A/N: Third chapter up right here and thanks to these people for reviewing the last one: nehimasgift (welcome back! sorry I forgot you in the last author's note in chapter 2), san01 (welcome back to you too!), rox4787, tofuubeaver, kat6528, CareBearErin, imakeeper, shadieladie, and pottersgirl91.
Welp, I won't keep you any longer... read on... and don't forget to
review! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed... and read for that
matter!
Chapter 3 – St. Mungo's: Janus Thickey Ward
"Where am I?"
"Ah, Mr. Wood, I see you're awake," said the brown, bushy haired woman.
"Who's Mr. Wood?" The lady raised her eyebrows and then turned to the door as someone came in.
"Ah, Padma. Take his temperature and get him to take some of this Memory Potion, then give him some Dreamless Sleeping Draught and I'll be back in about fifteen minutes. I've got to go down to the potions ward and see Parkinson about this potion. Just look at it – it's runny and brown when it's supposed to be thick and blue."
"Hurry back," Padma sighed as she watched Hermione leave. Padma took a deep breath and then headed over to Oliver's bed, fluffing his pillows and smiling at him sweetly as she opened the bottle marked Memory Potion.
"Did they say your name was- Padma?"
"Yes, that's my name. You might remember me from Hogwarts," Padma beamed.
"Hogwarts? Where and what is that?"
"Oh, never mind. Just take this." Padma handed Oliver the vial and then turned to grab another one. Oliver grimaced at the taste, it was horrible.
"Do I really have to take this?"
"Yes. Now, bottoms up," Padma ordered as she handed him the next vial and sat the other on a tray. "How about I open this curtain over here? It certainly is dark, daft, and bleak in here."
"Daft? Bleak?"
"It's all bad, dear. Now, just relax and get some rest... Dinner will be here in about an hour or two and that's about all you have to do today."
"Oh, okay," Oliver sighed as Padma pulled some covers up over him.
Oliver felt out of place for some reason. Why was he there and who were these people? They seemed to know him, but he didn't know them. Thoughts were swirling madly inside his head, he couldn't sort anything out, so he fell into a dreamless and restless sleep.
He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but he suddenly felt like there had been a train wreck in his head. He faintly recalled the words 'potion' and a few others that dealt with magic, and for some reason, he thought that he could perform this so called magic. He sat there, waiting patiently as he looked about. His eyes landed on the window and he noticed the sun was setting.
"What time is it?" Oliver looked around the room for a clock, but there was none so he settled on waiting for dinner then he could ask what time it was. 'Wait' he suddenly thought, 'Have I missed dinner?' He really needed to find someone now as his stomach gave a large rumble.
He pushed the covers off and saw that he was wearing nothing more than a hospital night gown. When he stood up, he felt a bit of a draft. When he looked in a mirror on the bathroom door, he saw that the back of his gown was open. To make matters worse, this was all he was wearing and there was no way he could walk around without clothes and his gown open in the back. He searched a hamper that was in the bathroom and found nothing but another gown like the one he was wearing and the pillowcases from three pillows.
He retreated from the bathroom with a sigh and went back to sit down on his bed so he could think. This thinking process really was a hard thing to him for some reason. He furrowed his brow and tried to remember if he had taken off his clothes and what he might have done with them. Suddenly, a vision came to him that pertained nothing in the least bit of relation to his clothes.
--Flashback--
"Oliver, wait!"
"No, just get in the boat," he laughed. He pushed a girl with bushy brown curls into a little two person paddle boat that was on a lake, and she took her seat as he climbed in as well.
"Just what are you doing?"
"You'll see."
"I don't want to see, I want you to tell me," the girl protested with an amused look on her radiant face.
"Hermione, my dear, this is a surprise, and if I told you what was going to happen, then that would ruin the whole point," Oliver said simply as he began to paddle the little boat out to the middle of a moonlit lake. The lake was in the middle of a park that looked pretty deserted and on it was dozens of white geese, swans, and ducks.
