A/N: I hope everyone one had a fantastic holiday! Thank you for your patience and understanding while waiting for this chapter. It turned out to be quite difficult to write.

I am not sure how many chapters are left but I calculate no more than five. My goal is to finish writing this fic in the next week. I probably will post as I go.

Chapter Eleven: Is This the End?

The last person Sirius would have expected to come and check on them had just walked through the floo. Hair blond and slicked back, flinty eyes darting around the room, assessing the potential danger. Sirius was shaken with just how much the young man looked like his father but from previous experience knew that this man was a much better one. Sirius was sitting in an armchair, twirling his wand between his fingers, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Missed me so soon?"

Draco Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"I was called in on the case. Potter has all of the women in holding now." He rolled his eyes.

"You don't think he should?"

"Not all of them. My mother did nothing wrong."

"Then she should be released quickly."

Sirius whipped his head around as someone was running at break-neck speed down the stairs.

"Sirius, something is wrong with Hermione! She's collapsed on the floor and I can't wake her up!" Ginny yelled frantically from the hallway. The two men bolted up the stairs, taking them two at a time, passing Ginny easily on the way.

Sirius ran to the bed where Hermione was now laying, Draco right behind him casting diagnostic spells as he ran. He wasn't an expert but he had plenty enough field experience. More than he was proud of. No one should have to learn how to heal themselves as the only means to crawl away after a punishment delivered by fellow Death Eaters.

"Sirius, look at this." Draco said confusedly. Her kidneys were lit up like a muggle Christmas tree.

"She has been taking medicine to heal her kidneys after the abduction. Poppy cleared it. Ginny, floo Hogwarts and ask Poppy to come and see Hermione." Sirius asked, not even looking up as she ran from the room. His hands were one her shoulders as he gently shook her, trying to wake her up.

"Come on Kitten, let me see your gorgeous eyes." He pled in a whisper. No matter how much he wanted it, he didn't get any response. Not even a finger twitch.

"This is wrong. I don't know what is going on but I am amazed she hadn't collapsed sooner." Draco said horrified, still scanning her results.

"She was supposed to be on the mend. How do I help her?"

"I don't know."

"Move out of the way!" Poppy's authoritative voice rang around the room. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the diagnostics still floating in the air.

With a wave of her wand she discharged Draco's spell and recast, obviously hoping for better results with her own wand work. She began muttering spells under her breath and mentally catalogued her impressive arsenal of potions that she carried in her carpet bag.

"Sirius make yourself useful and reach in my bag and pull out an anti-inflammatory, a pain reliever, and a vitamix. Merlin knows she is going to need all of the help that she can get."

Sirius wasted no time in following Poppy's directions, handing Draco Malfoy each vial as he pulled the out of the seemingly endless carpetbag.

Draco was surprisingly gentle as he lifted her head and slowly tipped the first of three potions to her lips. Sirius circled the bed and massaged her throat, forcing the bitter potions into her stomach.

"I saw her the day before yesterday and nothing was wrong. She had just gotten back from the other healer." Poppy mumbled as she worked.

"Could it be the medicine he gave her?"

"I don't think so. Severus was the one who created this potion and I know it very well. I did some diagnostics on it and it seemed fine. This is from something else."

"Could Lestrange have done something to her while she was unconscious? It would have to be slow acting or time released."

"Maybe. I'll do my best."

Hermione was unconscious for three days before Poppy's enervate woke her, her symptoms slowly disapeared under their care.

Sirius was holding her hand, his thumb smoothing soothing circles onto her knuckles, purple bags under his bloodshot eyes.

"Hello Kitten." He rasped, his voice cracked from disuse.

"What happened?"

"You nearly died on me, several times. Poppy is worn out, Malfoy is in the other room sleeping, Harry is in the kitchen with Ginny, even Molly was here for several hours so the rest of us could get some sleep. Poppy was going to bring in the healer that had seen you at St Mungos if you didn't wake soon. "

"Does Poppy know what is wrong with me?"

"You went into renal failure that triggered a fluid buildup in your lungs. Poppy thinks that is why you collapsed."

"I didn't even notice. I was so much worse after the war was over that this seemed like normal pain. I guess I don't know the difference anymore."

He wrapped his arms around her.

"Poppy wants to move you to Hogwarts."

"No. I am not a student. It wouldn't be right."

"Then I insist you go to St. Mungo's where you can be seen by Healers immediately if you need help. Poppy can't stay forever and If you continue on the way you are, I am afraid I might lose you. I couldn't bear that."

"Okay but only until I feel better, then I am coming home. Did you say Malfoy was sleeping in the other room?" She asked curiously.

