"What the HELL were you thinking?!?" Were the first words that met Harry's ears as the secret door slid back open. It was Laurel of course. "There I was, actually pleading for you to take me with you, but what do you do? You slam everything in my face! Just for one second, if I let the bitterness in my soul get to me right now, I'd pound you flat."
Harry stands there in slight shock for a while. Waiting for Laurel to deliver a blow. Instead, Laurel's lovely olive-green eyes blur up with tears and she flings her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. It felt a little strange to him. Well, the only other girl who'd ever hugged him before was Hermione. There was that one short fluke with Fleur last year, but that didn't quite count—he had saved her sister. Harry hears chuckling from behind him and turns his head to see Hermione covering her mouth with her free hand. The other one was helping support Ron.
"Sir Potter, you bastard." Ron says with raspy tone, still a little sick from the potion. "Letting a girl worry."
Laurel lets go of Harry and rushes over to Ron. She feels his forehead with the back of her hand. "Damn, boy, you're burning up. What happened down there?"
"Nothing to brag about, that's for sure," Ron replies.
"Um, Laurel," Hermione pipes up. She sounded like a little mouse.
"Hm? What is it?" Laurel says in her normal 'he-man' voice.
"I'd like to, uh, thank you."
"Thank me? For what?"
"For helping me get back to…me." Hermione gives a small laugh.
"How do you know it was me?" Laurel asks. "It's not like you know you drank that potion."
"I could only assume." Hermione answers. "From what Harry and Ron told me, I was quite the witch. Well, witch as in being a bitch. Nothing could have changed my personality that drastically than some altering potion, and the only way to cure those is with another. Two and two equals four." She smiles.
Laurel looks over her shoulder at Harry. "You're right, she is a smart little knit sock, isn't she?"
Harry nods with a "true that" expression.
Ron breaks the awkward silence by vomiting all over the floor.
Laurel winces a bit. "Yeah, that's right, get Ronald up to the hospital wing. Better out than in, but please, not on my shoes."
Harry grins as Laurel and Hermione flank Ron and help him waddle down the corridor to the infirmary. Everything was back to normal, yet everything had changed. Hermione was back but she had this air to her voice. One that made it seem like she felt timid and precocious. It was like there was still something to worry about. Something might be lurking around the corner. Oh well, they'd cross that bridge when they came to it. They always did that as a group, and what was the point of stopping now? Harry jogs a little bit to catch up with the rest.
"My, my, I keep on telling those house elves to watch what they cook in those kitchens. They usually do such a good job, but…" Madame Pomfrey was saying when Ron came to the door, still coughing up stomach acids (there was nothing left to chuck).
Hermione, still hoping to liberate those elves, said, "No, no, Madame Pomfrey. This has nothing to do with the food. He just needs to rest of a potion."
"Dear me, another one?" Madame Pomfrey gasps.
"Thankfully, this will be the last." Laurel comes in. "Thanks to him and Harry."
"Oo." Madame Pomfrey purses her lips. "You two were up to no good again, weren't you?"
"Uh, guilty?" Harry says as Ron doubles over in a dry heave.
"Stop trying to force it, Ronald, we know you're sick already!" Laurel pounds a flat palm on his back.
"You think I'm trying to do this on purpose?" Ron glares at her.
"Just kidding." Laurel smiles. "Love you." She puts an arm around his shoulder.
Ron just groans.
Madame Pomfrey takes Ron from Hermione's shoulder and leads him to a chair by one of the beds. She then left to her office to get some antidote. Everyone just stood there in an idle chatter. Harry and Ron mostly stayed by each other while Hermione and Laurel got the chance to get acquainted. You could say that Hermione was so used to the boys that meeting a new girl was quite exciting.
"So, what got you to help, may I ask?" Hermione says.
"Eh, what can I say, Harry and Ron were sort of helpless. Without you, that is." Laurel replies. "I met them when I was mistaken for spying on one of their conversations. The only words I remember them saying were 'damn you, Malfoy' etcetera, etcetera. But half of it was because I finally found someone who might help me as well."
"What do you mean?"
"I had lost someone to those potions too." Laurel continues. "I was planning on researching antidotes myself, so I used some of the time in the library when I was with them to look up stuff for me."
"What happened to this person?" Hermione asks.
"Well, you see," Laurel turns her whole body to face the bed that Joel was kept.
She gasps. The bed was empty. The sheets were cleaned and pressed and freshly tucked into the mattress. The clipboard at the end of the frame was gone, all the 'get well' cards were missing, her usual visiting chair was all the way at the end of the corridor. The pillow didn't even have an indentation where his head would have sat for the past three months or so.
"Where is he? What happened?" Laurel says louder.
Harry and Ron looked as well.
"Would you look at that?" Ron says bluntly.
Laurel goes over to the bed and runs her hands over the bedspread. "I just don't get it. If something had happened, you'd think they'd come and tell me…"
"Laurel!" A shout came from the doorway. Adam comes running in. "Where have you been? I have been looking for you all night."
"I was on the fifth floor by the griffin statue." Laurel's voice was far away; you could hardly tell where she was going with it.
"Why the heck where you over there?" Adam demands.
Laurel shakes her head back into reality. "I was waiting for the hero and his sidekick!" She points to Harry and Ron. "And, of course, the damsel in distress." Referring to Hermione.
