NOTE: These are one-shots, so you can read any of these in any order you want without getting confused. However, these one-shots are sequential, meaning whatever happened in the earlier one-shots will always carry over to the later ones. But like I said, these one-shots are written in a way so that you can still understand what's happening in any of the one-shots you read without knowing any info from the earlier ones.
Hermione took a deep breath. "Draco, I need your help with something."
Draco was behind a computer at the EMR station, inputting patient data into the system. "Ah, asking for my help already?" Draco spoke without turning away from the computer screen as he continued to type. "You must be desperate, considering we don't even share the same Healer mentor."
"Exactly," replied Hermione. "Lexa is going crazy and wants me to do something that I believe only you can help me with. I…I need you to talk to Tom Riddle about his feelings for me."
Draco froze from typing. He turned and faced Hermione with a frown. "Why in the name of Merlin would you be asking me to talk to the former Dark Lord about such a ridiculous topic like that?" His tone was completely bland, but Hermione could tell he was feeling extremely uncomfortable. His face was almost as red as Ron's hair.
Hermione bit her lip. "Lexa thinks Tom Riddle is trying to kill Ron. She's claiming that he's the one who changed the chemistry of Ron's Zenoxide pills, because he's secretly in love with me and therefore secretly hateful toward Ron for trying to win back my affection for him."
"But you clearly don't want to have anything to do with the Weasel King," Draco spoke rather spitefully.
"I know, but if Tom really is into me, he would still feel threatened by Ron's attempts to get back together with me," Hermione felt goosebumps on her skin. "I'm honestly aghast with the idea that Tom would even be into me. He clearly tells me that he has no interest in a romantic relationship with anyone—he says he's interested in teaching at Hogwarts as an Auror once he's fully recovered, and he wants to dedicate all his time to catching criminal and dark wizards. But Lexa insists that I give Tom some Antisorcery Serum to temporarily suppress his magical powers, just in case he tries to use any magic to harm Ron. I…I feel really uncomfortable injecting something that might not even be necessary for him…he might get suspicious about why I'm giving him a magic-suppressing substance while I'm also trying to help him get his magic back by getting rid of the Zenox virus from his blood. I need you to talk to him about how he really feels about me, just so I could be sure."
Draco's eyes narrowed. "Why are you choosing me to talk with him?"
"Because you hate me, that's why," Hermione said simply. "You were someone who once had feelings for me, but those feelings died after…after everything we went through three years ago, before any Healer training started. So that if Tom really does feel for me, you can turn off those feelings by proclaiming all that you hate about me, and how my 'abhorring behavior' made you lose your interest in me." She gave him a very minor smirk. "You should have fun doing this, Malfoy. Prevent any possible feelings he has for me, so that he doesn't have to feel any antagonism toward Ron to kill him. And then I won't have to inject him with Antisorcery Serum and make him suspicious with me."
Draco stared at her with a hollow expression. Then he let out a short laugh. "Hah! According to the rumors going around this hospital, you are in love with Riddle yourself, aren't you Granger?"
Hermione spun around with frustration, her eyes directed toward the ceiling. "I'm not in love with him! Ugh! I just think he seems to be a changed person. Despite the fact that his biography consisted of all the details about his life from birth to his death as Voldemort, and despite the fact that he remembers all his experiences as the Dark Lord, he's changed. In so many ways, too. He even has such a…pleasant and…charismatic personality…" Hermione found herself staring into the distance, cracking a smile on her face. She felt a tingling sensation in her stomach. She was in love with him, and she knew it. But she couldn't admit it, not even to herself. She didn't want to let herself get caught up in her feelings for him, because there was no use: if Tom didn't feel the same way about her (as he claimed), she was just wasting emotional energy. And if Tom actually did feel the same way about her (as Lexa claimed), it would be dangerous for Ron, even if she didn't want to have anything to do with Ron.
"Granger, you're smiling, I know it," Draco sneered, despite facing her back.
Hermione's smile disappeared and she turned around to face Draco again. "Look, it doesn't matter how I feel about Tom. What matters is that he feels nothing for me," she couldn't help feeling a sharp pang of guilt for saying those words. "T-tom cannot be in love with me—I most certainly don't think he is, but just in case he is, I need you to talk to him about how terrible I am at romance, so much so that you lost all your interest in me and don't want to have anything to do with me. I don't want him to be trying to end Ron's life because of some stupid crush he has on me."
Draco stared at her with a vacant look in his eyes. After a moment of silence passed between them, he spoke carefully. "I don't think I can do that, Granger."
"Oh, come on! Tom Riddle is surprisingly very easy to talk to. He's very…calm and humble. You would have never expected that he used to be the Dark Lord before he was brought back into this world. He's explained to me so much about how battling illness has taught him so much about how fragile life can be, and how it's humbled him so much so that he's made a vow to himself that he would never live another selfish and power-hungry life once he's restored back to full health. I mean, I've also had lots of conversations about my own life, my own philosophical views about right and wrong, mercy and justice, and so much more, so I'm sure everything I've told him about myself and my beliefs may have contributed to his peaceful and amiable behavior, but I can definitely see that his own personal struggle against the Zenox virus in his body has also helped him readjust his own beliefs and rethink his purpose in life. You know, so many people are scared to talk to him personally, so only Lexa and I have been the only ones who've spoken to him, but of course, that's because we're his Healers. Other people ought not to be afraid to approach him and give him a chance—"
"Granger, no need to ramble," Draco interrupted her. He turned back to his computer and resumed his typing. "I'm not going to visit Riddle and strike up that kind of conversation. He's not my patient, and more importantly, his feelings for you are not something I can help you with. Like you said: I want to have nothing to do with you, ever since I lost interest in you three years ago. So if you would please be a bit more considerate and leave me alone? I have so many patient chart reviews to do."
His typing sped up. Hermione sighed. "Fine. I—I just thought I'd give it a try, asking you for your help, as a friend or at the least, as a colleague. But I understand if this is a bit much to ask of you." She turned and walked away.
As she left, Draco stopped typing. He leaned back in his chair and stared vacantly at the computer screen. He replayed his encounter with Granger over and over again in his head, until a familiar voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Yo, Draco!" Galvin Barkson, his Healer mentor, gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder. "I heard you talking with the Granger girl. You're still into her aren't you?"
Draco sighed. Galvin and Blaise were the only two people he ever told. He spoke to his mentor without taking his distant gaze off his screen. "Dr. Barkson, I can't talk to Riddle. Especially if he supposedly loves her."
"Right," Galvin gave a smug smile as he gazed at Draco's hollow expression. "Don't wanna have the former Dark Lord after you too, especially since you're my best trainee!"