Dispelling the Silence: a Harry Potter AU

By Indygodusk

Chapter 35: Hermione Wakes Up

Friday morning, several of them gathered in the hospital to wait for Hermione to wake up. Harry had made himself comfortable by kicking his legs up onto the side of her bed. Gabrielle sat on a nearby chair with her long legs folded neatly beneath her. Luna and Hoshimi were passed out on opposite sides of the couch they'd stolen from a room down the hall.

Boredom had induced Harry to play twenty questions with Gabrielle. It was hard to say no when she pulled out the pouty lip. Plus he felt a little guilty for not figuring out that the falling sign had been on purpose. If he had, the poisoning of her coworkers might never have happened.

"Favorite sport," Harry asked as he swiftly snatched a toy snitch out of the air using just two fingers. It vibrated between his fingertips. A second later, he let it go. The snitch zipped around the room like a golden hummingbird, ready to be caught again. Harry hated waiting.

Tucking a strand of silvery-blond hair behind her ear, Gabrielle hummed in thought. "Probably aerial gymnastics, though competitive broom racing is a close second."

"Really? I hadn't pegged you for a flyer," he said, watching the snitch out of the corner of his eye. It hovered above the sleeping Luna for a moment, then whizzed off to the right.

"Oh, I love the freedom of the air," Gabrielle enthused, leaning forward. "I hear you're pretty good on a broom yourself, Harry. We should race sometime. I bet I could beat you. I almost made the Weasley twins cry last week when I won a bet based on my speed. We should invite Ron too, then I can make both of you cry."

"You're on," Harry laughed, "but the only one crying will be you. Does Hermione race too?"

Gabrielle grinned and shook her head, "Hermione hates flying. She's awful on a broom, pretty much the only thing she's bad at besides small talk."

Leaning back, the teenage blond declared, "Obviously your favorite sport is quidditch," Harry shrugged and nodded, "so now it's my turn again. Okay…," she looked at the ceiling for a moment, then back down as she asked, "what tree do you hate the most?"

"Seriously?" Harry raised an eyebrow, then turned and snatched his snitch out of the air. Bored of it, he pressed the off switch and stashed it in his robes.

"I'm running out of questions," Gabrielle scowled. "But it's still a valid question. For example, I hate pine trees. My second cousin Alan and his friends threw me up in one once. My hair got tangled in the needles and sap got all over my new dress. When he and his friends saw that I was stuck, they started throwing pine cones at me. Luckily Fleur came along and hexed them all so hard they still avoid us to this day, but that's where my hatred of pine trees cemented."

"Christmas must be particularly trying for you," Harry said dryly. "I'll make sure to get a fir tree if I ever have you over.

"Please do," Gabrielle said snootily with her nose up in the air.

"I'll also take pictures of myself tossing pinecones at Alan and his friends if I ever get the chance," Harry added, actually half-serious.

Gabrielle inclined her head graciously in thanks, then spoiled it by giggling. "Thank you, Harry. You still have to answer, though. Go on, I'm sure you can think of something."

"I don't know if anything particularly bad has ever happened to me in a tree," Harry said. "Usually I'm on the ground or in the air. Maybe I should hang out in trees more often," he mused facetiously.

On the couch, Luna sat up and rubbed at her eyes. "Didn't you get attacked by a tree once at school?" she asked with a yawn.

"Oh yeah, that," Harry wrinkled his nose. "Ugh, I do hate that tree. It was a whomping willow and it whacked me not just once, but on two separate occasions. I knew better the second time, but I was trying to rush to the Shrieking Shack. I really hate the Shrieking Shack too, if we're keeping track. Nothing good's probably ever happened there in the history of that place."

"OK, but you still have to tell me about the tree," Gabrielle prompted.

Scowling, he explained, "I'd gotten scratched pretty badly on the face by a death eater who turned out to be a werewolf. Blood was streaming into my eye and I was starting to panic and not paying attention to my surroundings. Luckily the tree took out the werewolf and his friend, but I still hate the thing. Stupid whomping willow left bruises up and down my back and practically ripped the sleeve off my robes."

"I'm sorry," Gabrielle winced. "Did the death eater attack cause you any… long-term problems?" she asked delicately, avoiding the word werewolf.

"No," Harry shook his head wryly, "luckily the werewolf was human at the time. It only caught me with a glancing blow. The scratches just bled a lot and left some faint but permanent scars. No craving for raw meat or control problems though. Magic can't heal scars from werewolves, you know." He shrugged, "However, the scars aren't that bad and they actually camouflage the lightning bolt scar from Voldemort pretty well, so I've grown to not mind them too much."

