Pain is Bitter
Chapter Three [Maybe Not]
Madam Pomfrey sat at her desk, writing out a release form for Neville Longbottom, who had just recovered from Tonsillitis. Neville walked out the swinging doors, smiling.
If only her only other 2 patients could do the same, Poppy thought wistfully. She looked over at the still forms lying in the white beds. One and a half weeks now. She was beginning to wonder if they would have to send Draco to St. Mungo's for a few months. And if Hermione would ever wake up.
She sighed and got up from the desk, tidying the infirmary wearily. She straightened up Hermione's hair, as it lay strewn across her pillow. The girl still wore that disturbing smile.
Poppy looked down at her watch. Almost 8:00 PM. That meant it was about time for Draco to wake and be fed. She pressed a red button that called Dumbledore, Snape, Hagrid and Filch together. They were all there in about 10 minutes.
"Almost time for him to wake up." Poppy said. Hagrid held up a pair of blinders.
"Look Poppy, these might help. As long as he doesn't see Hermione he'll be fine." Hagrid said hopefully.
"He would still have to find out eventually. We can't risk him going… wild… in a place where we couldn't get to him in a hurry." said Snape.
"But we could still use them just until we get the food into him! Then we could give him the potion!" said Dumbledore brightly.
"How long will this go on? I hate seeing the poor boy like this! Why is he even this upset?! I thought he hated Hermione!" said a frustrated Snape.
"Severus, we all hate seeing Draco like this. I can only imagine that he will get better when, and if, Hermione awakens. As to your other questions, we have no idea why Hermione's suicide attempt affected him so deeply and we shall have no idea until he has recovered, which we hope will be very soon." Said Dumbledore.
"But what reasons could he have to be so… affected?" Hagrid asked, ever curious.
"Money? Lust? Guilt? Dare I say, love? It could be any of these 4, or more." Said Filch mysteriously.
Everybody looked at him strangely. Filch looked a little sheepish.
"Well, you know, even grumpy old care takers like to read a little mystery occasionally. Besides, you know the way they're always carrying on! Gallivanting around the castle, teasing each other, and Hermione with her fits, you ever notice she only has them when she's around Draco?" Filch said smirking.
Snape actually laughed out loud.
"N-no! It's just that she only gets excited when she's around 'im!" Hagrid said, defending Hermione.
Of course this only aroused more laughter.
Hagrid reddened. "What I meant was that they spend so much time together and…"
More laughter. Hagrid glared at them all.
"Now see here yous, What I Meant To Say WAS… that Hermione only ever has CAUSE to get that excited around him."
Before anyone could miscontrue THAT, he continued,
"Because whenever she's told exciting news, he's there. So, they aren't in love." Hagrid finished triumphantly.
"Unrequited love?" Filch suggested. "Anyway! We're getting off subject. The night when Hermione committed suicide, I saw her and Draco outside together."
"What were they doing?"
"I couldn't see proper, Ms. Norris was begging to be fed, and they go out there so often, together or alone, that I just dismissed it." Filch replied.
Everybody nodded in agreement. Even though the word 'friends' was practically forbidden by the Head Boy and Girl, it was exactly what the two were. Even though they gasped 'enemies forever' between horrible names, curses, belly-poking wars, taunts, glares and giggling at each other's misfortunes, everybody at Hogwarts knew that underneath it all, they were the closest of friends.
'Until whatever Draco said to ruin all that.' Thought Dumbledore sadly. He knew that Hermione wouldn't have committed suicide about her Mother, but that there had needed to be only a straw to break the camels back that night. Dumbledore had seen Draco and Hermione hurl insults at each other for the past seven years, they totally disregarded the hurtful things they said to each other, it meant nothing to either of them. Merely the matching of wits.
But when one is fragile, as Hermione was that night… what could he have said? Wondered Dumbledore morosely.
He was startled from his reverie when Poppy cried, "No time for the blinders now Hagrid, he's already seen her! Hold him, would you!" They were all at their positions in a moment. Filch and Snape took his legs, Hagrid took his arms, Dumbledore forced his mouth open, and Poppy stuffed the food down his throat while Draco gagged, coughed, sputtered, struggled, kicked, slashed, choked, etc. All the while with that same hunted look in his eyes that chilled even Snape, who had seen so many dark things in his days.
