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.

As Draco fast-walked down the hall to input more info into the EMR system, he heard a high-pitched scream in one of the rooms he passed by.

"YOU DIDN'T GIVE HIM THE ANTISORCERY SERUM?!"

Draco winced. That sounded like Lexa Barkson, Hermione's Healer mentor. He backed up to the room 394 and peeked through the half-open door. Snape was resting on his hospital bed, asleep. Beside his bed was Lexa, who had Hermione pinned against the wall as she screamed in her high-pitched voice.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH DANGER YOU COULD BE PUTTING ME IN?!" Lexa cried. "HOW MUCH DANGER YOU COULD BE PUTTING THIS ENTIRE HOSPITAL AND WIZARDING WORLD IN?!"

Draco snickered at the shocked look on Hermione's face. It took a lot to make the Golden Trio heroine look scared, so he loved it when she was being scolded by her scrawny, neurotic Healer mentor (who was only 16 years old since she never aged).

Hermione grabbed Lexa's wrists and struggled to loosen her grip on her shoulders. "Lexa, please let me go! I already explained to you that Tom Riddle claimed that he needs his magic in order to apparate back and forth from Barren Island."

Draco raised his eyebrows. Now that was something he would have never expected to hear. Tom Riddle, like all the patients in this hospital, was infected with the Zenox virus, a virus that integrates its genome into the wizarding gene, consequently suppressing the gene's effect. Any infected wizard would be as powerless as a muggle, unable to use any magic. At the same time, when the Zenox virus genome was inserted, it would stimulate replication of its genome so that it would release many new Zenox viruses from the cell it was inserted in. Many of those replicated viruses functioned to freeze the blood, cause hallucinations, and destroy white blood cells so that the infected wizard would have a crippled immune system, unable to fight against the blood-freezing pathogens.

It was theorized that the Zenox virus originated from an ice dragon sleeping on a snowy island called the Barren Island, so when the Zenox virus managed to freeze a wizard's blood and prevent the wizard from using any magic or immunological responses, the viruses would teleport the wizard to the Barren Island. It was unknown what happened to the wizards there, because every time Healers tried to track down the missing wizards, the magic would wear off after a few minutes of the wizard's arrival on the island.

Draco listened carefully to the bickering Healers in Snape's room. If Tom Riddle was somehow able to use magic to teleport himself out of Barren Island, that could prove very useful to rescuing the missing infected wizards who were unexpectedly teleported there.

"AGH!" Lexa threw her head back. "I've never heard such nonsense! Your patient is lying to you, Hermione. HE'S LYING! Tom Riddle cannot disapparate away from Barren Island if he was infected with the Zenox virus, because the first thing that virus does is suppress the wizarding gene. Then it replicates itself enough so that there are enough viruses to freeze the blood and prevent the immune system from stopping them. Then the viruses teleport the wizard to the Barren Island! The infected wizard cannot escape by disapparating away from the island, because he cannot use magic!" Lexa leaned closer to Hermione. "And even if he could use magic, he probably wouldn't be able to disapparate anyway. The blizzard on that island seems to be erasing any magical tracking spells we've tried to use on our patients before the viruses teleported them there. Either Tom is lying to you about his escape from Barren Island, or he was able to use some…sketchy dark magic that might be a danger to us all." She stomped her foot. "WHICH IS WHY I TOLD YOU TO INJECT HIM WITH THAT ANTISORCERY SERUM!"

Hermione wriggled free from Lexa's grip. "Look, I didn't say I would never inject him with that serum. I just said that he told me he needed his magic, in case I agreed to accompany him when he tries to apparate back to Barren Island. Now that he's seen it before and escaped, he says he's able to apparate back there, and with a Healer like myself accompanying him, I could heal the missing infected wizards on that island, curing them of Zenox so that they can apparate themselves back to where they belong."

"What if he's trying to trap you?!" Lexa retorted. "If he says he was able to use his magic and apparate out of the island, why wasn't he able to go back, find the missing wizards on the island, and then apparate back to this hospital with them?"

"He claimed that he was unable to do so because those wizards still had a very high viral load in their blood," said Hermione. "I guess he needs a Healer like me to perform the spells to decrease their viral load enough so that they can be able to apparate out themselves, or at least be able to apparate with another wizard like himself."

A brief moment of silence passed between them. Then Lexa huffed. "Tom's viral load is pretty low now, right?"

Hermione nodded. "He's still very weak and sickly, though, because his immune system is still crippled from all the white blood cell destruction caused by the virus. I've been performing immunological spells on him, but for some reason, the white blood cells are taking a very long time to regenerate. This virus really does leave some pretty damaging aftereffects."

Lexa spun around and stomped out of the room. "I'll go check on him right now."

Draco backed away from the door, feeling relieved when Lexa stomped in the other direction down the hall before noticing him. Then Draco stepped into the room and met Hermione's gaze.

