A/N: Many great appreciations to each of the following: vagrantben, PapayaCrazy, nehimasgift, san01, Tokyo no Ecchi, KayKay2007, his-lil-shortie, imakeeper, CardboardCreative, aznqudditchchick, Emi-Bum, shadieladie, tofuubeaver, animerocksjapanrocks, rox4787, pottersgirl91, kat6528, and CareBearErin.
I can
hardly believe that I'm only 5 chapters into this and I've already
gotten 72 reviews. It's quite exciting and I'm lovign the enthusiasm
I'm getting for this story. Makes me believe more now than before that
I have another hit like Riddle's Phantom on my hands. Thanks again and happy reading!
Chapter 6 – My Favorite Story
Hermione awoke the next morning, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and decided she had better get busy on breakfast for Kirsten. She walked toward her door and hit a wall, jamming her toe painfully. She groaned and made fists as she winced in pain and then squinted around the room. That's when she realized something. This wasn't her room.
She froze in panic and made her brain race to figure out where she was. She looked around frantically before spotting a card on the dresser. She hobbled over, being ginger with her sore toe, and picked up the card. A credit card like thing fell out as she read the front cover. Hotel Les Jardins d'Eiffel.
She pushed her brain to remember the night before. She had gotten into trouble at work and left in a flurry. But what had she done with Kirsten? She had left her with Padma. No doubt they would be at her house. All Hermione had to do was go to Padma's, retrieve her child, and take her to her parents for the day.
Hermione sighed and headed for the shower so that she could check out. An hour later, she was walking out the front doors of the hotel, breathing deep the fresh air and wafted past her in strong gusts. A storm was brewing and Hermione knew that if she didn't hurry, she would get stuck in it at some point.
"Mr. Wood," Miriam called as she entered the room and sat his breakfast upon the bed stand. "Time to rise and shine," she said as she threw back the curtains in his room, faint sunlight bursting into the room with blinding force as it reflected off the many white pieces of furniture.
Miriam looked at the bed and furrowed her brow. If Oliver was still in bed, something was wrong because he was certain taller than three feet.
"Psst! Mr. Wood," Miriam whispered as she walked over to the bed and threw back the covers.
There on the bed asleep was Kirsten. Miriam looked up in shock as Oliver came out of the bathroom with a new hospital gown and house robe on before shaking his head and gesturing to her to be quiet.
"Leave her sleep," Oliver whispered. "She's really quite the nice little girl... Read to me and all. Keeps telling me she's my biggest fan, but I don't know why, I'm not famous. Though I have my picture in a book... Would you like to see?"
"Maybe later, Mr. Wood," Miriam muttered. "For now I've got to take breakfast to the other patients and make a call over the Floo."
"The F-flu? Isn't that an illness? Why ever would you make a call over an illness?"
"No, wrong flu... f-l-o- oh never mind. Just eat your breakfast and take your potion, please," Miriam directed as she bustled out of the room to finish delivering breakfast. "I told Hermione not to bring Kirsten and she has the nerve to leave her here with patients," she huffed as she left.
Oliver shook his head and then turned to the food, grimacing at it. He hated the food because it was so awful tasting. He made a distasteful noise from deep in his throat as he went over and dropped down into the chair by the window. It gave a hiss of the cushion readjusting to his weight while he rubbed his face in his hands and then looked out the window. He breathed deep while staring out it and suddenly felt suffocated.
He stood and opened the window, breathing in the smell. He suddenly felt very at ease and leaned on the windowsill.
"Do you miss flying?" a sleepy little voice asked.
Oliver turned around and looked at the little girl sitting in his bed. Her hair was a bit frizzy and her eyes still partly closed from having just woke up. He smiled and felt himself want to walk over and pick her up and hug her to him before spinning around with her just to hear her laugh.
"Flying?" he asked with a chuckled.
"You know... on a broom," Kirsten said. "We went over this last night," she added with a groggy sigh.
"Oh yeah," Oliver nodded as he remembered what they had talked about the night before.