They finally managed to get him fed, though they got covered in food as well, and he swallowed the potion, since he had to breathe (Poppy held his nose until he swallowed) and he only managed one gasp for air before he fell asleep, much to everyone's relief. When he got the chance to rave on… it was heart breaking.
They all sighed and left the infirmary one by one, glancing back at those two students who they had all come to love over the past 7 years.
Only when they were all gone did Poppy notice the three students standing in the shadows, looking horrified.
Ginny Weasley broke away from Ron and Harry and ran over to Draco. She knelt beside his bed, taking his hand, her brown eyes brimming with tears and pain. When she looked up, Poppy thought her own heart would break. That young, innocent face shouldn't see such sights.
"Madam, is he always that bad?" Ginny asked, pale.
There was no way Poppy Pomfrey was going to lie. She shook her head 'yes'.
With that Ginny began to cry. She buried her head in Draco's bed, sobbing. Harry and Ron were at her side in an instant, hugging and comforting her. Never in all her 16 years had she seen anything so horrible. Draco had been so crazy, so wild, and so… full of pain. Nobody deserved that pain, that torture, or to lose their minds, especially not someone who had saved one of her best friends. Ginny had a heart of gold, Draco could have done things 10 times worse than he had (and the things he had done were bad enough), but in her mind, he still wouldn't have deserved this.
Ron and Harry shook their heads ruefully.
"Let's hope Ginny never goes to Africa." Ron said, smiling sadly at his little sister. Harry laughed.
"No, let's pray!" He said. Poppy sniffled.
These kids, they had true courage.
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Draco opened his eyes slowly, his head was pounding. The rest of his body wasn't so stiff anymore though.
The room was utterly dark, with only a few moonbeams drifting through the window. Memories flooded through him and saturated his thirsting mind. He didn't want to forget, he wanted to remember, and he was terrified, terrified that those people would come back and they would make him go back to sleep. And that he'd never wake up from this endless nightmare.
He looked around the room to make sure that they weren't there. He saw Hermione, and remembered what had conspired between them. 'How long ago was that?' Draco thought, a few centuries, maybe?
There was a creak in the room and Draco looked around anxiously, for a moment so scared he thought his heart would beat out of his chest, until he realized it was only the wind.
He sat up slowly, trying to maneuver around his monstrous headache.
He got unsteadily to his feet and looked down at himself. Still in those pajamas that weren't his, he experienced another surge of fear before he managed to calm down. He looked…the same, except like he hadn't been eating well. Eating, Draco remembered that, too. He shuddered violently. 'Don't think about that, Draco. Don't think about that.'
He walked over to Hermione's bed. He remembered it all, and the pain felt good. It was good to feel something that wasn't fear or dulled by the potions.
He looked down at Hermione.
She was so tiny and fragile looking. Such a little spot, like an air-pocket of misery, in the middle of this white cotton and metal bed rails and potions bubbling hell. Her petite frame had been ravaged, there was no meat left on her, her face was even more sunken than when he had last seen her, so briefly, in his crazed state. The little, sick, strange smile which had scared everyone so much had faded, now her mouth hung just open a little.
Draco gently put his finger to her chin, pushing her mouth closed. She was still so cold. He rubbed her face and it got a little warmer, a little pinker, but the second his hands left it the colour faded.
He sighed, and sat down on the bed, pulling Hermione's limp body onto his lap and rubbing her down through the pajamas, so much like he had done on that night when he had…told her off? Ruined her life? He laughed. Been the cause of her suicide attempt? Maybe not exactly, but Draco was convinced that what he had done that night had pushed her over the edge. She was warming a little now, thank God.
Draco cradled her against his chest, rocking back and forth incessantly. He was so sorry. He would've given anything, at that moment, just to take it all back, to know that nothing had ever happened, that Hermione was safe, and that they could just go back to insulting each other and screaming at each other and loving each other.
There was a startled gasp behind him, Draco jerked around, afraid that it was them but it wasn't, it was Jenny, no Ginny Weasley, silhouetted in the door of the infirmary. She made her way towards him nervously.
"I was just… coming to see Hermione." She gestured to the girl that lay in his arms. "And… right." She blushed and sat down beside him.
Draco could barely make out her features in the dark.
"Are you…" she trailed off.
"Still crazy?" Draco said quietly, then laughed a little bitterly, for a seventeen-year-old boy. "No, thankfully. It's quite a relief."
She stared at him for an eternity and then, to his surprise, she hugged him. He could feel her tears on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her, Hermione caught between them.
