A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed, there will sadly be more Angst throughout the story; a buddy says I have a flair for it (not one of my better talents). But I am a fan of happiness and mush (to a degree [don't tell anyone]) so there will be goodness too.
--
Ragnar was sitting alone atop the astronomy tower, it was Saturday night nearly Sunday morning, almost twelve hours since he had told his friends his final secret, and he hated almost every single one of those twelve hours. 'Well I can't really blame them can I?' he thought to himself, if their situations had been reversed he thought that he would have been lucky to have not been hexed, cursed and jinxed into his fifties.
He received a solid mental caress form his now constant, and only, companion who was currently seated on Rags' head and thought back to the rather enjoyable few hours that he had spent with Hagrid. The half giant had been ecstatic when Ragnar had shown up on his doorstep carrying the small bundle of black feathers. He had proudly informed Ragnar that he was the companion of a Midnight Falcon, one of the rarest kinds of falcons in the history of the wizarding world. Which offcourse gave Rags the dubious honour of naming the, now, little creature, it would have to be a suitably impressive name, as there were about two bonded Midnight Falcons in the whole of the wizarding world, not including Rags', and only about a hundred left in the wild.
Unfortunately Hagrid soon realised that Harry, Hermione and Ginny were not down here with Rags to share in the momentous occasion of having the egg hatch, and that made the friendly half giant very suspicious, when there was a lull in the conversation he confronted the young man on the issue.
Rags being who he was he decided that he would tell Hagrid the whole truth, so the whole sordid tale came out, including the part that he had old Hermione, Harry and Ginny that distant night, or what felt like a distant night, ago in the Room of Requirement. Hagrid surprised him, he thought that the professor would be angry, as he had been their through the first war with Voldemort, but he just said "Well I won't hold your father against you, it's not like you chose him. Anyway it would make me a hypocrite; you haven't held that fact that I am a half giant against me so I won't hold your family against you."
Hagrid had been treated to a full blown smile from the young man, but offcourse then the part about how Harry and the others had pulled their wands on Rags came out, he had sworn a bit at that, said some rather nasty things and said that he would talk to them, Rags had tried to persuade him not to but it hadn't worked, Hagrid had got it set in his mind that he was going to talk to the others on Rags' behalf.
Rags used a small mental nudge of his own to get the little Midnight Falcon to hop down into his hands, although it would not remain little for long, Hagrid had told him that roughly a month from now the falcon would be at least as long as his forearm and would probably grow even bigger as it got older. Rags stared into its startling silver eyes and grinned slightly "I was wondering if you would like to hear the name that I have thought up for you little one?"
What he got back in return was the thought nudge version of 'duh', he wasn't very good at talking yet, he ignored the little bird and began to speak "I don't know a lot about you, you appear to have a varied personality, a mix of courage, seeing as you didn't freak out when Fang tried to eat you. You are intelligent, kind and caring, you pulled me out of my funk. If it's acceptable to you I'll call you Aesir, it was the collective name for all the old Wotainc Gods of the ancient Norse." Aesir seemed to be completely happy with his new name, and he showed such appreciation by letting his happiness flow over the slowly forming bond between the two, but the bond could never replace the feeling of having friends around, people he could talk to, he was once again, as he always though that he was and would be, alone.
--
After getting out of their meeting with the Headmaster Harry, Ginny and Hermione had immediately set off in search of their friend, unfortunately, like their earlier attempt, they were unsuccessful. Hermione broached the subject that no one really wished to talk about "Guys" Harry and Ginny turned to her and waited for her to continue "you don't think that he would have gone off the school grounds do you?"
Ginny looked thoughtful but tried to assuage her friend's fears by saying "I don't think he would do that Hermione, I mean what reason would he have to go off the grounds for, everything that's been going on around him for the last month has been here."
Unfortunately it was Harry who had to play the avatar of doom "That's true, but then you have to ask yourselves this question. What has he got to tie him here to the school?"
Hermione was almost in tears after he said that "Harry why would you say that? He can't have left, he can't..."
