Memo: So Sorry! I thought I updated this to the site but I realised I didn't! Silly me. Anyway now you'll get this chapter and chapter IX. SO really it might be a good thing :P
Waking the next morning, Hermione was in a sour mood. The fight with Malfoy she had the night before was still playing vividly in her mind. Why did he have to be so foul? Why did he have to be so stubborn? She just wanted him to keep his distance and say something nice every once in a while. She never wanted him to get into her business.
Then again, it was sort of her fault for his vulgarity the night before. She had been rather mean to him.
She sat up and rubbed her head. She was supposed to go to Quidditch Practice with Harry, Ron, and Ginny today, then she and Ginny were going to come back up to this Common Room and spend some girl time together. Hermione was anxious just to sit down and have a normal conversation with someone.
She quickly showered and cleaned herself up. Her hands were trembling as she tried to open the bottles. She couldn't. She groaned.
Her thumbs were being torn against the rough edges of the caps of the medicine bottles. It just wasn't opening! She groaned and twisted it as hard as she could. Damn childproof seals! Tears filled her eyes; She felt so hopeless. She couldn't even open a bottle of medicine. That left no hope for the other bottles.
She left out an exasperated scream and through the orange transparent bottle at the sink and listened to the pills rattle around noisily as it spun around in the sink. She rubbed her head. She couldn't stop trembling.
She took several deep breaths and tried her best to steady herself, opening her eyes and bitting her lip. This is what it had come to. This is what her condition had turned into.
She looked around sadly. It wasn't a good idea to skip her medication. She rubbed her eyes and squeezed some excess water from her hair.
She supposed there was some good that came out of Malfoy knowing about her sickness.
She swept the bottles off the counter and into a tuck in her robes she had made. She quietly left the bathroom. Much to her convenience, Malfoy lay on the couch shirtless once again, reading the newspaper. This time there was no additional breakfast on the table. She stepped out bashfully.
"Um... erm... Draco?" she asked quietly ignoring the fact she called Malfoy by his first name.
"Hmm?" he asked coldly, not looking up from the Daily Prophet. She could feel it worsening, boiling and agitating inside of her. She really needed her medication, It was acting up and she really did not need that today. Of all days, she didn't need a perfect Saturday to be ruined.
"I need your help," she said meekly. "Could you help me?" her voice was trembling as severely as her hands and he quietly folded the newspaper and looked at her. He looked her up and down coldly.
"What do YOU need help with? Cause I'm just going to stop my ENTIRE day to satisfy EVERY ONE of your NEEDS," he said sarcastically. Tears welled in Hermione's eyes. Malfoy was going to be no help. Her lips trembled and she nodded, turning around.
She did not want to yell at him. She could feel it inside of her, tugging and yanking. It was pulling and ripping, shredding apart the life she had. It squeezed and throbbed like some sort of creature, feeding off of her and laughing at her pain.
Her hands trembled so badly she could barely even hold the fold in her robe tightly.
"Hermione?" Draco asked quietly. Hermione ignored the fact that he called her by her first name. She could barley even concentrate. He stood warily, watching her struggle just to walk back to her bedroom. "What's going on?" he asked, concern seeping into his cool tone. Hermione took a careful step, her legs feeling like weak Jelly-O beneath her.
It wasn't fair. She didn't deserve this. She just wished that everything could be normal. She wished that she could just lie down and sleep peacefully. She wished that she had no need for this medication. She wished that she could be as vibrant and filled with life as she had been the year before.
She took another step, sluggish and heavy. Her entire body was shaking so badly she could hear the pills rattling around in their bottles. It sounded as if it were an omen. It was an omen, laughing and sneering in her face. It was telling her to give up all hope. There was no chance for her. She was just going to be this way for the rest of her life. She was going to be in pain, lost, and alone.
A sob escaped her trembling lips and her legs gave way beneath her. This time Malfoy was not there to catch her. She was just too weak to stand. The bottles rolled across the floor, things rattling and shaking as they escaped her reach.