She pulled back and looked into his eyes.
"Draco, I… you… it was really horrible. And I just want you to know that I forgive you. And so do Harry and Ron, and so would 'Mione," She shook her head, that was too painful a subject. "We all forgive you for everything. We were always friends, weren't we?" She said it almost desperately.
"We were, under everything else, I think." Draco said.
He was thinking, 'if only she knew what I said to Hermione…'
A tear slid down his own face, dripped off his chin and fell onto Hermione's cheek. Only one tear. It seemed appropriate; after all, she had shared her tears that night on the broomstick, when they flew off her face and onto his.
Ginny leant down and kissed Hermione on the forehead and then she stood up and walked out of the infirmary. Draco was rocking again, looking down at Hermione in an adoring way. He pulled them both into the middle of the bed and lay down, his arms still around her, and they looked like entwined lovers laying in a sweet after-bliss.
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Pomfrey, Dumbledore, Snape, Filch, and Hagrid stood at the end of the bed, staring at the students in shock. Dumbledore dared a slight smile.
"So…I guess he's pulled out of it then?" He asked hopefully.
"I guess so." Said Snape, still a little shocked.
Pomfrey nodded happily.
Dumbledore's slight smile turned into a grin, Filch sighed in relief and Hagrid looked delighted.
Filch and Snape left together to go to Hogsmeade and celebrate. Hagrid went to walk Fluffy, because he had been "neglecting him" since the suicide attempt, he claimed. Madam Pomfrey hummed for the first time in weeks, and Dumbledore simply sat in Draco's bed, watching Draco and Hermione rest, if you could call it that, with a huge grin on his face.
He had been sitting there for ten minutes when Draco stirred. Dumbledore stood, beckoned to Pomfrey, and looked down at Draco.
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Draco awoke, feeling a body in his arms. 'Hermione!' his mind registered happily. He stretched and snuggled back down to go back to sleep, but heard a disappointed sigh. He sat up abruptly, nearly knocking into Dumbledore. He saw them.
An overwhelming fear engulfed Draco; he let go of Hermione, jumped off the bed and sank into a corner, cowering.
"Please don't hurt me, don't make me go back to sleep, please… don't make me go back to sleep, I'm fine, I'll be good, just don't give me any more potion, please…" He begged, hyper-ventilating and whimpering. He didn't want to go back to that place…
Dumbledore and Pomfrey were shaking their heads, worried, they hadn't meant to scare the boy.
"No Draco! Of course not! You're fine now, we're not going to put you sleep any more, ever again! No more potion! You'll be good, you're ok now, we know, we know!" They repeated again and again, looking anxiously at Draco, who was huddled in the corner, shaking, with his eyes squeezed shut, like a child who had just had a nightmare. Or a teenager who had just lived through a nightmare.
Finally what they were saying managed to break through to him, he cautiously opened his eyes. He looked into the faces of his tormentors, and thought they looked familiar.
"Dumbledore? Pomfrey?" He said in a weak voice. They both nodded, smiling encouragingly, like they were teaching a very small child how to tie his shoes.
Draco stood up, swaying a little, and said calmly as he could manage,
"Can I just lie down? Go to sleep… naturally… I'm so tired." He didn't he'd ever be able to say the word 'sleep' again without breaking into a cold sweat.
Albus and Poppy were still nodding like Jack-in-the-boxes, pushing him back into Hermione's bed, putting a large fuzzy brown blanket over the two of them, mumbling "no more potion, Draco", and he fell asleep quickly.
The two adults stood over the bed, looking down on Hermione and Draco like they were their own children, or cherubs, or golden treasures, and they were each of these, in a way.
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Snape and Filch sat in the Three Broomsticks, drinking their butterbeers. Filch was telling Snape the story of all the cleaning he had had to do in Draco and Hermione's room.
"I tell you, Snape, never seen anything like it in me whole entire life, and never want to again either. Starting at the infirmary, all the way up to their dorm and all through it, were bloody footprints, Draco's I s'pose, and little drips of blood. Then, the bathroom, oh the bathroom!" He put his head in his hands. "I can understand why the poor boy went crazy for awhile, any one would. There was blood covering everything, handprints, footprints, puddles of it, dripping from the counter, and there in the middle of it was MY Ms. Norris, sitting in the sink, dainty as anything, clean as always. I never got such a shock in my life! But all the blood! In all my years as caretaker here, I never encountered anything that made me want to cry like a baby. But that did, all right." He said, shaking his head.
