A/N: Hey there y'all! I'm back again with a request, if you have any ideas
on how to improve my story, I would really appreciate it if you would
either tell me in your reviews (big hint) or email me at:
illegalcow@hotmail.com. Thanks, I really appreciate it. Also, if anyone
wants me to email them when I update, just mail me or put it on the end of
your review (hint so big it obscures the sun, and we all die of vitamin D
deficiency) Once again, thank you so much to my reviewers, luv you all,
mwah.
Disclaimer: These beautiful creations belong to J.K and unfortunately not me, living in my unheated flat on a crappy student loan.
Chapter 4: Floating Sleep
It was barely dawn the following day when Hermione made her appearance at Draco's bedside. She had already posted an open apology to her ream on the notice board in the doctors office, so her conscience was clear on that point (A/N: Hermione is a fully qualified doctor, she was so great at medical school that she graduated really quickly.), although Hermione might be mean in tense moments, she hated knowing that she had upset people.
Hermione walked into the intensive care ward, and was greeted by the staff nurse on duty.
"Why hello there Hermione, I've been expecting your visit! So this is your new patient is it? Well, he's a handsome looking fella, I'll give him that. He hasn't woken yet, but we're expecting him back in the land of the living sometime soon."
"Thanks Colleen, oh by the way, have you heard any more about how he came to be in the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Well, it seems that he was disapparated for quite some time, you know how that can happen in extremely tired or injured people." Hermione murmured her assent, it was a syndrome called Floating Sleep, where a person could have apparated from one place, and not have arrived in the destination. It was quite rare, as most people knew to avoid apparating when they were tired or injured, however many cases of emergency apparition had ended in Floating Sleep. It enabled the person to have some recuperation time, to get back their strength for the re-apparation, and was quite harmless.
"I wonder how long he was gone for. Have you had time to do the FSP yet?"
"Why yes indeed sweetheart, we think he was gone for about five hours, but we're not sure."
"FIVE HOURS?? Wow, that's a hell of a long time, he's obviously really tough huh!"
"It seems that way. Now, I was told that you knew the patient, could you help me fill out a background for him?" "Well, I didn't know him that well, but I'll tell you anything I know."
Ten minutes later Hermione emerged from the nurse's station feeling quite bad, to think that she'd been at Hogwarts with Malfoy for seven years, and she only knew the most basic things about him. Well, there was plenty of time for her to get to know him in the recuperation period, that is, if he wasn't such an idiot as he had been for their entire school career.
Hermione stepped through the door into Draco's room, and looked around her. It was just the basic hospital room, but somehow, it seemed nicer than all the other hospital rooms Hermione had seen before. However, there was one glaring omission in Malfoy's room that made Hermione feel a pang of pity for her motionless ex-enemy. There were no flowers. No get-well cards, no grapes that couldn't be eaten, no chocolates, no signs that anybody cared about the man that lay deathly pale in the hospital bed.
The room itself was pleasant and airy, with white walls and a window that was shut against the cool breeze of the day. The sunshine was warm through the panes of glass, and fell in golden lines across the bed. There were two armchairs for well wishers and family to sit in, however both were unoccupied, and there was an empty table in one corner. The bed was made up with white crisp cotton sheets and a baby blue blanket, which Hermione knew to be warm and soft. Draco was lying in the bed, with his eyes closed, but no unsightly tubes emerging from his mouth or nose, and only one tube emerging from his pale, muscular arm, attached to a drip.
Hermione grudgingly admitted that he was probably the most handsome man in the building, sick or healthy. 'How can he look good, even when he's sick? That should be illegal, or at least severely frowned upon.' She walked over to one of the armchairs and pulled it towards Draco's bed, she sat down and sat watching him for any signs of life. Hermione stretched out her hand to hold his, then snatched it back, okay, come on! 'You hold all your patients hands, why should Malfoy be any different, it doesn't mean that you like him. It would be unethical to treat him any differently, just reach out and hold his hand. It's not a big thing, come on, you can do it!'
Taking a deep breath, she reached out again and grasped the motionless hand. It felt differently to how she'd expected it to, it wasn't cold and smooth, but warm and slightly rough, like he'd done some physical work during his life. It wasn't an unpleasant roughness, but manly and rugged. 'Manly and rugged?! What the HELL are you thinking, you stop it right now Hermione Anne Granger, I am warning you. STOP IT!'
Just as she was finishing her internal tirade, the much debated over hand suddenly moved, letting out a small shriek Hermione dropped the hand like it was burning hot.
"Don't do that, it felt nice." Exclaimed a voice that Hermione knew all too well, but it was different this time, not sneering, but pleasant, even longing.
"So you're awake then, good, perhaps you can inform us of a few details that we are, as yet a little fuzzy on. However, first things first, how do you feel? Any nausea, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, can you move all your limbs?"
"Woah, woah, slow down! First thing's first, where am I?"
