Disclaimer: Not my characters.
Hermione drifted in and out of consciousness. She knew she was lying down. A warm blanket was draped over her. She could smell the potiony-antiseptic smell that could only mean she was at St. Mungos.
As she drifted, she heard voices. They were low, but she knew the timbre of each. Harry's soft words—concerned and quiet. Ron's high pitched speech—angry and scared. And Draco's smooth voice, his words fast, a deep gravel there that meant he was very unhappy. But she couldn't hear their words. She strained to hear, but then sleep took her again.
When she woke again, she could hear whispers. Her eyes opened a smidge and there were hands in hers, two voices—Harry and Ron—talking over one another as quickly as they could.
She winced and Harry shushed Ron. "Hermione," he said, gingerly sitting beside her. Her eyes adjusted to the light and she looked up at him. "How are you feeling?"
"Terrible," she said, wincing as she tried to sit. Ron was at her elbow, helping her, and she couldn't help but smile a little as he watched her, his cornflower blue eyes full of concern. "What happened?" she asked, squeezing both of their hands.
"You were hit with a curse," Ron said, hooking a chair with his foot and dragging it over so he didn't have to let go of her hand. "It—" Ron looked at Harry, panicked.
"They're not sure what it did yet," Harry said, his voice sad.
"I feel—" she said, gently pulling her hands away from her friends to pull the blanket up higher. "Cold. Well, not cold exactly." She tried to pinpoint the feeling. "Exposed, I suppose." She shrugged, wishing the blanket were thicker.
"I'll get another blanket," Ron said, hopping up and leaving the room.
"Before he gets back," Harry said, growing serious, "can you tell me why you were at that restaurant? Why you jumped in front of Malfoy when that curse was cast?"
Hermione's cheeks grew pink.
"People at the scene said you jumped in front of him and his date. Why?" Harry's vivid green eyes bored into her own brown ones, but there was no judgment there, only curiosity. As an auror, he needed all the information, she knew.
With a sigh, she answered. "Malfoy and I are friends," she said, lifting her chin slightly. "Well, more than friends, I suppose." Her neck grew hot with embarrassment as she steeled herself to reveal their secret. "I mean, we are just friends, but we're also—"
"We're lovers." Draco's voice in the doorway caused Hermione to jump nearly out of her skin. She looked to Draco—dressed impeccably as always—and tugged her blanket up higher over the gown they'd changed her into when she arrive at St. Mungos. "Or something like that," he said with an almost self-conscious shrug.
"Lovers," Harry stated, looking between the two. "But you were on a date with another witch," he said, sounding both defensive and clinical at the same time.
"Granger here thought it would be a good idea," he said with a shrug as he sauntered into the room.
"I never said any such thing," she said, ire rising in her chest. "I said you shouldn't cancel, as the date was already made, but I never said I thought it was a good idea."
"I didn't make the date if you'll remember," he said, coming to stand beside her bed, hands in his pockets. "My mother did. But when I asked you if I should cancel, you said—"
"Blimey, what are you doing here?" Ron asked as he re-entered the room, a clean, white blanket in his hands.
"Checking on Granger," Draco said with a sigh as he took a step back toward the window. Ron gruffly moved between them and spread the blanket on the bed.
"Well, you've done so. You can leave now," Ron said, wheeling on the blonde.
"Ronald," Hermione said, exasperated.
"Do you want him to stay?" Ron asked, turning and staring down at her.
"Yes," Draco said, his casual expression looking forced to Hermione. "Do you want me to stay?" She thought she could be imagining it, but there was hope in his smooth voice.
Hermione looked around the room. Harry was studying them all, the wheels in his brain trying to piece it all together. Ron was furious, glaring at Draco. But Draco was watching her, his gray eyes telling her more than his words would.
"I do," she said, chewing on the inside of her lip.
Draco physically relaxed as he leaned against the wall beside the window, arms crossed over his chest, while Ron visibly tensed.