Snape looked very upset, and said, "Filch, I think we should go back to the castle, maybe check on the boy…"
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Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the otherwise empty Gryffindor common room, quietly contemplating the fire and each other. Ron was the first to speak.
"So…" He said conversationally, looking around for help.
"What do you make of Malfoy?" asked Harry.
"Well, last night I snuck out to the infirmary to see Hermione, and he was awake." Ginny contributed.
The boys looked at her in shock.
"Why didn't you tell us?! Was he still crazy? Did he hurt you?" Ron questioned anxiously.
"He was fine, he didn't hurt me, he was sweet actually," said Ginny calmly.
"What was he doing?" Harry asked.
"He was holding Hermione, rocking her, trying to warm her up and… and crying!" She said, still not quite believing that she had seen Draco Malfoy crying. It was all too strange.
"Crying…" Ron muttered under his breath.
"Let's go see him!" said Harry, standing up. The others followed him through the portrait hole and towards the hospital wing.
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Poppy looked up and smiled as Harry, Ron and Ginny, forever together, walked in and went straight to Hermione's bedside. They looked at Draco and Hermione, curled up peacefully under the fuzzy brown blanket, in utter disbelief.
She rolled her eyes, though no one could see, as Harry and Ron got into some argument with Ginny. Snape and Filch had only just left, doing the exact same thing.
Only four days of school left. Harry and Ron stormed out. Ginny, making sure they were gone, bent down and kissed both Draco and Hermione on the forehead and whispered something to them before running after her friends.
Poppy was sure that, even from her desk, she saw Draco's lips curl into a smile. She wondered if Hermione could hear those whispered words, and if she would be ready to go home by the time school was over.
Maybe not.
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AN you like? Thank God! And also; Thank Reviewers:
Allee Kat- thanks! Good luck!
Icy Stormz- Omigod! Like music to any writer's ears!
Praise be to God for reviewers, you brighten my day and motivate me to go on. I couldn't go on without you all. This entire fic is based on a nightmare I had years ago. Tell me if I should keep going, I really want to but I've never written anything this dark before and I can't tell if I'm any good at it! Ciao, mis amigos!
Chapter Three [Maybe Not]
Madam Pomfrey sat at her desk, writing out a release form for Neville Longbottom, who had just recovered from Tonsillitis. Neville walked out the swinging doors, smiling.
If only her only other 2 patients could do the same, Poppy thought wistfully. She looked over at the still forms lying in the white beds. One and a half weeks now. She was beginning to wonder if they would have to send Draco to St. Mungo's for a few months. And if Hermione would ever wake up.
She sighed and got up from the desk, tidying the infirmary wearily. She straightened up Hermione's hair, as it lay strewn across her pillow. The girl still wore that disturbing smile.
Poppy looked down at her watch. Almost 8:00 PM. That meant it was about time for Draco to wake and be fed. She pressed a red button that called Dumbledore, Snape, Hagrid and Filch together. They were all there in about 10 minutes.
"Almost time for him to wake up." Poppy said. Hagrid held up a pair of blinders.
"Look Poppy, these might help. As long as he doesn't see Hermione he'll be fine." Hagrid said hopefully.
"He would still have to find out eventually. We can't risk him going… wild… in a place where we couldn't get to him in a hurry." said Snape.
"But we could still use them just until we get the food into him! Then we could give him the potion!" said Dumbledore brightly.
"How long will this go on? I hate seeing the poor boy like this! Why is he even this upset?! I thought he hated Hermione!" said a frustrated Snape.
"Severus, we all hate seeing Draco like this. I can only imagine that he will get better when, and if, Hermione awakens. As to your other questions, we have no idea why Hermione's suicide attempt affected him so deeply and we shall have no idea until he has recovered, which we hope will be very soon." Said Dumbledore.
"But what reasons could he have to be so… affected?" Hagrid asked, ever curious.
"Money? Lust? Guilt? Dare I say, love? It could be any of these 4, or more." Said Filch mysteriously.
Everybody looked at him strangely. Filch looked a little sheepish.
"Well, you know, even grumpy old care takers like to read a little mystery occasionally. Besides, you know the way they're always carrying on! Gallivanting around the castle, teasing each other, and Hermione with her fits, you ever notice she only has them when she's around Draco?" Filch said smirking.
Snape actually laughed out loud.
