Hello! I am still feeling blown away by the amazing response to this! I'm sorry about the delay in updating, I know exactly what will be happening in a couple of chapters time but I was having a block on the getting there bit. Fortunately I'm over it and the next chapter is already in progress so the next wait isn't as long. Please follow and review!

Harry spent much of the next week in the hospital wing. There was little Madame Pomfrey could do to stop the flow of blood; she had been forced to resort to muggle methods and bind his leg in bandages. He had received several visitors: an irate Hermione and shocked Ron, McGonagall, and then Dumbledore, wanting to know what had happened. Harry maintained the same story for all of them - he had been in the room of requirement when something attacked him and the next thing he knew he was here. Fortunately Snape was yet to call him a liar. Unfortunately, Slughorn has delayed his party until Harry was recovered. That didn't seem likely to happen before the Christmas break however.

A small part of him had hoped Draco would have visited, just to see he was alright. He hadn't, of course. Draco had been hiding in the Slytherin dorms for the better part of the week. On the most part he had been left alone. There had been one disastrous visit from Pansy at whom he had yelled and threatened to curse, which put an end to the visitors. Even the other boys he shared a room with had mysteriously found other places to stay; they understood not to cross a Malfoy.

He was struggling to understand how he felt about giving Potter a near death experience. It was a tornado within his head. What if I had killed him? The Dark Lord would have skinned me alive. And what if he talks? Dumbledore will kick me out in an instant and the Dark Lord would kill me, slowly and painfully. What if someone finds out what I was doing? It would mean a whole year down the drain, and another delay in his rise to power.

Inevitably his thoughts kept returning to the imminent demise he was now certain of. In a way, he found thinking of his death better than listening to the little whispers in the back of his mind.

Why is he protecting me?

Draco knew that Snape had been able to do enough to get him to the medical wing. He knew that Harry had survived the ordeal. That was it however. No Slytherin would have cared enough to find out how Potter was recovering, not that he would have asked. It was driving him crazy. Grabbing an ink well from the bedside table, Draco hurled it across the room. It smashed and ran down the wall.

The sudden act of violence had not given him the release he had hoped for, instead he stared at the ink stain seeing blood. It had surprised him in truth, Harry's blood had looked no different from his own. He knew logically there should have been no difference but in his head there was.

The ink gave Draco another idea. He would write to Potter. If he went to the owlery at night he might still be able to find an owl. No one would ever have to know.

.

.

Sun was filtering into the room. The blonde head gave a sudden start upwards as the sun roused him. He had been scribbling, sighing, and crunching paper into a ball all night. It had gotten him nowhere. Draco felt he needed to say something, but there was nothing he could think of that didn't sound petty or pitiful on paper, or worst of all something that sounded unbefitting of a Malfoy. How could he express concern without expressing feelings? Exactly.

In the cold light of dawn Draco felt like nothing more than a fool.

There was only two days of term left now. Having hidden out for the last two days of school he knew he would be pushing his luck to skip the next two as well. It was time to grow up.

Act like a real Malfoy.

It was eerie how his voice sounded like his fathers.

.

.

Harry was bored. Madame Pomfrey had insisted that he stayed until the end of term time despite the fact he could now move round, albeit slowly. Ron and Hermione dropped in between lessons, bearing chocolate frogs.

"Hiya mate." Ron collapsed into a chair and ripped the head off a frog and spoke thickly. "You ain't missing much in school. 'Cept homework. Heck of a lot of homework. These are from Ginny by the way, but felt you'd had enough chocolate." He nodded towards the pile of chocolate at the foot of Harry's bed. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I saw Slughorn talking to Madame Pomfrey. He was trying to organise a party in here by the sound of it."

"Merlin's beard! He doesn't stop. He bought me crystallised pineapple the other day and asked when I'd be up to a party."

"How are you feeling? Is your memory coming back, about what attacked you?" The concern in Hermione's voice was strong.

"Oh give him a break Hermione. There could be anything creeping round in this school, giant snakes and spiders ring any bells?"

There was an awkward silence as they all tried to think of something to say. Ron opened another chocolate frog and swore as it jumped away under a bed. He let it go.

"Everyone is pretty spooked. I mean they do that thing where all the first years move in huddles you can't get round. Even Malfoy had been acting weird." Ron blurted out. That caught Harry's attention. He had in fact being trying to think of a way to bring up this very subject.

"How so?" He said cautiously.

