Draco had been right – it was fun to watch Ron lose his temper over the Slytherins' antics in the corridors.
It seemed almost as if the Slytherin boys had timed it and practiced. Draco started with jeering at Ron in front of the Potions classroom immediately before Potions class, about two minutes before the door would open. Hermione could see Theo counting down the time on a small watch, and Theo would give Draco a nod about 15 seconds before it would strike three o'clock exactly. Draco would finish his insult and sneer at Ron, who would immediately start yelling back and try to lunge at Draco, only to have Harry and Neville hold him back.
Inevitably, this would be the time Snape would throw open the door to the classroom, only to see Ron lunging at the Slytherins and yelling foul things. Delightedly, Snape would deduct points from Gryffindor for Ron's behavior, frequently from Harry and Neville as well, and threaten detention if Ron continued his caterwauling.
After several days, they got him outside of Transfiguration.
Theo had hung back to talk to Professor McGonagall after class, and the Slytherins had lingered around in the hall as classes dismissed. It happened that the Gryffindor first years got out of Charms at the same time, and when they'd 'run' into Ron complaining that he'd never get the hang of the Levitation Charm, Draco had been only too pleased to point out to Ron that he'd probably been born a Squib, if he couldn't master such easy magic, and it might save his family a lot of money if he'd just admit his disgrace and go home. Ron sputtered something indignantly about Draco's family, and Draco sweetly retorted with something about Ron's family living in a shack, his father being a Muggle-loving freak, and when Draco saw Theo appear, ended with implying that Ron's mother was a gnome.
The ensuing fight was as brutal as it was brief. With a yell, Ron had hurled himself onto Draco and began pummeling his face. Draco was screaming as Ron was yelling, beating his head into the stone ground, and Hermione's eyes were wide with horror.
"Mister Weasley!"
Professor McGonagall appeared around the corner, her eyes wide and her lips tight, and she roughly pulled Ron off Draco, who was covered in blood and whimpering.
"He started it!" Ron was quick to accuse. Harry and Neville were quick to back him up, only to silence when McGonagall cut them down with a curt look.
"Regardless of what childish insults were exchanged," she said tightly, "you, Mister Weasley, are in perfect health, while Mister Malfoy lies on the floor, his nose broken, bleeding heavily."
Greg and Vincent were helping Draco to his feet. Draco was stumbling, his eyes unfocused, and he seemed dizzy. Hermione was horrified and felt sick with worry. Surely this wasn't in the plan?
"Mister Goyle, Mister Crabbe, please help Mister Malfoy to the hospital wing," Professor McGonagall dismissed them. "Mister Weasley – 20 points from Gryffindor, and detention with me the rest of the week. The rest of you – get up to lunch."
The corridor became a scramble of activity as Ron wailed his objections to McGonagall, who remained firm. Hermione hurried after Malfoy, quickly catching up and helping him get to the Hospital Wing unscathed – Vincent and Greg weren't the best at working together navigating him around corners. They nearly dropped Draco a few times.
When they entered the Hospital Wing, blood covering Draco's front, Madam Pomfrey shrieked and hurried them over to a bed.
"What happened?" she demanded, peering into Draco's face, casting a light from her wand to look into his eyes.
"Yes, Miss Granger," a drawling voice came from behind her. "What happened?"
Hermione whirled around to see Professor Snape, standing in the shadows of the Hospital Wing. There was a box of potions nearby, and one of the cupboard doors was open. As she watched, he closed the cupboard and moved towards them, leaving the box behind. His eyes were glittering.
"Ron Weasley went ballistic on Draco after Transfiguration," she said steadily. "Ron was whining in the hallway about not being able to do the Levitation Charm yet, and Draco made a suggestion about why that might be. Ron seemed to take it personally and started insulting Draco's family, and when Draco defended them and shot back about Ron's own family, Ron jumped on Draco and started pummeling his face."
Madam Pomfrey's eyes went wide, while Snape's gleamed.
"And Mister Weasley had the self-restraint to stop, once he realized he'd broken Mister Malfoy's nose?"