"N-no! It's just that she only gets excited when she's around 'im!" Hagrid said, defending Hermione.
Of course this only aroused more laughter.
Hagrid reddened. "What I meant was that they spend so much time together and…"
More laughter. Hagrid glared at them all.
"Now see here yous, What I Meant To Say WAS… that Hermione only ever has CAUSE to get that excited around him."
Before anyone could miscontrue THAT, he continued,
"Because whenever she's told exciting news, he's there. So, they aren't in love." Hagrid finished triumphantly.
"Unrequited love?" Filch suggested. "Anyway! We're getting off subject. The night when Hermione committed suicide, I saw her and Draco outside together."
"What were they doing?"
"I couldn't see proper, Ms. Norris was begging to be fed, and they go out there so often, together or alone, that I just dismissed it." Filch replied.
Everybody nodded in agreement. Even though the word 'friends' was practically forbidden by the Head Boy and Girl, it was exactly what the two were. Even though they gasped 'enemies forever' between horrible names, curses, belly-poking wars, taunts, glares and giggling at each other's misfortunes, everybody at Hogwarts knew that underneath it all, they were the closest of friends.
'Until whatever Draco said to ruin all that.' Thought Dumbledore sadly. He knew that Hermione wouldn't have committed suicide about her Mother, but that there had needed to be only a straw to break the camels back that night. Dumbledore had seen Draco and Hermione hurl insults at each other for the past seven years, they totally disregarded the hurtful things they said to each other, it meant nothing to either of them. Merely the matching of wits.
But when one is fragile, as Hermione was that night… what could he have said? Wondered Dumbledore morosely.
He was startled from his reverie when Poppy cried, "No time for the blinders now Hagrid, he's already seen her! Hold him, would you!" They were all at their positions in a moment. Filch and Snape took his legs, Hagrid took his arms, Dumbledore forced his mouth open, and Poppy stuffed the food down his throat while Draco gagged, coughed, sputtered, struggled, kicked, slashed, choked, etc. All the while with that same hunted look in his eyes that chilled even Snape, who had seen so many dark things in his days.
They finally managed to get him fed, though they got covered in food as well, and he swallowed the potion, since he had to breathe (Poppy held his nose until he swallowed) and he only managed one gasp for air before he fell asleep, much to everyone's relief. When he got the chance to rave on… it was heart breaking.
They all sighed and left the infirmary one by one, glancing back at those two students who they had all come to love over the past 7 years.
Only when they were all gone did Poppy notice the three students standing in the shadows, looking horrified.
Ginny Weasley broke away from Ron and Harry and ran over to Draco. She knelt beside his bed, taking his hand, her brown eyes brimming with tears and pain. When she looked up, Poppy thought her own heart would break. That young, innocent face shouldn't see such sights.
"Madam, is he always that bad?" Ginny asked, pale.
There was no way Poppy Pomfrey was going to lie. She shook her head 'yes'.
With that Ginny began to cry. She buried her head in Draco's bed, sobbing. Harry and Ron were at her side in an instant, hugging and comforting her. Never in all her 16 years had she seen anything so horrible. Draco had been so crazy, so wild, and so… full of pain. Nobody deserved that pain, that torture, or to lose their minds, especially not someone who had saved one of her best friends. Ginny had a heart of gold, Draco could have done things 10 times worse than he had (and the things he had done were bad enough), but in her mind, he still wouldn't have deserved this.
Ron and Harry shook their heads ruefully.
"Let's hope Ginny never goes to Africa." Ron said, smiling sadly at his little sister. Harry laughed.
"No, let's pray!" He said. Poppy sniffled.
These kids, they had true courage.
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Draco opened his eyes slowly, his head was pounding. The rest of his body wasn't so stiff anymore though.
The room was utterly dark, with only a few moonbeams drifting through the window. Memories flooded through him and saturated his thirsting mind. He didn't want to forget, he wanted to remember, and he was terrified, terrified that those people would come back and they would make him go back to sleep. And that he'd never wake up from this endless nightmare.
He looked around the room to make sure that they weren't there. He saw Hermione, and remembered what had conspired between them. 'How long ago was that?' Draco thought, a few centuries, maybe?
There was a creak in the room and Draco looked around anxiously, for a moment so scared he thought his heart would beat out of his chest, until he realized it was only the wind.
He sat up slowly, trying to maneuver around his monstrous headache.
