Ultimatum

A/N: Um...wow, I cannot tell everyone how incredibly sorry I am that this story has gone so long without an update. It has taken me over a year to get this chapter to seem right, and even though it isn't exactly how I pictured it, it's better than nothing, I think. I hope to finish this story within the next couple of chapters, but I'm not promising frequent updates.

~Temptress

Awake

Hermione closed her eyes, rubbed her temples softly, and then opened her eyes back up. “Harry?” she asked, sounding more than confused.

“Yes, Hermione, it’s me, Harry,” he said.

“Why am I in the hospital?” she asked softly. Her voice was a mere whisper and she couldn’t figure out why she had such a headache.

“Hermione,” Harry said lightly. “You’re lucky to be alive, when Nott cursed yo—”

“Nott!” she said, suddenly angry. “Where is that bastard? I’m going to kill him. He raped me, Harry! He—” her voice suddenly broke off in a sob. “He raped me.”

“I know, Hermione,” Harry said. “I was there, I heard him. I killed him, Hermione.”

“What did you mean that I was lucky to be alive? You got there in time, didn’t you?” she asked.

Harry shook his head. “No, Hermione, I didn’t.”

“Draco then?” she asked, smiling brightly. “I knew he would save me. Where is he anyway?”

“He’s downstairs getting us a couple sodas,” Harry said. “He’s been here everyday, by your side.”

“Every day?” she asked. “How long have I been out for?” She looked at Harry but he looked as though he would rather not say anything. “Harry? How long have I been in a coma?”

“Hey, Potter, I wasn’t sure if you wanted diet or regular, so I got you a—” The sodas hit the ground with two loud thumps as Draco came into the room and saw that Hermione was sitting up in the bed. “Hermione!”

She smiled. “Draco.”

Draco ran over to the bed and wrapped his arms tightly around her. He kissed her softly and smiled. “Hermione, I’m so glad you’re awake, I thought you’d never wake up.” He kissed her again, but she pulled away.

“How long was I out?” she asked them both this time. “I want to know. It can’t be that bad, right? A couple days, a couple weeks?” She stared straight at Draco. “Draco, tell me, please?”

He took a deep breath and looked her in the eye. “When Nott hit you with the curse, you hit the ground so hard that it gave you a concussion. You weren’t dead, but because of the coma, you looked like it. We all thought you were.”

“But how did I not die? I was hit with the killing curse, wasn’t I?”

“Now there’s two people that have survived it,” Harry said, trying to lighten the mood.

“But how?” she asked.

“Someone died for you,” Draco said, trying not to look her in the eye.

“But no one else was around,” Hermione reasoned. “It was just you two and Nott, wasn’t it? Who died for me and how? I remember getting hit with the curse, how could it not kill me?” she was hysterical that someone else had died in her place.

Draco grimaced and grabbed her hand, resting it lightly over her now flat stomach. He looked back up into her eyes. He saw the moment that recognition hit. Her eyes turned from inquisitorial to sadness in a heartbeat. “The baby,” she said in a breath of air.

Draco nodded and rubbed her cheek with his fingers. “The curse hit you right in the navel.”

She turned to Harry and he confirmed this. “Your baby died for you, Hermione. But you’re alive,” he said with a smile.

She sighed heavily. She was happy that she was alive, that Draco would still have her to love. And, she thought, they could always have another baby. “Okay,” she said. “I’m still alive and our baby died for me. But how long was I out?”

Draco looked hesitant again. “Seven months.”

Hermione could only stare. Seven months of her life had been spent in a coma? Draco had come to visit her every day for the last seven months. That had been longer than she and Draco had been together. She just stared. Trying to process this. “Shit,” she said softly.

Draco hugged her close to himself. “I was so worried,” he said. “When I got released, Harry told me that you were alive and I was so happy that even seeing you in a coma was enough to get me by. I lived for two weeks thinking that you were dead. It was the worst two weeks of my entire life. I thought of a million different ways I would kill myself, but thoughts of my mother stopped me.”

“Draco,” Hermione said softly. “It’s okay. I’m here, I’m awake, I’m in love with you, and we can go back to the way we were now.” She smiled and hugged him, but she missed the meaningful glance that he sent Harry. Should we tell her the rest? he asked with his eyes, and Harry shook his head No.