Draco wasn't sure what woke him, but one minute he was sleeping peacefully and the next he was jolting awake. Confusion reigned for a few seconds as he realised he wasn't in the Slytherins dorms, but then he remembered he was with Hermione in their private room. Reaching for Hermione, he rolled over to go back to sleep but he frowned when his hand landed on the empty bed. Quick as a flash, he sat up and reaching for his wand he lit up the room.

The sight that greeted him immediately had him panicking. Hermione was sitting on the edge of her bed, one of her arms wrapped around her torso. However, more disturbing was the rasping sounds coming from Hermione as she clearly struggled to breathe.

"Hermione." Jumping out of bed, Draco raced around to Hermione's side, only to find tears streaming down Hermione's face as she struggled to breathe.

"It hurts," She manged to gasp. "I can't breathe."

"It's okay sweetheart," Draco soothed. "I won't let anything happen to you."

Joining Hermione on the side of the bed, Draco ran his hand through his girlfriend's hair as he gently calmed her down. His instincts were to go and get help, but there was no way he was leaving Hermione until he was sure she was okay and right now she was not okay. Slowly, Hermione began to calm down and as she became calmer she found it easier to get her breath.

"What hurts?" Draco asked when he thought Hermione could speak without hurting herself.

"My side," Hermione whispered softly. "And my stomach. It feels like I'm been eaten alive from the inside."

"We need to get you to Madam Pomfrey," Draco insisted as he jumped to his feet. However, as he did so he suddenly realised they were both stark naked. "Although, we need to get dressed first. You just sit there, and I'll help you in a second."

Running around to the other side of the bed, Draco had barely yanked his trousers on when he saw Hermione topple off the bed. It all happened so quickly, he didn't have to chance to save her but he was at her side as quickly as he could.

"Hermione," He cried in panic when he found his girlfriend's eyes were closed.

Feeling her neck, he was relieved to find a pulse, although he did think it could be possibly be fainter than it should be. Knowing he needed to get his girlfriend to the hospital wing as soon as possible, Draco grabbed his wand and used magic to slip her shirt and skirt back on. He then yanked his own shirt on, not bothering to fasten it, and using magic to help with Hermione's weight he lifted her into his arms. Making sure to grab Hermione's wand as well, he left everything else behind as he hurried out of the room and towards the hospital wing.

The trip to the hospital wing seemed to take forever, but finally Draco burst through the doors. Finding the hospital wing empty and no sign of Madam Pomfrey, Draco carefully settled Hermione down on the nearest bed. After quickly checking Hermione was still breathing, Draco ran to Madam Pomfrey's office and bursting through the room, he hammered on the door that led to her living quarters. It took Madam Pomfrey longer than Draco would have liked to open the door, but finally she appeared in a long pink dressing gown looking extremely annoyed to have had her beauty sleep interrupted.

"Mr Malfoy, it's the middle of the night," Madam Pomfrey hissed. "This better be good."

"Hermione's collapsed," Draco explained quickly. "She said her side and stomach were hurting and it felt as though she was being eaten alive from the inside. She was also having trouble breathing. But then she just collapsed."

"You were with Miss Granger in the middle of the night?" Madam Pomfrey asked with a disapproving glare as she hurried through her office and into the hospital wing.

"That's not really important right now," Draco snapped, not caring that he was being rude to a member of staff. Right now all he cared about was Hermione, and making sure she was okay.

Madam Pomfrey shot Draco another disapproving look, before she focused her attention on Hermione. Almost as soon as she began to examine Hermione, her face broke out into a concerned frown and Draco guessed whatever was wrong with Hermione was serious. Although if it had anything to do with the curse Ron had thrown at her, he vowed there and then that he was track the Weasel down and make him suffer.

"What is it? Will she be okay?" Draco asked as Madam Pomfrey continued to quietly examine Hermione.

"I think you should go and get Professors Snape and Granger," Madam Pomfrey said, not tearing her eyes away from Hermione.

"I'm not going anywhere," Draco insisted. "Send a messages to them."