He got unsteadily to his feet and looked down at himself. Still in those pajamas that weren't his, he experienced another surge of fear before he managed to calm down. He looked…the same, except like he hadn't been eating well. Eating, Draco remembered that, too. He shuddered violently. 'Don't think about that, Draco. Don't think about that.'
He walked over to Hermione's bed. He remembered it all, and the pain felt good. It was good to feel something that wasn't fear or dulled by the potions.
He looked down at Hermione.
She was so tiny and fragile looking. Such a little spot, like an air-pocket of misery, in the middle of this white cotton and metal bed rails and potions bubbling hell. Her petite frame had been ravaged, there was no meat left on her, her face was even more sunken than when he had last seen her, so briefly, in his crazed state. The little, sick, strange smile which had scared everyone so much had faded, now her mouth hung just open a little.
Draco gently put his finger to her chin, pushing her mouth closed. She was still so cold. He rubbed her face and it got a little warmer, a little pinker, but the second his hands left it the colour faded.
He sighed, and sat down on the bed, pulling Hermione's limp body onto his lap and rubbing her down through the pajamas, so much like he had done on that night when he had…told her off? Ruined her life? He laughed. Been the cause of her suicide attempt? Maybe not exactly, but Draco was convinced that what he had done that night had pushed her over the edge. She was warming a little now, thank God.
Draco cradled her against his chest, rocking back and forth incessantly. He was so sorry. He would've given anything, at that moment, just to take it all back, to know that nothing had ever happened, that Hermione was safe, and that they could just go back to insulting each other and screaming at each other and loving each other.
There was a startled gasp behind him, Draco jerked around, afraid that it was them but it wasn't, it was Jenny, no Ginny Weasley, silhouetted in the door of the infirmary. She made her way towards him nervously.
"I was just… coming to see Hermione." She gestured to the girl that lay in his arms. "And… right." She blushed and sat down beside him.
Draco could barely make out her features in the dark.
"Are you…" she trailed off.
"Still crazy?" Draco said quietly, then laughed a little bitterly, for a seventeen-year-old boy. "No, thankfully. It's quite a relief."
She stared at him for an eternity and then, to his surprise, she hugged him. He could feel her tears on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her, Hermione caught between them.
She pulled back and looked into his eyes.
"Draco, I… you… it was really horrible. And I just want you to know that I forgive you. And so do Harry and Ron, and so would 'Mione," She shook her head, that was too painful a subject. "We all forgive you for everything. We were always friends, weren't we?" She said it almost desperately.
"We were, under everything else, I think." Draco said.
He was thinking, 'if only she knew what I said to Hermione…'
A tear slid down his own face, dripped off his chin and fell onto Hermione's cheek. Only one tear. It seemed appropriate; after all, she had shared her tears that night on the broomstick, when they flew off her face and onto his.
Ginny leant down and kissed Hermione on the forehead and then she stood up and walked out of the infirmary. Draco was rocking again, looking down at Hermione in an adoring way. He pulled them both into the middle of the bed and lay down, his arms still around her, and they looked like entwined lovers laying in a sweet after-bliss.
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Pomfrey, Dumbledore, Snape, Filch, and Hagrid stood at the end of the bed, staring at the students in shock. Dumbledore dared a slight smile.
"So…I guess he's pulled out of it then?" He asked hopefully.
"I guess so." Said Snape, still a little shocked.
Pomfrey nodded happily.
Dumbledore's slight smile turned into a grin, Filch sighed in relief and Hagrid looked delighted.
Filch and Snape left together to go to Hogsmeade and celebrate. Hagrid went to walk Fluffy, because he had been "neglecting him" since the suicide attempt, he claimed. Madam Pomfrey hummed for the first time in weeks, and Dumbledore simply sat in Draco's bed, watching Draco and Hermione rest, if you could call it that, with a huge grin on his face.
He had been sitting there for ten minutes when Draco stirred. Dumbledore stood, beckoned to Pomfrey, and looked down at Draco.
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Draco awoke, feeling a body in his arms. 'Hermione!' his mind registered happily. He stretched and snuggled back down to go back to sleep, but heard a disappointed sigh. He sat up abruptly, nearly knocking into Dumbledore. He saw them.
An overwhelming fear engulfed Draco; he let go of Hermione, jumped off the bed and sank into a corner, cowering.
