She woke, fighting for breath, and the oxygen filling her lungs was a blessing she didn't expect. The pain that followed was expected, with each movement of her lungs, making her dizzy with it. Forcing her eyes open she saw Riddick's broad back, his spine stiff with rage as he spoke in low threatening tones to Madam Pomfrey. "I don't know what they used, it was an ugly bright yellow and when it hit her she couldn't breathe. I lost my fuckin' mind when she started to pass out."
"Mr. Riddick, if you'll allow me to wake one of them I might be able to find out what curse it was they inflicted upon Miss Granger," Pomfrey sounded irritated as she pushed past the large man to another bed. "What did you do to them?" Hermione watched, struggling for air through the pain, as the healer attempted to diagnose one of her attackers.
"Unleashed Wrath," Riddick sounded supremely unconcerned. "It's a Furyan thing. Doesn't always leave who it hits alive." He moved towards Hermione's bed, his hard expression softening as he saw her eyes open. "Hey," He crouched near her cot and his hand rested on her head, thumb rubbing over her cheekbone. "Don't know what spell hit you yet."
The witch forced herself to breathe deeply enough through that pain in order to speak. "Curse…" Breathing was like knives in her lungs. "Pulmo nar Febrosci." The effort of pronouncing the incantation correctly nearly exhausted her.
The hand stroking her hair and cheek never changed from its gentle ministrations but Riddick's voice was a hard snarl of rage as he looked at the healer. "You get that?"
Madam Pomfrey sighed and hurried over to Hermione's side, her wand moving rapidly, a frown of concentration her face. "That is a nasty one." She shook her head and as the cursed witch watched, moved to her fireplace and called for a specialist. When she returned her explanation was as much for Riddick as for Hermione. "Anything I do beyond the actions I've already taken could make her worse. She needs a specialist, a combination of curse-breaker and healer."
"And there's nobody who can come?" Riddick's voice was low and dangerous, his glare towards the three attackers in the other beds an eloquent threat. "If she dies, they die."
Hermione fumbled for his other hand, grasping it tightly and drawing his silver gaze. "No… please. Not… not by…by your hand." How could she explain it, his hands were clean of blood in her world. "Prison…worse… no magic… punished… longer."
Riddick's slow smile was grimly satisfied. "You want them to suffer. Death'd be too quick?" She nodded, exhausted and his hand tightened around hers. "All right sweetness. I'll make 'em bleed but I won't kill 'em."
She did her best to smile at him, "Should…ask…ask for…Harry."
"Will he be able to help you?" His expression was set in hard lines, nearly unreadable. And his entire body was stiff with rage, no matter how gentle his hands were when they touched her. More than ever she could appreciate the control he exerted over his physical reactions. Beneath his shirt, a faint blue glow pulsed over his heart and she tried to lift her hand to touch it.
"Help…us." Hermione corrected him and let her eyes close for a moment, speech stressing her lungs in a way she would never have thought. Was this how asthmatics felt, trying to breathe when their airways closed?
The moment lasted an indeterminate amount of time. Sadly, when she was able to force her eyes open again she still couldn't breathe without pain. Riddick was at her side, Harry opposite him and the two of them were conversing quietly across her prone body.
"So that light that's pulsing, it exploded out of your chest and that knocked those three out?" Harry was asking in the manner of someone who was trying to clarify events he didn't understand. "Why didn't it hurt Hermione?"
"Don't know," Riddick's thumb was rubbing circles on the back of her hand. "Wrath knocked out at least a dozen Necros and drained me dry last time it exploded like that. Last time was also the first time."
"Whatever it is, it's scrambled their magical core to Merlin knows what," Pomfrey sounded exasperated. "I'll be surprised if they can cast any spell for a week at least."
"Good." Harry's voice was tightly furious. "Serves them right for what they've done to Mya."
"Yes, well it's times like this that I miss Severus," Madam Pomfrey sighed. "The man might have been a sourpuss but he did know his counters to dark magic."
"So?" Riddick's snarl was the epitome of surliness. "Can't be the only dark magic expert around. Find someone else."
