DRAGON'S HEARTSTRINGS || dramione | harry potter

Chapter Seven

A few hours later, after vomiting up everything that was in her stomach, Hermione searched for her wand. When she found it, she crawled into bed and wrapped herself in the sheets like a cocoon, knowing quite well she wasn't going to fall asleep again, and clutching the wand close to her. Crookshanks meowed and cuddled himself to her side. Mipsy cleaned up her vomit, and Hermione thanked her absentmindedly. Then, the elf brought her peppermint tea to drink, and Hermione asked, "Is You-Know-Who gone?"

Mipsy looked behind her as if scared they might be overheard. "Not yet, Missis," she whispered. "Drink your tea and try to fall asleep..."

Fear threatened to wreck Hermione's insides once more, but she sipped the tea in her bed, and it helped her calm down a little. When she finished, she put the mug on the bedside table and lay back, starting to doze off a little, but the memories of how Voldemort entered her mind, read her thoughts and dug over her memories without her being able to fight back or do anything to stop him – those memories did not let her sleep.

She stared at the ceiling for some time, deep in her thoughts. Then, she heard footsteps – they got louder, closer to her door. Hermione instinctively turned to the side, away from the doorway, pulling her knees up and wrapping her hands around herself. She heard the door open, and a small triangle of light appeared on the carpet coming from the hallway. Hermione closed her eyes and eased her breathing, pretending she was asleep. She felt his eyes on her. She was scared he might come in and drag her out of bed again. But he didn't get closer. He stayed in the doorway for maybe a minute, watching her sleeping form, but for Hermione, it seemed like an hour, like a whole night. Then, the door closed, and as she heard his footsteps get more distant, she breathed out heavily.

She fell asleep sometime later and woke up when sunbeams high in the sky were already threatening to invade her room through the stained-glass windows. She sat up, frowning. She put the wand that had pushed against her stomach while she slept and looked around. "Mipsy?" she spoke up.

Pop. "Yes, Missis?" The elf didn't whisper this time.

"What time is it?" Hermione asked.

"It's one past noon, Missis," the elf answered.

Hermione frowned. "Is You-Know-Who gone now?"

Mipsy nodded, "He left some five hours ago."

"And your Master? Where is he?"

"He's about to get lunch. He was waiting for you to wake up. Would you like to join him for? You must be hungry, and you really need to eat something."

Hermione swallowed. "Does he want to talk to me?"

"He didn't say that, he just asked me to let him know when you awoke."

Hermione was hungry. And she wanted to talk to him.

"Okay, I'll go," she said.

When she dressed up and went downstairs to the dining hall, the High Reeve gave her a single look, and then turned back to the Daily Prophet newspaper he was reading. She sat down and filled her plate while he sipped on what she assumed was coffee.

Hermione was in the middle of her meal when he finally addressed her, "How are you feeling?"

She looked up at him, startled. The truth would've been to say, Terrible. But she chose the correct way. "Better now."

He hummed to himself and kept on reading the newspaper. Hermione looked down at her plate, then back at him, thinking thoroughly of how she should address this.

"What happened tonight... I assume this was not a common occurrence?" she began, looking at his face.

A muscle in his jaw twitched, but he willfully did not look at her. "The Manor is warded from all sorts of intrusions, but it cannot be warded from Voldemort because that would be suspicious. I'm his right hand and he needs to know he can reach me anytime," he answered dryly.