Misunderstood Maledictions | Tomione

A Hospital Riddle

Sunday, November 28, 1944

3:02 P.M.

"Mione! We've got a snowball fight going on in the courtyard, come on!"

"Hate to disappoint you, Idiot Number Two, but I'm actually off to see Idiot Number One," Hermione teased Harry over her shoulder as she jauntily strode off toward the Hospital Wing. She laughed as Harry clasped his hands over his heart and pretended to yank out an imaginary knife before he turned and chased Ginny out the quad door.

Her feet danced lithely over the steps as she climbed, staircase after staircase. She dryly remembered the time in third year when she and Harry had used the time turner and sprinted up every single flight so they could make it back to the Hospital Wing before Dumbledore could shut its door. Even though the werewolf hadn't killed her then, that mad dash almost had.

Shaking her head reminiscently, Hermione briefly ran over the wild events from the day before. Thinking of the adrenaline-spiked Saturday, she couldn't help but smile, but it turned into a huge yawn from the four hours of sleep that she had gotten the night before.

Yesterday had been the huge Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch game.

Hermione guiltily admitted to sitting in the Gryffindor stands but still cheering for Harry, Draco, Ginny, and even Celene on Slytherin, as well as Gryffindor Keeper Ron. The game had been one of the most excruciating Hermione had ever seen. It had gone back and forth, neck and neck, for hours and hours and hours...

Until, in the wee hours of early Sunday morning, both Celene and Gryffindor's seeker, Jacobson Andrews, had simultaneously spotted the Snitch floating between two prowling Bludgers.

Draco, the Beater nearest Celene, had swept in to clear the way for her broom... and had whacked the first Bludger away so powerfully, the CRACK could be heard throughout the entire pitch, his club completely splintered into an unusable mess of jagged wood in the attempt.

Of course, that didn't help Celene much when, as she and Jacobson hurtled toward the Snitch at hair-raising speeds, the second Bludger locked onto her like a torpedo to a submarine. By this time, Harry and Ginny, too, was rushing over to help out, but he was still too far away to do any good.

It was then that Draco made the ultimate sacrifice.

Seconds before impact, the blond threw his broom and body next to Celene's and a moment later the Bludger utterly smashed his arm bone into pieces. Miraculously, although being quote 'blinded by pain,' Draco, being Draco, managed to stay on his broom long enough to see Celene shove Jacobson Andrews out of the way and close her hand around the tiny, elusive golden ball, finally ending the Quidditch game at 1:34 in the morning.

Celene Coffee that morning became the envy of every girl at the game who didn't envy her already. And Draco du Lac became the certified hero of every girl present at the game... His Hospital Wing quarters were enough proof of that. As she entered the gaping wooden doors of the Infirmary, Hermione's eyebrows arched, and, shaking her head for a completely different reason, she laughed in spite of herself at the endless piles of sweets, cards, and flowers surrounding Draco's sickbed.

She suddenly stopped laughing when she took the whole scene in. Draco was sleeping and his practically white hair was sprawled all over his pillow. Celene was sitting on the side of his bed holding his hand and staring down at his face. The moment she heard a laugh she looked up and saw Hermione. She smiled at her and motioned to the chair next to her. Hermione smiled back and sat down.

"He's getting spoiled rotten by all these girls. Do you reckon that if I do the same to Evans, the boys will laden me with chocolate?" Celene asked sarcastically. Hermione laughed.