Chapter 7
(Draco pov)
Draco was on his way to town, it was the weekend, which meant the heads could go into town. They wouldn't go together, of course. That was out of the question. Draco found that Granger was avoiding him for the most part anyways. Since the night they had forgotten themselves and had been romantic with each other, Granger had avoided him more than the norm. He would only see her in public for head stuff and in class during the day. At night, she wouldn't come back to the head's room until 1am. She would still meet him at the hospital wing to hold his hand, but Draco had got the feeling it wasn't him she was coming to see. It was his illness she had taken great interest in.
She wouldn't talk to him unless it had something to do with his illness. One night he had tried asking her about what she did all summer. Her reaction was less then friendly as she slightly snorted a nothing, just read a lot. He thought maybe it was the question that upset her. Changing topic, he asked about the books she had read. He knew she loved to talk about books, but the girl just closed herself off to him, only giving short answers or answering with a question. However, if they were talking about his illness, she was friendly, chatty, deeply interested and even sometimes understanding.
He had started to feel like Hermione was no longer another kid that understood what he was going through and even cared what he had went through. Instead, she was acting more like another med-witch: giving him fake smiles to make him be less of a pain in there butts. He wasn't what you would call a great patient. He was the one that you were kind to because if you weren't you'd lose your job. He always heard the med-witches stop outside his door, preparing their fake smiles and roping in their tempers before entering his area. He always tried to be friendly; it was just after being poked non-stop and asked the same damn question a million times he got a little grumpy.
He could always tell when someone was being fake with him. He had learned over the years how to spot true caring and fake caring. It wasn't hard to see when someone was being real with you or if they could care less and they just wanted something from you. At first, Draco had seen Hermione did in some small way care how he felt. Her caring made him feel less alone. It made him feel like he was still normal and people did really care. He had even begun to look forward to their time alone in the cold room.
Now he could see and feel it was just a show for his benefit. He felt foolish for thinking it was anything more then that. He wasn't sure what had happened to make her stop caring. Or maybe she had learned how to mask fake caring better than others and he had just started to see through it. Either way, when they would be alone in the cold room, with his back cut open for all to see; he ached. He didn't want her there to be another med-witch. He wanted her there as a friend, but she didn't want the position. That made a cold, lonely, unpleasant part of his life awkward too.
Draco looked out the window of the horseless carriage, trying to forget about how alone he was. His eyes made contact with the school, sending a shock through him. 'Shit I forgot to tell the Headmaster I was leaving!' It wasn't that he had to tell anyone. The reason was to make sure a teacher would be sent to keep an eye on him. He slumped back in the chair, wondering if it mattered. It wasn't like any of them cared for him, he probably just saved one of them from the worse job on or off campus.
Once in town he got out of the carriage, sending it back to school. He had his eye on a new broom for awhile now. Once he paid for it he could ride it back to school without even being missed. Entering the shopped, Draco found what he wanted right away. He took it up to the clerk, paid for it, and headed out the door. He wasn't even two steps out of the shop when a voice called out his name.
"Hay there Draco." Peter Newkirk's voice came from behind him. Draco turned to see the man smiling wide at him. They said hello as they stood in the street, talking up a storm. Peter seemed interested in his new broom and asked Draco if he liked to fly. Eventually, Draco ended up in the tavern for a few drinks with the man. He told Peter he couldn't stay long; after four drinks the man walked him to the end of town and saw him off.
Draco flew back to school, enjoying the wind in his hair. He would have stayed out to fly longer, but he was thirsty as hell. 'That tavern must put something in their drinks to get you to buy more,' he thought as he landed softly in front of the main doors. As he had expected, no one had noticed he had even left school grounds.
Making his way up to his room he saw Potter coming his way. The other boy growled at him, stopping right in his path. "What did you do to Hermione?" He demanded an answer to a question Draco, for once, didn't have an answer to.
"What are you talking about? I haven't see Granger all day." Draco growled, trying to pass the kid, but found a crowd was forming.
"You know damn well you did something to make her cry!" Potter screamed at him "She was fine all week and now today, out of the blue, she started crying and saying 'it wasn't like that'." Draco raised an eyebrow.
"What wasn't like bloody what Potter?" Draco snarled "Gods if you're going to accuse me of something at least know the fuck what it is first!" He was getting annoyed with Potter as he saw more and more kids joining the crowd. Something odd was happening to him: with each new person came a heart beat he could hear. They pounded softly in his head, making Draco's tongue go a bit dry as he thought about the warm blood coursing through there veins.