"You are in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies."
"Oooookaaaay, and next, who am I?"
"Oh God." * * *
Ten minutes later, Hermione had established that Draco remembered very little about his personal history, or what had happened to him leading up to his accident, however, even though he couldn't remember going to Hogwarts, he had a perfect memory of magic.
"Okay, this is really weird, and quite scary." Admitted Draco, "I mean did I know you? Can you tell me anything about myself, please? Merlin, this is strange, me asking a complete stranger to tell me about myself! Speaking of complete stranger, you can fill me in on yourself while you're at it, I can see we're gonna be spending a lot of time together for the foreseeable future!"
It seemed surreal for Malfoy to be asking about Hermione, and she couldn't help but smile at the turns life took. Draco, taking her smile as a positive sign settled back on his pillows and grinned back.
"Okay pretty lady, fill me in." Slightly shocked at Malfoy's newfound ability to smile, Hermione missed the fact that he called her pretty and started her story.
"Well, I never knew you very well, but we went to school together for seven years."
"Wait, wait, wait, hold up a second. We went to school together for seven years and you didn't know me very well?" Draco queried. 'God, I must have been a complete idiot if I didn't make a pass at this girl at least once!' he thought inwardly.
"Well, no, you see we were in different houses, and there was no small amount of animosity between us. It was stupid really, but it seemed the most important thing to us at the time, keeping up appearances and traditions." For some reason known only to herself Hermione was reluctant to tell Malfoy that they had out and out hated each other, or what was the reason behind the hate. She liked the way he spoke to her at the moment, like an equal, like they were friends.
"Well, that's the way kids can be I guess, but it seems silly," Draco reached out and squeezed her hand. "I was obviously missing out."
'He touched me, he willingly touched me, oh yes, go me, go me, go me!!' Hermione's inner self was dancing delightedly around the room. Slightly disgusted with herself, Hermione hurriedly continued with her Cliff Notes of Malfoy's life.
"Well, you came from an extremely rich family, the Malfoy's, I mean you probably have more money than everyone in this hospital put together."
"Wow, well that's always a good thing to know eh!" Draco exclaimed with his eyes wide open in shock and pleasure.
"Yep, well we don't know what happened to your father, but your mother, Narcissus, died several years ago, right at the end of our seventh year at Hogwarts."
"D-d-do you know how?" asked Draco, somehow feeling pain for the death of a woman he had never known
"Weeeeeell.." said Hermione, reluctant to tell him the tragic circumstances.
"Please." said Draco, quietly, and Hermione crumbled.
"Don't say I didn't warn you okay, your father, Lucius.well he beat her to death, he'd been beating her for years, and one day he went to far. She died of extensive internal bleeding. There was evidence that she'd been near death before as well. Your father disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. You lived in Malfoy Manor alone with your house elves from the end of our time at Hogwarts till now. There was always speculation that you knew where he was, but you never revealed him."
Throughout the tale of his mother's death, Draco had been getting paler and paler, but Hermione felt that it was best to get it all over with in one go. "I'm gonna be sick!" Draco blurted out, and Hermione leapt up and grabbed the small bowl that was placed on the side, for just that purpose. She got it into position under his mouth just in time. Draco heaved and heaved until there was nothing left inside him, Hermione stood there behind him, stroking his hair with her free hand murmuring comfortingly.
When he'd finished, Hermione handed him a box of tissues, and placed the bowl into a purpose made receptacle in the wall, where it was magically cleaned, and placed the now pristine bowl back on the side. "I'm sorry." Draco whispered " It's fine, don't worry about it! I've been puked on more times than you've had hot dinners, and you made it to the bowl!"
"It was just the story..."
"I think that you should rest for a while now. You've had a long day, and you're still not 100%." Draco nodded his agreement, and settled back down in his bed. As Hermione turned to leave he grabbed her wrist.
"Thank you. Will you come back tomorrow? It's just I don't know anybody, and I want to find out who I am and.."
"I'll be back tomorrow, you should sleep now." Hermione smiled, as Draco let go of her wrist, rolled over and immediately fell asleep, like a small child. For some reason, she felt a compelling urge to kiss his cheek, and had leaned over and pressed her lips to his warm skin before she knew what she was doing. She straightened up and smiled before leaving the room and closing the door quietly behind her. Draco slept on quietly, never knowing.
* * *
It was the following morning when Draco woke, and the sunshine was once again slanting through the window onto his pillow. Rolling over onto his back, he groaned at the realization that it was only 7:15 in the morning. He pushed the button that was beside his bed, and a nurse popped her head around the door.
"Would it be possible for me to have a shower please?" Draco enquired politely.
"Why no sir, I'm afraid it's not, you see you might fall and injure yourself. You could have a bath though, if you'd like?"
