Chapter 7
Disclaimer: All of these characters are owned by J.K. Rowling. All I'm doing is playing with their personalities a bit.
A/N: Thanks to my brilliant friend and beta reader Stellar Snape. I think we share a brain. This one does switch points of view, with Harry being unconscious. I hope it is not too confusing. In order to ease some of the time frame confusion there is *** when I am omitting some time. One * will be used when I am going back to Harry's POV. I'm sorry about the delay of these chapters. I'll be uploading 8-10 by sometime next week. I've been busy with NaNoWriMo
Hermione heard the sirens and went out front to show the paramedics where Harry was in the back yard. She said, "Follow me, I will show you where he is." She waited for the two paramedics to get a stretcher, and then led them to the backyard. Mrs. Weasley got out of the ambulance not far behind them. She and Hermione watched, standing back as the paramedics quickly got to work assessing him. Nothing they could do would wake him. They were both feeling anxious and worried.
"Mrs. Weasley," Hermione asked, "Is there any way I can ride up in the ambulance with you and Harry? I know I am not family, but I am one of his best friends, not to mention his girlfriend..."she trailed off, hoping that Mrs. Weasley would grant her permission.
Mrs. Weasley thought briefly and said, "Let me see what I can do. Normally you have to be a family member, but with him having so little family that actually cares... I have a plan. You, in this case are his fiancé. That will get you a ride up there with us. It may take you being there for him to wake up, anyway."
Hermione hugged her, and said "Thank you so very much. I really want to be the one there when he wakes up."
While the two were talking, Ron looked blankly on as the paramedics worked on Harry. He could hardly believe he had attacked his best friend with a Bludger. That was just not something you do to your best friend. And to top it all off, Harry had taken the Bludger meant for Hermione. He could not believe he had been so jealous and spiteful! Once Harry woke up, he would apologize to both of them. It had not been Harry's fault that Hermione had denied him when he asked her out many times over the last two years.
Finally, the paramedics had Harry stable enough to be put into the ambulance. Hermione watched as Mrs. Weasley took one of the paramedics aside and said, "This young lady wants to ride with us," she was pointing at Hermione, when she said the rest. "She is Harry's fiancée, and with her there, he might wake up much easier."
The paramedics reluctantly agreed, and Mrs. Weasley climbed in after they had put Harry inside the vehicle. The outside of the ambulance was made to look exactly like a Muggle ambulance. Inside there was no I.V., heart monitors, or beeping machines to be found. The ambulance driver drove for a little while, until they reached a little Wizarding village, and then apparated the ambulance to St. Mungo's Ambulance Arrival doors. These doors led into the Emergency Room of the hospital. Harry's stretcher was brought out of the ambulance, and all Hermione and Mrs. Weasley could do was watch them race him to a room to be worked on. They followed the medics just outside of a room, where there was a whole team of medi-wizards and medi-witches applying monitoring charms, taking vitals, and looking at a way to monitor his brain waves. Hermione looked in the room. Harry was not covered in wires and monitors as though in a Muggle hospital. He looked like he was doing better, but she wanted to see him up close and personal herself to find out.
Finally, after what seemed like hours later, a young Medi-witch came out and told Hermione and Molly, "You can go in and see him now. He is still unconscious. For right now just be with him and talk to him. He can hear you very well, but don't get upset if he doesn't wake up right away, or awakens very slowly."
"Thank you," Mrs. Weasley said as Hermione went into the room before her. Molly looked into the room at Harry, and decided to let Hermione have some time alone with him while she apparated back to The Burrow to let everyone else know what was going on. Harry was dreaming vividly. He was in the forbidden forest and had been pushed down. Every time he went to stand up, another magical creature would knock him back down. Then his dream flashed to The Burrow when Ron sent that Bludger after Hermione. Then back to Ron telling them he was ok with their relationship. He heard a voice saying "please wake up, I need you, Harry." He just couldn't snap out of his sleep as hard as he tried.
About three hours had gone by, and Hermione had not left Harry's side at all. Mrs. Weasley had returned from The Burrow with dinner for Hermione to eat. She had strict orders for Hermione to take a break and eat while she sat with Harry, so that is what Hermione quite reluctantly did.
Mrs. Weasley took over while Hermione was getting a much-needed break. She kept talking to Harry, about Quidditch, about his upcoming birthday (being careful not to reveal anything just in case!). She reminded him of how many people truly loved him, all in the hopes that he would wake up.
