Chapter 24: Recovery

The following week also passed in a rather gloomy and depressed mood. Ron was still ready to punish anyone, who allowed to show too much joy, and was annoyed if someone disturbed him from keeping looking for something useful for treating Hermione's scars. He was glad to see only Crookshanks as he sometimes took him on his lap in the evenings. The two guilty girls looked sadder and unhappier with each passing day – actually Harry wondered how they didn't have the nervous breakdown already, because in addition to Ron's anger, the other Gryffindors were not happy at all when they found out about what had happened in the holidays, but maybe they had broken a long time ago already and only the vigor of the Gryffindor didn't allow them to turn into wrecks completely. Harry's mind was plagued by gloomy thoughts, too, and only Ginny seemed to be able to resist the general depressing feeling, but she was much quieter and less cheerful than usual, too. The girl's presence during the day reassured Harry, but as he went to bed, he couldn't forget about the Fiendfyre attack on Hermione.

He had been whining that day for McGonagall giving him such a minor task, but Hermione had said something else about it then.

"…And yet, it would be extremely foolish if someone happened to come here at the wrong time exactly because of our negligence," Hermione had affirmed, smiling at Harry.

As always, Hermione had been right. Now it really seemed so terribly silly and stupid that he hadn't monitored the hallway more closely. The two young ladies had learned the Disillusionment Charm – of course, they weren't strong and skilled enough to be able to cast it for a long time, but it was necessary only a few minutes for them to sneak past him. With the help of the little Silence Charm, they had managed to slip past him, invisible, inaudible. Had he took out his Marauder's Map sooner, he would have noticed both girls in time. He hadn't done his job properly, he hadn't guarded the hallway, and Hermione now suffered a difficult recovery from the Fiendfyre Curse.

And most of all, Harry condemned himself for thinking before the accident that McGonagall had simply wanted to assign them the task, so they won't make a mess where the "big" Aurors had to do their job. Then he had felt almost offended by such a childish and insignificant task. He was, however, the famous Harry Potter, the one who had defeated the darkest wizard in history – at least in the view of wizarding community – he was sure he would have been useful in breaking the curse, but no, he was assigned to guard one silly far away hallway. And what had come out of his vanity? Had he done his job properly, Hermione would now be happy to enjoy the usual Hogwarts routine. But now…

Fortunately, Hermione's health began to improve rapidly, and she was now able to move almost freely on her own in the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey hadn't yet allowed her to leave the hospital, claiming that it was necessary to completely get the curse out of her body, otherwise when she'll have to endure the usual Hogwarts studying load, she'd soon be back here again and then the consequences would be much more unpleasant than now. This meant Hermione needed to spend another week in the hospital.

Ron was exchanging many letters with his mother to get the latest news about Lestrange. Again, the Aurors failed to capture either Lestrange himself or any of his henchmen. No matter how crazy Lestrange seemed, he apparently kept his minions under strict control, and also during such a public act, he supervised his plan into utter precision and secrecy. It was done lightning fast and untraceable. Practically nothing was known about his hiding place. There was still active work of the Aurors both in the search for Lestrange's whereabouts and in the securing the surroundings of Ottery St Catchpole, because as long as there was a possibility of catching Lestrange, the Weasley men were not ready to have even the slightest idea that Molly could put herself in danger of death. At the moment, she had to stay in protected house and wait for Lestrange or any of his men to make some kind of mistake.

On Saturday this week, all three of them – Harry, Ron, and Ginny – had received invitations from Slughorn to his regular afternoon tea party "in easy atmosphere". Ron had right away tore the invitation into pieces grumpily – he had no mood to go anywhere without Hermione.

