Fall to Pieces

Chapter 6

Somehow she knew it was a hatbox. It was floating away and she wanted it back. It contained not a hat but something precious. She reached out desperately, but her fingers grasped cloth rather then water. Hermione was spinning, first in water, then in space. Whirling and spinning, whirling and spinning, then setteling, coming to rest.

The blood in the water stopped roaring in her ears. And at first everything was very quiet.

Then Hermione heard her father's voice. "Hermione? Darling?"

And then the horrible song begain in her head:

'oh my darlin', oh my darlin', oh my darlin', Clementine. You are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry, Clementine,'

Her mother's voice broke through:"Hermione? Wake up, dear. It's okay. You're okay now."

And she opened her eyes. It was hard to see her parents together through all the water. Her parents-together? Something must have happened. She blinked, and her vision cleared. "Mom?"

"Yes, I'm right here." Hermone felt a gentle pressure on her arm.

"And Dad, too?"

"I flew down as soon as your mom called me last night," her father said. She felt his big hand on her head, stroking her hair. "You've been going in and out of consciousness all day. We've been so worried."

"What happened to me?" But even as she asked, she remembered everything. Coach Hawthrone and the swim lessons. The nightmare about the house. Draco Malfoy and the water flowing in her lungs. She moaned.

"Shhh," murmured her father. "It's okay now. You're safe in the hospital, and everything is okay." He reached for the button by her bed to call the nurse. "But I think we'd better have the doctor back in here to check on you."

"But I'm fine! I mean, I'm fine-" Hermione thrashed on the bed.

"Pull yourself together." Jenny touched Hermione's hair again. "Everything is alright."

"I drowned."

"You nearly drowned." Her father's voice was tight.

"He threw me in-"

"Amanda told us, Hermione. She and her cousin saved your life."

"Mom-" Hermione turned her head on the pillow to look at jenny-"the kids wouldn't help! They thought it was funny. They just let Draco throw me in. I said i couldn't...I told them no, but they-"

"Shhh," said jenny. "I know, I know."

"I hate Draco."

"I can't believe it," Her father growled. "What kind of friends are they who would let some strange guy come to a party and nearly kill a girl?"

"OH, John, no one knew Hermione would react so badly. I remember telling Coach Hawthrone myself all Hermione need was to get into the water. I said if she could just get in once, she be over her fear." Jenny faltered unter his glare. "Will it seems logical, John."

"Well, you were wrong, werent you?"

Hermione was lying very still now under the white sheet. Her head ached behind her temples, and her mouth had a horrible, bitter test, fuzzy at the back of her throat. Her father had said that she'd been unconsicous, but she knew she had been dreaming about the house.

She was wandering through the hallways, opening doors, and someone was humming that hideous Clemintine song. Suddenly there was a girl walking along beside her, a girl with hair in two light braids wound up on top of her head like a coronet.She wore a long gray skirt that swirled just above her ankles as they walked together towards the room at the end of the hall. Her cheeks were flushed, her dark eyes wild. She raised her hands, plums up, as if to show Hermione-What? In the dream Hermione shooked her head not understanding.

But then the girl'ss hands were suddenly stained with blood, and she was crying, crying for someone to help- and Hermione broke away and ran back the way she had came, her legs pumping in slow motion, as if trying to tread water.

Now here she was , safe in the hospital. The girl in the house were only part of the nightmare. And she had not drowned after all.

"I'm so glad you're safe." Jenny reached for Hermione's hand were it lay limply on the white sheet.

Then John smiled and stroke Hermione's cheek. "Well, honey, you'll be happy about one thing, at least. You have a medical excuse."

Hermione's voice came out as a whispe. "You mean-no more lessons?"

"Not even one. The doctor said a reaction like yours means you have a real full-fledged phobia. And that's your medical excuse."

Jenny cleared her throat. "I'm not too happy about that diagnosis, actually, Hermione."

Hermione wasn't feeling very friendly towards the friends who stood idly by when Draco tossed her into the water. There had been a short article about her in the papers. The head line read:

Near-Drowning at Teen Party: West River Academy Student Rivived by Swim Stars.

The stars had been Amanda and Draco, of course-big-deal swimmers. How gallent of Draco to drag her off the bottom of the pool, Hermione thought sarcastically when she read the article. Sweet of him. It had been Amanda who rushed over and pumped out her lungs. But it had been Draco who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

That didnt bear thinking about.