"I don't know! She won't tell us all she says is she didn't mean to!" Draco stopped, thinking about how thirsty he was to look at Potter. "She just kept saying it over and over. 'I didn't mean to, it just happened'" Draco's own heart stopped beating as he realized what she was upset about. They had kissed and she had lied about it to her friends.
"Well I don't know either, so get off my back!" He snapped, making a hasty retreat back to his room. He only got into the command room area when he saw Granger with her other friends. Potter came in behind him. He tried not to look at her, but their eyes met and she started to ball wildly. He felt really awful as he stormed over to his room and slammed the door shut. 'Gods if she tells them we kissed there'll be hell to pay…' He thought at first, trying to ignore how hurt he was by her acting that way over some stupid kisses.
It was worse than wondering if she thought she was going to catch his illness. It was like being kicked in the balls and then being laughed at. He heard Potter screaming for him to come out there and fess up to what he did. Like he had kicked Hermione in the face instead of kissed her softly a few times. He tried his best to lock them out as they (all except Granger) screamed bloody murder at his door.
Once he had had it, he opened the door to a room full of angry faces, his eyes filled with hurt. Draco calmly said "Enough, you all have detention for a week for harassing me over this. I told you I didn't know and now you're acting like 3 year olds throwing fits. I know Professor Snape would just love to hear about this and once he does Granger will have something to really cry about, because her so call "caring friends" just could have lost her her heads badge." His eyes met Potter's, "Unless you want to risk getting thrown out of school, I'd get your ass out of the head's room and out of my face right now."
It was a challenge he was ready to fight for. Seeing Potter thrown out of school would have made his day. He watched as Potter reached for his wand "Go ahead Potter make this worse for yourself. You're only making my day by ruining your life with this little show." That got Potter were it counted. The group grumbled, but knew they had lost. Potter swore it wasn't over, but Draco knew it was.
He was still thirsty as he stood in his doorway watching them leave. He had already sent out the notice to Snape before exiting the room. When he heard Snape's voice screaming in a Snape scream, which was more of an angry dog snarl, Draco smiled to himself. Granger stepped back into the room to look at him both, hurt in away. "Don't worry Granger, he won't take your badge. Only the Headmaster can do that," Draco said as he turned away from her.
"I'm sorry they wouldn't listen when I told them to leave you alone." Hermione voice barely whispered as she leaned on the wall.
"Take your own advise Granger," Draco said without looking back "Stay away from me, I don't need you to have a crying fit every weekend over a few stupid kisses and hand holding." He swallowed a bit as he lied "I'd rather be alone."
(2:45am McGonagall pov)
It had been one hell of a day for her house. Potter and several others had gotten themselves in to a huge mess with Snape. She just barely managed to convince the Headmaster to not take Granger badge for the whole thing. There wouldn't have been a problem if Snape hadn't been breathing down their necks about how irresponsible it was of her to let her friends make such a scene to a boy she knew was very ill. She was given a warning and two days detention which, in Snape's mind, wasn't good enough. But thankfully he had backed off for now.
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley got the worst of it. They were kicked off the quidditch team and got a weeks detention. It was either that or a school suspension for the year. Snape made it clear he wasn't backing down that time. It wouldn't have been so bad if the two hadn't been caught a few days before sneaking around the halls at 1am, nor if the person they had been harassing wasn't so very ill. The whole mess could have put the damn kid in the hospital for good and heads would roll if that happened. Mrs. Malfoy was very clear that if anything happened to her poor sick child while under there care there would be hell to pay.
The rest of the kids got two weeks detention, but that was all. She understood why the Headmaster had to be so hard on the group. It wasn't that he wanted to or that he had taken Snape's side over this, it was that he knew he had to. All it would take to bring doom down on them was one bad letter from Draco to his mother. His mother wanted him to have what he wanted: a normal life, but she wouldn't stand for stress the kid didn't need.
"Gods I wish we'd said no to letting him come here." She said out loud, turning into a dark hallway and making her way to her room. Suddenly, a spell hit her and knocked her to the ground. The spell held her in place. She tried to move, grabbing for her wand to defend against the attack, but she was bound. She tried to change into cat form to get out of the spell, but strange, sharp hands took hold of her by sitting on her back. She breathed out, fighting anyway she could. She even screamed a bit. It was no use; whatever had her wasn't letting go and to make it worse she could feel its warm breath on her neck before it bit her to drink her blood. She wasn't sure how long it drunk from her, but when shouts went up the thing fled out a window and disappeared into the night. Sitting up, she looked at Snape who was her savior "What the bloody hell was that thing?"
"I don't know didn't get a good look at it." Snape replied before carrying her to the Hospital Wing. "But I bet it was the same thing that attacked me."