Harry Potter and the Desideratum Crusade [Harmione]

27. Keeping Things Close

The first thing Hermione realized as she swam back to consciousness was the smell of the hospital ward. The second thing was that it hurt to move...it hurt a lot. What was she doing here? The last thing she remembered was talking about Rowena Ravenclaw's tiara. She heard a movement to her right and turned towards the noise, opening blurry eyes.

"Harry?" she croaked. Why was her throat so sore?

"Hermione, just rest. Here, drink some water," Ron said gently as he held a glass up for her.

She let the cool water relieve her parched throat, swallowing gratefully.

"Where's Harry?" she asked.

"He's not here right now. Get some rest, then we'll talk." Ron said as he squeezed her hand.

Hermione sighed and relaxed back into the warmth of her bed. She's solve those problems later when she wasn't so annoyingly tired...

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Hermione was becoming very irritated. Madame Pomfrey was fussing over her, doing a last minute check before she could leave. She hadn't seen Harry since waking up, and worse, no one would tell her where he was, or what had happened. As Madame Pomfrey left, Hermione narrowed her eyes at her friend as he came through the doors and approached her bed. Ron stopped short as he saw the look on her face.

"What?" he asked as he looked around.

"I want some answers, Ron," Hermione said. "Where's Harry and...and I want to know what happened. Doesn't anyone know?"

Ron sighed and sat down beside Hermione's bed.

"Yeah, I do," he said as he scrubbed his face with his hand.

He looked up to see Hermione sitting, arms crossed over her chest, looking at him expectantly. As he gazed at her face, the images from that day flashed before his eyes. They had come so close to losing her...

Ron swallowed past the lump in his throat and gently picked up her hand to squeeze it between his two hands. He kissed her fingers and looked at the worry in her eyes.

"Do you remember anything?" he asked.

Wordlessly, Hermione shook her head. "Just the tiara," she said after a moment.

"We were wrong you know," Ron said, "I guess we should have listened to you," he paused, wondering if he was the right person to be telling her, but knowing that the right person wasn't here. "You died, Hermione," he said quietly.

"I... what?" she said in disbelief.

"You died, and Harry...well, I don't think Harry took it too well."

"What happened?" Hermione whispered.

Ron shrugged. "All I know was what happened in the room. The tiara was a Horcrux, and V...V...Voldemort possessed you, just like Ginny in the Chamber."

Hermione gasped. "You said his name!"

Ron smiled grimly. "Yeah, I suppose I did."

They were both quiet for a moment, thinking.

"I died?" Hermione asked frowning. "I can't remember anything."

"Yeah, it was horrible. Harry used 'Legilimens' to go inside your head and try and find Voldemort. While you were uh...connected, I saw Tom's ghost. He was draining your energy and as he grew stronger, you became weaker."

"And Harry?" Hermione asked.

Ron shrugged. "I don't know. He wouldn't talk about it when he came back. He took quite a beating as well. Once Madame Pomfrey patched him up and said you would be all right, he left. I can't find him. He doesn't show up on the map."