"It's true, they do," croaked a gravelly voice from the bed. Harry jumped, dropping his feet to the floor. He hadn't noticed Hermione waking up. "I missed the scar completely until I learned Harry's full name," she whispered. "Then I felt like an idiot."

"Hermione!" Gabrielle exclaimed, uncurling from her chair to lean forward and take her cousin's hand. "You're awake!"

"Yes," Hermione confirmed, "and also thirsty."

"Here," Harry offered eagerly, thrusting a cup of water with a straw by her chapped lips. She gratefully took several sips of water.

"I'll go and get the healer," Luna said, rushing from the room.

Only a minute later, Healer Mary Roberts and a Healer Gonzales followed Luna back into the room. Sirius trailed after them a few seconds later. After sending everyone a little wave, Sirius leaned against the wall out of the way.

The healers shooed Harry and Gabrielle back from the bed. Then they began casting several restorative spells that required Hermione's waking cooperation. All of the commotion woke Hoshimi, who sat up on the couch and tidied her hair up into a smooth and elaborately braided bun while they worked.

After they finished, Healer Gonzales cast a few more diagnostic spells. Then he copied the results down onto a parchment. Harry was pleased to see that Hermione's cheeks and lips had pinked up and her pain-tensed muscles had relaxed.

While Gonzales recorded things, Healer Roberts gave Hermione a brown potion to drink that steamed gently. "Only drink half," Roberts ordered, "then chew on this tablet."

Hermione carefully touched the brown potion to her mouth, licked her lips, and then raised her brow and took two large swallows. "Thank you, Mary," Hermione said with pleased surprise. "That actually tastes good."

The healer smiled. "It's chocolate based and accepts a lot of sugar without affecting the potency. Unfortunately, the tablet is much less pleasant. Chew and swallow it as quickly as possible, then wash it down with the rest of the potion."

Bracing herself, Hermione put the tablet in her mouth and chewed quickly. Her face went through a serious of disgusted contortions before she finally managed to swallow it down with a shudder. She coughed and then swallowed hard, snatching at the brown vial. Flinging the remaining potion into her mouth, she swished and then chugged until it was gone.

"There, that wasn't so bad, now was it?" Healer Roberts asked pleasantly. Hermione gave her the stink eye. She just patted Hermione's leg and took the potions over to the trash.

"Good luck on your continued healing, Miss Granger," Healer Gonzales said, packing up his notes. "You're doing much better than any of us expected by this point. We're extremely encouraged. I'm just going to take these diagnostic results down to the lab. Our best arithmancer and potioneer are waiting for them to precisely calculate your next dosages. Healer Roberts and I will be on call for the next few hours if you need anything. She's restricted from heavy spellwork as she's still recovering from yesterday, but at this point we don't anticipate you requiring anything difficult. If that changes, we have several healers standing by in addition to myself."

"Thank you," Hermione said softly. They nodded and left the room. Healer Mary sent Hermione a bracing smile over her shoulder just before she disappeared.

"How are you feeling?" Sirius asked, stepping up to the bed.

Hermione gave him a complex look and then answered slowly, "Better than I have in a long, long time."

Giving her an understanding smile, Sirius reached into his pocket and pulled out a fancy purple box of chocolates. A perfusion of bows decorated the top. "I got these for you from our favorite chocolatier," he said with a flourish.

"Thank you," Hermione took them and put them prominently on her side table. "Hopefully I won't need them quite so much anymore. It will be nice to eat them purely for pleasure instead of out of emotional necessity." Her face turned pensive and slightly sad.

In response to her sadness, her friends all crowded around the bed and vied with each other to brighten her smile. It worked as everyone kept the topics light. Sirius even got Hoshimi to gift him with an amused grin. Harry felt his own spirits lift.

Then Hermione suddenly turned to Gabrielle with a furrowed brow. "Wait, how are the girls doing? I don't remember anyone saying. I've been too focused on myself." She frowned guiltily.

"As you should be," Gabrielle said firmly. "Victoire and Dominique are in perfect health. They barely remember anything and thus are enjoying being coddled and spoiled by everyone in the family. The healers don't expect any problems."

"George and Fred even tried to sneak them in a miniature dragon to play with, but when Bill found out he flipped his lid and thought they'd smuggled something dangerous but cute away from Charlie. Of course it turned out to just be a transfigured chicken. When last I checked, the girls were chasing the chicken around the house trying to communicate with it in clucks. Feathers were getting everywhere. They said to tell you that they wanted to come visit. Fleur forbid them from taking the chicken to the hospital, so they compromised by asking to read you stories about chickens instead. As soon as you're feeling up to it, Fleur plans on bringing them by."

