Toeing the Line

"Into Malfoy Manor?"

"Yes, Weasley, want me to say it again? That way we'll all be sure it's penetrated that thick skull of yours."

"Oh shut up, Malfoy." Hermione said. "So- into Malfoy Manor. How, may I ask, are we going to do this? I mean, Luciusmay be an evil sociopath Death Eater, but he's not stupid."

"Hey- That's my father you're insulting."

"So, that's who you get it from... Iwould have never guessed," Ron said sarcastically.

"First of all, Ron-" Hermione continued, "Shut up. Second of all, Draco- You too."

"Well- if it helps, I agree with you that my father is a sociopath."

Harry rolled his eyes. "And you just figured that one out."

"No Potter. But I really don't appreciate your painful obviousness, so-"

"AS I WAS SAYING..." Hermione interrupted, "Lucius is no dummy. He probably has charms all over every inch of the Manor- thirteen times over."

"Hello... Sorry Granger, but are you forgetting youÂ’re sitting right in front of someone who has lived in the Manorfor his whole life?"

"Well, at this rate, it looks like you'reabout to get yourself disowned..."

"Very funny, Weasley."

"No offense Draco, but you're not exactly adept at keeping your opinions to yourself. I'm sure you daddy dearest knows you are not completely on his side."

"He never ceases hoping, bless his heart..."Draco said in a very un-Draco voice.

"Yeah, well, you probably don't know about half the security precautions at the Manor." Harry said, who had been pretty quiet up to now, listening to the verbal sparring.

"Agreed. But I know enough."

"He could have some sort of map system drawn up on the Manor- showing everyone in it and where they are. That means Polyjuice Potion is out of the question because we'd just show up as ourselves, unless someone tampers with it, which is bound to be noticed." Ron reasoned.

"Thank God, I have had enough experience with Polyjuice, thank you very much..." Hermione said.

"Hey- You didn't have to pretend you were Crabbe or Goyle, that was-" Ron suddenly stopped, remembering Draco wasin the room. "Oops."

"Yes, I imagine it would be difficult to be Crabbe or Goyle- Pretending to be that stupid would be quite a task." Malfoy drawled. "But- by looking at the Weasley's face, I have a feeling thatyour guys' little stint as Slytherin's version of Tweedledee and Tweedledum has something to do with yours truly. Care to enlighten me?"

"Well..."

"Uh... Well, back in second year..." Harry started.

"We thought you were the heir of Slytherin, so we snuck into the Slytherin Common to talk to you and see if you were forsure."

Draco Malfoy simply burst out laughing.

"Me... The heir of Slytherin... That's a laugh and a half..." He finally calmed down. "Were you guys really that dumb? That is ridiculous."

"No shit. We were only twelve, geez." Ron said indignantly.

"Okay, okay, let's get back to the matterat hand, okay?" Hermione said. "How can we get into the Malfoy Manor withyou father noticing, Draco?"

"Well, I'm stumped," Harry said. "Sounds like a suicide mission..."

"There's a way, there always is."

"Wow, Draco Malfoy the optimist, I neverthought I'd see the day," Ron muttered sarcastically.

"Will you both just please SHUT YOUR FUC-" Hermione's scolding was interrupted by her pager. "God dammit." She peered down at the number and sighed. "I've got to go to the floo room, Fletcher's paging me again."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Go on, Miss Workaholic. I thought you were supposed to be on holidays this week."

"I am," she called over her shoulder as she left the room.

"So... What about those Cannons, huh?" Ron said, attempting at small talk to break the silence that had settled aftershe had left the room.

"They suck." Draco and Harry both answered at the same time.

"I know..." And all three of them burst out laughing.

***********************************************************************

Hermione reentered the room sometime later to the sound of laughter and conversation.

"Good to see you guys getting along," she smiled.

"Get along? It's never going happen, Herm. Don't hold your breath."

"Good point. Anyways, I have to go intoSt. Mungo's. One of my patients has come in- they have no idea what's wrongwith her. It's really strange. It's sad too: she's young, about our age.She's in a coma now apparently."

Harry sighed. "Anyone we know?"

"Well, her last name's Spinnet. Alicia's cousin."

"Ah."

"Herm... What did you say her name was?"Ron asked urgently.

