I Love(d) You (Once)

Chapter Twenty-six: Marsh Beings Part III

Draco and Joe looked exhausted. Joe shivered so badly, it looked as though he was about to go in some form of hypothermic shock. She shrugged off her own jacket and draped it over the man's shoulders. With Draco's help, she managed to bring Joe to the village square where the doctors of the village attended to the masses.

Draco himself was made to wait in line. Though he was clearly affected he was of least priority to everyone else. Someone had handed him a cup of warm tea and a blanket. Hermione didn't say much as she sat beside him. Draco looked down at his cup of watery tea. Under the faint glow of the street lamps, his skin took a cadaverous complexion.

A villager had gone into shock, Hermione said to Draco. In a panicked state, his ongoing illness had flared up, and without proper diagnosis, his condition had deteriorated.

It was chaos. Children and many adults were sobbing.

"It was terrible…"

"So cold… that chill came over me, a shroud of grey jumped out and I fell ill!"

"Somebody help my son, he's throwing up!" A father screamed as he clutched his son closed to his arms. Those who remained un-cursed rushed to tend to the sick. Hermione hadn't seen so much pain since the Battle of Hogwarts and she shuddered, remembering the piles of bodies then.

"Oh… the smell… I've been taking small breaths since it came but I forgot for a moment," a teenage girl in twin braids told her friend and—"I took one deep breath… just one! Next thing I knew, I'm throwing up and I can't stop. I've been cursed!"

"Am I going to die?" A hand shot out and grabbed Hermione's arm. An old woman tightened her hands around her foot. "Is this what will do me in?"

Everywhere around her, people were moaning, screaming, sighing in pain. Hermione clutched at her head, willing herself to calm down.

She moved away from the village square and sat on the side of the road, trying to slow her beating heart. You're not going to do anyone any good if you get worked up, she thought to herself, sit down, think clearly and solve the problem.

From a distance, she was starting to feel better, but she was paranoid, and couldn't help but look over her shoulder—just in case the Marsh Being appeared in front of her eyes. Without her jacket, she was starting to grow cold, and even with a small heating charm, it was hard to stay warm.

A short while later, Hermione felt a blanket brush against her arm. She turned to see Draco sitting down beside her.

"How are you feeling?" she said and made room for him to sit beside her.

"Good enough to get out of the village square and be talking to you," he said and he placed a hand on her shoulder. His voice was terse. "But I was being serious; you could die if you stay here."

"You could die too," she pointed out. "Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself?"

"Trust me, I am," he said. "But in the end it doesn't matter for me. If I died… no one would miss me too much. I mean, Pansy, Blaise…hahaha that's my list of friends. They'll be fine. Pucey will grieve but Adrian's his real son, so he'll get over that too, I suppose."

Hermione's gaze focused on Draco. He was losing hope and she supposed there was a good reason for it. An entire town had fallen sick and they still had no idea why. She had alerted headquarters to issue a quarantine warning to the Ministry. She had yet to hear back from anyone. Draco slumped his shoulders, his eyes closed and his mouth pulled into a grim frown. He was losing hope. The way he had just given up, clutching to his blanket, falling into some depreciating rant unnerved Hermione so much she had to sit up, and really think.

"As persuasive as that sounds, I'm not going to change my mind. So instead of trying to convince me of otherwise. Come on," she said, pulling him to his feet. There was definitely something offsetting about this whole incident. Draco could be scared for both of them. Right now she had work to do.

Something hadn't sat right with Hermione when she observed the chaotic scene in the town square but she couldn't quite pin her problem with it. Hermione looked over, where scores of people gathered in the town square. A wave of new, and sick villagers sat down and waited in line for their assessment. She watched them for a while longer.

Then, she returned back to the square with Draco in tow. She sat him down and she studied the scene that was unfolding before her. "I'm Hermione Granger," she said to one of the villagers waiting in line. "I need you to answer a few of my questions."

After an hour later, she stopped conducting an interview three times because her interviewee couldn't stop throwing up. The answers they gave were identical. A black thing which wasn't there, and then suddenly was.

Their symptoms manifested in exactly the same way. They had also described it in word-for-word too. Shivers, a queasy stomach. Then finally, throwing up.

Identical.

Everyone's reactions to the curse were too identical. Surely the inherent variance in genetics or health should have led to different symptoms to the same curse.

Different people should have reacted differently to the same curse.

Hermione handed Draco a piece of paper which collated her findings. "This is what the people I've interviewed said."

Draco frowned when he saw the assortment of answers of the parchment. "I don't understand, what's wrong with it. 'A chill', 'a shroud of grey', 'a black shadow'… people have described their experiences with the Marsh Being just like I have. What's suspicious about it?"

