Love Lasts

Chapter 11

Draco stayed by Harry's bedside for days, only leaving and hiding somewhere when his friends came by.

At one point, the girl named Violet came with a small bouquet of flowers. Violets. She saw Draco and smiled, but when she looked at Harry, her eyebrows knitted together in concern.

"Will he be okay?" Draco just shrugged. "I don't know. Not even Madam bloody Pomfrey knows." Violet paled a bit at his words but other than that, she seemed calm.

She walked over to the empty vase beside Harry's bed and put the flowers in. She took out her wand and water poured from the tip.

"Professor Flitwick taught me." She said, answering Draco's questioning look. After all, she was very young to learn such an advanced charm.

"I see. It's...nice of you." Draco had never really understood the whole kindness thing, but he was growing to like it.

Violet looked back at Harry one last time, waved to Draco, then departed from the Hospital Wing.

Draco sat by Harry's bedside the rest of the day and only moved when Madam Pomfrey said it was time for dinner.

"Mr. Malfoy, Harry will still be here when dinner is over. You need to eat." Draco nodded numbly and headed towards the Great Hall.

Naturally, Pansy and Blaise bombarded him with questions about where he had been the past few days and if he was feeling better.

Draco responded with short answers and ate his food quickly and without much chatter. He glanced up at the Gryffindor table once and saw that Hermione and Ron were both pale and looked worried.

Draco finished off his plate and left the Hall without another word. He stopped by the empty dormitory to grab his bag then headed back up to the Hospital Wing. As Madam Pomfrey had said, Harry's status hadn't changed at all.

Draco went over to the chair he had normally frequented and faced Harry. Madam Pomfrey was back in her office with the door closed so Draco leaned over to Harry and started whispering.

"I swear, I'm not going to let you die. If you die, when I get up there I'm going to kick your arse. You don't get to leave. I forbid it." After a moment's hesitation, Draco took Harry's hand. It was ice cold.

Draco wrapped both of his hands over Harry's and tried to rub some warmth into it, but it was futile. His hands remained icy.

"Come on Potter. You've got to wake up at some point. When you do, I will never stop giving you grief on how much sleep I lost over you." Draco tightened his grip on Harry's hand and leaned his head against the bed.

"Please wake up. I've never said please in my life and I'll never say it again, but please wake up Potter."

Harry didn't stir. Draco hadn't figured he would. Draco closed his eyes for just a second then opened them to find that it was the middle of the night and Madam Pomfrey was bustling around Harry's bed.

Draco lifted his head up and leaned back against the chair, reluctantly letting go of Harry's cold hand.

"Is everything okay?" Draco asked her.

"Yes. I just need to give him some more potion," She answered, not looking him in the eye. He saw from the way her brows were knitted together that that wasn't the whole truth.

"No. What's really going on?" She finally turned to look at him.

"He stopped breathing. I sprinkled some powder over you so you wouldn't wake up." Draco hopped up from his chair and had to grab the edge of the table to keep from falling forward.