In the name of their friendship with Ron, Harry and Ginny also refused to attend the Slughorn Club's party, which meant that without visiting Hermione in the hospital, they had to spend their time in the library or in the Common Room again, as an extreme January frost had started. The school brooms were covered with such a thick layer of ice that Alicia and Hagrid were barely able to defrost them so that the poor freezing first-years could actually take off from the ground at all. However, Ginny hadn't yet resumed their Quidditch training due to both Ron's grumpiness and the fierce frost that had made the windows on the lower floors of the castle overgrow with the ice flowers.

Thus, while fighting the frost, another week passed, on which a visit to Hogsmeade was planned on Saturday. It so concurred that on the same day, Madam Pomfrey was finally ready to release Hermione from the hospital, strictly demanding them to swear that they in no circumstances would go to Hogsmeade in this snowy and cold weather, but they needed to spend this day peacefully and calmly inside the castle so that Hermione could get used to returning to public everyday life.

"And, Miss Granger," Madam Pomfrey had added strictly, "I'm releasing you today so that you can use the two weekend days for resting and recovering for your daily life, rather than getting in all kinds of responsibilities and adventures with full extent now. You need to spend these two days calmly with a lot of walking in the castle and relaxing, okay?"

Of course, Hermione was willing to promise everything for just getting out of the hospital – she had been there for almost a month, and she longed to return to her normal life. However, it seemed that Ron was even more pleased with this nurse's decision, since he had worried so much of this misfortune that had befallen his girlfriend.

They truly followed the advice of Madam Pomfrey and walked Hermione throughout the castle. Of course, she got tired very soon at first – staying in the hospital bed had indeed weakened her greatly.

Having fun and feeling joy, their day was approaching to the evening, and the hungry young people were sitting at the dinner table, eating the stews and pies cooked by the Kreacher's team with great appetite.

After Ron had finished his third plate of lamb stew, he suddenly noticed that Hermione had turned, sitting in her place next to him, and was looking at something or someone in the distance. Ron and Harry, and Ginny also followed her gaze – it turned out Terry was coming closer to them fixedly. He came to Hermione and congratulated her with a wide smile for having getting well and praised her cosmetic transfiguration spell, which had concealed her scars pretty good. Although, Hermione had practiced hard, she hadn't been able to achieve an effect that would last for more than a few hours, but she anyway accepted his compliments as she shyly lowered her gaze – after all, he was the one who had recommended her to use this spell.

Harry turned his gaze sideways from delighted Hermione to surly Ron next to her, and then he looked at the exit of the hall and saw even thrice as angry Romilda Vane, who was Terry's girlfriend and stared now with a very hostile look at Hermione.

Though, Terry hadn't much more to say to Hermione, so he said goodbye to her and walked back along the Gryffindor table until he reached Romilda; then he leaned over to his girlfriend's ear and whispered something softly, which she initially smiled at and then even suppressed a giggle a second later. Having calmed down his girlfriend, Terry straightened and slowly walked out of the Great Hall.

If Harry and Ginny had watched in silence this like it was a simple, mundane event, then Ron was thinking differently about it and wasn't going to stay silent about it.

Finally recovering his voice after Terry's sudden visit, he angrily asked, "What exactly was that, huh?"

Hermione looked at him as she was beginning to suspect another wave of his jealousy, sighing heavily in her mind, since it was obvious what he had actually meant by it, so she retorted, "That, Ron, was Terry, and he was being friendly, coming here and congratulating me with my recovery."

"Being friendly," Ron mocked ironically. "He practically ran to you like you were some kind of girlfriend to him."

Harry and Ginny exchanged looks – the first day when Hermione had been released from the hospital, which by the way Ron had been waiting for with the greatest impatience, but now he was ready to fight with Hermione because there was someone else who sympathized with her illness.

"The fact that you're not able to have a friendly relationship with several people at once, Ron, it doesn't mean it's impossible for anyone else," she said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Isn't it obvious what exactly he wants from you? He doesn't have any friendly intentions at all," Ron said as he turned sideways toward Hermione with his entire torso, arguing with his girlfriend.