Harry responded by saying "I'm only trying to think like he might be Hermione, and I know that if I had no one here who cared for me, I would probably leave." He hated doing this but he knew that there was a distinct possibility that Rags was no longer on the school grounds.
"But he does have people that care about him here, what we did was wrong so wrong…he just accepted it…he expected it. Oh what have we done?" By now Hermione was in a full crying/panic session and was being held by Ginny, who looked at Harry in shock, Harry returned the look.
"Hermione do you have feelings for Rags?" Harry couldn't help but ask it would be the only thing that explained how she was acting at the moment. He wasn't trying to pry, he told himself, and he was just wondering why the girl he thought of as a sister was so upset at the moment.
Hermione looked up at him and glanced at Ginny and whispered "Yes, yes I have, I've had them for a while, but I haven't said anything because I didn't want to ruin our friendship by rushing him or anything like that. Now I may have gone and mucked everything up without ever getting the chance to tell him." She was slowly getting herself under control but she was certainly still on the ragged edge of tears.
Ginny gave her friend another hug and said "Well when we find him and patch up our collective friendship you and he will have a little chat." Hermione nodded her head and the three of them continued their search for their missing friend, and found themselves heading down toward Hagrid's house, they knew that he and Rags got along well so he might be able to help them find him, or maybe had even seen him.
--
Ginny was walking near Hermione just in case she needed another helping hand, but she appeared to be managing alright by herself at the moment. Harry stepped up and wrapped loudly on the large door of Hagrid's house, they all heard the typical 'Down Fang, stupid dog' coming from the inside, and couldn't help smiling at the comfortable familiarity of Hagrid's voice. "Hagrid open up" Harry yelled hoping to get the half giant's attention.
Hagrid opened the door, and greeted them with an expression that he hadn't shown them before, a cold distant one, "Yes" he said shortly, the others were shocked Hagrid had never treated them this way, it made them wonder if there was something bothering him as well as Rags.
"Is something wrong Hagrid?" Harry asked as he was the one who knew Hagrid the best seeing he rescued him from the Dursley's in his first year.
"Yes there is, but I'm not going to discuss it out here in the cold, so you'd better come in. But don't touch any of the paper's there all for the classes after the break and I don't want any of them to get misplaced." The others, still in their stunned shock entered the hut and sat down.
"Hagrid what's wrong?" Hermione asked timidly, wondering what could bet the matter with their large friend, but she ahd a sneaky suspicion that it was something to do with Rags.
Hagrid regarded them all and then said "When you lot first came to see me in your first year, except Ginny offcourse, there were three of you. You Harry, yourself Hermione and Ron, now for some reason your friendship with Ron has died down and you aren't as friendly. Probably due to him pinning after Hermione at all hours of the day, so good riddance I say." The three students looked at Hagrid shocked, and wondered how he had found out but he just continued "then there were four of you, the new inclusion in the trio was Ragnar Valerian, who I am very pleased to call a friend, even though there is a large age gap between us, and you should be too, so what the hell happened today in the Headmasters office?"
His long speech ended Hagrid regarded the three Hogwarts students sitting before him and waited for one of them to speak. It was Hermione "We are so sorry Hagrid. I don't know what happened but when he said his father was Vvv…Voldemort it was such a shock, I don't know what happened, it was an instinctive reaction to draw my wand, he did nothing to hurt us, he knew we would react the way we did and he told us anyway. We…I certainly would never have guessed unless he told me, so he could have, in his mind, kept the friendship he had and not told us a thing, but he wanted us to know." She was nearly in tears again, and Ginny wasn't much better, and Harry looked like he wanted to be sick.
Hagrid's expression softened slightly and he said "I'm not the one that you need to apologise to, I assume that you came here hoping that I have seen him and can point you in the direction that he went?" He noticed that all their head nodded in the affirmative, and he believed them, they honestly had an instinctive reaction to the information that they were given, and to be honest if Rags had told that little gem of information to anyone at the Ministry of Magic then he would probably already be in Azkaban by now.
"Sorry but I don't know where he is" he saw their crestfallen faces and continued "but he was here today, not too long after he had finished with the Headmaster if I'm not mistaken. He came down here because his Egg had hatched."
