"And if you're left all alone? Who will you go to?"
"I don't know; I suppose… But why would I end up all alone? And when did we start having this conversation?" Hermione tried to focus on the face in front of her- a face with shining green eyes and a mirthful smirk.
"When have we not been having this conversation, Hermy darling? Now answer the question, because if you don't know then I might have the perfect solution." There was ringing laughter as a bewildered Hermione shook her head.
"Hermione, are you alright?" Hermione looked up from her position in one of the common room chairs to see a pale, freckled face looking down at her. "We heard you had to leave the match."
"Oh, I'm fine, Ron. Just a little tired, I suppose." Hermione shrugged and unfolded her legs from the chair, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. When had she fallen asleep? "So did you win?"
Ron beamed as he settled in to a chair of his own. "We won spectacularly, if I do say so myself. There was this one play that went especially well; you see, I was supposed to"- Hermione kept nodding and smiling as Ron described the spectacular play with enthusiastic hand motions.
Ron is speaking, she told herself. Ron is telling you something- do you hear the words? Hermione could indeed hear the words, but she just couldn't put any meaning behind them. Ron was now leaning back in his chair, a satisfied look on his face. "Doesn't that just sound so…so…"
"Spectacular?" Hermione suggested.
"Yes! Harry, wasn't that one play spectacular?" Harry looked over to where Hermione and Ron were conversing.
"You mean the one where you did the crazy…." Here Harry proceeded to gesture wildly with his hands, and Hermione was surprised Ron was still alive if he had been doing that on his broom. "That was quite spectacular."
"Which play are you talking about," a first-year Gryffindor asked from a group of fellow first-years, looking from Ron to Harry.
Ron smiled broadly as he jumped to join the group. Hermione watched as his shining red head bobbed up and down as he made his way to the group. As he stood towering over them all, he made the same wild gestures as before, smiling when one girl or boy gasped.
Meanwhile, Harry had made himself comfortable in Ron's former seat. "Say, Hermione, do you fancy anybody?" Harry had a sly look in his eye, and the question caught Hermione off guard.
What exactly was one to say in this situation? Should she make a coy response and proceed to bat her eyelashes in a hinting manner? Or should she just throw herself at the boy and yell out her oaths of love to him?
"Yes, I suppose I do," Hermione said quickly, averting her eyes and hoping to the gods she wouldn't blush.
"Really?" Harry hadn't really expected her to answer him truthfully. He looked around, and Hermione could only guess it was to ensure them a private conversation. Her stomach twisted in an exciting fashion. "Is it…is it Ron?" Harry smiled at Hermione knowingly.
She blinked twice, and then three times, not quite sure she'd heard right at first. Ron? Ron? A smiled started twitching at the corners of her mouth before a loud, hysteric giggle bubbled up. "Ron? As in, Ron?" It wasn't particularly funny, so Hermione wasn't quite sure why she was laughing so hard. Tears were blurring her eyes as Hermione looked away from Harry's puzzled expression and on to a familiar pair of darker green eyes.
Hermione tried to stop laughing as she stood up, adrenaline pumping through her all of a sudden. Who was this girl? The laughter still had yet to die as Hermione stood rather close to the mysterious girl. With a gasping breath the laughter was gone, replaced instead with a wrenching pain in Hermione's chest.
"What are you doing," she asked accusingly of the girl in front of her, too quiet for anyone to hear. The girl wasn't smiling, for once, which unnerved Hermione and left her dizzy. 'Only one of us can speak at a time.'
Hermione knelt down, trying to regain her balance on the floor with the pain yet to reside. "Only one of us…" The pain grew stronger as Hermione leaned back on her feet; she knew Harry was somewhere at her side, and that the sun had already moved on to some other part of the world, and that a group of people was forming to see if she was alright. But Hermione had eyes only for this girl in front of her, this girl that was slowly bending down, much to slow to be natural. Her face was slowly coming closer, and Hermione had the feeling that the girl was either about to kiss her or fall in to her.
"Only one of us," the girl repeated, staring into Hermione's eyes once more before kissing her gently on the forehead. For one instant the pain was too much to handle, but then just as suddenly as it came it was gone, replaced by blessed nothingness. Hermione looked around at all the faces with expressions ranging from puzzled to scared witless before falling to the floor in a faint.
The next morning Hermione woke up, her head throbbing. She looked around, confused as to why she was in the hospital wing. She sat up in bed, cradling her head in her hands until a bout of dizziness subsided.
"Miss Granger! So glad to see you're awake," Madame Pomphrey called to Hermione from the next bed over, where she was tending to a younger boy.
"Madame Pomphrey…why am I here?"
The medi-witch stopped her bustling about to look thoughtfully at Hermione. "To tell you the truth, dear, I'm not quite sure. Nothing appears to be wrong with you, except for maybe exhaustion."
Hermione looked to either side of her. "So, can I go?"
"Not until I run a few more tests, dear, to make sure that nothing is terribly wrong." Hermione sighed and let her head fall back on the pillow beneath her. Her face was screwed in a look of concentration as she tried to remember what all had happened yesterday.
She remembered the Quidditch match, and having to leave early. She remembered running into Malfoy and him saving her from a crippling fall. And then…she was in the common room…and she was talking to Ron and Harry… Harry thought she fancied Ron, and she'd been laughing, and then… And then what?
Hazy flashes came to her, leaving just as suddenly as they appeared, of jumbled images; she wasn't even sure if they were from last night. A fireplace, bruised knees, the forest, a bowl, sand, the forest, a fireplace, a pain in her chest.
Hermione looked down and took her right leg out from beneath the blanket. She lifted up her clothing to look down at a very bruised knee. A feeling of surreal disorientation settled over Hermione's already muddled mind as she once again settled in to the bed.
A while later Harry and Ron showed up, both looking a little unsure of what to do. They acted as if they'd never been here before. "Hermione, are you better?"
"Yes, thanks Ron," Hermione said, and she noted a slight red tinge on his cheeks. She wondered if he'd heard the conversation between Harry and her last night. "Do you…what happened last night? I can't remember."
Harry and Ron exchanged looks. "We're not quite sure," Harry said, groping for the proper words. "You just sort of…" he made a gesture that led Hermione to believe she'd keeled over, or something like it. He shrugged, and Ron repeated the gesture.
"Well, thanks I suppose," Hermione said, giving the boys a small smile. She'd look up some of her symptoms in the library later. Perhaps it was a rare disease, or…
"Boys, I believe you had better wait for your friend outside, for I need to run a few more tests." Madame Pomfrey bustled over to Hermione's bed, while the girl sat up and swung her legs over. The boys left, and Hermione was put through the regular routine of making sure everything was in its proper place, that her eyes weren't dilated, that her blood was the right color, that her reflexes were normal…
"Well, it seems you are a perfectly healthy young girl, Miss Granger. And what wonderful calcium intake you seem to have."
"My parents are dentists," Hermione said shrugging. For some reason that thought sent her a feeling of foreboding.
"Ah, yes, muggles who clean teeth… Well, off you go, my dear. Do remember to sleep!"
Hermione smiled and left the hospital wing with Harry and Ron, walking mostly in silence. When she got to the dormitories she would write a list of apparent symptoms she'd had, and from there…
"Oh, by the way Hermione- who's Rowan?" The question startled Hermione, and she paused, looking up into Ron's curious eyes.
"Rowan?" She breathed softly. "I don't even think I know the answer to that." Hermione heard somebody laughing, most likely somebody walking down a nearby corridor. They do tend to echo, after all. 'Only one of us…'
Well, it sure has been a while. >.> More to come.
-Siren Duveil