"He's got a romantic relationship with Romilda. He can just talk to me about Arithmancy, that's all," Hermione said. It was obvious she found this quarrel completely pointless as she just shook her head in disbelief and fixed her gaze at her empty plate. On the other hand, Ron kept looking at her sternly and was not at all going to leave it there.

"Just talk about Arithmancy – but please," he said with a sour grin, and then he began mimicking his classmates voice in a particularly flattering manner, "Hermione, I took a look at your homework. It was absolutely brilliant; I don't understand why Professor Vector gave you only ninety-five percent for this. She has corrected you, see it right here, that you've put this two wrong in there, but according to the latest findings of Numerology, the possibility of the dualism of the nature of any event must be also taken into account; I have doubts whether Professor Vector herself is following the latest discoveries in Arithmancy." Then Ron regained his low angry voice and continued. "Hermione, this is not a friendship, this is flattery. And the fact that he has Romilda means nothing. I once had a relationship with Lavender, but that didn't stop me even for a second thinking only about you."

Hermione looked at her boyfriend, taken aback after his long and open monologue, but then she got angry. "You know what, Ron, if you can roast me now for such nonsense, then I would like to ask you what exactly you have with Luna. You're always complimenting her about something like: Luna, you've such interesting earrings today; Luna, this is a really good idea; Luna, how are you so good at spell amplification? Aren't you yourself flattering someone else, huh?"

"You know, Hermione, better, let's go talk in a less public place," Ron suddenly suggested.

Hermione laughed without any joy. "This is your first sensible sentence during this conversation." Then they got up and hurriedly left the Great Hall to talk everything out somewhere private without casting a second glance at Harry and Ginny.

"Oh, yeah, everything's back to normal," Ginny sighed and drank her glass of pumpkin juice empty.

After dinner, they waited in the library, where they hoped to meet Hermione (and Ron, too), who will probably be very eager to visit her favourite place of the whole castle. However, there was no sign nor of Hermione neither of Ron, and the Marauder's Map showed that they were still in one of the empty first floor classrooms. Meanwhile, the both young people heard their friends' names from the muffled whispers now and then – it seemed that at school, the news that Ron was arguing with Hermione had spread faster than the fire in a dry grass. Of course, almost every Hogwarts gossip girl had received this news overly enthusiastically.

Luckily, the gloominess of this afternoon and the muted whispers of the Hogwarts girls were diluted a little for both of them by Luna, who had also decided to come for an evening walk to the library after today's visit to Hogsmeade.

"Luna, do you know where Neville is?" Ginny asked her friend.

"Oh," she smiled warmly, "Neville hasn't yet returned from his date with Hannah."

Ginny smiled at it, too. "Cool. I'm so happy about them."

"Yes, after all this disaster with Voldemort, we need love the most," Luna simply stated in her usual flat voice. But then she spoke with an extraordinary enthusiasm, "My friends, I haven't told you the news about Flamel! I showed him the Resurrection Stone and told him how it works. And then I succeeded to summon my Mom myself. It was pretty easy, but we couldn't get him to contact her. At first I had to be like a psychic, but then after a while, when he seemed to have started getting to know my Mom, he was able to contact with her if he touched the Stone when I summoned her. And today he managed to summon my Mom without my help. Isn't that great?"

"Really?" Harry asked in admiration, hardly believing his own ears.

"Really, indeed," she confirmed. "I lent him the ring for the rest of the Hogwarts school year, making him swear that he would then return it to you. I hope, Harry, you don't mind me lending the Stone to him? If you do mind it, then I'll go to him right away and tell him that he needs to give it ba-"

"No, no, Luna, it's okay," Harry interrupted her excusing. "I wish he was able to do these experiments. Maybe he could succeed with them into something."

"That's great," she said with relief. "I already thought so that you wouldn't mind it, but I was still worried – you know, it's the legendary Resurrection Stone. It's not any ordinary ring from a curiosity shop in the Diagon Alley."

