Chapter 46

A/n: Here is where all the new information/writing begins. Sorry for such a long wait. An inordinate amount of things has happened since the words of Chapter 45 were written. So if the story feels disjointed please let me know so I can try to stitch these two parts together better for your reading pleasure.

Hermione's parents sat at her bedside all night. The school healer and Potions Master bustled around their daughter now and then aided by a younger healer.

Right now, they were struggling to stop her kidneys from failing. Spells were zooming past them and into the body of their daughter. Potions were being brought to the bedside clinking loudly against each other in crates.

All they could do as parents, was to sit at her bedside, hold each other's hands and try to not get in the way. At first, there had only been the driving need to be here in the castle with Hermione and now that they were here, panic had started to rise with every minute that passed. No-one had really had the time to explain to them what was going on or what had happened to their daughter beyond a brief explanation from the Aurors that had come to get them.

The only thing keeping the panic in was that the matron had told them that she didn't need to go to the magical hospital that she could be treated here.

They had only received a letter, Hermione, this morning and now they were watching her sweating profusely in a hospital bed. The surrealness of this change in circumstances made it impossible to formulate a sentence, both parents were sat unable to move, holding each other's hands.

Being dentists, they understood enough to be truly worried about Hermione but not enough to help and it was agonising.

Eventually, at some point in the night, Hermione's condition finally stabilised. Her kidneys were doing a lot better, but they were still functioning at a reduced rate and there was no knowing whether this was going to be permanent or not.

Madame Pomfrey collapsed into a chair beside them, dabbing her forehead with a handkerchief. "I don't want to tempt fate but I think we are out of the woods now." She panted looking over at her student's parents.

Hermione's mother looked down at the crossed fingers in her lap and then at her husband. She felt herself shaking only now were things starting to feel real.

"How is she?" Her husband asked.

Madame Pomfrey took a moment to gather her thoughts before saying,

"We've managed to remove all the active potion ingredients from her stomach and bloodstream. The mental effects caused by the potion will take a few weeks to wear off."

"Mental effects?" Susan Granger asked worriedly. Her thoughts immediately going to brain damage.

"The potion that she was given was a very concentrated love potion."

"What?" Both parents exclaimed.

"It's a category-A illegal substance and we are investigating how it even got into the school." The Auror replied.

"It affects someone's thoughts and actions. That will take time to wear off." The nurse explained, still dabbing at her sweating forehead.

"Oh okay!" Susan Granger said hurriedly before cringing deeply. "I mean it's not okay... but it's okay that she's okay and you know what it is..."

"Her kidney's still have reduced function but her liver has returned to normal and we've managed to heal her stomach lining. It's lucky that we found her when we did, or her stomach might have burst." Madame Pomfrey stated, now finally having caught her breath.

Both parents nodded, Hermione had been lucky to make it. Overdosing on anything was bad but this seemed to be a particularly destructive substance.

Now that his daughter was no longer at risk of suddenly dying, her father was beginning to get angry.

"How did this happen?"

At the moment we are not entirely sure." The nearest Auror explained. "We've arrested her boyfriend and found more of the potion in his belongings."

"Ron did this to her?" Susan asked. "But Hermione told me that they had broken up last year."

"It seems so. We will be questioning him in the morning."

Severus Snape returned. "He definitely didn't brew it on his own."

Everyone turned to look at him from where he stood at the foot of the bed. "Never passed a lesson with me without Hermione's help."

The parents sat together in that place for hours, as their daughter started to come around. Putting their faith in the magical police force to get justice for their daughter and the medical staff to make this event as short-lasting as possible. If Hermione wasn't a witch they would have dragged her to the nearest hospital. It was hard for them that they only truly understood about half of what was going on.

Hermione finally woke up when the first rays of light from the sun pushed over the horizon.

She tried to get out of bed delirious from the potions and compelled to go to Ron but she found herself restrained. When she realised that she couldn't get out of bed. She started screaming.

At the ministry, Aurors were working overtime. The big case was moving slowly but steadily and giving them so much work as new crimes were uncovered. Adding to that the new poisoning that they were having to deal with... There wasn't enough feet on the ground.

Rufus Scrimgeour was reading through reports on how Albus' escape attempt. Shaking his head, he signed the documents authorising the former headmaster's incarceration in the cells.

He could have had a comfortable time being in his own home but no, he just had to escape.

Or at least attempt to.

The Aurors guarding him had brought him in kicking and screaming. Just like the student that was sat across from him now.

Anthony and his team had finally managed to capture the main suspect in the Hogwarts poisoning case. He had attempted to flee but had finally been apprehended.

Right now he was sweating intensely, wearing magic suppressing handcuffs across from him.

Rufus pulled out the intake form and started filling it out. Ronald continued to squirm. Rufus raised an eyebrow leisurely.

"I don't know why you thought running would be a great idea, but you are here now." Rufus looked up from the papers at the teenage boy. "So, you better behave yourself."

Booking him in didn't take long but it gave the head Auror plenty of time to look Ron over. He was still sweating profusely despite the cool air in the room and kept wiping his forehead with the back of his hands. The fingers of which were slightly stained an ambiguous shade of pink. Ron's eyes were darting around all over the place. Literally making him look like the shiftiest lad ever.

Auror Goldstein took him down to the cells after emptying his pockets and taking samples of the potion stains. It was tempting to put him in the cell next to Albus but the problems that could cause weren't worth it.

Albus had only just stopped screaming.

Ron would be interrogated in the morning.

Harry tossed and turned in bed. Despite not having a shirt on he was too hot and sleeping on his front was uncomfortable. Every time that he managed to fall into the land of slumber, weird dreams that wouldn't be remembered on waking would happen.

It started with a purple flying octopus with a mustache and a sparkly bowler hat. It flew around his head telling him cheese was evil.

Just your basic weird dream.

He woke up later than normal at a weird angle that his neck wasn't happy about. The other residents of the 6th year dorm were asleep. There was a noticeable absence of Ron's snores. Harry looked over at the bed beside him.

All of Ron's stuff was gone.

Ron not being there felt wrong and the things that he was accused of felt unimaginable in their awfulness. Taking away someone's autonomy like that...it didn't bear thinking about.

Harry sat in the window seat. Thestrals were flying past the tower in the golden light from the sunrise.

A/n: Sorry for the weird format problem before.