Hermione didn't even have time to gasp before a fresh pool of blood was on Draco's face-but this wasn't just coming from his nose this time. Red ran down the streams of hair that stuck to his clammy face, his eyes half closed but yet unmoving.
"Draco!" Hermione shrieked, unable to keep the fear from her voice as she dropped to kneel down at his side, taking his sweaty palm in her hand, "Draco, Draco wake up," Hermione shuck his hand forcefully, trying to wake his unstaring body,
"Oh god, Help! HELP!" She shouted, looking around frantically for anyone in the shop that might be able to see them tucked away in the corner on the floor, "PLEASE! SOMEBODY!"
Hermione had to gulp back the tears that were falling from her eyes as she panicked unwillingly, shoving her wand back in her pocket as footsteps drew near, that suddenly turned faster as soon as the sound grew closer.
"What's happened?!" A woman dressed in a black pin-striped suit gasped as she scrambled to the floor, calling out a college's name as she reached into her blazer and pulled out a mobile phone.
"I don't know, he was just having a nose bleed and then…he has cancer! You need to tell them that…" Hermione trailed off as the woman nodded and asked for an ambulance and a man dressed in the same uniform came running over.
"I'm so sorry!" Hermione sighed with a small squeak in her voice as she watched the balding man secure Draco's head with his hands.
"Nothing that can be helped, love, don't worry." He replied, his focus shifting from the blood on his hands to Hermione's eyes.
The ambulance arrived within time for the blood to stop soaking out from the wound in Draco's head-one that looked much worse than it was, on closer inspection.
Without hesitation, the paramedics put his limp body in a spinal cord and onto a stretcher, Hermione followed in their trail, a tissue pressed firmly to her face-the bags containing the new clothes digging into her sides without a second thought.
Hermione couldn't see anything around her, let alone hear any sound other than the thumping of her own heart, a ringing in her ears that got louder and louder.
She may not have that much care for Malfoy, but she couldn't have his life in her hands. Not yet. Not after only one night. The paramedics made her go with him, saying she would be needed to provide details. But she had to go to work.
She couldn't miss today, not when there were so many raids on different institutes enslaving house-elves, and old witches in pointed hats mistreating their "pets"-no, she couldn't miss today.
Maybe she would stay off tomorrow.
Maybe.
Her head was rambling, adding to the noise that surrounded her; the images in front of her were only half there-playing in slow motion-the lights not quite registering in her eyes.
Draco was stirring, starting to wake-he was mumbling incoherent words, with the female paramedic suddenly huddled more around him, messing with machines.
"Draco?" Hermione called out to him, her head popping up at his faint mumblings.
"Gran…ger." The name was said in a whisper, but it was there-and said as moody as ever.
"Are you okay?" She asked, her voice breaking slightly at the relief, her hand dropping down to her lap.
"Obviously not." He said with as much venom he could muster, he was obviously I pain, his voice cracking.
"You should let him rest." The woman standing over him said gently to Hermione, a small sympathetic smile on her lips.
"Yeah, of course," Hermione answered quietly, feeling stupid on having to be told to leave him be,
"Do you think he's alright?" she asked after Draco's moans fell silent once more.
"You'll have to let the doctors decide that one, I'm afraid-but the wound on his head really doesn't seem as bad as it looks."
"Yeah…" Hermione trailed off, looking down at her fingernails in order to see anything but Draco's pale face, still stained in blood.
Once they'd pulled up outside the big, muggle, hospital, the paramedics got straight to work with wheeling the bed into the big double doors of the Emergency Ward, meeting up with a team of doctors and nurses dressed in pastel green and blue, their arms out ready to help guide the trolley through the maze of corridors.
Various words were shouted over Hermione's head, making her disorientated once again as she watched Draco being carted off through another set of doors before an outstretched arm stopped her going any further.
"Can you please give in details for Mr…"
"-Malfoy" Hermione answered as she jerked to a halt behind a stern looking woman dressed in black.
"Could you please come this way?" The receptionist-Hermione assumed-asked, glaring at her from beneath her dark-rimmed glasses.
"O-Of course." Hermione stuttered, glancing over her shoulder to see Malfoy being log-rolled onto a separate bed, different nurses standing around him.
Hermione ended up missing work to wait in the reception for more news on Malfoy.