"You mean aside from the fact that absolutely everyone has been saying exactly the same thing… like they're just repeating each other? I think I have a good idea on what's going on, but I need to confirm it. Wait a minute." She touched her wand and Apparated, disappearing with a sharp cracking noise.

Crack! She was back.

"Where did you go?"

"I can't tell you," she said, "but come on." Her heart beat in her chest and she prayed to God her guesses were true. "I'm about to save the town."

Flashy, loud and attention-seeking. When Hermione cast sparks around her as she apparated in the middle of the town square, she thought maybe this was a little bit overkill. But whatever. The noise and spectacle she made of herself caught everyone's attention.

"Ahem," she said into her wand, that broadcasted over the entire town square. "I have received a report from the Ministry. We have confirmed which curse the Marsh Being cast."

Gasps from the crowd were heard, and there was a tremulous silence as they waited for her to continue.

"I will be brewing the healing remedy right now. Fortunately, it is one that will take only a couple of minutes." She waved her wand and performed what she could have thought only to be a caricature of a home-cooking show. This will be highly embarrassing if my theory is wrong, she thought.

Hermione's method of saving Hullyton:

1) Cast the disillusion charm around herself in the village square

2) Accio XXXXL-sized cauldron from pouch

3) Aguamenti: fill the cauldron up with water

4) Pour three bottles of the secret mixture into the water

A few minutes of stirring the cauldron, she told the villagers that her concoction was ready. "There is some unfortunate news," she announced to them. "A very tragic bit of information for some of us here tonight.

"For those who have sore necks," Hermione said…

Draco's long fingers shifted up to his neck and he began to massage it. He hadn't noticed it before, but his neck was hurting… around him people too were touching their own necks, wincing as they did so…

"This potion will work for you," she enunciated so everyone in the town square could hear her.

Draco stopped touching his neck. Suddenly it didn't hurt anymore. As though they were watching a play, all the villagers, even the un-cursed helpers listened with undivided attention. Hermione leaned forward as though she were in a conspiracy. "And… the fatal symptom for this curse is… hiccups."

"Oh, oh, oh, hic! Hic!"

"I'm hic—hiccupping!"

Draco's eyes grew wide with dread and throat his throat clench. You're Draco Malfoy, you're invincible. You survived living with Voldemort for Merlin's sake! I refuse to hiccup, I will not hiccup. I will survive this stupid Marsh Being curse—hic! Hic! Hic! He covered his mouth and he stared at Hermione in stunned horror.

"Anyone who is displaying the hiccupping symptoms, please move to the left!"

That was him. He was going to die. In his bones, he had always known that he was not going to have a long, healthy life. He and his ancestors had done too much… too much for him to deserve a peaceful rest. He blinked numbly at Hermione. She wouldn't look at him in the eye. Hermione was avoiding him. Her avoidance was seriously throwing him off and it reminded him of a different time. A time, when they were both younger, and she was on the floor in his manor. And he was watching from the sidelines… watching.

One hiccup left his throat again. His brows furrowed and his hand went to his side and it flexed around his wand tightly. He felt the world expand and then collapse around him. Hermione kept her attention on stirring the potion in the cauldron. The liquid frothed and swirled in the pot, and so did his memories…

It was retribution; he didn't deserve to die peacefully, but he expected it to be short. A flash of green light, just like the way his father went (or was I Imperioused to do it? I can't remember, I can't remember. I wanted so badly to be cursed. Now look I am cursed! IRONY AT ITS FINEST!) Excruciating pain in less than a moment. He had expected that. But he didn't want to die from a long, drawn-out process like this. He would not—Draco stepped beside Hermione, swallowing hard. He was no longer in much control now, in the panic that rose in him as he realised his time was coming to an end. His hands came up to Hermione's shoulders. And it was worm against his icy ones. His thumbs pressed hard into the bones of her shoulders.

Finally, Hermione looked at him. Her eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth as though she was about to blurt out something, but he cut in first. "Hey, Granger, Granger, I want you to know how great it was to have you around, as a partner I mean," Draco said in a rush. "I am sorry to do this to you, but I know I don't have much time left, before… before, I do not want to be buried in my family crypt. I don't want to be with my family forever. I can't do it—"

"Malfoy," she said with a twisted, embarrassment spread across her face. "Hold that thought for a moment." She turned to the audience. "LISTEN UP!"

"You don't understand, Granger," he said, desperate. A hiccup caught his next breath. "I—"

"Although, normally fatal, this potion is a recipe which will break the curse! If you come into contact with this potion, the curse will instantly be broken!"

