Heir of Hogwarts

Chapter Eight

Draco woke to see faces clustered around him. He didn't seem awake to the people sitting by his bedside, though.

"D'you think he's dying?" whispered a shocked, and distressed Hermione. "He just fell, right there in the middle of the Great Hall." She shot a look of pure hatred to Liz, who looked at her calmly.

"How did this happen, I wonder," murmured Harry.

"Why don't we ask the person who caused it?" Hermione replied, shrilly. "Any comments Ms. Wall?"

Liz looked at them rolled her eyes, and stood. She was wearing black, Draco noticed, black turtleneck, black jeans, black outer robes, black shoes, etc., etc. "He's not dying," she said. "Are you Draco?" After asking him this, seeing that everyone was aware of his newly awakened state, she walked out of the room.

He saw Anja above his bed, looking down at him worriedly. "What time is it?" he rasped out as loud as he could.

"The better question to ask Boy is what day is it?"

Draco sat straight up after hearing his mother's voice. "What are you doing here Narcissa? I thought that after I discovered that your dead husband had--not anymore, of course--an Imperious curse on me from the day I was born, you would leave me alone. I suppose I thought wrongly," Draco said, and panted, he was still weak.

"I was only seeing that the Malfoy line wouldn't die out. Having another child would be-" she sniffed, "-inconvenient at my age." She gave Draco the patented Malfoy glare before sweeping out of the Hospital Wing, fuming.

Draco turned to his friends, and smiled at them. "What day is it? How long have I been asleep? How many classes am I going to have to repeat? Why is Liz wearing black?"

"Whoa mate, one question at a time," Ron said holding out a hand. "We can all answer a question for you. It's the first day of Christmas holidays."

Draco looked at Harry, who seemed to be the one to answer the next question.

"You've been out for a month and a half, no one, not even Dumbledore, not even Liz knows why so long. But they both--Dumbledore and Liz--said it might have something to do the things that have made you stress out. Like your father's death, your mother's remarriage to that man, Liz's promotion was just the icing on the cake."

Next in line was Anja. "You won't have to repeat any classes, my cousin says she can take all the information you would have retained, cram it into a ball and push it into your mind. She put it a different way, but I'm morally against using that sort of language. Plus, I can't pronounce some of it, I think some was leprechaun swear words."

Now Ginny. "Liz's mother died on Halloween, it was terrifying. Liz stood up and walked to the Astronomy Tower--it's the tallest you see--and stood on the railing of the balcony, arms up. What happened next I'd never forget: Lightning bolt after lightning bolt struck her. Fifty-five in all. She said later that it was the magic of Melinghar transferring itself from her mother to her, in the fastest way it could. She was crying, but she looked totally normal, except gallons of tears were pouring down her cheeks like a waterfall, she told us this only happened when a ruler died. We realized then that Duchess Monty must be dead, but she never actually told us. Ever since that, she hasn't worn anything but black, and if you didn't notice her hair has changed color." Draco raised his eyebrows speculating, Ginny nodded. "S'truth. The morning after the lightning incident, her hair was black as midnight. It's odd, but she looks a cross between Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gyffindor. I never thought she'd look like either of them. But now she does. Her eyes change color, too. From green, to gold, to blue, to black. The eye color of all the Founders. It's been a bit freaky lately."

Draco blinked; this was a lot to absorb. He'd been out for a month and a half! God knows what he'd missed, or why he blacked out like that.

"Why'd Liz leave so abruptly?" he asked them, looking at them all even when the averted their eyes.

"I'm not sure if we should tell you, seeing that you just woke up, it might be a wee bit to soon, but you should find out from us before someone else tells you," said Ginny, gently. "Liz got back together with Gavin. They're engaged; they've set a date. It's this June, the 21st, to be exact."

Draco sank back onto his hospital bed, shocked.