Beauty and the Beast [Draco Malfoy]

Chapter Thirteen

Lizzie's POV:

I had been lying in my hospital bed thinking about how good pineapple sounded at the moment when I heard Madam Pomfrey speak from the doorway of the hospital wing.

"She's right in here," she announced to whoever she was with. I heard a gasp and a few pairs of feet shuffling in a rush to my bed. I wondered who was here to see me. So far only Draco had been in (I don't count Pansy's visit). I knew that whoever this was, it wasn't Draco. The gasp had sounded too feminine for him.

"Oh my God," the source of the feminine gasp cried out. I immediately recognized the voice as my mother's and felt the imaginary tears prick at my eyes. If I had been able to do anything at all, I would have been crying. My mum sounded so broken in just those three words.

"What have you gotten yourself into this time, Liz?" a second voice muttered. This one belonged to my brother. I felt a hand touch mine.

"What did you say happened to her again?" my mum questioned through the tears that I could hear in her voice.

"Someone had placed Bloodroot Potion in her sherry tart," Pomfrey spoke quietly.

"Sherry tart," my mum sobbed. "It was always her favorite." Her sobs suddenly became muffled so I assumed she had buried her head in my brother's shoulder.

"Bloodroot?" my brother asked softly.

"Bloodroot is a poisonous plant that induces coma in small doses. Luckily, Lizzie here only consumed a small amount." I think back to what happened the night I was poisoned and the staring contest with Draco. I make a note to thank him for that when I wake up as he had inadvertently saved my life.

"What would have happened if she had gotten anymore?" Gray inquired.

"I'm afraid she would have died," Madam Pomfrey fretted. My mother's sobs grew.

"Here, mum, maybe you should sit down," Gray invited. I heard mum sit down in the chair.

"Before I leave, I should let you know that though she is in a coma, she is completely conscious. She can hear everything that is going on around her, though she cannot respond. She is paralyzed until she wakes up. Which will be shortly as our potions master is brewing the antidote." Pomfrey spoke. I heard her shoes click away and her office door close.

"She can hear us?" Mum asked.

"That's what Madam Pomfrey says," Gray responded.

"Lizzie, if you can hear me," my mum sniffled, "I love you dear, I love you so so much, and I'm so sorry that there's nothing I can do. Please wake up safely." I felt her grab my left hand tightly in her little one. I wanted to tell her that I could hear her, that it's okay, that I'm okay, but my body fought against me. I tried with every bit of my soul to squeeze her hand in return, but I couldn't even get my breathing pattern to change. I wanted to cry.

"Liz, I'd like to applaud you. You end up getting poisoned by eating that damned sherry tart. I've always been telling you that it's not good for you. Can I say 'I told you so' now?" Gray joked.

"Grayson Maxwell," mother snapped.

"I'm kidding mum." I could hear the eye roll in his voice. "I miss you, Liz. I miss your letters, so once you wake up, make sure you write to me more."

"Who did it?" mum whispered. "Do they know who did it?"

"I'll go ask Pomfrey," Gray offered. I counted how many footsteps it took him to get to Pomfrey's office. It was thirty-three. I heard Gray's voice but couldn't make out what he was saying. Then I heard thirty-two steps back to my bed. "She wouldn't give me a name, but she said that there were to be serious consequences for the student."

"Student? You mean a child did this?" mum exclaimed. I wanted to jump out of my bed and yell that it was my best friend who had done it.

"A student," Gray confirmed.

The room fell into a spell of silence where the only sound was that of my mother's sniffles. I tried with every fiber of my being to open my eyes, but nothing happened. My body remained as still as ever.

Just as I gave up, I heard the hospital wing doors open once again. A few footsteps echoed around the room before they stopped abruptly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that she had visitors," a deep voice called out gently.

"No, it's alright. Feel free to join us," my mum replied. The footsteps commenced on their journey to my bed. They stopped right beside my head. "What's your name?"

"Draco Malfoy, ma'am," the voice answered. I felt a surge of happiness at the presence of Draco. I felt as if I had come home after a long day.

"Of course it is, I should have known. Lizzie talks about you all the time," my mum chimed.

"She does?" Draco asked.

"I don't know if there's one letter she's sent to me without mentioning you," she chuckles. I blushed internally. Knowing Draco, he was blushing as well. "She really cares about you."

"And I really care about her," Draco whispered very quietly. As if he only intended me to hear, but with no other noise in the room, I'm positive my mum heard.

I felt Draco's slender hand brush my hair behind my ear. I wanted to lean into his touch. It felt so good, so natural.

"So Draco, what exactly is your relationship with my sister?" Gray asked. I froze (if I could), and so did Draco. His hand stopped behind my ear and retracted. I cursed Grayson in my mind and told him to stop while he still could. He obviously couldn't hear me.

"She's my best friend," Draco replied quietly. The sweetness in his voice made me "tear up" once more. It was the sweet side of him that he only used when he was around me, otherwise he was the stone cold Slytherin Prince that everyone was scared of. I loved that about him.

"And you don't want it to progress any further than that?" Gray pushed.

"Grayson!" my mum exclaimed, obviously shook from Gray's bluntness.

"I'm sorry?" Draco asked in a sort of shock.

"Do you want your friendship with Lizzie to go further?" Grayson you had better stop, I cursed him.

"Not the time, Grayson," my mum snapped in her mum voice with a sense of finality. I mentally thanked her for trying to stop him.

"Sorry. I just want the best for her," Gray muttered. For probably the thousandth time since I had been poisoned, I wished that I could move or at least see what was going on around me. It was torture to just be lying here like this.

"So do I," Draco sighed. "So do I."