Bones wasn't sure what day it was when she woke. Dementor attacks could do that to a person. She yawned and stretched, glancing around.
She'd expected to see one of the twins, Fleur or Hermione. Instead, Draco Malfoy was sitting on the foot of her bed, as though he had no sense of boundaries.
"Hey." Her voice sounded rusty but he grinned.
"You're stuck with me while the others check Ministry security," he said easily. He twirled his wand, summoning a wrapped gift from the bedside table. "I didn't have the chance to give this to you Christmas day."
"Ugh," said Bones, creasing her nose as he set it on her stomach. "Don't bother. Gifts are not my thing."
"Open it," said Draco. "You don't have to pretend you like it. If you hate it, feel free to Incendio it at will."
She snorted and shuffled to sit up in bed. She wasn't interested in presents any longer, but so long as she didn't have to act like it was the best thing ever, she'd be gracious. She tore off the paper without ceremony and pulled a box out of the remnants.
"You bought me a chess set," said Bones, somewhat confused. She'd never been a chess player, but it was possible that Malfoy had thought that she was. Hottie was known for strategy, after all. Turning the box over, she realised that there was something wrong with the illustration on the top of it. It wasn't moving.
"Muggle chess set," Draco corrected her.
"Muggle chess set?" A tendril of excitement unfurled in Bones' stomach. She had always wanted to play Muggle chess. Ever since Hermione had mentioned that Muggles got to move their own pieces. She must have lit up because Malfoy smiled at her. Bones pulled the lid off the box and tipped the contents onto the bed. It had been years since she had been this excited over a Christmas present.
The chess pieces were lovingly crafted from glass, both clear and frosted to represent the black and the white. Setting the board on her blanket covered knees, Bones set each player into its place.
"Your move first?" she asked.
Draco reached out to move a frosted pawn. His actions were languid as though he did not much care for the game, but Bones thought that he was probably a good player. He was good at reading people and anticipating their moves, this would be the kind of game that would hone those skills.
Bones didn't strategise her move, picking up the nearest piece and moving it to whack Draco's pawn from the board. It flew off the bed and hit the wall, before smashing into pieces against the floor.
Bones stared at it and then turned to look at the bishop in her hand. The base had shattered on impact and the remainder crumbled in her fingers. Too late she realised that Muggles probably didn't smash their opponent's pieces out of the way.
Rather than being mortally offended by her callous disregard for his gift, Draco started laughing. Bones glanced at him. "Merlin, Bones," he said, reaching out to touch her cheek. "The look on your face." Then he leant forward and kissed her forehead.
That was all horribly wrong. Malfoy was meant to be affectionate when he was drunk, and he wasn't drunk right now.
"Also," he murmured, pulling back but not far. "That move? Utterly illegal."
"You're behaving very strangely," said Bones. "Come to think of it, that conversation I walked in on Christmas morning was bizarre as well. Does Pansy Parkinson always get annoyed when you invite girls who weren't in Slytherin to Christmas?"
"Yes," said Draco. "Every single time."
"And does she usually accuse the girl of using you to get back at her family?"
"What do you mean usually? Again, every single time."
Bones' lips quirked in amusement. "Am I the only non-Slytherin girl you've invited to Christmas?"
"Naturally," said Draco. "I have standards."
Bones laughed at that. "Well, she's wrong anyway," she said. "I don't need you to upset my parents. I can disappoint them fine on my own."
Draco grinned at her. He stroked the back of his knuckles along her cheek before pulling back. "They left a present for you."
Bones glanced around. A Christmas-tree print wrapped box sat on a nearby chair. "Ugh," she said, creasing her nose into a scowl. "Burn it."
The left corner of Draco's mouth tugged upward, but his eyes were shadowed. "You would have died for your family back in Hogwarts," he said, voice bleak. "You would have endured endless bouts of Cruciatus and never have considered giving them up."
Bones snorted. "I still would." She shoved her hair out of her eyes and grinned savagely at him. "They're civilians. It's my job."
Draco leant back against the foot of the bed, stretching his legs out alongside Bones. "You could come back to my place when they let you out of here," he said, voice careful.
