CHAPTER X

Crystabelle kept running through the lines of shops, abruptly shoving people out of her way here and there as her panic state seemingly gave her an extra strength to do that even to people bigger than her. Sometimes she muttered 'sorry', especially to those helplessly losing balance because of her; sometimes she glared, this was when her victims yelled angrily at her. Nevertheless, she kept running, and of course turning her head around every once in a while, checking if her brother was following.

He didn't. For a while. For just when she thought she was safe, she heard him shouting amid the crowd, calling out for her to stop, drawing people's attention to both of them. Crystabelle cursed. Why did he have to draw attention like that? Can't he just do it more subtly? Crystabelle managed to roll her eyes even though she was in a run.

Okay. Stay calm. Don't get panic. He won't be able to reach you. You would reach the Shrieking Shack before he sees you heading there. And then you'll arrive at Hogwarts long before he does, and then you'll return to your original body and let him see you -and don't forget to take this damn coat off first!- and you'll pretend that you've been at the castle all along, that you're completely clueless about his encounter with your Polyjuice Potioned version, Crystabelle told herself.

She successfully slipped out of the crowd to a deserted alleyway between two rather deserted shops, which she had found to be a shortcut to the Shrieking Shack. She looked back, seeing no signs of Draco, and then sprinting again toward the shack. She trespassed through the wire fence, and then ran across the yard, though she was careful to duck most of the times.

Again just as she thought she was this close to escaping -she was reaching out to the loose, rusty knob at the front door of the shack, she heard Draco shouting out from distance.

"CRISSY! What in Merlin's name are YOU doing there? Stay away of the shack! It's HAUNTED!"

That warning, and the fact that Draco looked reluctant about coming anywhere near the shack (he was just standing there before the fence, unsure what to do), successfully made Crystabelle roll her eyes again, despite the situation, as she decided to ignore him and quickly opened the door, closing it behind her.

She coughed, as she had done when she first entered the shack, for it was too dusty and smelled awfully musty, not to mention was very messy, with broken and abandoned furniture and stairs and all. Luckily the entrance to the secret passage was just at the feet of the stairs, so she didn't have to go all the way in inside the shack to get to it.

She was slowly climbing down the stairs to the secret passage, after closing the basement door, when she heard footsteps on the veranda. Oh no, not good! It looked like Draco had managed to conquer his fear and decided to follow her in. She immediately sped up her steps, wishing the sound of them didn't reach upstairs, and that Draco wouldn't find the entrance to this passage.

But, of course, sometimes the idiot was just a lucky bastard. Just as Crystabelle was halfway toward the exit, she heard him opening the basement door, which creaked unpleasantly as he did so. Without further ado, she ran across the rest of the way and hurriedly emerged out of the base of the Whomping Willow.

She again heard her name being yelled at, as the sound of his echoing footsteps reached her ears, so she quickly pressed the knot at the base of the tree, in order to immobilize it, before standing up and continuing her run.

She had only ran a dozen footsteps or so, when she heard her name being called out for the umpteenth time that day. Still running, she turned her head around, just to check if she was in a safe distance from her brother. Oh, well, his blond head just emerged out of the hole at the base of the tree, as he took in his surrounding and his eyes glared daggers at her as soon as he found her. And just suddenly, his face turned into a horrified expression.

It didn't take long before she knew why; for something powerful suddenly smacked her painfully on her belly, cutting off her windpipe and forcing the content of her stomach to jerk up into her throat.

The Whomping Willow had not been properly immobilized. And it was now angrily crushing her in one of its branches.

"DRACOOOOO…!" She cried, literally, tears running freely from her eyes, as she helplessly felt the strong arm of the willow smashing her in the air, right and left, up and down; her struggles to escape the dead, too tight grip of the branch were futile.

She heard Draco calling out her name in panic, heard him yelling out curses as she fuzzily saw him run back and forth, trying to avoid the arms of willow and at the same time sending curses at it.

"Dracoooo….." she howled again, this time weaker, as scratches of the branches on her face and arms and all other parts of her body hurt her, and so did the too strong grip of the branch. She began to sob, and wished heartily her brother would manage to save her.

Then she felt the willow stop moving, but that was only a second after the branch holding her stretched out and powerfully threw her out into the air. She felt the wind against her, and then, not long after, splash of icy cold water.

Draco was getting more alarmingly panic. Just a moment after he managed to breathe in, for finally being able to immobilize the willow, he helplessly saw his sister being thrown into the air, toward the direction of the Black Lake.

