Hermione strolled back up to her room, wondering if Myrtle was serious. By the time she reached the painting of the chipmunk, she'd decided that it was still safe to use those toilets in emergencies because Myrtle was unlikely to actually tell anyone what was going on.
She scrambled into the common room to see Malfoy sitting on the couch staring into the fire.
"Shit! Sor-" Hermione was cut short by the boy.
"No side stops to my 'girlfriends'. Straight here. So where were you?" Malfoy turned to look at Hermione, eyes burning into her skull.
She gulped. "I had to go to the bathroom, if you must know." She placed her hands on her hips, daring him to respond.
Malfoy raised an eyebrow, which was seemingly going to become a signature move of his. "For a whole hour? No, you know what? I don't want to know. Let's just get this over and done with, Granger."
She sighed and went to grab some parchment and a quill from her room.
An hour and a half later, the two had finished the roster and had decided to ask McGonagall about when to hold the first Hogsmeade weekend. Hermione swished her wand and five copies of their final roster appeared in a neat stack next to the original.
"I'll give one to a prefect from each house and one to McGonagall in the morning and we'll keep one here." Hermione yawned and gave a small wave. "'Night." She climbed up the stairs with five of the sheets tucked under her arm. Once she was in grey track pants and a green tank top, she sat on the ground with her feet up against her desk and started her sit-ups.
"98, 99, 100." She lay on the floor regaining her breath, before she decided that twenty push ups on her toes would be a good idea, in case she hadn't thrown up all of her food. Fifty push ups and sixty crunches later, she crawled into bed and curled up under the cool sheets. She sighed and sank into sleep.
Hermione woke, breathing hard, from a nightmare. She sat up, trying to calm herself. After several minutes of sitting on her bed taking deep breaths, she got up to get a drink of water. As she passed her mirror on her way to the bathroom, she glimpsed herself. All she could see was that girl. She smashed the mirror in rage and gave a little yelp as the glass entered her hand. She sunk to the ground, sobbing, the nightmare replaying itself. Food everywhere and Hermione, unable to stop, kept eating. She watched on as the dream-Hermione ate and ate, until she got so big that she couldn't move. She was huge. Everyone laughed at her. At the fat girl.
She grabbed a sliver of glass from the broken mirror, and before she even realised what she was doing, the razor sharp edge had pierced her skin. Blood filled the wound and trailed down her arm. She watched on as the blood dripped to the ground, creating a small puddle on the floorboards.
This was a deep cut. Usually beads of blood appeared that would occasionally trickle down her arm, but they didn't pour out blood like this one was.
Chocked sobs still made their way to her lips as she gasped for air, and black spots started appearing in her vision.
A knock on the door startled her into awareness.
"What the fuck are you doing in there?" he shouted, obviously annoyed.
"Go away, Malfoy! I'm fine!" she tried to yell, but her voice was weak and came out as a whisper.
"I don't give a shit if you're fine; I just want you to shut up so I can get back to sleep!"
"Fuck off, Malfoy," she growled back.
"Oh-hoh! The mudblood swears." Hermione heard his fading footsteps and dark laughter. She sat on the floor, surrounded by glass and blood, breathing shakily.
"Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream." She tried to pull herself back to her bed, but her limbs wouldn't cooperate, so she grabbed a cushion that had fallen off her bed with her uninjured arm and lay her head on it. Blood kept falling from the self-inflicted cut, but she ignored it.
She couldn't close her eyes. Every time she shut them, she saw the picture from her dream. As she tried to block out the memory, she lost more and more blood. Within ten minutes, the black spots had filled her entire sight and had dragged her down into unconsciousness.
White walls, curtains and faded blue sheets. The hospital wing. Hermione closed her eyes and tried to get back to sleep. The dull pain all over her body made it impossible, so she played over the events of the past day. Her eyes flew open as she searched for a clock. Ten past six. She still had a few hours until classes started. She moaned loudly as she rolled over and an old witch with brown and grey curly hair rushed to her side frantically.
"How long have you been awake, Miss Granger?" Madame Pomfrey asked, inspecting the dressing on Hermione's left arm.
"A few minutes maybe."
She frowned. "You should have called for me immediately. Are you in any pain at all?"
Hermione shook her head. "Not really. Just a little bit of an ache, as though I've been here for a while. I don't need anything though, especially if it makes me fall asleep. I can't miss out on class."