"Oh, Spinnet. Cloë Spinnet."

Ron's face blanched.

"Ron what-" And then she finally made the connection. "Oh Ron, she's the Cloë-"

He simply nodded.

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Okay, you better come with me then. Can you guys do without us for now?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Go on, I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?"

She nodded and they both left the room.

"How rude. They didn't even say goodbye."

"Shut up Malfoy."

"Jeez, I've been told that quite a fewtimes today, haven't I?"

"I could say it again."

"Go ahead, if it makes you feel better."

***********************************************************************

"Hermione."

"Gus. What's up?"

"We don't exactly know... It's almost like her body's just shutting down, and it doesn't make much sense."

"Have you ran any tests?"

"A few... An EKG, and a blood test. Magi-particle testing. Nothing has come up yet."

"Okay, I need the results. Is she conscious?"

"Yes, actually. Woke up about 5 minutes ago."

"Lucid?"

"Pretty much."

"Has her family been contacted?"

"Yeah. Some of them are out in the lounge."

"Yeah, so is Ron."

Mundungus looked at her questionably.

"Cloë's his girlfriend."

"Oh dear." Mundungus sighed. "Alright, I'm going home to get some sleep, I've already worked a double shift. See you later..."

"Wait, who has the lab results?"

"Ask Padma..." He called over his shoulder has he headed to the apparition point.

Hermione went into the back, changed into her scrubs and grabbed her white coat. She grabbed Cloë's chart from the desk, after having informed Padma that she needed the lab results ASAP, and headed into her patient's room.

Cloë was lying in bed, her long, curly blond hair spread out around her head on the pillow. Her deep green eyes wereunusually dull looking and her face was chalk white. She smiled feebly whenHermione entered.

"Doctor Granger."

"Hello Cloë, are you feeling better?"

"A little."

Hermione quickly took her pulse, blood pressure and breath rate with her wand. They were all a little low, but not dangerously.

"Cloë has anyone performed any charms on you, or have you been hexed lately? Ingested any potions? Any muggle drugs?"

She shook her head and answered, though she had already been asked the same questions about ten times over. "None."

"Have you participated in any sexual activities, kissing, or anything that involves the exchange of bodily fluids?"

Cloë raised an eyebrow. "Is this for you personal curiosity or do you really have to ask that?"

"I have to ask it." She laughed. "But no denying- major curiosity factor here. I'm his best friend... I'm allowed."

"Sex- no. Kissing- but that's it. Why is it you have ask?"

"We don't know what's wrong with you, and it could be contagious- I'm just looking at it from all angles, alright? For tests, we need all the people you-"

"Just Ron."

Hermione paused then went on. "Just Ron. Okay, you seem fine at the moment, or better than you were, so I'm going to take a look at your test results, and study your chart a bit more. I'll send your family in, alright?"

Cloë smiled and nodded, and then added as Hermione was leaving the room, "Is he here?"

Hermione smiled knowingly. "Couldn't keep him away." She laughed. "I'll send him right in."

"Thank you..."

"Oh and Cloe? You better get well, because itÂ’s time for some serious girl talkÂ…"

***********************************************************************

"So, she's okay."

"I didn't say that Alicia. She's better than she was, but we still don't really know what's wrong with her. We're cross-checking all her symptoms with possible charms, hexes, diseases and disorders- muggle or magic. Hopefully we'll have a diagnosis for her within 24 to 36 hours. We're doing our best."

Alicia sighed, taking a sip of her coffee."Okay, thanks Hermione. Can I go in and see her now?"

"Yeah, but you'll have to wrestle Ron for a chair at her bedside." Hermione laughed.

Alicia shook her head. "Do you know how long that's been going on?"

"No idea actually. Just found out about it yesterday. According to Ron it's only been a few dates, but I think it's been much more than that."

"No doubt... Let me know when you have any more info, okay?"

"Will do..."

***********************************************************************

It was the best of times

It was the worst of times

It was the age of wisdom

It was the age of foolishness

It was the epoch of belief

It was the epoch of incredulity

It was the season of light

It was the season of darkness

It was the spring of hope

It was the winter of despair

We had everything before us

We had nothing before us

We were all going direct to heaven

We were all going direct the other way

Now, Hermione Granger was a well-versed woman. She knew the great writers, but there was something about this, for a very particular reason. This, being the first passage of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. And between the lines of Master Dickens' prose, she found, by comparison, herself, and the world around her, as demonstrated in the next few lines:

In short, the period was so far like the present that some of the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlativedegree of comparison only.

