Title: Everything Has Purpose, Even Pain
Author: RayneLover101
Disclaimer: I don't anything recognizable, J.K. Rowling does.
Shout Outs:
The Talking Head: Thank you for your review. I plan to keep writing this story, granted it's taking me longer to write the chapters, but that's what happens when you make a story out of thin air and let the story go where the characters want it to go. You will see how Draco and Hermione interact next chapter, but I really hope you like this chapter, it's the longest one I've done so far. You'll know some of what's wrong with Hermione, but not until around chapter 5, so please stick around to see what I come up with next for this story.
Guest: I'm glad I have you interested on what's wrong with Hermione and I hope you'll keep reading to find out. I don't plan on letting anything slip about what's wrong until chapter 5-ish. But please let me know what you think of this chapter, I hope it's going in the right direction.
A/N: Chapter 3, I'm on a roll. So I'm starting to get out of my writer's block/funk type thing that's going on with me. I'm getting better at updating don't you think? Anyways, I think this story is really going somewhere and I'm actually glad that I'm sticking with it and coming up with more ideas unlike my other stories. I'm really going to try to update my other stories soon, but I have to finish this story first. So please bear with me on that front. So this chapter is going to be quite a bit longer than the others, I just started writing and then this came to be, so enjoy the long chapter, because I'm not sure if it'll happen again. Again, no beta, so my mistakes are my own, review and let me know what you think. :D
Warnings: Moaning Myrtle may be slightly OOC since I don't really remember how she talks exactly, but I hope her character's ok.
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Hermione found solace in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, she didn't know why, but she found it slightly calming talking to Myrtle since she knew pretty much everything that went on inside Hogwarts castle. When Hermione reached the bathroom, she walked in and sat in a stall about to start bawling her eyes out.
Just then Myrtle pops out from the other stall, "What's bothering you, Hermione? You're usually so happy." She was concerned that Hermione didn't look or act like her normal self, "did something happen over the summer, you look very worn out."
Hermione looked up at her, "Hi, Myrtle." 'Should I tell her? She's been known to blurt things out to people who come in here. But I think she's the only one I can trust with this right now,' Hermione thought for a moment, then decided to tell her a little bit about what's been going on.
"Can you keep this a secret between us? I mean it Myrtle, no one can know about this." Hermione was pleading with her; she knew by the look on her face that Myrtle knew that this was very serious.
Myrtle thought it was curious that Hermione was begging her not to say anything, but if she was hurting herself, she would have to go to Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall. "Ok," she had a thoughtful look on her face, "I won't say anything, but please don't be hurting yourself," she cut off there, gauging Hermione's reaction.
Hermione was relieved that Myrtle wasn't going to say anything, but she knew that she couldn't tell her everything, because she would probably tell Professor McGonagall about their conversation. So she decided to choose her words carefully, "Well…where do I start? I guess at the beginning would be the best place to start."
Flashback
It was a warm sunny day; Hermione had just gotten home from Kings Cross Station after saying goodbye to her friends. She stepped out of the car and made her way up to the front door of her house. She walked in and saw that the house was empty; her parents were still outside getting her bags out of the trunk.
When her parents came up behind her, people came out of their hiding places and yelled 'Surprise! Welcome Home!' She was surprised to see all of her friends and family standing there with balloons and streamers and banners, and her mom had disappeared, but came out of the kitchen carrying a beautiful sheet cake that said, 'Welcome Home, Hermione!'
Hermione walked up to her mother and said, 'thank you,' then hugged her mom over the cake.
Her dad walked up to her and said, 'welcome home, honey,' then kissed her on the top of the head. 'Now, lets eat, I'm hungry and I'm sure you are, too.' He then walked into the kitchen and brought out plates, knives, and forks.
It was a wonderful day, they all sat around the living room and talked about what she did at Hogwarts, the Triwizard Tournament; but she left out the part about being one of the ones being saved underwater during the second tournament at the Black Lake; and the Yule Ball.
Soon it was nighttime, and they all got ready for bed. It was about 3:30 am when everyone realized that something was very wrong. Hermione started screaming bloody murder in her sleep, then when her mom ran in, she stopped screaming, but she also stopped breathing as well. Her mom was so scared that she called the rescue squad to come out and about two minutes after she called the rescue squad, Hermione started breathing again, but she was unconscious.
The paramedics came in and checked her out; she was unconscious and had no pupil response, so they rushed her to the nearest hospital.
