CHAPTER THIRTY: All Secrets Revealed
Ron couldn't remember how he had managed to get himself to the hospital wing. He remembered running into Neville on the way to Astronomy, who told him Hermione had collapsed in the hallway only minutes before. That was all it took for Ron to drop everything and race to the hospital wing, desperate to find out what was wrong with her.
He was barely inside the doorway before he started shouting, "what happened? Where is she?"
Then he saw her, lying on a bed, with a very harried Madame Pomfrey checking over her vitals. She was as pale as the bed sheets, and was shaking so much, the Matron had used a spell to bound her wrists and ankles.
He ran to her, only to find his path cut off by Harry.
"Ron, you have to let Madame Pomfrey help her."
He wanted to shove Harry out of the way, and make him feel what he was feeling, seeing Hermione lie there near death, and he wasn't quite sure what stopped him from doing that.
"She's not helping her," Ron said, and he was shaking now too.
"She's doing everything she can, Ron," his sister's voice rang from his left side, attempting to sound reassuring and failing.
It obviously wasn't enough in Ron's opinion. It was making him sick to watch her moaning and thrashing wildly and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to help. He had never before felt so helpless.
"It could be any one of a million things affecting her," Ginny tried to tell him. "Madame Pomfrey can't begin to treat her until she knows what it is, otherwise she could just make it worse."
Ron failed to see how things could get any worse.
"Did she look all right this morning?" Ginny questioned Harry.
"Yeah, she looked perfectly normal," he answered distantly.
"Did she eat anything different?" She pressed him.
Harry finally tore his gaze away from Hermione. "I don't think so. She skipped lunch though. She said she wasn't hungry."
"Did anything out of the ordinary happen when you were with her?"
"No, there was nothing," he said, completely frustrated that he couldn't be any more helpful. "We were arguing and after she got knocked in the arm while we were walking she lost her balance and started complaining she was hot."
"Which arm?" Ginny demanded.
"Her right one, near the elbow."
Both he and Ron didn't understand the relevance of this, but Ginny and Madame Pomfrey seemed to. She began a thorough examination of Hermione's right arm. She stopped abruptly and snapped at Ginny to grab a container full of a silky blue liquid from her medicine cupboard. Ginny returned a second later, and the Hogwarts matron began pouring it down Hermione's throat. She stopped after pouring nearly half of it down.
"Do you know what's wrong?" Ron asked, moving closer to the bed.
"Poison," Madame Pomfrey answered instantly. "There's a very tiny puncture wound on her right forearm where it was injected. I gave her this to freeze the poison inside of her. It will stop it from spreading any further while I run some tests to figure out what kind of toxin it is."
"Is she going to be all right?" Asked Harry.
The Hogwarts matron's normally stony expression became sympathetic. "I'm sorry, it's too early to tell."
Ron faced Harry. "Who ran into her?"
"I didn't get a good look at who it was. It happened so fast and he blended in with every one else."
"Malfoy," Ron spat the name as if it were the most disgusting word he had ever heard.
"I would have recognized if it was him," Harry told him.
"He didn't do it, but he was behind it. I'd stake my life on it."
"Ron, you can't prove that."
"Jesus, Harry, open your eyes. Malfoy's been dying for a way to get back at you. He couldn't hurt you directly so he found the next best target. He got back at you through Hermione."
Harry knew Ron was right without thinking. For the longest time, Hermione had tried to convince him that Malfoy's threat was real, but he had brushed her off. He had even called her paranoid more than once. Now she was paying for his ignorance with her life.
"This is your fault," Ron accused. "You let Malfoy get her."
"Ron, I swear I didn't know he would go after her just to get back at me,"
"Harry, how stupid are you? Hermione's had a target on herself since the day she became friends with you. If you had just trusted me from the beginning and told me what was going on, we could have prevented this from ever happening. But you were too worried I'd lose my head and do something irrational, and now look what's happened."
"You both can either shut up or leave," said Ginny angrily, coming over to them. "You're not helping Hermione, either one of you."
Ron stormed out of there so fast, Harry had to run to catch up with him.
"Don't go after Malfoy," Harry warned him, knowing exactly what he was planning.
"Don't tell me what to do, Harry."
"Ron, I'm serious. You have no idea what you'd be getting yourself in to."
"You go on and on about me needing to trust you, well, how about trusting me for a change?"
He was going to do what Harry should have done in the first place.
Draco Malfoy was sauntering down the hall, seemingly without a care in the world when a hand snaked out from the shadows and pulled him against the cold stone wall.
"What the – "
"Shut up, Malfoy. I didn't say you could speak."
"Weasel, I suggest you take your hands off of me unless you're looking for an excuse to get yourself expelled."
Ron threw him back against the wall, hard, before strengthening his hold on the hem of Malfoy's robes. "When you get out into the real world daddy won't be there to solve your every problem."
