Disclaimer: still don't own HP!
An Ironic Twist of Fate
By WaitingforAda
Chapter Four: I'll Believe in Anything
SSS
A week had past and Hermione had not talked to Malfoy since their encounter in the library. In that time two Hufflepuffs had fallen ill and just that morning a Ravenclaw, Cho Chang, had been rushed to the Hospital Wing. As soon as Hermione heard the news she rushed to the Gryffindor common room to find Harry and Ron. Harry was pacing angrily and Ron was sitting on the arm of the couch, watching him helplessly.
"Hermione!" said Ron, when he saw her come in. He got up and caught her in a hug, "thank God you're here. This news about Cho has really shaken him up."
She nodded grimly and walked over to Harry, "Harry, are you alright?" This was the girl Harry had had a huge crush on for years. The girl he had shared his first kiss with. And now this girl had basically been sentenced to death. Of course he wasn't alright.
He shook his head and whispered, "It's really happening isn't it?" Ron and Hermione remained silent. "It's really happening and there's nothing I can do about it." He looked up at them, "I'm so used to fighting.. Or at least having the option. This disease… It can't be fixed with a wand and some difficult spells." He was frightened.
"Harry, mate," said Ron, tentatively, "you can't put this on yourself. We're all just as helpless as you."
"But I can't do this," he said, "I can't just sit here and wait. I can't be a sitting duck while the world falls apart."
Hermione nodded in agreement, remembering her own conversation with Malfoy a week ago. He had told her she would die. And that there was nothing she could do to stop it. He had brought her from laughter to tears in mere minuets. How did he always bring out the most intense emotions in her?
Hermione was pulled from her thoughts when Harry spoke again, quietly, hesitantly. "I think Voldemorts behind this."
Hermione gave out a grave chuckle, "Come on, Harry-"
"No really!," he interjected, "It fits. Think about it Hermione, both wizards and muggles are dieing but you don't hear about any wealthy purebloods getting sick." Hermione opened her mouth to object but Harry continued, "and even in the school! Look who's gotten sick: Two Ravenclaws, two Hufflepuffs and a Gryffindor! Not a single Slytherin has had so much as a cough." Hermione's eyes widened. He was right, the Slytherins hadn't had any cases of illness thus far.. but that could simply be chance. As far as the pureblood families in England, especially those they knew to be associated with Voldemort, well, she would have to do more research to make that conclusion.
Harry spoke again, "And besides that, you must have noticed the lack of Death Eater attacks recently. They've been far too quiet for awhile now."
He was right about this too but Hermione had always assumed it was because they too were afraid of contamination, that they were lying low until the plague passed.
"Even so, Harry," she said, skeptically, "do you really think Voldemort would be capable of something like this?"
Harry sat down on the couch and ran his fingers through his hair, "I wouldn't put it past him. I've spoken to Dumbledore about this and he reckons I may be right."
"Harry," she said, sitting next to him, "are you certain you're not just saying this to.. to put this new challenge in a perspective you can understand? Does connecting this to Voldemort maybe help you to think that its something you can take on and possibly defeat?"
He looked at her coldly, "I'm not just throwing around words here, Hermione. I've thought a lot about this. This disease came on too suddenly and too mysteriously to have natural origins. This is the work of Voldemort… I can feel it."
Hermione stared at her hands. Maybe he was right. But was it really possible? Then Ron spoke up, "Can a disease tell the difference between pureblood and muggleborn?"
Hermione's head shot up, "No. Its not possible."
Harry shrugged, "Maybe he's manipulated it to recognize genetics or something."
Hermione shook her head in frustration. "No, there's been tests. There is no genetic difference between a pureblood and a muggleborn. Its all just a social manifestation."
Harry chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Well maybe he gave his followers some sort of vaccine."
"A what?" asked Ron.
"Like some sort of cure," Harry continued. "He must have found a cure before releasing something this deadly. Otherwise it would totally backfire on him. If this does work, we'll all die off until the world is full of nothing but his servants." He paused thoughtfully. "This is it, this is his 'final solution'," He said with finality, "This is his way of achieving his ideal world."
SSS
Later that day Hermione found herself working a shift in the health center. It had been a busy day, Hagrid had given the second years some blast-ended skrewts to work with. Needless to say, she had been healing bites, stings, and burns all afternoon. At the moment however the rush was over and the room was quiet. She collapsed in a chair. How did Madame Pomfrey do this 24/7? Then she reminded herself that if she did become a healer at Saint Mungo's she would be doing this 24/7. She laughed a little to herself, might as well get used to it now.
Hermione sighed, soaking in the silence. It had been a busy week. She'd been spending every afternoon either in the health center or helping Professor Sprout harvest ingredients for Professor Snape's potions. And then every night she had spent either in the library, doing homework, or holding meetings with Ernie (the Head Boy) to brief the prefects on how to deal with a student getting sick in their house. The last meeting had not gone so smoothly...
