Ya, this chapter is split. As soon as I see some1 else comment, I'll add the last bit of the chapter (which isn't much, only part of Draco's POV).
Anyways, that's all I gotta say
Enjoy! As always...
Sarah

Chapter 21
Draco’s Mistake (Part 1)

The next day, all Hermione heard was Pansy’s choked sobs. She got in quite a lot of trouble for fighting with Blaise Zabini, sending him to the hospital wing overnight because he managed to get tentacles sprouting from his face and boils growing drastically and popping. Well after classes ended, he seemed well and kept a fair distance from Pansy during dinner.
While eating, she couldn’t help but miss the feeling of Draco’s gaze on her. She truly wanted to visit him just before curfew, since no one would be around then, but her homework load made her stay in the common room. The next day in classes, Hermione’s mind strayed constantly, she couldn’t answer questions in class and it surprised everyone, even Professor Kruliki, who would ignore Hermione’s flailing hand when she knew the answer to a question of his like Snape had before. He even put her on the spot a few times to make a point about ‘not all academic wannabes can answer everything’.
“What’s up, Mione?”
Hermione hung her head and kept walking.
“Hermione...”
She ignored Ron and ran up the stairs to the tower as fast as she could, books at hand.
“Wait!”
“Butterbeer,” she said to the Fat Lady. The door opened, and Hermione rushed inside.
“What’s going on?” Ginny asked, seeing Hermione practically run into the common room.
“Not now...”
Hermione ran up the stairs to the girls’ dormitory and made it to her room before she heard the portrait hole open up. Slamming the room’s door closed, she dropped her things onto her bed, which was next to the door. She didn’t want to go downstairs just yet, so she found her book, Eragon, sat on her bed and started reading. She read for hours, the light from the windows faded completely.
“What’s gotten your robes up in a knot?”
Looking up from her book, Hermione saw Ginny leaning against the door frame of her room.
“What do you mean?”
“Running away from Ron is a start...”
“Is he still down there?” Hermione cut her off.
“Why does it matter?” Ginny responded, a hint of impatience entering her voice. “Is there something wrong? Anything... I mean, you and Malfoy? That’s something wrong right there.”
“How so?” Hermione demanded, closing her book and standing up.
“Well... it’s Malfoy we’re talking about!”
“People can change.”
“People can, Malfoy can’t.”
Hermione glared and stormed out of her own room.
“Mione!” Ginny hollered, surprised.
Hermione kept walking away. She ran down the stairs leading to the common room and ran past Ron, who didn’t seem to notice from where he was sitting. She ran down the stairs and onto the main floor. She ran through the corridors without thought of where she was headed, all she cared about was being away from Gryffindor Tower. She pushed open a door and looked into the Hospital Wing. Looking inside, the only inhabitants were those in the beds and Madam Pomfrey forcing something down one of the patients’ throats. When she finished, she looked at the door.
“Do you realize what time it is?” she snapped.
“Yes, it isn’t curfew yet, but it’s ‘late’,” Hermione responded, stepping into the hospital wing and closing the door behind her carefully.
“Nearly everyone is asleep, Ms. Granger.”
“Nearly everyone? Who’s up?”
“Well Mr. Malfoy can’t seem to fall asleep but...”
Hermione didn’t hear the rest of what Madam Pomfrey told her, she just started going down the rows and looking into each secluded bed.
“Hopeless...” the matron mumbled, continuing on with her work.
Looking into one bed, she saw Draco trying to move his arms.
“Hello.”
He looked up at Hermione, smiling weakly. Hermione couldn’t help but feel ever so slightly surprised at his... slight warmness.
“Don’t you consider getting in trouble a tragedy?”
Hermione scoffed.
“If you want me to go and be ‘on time’, I will...”
“No! Stay... please.”
Hermione had never heard any Malfoy, especially Draco, say ‘please’, let alone be polite. She pulled up a chair and sat next to his bed.
“What happened?” she whispered. Draco seemed to be in thought, but then shrugged.
“No one knows apparently,” he responded quietly.
“Not even you?”
“No.”
“Any idea at all?”
“Dark magic...”
Hermione’s eyes widened slightly.
“You Slytherin boys...” she muttered, shaking her head.
“Just because it’s dark magic it’s automatically someone from Slytherin?” Draco snapped defensively.
“Well it’s not like a Hufflepuff would do something as drastic...”
“A Ravenclaw could for all you know, they’re supposedly intellectual.”
Hermione smiled.
“So considering you were trying to move your arms...”
“Something happened... something in the spell put in a comatose state for awhile, and afterwards I couldn’t move.”
“Increased density...” Hermione thought out loud.
“Wha?”
“Possibly somewhere in that spell there was bone density increase, I dunno, that’s what it sounds like... couldn’t move anything... were you given a clear potion that seemed to have a green tinge...”
“I never saw what I got.”
“Did it taste kind of sour with a peppermint aftertaste?”
“Yeah, exactly that actually...”
“Yeah, that potion kills off any spell-cast bone density,” Hermione responded.
“Huh...”
“Yeah, well... either way you’re still in here for who knows how long.”
“A few days, maybe a week, better not be longer.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I have to pretend to be asleep every time the door opens.”
“Why?”
“The cow won’t leave me alone.”
Hermione chuckled.
“Yet you seemed well awake by the time I got here.”
“I heard the matron say your name...” Draco responded, shrugging.
“Oh.”
A silence filled the air for a few minutes.
“So, you’re here visiting me, yet you’re the one that said for me to leave you alone...” Draco realized, chuckling to himself.
“Well things don’t always turn out the way you expect,” Hermione responded somewhat mysteriously. Draco looked into her eyes, and Hermione’s stomach flipped.
“What do you mean by that?” he asked flatly.
Well, that’s one way to ruin the moment.
“You aren’t who I thought you were,” Hermione responded, shrugging. She tore her gaze away from him and looked at her fiddling hands, she couldn’t stand to look into his beautiful grey eyes any longer.
“Same,” she heard Draco whisper, almost inaudibly.
“How so?”
“Well the matron is more cruel than you were to me,” Draco responded.
“Forcing a potion down your throat isn’t exactly evil,” Hermione pointed out, laughing quietly.
“Forget it,” he said flatly, looking away. When Hermione looked at Draco’s currently angled face, she swore she saw a small glimmering droplet fall down his cheek.
“Are you crying?” she whispered, worried yet slightly surprised.