*** It had been three days since Harry's accident. Hermione sat with him throughout the long days and nights waiting for him to wake up. In the beginning everyone was concerned about any paralysis that had ocurred. This was partly because of the impact the Bludger had on his back, as well as when he fell. He had hit his head on a fairly large rock. For now the doctors could not wake him up, despite any efforts that they tried.
In all of this time, Ron had not made the effort to come by and see Harry. He was still very much guilt filled. He had no idea how to approach neither Harry nor Hermione at this point. He was still a bit angry, but he could not believe what he had done to both of them, especially Harry. He just wanted to set things straight.
Mrs. Weasley had sent an owl to the Dursleys. She knew that they most likely did not care, but the mother side of her had made her send something to them anyway. They had not replied. This was upsetting to her. His real parents would have been by his bedside throughout all of this. The Dursleys didn't care. To them he was just an obligation.
Meanwhile, while Mrs. Weasley was thinking to herself in the hallway, Hermione was sitting with Harry. She was very tired. Although she and Mrs. Weasley had traded off sitting with him, it had taken a toll on her mentality. She worried that he may never wake up, or wake up with an irreparable injury. She also knew that she needed to take a break and go to The Burrow for some clothes, to change into, and to bring back. While she was there, she might as well shower as well. Then, she hoped she could stay up at St. Mungo's until Harry woke up. Just as she was thinking about her plan, Mrs. Weasley walked back in.
"Mrs. Weasley, could you take me back to The Burrow for a little while?" Hermione asked. "I want to get more of my things, and get a shower. I hate leaving Harry for too long, but I think we could all use a break."
Mrs. Weasley responded, "I agree, Hermione. I will help you get back home, and we will get those things done. Besides I need to talk to Ron, though admittedly, I have no idea what to say."
Hermione said, "Oh, let me. I know exactly what to say to the... Oh sorry, he is your son. I will try to be as nice as I can be. I hope he finally feels some remorse for what he has done." Mrs. Weasley ignored the insult Hermione almost used on her son, and decided to get on with things. "Let's get on then."
So, they said a quick goodbye to Harry, and not long after arrived at The Burrow. Everyone but Ron surrounded them asking "How is he? Has he awakened yet? What do the doctors think?" Hermione knew that the rest of the Weasley family would be concerned, but she let Mrs. Weasley take care of the question and answer session while she went to the room she and Ginny were sharing for the summer, and looked in her trunk. She got out her school rucksack, and sorted enough clothes and necessities for another few days into it. She closed the sack, then went to the bathroom down the hall to get the shower she needed.
Hermione had a nice mind-clearing shower, and finished getting ready. She put the strap of the rucksack over her shoulder and left the bathroom. She walked back to Ginny's room to make sure she had not missed anything, and then made her way downstairs when Ron stopped her.
"Hermione, wait!" said Ron.
Hermione, was on her way downstairs and didn't want to hear it, but she answered him anyway, "What, Ron?"
Ron said, trying to get her attention, "Hermione. Let me explain. I've been incredibly stupid--"
Hermione had enough. " Whatever, Ron. You were being a sorry git, and I'm not in the mood to discuss what you did. You could have killed Harry with that Bludger, not to mention me! Just LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Hermione rushed downstairs and ignored Ron. She asked Mrs Weasley, "Can we please get back to Harry? I am sure you heard the commotion, but please let it be for right now."
Mrs. Weasley glanced upstairs, expecting to see Ron watching the two of them, but looked back at Hermione when she didn't see him up there. She responded with, "I need to get a few more odds and ends, and then we can head back there."
"Thanks," Hermione said.
Mrs. Weasley gathered up what she needed to occupy her time while she and Hermione sat with Harry. She got two more novels that she hadn't read. She had her knitting needles in the bag she took with her to the hospital, but she needed to get the other skein of yarn. She was working on Ginny's new Weasley sweater. It was a bright cobalt blue, which she knew would be a great color on her. The "G" would be in a light spring yellow. Finally, she was ready to take Hermione back up to St. Mungo's. They went back to the hospital then.
*** It was now two days later. Hermione had hardly taken a break from sitting and coaxing Harry to wake up for five days. She had dozed off. She was dreaming vividly now, that Harry had not woken up, and in fact had died. She and the Weasley family were at his funeral. Then the dream flashed back to when he was first hit with the Bludger, then to Ron telling the two of them that he was not upset. All of the sudden, she awoke with a start. Did someone just call her name? She looked around the room, expecting to see that Mrs. Weasley was the one to have called out her name. She then looked right beside her, at a now awake Harry!
