Chapter 4 – The Hospital Wing
Last Chapter – "Ron!" Hermione screamed, ripping her robe hastily from her body to reveal plain Muggle clothes, before – without second thought – plunging into the freezing cold water. Holding back the gasp that threatened to escape her lips, the Muggle witch felt the weight of her clothes trying to force her under and she fought desperately against this downward force.
"Ron!" She cried over and over, tired arms frantically pulling her through icy water towards the blotches of red and porcelain and black that made no sense. But suddenly the colours were drowned in a flurry of deep blues that caused Hermione's eyes to widen, lips to part in a scream and for the only word her brain now knew to escape her lips.
"RON!"
Hermione was still screaming and splashing around searching for Ron when her actions caught the attention of a certain Slytherin. Draco who was letting off steam with a walk around the grounds did not expect to see Hermione, water up to her chin and swimming aimlessly towards the centre of the massive lake.
"Ron, where are you!"
What the-"Granger!" Draco exclaimed from the shore, mouth wide in shock. "What the hell are you doing?"
Hermione span around, sopping hair whipping her face.
"I-It's Ron!" Hermione spluttered, swimming towards Draco waving her arms about frantically. "He's gone under … h-he's drowning!"
She made it to the shore at his feet looking up at Draco helplessly, tears streaking her already dripping face.
"What are you talking about?" Draco asked, eyebrows rising up into his hairline.
Hermione began shaking.
"Why can't you understand! We don't have time to chat, Ronald is drowning!" Hermione cried frantically. "Please help me!"
"Wow, Granger calm down," Draco raised his voice. "Weasley can't be drowning."
"Can't be-" Hermione began, disbelieving. "Malfoy, I saw him! How the hell can he not be drowning?"
"Because he's right over there," Draco said, pointing to the streak of red running towards them from the castle.
"Hermione!" Ron yelled, sprinting as fast as he could to the lake. "Hermione, what are you doing!" He rushed to her, running half in the lake to pull her out of the water.
"Oh Ronald, I thought you were drowning!" Hermione exclaimed, throwing herself into the red-head's arms. Suddenly she span around to face the water again. "I saw it Ronald, I swear I did … Y-you were drowning."
"Shh," Ron comforted her, pulling her back into a hug. "It's alright, you were just seeing things. It was probably just a trick of the light; don't worry 'Mione."
Hermione shook in distress and from the cold. The wind was rather chilly this time of year and being saturated in water did not help her cause.
"There's no-one there, look-" Ron pointed out towards the lake, Draco too gazing out in that direction. Hermione flicked her wet hair out of her face before her alert eyes scanned the area.
"But how …" Hermione trailed off. "I saw-"
"Come on, let's get you to the Hospital Wing," Ron whispered softly. "Madam Pomfrey will take care of you." He gently scooped her up in his arms and walked out of the lake, brushing past Draco with a glare. No words needed to be spoken; the fury in Ron's eyes was enough. Draco simply smirked back at him, which he knew would only anger Ron more. It was a puzzle to him how Ron could possibly be mad at him now – Draco hadn't done anything wrong; well, at least not this time.
Looking away from Ron's retreating back, Draco's eyes landed on something very interesting. He knelt down and picked up the bundle of black material, surprised when something dropped out and landed on the grass at his feet.
Draco smirked.
"You can never have too many wands."
"Oh you poor girl!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed, immediately fussing with her sopping clothes, her wand out in an instant. With a few well chosen words, Hermione's jeans and the hand-knitted sweater her mother had made for her were magically dried, a warm fuzzy sensation tingling over her body.
"Now dear," the nurse coaxed. "Just lay down on this bed and I'll grab my potions and a bar of chocolate for you." She turned around to Ron who was at Hermione's side, the trembling witch clutching onto his arm as if for dear life. "You'll have to leave Mr Weasley, this girl needs her rest."
Ron made a reluctant move to leave but Hermione would have none of it.
"No, you can't leave me!" Hermione exclaimed, terrified at the mere thought and, if possible, tightened her grip on Ron's arm. "Don't go!"
Ron looked at Madam Pomfrey, torn, not wanting to say no to his distressed girlfriend but unable to disobey the school nurse.
"Ahh …" Ron trailed off, his body seemingly frozen, not knowing who to listen to.
"Oh fine!" Pomfrey gave in. "But only you, no more visitors. Understood?" She set her most piercing stare on him and Ron almost jumped back in alarm.
"Yes Madam Pomfrey."
"Well go on boy; help her up on to the bed, if you're going to be here you could at least be of some use!" And with those final words Madam Pomfrey disappeared into her office.
