Getting Over It
Chapter 14
Love
For a full two weeks Hermione heard nothing of Oliver. He wasn't in school – another teacher told her that he had called in sick and wasn't expected back for quite a while. It worried her to hear this. Should she take it as a good sign or a bad sign? The only thing that she was sure about was that ever since she had returned from talking – more like shouting – to him she had been filled with doubt.
When she returned home she hadn't really known what to expect for his response, but she had expected anything more than nothing.
"Just get on with your life 'Mione, if he's too much of an idiot to realise what he's missing then he doesn't deserve to be with you," Ginny had advised her, but Hermione didn't really see how she could get on with her life when he plagued her thoughts and haunted her dreams.
She was constantly wondering what he was thinking, what he was doing, how he was feeling; it drove her to distraction so much that she couldn't concentrate on even the simplest of tasks. It was this that made her end up in the hospital.
It was Saturday evening, Sam had gone to a friend's house for a birthday party and a sleepover and Hermione had the whole evening to herself. She had been planning to curl up in bed with a book and a box of chocolates, but Ginny told her that this would not be the case. Instead she was now being dragged out to a club to start 'Operation Get Over Oliver' as Ginny was now calling it.
Hermione had an hour until she was supposed to meet the group of friends she would be spending the night with trying to 'enjoy' herself. Though she did not see how she would be able to with her current state of mind. She was in the shower washing the paint out of her hair from where she had been finger painting with Sam that morning before he left to go his friend's house.
The window was open to let the steam out of the room so she was able to hear the soft hoot of an owl as it flapped past her window. Her head jerk in eagerness and she grabbed the handle of the glass door to open it, thinking that the owl may be from Oliver. But in her haste she pushed the door too hard causing it to bump against the rubber strip and bounce back. She tried to stop herself but the plastic flooring under foot was slippery from the water and soapsuds causing her to fall, hands first through the glass.
This was where Ginny found her an hour and a half later in a pool of her own blood, glass digging into her face and body, unconscious and hardly breathing. She rushed her friend to St. Mungo's hospital to be revived.
"You're lucky you found her when you did; she's lost an awful lot of blood," the Healer informed the worried redhead pacing outside Hermione's room.
"Will she be ok?" Ginny inquired.
"She should be; we've managed to get all of the glass out of the wounds so now we'll be able to start healing them, but she needs blood and she'll be weak for quite a while. Is there anybody that we'll need to contact? Parents, partner?"
"Erm yes, if you contact her parents, they'll be able to pick up her son from his friend's house and let her daughter know, she's in Hogwarts at the moment, and Harry Potter and Ron Weasley." Ginny told him and then with a sudden flash of inspiration she added, "And there's her boyfriend, Oliver Wood."
"Ok, we'll send out owls to them both," the Healer nodded and walked away leaving Ginny to resume her pacing.
--
It was past eleven by the time the owl flapped to his house and tapped on the pane of glass with its beak. Grumbling, he got placed his glass of fire whiskey down on the table and went to let the bird into the living room.
He unrolled the parchment and read through it, not really taking it in until he read it a second time. He gazed down at the words with wide-eyed, white-faced shock. All it said was that Hermione had been taken into the hospital in a critical condition. It did not tell him what had happened to her or how she was…just that she was in hospital.
He grabbed a jacket and threw it around him as he rushed to find the jar of floo powder to quickly get to St Mungo's. As he rushed out of the fireplace into the arrivals room at the hospital and then into the corridor, he grabbed the nearest nurse.
"Hermione Granger, where is she? I need to find her!" he exclaimed in a panic.
"Erm, I'm sorry sir, I don't know," she stuttered, eyes wide in panic. "If you go to the reception they'll be able to tell you."
Without a further word he rushed down the hall and into the lift where he raced down to the ground floor, pushing past everyone who got in his way. After an exasperatingly slow conversation he finally found out where Hermione was.
Ginny was still outside the room when he arrived, she sat on one of the hard chairs with her head leant against the wall.
"Ginny!" he cried rushing over to her; she stood up upon seeing him. "How is she? What happened?"