Draco had tried to see her twice in the hospital, but the first time Hermione had been sleeping and the second time she had pretened to be. Then he had called the day she went home from the hospital, but she signaled Jenny to say she coudlnt come to the phone. He kept on calling. John had spoken to him once or twice and told Hermione afterwards that the poor boy was very upset and eally seemed to need to talk. Jenny said Hermione was being silly. But Draco was the last person in the world she wanted to hear from.

John Granger stayed for two weeks after Hermione left the hospital, spending days with her while Jenny was at work.

The day after her father left, Hermione stayed home alone. She napped, read, watch a soap opera, and napped again. Whenever the phone rang, she let the answering machine take the call. Each time it was Draco: "Please talk to me, Hermione. I'm very, very sorry-an I really need to see you. Something very weird is going on."

"You'll have to see him sooner or later." her mother said when she came home. "It's been two weeks. And after all, he's Amanda's cousin."

"I'm finished with Amanda, too!" Said Hermione. "She knew he was going to throw me in. I don't want to see either one of them." Her best friend betrayal sat like a stone in Hermione heart.

Hermione stamped into the family room. She had missed the play but could still see it on video. She pushed the video cassette into the player and turned the volume up loud to drown out the sounds of Jenny in the kitchen making dinner. Soon she was lost in Oliver's story.

The door to the family door opened. "Can we eat in here." Hermione asked Jenny, not taking her eyes from the screen. "This is one of the best parts."

But it wasn't Jenny. Draco Malfoy stood just inside the door, his big hands clenched at his sides.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded, jumping up. "Mom! Did you let him in? I told you not to!"

Draco raised his hands. "Please, wait a minute. Hermione, I need to talk to you. Your mother said it was okay." He burshed his blonde hair off his forehead. "Just give me a few minutes."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Then just listen. Please." He shut the door and leaned against it. "I just have to ask you one thing."

"What?" She crossed her arms.

"About what happened-at Michael's pool. I don't know what happened. I never ment to throw you in. I still can't believe I did it. It was just, suddenly, well...I dont know."

She stared at the televison.

Draco touched her arm tentatively with one finger. She flinched as if his finger burned her skin. "Hermione, that's not all. I mean, there's something else. It's driving me crazy, and it's got me so scared-I need to know. About the seaweed and-Hermione, what was that stuff in the water? Blood?

There was a roar of wind in her ears. She could not hear the television. She could only hear Draco's insistent voice.

"And what was that box? That round box?"

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was impossible that he had shared her hallucination. She shoved him aside, wrenched open the door, and creened through the ketchen, past Jenny at the stove and up the stairs to her room. She lay on her bed, clutching her pillow, dazed and numb. Through the pounding in her head she could hear the humming again.

The knocking on the door roused her. "I am not going to talk to you." She yelled. "Get it through your head, asshole."

"Hermione, it's me." Jenny voice was low. "I'm alone. Draco went home."

"I don't believe you mom. You tricked me. I told you I didn't want to see him."

"Honey, I thought it was best if you saw him. Now, please come down."

"No way. Just leave me alone." Hermione huggd her pillow.

There was a long silence. When Jenny spoke again there was a tremble in her voice, "Dinner's ready."

"I'm not eating." Hermione walked across the room and turned off her air conditioner. She was trembling so hard, she needed a warm blanket. After another long minute, she heard Jenny go downstairs. She undressed swiftly, thinking how very fregile her body felt. How very delicate. She burrowed in the back of her closet, then pulled out her winter bathrobe and wrapped herself up in it. She was all at once conscious of being the guardian of her body. It was up to her to make sure her body lasted well into advanced old age. Anad that ment staying way from Draco Malfoy, whatever it took.

A/N: here's a sneak peak on what is going to happen next:

"Hello dad?"
"Molly! What a surpise!"

"Dad-listen, I've changed my mind. I do want to come see you and Paulette. Right away."
"Hey, thats great. Why the sudden change of heart?"
She clutched the reciever tightly, winding the cord around her hand. Her line to safety.

"I just decided I'd rather be with you."

"I'll admit I'm flattered. And relieved. But what does your mom say?"

A/N:Review!