Author Note: A brief point of view from Hermione while she was petrified. Harry's visits and a happy ending. As usual not epilogue compliant, not for monetary purposes, all rights reserved, I disavow all knowledge of this and the tape will self destruct in seven seconds. Enjoy.
Hermione was traveling with Penelope Clearwater back to the Gryffindor tower. She wanted to get there and tell the boys what she had found. She was being careful though to check each corner with the mirror.
Coming around one corner they saw a brief golden glowing vision then she felt her entire body seize up. She could not move anything and fell over.
She had lost track of all time, not breathing, not even bending as she was partly over Penelope's leg. All she could do was stare at the same patch of floor and hear sounds. She could not move anything. Could not blink. She was trying to scream but nothing happened.
She had blanked out. She was no longer looking at the floor but was looking at what must have been the hospital ward's ceiling. She heard voices dully. Her hearing was muffled like she had earmuffs on.
"The mandrakes will take a month to mature and then the potion will take at least a week to brew sufficient quantities for all of them." She heard Professor Sprout saying.
Someone else said something. It might have been Professor Snape because she heard the tones of her head of house, "Well it will have to be done no matter what we cannot just leave them like this."
The voices moved off leaving her alone. Immobilized, silent and unable to communicate in the slightest.
She heard another voice though as she felt her forehead being rubbed. "Hermione. Mione? I hope you can't hear me and I'm just talking to myself because this would have to be a nightmare."
It was her friend Harry. He was here with her. She would have sighed if her lungs still moved. Would they ever move again she had brief burst of panic.
"I know they've said that even your mind has stopped moving. But I don't think your mind could ever be stopped by anything. You're always thinking Hermione. That's one of the things I like about you. This is scary. You're so cold like a statue and even your hair is petrified and doesn't move. I don't know what to do and Ron isn't a help. He said you're a doorstop right now and I should just concentrate on everything else going on. That sneaking in here to talk to you is pointless."
She would have shaken her head if she could. Harry of course would sneak in. But sneaking in just to sit by her side, when there was no evidence that she could even hear him? It made her feel better.
"Mister Potter. You should be in your dormitory." She heard faintly.
"Yes madam Pomfrey." He said.
"I'll see you tomorrow. I'll even take notes in class for you. Not up to your level of course but I'll try and get the highlights at least." He said as he moved around into her line of vision. His face etched with worry and eyes wet with unshed tears.
She had begun to notice that boys were potentially interesting, only some boys seemed more interesting than others. Harry was definitely falling into that category she thought. Although if it took her being petrified to get him to take notes that would need worked on. She hoped to never go through this ever again.
Time passed she was sure. She saw the lights dim, then come back bright again. Noises dully made their way through to her. She thought about her friends. Her only friends she had to admit to herself. Harry and Ron. Harry was serious most of the time and had a good brain. He had potential but always held himself back for some reason. Ron didn't help with that. Ron would probably trade places with her in a heartbeat if it got him out of homework she thought. She would have to expand her circle of friends.
Neville was nice, polite and very reserved and proper. If she started talking to him he probably wouldn't look her in the eyes for at least a week. Lavender was a giggly, gossipy, girl who read teen witch like it was the gospels, or contained the secrets of the universe. She barely spent anytime with the girls in her house or the other houses. She spent all of her time with Harry and Ron.
Both boys had begun to look cute to her. Although Harry had the edge again she was thinking. If only his normal clothes did not look like they came out of donation bin. She was going to pin him down when she got her mobility back and force him to tell her what was going on with his life outside Hogwarts.
She really doubted he didn't have money. The way he casually acted about the trolley on the train, or the price of their supplies. Ron was always complaining about not having the money to do or have things.
"Hey Mione. Its me again. Classes are over and dinner was good. I did have a bit of a scuffle with Malfoy as he said some stuff I didn't like. I know fighting is against the rules but he was saying this might be the only way I could touch a girl. Then he said some stuff about you that I won't repeat. At least Ron was with me when we took Malfoy down a few notches. Even if I think it was more Ron got to hex Malfoy than stick up for you."