He wasted no time, running straightaway toward the lake, which was not that near either. He prayed to all deities in Heaven to help him save her in time, while cursing his ownself for causing her to panic, which was the reason why she hadn't properly immobilized the willow.

He arrived at the lake, but saw no sign of her. He saw two boys -most likely first years- standing nearby, looking out befuddledly at the lake, and immediately grabbed the collar of one of them.

"Where is she? Do you see her? Tell me!"

The boy, whose feet left the ground because of Draco's powerful grip, looked utterly terrified, but did not disappoint him. "We… we only saw something suddenly plunge into the water. Don't know if it's a girl."

"Where?"

"The… There!" He immediately pointed out somewhere not far from the middle of the lake, which was immediately agreed upon by his nodding friend.

Draco immediately released his grip of the boy, barking an order for him and his friend to find some help, and then quickly cast the Bubble-Head charm across his face, clenching his wand in his teeth, taking off his robe, and then plunging into the cold water.

He swam quickly toward the direction that had been pointed out by the boy, wishing that neither the Giant Squid nor other underwater creatures would cause him any obstacles nor harm her. He continued praying that he would be able to save her in time.

He arrived about the point, and then, after looking around and seeing no sign of her, quickly dipped down under the water. He blinked a couple of times, adjusting his sight with the rather gloomy surrounding, before again looking around, hoping to see any glints of her.

But, he found nothing. He was getting panicked as he decided to dip further into the water, casting Lumos as it was getting dark down there.

He almost lost hope when he saw several mermaids encircling something further deep down, amid the sea of giant seaweeds, before he finally caught a glimpse of blond. It was her.

Draco urgently swam toward her, scattering the mermaids away in process. They looked at him with hostility, but did nothing to stop him as he reached out to his pale, lifeless-looking sister.

He grabbed hold of her small waist, and then held her tightly with one arm, while the other cast a charm helping him surge out quickly out of the surface. He swam her across to the lake shore, and as he reached it, someone helped him lift her to the ground, before he pulled himself out of the water.

As he panted, trying to gather his force back, he realized it was the Head Girl.

"Oh my God, oh my God, Crystabelle! Malfoy, we must give her CPR!" she cried urgently, and looked up at him expectantly.

It looked like he didn't meet her expectation, though (he didn't know what the hell she was talking about), as she quickly dismissed him and started moving Crystabelle's head to the side before turning it back to the center.

She then opened his sister's mouth before suddenly attaching hers on it and then blowing air into her lungs.

He looked shocked. "What… What are you doing?"

"Shut up, Malfoy! This needs to be done!" She didn't even look at him as she blew air into Crystabelle's mouth again, again and then again, as her fingers pinched the nose of his sister.

She then lowered her head, more specifically her ear to the younger girl's bluish mouth, listening carefully and watching the younger girl's chest expectantly, before she looked getting more concerned and started blowing air into the blonde's mouth again.

"Please, Crystabelle… Please, you have to wake up," her tone panicked as she continued what she had been doing.

"This is useless! We have to-

But Draco was cut off by his sister's sudden chocking; waters spurred out of her mouth, as her eyes were suddenly wide opened .

"Chrissy!" Draco rushed out to her, grabbing hold of her hand, as she continued to choke and spur water, and dirt, out of her mouth.

"Malfoy, we've got to take her to the infirmary," Hermione said as Crystabelle stopped choking and was now looking very weak, although color began to slowly return to her face.

Draco nodded, and then immediately gathered his sister in his arms, lifting her off the ground. He felt her stiffen, realizing she must be still afraid of him.

He sighed, and then kissed her lightly on her forehead, whispering, "It's okay, Chrissy. I won't do anything to you."

He then felt her relaxing, and drop her head on his chest, so he turned around toward the direction of the castle. Only then he realized there had been a crowd watching them, mostly small kids, including the two boys he had told to find some help.

The crowd parted as he made his way to the castle, carrying his sister, with the Head Girl in tow.

As soon as they arrived at the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey rushed them to a bed, ordering Draco to put his sister there, and then telling him and Hermione to go away as she drew the curtain around the bed.

Draco walked limply toward a corner near the entrance, and then slumped on the only stool there. He ran his fingers through his wet hair, rubbing his face in desperate gestures, as he blamed himself for what had happened with Crystabelle. She was that close to being gone. Had he found her a minute or two to late, or had Hermione failed to make her breathe again soon, she could be… she could be… No, he did not want to think about that.

"It's okay, she will be all right," he then heard Hermione's soothing words, but was too ashamed to himself to answer her nor meet her eyes. He felt her looking at him, though, felt her presence in front of him.