"Actually, Luna, right now, it seems that our only chance to find Ravenclaw's Diadem is based on Flamel succeeding in producing the Essence of Magic so that we can amplify our Locator Spell. We haven't come up with any other ideas yet," he explained. "So, there's nothing to lose."

Harry saw Ron again only late at night in the boys' dorm room. He was sitting in his bed, leaning against the headboard as he threw a book of fire magic across the room, then summoned it towards himself and then threw it at the wall again so that the book hit the wall with a thud and fell to the floor. When the redhead took his wand to summon the book to himself again, Harry right away asked his friend who he sat on the edge of his bed, "What really happened to you and Hermione, now?"

"What happened?" he asked mockingly. "We had a fight, that's what happened."

"And about what exactly? Really about Terry?" Harry asked cautiously. It looked like Ron was ready to explode at every moment.

"More or less," his friend replied evasively, then glared at the book and added, "You see, I was almost going mad of all the worrying about her; I've even read about ten of these damn books, but then there comes such Terry, tells her how to make a pretty face, and she right away starts to smile shyly at him. That damn Terry…" Ron said in a half whisper at the end and angrily threw the book at the wall, and the book cover came off this time.

Seamus came into the dorm room and looked at the ruined book and Ron suspiciously, but, without saying anything, went to his bed. To be sure they are safe to talk, Harry cast on himself and Ron the Muffliato Charm.

"Listen, mate," Harry began, but wasn't really sure how to say it carefully enough, "but don't you think you're overreacting a little bit?"

"I'm overreacting?" Ron said, looking at him suspiciously as if considering whether he should accuse him of treason.

"I mean, we all know Hermione loves you very much, but that doesn't mean she can't talk to other people," Harry said.

"Harry, I'm not so angry only because she just talked to someone," Ron explained grimly, "but have you noticed that it was only Terry, who brought Hermione homework in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and no one else?"

"But he's also studying the same subjects, so he's just helping Hermione," Harry simply said.

"And Luna? Couldn't she be the one who could bring Hermione her homework, at least in the Ancient Runes? But she said that Terry had especially asked her to allow him to take homework to Hermione. He's just looking for a reason to meet her," Ron explained angrily, looking at Harry's face. "And it's called flattering! He praises Hermione at every opportunity like she was so much smarter than the professors themselves. Of course, Hermione is unusually smart, but that doesn't mean it has to be reminded to her round the clock. It's just that this Terry seems to me like one slimy bloke who simply wants to get Hermione for himself with all his flattery. And that's exactly what I'm angry about because she doesn't see through his intentions. She thinks he's just being friendly. Friendly… You don't say – a flatterer this Terry is, for sure like some kind of Slytherin – he wants only to make everything to be in his own favor." After saying it all out angrily, he returned to his previous position – half-sitting in his bed, and then he summoned to himself the broken book again and fixed it.

Harry sighed sadly – it was obvious Ron was overreacting about the whole incident, and he probably took all this to his heart so much because his own studies had turned out to be completely in vain, but then there showed up such Terry, who just put on the table one idea that greatly improved Hermione's appearance and life. Understandably, Ron wanted to be the one to find a solution so he could come to his beloved with the cure for her like a knight in bright armor. So Harry had a strong suspicion that his friend was not so much jealous at the moment as he was angry with himself for his inability to help his girlfriend. Of course, Harry wasn't going to ask him this directly.

"Ron, but I don't see anything unusual about it – Ravenclaws have long admired Hermione's wisdom, besides after the Battle of Hogwarts, all three of us have practically our own fan clubs. If you do feel so offended about Terry, what do you think how Hermione feels about Lavender when she has to spend every night with her in the same dorm, not to mention even the younger girls who are occasionally following us giggling behind our backs?" Harry tried to make him see the error of his ways.