The others gasped, from what Hagrid had told them about their own eggs; there were no where near ready to hatch. Hermione quickly jumped in and asked "Hagrid why did Rags' egg hatch so much quicker than ours? Also what hatched out of it?"
Hagrid couldn't help smiling at Hermione, she truly was a remarkable person, all the bad things that had happened to her at Hogwarts, even now with her friendship with Rags on the rocks, she remained the same inquisitive, curious girl that she always was. "I'm not sure why it hatched so early for him, well I have a theory it's that he needed it to hatch, so the egg hatched at a time that he needed to, and in a creature that was best suited to his needs, a Midnight Falcon." Ginny, who had grown up in the wizarding world knew about the rare powerful birds and was shocked, and immediately wondered what creature would hatch for her, Hermione also knew a little about the Falcons, only because she had read everything in the library about them, a measly four books. Harry just sat their thinking that having a Falcon familiar would be very cool.
They talked a little more with Hagrid and they came up with some ideas where Rags might have gone, Hagrid suggested places that were quiet and out of the way, places that he would not be easily disturbed. The three had already had that idea and had tried the library and the Room of Requirement; they had even tramped down to the Quidditch pitch to see if he had gone there, but they had been unsuccessful. But Hagrid had suggested that they try the Astronomy Tower, as it was hardly ever used except for classes, but offcourse when they reached it, all they found was a bare windswept stone roof, with no sign of Rags of his flacon.
--
Sunday came and went and Hermione, Ginny and Harry raced down to the Common Room hoping to find their large friend waiting for them, but it was a one way trip back to the crush of reality when they realised that he wasn't there, just and empty Common Room and an empty sofa. Ginny quickly grabbed Harry's hand trying to get as much comfort from the contact as she could just from simple physical contact, Hermione looked at them and said "Let's just go about the day as normal, and if an opportunity comes along to find Rags then we will." The others nodded glumly; none of them could help the feeling that they had driven their friend into his self imposed exile.
The weekend quickly came to and end, with only the most brief glimpses of Rags, even at mealtimes, he seemed to slip in, grab something to eat and be gone again before any of the trio could get to him, but when Monday came round things changed. As usual the three of them made their way down to breakfast and were shocked to see Rags sitting with Dean, Seamus and Neville, Hermione had noticed that while his main friendship group centred around herself, Ginny and Harry, he certainly got along well with the boys in his year level, the three that he was sitting with at the moment were the prime examples of that.
Hermione looked at Harry and Ginny and they immediately moved towards where Rags was sitting, hoping to corner him and patch up their friendship before they all went off to their morning classes, but fate was not on their side, they were intercepted by the one of the two people they didn't want to see during any day, Malfoy. The usual insults were traded, and a group of people pushed past the sixth years, as they were standing in the entranceway to the Great Hall. Hermione got right up in Malfoy's face and said "Piss off Ferret, or would you like Ragnar to rearrange your face again?" Malfoy left with a look of anger on his face, and Hermione noticed that Rags was no longer in the Hall. She turned and saw him, still talking to Dean and Seamus, although they were now heading back towards the Common Room. She frowned and vowed to herself that she would speak to Rags today whether he wanted her to or not. Unfortunately this would prove harder than she originally thought.
--
Harry and Hermione were making their way down towards the greenhouses for Herbology, Harry was about a half-dozen paces ahead of Hermione talking to Dean Thomas, mostly about Quidditch, seeing as his friendship with Ron had pretty much ended he needed another guy to talk sport to.
So he was in the wrong position to see Malfoy motion Crabbe and Goyle to move in just behind Hermione, who was, although not far behind Harry and Dean, was certainly at the back of the main group of students.
Rags was well towards the front of the group talking with Seamus, when something felt wrong, he had only felt the feeling a few times before in his life, when Death Eaters decided that they were going to have some fun with his sister, fun that would have been against her wishes, he had arrived just in time to stop them but he had never forgotten the strange feeling of unease that settled over him every time, and he trusted it again now. He turned around and stopped short, there was Hermione being held on either side by Crabbe and Goyle, and Malfoy was their too saying something he couldn't quite make out, when he saw Crabbe take Hermione's wand out of her holster he knew something was very, very wrong.
