Chapter 6
Sinistra, Hooch and Pomfrey stared down at Minerva, it had been three days and they hadn't been able to wake her up. "We'll never get to Germany in time if she doesn't wake up. Grindelwald isn't going to keep Dumbledore alive forever. I mean, Min said he was going to kill him…." Helena pointed out.
"She may die anyway." Poppy told them regretfully. "I can't figure out what's wrong with her."
Serena looked around the cave. "There must be something….Grindelwald! What if he's somehow managed to slip her a sleeping drought?"
Helena rolled her eyes. "And how, dear Ren, did he manage to slip it to her?"
Sinistra's face fell and she turned away so they couldn't see the tears in her eyes. Seven years as a Slytherin outcast had left its toll on the young witch, and her confidence wasn't very high. She knew Helena didn't mean anything by it, but it still stung. She wished she could go home and curl up with a movie and cry. Suddenly the tears dried up and her head flung up with an idea. "Poppies!"
"What?" The young mediwitch looked up from her spot on the floor.
"No, not you. Poppies, the flower. In the Wizard of Oz when the Wicked Witch is trying to keep Dorthey from the Emeral City she puts a sleeping potion in the poppies so when they get to the Poppy field they fall asleep."
"That's a movie." Helena grumbled. "A muggle movie. I highly doubt Grindelwald got his great idea from a muggle movie."
"Maybe not," Poppy Pomfrey said, excitement shining in her blue eyes as she stood. "But he could very well have put a draught on the flowers. Minerva's been going out as a cat during the day to burn off energy remember? She could have knocked into some flowers with a potion on them." Poppy fell to her knees and mixed a rejuvenation potion from her ingredients. Then she poured a drop into the sleeping girls mouth.
They waited nervously. After a few minutes, they began to give up hope. Poppy turned back to her medicine bag, Serena wandered toward the mouth of the cave to star gaze and Helena went to build the fire. They all turned around however, when they heard a small mewl. Minerva stretched, and then her eyes fluttered open.
"Minerva!"
"Oh, you're alright!"
"Thank Merlin!"
The shouts came from three different directions; before she knew it she was being crushed in a giant group hug. She wriggled out and stood up. "How long was I asleep?"
"Three days." Serena answered her quietly. Minerva narrowed her eyes, studying her friend.
Minerva passed by Serena, squeezing her hand as she passed. As she looked out of the cave, she noticed the moon was already high in the sky. She fought to keep the swear word on her tongue from being spoken. Three and a half nights they could have been traveling, lost, all because she had been careless. "We need to leave now if we're going to cover any ground today." She told them firmly. They packed quickly and set off down the mountainside.
Dumbledore was torn as he watched the sleeping young woman fade out of the cell. She shouldn't have been asleep for three days, and she shouldn't have needed to sleep in her dream, but she had done both. When she faded out, he knew that meant she'd awoken at last. Which was good. But for three days he'd had her with him, every if she'd rarely been completely coherent. And he was going to miss her.
As he sat in the silence of his cell, he contemplated his feelings and his captors words. Grindelwald had hinted that they were soulmates, both to him and in his letter to Minerva. Certainly the psychic connection they shared pointed to that, but he was uneasy. She didn't seem to feel the same way as he did, and besides, even if she did, he was twice her age, he'd been her professor for all seven years she'd been at Hogwarts.
They were all excuses he'd used time and again, when he'd felt the desire to do something inappropriate. But in the dark lonely cell, Grindelwald's words ringing in his ears, the excuses were beginning to sound hollow and empty. He stared at the moon and the stars, wondering if she thought about him as often as he thought about her.