Chapter 9
Draco was awoken by a scream. God damn castle ghosts. Bloody hell.
He decided to go for a walk as he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep now.
He opened the castle doors to go outside and was met with a cat staring at him. "Crookshanks?"
The car whined at him. What is Crookshanks doing here? Hermione was home wasn't she? Unless...did she come after him?
He felt awful about their fight. He was a bloody idiot. But how did she get here? And where was she? And why was her car wandering about?
"Hermione?" He called out.
The cat whined at him again, "Where's Hermione?"
The cat started prancing off and he followed. He had a bad feeling about this.
As he rounded the corner of the castle, he saw an old car driving away on the road. He heard a whimper to his right and the blood drains from his face when he sees the mess of a girl laying against the stone wall.
Fuck.
He races to her side and brings her head into his lap gently. Her cheeks are starting to bruise and blood runs down her temple. Her blouse is ripped at the seam and covers her loosely revealing a bruised collarbone and a hand shaped bruise around her neck. Her pants were ripped but still on her, however loosely they hung.
His heart pounded in his chest, "Hermione. Wake up."
He patted her face softly trying to get her corpse like form to move. Whoever had done this wanted to cause serious damage, if not kill her. There weren't many people on campus so he wasn't sure who did this. Besides if she had gotten driven here she must've just arrived.
Maybe that was the car he saw. What the bloody hell happened so quickly?
She whimpers, "Please...d-don't touch me. Please."
Her voice sounds so broken it breaks his heart.
"Hermione I have to move you. I need to get you back to the room. I can't help you out here." He says desperately.
Her eyes still don't open but she whispers, "Draco..."
He smiles in relief. "Yes. Yes it's me Draco. I'm here. I'm right here. You're gonna be okay."
He slid his arms underneath her and picked her up to his chest. She groaned and he frowned, looking down at her. "I'm sorry Mione. I'm so sorry."
Bringing her inside, he holds her close to his chest until he reaches their room. She shivers in his arms, shaking violently.
First thing first, he needed to get her cleaned up so he could assess her wounds. Pomfrey wouldn't be back until classes begun so he was the only option. He'd have to rely upon normal healing techniques as he wasn't to use magic over break.
He nudged Hermione awake as he started the bath water. "Hermione. You need to get in the bath. I don't want to make you uncomfortable but do you need help?"
She mumbled something that he couldn't understand and then sat herself up before slumping over again.
He hoped she would understand when she was conscious again. He looked away as he stripped the clothes from her body and tried not to look at her naked form as he lowered her into the tub.
She was still knocked out as he washed the blood from her hair as the rest of her body soaked. The water was quickly stained a reddish brown.
When he scooped her out he wrapped her in a towel and laid her down on his bed. He looked for the largest shirt he had and slipped it over her head gently. He figured this would give her the most comfort. He then crossed through the bathroom again and searched her drawers for shorts and slipped those onto her as well.
He gathered medical supplies from under the sink. All bathrooms had them so students could treat minor injuries on their own.
Her forehead was feverish despite the chills running through her body. He lifted the shirt to expose her bruised ribs. Shit.
He went to the kitchen and returned a minute later with a bucket of ice. Placing a towel over her torso, he covered her with ice to stop the swelling. He then made a smaller rag full of ice to lay over her forehead.
As the cloth touched her skin she sighed in relief. He began to bandage and disinfect the remaining cuts and injuries on her body.
The sun was rising by the time he had finished. He hoped he'd done a well enough job that she'd be okay.