How Did This Happen?!

Helping Out

"Hermione, wake up!" Draco had pulled her from the water and was now trying to wake her. She lay unconscious and Draco looked at her with sad eyes. 'Wait.' He thought, 'Of course...'

He stood up beside Hermione and took out his wand. He pointed it at her and he said, "Ennervate!" With the previous use of magic, it was unlikely the ministry would come down on them now; though the spells used had been medicinal and subconscious. Perhaps the Ministry only took note of less 'essential' magic?

He didn't have time to ponder the Ministry's actions on underage magic, as Hermione awoke and took a huge gasp of breath. She glanced around then looked up at Draco.

"What happened? Harry? Ron? Where did they go, Draco? Where are they?" She asked, almost shouting as she sat up.

Draco sat down beside her and glanced down at his feet.
"They're not here, I'm afraid that they never were, it's just been me and you this whole time." He paused for a moment and glared at the water, "There's something wrong with that river... You quite happily went into it and looked quite calm as it suffocated you."

"What are you talking about? I saw them, just as I see you right now. They were here but then...Did you see it too?" she said animatedly.

"See what?"

She looked at him with wide eyes, "You didn't see it, it was huge and it had green and silver scales. It scared them away; I think it grabbed me just before I...blacked out. Now here I am."
Draco looked at the smartest witch of their year as if she'd grown two heads.

"There wasn't anything there, just you. I'm the one that grabbed you, not some thing that you're talking about. But it doesn't matter, you're safe now, and we'll just stay out of the water from now on. Oh, and good news, we can use magic without getting into trouble. I used a spell to wake you when I couldn't do it myself. I haven't received any flying papers telling me I'm expelled, so maybe we're close enough to school that we're allowed to use magic.

"I suppose but something just isn't right..." She replied as she glanced down at the ground.

"Yeah, I know. That river must have done something tricky with your head or something."

"No, I'm not talking about the river, but yeah you're right it does trick the mind. I'm talking about the accident and the way everyone just disappeared. Doesn't it seem strange at all to you?"

"There wasn't anyone there! There aren't even any fish or plants or insects! It's just water..." Draco looked at her seriously and looked back at the river. "Why did you get into the water if you knew it wasn't quite right?"

Hermione looked up at him and saw that he wasn't going to make eye contact with her while she explained herself to him. It was like her reaction to her Mother when she was mad at her or disappointed; they wouldn't look at each other until everything was settled.

"Well," She said, "It's not very common for the river to trick people that way. Usually, the person's emotions aren't strong enough; it just waits until they get in, then it does what it did... It tries to drown you."

"Oh. Well, then why didn't it try to drown me?" He was staring at her now, waiting for an explanation.

"The way it works, from what I understand, is that when a person loses someone or something very special to them, they see it in the river and they truly believe that it's real. And they try to get to what or who they've lost... If you lost something special, wouldn't you want it back?"

"Yes, I suppose I would." Draco replied.

"Well, obviously the special thing or things in my case that I've lost would be Harry and Ron. I'm thinking that the creature I saw was you... lost them." She went still and silent, her eyes wide and glassy.

Draco gave her a weird look, "What do you mean, me?"

" It makes you see things differently than you originally would outside of the water?" she said in a detached voice.

He paused at her reply, "Them?" he questioned.

"Harry, Ron." She clarified, he just nodded. "From what I remember reading, the water wants you to be scared of anything safe so you can't get away. So, you looked like a sea monster, when really you were my rescuer... but because, under normal circumstances, you're scared of your savior, you drown, like I almost did."

She smiled at him and said, "By the way. Thanks for saving me."

"I think I need to take a little walk." Draco went to push himself up from sitting on the ground when an excruciating pain shot through his ankle like someone had just stabbed it with the biggest and dullest sword they could get their hands on. "Ouch!"

He sat back down, Hermione leaned close to him and glanced at his ankle.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."
Hermione leaned toward his ankle to get a closer look, "It doesn't look too good, you need to soak it now before it gets any worse."

'My clothes are really wet and cold.' She thought with a small shiver. So she pulled her robe off to let it dry off a bit.

Draco saw her remove her robe, and he stared at her without realizing what he was doing. She was wearing a pink tank top with white lettering on it, the white undershirt that had covered her cleavage was masquerading as a dressing on his wound, and the valley between her breasts was drawing his attention.

It said something in a language that Draco didn't know and it had a small symbol underneath the words. She also had on a pair of low-rise black pants with a small symbol on it matching the one on the shirt.
He remembered to revert his gaze from her chest to remember what she'd said. "I'm not daft enough to put my leg in that water!"

"Well I can't heal it completely but I can at least make the swelling go down and bandage it up for you." She said in compromise, realizing that the river really wasn't a good idea.

"Alright." He said as he watched her get up and walk towards the river.

"What are you doing Hermione, don't go down there!"

She looked back for a moment as she replied, "It's ok, I'm just gonna wet a cloth for your ankle."

She looked around for a moment and realized that she didn't have a cloth to use, she then felt a little silly. So finally she took the bottom of the shirt and ripped a piece off all the way around her waist. The shirt was now a whole two to three inches shorter than it was before. Though she'd already stolen a good few inches from his shirt, so it was all fair.

Draco stared at her more intensely now as she wet the cloth in the river, and he thought to himself, 'Wow, look at that body, she's gorgeous. And is that a hot pink bra that she's wearing?'

Looking closely he could see it because her top was still wet from earlier and the darker pink bra was showing through. Apparently, she hadn't realized this yet, otherwise, she most certainly would have been covered up.

He was starting to get excited just looking at her. Finally, she walked back over to him and sat by his ankle again. This time she leaned in really close to examine his ankle, before starting to bandage it. In his position above her, he had an unrestricted view of her cleavage and the pretty lingerie.

As the first wrap passed around his ankle, he yelled in pain, his arousal completely countered by the throbbing agony.

After many expletives (many that Hermione didn't know existed) and cries of pain later, she was finally finished. His ankle was wrapped very nicely and would definitely keep the swelling down and support it.

"Alright Draco, I've got it wrapped now. The hard part is over."

"Thanks, Hermione, I owe you one." He said with a hoarse voice, wishing for a pain drought.

"No, you don't. You already saved my life in the river, what more could you possibly do? Besides, I want to be a healer when I leave Hogwarts, this is good practice."

She stood up, stretching her aching muscles from being in the same position for a while, Draco looked at her.

"I'm going to get some wood to make a fire for the night. I'll be back."

He stood up and limped off into the trees around them, he needed to be away from the temptation for a little while.