"I can see we're going to have a lot of work to do today," Kirsten mumbled as she hoped down out of the bed and walked over to grab his hand. "You better eat this breakfast and take this potion because we're going to have a lot of books to go through."
"Breakfast," Oliver repeated with a tone of disgust.
"Yes," Kirsten replied. "Don't like it, do you?" Oliver just shook his head and she sighed. "C'mon then. We'll go get some real food and make a stop in a room upstairs so I can get a few books for you. Then we can get to work."
Oliver just watched her grab hold of his hand and start to drag him from the room. He looked back to the bed, but followed a little less reluctantly as she gave a tug.
Miriam threw a handful of glittering powder from the drawstring bag into the grate. She took a deep breath and stuck her head into the flames.
"The Grange," she spoke clearly.
Moments later, her head appeared in the faint green flames that had burst to life in Hermione's living room fireplace.
"Hermione!" Miriam yelled in a sort of crackling voice. "Miss Granger!" Still no answer. "Hermione, this is your boss! Get in this living room so I can confront you now!" There wasn't an answer still. "I want to have a word with you about leaving Kirsten in the hospital when she was ban and with a patient who has memory troubles no less."
Hermione still made no answer, no movement was heard, and no one appeared in the room. Figuring Hermione was either asleep, passed out from a long night, or out, Miriam's head left the fireplace. The flames died in Hermione's grate and Miriam stood up straight once more in her own office. She shook her head and sighed heavily as she tossed the drawstring bag back into her desk drawer. She had work to do, she would talk to Hermione later today.
Hermione walked up the stairs to the fourth floor of the apartment building in which Padma lived in. It wasn't a bad place, rather rich looking in fact, a contribution from Mr. Patil no doubt. Padma's check would only cover the rent and no other bills, and that was saying a lot because the checks that Healers got were quite well paying. It was still beyond Hermione why Padma would want to live in this place no matter how nice it was. Those stairs were a killer and the neighbors were horridly mean. Good thing there were only two apartments to a floor.
Hermione reached Padma's apartment door huffing slightly from lack of breath and began to knock.
"Padma!" Hermione called.
"I say, you there," hissed a woman from the other apartment across the hall. "Miss Patil isn't the only one living on this floor, be quiet!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed as she continued to knock at the door. Minutes later, Padma poked her head out of the door and squinted groggily at Hermione. It was only a little after noon and Padma had still been in bed. She had worked late the night before, she needed the beauty rest.
"Hermione," Padma said in a raspy voice before pulling the door open fully. "What ar-are you do-oing here?" she asked with a yawn.
"I'm here to pick up Kirsten and to thank you for taking care of her," Hermione said as she dug in her pocket for some money to pay Padma with.
"But, Hermione-"
"Nonsense, Padma," Hermione waved off as she took out the shrunken notebook she had been reading the night before and had Padma hold it for her. "I'm going to pay you for it."
"But, Hermione, listen to me," Padma said more forcefully, the grogginess leaving her voice to be replaced by urgency.
Padma remembered that she didn't bring Kirsten home and it was now very important to her to find the little girl who had been left in her care.
"I don't have Kirsten!" Padma gushed.
Hermione stopped digging in her robe pocket and looked up slowly at Padma with a wide-eyed expression. She found that breathing was very difficult at the moment as she swallowed numerous times and took heavy breaths.
"Wh-where is s-she?" Hermione stuttered.
"The last I saw her, she was helping me deliver dinners on the ward," Padma lied. She wasn't about to tell Hermione that she let Kirsten in Oliver's room.
Hermione said not a word as she pulled her hand quickly from her pocket, Galleons and Knuts falling to the floor. She rushed across Padma's lavish living room to the fireplace. She ripped a wooden box down from the mantle and threw some of the powder inside into the grate.
"St. Mungo's Janus Thickey Ward!" Hermione shouted as she jumped into the green flames which had appeared only moments ago and began to spin out of sight.
Padma groaned and ran to her fireplace, grabbing some powder, and following Hermione to St. Mungo's. Both of them reappeared in the grate on the floor of the Janus Thickey ward just as Miriam was about to try and catch Hermione over the Floo again.
