Chapter 3- And then there were ten…
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I am so, so, sorry! I can't believe it took me this long to get a chapter up! I am lazy and terrible and I hope you can forgive me. This chapter is fairly long but it is yet another explanation chapter. I think after this things will begin to heat up and the true story will begin. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: tweedle dee, not mine, tweedle dum, not mine! (okay I don't understand me either sometimes!)
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The three of them stared for a few seconds then Hermione snapped out of her shocked trance and jumped out into the corridor by Neville's side.
"Neville! Neville, are you alright? Can you hear me?"
"Of course he's not alright, look at him!" Ron said worriedly kneeling beside Hermione.
Neville had landed head first when he had fallen out of the portrait hole and had knocked himself out. Harry stood behind them, his face pale.
"There is a lot of blood." He remarked nervously.
"Of course there is a lot of blood, Harry, head wounds always bleed a lot. Let's get him up to Madam Pomfrey she'll fix him easily." Hermione muttered a quick spell and Neville floated up the corridor with the three friends hurrying anxiously behind.
***
When they arrived at the hospital wing they found just about the entire Christmas student body standing around four beds which had their curtains drawn. Fighting her way through, Hermione eventually found the medi-witch attempting to disperse the crowd. She was not doing very well until Ron, who had fought his way over to Hermione's side, shouted:
"Alright you lot, move out!" he spoke in such an authoritative tone that everyone did leave with only Harry, Ron, Hermione, the unconscious Neville and a very frazzled madam Pomfrey remaining. Harry and Hermione looked at Ron in amazement.
"Where did that come from Ron?" asked Harry the surprise evident in his voice. Ron shrugged, his face pink.
Madam Pomfrey took one look at Neville and whisked him off to the last bed which was between the other four.
"What a night!" she grumbled tucking Neville in after bandaging his head.
"Will he be alright?" asked Ron, extremely worried.
"In about a week yes. Now he needs rest but I'm sure it would do him good to have his friends come in and talk to him. He may have a few memory problems so it would be best if you could help him by talking through things that have happened, consider that an order." She added looking at the three shocked Gryffindors. Madam Pomfrey never wanted her patients to have visitors! Hermione was the first to recover.
"Yes of course, we will visit everyday."
The older witch smiled. "Good now out you go." And she ushered them out of the infirmary slamming the door shut behind them.
The trio looked at each other, stunned.
"Poor, Neville!" Ron groaned putting his head in his hands, "it's all my fault!"
"Oh no Ron." Hermione wrapped her arms around him, "you didn't know he was going to come through the portrait hole at that moment."
But Ron wasn't listening.
"I've got to learn to control my temper!"
Hermione couldn't help smiling into his shoulder where she was still pressed.
"Well…" she began cautiously, "I can't say that wouldn't be nice."
Harry chuckled.
"I don't know Hermione you have quite a temper too. After all weren't you the one who was complaining about Malfoy earlier?"
She flushed and pulled away from Ron looking at her other best friend.
"Yes…bu…bu…but that was Malfoy!" she exploded "and you know what he did!"
"How about we make a deal?" Ron said looking at his two best friends, "Hermione and I will control our tempers and not snap at people and Harry can make sure we do. If one of us breaks the deal we have to volunteer for Hagrid's demonstrations in care for magical creatures for a month."
"And if we win?" Hermione wanted to know
"Well then you get the satisfaction of knowing you can be a rational person who isn't prone to having haranguing matches with people." Harry grinned
"Humph!" Hermione consented with a curt nod of her head. "Now," she said, once more business like, "we have to make sure that there is always someone with Neville. Since the both of you have the bedside manner of a donkey most of the responsibility will fall upon my shoulders but I do expect some back-up."
Ron opened his mouth to protest against being called a donkey but Harry looked at him and, unwilling to relinquish the bet so early, he closed his mouth and nodded resignedly. Hermione smiled, "Good, now I will visit before breakfast, after lunch until tea time and I will stay late after supper. You guys can come up between breakfast and lunch and occasionally visit with me. Agreed?"
Ron nodded again but this time Harry disagreed.
"Hermione, I don't want you staying late at night. You'd have to go back to the common room by yourself and I don't like that."
Ron went red and, looking as if he was ashamed he hadn't thought about her safety first, nodded emphatically again.
"Neville is a good friend and I know that it is my fault he is in there," Hermione looked as if she was going to protest but Harry shook his head, no, at her and she closed her mouth. Ron continued, "but there is no way I'm going to put either of you in danger. After supper I will visit Neville."
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"Because I'm so used to being in the infirmary because one of my best friends has been ill or is," he gulped, "dying. And I don't want either of you in any kind of danger. Wandering around after dark is my idea of danger." Harry felt a great surge of guilt as he realised that Ron was mostly talking about him and his numerous encounters with Voldemort. Hermione understood too and shot him a quick glance before hugging Ron again and then hugging Harry too.
