The passing hours seemed to be going on so slowly, trudging through mile deep sludge. The distortion of time escaped me. For hours at a time, I could hear everything. I could hear Madame Pomfrey shooing away the students who weren't supposed to be there or scolding herself for forgetting something. At other times, it was like I'd slipped out of existence. I couldn't hear anything; it was like sleeping without a dream. Right now, I was in existence. Two voices were present at the time. They sounded muffled as if I was hearing it through a door.

"I wish she would just wake up... I still don't understand why she's not dead." One voice said. I could almost recognize it. It was soft and gentle with a slight shake of worry.

The other voice was rougher. It was filled with angst and was so cold. It almost sent shivers through me. I couldn't feel my body though. "Shut up, Anderson. This wouldn't have happened if your cousin was there."

"You think Kim could've stopped this? You've got too much faith in her. She's a ditz-"

"She's reliable- unlike some blood traitors that I know."

I knew who was talking now. I wanted to punch Draco. This was not Cody's fault. I wanted to tell him what I was thinking. 'I'm the one who jumped in front of him. I was protecting him. It's not Cody's job to protect me.' I couldn't budge though. I was paralyzed and lying in what I was positive was a bed in the infirmary.

"Your girlfriend's one of those blood traitors." Cody replied quietly.

There was silence between the two boys. I couldn't possibly imagine what was going on. I just silently wondered what Draco was thinking. I wanted to touch him. I wanted to feel his skin against mine. I wanted to make sure that he was alright. I wanted to knock some sense into him. I couldn't though. My heart dropped when I heard footsteps fading away. Then, I slipped back out of existence.

Draco's POV

I touched her hand. It was as cool as stone. There was no movement from her. I squeezed it for an instant. There was no reaction. I caressed it for a moment hoping to see even a flinch, but nothing prevailed.

"I should've stopped her from going to those stupid meetings. You should've talked her out of it." I grumbled trying to catch a small intake or outtake of her breath. If I didn't know better, I would've thought that she was dead. Only, she was breathing and her heart was beating. At least, Madame Pomfrey said that it was.

"She wouldn't have listened. You know that." Cody said from his chair on the other side of her. He leaned as far back as he could. I knew he hated being around me. For some reason, he always came even though he knew I was in the infirmary.

"I know a lot of things." I knew that everyone thought that I was getting obsessive over Emma. I sent Blaise and Kim away to handle all of the Death Eater business. I hadn't bothered to open the letter from my father. I had expected Emma's parents to come and see how she was, but I'd just received a stern letter from her father expecting to hear from me soon about what she'd done to Pansy. I had been to the infirmary every day since she was put there. She hadn't made so much as a twitch. "What I want to know is why she hasn't woken up yet."

I knew this is what was truly bothering Anderson. I looked up at him and watched the emotions playing on his face. His eyebrows drooped as he stared longingly at Emma. "A lot of the teachers have been saying that she might not wake up. Since the spell wasn't directed at her, but it's still the killing curse, it won't kill her. They say it has an irreversible-"

"Shut up, Anderson."

"It's been a month already. If she hasn't woken up by now... I don't think..."

"She saved your life. You should be a little more hopeful because if she doesn't, it'll be your fault."

"What about Pansy? She's the one who did this." Anderson kicked his chair back. Anger flared in his fearful eyes. "We'd been going for weeks and everything was fine. You were the one leading everyone away. Why couldn't you have kept Pansy away-off our trail?" Once the realization of what he just did sunk in, he backed away a step and waited for me to reply.

I glared at him but didn't get up. I looked down at Emma and pulled her hand up to my lips placing a small kiss on her fingertips.

"Pansy will get what's coming to her. If Emma dies, you can bet that I will kill Pansy myself. Your cousin could always take Emma's place. There's no way Pansy will ever be the heir to all that power. Not anymore."

For an instant, I felt myself crumbling in the pain that I worked so hard to compose. Anger shot through my veins as I stared at Emma's sleeping figure. Her dark hair was framing her face. Everything about her was so lifeless. I walked to the infirmary every day hoping that she'd be awake and getting ready to yell at me for something that I said or done. I didn't care what she said. I just wanted to kiss her. I didn't go to the library, but I knew that Granger would be there looking for a way to reverse the spell. I'd gone so far as believing the old muggle tales of the prince who saves his princess by kissing her and breaking the spell. I would never try such nonsense though.

Anderson didn't miss a beat of this. He looked back at Emma and sighed. "You really love her, don't you?"

"Sod off, Anderson." I barked.

"I think it's best if you both be off now. Visiting hours are over." Madame Pomfrey said pushing a cart full of potions. At first, I thought she was talking to me and Anderson, but behind her stood three people. She swung around and put her dainty hands on her hips with a scowl on her mouth.

"One minute please, Madame." Granger begged. "We just want to drop off some get well cards."

Pomfrey glared at the three Gryffindors but then sighed scolding them again. "I shouldn't be doing this, but fine. One minute and then all of you should be off to bed." She then made her way back to the medicine office leaving the five of us alone. I glared openly at them.

"What the bloody hell do you want?" I asked standing up. "Especially you Weasel-bee. Aren't you the one that said you were going to break Emma's neck?" I'd heard lots of things about the night of the DA fiasco. I also heard from Mark Quibley some of the things that Weasley had said about Emma.

The venom poured out of my words. I was glad to see the chills that ran through them from the sight of me. I wished they were afraid, but they seemed more apprehensive, like they didn't trust me to be around my own girlfriend. I wondered if I could have evoked that same anger from Emma. Probably not. She'd somehow become resistant to my short-tempered glares.

