Title: Healing Hermione

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

Pairings: Hermione/Blaise and possible Draco/Harry

Summary: The summer before seventh year, Hermione has a relapse from the injuries she received at the Ministry of Magic the end of fifth year. Her parents take her to a muggle hospital, but that only makes things worse. The Death Eaters discover where she is and Draco, who has recently switched sides, gets her away and to Hogwarts before they can attack. Unfortunately Poppy is away on holiday, so Hermione's care is entrusted into the capable hands of her new medical apprentice, Blaise Zabini.

A/N: Okay, this is my first Hermione/Blaise fic. I fell in love with this ship about a month ago, and decided to try my hand at it because there really aren't enough of them out there. Anyway, I hope you like it. This story probably won't be updated as often as StWOM, but I promise not to abandon it.

Chapter 1

Hermione awoke with a gasp. Or at least, she tried to gasp. It was suddenly very difficult to breathe. She'd been trying to hide this illness from her parents for the past two weeks, but it appeared that she could no longer do that.

It was the summer before her final year at Hogwarts. A couple of days ago, she'd been given the prestigious title of Head Girl, and had had to fight back tears at accomplishing a goal she had set for herself as a first year. That hardly mattered now.

Last year had been the most difficult for her so far. Because of the attack she'd suffered at the ministry the end of fifth year, Hermione was forced to take several potions to heal the damage done to her system. It had taken eleven months of horrible potions and almost daily check-ups before Madam Pomfrey had declared her cured last April. Things had been fine after that, 'till she got home for the summer holidays. It started the first time she'd climbed the stairs to her bedroom. A sharp pain in her lungs and lightness in her head was the first indication that something was wrong again.

For two weeks now, she had done her best to hide the discomfort from her parents. She knew that she'd have to go back to the wizarding world to be treated, possible even St. Mangos, and she had really wanted to enjoy her last summer with her family.

Now, she felt like a fool for hiding it. She was struggling to remain conscious, but she needed to alert her parents and wasn't sure how. There was no way she could walk to their room.

Desperately, she flung an arm out and knocked her lamp and clock radio to the floor with a crash. The light bulb shattered, sounding like a gun, and her parents came running.

"Hermione? What's wrong?!" her mother demanded.

Mr. Granger flipped on her bedroom light, and her mother cried out in horror at how blue Hermione's skin was.

"Weasleys," Hermione gasped out before allowing the darkness to consume her.

When Hermione awoke, she was in a hospital room all by herself. The IV in her wrist, and the heart monitor to her left let her know that it was a muggle hospital she'd been brought to. Her throat hurt, and she realized that she'd had a tube stuck down it. Probably to help her breathe easier.

She tried to keep her breaths even, but began to panic and heard the heart monitor speed up.

Suddenly the door burst open, and Draco Malfoy rushed into the room looking angrier than she'd ever seen him.

He ripped the IV from her arm, and stopped the bleeding with a quick spell. He then grabbed hold of the tube and yanked it out of her throat.

She cried out in pain when the tubing cut her throat.

Draco winced in sympathy, but kept moving.

The whole time he was muttering under his breath about stupid muggles, and how they were only making things worse.

He slipped his hands beneath her and started to pick her up, but she was stuck.

Draco threw a worried glance at the doorway. He didn't have much time before his stupefy spells would wear off.

He looked down at the weak frightened girl, and knew he head to get them out of there, fast.

He quickly ripped the hospital gown away, and cursed when he found that even more wires and tubes had been attached to different parts of her body.

She made an attempt to cover her bare breasts, but he batted her hands away so he could start removing the items.

"I'm here to help you, Granger. But we've got less than a minute to get out of here, or were both dead, so stop struggling."

Hermione instantly stopped struggling. Breathing was getting difficult again, and she knew that if Draco had meant her harm, she'd be dead by now.

She couldn't help the moans of pain, as he tugged each object free of her skin. Finally she passed out.

Once he'd finally gotten her free of everything, Draco wrapped his cloak around her, and lifted her into his arms.

He activated the portkey, and they disappeared, seconds before a group of Death Eaters descended on the room.