"Why didn't you say that sooner!" Draco exploded. Hermione flashed him a guilty smile. "Do you get off scaring people?"

A roar ran through the villagers and they rushed towards the cauldron. Hermione had expected that in advance and cast a protection around herself to avoid being crushed. Hands clamoured around the seal and people shoved and shoved and shoved.

Hermione raised her wand and drew the liquid above their heads. It soon turned into a cloud hanging above them, and she like a conductor at the end of a symphony, her wand swooped diagonally, away from her, and the potion-cloud dropped on everyone in the town square in the form of rain. People lifted their hands, opened their mouths and caught as much of the 'potion' in their mouths as they could.

"I feel much better!"

"It's amazing!"

"My cramps, they're all gone!"

Draco lifted his palms up and collected some of the droplets in his hands. He gave a tentative lick and frowned. "This… this is…" He shot his head and looked at Hermione, who was wearing the most satisfied smile on her face. He rushed over to her confusion marring his features before he whispered in her ear. "Isn't this lemon cordial?"

His voice tickled Hermione's ear and she fought the urge to giggle at the situation. She looked at Draco sideways and gave him a wink. "Feeling better? Come on, it's not over yet."

"I'm healed!" said the old woman and she got off the floor and shifted to her feet.

"Everyone who's been treated with the magic potion, please move away from the village square," Hermione said, and within all but ten people remained, still wheezing, shivering and feeling sick.

"I don't understand. How did lemon cordial break the curse?" Draco coughed to clear his throat and found it was no longer congested anymore.

"Did you pay attention to the Curses lectures during our last year in Salem? How many curses have hiccups as symptoms?"

"Only the hiccup curse? Hiccups aren't considered a symptom in curses." Draco's eyes grew wide.

"The hiccups were an imaginary symptom for an imaginary curse."

"Imaginary? How can it be?"

"It happens, sometimes," Hermione said. "The residents of Hullyton were always frightened of the Marsh Being. So when they saw three people fall sick, their imaginations started to run…"

"And they somehow convinced themselves they had been cursed. Mass hysteria," Draco said. "How did you know people were hallucinating?"

"I was listening to a few villagers discuss their meeting with the Marsh Being, and as you pointed out, there were no discrepancies with the sightings and how they felt. So I said that a symptom was neck pain—something no one had claimed previously, and there you all were, clutching your necks. That's when I knew for sure."

"Incredible!" Draco said.

Hermione nodded, and her attention turned to the ten remaining people. "These people are the ones are actually affected by someone. We need to start interviewing them and find out what's in common with all of them."

And it turned out, in an uncanny coincidence they all lived on the outskirts of the village closest to the marshlands. Draco and Hermione headed towards the scene of the crime and the smell which had permeated through the city grew stronger and stronger.

"It didn't even reek this much when I was in the marshland!" The buildings here were run down compared to one in the village centre. Instead of cobblestone pathways, the road was paved with dirt and the bad weather and rain had turned the ground to muck.

"We need to find the source of the smell."

"Obviously, it's not the amount of development they do around here," he said sarcastically, grimacing as his shoes squelched as he pulled his foot up. He grimaced at his surroundings and was glad he had been born in this century and lived in the city. "They don't even have paved roads. No electricity, hell, they draw water from a well!"

Hermione grabbed Draco by his arm and shook him. "What?"

Draco stared at her, trying to figure what had gotten her so flustered, but with little success.

"What did you just say?"

"Development, no paved roads, no electricity and they draw water from a well system."

Hermione nodded. Something within Draco's comment had given her an idea; it was a thin thread that would lead her to the Truth.

"Granger?" he asked her softly, having worked long enough to know her massive brain was working overtime and piecing the clues together. She was getting close to solving the Marsh Being case.

His grey eyes narrowed and the wheels in his brain started to turn. If Hermione was in her 'problem-solving' state, it meant they had seen everything they needed to know. She had been absolutely brilliant with solving the mass hysteria crisis and he'd been so caught up with the fear, he hadn't been thinking at all! Draco didn't want to lose. He looked towards the sky and gathered all the clues that might be relevant.

Hullyton (not relevant).

People who lived there were sick.

Smelt like shit.

Next to the marsh.

Outdated (not relevant).

Marsh Being appeared before them.

No roads (not relevant).

Nice tea. (not relevant)

No electricity. (not relevant)

No reticulation.

Shit.

A found the answer. Draco grabbed Hermione's. Her head shot up and she grinned up at him and opened her mouth to speak. On impulse, he placed his hand over her mouth and managed to slip out his first sentence. "It's the shit."