She heard him digging through something and several things laid on the bed next to her, a couple of things on her stomach she sort of felt. "I brought some of our books and the class notes. Madam Pomfrey has given up I think. Either that or had a nervous breakdown as all she said was to not to get my hopes up but otherwise have at it."
He then started talking to her about the things they learned in class. He held a few diagrams up before her face. Trying to make sure she saw it. He used the cleaning charm to remove some dust that had fallen on her. He talked and talked until he ran out of things to talk about from that day. He then just sat and held her hand. Even if it was unable to hold his back.
This went on every day. Some days he had more to talk about other than class work and other days less. He was always alone though she noticed. No one else came and talked to her. Came and visited. One thing that she was happy about was he never took the opportunity to try anything funny. Her legs were just far enough apart that if he had wanted to he might have tried to take a peak but there was no sign he ever did, nor did he try to cop a feel. The only parts of her he touched was her hand and her forehead. Very chivalrous indeed, unless he didn't think she was pretty enough to make that attempt. But then Harry didn't seem to notice girls yet. Maybe he didn't think of her that way.
Oh if only she could do something other than lay here and think. She would be screaming in frustration if she could. She was starting to over think everything she thought. She would kiss Draco on the lips in the middle of the great hall just to get up and walk across the room. Sleep and think that was it, her only activity. And the only way she slept was when her mind really ran out of anything to think about, which meant there where few black outs in her thought stream, she thought. Or did she think about that?
She had no idea how long it was between his visits. Time had no meaning for her. She would sometimes see madam Pomfrey come over and check on her. She wished she could have been put by a window at least. Maybe watch birds come and go in the feeders or something.
Harry came in one day and told her about his Quidditch game. His success and how much he missed her cheering for him. How Ron slapped him on the back and danced in celebration but it wasn't the same without her there too. He stood looking into her eyes as if searching for a flicker of something.
She wished she could blink, move her eyes something, anything. To reassure him she was still alive, could hear him. Al she could do was lay there like a door stop. Like a lump. She was getting really tired of all of this. But her heart was breaking at the expression in Harry's eyes.
Harry sighed and gave her a weak smile. She had a strange romantic idea he was going to lean forward and kiss her. Like in the fairy tales or her mom's romance books. He licked his lips like he had considered it then blushing he sat down.
"Lavender told me that I should kiss you like in the fairy tales. Only if you can hear me and are aware of things I don't want to make you mad at me. That and it's supposed to be true loves first kiss. And I'm not sure how you feel about me. I read the same fairy tales she did, I think. Hers have a lot more magic and strange things in them but then she grew up in a magical household. Neville has been working with Professor Sprout and asked about the mandrakes it should be a couple more weeks. Even Snape has been a bit more understanding. Or at least less unpleasant. Its hard to tell."
She wondered how everyone else was taking this. All they saw was Harry constantly putting himself in danger because the basilisk was still roaming the castle no doubt. Doing that however often he was doing this, all so he could sit and talk to a lump of insensate flesh. They must think he was going insane.
He talked some more about the various things going on in the common room. Some of the other classes and how the teachers had a serious worry about the threat. They all seemed clueless and totally unsure what was going on. She tried to scream again, she wanted to try and let him know to look in her other hand. Her other hand held a page she had copied from a book that revealed what the threat was. The only thing that fit all of the evidence and that she herself had eyewitness confirmation of. Only because of that confirmation she was laying here unable to scream, unable to twitch, unable to move, unable to warn them.
Harry had stopped talking while she had her panic attack. She wasn't sure what he had said. Only he was looking around guiltily and blushing in that cute way he had.
