A Reason To Be

When Madam Pomfrey woke up Draco early Saturday morning, she sent him back to his room for some real sleep in a real bed. When she asked him why he was in the hospital wing, he had answered truthfully. He could not sleep and when he got up this seemed like the place to go. On his way back to his room he passed a lot of students heading out to Hogsmeade, none of them seemed to notice him shuffling down the halls and up the stairwells. When he finally crawled into bed, he slept like a rock for hours into the afternoon.

In the late afternoon, Draco wandered down from his bedroom and went to the Great Hall. When he arrived he found that much to his dismay, he had missed lunch. The moment he had entered Ron and Harry and looked up and each given him a hateful glare.

‘Holy shit! They really do think I was the one who did it! Those annoying, little gits!’ Draco thought to himself as he spun on his heel and left the hall. He started walking around the ground and soon found himself strolling across the lawns towards Hagrid’s hut. While he walked it started to snow lightly, the first of the winter. Draco pulled his black coat around himself tighter and kept walking. He really didn’t mind Hagrid too much now; the times they played poker together had been enjoyable.

‘I’ll see what Rubeus is up to today.’ Draco thought as he jogged up to the giant’s door and mounted the steps. He knew Hagrid was home because he could hear him moving around inside, but knocked anyway.

“I’m comin’!” Hagrid bellowed. A moment later the large, wooden door opened and Hagrid leaned out, looking somewhat surprised to see Draco.

“Oh, hallo there Draco! Fancy seein’ ya here. Come in!” Hagrid said, beckoning the young man inside. Draco murmured his greeting to Hagrid and stepped in the hut. Draco took the seat that he was offered while Hagrid bustled about, looking for some rock cakes and a teacup for Draco.

“You hear about Hermione Granger?” Draco asked finally. Hagrid stopped what he was doing when he heard Draco’s words. He sighed and sat down in the chair next to him.

“Yea I did. Terrible thing that, who would do somethin’ like that?” Hagrid said gravely. Draco did not reply though, he sat there looking at his hands. Hagrid glanced at Draco and leaned closer.

“Draco, I know yer a Malfoy an’ all but I know ya wouldn’t do such a thing.” Hagrid stated with much confidence. Draco looked up and nodded his head as he took a sip of his tea.

“I’m the one who found her in the alley.” Draco added and looked up at the large man. Hagrid seemed surprised at this statement. His eyes widen a little and his mouth was gaped open.

“I didn’t know that! Harry and Ron didn’t tell me that!” Hagrid exclaimed. Draco scoffed and shook his head immediately when he heard this.

“No they wouldn’t, would they? Since they think it was me that did that to her.” Draco said bitterly. Hagrid stood up and starting putting the dish of rock cakes and the tea away. He put on his moleskin coat on and turned to speak to Draco.

“Well you an’ I know ya didn’t do it. Now come on, I gotta go and see Grawp.” Hagrid said. Draco nodded and got to his feet and followed the giant outside. Draco had been with Hagrid to see his half-brother a few times before. Draco had never seen a full giant before and Hagrid liked for Grawp to have company other than him sometimes. After Hagrid grabbed the large sack of food for his brother, the two tread quietly through the forest, the light snow started to thinly cover the ground and trees. Draco had his wand his pocket, within reach of need be. He did this for two reasons. The first being that though they had not encountered any centaurs in a long while, it was still dangerous to walk through the forest. The second reason was that sometimes Grawp got overly-excited and when that happened it could be dangerous for Draco.

Soon the two came to a clearing and saw Grawp sitting on a large boulder looking straight up at the sky. When the giant heard Hagrid and Draco coming he jumped up and smiled his snaggle-toothed grin.

“HAGER! WHITE, HAGER!” Grawp shouted happily. Now Grawp got giddy whenever his big brother came to see him. Grawp knew ‘Drao’ as well, but never said anything to him. Hagrid smiled up at Grawp and nodded indulgently.

“Yea Grawp, that’s snow.” Hagrid explained gently. Grawp clapped and held out his massive hand to catch the snowflakes. Draco sat down on a smaller, nearby rock and watched Hagrid drag the bag of food over to Grawp. Grawp abandoned the snowflakes when he saw the bag of food. As he waited impatiently for his brother to unload it, Grawp looked around and recognized the young, blonde man sitting on the rock.

