Say You Love Me

{15}

Severus rushed over to Hermione, though she was hardly paying attention as she tried to make her way through the throng of people while coughing up a lung... or a few petals.

The worst part about the whole thing was how familiar it was. She'd felt it a hundred times before, and this time was no different than the last.

"Hermione?" A voice came through loud and clear.

She looked up, Severus looking completely caught up in his concern for her. He'd only ever seen this fit of once while they were out to lunch, so his concern was much more paramount to almost everyone else's.

"What's happening to her?" He asked Luna who had been pushing through the crowd with her, obviously not getting a fast enough response from Hermione herself.

"She has periodic coughing fits," Luna replied softly, willing only to give what he already knew. Then, without question, Luna had somehow conjured a pain potion to hand to him.

"Hermione?" Severus begged again, his hands gripping her shoulders as they stood so close yet so far away from her room. "What isn't she saying?"

"Nothing," she was able to splutter, but the petals coming up were persistent, and they landed in her hand, hopefully no one seeing them besides Luna and unfortunately Severus since they were so close.

Hermione allowed Severus to hold her up, and she told everyone she was just fine... of course, he didn't believe her and finally escorted her to her room so she would explain further, Luna left in the dust of the party which had returned back to normal.

Her fist held the orange flower petals like they were going to jump out and end someone's life if she did not keep them tightly wrapped up, but Severus had escorted her to her bed and took the hand himself. With a shaking breath, he pried open her fingers with his own, revealing the black polka-dots in such striking contrast to their orange background. Her hand was red from how tightly she had held them in her palm, but they remained as pristine as ever.

Hermione hated them.

"Did you just cough up flower petals?"

She scoffed, feeling as though it might be the stupidest question she'd ever heard.

"Yes."

He moved them around with his index finger in her hand, the soft feeling of his skin on hers making her forget that there were a hundred or so people outside of her door. All Hermione could focus on was Severus, his finger coarse against her sore palm.

"And what does that mean for you?"

It was comforting to Hermione that he didn't know what was wrong with her meanings he could very well lie... tell him the same things she was telling Harry and Kingsley. But Luna was in her head, just minutes ago telling her that she needed to tell someone else.

"It's called the Hanahaki Curse," she said. Her voice was clipped, as though reciting to him a fact from a book. "Someone cast it on me, but I've no idea who. It... makes me cough up the petals from the flowers now growing in my chest because I love someone who does not love me back. The petals correlate to who I loved at the time of casting, and-"

"Weasley."

Hermione nodded as he scoffed. There were tears coming now because she still hadn't told him everything. There was a time limit on this whole thing, and part of her wished that she hadn't spoken at all. Why did he need to know?

"How do you remedy this particular symptom?"

Their hands were together now, the petals pressed between them.