Chapter 11: Hospital Wing
I took Harry several seconds to realize what had happened. He crawled several feet, finally picking himself off the grass, slightly dizzy and still wheezing. Once he had caught his breath his eyes centered on one scene. Hermione lay on her side at the highest part of the metal bleachers, motionless with her arms limp at her sides. Her hair and robes were thrown wide, her eyes closed, and the boom nowhere in sight. Harry's breath caught in his chest as the first wave of panic hit him.
No he thought, No. Harry began to jog towards the girl, still finding it hard to breathe. As he caught his breath he broke into a sprint, taking the bleachers three at a time and throwing himself down at the side of Hermione's body. Please don't be dead, Harry thought. His face inches from hers he ran a finger down her jaw line, willing her to open her eyes.
"Hermione," he whispered, cradling her head in his lap. "Hermione. Oh Merlin, please be alright."
He pushed a lock of hair out of her face. "Don't- oh shit; I was so stupid Herms- come on, be okay."
Harry's heart gave a jolt as Hermione stirred in his arms, letting out a moan and finally opening her eyes.
"Merlin- Be okay. Tell me you're okay Hermione." Harry helped her sit up, his eyes full of fear and regret. "I shouldn't have let you do that.. I.." Harry's voice trailed off as he watched Hermione's face fill with pain.
She moved her hand to her side, wincing where she touched. Hermione untucked her white blouse and pulled it back to reveal a large, red and bruised cut over her ribs. The cut was bleeding freely and her blouse and fingers soon became covered in blood.
"Harry-" she tried to say something but ended in a coughing fit, clutching her side. Her eyes swam with tears as blood filled her mouth and she hacked it out, letting it splatter to the bleachers on her right side, away from Harry. She turned and clutched the chest of Harry's shirt, looking like she was going to be sick. Tears streamed down her face she tried to straiten out her legs, which were spread at odd angles over the next seat down.
She coughed again as Harry swore, cursing himself for what he had done to her.
"Mione- I-" Harry stared at her, words strewn across his mind, incapable of forming the sentences he wanted to pour from his mouth.
"Harry-" Hermione tried to say something but she stopped, crying over her words. "Can I-"
"Right- hospital wing- I'm so stupid."
She didn't answer but looked at him, wincing as she tried to get up and failed. Without words he caught her before she fell again and swung her up, one arm under her legs and the other holding up her torso. She encircled her arms around his neck, crying into his shoulder as he carried her down the bleachers.
Once Harry got Hermione off the bleachers he jogged with her in his arms all the way to the castle.
Harry walked backwards to push open the great oak front doors, revealing a group of people he was very thankful to see. Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Alexis, Ginny and Ron were all standing in the magnificent room, the latter three just about to leave for the tryouts.
"Oh my goodness." Professor McGonagall was the first to see Harry and his burden, covering mouth with her hand and rushing over as fast as her feet could carry her. Dumbledore followed, forcing Hermione to turn her face towards him. She had blood on her chin, as well as her blouse, which was by now permanently red.
"What happened?" Dumbledore motioned for Harry to put Hermione down, and let her walk on her own, which she tried with difficulty, and then tripped, leaning against the headmaster. Harry moved forward when she fell, not knowing what to do, but Proffessor McGonnagall rushed to the girl first, blocking his way.
"Wha-" Ron, had not moved from his spot. Neither had any of the others. Suddenly they seemed to come to their senses.
"Hermione." Ginny whispered, awestruck.
"HERMIONE!" Ron came rushing over, trying to see the girl's face. The others followed, pushing around Ron and trying to get past the teachers.
"MOVE!" Alexis was in hysterics, trying to push professor McGonagall out of the way. "Let me- let us-"
The transfiguration teacher whirled around and pointed her wand at the three of them.
"Silecio!"
Alexis gave a silent scream and grabbed at her neck. Ron began to shake his fist at the teacher, but the elderly woman quickly controlled all of them.
"Go." She pointed to the foot of the marble staircase, her eyes full of fury. "Now. Sit." They obeyed, as if it were the only thing they could do. Ron, Ginny and Alexis sat on the bottom step, leaning forward with great concern on their faces.
"What happened?" the Headmaster spoke again to Harry.
"She wanted to ride my broom. I should have-" Harry sniffed and tried to hid his tears.
"Enough said." The man silenced the boy, lifting Hermione gingerly onto a floating stretcher that McGonagall had conjured.
Harry looked over at his friends. Ginny looked like she would cry. Alexis wore an expression of quiet shock and Ron, quite the opposite, was livid. If he could have talked he would have been screaming his head off right then. But they all seemed glued to their seats on the stairs and since McGonagall had pocketed their voices there was no sense in trying to do anything.