Blaise Zabini slowly sipped his coffee and glared at the clock. It was just after three am. A good three hours had passed since he'd received Draco's urgent owl insisting that he wait in the Hogwarts infirmary for him.

Poppy was taking a brief holiday to visit her family and had left Blasie in charge. He'd expected a quiet week, but that didn't seem to be happening.

Blaise had been ecstatic when Poppy had offered him an apprenticeship for the summer. Since last year, she'd been allowing him to help her out in the infirmary. He'd come to her with a twisted ankle at the end of fifth year, and had seen the infirmary packed with gravely injured Hogwarts students. A quick spell had set his ankle right, but he'd begged her to allow him to stay and help out. It was while helping her heal burns on Ron Weasley that he decided he wanted to become a healer. With this apprenticeship under his belt, it would be much easier to get into a good medical school.

As curious as he was to see what Draco was up to, he was also getting very bored.

Just as he was about to give up and go back to bed, Draco suddenly appeared holding a limp body in his arms.

The blond man glanced around 'til his gaze settled on Blaise.

"Where's Poppy? I told you to get her here!" he snapped.

Blaise jumped to his feet and ran over to them.

"She's on holiday, I'm the only one here tonight besides Hooch," he explained, defensively.

Draco glanced down at the unconscious girl in his arms, and then handed her over to Blaise.

"You'll have to take care of her then. I have to get back before father misses me."

He ran out the door, knowing it would take some time before he could get far enough away from the school to apparate.

Blaise gently laid the girl on one of the empty beds, and removed the cloak.

He was startled to find her completely naked, but that fact was quickly pushed from his mind as the sight of her ugly wounds kicked his training into action.

He'd been working on her for close to two hours, healing scratches, mending bones, and fading bruises, before he recognized her.

"Hermione Granger!" he gasped in surprise.

What had happened to her?

He remembered how she'd come to the infirmary almost every day last year for some potions, but Poppy had been closed lipped about her condition.

"Mr. Zabini?"

Blaise looked up to see Professor Dumbledore striding into the room, followed by Professor Snape.

Snape took in the sight of Blaise in jeans and a t-shirt, covered with blood leaning over a naked and unconscious Hermione Granger who had so many pillows under her she was almost sitting up.

"Is she going to be okay?" he asked, rushing over to them.

For some reason it bothered Blaise for the professors to see Hermione naked, so he casually pulled a sheet up to cover her and walked toward a sink to wash his hands.

"I've healed all of the surface injuries, and mended a few broken ribs, but there's obviously something else going on with her that I can't recognize. She can't seem to breathe properly unless she's propped up like that."

Dumbledore placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You've done a very good job, Blaise. You're going to make a fine healer."

Blaise blushed at the compliment.

Snape was studying her curiously.

"I had to make several potions for her last year, it appears as if she wasn't quite ready to go off of them," he commented thoughtfully.

"I'm going to get them. Perhaps that will set her right," he announced and swooped out of the room.

"The injuries I healed today are new ones. What happened to her?" Blaise asked.

"According to her parents, Hermione woke them up early this morning by knocking a lamp over in her room. When they went to see what was wrong, she couldn't breathe, and eventually passed out. Being muggles, they called a muggle ambulance right away. Her ribs were cracked when the muggle healers tried to get her to start breathing again. It worked, probably saved her life, but then they took her to the hospital. Muggles have a variety of instruments and machines that they use to diagnose their patients, but unfortunately using them can be a bit painful."

Blaise looked over at his patient in sympathy.

"They should have contacted you right away."

"I think Miss Granger has been getting worse for a while, and hiding it from her parents. She's kept so much from them, they had no idea her malady was magical."

"She needs to be watched closely Professor. We should think about transferring her to St. Mungos."

"I'm afraid we can't do that. According to Professor Snape and Draco, the Death Eaters are after her specifically. Snape was able to overhear the plan to abduct her from the muggle hospital with just enough time for Draco to get her out of there. I'm afraid that Hogwarts is the last safe place we have left."

"I didn't know Draco was one of your group," Blaise commented casually.

Dumbledore sighed, and looked all of his one hundred and fifty plus years.