"I guess it couldn't hurt. If it works you'll be happy to be free and it'll confirm we're meant to be. If it doesn't work then it was just a fairy tale all along." His face fell momentarily as his mind must have filled in the thought, that they were not true love. She was going to sit down and have a long talk with him when this was done.
He leaned forward and carefully, quickly pressed his lips to hers for a brief moment. She groaned mentally that her first kiss had to be one sided at a time like this. Yeah she was definitely having a long talk with him and doing it right when she got loose.
He pulled back licked his lips. "Well I guess it was just a fools hope anyhow."
More time passed. Light, dark, light, dark. Harry's visits the only thing keeping her from loosing hope. Loosing consciousness.
He came and told her about a horrible experience he and Ron had with the spiders in the forest. Hagrid had told them to follow the spiders and found a great Acromantula called Aragog. Only his children was going to eat them. Until the car came and rescued them. She was disturbed by the idea of giant spiders and even more so about Hagrid being arrested for all of this. She wished she could comfort Harry as his voice sounded like he was close to his wits end. He squeezed her hand again when he left. She had a small hope inside her that he would kiss her again, but he didn't. He probably didn't even think about it having expended his bravery dealing with giant spiders.
More time passed. She heard someone talking that the Mandrakes had been harvested and processed into potion ingredients and it shouldn't be much longer. She thought that might have been Professor Sprout, or Madam Pomfrey.
Finally Harry and Ron both had come to visit her. They took separate sides of her bed but neither of them stepped into the range of her vision.
"Goi, she looks so weird like this. I dunno Harry. I still say yer daft for talking to her."
"She can hear you Ron."
"Yeah and what makes you right and the people who know better wrong?" He sounded like he was frowning. He was always frowning when someone questioned his wild ideas.
"I dunno. I just feel it. I can sense she can hear me."
Ron poked her nose, her belly and if he poked her six inches lower she was going to hex his fingers off. Luckily for him he only poked her a few times before stopping, and those times were all in safe places.
"She's as stiff as the great hall tables Harry. Even her brain is petrified. Though she could still teach DADA better than Lockhart like this."
"Stop poking her Ron, that's rude."
"She doesn't know about it." She felt herself get rocked. "See she's absolutely stiff. Hey watsat?"
"Its a rolled up piece of parchment." Harry's voice said. Ron's being a prat must have rocked the parchment loose from her hand. Thankfully she had not been gripping it too tightly. While he was rude at least he served a useful purpose this time she thought.
She sort of felt the parchment slide out of her hand. Harry and Ron must have been reading it because they went silent.
"OH my god.!" She heard Harry gasp. That meant he understood it. She felt a surge of pride.
"We've got to tell someone. We better find Professor McGonnegal." Ron urged.
Before they left Harry's beaming face came into her vision. "Mione you solved it. I knew you'd figure it out. Thank you." He kissed her again. Then she heard their thundering footsteps fading quickly.
Some time later she heard people shouting and a cacophony of noises. She heard the name Ginny wailed several times by a loud female. Ron and Harry's voices but everyone dealt with the other crisis and never came near her. It went on for a long time before it got quiet again.
She felt her hand squeezed by Harry it turned out, "Hey Mione. Madam Pomfrey says the Mandrake restorative will be done tonight and you'll be back by tomorrow morning. I'll be happy to see you. Really happy. And if you didn't hear any of this then I'll tell you again someday. But I care about you a lot. And I, I thinkIloveyoumaybeyeah." he said in a huge rush that must have been scarier for him than anything else by the way he acted.
He squeezed her hand again before someone called his name. It was right on the fringe of her hearing so she wasn't sure who it was. Harry said, "Okay I gotta go. See you soon."
She laid there a little bit longer. Waiting quietly. Her mind in a warm hum at the words he loved her. She had been thinking about things quite a lot for however long she had been laying here. Hopefully she would be putting a few things into action soon.
She felt a wet mist settle over her, growing more and more damp as she heard a hissing spray.