"Harry," Hermione rasped, holding out her hand and spitting more blood onto the stretcher. Tears ran down her face as she beckoned to him. Harry looked at Dumbledore for permission to approach her. The old wizard nodded.
"You may come with us Harry." Harry took Hermione's outstretched hand and walked with her as Dumbledore begin to levitate the stretcher up the stairs to the second floor, where they would bring her to the hospital wing. Ron, Ginny and Alexis, Ginny openly crying, turned and watched the procession of four walk past.
When they reached the middle of the stairs McGonagall turned back to them. As soon as he saw that he had her attention Ron began gesturing madly at the stairs and then trying to get up, trying to explain to her that the situation wasn't fair. No words came out of his mouth and he finally gave up and sat back down, his pants almost being pulled down several times as he tried to get up. McGonagall took this time to speak.
"The spells I have put on you will last another ten minutes and, when you have the option of getting up, you may join us in the Hospital wing. You must understand that you need to act calmly in a situation like this. Any rash actions and you could have worsened your friend's injury. Take this time to rethink what you have done." She paused. "Someone will also have to warn any Gryffindor that ventures outside of the fact that quidditch tryouts are postponed forty-five minutes." With these final words, Professor McGonagall turned back up the stairs and walked around the bend, disappearing form view of the other three.
As soon as she was out of sight Ron yelled something at the top of his lungs (though it came out silent he still used a lot of breath) and made a very rude gesture at where the Professor had last been seen. Fuming, he stared at the floor, cursing Harry and everyone else.
Meanwhile, Harry and Professor Dumbledore were lifting a ghostly white Hermione into a hospital bed. Madame Pomfrey, an elderly witch with spectacles, bustled around, pulling all different kinds of potions from shelves and putting them onto a large silver tray. Harry quickly grabbed a cup and gave it to Hermione as she started another coughing fit. She spit out the blood and gave Harry a pained glance that told him exactly how miserable she was.
"I'm sorry," she whispered feebly to Harry.
"That's alright." Harry stopped her from apologizing. "It was all my-"
"NO talking!" Madame Pomfrey demanded from the other side of the room.
"-Fault."
"You'll worsen those internal injuries if you so much as move Miss Granger. There's nothing I can't fix, but it just makes it easier."
Harry smiled weakly, then raised his eyebrows at Hermione, silently mocking the healer in a search for a better morale. This made Hermione laugh and cough up more blood into the cup.
"For goodness sakes Miss Ganger!" Madame Pomfrey ran over and quickly poured the girl a large tankard of thick, red liquid. "Drink this. It will heal some of the things on the inside."
Hermione took a gulp of the syrup like liquid, smiling slightly as she tasted it.
"I know; it tastes good," Madame Pomfrey said crisply. "But if you drink too much you'll have a heart attack. It fills up all the crevices and spaces inside your body. You'd be completely solid. Now drink up."
"I'd better be going." Dumbledore said with twinkling eyes from the end of Hermione's bed. Harry jumped at the sound of his voice for he had forgotten that the man was even there.
"Good day Headmaster," Madame Pomfrey said curtly. Hermione and Harry raised hands to say goodbye, being at a loss of words.
Hermione finished her tankard and placing the empty glass on her nightstand she turned to Harry.
"It isn't your fault Harry, that I crashed. I heard you blame it on yourself and that isn't true." she said clearly, her voice back to normal. As she sniffed and wiped the tears away from her face, Harry felt a wave of compassion towards her.
"I thought I told you not to say anything." Madame Pomfrey scolded, obviously having overheard. "If your organs heal wrong it will be your fault not mine. Wait another ten minutes before you move another inch!" This shut Hermione up. She still managed to smile weakly at Harry before she looked down at her hands once more.
Madame Pomfrey walked over at that time, carrying her tray of creams and different colored bottles.
"I need you do be still now. This may hurt a bit." Madame Pomfrey made to unbutton Hermione's blood-soaked shirt and the girl gave a twitch of fright. She glanced up at Harry, her embarrassment showing in her eyes.
"Oh yes, of course," Madame Pomfrey paused and looked up at Harry. "I'm afraid I have to ask you to go dear. It isn't.. Proper." Harry and Hermione both turned beet red at these words. The boy tried to hide his embarrassed grin, but Hermione saw and turned away.
"Oh. Yeah." Harry turned, his face burning as he almost ran from the room.
"Dearie," Madame Pomfrey called as he pulled the door open. He turned to see her as she spoke. "I'll call you back in about ten minutes. It won't take any longer than that." Harry nodded stiffly, and walked through the door, securing it firmly behind him.
Harry settled himself on the bench outside, his elbows on his knees and his eyes focused on the floor. He grinned at first, but then wiped the expression from his face, trying to be serious.
