Tuesday, 8 December, 1998
"How is she?"
"From what we've seen, not good."
Hermione sat down next to Jennifer and Pauline and glanced at the stairs that led up to the dormitories. "What happened?" she asked softly.
Jennifer sighed. "Madam Medens was determined to dedicate a full session to Fred. Ginny told her she wasn't ready, but the counsellor was persistent. Which I understand, of course, because confrontation is part of the healing, but… well… we all know Ginny."
"Have you seen her since?" Hermione asked, feeling a little worried for her younger friend.
"No, she went straight up to the dorms and blocked the door. Not that we tried to get in, though. We've all learned from last time," Pauline answered softly. The three girls glanced over at Thelma, who was sitting curled up in an armchair close to the lit fireplace, reading a book about winged horse racing, completely oblivious to their conversation.
"You know, I haven't seen Jada all evening," Jennifer commented with a thoughtful frown on her brows.
"She's on detention patrol," Hermione answered immediately.
"Ooh, who's in detention tonight?" Pauline asked curiously.
"My younger brother," Jimmy answered loudly from the couch. He sat cross-legged facing the coffee table, playing the Famous Witches and Wizard Card match game. "Apparently he has been fighting with some Slytherin guy."
That was true. Sean Peakes, Jimmy's brother, a fourth-year Hufflepuff, had caught one of his classmates with an Auto-Answer Quill during a Charms test. He was a very honest guy, and he had told Professor Flitwick about it. The Sytherin guy in question had been waiting for Sean outside of the classroom, and they had been fighting when Malfoy had entered the corridor and pulled them apart, punishing both, much to Hermione's surprise.
She stood up. "I'm going to check up on Ginny."
"We'll send a rescue party if you don't get back in an hour," Pauline chuckled.
Hermione smiled and crossed the common room, climbing the stairs to the girls' dormitories. When she passed the seventh-year girls' dorm, she halted. A faint crying noise had captured her attention. More out of Head Girl duty than out of concern for one of her former dorm mates, she slowly opened the door and entered her former dormitory.
Lavender was laying on her bed, her face buried in her pillow and her shoulders shaking. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Hermione closed the door and approached her.
"Lavender?" she asked softly. "What's going on?"
The blonde girl hiccupped and slowly pushed herself up, staring at Hermione with bloodshot eyes and wet cheeks.
"Hermione," she uttered. "What are you doing here?"
"I was on my way to Ginny's dormitory. I heard someone cry and I wanted to see if I could help," she answered cautiously.
Lavender sat up, quickly wiped her tears from her cheeks and sniffed loudly. "I… It's silly, don't bother," she said weakly. "It's nothing."
Hermione hesitated briefly, but then sat down on the bed next to her classmate. "If you're so upset about something it's clearly not nothing," she reasoned. "I know I'm not Parvati, but you can talk to me, you know."
"I just… I can't seem to get over what happened back in May," Lavender sniffed after a moment of silence, in which she seemed to consider Hermione's offer. "I have nightmares every night of what would have happened if you… if you hadn't…" She burst out crying again and hid her face in her hands.
"Hey," Hermione soothed softly, moving forward a little to be able to pat her classmate's back. "That's normal, Lavender. We all have nightmares. It would be strange if it had left you unaffected. We all nearly died, of course that's going to stay with you for a while."
The blonde girl sniffed again and pushed a messy strand of blonde curls aside. "I just don't understand," she squeaked uncertainly. "You saved me, but you hate me."
"Hey now," she breathed in shock. "I don't hate you, Lavender, and I never have. We don't click like you and Parvati do, we just… have such different interests… And I will admit that I was jealous because of you and Ron for a while… But I don't hate you, and I never have," she answered sincerely.
Two watery brown eyes stared at her. "Really?"
"Really," Hermione assured her, and Lavender smiled a little.
"I wish you would have told me about Ron," she said. "Not that it matters now, you're together now, aren't you?"
Despite the suddenly heavy feeling in her stomach, Hermione smiled. "Yes, I guess we are."
The door opened and Fay and Sophie entered the dorm quite loudly, Fay clearly being excited about something. They halted abruptly when they noticed Lavender and Hermione sitting on one of the beds.
