Harry woke up, numb, in the hospital wing. It took a few minutes for the pain to grasp and punish him.

He looked to his side, and to his comfort, he saw the worried face of Hermione and the sheepish one of Ron, both of whom seemed to have just woken up. He smiled weakly at them and when he tried to speak he felt a dry scratching in his voice.
"Ron...Hermione..." he whispered happily, "Have you been here all night?"

"Oh Harry" Hermione whimpered "You have no idea how worried we've been about you! When we saw your broom fall I immeadiately knew what happened! A disarming charm was placed on the snitch! When your broomstick came within five metres of the snitch it froze and lost any magic it held! I should have known!" She tutted and sat on the hospital wing bed sulking.

"Bloody hell, mate, those Slytherins are getting worse. Sorry 'bout...you know..." Ron was not looking at Harry but focusing completely on his empty mug.

"I..I'm sorry, Ron, that was..." Harry didn't know what to say, but the fact that Ron was here meant he was probably in the clear, "Uh, yeah. Damn Slytherins..."
Both boys sat in uncomfortable silence, and Hermione angrily cut in, "Will you two stop being so silly and focus on the actual issue here. Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry, I didn't think of it at all! I probably could have stopped it too!" She bit her lip furiously and then looked seriously at Harry. To his suprise, Ron was doing the same face and they then looked uncomfortably at each other.

"Uh Harry, what actually happened with you and Malfoy up there?" Hermione said carefully. Harry's mind trailed back to Draco's face as Harry fell. His uncharacteristic look of fear and remorse. He remembered Malfoy catching him as he hurtled off the pole. He remembered nothing after that.

"N-nothing!" he said, nervously, as though he felt that she was insinuating some kind of bond that he shared with the Slytherin in the air "Why?"

Hermione looked suprised "No reason! I mean, we wouldn't ask, but...why did he leave the snitch to save you?"
"I thought he just decided to do something that didn't make him a total git" Ron muttered.

"...But, when we got here, he was still here. And when Madame Pomfrey told him to get lost, he got really annoyed with her, but left in the end anyway" Hermione murmured. Harry's mind was spinning. Why on earth would Malfoy put up a fight to stay with him? Why did he catch him from major bone breakage in the first place?

"I reckon it was his fault. I reckon he put the charm on the snitch, made sure it only affected your broom. It's something he would do isn't it? All about the glory. But...I guess he realised it was a bad idea?" Ron reasoned, though he wasn't convinced about that himself.

Harry gulped "Uh yeah, probably."

Hermione gasped, "Harry! You look exhausted, get to sleep, we're going to go back to the common room and visit you tomorrow" She smiled at his and hugged him, squeezing his healing broken arm. He drew his breath in sharply and she apologised profusely and fussed over him a few more minutes before dragging Ron from the hospital quarters by the hand.

Harry sat in the dark silence of the early hours of the morning, his head in his hands. He was having an internal argument with his mind.

You don't hate him.

I do! I hate him, I've always hated him, I'll always hate him.

You used to. But think about the face you imagined when you were with Ginny. And how he was going to wait with you after saving you, to make sure you were okay.

I don't know that that was what he was doing! Can you just be quiet so I can get some sleep.

No, not really. I'm you. You can't tell me what to do. Neener neener.

You're so immature.

Hahaahah, you just called yourself immature.

Shut up.

You like him.

DO NOT!

Then why would you picture him while you were...you know...?

Because I had had a long day, and I was thinking about how pissed off I was at him.

You can't be serious.

I am, Malfoy is my natural enemy. He's a Slytherin, I'm a Gryffndor.

You can't kid yourself that you're not interested in his new-found kindness to you.

That's not kindness, that's indifference.

It's better than hatred!

Besides, I have a girlfriend.

Where was Ginny when you were recovering from a broken arm and three cracked ribs? Malfoy was right here.

She was probably...busy! And she's still mad at me I bet. Malfoy probably just had a completely out-of-character feeling of remorse for making me hurtle towards my death.

You don't know that it was him who put the charm on the snitch.

I'd bet a lot more than a galleon that it was him.

You're not giving him a chance.

I don't have to!

...His father died. He probably thinks it's your fault.

Are you saying it was my fault?

No, I'm just putting it out there.

I'm sleeping now.

Good.