Hermione's eyes struck open in alarm as a female first year rapped on her shoulder.

"What is it?" she groggily moaned, half-angry and half-afraid of what the girl might say.

"There's a Slytherin standing outside asking for you. I won't dare let him inside the common room. You have to get up and see what he wants. He won't go away, Hermione! He's really scary and he yelled at me," she squeaked, fear rattling in her voice.

First years, the biggest bunch of yellow bellies known to Hogwarts.

Hermione shooed the young Gryffindor out so she could at least wipe the sleep from her eyes and throw on decent clothes and a robe for warmth. She glanced out the window to see that the grounds were heavily blanketed with layers upon layers of gorgeous snow. Perfect for Christmas.

Hermione stomped through the common room, glaring at the girl who had interrupted her placid dreams. She couldn't believe this was such a big deal.

As Hermione stepped out of the door, she was pelted by something in the shoulder. And blimey, it stung!!! She cradled the now-tender spot and focused her wall-penetrating glare towards a grinning blonde boy standing over in the corner.

"Jeez, Malfoy - that hurt!"

"Lucky I missed my target."

"And what was that? My head?"

Draco gave a sleek smile. "You know me well, Hermione." Suddenly he sprinted away from her, quickly exiting outside through a side door. He was silently hoping she would follow. And she did.

Hermione would have matched his speed if it hadn't been for the door handle that attacked her. Unaware that her robe had been hung, she kept running…and it was a nasty shock to be jerked back and hear the fabric rip.

Draco stopped to watch her struggle with the handle and he quite simply found the whole ordeal entertaining. When Hermione was finally freed, she was cursing almost everything - Draco, the door handle, her robe… she rambled on and on about that being her only warm piece of clothing that looked decent. She stopped paying attention to the giggling boy and shrugged off the robe to try and repair it.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the distraction, Draco prepared another large and heavy snowball and quickly launched it in Hermione's direction. It smacked her directly in the side of the neck, which stunned her for a moment. Blinking, she said, "Goodness, Draco. You really are a bad shot."

"You just keep on running that mouth of yours. I'll get you eventually. I'm getting closer with each shot." He chucked more snow at her, and she had to duck for it to swish past her head.

Angry, Hermione charged at Draco, swung to hit him in the chest, and miserably failed.

She swung too hard and missed by a great distance, subsequently spinning and slamming onto the ground. The jolt was painful and it made her back ache at the very instant of impact. It felt as if she landed directly on razor-sharp icicles and they'd traveled all the way up her bottom.

Draco guffawed at the sight of her tumble but quickly composed himself as he realized she wasn't getting up. Is she alright?

"You ok?"

Hermione tried to breathe without her back hurting too much. "I think so, I'm just waiting for the sting to go away. Just let me sit here for a moment."

Watching her wince as she took in breaths, Draco started to become worried. He'd never seen that look on her face. He had only seen Hermione when she was extremely happy or extremely mad. He'd never seen her in pain…

He slowly approached her, afraid that he would agitate her in some way. He plopped down right by Hermione's side, not taking his eyes from her face. She noticed that he was staring at her, and she couldn't help but feel strange. "Are you trying to mess with me? Because now isn't a good time, Draco."

"No, I just want to sit with you. Do you want me to go find Madame Pomfrey?"

"No, it's alright. I think it's starting to go away." She tried testing her back, slightly straightening it more, but her actions were promptly followed by more shooting pains. "Oh, guess not," she cringed.

"Where does it hurt? Show me where." He softly placed one of his hands on her lower back to support her as she pointed to her middle section. "From here and down."

"All of that hurts?" Draco questioned.

"Yes," she painfully gasped.

"Hermione, you have to see Madame Pomfrey, this isn't normal."

"No! I still think it can fade away."

He hardly sighed at her words. They sat on the frozen ground in silence for a couple more minutes. Then, Draco pulled his green and white scarf off and carefully placed it around Hermione's neck.

"What's this for?" she questioned.

"Don't act like you weren't shivering. I saw you just then. How's your back now?"

Hermione slightly twisted to place her hand in the snow but burst into tears because the pain was too overwhelming.

"Alright, that's it. It's going to be ok, Hermione. I'm taking you to the hospital wing. Put your arms around my neck, I'm going to pick you up, I'll take care of you." Slowly he slid one arm under her legs and the other behind her sensitive back and lifted her from the ground. Her small frame was almost weightless in Draco's arms so he hurried as fast as he could down the halls. He couldn't stand having her cry on his shoulder. Not because he was cold… but that he couldn't stand seeing and hearing her in pain.

As they reached Madame Pomfrey's room, both of their minds were screaming the same thing.

Please let this stop, this has to stop.

A/N: Hello, all. (Sorry if there were any grammatical errors, I didn't proofread at all. Yes, I admit it.) It's been a while since I've sat down and thought about this story. I think I might change the plot just a smidge, but it'll be ok. =) I thought it would be good to add Draco actually helping Hermione, something we've never seen before! This is definitely going to be an unconventional Harry Potter fic. It will possibly have a dark ending, I'll have to decide. We'll see.