Chapter Seven- Bedtime Story
Hermione Granger walked down the corridor to the entry way to Professor Dumbledores' office. She stated the words "licorice wand" to the stone figure blocking the stairs. It moved immediately and Hermione walked slowly to her doom. It wasn't dismal to see Dumbledore but more so Malfoy. Luckily he wouldn't say nasty things to her in front of the headmaster.
She walked into the office; it was six on the dot. The headmaster was sitting at his desk with his hands crossed.
"Welcome Ms. Granger. You have been well I hope? I heard about your mother and would like to offer you my condolences. Losing someone close to you can be very hard and I am sorry that you had to go through this ordeal at such a young ageā¦" Dumbledore continued but Hermione ignored him, only nodded when it was appropriate.
Hermione sat down in a chair across from the desk and faked interest. She did not want to talk about this. Couldn't she just forget for five minutes? Nope of course not, Hermione wanted to roll her eyes but didn't for she respected the man before her far too much. Draco Malfoy walked in near the end of Dumbledores' monologue. He took a seat next to Hermione and waited for the headmaster to finish. He listened however; he could use some of the information as ammo later.
Dumbledore wrapped it up and then began to discuss the real point for the meeting. Hermione and Malfoy presented their plans and Dumbledore approved them. Then he told them that they were going to have to get together and plan career meetings for all of the fifth and sixth year students. Hermione nodded and then they were dismissed. The two enemies walked out of the room and down the stairs.
Hermione began to walk away to the direction of the Gryffindor tower when Malfoys' voice stopped her.
"So now you need counseling from a loony old man?"
Hermione tried to ignore him and continue walking but Malfoy was having nothing to do with that. He called out again, "If my mum croaked it I would off myself. Have you considered that Mudblood? I hope that you will so that no one will have to worry about you contaminating them."
Hermione slowly pivoted. She walked over to Malfoy using every bit of self control she had not to kill him. She whispered, rage apparent, "If you ever get tortured and have the nerve to wonder why, don't!" Hermione stormed off, angry tears pushing themselves forward. Malfoy stood behind in the hallway sniggering quietly. He needed to have the last word in so he yelled out to her, "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
She would have turned around and slaughtered him but tears were flowing freely and she was not going to let him see her cry. She couldn't believe she let him push her buttons like that. She should just learn to ignore him like the rest of the world but he had gone way too far.
Hermione needed to sit down. She needed to get control of herself. She turned a sharp corner and found herself in an empty corridor. She let herself fall into a heap on the floor and she tried to regain her thoughts. It was hopeless, she couldn't. His words had truly gotten to her and now she was completely absorbed in them.
She laid there for what felt like hours, sobbing the entire time. Unexpectedly she felt a hand slide across her face. Someone was wiping away her tears. She opened her eyes and looked up. It was Ron, Harry squatting down next to him watching sadly. Harry reached out his hand and placed hers inside of it. Ron helped Harry pull Hermione to her feet. She started to go limp and began to fall back to the floor. She had no energy left to stand. She was exhausted. Ron caught her effortlessly and picked her up in his arms. Hermione wrapped her hands around his neck and continued her crying. Painful memories had captured her thoughts after Malfoys' harsh words had taken their effect.
Ron walked down the corridor at a good pace, Harry following. Harry got close and whispered to Hermione that they were there and that they would make sure she got better.
Once they got back to the Gryffindor common room Ron laid Hermione down on the couch. Before they had got there she had stopped crying and tried to convince Ron to set her down. He refused on the grounds of not wanting her to fall again. She sighed and put up with it. She was secretly pleased with the fact that he cared so much though.
Harry and Ron sat in comfy armchairs and looked at their other best friend. She looked back at them and apologized.
"Don't be sorry, you are going through a rough time," protested Harry.
"Harry you are being ridiculous, I completely ruined your night and I have been being a downer all of the time. I have plenty to be sorry for."
"Harry rolled his eye angrily. Ron spoke up, "Hermione, this is what friends are for. You are sad and it is perfectly acceptable for you to show it."
Harry nodded and Hermione sat in silence absorbing it all. Then she asked, "Why did you guys even go down that corridor?"
