Ch. 2 – Questions while Waiting

A/N: I'm not JK Rowling simply because I'm not tall, blonde and impossibly wealthy due to my writing.

Jean stomped out of the living room to make her way out of the house. Hermione knew she needed time to work through what she just said. Dad sat in the corner while lost in his thoughts.

"You understand, don't you?" Hermione begged pathetically. "You realize why I did what I did."

Robert looked up at his daughter. "I know why you did it but you still broke our trust doing it. Then again, had we known how bad things were at school and the other world which you live in, we would have pulled you out after your first year. You would have been safe yet miserable. So it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't."

"I had to. Please believe me."

"I do but you should have told us before performing such magic without our consent. It was our choice, not yours. I could have convinced her given enough time and rational logic. You know your Mum. She holds a grudge a lifetime if the offense is bad enough. She might not forgive you for this."

"I can handle her anger. I couldn't handle losing both of you to murder, not when I could do something about it to protect you both. Choosing whether she's dead or mad at me for the rest of her life was no choice. It obviously worked since we're here having this conversation in Australia rather than me holding it over your gravesites."

"You're exaggerating."

Hermione pulled back the collar of her vest to show the still angry scar. "Does that scar on my neck look like I'm exaggerating? They would have killed you and not thought twice about it."

Hermione stepped closer to her father to let him inspect the still-angry wound inflicted there. She felt the delicate fingers probing the 3 inch scar on her neck, crossing precipitously close to the carotid artery. "From what I was told I nearly died from this one."

Gentle fingers traced the wound, probing like a dentist would. "You couldn't be healed with magic?"

"They tried and I nearly died from it. The weapon used on this was goblin silver. There was also something else on it to keep it from healing with magic or even strong potions. Ron's brother Bill was frantic trying to keep me from bleeding out from it."

"How'd he do it? It looks like stitches to me."

"He did. It was a literal last resort to save my life. It's a wonder that it worked, really."

"But Mum, if you'd just listen – "

"I'm tired of hearing your explanations. You've never said outright what happened up there at that school. All I hear about is the lovely praises and never, I had a rubbish day. Why can't we be told the good and the bad, Hermione? Why don't you tell us what really goes on?"

Hermione wanted to scream in frustration. "How you have reacted if I told you a three headed dog tried to bite my head off?"

Jean's body language told Hermione the answer before she could reply. "I'd say you were delusional since there are no three headed dogs."

"That's exactly my point. You've never believed me when I tell you the truth. It's always been that I'm lying. Why can't you understand that there is more out there than just what you read in a bloody book or see with your own eyes?"

"Oh and I suppose you're going to tell me that there are Unicorns and Mermaids and Dragons?" Jean said sarcastically.

"Well, yeah, especially since I rode on the back of a dragon a couple of months ago."

"Rubbish. There are no such things as dragons."

Hermione choked out a bitter laugh. No wonder how Luna felt much of the time, me questioning her on things that are magical. Thestrals. Prophecies. That's a laugh now. The irony wasn't lost on her this afternoon. Her mother was being so damn rational since she couldn't see the very things that would prove their existence. How she'd love to show her mum a Hungarian Horntail or a Welsh Green or that brilliant Opaleye she rode back in May.

"Why is it so hard to comprehend that there are things we can't explain? Why is it so hard for you to accept that there is more out there than meets the eye? Now that you know I do magic, was it so hard to call me a liar when I accidently destroyed my grandparent's cake? Is it so hard to rationalize that I could do accidental magic? Why is it so hard now to refuse to see what's in front of you?"

Hermione's vision went blurry for a moment. Her stomach dropped and a wave of nausea rolled over her.

Hermione turned for the loo down the hall.

"You get back here. We're not finished."

"I will when I return from the loo."

Voices echoed in her head. She vaguely remembered what happened yesterday. But then Ron was yelling and so was Mum. Ron. His voice was a balm to her ears. He would make sure she was taken care of.

"That's enough, both of you. She's very sick and you're here rowing."

"She's my daughter and I'll not have you – "

"Please Mrs. Granger. Hermione is my responsibility since you don't know how to help her."

