A/N: How's everyone doing? Hope you're all enjoying the story! Now let's
keep it going! Thanks for the reviews y'all keep me going!!!
~Chapter 19~
"Honestly Ron, stop fussing!" Ginny said slightly frustrated. Her brother hadn't left her side that whole morning and although his intentions were good he was starting to drive her a bit crazy.
"I'm sorry, Ginny, I just want to make you comfortable."
"Please just sit down!" she said. Ron sat in the chair next to her. His irritation at his inability to do nothing was still evident as he began twiddling his fingers. "Did you owl Mum and Dad yet?"
"Just this morning. Don't worry, I told her that you were perfectly all right and that she didn't need to swoop down here to take care of you," he told her.
Ginny gave a sigh of relief, "Thank God, your fussing is bad enough, hers would be absolute torture!"
"Good morning Ginny," Draco said as he entered the hospital wing. "How are you feeling this morning?"
Ron instantly stood up fists clenching and unclenching at his side. "I'm feeling fine, thank you," Ginny replied.
Draco held out his hands toward her, in them he held two small glasses vases, which held flowers that he had brought for her from the nursery. "I brought these to brighten up the room," he said putting one vase down next to Ginny. "I brought one for Hermione too," he said crossing the room and putting the other one next to her bed. He stopped for a moment next to her bed to check her condition before turning back to Ginny.
Ginny smiled at him, "Thank you, Draco, that was sweet. Wasn't that sweet Ron?" she asked turning to her brother.
"Lovely," he answered in a clipped voice. "Now you need your rest, so maybe he'd better get lost."
"Nonsense," Ginny said, "I told you I feel perfectly fine. In fact Madame Pomfrey says I shouldn't have to stay here much longer."
"But I insist—"
Ginny interrupted him in a voice that left no room for argument, "No Ron, I insist. I want him to stay."
"Very well," Ron grumbled giving in. He didn't really want to argue with his sister when she wasn't feeling well. He figured when she was out of hospital he'd tell her that she wasn't to see Draco anymore, but for now he'd let her have her way. "I'm going to go sit with Hermione for a while." With one last menacing look at Draco, Ron walked across the room and took a seat next to Hermione's bed.
"Come sit next to me," Ginny said patting the bed next to her.
"So you're feeling better?" he asked as he sat down.
"Yes, I'm feeling mu—what in the world is that!" Ginny asked grabbing Draco's face and bringing it close to hers for her inspection. On his jaw she noticed for the first time a pale purple bruise. "What happened to you here?" she demanded.
Draco brought his voice to a whisper, "Well, your brother and I had a—er—difference of opinion when it came to the Dark Mark yesterday."
Ginny could just imagine what the difference of opinion was. "I'm so sorry he did this," Ginny said kissing his bruise, "so sorry," she kissed it again.
Draco pulled away, "Ginny, darling, I really don't want a matching bruise on the other side so if it's all the same to you, can you not do that when your brother is in the same room?" he whispered.
Ginny giggled at him, "Sorry. Oh, Ron told me that the search of the forest last night was for nothing. There were no clues."
"I know," Draco replied, "McGonagall told us this morning. But I don't want to talk about that right now. You need rest, you shouldn't be worried about that right now."
Ginny gave a frustrated sigh, "I wish you and my brother would stop telling me what I can and cannot handle! I'm fine!"
"Still, let's talk about something else."
"OK. Let's talk about what the Minister of Magic said in his reply to McGonagall," she said.
Draco laughed, "You impertinent little git. We're not going to talk about anything in relation to what happened in Hogsmeade yesterday."
"Please?" Ginny asked with her hands clasped in front of her and batting her eyelashes.
"No," Draco said in a tone that said the matter was settled. Ginny humphed and grudgingly let him change the subject.
"Where's our sister? Where is she?" came George Weasley's voice from the entrance of the hospital wing half an hour later.
Ginny closed her eyes, "Oh God. How much worse can this day get."
Draco chuckled at her, "I'd better go, I don't fare well with just Ron, and I don't even want to try with three of your brothers here. I'll be back later." He gave her a sympathetic smile as her brothers swarmed her and then left.
"Ginny are you all right?" Fred asked as he reached her bed. "We cleaned out Honeydukes of their candy for you and Hermione," he said holding up a huge bag overflowing with candy.
"Plus we threw in a few goodies from our store too," George said. "If you're going to be sick, you might as well be able to pull pranks on people."
