A Game of Hunger
Chapter 11 - Stability is a Fragile Thing
Hermione had forgotten quite how much she hated the way her stylists dressed her when Charlie knocked on her door one morning two weeks after she had arrived in District 6. They had put her in some fancy black fire-resistant robes bearing fiery phoenix, the symbol of the rebellion. She felt ridiculous with her dark hair curled and falling perfectly into place, she looked like an actress not someone going into a war zone.
'Come in Charlie,' Hermione called.
He walked in, smirking when we saw her, 'look at our little Phoenix.'
'Shut up,' she snapped, 'I look stupid.'
'You look gorgeous,' Charlie corrected.
'And what good is that going into a war zone?' she asked as she walked along the corridor with him to command, nothing more had happened between them since the kiss on the boat and they were becoming fast friends, both appreciating the others blunt, sarcastic view on the world.
'The figurehead of the rebellion has got to look good,' Charlie said.
'Are you coming too today?' Hermione asked anxiously, she was stable when Charlie was with her, but when he left she slipped and found it hard to focus.
'Course, do you really think I'm letting you go out on your own?' Charlie asked sarcastically, it sounded mean but Hermione knew it was his way of saying that he was protecting her.
Their conversation was cut loose as they walked into command and took their seats.
Remus addressed them all, 'Okay Hermione, today you will be going to a field hospital in District 4. You'll go via flying carpet and spread hope, talk to the injured, give them something to root for. There shouldn't be any danger, but just in case we're sending Soldiers Weasley, Black and Shacklebolt with you.'
Hermione only nodded in response.
'Don't do anything rash,' Remus added, nodding his head towards the door to signal that the meeting was over.
Hermione got to her feet with a sigh, walking out of the door with Charlie as they followed Sirius and Kingsley. Charlie was one of the lower people in command because of his recent alcohol problems. Sirius and Kingsley were much higher up so they naturally led the way to the bay where they kept the three flying carpets they had managed to steal from the capitol. Hermione had never seen a more fancy flying carpet either, it was essentially a ship that ran on magic with the 'carpet' as both the floor and the engine. However, it had walls and a roof, with windows, and was a pale grey, so as not to draw attention to it in the sky. Nobody spoke, not even when they got onto the flying carpet and sat down in the little area by the door. It rendered itself invisible and took off, the ground opening up for it to fly out.
Hermione looked out of the window at the blue sky and the clouds, wondering how bad things would be when they got to District 4. She remembered that things had looked pretty bad when she had been there recently for the victory tour, when Harry had still been with her, she couldn't help but think.
The flying carpet clearly moved faster than trains because the trip to District 4 took around an hour, and the moment it landed the action began. They all used disillusionment charms as they disembarked from the flying carpet which then flew back up into the sky. Hermione looked around at a block of metal warehouses, wondering which one of them was the hospital. There were a lot of signs the place had been set on fire, ash on the ground, craters from bombs, it was quite a terrifying place to be.
Charlie gripped her arm and pulled her along into a dark grey warehouse. Hermione felt sick straight away as the smell of death and decay hit her nostrils. She had to choke down the urge to throw up, and Charlie did all he could do, he placed a comforting arm around her shoulder.
'Andromeda!'
Andromeda smiled as she walked over to Charlie, kissing him on the cheek, 'Charlie, lovely to see you. I notice you brought the girl.'
Charlie nodded and said, 'this is Hermione Spencer, I don't think you've officially met. Hermione, this is Andromeda Tonks. She's running the hospital here, we sent her here after we got her safely to 6.'
'Why are they so sick?' Hermione asked with a frown, 'can't magic heal them?'
'It could if we knew the right spells,' Andromeda said with a sigh, 'but there's too many injured and not enough healers.'
'So they just have to lie there and die?' Hermione asked weakly.
'I'm afraid so,' Andromeda admitted, and this only made Hermione feel more sick. The injuries were disgusting, people with bloody bandages covering their faces, people with amputated arms and legs. Some were adults, others were just children.
'You can do it,' Charlie mumbled in Hermione's ear, 'just let them see you at the very least. Give them hope.'
Hermione nodded and walked further into the warehouse, the stench was horrendous and there were flies everywhere. She walked through the swarm and people began to shout her name and chant it, and she didn't know why she had this effect but then it hit her. She had defied the capitol, she was the only one who had dared to do that, she was the spark that had given them hope they could have a life free of its regime. She was the hope they all so desperately wanted to cling to.
