Barely Acquaintances

•four•

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"Does it hurt terribly, Draco?"
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Later that evening, I awoke in an old chair. It wasn't a soft, forest green leather armchair and I couldn't hear the soft crackling of a fire burning from the fireplace, so evidently I hadn't fallen asleep in the common room like I had many times before. My back was stiff, as if I'd been leaning over something in my sleep. I blinked a few times to clear my eyesight, picking my head up off of whatever I was leant on, which was soft, and blanket clad against my forehead. My sleepy eyes were still adjusting to the moonlit room around me as I brought my hands up to rub the heaviness from them. It was a large room, and, lots of beds?

Quickly I jumped up from the metal chair I'd apparently slept on and took in my surroundings at last. Why in Merlins beard was I in the hospital wing? Most of the beds were empty, I could see the whole of the large stone walled room as the room divider curtain around me was left open. In the far corner, well away from me was who I recognised to be a Hufflepuff fourth year, who probably got knocked off his broom in the last quidditch game, which would make sense since they played against Slytherin, and we weren't exactly known for playing fairly.

Before I could even begin to search my clouded mind for the answer to how I ended up here, as I was clearly not hurt in the slightest, a soft, tired, deep voice swept me away from my own thoughts, one I could recognise anywhere.

"You fell asleep about 3 hours ago, after you brought me here" the voice said, rather blankly. I looked down and jumped slightly when I saw it was none other than Malfoy. "Oh, and thanks for helping me, Crabbe and Goyle haven't even come to see if I'm alive" he sat up from his horizontal laying position with a deep sigh, pushing himself up with only one arm,y eyes drifted down to find the other was in a sling being held against his chest.

After seeing him struggle I reached down to help him as best as I could, still staying silent. I grabbed onto his shoulders gently and hoisted him up into a, hopefully, comfortable seated position on the hospital bed. "Ouch! Mind my arm would you? It hurts" he said through gritted teeth, for the first time since hearing his voice I looked down into his glossy eyes, even in this lighting they were still icy grey and swirling around like a whirlpool, and I felt I was being pulled in.

I carefully sat back into the hard chair and kept my gaze on him, not really sure what to say. I needn't ask what happened because at this point, my memories had returned and I could clearly remember the events of earlier today. Images of Buckbeak standing on his back legs and viciously swiping Draco, knocking him to the floor filled my head, I winced slightly just thinking about it. Of course, it's not that I cared about Malfoy, just, it wasn't a nice sight.

Or so I told myself.

"Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" I looked up at him again, not knowing what else to say, and a small smile rested upon his lips.

"It comes and it goes" he said, stroking the cast that his right arm was wrapped in, "still, I consider myself lucky! If it wasn't for Madame Pomfrey, another minute or two and I could've lost my arm. Couldn't possibly do any homework for weeks" he exaggerated, looking me in the eye with his signature smirk on his face.

I simply rolled my eyes at him, smiling back "so that beast didn't knock any sense into you then, I suppose?" I let out a hushed giggle at the fake hurt face that Draco pulled at my remark.

It was times like this that I was grateful for my messed up acquaintanceship I shared with the boy. I was never too sure if we were friends or not, right now it felt like we were, it felt like one day we could even be more than friends. Ew. But no doubt it'd soon be back to us squabbling over silly nothings. Still, I wouldn't change him.