The Internal Devices

Chapter 9

"How is he?" She figured this was a safe subject to bring up with the stony boy beside her. Malfoy had his hand fisted around his wand as he worked on an intricate spell. She had already decided that under no circumstances would she bring up the kiss. Absolutely not. It was far too confusing and made her feel far too many things. But Theo...Theo was a safe subject. Both of them were clearly invested in his well-being, so it was a relatively practical approach to conversation.

"Fine." It was essentially a grunt. Still broody, then. Brilliant. Hermione gave a long sigh.

"I didn't know he was having an episode that morning. I'm sorry I pulled you from him." It had been five days since the day she ended up in the infirmary. Five days since she tried to cut out her pain. Five days since Malfoy pressed his lips to hers– no, she would NOT think of that. And it had been five days since she and Malfoy had spoken. Frustrated, she had sent an owl to request his presence in the lab to resume their research today. Surprisingly he had acquiesced. Although by looking at his current mood, she had a sneaking feeling that Theodore had a hand in Malfoy's appearance.

"I know." He finally responded. Hermione risked a glance at him. His eyes were firmly focused on the lab table in front of him. She didn't have a good view, but she assumed he was occluding. Heavily.

She tried again. "And I'm sorry you found me. I never apologized for that. I know you've seen far too much bloodshed in your lifetime. I didn't mean to add to that."

His wand clattered to the table and he muttered a curse under his breath. "Shut up, Granger."

"Fine."

"Fine!"

She turned back to her microscope.

Determined to ignore him if he insisted on being so difficult, she squinted into the eyepiece. Once again, she was examining a sample of Theo's blood. For the first few weeks, it was just a jumbled mess of cells. Thankfully, Malfoy had recently developed a spell to strip the blood sample down and separate the cells into groups of likeness. Today she had a slide in front of her labeled 'Unknown bacillus'. Malfoy hadn't had the muggle scientific background to properly identify the species, so it was up to her.

With a flick of her pointer finger, Hermione rotated the fine adjustment knob to clarify the image. There they were–a clump of adorable little bacilli. A few years ago, she had read up on various staining techniques, and the plan for today was to figure out which one worked. First up was one of the basic ones: the Gram Stain.

She silently prepared the reagents, including iodine, crystal violet, ethanol, and fuchsin solution. Hopefully, after applying the stain some results would be visible. Minutes passed, and she risked a glance over at the Slytherin boy. He still faced away, back muscles tense. She rolled her eyes and peered at her slide. Nothing.

"Stupid slide!" She grunted in frustration. Malfoy didn't deem her interruption worthy of his attention. She muttered some rather colorful curses concerning Salazar himself and his intolerable pureblooded friends. She'd have to try a different staining technique then. She tapped her pointer finger on her lip in thought. If the Gram Stain didn't work, that meant this species of bacterium was acid-fast. Perhaps the Smithwick method then?

"Accio acridine orange," she murmured. The dye flew into her outstretched hand and she reorganized her materials. She flicked her wand at the muggle microscope, transfiguring the normal light into an ultraviolet source. She had a sneaking suspicion this particular bacteria was pompous and needed some extra attention. Quite like someone else she knew. Her eyes darted again and caught Malfoy sneaking a glance her way before facing the wall again. Her lips turned up in amusement. Not as uninterested as we seem, are we?