Chapter 4

Hermione

"Who's here?" I question, eyeing the unconscious Draco Malfoy in the grass, and Blaise Zabini, who is hovering over the blond. Blaise merely shakes his head at me, and starts lifting Malfoy up gently.

"We have to get him into the castle," he states simply, disregarding me completely.

"Is he going to be ok?" I ask softly, a little bothered that he avoided my question so easily, and unable to keep my eyes off the Slytherin boy I've hated for all these years. And yet, now, I don't hate him anymore; instead, for some reason, I'm finding myself growing very concerned for him. And I really wish that Blaise had answered my question about who did this, because I am absolutely furious with whoever it was.

"I think he'll be fine," Blaise says, sighing loudly. He appears to be thinking pretty hard about something.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm just trying to decide where to take him," he replies, glancing quickly at the castle.

"Oh, I don't know. How about the Hospital Wing?" I suggest sarcastically, as if it were obvious, which it should be. But Blaise shakes his head.

"We can't take him there."

"And why not?" I press, surprised by his blunt statement, which really doesn't make any sense to me.

"We just can't, ok?" Blaise snaps, throwing me an angry look, after which he glances at his feet, then back at me, apologetically. "Look, I'm sorry, but we can't take him there. We just," he pauses as a thought hits him, "we have to take him to the Room of Requirement."

"The Room of Requirement?" I repeat, bewildered. "Why?"

"No one goes there," Blaise responds, beaming as if he's just proved he's a genius or something. "And we can ask for a room to heal him in."

It's actually not a bad idea.

"Ok … But I don't get your issue with the Hospital Wing?" I try again, but he just shakes his head, hauling Malfoy over his shoulders, grunting with the effort. Ignoring my puzzled looks, he nods towards the castle and says:

"Please, Hermione, we need your help. I need you to go ahead of us and make sure the coast is clear."

"But…" I try to protest again, but he cuts me off.

"Please, he needs our help," he says, referring to the blond boy on his shoulders.

Sighing, I nod reluctantly, and we go off into the castle, me walking ahead of the Slytherins I had once loathed, keeping my eyes up to make sure there's no one around.

Our journey to our destination goes relatively smoothly, with us only running into someone, a Ravenclaw girl I don't know, once. And, thankfully, Blaise has enough time to duck quickly behind a statue as she walks by, oblivious to the two boys hiding just a few feet away from her.

We finally get to where the Room of Requirement ought to be, and Blaise paces in front of the wall three times, Malfoy still draped over his shoulders, and he seems to be focusing hard on what it is we need. For a moment, nothing happens, and Blaise curses softly as though he's given up. But then the door appears on the wall, and Blaise sighs with relief, nodding at me to open it, since his hands are full.

Obediently, I open the door and we walk into a room full of all different sorts of potions and books about healing spells and such. There is a white hospital bed on the side of the room, with metal bars on the sides to keep the person from falling out, and Blaise heads for it immediately, gently laying Malfoy down and examining him carefully.

I notice now that Malfoy also has a deep gash on the side of his head, above his left ear, and it's bleeding quite a lot, staining the normally white blond hair an ugly brownish red color.

Blaise takes a deep breath, then pulls open Malfoy's shirt, and I see him close his eyes angrily at what he sees. Hesitantly, I look also, and see five dark, painful looking bruises adorning Malfoy's chest and stomach.

Pulling Malfoy's shirt off completely, Blaise carefully rolls the blond over onto his stomach, so that he can inspect his back. What we see makes me almost want to throw up, and I am forced to look away. Covering Malfoy's back are long red lines, where I'm guessing he'd been whipped. The lashes are mostly just welted a little, with only a few that had actually cut into the skin, but they are not deep, so I'm guessing they won't leave scars. But still, it's horrible, and I'm surprised to find tears in my eyes, tears for Malfoy. What's wrong with me?

"It's his father, isn't it?" I murmur softly, breaking the sad silence.

Blaise doesn't respond, which doesn't surprise me. He just runs a hand through his dark hair, turns Malfoy back around, and goes over to the shelves, scanning the books and potions. While he's doing that, I find myself going to sit on the bed next to Malfoy, staring at his face. Now that I'm closer, I see that, in addition to his black left eye and cut lip, he also has a dark bruise over his right cheekbone, reaching down a little over his jaw, and a pretty deep cut over his left eyebrow. But despite all that, I can't help but notice how peaceful he looks at the moment, when he's sleeping. I watch silently as his strong, muscular chest rises and falls as he breathes in and out. He surprisingly has a very nice body, and he could be really good looking if he were calm like this all the time. I'll probably never see him like this again, so I figure I should appreciate it while it lasts.

