An hour later and Hermione and Draco were standing outside in the rain, Malfoy holding a big, black umbrella above his head, hardly giving the woman any shelter at all-much to her annoyance. However, being who she was, Hermione denied herself the right to complain as she bit her lip and led the way to the bus stop-however, Draco didn't hold back his moaning;
"I don't see why we have to get this public...thing-what was it?" Draco demanded to know the name he had forgotten, his face scrunched up and shoulders hunched as he sulked of the thought of sharing a seat with a muggle.
"I've already told you, it's a bus-a form of public transport." Hermione rolled her eyes, they had been through everything muggle-related that Malfoy would ever need to know in the past 60 minutes, but still the man couldn't understand the difference between 5p and a pound; Hermione couldn't get her head around why, all this stuff just came naturally to her-and it was more confusing in the wizard world!
"And why can't we just apparate?" Draco asked sarcastically again, for what seemed like the fiftieth time in five minutes.
"Because we're going to a busy place, a busy place filled with muggles." Hermione sighed, checking her watch sharply.
"But muggles don't see anything, do they." Malfoy snarled, more to himself than to the woman-who had longened her strides and picked up the pace so he was struggling to keep up. Ignoring the ignorant, and somewhat racist, comment, Hermione called to him to hurry up and then abruptly stopped walking when she had reached what looked to Draco as a small hut with no sides.
"Is this the bus?" Draco asked, confused, once he was back at the woman's side. Hermione couldn't help but snigger as she heard the comment,
"No, this is the bus stop, where we wait for the bus." Hermione took a sideways step further into the shelter in order to get further from the rain, and Draco followed, looked up to check the roof, and let down the umbrella before handing it back to Hermione.
"Thanks." Hermione said shortly, taking the wet umbrella with one hand and checking for muggles before she muttered a drying spell and placed the long object in her small handbag.
"Extendable charm?" Commented Draco, impressed, as he motioned towards the bag.
"Yeah," Hermione nodded proudly, "don't know where I'd be with it!" She laughed slightly to herself, adjusting the bag further up her arm.
"How much is this again then?" Draco frowned as he pulled out the small amount of change Hermione had made him put in the pocket of his suit trousers.
"One pound seventy, give him what you have there and you'll get change." The woman said softly, a small smile on her lips as if talking to a child.
Draco resented this tone of voice, but the big red vehicle about to crash into their little stand was a bit more distracting.
Taking a giant leap backward as the bus called to a halt just centimetres away from him, Draco gave a startled yelp as the thing opened a set of doors in front of Hermione. The woman turned her head back to him, signalling for him to follow her, as she stepped onto the high machine and showed something to the driver. Walking onto the bus and going straight up to the little man in the box, Draco told him where he was going and gave him the two gold coins in his pocket, holding out his hand boldly to receive the change.
As he turned away from the driver, the vehicle gave a large and noisy jolt away from the pavement; and Draco was forced to grab onto the bars at the side of him as he purposely made his way towards Hermione, who was sitting at the back with her bag on the seat next to her, beckoning him over with her head.
A large snarl on his face, Draco reached her with great difficulty as the bus moved in the other direction he was walking, and it took a lot of strength to not fall onto the other people sitting down. Draco didn't think he had it in him to get up again if that were to happen.
But, luckily, he was seated beside her before that could happen, and he was almost thankful for the hard seating which held him not entirely in place for the twists and turns the bus made, sending his head spinning more and more.
His body ached already and they had only been out for about ten minutes. The bright light mixed with the cold and the lack of sleep did nothing to help his already exhausted body.
"Please, can we apparate on the way back?" Draco whispered to Hermione, scowling the people around him.
A small smirk on her lips, Hermione nodded her agreement to Draco's plea. It was quite entertaining to watch Draco Malfoy snarl a baby for crying loudly at the front, and then grimace as an elderly lady tried to talk to them both.
Thankfully, the journey only lasted ten minutes, but that was enough for Draco, and he had never appreciated the flu network quite as much,
"I've changed my mind, I don't want to live associated with muggles." Draco huffed, his hands deep in his pockets as they made their way off the bus and towards the shops.
Not blaming him, Hermione looked up at his pale and sickly face, "Are you sure there was no other way? No healer that could perform muggle remedies?"
"I've told you, there is no remedy. No cure," He scowled down at her for reminding him, "I've just got to go to these muggle doc-t-ers and get some sort of therapy."