"I didn't mean that. I was just-" Ron stuttered looking down at the hazel-marble floors, ashamed. I saw full justice in the way he felt. I really didn't give a damn about his feelings when Emma was lying in a bed fighting for her life.

"We just came to see our friend. If I do recall, being our friend never got her into this much danger." Hermione interjected.

"But that Army of yours did. I wouldn't have let this happen."

"You could've easily controlled Pansy. She's one of your girls, isn't she? I'm surprised that Emma put up with it as long as she did."

"You don't know anything. This is your fault." I said louder than before. The anger continued to build in me. I clenched my shaking hands.

"Stop trying to blame everyone else Malfoy." Hermione spat bitterly.

"Look, whatever's going on with the Slytherins, it's gotten Emma hurt. I suggest that you handle whatever's going on by the time she wakes up- if she wakes up that is." Potter shouted at me.

"Listen Potter-"

"Alright, that's enough. Off to bed all of you." Pomfrey shouted running over to us. "This is neither the time nor place for this. Let Ms. Paniettiere get her rest and soon she'll be able to vouch for herself. Now all of you, back to your houses."

I begrudgingly glanced back at Emma one last time and trudged out of the infirmary. Granger placed three cards on Emma's nightstand and left the room patting Cody on the shoulder as Potter and Weasley followed after her. I left out behind Cody, my feet dragging me away from her once more. The last thing that I thought, as I did every night was, 'You better wake up tomorrow Paniettiere. We need you...'

I refused to think anything else as I closed the tall wooden, glass paned doors.

~~~Emma~~~

This was like a dream. I knew it was a dream, but it still felt so real. My eyes were closed. I stood alone in what felt like nothing. I knew there was so much more to it. The air smelled different. It was of some tree that I couldn't recall and so fresh. As I opened my eyes, there was still nothing, but light everywhere. It was so bright, but I couldn't see anything past it. My other senses were stronger though. I could hear chirping birds now, a lark perhaps. There were tweets here and there. I could smell a mixture of elm and pine cones.

Then, right out of the light, a girl walked towards me. She had long hair that was pulled up into a messy bun. She wore baggy black sweat pants and a tight grey t-shirt. She squinted her eyes at see me, and when her sight was adjusted, she still looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see her. She hit herself gently on the forehead. It wasn't like she was surprised by the situation, but embarrassed that she hadn't realized what was going on sooner. She just shook her head.

"You're Emma, right?" She asked to me.

"Yeah, do I know you?" I asked. My voice surprised me. It rang softly in my ears like bells. It sounded unusually gently which contrasted greatly from the way I usually heard it.

"No, but I know you. At least, I feel as though I do. So, I guess you've died, huh?" She wondered lightly.

Neither of us moved from our spots. We were probably both afraid of the other. I stood there wondering who the girl was with her dusty blue eyes and dark brown hair that had a strange red tint to it.

"Is this what it's like to be dead then?" I asked her.

She ignored my question by looking up as if she saw something that I didn't. She pondered openly, squinting her eyes and moving them steadily as if she saw something above our heads. I looked for what she saw, but there was nothing but white light warming my face. "No, this is different. I can feel it. I can't feel you. You're still alive, where ever you are."

I shook my head and took one step closer to her. "Where am I?"

"I don't know," She said and focused her eyes back on me, "Somewhere I've never been. You must not be dead, but for some reason you won't wake up."

I watched her intently. She was strange. She looked down at the ground and her eyes widened for a second before she looked back at me fiercely.

"Don't hold yourself here. There are people waiting on you. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Cody Anderson, Kimberly Cross, and, most of all, Draco Malfoy. He's calling you back."

"What?"

"You've just got to open your eyes."

"What? I'm looking right at you." I exclaimed. I stepped back from this girl. She must have been insane.

"Just open your eyes Emma. They need you." She said.

I took another step back and heard a crack. I looked down. We were suddenly floating in the air with nothing holding us there but a glass plane. I look back at her and there were clouds surrounding us. Chirping birds were perched on the tall trees. I had no time to think how trees could grow so high.

"Just open your eyes."

I watched the girl calming stare pierce my eyes. I felt penetrated. It was like she looked right into my soul. There was an odd feeling of a claw pulling at my unmoving body. It reached down into my throat and yanked at my chest. Then, at my last glance at her, the claw released me, and I was falling. There was no time to see anything. I sped right past all the sights as the air and light clouded my vision. The light seemed to fade into darkness. I shut my eyes tighter as the air burned my eyes. Still I could hear the girl's voice ringing in my ears, steadily changing into a rougher sound.

"Open your eyes Em. Just open your eyes. Please."

The vision of the girl began to fade. Slowly, I forgot her appearance, her eyes, her hair. It all slipped away until there was nothing but the changing voice. I tried to listen to it as I clutched onto the memory. Whether it was a conscious one or not, I couldn't lose it. I felt like there was severe importance to it, but still it faded away. I thought that if I obeyed the voice that the image of the girl would come back. I pushed at my lashes, batting them furiously until they did what I wanted them to do. I worked my lids, fighting against the wind. The more I tried, the weaker the wind got. Suddenly it was gone, and I was lying down. I opened my eyes and gazed upon the person before me.

"Emma."

I don't have much to say. Just R&R, keep on reading, and tell you friends of the FF world about my story. I really loved writing this chapter. Hope you loved reading it.