Disclaimer: I don't own anything Harry Potter, I only own the character Abby. Everything else Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling
It was well into the morning before Mr. Weasley apparated back to the Burrow. Almost everyone was asleep, strewn about couches, chairs, and floors, all but one. Hermoine sat by the fire letting her mind wander as she glanced at the clock every so often. She jumped when she heard a loud 'pop', announcing Mr. Weasley's return.
"Mr. Weasley," Hermoine said, giving him a small fright. "Where's everyone else? You know, Mrs. Weasley and Abby."
"They're still at the hospital. The doctor's said that Abby had to stay a few days to make sure she's going to be alright. Why aren't you asleep?"
"I just couldn't sleep. I've had too much on my mind."
"Understandable, it's been a rough time for everyone as well. Mrs. Weasley sent me home to get some rest; she said that I was annoying all the doctors with my questions. It's odd what they call themselves…doctors. But Mrs. Weasley stayed behind incase of any news or if something happens. We'll all be able to go visit later in the day so I suggest you try to get some rest as well."
"I'll try Mr. Weasley. Thanks." With that Mr. Weasley made his way upstairs to bed. Hermoine sat in her chair until she drifted off to sleep.
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"Hermoine! Hermoine, wake up," Harry yelled, shaking Hermoine's arm. Hermoine groggily swatted his hand away and repositioned herself in her chair.
"Hermoine, come one. You've got to get up. You've slept all day. It's 5 o'clock, visiting hours end at 7." That got Hermoine's attention as she jumped from her chair scaring everyone around her half to death.
"What?!? Why didn't anyone wake me up sooner?" She couldn't believe she had slept so long. She didn't even mean to fall asleep, it just kind of happened.
"Calm down Hermoine," Ron interjected. "We have to get going if we're going to make it in time. Dad has to drive because some of us can't apparate yet."
Everybody piled into Mr. Weasley's new car, Hermoine still upset that she had slept so long. Mr. Weasley had to limit the amount of spells and hexes he had put on his new car because of the incident at the beginning of the trios' second year. He had to deal with no invisibility or flying and reduced it to a simple spell to allow more room in the car.
The ride had taken a good portion of an hour as Mr. Weasley struggled to read the map. After almost hitting a few cars on the road, Mr. Weasley had finally gotten the right side of the map up. He had to occasionally ask Harry and Hermoine for help reading it because he had never used one before.
Once at the hospital, Harry took charge, considering he had been to this hospital many times before, and led the way to the waiting room. The crowd pushed their way into the waiting room where they found Mrs. Weasley alone with a muggle magazine and a cup of coffee. As soon as she noticed everyone come it she ran into Mr. Weasley's arms and started crying.
"After…after you left, she… she went into cardiac arrest, they said it means that she died." There was a loud gasp at the sound of this. "The doctors were able to bring her back to life though. They say that the internal bleeding was worse then they originally thought. They had to take her back into surgery and now she's in a room in ICU. Visiting hours are extended there, so if we want, we can stay all night. I'm so worried about her," Mrs. Weasley cried into her husband shoulder.
After hearing all of this, Hermoine was about to faint, but the hand that was now on her shoulder kept her attached to the conscious world. After a few moments of silence, Mrs. Weasley turned to Hermoine.
"Hermoine, dear, I know how anxious you've been to see Abby, so I want you to go in first. Stay as long as you want. The longer, the better. Just be careful, she just came out of surgery and is in a lot of pain."
"Are you sure Mrs. Weasley?" She watched as Mrs. Weasley shook her head yes. "Well can Harry and Ron come with me too?"
"Of course dear. It's room 392A. Right through those doors and it's the third one on the right."
The trio made their way through the double doors leading to the ICU. Hermoine couldn't help but think how eerie the hospital seemed. She had to go to one once when she was about 8. She had broken her leg climbing a tree. Some kids from her class dared her to touch the top branch. She stepped on a hollow branch about three fourths of the way up and fell. All the kids ran as soon as she hit the ground. They left her to try and make it back home from the park with a broken leg. X-rays showed hat she had shattered it. She never forgot about the cruelness of kids.
And now as they approached the door of Abby's room, the memories came flooding back to her like a nightmare. As they came to the door, Hermoine turned to Harry and Ron.
"Do you guys mind if I go in alone at first?"
"No, not at all. Like Mrs. Weasley said, take all the time you need."
"Thanks guys, you're the best," Hermoine said as she slowly turned the knob to the room.
She approached the bed where Abby laid with tubes in her arms and running from her nose, Hermoine couldn't help but notice how pale Abby looked. The color was completely drained from her face. To Hermoine, it looked as if Abby was asleep, so she silently sat down in the chair next to her bed. She put her head in her hands and sat there for a few moments.
"Hermoine?"
Hermoine looked up startled.
"Abby? I thought you were sleeping," she said, noticing the bags under her eyes.
"Naw, I was just resting my eyes. I can't sleep. This bed is so uncomfortable."
"Do you need anything? I can go get you something."