She laughed, her eyes lighting up as she did. She let her fingers skim the surface of the water and he smiled as he watched her. His heart pounded and his stomach leaped as he pulled a white lily off its lily pad and handed it to her. She smiled and slid over on the seat closer to him, her head coming to rest on his shoulder as he continued to paddle them out onto the middle of the lake.
--End Flashback--
Where had that come from? Oliver tried his best to remember that girl, but he couldn't. Had that been a memory, or just some figment of his imagination? He had no time to ponder these things any longer, though as someone came into the room. It was the bushy haired nurse from earlier, she had been the one that was there before Padma.
"Good evening, Mr. Wood," the nurse said as she brought him a tray of food. "I hope you slept well. Feeling any better?"
"A little. I've got a headache," Oliver replied as he took the tray and sat it off to the side on his nightstand. "Can you tell me where my clothes are?"
"Oh, yes. Open that door over there and they are in that little closet on a hook," she answered as she fluffed his pillows and fixed his bed.
Oliver got up and went to that closet, but on his way there, he heard her giggle. He turned around to see her standing there staring at him with her hand clutched over her mouth and the other folded in front of her stomach.
"What's so funny, Hermione?" She stopped smiling even now. Her eyes went wide and she went pale so quickly that one would have swore an invisible person had dumped white face on her.
"H-How do yo-you know my nam-me?"
"Uh-," Oliver muttered. He thought about this for a minute. If he had told her that he had learned it in this dream-like vision he had just before she came in, would she think him crazy? "The uh- other nurse... Padma? She told me what it was," he lied.
She said nothing, but she still didn't look any better as she turned away from him quickly and poured something from a small vial into a cup.
"Drink this before you go to bed, but only after you finish your dinner," she directed in a shaky voice as she sat the little cup on the tray with his food. "Now, if you will kindly get back into bed and eat your dinner, I'll be back in to check up on you later."
Oliver was on his way across the room trying to figure out what had upset her so, when he passed her and felt something weird click in his brain like someone had electrified him.
"Do I know you from some place before I came here?" She stopped abruptly in the doorway of his room and stood there for a second before shaking her head from side-to-side in a gesture to say no.
Hermione hurried off down the hall, her throat was tightening and her head was beginning to spin.
"Padma!" Hermione entered the Healer's locker room and called for her colleague, but there was no answer. "Padma!" Still no answer.
She must be out in the hospital somewhere. Hermione looked quickly in the mirror before she left, she was horribly pale and her eyes were glittering with tears. Hermione was searching the Janus Thickey Ward from top to bottom, but still she couldn't find Padma.
"Have you seen Padma Patil?"
"No, I haven't," said the witch at the front desk. "But she might be on break," she called after Hermione.
"Okay, thanks," Hermione called back as she headed straight for the cafeteria. She entered the cafeteria and looked around, spotting Padma in the corner munching on a sandwich and drinking coffee. "Padma!"
"Hermione," Padma said in a worried way as she stood up while Hermione made her way quickly over to Padma's table. "What's the matter?"
"Oliver- did you," Hermione panted. "Did you tell him- tell him my name?"
"No, hun, I didn't," Padma said slowly. "Is everything all right?" Hermione dropped down into a chair, Padma moving over next to her and taking Hermione's hand in hers.
"He knows my name."
"Who? Oliver?"
"Yeah. I was in the room with him and he was walking over to get his clothes and I looked over and the back of his hospital gown was open. I couldn't help but laugh, and when I did he said 'What's so funny, Hermione?' Oh, Padma, what do I do?" Tears now escaped her eyes.
"Did he say anything else?"
"He asked if he knew me from somewhere before now-"
"And what did you tell him?" Padma's tone as she asked this told Hermione that she already suspected Hermione's answer.
"I shook my head no," Hermione replied.
