Chapter 10
The Last Night Aboard

Hermione walked over to Harry and pulled him back to the rest of them. "Did you know?" Harry asked her.

"Know what?"

"That she was going to break up with me?"

"Yes." They led the others over to some deck chairs. "Come on let's sit down," Hermione told them. They sat down and talked about the sinking. It felt better to talk about it then not too.

After lunch they all decided to go to the ship's library to read. They left the library around five that afternoon. Harry and Ron changed in their cabin. Since they had escaped the Titanic wearing a lot of clothing, had no need to borrow any. This would be their second last dinner on the Carpathia, so they would be dining in restaurant style. The waiters handed out the menus. "What do you want?" Ron asked Harry.

"I think I'm going to have fish," Harry said, more to the waiter than Ron.

"I'll have pork steak," Ron said.

"How would you like that done, sir?"

"Cooked," said Ron, the others laughed. "Well done."

"We'll both have fish," Fred said, pointing at George.

"I want pork steak," Hermione told the waiter. "Medium."

After dinner they went the first-class lounge to play chess and exploding snap. It was well past eleven when they all finally went bed.

Again Harry and Ron were awakened by thunder, not just in the morning, but also several times throughout the night. Hermione walked into their room carrying tea and cookies. "It's too late for breakfast," she said, "in fact, it's too late for lunch too."

"What time is it?" Harry said, sitting up. A wave of faintness swept over him, but it subsided.

"Twelve-thirty-five," Hermione replied, setting the plate down on a table between the two beds.

"We must have slept in because it's dark outside," Ron said. Hermione left the room. "Here you go Harry." Ron passed him a cup of tea and two cookies. Harry took the tea but not the cookies.

"I'm not feeling too good," Harry said.

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Come on, I'll take you back to the hospital," Ron told him.

When they got there, they were asked what ship they were from, their class, and names. After the doctor examined Harry he said it was only a bad cold, and told him to stay below decks that day. They spent most the day in the smoking room and lounge. That night, however they would arrive in New York and would therefore need to go back out into the open.

Hermione came to get them when it was dinnertime. "What time are we arriving?" Harry asked.

"Sometime around midnight," Ron responded.

"Harry, are you not feeling well?" Hermione asked, "you look pale. Maybe you should see a doctor."

"I took him to the hospital this morning," Ron told her.

"What did the doctor say?" Hermione said.

"That it was just a bad cold," said Ron. He looked at Harry and added, "you do look like your sick, Harry."

"If you ask me, I don't think it's just a cold," Hermione said. Suddenly Harry started to cough. When it didn't stop and he was gasping for air, Hermione told him that they were taking him back to the hospital.

This time they got a different doctor. The doctor gave Harry a shot to help him stop coughing. The doctor left and when he came back he gave them the diagnosis. "It's pneumonia," he told them.

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione said, softly.

"That's not all," he said, "there's a crack in Harry's skull. Do you two know what might have caused it?"

"So that's why I've been dizzy," Harry said.

"When we were still on board the Titanic, Harry and I were inside the Grand staircase when the dome shattered and it flooded. The water carried us through the door and when it broke open we landed on the deck. Harry hit his head and was knocked out. There was a little bit of blood on his head," Ron explained. The doctor nodded.

"Could I talk to you two outside for a moment?" the doctor asked.

"Sure," said Hermione, slowly.

"Be right back," Ron told Harry and they left the room.

The doctor talked slowly and clearly so that they could understand him. "Now, I'm not worried about the crack, it will heal with time. What really concerns me is the pneumonia. It could kill him. In most cases it does." Tears slid down Hermione's face. Ron put a comforting arm around her. The doctor continued, "But in those cases it is not caught early enough. In your friend's case we caught it early enough so that we can treat it. I can't promise that he will get better. But, I can say that there is a good chance that he will recover. Now, what I'm going to do is show you two how give him the shot that helps him breathe easier." He showed Ron and Hermione how to administer the medicine. "I'm going to let him return to his own cabin." They returned to the hospital room where Harry was waiting for them.

Ron and Hermione took him back to his and Ron's cabin and tried to put Harry in bed. But he wouldn't lie down. "I want to see New York for the first time from the deck of the Carpathia," Harry pleaded.

"But the doctor said that if you go outside your pneumonia will get worse," Hermione said. Ron again tried to force Harry onto the bed. Harry started coughing again and this time he relaxed and let Ron put him on the bed. Hermione took out the medicine and did what the doctor had told them to do.

"Hermione what time is it?" Ron asked, as Harry stopped coughing.

"Ten."

"We should be in New York in a few more hours," Ron said, "we'll go up at eleven." When eleven came they all went up to the boat deck and waited to get off the ship.