Ginny turned defiantly back to Snape. "I promised Malfoy I'd help him back to the hospital wing, and I'm not going back on my word."
"Perhaps Mr. Malfoy no longer requires your assistance," Snape suggested. "Draco?"
Ginny jumped in before Draco could answer. "The state he's in, he's not about to let go of something solid, even if it is a Weasley," she declared. "However, if you would like to assist me in getting him back to Madame Pomfrey, I'm not going to refuse. He's not as scrawny as he looks."
Snape scowled but took Draco's arm and put it around his shoulders. Draco sagged heavily against him. "Why didn't you let me help you back up here?" Snape questioned.
"He didn't think he needed help, stupid git," Ginny muttered.
"Perhaps he wouldn't have if he hadn't run into you," accused Snape. "I told you…"
"I know what you told me," Ginny snapped. "This has nothing to do with that."
"With what?" asked Draco.
"Does Miss Weasley have anything to do with the sudden change in your condition?" Snape questioned.
"If I was going to hurt him, I would have pushed him down the stairs 10 minutes ago," Ginny huffed.
"She…helped," Draco told him.
"See."
"And how is it you are down here to perform such saintly deeds when you are supposed to be up in your common room at this time of night?" wondered Snape.
"I left something here that I need," Ginny answered, opening the hospital wing door.
Madam Pomfrey bustled over and interrupted them. "Mr. Malfoy, you stupid boy, what were you thinking leaving here?"
"Bed," Draco moaned.
"Yes, yes, let's get you back into bed," Pomfrey fussed, taking over supporting Draco from Ginny.
Ginny hurried over to her former bed and grabbed her bear off the pillow. She tried to sneak out while Snape and Pomfrey were getting Draco settled, but Snape snagged her arm as she passed. "Not so fast," he growled. "What did you sneak back here for?"
Ginny yanked her arm free. "Leave me be, I only came for her." She waved the bear in his face. Snape stepped back from the tattered stuffed animal with a sneer of disgust. "What is that thing?"
"Lilybear." Ginny unconsciously hugged the bear close.
Snape frowned. "Why Lily?"
"What?"
"Why do you call that thing Lily?" Snape questioned much too loudly.
Taken aback, Ginny only shrugged. "I don't know, she's always been Lilybear. I think my mum named it after the person who gave her to me."
"Get out." Snape pointed a shaky finger toward the door. "Now. Before I give you so much detention you'll have to spend the summer here."
Ginny hurried off, but not without sneaking a confused glance back at Snape.
After his run-in with Ginny, Snape turned his attention back to Draco. "What are you doing for him?" he barked at Pomfrey.
"Right now I need to find out how much more damage he's done to himself."
She waved her wand over Draco and a stream of colors began swirling just above him. Snape watched closely as a spot of red quickly spread and dominated the other colors.
"What are you going to do to fix that?" asked Snape impatiently.
"Healer Parkinson left some potions that I hope will help," she told him.
"You hope?!" ranted Snape.
"I'm doing what I can," Pomfrey shot back. "Perhaps if you had more control over your students…"
"Perhaps if you were better at treating your patients..." He let the insult hang as he stormed over to the fireplace, stepped inside and disappeared in a flash of green.
Just outside the hospital wing, Ginny ran into Pansy as the Slytherin hurried toward the room. "Good work there, Parkinson," Ginny taunted. "Half the people in this school want Draco Malfoy dead, but I think you may have actually managed it."
"What are you on about, Weasley?" Pansy snapped. "Draco's fine."
"Pomfrey doesn't seem to think so. And neither do you," Ginny accused. "If you did, you wouldn't be here."
"I only wanted to see if Professor Snape had sent him back here, since Draco didn't come back to the common room."
"No, Snape left him lying on the dungeon floor, so I had to rescues his sorry arse," said Ginny.
"You're mental, Weasley," Pansy muttered, pushing past her and opening the door.
"I won't be for long," Ginny murmured, patting the potions in her robes before taking off up the stairs back toward Gryffindor tower.
Pansy hurried inside to Draco's bedside and grabbed his hand, but he didn't move. "Draco, can you hear me?"
"Leave him be, Miss Parkinson," Madam Pomfrey scolded. "You've done quite enough damage already."
"I didn't do anything to him!"
"You were the only one to see Mr. Malfoy this evening, it must have been you who gave him the strengthening potion he needed to leave here," Pomfrey accused.
"It was Weasley, not me," Pansy tried to claim.
"Miss Weasley was long gone by then," Pomfrey informed her. "And she does not have access to potions the way a daughter of a healer would."
"I would never hurt Draco."
"Perhaps not intentionally, but nonetheless you have."
"Is he going to be okay?" Pansy questioned anxiously. She stroked Draco's hair, frowning more when he didn't stir at her touch.
"That remains to be seen," Pomfrey said ominously.
"You need to call my father!" Pansy insisted. "He fixed Draco before, he can do it again."
"Go back to the common room, Miss Parkinson," came a stern voice from across the room. Snape stepped out of the fireplace, brushing off his robes with his free hand. His other hand held something hidden underneath his robes.
"Not until my father gets here and I make sure Draco is going to be okay."
"There's no need to drag your father back out here," declared Snape.
"But Professor…." Pomfrey started.
"Did you not say he left potions for the boy to take?"