"Oh, wonderful," Hermione's tone was bitter. "Enjoyed eavesdropping again, Malfoy?"

Draco smirked and forced himself to sound sardonic. "The brightest witch of her age should never let herself be tricked by someone who was formerly the most dangerous wizard in history."

Hermione rolled her eyes, grabbed her clipboard with all her patient notes of Snape's medical progress, and shouldered passed Draco. "Mind your own business, Malfoy," she stopped before she stepped out the room and looked over her shoulder to glare at Draco. "You hate me now, so you shouldn't even be concerned with anything that's going on between me and my patients." And she left the room.

Draco stared in her direction, feeling a sharp pang of hurt. He stood there silently, lost in thought, feeling confused, frustrated, and hopeless. You're right Granger…he thought bitterly. I really shouldn't be concerned with whatever you're doing with your patients, even if they include the Weasel King or the former nose-less man. Draco rubbed his eyes with frustration. He shouldn't be feeling anything for her. At least, not anymore. Not after what they had been through during the few years after Potterhead had defeated Voldemort.

So then why did his heart cringe with guilt every time he made fun of her, neglected her, or heard about anything she was doing with the Weasel King or Tom Riddle? He didn't want to want her. He didn't want to feel this way. But somehow, every time he tried to ignore or suppress his feelings by being the rude, spiteful git that he had been back at Hogwarts, he felt more and more angry with himself. Each attempt to avoid her or be spiteful toward her became more and more of an effort.

"Have you got anything useful to do for me while you are loitering in my room, Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco flinched at the sound of Snape's voice. He turned to see the dark-haired man awake and staring at him with a tired frown on his face. The former Dark Arts professor continued to speak in his flat, bitter tone. "I believe one of the ethical pillars that all Healers ought to fulfill is respect for the patient, is it not?"

"Sorry, Snape. Sir," Draco stuttered. "I just…I overheard Lexa and Granger yelling at each other about Tom Riddle and I couldn't help listening in."

Snape rolled his eyes. "I'm behind on catching up with my sleep, thanks to their repulsive bickering."

Draco gazed at his godfather. He stepped forward and spoke carefully. "Sir, do you think Tom Riddle is up to no good?"

Snape looked up at Draco as he stood by his bedside. "The Tom Riddle that is Granger's patient is quite a peculiar man. He's nothing like the Voldemort that Lucius brought back with the Organink Wand, and he's nothing like the Tom Riddle that became the Voldemort who was killed by Potter." He turned to face forward with a distant look in his eyes. "It's hard to say."

Draco nodded. "Hermione has feelings for him, even though she's trying to deny it."

Snape turned back to Draco with a raised eyebrow. "And you're telling me because…?"

Draco's heart raced. He realized what he had just said, and cursed himself. "Um, well, it's concerning, isn't it? falling in love with a man who's supposed to turn out to be the Dark Lord. I mean…my father used Organink Potion to write Tom's biography, and then brought him to life in this world with the Organink Wand. Whatever was written in Organink Potion about Tom will come true sometime during Tom's life in this world, so if my father wrote his biography to be exactly the way the former Tom Riddle's biography was to be, then this man is literally the same man who became the Dark Lord."

Snape gave a quiet snort of disgust. "Right, that's what Lucius told me. But apparently, Miss Granger claims that Tom Riddle vows to never live up to the horrible things that were written about his life. According to her, he believes in free choice so strongly, that he thinks he can overcome the magic in the Organink Potion and live his life the way he wants to live it, regardless of what was written about him in Organink Potion."

Draco blinked. "Has Granger ever talked to you about him?"

"Miss Granger and I do not have a cordial relationship," remarked Snape. "We do not share any information with each other, unless it concerns my medical condition. I've only heard about these things from the petty conversations between Lexa and Hermione, since I'm always the next patient they choose to see after checking on Tom." Then he raised his eyebrows at Draco. "You love her, don't you?"

"What?!" Draco widened his eyes. "I don't love her! I would never love a mudblood!"

Snape let another awkward moment of silence pass as he stared at Draco in the eye. When Draco got uncomfortable and looked away, Snape broke the silence. "You love her. You're asking me about Tom, not only because you're concerned about his fate, but because you're concerned about what his fate would mean for Hermione. Tom may have claimed that he isn't interested in pursuing a romantic relationship in this new life of his, but you can never go by what people say to know how they really feel. You're already a good example of that."

Draco opened his mouth to object, but then stopped. Snape's eyes bore into him, and he knew any attempt to hide his feelings from the man would be futile. "Y-you're not performing the Legilimency Spell on me, are you?"

The corner of Snape's lip twitched. "I don't need to, Mr. Malfoy. But you will." He leaned closer. "Come back in a few hours, after I catch up on some sleep and restore my energy. I can teach you how you can perform the Legilimency Spell, so that you can read into Tom's mind and find out what he's really up to. As well as how he really feels about Miss Granger."