"Oh, Harry! You're awake!" She exclaimed as she went over to hug him tightly.
"Well, hello to you too. Careful, not too tight. That's better. So how long have I been asleep, anyway?" Harry asked.
Hermione began, "I can't believe you awakened when I had actually fallen asleep for once, what timing! Anyway, Ron decided to play just a bit too roughly with you and try to hit you with a Bludger. Then as you were finally about to come down, he directed it at me. You raced down, in time to deflect it off of me, yet you got hit in the back, and fainted. On the way down to the ground, you hit your head on a rock badly. I will let the Mediwizards explain more, alright? Now, if you don't mind, someone else needs to know that you are awake." As she finished her speech, she left quickly, going off to find Mrs. Weasley.
* Harry smiled at the sight of Hermione leaving. He couldn't remember exactly what happened. It was weird, he had woken up. Before he could ask much at all, Hermione had left. She probably wanted to let the Medics know that he had awakened. He waited patiently. Finally, someone came into the room, but it wasn't the Mediwizard he expected, it was Mrs. Weasley!
"Oh Harry," she said, "Everyone has been so worried about you! I'm so glad to see that you are awake, as is Hermione here." She was the second one to hug Harry tightly, finally letting go, and she had tears in her eyes when she broke the embrace.
One of Harry's monitor charms was beeping furiously. Finally, a Mediwizard came in to check on it. He was the head on Harry's case. Hermione followed him into the room. He pulled up a chair and sat down, then began to speak.
"Hello Harry. My name is Dr. Santé. I am the head of your case. Has someone refreshed your memory on what happened to cause the accident?"
Harry nodded, then replied "yes, Hermione told me once I woke up about the Bludger. She also said that as I fainted I hit my head on a rock. What does all of this mean? When can I go home?"
Dr. Santé began answering Harry's questions. "Well, the reason you were in a coma for five days is because of the blow to the head. You fell quite hard and fast according to Ms. Granger over here," he said as he gestured toward Hermione. He continued, "We want to run some tests, especially concerning the severity of your spinal injury. I will begin the tests in a matter of hours. For right now you can feel free to visit with your family."
Harry absorbed all of this speech quickly, but just when the mediwizard was about to leave, Mrs. Weasley interrupted and said, "I'm not sure I heard you answer his question. When can he go home?"
"Mrs. Weasley, the matter at hand is running these tests, and then his discharge can be discussed." He turned to Harry, "I will send a nurse down with a chair when it is time for your first test." Then Dr. Santé walked briskly out of the room.
Harry watched as Hermione came over to him, and said "Are you really all right? Do you feel any pain? How are your head and back?"
Harry said, "Well, other than a massive headache, and a bit of feeling fuzzy-headed my head is fine." Without thinking of it, he shifted in the bed a bit. "Well, I guess I am not paralyzed or anything too awful like that," he said gratefully.
"Oh great, you should be fine then" Hermione said, "We were worried about that!" Mrs. Weasley nodded in response.
Harry smiled and said, "I'll be fine. I may not be playing in an intense Quidditch match tomorrow, but I'll be ok. Out of curiosity, Mrs. Weasley did you tell the Dursleys?"
Mrs. Weasley replied, "Yes, I sent an urgent owl to them. They didn't even care to offer a reply. I suppose you could use the Muggle phone over on your bedside table to give them a call?"
"I suppose," said Harry tiredly, "Just make sure to please stay quiet during this phone call. I don't want to deal with too much of them right now." Harry picked up the phone, and dialed the Dursleys. The phone rang, and rang. Finally the answering machine picked up. When it beeped, Harry left a brief message letting them know that he was awake and should be fine. He hung up the phone, and said "Whew, glad that's over with. Well, with my luck I probably embarrassed them during a dinner party or something. Oh well. They know that I am alive now."
"Right, like they even care, " Hermione said but even Mrs. Weasley nodded her head in agreement. Harry agreed. The letter from the owl had probably been thrown in the dustbin as soon as it was received, and his message would probably just be deleted. But, as his guardians, they needed to know his condition. Oh well, he didn't want to concentrate on them too much right now, he wanted to be able to get out of this hospital soon.
Harry began with a loaded question, "So what did I miss while I was asleep? Hermione have you and Ron gotten the chance to talk yet? Has he been by?"
