promises // dramione

chapter two

Draco woke up to darkness.

Head throbbing, he opened his eyes to find that he was in the hospital wing, and that it was the middle of the night.

"Madam Pomfrey?" Draco cringed at the raspy sound of his voice. When no one answered, he tried calling out a bit louder.

Suddenly, a light turned on behind a door and Madam Pomfrey stumbled out.

"Oh, Mr. Malfoy, you really do know the best time to decide to wake up."

He managed a small apologetic smile, which turned into a groan when his head started to hurt again.

"Here, take this. It'll help your head, and your arm." She held a vial at his lips, slowly tilting it and allowing him to drink it all.

Your arm.

I looked down at my arm, and my heart dropped.

The mark was still there, just with a ton of scars all across it. His eyes began to tear up.

You failed. Again.

Madam Pomfrey seemed to realize what he was looking at. "I know you hate that mark, but unfortunately there's nothing you can do to get rid of it. The Dark Mark is a very strong piece of dark magic, and regenerates itself no matter what you do to it."

Draco looked up to meet her eyes, and she stared back at him sadly.

"I know it's hard, Draco, but you can't let this get the better of you. It's just a tattoo now, it doesn't define you. It never really has. Remember that."

Draco gulped, nodding slowly. Maybe she was right, maybe he could still prove to people that he wasn't who he was before. But it would take a lot of convincing.

"Wait, how did I get here?" he asked her, remembering suddenly that when he blacked out he had been on the floor of the prefect's bathroom, which was nowhere near here.

"Oh, Miss Granger found you, and brought you here when you fell unconscious. Speaking of her, she wanted to know when you'd wake up, so I'll tell her to come in the morning."

And with that, Madam Pomfrey told him to get some rest and disappeared back into her room, while he lay in his bed, completely confused.

Granger brought him here?

It was probably just the hero complex in her. She doesn't actually care about you.

But then, why did she want to know when he'd wake up? Was she...worried about him?

That can't possibly be the case.

He stayed there thinking, until he finally fell asleep again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione walked down to the Great Hall half asleep, yet again.

As she plopped down at the Gryffindor table, Ginny eyed her worriedly.

"You alright, Hermione? You look exhausted."

She yawned, waving her hand dismissively. "I'm fine, just did some late night studying."

"Again? You shouldn't stay up so late for so many nights in a row. You basically already know everything for the exams anyway, I don't understand why you still need to study."

Hermione shrugged, and the food finally appeared, distracting everyone.

In reality, she hadn't been doing any studying for the past two days. She couldn't get any sleep because for some reason, her mind couldn't stop thinking about Draco.