"He was here when you went down and has been helping me, Harry, and Ginny nurse you." He smirked. "When Harry walked in and saw him with his arms around you, I thought he was going to burst a vein. Apparently the two of them are only respectful of the other in public. It seems like Harry really doesn't like him."

"That is an understatement. I thought they had been getting on quite well in the last two years. I wonder why Harry was so upset."

"He accused Malfoy of poisoning you."

Hermione rolled her eyes, although she did wonder why Malfoy had stayed and helped her once it was clear she had other people to take care of her. She wondered what his wife had to say about that.

"At one time, I would have seriously considered it." Murmured a sleepy voice from the door.

"And I would have had to punch you in the face…again." She smiled at him.

"It's good to see you up again Granger, we thought you were going to die."

"Not that I am not touched that you cared about me but why are you even here?"

"Do know what the biggest regret of my life is?"

She shook her head. Why would she know that?

"I could only stand and watch numbly from the sideline as Bellatrix tortured you. You were not the first nor the last person I had seen tortured but with you, it was different. I knew you. I had admired and resented you for years. The only other person I knew better was Potter. The Golden Trio was talked about in hushed tones by the Death Eaters, not daring to say anything in his hearing but three under-aged school children evaded death and capture for years. They were in awe of the three of you. Don't get me wrong they despised you all but it was cut with a margin of respect. Everywhere I went, the talk was either about that or they would pressure me to get a wife and procreate for the expansion of the Dark Lord's army. For once in my life, I wanted to be something better that what I had become. I wanted to save you. You saved yourselves before I could think of how to intervene. I was glad and yet still I regretted doing nothing."

"Remorse looks good on you Malfoy. Miles better than the arrogant bastard you were when we went to school with you." She finally said. It was the closest he would ever get to her accepting that bullshit non-apology. So what, he felt bad about what happened in the war. She did too. She sighed realizing that Draco was a Malfoy and Malfoy's never apologized. It was just the way the world worked. This was the best she was ever going to get out of him.

HGHGHGHGHG

Hermione was not happy about being at St. Mungos. She was being mothered to death as it was but she allowed it because she had scared everyone. They needed to care for her. Coming to the hospital is what Sirius wanted and it wasn't that much of a concession. She frightened herself too. Besides, she only had to stay here until she was back to normal, then she would get the hell out of dodge.

"I heard you had a huge scare! Have you taken the medicine that I asked you to take?" Healer Taylor asked as he walked into the room, staring at his clipboard. How was it possible to a healer to have such poor bedside manner?

"Healer Taylor, it's good to see you again." She said through gritted teeth. There was just something that grated on her nerves with this guy. Maybe it was his casual dismissal of everyone's opinion, even Poppy's. "Yes, I've taken the first two doses before I fell ill. The second was only a half hour before I collapsed. I don't know if they gave them to me while I was under."

"No, we didn't. She hasn't taken one in three days." Sirius said.

"I have a whole new batch, I will send the nurse in with a vial. Sometimes a side effect of the potion will inflame scar tissue but that shouldn't have been a problem if she had only taken two doses. This must have been caused by something else. Hopefully we will get to the bottom of this relatively quickly."

Hermione's blood pressure skyrocketed. Did the man not notice that she was in the room and capable of understanding what was going on?

"That would be great, Thank you Healer Taylor!" Sirius said missing the chauvinistic undertones of the whole thing.

Hermione crossed her arms and thinned her lips in anger. How dare they treat her like, like a comatose sick person! Clearly her mental facilities were in perfect working order. She didn't need to be babied just because something was going on with her.

The nurse walked in with a saccharine sweet smile, eyeing up Sirius the whole way. Hermione would have been angrily possessive except he was focused solely on her and didn't glance in the nurses' direction even once. It was actually very sweet. Playboy Sirius Black, not looking at a good-looking woman. It was a big step in confirming even more that Sirius was serious about her and their lives together. She smiled a bit in anticipation. Now she just needed to get better and marry the man. No one would say anything about her keeping her handsome husband in bed for days. With Ginny's help, she had something planned for their wedding night, something that Sirius was going to love.

"You can call me Kitty. I will be your nurse for the next few days or until you are discharged. Call me if you need anything." She said focusing her smoky gaze on Sirius.

Hermione drank the potion with a grimace. It was truly awful and made her mouth feel as if she had been sucking on penny's. It wasn't her favorite feeling in the world. Hermione didn't complain though, she was a trooper.

Hermione watched as the nurse began throwing Sirius disgruntled looks as she left the room. Hermione surmised that she wasn't used to being ignored by the opposite sex. Men that were not necessarily single included.