"I know that you're determined to remain neutral in this war. But promise me you'll keep your eyes and ears open. A day will come when you have to choose, and I only hope that you make the right one."

Blaise was spared an answer by Snape's reappearance.

He took the potions from Snape, and walked to Hermione's bed.

"Do you need help with anything?"

"No. I've got it."

"In that case, Professor Snape and I have a meeting to attend. You can expect Miss Granger's parents to arrive shortly after breakfast."

Blaise nodded, and the two men left.

He pulled out his wand, and stifled a yawn.

"Inervate!" he said, pointing his wand at her head.

Hermione's eyes blinked open, and she looked around her in fear.

When she recognized the Hogwarts infirmary, she seemed to relax a little. However, upon seeing Blaise she jumped, and the fear returned.

He quickly dropped his wand to the floor and held up his hands in an 'I'm harmless' gesture.

"I'm sorry, but I had to wake you up so that you could take some potions."

She looked up at him warily.

He sighed and picked up one of the potions.

"Professor Snape says this is one of the ones you've been taking all year. It will help you breathe."

She hesitantly took it from his outstretched hand and gently sipped at it.

He caught the bottle before she could drop it, and quickly set it down on a table next to the bed.

"What is it?"

Hermione was clearly in great pain, her hands clutching her throat.

The sheet fell, baring her breasts again, but she hurt so badly that she didn't even notice.

Blaise cursed, and scooped up his wand.

"Open your mouth."

She shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks.

"Hermione, I can't stop the pain unless I can see what's causing it. Please, open your mouth."

She finally opened for him, and he illuminated his wand so that he could see better.

"Shit," he said when the light reviled the long gash going down the back of her throat.

He went to Poppy's medicine cabinet, and removed a bottle of lidocaine. He remembered from his studies that this would numb the cut, and stop the pain long enough for him to heal it. He also knew that it was safe enough to be ingested.

It took great patience and several minutes of coaxing before he finally got her to swallow it. Almost immediately she dropped back onto the pillows exhausted, but no longer in such horrible pain.

He gently wiped the perspiration from her forehead.

"I need to use the petrificus charm on you so that I can heal it. I promise I'll take it off the second I'm done."

Her eyes held her trust of him as she nodded.

It was taking a lot of effort for him to keep his eyes on her face and not look at her breasts. Training or not, he was a seventeen-year-old boy and he couldn't help it.

He did the charm, and then had to climb on the bed so he could get his wand down her throat. It didn't take long to heal, and he set back and removed the charm.

"Better?" he asked.

She nodded with a weak smile, then frowned as she watched his gaze drop to her chest.

Realizing that she was naked, she quickly pulled the sheet back up, blushing furiously.

He shook himself, and got off the bed. Grabbing the potion by the table he handed it back to her.

"It shouldn't burn this time," he assured her.

She quickly took each of the potions Snape had brought up, and Blaise was pleased to see her skin returning to a healthy pink color.

"You should sleep. I'll be over at Poppy's desk if you need anything."

"Blaise?" her voice was hoarse.

"Yes?"

"I'm naked."

He blinked at her, then grinned.

"I know."

She blushed again, and shook her head.

"I mean I need something to wear."

He looked around the room, then back at her.

"I don't have anything for you to wear."

"Please? My parents and I'm sure some of the teachers will be by to visit. I can't be naked," she pleaded desperately.

He sighed, and pulled his t-shirt over his head. It was green and held the Slytherin emblem.

He walked back over to her, and slipped it over her head.

"That's my favorite shirt, and I expect it back," he said, only half teasing.

She nodded, and settled back on the bed, her eyes roaming over his naked chest.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"You did it to me," she snapped and then turned on her side, facing away from him.

He couldn't help but grin at that. Then he shook his head. What was wrong with him? This was Hermione Granger, the little Gryffindor bookworm who didn't have a seductive bone in her body. But he had to admit that she looked really good in his shirt. He shrugged and headed over to Poppy's desk. A simple charm re-warmed his coffee, and he sat down to enjoy it. It had been a very long night.

End Chapter 1