Time seemed to slow down for Hermione, one moment she had been walking along following Harry to Herbology, she gave Harry his 'guy time', as he put it, talking to Dean, when she was grabbed from behind and pulled to face Malfoy. "Well now Mudblood, I think that its time that you learned your place" his eyes roamed down her body and Hermione felt like she was going to be sick with fear. "But don't worry Mudblood, I have something else in store for you" he glanced around to make sure their were no teachers in the vicinity and said "move her over there Crabbe, Goyle hold her tight, near the wall you fools" if he had taken the time to look properly behind him, he would have seen something moving towards him faster than humanly possible.
Hermione was standing against the wall of Hogwarts castle, as though in a dream she saw Malfoy draw his wand, complete a complicated movement and yell "Nox noctis Nex", and as though in slow-motion she saw a dark burst of light leave Malfoy's wand, and move towards her. Suddenly there was something large in front of her, between her and the spell, the large object was blasted out of the way, she barely caught a glimpse of longish blonde hair tied back with a metallic clasp, before Rags' flying body knocked her against the wall of Hogwarts, effectively rendering her unconscious.
--
Hermione woke up in the hospital wing, hearing muffled voices just outside the curtain that shielded her from the rest of the ward; sitting next to her bed was Harry and Ginny. She looked up at the two of them and wondered where Rags could be, if she was in the Hospital, surely he would have come by to see her. Then the events of the day came crashing down on her, and she gasped and felt Ginny grab her hand and squeeze it tightly. "W w what happened?" she managed to squeak out.
Harry was the one who answered "Malfoy tried to curse you, he cast some form of dark spell, but Rags got between you and the spell before it could hit you, he was thrown backwards by the force of the spell and you were knocked out when you hit the castle wall. It all happened so fast but Dumbledore showed up, I don't know how he managed it but he was furious, the only time that I have seen him as furious was when the Dementor's got onto the school grounds back in third year. He disarmed Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle and had Professor Snape cart them off, seeing as he is their head of House. He checked you and Rags and assisted Madame Pomfrey in getting the two of you here; you have been unconscious for about two hours."
Hermione looked up and whispered "What about Rags?"
It was Ginny who replied this time "Hermione, we don't know much, we saw him get hit by the curse, but don't know which one it was." She glanced at Harry and he nodded "Come on, we'll take you to see him.
Harry and Ginny helped Hermione up and held onto an arm each as they got her out of the bed and onto her feet again. They exited the screen that shut off Hermione's bed from the rest of the hospital and Hermione gasped when she saw Rags.
He was lying in a bed with his shirt off and a large bandage wrapped around his waist and right shoulder, but it wasn't just the bandages that made her gasp, it was the scars. He had so many, there were long thin scars that ran up and down his powerful arms; she surmised that these were scars from whatever 'training' he had been put though in his childhood. He also had several large ones on his muscled chest, the largest went from just the bottom of his neck on his left side, winded its way down in a loose 'S' shape crossing over his abs before ending near his right hip. But it was not this scar that grabbed Hermione's attention, nor the scars on his shoulders and arms, it was the long newly healed scar that went down vertically over his right eye, extending about an inch either side of his eye. She knew immediately that he had gotten this scar protecting her from Malfoy's curse.
Then the three of them heard Madame Pomfrey speaking, "I have healed his newer superfluous injuries Albus, the broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and cracked skull, the bandages are soaked in a potion to assist in his recovery and stop any lingering effects of the injury, but I can do nothing about the scar on his face, it was made by whatever dark curse struck him, and although will not affect him anyway should he recover, I simply cannot remove it."
Hermione nearly lost it then 'Should he recover, no it was all wrong, he had to recover, he had to' McGonagall turned round and saw them standing there, and the horrified look on Hermione's face. "Miss Granger what are you doing out of bed? Come on lets get you settled in" Minerva McGonagall was used to students, being silly, arrogant and spiteful but a student had never shrugged off her hand and completely ignored her before, Hermione just walked up the figure propped up on pillows and took the one of the large hands in both her own, and just stood there.