"Oh and you who broke her heart more times than I can count are now her protector? Who said you could be off leading strings and be responsible for my daughter? You barely need to shave once a week much less be responsible for life or death decisions."

"I promised her and I won't break it now. I will not have you move her to another hospital because there is nothing they can do for her there. You hear me, nothing!"

"But they said – "

"I heard them. I'm a wizard and I understood what they said. Muggle medicine can't fix her other problem, the serious one you can't fathom. They wouldn't know why she has such a problem."

"But they can treat – "

"That's not even important at the moment. What's important is that she gets the critical rest she needs now otherwise she will be hurt worse. I won't let that happen to her. It's already happened once and I won't stand here and let you do it to her."

"Like you understand what they said," Jean said scornfully.

"Oh I did. I heard them say that if she didn't stay under the sleeping draught potions for the next three days that she would be in worse shape than when she came in. Bloody hell, it's bad enough that she has the trauma she has now. Do you really want her injured worse that she would have to be confined to a hospital? Is that what you want for her?"

"But her condition – "

"You didn't listen." Ron turned his attention back on Mrs. Granger. "The hemorrhaging was fixed the moment she came in. There's nothing they could do otherwise for that. What scares me silly is that if she doesn't sleep now, she won't be able to control her magic and she will go mad from it. Do you really want that?"

"Oh that's nonsense. That won't happen. You're full of it."

"Is it? Have you seen what a child of eight who can't control his magic can do? Harry blew up his aunt when he lost his temper – and he was twelve and had some control by then. Imagine Hermione, who is probably one of the strongest witches in England, and she can't control it? She could accidently kill you and not realize it. Hell, she could torch this whole hospital if she doesn't sleep and rest."

"You're making this up. You don't know anyone personally like that, do you? Why do you put such faith in these witch doctors?"

Ron paced frantically. Hermione could think of a way to convince Mrs. Granger how fragile the situation is. She was brilliant like that. Moments like this he wished he was in the bed and not Hermione.

Memory tickled his thoughts like Hermione's fingers on the back of his neck. A story told in haste some months back crept into his mind.

Ron turned and looked at Mrs. Granger. "I heard of one like her. Headmaster Dumbledore's sister was like that. She was attacked by Muggle boys as a child and terribly hurt. After that her family had to keep her out of school because of her magical rages hurting people. Do you really want that?"

"I don't but you're putting trust of her life into the hands of shamans and charlatans."

Ron stepped right up to her while using every inch of his height to stand his ground. "Face it Mrs. Granger. You're not moving her and that's final."

"Jean, that's enough. Ron's right. You know the oaths – first, do no harm. Moving her would probably hurt her. We'd be back here in a day if not sooner. Do you really want that?"

Hermione heard everything but couldn't act upon it. She was warm and comfortable and in no shape to fight her own battles today. She trusted her lover to do it for her.

Hermione settled back into the bedclothes and drifted back into a potion induced deep sleep.

Hours passed like days and yet like seconds as well. "Granger family?" a voice came across the room. "Granger family."

Father and daughter went to the black handset on the wall. Robert took the phone and listened to the voice coming through. Almost immediately he laid it back down into the cradle.

"What is it?" Hermione inquired.

"The nurse asked us to come to the locked doors there to the right. The doctors are ready to see us."

Hermione looked around once more for Ron but thought he was still out doing what was necessary with work and the kids before he returned to her.

She followed Robert to the double doors, seeing the bright red and white signs demarking Authorized personnel only. Through the safety glass she saw two men walking towards them. One was younger, maybe in his mid-30's with sandy blonde hair and an air of confidence about him. The other was who drew her eyes. He was tall and thin, much like Ron, but with salt and pepper hair that fell across his balding head. He was dressed in a full white doctor's jacket and talked with the younger doctor. Hermione instantly knew this was a man of importance.

The doors opened and they stood there. "Granger family?"

"Yes. Dr. Robert Granger, and this is my daughter, Hermione Granger-Weasley."