"Hermione," he said, face red, "you can't possibly still be seeing this arse?"
"Still seeing?" Harry asked, eyebrows shooting up into his hairline.
Hermione blanched. She'd forgotten that that was how this all started—Draco pretending to be her date on New Year's Eve to save her from embarrassing herself with Ron.
"Since New Year's," Draco said. When Hermione's eyes went wide, he sighed. "Casually, of course."
"Casually?" Ron asked, eyes narrowing. "So, he's using you then?" He crossed his arms and looked down at Hermione, his nose wrinkled.
"No!" she said, gripping the blanket as a wave of dizziness overtook her. Her eyes darted to Draco, who looked to her trained eyes as if he was very sad. "No, it isn't like that. It's—"
"Ms. Granger," a healer said as she walked into the room, silencing the very awkward conversation. "We think we've figured out what the curse that struck you did."
"Magia foret inexpiabile," Hermione whispered, remembering the words that the man had uttered.
"Yes," the healer said, referencing a clipboard that hovered in the air just before her. "It's an old spell, very old. And from what we can tell, it has—er—suppressed your magical abilities." The healer cleared her throat.
"What does that mean?" Draco asked from where he stood, shoulders tense, by the wall.
"It means that, until we can reverse it, Ms. Granger will be without magic." The healer cleared her throat again.
"A squib?" Ron asked, his voice shocked.
"Ron!" Harry hissed, eyes darting to Hermione who sat with her mouth open.
"She won't have any magic at all?" Draco asked, his voice calm.
Hermione's stomach felt like it had bottomed out. No magic. None. She felt Draco's eyes on her, but avoided his gaze. She couldn't stand to see the disgust she was sure would be there.
"Not until we can discover a counter-curse," the healer said. "I'm sorry. I wish I had better news." In front of her, the clipboard started to fall toward the floor. The healer grabbed it with her hands, an irritated look on her face.
Hermione was sure things couldn't get any worse. But then, a healer's assistant walked in and whispered in the healer's ear. After, he looked at Hermione with big, scared eyes, and darted away.
The healer, whose name Hermione realized she'd never learned, took a step back.
"Excuse me, but which of you gentlemen have been in here the longest period of time?" She took another step back.
"I have," Harry said, eyebrows knitted together. "Why?"
"Mr. Potter," the healer said, backing up until her back was against the wall. "Would you please do me a favor and try casting a charm with your wand?"
Confused, Harry pulled his wand from its holster and pointed it at an empty paper cup on the bedside table. "Wingardium leviosa," he said. The cup wiggled, but nothing happened. Harry straightened, embarrassed. "Wingardium leviOsa," he said again. This time, the cup didn't so much as wobble.
"That's what I was afraid of," the healer said as she backed toward the door. "Ms. Granger, I'm afraid we're going to have to put you in quarantine. The curse that stole your magic is active in your body." The healer's eyes were wide. "It's effecting anyone within a close range. "Mrs. Potter, Weasley, and Malfoy, I must insist that you leave this room so that we can put up wards. The curse is draining your magic away as we speak."
Ron jumped away, eyes wide. Harry looked indecisive, but followed him, his face apologetic. Only Draco stayed where he was, arms crossed, leaning against a wall.
"We'll come back when we can," Ron said from the doorway, then his eyes landed on Malfoy and they went wide. "What, you're telling me that you plan to stay?" He scoffed.
"I wasn't intending on telling you anything, Weasley, but yes. I plan to stay." His eyes darted to Hermione, then back to Ron. "If it's alright with Granger, anyway."
"Draco," she said, her voice shaking with fear at all the new information. "If you stay, you'll lose your magic as I have."
Finally, he looked at her, and the expression on his face stole the air from her lungs. If they hadn't slept together so many times, if she hadn't heard him whisper things into the dark, if they hadn't so much time aside from that just talking, she might have missed it, but he looked at her with desperation and all she wanted was him by her side.
