'"And I've been ... what, unconscious?"

"Not exactly," said Hermione uncomfortably. "You've been shouting and moaning and ... things," she added in a tone that made Harry feel uneasy.'

25th December 1997

Hermione's feet hit the frozen ground and she immediately stumbled and fell hard onto the grass of the snowy hillside in Wales, the first place that had entered her mind as she leapt into the night air. Harry thumped down beside her. Her body ached in protest but she sat up quickly as she felt Harry thrash to her left.

"No…no…"

"Harry!" Hermione called urgently, crawling towards him.

He was twitching on the ground, his eyes closed and his brow covered in sweat. She couldn't see any immediate injuries and he seemed to be in some sort of trance.

"Harry! Wake up!" she called, shaking him.

He made no indication that he'd heard her but continued to twitch on the ground, moaning occasionally. Hermione suddenly realised they could be in danger, she could still hear the snake thrashing in her ears, and she stumbled to her feet. Clutching her wand she ran around Harry's limp form on the ground, casting their protective enchantments as fast as she could, then she summoned the tent from her bag and erected it with a flick of her wand, hurrying back to Harry's side.

"Harry please! Can you hear me?" She touched his forehead which was burning hot. He continued to moan.

It was then Hermione spotted Harry's hand, clutched in it was his wand, nearly broken clean in two.

"No, no, no!" Hermione moaned, grabbing for it and shutting her eyes in horror. Had she done this? Had her blasting curse caused this?

Harry moaned loudly from beside her and Hermione turned back to him.

"Oh Harry," she muttered, placing her arms underneath him and trying in vain to shift him. He was starting to return back to his usual appearance now and there was no way Hermione could lift him, he was too heavy for her. Sighing she muttered the hover charm and carefully guided the still twitching Harry into the tent and onto his bunk. She wished more than anything that Ron was here to help her, this wasn't the sort of thing she wanted to do alone. She forced herself to push this thought aside, she couldn't think about Ron right now.

Hermione jumped, now she was in the light of the tent she could see that there was in fact blood soaking through the arm of Harry's jumper. She hurried to pull this and his t-shirt off of him, gasping when she saw the two puncture wounds the snake had made. She summoned the dittany and dropped some on, sighing in relief as the wound began to knit back together, she'd been worried the snake bite could be poisonous.

She hurried to the bathroom to grab a sponge and a bowl of water and it was on her way back she noticed the locket still around Harry's neck. She made to take it off of him but to her horror it wouldn't budge. It was at this point a laugh left Harry's lips, high and unnatural as he thrashed more wildly.

"Harry, please," she said, gripping onto his bare shoulder to try to hold him still, he continued to grin and twitch beneath her.

She tugged again at the locket but it felt completely stuck to Harry's chest, no matter how hard she pulled it wouldn't move and she was very worried she was going to hurt Harry who had stopped grinning but was still moaning.

"Oh god Harry I'm so sorry," Hermione whispered as she pointed her wand at his chest "Diffindo," the locket separated from his skin and Hermione hurried to add more dittany as Harry's chest started to bleed.

Now Hermione dunked the sponge into the water and began to clean the blood from his arm and chest. The snake bite looked half healed but the locket seemed to have left a burn mark on his skin. Hermione had just reached for a towel to dry Harry's skin off when he yelled out, causing Hermione to jump violently. He was laughing again, manically before saying 'Avada Kedavra' and continuing to chuckle, rolling about.

"Harry, please!" Hermione said desperately, shaking him harder. This wasn't right, what on earth was he seeing? Could it be one of his visions? Was he seeing what Voldermort was doing at this very moment?

But Harry had quieted slightly and she managed to dry his chest and force a clean t-shirt over his head, wanting to give him some sense of modesty when he awoke. Harry was sweating profusely and Hermione leant down to gently wipe his forehead with the damp sponge, trying to make soothing noises.

"It's all right Harry, it's all right,"

But it wasn't all right. Harry had begun to trash again and shout out incoherently. Hermione heard a few words she recognised like 'stand aside' and 'last warning' but a lot of it was garbled and confused.

"Harry … please … it's okay … it's Hermione … I'm here…"

She tried to say anything she could think of to calm him but it didn't work. Sometimes he calmed slightly, going back to twitching and rolling, sometimes he yelled out again or laughed manically, sometimes he cried and sobbed hysterically. She continued to wipe his forehead as minutes turned to hours. She had to grip his shoulders tightly when he screamed out worst of all, screaming and sobbing and trashing beneath her.

"It's okay Harry … I'm here … wake up … we're safe,"

Nothing she said worked but she continued to talk, trying to wipe the sweat from his brow and keep him still. At one point a few tears leaked from her own eyes. Why did she have to deal with this on her own? How could Ron leave her? How was she going to manage?

"It's all right Harry … you're all right,"