"Oh," Fay said bluntly. "Are we interrupting?"
"No, no, not at all," Lavender said quickly, jumping up from the bed and wiping her tears from her cheeks. "So what happened?" she asked Fay curiously, clearly wanting to change subjects.
The tall brunette grinned excitedly. "Oh, it's grand. That Pansy Parkinson is in the hospital wing again. Apparently someone tampered with one of her letters from this afternoon's mail; she has pulsing yellow boils all over her arms and hands, it's so nasty."
"It's not funny, Fay," Sophie frowned. "If such a thing happened to you, you wouldn't appreciate people laughing, either."
"Of course not," Fay shrugged. "But then again, you didn't hear me yell ridiculous proposals through the Great Hall that involved handing one of our classmates over to You-Know-Who."
"And not just any classmate," Lavender added in her dramatic trademark gossip-voice, who seemed to have recovered remarkably fast. "Harry Potter of all people! I'm sorry, but she totally deserves being hated for the rest of her life. It's time for her to realise that she won't be getting away with her nasty behaviour anymore."
"We were just leaving the Great Hall when they brought her into the hospital wing. You should have seen her, crying desperately—"
Hermione slipped out of the dormitory unnoticed, unable to endure the girls' behaviour for even one more minute. She did not care for Pansy Parkinson in the slightest, but she really didn't appreciate the hypocritical behaviour of her former dorm mates.
Walking down the corridor a bit further, she halted in front of the sixth-year girls dorm and sighed. She didn't quite know what to expect. Ginny was rather unpredictable and her mood could vary from apathetic to aggressive. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.
"Ginny? Are you in here? It's Hermione."
It remained silent for a couple of seconds. "Come in," the redhead's voice sounded from the other side of the door.
When she entered the dorm, Ginny was lying on her back on her four-poster bed, staring at the ceiling. Arnold the Pygmy Puff was sitting on her stomach and she was petting him with one finger. Hermione walked up to her and sat down on her friend's bed.
"Hey," she said. "How are you?"
Ginny sighed kept staring upwards. "I'm alright. Just had a rather intense counsel session."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione asked softly.
"No," her younger friend answered immediately. "I've talked about it for long enough already."
"Okay," she sighed, and the dormitory went silent, apart from Arnold's humming. Hermione thought of Lavender and sighed once more. "On my way here I stopped at my old dorm. Lavender was crying."
Ginny sat up against her pillow and put the sleeping Arnold next to her on the blankets. "She's been doing that a lot. I was really concerned the first few times, but I can't help but be annoyed by it now. It just doesn't seem very genuine, her mood flips so quickly. I think even Parvati is getting tired of it."
"Where is Parvati? She wasn't upstairs, and I didn't see her down in the common room" asked Hermione with a frown.
"I don't know, but probably wherever Dean and Seamus are. I've also seen her spend time with Romilda lately."
When Hermione wrinkled her nose at the mention of the fifth-year Gryffindor, Ginny laughed. "She's not so bad anymore. The War seems to have matured her quite a bit, she's been dating Kenny Markham for a while now."
"No more questions about Harry's chest tattoo?" Hermione smiled.
"None!" Ginny laughed again.
"Are you joining me downstairs? The girls are worried about you, they're fearing a Bat Bogey attack."
The redhead sighed. "Yeah, I suppose I will. I should really stop this new-found habit of locking myself up in the dormitory, it doesn't really help me in any way."
"Don't be hard on yourself," Hermione said gently, standing up from the bed. "I can imagine wanting some peace and quiet after a tough afternoon like this. Just… don't become notorious for casting hexes on everyone when you feel like they're bothering you. Even though I understand, I can't keep defending you for it. And I've got enough on my plate as it is."
"What do you mean?" Ginny asked curiously she followed her through the corridor and in the direction of the stairs to the common room.
"Just that Parkinson has been attacked again," Hermione sighed. "Fay just told me. I'm getting really tired of this, someone is really testing me," she continued irritably. "Malfoy is constantly on edge because of it, and it's really ruining my position as Head Girl. I swear, if I get my hands on this person, I will make sure they will serve detention until they're old and wrinkly."