A relieved smile came and went on Hermione's face. "I'm glad. I'll also have to brush up on my foreign languages. I don't think I ever learned to speak chicken."

"What would a chicken really have to talk about?" Harry asked with bemusement. "Not much, most likely. Better to eat them than try to hold a conversation."

"Harry!" Sirius scolded facetiously. "What an awful thing to say about the newest member of the Weasley family. I bet you anything we won't be eating Fleur's chicken salad anytime soon."

"Now there's a tragedy," Harry joked. "But as soon as she's sick of the new pet it'll be back on the menu."

"You're awful," Luna rebuked Harry with a barely suppressed laugh. Then she turned to Hermione with a wink and whispered, "But it really is good chicken salad."

Hermione gave a quick smile, but then she looked back at Harry hesitantly. "What about Teddy Lupin? Did you find him?"

All of the mirth dropped off Harry's face. He sighed heavily, "Not yet. We've confirmed that Parvati took him and that he's still alive, but we haven't figured out where he's being held."

"Do you have any leads?" she asked gently.

"Not as many as we'd like," Harry shrugged and forced down his misery and sense of urgency, "as always."

Speaking slowly, Hermione looked down and asked, "Am I one of those leads?"

A stifled noise of protest escaped Hoshimi's lips as she looked accusingly between Harry and Hermione in her sickbed.

"When you're feeling better," Harry said in a very careful voice, trying to ride the fine line between pleading, demanding, and still being considerate of her health, "I would count it as a great favor if you'd teach me how to do a blood spell to find Teddy."

The room held its breath.

"Use the one Sirius found," Hermione offered simply, unsuccessfully stifling a yawn. She blinked heavily.

"But that spell only tracks horcruxes," Sirius exclaimed with confusion. "I checked."

Hermione shook her head weakly. "It tracks similar magics: soul or blood." Involuntarily yawning, she sagged back into her pillow, barely keeping her eyes open. "Get Hoshimi and Luna to look at it… with you. Though the blood… may be a problem." Then she passed out.

Frustrated but hopeful, Harry turned to his dad. "Do you still have the book?"

"Of course I still have the book," Sirius said scornfully. "I'll go get it and come back."

Stepping forward, Hoshimi interjected, "Better yet, meet us at the Ministry. We already have a research room set up and we 'conveniently' forgot to return the time-dilation generator."

Then Hoshimi turned to Harry and added preemptively, "Hermione needs her rest. You can go and get us more snacks."

Harry pursed his lips and swallowed down his temper. "There's a boy's life at stake. That said, I'm just as committed to Hermione's recovery as you are."

For a moment Hoshimi simply examined him with a level stare. Then she bowed her head. "Keep your actions consistent with your words and we will have no problems." Turning, she swept regally from the room.

Harry scowled. Sirius looked after her with appreciation, which annoyed him even more. Wasn't his dad supposed to be on his side?

Following on her heels, Luna looked back with an apologetic smile. "We really could use the snacks though," she told Harry gently. "Especially if we're going to focus on research instead of the rumruffles drawn by the time-turners." Then they disappeared down the hall.

Suddenly Sirius clapped him on the back, breaking his confusion. "It's the end result that matters," Sirius said. Then he touched Hermione's hand in farewell, nodded to Gabrielle, and left to find the book.

Harry walked to the end of the bed and put his hand on Hermione's blanketed ankle. Looking awkward, Gabrielle shifted from foot to foot and then walked to the other side of the room, turned her back, and began tidying to give him some privacy. "Sweet dreams and a swift recovery," Harry whispered softly, not wanting to wake Hermione from her healing sleep.

Although he desperately needed her help, he didn't want to do anything that would impede her recovery. He had too many hopes and dreams about the two of them waiting to be fulfilled. Rubbing his thumb up and down her shin, he took comfort from the beauty of her relaxed face. Then he stepped back reluctantly and left to go and pick up snacks for the researchers.

AN: So now you know where Harry's scars come from and why Parvati always stared at them (the werewolf connection).

If you are interested, check out my tumblr for photos of who I cast to act in my story. Or ignore it if you don't like it.

Hoshimi Kurokawa – played by Yukie Nakama

Auror Akeem Bass – played by Denzel Washington

Prunellie Moreau – played by Amanda Seyfried