"Honestly, I don't know what Ron told you guys, but I'm fine!" Ginny said quite exasperated at this point about being treated like she was an invalid.
"Sorry Gin, Mum owled us this morning and told us to get over here as soon as possible and to make sure that you were all right," George informed her.
Ron stepped forward, "I wrote Mum this morning. I've been taking care of her," he said feeling a bit hurt."
Fred raised an eyebrow at him, "Ron you call this taking care of Ginny? Look," he said picking up the pitcher next to her bed, "this is empty, what if she got thirsty?"
"Yeah," George agreed. "And look at these pillows! They haven't even been fluffed up for optimum comfort!" he said practically shoving Ginny forward to fluff her pillows.
Ginny sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon indeed if all three of her brothers were going to be taking care of her.
~~~
"Potter!" Harry turned at the sound of his name and saw Draco coming toward him. "I need to talk to you for a minute," Draco said when he reached him. He glanced around at the students who were walking the halls, "In private."
"Sure," Harry said wondering why Draco would be seeking him out. The walked into one of the nearby classrooms. "What's on your mind," Harry asked sitting on top of one of the desks.
Draco sat on a desk opposite of him, "Something other than the extremely obvious is wrong here." Draco looked away. He half expected Harry to tell him he was being crazy. That whatever he was thinking was probably all in his head and that he just needed to get a grip.
He wasn't however expecting, "I completely agree with you." Draco's eyes snapped back to Harry. "The Dark Mark appears and Fudge doesn't want to do anything about it." The fact that Fudge didn't want to check out the disturbance had been bothering Harry since McGonagall told them that morning. He felt better knowing he wasn't the only one who was thinking along those lines even if the other person was Draco.
Draco nodded in agreement, "Especially if this means that Voldemort is back. Fudge knows that Voldemort's got a thing about getting to you and if you're here then he should want to check it out not chalk it up as some fluke."
"But there were no clues left, nothing. Ron and I checked all over the forest last night."
"I guess we just sit and wait," Draco said. "Damn it!" he said striking the desk with his fist. "I can't believe this is happening! This was all supposed to be over and done with. You took care of Voldemort already! We aren't supposed to be having to worry about the people we care about getting hurt anymore!"
Harry stared at Draco in disbelief. He couldn't believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. This certainly wasn't the same Draco Malfoy that he had spent seven years at Hogwarts with. Of course he didn't know this Draco any more than he knew the one he went to school with, the only thing that he knew about this one was that he was very concerned about Ginny which raised him up a little in Harry's esteem.
"Look, if there's any one thing I know for sure it's that anger isn't going to change the past. Ginny's all right now and that's all that matters," Harry said.
Draco jumped off the table and took a couple of steps away from Harry, "But Hermione is still hurt. Weasley seems to think that it's my entire fault and for all I know it might be. For all I know my father could be the one who found Voldemort and brought him back."
Harry's brows drew together, "How is that your fault?"
Draco took a deep breath still not looking at Harry, "The man was going crazy. All he did was talk about how he was going to find Voldemort and how that was going to make him that much more valuable to the Dark Lord. I never paid attention to him. I thought it was crazy talk." He turned back to Harry, "You had already defeated Voldemort; I just thought eventually my father would let it go." He turned away again, "Then one day he disappeared. I knew, just knew, he went looking for Voldemort. I didn't try to stop my father, or go looking for him, or anything. Maybe if I had done something more, paid a bit more attention to him instead of business, then maybe none of this would have happened."
Harry just stared at Draco not really knowing what to say. "None of that is any of your fault, your father would have gone off anyway, you can't blame yourself for any of that. Besides your father was always really devoted to Voldemort, he would have gone whether you tried to stop him or not."
"You're probably right," Draco said. An awkward silence passed between the two as they realized that they'd just shared their first conversation that didn't involve insults and hostility, but actually had shared opinions and acceptance. Harry felt that he understood Draco a little better now; life under a domineering father must have been a bit difficult. It didn't change the fact that Draco had tormented his childhood, but it started building a bridge for the future. "Thanks for listening," Draco said after a minute.
"Anytime," Harry replied.
"Well, I'd better go. I've still got some parchments to grade before going back to visit Ginny later."
The two boys walked out of the classroom and nearly ran over Emily, Tyler, and Coop. Coop instantly ducked behind his two other friends in case Draco wanted to tear into him and didn't come out again until Draco started making his way down the corridor.
"You didn't even touch him that time Coop!" Tyler said laughing.
"Shut up, Tyler," Coop grumbled.