She been explaining the procedures they were to take if they were to find a sick student when a fifth year Ravenclaw interrupted her. "It says here," he said, holding up the handout she had given out at the start of the meeting, "that if we can not find a teacher we are expected to take the student to the hospital wing ourselves."
Hermione nodded, "Yes, in the event that a teacher can't be located it will be your duty as a leader of your house to make sure the sick student is safely transported to the hospital wing." she paused in confusion, "is that a problem?"
The boy looked at her incredulously, "Well yeah, I'd say it is. I don't want to have to risk my own neck for no reason." She could see there was fear in the back of his eyes.
"What do you mean 'for no reason'?" Ernie asked.
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Well, if the persons sick, it's pretty much a given they're gonna die right. It's a lost cause, no reason to get myself infected too."
The room fell into uncomfortable silence.
"It's called being brave!" Ginny Weasley spoke up.
"It's called not being an asshole!" someone else added.
But Hermione could see the fear on all their faces. They were, all of them, terrified to die. Then she stole a glace at the Slytherins, at Draco Malfoy. She had been avoiding looking at him since the library, when he let her know he had seen her staring at him and Felicity. He was leaning back in his chair, calm, collected. He didn't look afraid. In fact, none of the Slytherins looked at all worried. She had thought it strange.
Then someone had spoken up, "I agree with Gregory." A small, meek voice. It was a girl, a sixth year Hufflepuff. She was looking at her hands in shame. Perhaps this was too much to ask of them.
Softly Hermione spoke, "This will be applied only in very rare circumstances, I assure you. I am sure it will be easy enough to find a teacher if you need to" then as an after thought, "or myself. You can always come to me for help." She flipped through her copy of the packet, "Also, on page two there is a list of precautions one can take." She looked up. Draco Malfoy was staring at her, a strange look in his eye. He seemed angry and almost…regretful? Sad? He wasn't looking away either. She forced her attention back to the packet, "Um, the spell Alio Sanitas will disinfect you well enough but you should also wash thoroughly after contact with an infected person and.." he was still staring, "the bed sheets of the person must, of course, be burned." What was that look in his eye? It was almost like he was-
The classroom door opened and Hermione hopped to her feet to attend to her new patient. She shook Draco Malfoy out of her mind and turned her attention on the student walking through the door. He was a boy, looked about her age, tall, curly hair, Ravenclaw robes, handsome… oh and his arm was gushing blood.
"Hello!" he said in an alarmingly cheery voice for his condition, "Seems I've had a bit of an accident."
Hermione's eyes widened, "I'll say you have! Come, sit down," she said, ushering him to a hospital bed. She quickly hurried over to the cupboard and found some bandages and gaze. She pulled a chair up to the bed and took his arm in her hands to inspect it. "Doesn't look like you've broken any bones." She took to healing his wounds as best she could, wiped away the blood and began wrapping his arm in gauze, starting at the thumb.
"Hermione is it?" He asked. She looked up and nodded. Oh God, she didn't know his name. In fact, she didn't recognize him at all.
"I'm sorry," she said guiltily, "I don't know your name."
He laughed, "I wouldn't expect you to." Then he held his good hand out for her to shake, "Paul Brennan."
She smiled, "nice to meet you Paul." She looked back to her work. How had she never noticed him in her seven years at Hogwarts? "What year are you, Paul?"
"Seventh," He answered her with amusement.
She looked at him quizzically. "How have I never met you before?"
He had a wonderful smile, "This is my first, and consequently last, year at Hogwarts. My family moved back to England earlier this summer." He could tell she wanted to know more so he went on, "I grew up in Africa, the Congo. My parents were missionaries there."
"Oh that's wonderful," she said, grinning. "I hate to tell you this, but you picked a rather lousy time to come back to England."
He laughed, "Well I suppose that depends on how you choose to look at it. To a missionary's eye being in England during an epidemic is a wonderful opportunity to help people. My parents are both healers as well so now that we're here we're not going anywhere."
She looked at him aghast. Did people like this really exist in the world. "Aren't they at all afraid? Aren't you afraid?"
He became serious. "Of death? No, there are worse things than death. Of the pain? Yes, of that I admit I am. If I were to catch this illness I don't think I'd like them to try to keep me alive."
"But what if you died and the cure was found the next day!?" she cried.
He laughed again, "Well that would just be all sorts of bad timing!" The corners of her lips curled up in a small smile.
She finished wrapping his arm up. "All finished!" She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Do you. Do you mind if I ask how that happened?" she said hesitantly. His wounds were really quite strange. A bunch of short, clean cuts all up his forearm.
