When Hermione woke up, it was to an incessant beeping and whispers. Her back hurt, she could feel her heartbeat in her spine, but it was the beeping that was driving her mad. Opening her eyes, she rolled her head to face the sound, her hand flicking in the general direction so it would stop. It did. Mercifully.
"Hermione?"
The bed on her other side dipped, and she looked over slowly. Molly was grasping her hand tightly, Narcissa just behind her, hand on her shoulder as they both looked worriedly down at her.
Memories flashed.
Her hand flew to her naked wrist, "Draco is going to be so upset."
Narcissa smiled softly, the worry still clear in her eyes, "I'll say he is, yes. According to Severus, he's not doing well."
"I didn't mean to. It just broke."
"What?" she frowned.
"My bracelet, it broke. Harry had a grip on me, but my bracelet broke, and I fell. Did they recover it?"
"I-I don't know."
Hermione started to cry hysterically, "Please send someone to check. I need it.."
Molly put her hands on her face, alarmed by Hermione's outburst, "Okay, okay, I'll talk to Arthur. Don't fret; it's just a bracelet, Draco wouldn't be mad over it."
"He wouldn't," Narcissa agreed, "Worried about you, absolutely. His bracelet, no. He would likely buy you a dozen more bracelets if you recover completely."
"Please," she choked, "I need it. It's all I have left."
Molly stood, "Okay, I'll go now and floo Arthur. Don't worry, Mione, we'll find it."
When Hermione had trouble trying to breathe, Narcissa encouraged Molly to go with a reassuring nod and took her place beside Hermione, hand clasping Hermione's tightly.
"Breathe, Hermione, breath. That's it. In, out. In, hold it. Okay out. Feel better?"
Hermione took another, "Yes. Thank you." Sighing, she closed her eyes, "What happened? My back, it's killing me."
"You had a fall. Although Mister Potter has expressed worry that you were targeted. Lucius wishes he were here, by the way, but he's limited to home and Hogwarts."
"I know," Hermione whispered.
"He's worried sick. Like Draco. I left him pacing in front of the floo." Pausing, she gave Hermione a sympathetic look, "You gave us all quite a scare. The healers fixed your spine, which broke on impact with a banister, and you fractured your ankle on the rest of the journey, but like with your back, they healed it. You will have some residual pain because of the stress on your muscles, but it should go away in a few days. You are on a potions regiment, Severus will fill it, I trust him more than the brewers here."
"My parents?" She asked hopefully.
Narcissa smiled down at her kindly, "I wrote Jean, they know what happened and have been trying to arrange aeroplanes but are having trouble?"
Hermione let out a pained laugh, "They shouldn't have to worry. I'll write them, tell them to stay put."
"Lucious is trying to arrange a portkey for them."
That made her smile.
"Is there anything else the healers need to do?"
"No, you're done. They just want to keep you overnight for observation."
Hermione cushioned her head on the pillow, "I want to go home."
Narcissa gave her a soft smile, "I know, but not yet, dear."
"Please, I want my own bed."
"You're not ready."
"I'm healed."
Suddenly Narcissa smirked, "If you can stand and walk three paces, I'll take you to the Manor."
"Hogwarts."
"Fine," she laughed, loving the stubbornness of the young witch before her.
Stubbornly Hermione moved to sit up when Narcissa stood and though Narcissa didn't offer her any assistance, she watched, ready to help if the need arose. Hermione braced herself on the chair beside the bed and using it took three steps.
Triumphantly she looked at Narcissa who was shaking her head.
"You didn't say I couldn't use assistance."
"You are the epitome of Slytherin at times, my dear."
Still shaking her head, she gathered Hermione's items from around the room while Hermione found her wand and conjured a cane. The pair ignored healers who attempted to stop them and eventually made it through the floo and into the Manor where Lucius froze seeing Hermione in her hospital gown.
"Merlin," he gapped, "Should you be out of the hospital?"
"No she shouldn't," Narcissa tisked, "But she is insistent on going to her rooms."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "I detest hospitals. Darcey," the small elf popped into the room and smothered a cry in her tiny hands, "Please get me clothes that aren't these. Something simple and easy to take off please."
Darcey snapped her fingers and suddenly Hermione was wearing Draco's quidditch jersey fuzzy red socks with embroidered gold lions on them. Lucius gave an undignified snort but otherwise said nothing. Narcissa even cracked a smile despite her mounting worry over Hermione's slumping form. Hermione, however, laughed.
"Draco is going to hate the socks.".