"Yes, but that was before…"
"Why haven't you given them to him yet? Go get them," Snape ordered.
"Pardon me?" she asked, affronted.
"Go get them now!" he barked, pulling his wand.
"You can't threaten…"
"Shall I summon the headmaster and inform him you won't properly treat Mr. Malfoy?"
"Stop it, both of you, and help him!" Pansy shrieked.
Madam Pomfrey bustled off to get the potions, muttering as she went.
"Keep her distracted," Snape ordered Pansy.
"What?"
"Keep her distracted," Snape repeated. "I need a few minutes with Draco."
"Why?"
"To save his life. Go!"
Pansy jumped up and ran after the matron. Snape pulled the wooden box covered with carved snakes from under his robes and waved a hand over it. "Let's hope this doesn't do more harm than good," he murmured.
****************
Ginny climbed silently through the portrait hole, ignoring the fat lady's grumblings about being out after hours. She crept across the room, jumping in surprise when a voice called to her from the sofa in front of the fire.
"Ginny?"
Ginny quickly stuffed the bottles of potion back into her robes. "Hermione, you scared the life out of me!"
"Where have you been?" Hermione questioned. "It's after hours, you shouldn't be wandering the castle this late."
"I forgot something in the hospital wing." Hermione studied her carefully, obviously unsure whether to believe her. "I'm not still possessed, if that's what you're thinking."
"No, of course not, I…"
"Forget it, Hermione, I can't blame you for not trusting me," declared Ginny with a sigh. "But I wasn't out hurting anyone."
"Of course you weren't," Hermione declared, getting up and hugging Ginny. "I know the diary isn't controlling you anymore. Harry told me all about how it was destroyed."
Ginny pulled away from her. "So why were you waiting up for me?"
"I wasn't!" Hermione insisted. "I didn't even know you were gone. Ron told me that you'd gone up to bed. Weren't you able to sleep?"
"I've been sleeping for days, I've had more than enough of that," Ginny declared.
"I know what you mean."
"Don't tell me you were down here studying."
Hermione guiltily stuck a book behind a pillow. "I…I'm…I only wanted to catch up a bit, I missed so much work."
"Because of me," Ginny murmured. "I don’t know why you don’t hate me."
"I don't have all that many friends, I can't go hating the ones I do have," Hermione teased.
Ginny blinked in surprise. "Friends?"
"Well, we are, aren't we?" asked Hermione with a bemused smile.
"You're Ron's friend."
"So I can't be yours?"
"No….I mean yes…I mean, do you want to be?" Ginny wondered.
"I adore Ron and Harry, but sometimes a girl just wants to talk to another girl, you know?" Hermione laughed. "You grew up with six brothers, of course you know!"
Ginny nodded with a smile.
"So, as your friend, can I ask if you're okay?"
"I'm okay."
"If you need to talk…"
"What has Ron been telling you?" Ginny asked suddenly.
"Nothing," Hermione was quick to insist. "He refuses to talk about the Chamber at all. And when I asked after you, all he said was that you were fine now and I should leave you alone. He was rather rude about it, truth be told."
"He can be a git sometimes," Ginny noted. "Most times, come to think."
Hermione smiled but shook her head. "He was only being protective of you."
"Little late for that, isn't it?"
"Ginny…"
"Sorry, I shouldn't have said that," apologized Ginny quickly. "None of this is Ron's fault."
"He thinks it is," Hermione revealed. "He's been beating himself up over what happened for days. I think all your brothers are feeling a little guilty. Percy's been especially strict lately, and the twins haven't wreaked nearly as much havoc as they usually do."
"At least something good came from all that's happened then," remarked Ginny wryly.
"Oh Ginny, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make light of what you've been through!"
"I don’t want to talk about it anymore," Ginny declared. "I just want to put it all behind me now that the Chamber is closed and the diary is gone."
"But…"
"I'm fine, Hermione, I truly am," Ginny insisted. "I feel so much better now being up here with my friends rather than stuck down in the hospital wing with Malfoy."
Hermione wrinkled her nose. "I don’t know how you could stand being around that nasty git for so long."
"He was unconscious most of the time," Ginny explained. "I guess the rest of the time he was too knackered to be mean, he wasn't nearly as annoying as I was expecting."
"He really was hurt, then?" asked Hermione. "I thought maybe he was faking."
"No, he wasn't faking."
"So what happened to him? It sounds as if he was pretty bad off."
"He is. And George pouncing on him didn't help any."
"George was the one who put him in the hospital wing?!"
"No! Although I did think at first that maybe Fred or George had done something," Ginny admitted. "I'm sure Harry told you that Lucius Malfoy was the one who slipped me that diary." Hermione nodded. "So it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that one of them might have gone after Malfoy for revenge. But I think Malfoy would have gone on about it to no end if that was the case. He also would have done anything he could to get them in trouble. And he never would have mouthed off the way he did to them today if they had been the one to give him that beating."
"Someone beat on him?"
"That's what I'm guessing, from the condition he was in."
"It couldn't have been… That night was a really difficult one, your family and friends were so anxious about you, you don't think…"
"No, I don't think it was Ron," said Ginny, guessing what was worrying Hermione. "Harry either. They were with me the whole time before Malfoy was hurt. And Malfoy wouldn't have wasted any time getting them in trouble, either, if they'd attacked him."