"Chemo?"
"What?"
"Chemotherapy?"
"Oh. Yeah, and radiotherapy. Something like that. They don't tell me much."
"They never do." Hermione commented serenely, looking down at her shoes as she made the familiar path towards the centre of the town.
Pigeons huddled in a tight group squawked together as a small child jumped and kicked at them, sending the birds screaming in Draco's direction, causing him to yelp and jump out the way, his heart racing as the little boy laughed at him, the pigeons in question now nowhere to be seem. Malfoy scowled meanly at the boy, and Hermione laughed even more at this second reaction-earning her a sneer of her own. However, this was only shrugged off by the woman has she smirked back at him and carried on walking.
The shops in this village were nothing like the ones in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley, they were packed tightly together but there was enough space to fit two of them muggle buses in the road between them-and the buildings themselves were straight brick, leaning vertically in dirty whites and pale yellows. Hermione led him to one of the small shops in the middle of the row, not even looking back at Malfoy as she pushed open the door to the grubby shop with ease.
Draco entered the shop behind Hermione with a 'ding' of the door's bell ringing around the space. The sight in front of his was nothing like he was used to, but almost completely what he was expecting. The untidy, but rather large, room was nothing like Madame Malkins-there was no polished floor, no raised plinth to get measured on, and no friendly plump woman choosing what garments for you either. The only person Draco had for that was Granger, and she was neither plump nor friendly. Okay, he admitted to himself, maybe that was a bit harsh-she was doing all this for him, and it took a lot to do that.
Stepping over the abandoned, littered clothes that lined the pathway through the shop, Draco walked in Hermione's footsteps into the men's section-away from all the bright colours and towards the dark blacks and navies.
Aware of how quickly the clock was ticking down to when she needed to be in work, Hermione took no time in looking for something that Malfoy might actually want to wear-already sensing by his permanent scowl behind her that this would be trickier than taking a two year old.
"Erm…" Hermione mused, running her hand along the nearest line of T-Shirts that sat on a low rail to her left, "this one?"
She grabbed a white top from the rail quickly and pressed it against her chest to show Draco what it looked like.
"What is it?" The man asked, squinting at the cartoon image on the front.
Looking down, Hermione frowned as she tried to see what the pattern was, and then thrust it in front of her face for a better look, "Erm…a…a dinosaur?" She asked herself more than Draco.
"A what?" He asked, puzzled once again, surrounded by a world he couldn't get his head around.
"Doesn't matter," Hermione sighed, putting the hangar back on the rail with a somewhat disgusted look back at the shirt as she moved onto the next rack.
"What about a shirt?" Hermione took a pale red long sleeved shirt from a high rail and held it up in the air.
"Not really my colour." Draco stated, barely above a whisper.
"Well..." Hermione stuttered, at a loss for words, turning around back at the rail to see the variety of colours on offer; she rather thought that red would suit him, but she assumed he knew better than her when it came to such things.
"Maybe this one?" Draco reached up and took a dark green off the rail and pressed it against his chest, looking down at it.
"No..." Hermione trailed off, not sure what she was allowed to say without offending him. "Is there a blue one?" the man asked, looking back at the rail.
"There's this one?" Hermione stretched up and unhooked a pale blue shirt and held it up for Draco to see.
"Yeah, okay. Put it in the pile."
"There is no pile!" Hermione exclaimed, already exasperated.
She looked up to see Draco smiling, the shirt folded over his left arm as he looked back up at the rail. Hermione couldn't help but smile, catching onto the joke and letting out a small laugh as she turned around to look at the next stack.
It didn't take long for the pair to be out of the shop, carrying only two bags containing four items after Malfoy refused to look at any more bad quality "muggle rubbish".
"You know, I'm sure we would be able to get somewhere if you actually looked at the things I was picking up!" Hermione exclaimed, for what seemed like the fifth time, pushing the two bags into Malfoy's chest for him to hold.
"How do you expect me to react?!" Malfoy equally exclaimed defensively.
"I don't know, maybe with a little more gratitude?" Hermione said, giving up with the situation as she made her way hastily to the chain store clothes shop opposite.
"Gratitude? Me? Give gratitude to muggles? I don't think so." Malfoy spat through clenched teeth.