Finally Narcissa allowed herself to chuckle, "Yes he will. He'll probably change their color."
"Probably," she staggered. "And slippers please, Darcey." Another snap and her feet were covered. "Thank you, Darcey. Would you take me to my rooms, please?"
"Darcey can, Mistress, but yours rooms be filled with peoples all waiting to hear from you."
Hermione sighed and moved to lean on a chair but Lucius was there with a polite arm around her hip to keep her up. Her spine hurt. It ached, like when she had received a cut and the entire area surrounding it was just a dull numb ache. Walking the short distance to the floos had hurt more than she cared to admit, but she'd be damned if she was going to stay in Mungo's a second longer than necessary.
Lucius was obviously as against the idea as Narcissa was.
"You should have stayed in the hospital."
"That is what I said," Narcissa quipped.
Hermione hung her head for a moment before raising it again, "Do you mind if Darcey takes me to Hogwarts? I don't want to walk anymore and apparating will most likely feel worse but with her it will at least be smoother."
Narcissa approached and touched Hermione's cheek, "Of course not. You need to rest. If you don't mind, I'll come with you and help you settle in, then go update Molly and Severus, who will no doubt have potions ready for you."
"Please," she breathed. Her chest was starting to tighten with the muscles in her back. "Darcey, where is everyone?"
"Yous and Master Draco's dorm, Mistress. Potions Master Snapes made them stay there for updates."
Narcissa came up to her, offering her arm while giving her husband a sad smile when he helped Hermione move from his grip to hers. When she was comfortable, Hermione nodded.
"Take us to the eight-year girl dorms in Slytherin, please. My other bed should still be in there."
"Yes, Mistress. Darcey makes this as soft as possible."
"Thank you, Darcey," Narcissa answered for her when Hermione seemed to be struggling to respond.
Hermione tried to smile at Lucius, noticing his worried look, but winced as the pull of apparition squeezed her already sore body. Inside the girls dorm, Narcissa put an arm around Hermione's middle when she folded over in pain. Despite her own crying Darcey snapped her fingers and removed the slippers from Hermione's feet leaving the lion-embroidered socks in place.
Hermione struggled to straighten up. "I really need a potion," breathing slowly in through her nose and out her mouth, she crawled into the nearest bed, hoping it was hers. "Gods," she groaned as Narcissa watched over her, making sure to she didn't fall back.
"You don't want under the covers dear?"
"No," she shook her head weakly, "No, I'm okay..."
Putting her hand on her forehead to check for a fever Narcissa nodded, "I'll get Severus. Sleep baby girl."
Hermione barely heard her but her heart lurched just the same. "Yes mum."
Nodding again to Darcey, who was seated on the end of Hermione's bed, she whispered with glistening eyes, "Stay with her please. I'll be right back."
Hermione's eyes were closed for what felt like moments before someone was coaxing her to open her eyes again.
Struggling, she blinked, "Professor."
"Miss Granger, you ought to be in Mungo's."
She smirked, "From what I hear from Headmaster Dumbledore's portrait, you never liked staying at Mungo's either."
She heard Narcissa chuckle somewhere behind the imposing man before her.
"Don't make me take points from my own house for sass. How are you feeling?"
She groaned, "Everything is tight."
He put a potion up to her lips. Without questioning it, she swallowed it and the next that came after it.
"A muscle relaxer and a pain reliever, they should help. The muscle relaxer you will have to take three times a day, one with every meal, until your muscles stop tightening from the trauma they endured. The pain reliever we will stop in a day or two to avoid addiction because they are narcotics."
"'es Sir."
Seeing the potions having the desired effect, Severus stood and looked at Narcissa in time to see her wipe her eyes, "She'll be alright, Cissa."
Sniffling, she looked at the girl curled up on the bed, her son's name across the back, "Have you figured out who did this?"
"No. We canceled classes for the rest of the week while we investigate it."
"And her bracelet, did Molly- did she bring it up?"
"Lupin, Weasley, and a few of our other teachers are looking for it. So far, only half has been recovered." When Narcissa closed her eyes and nodded, he ran a tired hand over his face, "Draco gave it to her with her rings, correct?"
"Over Christmas."
"Did you know he linked their rings?" Narcissa was suddenly looking at him again, a tear slowly running down her cheek. Clearly, she didn't. "He felt it and hasn't slept the past two days."
She shook her head, "Why would he do that? That's not something..."
"Cissa, do you really need to ask me that?"
