Hospital Wing
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardary
Early Afternoon the day Harry Left
A groan escaped the prone figure lying on the hospital bed. With a slight shake of her bushy hair, Hermione slowly fought her way back to consciousness. With a second groan, her eyes fluttered open.
The first thing that she noticed was that the side that was hit by that spell hurt like hell. The second thing was that she was in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts. The third thing was a slight tingling in her right hand. Turning her head to the right, she finally noticed the letter that Harry had left next to her head.
"I see that you are finally awake," a matronly voice said to her left. "That spell caused a lot of damage to your body, young lady. It has taken me several hours to fix you. You will still have to take several potions everyday for the next week and a half before you are fully healed. Please do not fight me on this."
Slowly rotating her head to the left away from the letter, she saw Madam Pomfrey standing next to her bed. With a wave of her wand, the healer ran a scan down Hermione's body.
"You are getting better, young lady. At least you're conscious now, which is a very good thing. I was about to send you to St Mungo's."
Looking at the healer, Hermione started to ask a question, but her voice came out all scratchy.
"Here, drink this," Madam Pomfrey suggested, holding cup with a straw in it. "It will sooth your throat and help with the healing.
Nodding slowly, Hermione took a sip from the straw. A soothing sensation spread down her throat to the rest of her body. Again, she tried to speak.
"Where Harry?"
Not surprised by this question, the healer matron answered that question and the other unspoken ones.
"Harry left your bedside earlier today. He held your hand for most of it. I was afraid that you were going to slip away from me, but somehow, you pulled through. He didn't say much as he held your hand, but he did whisper something in your ear before he left along with that note."
Hermione simply nodded. She vaguely recalled a voice saying something to her in the darkness followed by a powerful emotion. It had given her the strength to return. Before she could ask her next question, the Hogwarts healer continued.
"Due to the damage that Mr. Weasley suffered, I had to transfer him to St. Mungo's. His mind appears to be damaged along with some scaring on his arms. Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley along with Miss Weasley, Mr. Longbottom and Miss Lovegood had an argument yesterday morning. It appears that there has been some sort of falling out between them. I had to ask Mr. Potter to leave."
Hermione was saddened to hear that piece of information. With her mind slowly kicking in, she could see how the others would place the blame for their injuries squarely on Harry's shoulders even though he had begged them not to go with him to rescue Sirius. Now the others could see exactly what Harry was up against.
"I managed to heal the others fairly quickly. Miss Weasley's ankle and Mr. Longbottom's nose were fairly easy. They will not suffer any long term affects. Miss Lovegood just needed some Pepper Up Potion. She is now back to her usual self."
"Now, I need you to take each of these potions in the order that I give them to you. You will need to take one dose now and other before you go to sleep for the night. Each of these will speed up the healing process. So let's begin."
With that, the healer began to give Hermione several potions in a row. Each one tasted differently but after taking each one, one of her pains slowly diminished.
"There, that wasn't so bad now was it?"
Hermione simply shook her head in agreement with Poppy.
"Now you just relax here as best you can while I let the Headmaster know that you are awake."
Upon saying that, Madam Pomfrey bustled away to her office.
Sighing, Hermione lay there on her bed. With nothing else to do, her mind started going over the recent events. With her mind returning to its razor sharpness, she slowly reached several conclusions. Some of them she did not like.
With another sigh, the bed ridden bushy haired young lady reached up to take the letter that Harry had left for her. Grasping it, she brought in front of eyes so she could read it. The outside of the envelope simply had her name written on it in Harry's untidy scrawl. She realized that she did not have a good feeling about this letter.
Slowly opening the letter, she could feel that spells that Harry had placed on it to make sure that only she could hold and read the letter.
Hmm, he is definitely getting better at magic, she thought
Extracting the letter, she opened it and began to read it.
My Dearest Hermione,
I am hoping that I can still call you that, but mostly likely after recent events, I will not be able to and for that I am eternally sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am that you were injured while trying to help me save Sirius.
It seems that my "saving people thing" got the better of me again and it cost me Sirius and you nearly your life. When that spell hit you and you collapsed, I thought you had died and it was all my fault. It seemed that my world had just ended. The only that kept me from losing it was Longbottom saying that you still had a pulse. It was right then I realized how much you meant to me.
Without you by my side during the course of these last five years, I would most likely have been killed by now, or worse, expelled. Sorry, couldn't resist.
As you no doubt have either heard by now or have been told, Weasley and I, along with the others, had a major argument in the hospital wing yesterday. It would seem that Weasley's jealously has gotten the better of him again, and it is with a heavy heart that we have parted ways. The same with the others.
As I write this, I don't know if I can still count you as a friend. If I can't, then there is really no reason for me to stay in the Wizarding World. For without friends, I have nothing left to fight for and really no reason to go on.
Even though we may no longer be friends, I will be asking Dobby to look in on you from time to time to make sure that you are doing ok and if you need anything. I will also be asking him to take you and your family someplace safe if you are ever attacked by either Voldemort or his Death Eaters.
