-Chapter Two-

Wake-up Call

Draco Malfoy woke up and found that the birds were singing. The harmonic sound floated through his ears, which would be pleasing on a normal day for any normal person. Unfortunately, he was not. His surroundings were nice and comfy; everything was perfect, apart from one thing. All he could see was darkness. No matter how many times he blinked or rubbed his eyes. Just darkness. It was as if his phantasmagoria of blindness in the prejudism of muggleborns had caught up with him in reality. He felt his way around the supposed bed and was about to shout if anyone was there until, coincidently, he heard a voice.

"I see you have finally woken up, Mr Malfoy."

It startled him, and he wondered what sort of person was keeping him bed-bound. The voice did not sound threatening, as it shared the same comforting flow that any loving mother would provide, but it wasn't his own mother.

"Who are you?" Draco knew the voice somewhere in the back of his brain, but it hurt him to even think, so he forgave himself for giving up. Wait, Malfoy's don't forgive... Oh, who was he kidding, he's not exactly a scared shit-less Malfoy anymore, is he? What the hell was he thinking, going against the Dark Lord?

"I thought you would know straight away, considering you used to spend hours in my hands after you had those silly little paper cuts." Draco's face was full of confusion at the familiarity of the woman's voice, intimidating him as he couldn't see anything, but of course, he would never mention that to anyone.

Wait.

Where the hell was his precious sight?

He started struggling to be free from under the sheets, but they seemed to stay like a stubborn jam jar lid as he began to panic.

"Now, you must calm down Mr Malfoy..."

"let me go you crazy son-of-a-" The bed sheets pulled him down further, enabling him to even twitch his fingers.

"I will not have attitude like that in this room"

Draco tried to escape from the bed, but his wounds hindered him and a charm was casted so he was unable to escape. That crafty witch bitch was prepared for his consciousness?

"You can't keep me here like a bloody prisoner!"

"I'm afraid you have nowhere else to go but prison, young man" His struggling had faltered slightly, as those words rolled around the back of his brain. But that stutter of action was short lived as he heard the familiar creak of a door open and light footsteps tapping towards the source of Madame Pomfrey's voice.

"I've brought you some wolfsbane potion that Lupin-"

"What to bloody hell is she here for?" Draco pointed at where he heard the voice. The same voice occupying the body that had insulted, punched and humiliated him throughout Hogwarts, the same voice that was whispering unknown words to Pomfrey, which infuriated him beyond doubt as no one was telling him anything. "Just fucking tell me what the fuck is going on!" He waited for the answer he demanded to know, but when only silence interfered, he cracked. "Great. I'm being held prisoner by a rubbish excuse of a healer and a filthy mud-"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Draco froze instantly, automatically allowing the spell to compel him, although he was apparently blind, he felt a being hover over him like a vulture over a carcass, all he could do was wait for the outcome.

"You will hold your tongue, Malfoy, because you are at our mercy at the moment" Granger's voice stung inside his head as she spoke, yet again reminding him of the past. "And by our mercy, I mean the order" His eyes widened in response. "And because you are with the order, I will expect you to at least be slightly cooperative" There was a slight pause as Draco heard Granger sigh in frustration. "I am only going to say this once." A gulp was heard. "You were brought here, by Dobby, so bloodied, stabbed and bruised, at first, we thought you were dead, and left to..." Draco could tell that she was trying to avoid the memory that seemed to make her eyes twitch and her shoulders shiver. "Anyway, we found out that you have multiple stab wounds in various places, whip burns on your back and symptoms from being under the cruciatus for a fatal period of time... Hence the 'no sight' business" Draco heard her clear her throat. Get on with it woman! "Also, you... err... Never mind" What? WHAT? "We predict that if you take a medical potion daily your sight will be back in about a month".

Draco was infuriated. A month! How will he survive not being able to see for a month? He'll need help... And from The Order no less! He tried to yell, scream, shout, anything that would make him wake from this nightmare that was plaguing his sanity.

"Now, if you would just keep calm when I remove the spell"

Calm? CALM? He was confined in what he thought was the order's headquarters, stuck with all of his enemies... Wait... Enemies? What side was he on? Surely not the one that almost tortured him into madness god knows how long ago? These enemies... They had saved his life. He felt the spell being lifted but remained confused at the thought. Where was he supposed to go? No one wanted him... But this was good! It meant that no one needed to kill him! But wait... The death eaters certainly proved that they don't favour him much...

