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.