Again, I am so sorry that I am the cause of you being hurt so badly, to my eternal shame. If you can ever find it in your heart to talk to me again, just ask for Dobby, he will know where I am.
Harry
With tears in her eyes and a breaking heart, she reread the letter. When she finished it the second time, Hermione finally broke down and started crying, letting the tears fall where they may. Her shoulders shook with the body wracking sobs that escaped from here.
This is the scene that the Headmaster and Madam Pomfrey saw as they entered the hospital wing from the healer's office. Sharing a glance, they slowly approached the crying young lady.
"Is everything alright," Madam Pomfrey asked tentatively. "Why are you crying so?"
She hated to see anyone in pain. It is one of the main reasons that she became a healer in the first place. Slowly, the aging matron eased herself onto the crying young lady's bed and gently took her in her arms. Hermione quickly wrapped her own arms around the healer and let the tears fall where they may.
Looking at the crying young woman, the fallen note and remembering what his healer had told about the falling out that had taken place the day before in that very room, the Hogwarts Headmaster had a pretty good idea why young Miss Granger was crying her eyes out. He decided to see if his hunch was right.
"Miss Granger," he asked in his best grandfatherly voice, "what seems to be troubling you so? I take it that there is something disturbing in that letter that Mr. Potter left for you. Do you mind if I have a look at it?"
Seeing Hermione shake her head in agreement, the aged educator picked up the letter that Harry had left. Feeling the concealing spells that Harry had put on it to make sure that Hermione was the only one who could read it, he quickly cancelled them and began to read.
Finishing the letter, Albus asked the castle if Harry was still in the castle or warded area surrounding the castle. Hogwarts told him that Harry had departed from the school a little while ago and was not on the grounds either.
Hmm, this is disturbing, thought the headmaster. Well there only two places that he could go. I will have to check both of them to make sure that Harry is safe. His safety is all that matters at this point.
Seeing that he would not be able to get anything else from the crying young woman, Albus departed the hospital wing and headed for his office. He needed to make some floo calls.
Back in the hospital wing, Poppy was slowly calming the distraught bushy haired young lady down. Finally, Hermione's sobs eased off.
"Here now, what's all this about," Poppy asked gently.
"It's Harry," sobbed Hermione. "He thinks that I blame him for what happened at the Ministry. Since everyone else seems to, he thinks that I do too. It's just not true!"
Shushing the young lady, Poppy gently started to rock her back and forth.
As she was doing that, the doors to the hospital wing burst open and in walked Ginny, Neville and Luna. They headed straight for their friend.
"What's wrong," Ginny asked.
Finally realizing that there were others in the room, Poppy turned to the others. Upon seeing who it was, the healer informed them that it was not a good time for them to be visiting Hermione.
"Is she going to be ok?"
"Eventually, Mr. Longbottom," Madam Pomfrey sighed. "Right now is not a good time for Miss Granger. She is still recovering from the events at the Ministry and will be for a while. I will let you know when you can see her."
Before she could inform them it was time to leave, Luna saw the discarded letter from Harry. Picking it up, she started to read it. By the end of it, she simply sighed and looked over at her two friends.
"What," asked Ginny.
"It would seem that Harry no longer considers us his friends after what happened yesterday. According to this, it looks like he will be leaving us for the foreseeable future. He is hoping that Hermione will still want to be his friend. If she doesn't, it says that he has nothing left to fight for and will not stay in our world."
At this, the other two shared a look then shrugged their shoulders.
"If he wants to take the coward's way out," Neville started off in a heated voice, "then we don't need him. I think that we will all be safer without him anyway. He it's like he is a trouble magnet."
Before anyone else could say anything, Hermione lashed out at her friends.
"Don't you people understand? Harry trusted you! You were his friends! Now that you have seen what Harry has had to put with for most of his life, you turn on him! You tell him that your injuries are his fault when that is not the truth! He begged you not to go with him! He knew it was probably a trap and that Voldemort would most likely be there, yet you still insisted on going along with him to the Ministry."
"I don't blame him for my injuries. I blame that Death Eater who cast that spell. And the next time that I see him, I'm going to kill him!"
Hermione was screaming by the end of her triad.
"I think it is time for you three to leave," Madam Pomfrey said in her no non sense voice. "You are upsetting my patient. I will let you know when you may visit her again."
Seeing that there was no way that they would be allowed to stay to visit with Hermione, the trio left the hospital wing and headed down to the Great Hall for dinner.
Emotionally drained, Hermione reluctantly released the comforting presence that was Madam Pomfrey. Laying back down, Hermione curled up on her uninjured side.
Looking down at the emotionally drain young woman, Poppy sighed.
"I will be back in a little while, when it's time to take more of your potions."
Patting her shoulder compassionately, the healer left the bedside and returned to her office.
Within minutes, Hermione was sound asleep.