Hermione nodded, relief obvious in her face. "I'm glad you're away from him now and back here where you belong. But I wish you would stay here rather than wander around the castle late at night."
"I wasn't wandering!" Ginny insisted. "And I can't possibly be friends with you, Hermione, if you're going to act like my mother."
Hermione looked affronted until she saw Ginny was grinning. She gave an uncertain laugh. "It's only because I'm concerned about you, Ginny. I've never seen Ron so worried."
"I'm afraid I gave him a bit of a scare that first night after they got me out of the Chamber," Ginny confessed.
"But you're better now? It wasn't nightmares that have you up this late?"
Ginny shook her head as she studied Hermione carefully. "You aren't having nightmares, are you? About the basilisk or being petrified?"
"No, I didn’t really see the basilisk, and I don’t remember being petrified," Hermione explained. "My nightmares are all about the work I missed and how I'm going to make it all up in two weeks."
"Surely the teachers don't expect…"
"I can't let that work go undone!" Hermione fairly screeched. "How would I ever be able to keep up next year? And I have to keep my place at the top of the class, I can't let Malfoy get ahead of me!"
"Malfoy?"
"He's second in our class, he's really smart," Hermione declared. "Or maybe he just studies hard." She shrugged. "Either way, he's right behind me, and I have to make sure he stays there. It's the only thing that gets me through when he's calling me the terrible things he does, knowing that no matter where I came from I can still do better than him at this school."
"Must we listen to the Mudblood whine all night?" Tom declared loudly in Ginny's head.
Ginny put her hand to her head, startled by the sudden noise.
"Ginny, are you okay?"
"I'm afraid my long day is catching up with me," Ginny apologized. "Would you mind terribly if I went up to bed now?"
"Of course not, of course not," Hermione assured her. "Go, have a good sleep."
"You should get some rest, too," Ginny advised.
"I have the summer to sleep." She pulled her book back out from under the pillow.
"Okay, goodnight then."
Hermione already had her nose back in her book and didn't even answer.
Ginny quickly made her way upstairs to the dorms. She crept into the room, hoping to reach her bed undetected, but Riley Wentworth, who occupied the bed next to hers, was still up reading. She glanced quizzically between Ginny and the blanket-covered lump in Ginny's bed.
"Ginny? I thought you were sleeping."
"No, that's just pillows."
"I know I saw you come up…"
"I went back down after the crowd left," Ginny lied. "You must have been caught up in your book and didn't see me."
"Everything okay?
"Everything's fine. I was just talking to Hermione for a bit." She faked a yawn. "I'm knackered, I'll see you in the morning, Riley."
"Sure, Ginny. Let me know if you need anything."
Ginny nodded and climbed into her bed, pulling the curtains tight around it. Slipping the potions out of her robes, she laid them on the bed in front of her. "One, two, three," she murmured. "Only three nights of peace, unless Malfoy comes through. But I best not count on that. So three it is." She brightened suddenly. "Unless I only take half."
"Ginny, did you say something?" Riley called.
Ginny ignored her as she split open the back of her bear with her wand, stuffed two of the potion bottles in there and then opened the third. "Half it is, then." She tipped the bottle into her mouth, reluctantly stopping when it was only half gone. She put the third bottle in with the others and muttered "Repairo" over the hole in the bear, which stitched itself back together. "Hopefully that's enough for a couple hours peace."
"Not bloody likely," Tom taunted her.
Ginny rolled over, burying her head under her pillow to try to shut out his laughter echoing in her head. Curling up under the covers and pulling her bear close, she murmured softly, "No more bad dreams, no more bad dreams" over and over until the potion slowly led her to sleep.
**************
Three hours later, Ginny was awakened by someone shaking her roughly. "Stop, please," Ginny begged. "Leave me alone."
"Ginny, wake up!" the person shaking her commanded. "You're having a nightmare."
Ginny opened her eyes groggily to find her roommates hovering anxiously over her. Riley was sitting on the bed next to her, her hands still firmly on Ginny's shoulders.
"What happened?" asked a shaken Ginny, trying to shrug off Riley's grasp.
"You were screaming bloody murder," Riley told her, letting go of Ginny's shoulders and stroking Ginny's hair absentmindedly. "I've never heard anything like it."
"I was screaming?"
"Like someone was murdering you," muttered one of the other girls.
"I'm sorry," an embarrassed Ginny murmured. "I didn't realize I was dreaming."
"That wasn't dreaming," declared Sabrina O'Leary, another of her roommates. "Only something really horrible could have made you scream like a banshee like that. What was it? Were you thinking about what happened to you down in the Chamber of Secrets?"
"Leave her alone, Sabrina," Riley demanded. "She's been through enough; she doesn't need you bothering her."
"If she's going to be waking us up like that for the next two weeks, I think we deserve to know why she's screeching."
"I don't know why!" cried Ginny. "I can't remember any of it!"
"You have to remember something," Sabrina insisted. "You were down there all day."
"No she doesn't," snapped Riley. "Leave her alone."
"I was knocked out, I think," said Ginny softly.
"By what?" all but Riley asked in anxious anticipation.
Ginny shrugged. "I was in the corridor on the second floor, on my way to visit Hermione, and the next thing I know I'm waking up in the Chamber with Harry looking down at me."
