"I'm sorry, miss, you have to leave now. Visiting hours are over, dear."
Petunia ignored the plump healer standing in the doorway.
"You can come back tomorrow. But you have to leave for now. Come along, don't be silly."
Slowly, Petunia turned around. She eyed the woman standing there, a look of pure rage on her face.
"No."
She said it calmly, not a trace of anger in her voice. Inside, however, she was shaking. Why should she leave? She didn't want to!
"Come, dear..."
"No."
She was a stubborn Hufflepuff and dammit, she was determined to stay put!
Petunia stood up, still keeping her voice down in consideration of the limp form lying on the bed by her side. However, she had taken a venomous tone, and could see the healer was becoming nervous.
"I don't think I want to leave."
"But child, you have to..."
"No! No! What if she dies in the night? I am going to be by her side! You can't make me move one step!"
Petunia made to sit back down, her temper bubbling.
The healer shook her head and started to say something.
"No! No!" under any other circumstances Petunia would have been shouting as loud as she could, shaking with rage and fear for her friend.
"I'm not leaving. Mrs. Frank gets to stay. Why don't I? I can't leave my friend now! She needs me. She needs me! Don't you get it, you stupid woman? Can't you get it? Or don't you understand friendship and trust and loyalty? I can't leave her when she needs me most! I can't, I don't want to, and I won't!"
The healer shook her head again.
"Family only. I'm so sorry, dear, but you have to leave!"
She walked towards Petunia, and, with a gentle strength that made Petunia suspect she did this sort of thing often, she pulled Petunia out of the small room.
Once outside, Petunia was led to the door, and finally stopped fighting. The woman stuck out her arm and hailed the Knight Bus, murmured something to the driver, said "The Leaky Cauldron", pushed Petunia onto the bus and walked away.
Petunia went to the very back of the double-decker purple bus and sat down. This "Knight Bus" was a very new thing, and she would have been very excited to be on it, had Luisa not been... well... the way she was. Leaning back in her seat, Petunia allowed herself to think over her first day at Luisa's house for the thousandth time.
"Mrs. Frank! It's Luisa, she's coughing, there’s blood come on, come on, you have to help her..." Petunia had finally found Mrs. Frank and was leading her to Luisa's room.
By the time they had arrived, both out of breath having run up the flight of stairs, Luisa lay on the floor. All the blood seemed to have left her face and they could barely feel a pulse.
Mrs. Frank had run to the fireplace and contacted the wizard hospital, St. Mungo's. Their emergency helpers had arrived seconds later, and Luisa had been transported to St. Mungo's. Mrs. Frank and Petunia had been at the hospital soon after, where an elderly healer had informed them that Luisa's situation looked very grave.
"I'm sorry," he had wheezed, "but I can't give you a guarantee that she'll make it. I know it's hard. At least we have a pretty good idea what is ailing her, now. But no known magic can cure this, I’m afraid."
Petunia had not been told what exactly this was. Mrs. Frank had spoken with the man and Petunia had finally been allowed to go to Luisa. She had been sitting by her side (Mrs. Frank had joined her after a short while) until the plump healer had come for Petunia.
And now, here she was, in the Knight Bus. School would be starting tomorrow. Petunia had bought all she needed at the beginning of break, so she would be ready, but it didn’t matter to her, anyway. She hadn’t even considered how she would get to the Hogwarts Express, without flying over Muggle towns. That wasn't the most pressing problem on her mind right then. Thinking everything over, Petunia was very worried, as she had been for so long now. What strange disease did Luisa have? And... would she make it through this?
"The Leaky Cauldron," the driver called.
Petunia felt like refusing to leave the bus, but decided it would not be a wise thing to do. Instead she got off the bus, not even thinking of what would happen to her, only pondering Luisa's illness.
"Evans!" the sharp tone sounded only too familiar.
"Professor McGonagall?"
"Yes, it's me, Evans, don't gawk. Soon you'll be seeing me everyday. I heard about Miss Frank, and arrangements have been made for you to make it to Kings Cross tomorrow. Please go with Mr. Hagrid. I trust you know him, he is our gamekeeper. Meet him in front of the pub. I'm sorry, but it's not possible for you to Miss Frank again tomorrow. That's all, Evans. I shall see you tomorrow. I do hope you've completed your assignments and not forgotten all we learned."
With that, the strict Transfiguration teacher made to turn away.
“Oh, and Evans?” McGonagall stopped to add, “I am dreadfully sorry about Miss Frank.”
That being said, McGonagall disappeared with a pop. Petunia just stood there. Her professor's appearance had greatly surprised her. And that comment at the end had been a bit unsettling. It had sounded far too final for Petunia to want to think on it more.
Slightly confused, she walked up to her room, and sank down onto her bed. She slept uneasily as usual. Dreams of Luisa's corpse plagued her and Petunia awoke many a time, bathing in sweat or screaming in terror. Morning could not have come quickly enough.
When it did, she dressed, packed all her things, and breakfasted quickly. Petunia knew that she would not be able to see Luisa again today, and she felt silent tears gathering in her eyes.
Standing in front of the pub, Petunia waited for Mr. Hagrid to come up to her. In all her time at the school, she had never talked to him, and was anticipating the arrival of the gigantic man.
"Hullo, name's Rubeus Hagrid. But Hagrid'll do," he introduced himself.
Petunia gave him a pained smile.
"I hope you know how to use Muggle stuff, 'cause we're takin' the Muggle underground there," he said, sounding apologetic.
Petunia merely nodded.
A very long subway ride later (including Hagrid complaining loudly about everything he saw, which actually did a lot to lighten Petunia's mood) the two arrived near Kings Cross.
"Almos' there," Hagrid informed Petunia, walking with great strides toward the front of the station.
Petunia followed, nearly running, and finally they arrived at the secret entrance to platform nine and three-quarters.
"This is where I leave ya. Good-bye, Evans."
Petunia waved with her hand and walked through the barrier. There, in front of her, stood the Hogwarts Express, the smoke rising from it making a gray cloud above the colorful crowd of students, animals, parents and baggage.
Soon, Petunia would be in the place she loved most, doing what she enjoyed more than anything else. But nothing, not even the prospect of Hogwarts could get Petunia's mind off of Luisa's limp form lying on the white sheets, having not moved a muscle for almost two weeks. For the millionth time, tears gathered in Petunia's brown eyes.