Just then though, Blaise comes back over with a potion, and he points his wand at Malfoy and says, "Rennervate!"

"Why are you doing that?" I snap at Blaise, glaring. "He needs his rest, he's hurting!"

"I need to get him to drink this, and to tell me where else is hurting," Blaise hisses in return, angrily. I sigh, shaking my head, and look back at Malfoy. His grey eyes flutter open, and he only has a brief moment to stare up at Blaise and me, before his shuts his eyes tightly again, letting out a soft groan of pain. Blaise puts the potion down and gently slides his arms under Malfoy's body, hoisting the blond up so he's leaning against the pillows.

"Draco, look at me," Blaise orders, squeezing Malfoy's shoulder, forcing the blond to open his eyes reluctantly. His once silver, now dull grey, eyes swim with pain as he looks at Blaise, who smiles sadly, then continues: "I need you to drink this," he says, holding up the potion. "It'll close all your cuts and stop the bleeding, even internally, if there is any."

Malfoy nods, and takes the potion with his left hand, his right arm still held tightly to his chest. He puts the potion to his lips, tilts his head back and swallows, making a face at the horrible taste. Slowly, his cuts begin to heal, and all that's left on his face is a small scar over his left eyebrow, barely noticeable unless you look closely.

"Good," Blaise whispers, pleased with the outcome. Next, he holds up another potion. "Unfortunately, there isn't anything to make bruises disappear completely, but this will make them fade faster." And Malfoy drinks that one down also, once more making a face at the taste.

"Now … er … now's the hard part," Blaise says softly, bringing over a book. "I've found a spell that will sort of realign broken bones … or something like that … but it won't completely … er … fuse them together exactly, so you'll still need to have a bandage, and a sling. It's your arm that's broken, yeah?"

Malfoy nods, looking down.

"Yeah … and a couple of ribs, I think," he replies quietly, looking over at me. I smile at him slightly, trying to look comforting, but I think it just comes out looking like I feel sorry for him, because he turns away, looking a little angry.

"Er, ok," Blaise mutters, looking in the book. "It says this will hurt, 'cause the bones have to move to realign themselves. You ready?"

Malfoy nods, taking a deep breath. He holds out his arm, wincing when he moves it. Blaise points his wand at Malfoy's arm and utters a spell I don't recognize. The blond lets out a small cry of pain, shutting his eyes tightly, as the bones in his arm move back together.

When it's all done, Malfoy lets out a sigh of relief and opens his eyes, breathing heavily. After looking at the book again, Blaise mutters a couple more spells, leaving Malfoy's arm bandaged up and in sling against his chest.

"Good?" Blaise asks, nodding at the bandages.

"Yeah, thanks," Malfoy says, wincing as he shifts his position a little. "But my ribs still really hurt."

"Yeah, I'm sure they do," Blaise sighs, flipping through the book again.

Malfoy watches his friend silently, running his left hand through his hair, wrinkling his nose when he sees the blood come off onto it.

"Here, let me help you," I offer. I take out my want and point it at Malfoy's hair, saying, "Scourgify!" Malfoy's hair is immediately cleaned from any trace of the blood, and returns back to its normal white blond.

"Thanks," Malfoy mutters softly, smiling at me a little.

"No problem," I reply, grinning back at him.

"Ok, I got it," Blaise says at last, taking out his wand. "I think this is going to hurt more than the one before. You ready?" he asks Malfoy.

Malfoy takes a deep breath and nods, and before I can think about what I'm doing, I take his good hand in mine, and grip it reassuringly. He looks at me, surprised, but doesn't pull away. Then a small smile forms on his lips and he turns back to Blaise, nodding once more. I also look at Blaise and see him grinning at our linked hands. But his grin quickly fades as he points his wand at Malfoy's chest, saying another spell.

Malfoy yells out in pain again and his hand tightens painfully around mine, making me want to pull away, but I manage to refrain from doing that. After a moment, it's over, and Malfoy relaxes into his pillows, loosening his hold on my hand, but not letting go completely. As Blaise reads from the book once more, Malfoy looks at me again, and I notice for the second time in just a few minutes that his eyes are now a dull grey color, when they used to be a brilliant, almost scary, silver. The color of his eyes was the only thing I'd ever liked about him, even when I had hated him with such passion, because they were undeniably amazing. But now they've lost the shine they used to have, and I surprise myself by thinking that I would do anything to get it back. I don't know why I'm suddenly having all these peculiar feelings for Malfoy, of all people, but I am, and for some reason, it feels right.