"Hermione! You are supposed to help them remember. He's remembering things and you are telling him they aren't true! How do you expect him to get better if you keep doing that? Do you want him here forever?" Hermione looked at her for a moment, and then shook her head from side-to-side just like she had with Oliver.
"I just don't want him to remember those things," Hermione sighed as she bowed her head in shame. "I just don't- I-"
"Oh, Hermione," Padma cooed as she hugged her friend. "It's okay. We'll just help him remember other things, then."
"How?" Hermione wiped her cheeks free of tears as they parted and Padma got a playful smile on her face.
"Remember the year we made a yearbook for Hogwarts? Oliver was in the graduating class... everyone is in there from first to seventh year, if he looks at those pictures, he's bound to remember something," Padma explained.
"What if it's something we don't want him to?"
"Then we can deny a little... I suppose it won't hurt. If he asks about you, then we'll just say you two were only acquaintances from Hogwarts, that's all."
"I hope you're right," Hermione sighed.
"You know what... why don't you go take a break? See Kirsten?"
"That sounds good actually," Hermione said softly as she rose from the table with Padma.
"I'll finish your rounds and then we can get everything else finished and then you and Kirsten can go home early," Padma planned.
"Okay."
Hermione left the cafeteria and walked slowly toward the nursery where Kirsten was still waiting. Hermione got to the window of the nursery and looked in. Kirsten was the only child in there and she was sleeping in the corner on a nap mat with a book open at her side. Hermione smiled to herself as she opened the door softly and crept across the room to her sleeping child.
Kirsten did look a lot like Hermione, but when Kirsten looked at you, you could almost see her father staring out from behind her eyes. When she played Quidditch with Ron and Harry, it was apparent that she was her father's child as well as her mother's. She used brains on the pitch, but she was just as athletic as she was clever. She really stuck it to Ron and Harry who tried to take it easy on her because she was little.
Hermione picked Kirsten up and nodded to the witch in the nursery office before carrying Kirsten out of the nursery and down to a bed on the Janus Thickey Ward. Hermione left Kirsten in the empty room to sleep and closed the door as she and Padma went about putting all the patients to bed after their last dose of medicine.
By the time they finished this, it was nine-thirty at night and Hermione felt she either needed a strong cup of coffee or a bed to sleep in because she was going to fall over. She went into the office for the Janus Thickey Ward and put in her time card for work before writing down a schedule for which the patients were supposed to be administered medicine the next morning.
It was ten o'clock before Hermione finished. When she did, she went straight to the room where Kirsten slept and scooped her up.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Padma said as she stood in the Janus Thickey office watching Hermione prepare to Floo herself and a sleeping Kirsten home.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Hermione sighed before stepping into the emerald green flames. "The Grange!"
In a whirl of color, Hermione felt herself being rushed off for home. She had never decided to call her home this, but Mr. Weasley had made it apparent that it would be easier for flooing. Ron and Harry were the ones that had come up with the name. So she stuck with it.
Hermione stepped out of the fireplace, Kirsten still sleeping soundly in her arms. Hermione carried her up the stairs and put her in her bed, pulling the covers up on her after removing her shoes. Hermione tip-toed from the room and went to her own.
She was too tired to shower, she would do that in the morning she decided as she changed into an overly large T-shirt and climbed into bed. She had just begun to fall asleep at around midnight when she heard the pitter patter of little socked feet on the wooden floor headed for her room.
Hermione closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep as Kirsten climbed up into bed with her and snuggled under the covers with her. Hermione smiled as she soon heard the sound of her daughter's soft snores. To Hermione, there was only one thing wrong with this picture, Kirsten needed a father to sleep on the other side of her.
"Hello, Kirsten," Luna greeted as she came in the door of Hermione's house.
"Thank goodness you're here, Luna," Hermione panted as she pulled on a jacket and stuffed the last bits of a bagel into her mouth. "I overslept."
