cast on her left leg and around her right forearm. The crisp white blanket is pulled up to her shoulders and the arm with the cast has been carefully place on top of the sheet and her stomach. Her chest rises slowly but steadily and I breath in a sigh of relief. As I watch her, all I want to do is walk over and lie down next to her and cradle her broken body.

"Malfoy, don't even think about getting up. You have to let your leg heal." Potter says. For the first time, I look down at my own body and see that my leg is also in a cast. I try to move it a little bit, but a jolt of pain runs up my leg when I do. I wince in pain and catch Potter making an 'I told you so' expression at the corner of my vision. With a sigh of defeat I leave it alone and focus on moving my arms a bit first.

I lift both my arms and cross them over my chest keeping them as straight as possible. My shoulders are a little sore, but other than that I don't really have any issues with them. I quickly crack all of the joints in my fingers to relieve the pressure that's built up in them for the last while. My last thought makes me stop and realize I don't actually know how long it's been since I passed out at the airport. I turn back to Potter and ask him.

"It's been about two days since that incident. We were worried at first when you didn't wake up after the first day as your injuries weren't very severe, but then Blaise informed us that you have insomnia. I assume that your body was just recovering from all the sleep you've probably lost over the last while. We're still waiting on Hermione though. Her injuries were a lot more severe. Her skull was cracked up and her ribs were fractured. Some of her skin is covered in second degree burns from the fireball that was created from the bomb. Of course her arm and leg were broken, but they weren't as severe. She definitely has a concussion and we're unsure of when she might wake up."

Hearing Potter rattle of her prognosis is kind of scary. He says it calmly, with practised ease, but I can hear the undercurrent of fear and worry in his voice.

I can tells he's very scared that he might lose her. Hell, I'm scared that I'll lose her. She's probably the only reason I'm not the selfish, bigoted prat I was for most of my life. I can still be that twat, but I've matured and she's been rubbing off on me. I no longer hold onto the values I learned in my early years of life. I no longer treat people like they are worse than scum, at least most people. I try my best to treat the people I meet with respect. She has given me a new perspective on life but more importantly she has become the only thing I never had, someone who cares about me. She's my friend, my girlfriend, my love, my heart, my brokenness, and my rock. And it's because she's worth so much to me that I can't bear to lose her.

All of a sudden Potter gets up after his wand starts to vibrate and make a quiet beeping noise.

"Malfoy, I'm so sorry but I have to go now. There's an emergency in Diagon Alley about some purebloods protesting the arrest of the Death Eaters who just barely survived the explosion. It wouldn't be a problem but they're starting to attack some of the muggleborns there. I should be back by tonight. By the way, all your personal items that were on you at the time in your messenger bag are still in your bag by the nightstand. Bye!" He's out and finished talking by the time I can process what he said. I'm surprised by the abruptness of his exit but I feel annoyed that it took my that long to realize what was happening.

Now that he's gone I feel like I can do more stuff and not get in trouble. I lift my left leg up and bring it closer to me. I then stretch it as carefully as possible with one goal in my mind right now; to be able to get over to Hermione so I can hold her hand and reassure myself that she's still here and fighting. Once I think that my leg has fully woken up I move on to the more challenging part, my right leg. It's covered in a cast up to just under my knee. I bend my knee and drag it up to my chest with my other leg and examine the cast. It appears to be made of plaster like the muggle ones I've seen before. It feels really hard and solid, but also kind of bumpy and brittle. I try to wiggle my toes but they don't move very much. I then try and swing my leg over the edge of the bed and stand up. There's a stabbing pain in my leg but I push past that. As soon as I let go of the bedpost I feel kind of dizzy and disoriented and promptly fall over and onto my face.

I hear shuffling to my left followed by a giggle then full blown laugh and look up to see Hermione still lying on her pillow with a huge smile on her face. At first I feel embarrassed, then angry, relieved, and happy at the same time. She doesn't stop laughing and after looking at the situation more carefully I start laugh with her. Somehow the absurdity of the situation is just too much for me to feel the pain in my leg for a little while. I got up in the hopes that I could comfort her and maybe wake her up. In the end I did just that, but in a much more embarrassing way than I thought would happen. And that's how Madame Pomfrey found the two of us. Hermione laughing her heart out propped up by her pillows, and me sprawled on the floor and laughing and kind of wheezing right along with her.

"Mr. Malfoy! What on earth are you doing on the floor and why are the two of you laughing?! Oh Ms. Granger, I'm so glad that you're awake. We were getting very worried about when you were going to wake up."

After taking a couple deep breath and hiccoughing a couple times she responds for us. "It's alright Madame Pomfrey, I'm awake now and that's all that matters. The reason we're laughing is that Draco tried to get up and walk over to me and then fell right on his face. I had just started to wake up when he fell and that woke me up very quickly. It was hilarious because he looked so determined and confident as well."

I guess Hermione hasn't quite woken up fully because her response sounds way too serious for what she actually said. I can't believe she just told Madam Pomfrey all of that. Now she's going to kill Hermione and I, or maybe just me.

Madame Pomfrey clicks her tongue in disapproving way but I can see a hint of a smile grace her features as she bustles around collecting potions for us and some other medical supplies. She quickly comes back to us with an armful of bandages, a box of plasters, different dressings, a dozen different potions, and two metal cups.

