I am so so so sorry it's been forever, I had exams and then my laptop charger broke and I had to get a new one which took forever to come but here you go! Here's chapter 14, I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to leave a review at the end!
-HermionesPolyjuice xoxo
Chapter 14
Charlie didn't sleep that night; he was so worried that if he did Dolohov would somehow be able to get him. He kept himself occupied by thinking of things he could do to help Hermione, but to no avail. He hadn't succeeded in anything and was getting so annoyed that he took himself for a fly in the very early hours of the morning. He watched the sunrise over the hills and waited until eight o'clock until turning back for breakfast at The Burrow. He left his broom in the shed and began to make his way over to the house when he bumped into Ron.
"Ron? What are you doing out here?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing really. I couldn't sleep very well so went on a walk," he replied. "What are you doing?'
"Couldn't sleep so went on a fly," Charlie remarked.
"You should have said, I would have joined you."
"Honestly, I needed some time to myself," Charlie said turning around to face Ron to ask him why he couldn't sleep.
"I…I was thinking about what you told us last night. Guessing it's the same for you?" Charlie nodded and they began to walk slowly towards the house, where they could smell wafts of one of Mrs. Weasley's famous fry-ups. They walked up to the house in silence before suddenly hearing a large crash and a shout.
"They found out?" Mrs. Weasley cried from the kitchen. Charlie and Ron exchanged a quick look before hurrying inside and to the kitchen, where they found Mrs. Weasley sitting at the table bent over obviously reading something laid out in front of her as Mr. Weasley sat at the head of the table watching her closely looking shocked.
"What is it mum?" Ron asked sitting down opposite his mother. She held up her hand to keep him quiet for a bit as she finished the article from the Daily Prophet. She looked up towards Charlie and Ron very pale.
"They know about Hermione," she said simply. All the colour had drained from her face, "Someone told the Daily Prophet she was at St. Mungo's." She passed the newspaper across the table and Charlie and Ron leant in to read the article spread across the front page, headlined GRANGER IN BAD SHAPE AT ST MUNGO'S.
It has been brought to the Daily Prophet's attention that one of the Golden Trio who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Hermione Granger, was admitted into St. Mungo's Centre of Magical Maladies and Injuries yesterday morning. It is currently unknown what is wrong with her but we have been informed that 'it did not look good'. Witnesses said she was carried, unconscious, into the Reception by a 'tall, ginger-haired, muscular man' before being directed to the Fourth Floor: Spell Damage, which does leave us with some ideas of what may have put her into such a bad shape. Witnesses have described her as 'pale and fragile looking, with what seemed like a broken wrist, and dried blood in her hair on her clothes'. We shall endeavor to find out what has happened and keep everyone informed of the status of one of the Golden Trio.
Charlie stopped reading – he couldn't bring himself to read anymore, it seemed that the rest of the article was about Harry, Ron and Hermione's success in defeating Voldemort.
"They bloody well will not find out about her," Ron spat. Mr. Weasley announced her agreement as Charlie just sat there in disbelief not quite understanding how they knew.
"What I don't get is how they found out?" Mrs. Weasley voiced Charlie's thoughts.
"I guess it'll be the people in the Reception who saw her and thought they would get paid or whatever if they told the Daily Prophet," Charlie said as he continued to stare at the picture of Hermione on the front of the Daily Prophet. It was of her laughing at what seemed to have been a few years earlier, and it looked like she had been cropped from a photo, presumably one of herself Harry and Ron.
"Quiet in here isn't it Forge," a voice came from the doorway. Ron turned around to watch his elder twin brothers enter the kitchen.
"The Daily Prophet know about Hermione," he told them and the cheerfulness vanished from their faces in an instant. They hurried to the table and read the article over Charlie and Ron's shoulders.
"That's disgraceful," George said.
"How would they know?" Fred asked at the same time.
"We guess it'll have been someone in the Reception room who saw me arrive with her who wanted money or something," Charlie repeated.
"Well, what is done is done. We can't sit here and dwell on it all. Let's have some breakfast and head over to St. Mungo's, we'll need to make sure they don't find anything more," Mrs. Weasley announced to the silent kitchen a few minutes later as she stood up and began bustling around and continuing with the fry up. They all sat there and ate in silence; Harry and Ginny joined them within five minutes. They all sat there trying to talk about light-hearted topics despite the article and Hermione being at the forefront of their minds.
"We had better-"
"-get to the shop-"
"-wouldn't want to-"
"-leave the customers waiting-"
"-we'll pop over-"
"-during our lunch break." Fred and George finished each other's thoughts before standing up, bidding farewell and apparating to their shop, that had been up and running for the past two weeks.