"Ever heard of the expression 'money talks'? No, I suppose you wouldn't have – not with the lot you come from."
"I know it was you behind the attack on Hermione."
Malfoy tried looking aghast at the accusation, but Ron saw through the act. "I had nothing to do with that. Is it my fault that Granger can't cut it and fainted? She should be counting herself lucky that she and the other filth like her are still allowed to roam these halls."
"You're the only filth here, Malfoy. You can deny it all you want, but I know you had a hand in what happened."
"Why don't you try and prove it, Weasley," Malfoy dared him, despite the fact that Ron obviously had the upper hand at the moment.
"I have all the proof I need," Ron began in a dangerous tone. "If anything happens to her I swear I will kill you with my own bare hands. And no one – not daddy, not Crabe and Goyle, not anyone will be able to stop me."
He gave Malfoy another hard shove to emphasize how serious he was, before letting go and walking away. After he had spoken those last words something had revealed itself in the Slytherin's eyes that been missing from all their previous confrontations. Fear.
It was well passed dinnertime when Ginny emerged from the hospital wing. She spent all afternoon pouring through medical book after medical book looking for the poison they were dealing with in Hermione. Now that Madame Pomfrey thought she had figured out what it was, she was already buslting away at creating an antidote. Ginny had left, not wanting to distract her. She gave her brother a comforting hug from where he sat beside Hermione's bed, which he barely acknowledged before leaving.
She was shocked to find Harry sitting alone in the waiting room outside in the corridor.
"How long have you been sitting here?"
He shrugged. "A couple of hours maybe."
"Harry, you don't have to stay out here. Ron's still with her, but I don't think he would mind your being there."
Harry disagreed. "I think I've caused enough damage for one day, so if it's all the same to you, I'd rather to stay here."
"Madame Pomfrey figured out what kind of poison it is. She's working on an antidote as we speak."
"So Hermione's going to be all right?" His tone was hopeful.
"It's still too early to tell. We have no idea how far the poison spread before it was frozen." She didn't mean to crush his hope, but he deserved an honest answer where Hermione was concerned.
Harry kept his face expressionless, not wanting to betray any of the emotions he was feeling. "What kind of poison was it?"
"It's a much more recent toxin as poisons go, discovered in the last century. It breaks down the body's immune system, weakening the body's normal defenses until the victim eventually dies," she explained.
"Ron's got another thing to add to his list of reasons to hate me."
Ginny looked at him sharply. "Do you think he shouldn't?"
Harry rested his elbows on his knees and hung his head in his hands. "I'm so tired of this," he said in a weary voice.
"Tired of what?"
"Tired of the constant battle. I hate it. I hate how I've screwed up my friendship with Ron so many times it's now beyond repair. I hate how Hermione got caught up in my rivalry with Malfoy. And I hate how every thing I do pushes you further and further away." His expression told her he hadn't meant to admit that last part out loud, but it was too late to take it back now.
She wasn't sure how to respond to that. She cared about Harry more then she cared about anyone else in her life, but sometimes she wondered if she wouldn't be better off without him. She could never think with a clear head where Harry was concerned. He was the only boy she had ever really liked, and more than once she had wondered if she had deprived herself of many joyous relationships by devoting herself only to him.
"Why did you break up with me?"
The question startled her. It felt like a lifetime ago. "We were having problems. It was the right thing to do."
"No, that's not it. I saw your face when I said those things to you. You wanted to put everything behind us, but you couldn't, why?"
"Harry, that was months ago. Why are you bringing it up now?"
"Because I know you were keeping something hidden from me. I want to know what that is."
"I don't want to talk about this anymore," she said, and started walking away.
"You were the one who told me I would run away from my feelings because they scared me. Now tell me who's running away?" Harry challenged, jumping to his feet.
She chose not to answer. She didn't owe him any explanations. She made her decision seven months ago, and no matter how much she missed him and wanted to be with him, she could never go back and undo the choice she had made.
When Harry got back to Gryffindor Tower, the first thing he did before marching up to the sixth year girl's dorm, was stopping by his own room to pick up something he might need. Ginny may not have anything to say to him, but he had plenty to say to her – and she was going to listen. She accused him of hiding his feelings when she was doing the exact same thing by refusing to talk to him. It infuriated him to no end that she would not give him a straight answer. That only served to further confirm his judgment that she was hiding something from him, and with everything that had happened since Christmas he had been too stuck in his own world to pay it any attention – but not anymore.
He banged on the door to her dorm, but received no response. He put his ear to the door but there was nothing but silence coming from the other side. He decided to take his chances and walk in. Luckily, it was indeed empty inside. He found the bed that was Ginny's and sat on it. He pulled the invisibility cloak he'd brought with him over himself in case any of her roommates walked in. He'd sit there all night if he had to, but he wasn't leaving until he got an answer that satisfied him. If she thought she could avoid him by hiding up in her room, he was going to show her how mistaken she was.
