Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I swear I am not trying to make any profit off of this. I just love this world and I like to play in it.
A/N: This was written for The Test (Challenge) on HPFC. The first test was "A serious illness has spread through the Wizarding world." I chose the genre hurt/comfort. My advantage was that the story could be the minimum of 500 words. My disadvantage was that my story had to have at least 3 characters.
Why She Hates Hospitals
Professor Hermione Granger had been woken by a student knocking her door in the middle of the night. She was tying the sash on her robe when she answered the door. The student was Melanie Hamilton, one of her second year Gryffindors.
"What is it, Miss Hamilton?"
"Professor, Greta seems to be really sick. She woke up coughing and having trouble breathing. She can't get enough air to tell us what's wrong. June sent me to get you."
Hermione had been waiting for this to happen. Just before Christmas break the staff had gotten word of a mysterious illness that had struck the Wizarding world. The students had been back for almost a week. Nobody knew what the illness was yet, but the healers at St. Mungo's were working with Muggle doctors to try to figure out what it was. It seemed to only strike witches and wizards. Muggles and squibs were immune to it.
"Wait here, Miss Hamilton. I'll just be a moment."
Hermione turned and walked back into her chambers. She walked into her bedroom and grabbed her wand and put on her slippers. She debated over whether or not to leave a note for her husband when a second knock sounded through the chambers. This time it was a Slytherin student. Hermione woke Draco to go tend to the student from his house and summoned a house elf to watch over two year old Scorpius.
Hermione hurried along the corridor toward Gryffindor tower with Melanie following in her wake. She gave the password to the Fat Lady and rushed through the portrait hole into the common room. There she met another student running down the stairs from the boy's dormitory.
"Professor!" Frank Daniels cried. "John can't breathe and is coughing."
"Okay, Mr. Daniels. I'll be there in a moment. I need to see Miss Martin first."
Hermione hurried up to the second year girl's dormitory and tried to get Greta to breathe calmly. That was the only way to make sure the girl got enough oxygen. She then asked June Meadows, the girl's prefect, to help Greta down to the common room.
Hermione then bustled up to the first year boy's dormitory to see John Daniels, younger brother of the boy in the common room.
"Mr. Daniels, help your bother to the common room."
Hermione woke the boy's prefect and asked him to assemble all the boys in the common room for her return. She then escorted the sick students to the infirmary. When they arrived she asked June to go back to the girl's dormitories and gather the girls in the common room with the boys and asked Frank to go back to the common room with June.
Madam Pomfrey came in just as Draco brought in his student from Slytherin. Madam Pomfrey already had a separate ward set up for quarantine. The students were put in beds and Madam Pomfrey started performing her diagnostic spells.
"Is it the illness, Poppy?" asked Draco.
Madam Pomfrey just nodded. "I'll inform the Headmistress," she said solemnly.
Hermione sighed. "I'll go inform Gryffindor House." Draco hugged her before they went to inform the students of the disease.
Two weeks later, Hermione woke up to Draco coughing and wheezing. She immediately sat up and started rubbing his back to try and settle him enough to get him to the infirmary.
Madam Pomfrey had long ago run out of beds in the quarantine ward. Hermione settled Draco in a bed, made sure a house elf was watching Scorpius, then flooed Minerva McGonagall, the Headmistress.
"Minerva, Draco just came down with it. He won't be able to teach his classes for a while."
"Damn," muttered Minerva. Hermione blinked in surprise. It wasn't a terrible swear, but Hermione had never heard the woman say anything like that before. "That's three staff members. We will have to cancel classes. We may even have to consider closing the school until the right potion is found to cure this. I will inform the students at breakfast that classes will be canceled for the foreseeable future."
Hermione walked back to her husband's bedside and watched as he tried to sleep between bouts of coughing.
Sometime later, Hermione started as someone touched her shoulder. She lifted her head off of the bed and realized it was the headmistress.
"How is he?" she asked softly.
"Worse," said Hermione. "He can't even muster the energy to cough. Poppy gave him something to suppress the cough and something to help him sleep. Many of the witches and wizards that have contracted the disease have died, Minerva. I can't let him die." Hermione started sobbing while Professor McGonagall rubbed her back.
Draco was transferred to St. Mungo's two days later. He just kept getting worse. Two weeks went by and Hermione never left his side. She started doing something she hadn't done since she was a little girl; she prayed. She didn't want Draco to die.
"Don't leave me," she begged him. "I can't raise Scorpius alone, Draco. He needs his father. I need his father. I need you, Draco. You have so much to stay here for. Your friends, your students. Your family. Stay. Stay, Draco, and help me raise our son to be a great man. A man as great as his father. Please, Draco. I can't lose you."
She clutched his hand as she laid her head on the bed next to him and sobbed.
Hermione awoke to a hand caressing her hair. She lifted her head and looked at Draco. To her surprise, he was awake.
She stood up and leaned over him to kiss him. She then ran to the door and called for a healer. "He's awake! Healer Stevens, he's awake!"
Healer Stevens hurried into the room and ran his wand over Draco casting diagnostic spells. He looked at each of them and smiled. "He seems to be over the worst of it. We can stop giving him the potion to help him sleep, though he may still be tired from his body trying to heal itself."
She looked at Draco and grinned. "You're going to be alright. I knew it," and she kissed Draco again.
Healer Stevens said, "I'll be by later to check on you again and give you your dose of the experimental potion," and he walked out of the room.
Draco looked at Hermione. "Experimental potion?" His voice was hoarse from disuse.
"Here, Draco. Drink this." She held a glass of water to his lips.
He allowed the coddling since they were alone. He drank greedily trying to heal his parched throat.
"Experimental potion?" he asked again. His voice sounded a little better, but still hoarse.
"Well you weren't getting any better. We had to do something. The potion has had a huge positive effect on all of the patients that they have given it to. They are calling it a cure."
He smiled slightly and shook his head. "If Severus were here, he would be berating you for trying an experimental potion."
Hermione snorted. "No, he wouldn't. He would have developed it himself and insisted that you were the first to receive it. He would be berating you right now for lazing about and not helping him."
Draco laughed. "You're probably right. Where's Scorpius?" he asked suddenly.
Hermione stroked his blonde hair back from his face. "Molly's watching him today. He's been spending time with everyone. They all fought over who would get to watch him. I had to come up with a schedule."
They shared a chuckle over that. They both were remembering Hermione's color-coded study schedules for school.
Hermione got into bed with Draco and cuddled up next to him as he started falling asleep. "Thank you," she whispered before closing her eyes and following her husband to dreamland.