"I'm going to have to go the Ministry," Mr. Weasley added as he stood up from the end of the table. "I'll try and see if I can work out what happened with the Daily Prophet." Mr. Weasley sent his empty plate to the sink before planting a kiss on his wife's cheek and disapparating from the kitchen with a loud pop. Harry, Ron, Charlie, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley sat there in silence for a while pondering over the article.
"I should go and see Hermione. She'll probably want someone with her," Charlie said quietly after a while. Just how his father had done a few minutes earlier, Charlie sent his plate to the sink.
"We'll all come and visit you at lunchtime," Mrs. Weasley said as she gave her second eldest son a hug.
"Don't worry about it Charlie, we'll work it all out I promise,' she whispered in his ear. Charlie smiled weakly at his mother.
"Bye you lot, don't cause too many problems with mum," he said to the youngest three and with a wave he headed to the living room to Floo over to St Mungo's.
{-/-} [-\-] {-/-}
Charlie was not in the least bit surprised by the number of reporters that filled the reception at St Mungo's as he stepped out of the fireplace. He was, however, furious when they swarmed him like bees upon recognising the 'tall, ginger-haired, muscular man' and bombarded him with a thousand questions a minute about Hermione. How they found out really pissed him off, Healer Tonnishin had promised no one would find out about her. He was also angry with the receptionist who was doing absolutely nothing to try and get rid of the reporters. But most of all, he was pissed off at the fact that it was taking him five minutes to walk a mere two steps in an attempt to go and visit Hermione.
"JUST BACK THE HELL OFF!" he finally roared at the crowd. The reception fell silent. "Right now I don't care what you know, I don't care how you know about her but for the love of Merlin get it into your thick skulls that I will not be telling you anything," he said slowly and carefully enunciating the last few words. "Now if you wouldn't mind I have a friend to go and visit." He barged through the crowd towards the staircase and without looking back he hurried up the stairs two at a time to the fourth floor. Upon reaching the correct level he followed the corridors he remembered from the night before to where he knew Hermione was.
Charlie found Hermione's room with relative ease and pushed open the door. However, inside the room wasn't exactly what he was expecting. He was expecting, well hoping really, the lights would be on and Hermione would be up and happy. However, it was the complete opposite. Thick curtains had been drawn across the windows and all the lights were off. As the door closed behind him, Charlie was thrown into darkness. It took a while for his eyes to adjust, with only a crack of light coming from around the door behind him and a tiny bit of sunlight spreading underneath the curtains falling onto Hermione. Charlie could make out her silhouette on the bed and was relieved to see her chest moving up and down in a regular and relaxed fashion. He took a few silent steps towards her bed to get a closer look at her. He had to clasp his hand over his mouth to stop and audible gasp from waking her up.
She looking nothing like how he had left her less than 12 hours previously. In fact, she looked almost unrecognisable and Charlie was almost convinced he was in the wrong room had it not have been for the sign on the door. Dry blood covered the bedding and her face and neck were caked in it. Her head was still wrapped in a bandage and yet blood was seeping through and staining it red instead of white. She had a nasty gash on her forehead that was oozing some yellow looking pus. Both of her eyes were black and swollen and her nose was crooked and clearly badly broken. She supported many more gashes along her right cheek and chin. Her top lip was cut and swollen badly. Blood was still falling from her lips and it looked to Charlie that her jaw might have been broken. He didn't even want to know what other damage had happened to the rest of her body. Without wanting to wake her, he quietly left the room, the image of her lying hopeless on the bed etched forever in his memory.
{-/-} [-\-] {-/-}
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED TO HER?" Charlie roared for the second time that morning, this time to Healer Tonnishin five minutes later after locating the healer in his office.
"Why don't you have a seat?" the healer suggested beckoning towards the seat Charlie had occupied the night before.
"I'm fine standing," Charlie said bitterly through gritted teeth and continued to pace the office. He was furious and confused. What on earth had happened? Why was she like that? But the emotion more prevalent than both confusion and anger was worry. He was concerned about her and uncertainty in the air pained him even more. All he wanted was this to be over. After the battle all he had wished for was for everything to go back to normal. Yet this was hardly normal.
"Charlie, I would like for you to sit down please," Healer Tonnishin said calmly form the other side of the desk. Reluctantly Charlie obeyed and sat down. He immediately felt himself collapse into the chair, the tension form his back and shoulders relaxing somewhat now that he was no longer pacing.
"Are you going to tell me what happened or just leaving it at that?" Charlie asked and was greatly surprised at just how calm his voice came out despite the rage firing up inside of him. The elderly healer took a deep breath.
"Truth be told, Charlie, we don't know," he said quietly looking down at the desk rather than at Charlie.
"You don't know?" Charlie shouted the rage boiling over. "I thought you were meant to be Healers. I thought you were meant to make people better not let them get worse."
"We're working on it Charlie but Hermione's circumstances are very unusual and we haven't had to deal with an unknown made up curse before so we really don't know quite what we're facing," Healer Tonnishin said truthfully. Charlie knew the healer was telling him the truth and yet he still felt uneasy.