"No..." she whispered, "No, you don't. Salazar, this is, this is serious, Severus. Draco has never...he's scared to love her back."
"He shouldn't be." Their eyes met in silent understanding. "I'm going to update her friends. They've camped out in their dorm ever since the incident. Would you like me to escort you to the Headmistress's office first?"
"No," she shook her head, "Darcey can take me home. Lucius will want an update too." The small elf got off the bed and approached her with a raised hand. "Take care of my kids, Severus."
"I'm offended," he got out right before she disappeared. Just in time to see her smile. Casting a diagnostic charm to ensure she was still stable he left the room, gently closing the door behind him and making his way to the door leading directly into the Heads Dorms. Nine heads turned to him in unison. All the boys stood from various points in the room, along with Ginny Weasley.
Raising his hand seeing Draco, Theodore, and Harry all open their mouths, he gave them all a look that told them not to try it.
"Miss Granger woke up in Mungo's this morning. She will make a full recovery although she will need potions for the lasting effects."
"When will she be back?" Harry asked.
"She is back-" Snape saw Draco look at the door behind him, his nostrils flaring before he took a step forward, "No," he pointed at his godson, "she is asleep, heavily medicated and she chose to go to the Slytherin dorms rather than here knowing you were all waiting for her. She wants peace."
"We're here because you told us to be," Draco brazenly bit back.
"Yes and you will stay here, away from the dorms until she is ready to have visitors. She left Mungo's without being properly discharged and didn't want to stay in the Manor, she wanted to be here but she didn't want to be bombarded. For once Darco take note and listen to her wants."
Draco scoffed and moved to kitchenette to fix himself cold tea, listening to his godfather continue to warn everyone away from her.
"You should consider returning to your own dorms in the meantime," Snape continued, "Shower, eat, you all smell." He looked at his Slytherins, "I can add extra beds to the seventh year girls dorm unless you can ensure you will no disturb Miss Granger."
"We won't disturb her, Sir," Pansy promised.
"She's in your bed Pansy, I don't think she could make it to her own from where she apparated in." Rolling his eyes he answered the unasked question, "Her elf brought her back. Now unless you all have more concerns or questions, we're still trying to investigate the circumstances of her fall."
"Fall," Draco spat, "Is that what we're still calling it?"
Ignoring his godson, Severus looked at the others in the room and, when they made no move to ask any other questions, he left through the main portrait hole.
Draco counted to thirty before abandoning his tea and moving towards the door to the Slytherin common room. Theo and Blaise played interference when Neville and Harry stood to stop him but he didn't hear them. He heard them arguing but their words never actually registered. He didn't care how stoic Astoria looked or the look Pansy gave him when he walked past them. At this point he didn't care about anything but Hermione. He might regret his actions later but right now, he didn't care one iota.
Hermione was in fact on Pansy's bed and Draco felt his heart sink at the sight of her. Somehow she was in his jersey, probably Darcey's doing, and her socks were a hideous crimson color. Instinctively he moved to change them but couldn't bring himself to do so. Seeing her now, curled into the tiniest ball imaginable, it cemented in him how much he had fucked up. Utterly fucked, like Blaise liked to constantly remind him. Hermione wasn't his and, no matter what he did to try to change it, he was hers. Completely and irrevocable hers.
Walking over to the side of the bed he gently picked her up, cringing at the whimper that left her when he did. But when she settle against his neck and took a deep breath she relaxed.
"Dragon, you're here."
Her words slurred together but it didn't stop his heart from racing when she said his name, the one she hadn't uttered since Christmas Eve.
"I'm here Princess. Always for you."
"I thought I was going to die..."
"Me too," he choked into her hair.
"All without you knowing.."
She suddenly had his fully attention. Pulling out of her hair he readjusted her so he could better she her face, "Without knowing what Princess?"
His neck felt wet, that was the only way he knew she was crying, "That I love you."
"You don't..." he shook his head as he continued walking.
"I do," she whispered, "I love you and you don't love me. I know you don't but you needed to know I do.."
"Shh.." he shushed as they walked through the crowded dorm room towards her room. He ignored all the looks, didn't pause when Harry tried to check on her, and walked right to her room, kicking the door open with just a little too much force. But he was mad. She'd proclaimed her love and it couldn't mean anything. He refused to keep her from her intended. Laying her down on the bed, he tucked a stray curl behind her ear, "Sleep Granger."
"Please don't leave me Draco," she whimpered reaching for him.