Hermione had never really held Rags' hand before, in some ways it was like her father's old leather motorcycling gloves, rough and strong but with calluses from the forge and sword work he had done throughout his life, along the back it was dotted with tiny scars and burn marks. It was much larger than she first thought, but looking at him laying in the bed she realised he looked very vulnerable and fragile. "What's wrong with him?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
Madame Pomfrey was the one who spoke up "I'm not sure Miss Granger, he was hit by a curse, a curse I am told was meant for you. I have not been able to identify the curse, although I m sure that it has some dark origins. Can you remember the incantation that was used?" Madame Pomfrey had little hope that the girl in front of her remembered the curse that was almost certain to take the life of her friend, she was showing all the classic signs of post event trauma, but once again Hermione Granger was going to surprise the staff of Hogwarts.
"I have no idea what the curse was but I heard the incantation well enough it was Nox noctis Nex, it was preceded by a complicated wand movement and the spell was a dark burst of light" she noticed the very worried look on Madame Pomfrey's face, and the gasps from McGonagall and Dumbledore and said "What? What's the spell, what is it going to do?"
Madame Pomfrey answered "It's called the Nightmare Sleep it is one of the most horrible spells in our world. It not only does a severe amount of nerve damage to the victim, which in this case I was fortunate enough to repair being able to get to him quickly, the end result being that scar over his right eye. What the spell does is to put the victim into something resembling a coma, that in itself is not so bad; the worst part is that they are forced to relive all their most horrible experiences, deeds, events and memories, slowly driving them towards madness and eventual death. From what I understand of Mr Valerian, he has gone through far too many."
It was then that the three students realised that Madame Pomfrey must have know about Rags' past. Hermione looked up at the school matron with shock, had Rags told her all the things that they had discussed in the Room of Requirement, but Madame Pomfrey continued and Hermione focused her attention back on the school nurse. "I have no idea what his life was like at Hogwarts, I don't know a thing about his past. But he was certainly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder certainly up to a month before the beginning of term this year. So I would speculate that he has plenty of memories and experiences to draw upon."
Dumbledore stepped up to the nurse and put his hand on her shoulder and asked "Poppy, how long does he have, and is there any hope that the cure would work for him?"
This question confused all of the teens who were in the hospital wing and were trying to keep up as best as they could. "I don't know Albus, the only way sure way that I know of to counteract the spell is for someone with a deep enough connection, usually a close family member automatically qualifies, a sibling or a parent normally, to go into the mind of the victim and endure what he or she sees with them. They cannot stop the images or stop the pain, all they can do is be there for them."
Madame Pomfrey sighed, a sure sign that what she would say next was not going to be good news, although the three students in the room wondered how it could get any worse. "Now the problem that we are facing at the moment is the time frame. From what I know of this spell is that it does not take immediate effect, for a normal magical person I would give them up to a week to survive without aide. With Mr Valerian here because of his magical strength, combined with the darkness of his past, he maybe had three days."
Hermione felt like she was standing in a vacuum, she was numb, cold standing by herself holding onto the lifeless hand of the man she cared about, and not being able to do it. "Headmaster you have to get Rags' mother no matter their differences she may be the only one that can help him" she suddenly pleaded, and Dumbledore winced at the raw pain in her voice and had to break the bad news to her himself.
"Miss Granger we don't know where Brunehild is, we know that she is alive, and I believe still in Norway. But we have no idea where in Norway she it, and I'm afraid that it will take far longer than three days for us to track her down. No I think that we will need to find someone else to help Ragnar, and anyway, from what I have gathered from Ragnar himself he was taken away from his mother at a young age, and even then he was not in a happy home, so even if we could find her his mother might not be the best person to help him." Dumbledore saw the look of hope die on Hermione Granger's face and struggled to keep the pain from his own eyes, how did this happen in his school, and he would not be able to expel Malfoy, his father had managed to get released from Azkaban, especially as Fudge had not resigned only apologised for making an error, but Malfoy Snr still wielded enormous power within the school board of governors and the Ministry. Crabbe and Goyle on the other hand were fair game, they would be out of this school faster than they could eat a cake, and that was fast.
