Chapter 4
What Happened?
Malfoy stared, wide-eyed, at the sunken
Hermione. He dove in right after her.
Since Hermione was
unconscious, she could not feel a pair of strong hands grasp her
body. She could not feel herself being pulled back up to air, to
safety. And she could not see the distress on Malfoy's face.
Hermione had cut herself on her forehead when she collided with
the wall. Malfoy laid her body across his lap, cradling her. "Aquaria
Evapro!" Malfoy said, putting a drying spell on her. Since he did
not know a healing spell, he grabbed one of the white silky cloths in
the bathroom and started to press on the cut, cleaning up the blood.
Even though it wasn't a huge gash, it still bled a lot. Malfoy
kept applying pressure to stop the bleeding. "Oh no! Oh no oh no oh
no! This can't happen! Please be okay! PLEASE BE OKAY!"
Malfoy stressed. Then, he picked her up, held her like a baby, and
then started off towards the hospital wing.
"Madame Pomfrey!
MADAME POMFREY!" called Malfoy.
"Yes dear boy! What is it!"
answered Madame Pomfrey as she came out of her office.
She
gasped, horrified at the limp body in Draco's arms.
"What
happened to Ms. Granger!" she asked, wide eyed. Without waiting
for a reply, Madame Pomfrey automatically rushed forward, and led
Draco towards the nearest bed.
Knowing what to do, Madame
disappeared for a moment in her office. When she reappeared, she came
back with 2 bottles of medicine and 1 jar of pills.
"It's
okay Draco, you may leave. She is in good hands. Lucky you saved her
when you did," Madame Pomfrey confirmed after Draco explained what
happened.
"No, that's okay, I think I'll stay here for the
tonight," Draco said determinedly.
"I'm sorry Draco, but I
can not allow that. You are to return to your room at once,"
ordered Madame Pomfrey. 'I'm staying here no matter what you say'
was written all over Draco's face. She sighed. "Very well then.
But if you are caught, I am not to be held responsible," Madame
Pomfrey declared. Draco took Hermione's hand and whispered "Please
be okay" and then lightly kissed her hand.
The next
morning, Hermione woke up and found herself in the hospital wing. She
turned her head and noticed that Draco was kneeling on the floor, his
head laying sideways on the bed, and her hand held in his. "Was he
here all night?" Hermione asked herself. He had to have been
because he was sleeping.
"Oh, so you're awake! That's good
news. It's been nearly 4 days!" Madame Pomfrey started. Then she
noticed her staring at Draco. "Oh, poor boy, he was here the whole
time, blaming himself for what happened. He has been here whenever he
had free time and sometimes skipped meals just to be with you and
make sure you're okay. He even spent nights here with you,"
Madame Pomfrey explained. "What exactly DID happen, Madame
Pomfrey?" Hermione inquired, wondering what had been so bad that
she had been in a coma for 4 days and Draco spent every minute of his
free time with her.
"Dear girl, don't you know? Oh, this is
worse that I thought it would be. Well, from what Draco told me, you
two were swimming in the bath together having fun when you were
swimming backwards you hit the wall hard headfirst. Then before you
sunk all the way to the bottom, Draco saved you and brought you back
to the surface. Then, he placed a drying spell so you wouldn't be
all wet. He didn't know any healing spells to heal the wound on
your forehead so he carried you all the way here," Madame Pomfrey
quickly explained. Hermione lifted up her free hand and felt her
forehead. There was definitely a slight dent in her head. She felt
the body at the right of her shift. Draco slowly woke up and yawned.
The first thing he saw was Madame Pomfrey standing next to him.
"How
is she?" Draco asked. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"
Madame Pomfrey suggested. Puzzled, he looked at Hermione sitting up
in her bed. His heart jumped for a moment. "Are you okay?" Draco
asked, caught up in the moment.
"Yeah, are you okay?"
Hermione politely asked back. "Yeah," Draco said, giving her a
weak but relieved smile. Hermione returned the weak smile. She
hesitated for a moment but then leaned forward and hugged him. Draco,
taken aback, was not expecting this, but hugged her back. "Thanks
for saving my life," Hermione whispered in his ear during their
embrace. "You're welcome," Draco whispered back as they broke
away from their hug. Hermione flushed a little. Just at that moment,
Kristen burst in.
