I only had five more days before the first NEWT, but, quite unsurprisingly, I laid awake in bed that night worrying over something else than the biggest exam of my magical education.

I always knew that Abigail would see through her task regardless of anything else, but still I had stubbornly insisted on stopping her. And now, Malfoy was probably going to die and I would have something to do with it. I watched him on the Map again, feeling all kinds of negative emotions at the same time. I began hating Abigail as well. The fucking Death Eater assassin. And that fucking piano!

After a few hours of throwing silent tantrums behind closed curtains in my bed, I just had to get out and see Malfoy again. I got dressed and donned my father's Cloak once more, and headed as quietly as I could for the hospital wing. I didn't care that Malfoy Sr. was still there next to his son.

It was already long past curfew; the halls and corridors were dark and empty. I was thankful for the torrent outside that currently filled the castle with noises of the storm, concealing my failure to keep a light step. I reached the hospital wing to find all of its occupants asleep. I approached Malfoy's bed, heart pounding.

I couldn't see his face; he was lying on his stomach facing his father. I moved in to get a better look.

"Harry?" her voice was low, but I could hear her over the rumbling in the sky. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You might wake them both."

I moved to her side instead. "How did you know it was me? Wait, can you see me?"

"You're filling the air with unstable magic."

I considered her for a moment. "But you can't see me, right?"

"No, but you're not exactly unnoticeable either; keep it down, you'll wake the others. Still, that is a remarkable trick. How do you render yourself completely invisible?"

I shrugged and belatedly said, "I have my ways."

She shushed me. "That was too loud."

"But I didn't-"

She shushed me again.

I continued in a lower tone, "why are you still here?"

"Oh? I thought everybody was against me leaving."

"No, I meant here, at the hospital wing. Haven't you fully recovered?"

She jerked her head in Malfoy's direction. "To make sure. But you need to go back."

I shook my head, not caring that she couldn't see. "One question," I paused and looked over at Malfoy's bed again. I leaned in closer to her before continuing, "how did you know Malfoy Sr. before?"

I could almost sense the heat of her blushing. "Curse your Gryffindor curiosity."

I chuckled a little, but then I remembered how she had lit up and deflated again when the man had come to talk to her that one time. I waited for a straight answer, knowing she needed to get it out. It must be torture not being able to tell anyone things. I would know.

"As a comrade in arms," she answered seriously, and as it sunk in me, I shuddered; she meant 'as a fellow Death Eater who grudgingly served an evil master'.

I watched Lucius Malfoy, and saw his capability to love; it's been days, and there he remained by his son's side. The loss of his wife must have brought on serious adjustments to his priorities.

"You knew me by another name…" Abigail had said it only to herself, but I caught it.

"What was that?" I pretended not to have heard the longing in her voice. It was giving me weird ideas about their past acquaintance, and I wasn't particularly comfortable about them.

"Huh? Oh. You need to be off. Now."

I started on my way, but I had to go check on Malfoy properly. The next moment, I was staring at him with his back to me.

"Careful~" Abigail cautioned me in a sing-song voice.

I turned around to face her again, surprised. "How do you keep finding me? I thought you couldn't-"

She had brought a finger urgently to her lips, warning me to be quiet again. "A shot in the dark, if you must know, geez."

I turned back to Malfoy. I felt like confessing everything to him right there, knowing he wouldn't hear me.

"Draco," I began, raising a hand to touch his hair. He remained still under my touch. "You better not die, you git." I let my fingers run through the white-blond locks.

Abigail called my name in another urgent whisper just then, and I only had time to retrieve my hand before the door to Madam Pomfrey's office in the far back opened with an unnervingly loud creak, the medi-witch appearing from behind it. She started walking purposefully towards Malfoy's bed.

I made a dash for it, as light as my feet would allow, and waited outside.

"Mr. Malfoy, you said you were just leaving," she reminded the older Malfoy indignantly, startling him.

"What? Oh. Yes, I was," he said guiltily, standing up and smoothing out his robes.

I heard a small laugh, which was immediately followed by an apology, and Madam Pomfrey giving Abigail what for.

"Please, ma'am, can't he stay for a bit more?" Malfoy's voice surprised me thoroughly. When did he wake up?

Oh Merlin, was he awake the whole time? I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. Was everyone fucking awake the whole time? ARGH, THERE WERE NOT ENOUGH CURSE WORDS IN THE WORLD.

I stood frozen at the door, ears trained. Malfoy kept begging her until she grudgingly approved in the end. "Five minutes, Mr. Malfoy."

They thanked her and she went back into her office.

"Draco, oh I am so glad that you're awake!"

"Easy, father… This is why I didn't want to wake you," his voice was slightly muffled, probably from being hugged.

So he had been awake for some time. I could hardly stop myself from stomping my feet at this realisation. I risked a peek at the pair.

Malfoy turned loose from his father's hold. "I have to ask you something."

"What is it, son?" his father asked, sitting back down in the chair next to the bed.

"Remember that time you got held in St. Mungo's for days?"

His father didn't answer immediately. "Yes?"