Hastily, as not to further anger Pomfrey, Ron assisted Hermione into the closest bed, even tucking the crisp white sheets in around her. Hermione still refused to release his hand. Ron pulled up a nearby chair within reach and sat on it, staring at his shivering girlfriend.
"Oh Ronald I'm so sorry!" Hermione sobbed suddenly, clutching his hand tightly. "I feel so horrible."
Ron's stomach lurched.
"What do you mean, Hermione?"
"I was talking to Harry in Charms today," Hermione began, and Ron felt a wave of nausea hit him full on. "I'm so stupid …"
Okay, Ron thought, trying to be calm. Don't jump to conclusions. Breathe … breathe … JUST BREATHE!
"Yes …" Ron urged her on, certain his face had just paled considerably.
"And … Oh Ron, I was asking Harry questions about your honesty!"
Bastard! How could he do that to me – his best friend! When I get my hands on him-
"Hermione I can explain-""No Ron, you don't have to explain anything."
Bastard! How could he do that to me – his best friend! When I get my hands on him-"You don't have to make excuses for me, I feel so bad, I'm so sorry … I swear, I'll never question your faithfulness again," Hermione blurted, tears streaming. "They were stupid thoughts; I know you'd never do anything behind my back. And then I thought I'd lost you … I'm so sorry Ron!"
She forced him into an awkward hug, throwing her arms around his neck and sobbing into his shoulder. Ron sat there motionless and shocked before recovering to pat her gingerly on the back.
"I-it's alright …" Ron trailed off, not knowing what else to say. If he felt sick before, it had more than doubled now.
No, I'm sorry Hermione … I'm sorry that I can never tell you so.
By nightfall the Hospital Wing was silent – literally absolute silence. If one wished to hear a noise, they would have to create it themselves for not even the wind uttered a sound, nor could the sound of sneaking students be heard from this dark and almost empty room.
Hermione Granger lay huddled in the uncomfortable and squeaky bed, long since asleep. Her breath made not a sound and only the slight rise and fall of her chest showed her to be breathing at all. It had been hours since Ron had left her, coming back and forth between classes until only the curfew – and Madam Pomfrey's refusal of entry when he did break curfew – stopped him from seeing her.
Though she had felt slightly delirious and quite light-headed all day after the lake-incident, Hermione had picked up on a few unusual vibes from Ron during his visits; an odd tension between them that Hermione could not understand, viewable only by the darting of Ron's unusually alert eyes, the slight hunching of his shoulders with his head bowed, almost … ashamed?
But Hermione could not understand why, for it was she who chose to dive into the lake and attempt to save who she thought was him – he shouldn't hold anything against himself for that. If Ron felt at all guilty about that, she sure hoped he wouldn't for long – it only increased her own guilt of unnecessarily worrying him in turn.
That night she had fallen into a restless sleep filled with images of Ron furious with her for every doubting his fidelity, his strangely guilty face that seemed to hold true remorse – but for what? – and the tension between them growing and growing in the form of a tall stone wall, too high for her to climb to reach him.
The tears on her cheek still glistened in the moonlight, even now.
It started with a soft squeak followed by the cautious whine in the same slightly wavering pitch, shattering the silence as if it were a thin piece of very fragile glass. Almost inaudible shuffling entered the now wide open door, a single silhouette blocking out the beam of moonlight that suddenly filled the room. Mere seconds later both disappeared, the quiet click of the closing door pricking Hermione's sensitive ears though she remained in her deep dream-state.
Forced-slow breathing beat in time with Hermione's, a duet of the breath, an imbalance of calm and uneasiness twisted into a perfectly-timed song. The deep sounds of heavy rustling somehow swished softly in the silence of the room as if the sound travelled differently here. Or perhaps it was the sheer concentration of Draco Malfoy whose mind was playing games on him. At such an hour, this theory was quite plausible.
Cautiously he approached her sleeping figure. Her face, tranquil and calm, was facing him and she was huddled on her side, arms folded as though holding something imaginary close to her body. Standing over her now, Draco could see that she was shaking although the Hospital Wing was rather warm despite the raging weather outside.
Puzzled, the Slytherin Prince leaned closer to her as though an answer would suddenly pop up at a closer distance. And it was at this moment that he made his second observation – she had been crying. He was even more confused now, if that was possible, and the reason he had gone to the Hospital Wing in the first place suddenly escaped him.
Hesitantly Draco reached out, his hand wavering slightly as though he was unsure until he felt his fingers graze soft skin. He gasped as she made a small noise, shuffling slightly, and his hand shot up in an instant as though burned. Hermione's face held a slight frown now and she mumbled incomprehensible words under her breath, but did not wake.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Draco could not help but place his hand back on her face to wipe away the tears.
