Beauty and the Beast [Draco Malfoy]

Chapter Eleven

Lizzie's POV:

"Oh Lizzie," Draco sighed beside me, "what have you gotten yourself into?"

I don't know what type of poison Bloodroot was, but it was cruel. I could hear everything that was going on around me, but I couldn't respond. I couldn't even squeeze Draco's hand back to let him know I could hear him. It was like I was paralyzed.

When I found out who was responsible for this, I was going to give them a bloody piece of my mind. I almost died. But I didn't.

Why?

Because I was too busy having a staring contest with Draco to eat my sherry tart. I wanted to be petty. I wanted Draco to know how angry I actually was with him.

Without trying or even knowing, Draco had saved my life.

Draco. Was I ready to forgive him? I sure wanted to. I wanted to put all of that behind us and just go back to being best friends.

He apologized.

But I basically told him to bugger off.

When you wake up, you could tell him you changed your mind.

If I wake up...

Shut up. You heard Pomfrey. Snape's brewing the antidote.

Can I swallow my pride long enough to forgive him, though?

Find out.

I guess I could try.

I promised to myself that the moment I woke up, I would reach out to Draco and forgive him.

"I'm sorry, Liz," Draco whispered, rubbing my hand, as if he had been reading my mind. "I really am. I don't care that your parents are muggles. I just want you back, and I know you will probably never forgive me and I don't blame you. I was horrible to you. But I'm sorry."

He held my left hand in both of his and squeezed. I tried my hardest, my very hardest, to squeeze back, but I couldn't even get my finger to twitch.

I heard the hospital wing doors open, and hurried footsteps approached my bed.

"Draky what happened?" Pansy asked from the foot of my bed.

"Someone poisoned her sherry tart," Draco muttered back. He sounded like he had been crying, but he hadn't, had he? I mean I'm lying right here, I would've heard him. Then again, I can't see him.

"Poisoned her sherry tart?" Pansy screeched just a bit too high pitched, causing me to internally flinch.

"Yes, and when I find out who, I'm going to strangle them until they're the one in the coma," Draco replied with a calm sort of anger to his voice. It terrified me more than it would have had he yelled.

Pansy remained silent. Why was she even here? Her parents were even more strict that Draco's when it came to blood status. Why does she care what happened to me?

"Who could ever do such a thing to her?" Draco breathed in an almost pathetic voice. "Look at her, she's so innocent."

"Don't forget what she did to us, Draky," Pansy crooned. I could hear her footsteps approaching where Draco sat. She was probably hanging off of him.

"Can you blame her, though? She knew how we would react and she wanted to remain friends with us, so she hid it. Slytherin's will do anything to ensure their own success and she did exactly that. You would have done the same thing, Pansy."

I could hear Pansy huff, and then the room fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"Could I talk to her for a minute?" Pansy asked Draco. Did she want to apologize to me for treating me like scum?

I doubted it.

"By all means, don't let me stop you," he answered.

"Alone, I mean," she said.

I begged Draco to stay with me. I didn't want him to leave me quite yet.

"Oh, I guess, yeah. I should probably go finish my herbology essay anyway." I heard the quiet squeak of the chair as Draco stood up and pushed the chair back from my bed. He squeezed my hand and kissed my forehead. "I'll be back. I promise," he whispered in my ear, for only me to hear.

Then suddenly my hand became cold, and the room fell into another silent spell.

I wondered if Pansy had left with Draco. Perhaps she had and I would get lucky. It's not that I don't trust her, I'm just not ready to be alone with her at the moment.

"Alright, I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can, listen close," Pansy hissed. "First of all, how dare you lie to me about your blood status. You know how important that sort of stuff is to my family. I would never had been friends with you had I known you were a mudblood."

I wished I had my wand in my hand and that I could move. I wanted to curse her arse into next week. How could I have thought she might apologize for being so cruel. She's a Parkinson.

"Second of all, Draco is mine. I don't know how you managed to, but you've got him under your finger. All he ever talks about is you. He's falling head over heels in love with you, whether he knows it or not. So when you wake up, you will tell him that you do not want him, unless you want another event like this to happen. And trust me, this time will me much, much worse."

I heard footsteps click away from my bed as Pansy walked away from my bed. I was alone in the hospital wing for the first time since I had arrived. Naturally, my mind went to what Pansy had said.

Draco falling in love with me? Me? Of all people. He could have literally any other girl in Hogwarts. Some rich, beautiful, pureblood Slytherin. But Pansy said he was falling in love with me. I'm nobody of importance. I'm invisible. I'm not pretty. I'm not skinny. I'm not intelligent. I'm not rich. I'm not a pureblood. I'm just average. I'm me.

Boys have never liked me in anything more than a platonic way. I just wasn't like that. Blokes don't like me like that.

I lay there thinking about how bloody average I was for a while. At least it felt like a while before Madam Pomfrey's voice sounded from beside me, making me (internally) jump.

"Alright, dear, let's get you comfortable. After all, a month is a long time to be in bed," she spoke to me, as if she knew I could hear her.