"I could think of worse things to wake up to," said Sabrina, flashing a wicked grin.
"We heard there was a dragon down there," piped up one of the other girls.
"I don't remember any dragons," Ginny told her.
"So you don't know who or what dragged you down there?" Sabrina asked. Ginny shook her head. "C'mon, Ginny, you can tell us. We won't say anything to anyone else if you don't want them to know your business. Right, girls?"
The other girls nodded eagerly.
"Sorry, but I really don't remember," Ginny told them.
"I think it's time everyone stopped bugging Ginny and went back to sleep," Riley piped up. The other girls muttered in dissent, but they dispersed when Riley shooed them away. Riley turned back to Ginny. "You'll be OK?" Ginny nodded. "I could get McGonagall or Madame Pomfrey."
"No need, I won't be waking you anymore," Ginny assured her. She snuggled back under her blankets, pulling her bear close. "Night, Riley."
Riley hesitated, uncertain of whether to go, but finally said, "Night, Ginny. Sleep well."
After Riley turned away, Ginny pulled her wand out from under her covers. "Silencio," she murmured, touching it to her throat before snuggling back under the covers.
***************
Hermione gently pushed Ginny into the hospital ward, despite her protests.
"This really isn't necessary," Ginny insisted. "I'm fine, my roommates were overreacting."
"They were terrified, Ginny," Hermione said worriedly. "The screaming…"
"Wasn't anything," Ginny interrupted.
"It was to your roommates," Hermione told her. "They said they'd never heard anything like it."
"So you dragged me down here because my roommates exaggerate?" huffed Ginny.
"I brought you here because Professor McGonagall is worried you might have come back too soon," Hermione admitted. "Perhaps another night here…"
"No!" Ginny declared loudly, drawing Madam Pomfrey's attention to their arrival. "It was one nightmare, I think I'm entitled to that after everything that's happened."
"Miss Weasley, what are you doing back here?" Madam Pomfrey questioned. "Are you not feeling well?"
"I'm feeling fine."
"She's having nightmares," Hermione piped up. "Terrible ones."
"That's not news to her," Ginny muttered.
"Are they getting worse, Miss Weasley?"
"No, they're the same."
"She was screaming," declared Hermione a bit frantically.
"You can go now, Hermione," Ginny told her. "You've done your duty bringing me here."
"But…"
"There's no reason for you to remain, Miss Granger," Pomfrey told her. "Miss Weasley, go over to that bed so I can have a look at you." She pointed to the bed next to Draco, who appeared sound asleep.
"But there's no need…"
"Shush, go," the matron ordered, giving her a push toward the bed. "Thank you for bringing her down here," Pomfrey told Hermione, gently leading her to toward the door. "I doubt she would have come back to me otherwise."
"Is there anything you can do to help her?"
Madame Pomfrey glanced over at Ginny, who had stopped by Draco's bed. "Right now, the person she needs the most help from is herself."
*************
Draco rolled over as he heard Ginny approach. "Back so soon?"
"I missed the pleasure of your company too much to stay away," Ginny teased. She studied him for a moment. "You look a hundred times better than the last time I saw you."
"I always look good, Weasley."
Ginny snorted out a laugh. "Don't flatter yourself."
"Don't need to, you're doing it for me," Draco shot back with an impish grin.
"I only wondered how a boy who was half-dead a few hours ago had come around so fast," said Ginny.
"It's a miracle."
"It must be, Pomfrey's not that good," Ginny muttered.
"So why did you come back to see her?" wondered Draco.
"I was dragged," Ginny admitted.
"Put on your screech show for your roommates, did you?" Draco taunted.
"Something like that."
"Don't they teach 'Silencio' in first-year Charms any longer?"
"I didn't think of it in time," Ginny admitted.
"I thought those precious potions of yours would keep those dreams away."
"I didn't take a full dose," Ginny admitted. "I don't want to run out too quickly, and I was sure I couldn't count on the person who promised me more."
"I don't break promises – even those made to screechy, annoying weasels," vowed Draco. "You'll have your potions."
"When?"
"You're not my priority right now, Weasley."
"Miss Weasley, let Mr. Malfoy be, he needs his rest," Madame Pomfrey scolded, shooing Ginny away. "You could do with some rest yourself from what I hear."
"I'm not staying here!" Ginny insisted.
"Your Head of House wants you checked over, you'll stay long enough for that," the matron commanded, pushing Ginny to sit down onto the bed next to Draco's.
"Five minutes," proclaimed Ginny. Madam Pomfrey nodded distractedly as she went to a cabinet against the wall to get something out of there.
"Promise you won't stay longer?" asked Draco hopefully.
"You're not my favorite person to spend time with either," Ginny snapped.
"And yet you keep coming back."
"Not for your company," insisted Ginny
"Two days," Draco murmured.
"What?" Ginny crossed back over to Draco's bed.
"You'll have what you want in two days," Draco promised.
Madam Pomfrey returned and pulled Ginny away by the sleeve of her robes. "Go where you belong, Miss Weasley, I have something that should make you feel better."
"I'll hold you to that," Ginny called back to Draco before Madam Pomfrey jerked shut the curtain between them.
"Perhaps Mr. Malfoy no longer requires your assistance," Snape suggested. "Draco?"