"It's… it's because of me. She would have properly immobilized the Willow; it wouldn't have caught her and thrown her into the lake if I … if I hadn't been stubborn enough to chase her," he confessed.

Silence. Before he finally heard her speak again,

"What important is you've saved her. You've been very brave, swimming inside the must be very cold lake to save your sister. Madam Pomfrey is now taking care of her. She will be all right."

Another silence, for he didn't know what to say, although her words made him feel better.

She then decided to break the silence, "You're injured, too, and look at how a mess you are. Here, let me fix you."

Before he had a chance to respond, he heard her muttering the drying spell, and immediately felt warm and dry.

And then suddenly her soft hand took hold of his left wrist, making his heart beat helplessly faster, before he heard her cast another charm and then saw and felt scratches and injuries on his left hand and forearm disappear. She gave the same treatment to his right hand and arm and looked purely concerned as he finally dared to lift up his head to look at her. She gave him an absent-minded smile as he did so, and her big, beautiful brown eyes were now examining his face, still in purely professional gesture.

She then saw a fairly deep cut just above his left eyebrow (which was strangely dark despite his fair hair color), and instinctively lifted her hand, carefully, to test if the cut had really been dried up as it looked like. He flinched, but didn't make other movements.

"Sorry," she absent-mindedly said, still too absorbed with her acting-nurse activities, as she glanced down to meet his eyes to show him she was really sorry, only to find those swirling grey eyes staring intensely at her, and now move down to her lips. Only then she realized how close their faces were, how his breathing had become labor, and hers suddenly, too.

"I- I'm sorry!" She immediately jumped away from him, looking embarrassed, her cheeks turning red.

She was quick to return to her 'professional' gesture, though, a trait he had learnt about her, which she always did whenever she felt nervous. Draco inwardly relished the fact, although outside he maintained the impassive façade.

"Episky!" she suddenly said, knitting the cut-open skin on his forehead and eliminating other visible scratches and a few bruises around his face.

"There, I've healed your visible wounds, but I think you really need to see Madam Pomfrey for other possible injuries. You can ask for her help after she's done with Crystabelle."

Draco didn't know what to say, so he only nodded, still staring at her. Apparently, that gesture made her nervous again, for now she was clearing her throat and looked fidgety as she glanced at everywhere but him.

"Uhm, well… it looks like Madam Pomfrey will take some time to heal Crystabelle, so I… I'll be back later," she then swiftly turned around and marched toward the exit.

"Thank you," he made her stop just before she reached the door, making her reluctantly turn her head around to look at him.

"And I… I'm sorry, Granger, for what I said about you earlier; in the bookshop. I … I didn't mean it," he added, now looking like he just swallowed a frog, although he was also glancing at her expectantly.

It took some time for Hermione to process what Malfoy had just said, for the word "sorry" just didn't seem to fit the Slytherin Prince's mouth.

"It… it's okay, Malfoy. And you're welcome." In the end she replied him, with a nervous smile, which made her inwardly curse herself for she hated the way she suddenly became nervous around him.

And then he smiled back at her, the first of its kind she had ever seen on his usually smirking or sneering face. Immediately she felt a flutter in her stomach, thus her swiftly continuing of her interrupted fleeing off the infirmary.

She refused to read further into that abrupt fleeing.

Author's Note:

Ok-kay... really sorry again for not updating this story for a while. To be honest, the only 4 reviews I got for the last (the 9th) chapter were quite discouraging. Altho the traffic stats show you do read the stories, the fact that barely any reviews have been posted makes me feel that you don't like it, and thus it isn't worth it anymore to continue sparing my time to continue this story. I guess whether or not I will continue will really depend on your responses to this story. So, please review; tell me if you like it or not, or if you have any suggestions or nagging questions. All will be very welcomed! :)

Anyway, LOADS of THANKS to the four reviewers of the last chapter!

To bzsilver: it looks like Hermione's 'mother instinct' did take over, although she didn't heal him in the library :). So, what do you think of the infirmary scene instead? :)

To anna0728: thanks, dear! I'll be so in love with your reviews too, if you keep posting them :)

To Amanda: happy that you spare some time to comment as well :D

To LaFayette: Thanks! Never heard anyone liking Ernie; mostly in the comments they hate him. Well, but I guess you're right; his silly and insensitive 'claiming' of Hermione, although annoying, is in a way entertaining.

(A rather late) Disclaimer (for I'm not sure if I'm really obliged to write one): None of the characters here are mine; they belong to the admirable JK Rowling; excepting our darling Crystabelle of course ... : )