On the ground lay Harry, Ron, Sirius Black, and Professor Snape, all unconscious. Draco rushed forward to check their breathing at Hermione's gasp.
"Are they... still alive?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"They are still alive." Draco straightened up, frowning. "But they are badly hurt. They need to be taken to the Hospital Wing at once."
Just then, something enormous moved through the bushes and the grassy slope, with a loud snapping of branches.
"Draco, listen..." Hermione's expression immediately turned to fear.
"Who is there?" Draco demanded sharply, grabbing Hermione's hand and pulling her behind him. Her slender fingers were icy cold.
Under the moonlight, a figure flickered among the trees.
"Hagrid?" Hermione exclaimed in surprise.
"Hermione! I cannot find Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid sobbed as he rushed towards them, his great beard unable to conceal his anxiety and despair.
"I ran into Professor Snape on the way and told him what had happened. I even went to the Owlery to send word to Professor Dumbledore... oh, gracious, what has happened to Harry?"
"We ran into a werewolf." Hermione could no longer stay alert. She leaned against Draco, exhausted.
"Hagrid, we need to get them to the Hospital Wing at once, especially Sirius Black. He looks badly hurt..."
"Where is Harry?" Hagrid looked towards Harry with concern.
"He has just fainted," Draco said calmly. "He is not as badly hurt as Sirius Black."
"You! Draco Malfoy! What are you doing here?" Hagrid finally noticed Draco and said warily, "Hermione, you silly girl, come here! What are you doing next to him? Holding his hand? Have you forgotten how he..."
"Do not waste time!" Draco interrupted him rudely. "Not if you want Sirius Black to live!"
"Right, I will take him to the Hospital Wing at once! You lot stay put and watch over Harry, I will be straight back! And you, Malfoy boy, you had better behave yourself! Try any funny business with her! Hermione, get your wand out, and if this lad gives you any trouble, teach him a lesson!"
Hagrid said loudly, easily lifting the unconscious, blood-soaked, dark-haired man... who looked like a dying black swan... and speaking with a grim face.
Hermione frowned and nodded to Hagrid, but did not let go of Draco's hand.
"We cannot wait here. It is not safe, we must get away,"
Draco said irritably. He glanced at Hagrid's hurrying figure heading towards the castle, then looked away and surveyed the people lying on the ground around him.
"A Levitation Charm?" Hermione asked wearily. "Could we use a Levitation Charm?"
"Good thought. However, the Levitation Charm only works on objects," Draco said. "We should cast a similar spell instead... Mobilicorpus."
"Mobilicorpus, Mobilicorpus..." she repeated softly and mechanically, as though learning the incantation might ease the panic in her heart just then.
"Can you still walk?" Draco asked her, feeling the girl beside him swaying precariously.
Hermione gave him a stubborn look, remained silent, and turned pale.
She was indeed trembling and her legs were weak. When Hagrid had come running just now, she had thought the werewolf had returned, and it had startled her.
Draco sighed and took off his new robe and draped it over her shoulders.
"Get on, I shall carry you." He crouched down, turning his back to her.
"I... I could probably walk on my own too," she said softly, though she hugged his neck tightly and rested her cool cheek against the crook of his neck.
"That is right. When I get too tired, you can get down and walk yourself." He said this off-handedly, tightening his hold on the fragile girl on his back.
Do not go anywhere, he could not help thinking, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"I am not actually that weak," she said defiantly, though she was still trembling slightly despite wearing his robe.
"That is right. You are not weak. Did you learn that spell just now? Use it to keep the wounded steady on the way to the Hospital Wing, will you?"
Draco said seriously. "I remember you always pick up levitation charms very quickly, and are very good at controlling levitating objects. Give it a try, it will help me a great deal."
Hermione was persuaded.
She took out her wand and whispered the newly learned spell over his shoulder, and soon the unconscious figures were suspended in mid-air like ghosts.
Anyone unfortunate enough to glimpse the Hogwarts grounds at midnight would surely have been terrified by this eerie sight.
"There we are. Well done, you did a splendid job." Draco held her tightly and praised her.
She seemed a little cheered by his words, and obediently lay against his back, guiding the injured onward, no longer fidgeting.
They walked for about ten minutes and caught up with Hagrid, who was raising a fist as big as a dinner plate and pounding on the door of the Hospital Wing.
Madam Pomfrey, dressed in tartan pyjamas, was yawning. She impatiently opened the door and was nearly frightened out of her wits at the sight of a group of battered people floating in mid-air.
"For Merlin's sake! What on earth have you been doing? Even a wizard's duel should not leave anyone in this state!"
She glared angrily at Hagrid, who was carrying Sirius Black straight into the ward, then glanced at Draco standing before her, the exhausted girl on his back still controlling the unconscious wounded in the air.
She seemed to be weighing up who the culprit was.
What sort of look is that?
Draco thought, bewildered.
It is not as though I am the one who caused all this!
"I do not know what happened either. I was simply passing by and offered to lend a hand."
Draco did his best to look at Madam Pomfrey with a bewildered expression, his tone carefully tactful.
"In that case, Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger, what are you doing wandering about outside in the middle of the night, instead of being back in your common rooms?"
She asked suspiciously, glancing sharply at the listless girl draped in a robe on his back.
Merlin, had this young couple slipped out on some sort of tryst?
Madam Pomfrey wondered to herself, longing to rush to Irma Pince's bedside, shake her awake, and share this momentous piece of gossip.
Draco was speechless and could only give her an awkward smile.
Excitement aside, the injured remained the top priority.
"Come in, put them down," Madam Pomfrey said, trying her best to keep a straight face.
She watched as the wounded floated onto the beds one by one under Hermione's guidance, then hurriedly began to examine them. "And Hagrid, out you go and wait. Do not touch my patients!"
Hagrid awkwardly lowered the hand that had been about to reach for Harry, and bent down to slip back out through the doorway.
Finally, they were safe.