Hermione waited for the figure to come closer. It had a twisted bluish face and she could see right through it! It was a ghost with a cap, huge boots, and large robe.

"Where am I?" Hermione asked with a shaky and worried voice.

"Here," the ghost replied as he got closer.

"Where is 'here'?"

"The dungeons."

"What do you want?" Hermione asked. The ghost muttered something and pulled out a wand. Hermione heard someone scream and saw Tom running towards her from behind the ghost.

"Not YOU again," the ghost said, bored. Hermione noticed Tom's arm was bleeding, and he had cuts all over his face. The ghost directed a spell at Tom. Although Tom was weak, he managed to block it.

"Tom! Are you okay?" Hermione asked, concerned with how much blood he was losing.

"I'll be fine. Just get out of here! Keep the baby safe!" Tom continued blocking spells.

"Oh no, you don't!" the ghost said and sent a spell toward Hermione. She dodged it and ran for her life, although she did not know where this long room led. She saw light emitting from a window in the wall. There was a door. Hermione saw Severus and Lucius chained to the wall, also bleeding terribly. She saw their wands a few feet away. Which reminded her; where was her wand? She did not have time to think about that. She picked up one of the wands and cast a spell to unlock them and then levitated them and exited. She ran with them up to the hospital wing. The nurse looked at her as she entered.

"Please help them! They are bleeding! Very bad. . . must find Dumbledore. . . where is he? Please help them. . ." Hermione was out of breath and felt weak.

"Dumbledore is in his classroom, but I think you should stay here, too."

"No! I must find him!" and with that, Hermione was off in search of Dumbledore. She ran outside. It was dark, cold, and raining. Hermione shivered but the cold air helped her gain some more energy. She burst through the doors of the classroom.

"DUMBLEDORE! Ghost. . . hurting people. . . Tom. . . trouble. . . dungeons. . . help, come!" Hermione sputtered and then turned around and began running back to the school. Dumbledore quickly ran after her and followed her through the school to the dungeons, not once stopping to catch his breath (he is old, yah know). Hermione peered through the window and saw lights flashing. She cautiously opened the door.

"By the way, I think the ghost has my wand. . ." Hermione whispered as the walked toward the lights. Dumbledore nodded and pulled out his.

"Ryu, I gave you a chance!" Dumbledore yelled. "I defended you to let you stay, yet you go and try to kill the students! Get out, now!" Dumbledore roared and pointed to the door.

"I don't want to leave. I have some business to settle with this student. . . he ruined my plans!" 'Ryu' replied. Dumbledore yelled a spell and the ghost was sent through the wall out of the school.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked.

"I locked him under the ground outside of Hogwarts. He can only get out when someone disturbs the grounds. We must go and block the area off with magic, and rush Tom up to the hospital wing!" Dumbledore looked at Tom, concerned. Hermione nodded and levitated Tom, rushing him up to the hospital wing. Dumbledore went out onto the grounds and cast spells to keep people off the terrain above Ryu.

"He lost blood, as well?" the nurse asked Hermione, with wide eyes.

"Yes," Hermione said. "Please, please help him!"

"Put him on this bed, dear."

"Okay, ma'am."

"Oh my. . . I cannot believe he is still alive! He has lost a tremendous amount of blood!" the nurse put her wand to his wounds and they sealed. She then put her wand the trail of blood across the floor.

"He has O blood," the nurse said and dashed off into a closet in search of the correct blood for him. She scrambled back out of the closet with a few pouches filled with blood. She put tubes into them and magically attached the tubes to his arms and the blood began to flow into his body. Hermione watched and he seemed to look less and less pail. The nurse looked at Hermione, who was staring intently at the whole procedure, and watching with concern in her eyes. The nurse smiled.

"He must really love someone if he hung on to life like that. Most wizards probably would have died from losing so much blood."

"I didn't know he loved someone!" Hermione smiled a little, happy that he was capable of love, and, hopefully, that person loved him back. The nurse looked at Hermione strangely, but Hermione did not notice; she was too busy watching Tom, who was asleep. The nurse got up and tended to the other students in the ward. Hermione sat there a while waiting for the blood to finish draining into his frail body. Once the blood was in, and there was not a single drop left in the pouches, the tubes detached and the empty sacs flew over to an open drawer, folded themselves, and slipped in to wait to be refilled later. Hermione stood from her chair beside Tom's bed and walked over to the nurse.

"The blood sacs have emptied into his body . . . what now?" Hermione asked.

"He needs to rest. You can stay here with him for the night; I'm sure he would appreciate it," the nurse responded.

"Okay, may I go get something to eat, though? As well as a change of clothes and blanket?" Hermione questioned.

"Of course, dear. We do have some pillows and blankets, you know, and you can sleep in the bed next to him; it is unoccupied."

"That would be nice," Hermione smiled and turned to leave. It was just time for dinner, so everyone would be gathering in the Great Hall. Hermione joined the swarm of students and took her respective seat at the Slytherin table. Once everyone had filed in and taken their seats, Dumbledore stood and made the announcement to stay off the piece of land about Ryu. Shortly after, the food appeared in front of the students. Hermione ate as quickly as she could in order to go back up to Tom. The moment she was done, she scuttled to her room and changed into some shorts and a T-Shirt. She kept her Slytherin robe on over, so she would not get into trouble. She dashed back up to the hospital ward and sat on the bed next to Tom's; watching him intently and making sure he was okay. She knew he would be, but she did not want to take her eyes off him, as if he would die the instant she averted her gaze. She gazed at him for a long time until the nurse told her she had better get some sleep. Although, it was hard for her to sleep when she knew Tom's weak body was lying in the bed next to her.

'Nothing is going to happen to him, Hermione! This is a wizard hospital wing! They can use their magic to heal him if anything happens!'

'I know, but what if . . . ?'

'No "what ifs".'

'But -'

'No but's.'

'Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut!'

'Shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup! Go to bed! You know the nurse will take care of him and, you know you can help, as well. If anything happens, the nurse will help. Go to sleep, now! I'm tired. . .'

'Oh fine,' Hermione retreated from the war she was mentally having and fell into a deep slumber for the night.

The next morning, though, Hermione woke early, got out of bed, and sat in the chair next to Tom's bed. She grabbed his hand; it was warm. She checked his wrists for his pulse; his heartbeat was going at a normal rate. She continued holding his hand and sat there, once again watching him. She felt him tighten his grip on her hand and his eyes slowly opened. He tried to sit up but Hermione made him lay back down when she hugged him.

"Thank God you are alright! I thought you were going to die overnight! It was so hard to sleep," Hermione yawned, proving her point. Tom smiled a bit into her hair then asked her to get off him.