"That would be perfect, thank you." The nurse stepped away from the door, and walked down the corridor towards the bathroom, musing on her patient. It was the legendary Draco Malfoy to be sure, but he wasn't anything like his reputation suggested. Maybe the rumour that he'd lost his memory was true, and if that was true, then maybe the rumour that He-Who-Must-Not-Be- Named was dead was true as well. With a spring in her step, the young nurse continued down the corridor.
Draco was about to step into the bath, when he noticed his reflection in the mirror, intrigued, he stepped forward to take a closer look. He saw fairly short, extremely blond hair atop a fairly attractive face. He had a well defined jaw, a long-ish, thin nose, and great cheekbones. His eyes were the showstoppers though, he didn't think he'd ever seen eyes the colour of his before. They were the palest shade of blue imaginable, swirled with grey that almost looked silver.
The rest of him wasn't so bad either, broad shoulders, arms that were muscular and toned. 'Hmmm, I must work out.' Draco's chest was defined, with a six-pack, and the very faintest spattering of soft blond hair, a few shades darker than the hair on his head. His stomach went down into narrow hips, with a small line of hair going from his belly button, down his flat stomach into.'Hey, pretty damn impressive, even if I do say so myself.' His legs were muscular, although not so much so, as to look out of proportion with his slim, taut body. 'Goddamn, I must've broken some hearts in my time!'
Laughing at himself, Draco turned to get into the bath, and his laughter died away as he caught sight of his back. It was criss-crossed with innumerable scars, some new, some old. Some of them looked like burn scars, some whip scars, a lifetime of pain written across his back. Draco knew immediately who was to blame for this; it must have been his father, Lucius. He made up his mind to tell Hermione when she visited later that day; Draco sank into the bath, and began to think. He wracked his mind, for any clues about his past, anything at all, even the bad stuff.
He relaxed after about ten minutes of hard searching. 'I'm not gonna force it, it'll come back, I know it will. It has to, I'm gonna nail that bastard for what he did to me and my mother.' Draco floated in the bath for a few minutes more, and then began to wash, he hauled himself out of the bath when he'd finished. He wanted to be ready for when Hermione came to visit; it was amazing how much he was looking forward to it, even though he'd only known her for a few hours. It must be because she's the only person I know. He thought. 'That, or because you fancy the pants off her,' piped up the devilish part of his mind.
Draco dried himself off, and pulled on a pair of the hospital's pyjamas, blue brushed cotton, that were extremely comfortable. He padded back down to his room in his bare feet, and decided not to get back into his bed, but sit in the chair by the window, with the book that he'd requested when he went for his bath.
That was exactly where Hermione found him when she walked into the room two hours later, completely engrossed in Misery by Stephen King. "Hey you, did you sleep well?" She asked, giggling slightly when she saw him jump, and hurriedly look around.
"Yeah, yeah I did thanks." Draco replied, grinning at her. 'God, I'm really starting to like that grin of his. It's so open and friendly, and so un- Draco like.' thought Hermione.
"I have something to show you, and I don't want you to freak out okay?" said Draco, suddenly looking very serious, which slightly scared Hermione. He stood up and turned around so he was facing her, and quickly pulled up the back of his pyjama top so his back was exposed. Hermione drew in her breath in a quick, shocked gasp. The sight of his back was more than she was ever expecting. 'All the time that he was so evil to me, Harry and Ron, he was living with this. All those times we taunted him about his father, I feel awful, oh shit what am I supposed to say?'
Draco heard Hermione's gasp, and wondered if he'd gone too far, if this was something that he should have kept to himself. Just as he was about to pull his top down and turn around, he felt gentle fingers tracing the scars. The sensation made little shivers run down his spine, and his mouth went dry, he cleared his throat.
"Lucius?" Her whisper was so quiet he barely heard it, but he felt it, a little stream of air running across his bare shoulder-blade. It was all that he could do to stop himself from shuddering.
"I guess so, I mean from what you say, it sounds like something he'd do right?"
"Yeah." As Hermione softly spoke, she pulled her hand away, and Draco wanted to protest, make her put it back, but he didn't.
Hermione stepped back, and Draco pulled his top back down.
"I brought you a present," said Hermione, finally remembering the reason that she came in the first place.
"Wow, you know, you didn't have to." He said, touched that she'd thought of him, he was also secretly ecstatic.
"I know, but I wanted to." She almost grinned at the look of pleasure on his face, but restrained herself. "It's not anything much." She warned, "I just noticed that you didn't have anything to make the room more pleasant, and so I thought I'd bring you some stuff."
Draco grinned at the way she looked slightly nervous and embarrassed, like she was afraid he'd suddenly turn around and bite her hand off if she offered him anything. His grin faded when a thought struck him, what if the reason that she acted like that, was because at some point, that's exactly what he would have done. 'I don't like not knowing what I was like' he decided. He turned his thoughts from his past self, when Hermione brought in her bags.