"Please can you at least tell me what you know?" Charlie asked strongly despite the tears filling his eyes.
"Not long after you left last night Hermione went into cardiac arrest, her heart stopped pumping blood. Judging by what I read in her file it was similar to what happened when she was here after the battle. Fortunately, we were able to revive her and after checking her over with a variety of diagnostic charms we confirmed she was fine. She appeared to be fine all night. I had her checked on every half and hour and each check-up came back positive. I was not worried at all. It happened not too long ago. I, myself, checked her at 8:30 this morning and she was doing very well and was even having something to eat. By the time I went back just after 9 she was in the position she's in now. I've run every test I know and nothing came up but I promise to continue trying and will let you know as soon as I find anything out," Healer Tonnishin told Charlie calmly and strongly.
"So was it a person? Because it seems like someone got in and beat the hell out of her," Charlie queried.
"We have no idea, Charlie. It's unlikely to have been a person as they wouldn't have got in without being notices. But then again it does seem odd if they were some of the effects of that curse," the elderly healer sighed. Charlie recognised a look of concern on the healer's face and knew instantly that they were all as worried as himself.
"But it's a possibily it was a person."
"It's always a possibility, but just unlikely."
"OK, but how come she's still covered in blood. It's been, what, 20 minutes since you saw here so surely it would just be respectful to clean her?" Charlie asked after a few moments silence. He was surprised when Healer Tonnishin let out a slight chuckle.
"You really care about her don't you? I reckon you got in there in the few minutes between myself leaving and someone else going in to clean her up. If you go back now I guarantee she will no longer be covered in blood."
"Thank you for clarifying everything. I sincerely hope you work it out and I'll see you later," Charlie said and stood up from the armchair. He left the office without saying another word.
{-/-} [-\-] {-/-}
"It was awful, it was as if someone had come in here and physically beaten her face to a pulp," Charlie explained to the rest of the Weasleys and Harry when they all made an appearance at lunch. Charlie hadn't left Hermione's bedside since his conversation with Healer Tonnishin and to exacerbate his worry she hadn't woken up, let alone move just a finger. The Weasleys and Harry had found Charlie in the tearoom on the fifth floor when the arrived. Charlie looked up and wasn't surprised to see the odd tear spill down both Ginny and Mrs. Weasley's cheeks.
"The poor girl, it just doesn't seem to stop," Mrs. Weasley said as she blew her nose on a handkerchief.
"And Healer Tonnishin didn't say what happened?" Ron asked quietly. Charlie shook his head.
"He was very vague about it all," Charlie said. "I dunno, it might just be me but I feel he might be hiding something."
"I got the same feeling yesterday when you told me about him," Bill said from the corner where he had his arm around Fleur's shoulders.
"I'm sure he's doing everything he can. It must be incredibly difficult to be thrown into this situation, it's hardly the easiest case to solve," Mr. Weasley said.
"I'm not doubting he is. I just find something slightly off about him. I don't know why and I can't quite put my finger on it. He seems lovely and all and really does seem to be trying to help Hermione but I dunno there's just something funny about him," Bill clarified. Everyone sat in silence, not quite sure what to say in response to Bill's comment. Truth be told any of them had been thinking something was off about Healer Tonnishin but no one truly wanted to believe it. They all just hoped he was trying his best to help Hermione rather than anything else.
"How about we go and see if Hermione's up yet?" Mrs. Weasley asked the quiet room in a hope to improve the atmosphere.
"I don't think she will be," Charlie said quietly looking down at his feet. Deep inside him he feared that Hermione may never wake up but that was something he kept to himself. He also didn't think that everyone quite understood the full affect of the curse. He felt that right then they were al living in ignorant bliss, or at least that was what they were giving off.
"Well, there's no harm in going to see her," Mrs. Weasley said. There was a murmur of agreement form everyone but Charlie, who just sat there in silence. He didn't budge as everyone around him began to stand up and leave.
"You coming Charlie?" Ron called from the door.
"I think I'll just stay here thanks," Charlie said still not raising his head. Then there was silence as everyone left, or at least he thought everyone had left so he was somewhat surprised when he finally looked up to see Bill sitting in the hard, plastic seat next to him. But Charlie was inwardly very pleased to see his elder brother.
"I don't know what's going on with me," Charlie said simply. "Nothing feels right. I feel like I should be doing something but I don't know what. I want to help her, there's nothing more I want to do right now. But what do I do? I'm not a healer and I'm not naturally that clever. I can't think of anything that will help her. Bill, I'm really scared." Silent tears began to fall down Charlie's cheeks.