Harry explained that they had been at the first Quiddich practice of the season and Hermione looked and realized that she hadn't even known. "Oh" was all that she could say. The boys sat back in their chairs and asked her if she wanted to go to bed. Hermione shook her head.
"I need to tell you guys what happened. It isn't fair that you guys tell me important parts of your lives and I don't tell mine. I am sorry for leaving you in the dark."
Ron told her that she didn't need to be sorry since she wasn't ready and it was easily understood.
Hermione sighed loudly and launched into the story:
Monday June 23rd
Hermione Granger was sitting on the bed in her mum and dad's room watching television with her father. They were laughing and having fun just like any other night. The telephone on the nightstand by Hermione rang and she picked it up carelessly and clicked the on button. "Hello?" An authoritative voice answered, "Hello, may I speak to Robert Granger? This is the London police department." Hermione handed the phone to her father curiously. "Dad it is the police." He took the phone and began to talk. Hermione couldn't make out any of the one-sided conversation her father was saying. She heard the phrases, "What happened?" and, "Where?" He hung up the phone and nearly ran out of the room. Hermione followed.
Her father headed for the front room of their house where the computer was located and started to get directions to somewhere. "Dad, what's going on?" He told her that her mum was in the hospital and that he would explain everything later and that he was going to go. Hermione walked him to the front door and watched him walk out to their red truck.
Hermione watched the car pull out of the driveway and tried not to panic. She knew nothing. Her mom could be dead, she could've been attacked, or she could have collapsed. Hermione didn't know and she hated it. Next she ran to the bathroom and cried. She cried for a long time (A: N/ when this happened to me this was about the time my brother comforted me for virtually the only time in my life. He told me through the door that it was okay to cry since mom was in the hospital (He didn't know why either even though he was closer to her and four years older than me))
Around two in the morning her dads' friend, Marcus came by to check on her. Next her grandmother came to collect her. She told her that she didn't know what was going on only that Hermione was going to stay the night at her house and that they would go to the hospital the next morning. Hermione had calmed down by then deciding that it probably wasn't as bad as she was thinking, if it was than her dad would have called. Her grandmother strengthened this reassurance the next day before they left that it was probably something that wasn't very bad, like food poisoning.
They set out for the hospital that morning around ten and Hermione was even laughing a little at her grandmothers jokes. She was in a good mood. They arrived at the hospital a few hours later after getting quite lost. Her dad met her in the parking lot and pulled her over to a grassy area and sat her down. Her grandmother walked into the hospital without her.
"Hermione, we need to talk." His voice was solemn and Hermione knew immediately that it was serious. "Your mum is very sick. She went a bar last night with a friend named Francesca and drank. A lot. She passed out and her friend called an ambulance. They picked her up and brought her here. It turns out she had fallen into a coma and then stopped breathing. She is now connected on life support and in the Intensive Care Unit." This was too much for Hermione to take. Her father had spoken all of this slowly, almost as if she was a child. Hermione was shocked and her father took her silence as an opportunity to continue his story. "She was an alcoholic Hermione. She didn't drink very often but when she did she drank hard alcohol and a lot of it." Hermione stopped him and said, "Why didn't you tell me?" He replied quickly remorse coating his words, "She told me not to tell anyone and got very angry when I did. Your grandmother and your uncle know because of me. She didn't anyone thinking that she had a problem. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to worry you about something you couldn't do anything about" Hermione asked another question, "She was a nurse; she saw what alcohol could do to a person everyday; why didn't she get help?" Hermione was crying now. "She didn't think that she had a problem."
Her dad then told her about how her mum was passed out that time on the couch. He then reminded her the time in bout third grade that her mum had given her a tiny bit of whisky, honey, and lemon juice to soothe her throat when she was sick. Hermione remembered this vividly because she had to plug her nose and countdown to drink it because it was so vile. "Do you remember that the bottle was full?" She did. She also remembered the next morning seeing the bottle completely empty in the trash. "I thought that she had poured it out." Her father shook his head sadly. "Why didn't you do something, anything? You could've broken the bottles; you could've forced her to get help!" "Honey, I tried. She realized what I was doing and started to hide the bottles. I also tried to convince her to get help but you can't force someone to get help. If they don't think that they need it and they don't believe there is a problem they won't accept it and the problem would never get solved." Hermione accepted the answer and her father patted her on the knee.
