Divided

Authors Note: Again my thanks go out to Alexandra (grin) and Alicia. I also wanted to share one of the funniest reviews I have gotten to date from the last chapter: In the spirit of the Olympics...Draco could win a freaking gold medal...for jumping to conclusions!! Thanks Emmy. I\'m still laughing! I\'m really looking forward to reading your story! - Also, I posted a new One shot, this one is a song fic. Check it out and let me know what you think.



Chapter 7 Relief



I finally decided that I needed a friend in this forsaken new hell I had agreed to work in, so my plan to visit with Hermione was back on track, though not for the same reasons as before.



Life post-Harry had been difficult, wondering every day where he was, what he was doing, if he was okay… if he was even alive. But this new existence, this half-life was almost worse. I knew Harry was fine; I sat next to him during almost three meals a day, and he seemed happy enough, even chuckling to himself on occasion. He still dropped by my classes, quietly monitoring my teaching style, taking notes and nodding politely as he left.



This Harry who lived on the edge of my peripheral was driving me insane. It was like he was calling to me, but remained just out of reach. It was a nightmare.



I felt like I was going mad, and I had no one to talk to. The only people in the castle that were my age were Harry and Hermione, and I obviously couldn’t speak to Harry about it. I had halfway debated talking to Minerva, but I was too afraid that I was mistaken in thinking she was aware of Harry and my background. I really didn’t want to be the one to break that news to her.



I made my way down to the hospital wing that evening, hoping not to run into the sight I did last time. I made it all the way, uninterrupted though, and found Hermione sitting in her office.



“Hermione?” I asked tentatively.



“I was wondering when you would finally make your way down here, Malfoy,” she responded, without turning around.



“Pardon?” She was expecting me, why had she been expecting me? Was I that transparently upset over Harry and Ginny?



“Harry mentioned that he finally told you why he left,” she said, still not turning to face me. It was rather irritating.



“Oh, yeah that,” that issue hardly seemed of consequence now, faced with the new information I had received.



She turned around then, and her face was cautious but inquisitive. “If not that, then why did you come down here?” she asked.



“I wanted to erm… talk about Harry’s… what I mean is… I saw him and Ginny yesterday and the… er baby,” I spit out at last, never sounding more like an imbecile than I did in that moment.



Her face turned perplexed and then she broke out into a wide grin. “This is too rich, wait until Minerva hears this. Boys, I swear, you’re so dense.”



I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just kept quiet, waiting for her to continue. I didn’t have to wait for long. “Look, Malfoy… I really don’t have time for this. I have actual sick children to deal with, though you seem to just be an older child.”



I huffed slightly. “So what? I need to be sick in order to get your attention?”



She seemed to think it over and then nodded. “Yes. The truth is Malfoy; I have nothing to say to you. You hurt my friend, irreparably, and I want nothing to do with you.”



I sighed and watched her for a moment. Nothing in her body language suggested even an inkling of doubt, so I left, turning back to my solitude.



--



Another week went by, and Harry showed up to my class less and less. Maybe I was a decent professor after all. The students seemed to think so, which made me feel better.



I was in the middle of third year potions when a thin wisp of smoke trickled out of a cauldron, belonging to a small slip of a boy in the back row. I walked quickly up the stairs and was met with a horrifying odor.



“Jenks? What the bloody hell did you do to that potion?” I shouted, trying to clear the other students away so that I could get to the offending cauldron.



The boy shrugged shyly and stuttered about too much mugwort.



I shook my head. “No, mugwort wouldn’t do this, you put bat wing in it didn’t you?” I asked, staring incredulously at the swirling mixture.



He looked down sheepishly. “I think I may have sir.”



I groaned and grabbed the cauldron away and started levitating it up to the front of the class. “Class dismissed. Jenk’s you’ll be coming back after supper to clean up this mess, understood?”



The boy nodded quickly and escaped with the rest of the class.



I had barely made it back to my desk when the explosion hit me, knocking me to the ground and coating me in the putrid liquid. I must have hit my head pretty hard, because I couldn’t make myself get up, and I slowly drifted out of consciousness.



--



The first thing I could think about upon waking was the horrid smell. Though fainter than before, it still lingered in the air all around me. I wondered how long I had been out.



I shifted slightly and could feel soft downy fabric above and below me and I panicked for a moment before I realized I must have been found and taken to the hospital wing. My guesses were confirmed the minute I opened my eyes.