When they reached the top of the stairs, Hermione turned around, frowning because of the uncharacteristic lack of vocal response from Ginny. She had expected her younger friend to go on about how Parkinson deserved whatever she was getting, like her classmates had, but instead, the youngest Weasley's face had become bright red and she was refusing to meet Hermione's eyes.
"Ginny, what—" she started with confusion, but then abruptly cut herself off. Suddenly remembering a certain Potions class from a while ago, Hermione slowly folded her arms and studied Ginny's face. The girl's guilt was almost literally written all over her forehead.
"You!" she snapped in shock. "Merlin's overgrown moustache, it was you who gave Parkinson that Blood Blisterpod! I can't believe I didn't realise this before! Who else would be able to get some product from the Weasley line long after it's been taken out of business!"
Ginny was finally looking her in the eye, and she stubbornly set her jaw, trying to mask the insecurity in her eyes. "I can't believe you're so surprised," she commented with clear reluctance. "She tried to hand my boyfriend over to You-Know-Who! Your best friend!"
"I know what she tried to do, Ginny! I was there!" Hermione snapped.
"Then stop acting like you don't understand why I did what I did!"
Hermione blinked her eyes. "I'm not pretending, I actually don't understand why you, of all people, would have your revenge in a sneaky way like this! If you had confronted her face-to-face I would have understood, but this?" She shook her head. "It makes absolutely no sense to me. And really, hexing her down the stairs? Tampering with her mail?"
"Hey now," the sixth-year snapped in obvious annoyance. "I only spiked her drink with the Blisterpod! And it wasn't even my idea to begin with, I just thought it'd be funny to—"
"I'm very sorry, Ginny, but I'm afraid I fail to understand your idea of fun," Hermione interrupted her crossly. "You know I'm going to have to report this! Tell me who else was in on this."
The redhead stared at her as though she had just slapped her across the face. "What?" she hissed hoarsely. "Are you serious? Are you seriously picking Parkinson's side here?"
"You know very well that this is not about picking sides, Ginny," she replied indignantly. "I really don't care about Pansy Parkinson. This is about doing what is right, which is my responsibility as the Head Girl!"
"I am your friend!" Ginny snapped angrily.
"My friendships have never stopped me from doing the right thing!" Hermione said softly but sternly, annoyed that her friend tried to get out of the situation by playing the friendship card. "I'm sorry, Ginny, but this has got to stop. I'd say Parkinson has been punished enough by now.
The youngest Weasley shot her a glare. "Fine, but I refuse to be a snitch."
Hermione sighed, took her friend's arm and guided her down the stairs, through the common room and to Professor McGonagall's office, trying very hard to ignore the confused stares from their fellow Gryffindors.
X
"The person in question has given in at last and agreed to tell us who else was involved," said Professor McGonagall as she leaned back in her chair and looked at them over the frame of her glasses. "They have all been summoned and will be serving detention until the Christmas holidays."
"So who were they?" Malfoy growled from the seat next to Hermione. He was clearly struggling to mask the fact that he was feeling upset that Parkinson had once again been victim of an attack, but he made no effort whatsoever to hide his anger.
The Headmistress gave him a frown. "I have already taken care of this, Mr Malfoy, there is no need to trouble yourself by taking matters in your own hands.
Hermione let out some air she'd been holding and relaxed a little, feeling grateful that Professor McGonagall had left out Ginny's name. Even though she was a bit angry with the girl for being so foolish, she didn't want Malfoy taking out his anger on her.
"Well then," the older witch said, pulling her from her thoughts. "If neither of you has anything to add to the matter, I would like to bid you both good night."
Muttering something in return, Malfoy instantly rose from the chair and exited the office. Hermione politely wished the Professor a good night and followed the Head Boy out the office and down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she slowed down, noticing that Malfoy was waiting for her.
"Who told you?" he hissed as soon as the entrance to the Headmistress' tower had been sealed off by the large gargoyle.
"It's none of your business, Malfoy," Hermione replied with a frown. "Professor McGonagall just told you that she will take care of it, so please drop it."
"Look, I know it was a Gryffindor," he said irritably. "You're obviously protecting someone, and so is the old bat. Why nark someone if you're going to protect them later?"
