After a War ((Old Copy))

Chapter 8 Book 4

Back in Those Days

Draco watched Pansy most of the night. He couldnt sleep anyway. Not without Hermione.He smiled at that thought. He remembered that morning she brough up marriage.

"Now what's going to happen when we're married and my husband cant sleep?" She had asked.

That day had terrified him, he had no intention of marrying her then.He loved her, sure, and he had thought about it a few times, but he didnt want to think about it that much. He had called her Granger, for seven years, and it was a bloody good thing he called her Hermione now, because now she wasnt going to be a Granger anymore. He could sleep easily when she was there. He couldnt marry her if he was in the wrong world.

He wanted to go back now, for real, he wanted to be back home. He wished it was that easy to go back. All he would have to do was think about being there, and he coud be back, with Hermione, and Justin. He wanted it to be that simple, but of course it wasn't.

Jack had woken up many times through the night to check on Pansy, but Draco had forced him to go back to sleep every time. Then he went back to leaning against the rough wall of the cave. The ceiling was low, If Draco was an inch taller,then he'd hit the ceiling. Blaise, who was taller than Draco, had hit the ceiling six times already when he got up to use the bathroom.

"Draco?" He heard Pansy's weak voice asked. A chill went down his spine. He didnt like to hear Pansy's voice so weak. She was a strong girl. She never had a weak moment.

"Pans, how are you feeling?" Draco asked, he moved closer to where she was. She groaned and put her hand on her side, it had stopped bleeding,but that was only because Draco and Jack had forced it to stop bleeding by cutting off all blood flow to that area.

"Like bloody hell. Bet I look like it too. Thanks for the help." Pansy said sfotly, her voice still weak, but she tried to make it sound stronger. She clearly didnt like sounding weak either by the way she groaned.

"Dont thank me. Jack practically did everything, took everything in me to get him to go to sleep and stop worrying about you." Draco said, he helped Pansy sit up so she could get a drink, but then got her to lay back down, the blood flow would continue if she altered her position. The poison would wear off soon, or at least Draco hoped it would.

"Where is he?" Pansy asked. "And while im asking questions, where are we?"

"He's on the other side of the cave, and I already answered that, but we're in a cave. There's a fire outside if you need to warm up." Draco offered. She shook her head.

"You know im used to the cold." Pansy said, she groaned again. All Slytherins were used to the cold. "Is he ok? I mean, if I got hit, maybe he did too."

"No, he managed to get you and him to cover in time. Lucky too, if it wasnt for him, you'de have died probably."  Draco lied, well, it was true that she would hae died if it wasnt for him, but, he hadnt gotten them to cover in time. Pansy was the only one hit, because she was the only target. Jack wasnt targeted because he was one of them. Pansy nodded and closed her eyes again.

"Blaise?" She asked, remembering he was there.

"He's fine too, right over there." Draco said, pointing over at where Blaise was sleeping, and snoring like a bear. Pansy let out a sigh of relief. Draco saw Jack stirring again. "I think I'm going to go check on the fire." Draco made up an excuse to get out of there so Pansy and Jack could talk. He got up and left swiftly, only to return a few seconds later. He kicked Blaise to wake him up and gently shook Makayla.

"What do you want?" Blaise asked groggily. Makayla groaned as she sat up, but didn't act as dramatic as Blaise.

"Need your help to go find some dry wood. It rained last night. The fire is out, and it might not be safe enough to go back to the castle, and Pansy is barely even able to sit up, there's no way she can be carried or walk. We might need to stay another day." Draco explained, Blaise didn't complain anymore then that, him and Makayla got up and followed Draco out of the cave.

~

Jack felt the mark on his arm burning like crazy. He had been awake for at least a hour now, Draco had taken the others to go find wood. Jack hadn't sat up, but he had been awake. He was trying to stifle the pain in his arm, they were calling him, but he couldn't go, not right now Pansy was still hurt.

The pain struck again, Jack could easily stifle back yells by putting a silencing charm on himself. He had a little hand magic, but not enough to heal Pansy. He sat up and looked at Pansy, then felt the pain in his arm start again, he closed his eyes, but turned into a black plume of smoke and flew out of the cave.

He'd come back, right after he went to the meeting. He knew what it was about already, as it had already happened. This was the meeting discussing how they would destroy the Hogwarts express. Hopefully things would be different, hopefully he wouldn't hurt Makayla, or anyone else like he did last time.

~~~

"I think I know why Draco isn't back yet!" Maya said, quite loudly and suddenly. Everyone had been sitting in the Living room, well, everyone that was left. George, Hermione, Justin, and Maya. Fred was with Makayla, to see if she said anything that could help them.

"Why?" Hermione asked, she knew better than to get her hopes up by now, but she really wanted him back, and any idea was a good idea.

"You said he has to want to come back in order to come back, right?" Maya asked. Hermione didn't see where this was going, but she nodded.

"Yeah. But what-"

"What about Jack? What if he is the one that doesn't want to come back? Maybe they both need to want to come back in order for them to come home." Maya said, Hermione lit up. That could be it! It wasn't that Draco didn't want to come back to her! It as Jack! She had begun to think that Draco didn't love her anymore. She had given up hope. She hugged Maya.

"Thank you, for giving me hope again." Hermione said, Maya squeezed her a bit.

"What are best friends for?" Maya said happily. Fred opened the door to Pansy's room, where Makayla and Pansy were sleeping, or what they were calling sleeping.

"More info. Something is wrong with Pansy in the other world. And it's confirmed she's a Legilimens, she talks to herself a little bit. And Draco's fine. He's there. And while Kay didn't know she was telling me, she told Blaise that he'd be fine." Fred went over everything Makayla had said in his mind to make sure he got everything.

"Today is a good day so far." Hermione said with a smile. She was full of hope again. At least for now.