"No – Professor McGonagall came around the corner moments later, and had to drag him off Draco," Hermione told them. "She took 20 points and gave him detention for the rest of the week."
"Detention for two days?" Snape stood, his robes draping down over his legs once again. He sneered. "An appropriate punishment for assaulting a classmate? I shall have to speak to her. I would see him expelled, for such brutality, or at least write the parents of those involved…"
Hermione shivered. To tell Draco's father about what had happened could very well end up in Ron being dead. From what she understood of Draco's family, Lucius Malfoy did not take threats to his family lightly.
"Ah, and Miss Granger?"
Hermione looked back up at Snape, who was in the doorway. "Yes, sir?"
His eyes glittered.
"Twenty points to Slytherin for helping your classmate in a time of need, keeping your head cool in a crisis, and an eidetic memory at recounting events," he told her. "Ten to each of you, Crabbe, Goyle, for helping Mister Malfoy to the Hospital Wing."
Greg and Vincent looked surprised. Hermione wondered if they'd ever earned points before.
Madam Pomfrey tutted as Snape left, and Hermione hurried back over to Draco's bed.
"Shoo, you," she said, gesturing to them. "You got him here – go get your lunch, now. I'll handle this."
Greg and Vincent left easily enough at the mention of food, but Hermione lingered.
"I'd really like to watch, if that's okay," Hermione told the nurse. "I'm curious about healing charms and spells, and I'm curious to see how you'll treat the concussion."
Madam Pomfrey glanced over at her, a small mote of respect in her eye.
"How do you know he's concussed?"
"It's a guess," Hermione admitted, "but his eyes are unfocused, he seems dizzy, and his head was slammed repeatedly into a stone floor. It seems logical."
Madam Pomfrey eyed her a moment later, before shrugging.
"This, girl, is how you first stop the bleeding…"
Hermione watched on as Madam Pomfrey explained how to stop bleeding, how detect internal hemorrhaging and stop that, and how to reset a broken nose. She explained the diagnostic spell she cast and what some of the parts of it meant, and when she'd finished with Draco, Hermione could see that several red parts were now a cautious green. She gave him a couple potions (one to put him to sleep to help him recover, and one to replace the blood he'd lost), before sitting back.
"I'll keep him here overnight as a precaution," she told Hermione. "The concussion's been treated, but better safe than sorry."
"You're going to wake him up in the middle of the night and ask him questions?" Hermione asked.
Madam Pomfrey's lips twitched. "I'll run a diagnostic on him during the night and give him another blood replenishing potion. I doubt I'll need to do a check like that."
Hermione glanced over at Draco. He looked awfully pale and uneasy, even in his sleep.
"I'd like to stay here a while," Hermione told the nurse. "Just until he wakes up."
"You'll miss lunch," the nurse warned her. "You might miss your next class, too."
"It's just Defense," Hermione dismissed. "I'll stay here."
"Suit yourself," the nurse shrugged, but ten minutes later, she came out of her office with a sandwich and glass of juice for Hermione, and she and Hermione exchanged a smile.
When Draco woke up, he did so slowly, with a cautious fluttering of eyelids and a groggy countenance. Hermione was sitting next to him, munching on something and reading a book on healing charms. When she noticed him looking at her, she offered him a small smile.
"It's about seven o'clock," she told him. "You missed Defense. Dinner's still going on, but they brought something for you in case you woke up."
She nodded toward a tray on the nightstand. Draco kept looking at her, and Hermione bit her lip, fighting the urge to squirm under his gaze.
"Granger," he said finally. His voice sounded deeper, rougher, scratchy from his sleep. "Why are you here?"
Hermione frowned.
"Ron pummeled you and broke your nose," she told him. "Do you remember?"
"I know Weasley hit me," Draco said. "But why are you here?"
"You were hurt," Hermione told him, slightly incredulous. "I wasn't just going to leave you."
Draco stared at her as if she was an alien.
"Why not?"
Hermione bit her lip.
"No one should have to wake up in a hospital alone," she said finally. "At least, not the first time, when you don't know what's going on at all."
