A/N: Special thanks go out to: ReniRcx and Thir13enth for their help betaing this chapter. You ladies are wonderful. Thanks so much for putting up with me. To my reviewers, I love you. You give me the strength to go on. Those that put me on your alert lists: it means the world to me, but I would love it if y'all would review as well. Reviews are like Draco laying naked in my bed next to me every night. :)

Draco's POV

I wasn't sure what to do; she was a Mudblood. Should I just leave her there to die, or try to help her? Should I kill her and put her out of her misery, or take her to St. Mungo's?

Since the war, I questioned every bit of my privileged upbringing. Every word, every belief my parents instilled in me growing up was examined. Are Mudblood's worth my time? Are they as good at wizardry as Pure Bloods? Well that was obvious. Granger had always been the best witch in our class; clearly better than I. Should all Mudbloods be killed? Should all Muggles be murdered in cold-blood like animals at the slaughter, tortured as if they were nothing worthy of love?

Was it all worth it? Was this scrutiny from every person I came across since the war worth it to be able to call myself a Death Eater, a Malfoy? Because of my internal war, I moved to Russia. Being around my parents, the same people I was questioning, was just too difficult for me to stay in London. I wasn't even sure I knew who they truly were anymore. Did I even agree with what they supported any longer?

The longer I questioned, the more uncomfortable around them I became. The problem was: old habits die hard. I couldn't stop looking at Mudbloods like Granger as if they were something I should kill, yet I didn't know if I supported Voldemort's ideals. So, while in Russia, I had hidden myself away from society. I didn't trust myself. I couldn't trust that if I were to meet a Mudblood or Muggle on the street that I wouldn't kill them.

I looked back at Granger as my inner struggle continued. Avada or St. Mungo's? Avada or St. Mungo's?

She moaned and started to cough horribly. It sounded wet. My eyes whipped to her mouth and I saw blood seeping from it. In that moment, I didn't even think. I grabbed her hand, took out my wand, and quickly apparated to the wizarding hospital.

Later, I was sitting in the waiting room. The Healers had told me I was to stay there while they worked on her, that after they had her stabilized they had questions to ask me. Trying t fight had been useless. I had begrudgingly accented.

The smell of the hospital almost made me throw up. I hated hospitals. They always made me nervous that I would catch something horrible just by being there. Who would work in a place like this? Who would want to be around sick people day in and day out? Absolutely mental!

My eyes roamed the room as I wasted time. It seemed to me as though every hospital in the world was the same. They had the same white walls, white floors, hard as hell chairs. Sick people sat around the room. I swear I'm going to walk out of here with some devastating disease! There were people, who had been on the wrong end of a curse gone wrong. People with eyes hanging out, organs on the outside of their bodies, or broken bones. I'm definitely going to throw up soon. I closed my eyes and refused to look at anything other than the back of my eyelids until the Healer came out to talk to me.

My breathing slowed as I relaxed against the back of the seat. With my eyes shut, I could imagine I was back in Russia. It was a much happier place than St. Mungo's. I could be sitting in my arm chair in my family room reading by the fire. I could and should be anywhere else doing anything else.

I looked up as I heard soft soled shoes on the tiled floor. The Healer coming toward me was a short, petite woman wearing a white coat with a clipboard in her hand. "Mr. Malfoy?" she asked as she came up to me.

"Yes," I said, standing up.

"Ms. Granger is stabilized. We gave her a counteractive potion that will help heal her organs that were affected by the killing potion, and a sedative to help her sleep and assist in the healing."

I was confused. What the bloody hell did she mean "killing potion"? "I'm-I'm sorry. Did you say 'killing potion'?" She nodded. "There has to be some mistake. I know Granger. She'd never take a killing potion."

She checked her clipboard, flipping through page after page. "No, sir. She took a lot of it, too. Tests show she took five ounces, which is more than enough to kill her. Now, she may not have known what she was drinking. There are some wizards and witches out there, sir, who prey on young, vulnerable women, and they'll call a poisonous potion by a different name just to make the sale."

"Is there any way someone could have forced her to take it?"

"I suppose, but we found no bruising on her body. She was not forced down. She was not forced to take the potion. She took it on her own free will. We also found that her blood alcohol content was .29. She was very drunk, sir. You saved her life by getting her here so quickly. She will need to remain sedated for a few days to give the healing potion time to work. Is there anyone we can contact for her?"

I had already stopped listening. What the bloody hell? Granger wanting to kill herself?I had to have stepped through to some alternate universe when I came back. There's no way goody-two-shoes Hermione Granger would try to kill herself. She loved life even if she was constantly ridiculed for her blood.

"Sir?"

My fingers made their way to my chin, rubbing it as my thoughts continued. Something seriously bad had to have happened to change her like this. Suddenly, I could see her lying on that sidewalk again. Something hit me. Even her clothes and hair are different. What the hell? I don't understand this. I can't even comprehend this. It's completely insane.