When they arrived, she was placed in ICU and after many meds being pumped into her system, she woke up about ten hours later. The doctors had no idea what was happening to her, but the reason why she didn't wake up for that long was because of the medically induced coma they placed her in so they could check her over. They did find some cranial swelling, but that went down after a few hours, but they couldn't do anything until she woke up.
When Hermione woke up, her mom was so happy she was crying, 'Oh…thank Merlin you are safe. I was so worried,' then she pointed to her father, 'we were so worried.'
Hermione was so confused, 'mom? What's going on? Why am I here?' She was beginning to panic, she knew she was in the hospital but she didn't know why.
Her father spoke up before her mother could say anything, 'Hermione, dear, you were screaming in your sleep last night, and…' he paused looking at his wife for permission to tell his daughter, she nodded, 'and you were unconscious for about ten hours now. Last night after you stopped screaming, you stopped breathing. But after a minute, you started breathing again. Your mom called an ambulance and you were brought here.'
She was still confused, but when she was about to ask more questions, the doctor came in. 'Ah, so our patient is awake. I'm Doctor Raznic, it's a pleasure to meet you,' he shook Hermione's mom's hand, then her father's, and moved over to her. He started to check her vitals, 'well, you seem to be fine now, Miss Granger, but I'd still like to take some tests to make sure you're all right so this doesn't happen again,' at this he looked over to her parents to get their permission.
Her father spoke up, 'Doctor, may we speak to you out in the hall?' Hermione guessed they wanted to ask him what was wrong with her, but didn't want to upset her. She hated being treated like a baby.
Doctor Raznic nodded and motioned for them to step outside. Hermione couldn't hear much, but she did hear, 'doctor, what's wrong with my daughter?' that was her mother, then she heard the doctor say, 'honestly, I'm not sure, that's why I'd like to do a battery of tests.'
She heard her father say, 'what kinds of tests and how much will it be and how long will it take?' The doctor moved farther away from the room, but she heard in bits and pieces, 'MRI…we'll have to do a CT…and we'll have to keep her for the next day or so…'
That's all she really heard before her eyes suddenly felt very tired. Then the next thing she remembers, she's looking up at her mother's very scared and worried eyes. 'Ugh…what happened? I feel so tired.'
Her mother just turned to her father and whispered something that she couldn't understand, then he spoke up, 'honey, you passed out and your heart stopped beating, but you're going to be fine now. Everything is going to be just fine' She knew he was rattled, but she felt it calming to have her mom sitting next to her.
Then Doctor Raznic comes in a second time, but this time, has a nurse with him. He looks to her parents, they nod, then he looks at her, 'Miss Granger, we're going to have to take you to have some tests done.'
Hermione was worried and terrified, then she felt her mom squeeze her hand, but she had to ask, 'what kind of tests?' She wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.
He looked at her parents, then to her, 'we're going to take you to have a scan called an MRI, which is a giant x-ray machine that allows us to see inside your body to see if anything's wrong, then we're going to take you to have a CT, which is called a CAT scan, it lets us have a closer look at certain places that a MRI couldn't tell us information about. Do you have any other questions for me?' He seemed very nice, so Hermione decided that it was ok to trust him. She shook her head no and waited.
He nodded once to her parents, then the nurse asked Hermione, 'do you need help getting into the wheelchair?' Hermione shook her head no, then went to get up, and stopped because she was very dizzy, then nodded yes. The nurse helped her get up and into the wheelchair with little difficulty and wheeled her off towards the MRI room.
Hermione didn't really remember anything from the time she left her room to the time that she was laying down onto the metal slab of the MRI table. Doctor Raznic looked at her before he pushed the button to retract the table, he said, 'it's ok to be scared, you'll hear a whirring noise, like a dentist's drill, but only louder. If you get too scared and want us to stop, just say so. I'll be in the other room and if you need to get out, I'll be right there. Are you ready?'
Hermione nodded yes and waited until she was in the MRI machine, she heard Doctor Raznic's voice through the speaker, 'Ok, Miss Granger, we're going to start now, are you ok to begin?'
Hermione nodded, but then said, 'yes, I'm ready.' She didn't know what to expect, but when the machine started, she was startled a bit, but the noise was actually a bit soothing in a way. It was over before she knew it, and she was on her way back to her room; she had been switched from the ICU to an actual hospital room up on the fourth floor.
When she came back to her room, her parents were there waiting for her. She got help getting back into bed and her mom said to the nurse, 'did it go well? When will you have to take her for the CAT scan?'