"Granger-"
"Don't call me that. Like nothing's changed," she repeated his words from months ago back to him, "My Dragon please..."
She broke him. It took everything in him to say what he did next.
"No Granger. You're not mine. I am not yours."
"Please..."
He held firm, "No."
A tear slid down her cheek and she turned away from him, "Okay..."
He was an arsehole.
The worst kind of scum.
The lowest of the low.
Blastended Sqwert dung.
And he walked away from her. He could hear her hiccup and her soft cries but he made himself leave her no matter how much it tore at him. Looking up at everyone in the room he cleared his throat, "Pansy, Weasley, she needs you."
The two witches breezed past him, closing the door behind them so he could no longer hear Hermione's cries.
Hours later, after nearly every one had gone to their own rooms Draco was found himself lurking in Hermione's doorway. He knew the gravity of what he'd done to her and while part of him hoped she wouldn't remember he hoped she would. He couldn't do that again. Pansy and Ginny were cocooned around her like a shield fast asleep, though when he'd first opened the door Pansy had looked at him with such anger he would have been shocked had he not still been numb.
"You love her," spooked Draco actually spun around, eyebrows near his hairline. But Astoria looked into the room beside him, her head tilted as she looked at Hermione sleeping in the bed across the room, "So why have you agreed to consider the contract?"
Momentarily taken aback Draco collected himself and looked back at Hermione as she unconsciously reached for the extra pillow that Darcey had long ago added as his, stealing it from Ginny. When he opened his mouth Astoria started again.
"Please don't lie either. If this past week has shown me anything it's how blind I was to it before. I don't know how I didn't see it."
Swallowing his pride he growled under his breath, "Because I can't. I do and I have no right to." He saw Astoria look at him and he huffed, "She has a bond."
"Ah," she sounded like she understood. After a few minutes of quiet she spoke again, "Drake, I can't be second. If you love her and you don't think you could eventually love me even half as much as you love her right now, I am going to withdraw my end of the contract."
"I can."
He didn't sound sure though. "I might believe you if you hadn't linked your rings."
"That was before the contract."
"You never cancelled it," she countered smoothly. "I don't blame you Drake. Don't think that's what this is. I just don't want to trap you in a contract because you think you have to fulfill it. Not when you clearly love her."
"I care for you, I can love you," he told her, his voice a near plea. "I just need time. You're helping more than you know. The ring, I can took the enchantment off as soon as she was back. Just don't withdraw yet."
Astoria took a deep breath, "I won't but Draco...I can sense conflict in you," he looked at her and she gave him a small smile, "I have for a long time but now I understand. You need to sort through your conflict before truly considering the contract. Our fathers wish it to be signed at graduation, that's near four months away. Take that time and think about what you really want. If you sign make sure you do it with a sincere heart. If you withdraw I will understand as well."
He felt when she left, a chill creeping up on him signaling the absence of her presence at his side. Glancing back into the room he looked at Hermione, tucked between her best friends and scolded himself. Gently closing the door he resigned himself to his room.
He'd made his bed. He would endure it.
Walking with a cane was unbearable. Not really. It was the way her friends catered to her. Even Ron was treating her differently, which on its own was refreshing. But having one of them meet her every morning to help her to breakfast was beginning to drive her mad. Finding out they had created a schedule for every class and meal was what ultimately pushed her to setting the cane on fire in an obscure broom closet. When Neville came running up to her apologizing for being late, he gapped at the flames before dousing them only to find Hermione already limping to their next class.
"Mione!"
"Come on Nev," she threw over her shoulder, "We're going to be late."
When he reached her side, he gave her a look that told her he did not approve before offering her his arm. She was leaning into it more than she would have liked by the time they reached the potions room. Professor Snape took one look at her and scowled.
"Miss Granger, my desk."
Giving Neville an encouraging smile she patted his arm and moved to the front of the room carefully as to not strain her back. Theo stopped her halfway there by taking her bag off her shoulder and setting it at the table beside Pansy.
"Thank you," she smiled tightly.
He merely nodded and gave her a gentle push to Snape who was waiting at the front of the room. When she reached his desk he scowled down at her.
"Your cane is where?"
"No longer working sir."
He looked behind her, presumably at Neville.
"It caught fire."
"Caught fire?" She nodded. "Randomly?"
"No sir, quite purposefully."
His eye twitched. "I see. Take your seat."
Carefully turning around, Hermione retreated to her seat beside Pansy, who scowled at her when she noticed her limp.
"Fire, really?"
Hermione shrugged, "You would have too."