I Learned Your Pulse

Draco worked fervently for nights on end with Professor Slughorn, Madame Pomfrey and McGonagall, studying the lethifold venom. There had never been anything recorded about lethifold poison, but it seemed a superfluous killing method. Instead of swallow a struggling person whole, why not a freshly-dead body with the last remnants of life draining from their eyes? Though the thought made him, shudder, he never stopped working. Finally agreeing with the three others that it had the same qualities of a Vampire's venom when the vampire has been left in the sun, burned to ashes and then rehydrated and brought back to life, they looked up a cure for the venom of an un-dead un-dead vampire. Draco found six, and the others together managed to find only two, both of which he'd found. He was the one who stayed up late at night to fix the potion mistakes, as the books he'd pored over were old and innacurate. While the others left to teach, to eat, to sleep, he would never cease working, never stop looking for something to fight what Hermione was infected with. He was excused from all classes and assignments for the time being, because though the teachers understood not why he was trying so hard to fix something not his fault, nor why he refused to do things even for his own well-being just to help the girl lying in a coma-like state in the hospital wing, they understood he felt an obligation to help her, an obligation to save the damsel in distress, as they joked behind his back. He worked long hard hours, never taking a break once, never stopping for a drink, only ever searching, searching. Draco alone thought he understood why. She'd saved his life twice now, and he'd saved hers once, and he didn't want to owe Hermione anything. That was what he told himself for the hundredth time, the day before the second task, holding up the vial he believed contained the answer. The table he'd been working on was covered with scraps, little weeds, small stone chips, and one corner had been melted off. The floor at his feet was stained bright purple, almost neon, and his clothing was beginning to smell putrescent and was nearly in tatters, but he had the answer - he could help her, save her.

"Got it?" said a voice from behind him. Clutching the vial tightly, he turned to look at Potter, whose green eyes were serious and accompanied by purple bags nder them, his face drawn, though he had nothing on Draco when it came to bad appearance. Draco nodded.

Potter's face relaxed some, but he was still tense. "Malfoy," he said cautiously, "You saved her."

Draco nodded once more.

"Why?"

"She'd saved my life twice and I'm returning the favor," said Draco immediately. "I don't like being in debt."

Potter smiled sadly. "It's good you found it today."

"Why?"

"She woke up, demanded to see you, and as I left to fetch you she fell asleep again."

"Why are you here, then?" Draco asked, the vial beginning to become cold in his hands.

"Because Madame Pomfrey says they'll remove her to St. Mungo's if you don't get down there today. She says it's worse today than before, and she doesn't know why."

Draco repressed another shudder at the thought of her body lying completely still. "I'll be taking it to her, then, Harry," he said, moving to step around him.

"Draco," he said quietly, "You know, you're not so bad."

Draco froze. "Did you call me Draco?"

"Did you call me Harry?"

They looked at each other, a grim communiation passing between them. They both knew they valued Hermione's life to let it slip by them, and they both knew it wasn't in a romantic sense. They both knew the other was a good person and that they'd been idiots for the past seven years. and they both knew that something was desperately wrong with the circumstances - lethifolds popping up out of nowhere, and nobody being able to figure out what was going on. They both knew, right then and there, that a friendship was possible, but only if they worked really hard at it; and they both knew the other was willing, because it was obvious Hermione was friends with both of them now.