Harry and I pelted through the castle, desperate to get to Ron before he did something stupid.

My heart was in my throat by the time we reached the sixth floor and I was breathless beyond belief.

"Quick!" Harry puffed as he ran ahead of me. "I can hear bangs!"

And sure enough, out from beneath the door of the boys' bathroom came a sudden flood of water.

Forcing my feet to move faster, I drew up alongside Harry, determined to get there first.

We could hear Moaning Myrtle screaming from inside as the explosions increased and grew louder.

I kicked open the door without a moments hesitation, only to find a wall lamp exploding right next to my head.

"YOU COME OUT OF THERE AND FACE ME, YOU COWARD!" Ron was yelling at the end cubicle from where I could see Draco hiding behind, crouched in gushing water with his wand at the ready. "YOU COME OUT AND I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT I DO TO ANYONE WHO MESSES WITH MY 'MIONE!"

"Ronald!" I scolded, "I'm not yours! I'm not anyone's, in fact."

Harry skidded up behind me. "Look, I think maybe we should all take a moment to-"

But he didn't get to finish the sentence because Draco had chosen that moment to crawl out from behind the cubicle and raise his wand in Ron's direction.

"Cru-"

"SECTUMSEMPRA!" Ron bellowed, cutting him off as he wildly waved his wand about.

And just like in some slasher movie, blood sprayed everywhere from large gashes in Draco's body, hitting the walls, mirrors and our startled faces.

"Huh... so that was that spell does," Harry mused as he took off his glasses to wipe the blood off on the sleeve of his robes.

I didn't answer, instead I slipped and splashed across the bathroom, leaving Ron looking stunned at what he'd just done as Moaning Myrtle started screaming literal murder.

"Draco," I gasped, dropping to my knees the second I'd reached his fallen body.

His eyes found mine, full of wild panic as he gasped and choked, his hands scrabbling over his chest, trying to stem the gashes. I desperately tried to help, but there were too many cuts, too much blood which he was rapidly losing.

"DO SOMETHING!" I yelled back at Ron and Harry, both of whom were just stood about looking gormless. "GET HELP!"

I looked back down at Draco whose hands had now found mine, his trembling fingers clasping tightly around mine, as though desperately holding on for life.

"Hermione," he strangled, choking on his own blood as he tried to speak, "I- I'm sorry."

I felt a lump form in my throat as he held my gaze, the light rapidly dulling in his eyes.

"Just hold on, I'll help you." Letting go of one of his hands, I fumbled around in my robes for my wand, but my fingers were too clumsy and I couldn't locate my pocket within the folds.

"Mine..." Draco rasped. "Use... mine."

It was on the floor, just within my reach. As soon as my fingers curled around it, I almost dropped it again. Because not only did it vibrate in my hands, but I got such a strong sense of deja vu too.

This had happened before.

However, I didn't have time to ponder this revelation, instead, with a shaking grip, I pointed the tip of his wand at the deepest wound across his chest, thinking determinedly of a spell that might stem the flow of blood.

"Episkey!" I chanted, but nothing happened. I didn't think it would, but I had to try something.

Draco had begun to speak again, but I couldn't understand what, his lips seeming to be forming foreign words.

"Vulnera... Sanentur..."

When I continued to stare at him blankly, he lifted a hand and clasped his fingers around the wrist of my wand arm and, as he chanted the words again, I could feel the magic passing down through him to me, like a tremor as it travelled to the wand.

"Vulnera Sanentur..."

I gasped as the gash across his chest immediately started to knit together, causing Draco's body to buck and shake, making it difficult to hold his wand steady. But I put all my effort into it, concentrating on aiming the wand whilst Draco continued to chant the healing spell through his pain as he gripped my wrist.

"Vulnera Sanentur..."

And then another memory flashed into the corners of my mind. I was on a sofa and Draco was healing a wound on the back of my head, chanting the exact same words, warm breath tickling my neck and the scent of his cologne making me feel giddy.

It was just a snippet, but I felt every part of it, and I knew then that it was a real memory, one that had been lost.

And here he was now, muttering the same incantation, but he was getting weaker, his life fading before my very eyes.

Come on, I willed in my head as his voice grew fainter and his grip began to weaken. Just a bit further.

But it was no use, and his eyes started to roll up in his head as his hand fell away from my wrist, his voice eventually stuttering to a stop.

"No!" I pleaded, trying to shake him back into consciousness. "Hold on! Please!"

Panic consumed me, there were still too many unhealed gashes and he was loosing so much blood. I attempted the spell myself, repeating the words with determination. But it was no good and nothing happened, blood still pumping out all around us.

Tears began to roll down my cheeks and now I knew for certain that this boy had been the cause of my broken heart because it was tearing at the thought of losing him now, frightening me beyond belief.

And just as I had about lost all hope-

"Out of my way, girl!"

I was buffeted roughly aside by Snape who I hadn't even heard enter.

Laying sprawled on the wet and bloody ground, I watched Snape finish healing Draco as Ron and Harry both looked on awkwardly from the edge of the bathroom, their backs pressed fearfully up against the wall whilst Moaning Myrtle continued her dramatic wailing in a cubicle ("They murdered him! My only friend in the castle, and they killed him and his beautiful hair!").

"You three remain here whilst I take him up to the hospital wing." Snape ordered afterwards, levitating Draco's unconscious body in the air with his wand. "I'll deal with you imbeciles when I get back."