With a frustrated huff, Madam Pomfrey called for one of the house elves and Draco mentally kicked himself for not doing that when Hermione had collapsed. When the elf appeared, Madam Pomfrey gave it a message to pass onto Beth and Severus, and the elf disappeared again with a small pop. With the elf gone, Madam Pomfrey turned her attention back to her patient while Draco was left standing next to Hermione's bed, waiting to find out just what was going on with his girlfriend.

A few minutes later, Draco still didn't know what the situation with Hermione was, but he was hopeful of answers when Severus burst into the hospital wing. His godfather was wearing a pair of trousers, and like Draco he had a shirt on but it wasn't fastened. Moments later Beth appeared, having also hastily dressed in a pair of loose trousers and a dark green tank top.

"What the hell is going on?" Beth cried. "What's wrong with my daughter?"

"She collapsed after complaining of being in pain," Draco supplied. "But I don't know what's wrong with her as I haven't been told anything."

"Poppy?" Severus demanded in a sharp bark.

"Her middle is tender and shows signs of swelling," Madam Pomfrey replied. "I think she could have an internal injury we may have missed yesterday."

"You mean an injury you may have missed," Beth hissed angrily. "I swear, if anything happens to my daughter you'll regret the shoddy treatment you gave her."

"I treated your daughter perfectly adequately," Madam Pomfrey protested. "She didn't seem to be in any real discomfort."

"Let's not argue now," Severus said sharply. "I think we need to get Hermione to hospital."

"I'll contact St Mungo's and arrange a transfer," Madam Pomfrey said stiffly.

"No," Beth snapped, glaring at the medi-witch. "We're taking her to a private hospital. Severus and I will arrange it."

"Harry needs to be told what's going on," Severus said. "Draco, I want you to go and get him. Meet us back here and we'll all go with Hermione. I take it you know where Gryffindor Tower is located?"

"I do, but I need the password," Draco replied. "And what if The Fat Lady won't let me in? She'll know I'm a Slytherin."

"The password if firebird," Severus told his godson. "And if The Fat Lady gives you any problems tell her that I'll make sure her portrait is moved to the darkest part of the castle where she will never again see another soul."

Nodding his head, Draco gave Hermione a peck on the forehead before rushing off and leaving Severus and Beth to sort out Hermione's transfer. As he ran through the corridors, Draco suddenly realised he was shoeless so he took a quick detour to the room he and Hermione had been using, before carrying on to Gryffindor Tower. As he expected, The Fat Lady gave him grief when he woke her up to gain access to the tower, but Severus's threat had her reluctantly opening the hidden doorway for him.

Rushing into the common room, Draco didn't even take in his surroundings as he quickly located the stairs and sprinted across the room. Once at the bottom of the stairs, he faced a dilemma as to which way to go, so he took a chance and ran up the right hand staircase. As he passed each room, he looked at the number printed on the door until he reached the sixth years room. Not caring if he was entering the girls rooms by accident, Draco pushed open the door and entered the room. Fortunately it was the right room as the moonlight streaming through the window illuminated his best friend lying in the bed nearest to the door.

"Harry," Draco hissed loudly as he gave his best friend a shake.

"What?" Harry mumbled groggily as he was jolted out of his sleep.

"Get up, Hermione's collapsed and she's going to be moved to hospital," Draco supplied.

Despite still being half asleep, Harry hopped out of bed and quickly grabbed his clothes. Of course the noise had awoken the others in the room and they watched as Harry and Draco darted out of the dorm. Sprinting back through the common room, the pair exited Gryffindor Tower at rapid pace as they raced to the hospital wing. By the time they arrived in the hospital wing, a couple of medi-wizards were getting ready to take Hermione away. Beth and Severus were overseeing the whole thing, while Madam Pomfrey watched from the door of her office, clearly put out by the fact she wasn't needed or wanted.

"Come on you two," Severus called from beside the fireplace that was situated over the far side of the hospital wing.

Harry and Draco rushed over to Severus's side, and after the medi-wizards had taken Hermione through the connection, everyone else carried on through the fire, where they found Voldemort waiting for them. Obviously Beth had contacted her husband while Draco had been getting Harry. Hermione had been taken to the same private hospital that Narcissa was still residing in. Like with Narcissa a few days earlier, Hermione was immediately whisked away by a group of healers as Beth filled in one of the team on recent events. After that there was then nothing more to do than sit in the waiting room nearest to the room where Hermione had been taken and wait for news.