"What I did was within my responsibilities as the Head Girl. What I'm doing now is my duty as a friend and Housemate," she said coolly as she started walking through the corridor, making her way up to the Head's tower. Malfoy started following her, clearly disagreeing with her.
"Why would you do it in the first place?" he sneered. "You hate Pansy."
Hermione shot him a glare over her shoulder. "Like I said, Malfoy. I did what is expected from me: the right thing. You might want to try it sometime."
"Oh, shut it, Granger," he snapped. "Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean that having revenge for Pansy is not the right thing."
She whirled around, causing Malfoy to stop dead in his tracks. "By that logic you just admitted to completely understand every single person that is now in detention for messing with her," she said with a raised eyebrow. "Every single one of them was angry with Parkinson for trying to hand Harry over to Voldemort. Every single one of them was having their revenge. You may not agree with their motives, Malfoy, but that doesn't mean that what they did wasn't the right thing," she added sourly.
The cross look on his face told her she got him cornered. "Let it go, Malfoy," she continued quietly. "They're being punished accordingly. Be a responsible Head Boy and leave it at this. Stop letting your personal beliefs cloud your better judgement."
"Stop lecturing me," Malfoy growled. "And stop telling me to do the right thing. I've done the right thing, which was trying to stop the Dark Lord from murdering my family. It hasn't really won me any favours, has it?"
He brushed past her, snarled the password and entered their common room before the portrait had even properly slid open. Hermione sighed and followed him inside, shaking her head in frustration.
"Malfoy," she called after him, halting near the study section, leaving some space between them. "Why can't you just give it a rest? She's okay, isn't she?"
The blond Slytherin halted in front of the stairs leading up to his dormitory and slowly turned around to face her. "You're the Head Girl, aren't you?" he spat. "Isn't it your duty to be informed about these matters? She's been bullied all year, do you really believe she's okay?!"
Hermione frowned a little in surprise of his comment. "Who would have thought that you would ever acknowledge what bullying can do to a person?" she muttered.
A flash of pure anger in Malfoy's eyes told her that she had said the absolute wrong thing.
"Stop it!" he yelled furiously. "Stop making this about me!" Hermione gasped when she saw that he had whipped out his wand, but before she could even reach for her own there was a bright flash. A sharp pain shot through the back of her head and her world turned black.
~ X ~
Wednesday, 9 December, 1998
The back of her head hurt terribly, but somehow Hermione decided that she was comfortable. Her head seemed to rest on a pile of feathers, and somehow the pain didn't seem quite so severe. She moved a little but moaned when her head told her – rather urgently – that she shouldn't. Maybe the pain was more severe than she'd thought, anyway. Experimentally, she opened an eye, but she didn't see anything. Hermione gasped and couldn't help but panic a little. Surely the pain wasn't so severe that she had lost her eyesight?
"For the love of Salazar… Shut up, Mudblood, it's not like you're dying," an annoyed and unpleasant female voice groaned from somewhere on her left.
"Where am I?" Hermione squeaked in return.
"The bloody hospital wing, where else?"
The hospital wing. Now that she knew she could place the weird smell of decontamination surrounding her. Her eyes were slowly getting used to the dark, and she recognised her surroundings. Slowly shifting her head, she looked beside her and could make out Pansy Parkinson's silhouette in the bed next to her.
"Why am I here? Where is Madam Pomfrey?"
Parkinson sighed in annoyance. "It's three in the morning, you witless wench. She's asleep, something I'd like to be doing as well. You broke your skull, it's no big deal. Now, shut up."
"No big deal?!" Hermione hissed in return. "How did I break my skull?!"
"Draco mentioned that someone found you unconscious in the library. It looked like you had tried to reach a book on the top shelve. You probably fell and hit a table," the Slytherin girl sighed again. "It probably didn't look pretty because somehow he was quite shaken."
Hermione closed her eyes and thought hard and deep. Somehow, the story sounded off. Had she been to the library earlier? She couldn't remember doing so, she was pretty certain that she had finished all her homework on Monday evening. And hadn't she been with Ginny last night? She opened her eyes with a start. Suddenly she remembered her younger friend's juvenile crime and her row with Malfoy in the Head's Tower. Had he actually hexed her into the hospital wing?!
"That vile bastard," she breathed in shock.