First of all, she handed him a bunch of flowers "Well, you know all invalids should have flowers, and I felt sorry for you because you don't have any." Hermione said it all in a rush, and he laughed out loud then, because she was blushing, and was so very cute. He leaned over and kissed her cheek in an unconscious mirroring of her late night gesture from the night before.
"Thank you Hermione, they're beautiful." He crossed over to the sink in the corner of the room and filled up the vase from the shelf above, and put the flowers into it. He then walked back over to his seat, and placed the flowers on the windowsill.
"Next in Hermione's bag of goodies, we have. fruit! Now I didn't know what kind you like, so I just got you loads of different kinds." She pulled out several brown paper bags from a carrier bag, followed by a large glass bowl. Inside the brown bags, there were grapes, cherries, bananas, apples, pears and oranges.
"Wow, you must have spent a fortune! Thank you again!" Draco kissed her on her cheeks, swapping sides, once for each kind of fruit she'd brought, chanting the names of the fruits. (A.N. didn't know how to describe that, like grapes, kiss, cherries, kiss other side, etc) Hermione was blushing when he finished.
"Anything else, oh gift queen of the Universe?" Draco said jokingly, not expecting there to be anything else.
"Umm, yeah, we have chocolates and some get well cards from various people."
"Jeez Hermione, you went to a lot of effort didn't you!"
"It was nothing really, you know. I mean I was happy to." Hermione was cut off mid sentence, by Draco suddenly kissing her. It was only his lips very gently touching hers, but it still sent a little tingle of pleasure running down her spine.
'Oh SHIT! I just kissed her, oh fuck, what's she gonna do, is she gonna slap me, what? Just chew me out, tell me you never wanna see me again and get it over with.' Draco looked adorable. He was standing there, breathing fast, looking as if he was expecting her to hit him for kissing her. Draco Malfoy had just kissed Hermione Granger, and he was scared of her reaction. Wonders would never cease, Hermione burst out laughing at the sight of him, Draco's eyes flew open at the sound of her laughter.
"What?" His scared face was gone, and now he just looked indignant. The laughter increased and Hermione was now doubled up and struggling to breathe. Tears were rolling down her face, and she was clutching her stomach which was aching from laughing so hard.
"Ow, it hurts, oh God, can't stop laughing, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
"What's so funny?" Draco demanded tapping it foot in irritation.
"Nothing, I'm sorry. Really I'm not laughing at you, honestly. It was just your face! You looked like you thought I was going to hit you, oh man, my stomach really hurts."
Draco grinned as she explained. At least she wasn't hitting him, and she wasn't laughing because he kissed her, that would have been a blow from which his self esteem may never have recovered.
"Okay, that's enough laughing now, come on stop it. Good girl." He patted her head like she was a five-year-old when she finally managed to control her laughter.
"There's no need to be patronising Mr. Malfoy." Hermione said indignantly. "Now come on, we need to keep going with your life or I'll never get rid of you." Draco's face fell slightly when she said that she wanted to get rid of him, but he tried valiantly to hide it from her. 'Why are you doing this to yourself Draco? She's your doctor, nothing is ever going to happen between you, and you heard her, she wants to get rid of you. You're nothing more than a patient to her; besides, she's far too good for you. What did you ever do to deserve a person like her? Face up to the truth Draco, you'll never have her./
Hermione wondered what was wrong with Draco as she went and sat down at the other chair, which she had dragged across the room until it was opposite Draco's. 'Well I guess that's it now then, he will forever and always be Draco in your head. That's it, you've fallen for him, not that it's ever going to happen. You're his doctor, and you'd be completely screwed if you started up a relationship with a patient. Oh, and there's always the other fact of HE'S DRACO MALFOY! You know that you'll do your job and then he'll get his memory back, and what then. You'll be back to Mudblood and Ferret, and that'll be that. You were never meant to have someone like Malfoy, Granger, you're not good enough. You have, and always will have dirty blood.'
Unaware that their thoughts were on spookily similar tacks, both Draco and Hermione sat there growing steadily more miserable until Hermione got up and announced. "I have to work tomorrow, I may not be able to come and see you for a few days, but I'll come back when I can." She turned and walked towards the door, and as she opened it to leave, she turned around and said the words that sent a chill down to Draco's heart.
"I'll find someone else to come and talk to you about your past." 'So that's it then Draco, she's gone.'
A/N: Phew that was a long chapter, and a bit angsty for my liking, but never fear, I promise that it will have them together, coz I don't like ones that pretend to be Draco/Hermione and then aren't. However, I haven't yet decided what I'm gonna do when Draco's memory comes back, which is where I need your ideas and opinions. Will he: a) Be back to nasty Draco and leave a broken hearted Hermione b) Do a) and then come to his senses c) Get his memory back, but not go nasty again d) Not regain his memory e) None of the above
Whichever of them wins will have the end plot based on that option, however I'm gonna keep the final plot a secret till the end, so get voting!