"'S'all…right." Hermione managed to get breath enough to speak. "We'll…figure…it…out." She looked at Harry for a moment, "Malfoy? Or…Andro…meda? Malfoy…owes…"
Her brother looked astonished for a moment but half a second later his wand was out and his Patronus sprang forth. "Go to Draco Malfoy and Andromeda Tonks. Tell them we need the counter for this curse." He repeated the words Riddick recited back to him and the stag raced off through the walls.
"That's a messenger?" Riddick asked, his eyes lingering on the wall where the stag had vanished.
"Also a protection against a couple of nasty dark creatures." Harry nodded. "Malfoy owes me his life. And then some. Andromeda has access to the Black family library and she was also raised learning dark magic like Malfoy."
Riddick nodded his understanding and his gaze fastened back onto Hermione's face. "Guess there's a reason they call you the brightest witch of her age." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Not…not going…to…leave you." She pushed the words past her lips. "Won't…leave…you alone."
"Shh…" He bent close to her, brushed his lips over her forehead. "I'm not gonna let you leave me Mya. My woman. Not letting you go. Trust me."
Vivid dreams had plagued her ever since she'd had outbursts of accidental magic. The only time she hadn't had them was when she'd been given Dreamless Sleep after the Ministry of Magic debacle. Her mother had suggested that since her mind was so active when she was awake that it was even more so while she slept, trying to make sense of her life and work out the many problems that seemed to beset her.
Normally though her dreams, while vivid and strange, were set in places she at least recognized. But now she was wandering across a field towards smoking mountains she'd never seen. Bones littered the ground, burnt and turning to dust.
"Welcome, Queen of Magi, Sorceress of the Lost," The voice seemed to come from the mountains, the ground, the very air around her and Hermione looked around in surprise.
"Few have walked here…fewer still who were not born to this world." An apparition, taking the form of a human woman approached the witch with a slow swaying step that was more evocative of a predator cat than a woman. "Have you Chosen then? To renew this world?"
"I don't know where I am," Hermione looked at the sky and saw even with the sun overhead, two moons hung low in the sky, almost entwined, crescent to crescent.
"As only a male of this world could avenge it, only a woman can give it life again." The spirit came closer, her appearance reminding the witch of drawings she'd seen of American Natives. The tribesmen with feathers and beads twined into their hair and fringed animal skins making up their clothing, decorated with porcupine quills.
"How could one person bring life to an entire world?" She looked around and realized with a sickening thud in her belly, that she was standing in a mass grave. "How could anyone…heal this?"
"Only the Brightest and Best of her Age, the Sorceress. The Chosen. The One Who Sees. The Fey Lady." Blue light glowed around the apparition's hands as she drew even closer to Hermione. "And He who will father our race anew."
Hermione stared at the woman who was now only a step or two away and found she couldn't move. "What…who are you?"
"I am All and None. The Voice in the Night. The Awakener." Hands shining with light rested over Hermione's heart and belly. "I woke Him. The Last of our race. Woke him to Sight. For he had been blind too long. And now I wake you to your true purpose. Wake Hermione, Sorceress."
The pain woke her, knives through her chest, and she bit her lip trying not to scream. "Hold her down!" The shout came from above her as her body jerked and arched with the pain. Riddick's strong arms banded over hips and below her collarbone, his forehead pressed to hers.
"Draco! Andy! Now!" The same voice called out commands and Hermione nearly screamed as the pain intensified until she would have thought her lungs were on fire. Four voices chanting above her, the words and cadence grimly determined, and the incantation seemed to send the air around her throbbing until the air in her lungs matched it. Her stomach lurched queasily as her ears popped, pressure building and she closed her eyes against it.
Riddick's voice was the only constant, a low reassuring murmur of her name, anchoring her as she felt the storm break over her. Agony, turning her lungs inside out, setting her skin ablaze and she screamed.
Warmth. Something soft brushing over her forehead. A low rumble and she was gently eased into a different position. Sharp, hot, and then a sensation of honey dripping into her ears…and the vague sounds became clear.
Her eyes were sticky and she instinctively tried to bring her hands up to rub at them, only to find she couldn't. She tried to speak and found her throat was raw and aching. Cool liquid, dripped onto her lips and slowly down her throat and the ache eased. A damp cloth stroked carefully over her face and eyes and she was able to open them.