As she made her way up the rows, touching people's hands and murmuring words of comfort to them the smell lessened and her eyes got teary as she realised how much of an impact she was having on these poor dying people. She didn't know how much time she had spent when she walked back to Charlie and fought every urge telling her to collapse in his arms. He gave her an encouraging smile so Hermione turned back to the crowd of injured and waved goodbye before leaving the warehouse and gasping in the fresh clean air outside.
'You were fantastic,' Charlie murmured in her ear as he handed her a bottle of water which she gulped from eagerly.
'I didn't do very much,' Hermione said with a sigh, 'even if my magic wasn't messed up I couldn't have saved them.'
'But you gave them hope, isn't that something?' Sirius asked.
Hermione frowned, if anyone knew anything about hope then it had to be him. The only thing that was getting him through was hope, hope that Harry would be okay, that he would see him again.
Hermione merely nodded, because she didn't know any words that could answer that question, and because she found it hard to speak to Sirius since she felt responsible for what had happened to Harry.
She was still catching her breath when a glittering silver dog bounded towards them, the words of the captain of the flying carpet told them to get back to the place they landed right away. Everyone panicked and Hermione didn't know why as Charlie grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the place they had come in.
'Charlie what's going on?' She asked.
'Bombers,' Charlie answered breathlessly, but it was too late it had already started. Magically infused bombs were falling from capitol flying carpets in the sky. They were bombing the alley which meant everyone was vulnerable, Charlie dragged Hermione into a side alley and forced himself on top of her to protect her as the first bombs dropped only a few feet away from them. There was a pause in the bombs and Charlie got up, glancing around the corner and aiming his wand at one of the carpets, they had lost Sirius and Kingsley who were trying to take the carpets down from somewhere near the entrance to the makeshift hospital.
Hermione grabbed her wand, counting in her head in time with Charlie. Wordlessly she knew when to strike.
'CONFRINGO!'
Their combined blasting charms hit one of the three carpets and it spiralled downwards somewhere in the distance.
Charlie shot Hermione a grin, 'Again?' he said, pulling her up onto the roof of one of the more sturdy warehouses.
'Remus said we shouldn't do anything reckless!' Hermione shouted as they took position.
'Sometimes you have to act reckless darlin',' Charlie said, and together they took down the 2nd carpet just as it dropped a bomb. Charlie threw himself over Hermione once more and for a second she saw nothing but his blue eyes staring at her, his face flushed from the effort, it made Hermione go into a daze.
'Are you okay?' Charlie asked softly.
Hermione nodded, 'they aren't here for me.'
Charlie shook his head, 'no, they're targeting something else.'
Hermione's eyes widened and she said, 'Charlie! The hospital, they're-'
Another bomb dropped from the final flying carpet and Charlie tried to block her view, but he didn't manage to obscure her view of the bomb hitting the hospital, in seconds it went up in flames.
Hermione watched in silent horror as it burned, barely noticing the 3rd hovercraft being shot from the sky by Sirius or Kingsley.
'We've got to go,' Charlie said gruffly, scaling down the warehouse and helping Hermione do the same. As they rushed to the place they had landed they met up with Sirius and Kingsley, they both had minor burns and were out of breath but other than that seemed fine.
'It's over,' Sirius said breathlessly, 'look Hermione, if you're angry enough about what they just did to those people now would be a good time to be vocal about it.'
'What do you mean?'
'Look right at Charlie and send a message to the rebels, Voldemort targeted this hospital as a message to the rebellion. Send an alternate one back,' Sirius said, adding, 'we'll keep watch.'
'Okay,' Hermione said, looking into Charlie's blue eyes and then back to the hospital behind her. If the fire hadn't burned the people inside to death, the smoke will have done by now. No one was helping, nobody was running into help because they all knew that they wouldn't find any survivors.
'I want the rebels in every district to know that Voldemort has just bombed a hospital full of sick and dying men, women and children,' Hermione began darkly, 'and there is no chance of any survivors. I want to tell the rebels that we have to keep fighting because the capitol will never treat us fairly, they will never treat us equally unless we win this war! I want to say to the capitol, you can bomb us, and you can burn us but look at those flying carpets!' Hermione pointed to the burning carpets they had shot down, 'fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us!'
Hermione stopped then, catching her breath.
'That was perfect,' Charlie said as he patted her on the back, 'now come on,' he said, ushering Sirius and Kingsley over. Not wasting any more time they all rushed back into the hover craft and breathed a sigh of relief at the safety of it.