"Miss Granger!" Miriam said sternly.
"Not now," Hermione gasped as she rushed past her boss and down the corridor, looking in room after room.
"Miss Patil, what is-"
"In a minute, Miriam," Padma panted as she ran after Hermione, afraid of what she would do if she found Kirsten still with Oliver.
"You two will be working double hours for this," Miriam groaned as she took after them.
Hermione looked from room to room, but didn't see Kirsten anywhere. Where was she? Hermione came to a room where she prayed Kirsten wouldn't be and got quite a shock. It was Oliver's room, yet Oliver wasn't there.
"Where's Wood?" Hermione asked as she whipped around, Padma nearly running into her as Miriam smacked into the back of Padma.
"What do you mean where's Wood?" Padma asked nervously.
"He's not in his room," Hermione pointed out.
"What?" Miriam roared. "First you leave your child with him and now he's gone!"
"Padma! You left Kirsten with Oliver! You know I don't want her around him because that's her-"
"Hermione, I'm sorry," Padma tried to reason. "But they were sitting there together reading and I couldn't-"
"I don't care! I don't want Kirsten around him!" Hermione shouted.
"What is going on here, Miss Granger? I mean, I don't want Kirsten around him either, but is there something more to this?" Miriam pushed.
"Not now, Miriam," Hermione snapped. "I've got to find-"
"Will four security personnel please report to the commons," called a male voice over the magical intercom of the hospital. "We have an escaped patient."
"Oliver," Hermione, Padma, and Miriam gasped in unison before taking off down the hall for the food court.
"This way," Kirsten said as she and Oliver ducked into a cleaning cupboard just outside the commons as four security men came past.
They hurried out of the cupboard and sneaked their way up to the top floor, their destination being the nursery. It only took them a minute or two to get to the door of the nursery. Kirsten peered into the office next to it to see that the caretaker of the nursery had a sign that said 'Be back in ten minutes' there on it. Whenever she did this, she had someone from another room on the floor watch the room, but they never really did because they were all too busy.
"What are we doing here?" Oliver asked as Kirsten went back to the nursery door.
"You'll see," Kirsten said as she grabbed the handle and turned it to open the door.
Inside, Damianos Malfoy was giving a telling of his own account on how things went yesterday when he and his father confronted Hermione and Kirsten.
"Then I spit in her face and she started waving her arms like... like this," Damianos said as he stood up off the floor and threw his arms about in the air, many of the children around him laughing and ducking out of his way. "That's how she hit me," Damianos lied.
Kirsten gritted her teeth and pursed her lips as Damianos then went on to tell how he had been standing outside Miriam's office and heard Hermione get in trouble.
"And the bawl baby's mother got it good, too! My father told them just how it was and the Mudblood ran out of there crying," Damianos laughed. "She didn't even take her pathetic little whiner with her when she left. She doesn't want her anymore than anyone else would."
There was a round of laughter, but it was broken by a scream of rage. Everything happen in a split second. Kirsten launched herself at Damianos and took him to the ground. Kids jumped up from their Indian styling sitting positions and scattered about the room with screams of panic. Kirsten was rolling across the floor with Damianos who was shrieking and telling everyone to get her off of him.
Oliver shook his head and dashed over, grabbing Kirsten around the waist and lifting her off the floor. He was so in shock that this little girl would do that that he had been frozen for a moment. She continued to kick and scream and demand that he put her down, but he didn't listen as he turned and went to leave the nursery. He was stopped though by a shocked looking woman who began screaming for help as she ran to Damianos's side.
"Kirsten! You were banned from here... just wait until the hospital administrator hears about this. Your mother will be fired!" the nursery lady babbled. "And Draco Malfoy will have a field day with this... I might even lose my job! Oh, you awful little girl!"
"Shut up," Oliver said in annoyance as he sat Kirsten down who had now calmed from her flailing and was looking as though she could cry. "Go get what you came for."