"No, that's okay. Hospital beds are always like this, you can't do anything but deal with it. Same with the food. A word of advice, never try the meatloaf surprise. You'd think they'd try to get you better, but all they do is try to poison you with the food," Abby said struggling to laugh.
Hermoine laughed along with her surprised that she had such good spirit for just having surgery.
"Have you been to a hospital before?" Abby asked Hermoine.
"Once. When I was young. I broke my leg climbing a tree."
"Hey, we're alike. Look." She pulled the sheets up to show Hermoine the cast around her leg. "Hey what do you say. Be the first one to sign it?" She asked noticing Hermoine's pained expression.
"Yeah, I'd love too."
"We'll have to wait though. They don't give you anything to write with here. Next time a nurse comes in, I can ask her for something."
"Okay! So, have you done this before? You know have to go to a hospital and stuff."
"Actually, yeah, a few times. When I was a baby the doctors told my parents that I had a hole in my heart. They couldn't do surgery until I was a little older so when I was about 5 they patched up the hole in my heart. If I strain it too much, like run or anything it can be damaged and when I was young I ran a lot. I came in a few times because of it."
"Wow, that must be hard. I mean not being able to run around and do kid stuff."
"Aw, it was ok. I did it anyways, just not as much after the first time I damaged it. I was an extremely hyper kid, you couldn't keep me down."
"Oh." Hermoine glanced around nervously unsure of what to say after that. "So, um, what did the doctors say?"
"What about me? Nothing much. Broke my leg, dislocated my shoulder, few ribs broken, and a bit of internal bleeding. They had to but these mental braces in so my ribs can heal right. A new adventure everyday. They say I can probably leave after about a week, that I should be as good as new. I'd still be on crutches but as long as I get to go outside, all is good."
"Oh! I almost forgot. I have some people I want you to meet. They're outside. They're names are Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, two of my best friends. I'll go get them."
Hermoine made her way for the door and pulled it open to find her two friends sitting on the ground staring at the wall across the hall talking about Quidditch.
"Is that all you guys ever talk about?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Ron replied. "Can we come in now?"
"Yeah. Let's go."
Hermoine led Harry and Ron inside next to the bed. "Abby, this is Harry and Ron. You met Ron's mom and dad earlier. Ron, Harry, this is Abby."
"Hi," Harry and Ron said in unison.
"Hi," Abby chuckled.
"We were just having a discussion about which Quidditch teams will make it to the finals of the Quidditch World Cup this year. What do you think?"
"What's Quidditch?" Harry and Ron looked up in surprise.
"You don't know what Quidditch is? It's only the best sport in the wizarding world."
"Oh, well, I see the problem then," Abby explained. "I'm not a witch."
The trio looked up in shock. "What do you mean? You're a muggle?"
"Yeah, I guess, if that's what you call us."
"Really? How cool," Ron said excited to be talking to a muggle.
The four of them got into an hour-long discussion about the differences between the muggle world and the wizarding world.
"So, you guys go to a school called Hogwarts, and you learn a whole bunch of magic? That sounds amazing. I would love to go there. It's better then where I go to school now."
Hermoine glanced at the clock noticing it was already quarter to ten.
"I'm going to go get something from the vending machines, anybody want anything?"
"If you can sneak me in a candy bar or something, that would be great. I'm not supposed to eat anything that they didn't cook. That will be the death of me."
"I'll come with you Hermoine. I'm sure you'll need help carrying everything with what Ron will want."
Harry and Hermoine left the room heading in the direction they supposed the vending machine was. As they approached the corner, they heard a few doctors talking.
"There's too much internal bleeding, I don't think she'll live past a week."
"I think your right but we shouldn't tell her, we should let her live out the rest of her life as happy as possible."
"But Abby is not going to be happy with all the pain she's in. We already gave her the highest amount of pain medication we're allowed to. We should just go tell her so called 'family' who brought her in and see if they just don't want to end her pain right now."
"We can't do that. You can't give people who aren't even related to her the choice to end her life. We have to try to find her parents."
"I guess your right. Well then, I suppose we won't tell her until we find her real parents then."
Hermoine looked at Harry and he gave her the same shocked expression as she was giving him.
"I can't believe it. They told her that she could leave and would be practically as good as new in a week. Now they're saying she's going to be dead by that time? I can't believe it."
"I know Hermoine, but there's nothing we can really do right now. We can't use magic to save her or anything. We have to wait until we can contact Dumbledore. Until then we can't say anything to Abby, ok?"
"I guess so," Hermoine replied sullenly.
"Ok, well then I guess we should go find that vending machine and pretend like nothing happened."
They made their way to the vending machine and started their way back carrying armloads of soda, candy and sandwiches. Hermoine stopped outside the door and peered in. She looked so happy talking to Ron. She was so excited and not a care in the world even though she had probably just been through hell the day before and was in so much pain. She doesn't even let on that it hurts. Maybe it's the pain medication though. I can't let her die, she has too much to offer. She's such a happy person, I can't let it happen.
Harry put his hand on her shoulder in the warm way that he does. "Come on, let's go." He said opening the door.