Hermione scrambled for them quickly, sobs escaping her shuddering body, the pain slowly suffocating her. She grabbed one and tried to open it. She couldn't. She let out an exasperated scream and slammed the bottle against the floor repeatedly, trying to break it open. Her desperation made Malfoy, frozen in wonder and fear, rush over to her.
"I hate you! I hate you!" she screamed at the bottle as she rapped it repeatedly against the floor. It would not break.
Draco collapsed purposely on the floor at her side. He wrapped her tightly in his arms. He was astonished at the amount of trembling in her body. He held her so tight that she could barely move. He wasn't trying to comfort her; he was trying to stop whatever was happening to her.
"I can't even open a bottle!" she screamed and the bottle rolled from her sore and torn fingertips. "I... can't... open... a bottle..." she sobbed and clung to his chest, curling into a ball and pressing against him. He held her as tightly as possible, letting her cry against him.
What was wrong with Hermione that had caused this reaction? She was so cold and alone. She wasn't letting anyone share this burden. She took it all upon herself. Was she so selfless that she was willing to take all this pain in darkness so no one else was hurt?
Draco held her even tighter, rocking her in his arms. He closed his eyes against his own tears that were becoming overwhelming. She was like a lost and frightened child, helpless and lost in his arms, seeking any comfort that was willing to be spared.
For a solitary moment he wished that he could just take all of her pain away for a little while and let her breathe freely.
Hermione's shudders and trembling had decreased and her sobs had quieted. She still clung desperately against him and he could feel the streaks of blood left on his bare chest by her torn fingertips from trying to open the bottle. He reached over to the closest bottle and opened it gently, sliding a single pill out. He did not look at the name of the medication. That was her business, and if she wished to bear it alone, he'd oblige.
He gently slipped the pill between her trembling lips and she dry-swallowed. He stroked her hair gently and her trembling became so minute that he could only feel it because she was pressed so tightly against his bare skin.
He slipped his arm under her and lifted her. She clung around his neck, worn out and exhausted though she had just woken. He walked her over to a couch and set her down. She was so light it was almost eerie. Maybe that's why she wore over-sized clothes. To hide all of the weight she had lost.
She curled up tightly on the couch and he quickly fetched the other four bottles of medicine and opened them gently, handing her a single pill from each. She swallowed each one dryly.
In a few minutes she was drying her tears and looking at Malfoy in shame. He sat down next to her. He didn't dare touch her. When she was having that strange attack that was different. Now that she was seemingly better things were awkward and distant between them once again.
They were quiet and Hermione continued to rub at her eyes as if trying to rid the memory of her tears completely.
She looked at Malfoy guiltily.
'Thank you," she whispered. He nodded. He looked at her and furrowed his eyebrows before biting his lip.
"Listen, Granger. I know that you don't want to talk about what's wrong with you and everything, but you need to tell me enough so I'm prepared in case that happens again," he said seriously and carefully. She looked at him with mysterious and deep brown eyes.
"It won't happen again..."
"There's a chance it might," he said, quickly interrupting her. She took a deep breath.
"I'll live my medicine on the counter of my bathroom. The only time something like this might happen is if I forget to take my medication or I delay it too long. Just do what you did this time. Wait until I've calmed and then give me my medication," she said calmly and rubbed at her eyes again. "Thanks again for helping me," she whispered.
"It wouldn't have happened if I had just helped you in the first place," he mumbled, guilt filling his eyes. Hermione shook her head.
"After the way I treated you last night, I deserved it." They were quiet for a moment, and then Draco looked at Hermione weird.
"This doesn't make us friends, does it?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Hardly. You just know cause you live with me. I'm off to Quidditch Practice. I promised Ron and Harry I'd meet them there," she said stiffly and then stood, rubbed at her eyes once more, and strutted out of the room.
Draco sat there with small smears of blood on his chest and he watched her leave.
He couldn't help but be a little disappointed at her response.