"Ugh!" Adam shudders. He goes to put his hands on Laurel's shoulders, but stops them in midair; opens his mouth to say something, but the words don't come out. He sighs heavily. "Anyways, I've been looking for you to tell you that Joel had been released."
Laurel's face lightens. "When? When did he wake up?"
"At about eleven thirty last night."
"Where is he?" Laurel asks. "I want to see him. Did he say anything?"
"You ask so many questions." Adam sighs. "And what am I supposed to say he said? The typical: Where am I? What happened? God, I have one bitch of a headache."
Laurel laughs and hugs Adam. He looked surprised. Ron, from his chair, tugs at the sleeve of Harry's robes to get his attention.
"It's like a Ravenclaw version of us, isn't it?"
"I guess you could say that." Harry answers. "Wait a minute,… yup, you still have those high hopes that she remembers."
"Well," Ron's voice gets muffled with embarrassment. "Part of me wishes she would. Another doesn't."
"Care to elaborate?" Harry says.
Ron sighs and takes a sip of the glass of water Madame Pomfrey had just delivered with a bag of powder to mix in. "I remember when we first met Hermione. I hated her. She was so snotty and prissy. It all changed when I saw her eyes that night she was trapped in the bathroom with the troll. Her scared expression. It gave me this feeling of determination. I felt like I had to protect her…no matter what happened. Over the years that grew and I didn't know what that extra feeling was. I then realized, oh, about the end of the second year, beginning of the third, that Hermione wasn't just Hermione anymore. She was more than that to me. I knew then that I…that I was in love with her."
Ron pauses to mix the powder in with his water. It turned a tangy orange. Plugging his nose, Ron chugged the whole thing and then puts the glass back down on the bedside table. Harry didn't quite understand Ron at that moment. He was about to say that he was wrong. That he wasn't in love with Hermione. She's just a really close friend. You're getting your emotions mixed up! But then Harry knew that this pang he was feeling was that jealousy again. He was the famous Harry Potter, shouldn't he be the first to feel that stinging pound in his heart? No offense to his best friend, but he couldn't imagine Ron actually in love with someone. Hermione too, of all girls. Wouldn't that ruin their friendship? Their trio?
"I didn't want to believe it, but I couldn't escape it." Ron continues. "Last year when she was going out with Viktor, I always felt my fists clenching whenever she talked about him. I suppose it was that jealousy stuff. I can't quite explain this, Harry, and I'm sorry if I'm rambling. That's the part that wants her to remember. The other part is telling me that it will only lead to no good. Ruin everything. Tear it to shreds."
Harry's thoughts exactly.
"So, I decided not to bring it up unless she does." Ron leans back to relax in his chair.
Harry looks down at the floor for a second and instantly destroys all of his bad thoughts. "Ron, tell her."
"What? Why?"
"From what I know about Hermione, you should. She knows what's best for her and for her friends. Tell her, and she'll give you the answer that's best for her…and you." Harry says.
There was no time for little chat like that. Mostly because Hermione had come back over to join them.
"Are you feeling any better, Ron?" She asks.
Ron stumbled at first, but finally found his voice. "Uh, yeah! I took some medicine."
"Good." She smiles.
Laurel comes bounding up. "Did you guys hear that? Joel is going to be alright! I'm so happy."
"That's great." The three say.
Hermione leaves to go talk with Madame Pomfrey, so Laurel steps closer to the two boys to have a quick talk before she returned.
"Well, everything is back to normal?"
They both nod.
Laurel smiles mischievously. "You know, Christmas is ever so near. I received my present early. How about you?"
They look at her a little confused. She sighs.
"Sometimes when people don't know what to get you, you have to show them. Or just get it yourself, but that isn't any fun."
"You're on mushrooms," Ron says.
"Off your rocker." Harry agrees.
"God, nobody can use reverse psychology anymore!" Laurel groans. "Well, that wasn't really considered reverse psychology, but it's close. I'm rambling."
"Obviously." Harry and Ron say.
Laurel smiles. "I'm so glad to have you two back. You all looked so solemn and glum just a while ago. Be happy! Enjoy life! It's not just a pile of crap left on your doorstep."
"Are you going to tell him?" Harry asks out of the blue. "Joel."
Laurel looses her smile for a while. "I'm not sure anymore."
"Ha!" Ron points up at Harry from his sitting position. "Don't just give me shit about being a coward."
Harry shakes his head and smacks his forehead with the palm of his hand. "My efforts are futile."
"Damn straight!" Ron answers.
"Don't give me that." Harry spits back.
"Stop fighting you two." Laurel tries to stop them.
"See what I have to put up with?" Hermione comes back. "Want to take my job?"
"Eh, no," Laurel replies. "I have two boys of my own to take care of."
"You act as if you're our babysitters." Ron says.
"We are." Laurel and Hermione say and snicker once.
Yes, everything was back to normal. Harry looks out the window and watches the snow slowly fall to the December ground that was already fitted with a thick blanket of white. Christmas was coming, and nothing was better than Christmas at Hogwarts. Now that they had Hermione back and Laurel at their side too, it will possibly be one of the best. All the trauma was over. No more potions. There were still the matters of the heart, but those would play out in time. The heart is a stubborn creature, but once you get it moving, it's hard to stop.