"You won't be so edgy about it when they try and save your life!" The blow wasn't said maliciously, well, not too maliciously, but the hit still momentarily stung Draco as he watched the woman in front of him turn her heel and walk towards the automatic double doors in front of her.
"They won't be able to save my life." Draco said it more to himself than Hermione, but she still heard him perfectly clear and the words sent a shiver to form in her stomach, forming knots inside her as she grew smaller.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, looking up at his squared jaw as he pushed his way to the men's section, "I didn't mean it like that."
"Just forget it." Malfoy snapped, clearly not forgetting it.
The two now shopped in silence, Hermione trailing behind Malfoy, fixing the clothes back on their racks as the man discarded them without a backwards glance. Draco already had a shirt and a pair of trousers looped over his arm as Hermione stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at the mannequin in front of her.
"That would be perfect! Draco!" Hermione called after the man, bringing him back towards her.
"What?" Draco sulked, looking up to where Hermione was pointing.
"That!" Hermione almost squealed, her finger picking up to show Draco the clothing she wanted him to wear, "a onsie!" she couldn't hide the laugher anymore, and burst into a fit of giggles as Malfoy grimaced at the bright blue and green all-in-one pyjama set in front of him.
"I'll pass." He sneered, a slight smile coming through his pursed lips.
"You do need pyjamas though." Hermione said wisely, standing up straight again.
"Hmm..." Draco mused, turning his back again on the woman and walking back to where he was looking before.
"I'll let you get them then..." Hermione trailed off, picking up a dark green jumper from her left and following Draco.
"What's that?" Malfoy snarled, jabbing the dark blue sweatshirt in Hermione's hand with a pointed finger.
"A hoodie? Jacket?"
"One of the muggle jackets with a hood? Hoodie?" Draco questioned the word, trying it over in his mouth.
"Hoodie." Hermione confirmed, a small smile creeping up as she placed the item in the basket.
"As I recall, they did look quite comfy..."
"Have you just...praised a muggle item?" Hermione jested, her mouth wide in shock.
"Oh come off it!" Draco laughed half-heartedly, "I can't say anything remotely positive without you mocking it!"
"I'm sorry, it's just not-often that I see you be anything but offensive to mugg-" Hermione stopped dead in her sentence, "Draco!"
"What?" Malfoy answered quickly, looking behind him sharply.
"No! Your nose!" she exclaimed, watching the small dot off blood at the end of Draco's nose turn into a stream in a blink of the eye.
"Oh, shit!" Draco groaned, thrusting the bags and hangers into Hermione's arms and grabbed his nose, one hand pinching the tip and the other underneath in order to catch the blood before it fell onto the shop floor.
"Are you okay?" Hermione gasped, clearly in shock.
"Have you got a tissue?" Draco asked quickly, blood falling faster with every syllable.
Dropping all the shopping into the basket on the floor, Hermione scrambled in her bag for something to wipe up the blood.
"Quickly!" Draco shouted, aware of prying eyes.
"I can't find one!"
"Have you got your wand?" he asked loudly, not really caring who heard.
"Shit. Okay." Hermione performed a spell inside her bag, emitting a small paper tissue to land inside-which she then paced to Draco.
"And another?" he asked, holding the paper in place under his gushing nose, the white turning red in seconds.
Draco pounded the tissue into his nose, holding back his head as the blood ran down his throat, making him grimace the metallic taste.
"Do you know a spell that will work?" Hermione asked hurriedly, her wand held at the ready.
"I don't know whether to make a comment on you asking about a spell or just be sad that the answer will forever be no," The man replied through a mouthful of tissue and blood, "No, this is a side effect of the cancer, and no amount of magic can work on the cancer. Trust me. I've tried."
With no more words left to say, and a slight wound left in her stomach, Hermione watched as Malfoy spat away the blood and wiped at his nose forcefully as his breathing began to become shallower.
What seemed like half an hour passed before Malfoy used up all the tissues Hermione produced and had stopped the flood from his nose, a little of his already pale colour coming back as he wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt.
"How are you feeling?" Hermione said carefully.
"How do you think?" Malfoy snapped, spitting the words at the concerned woman in front of him.
"I don't know do I, you haven't told me yet!" Hermione growled back, just as maliciously.
"I-" Draco faulted, taken aback at Hermione's suddenly vicious tone, "I'm just a bit light headed." He finished softly, placing a hand to his head and stumbling back a few steps before he hit the floor with a hard thud.