"Miss Granger, you've been out for at least twelve hours. We aren't sure when you passed out but it's quarter past six at night."
Hermione was shocked. She stared at the nurse. "B-but- No! This is so stupid! I can't have missed out on a full day of classes! Agh!" She was pulling her hair and taking short, shallow breaths.
Madame Pomfrey grabbed her wrists and pulled them away from her hair. "Deep breaths, Miss Granger, deep breaths. Good." She let go of Hermione and went back to checking her injuries. "Now, here's some dinner. Make sure you eat it all since you've missed out on a couple of meals." She twirled her wand and a tray of pasta, chicken soup and vegetables appeared by her bed. Another flick, and a goblet and a jug of water sat next to it.
"Could you fill me in?" Hermione asked, shakily, ignoring the tray. "Who brought me here? How did they get in my room? It's protected by a password, so there's no way a student could have gotten in." She was hyperventilating again.
"Deep breaths, calm down." The old witch waited a few moments. "Mr Malfoy brought you here. He didn't mention how he managed to get into your room, so you'll have to ask him about that. All we know is that your mirror was broken and you had glass embedded in your skin and that you fainted from blood loss," she informed her. "Would you like to explain?
Hermione looked down at the sheets. She had no idea how to answer that without anyone finding out her secret.
"That cut on-"
"Hermione!" shouted a familiar voice. Hermione's eyes flicked over to Harry and Ginny, whose hands were tightly wrapped around each other's. Hermione sighed, relieved that she had managed to escape the nurse's enquires.
"We've missed you," Ginny cried. "I'm so glad you're awake." She let go of Harry and hugged Hermione, sobbing into her shoulder.
Harry pulled out a box of Every Flavour Beans and placed it by her bed. "Hospital food isn't the best. Trust me on that one," he said, referring to his own injuries that had landed him in in the hospital wing. "And here's most of your homework." Harry dumped a stack of parchment on her bedside table. "One essay, two reports and two chapters have to be read. But you might have gotten homework for Ancient Runes and all those other ones so there could be more."
Hermione rifled through the homework looking for the names of the books. Chapter five of Transfiguration: Level 7 by Bethany Carslow and chapter three of Potions for the Advanced by Ginette Whittle. She smiled because she'd already read both of them.
After a few more minutes of chatter where no one, thankfully, brought up the subject of how Hermione had landed in the hospital wing,, Madame Pomfrey ushered them out to administer Hermione's medication. When she turned around, Hermione pulled out her wand to make her food vanish.
"When will I get to leave? There isn't really anything wrong with me, you know," she said, discretely placing her wand beside the vase on her overflowing bedside table.
"We'll reassess tomorrow. Although don't think you'll be going to classes until Thursday at the earliest. This medication will make those cuts completely disappear by morning, except for that deep one on your left arm. You'll be asleep for a while on this stuff. Give it about ten minutes and you'll be out cold. Tomorrow I want you to tell me what happened, but for now, goodnight."
Madame Pomfrey pulled the curtain around her bed before leaving Hermione to sleep.
She was right. In what seemed like seconds after Madame Pomfrey left, Hermione's eyes started drooping, which was followed only minutes after by the sounds of her deep breaths reverberating through the ward. It wasn't until four in the morning that Hermione woke. She decided to use the time to do small exercises. She lay flat on her bed, raised her legs, held it for fifteen seconds and repeated it ten times. She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to come back.
Hermione was woken by the sun light streaming in through the window by her bed. The clock next to her bed said that it was seven thirty. Hermione looked out the window, watching the sun rise over the large mountains fencing in Hogwarts and the nearby villages.
"Okay, Miss Granger, are you, in any way whatsoever, in pain?" Madame Pomfrey had walked up to Hermione's bed.
Hermione shook her head hoping that she'd be allowed out. The old witch looked at Hermione, trying to figure out whether or not she was lying. Hermione smiled innocently and Madame Pomfrey sighed.
"Let me check the bandages before you go anywhere."
Hermione tried not to flinch when the nurse poked a tender spot.
"Your cuts have healed nicely. It looks as though you can go to your classes tomorrow if you want, but for now, just relax. Don't do anything that might hurt. Make sure you have breakfast as soon as you get back to your dorm. Alright, you may go. Here are your clothes." She pulled the curtains around the bed so Hermione could change.
