A/N: Thanks to the following: CardboardCreative, PapayaCrazy, kat6528, nehimasgift, pottersgirl91, imakeeper, CareBearErin, tofuubeaver, Emi-Bum (welcome back for another story), shadieladie, and aznqudditchchick.
Welp, you'll all get to find out what happens to Kirsten, leave me a review and let me know what you think of what happens! And thanks most graciously to those who did review. 34 reviews already and it's only Chapter 4! I'm on a roll... might have a tie with Riddle's Phantom, though I doubt it. Anyways, read on...
Chapter 4 – Hermione's Rage
"We've got to take her to the hospital," George said as he shook his head and stared at Fred who was digging through bottle after bottle of potion looking for an antidote to Kirsten's situation. She had sprouted cat ears and fur all over. Slowly, she was growing claws and licking her paw and cleaning her face as her tail swished.
"This is neat," she giggled before purring and then hiccuping before meowing.
"This is not good," Fred groaned as he scooped Kirsten up. "Go close up the shop while I get her to the hospital." With that, Fred carried Kirsten upstairs to his bedroom and over to the fireplace. He grabbed some Floo Powder, spilling what little was in the jar as he clumsily threw the shimmering powder into the fireplace and stepped into the flames.
Moments later, he was sitting in one of the waiting rooms of St. Mungo's as George appeared and asked where Kirsten was. Luna was with him and she seemed unaffected by the whole situation which annoyed Fred as he sat there wringing his hands while George paced the floor. Then, horror biding, Hermione came around the corner.
"What are you three doing- wait. Luna, where's Kirsten?" When no one answered, Hermione heard a giggle through the silence. Her daughter's giggle.
Hermione rushed into an adjoining room and saw her daughter sitting on a medical table, kicking her little fur-covered legs as her tail moved back and forth happily while she marveled at her new claws. Two doctors were staring at her, mixing potions and writing on clipboards as Kirsten grabbed a ball of yarn they had given her and began playing with it.
"Fred! George! What did you two do to her!" Hermione's livid voice carried for three floors in the hospital. Fred and George stood there grinning nervously and looking at Hermione as she stood there tapping her foot and waiting for an answer.
"Well, you see, Hermione-," Fred began.
"She was in the back room of the shop and-," George added.
"We were out helping customers," Fred explained, "when she ate one of our newest products. It's still in the works because we've not found an antidote for it. They're called Kit-Kats... aren't they neat?"
"I'm going to have your heads for this – shrunken and speared so that I can place them in my garden where gnomes can gnaw on your ears!"
"Miss Granger?"
"Yes," Hermione answered frantically to the doctor as she rushed across the room to them, completely dropping her angered tone of only two seconds before. Kirsten was now on the floor rubbing against her mother's legs and purring.
"Maybe she wouldn't be so mad if it wasn't a cat," George suggested in a whisper to Fred as they recalled how Hermione had turned herself into a cat in her second year.
"Like mother, like daughter," Fred sniggered.
George too began to snort with laughter as Hermione finished conversing with the doctors and stalked over to the twins and Luna.
"You two are never to come around my daughter ever again unless I'm there and you have emptied all pockets and placed your wands in my care so that I know none of your joke nonsense makes it around her," Hermione hissed.
"Oh, come on, Hermione," George pleaded.
"Yes, Hermione," Luna said mistily, "banning Fred and George from seeing Kirsten will only harm the chi-"
"Only harm the child... harm Kirsten! What do you call it when they are around her?" Here, Hermione gestured angrily to Kirsten who was rolling about the floor with her ball of yarn. "Get away from me – all three of you – before I hex you so badly they won't be able to tell your feet from your head!"
"At least then we know that if they did put us back together wrong and we fall on our faces, we can still keep running," Fred laughed as he, George, and Luna retreated from the room as Padma entered.
"Hermione... I found Parkinson," Padma informed Hermione. "Oh, cute cat... whose is it?"
"Mine," Hermione grumbled as Kirsten stopped rolling about the floor and sat up, smiling a cat-toothed smile at Padma.
"Hi, Padma," Kirsten greeted. Padma looked as though someone was standing naked in front of her.
"Kir-Kirsten?"
"Don't ask," Hermione muttered as she pushed Padma gently from the room. The two of them headed for the Potions room where Padma said Pansy had been headed with Draco who was there at the hospital for goodness only knew what reason.
Hermione made her way up to the floor where the Potions room was and took a deep breath before placing her hand on the door and pushing it open to a crack. From inside, Hermione heard a giggle much like that of a school girl and then she heard someone make a growling noise which only made the giggler more hysterical. Hermione cringed as she thought about who was in there. Draco and Pansy.
She then gave a snort of laughter as she thought about bringing Pansy's boss into the lab, but that would take time to find him and by that time, Pansy and Draco could be out of there. So, Hermione settled for breaking up this love fest, or as Hermione thought of it, gross-out fest all by herself.