Emily ignored her friends, "How are Professors Granger and Weasley?"
Harry told her their conditions and Emily looked down, "This is my fault."
"What?" Harry asked tipping her chin up to look at him, why would you say anything like that?"
"Well," Emily began, "I wanted to talk to them, I'm the reason they were behind everyone. This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for me."
Harry knelt down in front of her, "Listen to me Emily, what happened yesterday isn't your fault. I don't want you to think that. I know that neither Hermione nor Ginny would want you to think that either, OK?"
"OK," she replied still not persuaded.
"All right, I'll see you guys later," he said and continued down the corridor.
"Harry!" someone called behind him.
Harry turned hoping it wasn't another person about to tell him how the previous days events had been their fault.
Neville came running up to him, "Harry," he said again a bit out of breath, "Ron asked me to come get you. Hermione is awake."
~~~
Harry walked into what appeared to be pandemonium around Hermione's bed. Ron, Parvati, Cho, Ginny, the Weasley twins, and now Neville were crowded around a still weary looking Hermione.
Madame Pomfrey's head rose from somewhere in the middle of the mayhem. "Enough! You," she said pointing to Ginny, "Get back in bed!" Ginny stuck out her bottom lip in a pout but complied. "You and you," she said pointing to Ron and Harry, "may stay, but only if you are seated in chairs, the rest of you out of here now! These patients need their rest!!!"
Everyone started grumbling as they filled out. Before Fred and George left they said their final goodbyes to Ginny and Ron, as they would be heading back to Hogsmeade. After wishing Hermione well again they too left the room.
"Hermione!" Harry said going over to the bed and leaning down to give her a hug. "I'm sure you didn't imagine you'd be waking up to that. How are you feeling?"
"I've got a huge headache. Other than that, I'm feeling fine, I guess. So are you guys going to fill me in on what happened or what?" she asked.
Harry and Ron rolled their eyes at their friend, she had barely been up for ten minutes and she already wanted to know all there was to know. Since Madame Pomfrey had left the room again Ginny left her bed and crossed over to sit on Hermione's bed. Harry and Ron quickly retold the story to Hermione and Harry filled the three of them in on the conversation he'd just had with Draco.
"Malfoy! Why doesn't the whole world just go Malfoy crazy!" Ron said. "Doesn't anyone see what's going on here?" he asked.
Harry sympathized with his friend, but he had to be honest, "I have to believe him on this, I really don't think he had anything to do with this. You didn't see him Ron, you didn't see how concerned he was over Ginny. Or over Hermione for that matter. The bottom line is that I think we should trust him on this."
Ron felt so betrayed, first his sister, then Hermione, and now his best friend. "I can't believe the lot of you."
"I've had enough of this Ron!" Hermione said. "You need to stop thinking about who he used to be when we went to school and look at who he is now. That's why you can't believe us. We've learned to look past what Malfoy was then and see who he's become. You haven't even given him a chance!" She took a deep breath and leaned back into the bed obviously having exerted more energy in chastising Ron than she should have.
Ron thought for a minute, of course he'd given Draco a chance. Hadn't he? Well, maybe not such a fair chance if he thought about it. And it seemed that everyone else was able to find at least one redeeming quality in Draco, perhaps Hermione was right and he was still only seeing the Draco of the past. "I'm sorry, I've been a jerk."
"Yes," Ginny said agreeing, "but we love you in spite of that."
"I'm still calling him Malfoy," Ron said defiantly.
"I'm still calling you Weasley," came Draco's reply from the doorway. Four pairs of eyes shot over as Draco pushed off from the wall he was leaning on and walked over to Hermione's bed. "I heard you were up," he said to Hermione, "I wanted to see how you were doing." He stopped behind Ginny placing his hands on her arms.
Hermione smiled at him, "Other than a headache, I'm fine. Thank you for the flowers, by the way, they are lovely."
"You're welcome."
"How long were you listening there?" Ron demanded indignantly.
"I believe from I've been a jerk," Draco said. "As I recall, no one argued the point."
Ron was about to tear into Draco when he realized that he was just baiting him. He looked around at his friends who wore expressions of worry that Ron would do Draco bodily harm. "Oh see, he's got jokes. I can take it. I'm OK."
A/N: Poor Ron, he thinks the whole world is against him! Hugs to Ron! LOL. Anyway, the girls are OK. I know that makes a lot of you out there happy! I just want to apologize for taking two days to update. I'll try not to let that happen again!!! Anyway, thanks for reading and as always review if you have time! L8r!
