Silence (A Dramione Fanfiction)

Chapter 16

Ginny POV

Ginny enjoyed being disguised as Lottie Parker. No one put pressure on her and she didn't need to worry what everyone thought about her. Which was why she was going to make use of this opportunity as much as possible. Ginny walked into the library and silently greeted Madam Pince as she walked by. She found herself walking towards a desk and armchair secluded in a corner behind a bookshelf. Ginny sighed and took out some spare parchment along with her quill and ink but briefly stopped when something caught her eye. Someone before her who had been here had left a book; the spine had fallen apart from the pages and some dust was still left on the front cover. The Consequences of Time Travel by Roselyn Wentzell.

Ginny furrowed her eyebrows and picked up the book. She gently blew off the dust from the front cover and randomly turned to one of the pages and started reading:

Twylter's Disease. A serious illness that occurs when the time traveller spends too long in the past. The side effects include impairment of vision due to certain faculties in the brain being stifled by a Richmein tumour. This disease was first discovered by Professor K. Sivasubramaniam in a southern region of India and is not fatal.

K. Garnett Disease. This disease is far less debilitating than Twylter's and the only side effects are brief periods of recollection where the time traveller feels like they have returned to the past. This disease was first noticed by Prof. A Goode.

Aclyntine's Disease. When this was first discovered by Prof. C Aclyntine, it was by observing a Ms C. Hollis, who was a frequent time traveller. This disease affects motor skills particularly, leaving an inability to have precise hand-eye coordination etc

Ecxter Syndrome. This syndrome, discovered by A. Malaviya, is possibly one of the most painful conditions of time travelling. The slow increase of lesions on the brain causes splitting migraines and when death comes, it is almost definitely a relief. The patient will experience faints and will be confined to bed at least 2 months before death. This condition is very rare, caused by a certain bacteria from the past, and only 1 in 2640 time travellers will suffer from it.

Ginny looked up from the book, feeling nauseous. When death comes, it is almost certainly a relief... She thought of her friend, dedicating her past, present and future to a boy. What could be the worst thing to happen? A disease that kills her? Ginny thought. After all this, just for her to... to... She shook her head. No. It was rare. It'd better be rare.

*****

Draco POV

Draco was feeling pretty good about himself. The day had gone well, with Slughorn teaching them something interesting and there was a Quidditch match in the afternoon. Of course, none of the buzz he was feeling was because of Hermione. Never. That would be stupid. He ignored an annoying voice in his head that was telling him that the buzz was because of Hermione and focused on finding her in the crush of students making their way to their common rooms. It was lunch, but the weather was awful, so most people were staying inside, practising their rain-repelling charms for the upcoming match - Slytherin versus Ravenclaw. He finally spotted her curly hair and shoved through the crowd to reach her, stepping on quite a few people's toes.

"Granger!" he said. Hermione turned, looking for the person who had called her name. She caught sight of him and a quick expression crossed over her face, before she rolled her eyes. Was that... relief? Why would she be relieved to see him? Obviously, Draco thought, most people are relieved to see me, but Granger was never one of them. He shook his head. He was probably mistaken.

"Miss me?" he asked, a sideways smirk on his face. She sniffed.

"Hardly. It's hard to miss someone who's ego is more intrusive than an irate rhinoceros."