Hermione angrily said, "No, he hasn't come by. He tried to talk to me, but he chose a very wrong moment to do so. We haven't spoke since. Not hard, since I've been mostly up here."
Mrs. Weasley said, "I haven't talked to him. I wanted to at first, but this is something that you three must resolve. He knows what he did was wrong, very wrong. You can see it in his face, in his actions."
Harry, who was obviously still feeling angry as well, said "Well, he can talk to me. I'll set him straight, that's for sure." He then laid back, and let Hermione and Mrs. Weasley visit with him more. Finally, a tall young nurse came in pushing a chair.
"Time for your tests, Harry. You two can wait in here while he is gone. They should only take about three hours, at the most. We will have results some time tomorrow morning for him. His doctors will need to confer, and see what to do with the results." She said this as she helped Harry into the wheelchair. She finally had Harry situated in the chair enough to push him out of the room.
Four hours went by. Harry was still not back yet. Hermione and Mrs. Weasley were getting quite worried. Finally the door to his room opened. Neither of them expected who they saw come in. It was Ron, all by himself.
"How did you get here?" Hermione demanded.
"If you must know, I used Floo powder. I came here by myself. I want to talk to Harry, now WHERE IS HE!" Ron ended his speech in a yell.
Mrs. Weasley replied to him, "Hello to you too. Well, Harry woke up a few hours ago. His doctors took him to run some tests on him. It may be a few more hours. You can stay with us and wait, if you'd like."
Ron pondered for a moment, "Ok, I need to speak to Harry and Hermione alone when he gets back, if you don't mind though, mum."
"No problem," Mrs. Weasley replied.
Meanwhile, Harry was in an examination room of the hospital. Three different mediwizards had already examined him. Most of the testing involved lying there while they performed X-Ray charms. They did want to test his ability to move, and as of the testing, he had done more than perfectly. His doctors were focusing both on his spinal injury and his head injury. His head injury was minor. That much was known, at least. The mediwizards were keeping everything else from him. There was to be a conference between them about the results, and after the conference, he would be told everything. He hoped that all of this would be done very soon. He wanted to spend some time with Hermione, and hopefully talk to Ron.
While Hermione, Ron, and Mrs. Weasley waited, Hermione decided to speak up.
"Ron, I want to talk to you. I'm sorry I shut you out before, but I was still very anxious about Harry. Truthfully none of us knew if he would ever wake up, and that scared me like nothing ever has before. Amazingly, when he woke up, and asked about you, it put things in perspective. I want to know what all is bothering you. We have been friends for nearly seven years, and this friendship between the three of us is not worth losing. So please enlighten me as to why you decided to attack both Harry and I with a Bludger." She finished her conversation quietly, looking at Ron and waiting for his response.
Ron began speaking, slowly yet quite assured of what he wanted to say. "Hermione, please let this wait until I can talk to both you and Harry. I would rather explain it to the both of you, and it will be much easier that way. For right now, I am just glad to know that Harry woke up."
"Oh ok," Hermione answered. She was ready for Harry to return back to his room so that the three of them could talk, and find out the reason why Ron was so angry. She was not as angry with Ron anymore, but she had no idea what Harry was feeling either.
Finally, Harry was wheeled back in by that same nurse. It was now after six o'clock in the evening. He was helped to get back on the bed by the nurse. She left after that. Harry looked around the room. Mrs. Weasley was just leaving. He asked, "Where are you off to, Mrs. Weasley?"
"Oh Harry, I just stayed to be sure you got back fine. I need to go make a quick dinner for the rest of the family back at The Burrow. Would anyone like me to bring them back something? I can come back with some dinner. I will let you three talk now." With that last word, she had apparated out.
Ron spoke quickly, "Harry, can I talk to you?"
"Go on," Harry said.
Ron spoke, "I'm very sorry what happened to you. I found out that you were in the hospital, in a coma, and I have never felt guiltier. I don't know what came over me. What I did was wrong, very wrong. I put my two best friends in danger. I could have killed you both--"
Harry was seething now, "Yes, you could have! I don't care about me, I'm fine, but to aim at Hermione? That was awful of you! How could you do this to both of us? I know what came over you, you are being just as jealous as ever, and you let that jealousy lead you to anger and brutality." He had to stop speaking, as he was getting angrier by the moment, and his head was aching so painfully like someone repeatedly stabbing a knife in and out of his brain.
Everyone was interrupted when Dr. Santé came in, followed by a young blond nurse. He said, "We have some of the test results to share with you."
