Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything in his really cool world.
Summary (Chp. 1-5): Dumbledore plans a sailing class and field trip to be taught by Dr. Gavin Branefeld. Slytherin's and Gryffindor's are teamed up, with Draco and Hermione being put together as partners by Professor Sinistra (witch). D/Hr write a report on the Vintmoor, which discovered the Island of Malnese. Captain Solstine finds his wife, dead, on the Island, goes berserk. Hermione borrows Harry's map and cloak to go to the restricted section of the library. Draco goes to the library where he finds out about the cloak. After a confrontation with Draco, Hermione is injured and he takes her to Madam Pomfrey.
_____________________________________________________________
Chapter 8: Monday Night
"She is going to be just fine." Hermione heard a voice cut through the fog in her mind.
"But, what happened?" questioned a second voice.
"She stepped through a false step," the first voice answered.
A new voice piped in. "How does that happen by stepping into a false step? Neville steps into them all the time. I fell into one myself last year."
"She must have been moving quickly, and some of those false steps have deeper holes beneath them," the first voice, which Hermione now recognized as Madam Pomfrey, explained.
"Well, when will she be better?" Hermione recognized Ron's voice this time.
"As you can see, I have had to remove the entire lower jaw structure. When she awakens, I will give her a draught of Skele-Gro, and then it's just a matter of time."
She heard a sound of empathy coming from the vicinity of the left side of her head. "I hope it won't be as painful as having to regrow all the bones in my arm." She now recognized that Harry was the third voice.
Her head was pounding, and her mouth felt strange. She tried to remember what had happened. She recalled hearing the voices talking about a false step, and her jaw missing. She couldn't understand what they meant. She moaned from the pain that she was suffering.
"Hermione?" Harry crouched by her, gently taking her small hand into his. "Can you hear me?"
She tried to turn her head, but something was preventing her mobility, so she tried to open her mouth to speak, but her mouth wouldn't obey her brain. Finally, she forced her eyes open, the low light causing her to squint. She made out the face of a concerned Harry looking down upon her.
"Don't try to talk, just squeeze my hand if you hear me." She squeezed his hand as hard as she could.
"Mr. Potter, if you don't mind." The figure of Madam Pomfrey firmly pushed Harry to the side. "Hermione," she said, picking up the hand that Harry had been previously holding, "I need you to squeeze my hand once if you understand me, and twice when you don't. Do you understand?" She waited until Hermione gave her a single squeeze. "Good. Mr. Malfoy__"
At the name of Malfoy, Ron interrupted. "Malfoy, what the hell were you doing with Malfoy?" Hermione moved her eyes to the right and saw his red face. "Of all the___"
"Mr. Weasley! If you can't keep quiet, I will have you thrown out of here. What is important is not who Miss Granger was with, but what she remembers from last night." She glared at him until, contritely, he stepped back, out of Hermione's peripheral vision. "Now, as I was saying. Mr. Malfoy brought you in here late last night. Do you remember that?" Hermione squeezed twice. "I thought you might not. You were unconscious when he brought you in. He said that you had stepped through a false step, do you remember that?"
When Madam Pomfrey mentioned the false step again, it all rushed back to her; the sound of something shattering; the intense pain that followed; the voice, his voice, that she heard; Draco grasping her arms; she couldn't recall anything after that. She closed her eyes and gave Madam Pomfrey a single, hard squeeze.
"He said you were unconscious before he was able to get you out of the hole, is that true?" She waited for the single squeeze. "It is probably for the best that you were." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Apparently, when you fell into the false step, you're lower jaw hit the stone stair above it, shattering it." Madam Pomfrey held Hermione's hand a little tighter, feeling it tremble. "I have had to remove the lower jaw and teeth. Now that you are awake, I will be able to give you the Skele-Gro potion to regrow your jaw. Because of the pain involved, I will be also be giving you a Dreamless Sleep potion."
