Draco had fallen back to sleep in his hospital bed. Hermione sat in a nearby chair, head resting on a pillow at the foot of Draco's bed. Ron sat in a chair at the foot of the bed as well, his tired eyes locked on Draco's form. And Harry sat facing the window, his feet propped up on the windowsill as he balanced on the hind legs of the chair.
It was ironic. But wasn't everything ironic in his life? Yes, but this was even more ironic than the everyday, run-of-the-mill ironic. He and his friends were sitting around Draco Malfoy's hospital bed, watching over him. And for no reason! He was under Madam Pomphrey's watch, so there honestly was no reason to be sitting there—Draco would be fine, yet here they were.
Harry felt his lips curve into a wry smile as he stared at the moon. This was how things had started this time around. He'd jumped out the Astronomy Tower, and Draco had caught him.
Harry turned around and eyed the still forms of his two best friends and silently thanked Draco. He owed him his life. Then he turned back to the window, his eyelids getting heavier and heavier.
Maybe people really can change, Harry thought to himself.
"Merlin's ass! Get the bloody hell over here, you cheap owl!"
"Ron—Ron! It wants a cube of sugar and payment. Or something. Ron, stop chasing it!"
"Harry, close the window!"
Harry's eyes shot open and he consequently fell out of his chair.
"Harry!" Ron yelled.
Harry grimaced as he hurried back onto his feet and slammed the window shut. He turned around and gaped at what he saw. A tawny owl had some sort of postage, Ron was chasing it, and Hermione was chasing Ron (she probably didn't realize it either).
Rolling his eyes, Harry reached into his pocket and produced a couple sickles. He whistled at the owl, which stopped midair, sending Ron and Hermione tumbling to the floor at the sudden change of direction. Harry waved the sickles around and the owl peacefully swooped down to Harry, took the payment in its beak, and stuck its leg out so Harry could untie the message.
"Told you so," Hermione groaned as she shoved Ron off her and got back up. "Who's it from?"
Harry eyed the all-too-familiar scrawl. "Ginny!" He said in a daze.
"What?" Ron nearly knocked Hermione off her feet as he ran to Harry. "What're you waiting for? Read it!"
"She says, 'Hey, guys. It's me. I hope I didn't scare any of you. Well, I scared myself, but I'm okay. I've apparated to The Leaky Cauldron, but I don't have any money to use the floo to get to Hogwarts, and everybody knows you can't apparate to Hogwarts—" Hermione beamed at this, "—so I need someone to come get me. Oh! By the way, Hermione, the shirt you lent me sort of got ruined. Sorry. See you soon. Ginny.'"
"Harry, lend me some money," Ron automatically said.
"If you're thinking about getting to The Leaky Cauldron to get her on your own—"
"I'll pay you back!" Ron insisted.
"It isn't the money, mate. Tom Riddle's obviously after Ginny for some reason. They might even be following her now. You can't go alone!"
"Following her?" Ron exclaimed. "Then what are we waiting for? Hermione—"
"Shouldn't we tell Dumbledore about this?" Hermione put her hands on her hips, looking at the boys skeptically.
"No, we shouldn't."
The trio turned to see that the noise they'd caused had finally awoken Draco. He still looked very pale and perhaps a little sore, but it looked, for the post part, that Madam Pomphrey's healing techniques had worked quite well.
"I'll go," Draco said.
"You?" Ron said in disgust. "You're the whole reason why Ginny's in this mess in the first place!" He threw his arms up. "Over my dead body, Malfoy." Ron bit out every word.
This is where Hermione would normally elbow Ron in the stomach or where Harry would whack him upside the head, but both could only stare. Hermione's eyes were wide, her features still, and Harry had gasped, not realizing that he was holding his breath. They had never seen Ron speak so passionately, threateningly, and hatefully all at once.
"Ron—" Harry had started, but then Draco interrupted.
"Shut it, Potter." Draco then shifted his gaze to Ron. "Over your dead body, Weasley?" Draco whipped the covers off the bed, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and stood up swiftly. "I'm already going to Hell. I don't see why I couldn't arrange for your request. Over your dead body?" Draco laughed softly.
Ron gripped his wand tighter and swallowed. "Tough words from a guy clad in polyester."
"I'll disregard that comment. He doesn't know any better, does he?" This question was directed toward Harry and Hermione. "At least he's got a smart girlfriend. Though I'm not sure how smart she'd have to be to pick a guy like him," Draco scoffed.
Hermione's eyes were welling up with angry tears.
"Draco, that is enough! Don't forget what we're all here to do—"
"No, Potter, I think I've heard enough from you," Draco said with a sinister air to his voice. Before Harry could question what he meant, Draco had grabbed Hermione's wand from where she'd left it on the foot of his bed and pointed it at Harry's chest. "Sectumsempra!"
Harry only had time to widen his eyes in horror before the spell threw him across the room and several gashes formed along his skin as blood spurted from the freshly drawn wounds.
"Harry! No!" Hermione screamed, running to where the boy now lay unconscious.
Ron stood in shock, his eyes darting from Harry to Draco.
