Saving your life

She could hear faint voices around her, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. She tried to open her eyes, but the light hurt too much. She could tell she was lying down, she could feel something soft beneath her, but she couldn’t move a muscle, just breathing was hard enough.

The darkness surrounded her again, the voices died out, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. Then she felt something warm on her skin, soft hands touching her, new voices growing stronger, but still the light was blinding, and she couldn’t open her eyes. She tried to part her lips, tried to ask what was going on, but no sound left her mouth. Her head felt like it was about to explode, she felt tears in her eyes from the pain, and when the darkness approached again, she welcomed it.

She kept drifting back and forth, between darkness and light, pain and peace. She wasn’t sure how long she had been like that, but it felt like ages. She could feel her breathing growing stronger, and was surprised when, one night, she could finally manage to move a finger. It was just one finger, and it barely moved, but it was enough to fuel her determination. Time passed, maybe weeks, maybe just hours, and she finally parted her lips, whispering softly a name, she wasn’t sure which, and then groaning softly, as she felt her strength drained by the effort.

“Hermione?” a voice whispered by her side, and she felt a warm hand around her own. “Hermione, can you hear me?”

With the little strength she had left, she managed another groan, and then more voices reached her ears.

“She’s awake, I think she’s awake,” one of them whispered excitedly.

“Call Poppy,” another called, and soon she felt hands on the back of her head, lifting her slightly, and something cold against her lips.

“Drink this, dear,” someone said. “It will make you feel better.”

She did as they asked, and soon felt the pain go away. She wanted to move, to speak, but her body felt heavy, tired, and no matter how much she fought it, the darkness surrounded her once more.

As she opened her eyes, she noticed the light no longer blinded her. There was a small window, right in front of her, and she could tell it was barely dawn. She looked around the room, and noticed two figures on the other side of her bed. It didn’t take her long to realize just who they were.

“Harry? Ron?” she whispered, her voice hoarse. She heard them mumble something in their sleep, and called their names again.

“Wh…what?” Ron said, startled, as he woke up, looking around the room, trying to see where the voice was coming from.

“Hermione” Harry said then, and they both moved closer to her on either side of the bed, taking her hands in theirs.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re awake.”

“You had us so worried.”

“What’s happened? Where am I?” she rasped.

“We’re at headquarters. Snape brought you here after the explosion.”

“Snape? What do you mean Snape, isn’t he on the run?” She noticed the surprised expressions on their faces and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Snape’s with the Order, don’t you remember?” Harry asked, clearly worried.

“But… but he killed Dumbledore.” They looked at her again, but none of them answered spoke.

“What’s happened?” she asked, as she tried to get up, but her head hurt, and she felt the room spin as soon as she moved.

“Lay back,” Ron said gently, his hands on her shoulders as he pushed her back on the bed.

“What’s happened to me?” she whispered then.

“Well, we’re not sure. We were waiting for you here, we were beginning to worry, because you were late, and then Snape Apparated by the door, with you in his arms. He said you had been attacked by Death Eaters.”

“What?”

“Well, he said they were trying to take you to Voldemort, and you were fighting back, and then there was an explosion, he’s not sure how it happened. The Death Eaters left then, probably thinking you were dead. When he found you, he said you were barely breathing.”

“But Snape is one of them, he’s a Death Eater, right?” she asked, uncertainly.

“No, he’s spying for the Order,” Ron corrected, looking at her in a way that was making her nervous, like she was crazy or something.

She was about to ask another question when she was interrupted.

“Hermione, you are awake!” came Ginny’s voice from the doorway. “We were so worried.” She smiled weakly as she watched her walk to where she was. “I’m so glad you’re better, I was worried you wouldn’t be awake for the wedding.”

“Wedding? What wedding?”

“Well, Bill and Fleur’s, of course,” Ginny answered, her smile faltering a bit.

“But that’s still months away.”

“What do you mean? It’s this weekend.”