There, she paused. She allowed Hermione the time to process what had been told to her. After a few moments, Hermione opened her eyes, and looked into the kindly face of Madam Pomfrey. She gave a single squeeze of her hand to indicate that she had heard and understood. Madam Pomfrey gave a curt nod of her head, released Hermione's hand, and produced a potion bottle.
"You must drink this all, then I will give you the sleep potion." Hermione swallowed the first bitter potion, followed quickly by the second. As her eyes grew heavy, she saw the concerned faces of Ron and Harry looming over her. There was something that she needed to tell Harry, but, before she could remember, the dreamless sleep potion carried her away in its comforting embrace.
When Hermione awoke, the room was dark and quiet. She could feel a dull, deep throb in her jaw. Carefully, she reached up to touch her face. She quickly discovered why she had been unable to move her head. Some type of contraption was holding her head, and jaw, in place. Gently she probed her new jaw. It felt squishy, and, as she touched it, pain erupted across it. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the pain. Slowly it ebbed, and she could feel tears on her face.
Trying to ignore the dull throbbing, she thought back to last night. Why had Malfoy come to her aid? If he hadn't, she would have been found the next morning by someone else, wouldn't she? Did Malfoy actually have a heart underneath that cold exterior? This was something to think about.
A new thought occurred to her, it was Monday night; that meant she had missed the first day of their sailing class. With a groan she wondered how far she'd be behind. Even though she sailed often with her Grandpa, she wasn't certain if that would help her in this class. She hoped that she'd be able to get out of here soon. She didn't want to fall behind in the rest of her classes, either.
She closed her eyes, preparing to get some more rest, when they popped open in horror. She had left the Invisibility Cloak, Harry's Invisibility Cloak, in that classroom. How could she have been such a scatterbrain? Harry would kill her. Well, maybe not kill her, but he certainly wouldn't be happy with her. There had to be someway to get it.
She felt around the contraption for any release mechanisms. Finding a promising button, she pushed it; she heard a popping noise and felt the slight pressure around her face give. Cautiously, she tried to sit up. She managed to do so, but her head violently protested. The entire room seemed to turn itself upside down.
Hermione forced herself to stay sitting, reasoning that the room would eventually right itself. After a few moments, it did just that. Taking a deep breath, she stood, gripping the bedside table firmly with her hands. Standing wasn't as bad as the sitting had been, but she wasn't sure how she was going to get any farther. The classroom, where she was headed, was on the opposite side of the school; but she had to try.
Before she took another step, however, it occurred to her that her clothing seemed rather lightweight. Looking down she saw that she was dressed in a crisp, white gown. The thin material stopped abruptly six inches above her knees. She couldn't wander around Hogwarts like this. Looking around she saw her own robe hanging on a hook on the other side of her bed. Carefully, holding herself up on the footboard of the bed, she maneuvered herself towards the hook. Quietly she removed the robe and slipped it on over the gown.
Taking a deep breath she straightened up and turned around. She felt stronger with each step she took, and her confidence grew. She would have to be careful, but she was determined to make it to the classroom to get that cloak. As she reached out to push back the white curtains that encapsulated her temporary room, she froze; she strained her ears. She thought she had heard the door to the hospital wing click closed.
Finally, deciding it had been her imagination, she cautiously pushed aside the curtains, and stared into the murky darkness of the room. Everything was silent. She took a step forward, and ran into something. Falling hard, she looked around to see what she possibly could have hit. She didn't see a thing. She started to push herself up with one hand, rubbing her backside with the other, when she was definitely sure she had heard a noise.
"Whose there?" she hissed into the darkness, pausing in her attempt to get up. "I know you're here." For a long moment she heard nothing; then Malfoy materialized in front of her. She gasped slapping her hand over her mouth. As she did so, pain blossomed across her face; tears welled up in her eyes. She had forgotten that she was still regrowing her jaw.
