(no subject)

[bell_katie]

Who: Katie & Open, especially to Weasleys and Harry
What: Waiting
Where: St. Mungo's
When: Early evening, the day of Hermione's poisoning
Rating: TBD
Status: In progress



There was nothing left for Katie to do but wait. She'd owled the people she thought the most important, and now she sat in the waiting room at St. Mungo's, leaning forward. Her long, narrow hands were folded into a steeple, forefingers pressed together, elbows resting on her knees. After a few moments, she got up from her chair to pace to the window, folding her arms. The sun was beginning to set, long ashen shadows stretching out from the base of the trees, sunlight breaking out underneath the covering of clouds. It was still raining, a spattering that intensified and siphoned off by turns, and the droplets were like darts of amber in the fading light. Katie rubbed her hands through her wild hair and thought, for one idle and peculiar moment, that she ought to have owled George too.

It was strange to wait here, lost in a fog of concern for a woman she only knew from her school days, a woman that was little more than an acquaintance now, and yet Katie's guts still twisted with anxiety. She knew that for Ginny's sake she had to stay, a guardian in her stead, and so she waited.

Comments

[mandy_brocklehurst]

Mandy was getting ready to leave for the night when she heard whisperings. Strange whisperings. Talk that Hermione Granger was upstairs on the Third Floor.

'Why the hell would Hermione be on the Third Floor?' She thought to herself. The Hermione she'd spent six years in school with was more careful than to ingest something fishy. Had peace made her soft? Mandy doubted it. Instead, she clocked out and dashed upstairs.

Reading the names on the charts, she stopped with a shock. Hermione was indeed lying in bed. In the room was also Katie Bell. Mandy remembered her face mostly from Harpies press releases, but she recalled that the girl had also been a Gryffindor a few years ahead of them all.

"What happened to her?" Mandy asked, more to herself than the pacing Katie.

[boy_who_lived]

It was like an iron fist had closed tightly over his heart as he read the words on the parchment. Hospital. Hermione. Poisoned. They seemed to stand out vividly in front of Harry's eyes, as if they had been enchanted to project a different colour than the rest of the text. His mind instantly jerked to Ron. Surely he must have got the same owl? Did he already know and was he at the hospital already? It was impossible for him to tell and, more than that, did he really have the time to wait to owl him? Figuring that it was best to check with him before he left, Harry turned the piece of parchment over and he pulled his quill towards him and he quickly started to write.

Ron,

Going now. Can bring you too if you need me, send Hedwig back. If not, I'll see you there.

-Harry

He would have felt horrid if he didn't at least check with Ron first... Knowing him, Ron would have been fine to get there on his own. Harry was still in shock and he assumed Ron would have been as well and would have been perfectly capable of apparating to St. Mungo's, but at least this way, he could be sure.

The second after he had attached the note to Hedwig's leg he apparated for the hospital and his eyes scanned frantically around the waiting room for any faces that he could have recognized. "Katie!" Harry suddenly called as he walked briskly over to the girl with the blond hair. His face was drained of all colour as he approached her and he looked slightly shaken. "Where is she? How is she? What happened, Katie?"

[bell_katie]

Katie looked up as the nurse entered-- it was a girl that she thought she recognized from her time at Hogwarts, but she couldn't for the life of her put a name to the face, especially now. She had just opened her mouth to ask about Hermione when Harry apparated into the waiting room.

"Harry," she said, pushing off from the window and going to him, relief written all over her face. "Thank God. Are Ron and Ginny with you? --Miss, are you a nurse?"

[mandy_brocklehurst]

Mandy jumped back at the crack of someone apparating into the area. She staggered as Harry Potter materialised.

'Well that was unexpected, but not really.' She thought. Figuring that they would simply ignore her, she moved to head down the hall. After a moment, Katie's voice cut into her thoughts.

"I'm a Healer here, if that's what you mean. I actually work downstairs, but I heard some rumblings as I was leaving and..." She trailed off, slightly ashamed that she'd been curious based off of idle gossip.

[roonil_wazlib]

He was recently involved in a small bust down Knockturn Alley... a few wizards selling black magic items in a hole in the wall shop, and now Ron was filling out the paperwork for one of the three dark wizards they found.