~Chapter 19~
"Honestly Ron, stop fussing!" Ginny said slightly frustrated. Her brother hadn't left her side that whole morning and although his intentions were good he was starting to drive her a bit crazy.
"I'm sorry, Ginny, I just want to make you comfortable."
"Please just sit down!" she said. Ron sat in the chair next to her. His irritation at his inability to do nothing was still evident as he began twiddling his fingers. "Did you owl Mum and Dad yet?"
"Just this morning. Don't worry, I told her that you were perfectly all right and that she didn't need to swoop down here to take care of you," he told her.
Ginny gave a sigh of relief, "Thank God, your fussing is bad enough, hers would be absolute torture!"
"Good morning Ginny," Draco said as he entered the hospital wing. "How are you feeling this morning?"
Ron instantly stood up fists clenching and unclenching at his side. "I'm feeling fine, thank you," Ginny replied.
Draco held out his hands toward her, in them he held two small glasses vases, which held flowers that he had brought for her from the nursery. "I brought these to brighten up the room," he said putting one vase down next to Ginny. "I brought one for Hermione too," he said crossing the room and putting the other one next to her bed. He stopped for a moment next to her bed to check her condition before turning back to Ginny.
Ginny smiled at him, "Thank you, Draco, that was sweet. Wasn't that sweet Ron?" she asked turning to her brother.
"Lovely," he answered in a clipped voice. "Now you need your rest, so maybe he'd better get lost."
"Nonsense," Ginny said, "I told you I feel perfectly fine. In fact Madame Pomfrey says I shouldn't have to stay here much longer."
"But I insist—"
Ginny interrupted him in a voice that left no room for argument, "No Ron, I insist. I want him to stay."
"Very well," Ron grumbled giving in. He didn't really want to argue with his sister when she wasn't feeling well. He figured when she was out of hospital he'd tell her that she wasn't to see Draco anymore, but for now he'd let her have her way. "I'm going to go sit with Hermione for a while." With one last menacing look at Draco, Ron walked across the room and took a seat next to Hermione's bed.
"Come sit next to me," Ginny said patting the bed next to her.
"So you're feeling better?" he asked as he sat down.
"Yes, I'm feeling mu—what in the world is that!" Ginny asked grabbing Draco's face and bringing it close to hers for her inspection. On his jaw she noticed for the first time a pale purple bruise. "What happened to you here?" she demanded.
Draco brought his voice to a whisper, "Well, your brother and I had a—er—difference of opinion when it came to the Dark Mark yesterday."
Ginny could just imagine what the difference of opinion was. "I'm so sorry he did this," Ginny said kissing his bruise, "so sorry," she kissed it again.
Draco pulled away, "Ginny, darling, I really don't want a matching bruise on the other side so if it's all the same to you, can you not do that when your brother is in the same room?" he whispered.
Ginny giggled at him, "Sorry. Oh, Ron told me that the search of the forest last night was for nothing. There were no clues."
"I know," Draco replied, "McGonagall told us this morning. But I don't want to talk about that right now. You need rest, you shouldn't be worried about that right now."
Ginny gave a frustrated sigh, "I wish you and my brother would stop telling me what I can and cannot handle! I'm fine!"
"Still, let's talk about something else."
"OK. Let's talk about what the Minister of Magic said in his reply to McGonagall," she said.
Draco laughed, "You impertinent little git. We're not going to talk about anything in relation to what happened in Hogsmeade yesterday."
"Please?" Ginny asked with her hands clasped in front of her and batting her eyelashes.
"No," Draco said in a tone that said the matter was settled. Ginny humphed and grudgingly let him change the subject.
"Where's our sister? Where is she?" came George Weasley's voice from the entrance of the hospital wing half an hour later.
Ginny closed her eyes, "Oh God. How much worse can this day get."
Draco chuckled at her, "I'd better go, I don't fare well with just Ron, and I don't even want to try with three of your brothers here. I'll be back later." He gave her a sympathetic smile as her brothers swarmed her and then left.
"Ginny are you all right?" Fred asked as he reached her bed. "We cleaned out Honeydukes of their candy for you and Hermione," he said holding up a huge bag overflowing with candy.
"Plus we threw in a few goodies from our store too," George said. "If you're going to be sick, you might as well be able to pull pranks on people."
"Honestly, I don't know what Ron told you guys, but I'm fine!" Ginny said quite exasperated at this point about being treated like she was an invalid.