"Shut up, Mudblood!" Parkinson groaned again, sounding awfully irritable. "Some of us actually do look better after a proper amount of sleep."
Hermione's head had started pounding again, and she decided that she was too tired to respond to Parkinson's petty insult. Slowly rolling over, she closed her eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.
~ X~
"Just tell me whether or not she is going to be okay!"
"Mr Malfoy, you may be the Head Boy and I understand that you are concerned about the Head Girl, but—"
"I am not concerned! Do you even realise how much extra work I have to do with her lying on her lazy arse because of a tiny crack in her skull?!"
"That's enough, Mr Malfoy!" someone barked far too loud for Hermione's liking. "You will go back to attending your classes right this instant!"
Hermione peeked through her heavy eyelids, unsure whether or not she was able to handle light yet. When her head did not start to protest, she slowly opened her eyes and blinked in surprise when she saw Malfoy and Madam Pomfrey behind her bed, arguing.
"It's not like I enjoy being here, I just want to know when I can expect her to get back to bossing everyone around."
"Just when I thought you came to visit me," a snobby voice from Hermione's left said bitterly.
Malfoy turned his head and raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin girl. "I was here for you just this morning, so please don't start."
"I was asleep, it's not like I could have known that," she snapped in return.
"Can't you all please tune it down a bit?" Hermione moaned with effort. Her head had started to hurt again and she had white spots in her vision.
Madam Pomfrey shot an angry look in Malfoy's direction. "Now look at what you've done!" she said in an unpleasant tone. "I will give you a minute to talk to her while I clean Ms Parkinson's bandages, but afterwards you will leave. And don't make me repeat myself."
Malfoy sneered at the matron as she helped Parkinson out of bed and towards her office. He stared after her until she was out of view and then abruptly grabbed a stool, positioned it next to Hermione's bed and sat down.
"Do you remember anything?" he hissed at her, and Hermione was surprised to see that his hostile expression was gone and that there was a glimpse of anxiety in his eyes.
"Yes," she hissed back, suddenly feeling angry. "I remember everything."
"Granger, I am so sorry," he whispered, sounding scarily sincere. "I was upset about Pansy and I didn't even realise what I was doing until it was too late. Please believe me when I say that I didn't mean for it to happen."
"But it did," she replied crossly.
"Please don't report me, Granger," Malfoy whispered. He was staring at her with a pained expression on his face. "I'll be a good Head Boy from now on, I promise you. I will even Vow on it if that's what it takes to convince you, but please don't tell McGonagall that it was me."
Hermione glared at him, knowing that she wasn't very imposing with the bandages around her head. "As tempting as that sounds, I'm pretty sure it's illegal. And besides, give me one good reason why I shouldn't report you! You broke my skull!" she hissed as venomously as she could. It came out as a weak whisper, mirroring perfectly how she was feeling.
"If you tell her, she will expel me, and then I will never be able to make up for what I did last year," he breathed almost inaudibly.
"Alright, Mr Malfoy, your time is up," Madam Pomfrey interrupted brusquely as she guided Pansy Parkinson back to her bed. Malfoy quickly jumped up and smiled at the Slytherin girl, gently embracing her and kissing her forehead.
"Greengrass and Davis will stop by after dinner and help you with today's homework," he told her softly. "I will see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay," Parkinson murmured, smiling back at him. She gave him a light peck on his cheek before getting into her bed again. Malfoy turned around and shot Hermione a cold trademark look. She could see right through it, though; his eyes betrayed his panic.
"I will have someone cover for your shifts," he announced in a cold and reluctant tone. "I believe that Abbott and Macmillan have collected your homework, I'll send either one of them over to drop it off." Malfoy turned and raised an eyebrow at the old nurse. "Double her prescription of Skele-Gro if you must, I want her out of bed and back on the schedule by Friday."
"Get out, Mr Malfoy," she ordered him coolly in return.
He whirled around and left without another word.
Hermione stared after him, completely gobsmacked. If she wasn't mistaken – and she was certain that she wasn't seeing or hearing things because of her excruciating headache – Malfoy had just sincerely asked her to give him a second chance, and even that didn't properly describe it.
Draco Malfoy had begged her.
She had no idea what to do.