"Sir!" the Healer said a bit louder and harsher to get my attention.

My head snapped up to her as my thoughts cleared minutely and I tried to focus back on the Healer. My eyes widened as I tried to figure out what was going on. "Yes?"

"I asked if there was anyone I could contact for her. Any family? Friends?"

I couldn't think all of a sudden. It was like my brain went blank, nothing left inside it, nothing except for why Granger would do this to herself. I couldn't think about who to contact. With a shake of my head, the Healer walked away.

My heart went out to Granger. I wasn't sure exactly why, but I felt sorry for her. Knowing Granger, whatever had happened was huge. She had changed her clothes, her hair, and now she was drinking heavily and trying to kill herself. It was all so different from the Granger I remembered from school. Back then, she had always been straight arrowed and carefree. She was one of those people who loved life, and loved those around her fiercely. I couldn't imagine who she had turned into when she tried to commit suicide.

I began to wonder if it was because of Potter and Weasel. I knew in school she and Weasel had a thing going. They all seemed very close, but Granger and Ron seemed like they would be married by now. There had been no ring on her finger, but I knew that meant nothing. She could still be with him. Could he have done something to her? Did he really have the balls to do something?

Whatever changed her had to have something to do with one or both of them. As far as I knew, they were the closest friends she had. Were they dead? I could only wish, but Merlin doesn't love me that much!

Besides, I knew they were still alive. Just because I had been out of the country and it had been several years since the war didn't mean I didn't keep track of the duo. Harry Potter, boy wonder, the-boy-who-lived was still constantly in the paper. His achievements in taking down still-loyal Voldemort followers were always front page news. He was still continuing to do great things for the wizarding world after school.

Knowing Ronald Weasley, he was probably still the little puppy dog he had been in school; following Potter around as if he had no mind of his own. Weasleys could never think for themselves. They had to do whatever other people did.

Everyone in Hogwarts had known that Weasley had never done anything to help Potter in all in escapades except to be another pair of hands. He didn't have strength. He didn't have brains. What could he have done to help take down Voldemort, honestly?

The Healer put a hand on my arm, briinging me out of my thoughts. "Sir, are you alright?"

I nodded my head and was able to once again focus on her face. What had she asked me?

It was two days later that Granger finally came out of her "potion induced coma." Weren't comas bad? I don't think I would ever truly understand that. If comas were such bad things, why would Healers purposely put patients in them?

If someone were to have asked why I stayed at St. Mungo's Wizarding Hospital with Granger, I would have told them I had nowhere else to go. I might as well stay. At least there I had charmed the Healers and received three meals a day and a bed.

The truth was none of that mattered. I could have just gone to my parents' place and dealt with them. I really stayed so I could find out the truth from Granger, herself, what had happened to put her here.

I walked into her private room with two cups of pumpkin juice to find Granger sitting up and aware.

"Malfoy?" she asked as I walk in.

"Granger."

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was raspy from the tubes they had put down her throat. It sounded as though someone had taken sandpaper to her throat, very rough sand paper.

"I'm the one who found you, Granger."

"Ah." She struggled to sit up, and groaned as I set the cups of juice down and helped her. "Well, you shouldn't have done that, should have just left me there."

I was shocked. She really had changed, and a lot! The Granger I went to school with would never have said something like that. She would have jumped up and thanked her savior emphatically from the bottom of her heart. This Granger, though, was a stranger to me. I had never met anyone like her. Never in my life had I met someone who wished to die.

With my eyes raised, I stared at her in shock. "What happened to you, Granger?" I asked, sitting in the chair next to her bed. I watched as she reached her hand out silently for one of the cups of the juice I had brought. I grabbed it before she could and she threw herself back against the pillows. "Granger." I waited until she looked at me. "What happened?"

"What's it to you? You never cared about me unless you could use the information against me. So don't you dare sit there and act like you're concerned for my well-being." She turned her head so she couldn't see me.

"Well, I know it had to have been something bad for you to change yourself like this and try to commit suicide." I waited for a moment. Sniffles began to fill the air around me.

My heart stopped beating and clenched in my chest. Who hurt you, Granger? What happened?

I waited in silence as her tears abated. My voice quiet so as to not send a stab of fear coursing through her, I asked, "Granger, is there someone I can get here for you? Your parents? Potter? Weasley?"

Her body straightened and froze. "My parents are dead. Your lord killed them years ago in the war."

I had to lean forward and strain to hear her. When I had seen her soon after the war, she hadn't changed at all. Sure she was sad, but I didn't think her parents' death had caused a change this severe. "What about Potter or Weasley?"

"If you call them, I swear to Merlin I will succeed next time."

Knowing she was talking about killing herself for good if I even thought about calling those she once claimed as her friends, my head bowed in sympathy for her. It was at that moment that I knew they were the ones who had caused everything that had happened. I vowed then and there, I would figure out what had happened and kill whoever was responsible for taking the light from her eyes; the light I used to love turning into to fire whenever it was possible.