Grr. I just found out that all my formatting goes to shit when I upload my chapters. Hmm, okay my story musty have been mucho confusing! Well I'm tryin summat different now, hopefully it'll make more sense
Disclaimer: These beautiful creations belong to J.K and unfortunately not me, living in my unheated flat on a crappy student loan.
Chapter 4: Floating Sleep
It was barely dawn the following day when Hermione made her appearance at Draco's bedside. She had already posted an open apology to her ream on the notice board in the doctors office, so her conscience was clear on that point (A/N: Hermione is a fully qualified doctor, she was so great at medical school that she graduated really quickly.), although Hermione might be mean in tense moments, she hated knowing that she had upset people.
Hermione walked into the intensive care ward, and was greeted by the staff nurse on duty.
"Why hello there Hermione, I've been expecting your visit! So this is your new patient is it? Well, he's a handsome looking fella, I'll give him that. He hasn't woken yet, but we're expecting him back in the land of the living sometime soon."
"Thanks Colleen, oh by the way, have you heard any more about how he came to be in the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Well, it seems that he was disapparated for quite some time, you know how that can happen in extremely tired or injured people." Hermione murmured her assent, it was a syndrome called Floating Sleep, where a person could have apparated from one place, and not have arrived in the destination. It was quite rare, as most people knew to avoid apparating when they were tired or injured, however many cases of emergency apparition had ended in Floating Sleep. It enabled the person to have some recuperation time, to get back their strength for the re-apparation, and was quite harmless.
"I wonder how long he was gone for. Have you had time to do the FSP yet?"
"Why yes indeed sweetheart, we think he was gone for about five hours, but we're not sure."
"FIVE HOURS?? Wow, that's a hell of a long time, he's obviously really tough huh!"
"It seems that way. Now, I was told that you knew the patient, could you help me fill out a background for him?" "Well, I didn't know him that well, but I'll tell you anything I know."
Ten minutes later Hermione emerged from the nurse's station feeling quite bad, to think that she'd been at Hogwarts with Malfoy for seven years, and she only knew the most basic things about him. Well, there was plenty of time for her to get to know him in the recuperation period, that is, if he wasn't such an idiot as he had been for their entire school career.
Hermione stepped through the door into Draco's room, and looked around her. It was just the basic hospital room, but somehow, it seemed nicer than all the other hospital rooms Hermione had seen before. However, there was one glaring omission in Malfoy's room that made Hermione feel a pang of pity for her motionless ex-enemy. There were no flowers. No get-well cards, no grapes that couldn't be eaten, no chocolates, no signs that anybody cared about the man that lay deathly pale in the hospital bed.
The room itself was pleasant and airy, with white walls and a window that was shut against the cool breeze of the day. The sunshine was warm through the panes of glass, and fell in golden lines across the bed. There were two armchairs for well wishers and family to sit in, however both were unoccupied, and there was an empty table in one corner. The bed was made up with white crisp cotton sheets and a baby blue blanket, which Hermione knew to be warm and soft. Draco was lying in the bed, with his eyes closed, but no unsightly tubes emerging from his mouth or nose, and only one tube emerging from his pale, muscular arm, attached to a drip.
Hermione grudgingly admitted that he was probably the most handsome man in the building, sick or healthy. 'How can he look good, even when he's sick? That should be illegal, or at least severely frowned upon.' She walked over to one of the armchairs and pulled it towards Draco's bed, she sat down and sat watching him for any signs of life. Hermione stretched out her hand to hold his, then snatched it back, okay, come on! 'You hold all your patients hands, why should Malfoy be any different, it doesn't mean that you like him. It would be unethical to treat him any differently, just reach out and hold his hand. It's not a big thing, come on, you can do it!'
Taking a deep breath, she reached out again and grasped the motionless hand. It felt differently to how she'd expected it to, it wasn't cold and smooth, but warm and slightly rough, like he'd done some physical work during his life. It wasn't an unpleasant roughness, but manly and rugged. 'Manly and rugged?! What the HELL are you thinking, you stop it right now Hermione Anne Granger, I am warning you. STOP IT!'
Just as she was finishing her internal tirade, the much debated over hand suddenly moved, letting out a small shriek Hermione dropped the hand like it was burning hot.
"Don't do that, it felt nice." Exclaimed a voice that Hermione knew all too well, but it was different this time, not sneering, but pleasant, even longing.
"So you're awake then, good, perhaps you can inform us of a few details that we are, as yet a little fuzzy on. However, first things first, how do you feel? Any nausea, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, can you move all your limbs?"
"Woah, woah, slow down! First thing's first, where am I?"
"You are in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies."
"Oooookaaaay, and next, who am I?"
"Oh God." * * *
Ten minutes later, Hermione had established that Draco remembered very little about his personal history, or what had happened to him leading up to his accident, however, even though he couldn't remember going to Hogwarts, he had a perfect memory of magic.