"Hermione!" Ron said exasperatedly breaking the tense silence, "this is becoming a habit. I know Harry and I are the most handsome specimens of men around but you have to stop throwing yourself into our arms all the time!"
They all laughed and the sadness that had filled them a moment ago flowed away.
***
The three of them made their way back down to the great hall to grab some supper. There they found everything in an uproar. Pansy and Mory were sobbing, Crabbe and Goyle were running around like headless chickens, Jeremy was comforting Harriet (who was quite upset) and looking very stern and Cho sat apart from everyone looking a little sad and lost as if she was mourning the fact that she had no shoulder to cry on.
Hermione decided it was Cho that would be easiest to talk to and she ran over to her, Harry and Ron following close behind.
"Cho, what's going on? What has happened?" Hermione asked, alarmed.
Cho looked surprised.
"Haven't you heard?" she asked as the three of them shook their heads she sighed and continued. "there was an accident on the lake. Casey and Ronan had decided it would be fun to take one of Hagrid's boats out, the giant squid got annoyed and sunk it, Casey can't swim so Ronan tried to save her. But Casey was frightened and struck out at him and knocked him unconscious. Then that blonde boy, Malfoy is it? Saw them and jumped into the lake too. He dragged them both onto the shore and resuscitated Ronan then he fainted. They are up in the hospital wing now." She said all this in a slightly bored voice but they knew it wasn't because she was unfeeling, it was just because ever since their fourth year she had always tried to shut out any feelings. Ron looked over at the noisy students.
"Well that explains everyone except Mory. What's she wailing about?"
"Oh Jeremy is in the infirmary too because he has come down with a rare virus and is suddenly really sick." Cho answered. "Well, I'm going to bed now, goodnight." And she left the hall. Hermione looked at Ron and Harry with a perplexed look.
"Tell me I'm not hallucinating," she whispered, "Cho didn't just say Malfoy was heroic, did she?!"
***
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If you read the character explanation at the end of chapter 2 you will be thinking: 'Ah I know what she is doing.' If you didn't read the character thing then I advise you to do that as the story will make so much more sense. Please, please make sure you have read it! Now on to my thankyous:
VenusDeMilo: The protective thing will definitely be a major part of this story but I do want them to still be close friends. I'm glad you are going to forgive me and thankyou for saying this story was fun. In fact thankyou for the review full stop!
bLuegrEeN: I did review your story and I liked it a lot as I said then! The twins are cute! I'm so happy you like both my stories. Thankyou for your review!
Mione G: Short and sweet! Thankyou!
Porkypop: You love it? Thankyou so much! That is really nice of you to say so.
Waiting: I'm so sorry you would have had to live up to your name and wait for so long for the next chapter. Never mind it is here now! Thankyou for your review!
Fire Goddess: NO, don't keep your comments to yourself, I love comments. I really wanted Draco to have heaps of attitude in this story so it was farther for him to fall! There will be a lot of tension….later. Perhaps in the next chapter! Thankyou for your wonderful review.
CC Montgomery: I know, I know. Oh well! I'm pleased you think it is fun to read, so thankyou!
Gaille: No more smiling ferret? I think I will miss her! Oh well she is just as nice and stupendous as a human. Thankyou for your review, they always put a smile on my dial!
superHPfans: of course I remember you, I remember all my reviewers! Thankyou for reviewing with your nice comments.
Glimmermaid: Yay, nothing like audience participation! Thankyou for your marvellous review.
Sailor Earth: Good! I'm so happy you do, thankyou!
Flaky ballerina: Great and getting better?! Well thankyou, that is so excellent of you to say so! I know this chapter took forever but I truly am sorry!
DarkAngelChick: I am a fellow hyper person! You can probably tell by the number of exclamation marks I use! (see there I go again! This thing is unstoppable!!!!!!!!!!!) Thankyou for reviewing and introducing me to your stories!
Calypso in love: If you look closely at that angry mob you will see me in the middle chanting along with everyone else! Of course it will be D/Hr. It is just going to take a while but I think that is the only way it should be! Thankyou for your reviews and rest assured Hermione and Draco are destined to be (at least in my story anyway!)
Heather: OOOOOH goodie you like my story! Unfortunately I think I have to disagree with you about the Ron thing. R/Hr stories are my second favourite but this one must be D/Hr because that is what I have in my head. However it is quite possible that my next story will be a R/Hr. any ideas? And the idea of H/Hr just makes me sick and I agree that it should be H/G. Thankyou for your review and expressing your opinions!
Angel21689: yes that was my aim to have everyone connected and I sense things will get complicated towards the end. I'm glad you read the character bios as they took a while for me to think up! Thankyou so much for reviewing!
Well that is it for now. You may have noticed that I try to make my thankyous a little different from each other but I am fast running out of ways to say you are all fantastic. I need some more word that mean excellent/ outstanding/brilliant/stupendous/etc. so please help me. In your reviews put a word that you would like me to thankyou with! I am looking forward to some interesting answers! Hopefully I will post a lot quicker and reviews are what make me do that so keep them coming! Please?!
