Out of Time

Chapter 27

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap

And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

-The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot

They spend a quiet and miserable night in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey doesn't question their reappearance. In fact, she doesn't even emerge from her office and Hermione wonders if it's connected to her living quarters. She doesn't know much about how (or where) the professors and other staff live in the castle, but she figures it's not a bad guess. So maybe the Healer is asleep. Hermione wishes she was asleep and thinks it might be a good long while before she is, regardless of her level of exhaustion.

No one knows what to say or how to act. Ron doesn't make a peep when Harry and Ginny crawl into the same small hospital bed. He rolls towards the wall, away from the other three. Hermione sees Ginny cast a muffliato before pulling Harry close, and the pair snuggle under the thin top sheet.

She sees their heads move as they talk quietly. They make small hand movements, and when Harry's shoulders give a distinctive sort of shudder, Hermione turns away as well. She chooses the opposite wall as Ron, two bookends leaving Harry and Ginny in the middle.

If the flavour of the night is going to be internal reflection, self-castigation, and powering through their own respective general misery, Hermione's just as happy to do her own bit in private, too. She silences her little bed and yanks the sheet over her head to cry in peace - not that she thinks anyone is paying attention. She just doesn't want to think about it. She wants to retreat into her own lonely bubble.

Her jealousy over Harry and Ginny is fierce and unexpected. It whips through her like an open flame. The one person she wishes was sharing her limited space is gone, and she has no idea when she'll see him again.

('I love you')

Why hadn't she said it back? She's been too stunned that he'd come out with it - not just his timing of it, but in the presence of Ron. She hadn't been able to gather herself quickly enough. And would she have said it back right then? She'd never have anticipated doing it in front of an audience. Neither would she have mapped it out like that - but she doubts he did, either.

Maybe Draco just had a better sense of the evening than she had. Was the situation worse than he let on, and he wanted to say it while he could? Maybe she should have read that as a dire signal, when she was really too shocked to read it in any particular way at all.

Now what? He's at Snape's, assuming that part still went to plan. It's all she can work from.

Had he known the intent was to assassinate Dumbledore tonight? He'd said he didn't know anything at all and Hermione is inclined to believe him. But she knows Ron - and probably Harry, too - never will.

This fissure between them... particularly between her and Ron... can they overcome it? They have to. They're going to have to.

Her mind takes her back to Horcruxes. Is this deliberate, a cunning manoeuvre to distract her? She doesn't know and can't be bothered to sort it out.