The older man's eyes widened slightly. "I've heard of you before."

"You have?" as Hermione stuck her hand out in lieu of greeting. "Have we met before?"

"No but my son went to school with you at the boarding school in Scotland some years back. He mentioned you often in his letters and correspondence."

"And you are?"

"My apologies. This is the ER Chief Resident, Dr. Kenneth Abernathy. My name is Lord Echlin, Director of the Cardiology group here. My son Kasey spoke very fondly of you his last year at school. He said you and another friend were particular in helping him."

Hermione thought back to the dark haired Ravenclaw so many years prior. She smiled in remembrance.

"Anyway, that's enough about me. You're here about your mum, Jean Granger. Please come with us. We have much to talk about."

The doctors turned and made their way through the maze of the hospital. They arrived to a patient elevator and rode it to the third floor. Dr. Abernathy swiped his badge across an RFID plate and the doors opened to the Critical care observation wing. They turned the corner and made their way to a sitting room which was across from the nurse's station. Monitors dotted the walls while bookshelves held patient binders and other paperwork. Patient rooms dotted the hallway further down the hall.

Dr. Abernathy filled a small paper cup with tea and offered another to Lord Echlin. Robert and Hermione politely declined their offer. Once settled in, Dr. Abernathy spoke up.

"We'll cut to the chase. Jean is critical. I won't make bones about it. If we had been five minutes later in treating her we wouldn't be having this conversation. She crashed on the table but we revived her almost immediately. As it stands, she's alive and we're trying to keep her that way."

Dr. Echlin turned to Hermione. "I know of your talents. Does your Mum share them with you?"

Hermione deduced the meaning of his cryptic question. She smiled in understanding. "No, I was gifted. Her talent is working on teeth and rowing with me about things not understood in my line of work."

"I understand." Dr. Echlin smiled. "Suffice to say, she is medically sedated right now and on machines to help her breathe and take the stress off of her heart. When she came in, we had her on the table in short order and went to work. She had a significant blockage that did some damage to the pericardial muscle. We hope to have blood flow restored completely in a day or two. For now, she's in a critical care room down the hallway. We'll keep her and monitor her progress. Maybe once the medications have time to work and the stents we put in does the job we can wake her up and re-evaluate her status ."

Dr. Abernathy's pager went off and he looked at it. He stood up and made his way to the door. "If you have any further questions ask one of the nurses to page me and I will be along. But for now, I've done the best I could with her." He quietly left the room.

"Would lock the door Mrs. Weasley?"

Hermione put her hand on her wand in her pocket and did the locking incantation. "We're good now. So how is Kasey doing? I've not seen him in a year or so."

"He took a promotion at the Ministry working in their experimental labs. They are trying to find a way to make faster communications rather than owls. He likes it there. He has friends who share his passion. It's amazing how much he's changed since his last year at school. I like to think you helped with that."

Hermione blushed under the compliment. "It was Luna more than my efforts. She made a point to include him daily. I'll let her know the next time I talk to her which is supposed to be next month. When she comes to visit she stays with Harry and Ginny and the kids up in Wales. Harry's already said that Luna will always have a place to stay with them whenever she returns."

"Please let her know that I asked after her."

"I shall."

"So you have any further questions for me?"

"So what did you do?"

"She had a severe blockage in her heart so we administered medications to break the blockage before we could perform the angioplasty. Once in the vein we threaded it to the blockage and destroyed it. While we were in there we put in two stents to keep it from collapsing. All of this was done while she was on a bypass machine. We have her on a vent and on medications to let her heart recover. That's why she will be in critical care a few days – so we can closely monitor her and make sure that she doesn't have any more problems or suffer any more damage."

"But how is that possible? Mum is in excellent health. She eats right, walks almost daily."

"It's stress. She had evidence of high blood pressure that did long-term damage to her heart. Is there anything that would set that off and for so long?"

The Grangers looked at one another. "Mum's always had a temper and my actions didn't help matters much."

"Did you perform magic on her at any time? My research shows Muggles who are subjected to magic for too long have some long-term consequences."