So when he heard the owl pecking his window, Ron gave a frustrated groan and he threw his quill down on his desk. "I'M COMING! I'm bloody coming, calm down!" He sighed and he opened the window, letting the owl fly in and perch itself on his desk. He took the small note that was attached to its leg and he read...

and then he read it again. And again...

He was sure that his heart had stopped beating, it twisted so tightly in his chest, and he felt a raw fear in his stomach that he hadn't felt since the Battle of Hogwarts... by the time he had finished reading the short message the fourth time, he realized his fingers were trembling... he needed to go. He needed to go NOW!!! How was he going to get there!?!? Apparation, of course! Merlin, Ron, THINK!!! He heard the ruffle of another owl flying into his window, but he didn't even bother looking... he spun and apparated to the hospitals lobby, rushing his way to the main desk and demanding the room number that his fiance was in.
The damn nurse wasn't giving him what he wanted to know, and he was about to snap at her until he heard Harry's voice in the lobby...

He looked around quickly, and he saw his friends standing there... he hadn't even realized it... he quickly walked over, looking at the three of them... before his eyes fell on Katie. She was the one who sent the note.

"How long has she been here??"

[bell_katie]

"I don't know-- an hour, two hours, maybe." Katie took Ron by the arm, a brief strengthening squeeze, but Katie herself was pale. "They've done a bit of surgery, that's all I know. She was just eating and she got disoriented, she tried to stand up and she fell over-- I didn't move fast enough to catch her and she smacked her head--"

[ginny_weasley]

There was never a good time to clean one's filthy flat. Ginny bemoaned the fact that she was an absolutely disgusting packrat, but she did little to change it. So, on her first free afternoon, she resolved to finally clean some of it up.

Ginny wasn't one to be interrupted when she cleaned, because she seldom wanted to get back to it--may as well do it all in one go, she thought. Miserably sorting through the past year of Quidditch Weeklys which had accumulated under her sofa and coffee table, she heard a pecking at the window. Rolling her eyes and writing it off as something insignificant, she continued with her task before the pecking became too much. "WHAT THE BLOODY SODDING HELL IS SO RUDDY IMPORTANT?"

Grumbling, she let the owl in only long enough to untie the parchment and ushered it back outside(earning herself a pinch from the ruffled bird). Unrolling it, Hermione's name stood out on the page and she quickly scanned the contents. Hermione, poisoned, St. Mungo's and her stomach twisted into a cold knot. She vaguely thought she felt her body temperature drop and a wave of nausea hit her hard. Swallowing the bad taste in her mouth, Ginny quickly moved through her flat and slid out of her cleaning clothes and into a more presentable public outfit, a t-shirt and jeans. Shoving her feet into a pair of trainers, she snatched her wand up and Apparated into the lobby of St. Mungo's, right onto a main waiting room chair.

Because of her momentary delay and hasty dressing, Ginny arrived a bit later than the others but looked harassed and as if she had just rolled out of a hospital bed herself--she was pale and, to the studious eye, seemed to be tinged a faint shade of nausea-green. Often the type to keep herself together in the face of dangerous or potentially bad situations, Ginny looked especially out of character. Without speaking(also uncharacteristic), Ginny looked at Katie with a lost look in her eye. Moving over to Ron, she touched his shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly. She knew how he felt exactly, she was sure, and he needed it more than she did.

"When can we see her, Katie? Have they talked to you at all?" She didn't need any explanations about what had happened yet, because she was sure they would push her over the edge of nausea. It was bad enough she had a vague idea--her imagination did the rest.

[roonil_wazlib]

Ron had hardly heard what Katie was saying to him... no, it wasn't as if he was trying to block her out, but he had found himself to have fallen into some sort of daze... her voice nothing but a hollow echo, distorted in the background of his thoughts...

Where was he?

Where was he when this happened? What had been so damn important that he wasn't with her? Was he with Harry? Was he at work? It didn't seem to MATTER, there was no excuse in his head good enough. He wasn't there for her and she had gotten hurt... she had gotten ATTACKED...

He started to tremble again, his face turning cold and pale... he thought this was over. He THOUGHT that they put their LIVES on the line so many times to avoid things like this from happening....