"Okay, this is really weird, and quite scary." Admitted Draco, "I mean did I know you? Can you tell me anything about myself, please? Merlin, this is strange, me asking a complete stranger to tell me about myself! Speaking of complete stranger, you can fill me in on yourself while you're at it, I can see we're gonna be spending a lot of time together for the foreseeable future!"
It seemed surreal for Malfoy to be asking about Hermione, and she couldn't help but smile at the turns life took. Draco, taking her smile as a positive sign settled back on his pillows and grinned back.
"Okay pretty lady, fill me in." Slightly shocked at Malfoy's newfound ability to smile, Hermione missed the fact that he called her pretty and started her story.
"Well, I never knew you very well, but we went to school together for seven years."
"Wait, wait, wait, hold up a second. We went to school together for seven years and you didn't know me very well?" Draco queried. 'God, I must have been a complete idiot if I didn't make a pass at this girl at least once!' he thought inwardly.
"Well, no, you see we were in different houses, and there was no small amount of animosity between us. It was stupid really, but it seemed the most important thing to us at the time, keeping up appearances and traditions." For some reason known only to herself Hermione was reluctant to tell Malfoy that they had out and out hated each other, or what was the reason behind the hate. She liked the way he spoke to her at the moment, like an equal, like they were friends.
"Well, that's the way kids can be I guess, but it seems silly," Draco reached out and squeezed her hand. "I was obviously missing out."
'He touched me, he willingly touched me, oh yes, go me, go me, go me!!' Hermione's inner self was dancing delightedly around the room. Slightly disgusted with herself, Hermione hurriedly continued with her Cliff Notes of Malfoy's life.
"Well, you came from an extremely rich family, the Malfoy's, I mean you probably have more money than everyone in this hospital put together."
"Wow, well that's always a good thing to know eh!" Draco exclaimed with his eyes wide open in shock and pleasure.
"Yep, well we don't know what happened to your father, but your mother, Narcissus, died several years ago, right at the end of our seventh year at Hogwarts."
"D-d-do you know how?" asked Draco, somehow feeling pain for the death of a woman he had never known
"Weeeeeell.." said Hermione, reluctant to tell him the tragic circumstances.
"Please." said Draco, quietly, and Hermione crumbled.
"Don't say I didn't warn you okay, your father, Lucius.well he beat her to death, he'd been beating her for years, and one day he went to far. She died of extensive internal bleeding. There was evidence that she'd been near death before as well. Your father disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. You lived in Malfoy Manor alone with your house elves from the end of our time at Hogwarts till now. There was always speculation that you knew where he was, but you never revealed him."
Throughout the tale of his mother's death, Draco had been getting paler and paler, but Hermione felt that it was best to get it all over with in one go. "I'm gonna be sick!" Draco blurted out, and Hermione leapt up and grabbed the small bowl that was placed on the side, for just that purpose. She got it into position under his mouth just in time. Draco heaved and heaved until there was nothing left inside him, Hermione stood there behind him, stroking his hair with her free hand murmuring comfortingly.
When he'd finished, Hermione handed him a box of tissues, and placed the bowl into a purpose made receptacle in the wall, where it was magically cleaned, and placed the now pristine bowl back on the side. "I'm sorry." Draco whispered " It's fine, don't worry about it! I've been puked on more times than you've had hot dinners, and you made it to the bowl!"
"It was just the story..."
"I think that you should rest for a while now. You've had a long day, and you're still not 100%." Draco nodded his agreement, and settled back down in his bed. As Hermione turned to leave he grabbed her wrist.
"Thank you. Will you come back tomorrow? It's just I don't know anybody, and I want to find out who I am and.."
"I'll be back tomorrow, you should sleep now." Hermione smiled, as Draco let go of her wrist, rolled over and immediately fell asleep, like a small child. For some reason, she felt a compelling urge to kiss his cheek, and had leaned over and pressed her lips to his warm skin before she knew what she was doing. She straightened up and smiled before leaving the room and closing the door quietly behind her. Draco slept on quietly, never knowing.
* * *
It was the following morning when Draco woke, and the sunshine was once again slanting through the window onto his pillow. Rolling over onto his back, he groaned at the realization that it was only 7:15 in the morning. He pushed the button that was beside his bed, and a nurse popped her head around the door.
"Would it be possible for me to have a shower please?" Draco enquired politely.
"Why no sir, I'm afraid it's not, you see you might fall and injure yourself. You could have a bath though, if you'd like?"
"That would be perfect, thank you." The nurse stepped away from the door, and walked down the corridor towards the bathroom, musing on her patient. It was the legendary Draco Malfoy to be sure, but he wasn't anything like his reputation suggested. Maybe the rumour that he'd lost his memory was true, and if that was true, then maybe the rumour that He-Who-Must-Not-Be- Named was dead was true as well. With a spring in her step, the young nurse continued down the corridor.