Ginny jumped in before Draco could answer. "The state he's in, he's not about to let go of something solid, even if it is a Weasley," she declared. "However, if you would like to assist me in getting him back to Madame Pomfrey, I'm not going to refuse. He's not as scrawny as he looks."
Snape scowled but took Draco's arm and put it around his shoulders. Draco sagged heavily against him. "Why didn't you let me help you back up here?" Snape questioned.
"He didn't think he needed help, stupid git," Ginny muttered.
"Perhaps he wouldn't have if he hadn't run into you," accused Snape. "I told you…"
"I know what you told me," Ginny snapped. "This has nothing to do with that."
"With what?" asked Draco.
"Does Miss Weasley have anything to do with the sudden change in your condition?" Snape questioned.
"If I was going to hurt him, I would have pushed him down the stairs 10 minutes ago," Ginny huffed.
"She…helped," Draco told him.
"See."
"And how is it you are down here to perform such saintly deeds when you are supposed to be up in your common room at this time of night?" wondered Snape.
"I left something here that I need," Ginny answered, opening the hospital wing door.
Madam Pomfrey bustled over and interrupted them. "Mr. Malfoy, you stupid boy, what were you thinking leaving here?"
"Bed," Draco moaned.
"Yes, yes, let's get you back into bed," Pomfrey fussed, taking over supporting Draco from Ginny.
Ginny hurried over to her former bed and grabbed her bear off the pillow. She tried to sneak out while Snape and Pomfrey were getting Draco settled, but Snape snagged her arm as she passed. "Not so fast," he growled. "What did you sneak back here for?"
Ginny yanked her arm free. "Leave me be, I only came for her." She waved the bear in his face. Snape stepped back from the tattered stuffed animal with a sneer of disgust. "What is that thing?"
"Lilybear." Ginny unconsciously hugged the bear close.
Snape frowned. "Why Lily?"
"What?"
"Why do you call that thing Lily?" Snape questioned much too loudly.
Taken aback, Ginny only shrugged. "I don't know, she's always been Lilybear. I think my mum named it after the person who gave her to me."
"Get out." Snape pointed a shaky finger toward the door. "Now. Before I give you so much detention you'll have to spend the summer here."
Ginny hurried off, but not without sneaking a confused glance back at Snape.
After his run-in with Ginny, Snape turned his attention back to Draco. "What are you doing for him?" he barked at Pomfrey.
"Right now I need to find out how much more damage he's done to himself."
She waved her wand over Draco and a stream of colors began swirling just above him. Snape watched closely as a spot of red quickly spread and dominated the other colors.
"What are you going to do to fix that?" asked Snape impatiently.
"Healer Parkinson left some potions that I hope will help," she told him.
"You hope?!" ranted Snape.
"I'm doing what I can," Pomfrey shot back. "Perhaps if you had more control over your students…"
"Perhaps if you were better at treating your patients..." He let the insult hang as he stormed over to the fireplace, stepped inside and disappeared in a flash of green.
Just outside the hospital wing, Ginny ran into Pansy as the Slytherin hurried toward the room. "Good work there, Parkinson," Ginny taunted. "Half the people in this school want Draco Malfoy dead, but I think you may have actually managed it."
"What are you on about, Weasley?" Pansy snapped. "Draco's fine."
"Pomfrey doesn't seem to think so. And neither do you," Ginny accused. "If you did, you wouldn't be here."
"I only wanted to see if Professor Snape had sent him back here, since Draco didn't come back to the common room."
"No, Snape left him lying on the dungeon floor, so I had to rescues his sorry arse," said Ginny.
"You're mental, Weasley," Pansy muttered, pushing past her and opening the door.
"I won't be for long," Ginny murmured, patting the potions in her robes before taking off up the stairs back toward Gryffindor tower.
Pansy hurried inside to Draco's bedside and grabbed his hand, but he didn't move. "Draco, can you hear me?"
"Leave him be, Miss Parkinson," Madam Pomfrey scolded. "You've done quite enough damage already."
"I didn't do anything to him!"
"You were the only one to see Mr. Malfoy this evening, it must have been you who gave him the strengthening potion he needed to leave here," Pomfrey accused.
"It was Weasley, not me," Pansy tried to claim.
"Miss Weasley was long gone by then," Pomfrey informed her. "And she does not have access to potions the way a daughter of a healer would."
"I would never hurt Draco."
"Perhaps not intentionally, but nonetheless you have."
"Is he going to be okay?" Pansy questioned anxiously. She stroked Draco's hair, frowning more when he didn't stir at her touch.
"That remains to be seen," Pomfrey said ominously.
"You need to call my father!" Pansy insisted. "He fixed Draco before, he can do it again."
"Go back to the common room, Miss Parkinson," came a stern voice from across the room. Snape stepped out of the fireplace, brushing off his robes with his free hand. His other hand held something hidden underneath his robes.
"Not until my father gets here and I make sure Draco is going to be okay."
"There's no need to drag your father back out here," declared Snape.
"But Professor…." Pomfrey started.
"Did you not say he left potions for the boy to take?"
"Yes, but that was before…"
"Why haven't you given them to him yet? Go get them," Snape ordered.
"Pardon me?" she asked, affronted.