"I know, Charlie. It's terrifying. No one knows at all what's going on and we all just feel hopeless sitting around and doing absolutely nothing. But, I don't think we can do anything. Like you say we're not Healers so we're not going to know what to do. The curse was made up so we're not going to know the full effects of it. It kills me inside to tell you this, but honestly there is nothing we can do. We've just got to be with Hermione and everyone during this really difficult time. We're going to get through this, whether with or without Hermione but Charlie please just don't do anything stupid," Bill comforted his brother.
"She can't die, Bill. I can't watch her die whilst doing absolutely nothing. It's just not fair," Charlie said his voice quavering.
"I know that Charlie, we all know that. But Kingsley already has a plan-" Charlie sat bolt upright when he heard that the minister had an idea.
"He does?" Charlie asked eagerly.
"I saw him earlier. He didn't say much but judging by his cryptic message to dad and what he said to me I think it's safe to say he is fully involved in this. He said he would come and see you this afternoon." Charlie let out a sigh and slumped back against the chair. Kingsley had a plan. That was a good thing, a really good thing in fact. It meant that they might be able to help Hermione.
"What did he say?"
"Not much, but he did tell me to pass on the message that he will come and find you this afternoon." The two eldest Weasleys sat in the tearoom in silence waiting for the rest of their family to return.
10 minutes hadn't passed since they left before the Weasleys returned back to the tearoom all wearing the exact same look on their face.
"What is it?" Bill asked when they all returned, "I thought you'd be longer."
"She…she wasn't there," Ginny said weakly before collapsing into a chair by the door and starting to cry.
"What?" Charlie said sharply and jumped to his feet.
"She wasn't in her room," Mrs. Weasley repeated quietly. "There wasn't even a sign on her door." And she too sat down in one of the hard, plastic seats.
"Where the hell was she then?" Charlie asked loudly. They all just stared at him blankly, all white in the face. And then it dawned on Charlie. Hermione wasn't in her room. There was no sign on her door. She had been moved. Before any other thoughts could fill his head Charlie's knees gave way and he collapsed to the floor, shaking with sobs. He whole body shook as he just lost it. She had died. He had left her for twenty minutes to get some lunch and she had died. It was his fault. If he hadn't have left her he would have been able to save her. The last image he had of her was how she had looked when he first arrived that morning, battered and bruised. And it was going to be the last memory of her. Charlie could hear more tears and more crying in the distant. He knew that his breakdown had confirmed to everyone else what had happened and also pushed them over the edge. He felt a comforting arm over his shoulders but he shook it off. He didn't want comforting. He didn't want attention. All he wanted was to be with Hermione. He needed time to himself.
Charlie stood up quickly and ignoring the questions and inquisitive looks from his family he darted out of the tearoom. He ran down the stairs ignoring all of the odd looks he received. He reached the reception and seeing the room still filled with reporters made him angry but he was too distraught to even care. He barged past them not caring about the shouts about him as he elbowed he way to the entrance. He pushed open the door onto the muggle street. Taking a quick look around and satisfied he was alone he turned on his heal and disapparated.
{-/-} [-\-] {-/-}
Charlie landed with a thump and stumbled to the ground. No sooner had he landed did he promptly throw up everywhere. He felt sick. He had just lost the person he felt he would spend the rest of his life with. He just lost the person he loved. She had died. And it was his entire fault. If he hadn't have been so careless in sending that spell in the battle and causing the wall to fall down. If he hadn't have kept his distance from her when she first left St Mungo's he could have realised she was in trouble sooner. If he hadn't have left for Romania he could have helped her sooner. If he hadn't have told everyone she may still be alive. If he hadn't have left to have some lunch because he cared more about his stomach than Hermione she would most definitely still be alive. Maybe Dolohov's threat to torture him if he told everyone was actually a lie and he would just kill her sooner. She was meant to have at least four more days so they could help her. But no, instead she died, or she was killed.
It had gotten dark before Charlie moved inside the old house in the moors. He had gone for a walk in the moors, trying to come to terms with what had just happened. It wasn't until he saw the moon in the sky did he think it was time to go inside. The house was near the dragon reserve and had come across it a few weeks ago when he visited. No one else knew about it. He knew he would have some time to himself to get his composure back before he went and killed Dolohov with his own hands. Charlie lit the fire and summoned some Butterbeer, he had stocked up last time he was here in case he found himself in a situation like this. He collapsed down onto the sofa and watched the flames dance around in the fireplace taking the occasional sip of Butterbeer regretting the fact that he didn't stock up on Firewhiskey in stead as he was in great need of something stronger.
Not long after he sat down did a small piece of parchment float through the window and land on his lap. Charlie put his Butterbeer on the floor and picked up the parchment. It had been ripped off a larger piece of parchment and had only nine words written on it in an almost illegible scrawl. Charlie gulped and felt the blood rush from his face as he read the message:
I thought I told you not to tell anyone.
(A/N: again so sorry it's been forever but please do leave a review with your thoughts - they are really appreciated!)