Squinting against the harsh glare of the lights I was able to make out the slight body of a witch standing beside my bed, and behind her, two other forms. She was glaring at them impatiently but didn’t shoo them away from the bed. “Malfoy? Professor can you hear me?”



I nodded and winced and she seemed to take that as enough.



“Lie back, no, don’t move. – I said don’t move you stubborn arse!” she shouted as I tried to shift in the bed to see around her. The other two sniggered at her outburst and I knew then that one of the figures was my student. I tried to open my eyes more fully and was rewarded by smiling faces, though Hermione’s face was still set in a firm frown.



Standing behind Hermione was Jenks and behind him stood Harry, his hands resting of the smaller boys shoulder. “Professor, Jenks just felt so awful about what happened. I told him he could stay here with me and wait for you to wake up, so that he could apologize.”



I narrowed my eyes. “Boy, you are worse than Longbottom. I hope you don’t think sitting here at my deathbed is going to get you out of detention,” I rasped.



Harry laughed and rolled his eyes. “I see the potion had no effect on his ability to make snide comments,” he muttered to Hermione, still smiling. He then looked back to me and his eyes were sparkling green gemstones. “We were worried.”



I could tell by the look on his face that it wasn’t the loss of my quick wit that had him worried, and I felt a twinge of warmth radiate through me. Harry was concerned about me.



I waved the unwarranted giddiness away quickly, though. He was deputy headmaster, and if nothing else an acquaintance of mine, of course he would be worried, but it changed nothing else between us.



Jenks still looked a bit ill from my berating him a moment before and I lessened my glare on him slightly. “I’ll be fine Jenks. You can run off to your friends now. I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”



He nodded shyly and Hermione led him from the room with a light hand on his back. After he left, she went into her office, leaving Harry and I alone. “So were you really worried about me?” I asked.



Harry looked down at the floor, a slow smile creeping onto his features. “Of course I was worried about you…you’re… well, you’re fragile,” he replied at last, grinning cheekily.



I rolled my eyes. “I am not fragile,” I mumbled, trying to sit up. I was rewarded for my effort with a shooting pain lancing across my chest and I winced. Harry was at my side in a heartbeat, pressing me back into the bed.



“You really are a stubborn arse, you know that?” he grumbled, his hand still pressed against my chest. It was like electric fire where he touched me, and that was even through clothing.



No, it wasn’t. I realized that I had no shirt on whatsoever. My eyes went wide as looked briefly at my exposed torso, then at Harry’s hand. He caught my look and pulled his hand back like it had been against a hot stovetop. “Sorry,” he muttered.



“I can’t believe you let one of my students see me topless,” I groaned.



Harry smile as back when he replied. “To be fair, you were covered by a blanket until you started trying to sit up.”



I sighed overdramatically. “Well, now what am I supposed to do? I can’t have a student lusting after me in class. He’ll never get a thing done.”



Harry laughed and nudged me lightly in the ribs. “You would be worried about that, as opposed to the searing nightmares he’ll be having.” He stopped laughing long enough to shrug and continue. “It could have been worse, though.”



I raised a delicate eyebrow in question. “How exactly could it have been worse?”



“The blanket could have fallen off entirely,” he said, trying to stifle more laughter.



I pulled the blanket up and peer under it quickly. I was completely nude. “I suppose this is your doing, Potter?” I teased.



His face turned bright re as he nodded. I was shocked; I had assumed it was Hermione who had done the undressing, as it is part of her job. “ We had to get you out of the potion soaked clothing and Hermione asked for my assistance, since I was…” He let the idea trail off.



“Since you were what?”



He looked away. “Since I was used to seeing you naked,” he muttered, grudgingly.



I laughed. “I’m sure you pointed out that you were used to seeing seventeen year old me naked, not Professor Malfoy.”



A subtle smile twitched onto his face. “Yes, in fact I did… but Hermione is… well… persistent.”



I nodded and tried to relax. Laying here starkers, in front of my ex-lover who was apparently no longer interested in men, was not my idea of a good time, but I tried to cope.



“I thought they would have faded more,” he sighed, his fingertips brushing one of the vivid pink scars on my chest.



