Chapter 3
"Is she going to be ok?"
"She'll be fine. She lost a lot of blood but it's a good thing you found her in time. You practically saved her life."
"I don't know why she would do something like this too herself."
"We'll never know, Mr. Malfoy, I don't think we'll ever know."
Hermione could hear strange voices around her, but nothing made sense. Where was she and who did these voices belong to? Hermione opened her eyes, but shut them quickly, trying to block out the bright sun light.
"What's going on?" She said, attempting to open her eyes again. "Where am I?"
Hermione quickly looked around the room to see if she recognized anything or anyone. Immediately she recognized the hospital wing with the rows and rows of beds for sick students. As soon as she recognized her surroundings, all of the past events came rushing back into her memory. Her parents dying, her creaming at Harry and Ron, her slitting her wrist; it all came flowing back to her subconscious like a dam removed.
"What happened?" she screamed. "Who brought me here?"
Suddenly realizing Hermione was awake, Madame Pomfrey and Malfoy came rushing over to her bed.
"You gave me a fright, young lady. How did you manage to do that to yourself? You're lucky Mr. Malfoy found you in time."
Malfoy just looked at her with pity in his eyes unable to say anything. Nothing he could say felt right at this particular moment.
"Err… it was an accident." Hermione lied. "I didn't mean to do it. I was fiddling with the knife and I accidentally dropped it on my wrist."
Malfoy knew she was lying, but why he chose to say anything against this was beyond anything he understood. He just stood there unable to rationalize why anyone would try to kill themselves, especially Hermione Granger, Miss Know-It-All. He stood there staring into her brown eyes, unable to think of anything to say.
"Well, you should be thanking Mr. Malfoy for finding you before it became too late."
"Er, yeah. Thanks Malfoy. Umm, if you hadn't helped me I would have been dead." Yeah, thanks a lot Malfoy, Hermione thought sarcastically, I actually wanted to be dead. Maybe then I would have been finally happy.
"Er, no problem Granger." Malfoy replied. He knew what she said wasn't the truth. He knew that she purposefully slit her wrist. He knew she wanted to die, but he just didn't know why.
"Hermione, are you ready to leave the hospital wing?" Madame Pomfrey asked.
"Err… yeah I think so. What about my wrist?"
Your wound has healed but I'm afraid there will still be a scar."
Hermione looked down onto her left wrist and sure enough there was a dark scar going right across the wrist. Great. Now I have this huge scar. Everyone will know that I cut my wrist. Looking back up, she noticed Malfoy's eyes lingering of hers but as soon as she caught him, he looked away.
"Thanks for everything Madame Pomfrey. I think I can go now. I'll be fine."
"Oh that's good. Mr. Malfoy, can you please escort Ms. Granger back to your head rooms?"
"Sure, Madame Pomfrey."
Hermione slowly got up from her bed and stepped on the cold marble floor. The coldness gave her immediate chills up and down her spine as she tried to stand up on her own. Having not walked in what felt like an eternity, her knees felt they were going to give way, but Malfoy rushed over to the side of her bed and helped her steady herself. Hermione, surprised at Malfoy's kind gesture, just stared up in his face astounded.
"Er... thanks." she managed to get out, feeling slightly awkward that he was helping her.
"Yeah, no problem." he mumbled.
"Oh and Hermione," Madame Pomfrey called back to her as she walked out. "Do be careful, dear. Playing with knives isn't a wise thing to do."
Hermione just smiled as she walked out of the Hospital Wing with Malfoy beside her, supporting her.
Walking down the corridor with Malfoy got Hermione some odd glances from younger students. They walked in silence, unable to think of anything to say to each other. Finally, Malfoy, tired of the awkward silence, chose to get some of his questions answered.
"Ok Granger, you can put down the façade. Why did you do that to yourself? Did you really intend to kill yourself."
Hermione, taken aback from Malfoy's straight forwardness just stared at him in disbelieve. Finally finding her tongue, she blurted out. "Malfoy, it's really none of your business what I do to myself behind closed doors."
"Granger, if you are trying to kill yourself, I really think you should get some professional help. We never know if you plan to do it again, and if you do, I probably wont be there to save you."
"Who even said I wanted to be saved, Malfoy. As far as I'm concerned, you should have left me there on the floor in the bathroom." Tears had stared to well up in her eyes as she remembered what happened to her parents and when blinking them back had become unsuccessful, they began to flow tirelessly down her pale face.
Seeing the tears come out her eyes, Malfoy suddenly stopped in the hallway. Unsure if he should comfort her, or let her cry herself dry. He chose the former, knowing it might be awkward but it was the only thing that he thought was right at the moment. He wrapped his warm arms around Hermione, bringing her close to his body. She could feel his body heat radiating off onto her, and his smell, like a musty, but expensive cologne. It felt good in his arms. She needed comfort and she found it within Malfoy.
"Granger, promise me you won't do that ever again. Promise me you won't hurt yourself, because I was terrified."
"Malfoy, I can't promise anything. I wish I could stand before you and proclaim that I would never slit my wrist again or that I will never attempt to commit suicide, but I know I would be lying to you. I can't promise to never do it again, because there is too great a chance that I would do it again."
Malfoy just looked at her while she said this. It all didn't make any sense. Why was Hermione acting like this? Why had she so drastically changed? Something must have happened to Hermione this summer, but he hadn't the slightest idea what it could be, but whatever it was, it must have been big, big enough to complete change Hermione and her personality.
A/N: I'll try to update faster next time, but if I don't get around to it, bear with me, because I plan to eventually. And I do plan to make this Hermione/Draco eventually, but I'm not sure how fast I can get there without rushing the story too fast, so just a heads up that I still want to make this into an angst romance story.