Bones frowned at him. "I have an apartment."
"I know." Draco huffed out a breath, brow furrowing before he looked away. "It's just that no one knows who was being targeted in that attack – not for sure." He shoved his hands into his pockets, not looking at Bones. "I mean, they were most likely trying to kill Potter but you can't overlook the fact that they attacked a place where there were four Hottie members…"
He was worried about her. It was almost enough to make Bones laugh. She'd already calculated the probability of Hottie being the target. It was low. There was a ninety percent chance that Potter had been the target of the attack. The other ten percent was all on Hottie members. The factor that Bones hadn't taken in to account before was that Draco was a Hottie member now, and if Hottie had been the target, he was in danger.
"Okay," she said. "I'll come stay in your horrible mortuary apartment. I expect to be able to make changes though."
Draco smirked at her. "You want to give the place a woman's touch?"
Bones stretched lazily, assessing the feel of her bones and muscles. Sore, but nothing felt damaged. She kicked her way out of the covers, swinging her legs off the side of the bed and scattering chess pieces in the process. "No time like the present," she said. "Let's get me signed out."
"Bones!" Draco's voice rose in alarm and he reached out to grab her arm. "The healers will let you know when you're allowed to go home!"
It was cute that he thought the healers had any say. "Actually, I let them know when I'm going home," said Bones.
She jumped lightly off the bed and turned to raise her eyebrows at Draco. He slithered off the bed just in time to catch her as her knees gave out.
"Okay," he said, hoisting her up against himself. "You're in no condition to go home."
Bones twined her arms around his shoulders when he tried to set her back on the bed. "I don't stay in hospitals," she said. "If you don't get me to the sign out desk one of the twins will."
Draco looked down into her face and she set her jaw in a stubborn line, eyes narrowing. He laughed finally and lifted her. "Wrap your legs around me."
She did, resting her chin on his shoulder and turning her head just slightly to blow in his ear.
He laughed again, a soft, exasperated huff of air. "Trust you to have a phobia of hospitals."
Bones didn't correct him. The other Hottie members thought that she was scared of hospitals too. It relieved them because it made them think that she had some human emotion. The truth was less complicated. Bones couldn't concentrate in hospitals. If she was going to work through the evidence that Hottie was accruing, she needed somewhere that she could implement security measures. A hospital was too open; people coming and going and constant noise. Half of her concentration was always on the door and what might lie beyond. Half of her was always assessing and reassessing possible risks; calculating escape routes before they became necessary.
Malfoy's place might have been hideously depressing, but at least she could put up wards. And if anyone tried to get through them she could be pretty sure that she wasn't in danger of killing a healer. She'd be able to focus on the case there.
Draco got her signed out without having to argue with anyone. Soon they were out in the driving sleet; Draco's supporting arm around her.
"You're going to have to let me go if I'm going to Apparate," she said, smiling at him as she blew warm air into her hands.
"You're not serious?" Draco closed his arms around her and Apparated them both away.
They wound up in the lounge room of his apartment again and he let her go, stepping away. Her legs were steadier now.
"I can Apparate on my own," she said, glancing around the apartment, assessing the risks.
"You splinched yourself in your test," Draco pointed out.
Bones stared at him. It made no sense that he knew these things. Sure, they'd been at school together, but she barely knew anything about him, and he'd actually been somebody at Hogwarts. "That doesn't count."
"I know," said Draco. "It was years ago and you had a lot on your mind but…well, you're just getting over a Dementor attack so…" He sighed, raking a hand through his hair as though he wasn't sure how to finish the sentence without offending her.
Bones dropped onto the couch and smiled at him. "That's not why it doesn't count, Malfoy," she said. "I threw my test."
"Threw your..?" Draco broke off, looking confused. "You splinched yourself on purpose?"
Bones shrugged, watching him carefully.
Draco frowned, mouth twisting as he watched her. Finally he nodded once, brow still furrowed. "You thought if you splinched yourself You-Know-Who would discount you as a threat. You knew that people were watching you to see if you measured up to the great Edgar Bones or even greater Amelia Bones."
Bones shrugged again and leant forward. "Where are you getting your information and how the hell do you know so much about me?"