Second Letter

May 6th 1998, St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

Dear Draco,

I never expected to write a second letter, but now I'm sitting here in the hospital next to you and watching you sleep. Your chest is gently rising and sinking in perfect rhythm with your breath. Your eyes are gently closed and your hair is tickling your chin. All in all you look perfect. The last letter I wrote was so deliberating that as I was sitting here watching you I just had to write another one. And I can't promise that this will be the last letter.

When I arrived here at the hospital your mother was just leaving. She gave me the evil eye and I hurried and said that I was here to visit Neville who was hurt during the battle. I don't know if she believed me or not but she left and I was free to go in your room. So here I am. And I've been here for the last hour just watching you. I told that Harry that I was going to see the Weasleys, which I will as soon as I can find it in my heart to leave you.

This is the first time I've really visited you, but it will be quite a while before I can visit you next. I'm going to Australia to get my parents. Before Harry, Ron and I set out to find Horcruxes I bewitched my parents to forget about me and go to Australia, so the Death Eater couldn't find them and hurt them to get to me. The only one who can make my parents themselves again is me, so I have to go to Australia to lift the spell and get them home. I don't know long it will take, but I promise to send you a letter from Melbourne.

Do you remember me writing in my last letter about some feelings I've had for you? Well writing that last letter got me thinking. Imagine how different our lives would be if we had never been enemies.

I don't know about you, but I have no trouble imagining it. In my mind we are standing on the steps in front of the Hogwarts Castle right before the sorting in our first year. I bet you remember that. You offered Harry your friendship and he declined. But what if he hadn't? If he had accepted your offer while stile remaining friends with Ron. Then there would have been three people rescuing me from the troll in the girl's lavatory. And I would have three best friends.

No matter what you think of Ron, Harry and I we really aren't that different. The only thing that makes us different is our upbringing. I don't want to say anything negative about the way you were raised, but you must know by now, that the values your parents have embedded in you are wrong. Muggles are people just as much as Wizards are. Of course 'the Golden Trio' were never angels either. At times we were just as bad as you, if not worse. We enjoyed annoying you just as much as you enjoyed getting to us. So the fault wasn't entirely yours. But if we had just started out on neutral grounds instead of with prejudice we could definitely have been friends.

As I was saying before we actually have a lot in common. Harry and Ron might not show it all that often, but they are both very smart and talented. And I know that so are you. We could have had some very interesting and stimulating conversations. Perhaps not in our first year but you know what I mean.

And when Harry, Ron and I were looking for the Philosopher's stone we could have had another man at hand. And you would have been helpful as Hell. You might not know this but in order to find the stone we had to go through all of these tests. Ron got seriously hurt during our third test, a life-size wizard chess game, where we were also a part of the game. Well, Ron got hurt but I couldn't stay with him because Harry still needed my help with the next test. And this is where you could have been a real asset. The test was a potions test to try and find the right potion that would allow you to go to the next test. If you had been there I could have stayed with Ron and you and Harry could have carried on without us. But you would also provide moral support in a time of need and there is no greater task for a friend. I think you would have been brilliant.

I wish you were awake so I could tell you this in person. But I guess this is the second best thing. Oh, here's one of the healers.

Okay, the healer left again. She asked me if I wanted to stay the night here with you. I wanted to, but I really can't. I really have to go see the Weasleys. Besides, I don't even know if you want me here. That's really what makes this so hard. I know exactly how I feel. I know that I want to be with you every waking hour of the day, I know that my greatest wish is for you to wake up and look at me with your startling, beautiful, gray eyes, I know that I almost died when I saw you unconscious on the floor outside the Room of Requirements. But I have absolutely no way of telling if you even want me near you. I don't know if you can even tolerate me after all the years of hate and spite. You can't tell me to leave. You can't tell me to stay. I can hold your hand, but I get no response. You don't draw away from me, you don't squeeze me hand and pull me to you. You are a mystery that has been left unsolved for only 4 days and already it's driving me crazy. I hate when there is something I don't know.

I'm afraid I'll have to leave now. I want to pop in at Neville's before I go to the Weasley's. I'll put this letter with the first one I wrote in the drawer right next to your bed. I'm numbering the letters from now on so when you wake up you can read them in the right order. I really wish that I didn't have to leave you alone like this. What if you wake up in the middle of the night and there is no one here to take care of you? But then again the healers don't think that it will be possible for you to wake up by yourself. That's why they are frantically looking for the antidote. You're a hero, Draco. Harry has told them how you saved our lives and how he saved yours in return. Everyone wants you to wake up. So please, if you won't do it for me, then do it for your parents and for the Wizarding World. Now I really have to go. I'll write you from Australia. It would be appropriate to leave you with a kiss on your forehead, but as I said, I have no clue in that would be okay with you. So I'll settle with squeezing your hand.

Yours sincerely

Hermione

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