-0-

"Hermione, listen to me?"

She couldn't, not really. She stared at her until Poppy cupped her chin and shook her a little.

"Hermione!" She blinked.

"Poppy, I -"

"Listen, I know this is a lot to cope with, but I need to go and make sure we can quarantine the rest of them. I need you to sit with her."

"Poppy, I'm not a Healer, I can't -"

"If you can't, she has to go to St. Mungo's."

Hermione turned up her nose.

"She won't want that!"

"Which is why I'm asking you. You can sit here with her, you can send me a Patronus if there's any change. Will you do that? Can you do that for her?" There was an urgency in Poppy's voice that made Hermione's brain kickstart into gear. She sniffed and wiped her eyes and nodded. "Hermione, tell me that you can -"

"I can," she nodded with a bitten-back sob. "I can, Poppy." Her resolve hardened at the thought. "I will."

"Good," she nodded. "Come. I'm going to have to close you in for the moment. The House Elves will make sure you eat but I cannot risk it getting out. There is already potentially sluch exposure."

"Poppy, she's had it, why is she -"

"I honestly don't know. I have to talk to William and see if he's seen this before and ask him about last time and get more details but first we have to protect the students."

She glanced away at the big doors and then back at Hermione, who stared at the door to the room at the back of the Hospital Wing where she knew Minerva to be.

"As of this moment, Hogwarts is closed."

-0-

Whatever Hermione thought she would be doing when she met with Minerva on this particular Thursday, it wasn't this. She entered the room, robed and masked, to see Minerva laid out on the bed. Her skin was so red and as she moved closer, she could feel the temperature from her body through her protective gear. She rubbed her fingers against one another for a moment, feeling the gloves on her hands and sweating into them already.

She'd promised herself she wouldn't cry anymore but Minerva looked so small on the bed, somehow. In life she was massive, a force to be reckoned with, a beacon of life itself. And here she was, moaning in pain, in a bed, in a dark, hot room in the Hospital Wing of the very school they had fought together to save.

Hermione didn't just cry, she wailed. The fear and the agony and the anger bubbled over as Hermione cried into her mask. Before long it was filled with tears and felt heavy on her face. Her gloves felt like she'd dipped them in the Lake and by the time she looked up to find a pair of glassy eyes looking at her in horror, she knew what she had to do.

She adjusted the mask on her face and met Minerva's glassy eyes as they blinked open. Minerva shook her head slowly, like she understood, but was underwater. Hermione didn't care. She ripped off the gloves first and breathed around her sobs that would not stop. She ripped off the gown Poppy had made her wear and then finally, the cap and mask that was essential to preventing the spread of infection. She stood, looking eye to eye with Minerva and breathing hard.

"Listen to me," Hermione ordered. She didn't even know if Minerva could hear her, let alone understand her but she stared into those glassy eyes like they were a lifeline. "You are not dying of this. You aren't. If you're infected then so am I and we're going to get through this together, okay?"

Minerva's eyes rolled back in her head and she went quiet again, but Hermione wasn't bothered by that. She'd deal with Poppy later. For now, she conjured up a bowl of water and a cloth and started bathing Minerva's face. Her skin was so hot it beaded the water off her brow. She tried not to despair as she watched it evaporate quicker than she could apply it but she did not know what else to do. She tried to think back to what they did with her after the battle, but to be honest she had been out of it. She remembered snippets here and there. A touch or a whispered word, but nothing concrete.

She put her head in her hands and wept again. She shook her head and hoped to Merlin that Poppy was making headway somewhere because she felt like she'd been left to watch this woman die and for anyone else that would have been difficult but for her it would be impossible.

Her grief lasted until Poppy banged on the door. She turned and regarded the mediwitch with an apologetic smile.

"Hermione! You idiot!"

"I couldn't -"

"You could die." Poppy yelled. "Where the hell will we be then?"

"Poppy," she called through the door. "I couldn't. It's too hot, she's too hot and I didn't want to -" She steeled herself and got up so she could look into Poppy's eyes through the glass. "I wasn't going to leave her alone while I sat right here."

"You -" Poppy kicked the door and squealed in frustration. "She wouldn't want this, Hermione. She wouldn't. No matter what, this is -"

"Poppy," Hermione said as quietly as she could. "If she goes, so will I." Poppy rolled her eyes skyward and then closed them, tracing her teeth with her tongue before she opened them again and looked at her.

"I -" Poppy rubbed her head. "I cannot protect you now. You're going to have to stay in there with her."

"That was my plan all along, Poppy," she chuckled sadly. "But told you I will help her and I plan to. We need some way of bringing down her temperature."

"I know," Poppy nodded. "I need to speak to Will but he's in surgery until four and it's only two."

"You said the House Elves had access to this room, right?"

"Yes."

"Can they catch it?"

"I do not know. Let me summon one and see."

"Ask Winky," Hermione called. "She'll help."

She watched as Poppy turned away. She scarcely dared to hope as Poppy pointed behind her, to the room, and then looked as well. Hermione crossed her fingers, then immediately felt stupid for doing so. There was a small noise and a vat of water appeared in the room, full to bursting with ice water. There were stacks of books piled in the back corner and a table of food that made Hermione's stomach turn. It looked delicious but there was no way she could eat at a time like this.

"Hermione," Poppy said as carefully as possible as they came back to the door. "You're right, we're going to have to bring her temperature down but the only way I know how is to literally dunk her under, over and over again." It dawned on Hermione that she was going to have to be the one. She swallowed and looked again at Poppy. "Hermione, you said you'd do this."

"I didn't know I'd have to -"

"You took off your mask, love. There's no way you're coming back out here for the minute and I have too much to organise out here. I'm sorry, but it's going to have to be you."

Hermione closed her eyes and banged her head on the door. While she was desperately terrified, she equally did not really regret doing it either. She looked back up at Poppy through the little window and saw in the woman's eyes a bit of understanding too.

She knew.

"Hermione? I need you to take care of her for me," Poppy said kindly. "I need you to keep her alive. You said you can do it and I believe you. You can do that, right?"

Hermione nodded and took a few deep breaths.

"What do I have to do?"

They talked about all the things she would need to do, over and over again ad nauseam. Hermione asked a hundred different questions and Poppy, the saint that she was, answered them calmly and clearly. By the time Poppy reminded her that she had to go and deal with the rest of the school, Hermione felt a little more equipped to do as she needed to.

She rearranged the books at the back of the room to give herself a moment of respite. Once her hands had stopped shaking, she slipped off her jacket and Transfigured her shirt into a short sleeved one and turned to look at Minerva. The woman who held her heart and the key to the rest of her life.

"Min?" she whispered as she got closer. "Min, can you hear me?"

She reached out carefully and winced at the heat but didn't draw away. Minerva seemed to realise that her hand was cool and pushed into it.

"Minerva," she said a little louder. "I'm sorry that it's me and not Poppy. I'm sorry that I didn't think this through, but it is me, now, and you and I are going to get through this. Together."

She couldn't say anything else in the moment and she, instead, stood from where she was crouching and rolled her neck. She stared at the ceiling for a long time, willing the tears away before she looked back down at the woman.

"Right," she whispered. "Come on then."