Chapter 14
After her talk with Cai, Hermione's day got considerably better. Her headache eventually totally disappeared and her constant water top ups did their job of keeping it from returning. Her lunchtime visit to Ron was like any other and it was whilst she was talking to him she realised she had yet to see Harry's new dress robes. After much conversation with herself she decided she would buy herself some new dress robes too.
Whilst she had had very little wear out of her old ones she had at least worn them more than once, unlike Harry. As she thought more about the ball she started to look forward to it. They were allowed to bring a guest. Harry would more than likely bring Ginny. They seemed to have taken it upon themselves to not be very 'couply' around Hermione, determined not to remind her of what she was missing.
The afternoon's lessons went as expected even if they were slightly boring, and because Marcus got into a debate with their potions tutor the lesson ran over by ten minutes. When she got to the hospital Harry was sat waiting for her, and was reading out the Quidditch scores to Ron.
'Err Harry?' she said before walking over to Ron and giving him a kiss hello.
He looked up from the paper and smiled at her.
'Hey Hermione.'
'Harry shouldn't you be in class? It's only quarter past three.'
'Our lessons got cancelled after a slight mishap in duelling practice.'
'What did you do?' she asked with a smile on her face.
Harry looked at her, eyebrows raised.
'For your information little miss I-made-my-friend's-pen-explode it wasn't me.'
'You're not gonna let that die are you?'
'Oh no!'
'Fair enough,' she accepted, 'so what happened then?'
'Well, I'm not exactly sure, I was stood at the opposite end of the room but we managed to figure out that Michael got hit by two spells at the same time,' he glanced over at Hermione, unsure of how she would react, he decided to press on, 'I was telling Ron there was no need to feel embarrassed because it's not just him it happens to!'
Hermione smiled, thankful he had brought a bit of humour to the situation.
'How was he hit by two spells?'
'Well we were having the same class that you were yesterday where we were practicing getting into duelling stance and then later on disarming. Well after that we went onto the shield charm, it reminded me of our DA days, but anyway, we were supposed to try and disarm our partners whilst they produced a shield. Except Nick decided to use some basic but quite amusing jinxes and hexes. Kingsley wasn't that bothered, his theory being that if you only think someone's going to disarm you and not cause you any physical harm then you might not try as hard, or something.'
'Well, that's true, people's behaviour towards anything differs if they know there's a chance they might get hurt.'
'Exactly, so there's curses rebounding off the shields in every direction and one hits Michael, unfortunately at the same time Nick's too fast for him and he doesn't get his shield up in time so he's hit by both. It was pure coincidence they hit him at the same time.'
'Is he ok?' Hermione asked, concerned. Proof that this was not a good thing was lying in front of her.
'Well Nick hit him with 'Impedimentia,' and the deflected curse was 'Expelliarmus'.
'That doesn't sound too bad,' Hermione said cautiously.
'That's what I thought, but his wand left his hand faster than I've ever seen, I'm surprised it didn't snap in two when it hit the wall, and unfortunately he wasn't moving slowly when he was taken off his feet and hit the wall behind him, and the sound his head made against it wasn't a quiet one,' he said with a grimace.
'Was he knocked out?' asked Hermione, quietly.
'Yeah, he still hadn't woken up by the time they got him here.'
'Merlin, I hope he's alright.'
'I'm sure he'll be fine, it wasn't so much spell damage as a smack to the head. He'll have concussion, the Healers here will be able to sort him out.'
'Well, I hope so.'
'Me too.'
'I don't mean to sound insensitive or anything but surely your other lessons didn't need to be cancelled.'
'I didn't think they would be but a couple of the girls got really upset, Nick was shaking and felt really guilty, Sarah was inconsolable 'cause it was her rebounded spell that hit him, and apparently the tutors are sorting out the paperwork that comes with an accident at Auror training, so it was just easier to cancel the rest of the day's lessons.'
'I would not like to be the person who has to fill out that form,' said Hermione sighing.
'Me neither,' agreed Harry.
'Is he allowed visitors?'
'I'm not sure, I was going to go and see after I'd finished reading the scores to Ron.'
'Oh ok, well if you want I can finish reading them and you can go down now.'
Harry smiled.
'I wouldn't be that mean to you Hermione and there's only a few left to do. Besides I make them more interesting to listen to, I couldn't subject Ron to your…' he considered his choice of words carefully seeing the glint in Hermione's eyes, 'less than enthusiastic rendition.'
'Well, I wouldn't like to deprive either of you of your oh-so-enthralling Quidditch scores. Please carry on!'
Harry picked up the paper he had dropped on Ron's bed and started where he finished earlier. Whilst he was reading them Hermione remembered she had yet to tell him about Cairo's after-the-ball party. Harry finished by telling Ron the Chudley Cannon's had won their match 270 to 90.
'Cairo asked me to tell you that he's having a party at his house after the ball. He thought twelve was far too early to stop partying so decided to let us carry on at his at our leisure.'