“What? That’s impossible. Did they change the date?” she looked at the three of them, noticing the way they glanced at each other, a confused and worried expression on each face. “What’s going on?”

“Well, you’ve been unconscious for almost three weeks, Hermione,” Harry finally answered, still holding her hand.

“Three weeks? That still doesn’t explain…”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Ron asked gently.

“Well,” she said, after thinking for a moment, “I remember going to Diagon Alley to buy some books, and then heading back here. Kingsley had been told there was a spy in the Ministry, and he had called a meeting.”

“But that was just a couple of weeks after Dumbledore’s Death.”

“So?” she asked, warily.

“Hermione, that meeting took place over two months ago,” Ron answered.

“What? No,” she said, a little laugh leaving her lips, “that’s impossible. It can’t be that long ago.” She looked at them again, silently hoping they would tell her it was all just a big joke.

“Oh, dear, you’re awake.” Molly’s voice distracted her, and she turned to the door again, to find her standing there, looking relieved, and closely followed by Kingsley and Remus.

“It’s good to see you’re finally awake. You had us worried,” Kingsley said, in his deep voice.

“Yes, sorry about that,” she replied, unable to think of anything else to say.

“Are these three bothering you, dear?” Molly asked, looking at Harry, Ron and Ginny as if they were doing something terrible.

“Oh, no; they are just bringing me up to date.”

“Well, off you go, now. Hermione needs some rest, to get her strength back. You have a wedding to attend to in just a few days,” she said, smiling sweetly.

“But mom,” Ginny complained, but Molly refused to listen, and nearly pushed them out of the room.

“We’ll come back later,” Ron promised as they left.

“I should be going, too,” Kingsley told her. “It’s good to see you’re recovering.”

“Thank you,” she answered, surprised at the way the man looked at her as he spoke. They had always gotten along, but weren’t really close.

When it was just her and Remus in the room, she motioned him closer.

“What’s going on, Remus?” she asked, as he sat by the bed.

“What do you mean?”

“They told me I had been in an explosion.”

“You don’t remember what happened?” he asked, and she just shook her head. “Well, I only know what Severus told us. Apparently, you’d left to see your contact, but were ambushed by Death Eaters. He thinks they were following you. They attacked you and you fought them back; there was an explosion then, and the building you were in collapsed. He had to wait until all the Death eaters were gone before he could look for you. He said part of the roof had fallen on top of you.”

She stayed silent as he spoke, too shocked to speak, and after a few moments, he continued.

“We were all here when he brought you. Merlin, we thought you were dead,” he said, the last part barely a whisper. “He carried you in here himself, and refused to leave until he was sure you would be alright. Madam Pomfrey assured him it would take some time, but you would recover.” He took a deep breath, as if gathering strength, before speaking again. “You had many broken bones, internal bleedings, a punctured lung, but she assured us she could fix it, said he had brought you here in time. When after two days you still hadn’t woken up, we started to get worried. Your body was healing fast, but you weren’t responding. She said you probably had a big concussion, that it was just a matter of time before you awoke, that we just had to be patient. After the first week, Kingsley talked to a healer in St. Mungo’s, specialized in this kind of problems. We couldn’t take you there, because we couldn’t really explain them what had happened to you, but he got him to come here. After examining you he agreed with Poppy. There was nothing we could do but wait.”

“How long?” she asked, still refusing to believe what Harry and Ron had said.

“19 days,” he answered without even thinking, and refusing to look at her.

“I don’t remember,” she muttered, and he turned to her again.

“Well, you did hit your head pretty hard, it’s no wonder you don’t remember when they attacked you.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head, then winced at the pain. “Before that. They told me it’s been over two months since Dumbledore’s Death, but I just remember the first two weeks, and then nothing.”

“You don’t remember?” he asked, surprised.

“No. Please, tell me what happened,” she begged him.

“I’m not sure I should be the one telling you this.”

“Telling me what?”

