Please, please forgive me,

But I won't be home again.

Maybe someday you'll look up,

And, barely conscious, you'll say to no one,

"Isn't something missing?"

Missing - Evanescence

The voiding reaction on her pain potion was a proximity effect, Madam Pomfrey speculated. An effect caused by a block of some sort between her and her mate, resulting in severe pain (only for Hermione apparently, as no one else in the castle had come forward with terrible pain) whenever she got near her mate.

Hermione could no longer take meals in the Great Hall. There were times where she'd stop dead in the middle of a corridor, suddenly overtaken by pain, before the intensity would fade as distance from her mate would be reestablished. The pain would only be lessened to a tolerable level when she took the potion, but its effects were rendered null as soon as she got to close to her mate again.

It didn't make sense. Madam Pomfrey was at a loss by Wednesday afternoon.

"I'm going to speak with the Headmaster," she announced gently, as not to cause Hermione any further discomfort by speaking too loudly. "Your mate is somewhere in this castle and somehow they are entirely, or perceivably, unaffected by Mate Deprivation Disorder all together." The mediwitch sighed in frustration. "We'll get it straightened out... I know you're determined to continue going to classes, but please come back after your next class."

Hermione agreed, feeling just as helpless as she had all week, and tried to focus on the mild relief the pain potion was starting to provide.

"The sooner we get you off the Opius Kratus the better," Pomfrey added with a frown as Draco, Harry, and Hermione left the hospital wing.

"Hopefully sorting this all out doesn't require something horribly embarrassing," Harry sighed as they made their way towards the dungeons.

"Prophet knows already," Hermione mumbled.

"They'll spin it like a tragic love story in the end and everyone will forget about it. And if they don't I'll threaten them until they do," Draco said. "Lord knows Weasley barely acknowledges it, as is."

"Quidditch," Harry and Hermione said together.

"He could still pretend he's concerned instead of letting his discomfort get the best of him."

Hermione stopped trying to make her meager contributions to their discussion when they got to the stairs, which she had to take much slower than she cared to lest she lose her balance. Even with a fresh dose of potion in her system she felt utterly horrible again by the time they reached the base of the stairs.

Harry noticed her expression tighten in pain. "You've just had potion," he said, his own features pinching together in frustration as he tried to be discreet about wrapping an arm around her shoulders to help her stay upright.

"I can take you back upstairs," Draco offered. "I'm Head Boy and a Slytherin. Snape will be less cross with me for being late than he will be with either of you."

A quietly growled 'No' was Hermione's answer. Despite wanting to argue, the boys lead her towards the potion's classroom in a heavy silence.

You won't cry for my absence, I know

You forgot me long ago.

Am I that unimportant...?

Am I so insignificant...?

Isn't something missing?

Isn't someone missing me?

Missing - Evanescence

Hermione was shaking by the time Harry helped her sit down. Draco put her bag beside her as Harry took the seat on her right. Draco took the empty seat beside Harry's, glaring at onlookers when Hermione pressed the heels of her hands into her temples and clawed at her scalp. She was just barely aware of Harry rubbing her back, a small token of comfort.

"You can't brew like this, 'Mione," he said quietly.

She couldn't, but she'd have to, and she was just about to attempt telling him so when the pain skyrocketed. It felt like someone had driven an axe down the middle of her head, following the symmetry line of her face, and another one horizontally through her eyes. She heard, but did not feel, her forehead hit the lab table as she fell forward.

"Hermione—"

The two surge points in her head throbbed, starting and keeping a steady, nauseatingly painful beat. A whine escaped her before she could stop it and she clenched her jaw shut as tightly as she could consciously manage. She assumed her efforts were successful when the faint taste of copper reached her tongue. Godric forbid she make a sound, especially when the sharp, familiar tapping of Professor Snape's boots against stone followed him through the room and reverberated in her skull like a drum from the deepest layers of hell.

Hermione realized that she had to try to survive the class to some degree and made the effort of opening her eyes at the same time she made the mistake of slowly lifting her head. Of course, that was when Professor Snape chose to talk.

"Open your textbooks to page six-hundred and thirty-one. We will be continuing last week's lesson on the theory and composition of advanced medicinal potions. Now, who can tell me the difference between advanced pain potions and advanced sedatives?"

His tone was dry, low, and as full of impatient condescension as it always was, but now it echoed on a seemingly endless loop in her mind. A loop that was made of razor blades instead of sound waves.

His question was met with silence. In that time, Hermione's vision blurred, faded out, and begrudgingly returned. Nearly all of her will was focused on staying conscious.

AN: Happy Tuesday, lovely people. To everyone asking questions in your reviews (I love hearing you guys speculate what's going on and trying to figure things out, by the way), I haven't replied to any of you because you're all asking questions that will be explained in the next 2-4 updates... :)

P.S. There will only be 3 chapters as short as this one between now and the end of this fic, based on my plans. And I expect this to be about 14 chapters long, so there will be more 1k+ length chapters than not.