"Easy sweetness," Riddick's low voice reassured her. "Easy. Just got you wrapped up so you didn't hurt yourself. Lady said she couldn't fix your ears or throat 'til you woke up."
"Indeed I did." Madam Pomfrey made shooing motion at Riddick. "And now she's awake you get yourself untangled and let me do a proper diagnostic."
The big man sighed and carefully did as he was bade, sliding his body out from under and around hers until she was lying flat on the cot. "Happy?" He growled half heartedly at the healer.
"Ecstatic," She retorted dryly and began to wave her wand over Hermione in the complicated pattern the injured witch recognized as the diagnostic charm. "And let's see... Hmmm...your lungs don't show any residual scarring. Obviously your eardrums are healing and your throat is a bit sore but that will pass as well."
"So it worked, she's gonna be all right?" Riddick was practically vibrating with his eagerness to hear an affirmative answer.
Madam Pomfrey, having apparently decided Riddick was not an adequate medical proxy, addressed her remarks to Hermione. "I want you on bedrest for the next couple days. No classes, no high stress activities. The nature of that curse sometimes has an effect on its victims even after it's been dispelled. You may experience episodes of difficulty breathing, the Muggles call it asthma, it's a-"
Hermione smiled, "I know what asthma is Ma'am, I'm Muggleborn remember? So rest and report any symptoms of difficulty breathing. But there's nothing physically wrong, any problems with my lungs would be purely psychosomatic?"
"Psycho what?" The matron frowned at the unfamiliar term.
"Means physical symptoms manifested as a result of mental trauma," Riddick said flatly. "Like thinking you can't breathe when there's nothing wrong with your lungs. Because you remember not breathing and part of your mind thinks it's gonna happen again under certain circumstances." He looked at Hermione. "Best way to deal with that is after your bed rest, we do something designed to trigger it. Push your brain into realizing there's nothing wrong."
Hermione smiled at him, ignoring the matron's irritation at being dismissed, "Get back on the horse, hmm?"
"Exactly." He brushed a kiss over her lips. "Got just the thing."
"Be that as it may, you're on strict bedrest for the next two days." Madam Pomfrey informed her in a crisp tone. "Now I'll see about getting you some lunch, and the house elves will inform your friends that you're awake."
"What about the people who attacked us?" Hermione looked over at the beds where the three students had been in her last clear memory.
"They've been turned over to the Aurors." She was informed. "I'm told that once you're fully recovered you will be interviewed regarding the attack."
"Who was it?" Hermione murmured. "I didn't even see them clearly in the dark."
"Isobel MacDougal, James Flint, and Sullivan Fawley," Riddick answered when Pomfrey didn't. "Got their names when the guardians showed up." He smirked in satisfaction, "And they won't be screwing with you anymore sweetness. Wrath fucked up their magic. They've got it, just can't use it."
"There's no need to sound quite so satisfied with their suffering," Madam Pomfrey reprimanded him stiffly. "Unless their magical cores stabilize their punishment will last their lifetimes."
"They meant to kill my woman." Riddick growled at her. "They're lucky they got their lives."
"Well, be that as it may, they're paying for what they've done, and even after whatever happens to them lawfully they'll be punished still." Pomfrey sniffed and turned away, retreating to her office.
Hermione sighed, "She's a healer. It must gall her that she can't do anything to heal the damage you did to them. I think to her it means failure. And she lost so many patients during the war."
"She's been nothing but a bitch to me since I carried you in here." Riddick glared at the closed office door. "First asking what the hell I did to you. Then what'd I do to them. Tried to throw me out of here more times than I can count." He took a deep breath and she could see him visibly control his anger and irritation over the nurse and the situation before he spoke again. "So bedrest…"
"She means no classrooms, no course work, nothing to strain my magic or my body." Hermione huffed in frustration at the anticipated boredom. "I'm going to get behind in my classes. And my studying for NEWTS."
"Relax sweetness, I'll help you study. And your friends too I bet." One big hand cupped her face, gentleness in direct contrast to his size and ferocity. "Besides, according to Harry, you're about four months ahead in all your classes. You've got some leeway."