"I'll do it" that one small sentence stopped all the brooding in the room, all the contemplations and the guilt and all eyes turned to one Miss Hermione Granger. "I'll do it; I'll try to help him."
Madame Pomfrey was shocked, elated that they might be able to save her patient, but shocked nevertheless and she hated having to play devils advocate and voiced her concerns about Hermione's idea. "Miss Granger, I'm elated that you would want to help but I'm not sure you could. This spell has never been countered except with a spouse or blood relative doing the helping, and you must understand that there is still no complete chance of success, even if the person assisting the victim makes it through the ordeal; most of it depends of the victims' strength of character and strength of mind."
Dumbledore had a thoughtful look on his face and Professor McGonagall rounded on him in anger "Albus! You cannot be seriously thinking of letting Miss Granger go thorough with this lunacy?"
Dumbledore looked at his old friends and said "That is exactly what I am thinking about Minerva. I have watched Mr Valerian bonding and developing friendships with some of the students in his year, and he seems to share a particular closeness with Miss Granger. The person who goes into the victims mind is in no danger, they cannot be physically hurt by anything that they see in there, they will just see some of the worst things that happen to the victim, and know that they cannot stop the images, only endure it with them. Poppy what would we need to do to prepare for this procedure?"
Madame Pomfrey was, at this moment, in her matron mode, she had been asked a serious question about her patient, and the points that the Headmaster had made were indeed valid and medically sound so she answered his question. "Well Albus, it will take me about twenty four hours to brew the potion that Miss Granger will be taking, and that is cutting a lot of corners and with Horace and Severus's help offcourse. But after that as long as the procedure is performed within the next seventy two hours we should be fine."
Dumbledore nodded his head and said "Very well Poppy, I want you to inform me the minute the potion is complete, all other concerns are secondary seeing as the life of a student is at stake. Miss Granger you are excused from classes until the procedure is ready to be performed, Poppy is their anything that Miss Granger should know before she undertakes this?"
Madame Pomfrey nodded her head and said "I want you to eat healthily Miss Granger, a little more than you might usually do just to keep your energy levels high, and try to refrain from casting any difficult spells as your core must be strong for what you are going to do" she seemed to end there and then added as an afterthought "When the potion is ready be dressed in comfortable clothing you may be sitting in the same position for a while."
Hermione nodded and with Harry and Ginny's help she was able to walk out of the hospital wing on her own two feet, but despite her injuries, she couldn't help but think about the young man lying on the bed in the hospital wing, the young man who may have sacrificed everything for her, even when he thought no one cared.
Once the teens had left Madame Pomfrey motioned Dumbledore around the Rags' right side, whereas before everyone was standing on his left. "Albus, what can you make of this? He didn't have it when I examined him after the incident over the summer, and I'm not sure what it is except that it is magical."
Dumbledore moved round and saw what Poppy Pomfrey was indicating underneath the bandage she had just removed and his eyes widened in surprise at what he saw. Almost like a tattoo on his right bicep there was a mark of a swooping falcon, upon closer inspection he realised that it was a Midnight-Falcon, every detail was perfect, the black feathers with their midnight/navy blue highlights to the silver eyes, beak and talons. "It's hatched and they have already bonded" he whispered to no one n particular, the other teachers who were in the room looked at him perplexed until they heard the tinkle of breaking glass.
Everyone still in the room whirled around to look at the hospital wing window, there was a small hole in the glass, and broken glass scattered all over the floor, then there was a screech. Turning back to the bed they noticed what appeared to be a young, newly hatched, Midnight-Falcon perched on the wooden headboard of the bed Ragnar was resting in. The creature glared balefully at all in the room, and everyone felt a small chill creep down their spine. Yes this falcon was young and newly hatched but even still it was one of the most dangerous magical creatures known to wizard kind.
Dumbledore was looking into the falcon's silver eyes, and the two of them came to an understanding, if anything happened to Rags, Hogwarts would be missing the last of the Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle lines come the following morning.