For, uncannily, this is how Hermione saw her life. Which does bring us to another point- what constitutes her life?

Now, eleven years later, she might aswell only be eleven years old, for, what was her life before Hogwarts seemedso unreal. So, in the same time, her life, no matter how tumultuous, wasnot life without Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley.

And tumultuous it had been. Dickens' with his "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" spiel took the words right out of her mouth.

But she wouldn't trade her time with Harry and Ron for anything on God's green earth. Add on to the fact that lifein the wizarding world was dangerous for anyone, let alone the Boy Who Lived'sfamily.

Her family.

For, her parents had let her fly, strong-willed girl that she was, leaving nothing to cling to. And she wouldn't have it anyother way.

Ron and Harry were hers, they were together through so much- And that was why she found it so hard to see Ron suffer.

Ron. Her rock, her support, her lifeline, was clearly having trouble coming to terms with the fact that Cloë was dying.

And dying she was. In a matter of hours, she had gone from conscious, full of giggles as she conversed with Ron and Alicia, to slipping deeper and deeper into a comatose state.

The doctors were stumped.

And Harry. There he stood, watching while she looked through the pane of glass as Ron, clutching his sleeping beauty's hand, cried.

Ron never cried.

"He's fallen for her." Harry, who hadn't spoken to her yet, knowing when she needed to be alone with her thoughts, walked over.

"Head over heels..."

They stood there in silence, and Hermione lay her head on his shoulder, let out a sigh, and sent her mind wandering again.

What was Harry to her?

He was-

Everything.

Everything that she desperately wanted but didn't completely have. Her kindred spirit, her soul mate, her comfort food.

Her everything.

He was just-

He had stiff black hair, standing jaggedly all over it, and growing downhill... It was so like smith's work, so much more like the top of a strongly-spiked wall than a head of hair, that the best of players at leapfrog might have declined him as the most dangerous person in the world to go over.

More Dickens.

She giggled at the sudden mental image of Harry and Voldemort playing leapfrog, and the evil wizard unfortunately impaling himself on Harry's head.

"What?" Her headrest inquired.

"Sorry. Self-defense mechanism- mind's wandering. I was just thinking of a quote by Charles Dickens that reminds me of you."

"Really? How? My bravery, my adventures?"

"Naw... It was you hair."

This statement sent them both into afit of laughter.

For, the do say that laughter is the best medicine. Though, as all drugs do, it wore off. But the mirth was prematurely cut off, by nothing other than an alarm going off.

Hermione jumped away from Harry and ran into the room, careful to avert Ron's look so as to avoid seeing his anguish.

"Harry!" She yelled from Cloë's side. "Get some other doctors in here now!"

She quickly ran her wand up and down the unmoving woman's body, muttering the spells.

No breathing, no heart beat.

"Shit... Respira!"

Nothing.

"Come on Cloë... Come on... Respira! Cardia Rabatta!!"

Still Nothing.

Flat line.

"Cardia rabatta!"

The other doctors rushed in, hurrying to the bedside. Spells flew through the air, the doctors yelled among themselves- shouting orders to the nurses, and to each other.

"How long?"

"Completely unresponsive."

"Clear! Cardia Rabatta!"

"Respira!"

"Still no heartbeat."

"Three at a time... It needs to be stronger..."

"Reviva Rabatta!!!"

"Dr. Granger, get him out of here!" Dr. Carl gestured to Ron.

Hermione looked up. He was standing there, just staring with a look of pure horror on his face.

"Ron."

He didn't move.

She moved towards him, and went to tugon his arm, but he brushed her off. "Don't."

"Get out Ron, or I will make you get out."

He shook his head.

"Harry..." She turned to him, and he nodded, and attempted to drag Ron out. Whether he succeeded or not she did not know because she had turned her attention back to her patient.

"This is not working..." Dr. Coada saidthrough gritted teeth.

"I'm not letting her go yet. We need to do it the muggle way." Hermione said.

