The Cruellest Dream Is Reality
Chapter Four.
Catching Up.
Ron's figure filled the width of the door yet he only came up to waist height due to the fact he was seated in a wheelchair.
"Ron?" Hermione asked in hushed tones, eyes brimming with tears as she watched her friend push his chair to her bedside.
"It's nice to hear your voice Hermione." He said softly as he wrapped his arms around her neck. She had to lean forward a little so he could reach up but she closed her arms around him and hugged him back.
"What happened to you?" she asked, half of her wanting to know and half of her dreading the answer.
Ron simply shrugged and with a grin replied, "Same as you I'm told, I got hit by a spell that they don't know the nature of and it caused both of my ankles to shatter."
"Can't they fix it? Can't you just take a potion or cast a spell and grow them back?" She asked frantically.
He raised an eyebrow, a slight smirk on his face, "We have actually already tried that one Hermione." She gave a small, embarrassed laugh as he continued, "We've tried everything anyone can think of, we even took out all my bones and regrew them but they just came back in shattered."
"But that's terrible!" Hermione exclaimed, full of empathy.
"You get used to it," Ron shrugged of the sympathetic looks and looked up at her and grinned, "Anyway you have given me new hope! If you can recover from the spell that hit you I can recover from mine, it'll just take time is all."
"So you might get better then? You may be able to walk again?" She asked him hopefully.
"They said it's almost impossible, but then again they said that about you waking up and look how you proved them wrong!" He grinned, "It's really good to see you again."
"You too, Ron, it's good to see you too."
"So when are you allowed to finally get out of this dive?" He asked, looking around the small room, completely unimpressed.
"I'm not really sure," Hermione shrugged, "As soon as they get all of the tests back and know I'm not about to keel over or die. I hope it's soon though."
It was two days later when Hermione was discharged from the hospital. Her parents picked her up and she returned home with them, they had agreed that she would stay with them for a short while as she attempted to sort out the scattered shards that had once been her life.
"Are you ok my darling?" Jane Granger asked as they climbed into the family car.
"Yes mum I'm fine." Hermione sighed, that was the fourth time that her mother had asked her that since they had left her hospital room just twenty minutes earlier. That was once every five minutes.
"Your room's just how you left it we haven't touched a single thing." Her father, Thomas, reassured her.
"Oh Aunty Susan will be so pleased to see you again! Her Emma got married just last month. Such a shame that you missed it, it really was a lovely service, and you should have seen her dress, it was beautiful!"
What else have I missed? Hermione thought to herself as her mother babbled on, she was getting the distinct impression that the next few weeks were going to be very hard for her.
Finally they drove into a drive lined with pink and white rose bushes – her father was a keen gardener – and the car engine was switched off.
Hermione slowly climbed the cream carpeted stairs and opened the door to her old bedroom. Her father had been right about the room; it was exactly how she remembered it from all those years before. The same dark green walls, deep purple light shade, bedspread and rug. All the furniture was pine and there was three shiny picture frames hung on the wall. There was even the box filled with the last of the things that she had been planning to take to her new flat before the battle had began. The only thing that gave away the fact that Hermione was not a muggle was the picture framed on her wall. They were not ordinary photographs, the figures inside the frame were moving, when they were actually in the picture, sometimes they weren't even there at all.
One was of Hermione sitting on a swing as a young child of five swinging happily back and forth, seeing how high the movement of her legs could take her. Her parents were sat nearby sitting in the shade of the tree that the swing hung from smiling at their daughter's happiness and partaking in a conversation with hushed tones that could not be heard outside of the frame. She had come across the negatives in her last year at Hogwarts and had developed them magically to give the figures life. The second was a more recent time, it had been the last year that they had spent together in Hogwarts – it was of her, Ron, Ginny and Harry by the lake. Harry and Ron were throwing a Frisbee that had been a new creation of Fred and George that would explode when dropped, Ginny was teasing the giant squid by poking one of its large tentacles with a long stick, and Hermione was watching, laughing at her. The last brought tears to her eyes; it was of her and Harry, their arms wrapped tightly around one another grinning to the camera they were sat in a restaurant at their table. They had only just begun dating and a photographer from Witches Weekly had asked for their picture, they couple had been in high spirits so they had agreed and posed. Every now and then they would turn to each other to kiss, rub noses or simply gaze into each other's eyes. Hermione sat down on her bed in a stunned silence, unable to move, she felt as though she was momentarily frozen, unable to move or make a noise, until a huge sob worked its way from her chest up her throat. It came out of her mouth as a huge wail and it was like a cork being popped, making way for the tears that began to pour from her. She lay on her bed and cried herself sleep that night.
The next afternoon Ron came to visit her. Hermione's mother called her down from her bedroom where she had spent her day Hermione dragged herself out of bed, jammed her feet into the powder blue slippers and she trudged down the stairs. Ron was in the living room making polite conversation with her parents.
"Hi Hermione." He grinned when she walked into the room.
"Hello Ron." She gave him a brief, tight-lipped smile, the best she could manage at the time, "Let's go outside." She suggested.
They made their way into the small garden where Hermione went to sit on the same swing that featured in the photograph in her room. Ron wheeled up behind her and began to push her lightly. For a while they stayed silent.
"I've missed so much haven't I?" she sighed and jammed her feet into the ground stopping her from swinging back and forth. She tuned, the ropes twisting, to face Ron.
"It's been five years; of course you've missed some things."
"Yes, but how much? Who else will I bump into and be completely gob-smacked at what's happened to them or what they tell me?"