He was crying now and asked her if she wanted to see mum. Hermione told him yes and he helped her up and they walked hand in hand through the hospital doors and up to her mothers' room.
She was shocked at what she saw. Half of her rather large family (cousins, aunts, and uncles) was in her mums' room and there were red eyes everywhere. Her mum was lying in the bed, pale as a ghost, and a large tube of black charcoal was going up her nose. Hermione gasped and started to cry harder. Her aunt walked over and hugged her as she cried. They stood there that way for about an hour. Hermione eventually walked out to the waiting room and was greeted by the other half of her family's solemn faces.
She spent the entire first day sobbing. By the end she felt dried up.
The rest of the week was similar and she stayed at her aunts' house that lived nearby and visited her mom everyday. In the gift shop she picked out a blonde rag doll and set it on her mums' pillow up by her head. She got a little sad when she noticed that some of the charcoal had gotten on the dolls foot.
In the middle of the week her aunt gave her the seventeenth anniversary necklace that her mom had been wearing at the time she was brought in. She told her that this was hers to wear until her mom get out of the hospital. They were being optimistic not even allowing the other to mention her actually dying. They were sure that she was going to pull through and then get the help that she needed. Hermione didn't cry again that week after the first day.
That next Monday when she walked into the hospital her father, who had been sleeping in the lobby, pulled her aside. He told her that her mums' vital organs were shutting down and that if she were to wake up out of the coma now she would live as a vegetable. He asked Hermione if she agreed to take her off of life support. She did and they planned to do it after doctors checked her to see if she could donate organs.
Hermione let her father go back up to the lobby of the floor her mom was on and she went to the right of the main lobby into the hospital chapel. It was tiny. Hermione sat on one of the mini pews and tried to comprehend that her mum was going to die. That she was never going to talk to her and hear her respond again. That she was never going to be able to do traditional mother-daughter things with her again, that she was going to truly be gone. Hermione couldn't do it and left the chapel with as dry of eyes as she went in with.
Later that day Hermione went in to say goodbye. After she left her father and the doctors went in alone. Her dad had told her that he didn't want to see her die so she wasn't allowed in the room. She waited in the lobby for him to come back. Later, while they were driving back home Hermione wanted to cry, she held back the painful lump in her throat however because her dad told the fist joke he had the entire week. He was dealing with the situation with humor so that he didn't break down. Hermione then looked out the window that still had the words "Happy 17th, I Love You" that her mom had wrote for her and her dad's anniversary in red lipstick. (A: N/ It stayed there for over a year, we didn't want to get rid of it but finally the rain took it away)
July 3rd was her funeral.
July 7th her dad left for China on business. Hermione stayed with her aunt and cousins
August 7th he was supposed to come back. He was delayed because the men misused one of the machines he had set up and it broke.
August 7th Hermione listened to a muggle artist named Billy Gilman while she was supposed to be asleep and sobbed the entire night.
August 11th her dad came home.
Hermione finished speaking and looked up from her feet where she had been staring for the whole story. Ron and Harry looked sad. Harry had tears in his eyes and Ron was trying to remove all traces of the tears that had been rolling down his cheeks. They were sad for her. Harry especially, he knew a bit about what she was feeling. Hermione moved her eyes and looked at the fireplace, not once blinking. The trio sat by the fire for a long time before Hermione whispered, "The night that she left to go to London she woke me up at about three a.m. and told me goodbye and that she loved me. That was the last time I heard her speak. It was almost as if she knew what was going to happen." Silent tears were now rolling softly down Hermiones' cheek. "I'm sorry," Harry whispered his voice barely audible. Hermione said in a volume level matching Harry's, "Me too."
A: N/ Hey you guys. This chapter was very hard for me to write because everything in the story Hermione told happened to me when I was ten. I didn't want to change it so I apologize if some of Hermiones' speech or thoughts seem a bit childish or obvious, that is how I reacted at the time. I want to ask a favor from you guys, please no flames on this chapter. I can handle them and they don't really bother me all that much normally but this chapter is really personal for me. So if you didn't like it or you thought it completely sucked don't tell me.
Love, Katie
