CHAPTER 7

Hermione awoke the next morning with a throbbing headache. She sat up and moan, letting herself fall back as the room began to spin. She sat up again, more slowly this time, and managed to stay up.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Ginny asked, rushing to her bedside.

"Yeah, Gin, I’m okay," Hermione said, putting a hand to her head, trying to make the spinning stop. "Just got a little dizzy, I guess."

"That can’t be good," Ginny said worriedly, putting an arm around her. "Do you want me to call a doctor or a nurse or something?"

"No, I’ll be fine, I promise, Ginny," Hermione said weakly, trying to smile up at her friend. The other girl looked unconvinced but stood up anyway.

"Well, mum will be bringing you up a whole platter of food in a few minutes; its nearly lunch time. And don’t say you’re not hungry, she’ll try and force feed you if you do," Ginny warned, turning to leave.

"Thanks for the tip," Hermione mumbled, falling back onto the pillows as her friend shut the door. She wished Ginny had turned the lights off, they were way too bright. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed with half a mind to turn them off herself. The second she did she felt the room begin to spin again, blackness pressing at the edges of her vision. She ignored it and tried to stand. Quite suddenly, her legs gave out and she fell to the floor in a dead faint.

"Is she okay?"

"What’s the matter with her?"

"What are you doing?"

"She’s going to be okay, isn’t she?"

Hermione tried to open her eyes but they were too heavy. She tried to lift her arm, show them that she was okay, but she could barely wiggle her fingers. She moaned. Her head was pounding again, and the uproar of the people she heard around her was not helping.

"Hermione!"

She recognized Ron’s voice.

"Ron," she managed to choke out.

"She’s awake! She’s awake!" she heard him call to the rest of the people, who she thought were the Weasleys. "Hermione, are you okay? How do you feel?" Hermione managed to peel her eyes open a bit, just enough to see a blurry Ron leaning over her.

She was back on her bed, the Weasleys surrounding her and a doctor sitting on the edge of the bed. "Yeah, I think I’m okay," she croaked, trying to sit up. The doctor put a hand on her shoulder to keep her down.

"Now, ma’am, I’m afraid you shouldn’t stand for a few days," he said, his voice deep and soothing. Hermione nodded, but stopped quickly because it made her head hurt more.

"What happened to her?" Ron asked him worriedly. "Why can’t she get up?"

"I’ll have to do some tests to figure out the real problem but she shouldn’t stand in case she faints again. Next time she might get more than a few bruises," the doctor said in an even tone. "I’m going to ask you a few questions, Ms. Granger. Have you done or seen anything traumatic recently?”

Hermione gave Ron a questioning look, wondering how much to tell him. He nodded at her, indicating that he was, indeed, a wizard, or at least knew about them.

"Yes. Do you know about the big…massacre…at Hogwarts?" The stunned look on the doctor’s face was enough to give her her answer. "Well, I was the only one left to see it to the end, wasn’t it? No wonder no one else knows about it. Well, nearly everyone there was killed if they didn’t escape. I couldn’t aparate out of the school grounds and I couldn’t get Harry to the gates so I hid out in the Room of Requirement. There were bodies everywhere, it was horrible."

She felt herself beginning to shake, images of the devastation flooding into her mind. The doctor said something but she didn’t hear it. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she broke into a cold sweat. The darkness was gathering at the edges of her mind again, engulfing her. She was gone again.

“Hermione?! Hermione!” came Ron’s voice from a distance, mixed with the doctor’s and Ginny’s and pretty much everyone else’s. She moaned and put a clammy hand to her head, shaking it a bit to rid herself of the pounding headache. “She’s awake again! She’s awake!”

“Yes, Ron, I’m awake, now stop yelling!” Hermione snapped, scooting up into a sitting position, propped up against the pillows. She noticed they were damp, and inferred that she had been in a dreadful cold sweat for a while. “I have a huge migraine and you are definitely not doing it any good!”

“I’m sorry, Hermione, I’m just worried about you,” he said. He was sitting on the edge of her bed, twisted around to look at her, his eyes full of concern. Her irritation ebbed and she smiled at him.

“I know. Is the doctor gone?” she asked. He nodded.

“He told us you were in shock, and we should refrain from mentioning the incident until you’ve dealt with it, and we should keep you in bed for a day or two, plenty of liquids, the works,” he said. “So, mum is bringing you up dinner in a little while. Want me to stay in here and keep you company, or do you want to rest? You’ve had a very…trying week,” he said delicately.

“Both.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Could you lay with me? I’m tired, but I still don’t want to be alone. And I haven’t seen you in a long time. I need some reassurance,” she said, patting the space beside her. Ron nodded and lied down beside her, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her hair.

Hermione sighed and snuggled back into his warmth, feeling more secure than she had in a long time. She was back where she belonged. She felt a rush of warmth and love for Ron. He had been her knight. He had come to rescue her from an unbelievably horrific scene.