He felt a hand on his shoulder and his eyes snapped awake, before he glanced over to see his sister... her skin complexion clashing a bit with the red in her hair. With shaking fingers he softly placed his hand on top of hers, swallowing past his dry throat... when did he get so thirsty? It hardly mattered... He forced his eyes to Katie when Ginny's question finally registered.

"Y..Yeah, when can.... when can we see her...?"

Where were you, Ron? Where the HELL were you?

[ginny_weasley]

"Ron, why don't we sit? You're looking about as sick as I feel." Ginny spoke calmly, though the look of fear and anxiety in her eyes betrayed her voice. All she could think of was Hermione, Hermione getting sick or worse... Ginny shuddered at the thought. Hermione was made of tougher stuff, wasn't she? She squeezed Ron's shoulder and carefully led him over to a cluster of seats. Settling down in one herself, she cast another look at Katie and visibly swallowed hard. Eyes burning with the threat of tears, Ginny closed her eyes to give herself reprieve--but the only image that played across them was of bushy hair.

"H-how long've you been here? Sorry I was late..." How could Ginny have thought cleaning her flat was more important than taking that owl sooner? She was stupid for waiting, she should have been here. Why hadn't she offered to go with Katie to Diagon Alley? Maybe it would have saved Hermione's neck. Casting an anxious glance at her brother, Ginny offered him her hand. "It'll be all right, Ron. She's too stubborn for anything really awful to happen, anyway." Her joke fell flat without the sarcastic bite to her tone. But she had to be right about Hermione, for Ron's(and her own) sake.

[boy_who_lived]

Harry surveyed both Ginny and Ron when they arrived at the hospital. He had been around both of them long enough to know that each of them looked a little green around the edges and he wouldn't have been surprised if he had as well. He took a seat on the other side of Ron when he sat down with Ginny and he glanced at her. "I only got here a few seconds before you did, I don't think we know much yet, K... Katie says she's in surgery." Harry said as he swallowed hard. "Don't think we know too much more than that..."

He could tell that his own voice sounded detached; he hardly felt like it was himself who was speaking the words. His mind felt like it was starting to work backwards, going over what Katie had told them and the questions were quickly forming in his head. What was she doing out with Katie today? Was she really that close to Katie? Where did they eat? What did she eat? Did she know anyone in the restaurant? Had anyone recognized her? Each were questions that he was sure would overwhelm Katie, who already looked physically exhausted from all of this.

"Ginny's right." Harry suddenly spoke up after his lapse into silence. He looked at the girl and he tried to give her a faint smile, "As soon as we see her she's going to be griping about how they did something wrong in the operating room with her, sh... she'll be just fine..."

Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as if he were off in another world, and he gently placed a bracing hand on his shoulder. "D'you want me to see if I can find a healer, mate?" Harry asked quietly, "See if they know where she is and what's going on...?"

[mandy_brocklehurst]

Mandy sighed, hearing Harry's comment about getting a Healer, wondering why she'd stuck around to begin with. Obviously her presence and lime-green robes weren't indicative enough.

'Seriously, their best friend's been poisoned, now's not the time to be petty.' She admonished herself. Squaring her shoulder's, Mandy walked over to them and drew a deep breath.

"I'll see if they'll tell me anything." She offered, hoping her voice sounded authoritative enough that they'd even believed she belonged there. Ginny aside, it was the most she'd spoken to any of them at any given time in their lives. It felt weird.

[hogwash_npc]

It was common practice for any healer who had just performed a complex, emergency procedure to speak with the patient's family afterward. Ordinarily, Hippocrates would have his assistants identify the patient and track down the family, but since he had just magically operated on the one and only Hermione Granger, he knew whom to look for in the waiting area.

Hippocrates Smethwyk had been healer-in-charge for nearly a decade now, and he wasn't surprised to find Harry Potter and Ron Weasley anxiously awaiting word on their friend's fate. He surveyed the scene and saw the blonde witch who had apparated her here, along with a red haired young woman whom he deduced was a Weasley.

Smethwyck approached the St. Mungo's employee first. "Brocklehurst," he called, waving over the young healer, speaking softly to her. "Owl Ms. Granger's parents. You'll have to set up the floo network since they're muggles."

After that was in order, the tall, white-haired wizard walked over to the panic-stricken group, pulling his wand and casting a quick spell to try to clean most of Hermione's blood from his white coat. He wiped his brow and pocketed his wand.