She gave a dignified cough as warning and pushed open the door of the Potions lab with an urgent bang as its handle hit the wall behind it. Pansy and Draco jumped, Pansy scrambling to button up the front of her white lab coat as Draco backed away from her and slicked back his silver blond hair.
"Not um... interrupting am I?" Hermione let out a cruel sort of snicker as she walked over to Pansy. Draco on the other hand didn't find it funny.
"Listen, Granger, you may think you're funny, and you may think you have power here, but I can get you fired just... like... that," Draco threatened, annunciating the last three words more than necessary as he got up in Hermione's face and clicked his fingers beside her ear with the last word said.
"Honestly," Hermione said as she leaned closer in toward him, making him back away, no doubt in fear of her being what he called a Mudblood. "I'm shaking in my dragon skin boots."
Draco growled angrily and grabbed his walking cane, no doubt a family tradition for the men to have those as a symbol of power and family. He left the lab as Pansy glared at Hermione who stood there with a satisfied air about her.
"I hope you're happy, Granger, you Mu-"
"Don't even," Hermione hissed as she dug in her pocket and pulled out a small vial. "Look at this, Parkinson. It's completely the wrong color and the wrong consistency. What are you doing in here that you keep getting potions wrong?"
"Oops," Pansy said in an all too obviously guilty way. "That's not Sleeping Draught, that's Forgetfulness Potion."
Hermione began to shake with rage. She was about to throw the vial at Pansy when Padma entered the room. She stopped in the doorway, surveying the scene before her before walking over and whispering something to Hermione.
"He what! Here, you take this and deal with it," Hermione ordered quickly as she ran out of the lab.
"Miss Gra-"
"Not now," Hermione yelled to her boss as she ran down the corridors of the hospital in search of Oliver. He had apparently flew the coop and was wondering around in the hospital somewhere, or at least Hermione hoped he was.
Hermione beat down door after door until she found him. He was three floors down on the first floor, staring into a room where they kept people who needed treatment because of wand back-fires. He was staring at a particularly strange man who had tentacles sprouting out of his face. It reminded Hermione greatly of the time in her fourth year when they had cursed Goyle along with Malfoy and Crabbe and he had sprouted those tentacles on his face.
"Mr. Wood," Hermione said in a stern voice. When Oliver didn't turn around, Hermione walked up and tapped him on the shoulder.
As Oliver turned around, he saw something in his mind's eye, something of a memory or imagination. He wasn't sure.
--Flashback--
Oliver was staring into a shop window that had many sparkling pieces of jewelry sitting upon velvet cushions. Suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to see a slimming brunette with a playful smile gracing her lips as she stared at him with large chocolate brown eyes.
"You, sir, are late," she said trying to sound stern and important.
--End Flashback--
"You, sir, should not be out of your room," Hermione scolded.
What Oliver did next shocked Hermione to the very core of her being. He reached out and grabbed her hand in his own and squeezed it tight as though to say he would always be there. Frown lines creased Hermione's face as she pulled her hand away and closed her eyes in an attempt to stop all tears.
"Ple-please, Mr. Wood, follow me," Hermione choked.
Oliver obliged and began to follow Hermione back up to the fourth floor. As the walked along in silence, staring at her back, Oliver recalled or imagined something else.
--Flashback--
"I'm sorry. It's-," Oliver stumbled over words like they were tree roots on a dark and bumpy forest path. "It's just that I won't be a very good-"
"Just stop. I should have known. Quidditch always was your number one priority," Hermione sniffed as she wiped tears from her cheeks and raised her chin in the air. She seemed determined to show that she was strong and unaffected, but it was apparent that with every word of the conversation she was becoming weaker.
Oliver wanted to reach out for her hand, but she took a step back from him before turning and retreating, her head sinking the further away from him she got. Until finally he saw her give a violent shake and break out into a run, disappearing from the park they were in.
--End Flashback--
"Hermione... I'm sorry," Oliver sighed as he thought about what he had just remembered. Or did he, yet again, imagine it?
"It's fine," Hermione called softly over her shoulder. Little did she know he wasn't apologizing for leaving his room.
As they walked along the third floor, the Potions and Plant Poisonings floor, Hermione and Oliver passed a room where a very excited little girl sat on a table. She saw the two and smiled as she hopped down off a table, leaving the two tall red-headed twins she was with talking to two Healers. She ran after Hermione and Oliver, trying to call to Hermione.
"Mum-," Kirsten began as she looked around for Hermione in the corridor, but she was nowhere to be seen. For Hermione and Oliver had just rounded the corner and were on their way up to the fourth floor.
Kirsten ran down the corridor in the direction her mother was headed and took a left, while her mother had taken a right. Kirsten wondered around for a few minutes before catching a Healer and asking where she could find Hermione.
"Why, I believe the lady you are looking for works upstairs on the Janus Thickey Ward," the Healer said as she pointed down the corridor toward the stairs. Kirsten yelled her thanks as she took off down the corridor at top speed and raced up the stairs. Meanwhile, Fred and George who were supposed to be watching her, began a frantic search for her.