Hermione let it all go. She wasn't thinkingof anything- not that she had to do this for Ron, or for herself, or evenfor Cloë- just that she had to do it. Her arms ached from the CPR, but shekept going. The vicious cycle continued, over and over, and still nothing.

"Dr. Granger... Hermione!"

"What?"

"She's gone."

"No."

"Hermio-"

"Suspendi linea!"

There was a brilliant blue flash, and the staff put their hands up to protect themselves from being blinded. The light quickly receded though and revealed to them what Hermione had done- Cloë was enveloped in a transparent, eerie blue bubble.

Hermione stopped and took a breath.

"You shouldn't have done that, Doctor Granger. You know you need authorization from the chief attending to use thatspell. You're not authorized to-"

"Go ahead and take me to the Ministry, rat on me, suspend me. I was not going to let her die."

"I think," said Dr. Carl, stonily eyeing Ron who was watching through the window, "that you have too much of a vested interest in this case, Dr. Granger. Are you sure this hasn't become too person-"

"Personal? Personal? How dare you accuse me of- Is it personal? Of course it is. Maybe you, to survive, stop it from being so, but I don't! This is MY patient, under MY care and she is dying. DYING. That makes it personal. And what's worse- I don't know what's killing her! And that is a problem. We don't know if it's contagious, what caused it- we don't even know if we've caught all the symptoms, it happened so quick. This could be a potential danger, and I'm not going to let her die until Ifind out what the hell is going on. Did you ever think of that, Doctor Carl?Did you? Well, you should have. This is my patient, a potential liability as well, and I will treat her as I will." She turned to the rest of the staff. "Get her stabilized, and then remove the time suspension. Then I want a full body scan. I also want tox screens- muggle and magic. Blood tests, including hemoglobin, red and white blood cell counts. Monitor closely and record any fluctuations in heart rate, and breathing, if she's not on a ventilator. Ifshe's completely revived, I want to be paged, and start a psych. consult. Test motor functions and responses, and notify me if there are any other significantchanges I need to know about. I want the body scan and as many of the testresults as possible owled to me ASAP." She glanced at her watch. "23:16.Alright, Doctor Coada, I'm leaving you in charge. My cell is on if you needme, and I'll be at Harry and Ron's. I'll be in by 7:30 tomorrow morning."Ignoring a glare from Dr. Carl, she left the room as the staff got to workon her orders.

"We're going home..." She said as she reached Ron outside the door. "Come on."

"Herm..." He started to say, but she cut him off.

"She's in good hands Ron. You can't do anything. You're coming home."

"But I don't want to-"

"Ron." Harry warned. "I'm disapparating now, and if you don't appear beside me within the next minute, I'll pummel you." And with that he disappeared.

"Hermione, I-"

"Ron, the room is going to be crawling with doctors and nurses all night, doing to tests and monitoring. They won't even let you in. It's pointless."

"You don't understand. You've never been in-"

Hermione glared at him. That particular statement, though not even finished, hit a sore spot.

"Do not go there Ronald Weasley. You do not want to go there."

Something in the tone of her voice madehim shut up, and he disapparated.

"Jesus Christ..." Hermione sighed before disappearing herself.

*****************************************************************

"So... You can get in trouble for using the time suspension." Harry said through a mouthful of pizza.

She nodded. "I could be suspended. ButI had just cause, so I doubt they'll try- it probably wouldn't hold up ifI fought it."

"I don't know why they'd try." Harry laughed, but kept it quiet, since Ron had retired to bed 45 minutes prior. "Did you see the look on that guy's face when you reamed him out? And I wasn't even in the room- I saw it through the window. He was positively fuming."

"The guy's a prick." She answered, takinga sip of her coffee. "He's been trying to get me kicked off the staff eversince I started at St. Mungo's. I think he's just pissed because I got chiefresident and he didn't- even though he's my second. He basically gets thejob when I'm not there. He's sexist and egotistical and deserves nothing bya good swift kick up the arse."

"I agree, and I don't even know the guy. He has this obnoxious way about-"

Harry was interrupted by a sharp banging on the window. Hermione opened it, and took the package from the owl, letting it back out then closing the window.

"Stuff from the hospital?"

She nodded. There was a short note fromDr. Coada that let her know that Cloë was stabilized, but still in a coma,and that they hadn't got any of the test results back yet, except the bodyscan, which was included in the package.

