Yes! Another update.
I really need a beta. So I apologize for the horribleness of my writing.
Jk rowling owns it all
Draco was really frustrated.
Clenching and unclenching his fists, Draco stared at the word-cards in front of him.
It had been three weeks. Three bloody weeks and he still hadn't made any improvement.
Well, not really.
He had 'achieved a great deal', in the words of Madame Pomfrey, but he felt that walking was overrated. And the only words that he was able to pronounce were 'Draco' and 'Malfoy' and a handful of other useless one syllable sounds.
To this, Madame Pompfrey had announced a spectacular leap in his recovery, but Draco thought it was bollocks.
He had secretly been working on 'pity' and 'sex' but so far the t and x sounds were proving difficult.
Gazing down at the cards showing him a picture of an apple and a bold black lettering of the corresponding word, Draco ground his teeth.
The simplicity and child-like qualities of the word-cards seemed to be mocking Draco, laughing at his poor excuse for recovery.
School was next week, for Merlin's sake! He had to get better before then. He just had to.
"Ah-a-luh," Draco tried, sounding like, he thought, an idiot.
Fuck it! Draco violently pushed the cards off his tray table, scattering them on the ground and listening to them flutter, scattering upon the wood like dead leaves.
His eyes almost filled with angry tears before he realized that Madame Pomfrey had heard his commotion and had come hurrying over.
Picking up the cards, she said; "You know, Mr. Malfoy, it may help for you to come up with a sentence, something you can latch on to, identify with. It will give you a goal, and a better sense of how you are progressing."
Draco sneered at her, folded his arms and looked away. Like you know what I want.
Madame Pomfrey sighed, and placed the cards on the table. "Just trying to help you, Mr. Malfoy." She turned to leave but paused. "I may be the last one that will do that voluntarily." She then left and closed her office door, satisfied that she had given her charge something to think about.
Draco left his arms folded and his nose up in the air at the cards, before he started to chew on his lip, thinking.
Maybe that would work… He thought. School is in a week, and I'll try anything.
He thought.
And read the cards.
And thought some more.
Dinner rolled around, and for once, Draco was glad that he could feed himself now, at least Madame Pomfrey would leave him in peace to think about his damn sentence.
How about…Want to fuck?
No, too direct.
Move, you idiots.
Probably not the best thing when everyone hates me. And now that I'm handicapped.
Draco spit out that last word in his head.
Then it hit him.
Thank you.
Thank you for saving my live, Weasley.
Yes, that was it. Perfect. Short, to the point and not mushy. And it wasn't going to embarrass him when he said it, he would be sure of that.
Draco found a piece of parchment, a quill, and wrote out the sentence in his loopy scrawl.
Looking down at the physical manifestation of his thought, he thought that it looked, and sounded, pretty good.
If only he could say it…
Ginny had successfully escaped her mother clinging to her in front of the entire school by boarding the Hogwarts Express early and telling her, firmly but affectionately that she was fine, and hadn't she be getting back to the Burrow anyway?
Her mother had patted her cheek and had said that Ginny was right before bustling off to attend to Order matters.
Ginny sighed and leaned back into her seat. A year ago there would have been no way Molly Weasley would leave Platform 9 and 3/4th early.
But now…
On the train, Ginny walked up and down the isle looking for someone, before she set her things down as close to the front of the train as she could without being in the prefect and head compartments.
Ginny had been slightly put-off when she hadn't gotten a prefect badge the year before, but now she didn't even think about it.
Shortly after Ginny had settled in, Neville and Luna joined her in the compartment. Ginny said hello to them but they were already deep in an animated discussion about weather or not toast always landing on the buttered side was always a bad thing.
Neville seemed to be losing the argument, but Ginny noticed with a sly smile that he was too captivated with who he was arguing with to care.
Neville and Luna had barely sat down when the door slid open once more, revealing a tall, Spanish looking girl with vulmonus black curls.
Ginny nodded to her. "Hey, Nora." The girl was in Ginny's year and in Gryffindor but Ginny had never really interacted with her apart from hallway smiles.
"Ginny, Neville, …" The girl nodded to her fellow house-mates but trailed off looking at Luna.
"Lun-" Neville started to say when he was interrupted.
"Luna!" Nora said, smiling widely. Ginny realized that the girl's mouth looked a lot more comfortable in a smile. "Lovegood, right? I'm terrible at names. But it's all good. Can I sit in here? Apparently all my other friends now thing it's a problem to be at Hogwarts if your half or all muggle. Really I should have guessed. No mail this summer and all…"
Nora laughed and the sound was so infectious that Ginny found herself smiling along with something that wasn't even really funny to begin with.
"Sure, sit anywhere."
Nora sat, still beaming around the compartment.
"Everyone left?" Ginny asked the girl in a lower voice once Neville and Luna resumed their argument.
"Yea, their parents yanked them. It's happening to lots of people, I just don't have very many friends to begin with so it has a bigger impact on me." Nora laughed again, startling Neville and Luna.