He smiled and some color came to his cheeks. "Well its really quite embarrassing actually. But if you must know…" Hermione looked at him expectantly. "I tried to bewitch a pair of scissors. Went a little wrong, as you can plainly see."
She let out a little giggle. "Hey!" he said in mock offense, "When you spend your childhood running about the jungle you don't exactly learn all the essential spells a wizard needs to know!"
She tried to stifle another laugh, "No, no, this sort of thing happens all the time!" she joked, "why, just the other day one of my scarves tried to hang me! Awful bit of trouble that was! Almost took up company with Nearly Headless Nick!"
He held out his hands in mock protest, "Please, please, don't try to make me feel better, really, I'm quite comfortable with my inadequacy." Then his face turned quite serious. His eyes were a lovely shade of Hazel. "Besides, if it weren't for my poor spell casting I wouldn't have been privy to the excellent, skilled and tender care of Hermione Granger." He smiled coyly. Hermione could quite literally feel herself melt. Words weren't coming out of her mouth. She was just staring at him in wonder.
"Well," he said, "I suppose I should get going then." She smiled dumbly and stood to see him out.
"I hope this isn't the last we see of each other." He said softly.
"Yes," she breathed. Why couldn't she make words come out of her? Her head felt dizzy.
"Goodbye." He gave her a dashing smile and then left just as suddenly as he had come.
"Bye!" she called, just before the door closed.
Great! Just great! Now she finds the perfect guy! The perfect guy who seems to be interested in her! Now he comes into her life just as a major epidemic is sweeping through England. Get it out of your head, Hermione! This is no time for romance! Then she paced for half and hour and read the ingredients to every potions bottle in the room until her shift was over.
SSS
A few hours later, after Hermione had finished all her homework, she decided to go to Gryffindor tower to see Ron and Harry. She thought some good conversation and a nice roaring fire was just what she needed. However, when she entered the common room she found the entire Gryffindor house before her, clumped together and talking noisily. Standing on the tips of her toes, she looked around and spotted Harry and Ron by the fireplace with Ginny, Neville, Seamus and Dean.
When she reached them she asked, "What's going on?" She had to yell to be heard.
"Parvati," Ron responded, "She's leaving."
Hermione stared at him wide eyed. "Leaving?!" she was grasping for words, "But its not safe out there!"
"Its not exactly safe here either anymore," Seamus said. This was true, she knew it was. A Hufflepuff had already left earlier in the week, said his family was fleeing the country, but for some reason Hermione never expected a Gryffindor to be one of the first to leave.
The room suddenly got even louder and Hermione looked over her shoulder to see what was happening. It was Parvati. She was coming down the stairs of the girls dormitory, tears down her face. Lavender was behind her, helping with her trunk.
Their group pushed themselves through the crowd to meet her.
"Parvati!" Hermione cried.
Their eyes met, "Hermione! I'm so glad you're here. I was afraid I wouldn't get to see you before I left!" She gathered Hermione in a hug. They had never been very close but they had shared a dormitory for six years. Hermione squeezed her tight.
"Parvati," she said, quite serious, "are you sure you must leave?"
Parvati nodded, "My father has written and told Padama and myself that mama doesn't have much time. We have to go, Hermione…It's our mother." She was crying even harder now. "We have to go."
"But you won't be able to come back!" Hermione cried.
Parvati nodded solemnly, she had obviously given this a lot of thought. "I know," she whispered. She gave her a small smile, "Goodbye, Hermione. Be safe."
She moved on to say goodbye to Harry and to Ron and to all the other friends she was leaving. She hugged all of them. Ron hid his tears. Dean kissed her cheek. Ginny told her to write.
Then the most difficult moment had come, she turned to Lavender, her closest and dearest friend. They were beyond words. They fell onto each other in a hug, squeezing as tight as they possibly could, both crying, both shaking, both knowing they may never see the other again.
Finally, and with an astounding amount of grace, Parvati gathered up her belongings and made for the portrait hole. The crowd parted as she walked through. They patted her back, wished her well, called goodbye.
Just as she was about to step through the doorway, Parvati gave one last turn of her head, took in the common room, took in the tapestries and curtains and high ceilings, took in the warmth and the smell of pine, took in all the faces surrounding her, every one of them. It was then, as her eyes connected with Hermione's for the briefest of moments, that Hermione knew. Perhaps it was the light about her head or the way she help up her small hand in a wave goodbye, but somehow Hermione knew that this would be the last time she would see her, that Parvati was walking to her death.
And then she was gone.
SSS
Author's Note: not a lot of Dramonie action in this chapter. ill try to make up for that next time. btw i totally hate new characters in fanfictions but hopefully Paul wasn't too hateful! i tried to make him semi-funny to make his presence less annoying. he is important to the plot tho! more to come... review! i'm not getting a whole lot of response on this story! and i really want to know what you guys think of this plot! do you guys have predictions for what happens next?