"I guess you could call that payback," Draco said rather cockily. Then he turned on Ron. "And I saved a special one for you." He swished his wand then pointed it at Ron, who was still in so much shock he didn't even see the spell coming. As the spell struck him, he spun in circles, his form became smaller and smaller until the spinning finally stopped and where Ron had been standing, lay a weasel.
Draco laughed heartily. "That felt good."
"Draco, how could you?" Hermione shrieked. She began to get up, but Draco held up a hand, stopping her.
"Don't even come near me, you Mudblood filth." He spat the words out. "Unless you want to join weasel here in bookworm form, I suggest you play nurse quietly."
Then something quite strange happened. It might have been a trick of the light, or maybe Hermione was so startled with all the blood on Harry that she wasn't seeing correctly, but she could've sworn—no… no, it had to have been a trick of the light.
But then Draco sneered at her and said. "By the way, it's Malfoy." And as he turned, Hermione was finally convinced she wasn't seeing things—his eyes flashed a blood-red color. With that, he jumped out the window, landed on the roof rather quietly, and was flying away on a broom by the time Hermione had made it to the window.
Hermione had long since used Ron's wand to return Ron back to his human form and Harry was now sleeping in the bed Draco had been in a few minutes ago. She shook her head in disbelief. She really thought that Draco had changed.
Ron saw her and got up from where he'd been sitting next to Harry. "Hermione, it's not your fault. You had no way of knowing."
"Ron, if there's one thing Ginny's taught me, it's that you must have faith in people. I really thought he had changed. He has changed—"
"Into a vampire," Ron said bitterly. "Face the facts, Hermione."
"No, Ron," she said. "I could just feel it. Ginny could feel it, too! Don't tell me you have no faith in her judgement."
Ron sighed and crossed his arms. "All right, he tricked us all. I'm not going to sit here and argue about my faith in him. We need to find him before he finds Ginny."
"But what about Harry?" Hermione asked.
"He's obviously not coming!" Ron hollered. "We don't need Harry to do everything, dammit!"
Hermione flinched at that and Ron seemed to realize how forcefully he'd been speaking. "Sorry," he muttered. "It's just that—"
"I know," Hermione said understandingly.
"You stay with him," Ron said. "I'll fetch Ginny."
She looked at Ron worriedly. "Will you be okay?"
Ron gazed out the window into the moonlit fields of Hogwarts. The light from the moon illuminated his face, though his features were very dark. He turned and gave Hermione a wry smile. "I'm the sidekick. Of course I'll be okay!" He began climbing out the window.
Hermione fingered Harry's hand and knew she needed to stay with Harry. She looked up just in time to see Ron mount the broom he had summoned. "Just be careful! And come straight back, Ron!"
He raised a hand in acknowledgement, and within seconds, was zooming away into the oncoming night.
Since escaping Hogwarts, Draco had ripped a nearby shop's door off its hinges, shed the polyester pajamas he'd been wearing for new Armani brand clothes, and had knocked out three muggles to drink their blood.
And now he had arrived at The Leaky Cauldron, after another half-hour of flying. He walked toward the front doors, bloodlust staining his thoughts, even though he'd just fed, and evil intentions splaying across his mind.
Stop, Draco willed himself. But he could feel his body intently moving closer and closer toward the building entrance.
He knew that Ginny was in there, yet he had no control over his body. What was going on? Sure, he'd been thinking about turning Ron into a weasel for a while, but the spell on Harry? Where had that come from?
It was as though his body had woken up, but not his entire mind. He could see everything through his eyes, and he was doing awful, horrible things, yet he had no control over any of it.
But Ginny was inside The Leaky Cauldron!
Stop moving! Sleep! Stand still! Turn around! Draco was shouting inside his mind.
He felt his arms raise and push open the doors to The Leaky Cauldron, and a sweet, familiar voice coming closer and closer.
"Draco! Draco, you're all right! I'm so happy to see you!"
He turned to see Ginny running toward him. It was as though everything was happening in slow motion. Draco wanted to throw his hands up to keep Ginny away, not because he didn't want her, but because he didn't know what he would do with her. But when he tried to move his hands to push her away, he instead felt his arms passionately receive Ginny's hug. Then his arms held her still and he just looked at her for a moment. She looked dreadful. Her face was blotchy from the tears she'd cried, she was wearing some sort of makeshift rag as a shirt, and she had dirt all over her face, arms, and legs. But she was okay.
But not for long.
He felt his head move closer and closer to her face.
Ginny had closed her eyes, ready for the kiss that wasn't going to come, since Draco could see that his mouth wasn't headed anywhere near Ginny's mouth, but toward her neck!
Author's Note: I'm the worst at updating this fic, am I not? And this was such a short chapter, too! Well, now I'm in college/university (majoring in chemical engineering), so things won't be getting any better. Though know that I'm not a quitter, so if you've stuck with me this far, then I hope you will stay with me until this fic ends (it's estimated to be about ten chapters long). Thanks!
Chapter Seven: So Draco's possessed or something, Ginny's about to be bitten by a vampire, Harry's out of commission, Ron's playing hero, and Hermione's playing nurse. Stick around, kids! I'd say the action's just getting started!
Huge thanks to Caeline, bigreader, Niles Chiku, ugahill, Jonah, GoldenFawkes, and Andromeda77 for stickin' with me this far!