Disclaimer: All of these characters are owned by J.K. Rowling. All I'm doing is playing with their personalities a bit.
A/N: Thanks to my brilliant friend and beta reader Stellar Snape. I think we share a brain. This one does switch points of view, with Harry being unconscious. I hope it is not too confusing. In order to ease some of the time frame confusion there is *** when I am omitting some time. One * will be used when I am going back to Harry's POV. I'm sorry about the delay of these chapters. I'll be uploading 8-10 by sometime next week. I've been busy with NaNoWriMo
Hermione heard the sirens and went out front to show the paramedics where Harry was in the back yard. She said, "Follow me, I will show you where he is." She waited for the two paramedics to get a stretcher, and then led them to the backyard. Mrs. Weasley got out of the ambulance not far behind them. She and Hermione watched, standing back as the paramedics quickly got to work assessing him. Nothing they could do would wake him. They were both feeling anxious and worried.
"Mrs. Weasley," Hermione asked, "Is there any way I can ride up in the ambulance with you and Harry? I know I am not family, but I am one of his best friends, not to mention his girlfriend..."she trailed off, hoping that Mrs. Weasley would grant her permission.
Mrs. Weasley thought briefly and said, "Let me see what I can do. Normally you have to be a family member, but with him having so little family that actually cares... I have a plan. You, in this case are his fiancé. That will get you a ride up there with us. It may take you being there for him to wake up, anyway."
Hermione hugged her, and said "Thank you so very much. I really want to be the one there when he wakes up."
While the two were talking, Ron looked blankly on as the paramedics worked on Harry. He could hardly believe he had attacked his best friend with a Bludger. That was just not something you do to your best friend. And to top it all off, Harry had taken the Bludger meant for Hermione. He could not believe he had been so jealous and spiteful! Once Harry woke up, he would apologize to both of them. It had not been Harry's fault that Hermione had denied him when he asked her out many times over the last two years.
Finally, the paramedics had Harry stable enough to be put into the ambulance. Hermione watched as Mrs. Weasley took one of the paramedics aside and said, "This young lady wants to ride with us," she was pointing at Hermione, when she said the rest. "She is Harry's fiancée, and with her there, he might wake up much easier."
The paramedics reluctantly agreed, and Mrs. Weasley climbed in after they had put Harry inside the vehicle. The outside of the ambulance was made to look exactly like a Muggle ambulance. Inside there was no I.V., heart monitors, or beeping machines to be found. The ambulance driver drove for a little while, until they reached a little Wizarding village, and then apparated the ambulance to St. Mungo's Ambulance Arrival doors. These doors led into the Emergency Room of the hospital. Harry's stretcher was brought out of the ambulance, and all Hermione and Mrs. Weasley could do was watch them race him to a room to be worked on. They followed the medics just outside of a room, where there was a whole team of medi-wizards and medi-witches applying monitoring charms, taking vitals, and looking at a way to monitor his brain waves. Hermione looked in the room. Harry was not covered in wires and monitors as though in a Muggle hospital. He looked like he was doing better, but she wanted to see him up close and personal herself to find out.
Finally, after what seemed like hours later, a young Medi-witch came out and told Hermione and Molly, "You can go in and see him now. He is still unconscious. For right now just be with him and talk to him. He can hear you very well, but don't get upset if he doesn't wake up right away, or awakens very slowly."
"Thank you," Mrs. Weasley said as Hermione went into the room before her. Molly looked into the room at Harry, and decided to let Hermione have some time alone with him while she apparated back to The Burrow to let everyone else know what was going on. Harry was dreaming vividly. He was in the forbidden forest and had been pushed down. Every time he went to stand up, another magical creature would knock him back down. Then his dream flashed to The Burrow when Ron sent that Bludger after Hermione. Then back to Ron telling them he was ok with their relationship. He heard a voice saying "please wake up, I need you, Harry." He just couldn't snap out of his sleep as hard as he tried.
About three hours had gone by, and Hermione had not left Harry's side at all. Mrs. Weasley had returned from The Burrow with dinner for Hermione to eat. She had strict orders for Hermione to take a break and eat while she sat with Harry, so that is what Hermione quite reluctantly did.
Mrs. Weasley took over while Hermione was getting a much-needed break. She kept talking to Harry, about Quidditch, about his upcoming birthday (being careful not to reveal anything just in case!). She reminded him of how many people truly loved him, all in the hopes that he would wake up.
