A warm thank you to;
CinziaTwut
SaruDM
ChelseyJ
Randomness
echizenochi
MaronTodai
For your reviews!
.
.
.
CHAPTER 7.
.
.
.
"Healer Weasley?" Katherine called out with some trepidation.
"Yes Katherine?" Hermione asked her as she levitated some lead sheets off a patient who was undergoing a treatment.
"Here is your medi-wand." Katherine offered.
"Thank you so much Katherine." Hermione smiled.
Katherine hovered around trying to say something else.
"Is there something you wanted dear?" Hermione asked, looking at her indecision from the corner of her eyes.
"Umm. This may sound odd, but there's a semi big owl laying on your desk and seemed quite irate when I went to retrieve the wand. I think he may have pecked quite a lot of wood off your desk." Katherine said.
"Oh dear. I've been here a long time. No wonder." Hermione said knowingly.
Katherine still looked confused.
Hermione seemed a bit enthused about the violent owl in her room.
Her movements had a newfound swiftness and she seemed happier.
Maybe Paris is finally here, She thought excitedly.
Since when do I express so much emotion over a letter? She frowned.
Since some people have had you addicted to their letter's like a daily soap opera, a tiny voice in her head replied.
"Okay Katherine. I'm almost done. How would you like to clean up Edward here and re-bandage him?" Hermione asked.
Katherine seemed excited. It was the first time Hermione was asking her to do something hands-on.
She had observed Hermione clean up and re-bandage Edward twice already and was confident that she would be able to do a good job.
Katherine nodded sincerely. "Sure Healer Weasley. I'll do it."
Hermione smiled encouragingly and left.
She found herself smiling more in the young intern's presence.
Katherine was a vivacious young girl who yearned to learn new things and do anything that she was assigned.
She brought innocent freshness to the mundane in the hospital and Hermione kept making similarities between her younger self and Katherine.
Even though she had told Katherine that she wouldn't be able to do much, Hermione found herself trusting the girl with work and soon Katherine had proved herself.
Hermione hurried to her cabin only to find Sinatra perched angrily on her wash basin.
She seemed slightly disappointed that Paris wasn't here but was equally excited that Ginny had written to her.
It had been almost a week since she had heard from the redhead.
She quickly tied her signature parchment to Sinatra's leg and tried placating him with a piece of toast.
He flew off immediately as if he had loads of work to do which had been kept on hold because of her.
She laughed at the owl with attitude and settled down on her chair with the newest letter.
Dearest Mione,
Ginny has been extremely hormonal this week.
Her morning sickness has started and whoever named it morning sickness was clearly misinformed or didn't have a pregnant wife of his own.
Hermione laughed. She was extremely pleased to hear from Harry. And it was so typical of him to assume that a male had coined the term morning sickness.
If Hermione had been face to face with him, she would have given him a piece of her mind.
Usually Ginny wrote her on behalf of him and Harry sometimes did too.
His letters were usually morose and emotionally blackmailing. And Ginny had taken onto herself that she would be the writer more often than Harry.
She didn't want to upset Hermione more than she was.
But today Harry's letter seemed to have a bouncy step to it.
Probably his paternal happiness was outweighing his sadness.
Her nausea extends till well into the afternoons and by Merlin, if anyone even remotely crosses her, they've had it.
I've started hiding her wand.
She blames her forgetfulness on her nesting period.
Anyway I'm hoping that these mood swings abate soon.
Because, an angry Ginny I can somewhat handle.
But a crying Ginny, I'm unaware of what to do.
Today she saw a dog with its little breed of puppies in Diagon Alley and she burst out crying for no reason whatsoever.
I had to take her to the twins' shop to cheer her up.
I wish you were here.
She could really do with some feminine support.
And you'd also be able to objectively deal with her madness.
Come soon Hermione.
How long will you stay this way?
You must be missing us as much as we do.
I spoke to your parents last week over the floo.
They are worried about you too.
I'm aware that you had visited them immediately after leaving Britain.
I had expected that.
But they've not heard from you since and they are worried.
I don't know if you're in Australia.
But I know you're overseas since Sinatra takes awfully long to come back.
Don't worry.
I'm not going to send a search party for you.
I know that if you want to remain hidden you will.
And even if we do happen to find you by some miracle, you're stubborn enough to resist.
All I'm worried about is how you are.
I hope you're dealing with it in a healthy way.
If you would talk to us it could be a start.