"And here they come, the bearers of gifts. I can't wait to get the hospital food taste out of my mouth. My saviors!"
If only she knew, thought Hermoine.
"Hey, will you guys save my stuff? I want to run out to mum and dad and see if someone will apparate home and get my wizard's chess set and a deck of Exploding Snaps. I'm going to teach Abby how to play."
"Sure."
Ron dashed out the door and returned 2 minutes later with a bag full of his wizard's chess set, exploding snap deck, candy from Honeydukes, and a wide variety of pranks from Fred and George's store mixed with Zonko's. They spent the whole night messing around with the various things Ron had brought, and eventually one by one, everyone fell asleep in their chairs/bed. No one noticed as dark steely gray eyes watched them throughout the night.
Days passed where Harry, Ron, and Hermoine spent hanging out with Abby. Never once did she lose any of her energy. Hermoine became nervous as the week came near to an end, she didn't want Abby to die. Over the few days they had known each other, they had became the best of friends. Ginny had come at times and all three had their girl moments in which no one could even try to separate them. But as the time drew near, Hermoine found herself withdrawing more and more. The one day Abby decided to mention something, noticing Hermoine's attempt to withdraw.
"Hermoine? What's wrong? You seem kind of secluded lately. Like you don't want to be around me anymore. Did I do something to offend you? I would feel terrible."
"No Abby, it's nothing you did. I've just been thinking a lot."
"About what?"
"Nothing, I shouldn't say anything."
"Come on, you can trust me. I promise I won't tell a soul."
"I suppose you have the right to know." Hermoine told the events of the other night watching the reactions of Abby as she talked. She seemed to be quite upset but didn't say a word the whole time.
"So, I'm supposed to die. I can't believe they didn't tell me. Isn't there like some rule that they have to tell me."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier."
"You know what Hermoine? Don't worry about it. You did what you thought was best. I don't blame you for anything. It's better that you told me. I guess there isn't anything I can do about it, just do my best to, I guess, make the best of what's left. What do you say to a game of Wizard's Chess?"
"Okay, let me go get the game from Ron." Hermoine left the room to go to the waiting room. While around Abby, she did her best to hold in her tears but now that she was gone they freely flowed down her face. She walked into the waiting room to find Dumbledore sitting with all the Weasley's and Harry.
"Ah, Hermoine, it's good to see you again. Come, sit." Hermoine sat in the empty chair opposite from Dumbledore. "I'm sure you're aware that your new friend Abby was said to not make it through the week as Mr. Potter told me. Don't worry though. I'm just the person she needs. With a little bit of magic she'll be just fine and able to leave. I'm afraid I'll have to get Poppy to attend to her leg and ribs after she leaves the hospital though. Can't have bones mysteriously healing overnight can we?"
Hermoine looked up at Dumbledore with a grateful smile spread across her face. "Thank you so much Professor. I can't wait to tell Abby." Hermoine made her way to get up.
"Wait just a moment Miss Granger. There is a matter I need to discuss with you, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Weasley. Now, I know that you think Voldemort is the one that did this to Abby. This is true. And it is not over yet. You might be asking what Voldemort wants with a muggle such as Abby. Now I need you to promise to never tell another soul about what I am going to tell you."
"We promise Professor."
"Abby was born a witch. Her parents were very powerfully but they fought for Voldemort. We took her away from her parents when she was very young and placed her in a new family. A muggle family. Abby is destined to be one of the most powerful witches we will ever come to know. She doesn't know of her future or past, but I will soon tell her. What I need from you three is to protect her. Voldemort will stop at no costs to get her and manipulate her. Abby will be coming to Hogwarts at the beginning of term…"
"Yes!" Ron exclaimed. 'Sorry Professor." He said as a smile spread across Dumbledore's face.
"She is going to be very behind. I need you three to try to catch her up in all of her classes and to help her with any problems she might be having. She will be taught after hours by teachers but the more she knows before the start of term, the better. Try not to leave her alone for too long though. I need you three to protect her, be alert at all times and watch yourselves. And with that, I believe I have some more explaining and healing to do with Abby."
After what seemed like forever Dumbledore left and the trio approached Abby's room. Hermoine peaked in and saw Abby laying on her side looking depressed and crying. She also noticed how Abby held her chest apparently in much pain. Hermoine pushed the door open and Abby sat up trying to wipe away her tears without anyone noticing. She put a big smile on her face and greeted them with an excited hello.
"I guess you guys have a new Gryffindor in your house. Dumbledore sorted me into Gryffindor with that hat while you guys were out there."
Everyone jumped for joy and started cheering. Ron even made an attempt to jump on the bed but fell flat on his face on the floor. Everyone laughed hysterically at his clumsiness but Hermoine was worried that the happy face Abby put on for them was just a front. That there was something that she wasn't telling. Hermoine was determined to find out what it was, in order to do as they promised. Protect Abby.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who is reading this. I hoping this chapter isn't too long, and I'm hoping it's good. That's a lot to hope for, but I'm doing it. Thank you to the reviewer (s) (ponyboyluver) i appreciate it. Hope you enjoy!