*** It had been three days since Harry's accident. Hermione sat with him throughout the long days and nights waiting for him to wake up. In the beginning everyone was concerned about any paralysis that had ocurred. This was partly because of the impact the Bludger had on his back, as well as when he fell. He had hit his head on a fairly large rock. For now the doctors could not wake him up, despite any efforts that they tried.
In all of this time, Ron had not made the effort to come by and see Harry. He was still very much guilt filled. He had no idea how to approach neither Harry nor Hermione at this point. He was still a bit angry, but he could not believe what he had done to both of them, especially Harry. He just wanted to set things straight.
Mrs. Weasley had sent an owl to the Dursleys. She knew that they most likely did not care, but the mother side of her had made her send something to them anyway. They had not replied. This was upsetting to her. His real parents would have been by his bedside throughout all of this. The Dursleys didn't care. To them he was just an obligation.
Meanwhile, while Mrs. Weasley was thinking to herself in the hallway, Hermione was sitting with Harry. She was very tired. Although she and Mrs. Weasley had traded off sitting with him, it had taken a toll on her mentality. She worried that he may never wake up, or wake up with an irreparable injury. She also knew that she needed to take a break and go to The Burrow for some clothes, to change into, and to bring back. While she was there, she might as well shower as well. Then, she hoped she could stay up at St. Mungo's until Harry woke up. Just as she was thinking about her plan, Mrs. Weasley walked back in.
"Mrs. Weasley, could you take me back to The Burrow for a little while?" Hermione asked. "I want to get more of my things, and get a shower. I hate leaving Harry for too long, but I think we could all use a break."
Mrs. Weasley responded, "I agree, Hermione. I will help you get back home, and we will get those things done. Besides I need to talk to Ron, though admittedly, I have no idea what to say."
Hermione said, "Oh, let me. I know exactly what to say to the... Oh sorry, he is your son. I will try to be as nice as I can be. I hope he finally feels some remorse for what he has done." Mrs. Weasley ignored the insult Hermione almost used on her son, and decided to get on with things. "Let's get on then."
So, they said a quick goodbye to Harry, and not long after arrived at The Burrow. Everyone but Ron surrounded them asking "How is he? Has he awakened yet? What do the doctors think?" Hermione knew that the rest of the Weasley family would be concerned, but she let Mrs. Weasley take care of the question and answer session while she went to the room she and Ginny were sharing for the summer, and looked in her trunk. She got out her school rucksack, and sorted enough clothes and necessities for another few days into it. She closed the sack, then went to the bathroom down the hall to get the shower she needed.
Hermione had a nice mind-clearing shower, and finished getting ready. She put the strap of the rucksack over her shoulder and left the bathroom. She walked back to Ginny's room to make sure she had not missed anything, and then made her way downstairs when Ron stopped her.
"Hermione, wait!" said Ron.
Hermione, was on her way downstairs and didn't want to hear it, but she answered him anyway, "What, Ron?"
Ron said, trying to get her attention, "Hermione. Let me explain. I've been incredibly stupid--"
Hermione had enough. " Whatever, Ron. You were being a sorry git, and I'm not in the mood to discuss what you did. You could have killed Harry with that Bludger, not to mention me! Just LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Hermione rushed downstairs and ignored Ron. She asked Mrs Weasley, "Can we please get back to Harry? I am sure you heard the commotion, but please let it be for right now."
Mrs. Weasley glanced upstairs, expecting to see Ron watching the two of them, but looked back at Hermione when she didn't see him up there. She responded with, "I need to get a few more odds and ends, and then we can head back there."
"Thanks," Hermione said.
Mrs. Weasley gathered up what she needed to occupy her time while she and Hermione sat with Harry. She got two more novels that she hadn't read. She had her knitting needles in the bag she took with her to the hospital, but she needed to get the other skein of yarn. She was working on Ginny's new Weasley sweater. It was a bright cobalt blue, which she knew would be a great color on her. The "G" would be in a light spring yellow. Finally, she was ready to take Hermione back up to St. Mungo's. They went back to the hospital then.
*** It was now two days later. Hermione had hardly taken a break from sitting and coaxing Harry to wake up for five days. She had dozed off. She was dreaming vividly now, that Harry had not woken up, and in fact had died. She and the Weasley family were at his funeral. Then the dream flashed back to when he was first hit with the Bludger, then to Ron telling the two of them that he was not upset. All of the sudden, she awoke with a start. Did someone just call her name? She looked around the room, expecting to see that Mrs. Weasley was the one to have called out her name. She then looked right beside her, at a now awake Harry!
