The usual disclaimer applies. I own nothing and make nothing.
Chapter 9
Hermione opened her eyes slowly. As she looked around the room, she did not recognise anything around her. She definitely wasn't at Hogwarts, and this looked nothing like her flat. She blinked a few times and observed the room once again. The room was totally unfamiliar, and she knew she had never been here before. Her head was throbbing, but despite the pain she closed her eyes tightly and tried to focus. Oh God, Dolohov, she finally remembered. She had been in the courtyard with Dolohov, and then she found it hard to remember anything after that.
She tried to push herself up into a sitting position, but then noticed she couldn't move her hands. She was surprised to see muggle handcuffs pinning her arms to the bed railings. Slightly digging her elbows into the bed, she managed to push herself up just a little bit. She looked up as she heard the door start to open. An older woman with light green robes entered the room, and walked briskly towards her.
"Good. You're awake now. How do you feel Miss Granger?"
"Okay, I guess. My head hurts and I am a little sore. My chest hurts a bit, and my face feels kind of numb." Hermione looked at the woman's robes for a moment, and noticed the healer's emblem near the collar. "Where am I?"
"You are at St. Mungo's, dear. Your injuries were too extensive to be treated at the infirmary at Azkaban. And I am not surprised you are still sore; you had quite a few serious injuries to recover from. Two broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, a broken nose, a skull fracture and concussion, and several broken bones on your face. Not to mention the deep tissue bruising on your torso." She watched as Hermione tried to push herself higher, then couldn't because of the handcuffs. "I can remove one of those now that you are awake, but all prisoners have to be handcuffed- it is both a Ministry and Azkaban requirement. I'd personally prefer a spell, but the magic could interfere with our diagnostic charms."
Hermione nodded, and watched the healer remove her right cuff. "How-how long have I been here?"
"Three days. And you will probably be here another couple of days until we can make sure you have healed enough to be transferred back to Azkaban." The healer paused when there was a knock on the door. "There is an Auror waiting outside to take a statement from you, and I am supposed to send him in once you are able to talk. I will check on you later, Miss Granger."
The older woman walked out the door, and Hermione started to listen to a discussion taking place in the hallway. One of the voices sounded familiar, but it wasn't loud enough for her to identify. The door started to open, and she couldn't hide the smile that was now on her face as her visitor walked in.
"Harry!" she exclaimed loudly, then winced as her head throbbed once again. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to question you about the incident that put you here," he replied softly. "But first, how are you? How do you feel?"
Hermione managed a slight smile. "I've felt better." She tried to contain her emotions, but once Harry sat closer to the bed and clasped her hand, she felt the dam break. "I thought I was going to die. I've never been so scared in my life." And then the tears freely flowed down her face.
"What happened?" he asked quietly.
Hermione took several breaths to try and calm herself before she spoke. "Marietta came to get me for courtyard time. I was suspicious, but I went outside anyway. Most of the hour I spent alone reading a book, but once I realised that I was alone and Severus wasn't coming out, I headed back to the door. That is when Dolohov came outside."
"Why was he outside? Death Eaters and high security prisoners aren't allowed outside breaks." Harry's tone was now angry and loud.
"I-I don't know. He said that Marietta told him he had been good and had earned outside time. I looked for someone to help me, but there was no one outside but the two of us."
Harry gasped, "Where were the guards? You are never supposed to be left alone in the courtyard, especially if there are other prisoners."
"I don't know. But there weren't any guards. There wasn't anyone else." Hermione paused for a moment, then spoke as she suddenly remembered something else. "I thought I saw Severus right before I lost consciousness, but I was in so much pain. I'm pretty sure I must have imagined it."
"No, you didn't imagine it. He was brought outside by his guard, and when the gate was opened, they both saw Dolohov attacking you. The attack was stopped, and once the guard saw how seriously injured you were, you were transferred to St. Mungo's."
"Where's Dolohov now?"
"He's in the infirmary at Azkaban. When he's released, there is a pretty good chance that he'll be Kissed. He was already in for life, and this reflects poorly on the Ministry."
Hermione nodded her head, then gave Harry a curious look. "Why is Dolohov in the infirmary? What happened after I blacked out?"
Harry ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "We're not exactly sure. We have only talked to the guard. Professor Snape is also in the infirmary, so we still need to talk to him and Dolohov." He looked at the concerned expression on Hermione's face, and then quickly continued explaining. "Professor Snape and the guard both started running towards you and Dolohov, but before they got to you, Dolohov was knocked away from you and into a wall. The guard said he did not have enough time to perform a stunning spell, but he was the only one with a wand. The Auror department did a Prior Incantato on his wand, and it seems he is telling the truth. Hopefully we will find out more once we are able to talk to Dolohov and Snape."
"What happened to Professor Snape? Did he get hit with a stunner as well?"
"He should be fine. But the healers have said he wasn't hit with a stunner. His symptoms are more like magical exhaustion, but they are still trying to figure out what is wrong since it can't be that."
Hermione looked away from Harry, her eyes slightly glazed over while she was deep in thought. "Harry, what keeps prisoners, or even guards for that matter, from doing wandless magic?"
"Azkaban has a magic-dampening field surrounding it. It is complex spell-work, and the Aurors have to renew it every couple of years. The guards can only do magic because they have special wands that will still work in the dampening field. But Snape's guard already told us he doesn't know how to do wandless magic-," and he cut off his sentence as he realised what Hermione was implying. His eyebrows rose, and he looked at Hermione in shock. "Hermione, you can't tell anyone your theory, okay? He's only in for five years, but if the Ministry even thought that he performed magic-," he trailed off as he looked towards Hermione.
"Of course," she replied to Harry as he got up and headed towards the door.
"I wish I could stay longer, but I might be questioned about the nature of this visit if I were to stay any longer. I will try to be back tomorrow once I question Professor Snape and Dolohov. Bye, Hermione."
"Bye, Harry."
She didn't realise how exhausting her talk had been until after he left. As she started to get drowsy, she couldn't help but wonder why Severus would risk not only his freedom, but his health for her. She knew that in the past, he had saved her, along with Harry and Ron, several times while they were at Hogwarts. But that had been while he was still under his vow to protect Harry, and serve the Order. He had no orders to follow now, and no masters he had to serve. Anything he did would be because he chose it, not because it was commanded of him. He did it for me, he did it because we are friends, was her final thought as sleep overtook her.
A/N... I tried to get this up as quickly as possible, but my hubby has been out of town, and I've been doing the single mom thing with three kids. It doesn't leave much time for writing. (and kudos to those that do the single mom thing every day...I bow to you).
Hopefully I've answered all the questions from the last chapter, but if not feel free to PM me.
As always...reviews are always appreciated!