When Draco saw her eyes gloss over in pain, he reached down, and scooped her up into his strong arms; he carried her back to her cot. Gently he laid her down smoothing her bushy hair back against her head. The desire to lay down with her, wrap his arms around her, and hold her was almost too much to bear; he fought the feeling, and, instead, kept smoothing back her hair.
The pain finally diminished. She looked up at Draco. "Why are you here?" She stared quizzically into his gray eyes.
"I---I---you left Harry's Cloak behind last night. I figured you might want it." He said this as he held up the Cloak.
"You---you brought the Cloak?" Her eyebrows knit together in confusion. Why in the world would Draco bring it to her? If he knew she had left it, why wouldn't he have taken it himself?
Awkwardly, the two students waited. Draco realized that he was still stroking Hermione's hair; quickly he drew back his hand, his gaze meeting Hermione's. She didn't appear angry that he had touched her; it almost looked as if she were sad that he had removed his hand. Without saying anything he folded the Cloak and placed it between the bed and the bedside table.
"So, does it hurt, much?" He tried to make his voice sound natural.
"Only when I touch it, otherwise, it's just a dull throb." She couldn't figure out what to think about Draco. She wasn't sure why he had brought her the cloak, and why had he been touching her hair in such an intimate way? Worse, why did she want him to do it again?
"Well, I'm going to go." He stood and smoothed his robes. As he turned to go, he felt a tug on his sleeve. Turning his head, he looked down at Hermione.
"Wait." 'What am I doing?' she thought. "What did I miss in class today?"
Draco, strangely relieved that she had asked him to stay, turned back around and sat on the edge of her cot. "Not much. Dr. Branefeld spent the first hour with us and gave us an overview of what we will be doing over the next few months. Basically, we will do a lot of bookwork first. You know, things like learning what to call the different parts of a ship; what all the different types of knots are called; sailor terminology. Then we will eventually go out to the lake and sail in small two man boats where we will put a lot of our classroom knowledge into action." He paused, suddenly noticing that his fingers were intertwined with Hermione's. He met her eyes; she gave him a small smile.
He fought his initial urge to pull away, instead giving into that inner voice, and gripping her hand a little tighter.
"Is that all?" Hermione felt strangely comforted holding Draco's hand. She didn't know why, but it felt good.
Draco tore his eyes away from her searching gaze. "Well, after he left, Professor Sinistra had us open ::The Anatomy of a Ship:: and we worked through chapters one and two. We have homework; of course, he have to work on it together."
"Mr. Malfoy! What are you doing here? You shouldn't be out of your dorm." He turned to look up into the flashing eyes of Madam Pomfrey.
"I---I just wanted to check on Gr---Hermione," he stammered, pulling his hand from Hermione's grip. Hermione stifled a smile at the way it felt when she heard her name on Draco's lips.
"Well, you've checked on her. Now, go, before I take points away from Slytherin."
With a last look back at Hermione, he shrugged, and turned to leave the room.
"And you, young lady, why are you wearing your robes?" Without waiting for an answer, she helped Hermione back out of the robes, and gave her another dose of the Dreamless Sleep potion. After Hermione was tucked properly back into bed, including being strapped back into the contraption, her eyes slid closed, and she tried to keep an image of Draco out of her mind.
_____________________________________________________________
Okay, there it is. Hope you liked it. Now, review.
To my reviewers:
-blueberry girl: Thanks. Sure, I would love to read your stuff. (Except, only the HP stuff, and sometimes, original.)
-Sage of Darkness: Good! I am try very hard to make the characters behave in a realistic manner.
-Chikata: Thank you. I enjoy spelling; it's sort of an obsession with me. I try to make every chapter move the plot along, so detail is important.
-CatalinaRose: You know, you'll just have to wait to find out about the room. grins evilly (Look for the next chapter)
-OneTurnOuttaTune: Good question. I will give it some deep thought.
-f0xyness39: Whoa there. =)
-CrystallineLily: I'm glad you love it.
-Fiery-chan: I enjoy details. By the way, what does 'ttyl' mean?