“DRAO!” Grawp shouted as he waved his massive hand in Draco’s direction. Malfoy laughed and waved his hand in return.

“Hi Grawp.” Draco said loud enough for the giant to hear. When Grawp heard the greeting he smiled and turned back to Hagrid and began devouring the contents of Hagrid’s bag.

When the food had been eaten and they had said goodbye to Grawp, the two walked back up to Hagrid’s hut and then Draco continued on to the castle for dinner. On the way to the castle, Draco’s thoughts wandered back to Hermione. She had been dominating his mind most of the day. His mind pictured her lying in the bed in the hospital wing, as white as the sheets she laid on. It was not a pleasant thought for him. Draco didn’t even bother to take his coat back up his room; he went directly to the Great Hall. Just outside the door he noticed something rare, a house elf. Normally they kept out of sight, but upon further inspection Draco found that it was indeed his father’s former slave; Dobby.

On Dobby’s head was a little knitted hat and he remembered hearing about Hermione’s efforts to make clothes for all the house elves at Hogwarts, thus freeing them. When he saw Dobby, an idea popped into Draco’s head and he quickly strode over to the elf. The house elf saw Draco walking over to him and a frown crept across his face.

“Dobby…” Draco said, reaching down and lightly grasping his thin, little arm. Dobby did not look happy to see him.

“Former young master, what do you want with Dobby?” The house elf asked somewhat bitterly. Draco squatted down so he could be at eye-to-eye level with him.

“I need you to do something for me.” Draco whispered. Dobby narrowed his eyes at Malfoy and tried to wrestle his arm away from his grasp.

“Dobby does not work for Malfoy family anymore!” Dobby shouted. Draco sighed impatiently and tightened his hold on the house elf.

I know you don’t Dobby, but I need a favor. It’s not really for me, it is for Hermione. You know she is hurt, right?” Draco asked quietly, trying not to draw any attention from the droves of students heading for dinner. Dobby’s expression softened when he heard Hermione’s name. He had heard about Hermione and he was had been sad that someone had hurt the girl who had tried to free all his fellow house elves. Dobby nodded at Draco’s question.

“Well I want you to go into her room and get a few things. Get the blanket off her bed and some of her stuff. In fact, just bring everything in her trunk.” Every student at Hogwarts had a trunk at the foot of their bed for their personal items; he knew she would be no different. Dobby really didn’t understand why he wanted those things of Hermione’s but if it was for her, he would do it.

“Dobby will get Miss Hermione’s things, where should Dobby put them?” Dobby answered finally. Draco’s face looked relieved when the house elf confirmed he would cooperate. Draco told him to go quickly bring everything to the hospital wing while everyone was at dinner in the Great Hall. Dobby nodded and bounded away swiftly towards the Gryffindor dormitories.

After Draco had finished his dinner, he went directly to the medical ward and found that Dobby had indeed followed through. At the far end of the room, Hermione lay in the same bed she had been. Now there was a lush, red bedspread laid across her instead of the thin white sheet that was there. And her head now rested on the red pillows that matched, instead of the flat white ones Madam Pomfrey provided. At the foot of the bed stood Hermione’s trunk. As Draco entered, he saw Dobby leave through another door. He strode over to Hermione and stood next to the bed. The red bed linens made her look even paler but at least she looked more comfortable than she had before, if such a thing was possible. Draco walked over to her trunk and opened it. There were a few pictures, a teddy bear, her CD player and cds, amongst other things. A few books were on the bottom as well. Draco reached in and took hold of her teddy bear. It was a little shabby looking, he was sure she had had this bear for most of her life and would not give it up for anything. Draco looked thoughtfully at the stuffed animal and then placed it at Hermione’s side.

‘If you are going to be here, you may as well be comfortable, right?’ Draco thought to himself, as he placed the bear in the crook of her arm. He felt it was the least he could to surround her with her own things, since it was his fault she wasn’t in her own room to begin with. Draco reached back down into the trunk and grabbed a picture frame he intended to set on the table beside her bed. When he looked at it and realized what it was off, a sour look came across Draco’s face.

“This is going back in the damn box.” Draco said in disgust as he dropped a picture of Ron and Harry back into the trunk.