He was sitting on something hard. It was underneath the covers, so he reached under and pulled it out. It was just some book with no words on the cover, and he nearly tossed it on her dresser without a second glance when he recognized what it was. It was the same maroon coloured book he had seen her writing in during the summer. A diary. He was holding Ginny Weasley's diary in his hands. His conscience was screaming at him to put it back where he found it and forget he'd ever seen it, while his brain was screaming equally as hard that all the answers he was looking for were right in there. It's not like he had to tell her afterwards that he had looked at it. He tried to rationalize that he was only going to skim through a couple of pages. He didn't think there was any harm in taking a peak at it, so he opened it and started reading the first page…
The common room was still bustling with activity when Ginny headed up to her room for bed. It was early still, but she was beyond exhausted. All she wanted to do was get under her covers and sleep for a week. She found she was not the only one who had decided to retire early. Two of her roommates were already fast asleep. She carried her tired body over to her side of the room, dropping her robe by the foot of the bed and not caring. She was in the process of pulling her sweater over her head, when she gasped loudly at seeing Harry appear out of thin air on her bed.
She cast a quick look to make sure her roommates were still asleep before saying in a hushed voice, "what are you doing here?"
He didn't answer her, but through the moonlight that crept through the windows in the room she made out the shape of a rectangular object beside him. Her diary. She didn't even have to ask. One look at his face confirmed her worst fears. Knowing she wouldn't be able to keep her voice down, she grabbed his arm and dragged him into the bathroom, muttering a silencing spell as soon as the door was shut.
"How dare you read my diary!" She screamed at him.
"How could you not tell me Sirius made you break up with me?" He demanded.
"Sirius didn't make me do anything. It was my choice."
Harry wasn't buying that excuse. "Why didn't you ever say anything?"
"This conversation is over," she said, reaching for the door handle. "Harry, what you did was unforgivable."
Harry's hand reached it first, stopping her from leaving. "You should have been honest with me."
"And that gave you an open invitation to read up on my most private thoughts? Do you have any idea how humiliating it is for me to stand here after you read what I wrote in there?" If she hadn't been fuming with anger she would have been blushing at any number of things he could have read. She had that diary since fourth year and had accumulated quite a few entries centered around Harry.
"I didn't read everything."
"Oh, and that makes it so much better," she bit out sarcastically.
"Hey, I'm not the only guilty party here. You lied, Ginny. You lied about everything! All these months of fighting and avoiding each other…" He trailed off, running his fingers through his unruly hair.
"Fine, I did lie, and maybe I should have told you about Sirius, but any chance we had at fixing things you just ruined. You had no right to read my diary, and I will never forgive you for this as long as I live."
Tears were streaming down her face in full force now, but they were tears of anger. Of all the things Harry had done to her, this was by far the worst. She had not expected him to violate her privacy in the worst possible way – and she hated him for that.
She pushed Harry out of the way and flung the bathroom door open. She didn't care if she woke her roommates, or who saw her as she ran through the common room and out the portrait hole. All that mattered to her at that moment was being as far away from Harry Potter as possible.
"Sirius!" Harry shouted, stepping out from his godfather's fireplace. "Sirius, are you here?"
The lights in the house were on, and out came Sirius from the kitchen, looking thoroughly surprised and somewhat panicked to see his godson.
"Harry, what's wrong? Did something happen at Hogwarts?"
"How could you interfere in my relationship with Ginny?" Harry shouted at him.
Sirius looked stricken. "Harry, it wasn't like that – "
"The hell it wasn't!" Harry continued to shout, and took a step towards his godfather. "I've been suffering and miserable for months and it's all your fault!"
"I told Ginny after the Hogsmeade incident that she needed to make a choice. I knew how much she cared for you, and I knew that if you continued to see her Voldemort would find some way to use her against you."
"I never would have let that happen. I told you that day in the hospital wing that I would rather die first rather then see her hurt."
"Harry, that's exactly my point. You were so blinded by your feelings for Ginny you were getting careless."
"And that's supposed to make it okay that you ruined whatever chance at a relationship we might have had? I would have thought that you, Sirius, above everyone else would have wanted to see your best friend's son happy."
"I did what I thought was best for you at the time."
"Save the excuses, Sirius. I don't want to hear anything else you have to say. The second I vanish from that fireplace I don't want to ever see you again. You can go and rot in Azkaban for another twelve years for all I care."
"Harry, please wait!"
Harry was back in the fireplace in an instant, not wanting to stay in that house a second longer. The thought alone of having to be in the same room as Sirius Black made his stomach recoil with disgust. He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Three Broomsticks!" and vanished in a green flash.
From his living room, Sirius continued to beg his godson to stay long after Harry's departure.