--
Hermione, Ginny and Harry were sitting in the Gryffindor common room in silence, none of them felt like talking, about Rags' condition or what Hermione was going to be attempting in the next day or so. "We should do something for him" Hermione said suddenly, breaking the oppressive silence that had been hovering over the group since they got back from the hospital wing.
Harry and Ginny looked at the other girl with confused looks on their faces, so Hermione elaborated her idea. "Rags has never had a real birthday from what we were just told by Professor Dumbledore and the others, so when he wakes up", no one missed the emphasis put on the when in that sentence, "we should all have something to give him. What do you two think?"
Harry looked thoughtful but said "I like the idea; we need to do something to make things up to him." He looked at his girlfriend and she nodded her head and continued with what he was probably going to say.
"Hermione?" when the older girl looked at her she said what was bothering both her and Harry "are you sure your ok with what is going to happen?"
Hermione looked at her two friends and said "Yes, yes I am, if we hadn't had that confrontation the other day, none of this would have happened, and even if it had I would still be sitting here going to go through with it. He thinks we hate him and he still took a curse that could have killed me, I owe it to him to help him if I can. As for seeing his darkest memories, maybe it will help me understand him."
Ginny noticed the tears that were once again threatening to overcome her friend so she quickly got up and pulled Hermione into a hug. Harry got up and hugged her from the other side, they sat there for a while each to their own thoughts about what would happen, unaware that a pair of blue eyes was watching them waiting for their time to make their move.
--
At four o'clock the following afternoon found Harry, Ginny and Hermione sitting one again in the hospital wing, staring at the still form of Rags, who looked even paler that he had the day before. Fortunately due to the genius of Professor Snape, Professor Slughorn and Madame Pomfrey they had gotten the potion done in record time, and maybe even improved it a little, but they wouldn't know that until Rags woke up, if he woke up. "Alright Ms Granger, you need to take this potion, all of it mind you otherwise you will not be able to help him as much as he needs."
Hermione pinched her nose and drank down the silvery potion; it tasted quite nice really, almost like a cool liqueur. "Now what Madame Pomfrey?" she asked, having no idea what she was really supposed to do.
Madame Pomfrey explained what she was going to have to do, she was to essentially sit near the head of the bed with Rags' head in her lap, and hold his head in her hands with her fingers down near his jaw and her thumbs near his eyelids, to open them slightly, as when the potion began working, in about ten minutes, his eyes would open and she would be drawn into his mind. So Hermione gave Harry and Ginny a quick hug, they were not allowed to sit with her during the procedure in case anything went wrong, and they were in the way, they would have to sit and wait in the common room.
Hermione got herself settled and readjusted the clothes she was wearing so she would be comfortable; she was wearing an old Gryffindor jumper, that was a few years old but was comfortably worn so it was nice to sit in, and grey track pants she brought from home. Her attire had drawn a few appraising glances as she made her way through the hall with Harry and Ginny, enough that Ron missed the hollow step on the Grand Staircase and fell the rest of the way down, it may have had less to do with her overall appearance than the fact that her pants showed of her bum spectacularly.
She gently held Rags' head in her hands, this gave her a unique opportunity to see his facial scars close up, and run her hands through his hair, it was strange what stuck with her in the few minutes before the procedure, his hair felt like warm silk, so much that she was 'almost' jealous of it. Dumbledore gave her a smile of encouragement and Madame Pomfrey gave her a nod to open his eyes, as she did so she leant down and gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead and whispered "Hold on Rags I'm coming", that was the last anyone heard of her as at that moment Rags' eyes snapped open, his stormy blue-grey eyes locked with her chocolate brown ones and she felt herself being pulled into a world of darkness.
A/N: Ok Whew that was a long chappie to write, sorry it took so long but the damn thing just kept on getting bigger and bigger and I couldn't find a place to stop (sorry). Hope everyone liked it please read and Review. Thanks to 1RedLion for the great review, I'm part Norwegian too and I was tired of all the characters being from England. Thanks again everyone, nxt chappie will prob be up in the next week or so as I go on Uni break then. Cheers again TBK