Potion Magic

Chapter 11

Hermione opened one eye. Her head felt like it was going to burst and her stomach was audibly rumbling. Well, no wonder - she hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast yesterday! Sunlight was unmercifully streaming in through the windows, so she closed that lone eye and decided to try to sleep some more. After all, today was Saturday and she could sleep in. Ron wouldn't be awake until at least the late morning, so she was going to try to catch up on sleep.

The bed shook. What was that? Hermione thought. It almost felt like Crookshanks had jumped up on the bed. Yes, that must be it. She drowsily smiled at what must have been her cat, and rolled over to go back to sleep.

Clink! Crash! Hermione screwed her eyes shut tight, and opened them wide to see what was making all the racket.

There, two inches away from her face were the bulbous eyes and pointed nose of Dobby, the house elf.

"AHHHHHH!!!!!" shrieked Hermione. Terrified, she leapt out from under the covers and jumped to the middle of the floor. "DON'T EVER WAKE ME UP LIKE THAT! Sorry, Dobby, but you really scared me. And what is all of this?" asked Hermione, looking at the tray the Dobby had placed on her nightstand.

It appeared that Dobby had brought her breakfast in bed, or rather, lunch. There was a toasted bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, a large glass of iced tea, a bowl of fresh pineapple and sliced strawberries, and several golden sugar cookies. All of Hermione's favorite foods!

Hermione squealed, "Oh, Dobby! This is so sweet of you. I'm absolutely starving. Now I won't have to go down to breakfast."

"Oh, Hermione Granger, you is missing breakfast and lunch already. It be 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Harry Potter sent me to bring you a snack, because your Wheezy is awake," squeaked the elf.

"My what? It's what time? 2:00 in the afternoon! My Wheezy? What is a Whee- oh, you mean Weasley! Ron is awake! Oh, thank you, Dobby, for waking me up and for the beautiful lunch." Hermione gave him a light kiss on top of his baldhead, and Dobby beamed. "I do any thing to help Hermione Granger. Hermione Granger is good and kind to elves. I am not forgetting." And with a pop, he was gone.

Famished, Hermione tore into her lunch. Never had food tasted so good! Eating quickly, she climbed into her weekend attire as she finished the last of her cookies. She tied her thick curly hair back with a ribbon, thinking that she wanted it out of her way. Simplified. Hermione looked at her self in the mirror, thinking that she looked fine, but what if Ron couldn't see her when the bandages came off? She was filled with an intense need to see him, to know if he was alright, to know if he remembered her, remembered them.

Running down the stairs into the common room, she nearly knocked over a surprised Neville. Not stopping, she called her apologies to him, as a few observing Gryffindors shook their heads at her. Around the landing, down the stairs two at a time, Hermione was running, away from her fears about Ron, her insecurities about herself.

She passed by Nearly Headless Nick near the entrance to the Great Hall. He was openly flirting with the Grey Lady, when he spied Hermione's flight. "Oh Miss Granger! I do say! You will want to go to the Hospital Wing! Mr. Weasley has awakened, and there is a crowd there that expects you. Mr. Potter is looking for you." Hermione wheezed her thanks as she headed toward the hospital wing.

Panting and perspiring, Hermione was gasping as she walked into the hospital wing. With trepidation, she walked through the wards towards Ron's area. Around the corner, and she could see that the curtains had been moved away. And finally, she found her Wheezy.

Ron's bandages were still wrapped around his head, but he was sitting up in bed, playing wizard chess with George who was losing badly. Fred kept walking around the hovering, transfigured chessboard, trying to figure out how it all worked. Ginny and Harry were sprawled out over the next bed over, laughing at Fred's fascination with the transfigured wizard chess set.

When Fred and George saw Hermione approaching, they stood up and applauded. "Bravo! Outstanding! This wizard chess idea will make us a fortune. Oh, Hermione, you have to go into business with us!" She began to blush a bright red with embarrassment and pleasure.

