Week 6 Trope: Roommates
Rating: G
Word Count: 500
Warnings: Memory Loss
Result: N/A, did not place
Rediscovery
Hermione wakes to cold, filtered light. Her neck is stiff, but she manages to look beyond the sensors adhered to her skin, the machines displaying her vitals, and the pale man in the room's second bed.
Three people stand near the doorway. Two names float from the ether: Harry, Ron.
Ron's eyes widen; the Healer reaches her first.
"How do you feel?"
She's not sure, can't remember why she's here. It's easier to turn away from his question.
Her roommate is awake. He stares at her, unguarded and curious, and she snares another name from oblivion.
Draco.
Her first conscious week brings a litany of unanswerable questions.
Where does she work?
What does she teach?
Why was she in the Potions classroom?
What was he brewing?
At first, she's ashamed, her ignorance as embarrassing as being caught with a clandestine lover. But as the questions continue, shame turns to rage.
Ron throws his hands into the air. Harry frowns.
Draco summons Healer Urso with a discreet tap of his wand. As Urso ushers the men out, Hermione re-learns something important.
Draco is her ally. Maybe even her friend.
They are transferred to St. Mungo's fourth floor. A kind-eyed man with a crooked smile joins them for tea. He gives her a book; Hermione knows it's her favorite.
"Hogwarts isn't the same without you." Neville turns to Draco. "Either of you."
He leaves, heading toward the Janus Thickey Ward, and Hermione feels a compassionate tug in her chest.
Neville understands what she and Draco have lost, what they're fighting to recover. Her recuperation has been a group effort: Hermione's nightstand is cluttered with flowers, books, and personal photos. Each item sparks a memory of her before life.
Draco's progress is slower. His nightstand is empty, his visitors few and infrequent.
But this, too, provides information: Draco doesn't have anyone.
Except that's not entirely true.
Draco has her.
Pets aren't allowed, but in week three, an exception is made. Crookshanks jumps away from Ginny and nudges his head into Hermione's hand. She knows better than to hold him and watches, stunned, as he abandons her lap for Draco's.
Draco lifts her copy of Hogwarts: A History to make the requisite room. The action is automatic, unthinking, and Crookshanks makes himself comfortable. It's a pattern that has repeated itself one million times before.
The significance lands simultaneously.
Ginny whispers, "I knew it," as Draco's cheeks flame.
After one month, they are discharged. Their full memories have not yet returned, but as they no longer present a danger to themselves or others, the Healer sees no reason to keep them.
They linger outside the hospital's main entrance. Draco's eyes are grave.
"This feels wrong."
It does. They're linked by their careers. By Hogwarts. By a secret relationship revealed piecemeal over a month of forced cohabitation.
He takes her hand. "Stay with me."
And when their lips meet, what she's lost suddenly pales against what she's rediscovered:
A brilliant future with the man she loves.