As it took off Hermione sat down next to Charlie, drawing her legs up to her chest and resting her head on his shoulder.
'You were great out there today,' Charlie said quietly, kissing her on the top of the head.
Sirius shot the other man a glare, but Hermione didn't really notice it and she didn't pay much attention to it either as she remembered the burning hospital and the desperate sick people inside of it who had been killed for no reason other than to show everyone else a lesson.
Blackness began to overcome Hermione with the intensity of all that had happened that morning, and she fell asleep against Charlie.
The first thing Hermione was aware of when she woke up was that her head hurt and that the lights were very bright. She opened her eyes weakly and blinked a few times to get rid of the blurriness. She sighed as she realised that she was in the hospital wing once again.
'Hey sis.'
Hermione managed a weak smile at her sister, 'hey Rachel.'
'Are you going to make a habit out of waking up in here?' Rachel asked in amusement.
'We didn't know about the raid, it was supposed to just be me visiting the hospital' Hermione said in her defence.
'I wasn't blaming you, I just worry about you,' Rachel said honestly, 'how are you feeling?'
Hermione shrugged, 'sore, dizzy…drained.'
'You've had your magic disabled again, that's probably why you feel drained,' Rachel said, looking at something on Hermione's wrist.
Hermione herself looked down and saw a plastic band on her arm which said 'magic disabled – mentally unstable'.
'Mentally unstable?'
Rachel shrugged and looked down a little guiltily, 'It's because you can't control your magic, and because of the whole…Harry…thing.'
'I get it Rach,' Hermione said with a sigh.
Rachel nodded, 'I need to get back to work, I'll check on you later.'
Hermione loved her sister but she was glad of the peace and quiet she got when she left. She shut her eyes, not sleepy, but trying to drone out the memories of the fire and the bombs, and of the injured.
'How's our little phoenix?'
'What did you just call me?' Hermione asked, her eyes snapping open as Charlie sat down on the edge of her bed.
'That's what they're calling you, the phoenix, since that's the symbol of the rebellion and you're the figurehead,' Charlie explained, 'how you feeling?'
Hermione merely shrugged, 'I've felt better.'
'You've looked worse,' Charlie countered and it made Hermione laugh.
'Look,' she said, holding up her wrist, 'apparently I'm mentally unstable now.'
'I was always saying you were mental,' Charlie remarked and Hermione laughed again, she really properly laughed and she couldn't remember the last time she had done that.
'How long have I been out?' Hermione asked, feeling very out of touch.
'A couple of days,' Charlie answered, 'they want to talk to us in command, if you're feeling up to it.'
Hermione nodded, 'sure,' she said, 'but you might need to levitate me there.'
'Don't be stupid, I'll carry you,' Charlie said offhandedly, 'you wanna go now?'
Hermione nodded and felt her cheeks flush as Charlie scooped her out of her hospital bed and carried her up a flight of stairs and along a short corridor to command. When they walked in everyone was waiting as Charlie helped Hermione into her chair. She caught her first glimpse of herself, she looked pale and thin, and ill.
'I've been informed you did well in District 4,' Remus said, waving his wand happily and causing a screen of some sort to appear behind him.
Sirius actually managed to give Hermione a slight smile, and Kingsley also looked on proudly.
'Do you want to see what we put together to send out to the rebels?' Remus asked.
Hermione nodded, and an image was projected behind him, a moving image. It was a montage of her and Charlie shooting down the carpets and Hermione walking through the sick and injured in the hospital. The words she had spoken to Charlie were playing over these clips and she blushed as she watched herself finish off with 'if we burn you will burn with us'. It was embarrassing, watching herself this way.
When it was over everyone in the room clapped and murmured excitedly, Hermione just kept her gaze down on the table. As they all talked amongst themselves she realised that it had already been played to the districts, but they couldn't tap into the capitol to show it there. There was discussion of other propaganda they could get out of the trip to 4 and Hermione zoned out until she was told she could go.
Charlie and she didn't talk as they made their way back to the hospital wing, and when he settled her back in bed he sat down next to her and stayed for a while. They didn't do much, just absentmindedly played wizards chess, barely talking but enjoying each other's company.
That was when it happened, there were screens dotted around the district, they showed these magically projected images. They had them back in 5 too, the one in the hospital wing fizzled into life. Showing a stage with two people on it, Hermione's breath caught in her throat when she realised that one of those people was none other than Harry.
