An hour or so later, Draco showed up in St. Mungo's, frantically running up to the desk where the receptionist sat.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"Damien Michael Malfoy?" he said, gasping for breath. "What room is he in?"
"Are you family?"
"I'm his dad."
The receptionist raised in eyebrow at him but gave him the room and the ward. Non-magical injuries, room 207.
He rushed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He saw Hermione first, her head in her right hand. Ayden sat next to her, his head leaning against her chest when she wrapped her left arm around him. Looking around, he didn't see Ron and felt a bit of happiness that he had been the first one Hermione had contacted.
He walked over quietly and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and a small smile came to her face. "Hey," she said.
"Hey," he said, sitting down next to her. "How is he?"
A single tear slid down her cheek and she raised a shaky hand to her face to wipe it away. "They don't know. No one knows. But he has a broken arm and he's not waking up."
Draco hesitated before taking her free hand and holding it gently in between his. She looked over at him, a surprised look on her face. "He'll be all right, Hermione, he has to be," Draco said.
Hermione smiled at him and he smiled back.
Just then Ron Weasley came running up and he paused at the top of the stairs, his eyes drifting down to Hermione and Draco's held hands. But Draco didn't let go of Hermione's hand. On the contrary, he gave it a little extra squeeze. He saw Weasley's eyes narrow and realized that he had just been drawn into a competition that he wasn't sure he wanted to be in.
Oh, he had no doubt that he'd win. . . .
But he was still debating on whether or not he wanted to win.
Weasley came over and sat down next to Ayden, whispering to Hermione who replied back softly that they weren't sure what was wrong with Damien. He whispered to her again and Draco was surprised to see her shot him a glare.
"Because he's his dad, Ron," she said, shaking her head angrily.
Behind her back, Weasley shot him an angry glance to which Draco simply responded to with a short shrug, a small smirk on his face.
No matter what Weasley did, he had a slightly bigger advantage to it all.