The Hospital Wing
word count: 1728

Draco was sitting beside Arden in the hospital wing. He had no idea why he felt obligated to be by her side, but something in his gut told him that he should do so. Cedric was with her for few short moments before he quickly left to study for his N.E.W.Ts, mumbling to his unconcious sister that he hoped she understood -knowing Arden Diggory and her alarming amount of patience for anyone but a Malfoy, she most definitely did- before leaving. Harry hadn't shown up at all, neither did Hermione or Ron.

Harry felt stupid for throwing the glass in the direction of Arden, he was too blinded by his hatred for the blond to realise that his girlfriend was in pain next to him. Hermione and Ron were busy with prefect duties to check on Arden for Harry, making Harry feel even worse.

Draco sighed as he grew bored. Madame Pomfrey had sedated Arden so she could stitch up the cuts on her face, so he had no one to talk to -or taunt- while he was there. He looked down at Arden's school bag and raised an eyebrow, noticing multiple items that weren't at all school related. His nosey self came into play, and he began to snoop. He hoped to Merlin that Arden wouldn't wake up and catch him, he had no idea what she would do if she caught him.

He huffed as he realised he was wrong, the only non school related item in her bag was a book that he had never seen before. He pulled it out and raised an eyebrow as he read the cover.

"Frankenstein?" He muttered to himself. He read the back of the book, raising his eyebrows in interest before opening it up to page one.

"Going through my bag are you?" A soft voice spoke. Draco jumped in his seat, causing the book to fall from his hands and onto the floor. He glared at Arden, who flashed a tired smirk his way.

"Couldn't have warned me, Diggory?" He snapped.

Arden chuckled, "even If I were to say 'oh hey Malfoy, I'm awake," I still would have startled you," she teased.

"Fair point. I wasn't going through you bag though, this book just caught my eye..." Draco lied.

Arden rolled her eyes. She ignored her school books piled next to her bag, signalling that Draco did go through her bag. She would confront him, but she didn't have the energy to start a fight with him. Instead, she asked a more important question.

"Why are you here? I mean, you and I aren't exactly friends-"

Draco sighed, "I felt bad," he interrupted. "Your brother was here but he went off to study for his examinations. Your friends haven't come at all, so I kind of just had that gut feeling and as much as I didn't want to I came," he admitted, sounding slightly annoyed.

Draco glared at Arden as she noticed a smirk form on her face. "What, do you like me or something?" She joked.

"What? You're absolutely out of your mind!" Draco scoffed. Arden shrugged and leaned back in her bed, feeling a slight emptiness at Draco's reaction, although she wasn't sure why.

"I can't believe you're here instead of Harry. You'd think he'd be here," she sighed, sulking slightly. She was slightly annoyed with Harry for not being by her side, but she knew that she wasn't really in a terrible condition, and he probably had something to do like Cedric did with his studying. Arden shrugged, "he's probably got something going on."

Draco wanted to argue against Arden, but he knew that would only cause another fight between them, and at the moment, he couldn't deny that he was enjoying her company. He knew that the Hufflepuff was as perfect as everyone said she was, he unfortunately never got to communicate with the 'perfect' Arden as he would always cause her inner nastiness to come out. Even then, she wasn't as nasty as she could be, which showed just how perfect she was.

He shook the thoughts from his head. He hated how this girl was perfect in every way. Sure, she wasn't the greatest with magic, but she excelled in wandless magic, and only he knew about that. She had the patience of a saint, even though her patience would thin around the Slytherin, she could still hold back most of her words better than the rest of the school.

Draco's thoughts were interrupted by Arden sitting up in her bed, rubbing her forehead as she did so. "Blimey how hard did I hit my head?" She muttered.

Draco struggled to hold back a chuckle, "you literally let out a powerful jet of water from your wand. It shot you across the hall," he answered with hints of laughter in between.

Arden cracked a smile, "normally I'd be bothered that you were laughing at me, but I'll be honest, that does sound pretty hilarious," she giggled. When Arden smiled, she felt pain in her cheeks. Not the kind of pain you get from laughing for a long time, but a strong, stinging sensation. She cupped her cheeks with her hands, "why do my cheeks hurt so much?"