"Please don't hurt me, don't make me go back to sleep, please… don't make me go back to sleep, I'm fine, I'll be good, just don't give me any more potion, please…" He begged, hyper-ventilating and whimpering. He didn't want to go back to that place…
Dumbledore and Pomfrey were shaking their heads, worried, they hadn't meant to scare the boy.
"No Draco! Of course not! You're fine now, we're not going to put you sleep any more, ever again! No more potion! You'll be good, you're ok now, we know, we know!" They repeated again and again, looking anxiously at Draco, who was huddled in the corner, shaking, with his eyes squeezed shut, like a child who had just had a nightmare. Or a teenager who had just lived through a nightmare.
Finally what they were saying managed to break through to him, he cautiously opened his eyes. He looked into the faces of his tormentors, and thought they looked familiar.
"Dumbledore? Pomfrey?" He said in a weak voice. They both nodded, smiling encouragingly, like they were teaching a very small child how to tie his shoes.
Draco stood up, swaying a little, and said calmly as he could manage,
"Can I just lie down? Go to sleep… naturally… I'm so tired." He didn't he'd ever be able to say the word 'sleep' again without breaking into a cold sweat.
Albus and Poppy were still nodding like Jack-in-the-boxes, pushing him back into Hermione's bed, putting a large fuzzy brown blanket over the two of them, mumbling "no more potion, Draco", and he fell asleep quickly.
The two adults stood over the bed, looking down on Hermione and Draco like they were their own children, or cherubs, or golden treasures, and they were each of these, in a way.
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Snape and Filch sat in the Three Broomsticks, drinking their butterbeers. Filch was telling Snape the story of all the cleaning he had had to do in Draco and Hermione's room.
"I tell you, Snape, never seen anything like it in me whole entire life, and never want to again either. Starting at the infirmary, all the way up to their dorm and all through it, were bloody footprints, Draco's I s'pose, and little drips of blood. Then, the bathroom, oh the bathroom!" He put his head in his hands. "I can understand why the poor boy went crazy for awhile, any one would. There was blood covering everything, handprints, footprints, puddles of it, dripping from the counter, and there in the middle of it was MY Ms. Norris, sitting in the sink, dainty as anything, clean as always. I never got such a shock in my life! But all the blood! In all my years as caretaker here, I never encountered anything that made me want to cry like a baby. But that did, all right." He said, shaking his head.
Snape looked very upset, and said, "Filch, I think we should go back to the castle, maybe check on the boy…"
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Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the otherwise empty Gryffindor common room, quietly contemplating the fire and each other. Ron was the first to speak.
"So…" He said conversationally, looking around for help.
"What do you make of Malfoy?" asked Harry.
"Well, last night I snuck out to the infirmary to see Hermione, and he was awake." Ginny contributed.
The boys looked at her in shock.
"Why didn't you tell us?! Was he still crazy? Did he hurt you?" Ron questioned anxiously.
"He was fine, he didn't hurt me, he was sweet actually," said Ginny calmly.
"What was he doing?" Harry asked.
"He was holding Hermione, rocking her, trying to warm her up and… and crying!" She said, still not quite believing that she had seen Draco Malfoy crying. It was all too strange.
"Crying…" Ron muttered under his breath.
"Let's go see him!" said Harry, standing up. The others followed him through the portrait hole and towards the hospital wing.
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Poppy looked up and smiled as Harry, Ron and Ginny, forever together, walked in and went straight to Hermione's bedside. They looked at Draco and Hermione, curled up peacefully under the fuzzy brown blanket, in utter disbelief.
She rolled her eyes, though no one could see, as Harry and Ron got into some argument with Ginny. Snape and Filch had only just left, doing the exact same thing.
Only four days of school left. Harry and Ron stormed out. Ginny, making sure they were gone, bent down and kissed both Draco and Hermione on the forehead and whispered something to them before running after her friends.
Poppy was sure that, even from her desk, she saw Draco's lips curl into a smile. She wondered if Hermione could hear those whispered words, and if she would be ready to go home by the time school was over.
Maybe not.
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AN you like? Thank God! And also; Thank Reviewers:
Allee Kat- thanks! Good luck!
Icy Stormz- Omigod! Like music to any writer's ears!
Praise be to God for reviewers, you brighten my day and motivate me to go on. I couldn't go on without you all. This entire fic is based on a nightmare I had years ago. Tell me if I should keep going, I really want to but I've never written anything this dark before and I can't tell if I'm any good at it! Ciao, mis amigos!