"HERMIONE! THANK GOD THAT YOU'RE OKAY!"
She yelled in relief and happiness. "YOU! YOU! YOU STAY AWAY FROM
THIS GIRL!" Kristen shouted at Draco. "You almost killed her!"
Kristen said angrily.
"Kristen! KRISTEN! Slow your roll! He
saved my LIFE!" Hermione said in protest, trying to calm her best
friend down. "And you just yelled at him for that! If it wasn't
for him, I'd be dead!" Hermione reasoned. "Did I just defend
Draco?" Hermione thought, bewildered. "WHOA! When did I start
calling him Draco!" Hermione wondered. She flushed again. Kristen
looked from Hermione to Draco a couple of times, studying their
faces, trying to figure out an explanation towards why her best
friend would defend the person that she most hated. "Is there
something that I don't know about?" Kristen asked, trying to get
an answer when she couldn't figure out one. Hermione and Draco
looked at each other, trying to decide what to say.
After
Hermione had gotten out of the hospital wing, she went straight into
her room.
She had to straighten everything out in her head.
"Okay, so Draco had saved my life and was being nice to me. I
hugged him, defended him, and thought he had a nice body. Kristen is
acting all weird lately because she thinks something is going on
between us, and I haven't heard from Harry or Ron yet. There is
this strange Unicorn horn necklace that-" Hermione jumped off the
bed and searched under the pillows. It was gone. Somebody had stolen
it. Hermione's heart jumped into her throat. Who would do such a
thing!
Knock knock!
There was a soft knock at the door.
"Yes, Draco, you can come in," Hermione said, already knowing
that it was him and what he was about to say.
Did she just call
him Draco again!
Draco opened the door and slowly walked in.
"Did you just call me Draco?" Draco asked, taken aback. "Man
this girl is full of surprises!" thought Draco.
"Oh…
yes..." Hermione said shyly, turning slightly pink. "Is that
okay?"
"Umm, yeah I guess. I'll have to get used to it
though because I'm so used to being called Malfoy all the time. The
only people it seems to call me by my first name are the adults,"
Draco agreed. He advanced toward her. At first she flinched and felt
uncomfortable about him coming near her again, but then she allowed
him to sit next to her on the bed.
For the first time, Draco
noticed how truly beautiful she was. "Whoa! Did I just say that
Granger was BEAUTIFUL?" Draco silently asked himself. He reached
out toward her, putting Hermione's hair behind her ear to get a
better look at her. Draco noticed that she shifted a little
uncomfortably. "Sorry," Draco apologized, quickly withdrawing his
hand.
"It's okay," Hermione reassured him. "Oh my god, I
just said that Draco can TOUCH me! What is up with me?" Hermione
silently asked herself, thoughts started racing through her head.
Draco's eyes rested on the dent on her forehead. His face fell in
shame.
Hermione caught his expression darkening and knew that he
was blaming himself for letting her being hurt so badly. Hermione
touched his arm and Draco just looked at her face, her hand on his
arm, and then got off the bed.
"I'll be in the Great Hall if
you need me. I copied notes for you while you were…. hospitalized.
They're on your dresser," Draco parted, walking to the nearest
exit from her room. "Wait!" Hermione called out. She had no idea
why. Draco's hand froze over the door knob that led to the common
room. She decided to ask him if he knew anything about the unicorn
necklace. "Draco, I found a unicorn necklace 5 days ago on a silver
link chain. I placed it under my pillow right before I went swimming
in the bath tub with you" - Hermione blushed - "Do you know
anything about it?"
"No…" He said slowly. "But it
sounds familiar. Like I think I read something about it. It used to
be a sorceress's a long time ago, given to her by the king of
unicorns. It was a powerful gem, stronger than our wands. Only she
and her blood relatives could use it. There was also something about
a prophecy…" Draco started, but let off there. He walked out of
the room. "A prophecy? I have read through practically every book
in the library and there was nothing about a prophecy! Every book
except…. The Restricted Section!" Hermione thought, and began
plotting out a plan.