"She fell through the pane of glass in her shower; she's lost a lot of blood."
"Oh Merlin!" he exclaimed. "Will she be ok?"
Ginny shrugged then nodded as her eyes filled up with tears. Wordlessly, he hugged the young woman.
"I'm so scared Oliver!" she admitted.
"It's ok Gin, it'll be ok," he soothed.
Inside himself he felt just as scared, but he could see that at the moment he needed to be strong, for the sake of the woman standing before him. When Harry and Ron arrived he was able to surrender his role to them and sat outside the door waiting for the hospital staff to exit into the hall.
As soon as someone joined them the four people all jumped up to attention.
"She's sleeping at the moment, she'll be ok but I would suggest that you all go and get a good night's sleep. If you come back in the morning the potion will have worn off and she'll be awake," the Healer told them and they all nodded.
"Ok, thank you, and you'll contact us if anything happens?" Harry asked.
The Healer assured them that he would and Harry, Ron and Ginny all turned to leave.
"Oliver, are you not coming?" Ginny asked as she turned to see that he hadn't moved from the spot where he had been standing.
"No," he said distractedly. "I think I'll just stay here for a while."
They shrugged; the three of them had all, at some point, spent the night awake and uncomfortable in St Mungo's waiting for whoever was in the hospital room being treated. If they could go home and sleep and still be back in time to see their friend wake up then that is the plan that they would go with. To Oliver, on the other hand, it was a new experience.
So he sat and he waited as the hours ticked by, not sleeping for more than ten minutes at a time before someone would rush past and he would be jerked awake once more. Finally, all the Healers left and Oliver was allowed into the room. He pulled the chair right up to the bed and sat, simply looking down on her until the sunlight peeked through the gap at the bottom of the blinds.
--
It was around five o'clock in the morning and Oliver was just nodding off when her eyelids fluttered open. She looked around taking in where she was, remembering what had happened the previous night.
"Sam!" she exclaimed, remembering that she was supposed to be picking up her son that day.
"Don't worry," Oliver reassured her. "Your parents went to get him, they're driving down. Hogwarts has been contacted and Millie is going to come down for the weekend. I could pick her up if you'd like."
Hermione tried to smile at this comment but the deep cuts on her face were still taking their time to heal and hurt as her face moved.
"Harry, Ron and Ginny were here last night. They went home to get some sleep, but they'll be back soon," He told her as he took hold of her hand.
"You didn't leave?" she asked.
"No."
"You've been here all night?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Well," Oliver began to answer but stopped, when he thought about it he really wasn't sure why he had rushed over as soon as he had heard that she was in some way hurt and then spent the whole of the night by her bedside watching her every move. "I don't really know Hermione."
They fell silent as the both thought about what he had done. Oliver finally broke the silence by blurting out his feelings.
"I've been so scared," he told her as he burst into tears laying his head upon her stomach, weeping into the blankets.
She began to stroke his head, running her fingers through his hair making comforting noises until he was calm once more.
"I'm so used to being overlooked, second best," he told her. "You are so much better than me, younger, smarter, a great mum, why would you want someone like me? What have I ever done?"
"You've done lots Oliver and you know it," Hermione said firmly but before she could go on to list his attributes he continued.
"When Mark came back and I found out that it had been Amy that he had been with all the fear came back, if one of my girlfriends had already left me for him and the other had been married to him he was obviously better than me and I'm used to feeling inferior, but I've never felt the way I feel about you."
"And how do you feel about me?" she whispered.
"When he turned up and wanted you back it tore me up, my heart was telling me to trust you, that you'd never get back with him, but my head was screaming that I could never be the type of man that a woman would want to spend the rest of her life with and I got angry. I am so sorry that I was so stupid. I've been such an idiot. Can you ever forgive me?"
"Of course I can Oliver," she whispered a smile spreading across her face as she reached out and cupped his cheek. "And for the record, you're the type of man that I could see myself with for the rest of my life."
"Good." Oliver grinned, covering the hand that was on his cheek with his own. "Because I'm ready to take that leap of faith now. I'm ready to love you with all my soul."