Chapter 3 - 1209
"Granger! Oh, for goodness sake wake up!"
Well, Hermione can't help but think that that is rather rude as she groggily blinks awake. That's odd, her pillow seems to be moving...
She immediately sits up and takes in her surroundings. They are still at St. Mungo's. She must have fallen asleep on Draco, and he was evidently having a tough time waking her from her slumber. She is just about to ask what time it is when he says, "Finally! I've been trying to wake you for almost five minutes! A nurse came in and said that we can go see Harry now, come on!"
That wakes Hermione up instantly. "Why didn't you say so?!" she yells, "Let's go!"
Draco huffs at that, but he doesn't say anything back, which makes Hermione that much more sure of how worried he was about Harry, which, to be honest, is kind of sweet. They walk the rest of the way to Harry's room in silence, with Hermione trailing just slightly behind Draco, who seems to know where he's going. They finally turn into the last room at the end of the hallway and Hermione isn't sure if she should be worried or relieved.
Ron, Pansy, and Ginny are all there already, surrounding Harry who lays on a hospital bed in the center of the room. He's alive, but he's not okay. He's hooked up to a device similar to a muggle heart monitor and he appears to have at least twenty broken bones. Harry looks up then and sees them, and he says - I kid you not -
"Hey guys. What's up?"
And then he smiles, his goofy, lopsided smile, and it is at that precise moment that Draco loses his shit.
"What's up? WHAT'S UP?!? You put yourself into a life-threatening situation, passed out, broke a million fucking bones and had to be rushed to St. Mungo's, where you've been for the last thirteen bloody hours, and you ask 'WHAT'S UP?!??!?'" He screamed so loud it's a wonder the whole hospital didn't hear him.
She sees Harry cringe, but he's still smiling a bit, so the effect is null. "Uhh...sorry?" he shrugs a bit, but flinches back at Draco's glare.
"I swear to fucking Merlin, Potter," Draco spits out, striding across the room to sit in a chair next to Harry's hospital bed, "If you almost die one more time, I'll kill you."
Harry pulls a confused face, "But wouldn't that kind of defeat the purpose, though?"
"You know what I mean!" Draco shouts, but the way he's looking at Harry all worried and gripping his arm like a life line kind of undermine his anger.
Harry smiles again, but quickly became more serious, "What else was supposed to do in that situation, though?" he asks, Draco tries to interject, but Harry isn't done yet, "Let you get hit with that curse? No. No way."
This whole thing is so characteristically Harry - always the hero, always putting others first - that Hermione thinks it's almost funny. Draco, apparently, does not see the humour of the situation.
"Harry-just-no. Don't you ever try to save me again, you hear? No, shut the fuck up," he says, holding up a hand as Harry tries to interrupt, "I don't want you to save me. It is not your job to always be such a fucking hero. The next time someone fires a curse at me, you know what you do? Do you know? You call for backup, and you get me to the fucking hospital, right away, you fucking bastard. But you do not, under any circumstances, jump in front of me. Ever. Again."
There is a long silence after that, probably because - behind all the bad language, the anger, the bossiness - that is possibly the nicest thing that they have ever heard Draco Malfoy say. Harry himself looks a bit shell-shocked, and seems to be having difficulty formulating his reply. He is saved the trouble by a nurse bustles into the room to perform some routine diagnostic spells and scribble the results hurriedly onto a clipboard. Draco tries to look over at her shoulder while she's writing, and ignores when she glares at him. When he starts asking questions she seems to have had enough, for she threatens to kick him out if he doesn't 'be patient and mind his own business.' He quickly shuts up.
As soon as the nurse leaves, Harry is bombarded by questions from Ron and Draco, while Pansy sneaks some of his 'get well' chocolate frogs. Ginny is still sitting quietly on the other side of the room, which Hermione thinks is odd, so she goes over to talk to her.
"You alright?" Ginny jumps at the statement, as if she had just been awoken from a dream. Perhaps she had been.
"Yeah-yeah. I'm alright." She tries to smile, but it's strained and they both know it.
Hermione pulls up a chair from the other, empty, bed and sits down. "No, really," she inquires, "Are you alright?"
Ginny sighs. "I'm fine, really. And I'm really bloody glad that Harry's going to be okay. It's just-" she stops abruptly before immediately continuing, "Can I ask you something?" She seems nervous, so Hermione tries to be as unthreatening as possible.
"Of course! You can ask me anything, Gin," she encourages.
Ginny takes a deep breath, pauses, and nods her head once as if she's just made up her mind on a very important decision. Perhaps she has. After another moment of silence, Ginny looks up and meets Hermione's eyes, and with a sudden determination she blurts out, "How do you know if you're in love?"
Now, of all things Ginny could have asked her, Hermione must admit that that was one she wasn't expecting.
"Well..." she begins, "I think-I think you know. When you're in love, I think you just-know, you know? Oh, um, maybe you don't - you are asking after all. Well, it's like this. All those things you hear about 'butterflies' and stuff...that's not it. Some people get that, but it's not a qualification to decide whether you're in love or not. If you're in love, though, you know. You can feel it - not in your heart, your heart is only good for pumping blood - but in your mind. There's no other way to describe it, you just know."
Hermione thinks that that's as good an explanation as any, really. Ginny is quiet again, and she's looking down at her hands - but not really looking, as if she's concentrating really hard on something inside of her mind. Hermione watches her carefully wondering what's gotten her all torn up about love all of a sudden. Could this be about Harry? Merlin knows they should've gotten back together ages ago, maybe now they'll finally...
"'Mione, uh, listen, I need to-" but before Ginny can finish her sentence a cranky-looking nurse comes over and tells them that they have to go and they can come back tomorrow.
As soon as they get back to the waiting room with the floo connection, Ginny throws a handful of green powder into the fireplace and disappears in a cloud of green flames. Hermione never does find out exactly what she was planning to say.