He snapped back into reality when he heard a door close, so he presumed that Granger had to have left, meaning that the only living things that occupied the room now were just him and his thoughts. Unfortunately.

Hermione closed the door, allowing it to click as it shut and exhaled a deep breath that she did not realise she had held. She slumped her head so that she was facing the old floorboards below her and closed her eyes in frustration. This is going to be difficult. It had only been 2 minutes. She definitely won't have any hair by the end of the week. Poor, defenceless Malfoy? Yeah, right. The only reason why she decided to help Malfoy recover was because she may have felt a teeny tiny bit of pity, but that was gone now, and hatred had washed over, just like old times. Well, at least she started to feel a bit of normality. Feeling... Feelings for Malfoy was starting to give her the creeps.

"'Mione?"

Hermione swiftly looked up and a freckly face with ginger hair greeted her with a soft smile. She smiled back, and all of the anger in her head had suddenly been replaced by happiness, the one emotion that only her friends seemed to fuel these days.

"Hey"

"Do you want to go down stairs? Lunch is ready" Hermione responded with a slight nod, and followed him through the hallway, then down 2 flights of stairs, where she was greeted again by ginger hair, this time, 3 more heads and Harry somewhere in the middle. They reached the kitchen, where pots and pans were pleading for a scrub on an occasional surface, and old tattered and overused cookbooks swarmed over a counter. Mrs Weasley led her to a place at the table, where a sandwich seemed to be awaiting her.

"There we go dear, that's it, eat dear" Hermione had guessed that Mrs Weasley had wanted her to plump up recently, but what for, she did not know. Maybe she looked underweight? No one she asked had thought so. Did she need energy for something coming? The final battle? Nah. Hopefully, that was ages away.

But then a thought entered into her brilliant mind.

She was house bound, not allowed to even step a toe outside unprotected because of spying deatheaters. She had been forced to leave her parents for their own safety so that she could go and find horcruxes. She has had to abandon her whole life at Hogwarts, and start training for battle.

Really, there were only months left to prepare. The present is only a walk in the park, compared to what is to be brought from the future.

She gladly tucked into her sandwich, as it provided her with distractions: A nice meal to chew on, as well as a friendly afternoon banter at the dinner table.

"So, 'Mione, has Malfoy died yet?" said Harry. Hermione shouldn't have been annoyed, because she was expecting this. All occupants of the table looked at her curiously. Of course, with them being four Weasleys and Harry Potter, it was not a surprise when they continuously chatted on about Malfoy's condition in that way. Don't get her wrong, it was funny to listen to, and she often joined in with the jokes, but she couldn't help but feel a flicker of irritation run through her brain. But of course, she had to tell them, they weren't really that bothered to find out for themselves.

"He... Woke up this morning" All eyes were upon her own as she said that, and she noticed that Harry's palm that hugged his knife clenched slightly, there was no question on what he was thinking.

"And?" Ginny's eyebrows were raised, as if she was surprised, or disappointed with Malfoy's growing recovery. The table was suddenly struck with a painful silence. Hermione took a long gulp.

"I really don't want to talk about it"

Ron put down his cutlery. "What did he say?" His voice was normal, but Hermione could tell that he was trying to hide anger and frustration. He was never really good at doing that.

"Oh, the usual. Don't worry, I've heard it all before. Nothing a wand can't sort out"

"What was it this time, the bat bogey hex"

"Nah, just the Petricus. If things get too out of hand, though, I just might pop up behind him with one of your inventions"

"I'm flattered. Take a picture for me"

"will do"

"And Fred?"

"Sure"

"The Quibbler?"

"What do you say?"

"Hot and heavy, baby cakes"

"I meant the magic word"

And so the room once again filled with usual banter and laughter, a contrast compared to the bitter silence living in a certain room above them.

Please review!

I don't care if it is just 1 word, it's just that I don't know whether you guys like it or not and I also don't know what to improve on...

I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but hey-ho! GCSEs are more important at the moment. After all my exams I should have the whole summer to update, so expect more updates then!

I just want to say... Everyone is so nice and really cares about each other's work and stuff; I thought it would be hard to deal with reviews that tell you how to improve, but it's actually quite heart-warming XP