Chapter 9. In Deep.

Draco sat on the floor of his dorm staring blankly at the wall. This is what he'd been doing for the past 2 and ¾ hours. He was starting to get bored now. He wanted to think something, but he couldn't. He wanted to feel something, but he couldn't. He wanted to do something, but he couldn't. It seemed to him that as soon as Hermione had been hurt... well hurt being an understatement, savagely attacked resulting in grievous bodily harm sounded better in Draco's opinion. But anyway, since what had happened with Hermione, Draco seemed to have lost all sense of being. He couldn't do anything right, he couldn't do anything without feeling guilty.

He sighed and slowly stood up, finally managing to tear himself away from the wall. He seriously needed to get out of this dorm, too many bad memories. Draco shook his violently; something was wrong, very wrong. First he was actually being nice to Her-Granger, then he took her to the hospital wing instead of leaving her to die and now, thanks to her, he couldn't do anything at all without feeling guilty. And guilt was something a Malfoy definitely did not feel.

'Stupid Granger. Who gave her permission to have a hold over my life?' He thought angrily, until he realised that just the thought of her made him want to vomit, violently.

He quickly rushed out of his dorm, trying very hard not to throw up all over his shoes. Very expensive designer shoes, may I add?

"Think un-granger thoughts, think un-granger thoughts, think un-granger thoughts" He muttered angrily to himself. He walked down the corridor still muttering to himself. In fact he was engrossed in his muttering that as he turned the corner he walked straight into none other than Harry Potter. Both boys were knocked backwards onto the floor.

"Ouch" they both cried in agony. Regaining his usual bearings, Draco stood up and glared down at Harry

"Watch where you're going, Potty" he growled menacingly.

"Oh shut up, ferret boy, you're the one who should be watching where you're going. Walking around muttering to yourself, you should be shipped off to a nut house"

Harry knew this would touch a nerve in Draco for earlier that year Lucius Malfoy had suffered a nervous collapse and after examinations at St. Mungo's had been declared 'Mentally inapt' and was now under severe watch.

"You watch your mouth" Draco said fiercely as he pulled Harry from the floor by the scruff of the neck and slammed him up against the wall.

"What you gonna do now, Malfoy? Beat me senseless as well? Becoming quite a habit isn't it? Attacking Gryffindors. So why do you do it, Malfoy? Are we not worthy enough?" Harry looked Malfoy in the eye, Draco looked as if he was about to cry

'HA!' Thought Harry 'I'm gonna make him pay for what he did to Hermione.'

"go on, hit me" He smiled menacingly.

But his provoking failed as Draco just trust Harry back onto the floor and walked off down the hall.

"Yeah, you better keep walking" Harry shouted after him. Although Harry was quite disappointed. He'd wanted Draco to beat him up as well so he could try and get him expelled.

Draco continued down the corridor, still paying no attention to where he was going, constantly knocking into unexpected pupils

"oi! Watch it Malfoy"

"watch where you're going, Malfoy"

"oi! Watch it, man!"

"Mr. Malfoy if you do not look where you are going I will deduct 5 points from slytherin"

Draco looked up and came face to face with a round eyed Madame Pomfrey. He looked around. He was in the Hospital Wing.

'What on earth am I doing here?' he thought.
He saw Hermione lying unconscious in her bed. Once again a sudden rush of guilt came over him. He clenched his fists and grimaced.

"Mr Malfoy! That's it 5 points from Slytherin for showing disregard to authorities and decisions made by a member of staff"

Her voice faded as he hurried down the hall, trying to get away from the sight of Hermione but before he knew what was happening, he'd turned around and skidded back down the hall and pushed his way past Pomfrey who was still rambling on about 'authorities and decisions'

"Mr Malfoy! 10 points from slytherin!" she shouted after him.

He pulled a chair over and plodded down next to Hermione. 'soooooo' he thought to himself. He gazed down at her face. God she was beautiful. And, her lips… so full, so red. Maybe, maybe if he kissed her… she'd come round like in the fairy tales… "no. NO!" he said fiercely.

"No what?" a faint voice mumbled

"ay? What the, who - " he looked down. "Hermione" his voice was full of happiness and relief. "You're alive! Thank Voldemort you're alive!"

he leaped up before bending down and hugging her. She winced with pain as she tried to sit up properly. "Hermione, Hermione, oh lord Hermione" he kept repeating her name, smiling broadly.
Hermione frowned "look, Draco - " she started but was promptly cut off.

"I am so sorry for what I did. I mean it. I haven't been able to live with myself. Plus most of the school hate me – wait, they hated me already – well now half the school like to express how they hate me and, yeah…"

"its ok" she smiled faintly "its my fault. I shouldn't of come onto you. I was being so stupid trying to use you to get Harry back. It was a stupid idea"

"well, you've got a good chance of getting him back now"

"I have?"

"Mmmm. Seriously, he was by your bedside like 24/7. He was really worried about you. Him and weasel both. And in the end Haney got sick of him always being here and dumped him"

"really?" could this be true?

"Yeah. Made a really big deal of it. Threw a fit in the middle of the great hall and then made it very public she was fucking that Stelos guy a few weeks later"
She was silent for a moment, mulling over the information she had just received. Finally she enquired, slowly "h-h-how long have I been… out of it?"

Draco waited a while before replying softly "About 3 months"

"WHAT?" she screeched, knocking Draco back in surprise "three MONTHS! W-w-what about my studies? What about the heads duties. No offence Draco but you're not as good as me. W-w-w-WHAT!"

"calm down. You're so clever you'll probably be able to catch up in a week! And nobodys a better head girl than you, but… Parkinson and Finnagan are doing a pretty good job"

"Pansy? Seamus? What…"

Draco sighed deeply before bringing Hermione up to date with everything that had been going on while she was unconscious.