"Something else happened, didn't it?" he asked, but his tone suggested that he already knew the answer.

"I'm not sure what you mean," the man answered honestly.

Malfoy fixed him with a determined look. "Let me see your arm."

The older Malfoy instinctively moved his other hand to hold his left arm.

"It's alright," he persuaded his father. When he hesitated, Malfoy showed him his own left arm.

In his surprise, Lucius Malfoy grabbed his son's arm, tracing the unmarked skin with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Father?"

He finally complied, and revealed his own unmarked arm. He embraced his son again. "Draco, I kept it secret from you because, well, I felt guilty. You still had yours."

"What does this mean, father?"

Malfoy Sr. placed both hands on his son's shoulders, meeting his eyes. "It means that everything is going to be alright," he answered, a smile gracing his pale face. I unconsciously mirrored it.

But the other Malfoy was not smiling. "Then why don't I feel like it is?"

"Perhaps it's because you still have NEWTs to take in five days," this answer did nothing to reassure him.

"I should have kept pretending to be unconscious." I almost chuckled, but then I remembered what that could mean.

A few moments later, during which I seriously considered spending the remainder of my life as a stuffed dolphin, Madam Pomfrey reappeared to shoo Mr. Malfoy out of the hospital wing.

"I'm staying in Hogsmeade, I'll visit every day," he told his son before taking his leave. I stepped aside and watched him go, letting out a breath I didn't realise I was holding once he was out of sight.

I brought my attention back to Malfoy. It seemed Madam Pomfrey was examining him; the curtains around his bed were drawn. I continued waiting in agony.

Finally, the curtains were drawn back again, and Madam Pomfrey returned to her office, leaving a sleeping Malfoy in the bed. I wondered if she had fed him any sleeping draughts.

The door to the matron's office closed with a click, and Malfoy slowly rose in his bed. I almost cursed aloud.

"I know you're still awake," he told Abigail.

She had her back to him, but she evidently chose to stop pretending. She sat up and turned to face him. "And I know you've been awake since yesterday evening." I couldn't believe my ears. She knew, but she didn't try harder to stop me from baring my soul to him just now? Unbelievable!

"What's it to you?" he asked.

Abigail only regarded him with furrowed eyebrows. I knew we were both curious about the same thing: what else did Malfoy know?

"How did you get yourself here?" she started interrogating him.

"You're friends with Potter," a statement to avoid the question. I hung my head; he must have heard our exchanges earlier.

"You have questions." Another statement.

"Why are you here? Why was Potter here?"

"I hurt my arm. He was concerned."

"How?"

"I attempted suicide."

I couldn't fathom her principles. She would die to keep a promise, but could tell lies with such a straight face. Why the lie, anyway?

"I see…" Malfoy was saying, eyeing her bandaged arm.

Abigail said nothing and waited. I wished I could ask questions of my own. I wished she would ask them for me.

"What's your name?" he asked finally.

"I didn't get yours," she was unmoved.

"You already know my name."

I couldn't understand what exactly was going on.

"You flatter yourself," she stood her ground.

Was it a Slytherin thing?

"I know you were listening in on me and my father earlier."

"I heard nothing," she lied; I was at the other end of the room and even I heard them over the storm outside.

"You understood nothing."

"Yes."

If everyone would just stop talking in codes, that would be great…

"Have we met before?" I heard defeat in his tone.

"I would remember you," I heard nothing in her tone.

"Is that a no?"

"No."

"Which 'no'?"

Seriously, what was going on here?

Abigail then fixed him with an odd look. Next thing I know, Malfoy collapsed back on his pillow. I barged in.

"What happened?" I asked her, forgetting that she couldn't see me.

"Harry?" she was apparently surprised. "What- Were you just standing there the whole time?"

I checked on Malfoy; he appeared to have passed out. "Did you… did you just wordlessly stupefied him?" I looked to find her gripping her wand firmly.

"I panicked!" she confessed.

"That was you panicking?" For real? What was wrong with her?

"Harry, you're not helping my nerves at all; please stop being a disembodied scary voice," she sounded so childish, I almost laughed. But I was still cross with her, so I denied her request.

"Can he wake up this time?" In despite of it all, I had never felt more emboldened to openly show my concern for Draco Malfoy.

"He'll be fine. I'm surprised that it worked. My strength has yet to fully return."

We both actually spent the next few minutes observing Malfoy worriedly.

He finally stirred and moaned a little, prompting Abigail to gasp and me to remind her to "be quiet!" But Malfoy didn't open his eyes, nor did he move an inch from his currently odd position. We continued watching him. He would ache all over when he wakes. "Could you just… tuck him in?"

I scoffed, but did it anyway. I started by getting both my arms underneath him and lifted him by the shoulders to straighten his back. That was when an arm came up and pulled on my hood, revealing my head. I froze, eyes fixed on his cold grey ones, our faces only an inch from each other. It was my turn to panic.

I pulled away harshly, hurting my hand that was pinned under him, and ran like my life depended on it.

There was no way I could come back to the hospital wing after that.

Author's Notes

Man, I should get some sleep.