"Crying's a weakness you know, Granger?" Draco whispered softly.
He did not notice the dim glow of light slowly growing behind him.
Reaching into his pocket, Draco revealed her wand he had found down by the lake earlier that day.
"I would have brought this earlier, but your guilt-ridden boyfriend thought his conscience would clear if he sat by you all day," Draco told her quietly, placing the wand on her bedside table.
"But he knows just as well as I do that if you ever found out, you'd never forgive him."
He looked down at her, the girl's face calm once more, and he almost felt sorry for her, his hand still cupping Hermione's face.
"What are you doing in here!" Pomfrey's shrill voice filled the room, startling Draco. The small lantern clasped in her hand barely lit the space around her, let alone Hermione's bed. Shielding his face with his robe, Draco threw himself at the door, wrenching it open before bolting down the corridor. Pomfrey's high-pitched shouts of protest followed him, forcing Draco to use the Invisibility Cloak he had earlier shrunk in his pocket.
White blonde hair had just disappeared when Filch darted around the corner, Draco throwing himself to the ground in order to dodge him. Mrs Norris patted after him, ears pricking when Draco rolled into the wall. Spinning around, her wide-yellow eyes locked with his and Draco almost cried out in alarm.
"We've got him this time, Mrs Norris!" Filch cooed as he ran. "Peeves wont have anywhere to hide in the Hospital Wing!"
Mrs Norris' eyes narrowed even more at Draco, who was holding his breath, hand tightly clasped over his mouth, before the cat hurried after her delirious master. Draco didn't start breathing again until the duo had disappeared completely from sight. Picking himself gingerly from the floor, gripping the wall for support, Draco began a slow walk back to the Slytherin Common Room, robe clutched tight around him.
This whole nice-thing really isn't working for me.
At the sound of the medi-wtich's furious screaming, Hermione immediately sat up bolt-right in her small bed, just in time to see a dark figure dart out of the room. Pomfrey ran out the door down the dark corridor but stopped mere steps from her precious Hospital Wing. Hermione's eyes were wide, her breath short and hollow when Pomfrey returned hot-faced and bewildered.
"He just disappeared, materialised into thin air," Pomfrey muttered, more to herself than Hermione. "Must have been Peeves, that damned poltergeist! He didn't hurt you, did he my dear?"
Pomfrey reached over, her face a frown, and put a hand across Hermione's forehead.
"No, I'm fine … I didn't even – are you sure that was Peeves?" Hermione asked, abruptly changing the subject. The nurse hesitated.
"Well how else would one disappear from sight like that!" she exclaimed, clicking her fingers.
Hermione could only think of one.
"Not that it is any of my business, but are you having problems with Mr Weasley, Miss Granger?" Pomfrey asked suddenly. Hermione leaned back into her pillow as though struck.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Oh, it must have just been Peeves rambling on, pulling pranks as usual," Pomfrey brushed off quickly.
"What do you-"
"AHA!" Filch rammed into the door that Madam Pomfrey had just closed, getting startled screams out of both Hermione and the school nurse.
"Where is he!" Filch shrieked, broom in hand like a weapon, a hissing Mrs Norris at his feet. "PEEVES!"
"Mr Filch, I must ask you leave at once!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed, clutching a hand to her heart in shock. "This poor lady here issick and she does not need your psycho-babble at such an hour."
Filch's mouth opened, closed and opened again before closing one more time.
"Peeve's is not here, Argus, now please remove yourself from my Hospital Wing," Pomfrey said sternly, eyes narrowed. Grumbling something under his breath, Filch turned on his heel out of the room, Mrs Norris trotting after him. Pomfrey rolled her eyes.
"My word …" she shook her head. "Well I wont be giving you any more chocolate or else you wont fall back asleep. I daresay such a disturbance so early in the morning is enough to prevent you sleeping. If you need anything …" And the witch hastily disappeared into her office.
Hermione lay in silence for a long time, her mind reeling through the possibilities of what just happened. And it was when her eyes landed on her wand lying next to the vase of flowers atop the table beside her that all those possibilities narrowed down to one.
But why in Merlin's name would Draco ever do anything nice for anyone but himself, let alone a Muggleborn!
And it was that very question that kept her from anymore sleep that night, pondering.
A/N – There you go! I don't have much to say about this chapter … everyone clear on everything that's happening so far? Questions, queries, comments? Please review … constructively criticise, I love hearing feedback.
Marauders Gal