"I did to protect them once the coup happened. No one ever mentioned that."

"It seemed prudent to ask since I have a magical child. It's not something that the healers at St. Mungo's will research unless they have to. With some reservations from the Board of Directors, I took the liberty and did my own research. I have a colleague there who had the opposite problem I did and helped me with the research. But it also explains how your mum has the particular health issues she does. But now that I know this, once she's healed from this, take her there and explain everything. They should be able to treat her to reverse much of the damage. She might not be healed entirely but it'll help her live a long and active life."

Hermione sat there in stunned silence. It took a minute for her to find her voice again. "What about Dad? I did the same thing to him too."

"Before you leave today, call my office that's on campus and schedule an appointment. It won't be cheap since I'm private but you'll be in quickly. We'll run the numbers and do a stress test and we'll know and go from there."

"Can we see her?"

"You can visit for a while. I'll leave instructions that one of you can stay with her all hours. Normally in the critical care ward the visitation hours are limited. But since I owe my son's life to you and everything you did those years ago, I'll bend the rules in this case."

Hermione looked at her hands and remembered taking fire scarred hands into her own that terrible morning. She remembered painfully healing his hands as best as possible before sending Luna with Kasey down to the Hospital wing. "You didn't have to do that Dr. Echlin."

The older gentleman took his glasses off and it was like he was a new man. He smiled so large it hurt. "I have and I did. The war did a number on him. That summer after the fighting ended I thought I'd lost him. I had reservations letting him return to school that next year but I'm glad I did. He made friends and he was a changed man after that year. Whatever you and Luna did to help him cope and grow made all the difference. I have you and Luna to thank for that."

"What about the machines in the room? Will magic affect them?"

Lord Echlin pulled his cell phone from his jacket and pressed the screen. Seconds later he put the phone to his ear. "Kasey, it's Dad. I've got a classmate of yours here and she had a question about the magical signature affecting a vent. What's the spell to insulate the machine?"

The three in the room sat while he listened. "Kasey said the insulation spell you need is veneficus repellendum and the movements are in reverse to the muggle repelling spell." Dr. Echlin listened further. "He said that you also need to keep six feet away from the machines so you don't fry the circuits."

"Tell Kasey I said thanks for that."

"She said to tell you thanks for that. Yes, you have to go. I'll see you this weekend. Thanks!"

Lord Echlin put his phone back in his pocket and put his hand out and they shook hands.

"Dr. Granger, if you have any other questions, please have the nurse ring me."

"Dad?"

"Let's go see your Mum. Thank you for your time Lord Echlin."

Ron finished packing overnight bags for the kids and a few things for them in his rucksack. He knew it would be a long night at the hospital and he didn't want to waste time running back and forth from there to their house in Cardiff. He had been gone two hours already and needed to finish up everything and get back.

Two suitcases and one rucksack later he was ready to stop in at the Burrow. He locked up and checked the wards on their residence before apparating to his childhood home down in Devon. No matter how many years passed it was still home. The lean of the house along with the garden and the shed were a comfort.

The last time he was here like this was when Hermione was in the hospital having Hugo. It had been years since they needed his parent's help keeping one of their children for an emergency. Ginny was the go-to person most of the time since she was home with the three lovable hooligans. Now that the kids were older and their jobs were more stable they didn't need babysitters as much as they had.

As much as he wanted to reminisce he had other responsibilities. He made his way to the house and to break the terrible news to Mum.

"Daddy!" the yells came once he stepped into the kitchen. Hugo was sitting at the table with a plate of biscuits in front of him while Rose was spilling her glass of pumpkin juice.

"Mum!"

Molly Weasley came out of the scullery looking worried. "Ron! What are you doing here during the middle of the day? What's wrong?"

Ron set the overnight bags down and hugged his mum. He held on longer than he had in ages, relishing the warmth of her embrace and the smell of fresh baked bread on her clothes.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

Ron turned and sat down next to Rose while pulling Hugo onto his lap. "I need you to keep the kids for at least tonight. I have to go back up to the hospital."

"What! Is Hermione OK?"