"What are you talking about?" Luna asked in her dreamy voice.
"Half-bloods and muggle borns not coming back to Hogwarts this year." Nora said, unwrapping gum and popping it in her mouth.
Luna nodded, wide eyes shining. "Yes I heard about that, a couple of people from Ravenclaw aren't coming back this year, but not a lot. Well, not yet anyway..." Luna trailed off mysteriously.
Neville looked alarmed. "What do you mean 'not yet'?"
"Well, I only expect that it will get worse so obviously 'not yet' fits."
Ginny and Nora looked at each other seriously for a moment, and then Nora smiled. "Well, all the hot guys better not leave."
Ginny giggled when Nora did, and the two girls then found themselves distracted with each other company until they were almost at Hogwarts.
Once the train was unloaded, Ginny, Luna, Neville, and Nora waited in the long line for the Thestral-drawn carriages.
Pretending like she forgot something on the train, Ginny hung back in line, searching the crowd.
Maybe he arrived in a different way? Ginny thought, eyes scanning for a blonde head.
Or maybe he's still in the hospital wing…
"Ginny? Are you coming?" Nora's voice floated through Ginny's thoughts, bringing the red-head back to the present.
There was only one carriage left and Ginny hopped on.
"Who were you looking for?" Nora asked.
Ginny's head snapped up to meet the other girls dark eyes. "I wasn't looking for anyone," she said, a little too snipilly.
"Right," Nora said, sounding like she didn't believe her. "Sure. Sorry I asked."
Arriving in the Great Hall, Ginny sat down between Neville and Nora.
Day dreaming, Ginny's eyes wandered over to the teacher's table and with a jolt she saw Snape sitting in Dumbledore's old chair.
With a stab of anger, Ginny glared at the hooked nose teacher.
Her anger was so great that she couldn't form a rational thought.
She was interrupted from her mental spluttering with the arrival of the first years. Watching them gave Ginny something to think about, distracting her from her hate. She sat half-listening to the Sorting Hat's new song of warning, a faint smile playing on her lips.
McGonagall stepped up next to the stool and unfurled a scroll.
The first Slytherin to be sorted was "Freeman, Daniel."
When the hat called out the name of the house, Ginny's head jerked up from her daydream. Her eyes flicked over to the Slytherin table, searching up and down for a certain blonde haired boy.
Her search turned up nothing, nothing but a moping Pansy Parkinson, and a bored looking Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott.
The feast began and Ginny ate in silence, thinking hard. Nora chattered enough for the both of them and Ginny was content to just listen.
As the feast neared its end, Ginny started to feel antsy.
Turning to Nora, Ginny muttered; "I'm going to take off and go to the bathroom. I'd rather hid in the bathroom than listen to Snape do the start of term freast."
Nora choked into her pumpkin juice. "Ha, so true. Go ahead, I'll give you the highlights later."
Ginny snorted. "Please, don't." The red-head exited the Great Hall and ducked onto the staircase leading to the hospital wing.
In the hospital wing, Draco Malfoy stood mutely at the far end.
Staring out a large bay window, he was dressed in what he usually wore under his Hogwarts robes. Black slacks and his grey Hogwarts polo shirt.
Draco could hear the feast; the voices rumbling beneath him and felt annoyed. He had been working so hard for the past week that he thought for sure he would be well enough to attend the first feast.
But he wasn't.
He could communicate his needs with Madame Pompfrey and have a very short conversation where he could just say 'hello' and his name but that was it.
Draco's work on the sentence that he practiced in secret had surprised him. It was nearly intelligible.
Alright, so not nearly, he thought, looking out one of the windows. But fairly good.
He had been practicing using his muscles as well, running up and down the length of the hospital wing when Madame Pomfrey wasn't looking. He also did sit ups and push ups whenever words frustrated him.
He kept these physical advancements from Madame Pomfrey for no reason other that to have a secret.
But the worst part about his recovery was that his voice sounded different to him. Lower, but with a strange rasp to the edges; it felt like someone else was using his mouth.
Raising his chin and massaging his throat, as if he could rub the words out, Draco heard a door behind him open and, thinking it was Madame Pomfrey, he kept staring out the window.
"If you're out of bed, why aren't you at the feast?" A voice Draco hadn't heard in a moth say.
Whirling around, Draco was face to face with the subject of his secret sentence.
"W-wuh-w-"
"It's Weasley, Malfoy. Did you forget?"
Of course I remember you, you dumb- Draco sighed and looked back out the window. He didn't want to tell her, not yet, not until his sentence was perfect.
"Well," Ginny's voice came from behind Draco. "I just came to check-to see if you were still…alive."
He noticed that she changed mid-sentence but he didn't turn.
"Okay fine. See you around."
Ginny turned on her heel and left. Draco could hear her mutter under her breath. "You could at least say 'thanks'."
Draco smirked at her nerve.
I will, Weasley, I will.
I'm sorry, I just had to put Draco in a polo shirt
*drools*