"Now Mr. Malfoy, I have to redress Ms. Granger's head wound and I don't want you to hurt yourself even more so just sit there on the floor and don't try to stand up again. I also need to discuss something with you in private when I'm done here."

She then goes over to Hermione and starts to undo the bandage on her head. I watch with a sort of morbid curiosity. There is a small patch at the back of her head where they shaved her hair to heal the cut that lies there. It's a very thin but long cut. The skin around it is very pale, but the skin is around the perimeter is bright red. There is a lot of blood on the soiled bandage however and there is already blood pooling on her scalp. The cut must be very deep then. I feel bad for Hermione as she winces while Madame Pomfrey applies the dressing and re-wraps a new bandage on her head. She then re-dresses the burns on Hermione's arms. Madame Pomfrey then turns back to the bedside table and grabs some potions

She pours an ugly green one into one of the cups and hands it to Hermione to drink. She pulls a face but quickly swallows it. I sit quietly on the floor watching as Madame Pomfrey does a basic check-up and evaluation on Hermione. Soon she finishes and turns to me.

"Now what am I supposed to do with you? I can't really let you stay on the floor, but I don't really want to risk moving you. Oh well, I might as well just do this quickly with minimal fuss. Alright Malfoy, grab my arm and I'm going to help you up onto the bed okay?"

I nod at her and on the count of three I'm soon on my bed again. She lets me re-adjust myself and the pillows before doing a basic check-up on me. Once she finishes she turns to me and asks me a question.

"Mr. Malfoy, I have to talk to you about something very important for your health. Do you want to make this a private conversation or let Ms. Granger listen as well?" I think for a second about her words and reason that it couldn't possibly be that bad.

"I think it'll be okay for Hermione to listen as well."

"Okay in that case I'll get down to business. During the fiasco at the airport you weren't too close to the bomb and as a result your visible injuries are minimal. However when you passed out when the pain kicked in it wasn't just because your adrenaline levels dropped. The type of bomb used was a fuel air explosive as I'm sure you know Ms. Granger. The bomb works by dispersing a thick cloud of gas. A charge is then detonated that will ignite the gas. If you are caught in the blast itself you will be incinerated. What happens next is a vacuum is created due to the need to feed the explosion. This causes most people's lungs to rupture. If you are close to the bomb but aren't quite inside the explosion, most people will be harmed from breathing in the toxic gases inside the first charge of gas.

Thankfully Ms. Granger cast a shield charm on the bomb as it exploded so most of the gas was contained as well as part of the explosion. However, some of the gas did escape and you happened to be close to one of the areas where the spell was a bit patchy. As such, your lungs are in a very fragile state right now and you can't do much physical activity without aggravating them. I'm surprised you were able to laugh earlier without too much pain. I'm afraid that isn't the only thing that's afflicting you though.

When you were talking with Mr. Potter and you passed out, it was partly because of your damaged lungs and the sudden rush of pain. It was also because of a curse. One of the Death Eaters that died didn't do so till he had some revenge. He was further away from the blast and wasn't affected as badly as perhaps, the Carrows. Just before he died, he sent a very Dark curse towards you that would slowly deteriorate the joints in your body. The jinx only grazed your legs so it won't affect your upper body. Since it was poorly aimed as well as poorly cast, it shouldn't have too much of an effect on you and shouldn't progress very much.

Since it was a Dark curse, we can't treat it magically otherwise it will just cause the effects to be worsened. As such, you will have to wear 'braces' on your knees and ankles as well as undergo some physical therapy to heal them or at least strengthen them.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me. In the meantime, you both will have to stay here a couple extra days before I can let you go. I will get you fitted for some braces and send your teachers a message excusing you from physical activity. You are both excused from class work till I let you leave. Also, I've left a sheet of instructions with the potions on when, how, and who is to take them. I have to go now for a staff meeting but I will be back in the next hour or so. If you require help from myself of a staff member just send a Patronus, I know you Ms. Granger are capable of that."

She then leaves and rushes out of the hospital wing leaving the two of us sitting there in slight shock. I turn to look at Hermione and see my worry reflected in her eyes. All I know is that my life just got about two times harder than I thought it would be.

"Well that was interesting." I say in a kind of joking manner. Hermione doesn't seem amused by this though and just looks very pensive. I realize that she's probably feeling guilty about this.

"Hermione just so you know, there was nothing you could have done differently that would be any better. It's not your fault that the shield charm didn't hold. I'm just glad we aren't being tortured by Death Eaters or dead right now." Then I reach over between the gap in the bed and hold her hand in a reassuring way. "I'll be fine, I have you to help don't I?" She justs nods, but I'm pretty sure that my words have their intended effect.

All of a sudden I feel tired again so I lean back on my pillows and close my eyes, still holding Hermione's hand.

Author's Note: For y'all who don't know, plasters are basically band-aids. I'm not sure if you guys noticed, but I switched the rating to T as it got a bit more violent than I expected. I don't know how old all of y'all are so I wanted to play it safe. Wow this fic is going all over the place. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm jumping all over the place. If you want more info on the bombs I've used you can also look them up under Thermobaric Weapons on Wikipedia. Thanks for all the support and reviews, I really appreciate the feedback. Have a great week, till next time.