"Get going then... we'll be fine," Luna said dreamily as Hermione ran to the fireplace. She shook her head as she thought about Luna. If Hermione hadn't known about witches and wizards and how they could be Seers, then Hermione would have mistaken Luna for a stoned Muggle.
"'Bye Mommy!"
"'Bye," Hermione yelled before stepping into the grass colored flames in the hearth and shouting St. Mungo's.
"Well, I've got a bit of shopping to do," Luna said to Kirsten. "Would you like to accompany me?"
"You bet!" Kirsten ran to the door, jumped at the hooks on the wall for her sweater and slipped on her shoes while Luna got some Floo Powder out of her own bag in her pocket. Once Kirsten was at Luna's side, they flooed to the Leaky Cauldron to go to Diagon Alley.
"Can I stop at Fred and George's?"
"I don't see why it would hurt to let you play there while I get some things that Ronald and I need," Luna relented in a misty tone as she watched Kirsten race off for the joke shop. "I'll pick you up there!"
Kirsten entered the shop and ran to the counter, past all the young costumers, and stopped just short of running into the counter. She rang the bell there which roared like a lion before Fred Weasley poked his head out of the back room.
"If it isn't our favorite costumer," Fred chuckled as Kirsten peaked up over the counter top. "Where's your mum?"
"She's at work... I'm with Luna today," Kirsten replied as she ran around the counter and gave Fred a hug around his midsection, seeing as that's all the higher on him she could reach.
"Well, would you like to come in back with me and get some Wildfire Whiz-Bangs?"
"Oh boy!" Kirsten rushed past Fred and the curtain to the back room. Once there, she stopped and squealed as she pointed to the new shipment of Pygmy Puffs, all pink and fuzzy, bouncing in their wooden crate.
"Here, I'll get you one and-," a bell at the counter roared and Fred peaked out and saw Angelina standing there smiling at him. "And you stay here like a good little girl and play with it – and don't touch anything else, okay?"
"Okay," Kirsten answered mindlessly as she took the Pygmy Puff and watched it bounce in her hand. She was interested in it for quite a few minutes before it bounced out of her hand and out past the curtain to the front of the shop. Kirsten followed it, her tiny figure getting pushed this way and that by eager ten-year-olds who were grabbing one joke product after another.
Kirsten spotted the Pygmy Puff bouncing across the shop, and just as she got close, an eight year old girl picked it up and ran to her mother with it. Kirsten felt defeated for only a second as she spotted a sign for the furry little creatures, but when she got to the crate below the sign, she saw there was no more. Then she remembered the box in the back room. She passed George on her way who patted her head and told her to wait for him in the back room, that he would be there in a moment.
Kirsten obliged and went to the back room where she tried to get another Pygmy Puff from the crate, but she couldn't lift the lid. She looked around for the wand in which Fred had used to lift the lid, but she didn't see one. Instead, something else caught her attention. There was a box of chocolates sitting on a workbench. They looked so tasty to the little girl that she just couldn't help herself.
She grabbed a chair and pushed it over to the table before climbing up and sitting down next to the box of sweets. They looked like harmless chocolates filled with caramel and creamy nougat, just like the Muggle candy bar her mom always ate after a long stressful day at work. Kirsten picked up one of the candies and looked it over. With a shrug, she began to put it up to her mouth.
She opened her mouth and tilted her head back, holding the sweet over her mouth as George and Fred came walking into the the back room. They spotted her and looked from her to the box on the counter before yelling.
"Kirsten! No!"
"Don't eat-," George cried, but Fred's cry had scared her and she dropped the sweet into her mouth. "That," George finished all but too late. Kirsten tried to spit out the sweet, but it melted so fast in her mouth that it was already traveling warm and gooey down her throat to her tummy.
"Hermione is not going to be happy," Fred sighed as he exchanged glances with George as Kirsten hiccuped and began to transform.
