Beautiful Dreamer

Chapter 7

Doom

"How is she?" Ron asked as he sat down next to Harry, who was slumped against the wall outside the Hospital Wing. Harry looked up as Ron sat down, the traces of tears down his face still evident.

"I don't know, they won't tell me anything," he choked out. Ron put an arm around his friend.

"It'll be ok, mate! She just took a tumble down a couple of stairs!" he said, trying to be comforting. Harry shook his head. Ron didn't know, as Harry was forbidden to tell him, but it was not just a tumble down the stairs. Dumbledore had said that she was in a very fragile state when he had given them the mirrors. He had even mentioned accidents like this and said they could be fatal. When they had taken Hermione away from him, Dumbledore had taken him aside and told him that it didn't look good. The worst part was the feeling inside him. He had always been able to feel Hermione inside him since that spell was put on them, but the last half hour it had been flickering out and it scared the crap out of him.

The door clicked and Madam Pomfrey came out, causing the two boys to jump to their feet. She looked tired and sad. This scared Harry even more.

"How is she? Can I see her?" he asked immediately but stopped as she held up a hand.

"It looks like she'll be ok in a while, we'll know if she makes it through the night," at this Harry let out a choked noise somewhere between a gasp and a sob, "but she needs her rest now, so go to your dormitories."

The boys tried to protest some more, but they knew that it would be useless. They turned and made their way up to the tower.

"I don't understand..." Ron said. "Why can't they heal her with magic? If she's so touch and go, then why don't they send her to St. Mungo's? Did she hit her head or something?" Ron wondered aloud, shocked by what Madam Pomfrey had said.

Harry could not explain to his friend about her fragile state. He couldn't tell him that if they sent her to St. Mungo's then the whole wizarding world would find out about her secret.

Harry suddenly felt like a little boy who had found a wounded rabbit and was waiting to find out if it would survive the night. A chill passed over him. They hardly ever did, he realized, and found himself hoping that Hermione wasn't like a rabbit.

-_-

Draco Malfoy crossed the room to look out at the deserted grounds. Or were they deserted. He squinted through the darkness as he thought he saw figures moving out by the whomping willow. No, it couldn't be, just the moonlight playing tricks on the mind.

He kneaded his forehead with his knuckles. He was so tired. He had made a sort of camp for himself outside of the hospital wing. He couldn't leave her when she was like this. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, letting his head rest against the wall. The sound of approaching footsteps caused him to glance up swiftly through heavy eyelids. When he saw who was approaching he shot up.

"What the-" he started, but was cut off by the word "Obliva" and the wand pointed at the middle of his forehead. He fell to the floor, completely incapacitated.

-_-

Hermione Granger lay in bed: her head was beating as if someone kept pounding at if with a hammer. She closed her eyes tight, trying to feel block out the pain. Her ribcage seemed to be restraining her breathing and her heart felt as if it was beating so fast she was going to have a heart attack. Her throat seemed to be constricting tighter and tighter.

She had heard Madam Pomfrey go to bed a little while earlier. Before that she had heard her telling Harry that he couldn't see her. Hermione almost grinned to herself. Harry wouldn't take no for an answer. When she heard the door to the hospital wing open she was sure it was Harry.

She tried to lift her head to look at who it was who had entered the hospital wing. What she saw caused her to push herself up so fast that her head began to spin and she almost collapsed again.

"You-" she started but like Malfoy who was lying on the floor in the hall, she was cut off by the raising of a wand and a flash of light. Then her world went black.

-_-

Harry went down to the Hospital Wing early the next morning. He pounded eagerly on the door with his fist. He didn't wait for Madam Pomfrey to come to the door, but pushed it open and went inside. He took note of Malfoy, who was sleeping on a bed nearby but didn't pay much attention. He ran over to where Madam Pomfrey was coming out from behind the curtains drawn around one of the beds. She looked pale and shocked.

"You said I'd be able to see her today, Madam Pomfrey," Harry said eagerly, even though she had said no such thing. These words seemed to snap her out of the trance she was in. Her eyes awakened and she put her hands on his shoulders and began to steer him away.

"NO!" she said and steered him over to the bed next to Hermione's. She forced him to sit down and looked him in the eyes, hers welling up with tears.

"I'm afraid you can't see her my dear," she said, her voice wavering slightly, "She-she passed away. There's nothing we can do," at this she began to cry. The last person to die at Hogwarts had been Moaning Myrtle, but that had been before her time at Hogwarts and this was the first student she'd ever known to die and it came as quite the shock.

Harry's mouth fell open and his eyes grew wide. No, he thought, it can't be true! She "died" this summer but she came back! Death can't conquer her!

Harry leaped to his feet. Madam Pomfrey went to stop him but was too late. He tore open the curtains around her bed. Hermione was laying there, her cheeks ashen and her eyes closed. Her hands were folded gently over her stomach. He threw himself on her, crying now.

"You're not dead, YOU'RE NOT DEAD!!!" he yelled at her, "I WON'T LET YOU DIE!!!" he screamed. He seized her by the shoulders and began to shake her in a desperate attempt to open her eyes. Madam Pomfrey grabbed his shoulders in an effort to restrain him, but it did not work. He pushed her away and held fast to Hermione's corpse. He buried his face in her hair and then kissed her with shaking lips. But she was no sleeping beauty who was going to awake with such a kiss. The person he held in his arms was dead. Hermione Granger was dead. Had he not been so grief stricken, he would have noticed that the necklace she always wore, the one he got her for Christmas, was missing...