The nurse smiled, 'it went extraordinary. Your daughter was very brave; she was very calm for her first time being in an MRI machine. As for the CT, we'll have to get back the MRI results to figure out where to use it. Doctor Raznic will be in shortly to tell you the results.' With that, she left the room, to do rounds probably.
Hermione's mom looked over at her and said with a smile that didn't show in her eyes, 'see, everything's going to be fine. Do you want me to get you something to eat? Drink?'
Hermione nodded, 'some water and some orange jello if they have it.' She smiled at her mom, then watched as she nodded and walked away to find her father.
Before she left the room though, she asked, 'Hermione, dear, do you want me to find your dad and have him come up?'
Hermione shook her head, 'no, he should get some rest; I think I'm going to close my eyes for a little while. Wake me when you get back?'
She nodded, 'ok, get some rest sweetie,' then came back and kissed Hermione on the forehead and left to find some water and jello.
Flashback End
Myrtle was confused as to why Hermione stopped telling her story, "Hermione…why did you stop? Did you find out about the scans? Wh-"
"Myrtle, calm down," Hermione interjected, "I need a breather, my mouth feels so dry now." About fifteen minutes passed as she was telling her story and she didn't even stop once during it to take a small break.
What neither of them knew was that Professor McGonagall was standing at the door listening to the story as well, wondering what had happened to Hermione over the summer that made her so depressed and scared. So she walked in and cleared her throat, "Miss Granger," then nodded to Myrtle, "Myrtle."
Hermione was so surprised to hear the professor's voice, but she had to ask, "Professor…how long have you been standing there?" She was frightened that the professor knew that she had been in the hospital over the summer.
Professor McGonagall looked towards Myrtle with a look of 'I'd like to speak to her alone' and Myrtle looked back to Hermione and said, "If you need me, you know exactly where to find me; in the pipes; just yell for me when you want to finish our talk." And with that she jumped into a toilet with a shriek of happiness.
The professor looked over to Hermione and said in a quiet voice, "I've heard the whole story, I would like to know if you are all right. And I've come to take you to your dorms to calm down and sleep. You can join your friends when you are ready to, classes start in two days so your schedule is in your room." She then moved back, "Miss Granger…you know you can always come to me if you ever need to talk, I will always listen and never judge and I will never disclose our conversations to anyone."
Hermione got up and went over to the sinks to wash off her face, then looked up at the professor and said, "thank you professor, I may do that, but I'm not ready to tell anyone yet, but you will be one of the first people to know when I am. May we go to the dorms now, professor?" Hermione just wanted to climb into bed and fall asleep, not waking up until tomorrow afternoon.
McGonagall nodded, "of course, follow me." She was worried about her student, but she knew not to push and Hermione would open up eventually. 'Maybe she'll open up to Mr. Malfoy. I hope Albus knows what he's doing putting them in the same dorm together. I hope they don't kill each other.' She was quiet, but every once-in-a-while would say, "don't linger Miss Granger, it's not far now."
Hermione was really wondering where the dorms were and how beautiful it would be. But she could look tomorrow, right now she just wanted to lie down and forget about the rest of the world. 'Maybe I'll actually write in a journal like my mom said to, it could help, but then there's the chance of Malfoy finding it and reading it. I just can't believe that I'm going to have to live with him. This is going to be Hell on Earth to live with him. Maybe if I ignore him long enough, he'll give up.'
Her thoughts were interrupted by the professor saying, "Well, here we are. It's not too far from the Great Hall or any of your classes. The password is Unity, but you can feel free to change it any time you want, but the password can only be changed by both of you at the same time, so you two will have to agree on a password. I would suggest changing it periodically so no one else can guess the password." After that she said to the statues standing outside the door, "Unity," and it opened.
Hermione was about to comment, but was interrupted by, "good luck, Miss Granger, I hope you feel better tomorrow. Good night. Oh, and one more thing, your room is up the stairs and to the left, Mr. Malfoy's is down the hall to the right. I'm sure you'll find the bathroom just fine, it's between the rooms." And with that Professor McGonagall turned and left.
Hermione sighed and thought, 'great, now I may have to deal with Malfoy on my own. You know what? I'm just going to go straight to my room and ignore anything and everything else.' So she put on a brave face and walked into the room.
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A/N: Ohhh, cliffhanger. Sorry about that, but I thought this chapter was getting a little too long. I hope you liked it. Let me know what you think. Was the flashback ok? Please Review and let me know what you thought of the chapter. :D Chapter 4, will be up next Saturday if I get at least two or three reviews.