'You shouldn't watch this,' Charlie muttered but Hermione shushed him as her eyes were drawn to Harry.
He looked pale and gaunt, like he hadn't been eating properly, his eyes were dead and glazed over. He looked like he had been beaten but that the marks and bruises had been hidden and scrubbed away, there was no way to hide the large black marks under his eyes however.
Rita Skeeter was the other person there, and she said that it was nice to see Harry again and that it was 'good to have him on their side'. Then she pulled out the big guns and said, 'What do you think about the rumours that Hermione is helping put together propaganda for the rebels?'
'They're using her,' Harry said dryly, 'it's obvious.'
He seemed to really believe this and Hermione's heart broke, tears streamed down her cheeks.
'Do you want to say anything to her Harry?' Rita asked gently.
Harry nodded, staring into the camera with a gaze that did not belong to him, 'Hermione, don't let them control you. They're trying to turn you into a weapon, think. Do you really trust the people around you? Do you really know whats going on? If you don't…find out.'
That was it, the screen went black again and Charlie turned to Hermione, 'that wasn't him.'
'Of course it was him!' Hermione exclaimed angrily, 'he was right there, you saw him with your own eyes!'
'Maybe it was him Hermione, but I can recognise the effects of the imperius curse instantly, and trust me he was under it,' Charlie said in an undertone.
'Wh…what?'
'I told you, they're keeping him alive to use him against you,' Charlie whispered.
'Why?' Hermione asked in a whisper.
'Because they think you love him, whether that's true or not they think you love him, that you would do anything to get him back,' Charlie said darkly.
'And I would but you and bloody Remus won't allow it!' Hermione spat angrily.
'Give us a week, we're nearly there,' Charlie said, getting to his feet and adding angrily, 'and stop yelling at everyone who cares about you. Soon there will be nobody left!'
Hermione groaned and let her head fall back against the pillows as she contemplated what Charlie had said, about Harry, and about himself caring about her. She was pushing him away but only because she couldn't deal with the pain she had felt when she lost Harry happening again if she lost Charlie.
Hermione was forced to spend some more time in hospital, but with the promise that they were getting closer to rescuing Harry she got better but the healers still wouldn't remove the band saying she was mentally unstable even after they let her out of the hospital wing where she had practically lived since she got to District 6.
The first place she went was to the quarters she shared with Rachel, she had barely been in them yet, and they were miserable and grey like everything else in this place anyway.
'I am so sick of being underground!' Hermione hissed as she threw herself onto her bed.
'So am I, but at least we're safe down here,' Rachel said with a shrug from where she was sitting on her bed.
Hermione groaned, 'I mean there are no windows, no sky…I feel like the days are melding into one.'
'If you followed your schedule you wouldn't have that problem,' Rachel noted, holding up her arm which was infused with writing.
'I've not had one, they said I was too mentally unstable to follow it,' Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
'You'll get one now that you're out,' Rachel assured her, 'mark my words it will be on your arm tomorrow morning.'
Hermione sighed, glancing over to her sister, 'how are you holding up Rachel?'
'What do you mean?'
'I mean you had to watch me go through the games, then you watched 5 get attacked, and Mum and Dad…' Hermione trailed off, they were her adopted parents and she had never been all that close with them but all the same she didn't wish death on them. She hadn't actually seen them for 2 years, Rachel had moved out and Hermione had instead lived with her sister.
'I'm okay,' Rachel said honestly, 'it was hard at first, but I feel happy that I'm actually doing something to help.'
Hermione hummed thoughtfully at this, thinking back to the broken man she had seen on the screen a few days ago and how much she wished she could do something to help him.
Rachel had been right, Hermione had woken up with a schedule on her arm the following morning. It was pretty strict, detailing when she had to have all of her meals and detailing her free time. She got up with Rachel and they went to the dining hall, so far Hermione had eaten all of her meals in the hospital wing.
'Look there's Charlie,' Hermione said, dragging her sister over to the man and sitting down next to him, 'Hey Charlie,' she said casually.
Charlie raised an eyebrow at Hermione, 'Finally let you out?'
'Yep,' she said, 'but I'm still mentally unstable apparently,' she casually waved her hand with the band on it.
'How are you feeling anyway?'
'Good actually, I just want to be out doing something. Staying underground is driving me crazy.'
'I know the feeling,' Charlie muttered, 'can't remember the last time I had a drink.'
'That's not such a bad thing though,' Hermione said with a slight smile, 'I prefer you this way.'
Charlie shot her a sheepish smile, 'What has you in high spirits?'
