Chapter Twenty Seven
The light was blinding as Hermione blinked open her eyes. It took her some time to get her eyes used to the light. She found herself staring up from her back at a stark white ceiling. As she turned her head she saw that white curtains were drawn around her hard hospital bed. In a chair beside her sat Ginny Potter, she seemed to be snoozing as her head had fallen to her chest and her breathing appeared deep and steady.
Hermione turned as she heard the curtain being pulled back across it's track. Harry emerged quickly moving to her side.
"Thank god you're awake." Harry said, bending to hold Hermione's hand.
Hermione tried to speak but at first she couldn't, her throat was horribly dry.
"Where am I," she croaked, her throat burning, "What happened?"
"We're not really sure," Harry said, looking apologetically. "Minerva put out a search when you didn't return to Hogwarts at the start of term..."
"Wait... what?!" Hermione cried, "How long have I been here?"
"Don't get yourself worked up Hermione, we've only just got you back." Harry said worrying. "Some muggles found you, unconscious on a back alley way, the police think that they scared off your attacker before anything really bad happened. They took you to Whipps Cross Hospital, but the doctors there couldn't understand why you weren't responding to treatment.
Tom from the Leaky Cauldron pointed Professor McGonagal in the right direction and eventually she tracked you down. Yesterday she managed to get you transferred here to St. Mungo's and they discovered that you were under a powerful dark spell that had caused you to lose consciousness. Altogether you have been asleep for six days." Ginny woke up during Harry's explanation and was now sitting up staring at Hermone with concern.
"I'll go and get a nurse," she said, getting out of the chair.
"Oh no!" Hermione said, "What about Draco?"
"I'm sorry Hermione. Minerva told me that Tom had said you were heading for Malfoy's apartment, but when she went to call on him to see if you'd arrived, the building manager told her he had left for America. He has put the apartment up for rent and gone to stay with his parents." Harry frowned, "I'm so sorry, I read the book too. I feel like such an idiot. We should have given him more of a chance."
Hermione rolled over in bed, her face crumpled in misery and she began to sob uncontrollably. Harry leant over her and held her in a compassionate hug as she cried.
Ginny and the nurse arrived to find Hermione inconsolable.
The brusque Jamaican nurse, brushed Harry to one side. "Mood swings are one of the side effects of this kind of spell," she said harshly, "I will bring you a tincture of pep and you'll be right as rain, there's nothing else we can do for you now, but you're lucky we got to you when we did, otherwise you would've spent your whole life in a sleeping beauty state." She checked Hermione's temperature and happy with her findings said, "you can go home this afternoon. We need the bed, Phineus Fletcher has gone and lost one of his arms again!" With that the nurse left leaving Harry and Ginny with a still distraught Hermione.
"I wish they hadn't woken me up." Hermione said through deep racking sobs.