Light in the Darkness

Chapter 36

Adelaide walked calmly into the Common Room. She had no energy left to cry or be angry, she just felt nothing. Fred would understand why she did what she did, George would be safe. That's all that mattered. As she made her way silently to the dormitory, she was stopped by a very panicked-looking Viola who cried, "What happened?"

Adelaide stared at her friend who looked like she was on the verge of tears, "What are you talking about?"

"Draco! He was walking down the hall and all of a sudden Luca came out of nowhere and started hexing him like a feral animal until he was bloody and unconscious." she took a shaky breath recalling the gruesome sight, "He's in the Hospital Wing now, but Addie, it's bad." 

Forgetting her anger towards Draco, she turned around and ran towards the Hospital Wing. As she rounded the corner, a very stressed looking Madame Pomfrey put her hands out trying to stop Adelaide from going through, "He's going to be fine, he's knocked out so he doesn't feel any of the pain." 

She ignored Madam Pomfrey and pushed her way towards Draco. A few of their friends were already standing around him looking worried. He looked horrible. His eye was black and blue, his nose was in an odd angle, blood was caked all down the front of his face, he had bandages wrapped around his shoulder and torso, his lip was split and swollen, he had light slashes across his arms which had thankfully been halfway healed by Madam Pomfrey.

This was all her fault.

The events of her day were piling up on each other, bearing down like the sky had fallen on top of her. She felt like she couldn't breathe. Draco looked like the boy her brother's tied to the tree two years ago and she couldn't handle seeing him in such a state, especially knowing it was her fault. Her vision went blurry and she heard a faint, "Ms. Burke? Are you ok?" before her vision went completely black, her knees buckled, and she hit the floor.

---

As Adelaide stirred, she heard Viola's worried voice, "She looks so pale, are you sure you can't do anything else Madam Pomfrey?" 

"I'm afraid not, your friend is severely sleep deprived and stressed. She needs to take better care of herself or she'll end up worse than Mr. Malfoy over here."

Adelaide's head was pounding, she felt disoriented and weak. She tried to gather enough strength to open her eyes, but was only able to let out a whisper, "Draco?". Madame Pomfrey rushed over, "Ms. Burke, oh thank heavens you're awake! You've been out for almost four days, gave us all quite a scare!"

Four days? She missed the second challenge in the tournament. Adelaide opened her eyes as her heart began to beat faster and her breath quickened to an impossible rate, but was quickly given a tonic of some sort from Madam Pomfrey that tasted strongly of mint. Her nerves disappeared entirely and she felt more calm and rested than she had felt in almost six months. 

Viola sat next to Adelaide on her bed and softly stroked her hair, "Addie, I was worried sick about you." her eyes were filled with a layer of tears and she looked like she hadn't slept. Adelaide looked up to see Perseus and Draco looking incredibly worried. Draco looked a lot better than when she had first saw him in his bed, unconscious.  His swollen face was back to normal, he had a bit of a purple shadow under his eye where he used to have a deep bruise, his arm was wrapped in a sling and his shoulder was tightly bandaged, but she was happy to see he was standing and very much alive. To Adelaide's great relief he didn't look at all angry at her, rather a mixture of worry and sadness covered his face.

"Draco, I'm so sorry." Adelaide whimpered. She feebily reached out her hand towards him. His eyes softened as he took a step closer and reached out his non-injured hand to hold hers.