Hermione had to pause, take a deep breath, and force herself to remain calm. Panicking would not help her situation at all.
"What do you mean there's nothing you can do?" she asked. The calmness in her voice was painfully clear and her face a careful mask of indifference as she observed the witch behind the front desk.
"I'm sorry Miss Granger, but from the information you've given us, there is nothing that suggests a malicious spell or potion. This is a hospital, for wizards and witches who are actually sick or ailing. You have a perfect bill of health," the desk-witch explained, her expression deadpan, her tone flat and empty.
Hermione had a sneaking suspicion those words were rehearsed, but like her fears of someone changing her on purpose for some devious intent, she had no proof. This only made her more determined to figure out what was going on.
"Isn't there anything you can do? Recommend someone who can help me, anything?"
The desk-witch–though mostly masking her annoyance–nearly had enough. She was about to relay the same message to Hermione once more, before a figure passed behind Hermione and paused off to her right.
She held up a finger to indicate to Hermione to be patient before grabbing a scroll and handing it to the figure. "Sir, your appointment for this morning canceled last minute. I tried to owl you, but I see you were already on your way."
Hermione's patience was wearing dangerously thin. She turned to the figure on her left and was fully prepared to chew him out for stealing the attention of the desk-witch. However, she was not prepared for the sight that met her eyes. "Malfoy?"
"Healer Malfoy, yes, who's asking?" Draco asked in little more than a murmur as he looked over the scroll.
When the dumbstruck Hermione had not answered him, he lifted his gaze to hers and paused. He opened his mouth as though to speak, but finding nothing intelligent or snide to say he promptly closed it. His gaze drifted over Hermione, he stepped back, looked her over again, and then found his voice.
"Since when did you become a Potter family reject?" he asked, pointedly eyeing her black hair. It wasn't the only family with black hair, but it was the first that came to his mind that wasn't somewhere among his family tree.
Hermione still had yet to get over her shock, though her eyes were focused less on her former school rival and more on his lime green robes and the bone-and-wand insignia they bared. "You're a Healer," she stated, despite the fact that he had said that just moments before.
"Am I? I hadn't noticed." Draco responded as he looked down at his robes.
Hermione flushed in a mixture of anger and disconcertment as she glared at Draco. Great, as if this day wasn't bad enough as it was. "Aren't you a little young to be a Healer?" she asked, trying to save what was left of her sensibility.
"My superiors don't seem to think so," Draco replied evenly.
He found Hermione's sudden changes . . . unnerving. For one, with only a little less than three centimeters in height separating her from him now, he found it much harder to look down on her. And there was something about her that pulled on very old memories. Get your head on straight Draco, or next thing you'll be the next patient in the Janus Thickey Ward.
Hermione expected a more in depth answer to her question, but when it became clear she was not going to get one, she huffed and shook her head. "Never mind, I have to go," she said, biting back a growl in her voice.
"What were you here for?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Why do you care?" Her stress levels had skyrocketed past their maximum, and her patience had been ground to dust. She did not need this.
"I'm a Healer. It's my job to help people," he answered, not letting himself give any rise to her frustration.
She began to feel bad. Draco was being nothing but civil and she was persecuting him for it. She should be better than that! "I . . . I was trying to figure out what caused this," she said softly, motioning to herself for clarification.
"Well you see, when a mummy and daddy love each other very much—" Draco was cut off by his own snickering at the infuriated glare Hermione sent his way. "Okay, all right, I'm sorry. I promise, nothing but professionalism from now on," he insisted, though he couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from twitching in amusement as he watched her newly-amber eyes roll.
"Why?" Hermione asked, a wearied sigh pushing past her lips.
"Why what?" Draco's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Why do you want to help me?"
Draco shrugged lightly as he gaze down at Hermione. "As I said, it's my job. I've nothing scheduled until later this afternoon and if this is the result of a curse or hex, it would fall in my department anyway." In way of explanation, nodded to the scroll on the counter, which had Fourth Floor – Spell Damage scrawled across the top. "Besides, I need to do something to repay all my misdeeds in the War. Why not start with this?" he asked rhetorically, his voice softer than it had been.
Hermione was truly stunned speechless by Draco's reasoning, though she was far from naive enough to simply go along with it. However, he was actually willing to help her. She doubted she could very easily find someone else that would try to figure out what was wrong with her.
