Would You Like A Hand?

24 | undead.

"No."

Hermione groaned out the simple word tiredly, weakly.

"Oh," Draco was only glad that she had been easier to handle this time - unlike the time she'd had a nightmare and had pretty much attacked him, if only he hadn't suppressed her movements in time.

"I'm never ready." She mumbled, her head still buried into his chest and her arms still around him - although she was relaxed now, instead of clutching at him too tightly to breathe.

"Well, we should get going and explore this place," he suggested, "So, whenever you're ready."

The girl sighed heavily before letting go of him and leaning back. She stood up and looked around warily.

Draco lingered on the floor for a second, finding himself missing her warmth. He hadn't realized how cold the world seemed. Then, he caught himself and jumped up quickly.

Hermione was already walking away, so Draco silently jogged over to catch up to her.

"There really doesn't seem to be anything here," she commented, "I would think any undead would have heard us by now."

As she looked around, Draco dug through the rubble and trash that was littered all over the place. He observed, "Despite all this damage, the building is still in good condition... it's not falling apart or missing chunks in the walls and floors."

"Strange," the Gryffindor girl ran her hand along a huge scratch on a nearby wall, "It's as if there had been a long battle going on here - well, I guess if someone cleared all the undead from this place, they were staying here for quite awhile. I wonder why they left, then?"

"Maybe they died here and they're wandering the ministry alone," Draco responded.

"Yeah, it's best to be cautious," the two students stuck with each other, not wanting to explore such a big building by themselves.

Time seemed to pass by quickly - Hermione made note that the sun was now setting and they hadn't yet seen all the rooms in the building.

"We're going to have to barricade a room to sleep in tonight," her careful eyes saw nothing hostile, but neither did she see Harry or Ron anywhere. She thought to herself that maybe it was better this way - at least they weren't lying on the ground, dead.

Or roaming as zombies.

"Yeah. Let's choose one of the nicer offices and set up for the night," Draco led the way and the two students peeked into every room they passed.

Not a single one had any wandering beings.

Hermione couldn't fathom why there was nothing moving in the building. Screams rang out from outside, but the only sounds indoors came from her and Draco's footsteps and occasional chatter.

There hadn't even been any bodies lying around. Just ruins and trash were scattered throughout the areas they passed.

Draco, on the other hand, decided not to question it.

He would take what he could get in this world, especially if it meant he didn't have to deal with the undead while he slept.

But... it was unnerving. What might've happened here, in such a large building, that would've wiped out the undead, and not even left behind any corpses?

Just as the sun disappeared from view, the two former students finished blockading the doors of the room they had chosen.

The room was spacious enough for the two of them, but they settled down on the floor next to each other, taking what comfort they could.

They both sat with their knees up, Hermione placing her head on them, too tired to keep it up.

"Wake me this time, alright?" She sighed.

"How's your injury doing?" Draco asked instead, and she uncurled herself to check.

Even before she lifted her shirt, Hermione could feel that the cloth around her torso was needing to be changed. The slice wasn't as bad anymore - and the pain it inflicted was now just a sharp stinging when she moved the wrong way.

It was still bleeding though, due to opening up every time Hermione needed to run or do anything physical that might stress the wound.

There wasn't anything around she could use to change the 'bandage' though, and she mentally cursed herself for not thinking to grab extra clothing for this purpose back in the mall.

But some movement from Draco caused her to look up and she watched as something was transfigured into a bandage.

Ah, right. I have magic to rely on, Hermione remembered.

"Need any help getting this around you?" He passed the transfigured object over to her.

"It would be appreciated," she responded with a small smile, more apologetic than anything else.

They made quick work of replacing the bandage - Draco might have tied it a little too tight the first time, and had to redo it - and then Hermione fell asleep almost right away afterward.

She had grabbed her bag to use as a pillow, but Draco transfigured yet another object and gave the - cushion, really - over to her.

She must be too tired to bother using any magic, he thought.

And so he sat there, alone with his thoughts, until it was time to wake his companion.

-

end note: I'm going on vacation soon, so I just wanted to let you all know that the next update will be quite a long while from now. I hope it has been a good read so far!

aeratheninja-