"But, sir-" I begged as I picked myself off the ground. "I didn't-"

"Do I look like I care for your pathetic excuses, Miss Granger?" Snape snapped, his eye twitching. "A student nearly died just now and, as a key witness to his attempted murder, it will be in your best interest to do as you are told!"

I resisted the temptation to childishly stick my tongue out at the door as it banged shut behind him.

"SomethingI'vegottadoberightback!" Harry said in one breath before he flew from the bathroom, leaving Ron and I alone with a still sobbing ghost.

"What the hell did you do that for?!" I hissed at Ron as my entire body trembled in shock and anger. "You could have killed him! You almost did!"

Ron gave me a long, hard stare, the look in his eye cold. "You slept with him," he said darkly, his voice shaking dangerously. "You had sex with Malfoy."

Moaning Myrtle's sobs ceased at once, leaving a ringing silence in the air.

"Apparently," I shrugged, "but I don't remember."

However, I don't think Ron was even listening to me, the anger literally shaking his body as he continued to glare in my direction. "You- you let that piece of slime kiss you, touch you and put his- his cock inside you?!" He turned away, as though the sight of me disgusted him. "I can't even look at you... I feel sick - you make me feel sick."

"Oh, so I'm supposed to just sit around whilst you snog another girl and wait for you to grow tired of her, am I?" I snapped, feeling highly irritated by his double standards. "Merlin, I'm glad Malfoy wiped my mind. Imagine having to endure witnessing you slurping her face twenty-four seven?! He did me a massive favour!"

"See?" Ron spat, wheeling back round to glare at me some more, his eyes bulging. "You still call him Malfoy! That's not love - you can't love someone who you have no fond memories of. All he ever did was bully you, and I was there always sticking up for you!"

"Well, clearly you weren't always there," I sniped, "because when you were too busy sticking your tongue down another girl, Mal- Draco was evidently picking up the pieces and treating me like I deserved to be treated!"

"Oh, please!" Ron scoffed, putting his hands on his hips. "Don't give me that shit. He was using you! Guys like that pray on upset girls and make them feel special so that they'll drop their knickers out of gratitude. And if you don't believe me, just ask Harry!"

"Ask me what?" Harry panted as he returned to the bathroom, red faced and clutching at a stitch in his side.

"Nothing," I cut in before Ron could start ranting and raving again. "Where did you go?"

"That spell Ron used," Harry rushed out, "it was the Half-Blood Prince's invention. We didn't know what it did, just that it was to be used on enemies. If Snape finds out, he'll confiscate my book for sure."

"GOOD!" I screamed. "So he bloody well should. And what the hell were you thinking, Ron?! Using an unknown spell on someone like that?!"

But Ron just glared at me, his nostrils flaring. "I tell you what I was thinking, Hermione - I was thinking that the prick deserved to die for taking the girl I thought I knew and ruined her."

I sucked in a sharp breath, blinking back the tears which stung behind my eyes, the cruelness of his words feeling like a slap.

"Ron, mate," Harry cut in sternly, "that was a bit harsh-"

"And don't you fucking start," Ron barked, snapping his head round to scowl angrily at his best friend. "Traitor!"

"What did I do?" Harry cried, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish.

"You knew about them and you said nothing! You let me believe Hermione was someone she isn't!"

I went to open my mouth to ask that twat what that was supposed to mean, but we were interrupted by Snape billowing back in.

"Apparently I underestimated you three," he said quietly. "Who would have thought the Golden Trio knew such Dark magic?"

He looked carefully between the three of us, cold black eyes boring into each of ours as though he were trying to read our minds.

Finally, as though deciding (quite correctly) he was the assailant, he rounded on Ron. "Who taught you that spell?"

"I... uh- I- um-" Ron stuttered, backing away from Snape's hard stare. "I read about it somewhere."

Without taking his eyes off Ron, Snape held up his hand in Harry's direction, clicking his fingers.

"Potions book, Potter. Now."

Harry hastily pulled out a suspiciously new looking copy of Advanced Potion Making and handed it over with shaking hands.

Dissatisfied with what he saw once he flicked through it, Snape gave Harry Saturday detention for the remainder of his school life and let me and Ron off scot-free.

"I didn't even cast the stupid spell!" Harry whined as we squelched our way back through the hallways towards the Gryffindor tower.

"Yeah but you showed it to me." Ron grumbled moodily, acting like a bear with a sore head.

"So?" Harry spluttered. "If I showed you a picture of a koala jumping into a live volcano, doesn't mean you'd do the same!"

"Why a koala?" Ron asked, halting in his tracks to blink stupidly at Harry.

"WHY NOT?!" Harry yelled in his face. "Either way, it's still unfair! I'm going to miss the Quidditch final this weekend because you can't control your jealousy!"

"THAT FERRET WAS SCREWING MY BIRD!"

"SHE WAS NOT YOUR BIRD, LAVENDER WAS!"

"Will you just shut up, the both of you?!" I snapped, my anger finally boiling over.

Did neither of them care that someone nearly died? Did they not give a single stupid thought to Draco or to me or to anything other than their overblown egos?

Shaking my head, I turned around and stormed away, ignoring their shouts as I headed straight for the hospital wing.

I needed answers and there was only one person who could give them to me.

*****