"Hey Hermione," said Ron.

"Hi. How are you feeling?" She answered gently, trying not to sound too anxious. Not being able to stand the suspense any longer, she said, "Was the procedure bad? Did it hurt a lot? Can you remem-", then she stopped herself, unable to ask what she was dying to know in front of three of Ron's siblings and Harry.

Ginny saw her friend's obvious distress and thought fast. "Harry, don't you guys have Quidditch practice in 15 minutes?"

Fred and George looked at each other, and protested. "No, we don't, not today..."

Harry caught Ginny's clue and came to the rescue. "Oh, yeah, it's an emergency practice. Something about the new beater bats arriving from Quality Quidditch Supplies. Well, I guess we could wait and look at them on Monday." George and Fred shot each other a look, and bid everyone a hasty good bye in their greed to play with the new bats.

Harry winked at Hermione as he followed the twins out to "practice". Ginny quickly left behind them, leaving them alone at last.

Ron spoke first. "I really like my wristband. How did you do it, Hermione?"

She smirked and replied, "It wasn't any trouble at all. I thought it might cheer you up and make you feel better."

Ron's voice was steady. "You make me feel better."

Hermione opened her mouth to finally ask and find out if he remembered anything about their potion-induced experiences together. But she never got the words out as Madam Pomphrey came into the room.

"Ah, Mr. Weasley, how are you feeling? It is time to remove the bandages. Miss Granger, could you please step out into the hallway?" Madam Pomphrey was plucking at the wound gauze, as Ron protested, wanting Hermione to stay.

"All right, Mr. Weasley. When the bandages are off, I want you to open your eyes slowly. They may be out of focus at first."

Hermione watched as Ron's full face emerged. His eyes were closed, and his skin was no longer orange or covered with boils. Once again, the light sprinkling of freckles danced across his nose. She held her breath as the cobalt eyes opened cautiously, dazed at the bright light.

He moved his head, searching. Then, he saw Hermione and smiled. He could see.

Ron laughed out loud, and Hermione grabbed his hand, jumping up and down. Madam Pomphrey excused herself, grinning.

"I hoped you'd be here when the bandages came off. I wanted you to be the first thing I saw when I could see again, Hermione." Ron sounded jubilant.

"So, do you remember the potion accident and what happened?" Hermione couldn't stand it any longer.

"I remember you spraying me with that orange potion in Snape's class, and walking me here. And I remember us being in here together, and some other stuff..." Ron's voice trailed off.

Hermione was curious. "But Madam Pomphrey did a Memory Charm. It should have erased all your memories of today, back to the time in Potion's class. I wonder why it didn't back up to the original injury?"

From around the corner, Madam Pomphrey congratulated her co-conspirator. "You know, if I had thought to not do a full memory charm when you injured your Potions Lab partner back when you were a student, you two may have ended up as real friends yourselves. Didn't you both have a fenugreek connection?"

He answered her. "Yes, well, that was many years ago, Poppy. And we did share some amazing experiences before that bloody Memory Charm erased them all. So when he woke up, he forgot that we had connected and it was all gone. We could have been very close friends, but he had no memory of what we had shared. No, I didn't want that to happen to Miss Granger, to anyone for that matter. Besides, if these two hook up, maybe she'll dial it down a notch in class!"

"Severus, you're just a sentimentalist," Madam Pomphrey teased him.

He glared at her. "I will never admit to any involvement in this enterprise."

She smirked back at him. "Your secret soft side is safe with me."

Snape relaxed somewhat. "Well, Poppy, you are the keeper of my secrets."

Miss Cuthbert came by to check on Ron, and found him talking animatedly to Hermione. She fluffed his pillows, and spied his wristband. She complimented him on it and said that she had not noticed him wearing it before.

With a sly smile, Ron said, "Thank you, my girlfriend made it for me."

And with that, Hermione's happiness was complete.