Six Days

The two of them sat at the table, not meeting each other’s eyes. After a small silence, Hermione spoke.

“So, why were you worried about Harry in the first place?” Hermione asked, unmistakable mischief behind her eyes. Draco knew that it was a mask, but played along nonetheless.

Draco shrugged, feeling his face redden. “I don’t know, six days is a long time…” Draco trailed off, knowing that it was useless. Hermione grinned at him.

“Mhm,” She did not seem convinced. “And it totally had nothing to do with any romantic feelings?” She tilted her head, appearing to be set on embarrassing Draco as much as possible.

Draco coughed, not answering. Hermione laughed.

“You two are honestly-” Hermione was cut off by a scream. It was drawn out and terrible. Draco and Hermione stared at each other, mortified. The two instantly realized who the scream belonged to; Harry.

The moment the first scream stopped, another one began. Hermione held a hand up to her mouth, tears filling her eyes.

Draco felt tears forming in his own eyes, but he forced them back. He quickly jumped up from his seat, pushing at the door. Hermione let out a choked sob from behind him as Harry let out a pained groan. He started to kick at the door, to no avail.

Frantically, Draco’s shaking wand performed countless spells to unlock the door, but none were working. Tears were beginning to steadily fall from Draco’s eyes.

Draco tried the door again and again, but it would not budge. He wiped under his wet eyes, taking deep breaths.

Another scream was the only noise to be heard, it echoed around the small room. It was horrible. There was nothing they could do and Draco hated it.

Harry screamed again, but it was sharply cut off. Draco’s gasped and his eyes shot to Hermione. She shoved Draco out of the way, murmuring a spell completely unknown to the other. Of course, it worked.

Draco was the one to push the door open. He didn’t want to look, but had to.

The two shared a simultaneous gasp. Harry’s injuries had multiplied. Also, by the looks of it, seemed much worse. A flow of tears were falling from Harry’s closed eyes.

“What happened?” Draco’s voice shook.

All three of the healers’ heads shot up to them. Each one looked horrified. Madame Pomfrey quickly spoke. For a moment, no one spoke.

“I’ll explain, but we must go outside first. Come on,” She urged, gently directing Draco’s body to the door.

“No! You can’t leave him. Not now,” Hermione gasped out through her tears. Madame Pomfrey looked at her sadly.

“We have to leave, just for a moment, they need to focus,” Madame Pomfrey rushed out. Hermione whispered out broken ‘no’s.

Draco shook his head, feeling terribly frantic. “We-we can’t. I can’t leave him alone, no. He needs us, we can’t, we can’t,” Draco tried pushing past Madame Pomfrey’s arms. He knew he probably appeared a bit pathetic, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

Draco watched as Harry’s eyes slowly opened. His face was completely twisted in pain, and he could hardly see the scene in front of him, noises around him slightly nulled by a ringing in his ears.

He made out Draco, who had noticed his gaze. He was babbling some nonsense that Harry couldn’t understand. Draco tried approaching Harry, but someone pulled him back.

Two healers on either side of Harry’s body were holding his arms down so hard that it was hurting.

“Harry! Harry-” Draco yelled out, Harry gave him a desperate look. He wanted Draco to come closer, to make the pain stop, but he couldn’t get his vocal cords to work.

Draco stared back into Harry’s pain filled green eyes. Draco wanted to help. Draco pushed against Madame Pomfrey’s strong arms.

Madame Pomfrey said something that Draco didn’t hear, and Draco felt himself being magically moved out of the room.

Harry watched, even more tears flowing.

“No!” He cried. “Poppy, Poppy please.” Draco tried stopping his movement by bracing his arms on either side of the doorway, but the magic was too strong. He could feel his grip slipping. “No, no, please. No!” Draco sobbed out.

His hands were yanked away from the frame, and he flew backward. Draco scrambled to his feet, but the door had already shut. Draco pounded uselessly at the door for a few moments, then collapsed into a heap on the floor. Draco cried into his hands, Hermione was behind him, probably doing the same.

After a moment, Draco felt Hermione’s shaking hand on his shoulder, and he turned to face her. Hermione instantly engulfed him in a tight hug. They held onto each other tightly, each crying.

“The pain knocked him out for a moment,” Madame Pomfrey muttered. Draco looked up at her, separating from Hermione. He had hardly realized she was with them.

“I thought you said-” Draco was cut off.

“I know, that it would stop the pain. It appears that the other woman healer, Madame Redai, only lied to ensure your compliance. I had hoped she was being truthful, so I didn’t do anything to prove otherwise. I’m so sorry,” Madame Pomfrey explained.

Draco gave Madame Pomfrey a slight nod. “It’s alright,” Was all he said. Madame Pomfrey gave a shaky goodbye, and went back into the room. She closed the door behind her.

Hermione took an uneven intake of breath. “I feel horrible. And the last thing I did was yell at him. What if he doesn’t-” Draco shushed her.

“He knows you care, Hermione. He does,” Draco murmured. He was very afraid himself, but he couldn’t show it. After all, he was the one who told Harry to have hope... shouldn’t Draco have it?

Hermione shuddered out a sigh. “You really care about him, don’t you?” She said. Draco nodded, not meeting Hermione’s eyes. “He cares for you too.”

Draco’s heart practically stopped. He searched Hermione’s eyes for a lie. “Really?” He asked quietly.

Hermione snorted. “You’re quite oblivious, the two of you.”

“What do you mean?” Draco spoke. Hermione rolled her eyes, wiping them after.

“Well, the two of you are completely gone for each other. You are both so thick, you don’t even realize.” Draco’s eyes widened.

“Y-you mean… he-” Draco began, blushing a very deep red.

“Yes,” Hermione forced. “Honestly, I think he’s physically unable to refrain from talking about you, or stalking you, or watching your name on that bloody map.”

Draco stopped breathing, staring at Hermione with wide, shocked eyes. Hermione let out a half-hearted laugh.

Draco moved his stare to in front of him at nothing in particular, leaning back against the door. There was silence for a few moments.

“He stalked me?”