"Do you think she will have any issues?" Albus Dumbledore said.
"Doubtful sir. While rare petrification does follow a standard process. We are fortunate that it was not ossification that occurred." Professor Snape
ossification. Turned to stone? She thought that sounded bad.
"Ah yes. Well at least they will recover. I will be in my office if anything should occur."
"Yes sir."
She felt herself get levitated and her entire body sprayed with the mist. It must have been the mandrake restorative.
She was left to hover in place. At least she had been rotated in place enough, sort of like a piece of meat on the spit over her dad's barbecue. She saw Penelope, Justin and Colin doing the same thing.
After several minute she began to groan and blink. She was breathing. She began to feel her body. She twitched and gave a loud gasp as she began to tremble violently.
"Here, try to swallow this." She felt Snape shoving a vial in her mouth as she managed to choke down an incredibly foul tasting compound.
A few moemnts later she was panting and felt her skin become pliant and soft again. She flexed her fingers, smiled.
"I can move again. I can feel!" She threw her arms around Snape who reacted in shock.
Awkwardly patting her on the shoulder twice, "Yes. Now please disentangle yourself from me. You are not a squid."
"No sir. I'm not. How did Harry kill the Basilisk?"
He raised his eyebrow with a mighty sigh, "How do you know about that?"
"Because Harry told me he was okay and when he says he's fine he is never fine. And I heard all of the screaming and yelling the other night when Ginny got brought in and everything."
"You were conscious that entire time?" Snape gasped in horror. Madam Pomfrey bit her knuckle suddenly.
"Yeah and if it hadn't been for Harry I don't know what would have happened." Hermione gasped.
"I need to see him, I have a lot to tell him."
"You need to wait to make sure that you're fully recovered. I will examine you first."
"Thank you ma'am." Hermione said vibrating with impatience.
By the time Madam Pomfrey had cleared her. Saying that every cell in her body appeared to be back to normal and her entire biological processes had been restored it was almost dinner. She was ready to eat, but she was ready to see Harry.
She ran down the corridors, flying over the stones as fast as she could. Flinging open the doors to the Great hall she saw everyone turn to see who had come in. Harry and Ron had jumped up standing in shock. Harry's smile wide and honest.
She ran down the room and threw herself on him. Her arms wrapping him tightly as she sought his lips with hers for a kiss that she did not care was in front of everyone. If she could have done it on national, or world wide television she would have. She was going to make her first kiss be one to remember.
When she pulled back the hall had broken out in applause. Even the Slytherins, at least some of them, cheering and laughing. Harry's face was bright red but he was grinning as he looked into her eyes.
"Welcome back Hermione."
"Thank you Harry. And I love you too." She gushed.
A flicker of doubt that he had heard her correctly passed across his face then his grin grew wider if possible and he pulled her into another hug.
Review replies for chapter 22:
kimjo2: I'll try. This is for the little random snippets that float in and don't make it for a big enough story. I'm glad you're enjoying.
Lazarus rules: Indeed. True love lasts even when the beauty of youth fades. And for those who were wondering yes I envisioned Harry staying with her even when she got old and gray and looked more like his grandmother than his wife. Even if she got bent with him. Her ghost manifests as her 20 year old self most of the time though as that fits with his age, although she can manifest at any point in her personal timeline.
N0wa5t3r: Indeed. It was defiantly a test in the Heinlein style I was hoping for. As for his life. It would be getting better and may get revisited eventually. Not sure.
Jadesabrexiv: Thanks. If anything it might go off on a cat who walks through walls, or Methuselah's children style story. Definitely though it would be in the Heinlein future history style verse. Just want to get some of the things in progress caught up before embarking on a story long enough to be worthy.
OfficerDonNZ: Thank you. That is a valid interpretation. I didn't have any real reason for his immortality nailed down though as there are several internet memes and ideas that could be valid(ish) at least. But that works just as good as any other.