Chapter 6: Reactions
A/N: I am back and this fic will be finished. I apologize for how long it took. Please take the time to review, and thanks to those who kept reviewing telling me to finish. You guys kept me in check! This fic will be finished in another chapter or so. Meanwhile, enjoy.
"How could you?" Hermione whispered, looking at the red head still stranded in thin air.
She supposed she could not blame her for her outburst. She was upset, recently dumped and all. But that bit about Dolohov was simply uncalled for. Hermione guessed that's what Ginny wanted, to provoke a reaction out of her, something to complain to Harry about. It shouldn't have made her as mad as she was. It shouldn't have made her levitate Ginny, and it definitely shouldn't have made her use wandless magic.
She should have laughed about it. But the fact that Ginny would use her little drama to complain to Harry later, and that she had played right into Ginny's plan, made her even angrier.
She forced herself to calm down, willing herself to put Ginny back on the floor.
But blast, that wretched pain came to mess with her concentration.
Hermione did not yet completely dominate wandless magic. She was still in sixth year after all. It took a lot of concentration, and a lot of bodily tension, to pull. That was why she did not use it but for practice with stationary objects once in a while; never when she had a temper, never to levitate a human being. And all the events within the last two days had not fully allowed her body to recover since the argument with Harry.
She did not know if it was because the lack of recovery, her sudden outburst of anger, or the magical force she was taking upon herself. But wandless magic seemed to be the cherry on the sundae as far as her wound was concerned.
Hermione flinched as she felt a wet spot in her abdomen. She looked down to realize that droplets of her blood were falling to the floor.
Still in shock, for her wound had never bled before, she didn't realize that the portrait had swung open.
"Bloody hell Hermione! You didn't tell me you had moved on to bigger targets," said Ron. His cheery mood was Hermione's obvious lead that her red-haired best friend hadn't completely become aware of the situation.
"Very funny Ron," Ginny grumbled.
It was the male redhead's voice that brought Hermione out of her stupor.
"Is Harry with you?" she whispered.
"What?" Ron seemingly remained puzzled.
"What, are you daft? She wants her boyfriend to come to the rescue again. And could you please tell her to let me go? Maybe that will stop the bleeding," Ginny grumbled once again.
"Bleeding?" Ron kept questioning.
"Ow!" Ginny grumbled as Hermione put her hand in a first, effectively dropping her. "Thanks a lot."
"Ron, where is Harry?" Hermione turned around as she felt her hands positively soaked in her wound's blood.
"Bloody hell Hermione! I'll get Madam Pomfrey!" Ron's face was as white as parchment, Hermione observed. Oddly enough, her body had gone numb. There was no pain, but the blood kept trickling.
Suddenly, she realized that she had spoken too soon. She gasped as she could not help but fall face flat on the floor. If she was not biting her lips right now, she would have howled in pain. Right now, she could not tell what worried her more. The pain was more than normal, but the bleeding had not ceased.
"Damn it Ron. GET HARRY!" Hermione screamed.
She didn't know at this point what Madam Pomfrey could do. She probably could close the wound, but as always, as they didn't know the origin of the pain, only that it seemed to come when Hermione was stressed, no one dared to use magic to counteract it. Only she could relax her body. And she only trusted Harry to counteract the pressure of her body with his own, and soothe her.
"Just get him Ron." Hermione distinctly heard Ginny's voice, but it seemed to fade away.
She could still feel the thumping of the pain in her abdomen, but she also started to feel her body tremble.
"I'm cold," she whispered, not sure if anyone could hear her at this point. Her vision was becoming cloudy, and the pain alternated between numbing and high intensity periods.
"Ron?" she tried to whisper, but she doubted no one but she heard her own voice.
She could feel herself drifting away.
"HERMIONE!"
Harry's green eyes were the last thing she saw before everything went black.
****
Hermione groaned as she felt the pain once more, but it was a sore type of pain, not the shooting sensation that she felt when Dolohov's magic was at work.
As her eyes adjusted to the brightly lit white walls, she realized she was in the Hospital Wing, and it wasn't long before she heard Madam Pomfrey's shrill voice.
"Mr. Potter, she will wake up, but you have to be patient. She lost quite a bit of blood. I will not know the extent of the damage until-"
Followed by her boyfriend's.
"Something has to be done. What about a muscle relaxant?"
"I'm afraid that only works-"
"Ha-rry?" Hermione called him, finding her voice to be unusually hoarse.
Her boyfriend immediately rushed to her side.
"Hermione, thank Merlin. How are you feeling?"
Her heart broke as she heard all the concern in Harry's voice. He had so many other things to worry about. She wished he didn't have to worry about her. But this time, she had no one to blame but herself. She had gotten mad at Ginny. She had levitated her using wandless magic, and she had screamed at Ron and ordered him to go look for Harry.
