Second Time Around

The People we Trust

"We have forever
And we hold it in our hands
It slips through our fingers
Like little grains of sand"—Lose the Style, Frontliner

Draco sat back in the hospital bed and forced down a strange purple mixture that looked horrible and smelt worse.

"It's for any infections," Madam Pomfrey explained, "Hippogriff claws are terrible, you don't know where they've been putting them." And then she left to attend to something else across the hospital wing.

Draco had been given some skin-regrow earlier and some blood replenishing potion and now he only had to wait a day or two for everything to finish working. The skin-regrow wasn't like Skele-Gro. It took much longer and so he would have to wear his arm in a sling for a while. Draco wasn't too bothered, he was already thinking of ways to use it to his advantage.

All in all, his arm wasn't that big of a deal. Sure, it hurt like the devil, but after last year's basilisk encounter when his leg got broken, it wasn't too bad. He was angrier over Zabini's idiocy at almost killing Nott; those talons were right in line with his neck. And above all, he was worried about what Hermione would think.

Draco had heard what those Gryffindors were saying. They all thought it was him who set the Hippogriff off since he was the one dealing with it when it went mad. They all probably hated him for ruining the giant's first lesson, and Draco knew his father would be getting involved. But did Hermione believe them; did she think he'd goaded the Hippogriff on purpose too?

Just thinking about the incriminating looks from the rest of the Gryffindors on her face made Draco feel horrible. His chest hurt. He banged his head back lightly on the headboard and groaned. Great, it would take a miracle to fix things with her this time.

Suddenly, the curtains pulled back and Draco opened his eyes in surprise. "I thought visitors weren't allowed?" he said.

Nott smirked. "They aren't, but when has being not allowed ever stopped us?" he said.

Draco sighed. "Too true. What are you doing here? Come to see the arm?" he waved the sling about and twitched. It still hurt and the numbing potion was starting to wear off.

Nott lost his smile when he saw it and frowned. "Why did you do that?" he demanded. "The Hippogriff was coming for me. You didn't have to get in the way. Now everyone thinks it was you. You should have said it was Zabini who insulted it, you just got in the way."

Oh. That.

Draco sat back in the bed and shrugged. "Can't," Draco said. "Not that I wouldn't love to rat that little weasel out and get me off the hook, but Zabini's mother and my father do business with each other. He'll kill me if I get her son in trouble, upsetting the mother."

Nott nodded. "Ahh, I see. But that doesn't explain why you took a Hippogriff for me."

Draco frowned. "What's it to you, just be happy you're not the one in a sling."

Then Nott did this thing with his eyes, frowned or something. And Draco couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it felt so familiar. Like he'd been experiencing these frowns for years, and something about it made him feel like talking. "Alright, fine. Remember the Dementor on the train?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, you helped me out and I don't like being in anyone's debt. So consider my debt repaid." He turned over in his bed so he wasn't facing Nott anymore. Draco wasn't about to admit that he'd done it on instinct. How pathetic would that sound?

"That's it?" Nott's voice sounded surprised.

"That's it," Draco confirmed.

Nott was silent for a moment. "No," his voice sounded firm. "I wasn't really saving you then, I was just trying to get the Dementor away. Seeing it feeding on you kind of woke me up. That's what happened. I'm the one who owes you."