"She is but Gramma Jean isn't."

For the next hour Ron dutifully explained what little he knew and what he was going to do. He'd have his tellyphone with him and he'd call Mum once he knew something. Molly made him a sandwich which he appreciated. He knew that they were in for long days and even longer nights. He kissed the kids and told them he would call tonight when he knew more. If he could he would have Hermione stop by. If he could arrange it they'd both come by this evening and see them to bed.

Ron turned to leave, grabbing his rucksack off of the floor. Strong arms hugged him fiercely. "I love you too Mum," he said into her graying hair.

"Go take care of your family. The kids and I will be fine here."

"Thanks Mum," he said thickly before walking out his back door. His next stop was the waiting room at Oxford University Hospital.

Ron walked the halls of the hospital for a third time today. One sandwich made by Mum didn't quell his hunger much but he needed to see Hermione before he would hunt up dinner. He knew she would be too overwhelmed to eat but he might be able to convince Robert to have something with him.

He made it to the waiting room and neither one of them were there. Taking a cue from his own experiences he went to the desk where a nurse was sitting. She looked him up and down in his uniformed attire. A small smile crossed her face. "How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for the Granger family. Did they go back already?"

"Yes sir. They went back to talk with the doctors about half an hour ago. Can I get your name so I can page the nurse's station for you?"

"Ron Weasley. My wife is Hermione Granger-Weasley."

The nurse smiled and leaned forward in her chair. "I've heard of you. My daughter said your name was in a particular history book."

"You must be mistaken," Ron said quietly. "I'm not in any history books."

The nurse at the desk crooked her finger. Ron leaned in to listen closely. "My daughter is a seventh year with Professor Binns."

"Blimey, is he still teaching that class?"

"Every student knows about you before they graduate." The nurse stood up to reach for the buzzer to admit him. "I'll let the nurses know up on three. But I'll walk you up there. You might have to wait in the lounge if there are two people in the patient's room though."

"Sorted. I won't mind. It's her mum back there."

Ron passed through the locked double doors into the Spartan white halls. This part of the hospital looked considerably older than the rest. He didn't understand why white tile and strange lights dotted the walls. He could ask Hermione later. She would know those things or would remember to ask someone else.

"My older son finished Hogwarts two years ago," the nurse said quietly. "We were surprised when he got his letter and a visit from one of the professors. Then the second letter came for my daughter and that was a shock too."

She stopped to look up at Ron. "I know you get sick of it but thank you. What you did, along with your wife and Mr. Potter made it safe for kids to go to school. You and your wife made it accepted for Muggleborns to have a place in the world. It's not easy but it's worth it."

Ron blushed while running his hand through his ginger locks. "You're welcome."

They continued walking in silence. They took many turns to get to the elevators to the Critical care section of the hospital. A short ride upstairs then more walking led to the waiting room for the ward. "You stay here and I'll go check with the duty nurse."

Ron slipped into the waiting room. In here the chemical smells weren't as bad. It was also cozier than the other waiting area. Couches and a television set were in the room along with movies and books and a desk to work at. He even laughed at the electric kettle on a small table along with a stale pot of coffee.

Ron saw movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Robert Granger walking in. He looked drained of his years from earlier. "You got back. I'm glad you're here. Hermione needs you."

"Where is she?"

"Room 12. She's having trouble right now seeing her mum like that. Then again, I am too."

Ron took his father-in-law in his arms and held the older man. He wept quietly, unlike his daughter.

Ron awkwardly stood with his father in law weeping onto his shoulder. He barely knew what to do. When Fred died those years ago the only one who would hug him was Hermione. But then when she let go Percy latched onto him and wailed like a banshee. Ron cried too, holding his brother up. He could do it again.

As suddenly Robert pulled back from his embrace. "Thanks for being here."

"You sure you don't need me?"

"Nah. I'm better now. Hermione needs you more than I do."

Ron surreptitiously wiped his face before opening the door.

"Oh and Ron? You might want your wand. I think Hermione silenced it while she was in there."

"Sorted. I can handle that."