Draco was about to step into the bath, when he noticed his reflection in the mirror, intrigued, he stepped forward to take a closer look. He saw fairly short, extremely blond hair atop a fairly attractive face. He had a well defined jaw, a long-ish, thin nose, and great cheekbones. His eyes were the showstoppers though, he didn't think he'd ever seen eyes the colour of his before. They were the palest shade of blue imaginable, swirled with grey that almost looked silver.
The rest of him wasn't so bad either, broad shoulders, arms that were muscular and toned. 'Hmmm, I must work out.' Draco's chest was defined, with a six-pack, and the very faintest spattering of soft blond hair, a few shades darker than the hair on his head. His stomach went down into narrow hips, with a small line of hair going from his belly button, down his flat stomach into.'Hey, pretty damn impressive, even if I do say so myself.' His legs were muscular, although not so much so, as to look out of proportion with his slim, taut body. 'Goddamn, I must've broken some hearts in my time!'
Laughing at himself, Draco turned to get into the bath, and his laughter died away as he caught sight of his back. It was criss-crossed with innumerable scars, some new, some old. Some of them looked like burn scars, some whip scars, a lifetime of pain written across his back. Draco knew immediately who was to blame for this; it must have been his father, Lucius. He made up his mind to tell Hermione when she visited later that day; Draco sank into the bath, and began to think. He wracked his mind, for any clues about his past, anything at all, even the bad stuff.
He relaxed after about ten minutes of hard searching. 'I'm not gonna force it, it'll come back, I know it will. It has to, I'm gonna nail that bastard for what he did to me and my mother.' Draco floated in the bath for a few minutes more, and then began to wash, he hauled himself out of the bath when he'd finished. He wanted to be ready for when Hermione came to visit; it was amazing how much he was looking forward to it, even though he'd only known her for a few hours. It must be because she's the only person I know. He thought. 'That, or because you fancy the pants off her,' piped up the devilish part of his mind.
Draco dried himself off, and pulled on a pair of the hospital's pyjamas, blue brushed cotton, that were extremely comfortable. He padded back down to his room in his bare feet, and decided not to get back into his bed, but sit in the chair by the window, with the book that he'd requested when he went for his bath.
That was exactly where Hermione found him when she walked into the room two hours later, completely engrossed in Misery by Stephen King. "Hey you, did you sleep well?" She asked, giggling slightly when she saw him jump, and hurriedly look around.
"Yeah, yeah I did thanks." Draco replied, grinning at her. 'God, I'm really starting to like that grin of his. It's so open and friendly, and so un- Draco like.' thought Hermione.
"I have something to show you, and I don't want you to freak out okay?" said Draco, suddenly looking very serious, which slightly scared Hermione. He stood up and turned around so he was facing her, and quickly pulled up the back of his pyjama top so his back was exposed. Hermione drew in her breath in a quick, shocked gasp. The sight of his back was more than she was ever expecting. 'All the time that he was so evil to me, Harry and Ron, he was living with this. All those times we taunted him about his father, I feel awful, oh shit what am I supposed to say?'
Draco heard Hermione's gasp, and wondered if he'd gone too far, if this was something that he should have kept to himself. Just as he was about to pull his top down and turn around, he felt gentle fingers tracing the scars. The sensation made little shivers run down his spine, and his mouth went dry, he cleared his throat.
"Lucius?" Her whisper was so quiet he barely heard it, but he felt it, a little stream of air running across his bare shoulder-blade. It was all that he could do to stop himself from shuddering.
"I guess so, I mean from what you say, it sounds like something he'd do right?"
"Yeah." As Hermione softly spoke, she pulled her hand away, and Draco wanted to protest, make her put it back, but he didn't.
Hermione stepped back, and Draco pulled his top back down.
"I brought you a present," said Hermione, finally remembering the reason that she came in the first place.
"Wow, you know, you didn't have to." He said, touched that she'd thought of him, he was also secretly ecstatic.
"I know, but I wanted to." She almost grinned at the look of pleasure on his face, but restrained herself. "It's not anything much." She warned, "I just noticed that you didn't have anything to make the room more pleasant, and so I thought I'd bring you some stuff."
Draco grinned at the way she looked slightly nervous and embarrassed, like she was afraid he'd suddenly turn around and bite her hand off if she offered him anything. His grin faded when a thought struck him, what if the reason that she acted like that, was because at some point, that's exactly what he would have done. 'I don't like not knowing what I was like' he decided. He turned his thoughts from his past self, when Hermione brought in her bags.
First of all, she handed him a bunch of flowers "Well, you know all invalids should have flowers, and I felt sorry for you because you don't have any." Hermione said it all in a rush, and he laughed out loud then, because she was blushing, and was so very cute. He leaned over and kissed her cheek in an unconscious mirroring of her late night gesture from the night before.