"Well, thank you very much for being the next, who pointed it out, too," Ron said sarcastically, "because Hermione was nagging me about it for a long time tonight." Then he sighed, threw the book he had fixed on his nightstand and then turned to Harry again as he put his legs over the edge of the bed. "You know, after all this row, I even somehow know that I overshoot the mark – really, they were just talking; but, you see, when I'm thinking back about how he always talked to her, and now this supposedly innocent gesture, I don't know why but for some reason I just feel like everything starts to boil inside me. I can't even really explain it, but something tells me that this Terry has completely different intentions than just being as outstanding in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy as Hermione."

"Ron, I really do understand how you feel. The thing is that both of our girlfriends are too beautiful and good and that is the problem. And who wouldn't want such a perfect girlfriend?" Harry said as he raised the corner of his lips. "And yet I understand that they both are smart enough to know what they want. No one can take Hermione away from you if she doesn't want to, and that's why I trust Ginny, because I know she wants to be only with me, and if someone is trying, so to speak, steal her from me with flattery, I just grit my teeth, because after a while she's standing by my side again and everything is fine."

"Humph, I suppose you're right; I've never been good with this girl handling thing," Ron said sadly with his eyes on the floor. "But how can I fix everything? Hermione is really angry with me."

"At first, maybe try to calmly tell her the same thing you just told me," Harry suggested. "She really is a smart girl and knows you perfectly, so I think she'll understand your reasoning."

"I wish it would work," Ron sighed.

The next morning, getting ready for breakfast, the two young men climbed down the stairs to the boys' dorms in silence, and as usual on Sundays, the Common Room was very quiet, so they heard clearly two girls' voices, which came closer to them from the direction of the girls' dorm stairs.

"And the effect of this powder lasts quite a long time; it is even resistant of getting wet. I usually apply a very thick layer of it – I know it gives a bit unnatural effect, but it's not as bad as scars. And in the Malfoy Apothecary, you can buy it for two Galleons. It's expensive, but at least I'm not ashamed of my appearance anymore. You're very good with transfiguration spells, but I with my two left hands don't want to risk losing half of my face, you know," a girl's voice was telling insightfully – as it turned out it was Lavender, who apparently was introducing Hermione to all the subtleties of one of her cosmetics.

Hermione was about to answer her companion, but as she stepped off the stairs, she saw Harry and Ron. She closed her mouth and pursed her lips.

After greeting both girls awkwardly, Ron said, "Hermione, could we talk again, please?"

"All right," Hermione said with a sigh and agreed to go with the redhead out of the Common Room.

Harry decided to wait here for Ginny and meanwhile he chatted with Lavender, who knew to tell in every detail about the stock of the new Malfoy Apothecary. They have opened their shop in Diagon Alley, next to the Apothecary, where Hogwarts students usually bought their beetle eyes, dried lizard tails, bouquets of dried nettle, and other things for their ingredient shelves of Potions class. So she told that the Malfoys had mainly focused their goods on health and beauty, offering indeed excellent products, of course, at quite excellent prices.

"And they have even thought about the layout. Everything there looks so smart, but at the same time reserved and moderate; there's perfect order and cleanliness everywhere – not as usual in the other stores at Diagon Alley, which are always so packed of goods and people that there's nowhere you could even properly turn around," Lavender just talked and talked excitedly without stopping, but Harry just nodded as he occasionally added some words to confirm he's still listening to her story. Fortunately, Ginny soon appeared on the girls' dorm stairs, and Harry had a good reason to leave the presence of chatty Lavender.

Having greeted Ginny and after a small talk about how she had slept at night, Harry listened her beginning to tell how Hermione had felt yesterday.

"She returned to the dorm yesterday, furious as a dragon. Actually, I haven't seen her like that in a very long time. You see, she doesn't usually take Ron's nonsense so much to her heart – she knows him too well and knows how he sometimes behaves," Ginny told Harry as they began measuring the way to breakfast in the Great Hall down the hallway on the seventh floor. "But this time, she was really mad. Because Ron, you know, had been accused her for talking too friendly with Terry. You know, Ron manages to foolishly misunderstand something now and then or he doesn't really understand what to do with his feelings, but this was a completely different case; it wasn't anything like that situation with Malfoy. Now he practically forbade Hermione to simply talk to another guy. And I agree with Hermione, I also think it is a bit too much. You can't forbid someone to talk to other people!" Ginny added vividly at the end.