With a drawn-out, reluctant sigh, she finally nodded. "Alright. Lead the way, Healer Malfoy."
Draco silently regarded Hermione for a few moments, trying to read her, but finding himself unable to. He was missing something, some crucial piece of information, yet he had no clue what that might be. That bothered him to no end, but he refused to let it show.
Hermione chewed the inside of her cheek as Draco examined her and part of her panicked. What if Draco decided it wasn't worth his time to help her? What if he decided he'd have a better chance of getting his parents to like Muggles than figure out what was wrong with her? The panic had just started to cross onto her face when Draco cleared his throat and nodded to the lift.
Without a word, the strange pair weaved their way through the small crowd gathered near the lift. They just managed to step into one before the doors slid closed and it began a crawling ascent.
The silence between them grew uncomfortable to Hermione by the time they reached the fourth floor. They made their way through the corridors and into an empty room, which she noted had Draco's name on the door.
She didn't really know what she was expecting when she found that the room was—in essence—Draco's office, but what she actually saw stunned her. This was a space belonging to Draco Malfoy. On principle it would seem like this required lavish furnishings and ornaments, but it wasn't like that.
The prat who got everything he wanted by crying to his father had grown into a professional Healer, and his work space showed that very well. It was quite Spartan in nature; what few furnishings occupied the room were clean and organized.
There was nothing on the walls, save a bookcase behind Draco's desk that spanned the entire length and height of the wall. So many scrolls and books and tomes, Hermione could only imagine all the knowledge they held.
"How did all this start anyway?" Draco finally asked.
Hermione was startled from her thoughts at the sudden voice, her attention snapping over to Draco in an instant. He wasn't looking at her, but he had already pulled a scroll or two from his bookcase. She glanced toward the comfortable-looking white chairs which faced his desk. Thinking how awkward she would feel taking a seat without an invitation, she opted to stand where she was, instead.
"I don't know, to be honest. I just woke up, and I was like this."
"Hmm . . . . Is this date significant for any reason?"
"Well, it's my birthday."
"Oh really? What year?
"Is that really—"
"Necessary? Yes Miss Granger, it is." He only blinked a few times when his address of her was met with a startled expression. "And don't look at me like that. Professionalism, remember? I call all my patients by their appropriate titles. Now, your birthday, what year?"
"It's my twenty-first."
"Interesting . . . ."
Draco considered the information she gave him for a few minutes, examining and reexamining a few various scrolls. He couldn't think of many spells that could have caused this, even fewer that had that kind of time table. After all, wizards and witches were considered adults at seventeen. Most spells targeted them at that point, not an entire year later.
The longer Draco searched, the more hope slipped through Hermione's fingers. If he was going to uncover something, wouldn't he have done so by now? The panic started all over again. There was nothing that could be done for her.
She would be like this forever.
"I'm sorry Miss Granger, but I can find no curse, jinx, or hex to match the information you've given."
His words had delivered a crippling blow, even though he had not meant them to. Hermione slowly stood up, her throat drying up as she nodded to Draco. "Thank you for your time, Healer Malfoy," she said politely.
She had turned towards the exit to leave when Draco spoke up again. "Miss Granger?"
"Yes?" She asked, her voice quick and hopeful as she turned back to him. Had he found something after all?
Draco met her gaze and she knew it wasn't true. His eyes were filled with a rather un-Malfoy-like compassion and apology. "Happy birthday."
"Oh . . . thank you, Draco." She said, though a disappointed sigh permeated her voice. As she turned back to the door made her exit, she wondered . . . .
Had she really seen the ghost of a smile she thought she had gracing Draco's lips?
Author's Note:
Yay, the next chapter to my most read story! There was a lot more I had originally planned to add, but you'll all have to wait a few extra chapters to find out what it was ;)
Once again, thanks to my awesome Beta, Freya Ishtar. I'm telling you guys, she is the reason my writing is as good as it is. All my tiny flaws are being sanded down with her help, and I cannot express how much I appreciate her enough.
Until next time, make guesses, tell me what you love about this story, tell me what you hate about this story, read my other stories and do the same, expect a few days delay for chapter updates, and have a wonderful day, and a very Happy New Year :)