I grimaced. I didn’t like thinking about the night that Harry cursed me. I had forgiven him of course, and it wasn’t his actions that made me feel ill, it was mine. If he hadn’t hexed me, I would have hit him with an unforgivable. It made me sick to my stomach to think I could have hurt Harry so badly, and so easily. The word ‘crucio’ just popped from my mouth as easily as ‘hello’. It was disgusting.



He pulled his hand back, apparently thinking I was grimacing at him. “It’s okay, Harry,” I said quietly. I could see his inner turmoil laid bare in his eyes.



He shook his head. “Listen, Mal- er… Draco, I’m glad you’re okay. I should go… I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow.”



He didn’t wait for my reply before high tailing it from the room. He was spooked, and I wasn’t even completely sure what had done the spooking.



I heard approaching footsteps and I thought for a moment that Harry had changed his mind. It was Hermione. Her approaching figure looked slightly menacing.



“What did you do?” she hissed.



“Me? I didn’t do anything,” I replied, slightly shocked by the accusation.



He hands were on her hips and she was scowling. “Then why did he shoot out of here like a bat out of hell?”



“My scars,” I said simply. If she was going to make wild assumptions about me, I wasn’t going to indulge her further.



He face softened and she dropped her hands. “Oh.” She pulled my covers up a little higher and patted them in place. “I saw his face when he saw them before. He never wanted to hurt you.”



“You think I don’t know that? Harry would never intentionally hurt anyone. It’s just not in his nature,” I muttered.



She smiled sadly. “I don’t know about that… he’s purposefully hurt plenty of people, but I know he would never hurt you.”



I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter much anymore does it?”



“No, I guess not,” she said as she turned to go back to her office.



“Granger?”



She looked back curiously and inclined her head that I continue.



“When are they getting married?”



She looked perplexed. “Who?”



I rolled my eyes. “Ginevra and Harry, who else?”



She laughed so hard she had to brace herself on my bed. When she finally calmed down she answered me. “Harry and Ginny are not getting married. Ginny’s already married. She and Neville got married two years after exams, in fact it was the same weekend Harry came back.”



“But… isn’t Longbottom his friend? Why would Harry do that? Ew,” I said, entirely disgusted with the idea of Harry having sex with another man’s wife. I mean, Harry having sex with anyone but me made me nauseous, but having sex with Ginny, under those circumstances just seemed wrong.



Hermione rolled her yes, but continued to laugh. “Malfoy, Harry never had sex with Ginny, she’s pregnant with Neville’s baby…or babies as I think it to be. It’s too soon to tell but-“



She was starting to babble so I cut her off, attempting to get more important things answered. “So, Harry and Ginny are not, and never were lovers or dating or anything of the sort?”



“No. Harry’s just the godfather,” she said plainly.



“Why would he tell me…” my voice trailed off as an idea struck me. He had never come out and said he was the father; in fact, I was so flustered when I talked to him that day that I kept interrupting. “That bloody Slytherin,” I muttered to myself.



He had let me believe it because it would keep me off his back for a while.



She shook her head sadly. “Harry hasn’t dated anyone since he left you, hasn’t even looked at anyone else.” She frowned. “Not that you deserve the loyalty, mind you,” she huffed.



I cringed. “I know that. Trust me, I… don’t even know how to begin to make up for it.”



She looked at me incredulously. “Do you think you can?”



I shrugged. “Not the way he’s been acting. I just wish he had stayed around that night long enough for me to explain. I didn’t mean a word of it; I just needed to get my father off my back while I thought of something. If I had told him my true feelings he would have yanked me out of the school that same night.”



“What are your true feelings?” she asked, looking genuinely curious.



“I love him,” I stated simply, trying not to let the tears welling up in my eyes drip onto my cheek. “I never stopped.”



She sighed and twirled a piece of hair around her tiny finger. “If you’re serious than I’ll consider helping you, but so help me Merlin, if you are lying to me, I’ll hex your balls onto your face.”



I shuddered slightly at the mental image. “You’ll help me?” I asked.



“I’ll think about it,” she corrected, still seeming to ponder over my previous words. “Just know that if I do decide to help you, it will be for Harry’s sake, not yours.”



I nodded, suddenly feeling hopeful. Harry wasn’t married or having illegitimate children, and his best friend was going to help me get him back. The world was a bright and shiny place again.



Author\'s note: Save a faerie, review today! Every review counts! (Did that sound enough like a public announcement?)