'That's very brave of him. Up to forty, eighteen and nineteen year olds already tanked up on alcohol, carrying on drinking in quite a confined space. Does he realise the consequences?'
'Harry are you nineteen or ninety? She asked with a smile.
'I'm just saying, I wouldn't want to clean up after that even with magic, I'm much more conscious of housework now I have to do it at home'.
'HA!' Hermione exclaimed 'When was the last time you dusted the lounge?'
'Well I don't know the specific date but it wasn't that long ago!'
'Yeah, whatever you think saviour boy!'
'Pen exploder!'
Hermione glanced at the 'Prophet' still lying on the bed and saw a small picture of Harry on the front page, under the name 'Wizard-kind wonder! She inwardly laughed.
'Wizard-kind wonder!'
His eyes widened and jumped to the paper.
'Damn, I knew I should have got rid of that. Anyway, enough of the name-calling-'
'Only because you can't come up with anything else other than 'pen-exploder!'
'ANYWAY…have you decided whether or not you're going to the ball?'
'Yeah I have, Cai said I should give myself a break and relax a bit. Plus I get to go shopping for dress robes if I do! You know you didn't show me your new ones yesterday.'
'Oh yeah, I completely forgot. Must have been all that wine!' he smiled cheekily at her.
'Don't say anything about my behaviour this morning. I'm personally blaming you and Ginny for the headache I had to endure all morning.'
'How is it our fault?' Harry exclaimed a little too loudly.
Healer Thompson gave him a 'shushing' look from the other side of the ward.
'Harry shh!' Hermione responded.
'Well? He asked, taking the volume of his voice back down to normal, 'How is it our fault?'
'You kept refilling my glass when I wasn't looking,' she replied. Harry opened his mouth to protest but was cut off before he could, 'and you didn't make me drink any water before I collapsed in to bed hence said headache. You know how much wine dehydrates me!'
'I think you'll find that it was Ginny who was refilling your wine, not that I really noticed; she was doing the same to me. Anyway, you had the same amount as me and I was fine!'
'Harry you know I'm a light weight when it comes to red wine, as does Ginevra!'
'Wow, it must have been bad if you're long naming her!'
'It was, and I nearly choked to death taking some headache tablets during this mornings lecture!'
'Well if it makes you feel any better I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to have a headache, or nearly choke trying to remedy it.'
'Hmm, well I suppose I accept your apology.'
'Good, so when are you shopping for dress robes?'
'On Saturday I suppose, I'll try that new shop in Hogsmeade and if there's none in there I like I'll try Madam Malkin's in Diagon Alley'.
'Well I got mine from Madam Malkin's, I knew she'd have some that would look ok, there was no point in going anywhere else.'
'Typical bloke!' Hermione commented with a smile on her face, 'I thought you said you weren't convinced by the colour.'
'I'm not, I don't know if maroon compliments or badly clashes with my eyes. They really stood out!'
Hermione laughed.
'Well I'm sure Ginny will tell you if they look good. Are you taking her to the ball?'
'I mentioned it to her, but she's got some initial exams coming up and she isn't sure when they are yet, but if they aren't at stupid times then she said she'd love to.
'That's good.'
They sit for a minute, both thinking about the ball.
'I'm glad you decided to come, I think you should try and…' he paused.
'Get out more?' Hermione finished for him.
'Well I suppose, but I was thinking more along the lines of having a bit more Hermione time. You spend a huge amount of time here and I really admire you for that, but no one would think any less of you if you took the occasional day off.'
'I would though. Ron came back to find me and to make sure me and you were still alive-'
'Like you would have done if it had been the other way around.'
'He came back and when he found me he tried to look after me, I can't forget that, which is why I'm here as much as I can be. I owe him everything.'
'Hermione, it was not your fault what happened to him.'
'Yes well that's debatable.'
'No it's not! Look I know you think that if you hadn't got knocked out then he wouldn't have been where he was to get hit.'
'Well he wouldn't!'
'BUT…anything could have happened. Let's say you didn't get knocked out, what would have happened then?'
Hermione sits quietly, not knowing what to say.
'I don't know.'
'Exactly, you could have been killed by the next Death Eater that came your way. Ron could have come back and you could have duelled together only to have been killed twenty minutes later by God knows who! As it is, me, you, the Weasleys, Lupin, Tonks and a hell of a lot of other people who we care about are still here and living like there really is no tomorrow, because they know how close we got to losing to Him. Every member of our adopted family survived and I really believe Ron will wake up.'
'How can you be so sure?' asked Hermione, voicing a concern she didn't like to think about too often.
'I know how he felt about you, and he wouldn't leave you alone in this world for too long. He'll be back with us soon, just give him time.'
Hermione smiled at him.
'Thanks Harry,' she said quietly, 'I don't know what I'd do without you sometimes, Ginny either. You've both been so good to me.'
'I'll say it again, like you would have, had things been the other way around. You told me the other night that your problems become each others when you're best friends. Well I'd say this comes under that, wouldn't you?'
'Yeah I suppose.'
'Good. Now what are you making for tea?'