Summary (Chp. 1-5): Dumbledore plans a sailing class and field trip to be taught by Dr. Gavin Branefeld. Slytherin's and Gryffindor's are teamed up, with Draco and Hermione being put together as partners by Professor Sinistra (witch). D/Hr write a report on the Vintmoor, which discovered the Island of Malnese. Captain Solstine finds his wife, dead, on the Island, goes berserk. Hermione borrows Harry's map and cloak to go to the restricted section of the library. Draco goes to the library where he finds out about the cloak. After a confrontation with Draco, Hermione is injured and he takes her to Madam Pomfrey.
_____________________________________________________________
Chapter 8: Monday Night
"She is going to be just fine." Hermione heard a voice cut through the fog in her mind.
"But, what happened?" questioned a second voice.
"She stepped through a false step," the first voice answered.
A new voice piped in. "How does that happen by stepping into a false step? Neville steps into them all the time. I fell into one myself last year."
"She must have been moving quickly, and some of those false steps have deeper holes beneath them," the first voice, which Hermione now recognized as Madam Pomfrey, explained.
"Well, when will she be better?" Hermione recognized Ron's voice this time.
"As you can see, I have had to remove the entire lower jaw structure. When she awakens, I will give her a draught of Skele-Gro, and then it's just a matter of time."
She heard a sound of empathy coming from the vicinity of the left side of her head. "I hope it won't be as painful as having to regrow all the bones in my arm." She now recognized that Harry was the third voice.
Her head was pounding, and her mouth felt strange. She tried to remember what had happened. She recalled hearing the voices talking about a false step, and her jaw missing. She couldn't understand what they meant. She moaned from the pain that she was suffering.
"Hermione?" Harry crouched by her, gently taking her small hand into his. "Can you hear me?"
She tried to turn her head, but something was preventing her mobility, so she tried to open her mouth to speak, but her mouth wouldn't obey her brain. Finally, she forced her eyes open, the low light causing her to squint. She made out the face of a concerned Harry looking down upon her.
"Don't try to talk, just squeeze my hand if you hear me." She squeezed his hand as hard as she could.
"Mr. Potter, if you don't mind." The figure of Madam Pomfrey firmly pushed Harry to the side. "Hermione," she said, picking up the hand that Harry had been previously holding, "I need you to squeeze my hand once if you understand me, and twice when you don't. Do you understand?" She waited until Hermione gave her a single squeeze. "Good. Mr. Malfoy__"
At the name of Malfoy, Ron interrupted. "Malfoy, what the hell were you doing with Malfoy?" Hermione moved her eyes to the right and saw his red face. "Of all the___"
"Mr. Weasley! If you can't keep quiet, I will have you thrown out of here. What is important is not who Miss Granger was with, but what she remembers from last night." She glared at him until, contritely, he stepped back, out of Hermione's peripheral vision. "Now, as I was saying. Mr. Malfoy brought you in here late last night. Do you remember that?" Hermione squeezed twice. "I thought you might not. You were unconscious when he brought you in. He said that you had stepped through a false step, do you remember that?"
When Madam Pomfrey mentioned the false step again, it all rushed back to her; the sound of something shattering; the intense pain that followed; the voice, his voice, that she heard; Draco grasping her arms; she couldn't recall anything after that. She closed her eyes and gave Madam Pomfrey a single, hard squeeze.
"He said you were unconscious before he was able to get you out of the hole, is that true?" She waited for the single squeeze. "It is probably for the best that you were." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Apparently, when you fell into the false step, you're lower jaw hit the stone stair above it, shattering it." Madam Pomfrey held Hermione's hand a little tighter, feeling it tremble. "I have had to remove the lower jaw and teeth. Now that you are awake, I will be able to give you the Skele-Gro potion to regrow your jaw. Because of the pain involved, I will be also be giving you a Dreamless Sleep potion."