"Well ok." Ron sighed and rested his head in his hand, he was calling to mind everything of importance that he could remember happening in the previous five years. "Let's see – Fred and George are living over in France now, in their second shop, they handed the shop in Diagon Alley over to me, they've been over there for about three years I think. Bill and Fleur had their first child, Jacque, he'll be four soon. I'm an uncle! How great is that?"
"Very. I bet your mum is thrilled."
"Yeah she is, she's always spoiling him. She's not so happy with Ginny though. In fact they haven't spoken a word to each other since she found out about the engagement. She's still firmly on your side."
"But she adores Harry!"
"Not so much anymore. Not since what he did to you and I have to say that I agree with her."
"You and Harry aren't friends anymore?" Hermione was shocked; she had always thought that Harry and Ron would be friends forever, no matter what happened to them.
"I wouldn't say not friends, we still go out for drinks from time to time or I'll go for dinner, but we're not close anymore. I understand why he did it and I think that he was justified to do it, but the fact that he went back with Ginny made it bad, he should of thought of the repercussions that it would cause. I mean how would he have felt if you and I had started dating if he'd had been the one in the coma? He would have gone berserk!"
"And quite rightly so!" Hermione cried. "I think I would feel less cheated if he was with some new unknown girl now, it's more I feel betrayed by them both than anything. But it's awful that you're not friends anymore!"
"That's life Hermione." he sighed, "Anyway that's not the worse thing that happened, after the battle we spoke to Percy for the first time in three years."
"What happened?" She asked, eager to know what had happened.
"It was at his trial."
"Trial!" Hermione gasped, "What for?"
"He was a Deatheater." Ron told her grimly, "We should have seen it coming, he always was a power hungry guy, he got it into his head that You-Know-Who was the one that could give it to him. They found him after the battle I didn't even know about it until mum told me, we had no idea that he had gone to the other side."
"Your poor parents they must have gone through hell." Hermione whispered, her heart going out to Mr and Mrs Weasley.
"He was found at the end of the battle, unconscious in a Death Eater's uniform and there were witnesses who saw him killing people, so he was sentenced to life in Azkaban. The worst thing was when Mum tried to talk to him, he was so horrible, and he said he never wanted to see her, or any of us, again."
They were silent for a few minutes until Hermione spoke up again.
"Any happy news so I'm not completely depressed?" Hermione asked.
"Erm…Oh, Remus and Tonks are still together, I think they might be planning to get married sometime in the near future."
"Finally! It only took them, what, eight years?"
"I know, stupid isn't it?" Ron chuckled and then remembered something else, "Oh yeah Luna and Colin got married."
"Colin Creevey? How did that happen?"
"She took over her father's magazine and employed him as photographer, they fell in love and got married, she's expecting their second kid any day now."
"You should have seen the article she published about Harry's engagement. I thought she didn't like you because you were so against divination but compared to you she must despise Ginny! In fact, if you hold on, I've got a copy at home somewhere I'll show it to you."
With a loud pop Ron and his chair disappeared, he returned to the exact spot just minutes later, a copy of the Quibbler clutched in his hand. He quickly found the right page and handed it over to her.
HARRY HAS IT ALL
Harry James Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, who went up against Voldemort a grand total of six times, has got it into his head that he can have it all because of his fame.
On the night of The Battle, just four short years ago, he proposed to Hermione Anne Granger, the ring a beautiful diamond lined with tiny rubies that we at The Quibbler believed to have been hand crafted by fairies, although the jewellers will disclose no information on the ring in question.
"That's just stupid," Ron, snorting as he read the last sentence, "Fairies don't work on jewellery, where does she get this stuff from?" Hermione shushed him and continued to read.
During the war Miss Granger was hit by two spells combined together which has sent her into a coma. Although it could have easily been a Gafrer Dust Mite leaping down her throat, as its breath is know to cause a deep sleep. We have given this suggestion to St Mungo's Hospital but they didn't seem to take it too seriously.
Just one year ago it seems that Harry Potter got bored of waiting for his bride-to-be to wake up and found an interest in his former school days girlfriend – Ginerva 'Ginny' Weasley. Harry and Ginny dated briefly in his sixth (her fifth) year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
For the past year we have seen Harry and Ginny out together in various locations on dates. Now we learn that Mr Potter and Miss Weasley are engaged. The staff at The Quibbler have all voiced their outrage at how poorly Hermione has been treated by the man she loves. In our eyes Harry Potter is a no good, attention seeking cheater and needs his values checking.
But after extensive research we have found another reason as to why
Harry may be acting so out of character. A Love Bug has burrowed under his skin and this is why he is acting in such a strange manner. We suggest that he gets himself down to a hospital for treatment so he can get over his infatuation and get on with his life.
If you know anyone whom you think is under the influence of a Love Bug of any type turn to page 25 to see a list of symptoms and please consult your doctor.
Written – Luna Creevey.
"Wow. I'm sure Ginny and Harry were pleased to read that." Hermione said sarcastically.
"Mum loved it, it backed up her point exactly, well apart from the Love Bug thing. Witch Weekly ran a sane version of the article. They'll all be wanting interviews with you now, just wait Hermione, they'll love you!"
And he was right, just a couple of days later Hermione was plagued with letters from newspapers and magazines asking her how she felt about Harry's new relationship, and what she planned on doing with her life. Hermione gave them all the same answer, 'she was sad that she was no longer with Harry, but she understood his need to move on with his life and as to her plans she was currently getting back into the swing of things but was planning to get work and start a new life soon.'
"Ha! That's great," Ron laughed as he read it, "Everyone will feel sorry for you, that's really going to annoy Ginny, she hates being disliked. It bloody well severs her right!"