"Oh, Harry! You're awake!" She exclaimed as she went over to hug him tightly.
"Well, hello to you too. Careful, not too tight. That's better. So how long have I been asleep, anyway?" Harry asked.
Hermione began, "I can't believe you awakened when I had actually fallen asleep for once, what timing! Anyway, Ron decided to play just a bit too roughly with you and try to hit you with a Bludger. Then as you were finally about to come down, he directed it at me. You raced down, in time to deflect it off of me, yet you got hit in the back, and fainted. On the way down to the ground, you hit your head on a rock badly. I will let the Mediwizards explain more, alright? Now, if you don't mind, someone else needs to know that you are awake." As she finished her speech, she left quickly, going off to find Mrs. Weasley.
* Harry smiled at the sight of Hermione leaving. He couldn't remember exactly what happened. It was weird, he had woken up. Before he could ask much at all, Hermione had left. She probably wanted to let the Medics know that he had awakened. He waited patiently. Finally, someone came into the room, but it wasn't the Mediwizard he expected, it was Mrs. Weasley!
"Oh Harry," she said, "Everyone has been so worried about you! I'm so glad to see that you are awake, as is Hermione here." She was the second one to hug Harry tightly, finally letting go, and she had tears in her eyes when she broke the embrace.
One of Harry's monitor charms was beeping furiously. Finally, a Mediwizard came in to check on it. He was the head on Harry's case. Hermione followed him into the room. He pulled up a chair and sat down, then began to speak.
"Hello Harry. My name is Dr. Santé. I am the head of your case. Has someone refreshed your memory on what happened to cause the accident?"
Harry nodded, then replied "yes, Hermione told me once I woke up about the Bludger. She also said that as I fainted I hit my head on a rock. What does all of this mean? When can I go home?"
Dr. Santé began answering Harry's questions. "Well, the reason you were in a coma for five days is because of the blow to the head. You fell quite hard and fast according to Ms. Granger over here," he said as he gestured toward Hermione. He continued, "We want to run some tests, especially concerning the severity of your spinal injury. I will begin the tests in a matter of hours. For right now you can feel free to visit with your family."
Harry absorbed all of this speech quickly, but just when the mediwizard was about to leave, Mrs. Weasley interrupted and said, "I'm not sure I heard you answer his question. When can he go home?"
"Mrs. Weasley, the matter at hand is running these tests, and then his discharge can be discussed." He turned to Harry, "I will send a nurse down with a chair when it is time for your first test." Then Dr. Santé walked briskly out of the room.
Harry watched as Hermione came over to him, and said "Are you really all right? Do you feel any pain? How are your head and back?"
Harry said, "Well, other than a massive headache, and a bit of feeling fuzzy-headed my head is fine." Without thinking of it, he shifted in the bed a bit. "Well, I guess I am not paralyzed or anything too awful like that," he said gratefully.
"Oh great, you should be fine then" Hermione said, "We were worried about that!" Mrs. Weasley nodded in response.
Harry smiled and said, "I'll be fine. I may not be playing in an intense Quidditch match tomorrow, but I'll be ok. Out of curiosity, Mrs. Weasley did you tell the Dursleys?"
Mrs. Weasley replied, "Yes, I sent an urgent owl to them. They didn't even care to offer a reply. I suppose you could use the Muggle phone over on your bedside table to give them a call?"
"I suppose," said Harry tiredly, "Just make sure to please stay quiet during this phone call. I don't want to deal with too much of them right now." Harry picked up the phone, and dialed the Dursleys. The phone rang, and rang. Finally the answering machine picked up. When it beeped, Harry left a brief message letting them know that he was awake and should be fine. He hung up the phone, and said "Whew, glad that's over with. Well, with my luck I probably embarrassed them during a dinner party or something. Oh well. They know that I am alive now."
"Right, like they even care, " Hermione said but even Mrs. Weasley nodded her head in agreement. Harry agreed. The letter from the owl had probably been thrown in the dustbin as soon as it was received, and his message would probably just be deleted. But, as his guardians, they needed to know his condition. Oh well, he didn't want to concentrate on them too much right now, he wanted to be able to get out of this hospital soon.
Harry began with a loaded question, "So what did I miss while I was asleep? Hermione have you and Ron gotten the chance to talk yet? Has he been by?"
