Never • The Lost Daughter | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 57 - Lies of Albus

When I woke up, I hardly believed I was alive. When I first looked at the white walls and curtains combined with the morning light, I thought I was in some sort of heaven just like we see in films. But I knew where I was. I had been there more than five times. I was at the Hospital Wing. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I managed to open them. The first thing my gaze fell upon, was a clock that showed 5 - I supposed it was 5 in the morning. What an odd hour to wake up. Needn't I sleep after last night at the Ministry?

When I took my mind off this strange, little thought, I got to notice and stare at the person who was sitting next to me. I couldn't have asked for anything more than that.

Draco's eyes were tired, with a grey shadow around them, and this slightly pink-red shade around the corners.

"Annie! Thank God, you're okay! You woke up!" Draco threw himself on me at once and kissed me.

"Ouch!" I groaned when I felt his hands pressing my scalp. I felt a large piece of bandage tied around my head. I didn't even want to think about what it was hiding but the previous night was beginning to come back to me all at once. I remembered the hole on my head, the black and scarlet blood that was oozing from beneath the torn skin.

"Sorry..." he said and took a step back in fear. "I was beginning to think you would never wake up," he said and now his eyes were glistening and the transition from bliss to terror had been so fast that I wanted to sit up and take him in my arms. When I tried to move, however, I felt some invisible force holding me back.

"What? What do you mean? How long was I asleep?"

The last thing that I could remember was looking at Harry's dusty hand. I was holding it tightly in the light of a thousand flashing lights from the cameras that desperately wanted a picture from that moment. Everything had faded to black or to white from then on, and there was no telling how I even got back to Hogwarts.

"You were out for five days. Madam Pomfrey started doubting if you could make it. You don't know how happy I am that you're back," he said in a shaking voice.

He kissed me again and now pressed his head on my chest. Even that was painful by itself - there was an internal pain coming from my shoulder. Yet, I didn't want to disturb Draco as he dumped out all his emotions on me. I felt his shudder as he pressed his ear near my heart. He was crying loudly.

"Do I interrupt something?" I heard a discreet voice behind Draco.

"Luna!" I screamed with complete and utter happiness. Luna didn't waste a second. She came up to me and hugged me.

"Oh, Annalise, I miss you so much!" she said still not letting me move from the safety of her warmth. "We thought that we would lose you!" she said and I could now feel her almost sobbing. When she finally backed off, I noticed a bruise on the right corner of her forehead.

"Luna, you're hurt..." I said and curled my eyebrows - something I would soon remember. Facial expressions hurt both my forehead and the back of my neck.

"Not as badly as you are," she said taking a small mirror from the white bedside table and giving it to me, to see my face. The first thing you notice is a large bandage passing over half of my forehead and over the back of my head. I knew that a scar was beneath it but I was glad couldn't see it, even though but I knew that seeing would be much easier than feeling. My lips were full of scabs with blue skin around them. Right under my neck there was a series of six stitches. There were two huge bruises, one on the left corner of my forehead and one right underneath my right eye. The skin between the scars was paler than ever and the whites of my eyes had a reddish tone in them.

"How did I get that one?" I said pointing my scar under the bandage.

"Voldemort threw you at the edge of a fireplace. Don't you remember?" said Draco looking at Luna like the two of them knew something I didn't.