"I'm Hippocrates Smethwyk, healer-in-charge. I trust you're all friends of Ms. Granger?" He looked around to make sure there was no press in the area-- when a well-known witch or wizard ended up in his care, there always seemed to be one or two pesky reporters who manage to sneak through hospital security...

He refocused. "She's stable for now. Dangerous, dark potion she ingested. I've been a healer for ninety years and never saw anything like it. Seemed to go straight for the lower abdomen, trying to take out all it could on the way. Lots of organ damage I managed to repair. Had to remove her spleen, but she'll be all right without that. I already told Ms. Granger all that before putting her in a potion-induced comatose state while she heals. Can't risk having her awake for at least 24 hours while her insides continue to heal... and regenerate. As of now, I expect she'll make a full recovery."

Smethwyk also let Hermione know the more personal consequences of the poisoning-- she'd likely never be able to bear children due to the extensive damage done to her reproductive system, but that was confidential information for the patient, and he respected that by keeping it so.

"You may see her if you'd like. One at a time. She won't wake for at least a full day though, so I recommend getting some rest and coming back tomorrow. If you have any questions, the healers on duty should be available to address them."

He looked directly to the blonde witch, the one who brought her in. She looked familiar, certainly a patient he'd treated in the past-- was she the one cursed by that necklace eight, ten years ago? His memory was growing fuzzy... "The Aurors have been notified and they're on their way. They'll want to speak with you as a witness." He lowered his voice. "This was certainly no accident."

Smethwyk retreated to his office with the sample he'd extracted from Hermione's body; he'd need to start working on a remedy for the next one. He had a chilling feeling there were going to be more, and next time, he'll have an antidote ready. Or so he hoped.

[bell_katie]

"Oh, perfect." Katie sat down again, her fingers knit together and her forehead resting against them. She was up again after a moment however, pacing. She had embraced Ginny briefly when the other woman came into the room, but she had stood off, letting the three of them panic together-- there was little she could do, and the Healer had answered whatever questions they might have had. She braced her hands in the small of her back, biting at her lower lip.

"Who do you think--?" No accident. She recognized the old Healer from her own time in St Mungo's, and he was capable and knowledgeable. He wouldn't try to pull the wool over their eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't realize it faster," she said, haltingly, and then: "No, that doesn't matter-- she's all right now. I'll tell the Aurors everything I can."

[mandy_brocklehurst]

Mandy straightened as Smethwyk walked over and gave her instructions. "Yessir!" She said and hastened to alert Miss Granger's parents. Once a little ways off, she slowed and doubled back to listen to what had actually happened.

'Poisoned?' She thought. 'Deliberately no less.' Mandy wondered if this news would be released so that people would know to take care. 'It might be personal, or an isolated case. Would it be worth it to stir up paranoia again over one potential mishap?' She wondered as she went to the hospital Owlery

Working quickly, Mandy grabbed a quill and ink and did her best to make her handwriting neat. It wasn't rare that she had to write letters like this, but to a muggle family...

Mr. and Mrs. Granger,
I regret to inform you that your daughter, Hermione Granger, is currently a patient at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injury. You are more than welcome to visit your daughter at your earliest convenience. As you are Muggles, accommodations for travel will be made. Please use this owl to get back in touch with us to set up visitation.

Mandy Brocklehurst, Junior Healer, St. Mungo's
After writing the address, Mandy sealed the missive with some wax and the hospital seal. She chose a small, speedy, owl and tied the note to its leg.

"Now you are to go quickly and wait for a reply. It's imperative that you don't come back without an answer. When you do get one, you find either Smethwyk or myself. ONLY us." She told the bird sternly before letting it out the window.

Once the bird was no longer a speck on the horizon, she went back to the group in the waiting room. "I've sent an owl to Miss Granger's parents, sir. The owl has been told not to come back without a reply and to find either you or myself."

[ginny_weasley]

Ginny was thankful to see another friendly face--especially on staff--in Mandy. She remembered their encounter in Diagon Alley and how Ginny had made a stupid joke about seeing her at Mungo's, but for herself. Stomach sinking, she wished she had never said it anyway.