Kirsten nodded and ran to the corner to grab the books she always read. She came back to Oliver's side clutching them to her chest and Wood put his hand on her shoulder.
"C'mon, Kirsten," Oliver directed before ushering her out.
They headed back for the Janus Thickey Ward and were almost there when they were caught by Hermione, Padma, and Miriam.
"Kirsten!" Hermione shouted.
"Mr. Wood!" Miriam bellowed.
"Thank Merlin," Padma sighed as she slumped against the wall.
"Miss Patil, take Mr. Wood back to his room while I go talk with Miss Granger... and then come back to work once you've gotten some clothes on," Miriam ordered as she looked Padma up and down. She hadn't had a chance to change, she was still in her pajama pants and T-shirt.
"Yes, ma'am," Padma muttered as she blushed and grabbed Oliver's arm after handing Hermione the book which she was still carrying.
Padma led him away as Hermione looked down at the book and sighed.
"Miss Granger... I believe some explanation is in order. Down to my office, please," Miriam commanded before stepping aside and letting them lead the way.
Hermione walked past with her head down like a witch who was headed for the gallows. She sighed and entered the office as Miriam held Kirsten back and shut the door behind her. Kirsten frowned and ran off down the hall to Oliver's room. Padma stopped her when she got there, but the little girl's pleas to let her see her new friend as she had tears in her eyes broke Padma down.
"Go on, then," Padma mumbled as Kirsten ran to the bed and jumped up, clinging to Oliver. "I'll be back later to let you know when your mom is coming, okay?"
Kirsten just nodded as Padma gave a weak smile and left the room to go home and change before returning. She had a feeling that this was going to be a long, depressing day.
Oliver sighed after Padma left and held the little girl against his chest. She was sobbing lightly and he felt her tears soak through the thin fabric of his hospital gown. He patted her back and pulled her away from him, fixing her with a friendly and slightly pressing gaze.
"So what were all those books for?" he asked in a sweet tone.
"Well, I have one I really want you to read," Kirsten said before giving a small sniffle and pulling out the shrunken book. "I'd let you read it, but it's shrunk and the words are too small now. I need a wand."
"One of those wooden sticks you mean?" Oliver asked as he stood up.
"Yeah," Kirsten answered as she watched Oliver go over to a closet in the corner and pull out a cardboard box.
"Might this help?" Oliver offered as he pulled out a wand.
"Is that yours?" Kirsten inquired as she jumped down off the bed and walked over to get a closer look.
"I guess," Oliver said as he saw Kirsten point to the words 'Oliver Wood' on the box and then nod her head.
"Only one problem," Kirsten sighed. "I can't do magic."
"Magic?" Oliver repeated slowly. He thought about it for a moment, weighing the wand in his hand as he look at the book on the bed.
He gripped the wand and concentrated on the book for a moment and then looked at Kirsten.
"What do I do?"
"Well, whenever my mum does magic, she moves her wand like this," Kirsten said as she swished her arm to the right and then flicked it forward. "And she says a strange word sometimes, too, but not all the time."
"Like what kind of word?" Oliver asked.
"Not sure... there's this one. Lingardium Wevelosa," Kirsten spoke uncertainly.
"Okay, you said she doesn't always say a word," Oliver muttered. "What about trying it like that?"
"She usually stares at the thing and still makes that move and she gets this mad, squishy look on her face like this," Kirsten informed as she furrowed her brow as though deep in concentration.
"Okay," Oliver said as he turned to the book and stared at it.
He pointed his wand at the book and then swished and flicked. For a moment, nothing happened, so he stared at the book and concentrated really hard on it getting bigger. He swished and flicked again and a light shot from the end of the wand. He dropped it, but looked at the bed and saw that the book was now normal size.
"You did it!" Kirsten shrieked excitedly. "C'mon... I want to read you some of this book."
She ran over, jumped up on the bed, and grabbed the book while patting a spot on the bed next to her. Oliver smiled and picked up the wand, taking it over to lay it on his nightstand while he listened to her read.
"This is my favorite story. Here's the first chapter. In a small Paris café is where it all began," Kirsten read.