There wasn't any.
All she had been told in the last two hours was that he was fine, had woken, but had to spend the night in a ward because of the head injury. He'd been moved upstairs (and so had Hermione) to the Neuro-oncology ward, where he was already being treated for his tumour, but that was it really. Nothing exciting had happened since the fall, just a lot of dizzy moments that left Hermione feeling sick.
She'd had to give in his personal details to the receptionist, but couldn't do much more than tell her not to call his parents-but luckily for him, the hospital didn't have any of that information on file anyway. Not that Hermione suspected that the Malfoy's used a telephone.
She had contemplated leaving him, going to work and then getting the spare bed back at home ready for him in the morning, but she didn't feel right just leaving him alone. She was the only one there for him. His last resort.
In the 48-minutes that Hermione had sat separated from anything but yellow corridors and anti-septic gel, she had let her mind wander, once again, to the thought of Draco Malfoy sleeping under her roof. The thought of Draco Malfoy being in hospital. The thought of the fact she was there, outside his ward in the hospital-because she didn't want to leave him alone. Oh, how times had changed. But, Hermione hadn't changed.
No matter who it was, Hermione would have done it for anyone. She knew that she wasn't the type of person to leave someone on their own-no matter the circumstance or who they were.
Draco had proved himself to her, shown he had remorse for everything he had done back in school. He's even told her the night before that he believed he had this cancer because of what he had done. She'd told him that was nonsense and that the world didn't work like that, but he seemed adamant that he'd done it to himself.
But he was still there, the snappy, moody little Draco Malfoy that she knew-ready to snitch on you or tell you how bad you looked today.
It was mad, how she'd only actually spent two days-if that-with him, and she had already started warming to him. Not him, not fully; just the good parts-the Draco Malfoy that wasn't afraid to laugh at a joke, or to smile in front of her.
The Draco Malfoy that said thankyou.
The thought made her shudder, it just wasn't right-but it was.
"Miss Granger?" A warm, female voice interrupted Hermione's rhythmic daydreaming, she snapped out of her thoughts and looked up, "He's asking for you."
Hermione's mouth opened slightly, no he didn't. He didn't want to see her and that's why she was staying outside. Just waiting for no reason to go home,
"Are you sure?" She questioned, genuinely surprised.
"Yes?" The nurse questioned back, her eyes narrowing as she held out an arm into the doorway of the ward.
"I just expected to be waiting out here all day." Hermione laughed, trying to keep the confusion out of her voice as the woman eyed her suspiciously. She rose from her chair, still carrying the bags, and turned towards the direction the woman was implying.
"Ah, alright," The nurse answered, keeping her voice level, "He's just on the second bed."
"Thankyou." Hermione answered, not turning her head to look back at the woman before she headed towards the closed curtains in the middle of the row.
"Granger." Malfoy drawled as soon as she opened the curtains to see him lying down on the bed, his face and head now cleared of blood.
"Mayfoy." She said respectively, nodding her head slightly.
"I had to tell that woman you were-that we were in a relationship, otherwise she wouldn't have let you in." He grimaced slightly at the word 'relationship', his voice sour.
"How very…thoughtful of you." Hermione replied, not quite sure what she should think.
"I have my moments." He smirked, but then turned it into a wince; it was obviously painful to do even the slightest movements.
"How are you feeling?" She asked, picking up his notes at the end of the bed for something do to, other than watch Draco readjust himself on the bed.
"You tell me," He groaned, trying to push up the pillow using one hand behind his head, "I take it it was your idea to bring me in here."
"It was the manager at that store we were in, actually." Hermione replied shortly, dropping the clipboard back on the side of the bed and moving around to help lift Draco's pillow up.
"Full of muggles…" He grumbled, lifting his head forward slightly so Hermione could slip the pillow up easier.
Hermione rolled her eyes and sat down on the seat beside the bed, pulling one of the bags on top of the bed at Draco's blanket covered feet.
"Nice outfit." She smiled slyly, looking up at Draco.
"Humpf," Draco puffed, "I tried to tell them, to get it off me, with no such luck."
"Ah, you can't get everything your own way, Draco." Hermione put on a fake, motherly voice, smiling as Draco glared at her.
"Figures." He muttered under his breath, looking back down at his feet.
Humour gone,