"Sorry Gin, Mum owled us this morning and told us to get over here as soon as possible and to make sure that you were all right," George informed her.
Ron stepped forward, "I wrote Mum this morning. I've been taking care of her," he said feeling a bit hurt."
Fred raised an eyebrow at him, "Ron you call this taking care of Ginny? Look," he said picking up the pitcher next to her bed, "this is empty, what if she got thirsty?"
"Yeah," George agreed. "And look at these pillows! They haven't even been fluffed up for optimum comfort!" he said practically shoving Ginny forward to fluff her pillows.
Ginny sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon indeed if all three of her brothers were going to be taking care of her.
~~~
"Potter!" Harry turned at the sound of his name and saw Draco coming toward him. "I need to talk to you for a minute," Draco said when he reached him. He glanced around at the students who were walking the halls, "In private."
"Sure," Harry said wondering why Draco would be seeking him out. The walked into one of the nearby classrooms. "What's on your mind," Harry asked sitting on top of one of the desks.
Draco sat on a desk opposite of him, "Something other than the extremely obvious is wrong here." Draco looked away. He half expected Harry to tell him he was being crazy. That whatever he was thinking was probably all in his head and that he just needed to get a grip.
He wasn't however expecting, "I completely agree with you." Draco's eyes snapped back to Harry. "The Dark Mark appears and Fudge doesn't want to do anything about it." The fact that Fudge didn't want to check out the disturbance had been bothering Harry since McGonagall told them that morning. He felt better knowing he wasn't the only one who was thinking along those lines even if the other person was Draco.
Draco nodded in agreement, "Especially if this means that Voldemort is back. Fudge knows that Voldemort's got a thing about getting to you and if you're here then he should want to check it out not chalk it up as some fluke."
"But there were no clues left, nothing. Ron and I checked all over the forest last night."
"I guess we just sit and wait," Draco said. "Damn it!" he said striking the desk with his fist. "I can't believe this is happening! This was all supposed to be over and done with. You took care of Voldemort already! We aren't supposed to be having to worry about the people we care about getting hurt anymore!"
Harry stared at Draco in disbelief. He couldn't believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. This certainly wasn't the same Draco Malfoy that he had spent seven years at Hogwarts with. Of course he didn't know this Draco any more than he knew the one he went to school with, the only thing that he knew about this one was that he was very concerned about Ginny which raised him up a little in Harry's esteem.
"Look, if there's any one thing I know for sure it's that anger isn't going to change the past. Ginny's all right now and that's all that matters," Harry said.
Draco jumped off the table and took a couple of steps away from Harry, "But Hermione is still hurt. Weasley seems to think that it's my entire fault and for all I know it might be. For all I know my father could be the one who found Voldemort and brought him back."
Harry's brows drew together, "How is that your fault?"
Draco took a deep breath still not looking at Harry, "The man was going crazy. All he did was talk about how he was going to find Voldemort and how that was going to make him that much more valuable to the Dark Lord. I never paid attention to him. I thought it was crazy talk." He turned back to Harry, "You had already defeated Voldemort; I just thought eventually my father would let it go." He turned away again, "Then one day he disappeared. I knew, just knew, he went looking for Voldemort. I didn't try to stop my father, or go looking for him, or anything. Maybe if I had done something more, paid a bit more attention to him instead of business, then maybe none of this would have happened."
Harry just stared at Draco not really knowing what to say. "None of that is any of your fault, your father would have gone off anyway, you can't blame yourself for any of that. Besides your father was always really devoted to Voldemort, he would have gone whether you tried to stop him or not."
"You're probably right," Draco said. An awkward silence passed between the two as they realized that they'd just shared their first conversation that didn't involve insults and hostility, but actually had shared opinions and acceptance. Harry felt that he understood Draco a little better now; life under a domineering father must have been a bit difficult. It didn't change the fact that Draco had tormented his childhood, but it started building a bridge for the future. "Thanks for listening," Draco said after a minute.
"Anytime," Harry replied.
"Well, I'd better go. I've still got some parchments to grade before going back to visit Ginny later."
The two boys walked out of the classroom and nearly ran over Emily, Tyler, and Coop. Coop instantly ducked behind his two other friends in case Draco wanted to tear into him and didn't come out again until Draco started making his way down the corridor.
"You didn't even touch him that time Coop!" Tyler said laughing.
"Shut up, Tyler," Coop grumbled.
Emily ignored her friends, "How are Professors Granger and Weasley?"