"Barely been out of his room. Even been skiving off lessons he seems so scared which ain't normal. The scared bit I mean, it's no shocker he is skipping lessons."

"Maybe he knows more that he is letting on?" Pondered Hermione

"No," Harry said a little too quickly. "I mean, that seems unlikely."

"Let's not bother brewing Polyjuice again, hey?" Ron said snidely.

"You alright mate? You're being sarcastic, more than normal."

"I'm fine. I mean it's nothing compared to what you're going through is it?" Harry looked over at Hermione, confused. She looked plain irritated.

"Won-Won and Lav-Lav have had a falling out. I refuse to get involed." Ron flushed red as his hair and scowled. Harry laughed. He had missed them when they hadn't been speaking and even bickering was better than the stony silence he had endured for the last couple of months. The pair didn't laugh with him, but there expressions did soften.

"I'm glad to see you're alright mate. You really did get us worried." Harry smiled and chucked another chocolate frog at Ron. There was an excited yell and another frog hopped out of sight. Ron was on his feet waving a card in Harry's face.

"I've got him! I've got him! Cornelius Agrippa! Do you remember Harry, the first day we meet? I said he was one of two I still didn't have, and now he is the last! Haha! I've got them all!" Ron was causing such a commotion that Madame Pomfrey came rushing out. There was nothing she could say however to stop Harry and Hermione roaring with laughter and Ron's childlike enthusiasm.

From outside the high doors Malfoy heard the muffled outburst and the waves of laughter which followed. He pulled his had away from the handle.

Fool. Potter wouldn't want to see you. Not with weaselbee and mudblood in there. Not ever.

Draco turned away and began to stride back towards the dungeons. He was halfway down the corridor when a voice stopped him.

"Draco wait! You dropped something." It was Loony Lovegood, clutching a crumpled bit of paper. Her eyes grew wide as she read the words and with a sinking feeling deep in his stomach, Draco realised it was one of the crumpled letters he had written last night.

Malfoy stormed towards Luna, fury in his eyes.

"You have no right" he spat at her "No right whatsoever to be reading that." He tore the letter from her grasp and set fire to it with the tip of his wand. Then he turned back to her, pulling up to his full imposing height. "You didn't see that. If so much as a whisper of this finds its way to Potter I will personally see to it that your life is a living hell." Luna seemed unfazed.

"Why would I tell Harry? Whilst I think it's lovely that you feel this way about him, what good would it do for Harry to hear it from me?" Dear god, it was one of the stupid gushing letters. Why the hell hadn't it been a simple 'hope you're alright' one? I am so royally fucked now.

Had Luna been anyone else she would have laughed at the way Draco's red face clashed with his silver hair. Being Luna however she merely smiled and skipped back to the medical wing leaving a stunned Draco in the corridor.

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.

"Hello Harry." Luna's blonde head had just bounded into the medical wing. She seemed to be in a remarkably good mood.

"Hey Luna, what's up?"

"I have a letter for you, from Dumbledore. He asked me to make sure it got to you. Ooh is that crystallised pineapple?" Harry nodded at her to help herself as he tore open the letter.

I see you are staying at Hogwarts over Christmas, I think a little lesson would not go amiss. Please come to my room on the 20th at Nine O'clock, providing you are feeling well enough. Wishing you a swift recovery, Dumbledore.

"A lesson over Christmas? It's been ages since my last lesson, I wonder why now." Harry kept his voice low so that Luna wouldn't hear over the pineapple chewing.

"He has been away a lot, maybe he has found something new?"

"Maybe. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

.

.

It felt great to be out of the medical wing. He had been in there just over a week and was beginning to feel stifled. Hermione was going home for the Christmas holidays to visit her parents, but Harry, Ron, Ginny and Luna were all staying. Lavender had been planning to stay too but had changed her mind last minute, a fact for which Harry was eternally grateful.

The whole school was peacefully quite. Fewer people than normal had stayed this year, possibly because of Harry's attack, but it did mean no one scolded them for letting Luna into the Gryffindor common room. They were playing exploding snap, boys against girls. Somehow, he and Ron were losing spectacularly.

Luna's high spirits had remained all week, but no one really stopped to question it. She was just being Luna and the festive season was drawing close. They were so involved in their game however that it was five to nine before Ron nudged Harry in the ribs. Harry leapt up.

"I am… uh… going for a walk! I'll be back later."

AN In case you were wondering, Cornelius Agrippa is one of the trading card Ron says he doesn't have. Oh how useful a resource the harrypotterwiki is for tiny and pointless continuity