She swatted his hand away, miffed he managed to say the answer out before her. "The source of the problem is contaminated water," she corrected. She let out a sigh of relief and gave him a smile. "They're suffering from cholera. That's what happens when sewage water contacts drinking water. The best thing about cholera, as fast the disease affects a person it's easily treatable. They'll have to drink some fluid replacement supplements but they'll be fine after that."

They called Joe (who had recovered completely after the lemon-cordial) and a few villagers to source the location of the sewage filter tanks and its outfields. Sure enough, their guesses were correct. Having confirmed, this was the problem they raced back into the town square and told the doctor about this.

The doctor shook her head before she rushed off to tend the patients. "I should have recognized the signs of cholera! How could I have thought for a moment it was a Marsh Being's curse? I'm a doctor; I shouldn't have been swayed by that old crone. She's always been ranting about the Marsh Being, why did I choose to believe her now? What rubbish!"

"It's because all three initial patients saw the Marsh Being," Draco relayed to Hermione after. "The Marsh Being's the creature who parents used to scare their little kids, so when they fell sick, they blamed their illness on it."

"The smell," she said, and she watched as a few villagers walked towards the contaminated area, "was because they don't have proper plumbing. They're still relying on magic to treat their sewage, but the heavy rain flushed the effluent down into the marshlands and got into their well-water."

"The Marsh Being showed up in the village to alert them about it and it ended up being blamed for cursing all those people."

Draco and Hermione, having completed the case made their way out the village and a group of villagers came out to say their thanks. Joe presented Hermione with a bouquet of flowers and all the villagers rushed up to them to begging for a handshake or hug.

As for Draco, after the initial burst of energy he received from solving the Hullyton problem, he was tired. So tired. He had been tired when he was tramping in the marshlands earlier that night, but now even his movements were sluggish. He was too exhausted to talk, and Hermione had noticed this and dealt with all the interactions between them and the Hullyton residents for him.

"Thank you," said Draco and he frowned when Hermione climbed into the cart after him, wondering why she had decided to take the ride home when it took two hours when she could just Apparate. He gave Toots a shrug and they set off. The two of them were silent of the better half of the trip, bouncing in their seats as they drove over large rocks. Draco curled in on himself and rested his head against the wooden pane of the carriage.

Now everything was over, his stomach twisted (and no this time it was not from some imaginary curse). He shut his eyes and hoped his world would stop spinning. He grabbed the edge of his seat and leaned further onto the pane. That was the only thing keeping him upright. When he thought he was going to die, and he had panicked, it triggered some unfortunate memories for him.

He swallowed. Half furious with himself for being so incompetent and further panicking because for a moment his mind was not under his control.

Hermione kept quiet, knowing Draco was going through something. Though all she wanted to do was to go home and take a long hot shower, she had chosen to take a ride back with him. The silence was suffocating, and it was clear he was in distress. She hadn't forgotten when he suddenly ranted about where he wanted his remains laid to rest.

"That's the price of prejudice," Draco said quietly after a while, and Hermione wouldn't have heard it if it weren't for that she had contrived to sit close to him. "Things turn sour when you go pointing and faulting things when you don't understand them properly."

"Hey," she mumbled softly so no one would overhear their conversation. "Don't be so hard on yourself." She wasn't only talking about the way he handled this incident.

"I was supposed to help out. Not be part of the hysterical mess," he said, his voice low.

"It happens. Who knows, maybe if I was there first, I would have been the hysterical one. That's why there are two of us. We are partners."

He looked at her in solemn contemplation. "Will you be there to make sure of that?"

She lifted her gaze to meet Draco's and they stared at each other for a moment.

"I mean, like today," he backpedalled.

His eyes were full of strife, and the vulnerability in his voice when he asked his question overwhelmed Hermione with sadness. Slowly she reached towards him and pulled him into a big hug.

He tried to relax in her embrace. He knew the hug was a comforting gesture as friends. She was warm against his cold skin, and in her tight in an embrace, he started feeling a little bit better.

""Thank you for rescuing me," he said. Hermione's unruly hair was tickling the side of his face, and he could still not dispel the tension which kept his upper body as rigid as a board. "Not just for today… but for everything."

"Hey, Malfoy," said Hermione, her arms still wrapped around him, and his head still resting in the crook of her neck.

"What is it?"

She tilted her head up and up so close, she could count each of his eyelashes if she wanted to. "Thank you for surviving," she leaned away from him to break the hug but held onto his hand. Her fingers curled around his. "And I'm not just talking about today either."