"Go get them now!" he barked, pulling his wand.
"You can't threaten…"
"Shall I summon the headmaster and inform him you won't properly treat Mr. Malfoy?"
"Stop it, both of you, and help him!" Pansy shrieked.
Madam Pomfrey bustled off to get the potions, muttering as she went.
"Keep her distracted," Snape ordered Pansy.
"What?"
"Keep her distracted," Snape repeated. "I need a few minutes with Draco."
"Why?"
"To save his life. Go!"
Pansy jumped up and ran after the matron. Snape pulled the wooden box covered with carved snakes from under his robes and waved a hand over it. "Let's hope this doesn't do more harm than good," he murmured.
****************
Ginny climbed silently through the portrait hole, ignoring the fat lady's grumblings about being out after hours. She crept across the room, jumping in surprise when a voice called to her from the sofa in front of the fire.
"Ginny?"
Ginny quickly stuffed the bottles of potion back into her robes. "Hermione, you scared the life out of me!"
"Where have you been?" Hermione questioned. "It's after hours, you shouldn't be wandering the castle this late."
"I forgot something in the hospital wing." Hermione studied her carefully, obviously unsure whether to believe her. "I'm not still possessed, if that's what you're thinking."
"No, of course not, I…"
"Forget it, Hermione, I can't blame you for not trusting me," declared Ginny with a sigh. "But I wasn't out hurting anyone."
"Of course you weren't," Hermione declared, getting up and hugging Ginny. "I know the diary isn't controlling you anymore. Harry told me all about how it was destroyed."
Ginny pulled away from her. "So why were you waiting up for me?"
"I wasn't!" Hermione insisted. "I didn't even know you were gone. Ron told me that you'd gone up to bed. Weren't you able to sleep?"
"I've been sleeping for days, I've had more than enough of that," Ginny declared.
"I know what you mean."
"Don't tell me you were down here studying."
Hermione guiltily stuck a book behind a pillow. "I…I'm…I only wanted to catch up a bit, I missed so much work."
"Because of me," Ginny murmured. "I don’t know why you don’t hate me."
"I don't have all that many friends, I can't go hating the ones I do have," Hermione teased.
Ginny blinked in surprise. "Friends?"
"Well, we are, aren't we?" asked Hermione with a bemused smile.
"You're Ron's friend."
"So I can't be yours?"
"No….I mean yes…I mean, do you want to be?" Ginny wondered.
"I adore Ron and Harry, but sometimes a girl just wants to talk to another girl, you know?" Hermione laughed. "You grew up with six brothers, of course you know!"
Ginny nodded with a smile.
"So, as your friend, can I ask if you're okay?"
"I'm okay."
"If you need to talk…"
"What has Ron been telling you?" Ginny asked suddenly.
"Nothing," Hermione was quick to insist. "He refuses to talk about the Chamber at all. And when I asked after you, all he said was that you were fine now and I should leave you alone. He was rather rude about it, truth be told."
"He can be a git sometimes," Ginny noted. "Most times, come to think."
Hermione smiled but shook her head. "He was only being protective of you."
"Little late for that, isn't it?"
"Ginny…"
"Sorry, I shouldn't have said that," apologized Ginny quickly. "None of this is Ron's fault."
"He thinks it is," Hermione revealed. "He's been beating himself up over what happened for days. I think all your brothers are feeling a little guilty. Percy's been especially strict lately, and the twins haven't wreaked nearly as much havoc as they usually do."
"At least something good came from all that's happened then," remarked Ginny wryly.
"Oh Ginny, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make light of what you've been through!"
"I don’t want to talk about it anymore," Ginny declared. "I just want to put it all behind me now that the Chamber is closed and the diary is gone."
"But…"
"I'm fine, Hermione, I truly am," Ginny insisted. "I feel so much better now being up here with my friends rather than stuck down in the hospital wing with Malfoy."
Hermione wrinkled her nose. "I don’t know how you could stand being around that nasty git for so long."
"He was unconscious most of the time," Ginny explained. "I guess the rest of the time he was too knackered to be mean, he wasn't nearly as annoying as I was expecting."
"He really was hurt, then?" asked Hermione. "I thought maybe he was faking."
"No, he wasn't faking."
"So what happened to him? It sounds as if he was pretty bad off."
"He is. And George pouncing on him didn't help any."
"George was the one who put him in the hospital wing?!"
"No! Although I did think at first that maybe Fred or George had done something," Ginny admitted. "I'm sure Harry told you that Lucius Malfoy was the one who slipped me that diary." Hermione nodded. "So it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that one of them might have gone after Malfoy for revenge. But I think Malfoy would have gone on about it to no end if that was the case. He also would have done anything he could to get them in trouble. And he never would have mouthed off the way he did to them today if they had been the one to give him that beating."
"Someone beat on him?"
"That's what I'm guessing, from the condition he was in."
"It couldn't have been… That night was a really difficult one, your family and friends were so anxious about you, you don't think…"
"No, I don't think it was Ron," said Ginny, guessing what was worrying Hermione. "Harry either. They were with me the whole time before Malfoy was hurt. And Malfoy wouldn't have wasted any time getting them in trouble, either, if they'd attacked him."
Hermione nodded, relief obvious in her face. "I'm glad you're away from him now and back here where you belong. But I wish you would stay here rather than wander around the castle late at night."