"So you stayed?" Draco raised an eyebrow.
Hermione shrugged. "So I stayed."
Slowly, Draco cracked a small smile.
"Better your face than Crabbe's ugly mug," he said, shifting to take his dinner tray. "Can you imagine the shock of waking up to that?"
Hermione laughed, and then he asked her about Transfiguration that day, and abruptly, they were talking. Hermione couldn't believe he was talking to her at all, let alone in a friendly fashion. But it was nice to be able to actually converse with him – Draco was smart, and he was fun to talk with. They had a happy argument over who had done a better job that day of turning a pinecone into a peach (it wasn't really a contest – Draco's had still had the texture of pinecone scales), before he asked her about the book in her lap.
"Healing charms? Those are fairly advanced," he commented. "Why're you reading about those?"
"They're not that hard. Some of them are pretty simple, at least," Hermione said. "And I figured – well, if you're going to keep picking fights with Weasley, we might need a healer in Slytherin sooner rather than later."
Draco stared at her, and Hermione squirmed.
"They're not that hard, really," she said. "Watch."
She took a scalpel from the nightstand that she'd snitched from Madam Pomfrey's workstation earlier and drew it across her forearm, blood immediately welling up. Draco made a choking noise and an aborted gesture, as if he'd been going to stop her but she'd been too quick. Hermione looked up at him quizzically. He was watching her now – a bit green, but he was watching. Hermione pointed her wand at the wound, hovering just above the cut.
"Episkey," she murmured, and the cut neatly began to stitch itself back together, the skin repairing itself flawlessly under her wand.
Draco's eyes widened. Hermione grinned.
"See?" she told him. "This one can even set broken noses, and Tergeo will get spilled blood off things, so as long as you don't get concussed again, we'll be able to escape more unnoticed, if need be."
Draco watched her for a long moment more.
"I see."
The conversation turned back to classes, with both of them complaining about History of Magic, then about Quirrell in turn. Madam Pomfrey appeared after they'd finished dinner to shoo Hermione back to her common room before curfew, and Hermione left rolling her eyes but with a grin, giving Draco a wave as she was chased out. She was pleased to see him smirking but giving her a wave back, and she was smiling to herself as she went back down the stairs.
She kept reading the book she'd borrowed from Madam Pomfrey the rest of the night, before retiring to bed a bit early, drawing the curtains around her.
Hermione bit her lip, considering. She'd been levitating her nightstand for a while, now, to drain her magic, and it was getting to be obnoxious, clearing it off every night so nothing would fall off as she lifted it up.
With a considering look, Hermione folded her legs on her bed and aimed at herself with a careful swish and flick.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
The spell most spectacularly did not work, as Hermione lifted into the air for a moment before toppling over and off of her bed as it failed. Grimacing, Hermione pulled herself back onto her bed and considered carefully.
She'd managed to cast this on herself once before, but only enough to help get her out of the cave she was in. She hadn't actually managed to levitate with it. Now that she thought about it, Quidditch Through the Ages had said that wizards still hadn't managed to do unaided flight. She wondered how Snape had managed it, then – it was probably a secret. He had asked her not to tell.
Considering carefully, Hermione took aim once again, but this time, carefully taking aim at her pajama bottoms, and only thinking of her pajama bottoms in her mind.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
She managed it, but only just – she nearly toppled over herself, and her near-topple sent her wand moving widely, sending her further off balance. By tensing her entire torso and hunching over, Hermione managed to stay upright and keep the spell going for ten seconds or so, before she collapsed onto her bed, breathing hard.
"Not that, then," she muttered to herself, flipping over onto her stomach. She took aim at her trunk, flicked her wand and muttered, and levitated it for a few minutes until she couldn't any further, and it dropped, thudding to the floor.
Hermione went to bed feeling almost as if she'd torn an internal muscle. Trying to levitate herself had felt somehow wrong. She made a mental note to ask Snape how he'd done it – if she could learn, she wouldn't need the rope to get back up the next time she took a crack at the third-floor corridor.