“Maybe this should wait until you are feeling better,” he suggested.

“Remus, please, I need to know.”

“I don’t know the whole story; you were very secretive about it.”

“Secretive? What are you talking about?”

“Well,” he said, after taking a deep breath. “It all happened just a few days before you were hurt, at least the main part. One night Kingsley called a meeting, and you brought a Pensieve. You had been given a memory, it was Snape’s, and it showed the reasons why he had killed Dumbledore. Apparently, you had both been working with someone, a Death Eater, I think. He had been passing information through you, but he wanted Snape back in the Order. After a few days discussing it, we decided to take him back. That was the day before they attacked you, and he brought you here.”

“I had been working with a Death Eater? That’s impossible,” she said, almost to herself. He took her hand in his before continuing.

“You had been working with him for a few months by then.”

“Who? Who was it?”

“I don’t know, you never told us.”

“What else do you know?”

“That’s all,” he said, but she knew he wasn’t telling her everything, by the way he avoided eye contact. “I think I’ll go get Poppy. She’d want to know you’re awake.”

“Remus, wait,” she said, but he just told her she needed to get some rest before leaving the room.

As soon as Madam Pomfrey heard she was awake, she went to see her. She spent over an hour checking her, making sure her body had healed properly. After much consideration, she decided to tell her about the memory loss, but the witch assured her it was probably just temporary, and that she should rest and relax, that the memories would come back soon. She was forced to drink more potions, one of them a Sleeping Draught, and when she awoke again, it was the next day.

“You look much better,” Ron said, as he and Harry entered the room.

“Well, Madam Pomfrey gave me a potion for the pain, so I’m feeling a lot better,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. “She said I could move back to my bedroom, when I felt better.”

“Maybe you should stay here a little longer,” Harry suggested, as she started to get up.

“Nonsense, I’m alright,” she said dismissively, but as she tried to stand she lost balance, Ron’s hands on her waist preventing her from falling, on the last second. “OK, maybe I need a little help getting there, but I’m still going,” she said stubbornly, making both Harry and Ron laugh.

With their help, she slowly made her way out of the infirmary, but as they walked down the hall towards the stairs, the door to the library opened.

“Order meeting,” Harry explained, as the members started walking out of the room. Some of them stopped to ask her how she was feeling, but others just walked by, throwing her angry looks.

“What’s going on?” she asked Harry, confused, but before he could answer a young Auror spoke.

“Good to see you’re alright; now you can run back to your little friend, give him some more information. Maybe you can even get a few more Death Eaters to join the Order.”

But before anyone could say anything else, she heard a loud growl, and the next second, the Auror was thrown against the wall, Remus’ hand firmly around his neck.

“That is enough,” he seethed. “Talk to her like that again, and I’ll make sure you regret it.”

“Remus,” Bill said, as he stood next to him, trying to calm him down.

“Full moon tonight,” Ron whispered by her ear as Remus let go of the other man, a warning look still on his face.

“Come on, lets get you upstairs,” Harry said, trying to distract her.

“Why did he say that? Why were the others looking at me like that?”

“Well, you see, you had been working with someone for some time,” Ron started, but she interrupted.

“Remus said I’d been working with a Death Eater.”

“Right, well, some of the members think you betrayed us,” he said.

“What? I would never!”

“We know, but they are new, they don’t know you as well as we do. Some think both you and Snape are traitors.”

“And what do you think?” she asked as they helped her sit on the bed.

“I don’t think you would betray us, and as much as I hate to admit it,” Harry said, “what we saw in the Pensieve about Snape was quite convincing.”

“What were the memories about?” she asked, but before they could answer, they heard Molly’s voice calling them.

“We have to go,” Ron said, clearly relieved he didn’t have to answer more questions.

“You get some rest, we’ll be back to help you down the stairs when lunch is ready.”

She new they weren’t telling her everything, and she promised herself she would find out exactly what had happened to her, and what she had forgotten.