Harry told her their conditions and Emily looked down, "This is my fault."
"What?" Harry asked tipping her chin up to look at him, why would you say anything like that?"
"Well," Emily began, "I wanted to talk to them, I'm the reason they were behind everyone. This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for me."
Harry knelt down in front of her, "Listen to me Emily, what happened yesterday isn't your fault. I don't want you to think that. I know that neither Hermione nor Ginny would want you to think that either, OK?"
"OK," she replied still not persuaded.
"All right, I'll see you guys later," he said and continued down the corridor.
"Harry!" someone called behind him.
Harry turned hoping it wasn't another person about to tell him how the previous days events had been their fault.
Neville came running up to him, "Harry," he said again a bit out of breath, "Ron asked me to come get you. Hermione is awake."
~~~
Harry walked into what appeared to be pandemonium around Hermione's bed. Ron, Parvati, Cho, Ginny, the Weasley twins, and now Neville were crowded around a still weary looking Hermione.
Madame Pomfrey's head rose from somewhere in the middle of the mayhem. "Enough! You," she said pointing to Ginny, "Get back in bed!" Ginny stuck out her bottom lip in a pout but complied. "You and you," she said pointing to Ron and Harry, "may stay, but only if you are seated in chairs, the rest of you out of here now! These patients need their rest!!!"
Everyone started grumbling as they filled out. Before Fred and George left they said their final goodbyes to Ginny and Ron, as they would be heading back to Hogsmeade. After wishing Hermione well again they too left the room.
"Hermione!" Harry said going over to the bed and leaning down to give her a hug. "I'm sure you didn't imagine you'd be waking up to that. How are you feeling?"
"I've got a huge headache. Other than that, I'm feeling fine, I guess. So are you guys going to fill me in on what happened or what?" she asked.
Harry and Ron rolled their eyes at their friend, she had barely been up for ten minutes and she already wanted to know all there was to know. Since Madame Pomfrey had left the room again Ginny left her bed and crossed over to sit on Hermione's bed. Harry and Ron quickly retold the story to Hermione and Harry filled the three of them in on the conversation he'd just had with Draco.
"Malfoy! Why doesn't the whole world just go Malfoy crazy!" Ron said. "Doesn't anyone see what's going on here?" he asked.
Harry sympathized with his friend, but he had to be honest, "I have to believe him on this, I really don't think he had anything to do with this. You didn't see him Ron, you didn't see how concerned he was over Ginny. Or over Hermione for that matter. The bottom line is that I think we should trust him on this."
Ron felt so betrayed, first his sister, then Hermione, and now his best friend. "I can't believe the lot of you."
"I've had enough of this Ron!" Hermione said. "You need to stop thinking about who he used to be when we went to school and look at who he is now. That's why you can't believe us. We've learned to look past what Malfoy was then and see who he's become. You haven't even given him a chance!" She took a deep breath and leaned back into the bed obviously having exerted more energy in chastising Ron than she should have.
Ron thought for a minute, of course he'd given Draco a chance. Hadn't he? Well, maybe not such a fair chance if he thought about it. And it seemed that everyone else was able to find at least one redeeming quality in Draco, perhaps Hermione was right and he was still only seeing the Draco of the past. "I'm sorry, I've been a jerk."
"Yes," Ginny said agreeing, "but we love you in spite of that."
"I'm still calling him Malfoy," Ron said defiantly.
"I'm still calling you Weasley," came Draco's reply from the doorway. Four pairs of eyes shot over as Draco pushed off from the wall he was leaning on and walked over to Hermione's bed. "I heard you were up," he said to Hermione, "I wanted to see how you were doing." He stopped behind Ginny placing his hands on her arms.
Hermione smiled at him, "Other than a headache, I'm fine. Thank you for the flowers, by the way, they are lovely."
"You're welcome."
"How long were you listening there?" Ron demanded indignantly.
"I believe from I've been a jerk," Draco said. "As I recall, no one argued the point."
Ron was about to tear into Draco when he realized that he was just baiting him. He looked around at his friends who wore expressions of worry that Ron would do Draco bodily harm. "Oh see, he's got jokes. I can take it. I'm OK."
A/N: Poor Ron, he thinks the whole world is against him! Hugs to Ron! LOL. Anyway, the girls are OK. I know that makes a lot of you out there happy! I just want to apologize for taking two days to update. I'll try not to let that happen again!!! Anyway, thanks for reading and as always review if you have time! L8r!