The morning sun was creeping over the horizon when Harry opened his eyes. He was confused at first until he noticed Remus, asleep, beside the bed. He swallows hard trying to ease his parched throat. He then reaches over to the stand and removes his glasses, placing them on his face. The room came into focus and he recognized it has the hospital wing. He spent many of days and nights here during quidditch season. He blinks several times trying to get rid of the sleep that was placed in the corner of each eye. He lays his head back on the soft pillow but can not will himself to go back to sleep. His mind was in over drive. Professor Dumbledore knew about their marks, now. He didn't know what the elderly headmaster would do after last nights confutation. He lets out a pitiful sigh. On a brighter note his stomach no longer felt like it was being ripped out. "Professor Lupin." He mumbles out tiredly.
Remus opens his eyes and blinks. "Good morning, Harry. How are you feeling?" He sits up straighter and offers the young man a small smile.
"I'm fine now, sir. I just don't understand what happened last night." Harry looks over to Hermione's bed with worry in his eyes. "Is she ok?" He asks almost expecting the worse.
Lupin follows the boys gaze and nods. "Yes. Poppy said that you both are fine. But no one is allowed to bother you. She's going to have my head if she walks in on us talking." He says, amused.
Harry tears his eye away from Hermione and looks down at his hands before realizing something. "Why are we still in our muggle clothes?"
The werewolf blinks. "Poppy said that you two refused to let her chance you into pajama's. So she examined you, fully clothed."
Harry nods slowly. "Did she say anything odd about Hermione?" He looks up at the former Professor, expectantly.
Remus shakes his head but narrows his eyes. "What is this about, Harry? Is there something wrong with Hermione that we should know about."
"Um..well. She hasn't been feel well lately and I thought that maybe Madam Pomfrey would of found out what is wrong with her. I tried to get her to see the doctor but she said that we could take the risk of being discovered." The-boy-who-lived sighs and runs a thin, pale hand through his messy black hair.
Lupin frowns. "Poppy didn't say anything was wrong with either of you. She said that both of you were in perfect condition considering what you've been through. But then again she couldn't check you very well since you both insisted upon staying dressed in your muggle clothes. Anything is more comfortable than muggle clothes." He says on a latter note.
Harry shrugs. "You forget that I was raised as a muggle up until my acceptance letter to Hogwarts and muggle clothes are not that bad. Once you wear them for a while they kinda..grow on you." He casts a sidelong gaze over to Hermione's bed and wonders if she can hear him talking. "I just hope she is ok. I can't lose her." He mumbles to himself.
Remus smiles. "I know that we are in the mood to hate Lily and James but I can't help but see them when I look at you and Hermione." He holds his hands up. "No need to deny it..I won't tell a soul." He says with a small, yet sad, smile. "I remember the day that you were born, Harry. I don't think there could of been any prouder parents anywhere in muggle or magical world alike. James even refused to hand you over to the mediwitch afraid that they wouldn't bring you back." He shakes his head. "I still can't see why they would do this to you. They loved you."
"I guess love can change. I was not perfect anymore after Voldemort cursed me. The scar on my head is proof that they couldn't protect me. I would be a marked man all my life..as long as Voldemort lives. They couldn't handle that. So they ran. I will not forgive them but I guess I've been unfair to Emma. She knows nothing of my past or future. But I can't bare to think that my parents would rather have her than me. She got the childhood that I've always dreamed of. When I was in grade school I came home crying. The teacher at school had told me that Aunt Petunia wasn't my real mother..I was broken. So I asked her about it. She sneered at me and said of course I'm not your mother. That's when she told me about my parents being killed in the car accident and them getting stuck with me. But there was one thing that I never understood..if they hated me so much why did they bother to raise me? They could of left me on the step that night." Harry looks at Remus with question in his eyes. He wanted answers but he knew that Remus had nothing but kind words to make up for the missing information that he longed to know.
Lupin eyes the boy carefully as he forms the right thing to say in his mind. "I don't know, Harry. Maybe Petunia thought that you would be normal and she could raise you to spite the memory of your mother. As you got older and she found out that she couldn't do that..she was to afraid to kick you out. What would the neighbors say?" He says in a mockingly high Petunia voice. He had met Lily's sister only once or twice but even as a girl she was old womanish and crabby.
Harry can't help but chuckle. "You're really good at imitating her." He says softly as he looks to his hands. "But I guess your right. They never beat me and sometimes they even treated me like a member of their family so I guess I should be thankful that they put up with me when they really didn't have to." He shakes his head. Again his eyes drift over to Hermione. "Next time Madam Pomfrey comes in I want to ask her to check Hermione out, more in-depth." He was really worried since she had yet to wake. He doesn't get a chance to finish talking because a series of loud shrieks can be heard coming from the back of the room just as Madam Pomfrey comes charging out of her office.
"What do you think your doing, young man. Your supposed to be resting." Poppy frowns at Harry then turns to Remus. "And you should know better than to bother my patient." She places her hands on her hips and looks between the boy and man.
Harry groans and pulls the blanket up over his head. He can hear the old nurse bustling around at the next bed but he doesn't remove the blanket. He didn't want to face her wraith. But he has no choice as the blanket is yanked down and he is brought face to face with a red faced nurse.
"Mr. Potter, what do you have to say for yourself? You know that without rest you will not get better." Poppy's voice was serious enough to make McGonagall cringe.
"Sorry Madam Pomfrey. But I needed to sort some things out and Prof..Remus was helping me." Harry says with a small smile. "Can you please recheck Hermione? She has been sick for over two months and I'm worried that this last episode might of really wore her out." He says softly.
Poppy frowns then moves over to the other bed. She begins to check the seventeen year old girl out. "You said that she has been sick for two months? What are the symptoms?" She checks Hermione's pulse and administers a potion.
Harry thinks for a moment. "She has bouts with nausea and high fever early in the morning. She keeps telling me that it's a cold or the flu. All muggle sicknesses but I want to be sure that she isn't really sick."
Pomfrey nods before pulling the curtain, around Hermione's bed, closed. She begins to run a series of tests using her wand. She frowns at the results. This was not good. Should she alert the Headmaster or confront Potter about? She pulls the curtain back and steps out while putting her wand away. She stands silent.
Harry swallows hard. "Is there something wrong with her?" He looks over to Remus with pleading eyes. "I can't lose her." He mouths as he drops his eyes to comfortable.
Remus nods and looks over to the stern looking mediwitch. "Did you find something, Poppy?" He asks, quietly trying not to upset Harry.
"I have found the reason for Ms. Granger's illness but she is perfectly healthy considering what is going on with her body. The would say that this latest ordeal has taken a lot of needed energy from her but a few more hours of rest and she should be as good as new." Pomfrey sets her lips into a tight line.
"Would you care to share?" Harry snaps. His temper was again rising. She just said that she found the reason for the illness but she was healthy. He was confused and his head was throbbing.
"Patience, Mr. Potter. Ms. Granger is not going anywhere soon. Her illness is common among witches her age which are going through this same situation. Her body is just trying to adjust to the foreign object." Poppy says in a huff, not liking his tone of voice.
Lupin places a hand on Harry's shoulder to calm him down. "Please Poppy. What situation are you referring to? What foreign object?"
Poppy looks at Remus before turning her full attention to Harry. "Ms. Granger is, by my calculations, just going on her third month of pregnancy."
That's all Harry hears before his vision begins to swim and he promptly passes out. He could hear muffled voices yelling his name but he gave into the black void and losses all touch with the outside world and wallows in the bliss of the unconscious state that he was now in.