"Harry doesn't realize how hard I have to work to stay ahead." She grumbled and leaned into his touch, sighing at the feel of his palm against her cheek. "Although right now, bedrest with you sounds like a good thing."
His evil chuckle was like music to her ears. "Don't think that's the sort of bedrest she had in mind." Hermione made an irritated noise in her throat and Riddick's mouth dropped onto hers in a brief hot kiss. "Only for a couple of days. And I'll keep you company as much as I'm allowed."
By the time Madam Pomfrey reluctantly allowed her to leave the infirmary Hermione was ready to climb the walls. It hadn't helped that Riddick was banished for fully half of each day, the nurse's misguided attempts to ensure her patient rested 'properly'. By Saturday morning the Muggleborn witch was itching for her wand and some therapeutic target practice.
"Hermione!" Harry's face bore a beaming smile as she escaped the infirmary. "Finally!"
He caught her up in a hug, squeezing her tightly, right up until Neville tapped his shoulder and demanded his turn. The quiet Pureblood hugged her just as tightly and passed her along to Luna Lovegood who pronounced her 'nargle free' before giving a far gentler hug.
To Hermione's surprise the fourth individual waiting to greet her was Morag MacDougal. "I'm so sorry…" The Pureblood witch burst out. "If I'd known what she was going to do I'd have stopped her. I would have warned you."
Hermione shook her head at the slender dark haired witch. "It's not your fault Morag. You're not responsible for her actions. She made her choices and now she's paying for them." She summoned up a smile for the grey eyed girl. "Now if you'd been behind it I expect I'd be buried in a hidden grave. You're far too intelligent for a frontal attack!"
The Ravenclaw smiled shakily and nodded. "My parents are furious, with her and with your boyfriend for whatever it was that scrambled her magic. Madam Pomfrey told them that she was lucky she wasn't killed."
Hermione recalled Riddick's barely restrained fury throughout her stay in the infirmary, "You have no idea how lucky. Riddick usually ends attacks with blades. And he doesn't take prisoners." Morag paled and only Neville gently wrapping his arm around her waist and tucking her into his side seemed to restore her equilibrium.
Hermione regarded the two of them with a grin, "So you finally got up the nerve to ask her Neville? Good for you."
Her quiet friend shrugged and gave her a little smile, "I might not be in Ravenclaw but I'm not stupid. I'm just glad she said yes. We haven't had much time to talk in the last few weeks or I would have told you sooner."
The witch blinked and realized that in her effort to get to know Riddick she'd been neglecting her friends. "Oh…I'm so sorry Neville, and Harry," She looked at her best friend. "I've been completely ignoring you two haven't I? I've been so caught up in—"
Harry chuckled, "Falling love?" His smile spread to a grin at the blush heating her cheeks. "Hey, nobody blames you Mya. It's not as if you meet someone like Rick every day."
"And anyone can see he's taken with you." Neville added. "Just…maybe we could all hang out with you two? The Room of Requirement could handle all of us. And he's an interesting guy. It'd be good to talk with him without the audience we get at meals."
"Easier to relax too." Harry added.
Luna laughed, "And the Room could help him show us the things he's talked about. I'd love to see a space ship up close."
Hermione nodded thoughtfully. "I've already seen that the Room will take Riddick's desires into account. I'll run it past him and see if he'll agree to hang outs a couple nights a week at least."
"What're you running past me?" Riddick's tall figure should have made it difficult if not nearly impossible for him to sneak up on the group of witches and wizards but his sudden appearance made all five of them jump.
"Merlin's holey undershorts!" Harry cursed as he whirled, wand shooting into his hand before he pulled himself up short. Hermione took a deep breath and shook her head at Riddick in admonishment as he grinned at her.
"No panic attacks, no asthma attack? Even with me startling you." He remarked in satisfaction and wrapped an arm around her waist, unconcerned with the wands pointing at him.
"You've got a hell of a way of proving a theory," Hermione grumbled but subsided after the adrenaline of the moment had faded. "But you're right."
"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't have much of an issue." Riddick's hand wrapped around her braid possessively. "You've got a strong mind. Not that you won't have nightmares, but that's a different story." He looked at the rest of the group. "Question stands though. What's the thing you want to run past me?"