"She'll be okay," he told himself quietly. "Madame Pomfrey can mend bones in a second. She's going to be fine." He stared at the cracks in the corridor floor. Every little imperfection seemed to stand out. He grinned once more and then bit his lip.
After several minutes of silence Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a mad ruckus on the steps not far to his right. Ron, Alexis and Ginny came scrambling into the hallway, having sprinted all the way from the ground floor after the spell had broken.
"Harry," Ginny gasped. "Is she all right? What happened?" She collapsed on the bench next to him, huffing loudly.
"She's going to be okay." Harry smiled at her, glad to see the relief wash over her face.
"Thank GOD!" Alexis shouted for all the world to hear, grabbing Ron in a tight hug. She quickly released him and moved next to Harry, who returned her hug and smiled. Next she turned to Ginny, crushing her as well and plopping down on the bench as well as the other two.
Ron didn't seem to want to be as happy as the other three.
"So..So.." He tried to begin but words failed him.
"What?" asked Harry, still grinning at what Madame Pomfrey had said, as well as Alexis's joy.
"So you almost kill her, but now everything's jolly since she almost DIED!" Ron glared at Harry, no mercy or forgiveness in his voice.
"Ron, I.." Harry stared at his friend, no trace of the grin left on his face.
"You were there with her Harry! YOU were supposed to take CARE of her!"
"Ron! I- I- She grabbed my broom an FLEW away!" Harry tried not to raise his voice but it came out loud anyway. He tried no to clench his fists but did anyway. "There was NOTHING I could do Ron." Harry glanced at Alexis, who was staring at the floor looking shocked.
"This is your fault Harry!" Ron said, barring down on his friend.
"That is out of line." Harry glared up at the redhead.
"Ron." Ginny had gotten to her feet. Her eyes flitting from Alexis to Harry to her brother. "You don't know what you're saying."
"I know what I'm saying Ginny!" Ron turned to her. "He- HE ALMOST-"
"SHUT UP!" Ginny exploded. Ron was silent. "THERE IS NO REASON FOR YOU TO BE MORE WORRIED ABOUT HERMIONE THAN US! THIS WAS NOT HARRY'S FAULT, OKAY!"
Ron looked up from his feet after several moments of quiet, pain engraved all over his face. "Ginny.."
"Sit." Ron sat. Ginny sat too. They all sat, silently, until Madame Pomfrey stuck her head outside and invited them back in.
Ron was the first inside the room; Harry and the others followed at a walking pace.
"Hermione! Is everything okay? Does it hurt?" Ron bombarded her with questions.
Hermione laughed. "I'm fine Ron." She smiled at the others as they trooped in, all three of them giving her huge grins. She was wearing a fresh white blouse, which had been part of the school uniform, so they were easy to provide. There was a barely noticeable bandage bellow the silky fabric on her left side. Harry guessed that Madame Pomfrey had put ointment on her cut and the bruised flesh around it.
"What's with the bandage?" Ron said, his usual intrusive self.
"Oh!" Hermione turned slightly pink, realizing that everyone could see through her blouse. "I broke four ribs, and my cut is healing also."
"Ouch." Alexis grimaced. "I've broken ribs before. Got hit by a bludger a little while back." She grinned and flipped her gorgeous hair. Harry cringed.
"Horrible sport, Quidditch." Madame Pomfrey muttered as she passed by with a wreath of herbs.
"Oh! I almost forgot! Quidditch tryouts!" Ginny reminded the whole group.
Harry swore under his breath. "They must all be waiting down at the pitch!" He made to leave but stopped when Alexis tugged at his shoulder.
"McGonagall made us explain to every person that passed what happened. She forgot the point that we were unable to talk or get up. We had to use sign language." Everyone laughed as Alexis motioned 'flying is back 4 5.' She grinned. "I think all of them got the picture. They left without saying a word."
Hermione smiled;
"They probably thought you were out of your mind."
"So it was postponed 45 minutes?" Harry questioned Alexis.
"Yeah." Alexis checked a thin, silver watch that she had fastened around her wrist. "We should leave in a little bit. It's almost ten-thirty."
Madame Pomfrey moved up behind them, gathering all the people standing and rotating them towards the door.
"Correction. Leave now. You need to go now." The healer herded them towards the door. "Miss Granger will be out of here in an hour or so. She needs to wait for that cut to heal." With waves and shouts of good-bye to Hermione, the group left the hospital wing feeling reassured and hopeful.
A/N; Stay updated! The next Chapter is on the way! (quidditch tryouts; they're amusing.) Remember to Review! (Sometimes I use the number of reviews that I've gotten to decide when I'm going to post next.) Sam- you read within like, two hours of when I post! How do you do it! It's amazing! Hee hee.