Hermione angrily said, "No, he hasn't come by. He tried to talk to me, but he chose a very wrong moment to do so. We haven't spoke since. Not hard, since I've been mostly up here."
Mrs. Weasley said, "I haven't talked to him. I wanted to at first, but this is something that you three must resolve. He knows what he did was wrong, very wrong. You can see it in his face, in his actions."
Harry, who was obviously still feeling angry as well, said "Well, he can talk to me. I'll set him straight, that's for sure." He then laid back, and let Hermione and Mrs. Weasley visit with him more. Finally, a tall young nurse came in pushing a chair.
"Time for your tests, Harry. You two can wait in here while he is gone. They should only take about three hours, at the most. We will have results some time tomorrow morning for him. His doctors will need to confer, and see what to do with the results." She said this as she helped Harry into the wheelchair. She finally had Harry situated in the chair enough to push him out of the room.
Four hours went by. Harry was still not back yet. Hermione and Mrs. Weasley were getting quite worried. Finally the door to his room opened. Neither of them expected who they saw come in. It was Ron, all by himself.
"How did you get here?" Hermione demanded.
"If you must know, I used Floo powder. I came here by myself. I want to talk to Harry, now WHERE IS HE!" Ron ended his speech in a yell.
Mrs. Weasley replied to him, "Hello to you too. Well, Harry woke up a few hours ago. His doctors took him to run some tests on him. It may be a few more hours. You can stay with us and wait, if you'd like."
Ron pondered for a moment, "Ok, I need to speak to Harry and Hermione alone when he gets back, if you don't mind though, mum."
"No problem," Mrs. Weasley replied.
Meanwhile, Harry was in an examination room of the hospital. Three different mediwizards had already examined him. Most of the testing involved lying there while they performed X-Ray charms. They did want to test his ability to move, and as of the testing, he had done more than perfectly. His doctors were focusing both on his spinal injury and his head injury. His head injury was minor. That much was known, at least. The mediwizards were keeping everything else from him. There was to be a conference between them about the results, and after the conference, he would be told everything. He hoped that all of this would be done very soon. He wanted to spend some time with Hermione, and hopefully talk to Ron.
While Hermione, Ron, and Mrs. Weasley waited, Hermione decided to speak up.
"Ron, I want to talk to you. I'm sorry I shut you out before, but I was still very anxious about Harry. Truthfully none of us knew if he would ever wake up, and that scared me like nothing ever has before. Amazingly, when he woke up, and asked about you, it put things in perspective. I want to know what all is bothering you. We have been friends for nearly seven years, and this friendship between the three of us is not worth losing. So please enlighten me as to why you decided to attack both Harry and I with a Bludger." She finished her conversation quietly, looking at Ron and waiting for his response.
Ron began speaking, slowly yet quite assured of what he wanted to say. "Hermione, please let this wait until I can talk to both you and Harry. I would rather explain it to the both of you, and it will be much easier that way. For right now, I am just glad to know that Harry woke up."
"Oh ok," Hermione answered. She was ready for Harry to return back to his room so that the three of them could talk, and find out the reason why Ron was so angry. She was not as angry with Ron anymore, but she had no idea what Harry was feeling either.
Finally, Harry was wheeled back in by that same nurse. It was now after six o'clock in the evening. He was helped to get back on the bed by the nurse. She left after that. Harry looked around the room. Mrs. Weasley was just leaving. He asked, "Where are you off to, Mrs. Weasley?"
"Oh Harry, I just stayed to be sure you got back fine. I need to go make a quick dinner for the rest of the family back at The Burrow. Would anyone like me to bring them back something? I can come back with some dinner. I will let you three talk now." With that last word, she had apparated out.
Ron spoke quickly, "Harry, can I talk to you?"
"Go on," Harry said.
Ron spoke, "I'm very sorry what happened to you. I found out that you were in the hospital, in a coma, and I have never felt guiltier. I don't know what came over me. What I did was wrong, very wrong. I put my two best friends in danger. I could have killed you both--"
Harry was seething now, "Yes, you could have! I don't care about me, I'm fine, but to aim at Hermione? That was awful of you! How could you do this to both of us? I know what came over you, you are being just as jealous as ever, and you let that jealousy lead you to anger and brutality." He had to stop speaking, as he was getting angrier by the moment, and his head was aching so painfully like someone repeatedly stabbing a knife in and out of his brain.
Everyone was interrupted when Dr. Santé came in, followed by a young blond nurse. He said, "We have some of the test results to share with you."