Maybe we could come over for a few days.
I bet you'll have plenty of holidays built up.
Funny how everyone assumed that she would be a workaholic and would have pent up vacation days. Like that would make a difference if she really did decide to take leave.
Write back sometime.
Ginny sends you her love.
She's asking me to tell you that her legs are swelling up and she's very upset that most of her shoes don't fit.
Her Healer refuses to medicate her since it's not serious and she's annoyed with her.
I hope you can knock some sense into her.
Don't tell her I said that.
I love you Hermione.
Miss you.
Harry.
She smiled at his tactic to get her to write.
He was being very smart. He knew that she could never resist imparting knowledge especially if it was an area of her expertise.
Ginny was purposely making up problems. She knew her friend very well. If emotional blackmail failed, she would start acting all needy and all only to get a reaction.
She almost wanted to write back.
She felt sort of ready to talk to them. But she worried if she extended a finger in their direction, they would try to grab an arm in their enthusiasm.
And once she opened the gates, she wouldn't be able to hold back. It would be cruel to them.
She needed to be completely ready.
Just then, she heard a knock on her door.
"Yes?" Hermione called out.
"Healer Weasley? You have a floo call from JRH waiting for you. They seem to need your help." Delinda, the receptionist informed.
"I'll be there in a moment." Hermione replied.
Delinda nodded and left.
Hermione placed the letter under a paperweight and stood up.
JRH usually referred cases to JAH. Being the bigger of the two hospitals, it was more of a tertiary care centre in comparison to JRH that was a primary care hospital.
It wasn't odd to be receiving referral floos once in a while.
She was just reaching the reception where she met Katherine.
"Healer Weasley. I'm done. You can check it later if you wish." Katherine said.
"I will. I'm going to attend a referral floo now. You may accompany me if you wish."
"Sure Maam." Katherine said as they made their way to the fireplace.
"Good evening. This is Healer Weasley. How may I help you?" Hermione called out into the flames.
A blond face was present in the floo.
"Good evening Healer Weasley. I'm Healer Frank. We've heard that you're the charms damage specialist on call tonight. We have a slightly complicated case admitted here." Healer Frank explained.
Hermione nodded. "Go on."
"We admitted this patient over a week ago. He's a Quidditch player. He was hit by a charmed bludger and he fell off his broom. There was sand below, so he wasn't hurt much. A few broken bones here and there which were mended on arrival. The skull was intact but the patient was unconscious for a couple of days. He moves his body in his sleep and speaks in his sleep. After 2 days, he regained consciousness and seemed fine. No residual side effects. We kept him for observation after waking up for 24 hours as per protocol. But in the 8th hour, he lost consciousness again. He was back to his original state. All his bodily functions and memories are intact but he seems to slip in and out of consciousness. This cycle has repeated itself thrice already. And it's the same every time. We are at our wits' end. We were hoping you could help us with him."
Hermione listened carefully at what Healer Frank had been saying.
Her head was mapping out all possible scenarios as to why this could be happening.
"Who had charmed the bludger?" Hermione asked.
"Their coach. He always does it. They had a few players less so he figured that he would alternate the chasers and beaters and practice with self hitting charmed bludgers." Healer Frank answered.
"What did he charm it with?" Hermione asked.
"He claims it was the Animato Flourio, charmed to work till the snitch was caught."
"Has he used this charm before?" Hermione asked.
Healer Frank nodded. "Several times. He was shocked that it had caused such a bad blow. This has never happened before."
"Hmmm." Hermione mused. "When do you'll want to transfer him?"
"As soon as possible."
"Okay. I'm on call for tonight. So anytime you wish is good. Only please make sure that the players who were in the air and the coach accompany the patient. I'll need to question them, oh and i also want to check out the rogue bludger." Hermione said.
Healer Frank nodded and thanked Hermione.
Just as he was about to disconnect the floo when Hermione turned back.
"Healer? What's the patient's name? I'll put him on priority when he reaches." Hermione said.
The other Healer nodded. "It's a Mr. Draco Malfoy."
Hermione almost her dropped her wand and gasped.
.
.
.
Predictable, no?
I'd like to mention that SaruDM and randomness guessed it right!
I would've said this at the beginning of the chapter but didn't want to give it away ;)
who thinks Hermione is lightening up?
Will she retreat back because of Draco?
I hope not!
I hope the chapters are lighter and less depressing now.
Let me know your thoughts!
Thanks for reading!
.
.
.
