Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 16 St. Mungo's

This time when Hermione woke up, she was in a hospital bed in St. Mungo's. Ginny was in the bed next to her, still passed out. Looking around the room, she recognized at least three other people who were at the wedding. One of the mediwizards noticed that Hermione was awake and came over to check on her. "Miss Granger, how do you feel?"

"Sore. Twitchy. My head is killing me and my whole body aches. What happened?"

"We were hoping that you could tell us. Can you remember anything?"

"I was at the wedding, and Death Eaters showed up. I looked around to see that the kids were okay, then I was fighting next to Harry when I was hit with something, and everything went black and here I am."

"Nothing else?"

"No. Should I remember something else?" her voice was full of anxiety. Before the mediwizard could answer, they heard Ginny waking up. He went over to his other patient and started asking her the same questions he had asked Hermione. He also got the same answers... wedding, Death Eaters, fighting, blackness, hospital.

He didn't say anything to either girl about where they had gone as he took their vitals and left to let the families know they were awake. Ginny was staring at Hermione, who in turn was smiling back.

The smile was quickly dropped as the doors to the ward opened, and Harry, Ron, and Mrs. Weasley came into the room. Mrs. Weasley hurried over to her daughter and pulled her into a hug causing Ginny to wince. Harry and Ron sat on either side of Hermione, Ron in between the beds of his best friend and long time crush and his baby sister. "We thought we had lost you two," Harry said, tears threatening to come out despite the fact he didn't think there were any tears left in him while he absent-mindedly twisted a lock of Hermione's hair around his finger with both Ron and Ginny watching.

"Lost?" asked Hermione. "Were we hit with something that bad?"

"Ummmm." Both Harry and Ron looked away as though there was something they didn't want to say.

"What? Tell me. The both of you are holding something back and I want to know what it is," she demanded.

"Well, Hermione, Ginny, the mediwizard said that all either of you remember is the fight, and then you waking up here," said Ron, looking between the two.

"Yeah, so?" Molly started crying at what she knew was coming next, drawing the attention of the girls' eyes to her.

Harry quicky moved the explaination on, taking the attention back from his friends mother. "Well, you were both stunned and before we could do anything about it, some Death Eaters had left with you. We followed them, but when they apparated away there was nothing we could do, and the fight was still going on, and we had to get back to prevent more people from getting killed." His voice choked on the last word, but he was looking apologetic from one girl to the other to show how sorry he was that they couldn't do anything more for them.

"Killed? Who?" It was the first thing Ginny had said since the mediwizard had left, and there was a pained expression on her face. Hermione was also looking on in concern while awaiting the answer, and if Ginny didn't know better, she would have believed the woman to be sincere.

"Ummm, well, five Death Eaters were caught and brought to the Ministry, and three people I don't know were killed, including Fleur's favorite cousin, and Moody. And, um," Harry looked over to Ron, looked like he was ready to kill someone himself, and Mrs. Weasley, who was now crying hysterically. "And Percy."

"Percy?" Hermione asked increduously.

"He was a Death Eater," Ron answered in a quiet, controlled rage. Hermione was shocked at this news. Well, not really, but she thought she should be. Looking over at Ginny showed the girl to have a look on her face more akin to that of her brother than her mum.

"Alright, so you say that we were taken. How long ago was that?" She was expecting the answer to be around the range of a day, maybe two tops, so when the answer came, she truely was shocked.

"Five days ago."

"FIVE DAYS!"

"Well, you were gone for two before you, Hermione, apparated yourself and Ginny here to the hospital. Where the strength came from I don't know, you were both almost dead." This time the answer came from Lupin, who had entered unnoticed.

"How so?" Hermone was curious what the general thought of what happened was.

"You both had been tortured. You've been carved, almost like your parents, but with more... for lack of a better word... whimsy." Hermione's face was the epitomy of horror as she pulled forward the hospital gown and looked down at her body. She was definately glad that one of the last spells that had been performed on her was to conceal the Dark Mark until her master would charm it visible again. She started to cry, noticing that Ginny had not moved a muscle at the knowledge.

"So we've been here for three days and are just now waking up?"

"Yes, well, you've been under several strong healing potions, but they only worked on your internal organs. It looks as though the scars may stay." Lupin was directing the answer to both girls, but Ginny still didn't respond.

"Gin, it'll be okay. We'll get through it together," offered Hermione. At this, the girl started tio laugh hysterically. Everyone was looking at her with wide eyes. 'Perhaps that last crucio was a bit much...' thought Hermione.

Mrs Weasley went to find a Healer. "This is all my fault," sobbed Hermione into her knees.

"How do you figure?" asked Ron, while Ginny's manic laughter increased.

"You heard Lupin, we were carved like my parents. They were coming after me. If I hadn't been at the wedding..." she let her words trail off as both Ron and Harry moved to take her in their arms.

"Hermione, that's just not true. They would have come anyway. The two of you were just worthy opponents, so they took you instead of having to deal with you." Harry was stroking her hair, and moved to wipe her tears with his sleeve as he gave this really terrible explaination that Hermione was expected to agree with. She just nodded and moved into his chest. Ron made an annoyed noise and looked away.

A few minutes she was calm again, as was Ginny, who was now being thoroughly inspected on the other side of a curtain. She sat up straight and motioned for Harry and Ron to come in closer. "So, do have any idea what the other Horcruxes could be yet?" she whispered.

"This isn't the time, Hermione! You've been tortured, and have only been awake for a couple hours. It can wait," Harry hissed at her.

"No." Her voice was quiet, yet resolute. "I need something to keep me busy other than speculating on what they did to us. And if anything, we need to get him sooner, so he can hurt less people."

"She's right, you know," Ron whispered, trying to bring Hermione's attention from Harry to himself, and was rewarded with a genuine smile.

"Okay. We'll work on it, but even with you helping, we had no leads."

"Just think back to everything you've ever learned. My copy of Hogwarts, a History is in my room, and you can go to the library. We need to find them!" The two boys sighed as they straightened out. She was only awake for two hours, and giving them work to do.

"Healer Jarvis, how's Ginny?" The Healer had just left the curtain, and he sadly shook his head at the question.

"You'll need to talk to her parents about that."

"Okay. When can I go home?"

"Now that you're awake, we'll have to look you over completely before we decide that. Now, if everyone could leave us alone to continue?" With that request, all the visitor's left.