August 1st, 1 am
Harry Potter's backyard
Hermione's stunning spell, instead of being a simple streak of red, was a whole wall of red thundering across the entire property. She collapsed as soon as it had left her wand, and Draco Malfoy was already streaking across the yard towards the immobilised man in black, leaving Hermione to crumple onto the ground behind him. However, when he reached where the man had by lying, all that was left was an empty black robe. Growling in frustration he prodded it with his wand, pulling the hood back. He noticed something glinting between the folds, and he reached out to it and was thrown back by a wave of energy. Fighting unconsciousness he forced his eyes open to see his parents leaning over him, Narcissa leaning over him worriedly, and Lucius curiously glancing at his fingertips.
August 3rd, 10 am
St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies, Room 301
"This is ridiculous, I will not sit by why that is allowed to regain consciousness while my son is still forced to slumber!" snapped Lucius Malfoy at the terrified healer.
"Bu-bu-but h-he-" stammered the healer before he was cut off by the sound of the head of the hospital's swishing white robes as he glided into the room.
Gregory White, the head healer at St Mungo's was an impressive sight. He carried the regal grace that all purebloods seemed to have, but somehow his dedication to equality and care-giving added to his commanding presence, rather than took away from it.
"That happens to be one of my very best healers, Mr. Malfoy", Gregory, calmly told the fuming man. Narcissa, sensing her husband's rage rising, stepped forward and smiled charmingly at the healer.
"My husband is just agitated, Gregory" she soothed, "our son has been unconscious for days now, isn't there anything we could do?"
"I suppose we could wake him, though let it be stated that we are doing so against our advice"
Lucius muttered under his breath, before saying more audibly
"Go on then. Wake up the girl so we can get on with it"
Gregory stepped over to the bed of Miss Hermione Granger and sighed. He strongly suspected that this was going to go badly.
"Mr. and Mrs Malfoy, if you could leave the room for several moments, your son will require medical attention upon awakening. I will get someone to fetch you when he is ready to be spoken to.
Narcissa dragger her husband from the room before he could say something nasty to Mr. White and ruin all their chances of speaking to their son today.
"Thank you so much Mr. White" she shot over her shoulder as she exited.
Opening her eyes required as much effort as lifting up her school bag around exam time used to! Hermione let her eyelids drift downwards as she amused herself of the memory of her trying to fit all those books into her bag without magic.
"Hermione?" asked a soothing voice. She recognised that voice, but why would her boss be waking her up? Why was she asleep anyway, the light shining through the window meant it must be mid-morning at least. She must have slept in after Harry's party, though she didn't remember having enough to drink to warrant the pounding headache she had.
Suddenly she remembered, and sat bolt upright, whacking her head into that of her boss who had been leaning over her in a concerned manner. Sparks danced in front of her eyes, but she forced herself to stay alert.
"My name is Hermione Granger and the minister for magic is Percy Weasley unless there has been some assassination since I passed out" she snapped at the nurse standing next to her bed who was clearly preparing to ask her to usual 'does the person who just woke up remember who they are questions'.
"Now go away and let Mr. White explain to me what happened!'
The nurse turned and left the room, not at all shocked at Hermione's behaviour, having worked with her regularly. In fact, if she had not been outraged at being kept out of the loop then she would have been far more concerned.
"What happened? Draco Malfoy hexed me! Who was that figure? Is everyone else okay? How long have I been out?" demanded Hermione, her voice becoming progressively higher with each question until she was squeaking in a manner that Gregory would have found amusing if it weren't for the determinedly terrified expression accompanying it. He sighed, knowing his star healer would not thank him for sugar coating anything, so he bluntly stated the facts.
"Draco Malfoy hit you with a magic enhancing charm which allowed your stunning spell to successfully knock out the target. However, it did exhaust your magical reserves and so we had to leave you unconscious for several days to allow them to recovery properly. Then he took it upon himself to attempt to secure the attacker, though he was unsuccessful. It appeared that the attacker was not a wizard, but some sort of clothed apparition which disintegrated violently upon capture. This injured Mr. Malfoy, and with his pivotal role in the healing of those injured at the scene he also managed to drain his magic reserves, which is why he is also here."
Hermione paused, processing the new information. An enhancing charm. Well that made sense, she can't believe that she didn't think of it herself! Still, he should have made his plan more clear, and she was still angry at him, despite the fact it sounded like he was instrumental in the care of those injured. She glared at the flash of silver she could see on the bed across from her, before the impact of that finally hit her. Injured.
"Casualties?" she asked, wincing at how casually that word came out of her mouth, flashes of the war flicking across the back of her eyelids. Her heart stopped at the look on Gregory's face.
"This was clearly an assassination attempt," he told her slowly, "but luckily, due to the efforts of..." he trailed off, glancing at the slumbering figure across the other side of the room, "they were unsuccessful." he finished.
Hermione knew better than to feel relieved.
"But?"
"But several people were hit with a spell which we don't know. While we managed to slow it's process, they remain unresponsive, although stable. Most notably Harry Potter and Ronald Weasly.