Draco's dipped into his chair slightly, not wanting to tell the story to Arden. "You uhm, have a fair few cuts on your face-"

"What? How?" Arden snapped.

"Well I was actually trying to be the nice guy after seeing you splat against the wall. I had a vial of stuff that can accelerate the healing of a concussion. I was giving it to Harry, but he smacked it out of my hand and..." Draco gestured towards her face, "yeah, you were unfortunately in the direction in which he smacked it in...."

Arden scowled as she stared into space, deep in her own thought. She quickly reached for the mirror on the table beside her bed, and snatched it. She gripped onto the edges of it tightly and looked into the mirror, horrified with what she saw.

"I look like a freak," she mumbled. She traced her fingers over the many stitches on her face. Her porcelain skin had reddened around her cuts. There was a cut right through one of her eyebrows, which would forever leave her with a scar there as that was the deepest cut. She snatched the Frankenstein that was still in Draco's hands and held the cover beside her face.

"Look! There's no difference!" She cried, comparing herself to the green skinned, stitched up monster on the cover of her book. She threw the book on the ground and leaned back, covering her face with her hands. "Merlin, I sound so vain," she muttered. A lot of the time she was told that only her looks would get her somewhere in the world, as her academic scores weren't amazing. Having a damaged face meant a lot to her, she felt that she would be bullied, picked on for not being the perfect Diggory that Hogwarts knew.

Draco sighed, not wanting to say the words he was about to say despite them being true. "You don't look like a monster," Draco sighed, sounding slightly annoyed to hide his genuineness.

"You're just saying that-"

"Even with all of those scratches on your face, you still look as lovely as always," Draco interrupted, glaring into Arden's eyes as he said so. Arden was too taken aback by his words and stern voice to argue anymore. She sunk slightly in her bed, no longer sitting completely upright, but slouching slightly. Draco sighed and looked down at his shoes, begging his body not to rush all of it's blood to his cheeks, but unfortunately, he could feel his face burn up, causing him to get up and quickly leave the hospital wing.

Arden didn't bother to call out for him, she thought it was best for him to leave, as she were completely confused, yet flustered about what had just happened.

"What are you doing here?" Arden heard Harry ask down the hall.

"Why did you only just get here?" Draco retorted, before quickly leaving. Harry rushed over to Arden's bed, but his steps slowed as he noticed the stitches on her face.

He felt an empty feeling of guilt, but the jealousy he also felt overpowered him and caused him to not apologise to his girlfriend, but interrogate her. "Why was Malfoy here?" He demanded.

"Yes, I do forgive you, you don't need to apologise," Arden spoke with heavy sarcasm in her voice. Before Harry could apologise, Arden cut him off. "Malfoy was bringing my things. He stayed behind after Ced left because he felt bad I guess... And I know what you're thinking, no, we didn't talk."

Harry looked at Arden skeptically, "he's been here for a while..."

"Harry, you don't need to worry about Malfoy," Arden sighed. "We're both very different people who don't blend well together at all," she said, remembering what Draco told her when they were in the kitchen together.

Harry sighed, "I'm so sorry about getting you hurt-"

"It's fine," Arden interrupted, forming a fake smile on her face. "It was my own fault I got hurt in the first place, you were just on edge and worried. Accidents happen, I understand that."

"Sometimes I hate how kind you are," Harry laughed.

Arden shrugged, "seriously, it's no biggie." Harry took Arden's hand in his and brought it to his lips, gently planting a kiss on the back of her hand, causing Arden to scrunch up her nose at Harry's cheesiness. "Yuck, get out of here," she laughed, shooing Harry away. "You know I hate the whole lovey dovey suff."

Harry chuckled as he shoved his hands in his pant pockets. "And you know I can't help it," he teased. "I'll see you at dinner?"

"Maybe, I might sit with Lena tonight."

Harry nodded, before leaving the hospital wing. Arden sighed as she laid back in the bed. Madame Pomfrey told her she could leave just before dinner would start, so Arden laid alone in bed, not thinking about her boyfriend Harry, but about Draco and what he had said about her appearance.

~

Yes, we're getting there veeeery slowly. I have the cutest idea of how this Drarden will get together oml

This yet again was unedited whoops