Chapter Three: She's Awake!

"Is that you, Harry?" Snape and Harry both turned violently, their necks cracking.

"Hermione!" He rushed to her side where she was trying to prop herself up.

"I had the most horrible dream." She exclaimed groggily. Aside from a slight crackle in her voice, she seemed like she had just woken up from a night's sleep. Snape quickly schooled his expression to appear as though he didn't care.

"Hermione, are you really awake?" Harry said in awe as he rushed over to her bedside.

"Why am I in the hospital wing? Did you defeat Voldemort! Is it over!!" She was awake with excitement. "Professor Snape?" She said as she began to quickly cover herself in blankets.

"We won, Hermione." Harry said quietly as tears began to form in his eyes. "It's over." The happiness at knowing his best friend and non-biological sister was going to be okay was overwhelming him.

"Is something the matter? Ron didn't-" Tears began to fall down her cheeks. "He's not dead is he?" She no longer cared that Snape was in the room and quickly removed her blankets and tried to stand to find him. Her feet quickly gave way below her from lack of use in the last few weeks. Harry rushed to her side to help place her back onto the bed where she stared at him bewildered.

Harry only shook his head to tell Hermione that Ron wasn't dead. Hermione had no clue that she had been asleep for nearly a month. How was she going to handle that he had given up on her and moved on to be with someone else?

"Is he okay, Harry? Please tell me he is alright!" Hermione looked sadly at Harry, hoping for a good reaction but the only expression Harry wore was one of confusion.

"Ron is perfectly healthy, Miss Granger." Snape spoke from behind Harry. Hermione thought she was daydreaming because the usual icy anger that was ordinarily present in Snape's voice had disappeared leaving what could only be described as relief.

"Then what is wrong, Harry?" Hermione was confused and didn't know what was going on. She was trying to tie the pieces together. She was in the hospital wing with Harry and Professor Snape. Nobody else was around, and all was seemingly quiet.

"I better go tell Madame Pomfrey you are awake." Harry said and left Snape and Hermione alone for a fraction of a minute. Snape could see that she was malnourished due to her sleep, but other than that, she appeared in good health. Hermione was curious as to why Snape was in the room with her but was distracted from her musings by Madame Pomfrey's bustling form, poking and prodding her.

"You seem a little weak, Miss Granger." She said and Hermione nodded. "I'll have the house-elves bring you something light to eat for now. You are not to leave this bed!"

"I hardly think that is a problem." Snape snorted derisively from the back. "Miss Granger is experiencing a bit of muscular weakness." Hermione looked at him questioningly.

"What was I hit with?" She was so confused now. She bit her lower lip and went through the events of the night it her head. Scanning the looks of the people around her, she could see that Harry seemed perfectly healthy, a little more fed than yesterday, but the same. Snape was the usual Snape though she thought she could see the wrinkles between his eyebrows diminishing slightly.

"We are unsure." Harry said and his eyebrows furrowed. Hermione ran her fingers through her long, light brown, curls, momentarily ignoring the fact that it was much shorter than usual until she heard Harry's gasp.

"What's happened?" She asked deadly quiet as she fingered her short curly hair. It had been cut to make it a little easier on Madame Pomfrey.

"How much do you remember?" Harry asked, wiping his eyes to prevent more tears from falling.

"Ron was hurt and I jumped in front of a curse to protect him. Then it all went black."

"Is that it?"

"I had a dream that I was taken away to Azkaban and I swear I must have been there for weeks before I was able to escape. It seemed so real, except whenever the Dementors would come around I couldn't feel the sadness as much as I remember. I felt that I would never escape but then I saw a light or sorts. I think it was a phoenix because it made me feel so much better."

"The reason it all went black was because Lucius cursed you."

"Who cut my hair?" She glanced around the room hoping to find a reason why her hair had to be cut. "I don't remember it being severed during the battle."

"Uhm…" Harry attempted to answer her question. That was when she looked across the room and saw her reflection in the mirror that had been placed in the wards when Gilderoy Lockhart had been there.

"How long has it been?" It all dawned on her that she had been asleep for a long time.


AN: Thank you loads for the reviews... they make me smile. Hopefully the story won't be dissapointing to anyone.