Hermione shrugged and shot a smile Rachel's way, 'I don't know, I guess it just feels good to be doing something.'
Later that day at 14.07 as her schedule demanded, Hermione appeared in the command room and took her seat next to Charlie. Remus smiled at her and said he was glad she was finally out of the hospital wing and seemed to be on the mend.
The meeting began as always, with an update on the districts.
'We have good news today,' Remus said, waving his wand and causing the map of the districts to appear on the screen behind him. It had taken a few meetings, but Hermione finally understood the map, the districts flashing red had broken free of capitol control, those in amber were in the middle of doing so and those in green were still very much capitol controlled.
'Districts 4 and 5 have both broken free of capitol control,' Remus said happily, 'we have commanders stationed there running the districts until a more permanent solution can be found. As you can see District 2 has also begun to rebel,' he added, pointing at the flashing amber part of the map.
'Really? How did you get District 2 to rebel?' Hermione asked in surprise.
'District 2 aren't quite as capitol mad as the capitol like to think Hermione,' Sirius said with a slight smile, 'they don't like the fact Voldemort sends their pureblood kids into the games, they would rather it was just the half-bloods and muggle-borns. Getting them to rebel only took a little longer than it took the others.'
'So how do we crack 1?' Hermione asked, leaning forward eagerly.
'Yes, that's the hard part. People in 1 are rebelling,' Remus said, 'but they are a minority group, I think once 2 has fallen we will need to send troops out there and help them to overcome the capitol guards.'
Hermione nodded, taking everything in for once, which was rare in meetings like these, 'So what happens when you do go to 1?'
'Well, there's a large mountain where the weapons and technology for the capitol are made, including the wands of those that live there,' Alice Longbottom said, 'we need to somehow destroy it, then the capitol lose access to their much needed supply of deadly weapons.'
'Which means they lose control of 1,' Hermione realised with a nod, 'when is it happening?'
'We don't know,' Frank spoke up, 'we need to wait until District 2 is secured before we act on dealing with 1.'
Hermione opened her mouth to speak, but Remus cut her off, 'No, you aren't going.'
Hermione frowned and said, 'But I need to do something!'
'You can make yourself useful here,' Remus said gently.
'No, I can't! I want to be out helping people! I want to be doing something!' Hermione exclaimed angrily.
'You are a 17 year old girl Hermione!' Remus snapped, 'not a trained Auror or fighter like everyone else in this room!'
Wanting to scream in frustration Hermione turned on her heel, but Sirius jumped up to block her way, she pushed him but he didn't move and then out of nowhere Charlie appeared, shoving Sirius aside.
Hermione paid no attention to Charlie as she rushed from the room to her quarters, throwing herself on her bed and trying not to burst into frustrated tears. She wasn't surprised when Charlie walked in, without knocking, a few minutes later.
'That was dumb.'
'You were dumber for helping me,' Hermione said glumly, 'you'll get punished for that.'
'I already have been,' Charlie said as he sat down next to her, 'Remus took my wand.'
'Sorry,' Hermione said quietly.
Charlie shrugged, 'You had the right to be angry.'
'Prove to them you can handle it, there's still a while until they even think about going to District 1,' Charlie said, putting his arm around Hermione and going to kiss her on the cheek. Hermione turned her head around, catching Charlie's lips instead. They both knew it was wrong, but neither of them pulled away from the kiss. Not until the door was yanked open and they both looked up to see none other than Sirius Black standing there.
'What is this?' He fumed, 'first on the flying carpet coming back from 4? And now this?'
Hermione's heart was pounding, Charlie stood up pulling himself to his full height so he was taller than Sirius.
'Aren't you supposed to be in love with my Godson? The one who they are torturing right now in the capitol!' Sirius raged.
Hermione burst into tears and fell into a crazed ramble about how Harry was probably dead, and how she felt so alone, and how Charlie was her only friend, it got intelligible after that.
'Sirius,' Charlie hissed angrily, 'she's mentally unstable,' he said, pointing to the band on her arm, 'you really shouldn't mention the words 'Harry' and 'Capitol' around her right now, look what it does to her!'
Sirius grabbed Charlie by the front of his drab, grey uniform and said threateningly, 'If she's mentally unstable you shouldn't be screwing around with her Charlie!'
Letting go of him and pushing him into the wall Sirius stormed from the room, and Charlie realised that the man was right. He sighed, picking Hermione up and taking her to the hospital wing once more.
TBC :)