HGHGHGHG

Sirius was startled awake, neck cramped from his position of lying face first on Hermione's hospital bed. He groaned as he tried to massage the kinks out, reaching with his other hand to take her hand in his. A deafening crash rang around the room as Sirius realized what had truly awoken him. He looked around frantically, his eyes confirming one major fact, Hermione was not in the room.

Knowing that she had been sleep fighting after the abduction, Sirius ran from the room towards the many raised voices that were in turns trying to calm her down and protect everyone else by erecting shields around her. Perhaps they would have held for anyone else but she was Hermione Granger. Her casting was more powerful in her sleep than most people ever experience. He walked into a room that looked like a tornado had gone through it. Broken cabinets, shattered glass, ruined furniture, and scorch marks on the floor gave Sirius an idea of how long she had been at it. She had been fighting for a while. How did he miss that? His eyes were drawn to the horde of people in the room.

Hermione was in the center of a ring of people, flicking away the stunners and casting back at incredible speeds. She destroyed their shields over and over again. Sirius watched in horror as she took a stunner to her shoulder in slow motion, crumpling to the ground as the healers and security personnel moved in with wands raised just in case. Sirius rushed to her and picked her up, cradling her to his chest. He understood that the healers couldn't allow Hermione to destroy the hospital but he would be buggered to allow them to restrain her. She was already down for the count. This was his fault. He knew how she was when not in her own bed since the attack. It was his idea to come to the hospital. He was responsible.

The group moved with him, encircling him so that if he decided to go manic they could put him down with a well-trained tranquilizer. He rolled his eyes. For healing during a war, they were awfully jumpy. Sirius easily walked back into Hermione's room and laid her on the bed, smoothing the hair out of her face. He twisted around, face filled with indignation as he felt wards go up on the other side of the door. If something happened to her, they wouldn't be able to get to her until they took them down. She could have just stayed home in the comfort of her own bed with that response time.

He rolled his shoulders and resolved to give the staff a piece of his mind in the morning. He slid onto the tiny uncomfortable cot next to Hermione and pulled her close, running his hands over her body in slow soothing circles. She sighed and relaxed into him, lips curving up in a soft smile. He lightly traced her lips with his middle finger. Sirius thought she was incredibly beautiful.

"Don't worry Kitten, we will get through this." He whispered in her ear.

She seized in his arms, forcing him to choose between holding her down so that she didn't do any damage and calling for help. In the end, he managed a Patronus, sending it to her healer and hoped that they wouldn't be too late.

The curls on her head morbidly danced around as her body jerked with convulsions. Not knowing what to do, Sirius continued to hold her in a bruising grip, a panicked sob escaped his throat. It was a relief when nurses and healers flooded the room, pushing him back as they took over her care.

He stood watching the scene unfold as Healers studied the diagnostics floating above her body, quickly moving into action as her heart failed. Sirius covered his mouth with a shaking hand. He was terrified that he was going to lose her. The healers zapped her small body several times before her heart started to beat again. It was less than five minutes before her heart once again flatlined, forcing the medical staff into shocking her again and again.

They saved her. It was their amazing response and abilities that had Sirius vowing to himself to donate half of the Black family fortune to St Mungos. She was comatose once more but she was alive and he was grateful.

HGHGHGHG

"Then what the hell is wrong with her? Something is making her kidneys worse! She was on the mend, she was fine. What happened?" Sirius yelled at Healer Taylor, Harry fiercely nodding along next to him.

"I don't know! We have been monitoring everything. All of the potions she is on, was made by trusted sources. We checked each batch of the medicine and no one else had adverse effects. We are doing what we can Mr. Black. Please calm down."

"Then why is she getting worse? She can't last much longer like this!"

"We are diligently working on that. It may take some time."

"I don't think we have much more." He whispered, Harry gripping his shoulders.

HGHGHGHGHGHG

Tea was being served by newly freed house elves to a group of ladies who strove to be the crème de la crème of society. Three woman who stared meaningfully at the woman in the center. She was known to be second only to Narcissa Malfoy. Eglantine Bulstrode didn't wear the latest fashions, Eglantine started the latest fashions. She set down her delicate tea cup with only a tinkling of porcelain in the quiet room.

"Calm down, we won't have to do anything, her death can't be linked to us." She was unaffected and cold in her delivery.

"How are you so certain." One of the other woman asked.

"Not every healer at St. Mungo's has the famed Golden Trio's best interests at heart. The Aurors would need an expert to find out how she did it. She is brilliant after all."

"And we are just going to trust her? What if she gets caught and accuses us of giving her the order?"

"Trust is not involved at all. She wants the benefits I offered her. She would die before betraying me."

"I don't want to go to Azkaban." One of the ladies said fearfully.

"You won't. If she does get caught, she will take the full blame."

"Why would she do that?"

"That is for me to know."