There, she paused. She allowed Hermione the time to process what had been told to her. After a few moments, Hermione opened her eyes, and looked into the kindly face of Madam Pomfrey. She gave a single squeeze of her hand to indicate that she had heard and understood. Madam Pomfrey gave a curt nod of her head, released Hermione's hand, and produced a potion bottle.
"You must drink this all, then I will give you the sleep potion." Hermione swallowed the first bitter potion, followed quickly by the second. As her eyes grew heavy, she saw the concerned faces of Ron and Harry looming over her. There was something that she needed to tell Harry, but, before she could remember, the dreamless sleep potion carried her away in its comforting embrace.
When Hermione awoke, the room was dark and quiet. She could feel a dull, deep throb in her jaw. Carefully, she reached up to touch her face. She quickly discovered why she had been unable to move her head. Some type of contraption was holding her head, and jaw, in place. Gently she probed her new jaw. It felt squishy, and, as she touched it, pain erupted across it. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the pain. Slowly it ebbed, and she could feel tears on her face.
Trying to ignore the dull throbbing, she thought back to last night. Why had Malfoy come to her aid? If he hadn't, she would have been found the next morning by someone else, wouldn't she? Did Malfoy actually have a heart underneath that cold exterior? This was something to think about.
A new thought occurred to her, it was Monday night; that meant she had missed the first day of their sailing class. With a groan she wondered how far she'd be behind. Even though she sailed often with her Grandpa, she wasn't certain if that would help her in this class. She hoped that she'd be able to get out of here soon. She didn't want to fall behind in the rest of her classes, either.
She closed her eyes, preparing to get some more rest, when they popped open in horror. She had left the Invisibility Cloak, Harry's Invisibility Cloak, in that classroom. How could she have been such a scatterbrain? Harry would kill her. Well, maybe not kill her, but he certainly wouldn't be happy with her. There had to be someway to get it.
She felt around the contraption for any release mechanisms. Finding a promising button, she pushed it; she heard a popping noise and felt the slight pressure around her face give. Cautiously, she tried to sit up. She managed to do so, but her head violently protested. The entire room seemed to turn itself upside down.
Hermione forced herself to stay sitting, reasoning that the room would eventually right itself. After a few moments, it did just that. Taking a deep breath, she stood, gripping the bedside table firmly with her hands. Standing wasn't as bad as the sitting had been, but she wasn't sure how she was going to get any farther. The classroom, where she was headed, was on the opposite side of the school; but she had to try.
Before she took another step, however, it occurred to her that her clothing seemed rather lightweight. Looking down she saw that she was dressed in a crisp, white gown. The thin material stopped abruptly six inches above her knees. She couldn't wander around Hogwarts like this. Looking around she saw her own robe hanging on a hook on the other side of her bed. Carefully, holding herself up on the footboard of the bed, she maneuvered herself towards the hook. Quietly she removed the robe and slipped it on over the gown.
Taking a deep breath she straightened up and turned around. She felt stronger with each step she took, and her confidence grew. She would have to be careful, but she was determined to make it to the classroom to get that cloak. As she reached out to push back the white curtains that encapsulated her temporary room, she froze; she strained her ears. She thought she had heard the door to the hospital wing click closed.
Finally, deciding it had been her imagination, she cautiously pushed aside the curtains, and stared into the murky darkness of the room. Everything was silent. She took a step forward, and ran into something. Falling hard, she looked around to see what she possibly could have hit. She didn't see a thing. She started to push herself up with one hand, rubbing her backside with the other, when she was definitely sure she had heard a noise.
"Whose there?" she hissed into the darkness, pausing in her attempt to get up. "I know you're here." For a long moment she heard nothing; then Malfoy materialized in front of her. She gasped slapping her hand over her mouth. As she did so, pain blossomed across her face; tears welled up in her eyes. She had forgotten that she was still regrowing her jaw.