"I wasn't wandering!" Ginny insisted. "And I can't possibly be friends with you, Hermione, if you're going to act like my mother."
Hermione looked affronted until she saw Ginny was grinning. She gave an uncertain laugh. "It's only because I'm concerned about you, Ginny. I've never seen Ron so worried."
"I'm afraid I gave him a bit of a scare that first night after they got me out of the Chamber," Ginny confessed.
"But you're better now? It wasn't nightmares that have you up this late?"
Ginny shook her head as she studied Hermione carefully. "You aren't having nightmares, are you? About the basilisk or being petrified?"
"No, I didn’t really see the basilisk, and I don’t remember being petrified," Hermione explained. "My nightmares are all about the work I missed and how I'm going to make it all up in two weeks."
"Surely the teachers don't expect…"
"I can't let that work go undone!" Hermione fairly screeched. "How would I ever be able to keep up next year? And I have to keep my place at the top of the class, I can't let Malfoy get ahead of me!"
"Malfoy?"
"He's second in our class, he's really smart," Hermione declared. "Or maybe he just studies hard." She shrugged. "Either way, he's right behind me, and I have to make sure he stays there. It's the only thing that gets me through when he's calling me the terrible things he does, knowing that no matter where I came from I can still do better than him at this school."
"Must we listen to the Mudblood whine all night?" Tom declared loudly in Ginny's head.
Ginny put her hand to her head, startled by the sudden noise.
"Ginny, are you okay?"
"I'm afraid my long day is catching up with me," Ginny apologized. "Would you mind terribly if I went up to bed now?"
"Of course not, of course not," Hermione assured her. "Go, have a good sleep."
"You should get some rest, too," Ginny advised.
"I have the summer to sleep." She pulled her book back out from under the pillow.
"Okay, goodnight then."
Hermione already had her nose back in her book and didn't even answer.
Ginny quickly made her way upstairs to the dorms. She crept into the room, hoping to reach her bed undetected, but Riley Wentworth, who occupied the bed next to hers, was still up reading. She glanced quizzically between Ginny and the blanket-covered lump in Ginny's bed.
"Ginny? I thought you were sleeping."
"No, that's just pillows."
"I know I saw you come up…"
"I went back down after the crowd left," Ginny lied. "You must have been caught up in your book and didn't see me."
"Everything okay?
"Everything's fine. I was just talking to Hermione for a bit." She faked a yawn. "I'm knackered, I'll see you in the morning, Riley."
"Sure, Ginny. Let me know if you need anything."
Ginny nodded and climbed into her bed, pulling the curtains tight around it. Slipping the potions out of her robes, she laid them on the bed in front of her. "One, two, three," she murmured. "Only three nights of peace, unless Malfoy comes through. But I best not count on that. So three it is." She brightened suddenly. "Unless I only take half."
"Ginny, did you say something?" Riley called.
Ginny ignored her as she split open the back of her bear with her wand, stuffed two of the potion bottles in there and then opened the third. "Half it is, then." She tipped the bottle into her mouth, reluctantly stopping when it was only half gone. She put the third bottle in with the others and muttered "Repairo" over the hole in the bear, which stitched itself back together. "Hopefully that's enough for a couple hours peace."
"Not bloody likely," Tom taunted her.
Ginny rolled over, burying her head under her pillow to try to shut out his laughter echoing in her head. Curling up under the covers and pulling her bear close, she murmured softly, "No more bad dreams, no more bad dreams" over and over until the potion slowly led her to sleep.
**************
Three hours later, Ginny was awakened by someone shaking her roughly. "Stop, please," Ginny begged. "Leave me alone."
"Ginny, wake up!" the person shaking her commanded. "You're having a nightmare."
Ginny opened her eyes groggily to find her roommates hovering anxiously over her. Riley was sitting on the bed next to her, her hands still firmly on Ginny's shoulders.
"What happened?" asked a shaken Ginny, trying to shrug off Riley's grasp.
"You were screaming bloody murder," Riley told her, letting go of Ginny's shoulders and stroking Ginny's hair absentmindedly. "I've never heard anything like it."
"I was screaming?"
"Like someone was murdering you," muttered one of the other girls.
"I'm sorry," an embarrassed Ginny murmured. "I didn't realize I was dreaming."
"That wasn't dreaming," declared Sabrina O'Leary, another of her roommates. "Only something really horrible could have made you scream like a banshee like that. What was it? Were you thinking about what happened to you down in the Chamber of Secrets?"
"Leave her alone, Sabrina," Riley demanded. "She's been through enough; she doesn't need you bothering her."
"If she's going to be waking us up like that for the next two weeks, I think we deserve to know why she's screeching."
"I don't know why!" cried Ginny. "I can't remember any of it!"
"You have to remember something," Sabrina insisted. "You were down there all day."
"No she doesn't," snapped Riley. "Leave her alone."
"I was knocked out, I think," said Ginny softly.
"By what?" all but Riley asked in anxious anticipation.
Ginny shrugged. "I was in the corridor on the second floor, on my way to visit Hermione, and the next thing I know I'm waking up in the Chamber with Harry looking down at me."
"I could think of worse things to wake up to," said Sabrina, flashing a wicked grin.
"We heard there was a dragon down there," piped up one of the other girls.