"Thank you Hermione, they're beautiful." He crossed over to the sink in the corner of the room and filled up the vase from the shelf above, and put the flowers into it. He then walked back over to his seat, and placed the flowers on the windowsill.
"Next in Hermione's bag of goodies, we have. fruit! Now I didn't know what kind you like, so I just got you loads of different kinds." She pulled out several brown paper bags from a carrier bag, followed by a large glass bowl. Inside the brown bags, there were grapes, cherries, bananas, apples, pears and oranges.
"Wow, you must have spent a fortune! Thank you again!" Draco kissed her on her cheeks, swapping sides, once for each kind of fruit she'd brought, chanting the names of the fruits. (A.N. didn't know how to describe that, like grapes, kiss, cherries, kiss other side, etc) Hermione was blushing when he finished.
"Anything else, oh gift queen of the Universe?" Draco said jokingly, not expecting there to be anything else.
"Umm, yeah, we have chocolates and some get well cards from various people."
"Jeez Hermione, you went to a lot of effort didn't you!"
"It was nothing really, you know. I mean I was happy to." Hermione was cut off mid sentence, by Draco suddenly kissing her. It was only his lips very gently touching hers, but it still sent a little tingle of pleasure running down her spine.
'Oh SHIT! I just kissed her, oh fuck, what's she gonna do, is she gonna slap me, what? Just chew me out, tell me you never wanna see me again and get it over with.' Draco looked adorable. He was standing there, breathing fast, looking as if he was expecting her to hit him for kissing her. Draco Malfoy had just kissed Hermione Granger, and he was scared of her reaction. Wonders would never cease, Hermione burst out laughing at the sight of him, Draco's eyes flew open at the sound of her laughter.
"What?" His scared face was gone, and now he just looked indignant. The laughter increased and Hermione was now doubled up and struggling to breathe. Tears were rolling down her face, and she was clutching her stomach which was aching from laughing so hard.
"Ow, it hurts, oh God, can't stop laughing, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
"What's so funny?" Draco demanded tapping it foot in irritation.
"Nothing, I'm sorry. Really I'm not laughing at you, honestly. It was just your face! You looked like you thought I was going to hit you, oh man, my stomach really hurts."
Draco grinned as she explained. At least she wasn't hitting him, and she wasn't laughing because he kissed her, that would have been a blow from which his self esteem may never have recovered.
"Okay, that's enough laughing now, come on stop it. Good girl." He patted her head like she was a five-year-old when she finally managed to control her laughter.
"There's no need to be patronising Mr. Malfoy." Hermione said indignantly. "Now come on, we need to keep going with your life or I'll never get rid of you." Draco's face fell slightly when she said that she wanted to get rid of him, but he tried valiantly to hide it from her. 'Why are you doing this to yourself Draco? She's your doctor, nothing is ever going to happen between you, and you heard her, she wants to get rid of you. You're nothing more than a patient to her; besides, she's far too good for you. What did you ever do to deserve a person like her? Face up to the truth Draco, you'll never have her./
Hermione wondered what was wrong with Draco as she went and sat down at the other chair, which she had dragged across the room until it was opposite Draco's. 'Well I guess that's it now then, he will forever and always be Draco in your head. That's it, you've fallen for him, not that it's ever going to happen. You're his doctor, and you'd be completely screwed if you started up a relationship with a patient. Oh, and there's always the other fact of HE'S DRACO MALFOY! You know that you'll do your job and then he'll get his memory back, and what then. You'll be back to Mudblood and Ferret, and that'll be that. You were never meant to have someone like Malfoy, Granger, you're not good enough. You have, and always will have dirty blood.'
Unaware that their thoughts were on spookily similar tacks, both Draco and Hermione sat there growing steadily more miserable until Hermione got up and announced. "I have to work tomorrow, I may not be able to come and see you for a few days, but I'll come back when I can." She turned and walked towards the door, and as she opened it to leave, she turned around and said the words that sent a chill down to Draco's heart.
"I'll find someone else to come and talk to you about your past." 'So that's it then Draco, she's gone.'
A/N: Phew that was a long chapter, and a bit angsty for my liking, but never fear, I promise that it will have them together, coz I don't like ones that pretend to be Draco/Hermione and then aren't. However, I haven't yet decided what I'm gonna do when Draco's memory comes back, which is where I need your ideas and opinions. Will he: a) Be back to nasty Draco and leave a broken hearted Hermione b) Do a) and then come to his senses c) Get his memory back, but not go nasty again d) Not regain his memory e) None of the above
Whichever of them wins will have the end plot based on that option, however I'm gonna keep the final plot a secret till the end, so get voting!
Grr. I just found out that all my formatting goes to shit when I upload my chapters. Hmm, okay my story musty have been mucho confusing! Well I'm tryin summat different now, hopefully it'll make more sense