"Would that bother you, Granger, if I did?" his voice was low and her stomach clenched. What an inappropriate time for her hormones to come to life.
"I don't care about your magic, Draco," she said, forgetting for a moment that other people were here, watching.
He looked at her for a long moment, his mouth curving up into that smirk that made her weak in the knees. "It's settled then," he said, turning toward the healer with a nod. "I'll stay." He took his sports coat off and draped it over the back of a chair. "You'll need someone to keep an eye on her anyway."
"Draco," Hermione choked out.
"Mr. Malfoy," the healer said, "I should warn you that this is very old magic. We aren't sure if the secondary effects of being near her will be permanent or not."
Beside Hermione, Draco crossed his arms over his chest, the fabric of his dress shirt pulling tight. "I'm aware of the risks," Draco said. "You can use me as a control if you want. Test my magic away from her after a day or so. That will tell you if it's safe for you to continue to treat or, or I'll need to take over completely, which I'm more than capable of doing." He stood tall and his firm jaw brokered no arguments.
Ron opened his mouth as if he might argue against it. He worked his jaw up and down, then snapped it shut, an angry red tinge to his cheeks. Beside him, Harry looked sorrowful.
"We'll come check on you tomorrow," Harry said, and Hermione nodded. And then, they were gone. The healer shut the door behind them and after a moment, the door and walls shimmered goldenly. A strong ward to keep something trapped.
"Well then," Draco said as he sat in the chair beside Hermione. She pulled her blanket higher. "Looks like you're stuck with me for a bit."
Hermione was silent. She looked at Draco, at his forced bored indifference, then at the shimmering golden walls that were protecting all the magical people outside these walls from her, then back at Draco.
She burst into tears, overwhelmed and afraid, and in less than a single beat of her heart, Draco was there, scooting onto the bed beside her, arms going around her as he pulled her into his chest. This only made her cry harder, of course, and his arms tightened around her. He rubbed her hair and pressed his lips to the top of her head and held her for a long while until her sobbing slowed down.
"You shouldn't have stayed," she said into his chest as she clung to his shirt. He laughed and the sound rumbled against her cheek.
"Don't be ridiculous," he said, adjusting himself so that he could lie back against her pillow and hold her more securely. "You're stuck in here, Granger. What better opportunity than this for me to steal so much of your time, uninterrupted?"
Hermione laughed without humor and settled more securely against his chest, loosening her grip on his now wrinkled button-down. "Using my misfortune to your advantage?" she asked, laying her palm over his chest just above his heart.
He covered her hand with his and laughed again. "Slytherin, remember?"
She couldn't help but smile. "Thank you," she whispered after a moment, so quietly she wasn't even sure he heard her, followed by a deep yawn. She'd been so ramped up with adrenaline she hadn't really realized how exhausted she was.
"Don't mention it, Granger," he said, pressing another kiss to her hair. "Now," he said as he toed his shoes off and shifted enough to pull her blankets over both of them. "Why don't you get some rest? Maybe while you sleep, the healers will figure out how to reverse this."
Hermione nodded. She didn't really think about how easy it was for her to settle into sleep pressed against his chest. She just knew that together they moved until he was holding her and they were both comfortable in the small bed. Her mind was tired, but whirling, and she squeezed her eyes shut as the reality of having no magic started to sink in.
"Go to sleep, Granger," Draco said, curling almost protectively around her. "We'll rest, and when we wake up, we can think about all this, but for now, just sleep." He kissed her forehead. "Alright?"
"Alright," she whispered.
He sighed and used his free hand to lift her chin. "It's going to be OK," he said, then leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. She was almost ashamed at how her body reacted, arching into him, but he only chuckled and kissed her again, letting his lips linger on hers for just a moment. "Rest," he said before kissing her nose.
Another yawn overtook her and she decided to listen. Curled into his warm chest, his arms around her like a shield, she closed her eyes and went to sleep.