"I don't remember any dragons," Ginny told her.
"So you don't know who or what dragged you down there?" Sabrina asked. Ginny shook her head. "C'mon, Ginny, you can tell us. We won't say anything to anyone else if you don't want them to know your business. Right, girls?"
The other girls nodded eagerly.
"Sorry, but I really don't remember," Ginny told them.
"I think it's time everyone stopped bugging Ginny and went back to sleep," Riley piped up. The other girls muttered in dissent, but they dispersed when Riley shooed them away. Riley turned back to Ginny. "You'll be OK?" Ginny nodded. "I could get McGonagall or Madame Pomfrey."
"No need, I won't be waking you anymore," Ginny assured her. She snuggled back under her blankets, pulling her bear close. "Night, Riley."
Riley hesitated, uncertain of whether to go, but finally said, "Night, Ginny. Sleep well."
After Riley turned away, Ginny pulled her wand out from under her covers. "Silencio," she murmured, touching it to her throat before snuggling back under the covers.
***************
Hermione gently pushed Ginny into the hospital ward, despite her protests.
"This really isn't necessary," Ginny insisted. "I'm fine, my roommates were overreacting."
"They were terrified, Ginny," Hermione said worriedly. "The screaming…"
"Wasn't anything," Ginny interrupted.
"It was to your roommates," Hermione told her. "They said they'd never heard anything like it."
"So you dragged me down here because my roommates exaggerate?" huffed Ginny.
"I brought you here because Professor McGonagall is worried you might have come back too soon," Hermione admitted. "Perhaps another night here…"
"No!" Ginny declared loudly, drawing Madam Pomfrey's attention to their arrival. "It was one nightmare, I think I'm entitled to that after everything that's happened."
"Miss Weasley, what are you doing back here?" Madam Pomfrey questioned. "Are you not feeling well?"
"I'm feeling fine."
"She's having nightmares," Hermione piped up. "Terrible ones."
"That's not news to her," Ginny muttered.
"Are they getting worse, Miss Weasley?"
"No, they're the same."
"She was screaming," declared Hermione a bit frantically.
"You can go now, Hermione," Ginny told her. "You've done your duty bringing me here."
"But…"
"There's no reason for you to remain, Miss Granger," Pomfrey told her. "Miss Weasley, go over to that bed so I can have a look at you." She pointed to the bed next to Draco, who appeared sound asleep.
"But there's no need…"
"Shush, go," the matron ordered, giving her a push toward the bed. "Thank you for bringing her down here," Pomfrey told Hermione, gently leading her to toward the door. "I doubt she would have come back to me otherwise."
"Is there anything you can do to help her?"
Madame Pomfrey glanced over at Ginny, who had stopped by Draco's bed. "Right now, the person she needs the most help from is herself."
*************
Draco rolled over as he heard Ginny approach. "Back so soon?"
"I missed the pleasure of your company too much to stay away," Ginny teased. She studied him for a moment. "You look a hundred times better than the last time I saw you."
"I always look good, Weasley."
Ginny snorted out a laugh. "Don't flatter yourself."
"Don't need to, you're doing it for me," Draco shot back with an impish grin.
"I only wondered how a boy who was half-dead a few hours ago had come around so fast," said Ginny.
"It's a miracle."
"It must be, Pomfrey's not that good," Ginny muttered.
"So why did you come back to see her?" wondered Draco.
"I was dragged," Ginny admitted.
"Put on your screech show for your roommates, did you?" Draco taunted.
"Something like that."
"Don't they teach 'Silencio' in first-year Charms any longer?"
"I didn't think of it in time," Ginny admitted.
"I thought those precious potions of yours would keep those dreams away."
"I didn't take a full dose," Ginny admitted. "I don't want to run out too quickly, and I was sure I couldn't count on the person who promised me more."
"I don't break promises – even those made to screechy, annoying weasels," vowed Draco. "You'll have your potions."
"When?"
"You're not my priority right now, Weasley."
"Miss Weasley, let Mr. Malfoy be, he needs his rest," Madame Pomfrey scolded, shooing Ginny away. "You could do with some rest yourself from what I hear."
"I'm not staying here!" Ginny insisted.
"Your Head of House wants you checked over, you'll stay long enough for that," the matron commanded, pushing Ginny to sit down onto the bed next to Draco's.
"Five minutes," proclaimed Ginny. Madam Pomfrey nodded distractedly as she went to a cabinet against the wall to get something out of there.
"Promise you won't stay longer?" asked Draco hopefully.
"You're not my favorite person to spend time with either," Ginny snapped.
"And yet you keep coming back."
"Not for your company," insisted Ginny
"Two days," Draco murmured.
"What?" Ginny crossed back over to Draco's bed.
"You'll have what you want in two days," Draco promised.
Madam Pomfrey returned and pulled Ginny away by the sleeve of her robes. "Go where you belong, Miss Weasley, I have something that should make you feel better."
"I'll hold you to that," Ginny called back to Draco before Madam Pomfrey jerked shut the curtain between them.
Author notes: No, I haven't forgotten about this story, I've just been having computer issues (and life issues) that forced me to put it on hold for awhile. I plan to keep updating on a more regular basis from now on, so please keep reading -- and please let me know what you think!
To Be Continued.
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