Eleventh Letter

June 8th 1998, St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

My dearest Draco,

Today we tested the antidote we made the day before yesterday, and we got a wonderful result. You remember that I told you about the last antidote we tested on you? The one that had you shaking? Well this one was made off of the other one and this time we got something better than a shake. You clenched your right hand! When I saw that motion, that silly, little motion, my heart flipped inside my chest and began racing. It has been a while since we were last this enthusiastic, but it's looking up. After the good response from you we went back to the lab and immediately started working on a new antidote that combines this one and the former one. Hopefully we'll get another great respond from this one.

So after the testing and the working I couldn't bring myself to just leave without seeing you. And when I entered you room, sat down on the chair and started watching you I couldn't bring myself to leave you all together. So I stayed and I'm still here, sitting in the chair, watching you and writing you this letter. I hope that you will soon wake up and be able to read this and the other I have written for you.

Your mother has also been by. It was a bit awkward to see her again, even though we are now quite acquainted I still feel weird around her. I'm with love with you, her son, who doesn't even know about it because you're in a coma, but your mother knows because she has read my personal letters for you. It's not that I don't like her because I really do. But it's still just weird.

Well, when she came by I was still sitting in this chair and holding your hand. I'm a little ashamed to say that when she stepped in I got so embarrassed that I let go of your hand and stood up. She smiled at me when she walked towards me. She stopped in front of me, padded my cheek and asked me to sit back down. I did as I was told without saying a word and still your mother just kept smiling at me. She then asked how long I had been sitting there with you, and I told her the truth – 3 hours. She made big eyes at me and asked me if I had eaten in all that time. I shook my head and Narcissa's eyes grew even bigger. So she took me to late lunch/early dinner at the Hospital Cafeteria. In Muggle Hospitals the food is always awful, but in St. Mungo's the food was almost just as good as the dinners we had at Hogwarts. Narcissa and I stayed for a while at the cafeteria before we went back to you. We sat beside you for an hour before Narcissa declared that she was going home. She offered to walk me home, but I declined. I told her that I wanted to stay with you for a little while longer, you know, in case the antidote suddenly showed a side effect for the better or the worse.

One of the healers I work with came by later to check up on you, and when she saw that I was sitting there she asked me if she should bring out the extra bed. I didn't need to think long about it before I said yes. While she prepared the bed I quickly apparated home and got the things I needed for the night. I told Harry where I was staying and he gave me a letter right before I left. I didn't get a chance to look at the letter before I was back in the hospital and had unpacked my things. It was a letter from my parents. I was a little shocked to see that, since I hadn't expected a letter from them. And the content of the letter wasn't less of a shock. Apparently their house was harder to sell than they had first anticipated. They wrote that it would be months before they could come home. And by that time I will be back in Hogwarts for my seventh and final year.

Now the sun is setting. I'm sitting here in the chair and watching the last rays of the sun splaying across your face. It highlights you wonderful blonde hair and softens your features. I really wish you would open your eyes so I can once again look into the grey depths. Ha, here I go again the sappy girl you never knew I was.

I'm reading a new book, or really I'm rereading it for the third time, but I still love it. It's 'Mansfield Park' by Jane Austen. I'm not all that big on her other books, except for 'Pride and Prejudice'. It's not that they are poorly written or that the stories are bad. It's just that the characters are untrustworthy I mean they don't feel real. They are so sweet and nice all the time that they seem fake and phony. And I don't think it has anything to do with the time the books are written in, because as I see it everyone has something bad in them no matter how they are raised or in what time period they live in. But that's where 'Mansfield Park' is different I think. Fanny is sweet and gentle and caring but there is still something real about her, something that is easy to relate to. Though I still feel that 'Pride and Prejudice' is the best, because of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. They are probably my favourite couple of all time.

Now, look at me rambling on. Talking about books and confirming just how sappy I really am. And also confirming how crazy I am about books. You probably already knew about the books but you can't have known that it was this bad. Well, now you do and I don't really regret it. I think you should get to really know me, since I now know so much more about you because of your lovely mother. It's only fair that I give something back. Perhaps that should be the purpose of my future letters.

Now I'm going to have to call it a day and go to sleep. I lay down next to you, my hand just a couple of inches away from yours, and I pray that perhaps tonight will be the night that you wake up. Oh Merlin, I pray!

Yours sincerely

Hermione

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