Hermione woke up the next morning, ridiculously stressed, at 4:30 am. She had just had the worst nightmare that Ron and Diane were getting married. Harry was made the best man, and Ginny was the maid of honor. It would have been a favor to Hermione if they had not even invited her to the wedding, for it was not something she particularly wanted to see; however, this was a nightmare, so she was sitting in the second pew, watching it all, and she didn't even have Viktor sitting beside her.
Hermione sat up in her bed and looked around; Parvati and Lavender were sound asleep. She pulled on her bathrobe and decided it was time to get some answers. And who else to ask but Ginny Weasley?
She tiptoed out of her dormitory and into the fourth year dormitory. Even in the dark, it wasn't difficult to locate Ginny; her hair was by far the longest, and there was a big picture of Harry on the wall above her bed.
"Ginny!" Hermione whispered. "Ginny, wake up!"
"What?" Ginny said, rubbing her eyes and sounding groggy. "Why? What's going on? Is the dorm on fire?"
"No."
"Is Harry in trouble?"
"No."
"Then go away, Hermione, and let me go back to sleep. It's far too early."
Hermione crossed her arms. Well, if Ginny's going to be stubborn then so am I! She took Ginny by the wrist and pulled her out of bed. She tossed her her bathrobe and dragged her down the dormitory stairs and into the Common Room.
"Fine," Ginny said, now fully awake. "What's the crisis?"
"Crisis?" Hermione repeated. "Crisis? No crisis."
"Fine, fine," said Ginny. "Stay in denial, but could you please speed it up and keep in mind that I just lost four hours of sleep for this conversation?"
"I need you to fill me in on everything that happened over Christmas holiday," Hermione replied. She decided that the best way to figure out what and why exactly all was going on, was to decipher how on earth it came about to begin with.
"Not much," Ginny answered. "I can't believe you woke me up for this. I mean, honestly! Why couldn't you ask me this in the daylight hours?"
"Because," Hermione growled. "You won't look at talk to or about anyone but Harry!"
"That's not true!"
"It is so!"
"You're just... jealous!" Ginny exclaimed, inconsiderate of all the sleeping students upstairs. "You wish you had Harry for yourself! Hermione, I can't believe you'd be so selfish! I can't believe you would try and steal Harry away from me! Some friend you are!"
"Ginny, do you listen to yourself when you speak?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, do you?"
"Of course, I do, Ginny," said Hermione. "I don't want anything to do with Harry. Not like how you mean, at least."
"Of course not! You want more than what I have with Harry, don't you? Don't you!?"
"Ginny," Hermione said, trying to remain calm. "Please settle down, you're going to wake up half the castle."
"You're trying to steal my boyfriend and you have the NERVE to tell me to settle down!?"
A girl awoke in a room with a lot of other beds late in the evening. She saw an elderly nurse walk by, and then she stopped in front of the girl.
"Oh good, you're awake," the nurse said. "You've got a couple of visitors."
The girl didn't say anything. This place didn't look even vaguely familiar. How'd she get here anyway?
The nurse left, and the two adults walked in.
"How are you feeling?" the woman asked.
"My head hurts," the girl said. "A lot. But who are you anyway?"
The woman looked at the man, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm going to go talk to the doctor."
"Honey, remember," the man said. "They're not called doctors here. Here they call them...Healers."
"Right," the woman said.
A few minutes later, the woman returned. "They say she's probably had some memory loss. They can fix it magic, or have her transferred to a normal hospital and have it taken care of normally."
"Normal sounds good," the man said.
"Why are you two making all of my decisions for me?" the girl asked.
Printer Friendly Version