"Have you seen a little girl about this high with-," began Fred as he asked every random Healer he could corner.
"Oh, here," George said as he pulled a picture out of his wallet. "Have you seen her?"
"No, I'm afraid not," answered the man as the twins groaned and took off down the corridor.
In the meantime, Kirsten made it up to the Janus Thickey Ward and was walking slowly down the corridor looking in each room for her mother. Kirsten was frantic to find her mother now because a strange man who called himself Gildery Lockroy had scared the living daylights out of her while smiling a pearly toothed grin and asking her if she wanted his autograph.
"Mommy?" Kirsten walked to the next room and was about to give up when she heard her mother's voice coming from two rooms away.
"Here, Mr. Wood, just look at these, why don't you? I'm sure you'll find them interesting," Hermione said.
Kirsten ran to the doorway and peeked around to see her mother handing a man three books and a poster.
"Look," Hermione continued as she flipped open one of the books and pointed to something on one of its pages. "This is you."
Kirsten came further into the room when she heard a man's voice. There on the bed was her favorite Quidditch player, Oliver Wood. He was the reason she loved to play Keeper more than any other position. He was the, in her opinion, best player to ever grace the pitch besides Uncle Harry who was the greatest Seeker ever even though he didn't play professional Quidditch.
"Oliver Wood!" Kirsten raced across the room and was about to jump on the bed when Hermione grabbed Kirsten up and held her close to her as though Oliver was trying to steal her.
"Kirsten, no. Go to the nursery right this instant," Hermione said as she walked to the door with Kirsten and sat her down.
"But I-"
"Padma!" Hermione just happened to see her colleague walking down the corridor with the lunch cart. "Here, take care of Oliver while I take Kirsten back to the nursery, please."
"Of course," Padma said with a smile as she walked into Oliver's room and began showing him the poster of himself in Puddlemere Quidditch robes, smiling and waving as he held his broom in his other hand.
"Kirsten, you mustn't come down to where I am working," Hermione scolded. "You can get me fired."
"Why was Oliver Wood in there?" Kirsten questioned on the way back to the nursery.
"That's none of your business," Hermione replied sternly.
"Is he sick?" Kirsten persisted.
"Never you mind," Hermione pushed as she turned the corner toward the nursery and ran into someone.
"Watch where the hell you're going, Mudblood!" Draco Malfoy sneered as his little boy, Damianos, glared at Hermione and her daughter.
"Watch your language in front of my child, Malfoy," Hermione snapped.
Kirsten glared up at Malfoy as he and Hermione tried to stare each other down. Kirsten looked to Damianos who was sticking his tongue out at her. She crinkled her nose in disgust as she took a step toward him. The events that followed went by in a blur.
Damianos mouthed the words 'Mudblood baby' to Kirsten and it was rage from there on out. Kirsten socked Damianos in the nose, the little boy immediately bursting into tears.
"You Mudblood spawn of a whore!" Draco roared as he sheltered Damianos. He reached out to grab Kirsten's arm, but Hermione stepped forward only to be shoved back.
This angered Kirsten further and as Draco went to reach down to make another grab at her, she stamped her heel into his toe with a rough, blunt force. Draco howled in pain as Kirsten took off down the hallway.
She rounded the corner and found herself dodging in and out of people. Apparently, the commotion started by her and the Malfoys' was quite the attraction. She was thankful at that moment for something she used to curse, her small size. She easily slipped between people, making her way to the stairs.
She ran down to the fourth floor, passing Padma on her way. Padma stared for a moment before doing a double take and going after Kirsten.
"Kirsten! Wait! It's Padma," she yelled, but Kirsten showed no signs of stopping.
Kirsten moved down to the third floor, her little feet padding loudly through the corridors as bright white lights shone down on her. She rounded the corner and ducked into a room, her heart racing from running.
"Hey, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the nursery?"
A tall Healer in a white lab coat walked up to Kirsten with a rather vicious looking plant in his hands. The plant snapped and salivated, scaring Kirsten and causing her to run from the room. She was on her way to the second floor when Padma came off the stairs and caught her.
"Hold up small fry," Padma said soothingly as she held Kirsten at arms length. "Come with me."
"No! Mommy will yell at me and Mr. Meanie Malfoy is after me," Kirsten panted. Padma tried not to laugh at Draco's new name as she continued to calm the child.
"No one is going to get you. Just come with me, and I'll take care of things." Padma led Kirsten back up to the Janus Thickey Ward where there was a great deal of yelling going on inside one of the rooms at the end of the ward.
Kirsten had a bad feeling about it though as she saw Damianos standing outside the room. There was a smug smirk plastered on his face and when Kirsten heard Draco's and her mother's voices arguing, she knew why he was smirking. Would her mother be fired though, or just in a bit of trouble?