When Draco saw her eyes gloss over in pain, he reached down, and scooped her up into his strong arms; he carried her back to her cot. Gently he laid her down smoothing her bushy hair back against her head. The desire to lay down with her, wrap his arms around her, and hold her was almost too much to bear; he fought the feeling, and, instead, kept smoothing back her hair.
The pain finally diminished. She looked up at Draco. "Why are you here?" She stared quizzically into his gray eyes.
"I---I---you left Harry's Cloak behind last night. I figured you might want it." He said this as he held up the Cloak.
"You---you brought the Cloak?" Her eyebrows knit together in confusion. Why in the world would Draco bring it to her? If he knew she had left it, why wouldn't he have taken it himself?
Awkwardly, the two students waited. Draco realized that he was still stroking Hermione's hair; quickly he drew back his hand, his gaze meeting Hermione's. She didn't appear angry that he had touched her; it almost looked as if she were sad that he had removed his hand. Without saying anything he folded the Cloak and placed it between the bed and the bedside table.
"So, does it hurt, much?" He tried to make his voice sound natural.
"Only when I touch it, otherwise, it's just a dull throb." She couldn't figure out what to think about Draco. She wasn't sure why he had brought her the cloak, and why had he been touching her hair in such an intimate way? Worse, why did she want him to do it again?
"Well, I'm going to go." He stood and smoothed his robes. As he turned to go, he felt a tug on his sleeve. Turning his head, he looked down at Hermione.
"Wait." 'What am I doing?' she thought. "What did I miss in class today?"
Draco, strangely relieved that she had asked him to stay, turned back around and sat on the edge of her cot. "Not much. Dr. Branefeld spent the first hour with us and gave us an overview of what we will be doing over the next few months. Basically, we will do a lot of bookwork first. You know, things like learning what to call the different parts of a ship; what all the different types of knots are called; sailor terminology. Then we will eventually go out to the lake and sail in small two man boats where we will put a lot of our classroom knowledge into action." He paused, suddenly noticing that his fingers were intertwined with Hermione's. He met her eyes; she gave him a small smile.
He fought his initial urge to pull away, instead giving into that inner voice, and gripping her hand a little tighter.
"Is that all?" Hermione felt strangely comforted holding Draco's hand. She didn't know why, but it felt good.
Draco tore his eyes away from her searching gaze. "Well, after he left, Professor Sinistra had us open ::The Anatomy of a Ship:: and we worked through chapters one and two. We have homework; of course, he have to work on it together."
"Mr. Malfoy! What are you doing here? You shouldn't be out of your dorm." He turned to look up into the flashing eyes of Madam Pomfrey.
"I---I just wanted to check on Gr---Hermione," he stammered, pulling his hand from Hermione's grip. Hermione stifled a smile at the way it felt when she heard her name on Draco's lips.
"Well, you've checked on her. Now, go, before I take points away from Slytherin."
With a last look back at Hermione, he shrugged, and turned to leave the room.
"And you, young lady, why are you wearing your robes?" Without waiting for an answer, she helped Hermione back out of the robes, and gave her another dose of the Dreamless Sleep potion. After Hermione was tucked properly back into bed, including being strapped back into the contraption, her eyes slid closed, and she tried to keep an image of Draco out of her mind.
_____________________________________________________________
Okay, there it is. Hope you liked it. Now, review.
To my reviewers:
-blueberry girl: Thanks. Sure, I would love to read your stuff. (Except, only the HP stuff, and sometimes, original.)
-Sage of Darkness: Good! I am try very hard to make the characters behave in a realistic manner.
-Chikata: Thank you. I enjoy spelling; it's sort of an obsession with me. I try to make every chapter move the plot along, so detail is important.
-CatalinaRose: You know, you'll just have to wait to find out about the room. grins evilly (Look for the next chapter)
-OneTurnOuttaTune: Good question. I will give it some deep thought.
-f0xyness39: Whoa there. =)
-CrystallineLily: I'm glad you love it.
-Fiery-chan: I enjoy details. By the way, what does 'ttyl' mean?