Chapter 11

Minerva began to move suddenly. She hurried after Poppy who led the way, down to the great hall. Minerva tried to run as fast as she could but it seemed to her as if she could only move in slow motion, feeling like a part of a living nightmare.
When the great staircase came into sight she recognised at once the white figure, lying on the stairs, sunken down, inanimate, pallid... Minerva thought she would never reach these damn stairs.
Poppy held her back, looking in to her eyes with concern "Are you prepared?"
"Can one be prepared for this?" Minerva shouted back, freeing herself from her friend's grab.
"Hermione... Darling!" She didn't realise that she was screaming.
Bending over her lover she felt more awful than she ever had felt in her whole life. Hermione didnt open her eyes and Minerva entered a new level of desperation and panic.
"Baby, come on, open your eyes, come on, Mione, come open your eyes, can you hear me darling? honey, wake up, everything will be alright, come on, don't give up now, open your eyes, come on, Mione... Mione? - Baby?"
Hermione still didn't open her eyes and Minerva began to study this pale face a little closer. It wasn't clear to her what had happened. There was no blood as far as she could see. Yet.. Hermione didn't move, her face... she didn't move a muscle.
She put her arms around her and, lifting her up a little.
"Hermione, open your eyes, I beg you."
The seconds passed.
Minerva gentle stroked Hermione's hair and whispered over and over to her
"Darling, come, come, you can do it, come, come, wake up, baby, come, we'll take you back into bed and I won't ever leave you again, come, darling, come..."
But Hermione didn't move.
There was absolute silence. Minerva started to tremble as she realised.
The letter!
"The part of the victim is still vacant..."
'No, that couldn't be!' Minerva thought and looked back into her lover's liveless face.
"No ... POPPY, NO!" She looked up to her friend that had a hopeless expression on her face.
Stepping forward Poppy knelt down beside Hermione and caressed her face. She spoke with a solemn and calm voice, full of sadness and pain:
"Sleep easy dear, the angles fly thee home."
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Minerva roared up like a wounded beast, then turned around and screamed at the top of her voice into the silent darkness
"WHERE? ------ WHERE ARE YOU? WHO ARE YOU; WHO --- WHY? WHAT HAS SHE DONE TO YOU?"
Poppy tried to hold Minerva but with little success, she was out of her mind. Tears were streaming down her face, and Poppy thought that she had never seen anyone crying in such a way. Her pain was so true and essential and it appeared as if she might die of grief any moment.
"Minerva... I don't know what to say... I have found her on the stairs when I was on my way to the library..."
She came over and put her hand on Minerva's shoulder
"I am so sorry, Min."
But Minerva shook her head vigorously. "No, she's not dead... she's not."
She knelt down on the floor and took Hermione's face into her hands, the expression of madness in her eyes.
"Am I right my love? you are not dead, no, no..." She stroked her face and kissed her hair.
"Minerva..." Poppy tried to find the right words to make her believe that there was nothing that could be done anymore.
"Minerva... come, you have to be very very strong now and come with me. I'll take you back to your chambers and then we will call Albus, yes?
When her friend didn't answer Poppy looked down to her and was scared by the odd look on Minerva's face. She stared at Hermione and Poppy was just about to worry that she would really lose her mind when she found the reason for Minerva's reaction:
Hermione had moved her head!

"She is not dead" Minerva whispered almost inaudibly, bending lower and taking her lover's face in her hands.
"My beloved darling, please open your eyes and tell me you are ok."
And Hermione opened her eyes. She couldn't see clearly in the darkness around her and she still had to return fully into the here and now.
Her voice cracked when she whispered a weak
"Minerva?"
She felt someone take her hand and kiss her cheek.
"Yes, baby, I am here, I am here now."
Hermione reached up to touch Minerva's face, as if she had to make sure it was really her lover.
"What happened, my darling?" Minerva asked.
"I don't know... I was hit by some... kind of spell I think."
"What spell?" Poppy asked, trying to find out what exactly had caused Hermione to get so terribly hurt as Poppy herself had no doubt that she had been very close to dying. This, she knew, must have been a very powerful spell and an even more powerful wizard who had casted it.
"I don't know... "
Minerva put her arms around the small figure of Hermione.
"Husshhh baby... don't speak. I will take you to bed now, ok? You need to rest."
The woman on the ground trusting leaned into Minerva's arms and laid her head on Minervas shoulder.
"I am so glad you're here, Min..." she whipered and tears welled up in Minerva's eyes again.
Poppy came to help Minerva carrying Hermione into her bedroom, looking around as if she expected someone to step forward.
Minerva however was far too busy whispering little endearments to Hermione, being happy and even happier that she had not lost her beloved Hermione.