Harry now began to tell her what he had learned from Ron the night before and told her also his thoughts of his friend's anxiety, because he had failed to help Hermione to recover.

Ginny just rolled her eyes at that and said, "Well, this sounds like typical Ron. Makes up a scandal from the series – 'Make yourself some things up and then get offended about it'. But Hermione said something that she wasn't going to forgive him so easily this time. She has something in her mind."

Having discussed the upset with Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny soon arrived in the Great Hall, where the sleepy students were gradually coming for breakfast. Putting their plates full of fried eggs and beans, they noticed that Hermione and Ron were also approaching the Gryffindor table – apparently they had already managed to talk everything out. Ron seemed angrier than an irritated Blast-Ended Skrewt, but Hermione looked almost amused.

They took their seats next to each other as they greeted Harry and Ginny, and then Hermione smeared a thin layer of jam on her toast with one swift swipe of her knife and immediately drew a stamp-sized book out of her pocket, then tapped it with her wand – it grew to the proper size – and simply barricaded herself behind the freshly conjured up New Theory of Numerology, which she flipped quite close to the end part of the book as she began reading it, carelessly biting a piece by piece of her toast without paying any attention to Ron at all. Ron, in turn, stared at Hermione in complete disbelief, but then simply turned back to the breakfast table as he shook his head.

Feeling that the awkward silence was stretching for too long, Ginny turned the topic of conversation to the Quidditch as she stated that they have been lazy practically for all of the January so now they needed to resume their practices.

Having finished her breakfast, Hermione simply got up from the table and walked away, claiming she needed to go to the library, so Harry and Ginny made a company for Ron.

When they left the Great Hall, Ron turned to his sister and said to her, "Listen, Ginny, could you please leave me alone with Harry? I need to talk to him about something."

"Okay, okay," his sister agreed with a grin, "I understand that have your guy business. I'll go to Alicia, maybe she won't be too angry with me that I'm disturbing her on Sunday." Then she turned and climbed up the wide marble staircase.

The two young men also followed Ginny up the stairs, but then a moment later, they turned into the much quieter hallway on the first floor, where they could talk freely. Fortunately, this time they didn't have a bunch of giggling girls as their tails.

"Tell me, how was it with Hermione this time?" Harry immediately asked as soon as no one was near.

"Humph, not good," Ron said with a sigh. "At the beginning, it seemed that she had accepted and understood my explanation, but then Hermione said it hadn't lessened her anger anyway." Then Ron took a deep breath and raised his eyes. "And if I want to pay for such silly accusations of mine, she ordered that I need to get her a bouquet of real flowers every day for a whole week without missing a day. The bouquet is not obligatory needed to be made of roses, she said she is ready to accept any kind of flowers," he added at the end in a ridiculing manner. "And she warned me that if I'll keep attacking her with such nonsense, she's going to come up with something particularly difficult next time."

"Oh, but it doesn't seem so hard to get some flowers," Harry began, feeling happy that they weren't broken up, but Hermione had just figured out how to make Ron suffer a little bit.

"Doesn't seem so hard?" Ron said as he widened his eyes, staring at his friend in disbelief. "Then, please, tell me from which ass could I pull out a bouquet of roses for her every day, if now in January, there's such a frost outside that Hagrid even makes special fires so that his Hippogriffs don't freeze to the ground, mh?"

"First, they didn't have to be exactly the roses," Harry said as he smirked a little, "second, we do know one excellent herbologist personally, right? Right," he added as his friend leaned his head to the side a little thoughtfully and then slowly nodded. "Then let's go and find Neville."