"What exactly happened?" Harry asked his best friend.

"I woke up to find Hermione sitting on the side of the bed, clutching her side," Draco answered. In other circumstances he would be nervous about letting on he and Hermione were sleeping together in front of her parents and brother, but at the moment all that mattered was Hermione and getting to the bottom of what was wrong with her. "She was struggling to breathe so I calmed her down and that was when she told me how much pain she was in. I was getting ready to take her to the hospital wing when she suddenly collapsed."

"I guess we should be grateful you were with her," Voldemort said, giving Draco a look that clearly implied they would be discussing why they were together in the middle of the night once Hermione was on her feet again. "I'd hate to think what would have happened if she'd collapsed in her own dorm. I'm not so sure the girls she shares a room with would help her."

"Probably not," Harry said. "They didn't like Hermione much in the first place."

"Let's not think about what could have happened," Beth said. "Draco was there and thanks to him, Hermione's in the best hands available."

Voldemort gave a brief nod as he took hold of his wife's hand while silence filled the waiting room. The group sat in silence for nearly half an hour before a tired looking healer entered the room and introduced himself as Healer Jenkins.

"Your daughter is stable," Healer Jenkins informed Voldemort and Beth.

"But?" Voldemort prompted, sensing there was more to come and it wasn't good news.

"She's stable, but still in critical condition," Healer Jenkins continued. "We've done a thorough exam and found some serious internal damage. From what we were told, I would say the majority of it was sustained when she was hit with the Cruciatius curse. But what I don't understand is why this wasn't picked up at the time. Wasn't she examined after the incident?"

"She was, by the school's medi-witch," Severus answered. "She assured us that both Hermione and Harry were fine."

"Someone else was hit with the curse?" Healer Jenkins asked with a frown.

"Not the same curse, I was hit first then Hermione," Harry supplied.

"I think we better check you out as well, just to be sure," Healer Jenkins mused.

"Okay, but let's deal with Hermione first," Harry said. "Will she be okay?"

"As I said, she's got some severe internal injuries, including some major damage to one of her kidneys. Right now, we can't say what's going to happen with Hermione, but the worst case scenario will see her losing her kidney."

"You can live with one though, can't you?" Harry checked.

"You can, but we think she's got some minor damage to her other one as well," Healer Jenkins answered. "If she has to have one removed, she's going to need a transplant. But that's all in the future, right now we have to concentrate on making her comfortable. She's undergone some major damage, and she's just very lucky she was admitted when she was."

"How lucky?" Beth asked.

"If her injuries were left much longer they could have killed her," Healer Jenkins answered. "And the worst thing is, it's all been so preventable. One simple potion to alleviate the internal bruising and some rest when she was initially hit with the curse could have saved all this hassle. Of course she still could have had problems with her kidney, but nothing as severe."

"Will one of us be able to donate a kidney if Hermione needs one?" Draco asked. He was feeling guilty that when Hermione should have been resting they'd been indulging in fun, albeit slightly more restrained than normal, but it was still more strenuous action than Hermione should have been indulging in.

"Anyone who wants to can be tested to see if they're a match," Healer Jenkins replied. "We can sort that when it becomes necessary. But for now, I should get back to Hermione. Hopefully you can see her in an hour or so, when hopefully we'll have a clearer view on how things are shaping up."

"Thank you," Voldemort said, nodding politely to the healer as he left the room.

"I'm going to kill Poppy Pomfrey," Beth swore in a low hiss, once they were alone again.

"Not to mention Ron," Harry snarled. "He did this. He cursed Hermione and caused this damage."

"Weasley is being taken care of, don't worry about him," Voldemort told his grandson.

"And Madam Pomfrey is out of a job," Severus said.

"She's more than out of a job," Voldemort snapped. "If she'd done her job properly, Hermione wouldn't be here. She's going to pay for not doing her job properly."

"Let me handle her," Beth said to her husband.

"She's all yours," Voldemort promised his vengeful wife as they settled back to wait for more news on Hermione.