Sitting and listening to the healer-in-charge, Smethwyk, she nodded at his question if she was a friend. Ginny knew full well that the press would be all over this story and the longer they delayed it, the better it would be. What kind of unrest would it spark in the Wizarding community if they knew one of their golden heroes had been stricken by a poisoning in Diagon Alley? Shuddering at the thought, Ginny thought it sounded much like they were in the midst of the Second War again.

The description of what the procedure entailed for Hermione made Ginny queasy. Instinctively, she squeezed Ron's hand a bit harder--maybe he needed a bit of extra support hearing all this business, she thought. Once he finished and started on Mandy, Ginny tried to relax into the rather stiff waiting room chair. She felt uncomfortable being there, as if she didn't quite belong--she wondered if Katie felt much the same. Though she was Hermione's best mate, there was something wrong about the way Ginny's heart ached for her. She had to get out of there."I reckon we ought to give Hermione her rest and just poke our heads in. I imagine you'll be staying the night if you can, Ron? Do you want me to go to your flat and fetch you anything?"

[roonil_wazlib]

His stare was glazed over now and he hardly gave a reaction when the healer walked in and began to explain the situation. He had already drawn it in his head... They were still out there, of course. Dark wizards. Twisted... FUCKERS who cared nothing more than the blood that ran through someone's veins, how foolish had he been, thinking they were safe. He was lulled into a false sense of security now that Voldemort was gone, but there were so many people... SO many people who were still considered as dark wizards. And he still thought that they were safe.

Only a few things reached him... Poisoned... It wasn't an accident...

Well of COURSE it wasn't an accident you bloody GIT, you think that they happen to use poisonous ingredients in the kitchens?

He felt the faint squeeze of Ginny's hand, as if his brain was completely detached from his body and he slowly started to look down, watching her fingers move in his own and he finally found the energy to part his lips, his voice flat and dry,

"No. ... I don't need anything, I'm just... I'm going to stay here." He swallowed hard... he couldn't even think at the moment. What would he had to have? What was at his flat? ... It didn't matter, he didn't care enough. He stood, feeling his heart twist so sharply in worry that he wasnt sure if he would have had to sit down again... he kept on his feet, trying to figure out what was wrong with him...

He felt guilty. Horribly, horribly guilty. Where the HELL was he when she needed him?

He glanced at Mandy with empty eyes... the Healer said that he could visit her, right? he stood in the doorway, nervously... staring at her in the bed and he had to grab onto the doorways frame to keep himself steady. She looked so... what? Frail? Lying there... and he forced himself to step into the room, grabbing a chair and dragging it over to her bedside, sitting... and he stared softly at her face, his eyes starting to burn.

"Hey Hermione."

He said her name gently before taking a deep breath and he glanced at her hand, gently placing his fingers against the back of it. He wasn't even sure if she could hear him...

"I came as soon as I found out you were here." He forced a broken laugh. "I was actually on time for once and you weren't even awake to see it. ...It was your fault this time..."

[ginny_weasley]

Ginny watched Ron, worry creasing her brow, as he seemed to be in a completely different world than the rest of them. It was natural, of course, that he would be focusing on what had happened with Hermione but even he was acting strange by those standards. His voice was almost startling in its monotone and light rasp. Ginny knew better than to press him for any more information and simply nodded along. "Just send me an owl if you decide otherwise, Ron. Let me at least walk with you..."

As he started off in a distracted saunter, Ginny followed him to the room, halting at the door jamb. Her stomach sank and twisted, nausea washing over her and she swore that the burn of bile rose at the back of her throat. The image of her lying there prone made her heart tighten painfully.

Ginny couldn't be there anymore. The smell of the poultices and potions was enough, the sight of Ron looking at Hermione that way pushed her over the edge. Her heart ached that she couldn't be for her in the capacity Ron was, that she wasn't at Hermione's beck and call that way, reminded her painfully of the way she felt. You selfish git, Ginny thought angrily--how dare she think about herself?

As she heard Ron begin to speak, Ginny bowed out gracefully but not before daring another glance at the bushy hair against the starkly white pillow. Walking uncertainly back to the waiting room, she avoided the gazes of Mandy, Harry, and Katie. "Think I'll be heading back now." And, without further hesitation, Ginny stalked off toward the exit--to the Muggle road on which St. Mungo's stood.