"Any news?"

Hermione handed him the letter, and then set the tiny glass orb that had come with it in the middle of the coffee table. "Revelatio." Once she had said the incantation, the hologram erupted from the tiny orb, spreading out in full color in front of the two of them.

Hermione started to examine it, going it over it bit by bit, with a fine-tooth comb.

"Need some help?" Harry asked, after having read the letter.

"Um... Yeah."

Harry joined her, having done a year of advanced mediwizardry as part of his Auror training, which was much more extensive than either Hermione or Ron's, since they only worked for the academy on a part time basis.

"Uh, Herm..."

"Yeah?"

"Look up, towards the head. This thing is done light sensitive."

"Aren't you a bright one. I figured that out a while ago..."

"Well then you missed something..." he laughed. "Look at her brain. It should be brighter, right? So that means-"

"Reduced activity in her brain."

"Bingo," He said, grinning. "Maybe Ishould have been a doctor."

"You make a better crime fighter..." Hermione giggled. "But what would I do without you?"

"You'd be a complete nutter and work-a-holic without a sense of humour and without a social life."

"As opposed to what that I have now?"

"Well... You're not completely nuts, you only have three jobs, and you have a little bit of a sense of humour. The social life, however, is debatable."

"Hey- I have a social life!"

"Oh yes... You hang out my flat all the time because you have nothing else to do."

"And the fact that you're always there when I do doesn't really help your case, hun."

"Okay..." Harry yawned. "You win..."

"I always do..." She answered. "And it's 1:30 so I'm going to bed..."

"I'll put all this shit away and join you..." He answered, gathering the pizza boxes and coffee mugs, and taking them to the kitchen. Hermione headed towards his bedroom, due to lack of guestroom.He was just finishing up and turning out the lights when he heard a screamthat could belong to no one but Hermione.

"Herm?!" He ran to the hallway as fast as he could, dodging any furniture in the way. He found her sprawled on the carpet, gripping her ankle.

"Shit... I think I broke it..." She winced. "Tripped on Ron's big ass shoes..."

Harry leaned down beside her, examining her foot. "Please don't scream like that... Due to certain unfortunate events in my life, I'm afflicted with a horrible case of paranoia."

"I'll keep that in mind... Meanwhile... Could you please fix my ankle?!" She winced again, squinting.

With a simple spell he fixed the fractured bone. "Let me get you to the bed and then I'll fix the ligaments and get youan anti-pain drought."

"Thanks..." She smiled feebly and wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her. He carried her over to the bed and set her down, taking a seat at her feet. He said a few more simple spells to fix her ankle.

"Good as new. Does it still hurt?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Aches."

"I'll get that drought. Strawberry, or chocolate mint?"

"Ugh. Chocolate mint. The lesser of the two evils..."

"You got it." He returned seconds later from the bathroom with the bottle and fed it to her like a little baby.

"You are such a mother, Harry Potter..." She said as he helped her into her pajamas.

"I know. Ironic, isn't it, since I neverreally had one."

"Don't brood."

"Yes mother..." He answered, earning a despairing look.

"You are insufferable."

"But you're still here..."

"I know... Sad, isn't it?"

"Very..."

Hermione lay down and Harry tucked her in, crawling in next to her shortly after. "You put a sleeping draught in that disgusting stuff as well didn't you?" She asked sleepily as he turned off the lights.

"Yes I did, and it should be kicking in about now..."

She rolled over and placed her head on his chest. "You smart cookie. What would I do without you..."

"Let's hope we never have to find out..."

But that statement fell on deaf ears, since Hermione had already fallen asleep.

Harry's head was a blur, thoughts racing everywhere, at conflict constantly. But at that moment, one thought stood out in sharp relief.

How scared he was.

When Hermione had screamed like that- his heart had skipped about three beats. The thought that anything could happento her- it was crushing. But it was strange- he was always so worried aboutVoldemort, about what would happen to everyone, but he had long ceased worryingabout himself. I was like he didn't care about that anymore- he just knewhe was a target and had come to terms with it. But that someone else couldfall to such a fate- it made him fiercely protective- and the brunt of thatwas most certainly directed towards Hermione Granger.