Hermione pulled off the nightgown and got back into her grey bottoms and pink top, silently celebrating that the old nurse seemed to have forgotten to ask her how she had ended up with glass embedded in her body. She folded the papery cloth of her nightgown, picked up the Beans and the homework and dashed out of the hospital wing before Madame Pomfrey could remember. The many staircases that kept moving did nothing to help her plan to get up to her dorm before the students headed out to breakfast. The sound of loud voices made Hermione hide behind a statue of a lady with her nose in the air. She watched as Parvati and Lavender passed by her, gossiping.
"Hey, does anyone know where Hermione is yet?" Parvati asked.
"I don't know. It's weird isn't it? That she goes missing after one day of living with Malfoy. I wonder what happened to her." The two giggled and changed subjects.
Once the girls were out of sight, Hermione ran up to her dorm, laughing at the thought of being gossip. She walked into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of frozen water and collapsed onto the lounge. While she waited for the water to defrost, she decided to start on the essay for Potions. She lay stomach down on the floor facing the heat of the fire.
By one o'clock, she had finished the essay and had started on another one, this time for Defence Against the Dark Arts. She yawned and rested her head on her arms, closing her eyes. Sleep came quickly.
Hermione's eyes opened to a darkened room. She checked the grandfather clock that rested next to the staircase. It was now eight-twenty. She blinked a few times, amazed at how much she had slept in the past forty eight hours. Her hand brushed against soft parchment and she remembered that she'd been doing her homework, moments before she fell asleep. A groan fell from her lips as she sat up, her stiff body protesting from the movement.
"You're awake." Hermione looked around, startled. Seeing Malfoy reminded her of something that Madame Pomfrey had told her.
"How did you get into my room? They're meant to be protected by passwords. Tell me!"
Malfoy stood behind the lounge, staring. Hermione jumped up off the ground, striding towards him.
"How the hell did you get inside my room, Malfoy?" she hissed. Her eyes turned into slits as he stayed still.
"Shouldn't you be thanking me? I might have saved your life. Why I did it is still a mystery to me, so don't even ask." He turned his back on Hermione.
She climbed onto the couch and grabbed his arm, whipping him back around. "I said, 'tell me'."
His emotionless face turned into that of an enemy's. "Hogwarts: A History. Possibly the easiest password to guess, Granger. Next time, don't use a book title."
Hermione felt her face go red at Malfoy implying that she had done something dumb. Her grip loosened and he shook his arm free. "You guessed your way in? What, you went through every single book you know of?" He shrugged which Hermione took as a 'yes'. "What made you think I needed, er, help?"
Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "Besides the screaming, the crying and the swearing in the middle of the night? Or the fact that there were five minutes until class and you hadn't even walked out of your room?"
She looked down at the lounge. "I- I guess I do have to thank you." She looked back up, meeting his eyes. "So thank you. But I'm going to change my password first thing tomorrow."
She waited until Malfoy walked into the kitchen before sagging down into the lounge and staring into the flames of the fire. Malfoy had done something helpful, something that could be considered nice. That is, if breaking into someone's room was considered nice.
Hermione ran her hands over her face and through her hair, letting out another groan. She dragged herself off the lounge, grabbed her belongings and made her way back up to her room, aware that she had been partially visible to Malfoy who was still in the kitchen. She sat at her desk, reorganising her drawers; the top one for her school notebooks, the second for quills and ink and the third for her rarely used make-up and hair products. She was jittery, having slept for so long and she started to pace around her bedroom. She wanted to go for a run, but didn't want to deal with anyone if she got spotted, so kept to her room.
When her clock reached eleven thirty and she still hadn't calmed down enough to sleep, she took the first book that touched her hands and entered the bathroom. She filled up the pool-sized tub, yanked a towel off the rack and sank into the warmth. The book she had taken with her was Muggles: The Other Side by Louis Sparkinstare. It was one of the books she'd only partly read through, so she opened it up to chapter three, Wars Without Magic, and started to read.
By the time she was done, her eyes were heavy with sleep and a slit of light had snuck through the window. She hopped out of the tub, wrapped the towel around her and crept back into her room with her dirty clothes. She pulled out a set of pale blue, silk pyjamas and slid them on, shivering at its cold touch.