All the more reason to kill Dolohov with her bare hands.
"I'm all right. I'm sorry Harry-"
"I'll be the judge of that," Madame Pomfrey announced, approaching her. "Can you tell me what happened Miss Granger?"
Hermione nodded, her shame preventing her from looking at Madam Pomfrey in the eyes.
"I was arguing. It was silly, but I got really angry. It was as though the magic took a life of its own. Next thing I knew, Ginny was floating in mid-air. I know I did it, and I shouldn't have done it. But I didn't intend to do it-I-"
"And the pain?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"I didn't have any at first. But about a minute after I levitated Ginny, I felt a wet spot close to the wound site. I was surprised by the bleeding, but there was no pain. The pain came later as the stress of the bleeding really sank in. I screamed at Ron to get Harry. That's when I really felt it. The pain was so intense it became hard to keep my balance-"
"Which explains the bruise at the right of the wound," Madam Pomfrey confirmed.
"Bruise? But the distance wasn't even-" Hermione began to protest. The bruising made no sense after a simple fall.
"The wound site was already tender. The fall made it worse," said Madam Pomfrey, "How are you feeling now? Are you in pain?"
Hermione sighed as she realized she did not. There was tenderness and soreness, probably from the bleeding and subsequent fall. But the pain was gone.
"No. It feels sore," she said.
"Is that normal for your wound after the pain Miss Granger?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"No," Hermione answered, and could not help blushing.
The last time she had felt sore had been when she had given herself to Harry for the first time. Madam Pomfrey raised an eyebrow in a questioning look, and Harry looked too concerned to think about better times. Nevertheless, the nurse said nothing. Thank Merlin. Hermione wasn't in the mood to be embarrassed in front of the nurse.
"It's usually either pain or relief. There is no middle ground," she finished.
"Let's see it. Excuse us Mr. Potter. "
Harry backed into a corner as Madam Pomfrey pulled Hermione's gown up.
Hermione noticed that this time, the nurse hadn't even bothered to bandage the wound. It wouldn't have helped anyway. But she was surprised to see the wound closed. There was no sign of bleeding. In fact, the wound looked better than she had ever seen it.
"Well, it looks better," Madam Pomfrey confirmed what Hermione had been able to appreciate within her limited field of vision. Her body had lost no time in protesting about her forced position. "Nevertheless Miss Granger, I'd like to keep you overnight for observation."
Hermione nodded. She had been expecting to stay. Better safe than sorry.
"Can I stay with her?" Harry pleaded.
"No, Madam Pomfrey, I can assure you that's not necessary-" Hermione would have none of it. Harry had other things to do than to look up after her. She didn't need a baby sitter.
"I'm sorry Mr. Potter, but that would imply staying after curfew. I'll stay with her. You can come first thing in the morning if you like," said Madam Pomfrey.
Harry nodded. Hermione could see he was upset. She could tell he would not sleep tonight.
"I'll see you tomorrow then," Harry whispered and kissed her forehead. "Good night Madam Pomfrey," he said to the nurse.
"Good night Mr. Potter," said Madam Pomfrey.
"Harry, you don't need to be here first thing-" Hermione tried to reason with him. He needed his rest as well and since tonight he was not going to get it, perhaps he could sleep in. Tomorrow was Saturday after all.
"You can't win this one Hermione. I'll be here," Harry whispered again, smiling thinly this time.
She sighed. His selflessness was one of the things she loved most about him, despite how annoying it could be sometimes.
"You have nice friends, Miss Granger." Madam Pomfrey said, smiling at her.
"I know," said Hermione.
"You know, observation is just a precaution. Truth be told, I've never seen that nasty bruise look better. Are you sure you didn't do anything magically to yourself in the course of this…argument?"
"Not that I know of, Madam Pomfrey," Hermione answered. And it was the truth. She hadn't even thought about the consequences that using such a physically demanding magical force would have on her body. She had just thought about teaching Ginny a lesson. And that lesson hadn't included wandless levitation.
"Well, let's hope it will continue to look like that in the morning. I'll run some more tests then, and we'll take it from there," said Madam Pomfrey.
"Thanks," Hermione said.
"Good night Miss Granger. I'll be keeping an eye on you, so don't worry," Madam Pomfrey assured
her.
Hermione nodded, reaching to touch her wound.
She winced as she felt the tenderness, but there was no pain. And the bleeding had ceased. She could only hope it would get better from here, even if that meant thanking Ginny as soon as she got out.
She sighed once more. Despite her anger, she hoped Ginny wasn't seriously hurt. Although she doubted that their friendship could go back to the way it was before, she hoped that they could still have some sort of friendship. That is, after she could get over the redhead's tantrum. She knew that eventually she would. After all, time healed al wounds. Some would take longer than others, but would still heal.
She could only hope that both Ginny's resentment and her blue abrasion would go away with time.
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