“What?!” Parvati asked, petrified.
“Someone…” Hermione struggled with her words, and Parvati realised that if Hermione had really been poisoned, then they were wasting precious time.
“Hermione, just a minute””
“Don’t go…”
“I’ll be back, Hermione, don’t worry, nothing will happen.” Parvati got up and ran upstairs, opening her bedroom door with a bang and collecting her remedies. Harry sat up on his bed, bewildered.
“’S’a matter?”
“Hermione…” Parvati said, as she rushed out to the living room. In a moment, Harry was following her. As Parvati went down again and knelt beside Hermione, she noticed that Hermione was on the verge of losing consciousness.
“What’s wrong with her?” Harry asked.
“I don’t know!” Parvati said, controlling her tears with difficulty. “Hermione, take this…”
“I want Ron!” Hermione said, refusing to have the potion. “Where’s Ron?”
Harry rushed away, probably to bring Ron. Parvati tried to make Hermione have the potion, but Hermione refused. “Call Ron… where’s Ron?”
Ron and Harry came in right at that moment and Ron knelt beside Hermione, holding her hand. “I’m right here, Hermione… take that potion, now.”
“I love you, Ron…”
“I love you too… have the potion.”
Hermione opened her mouth and Parvati tipped a spoonful of potion. “Come on, let’s take her to the hospital.”
Hermione got up obediently, her eyes still unfocused, and looked at Ron. “Ron…” she staggered towards him and as he put her arm around his shoulder to pick her up, she fainted.
***
Daisy walked along a well-lit corridor at St. Mungo’s Hospital with Parineeta at her side. They had just received news of Hermione’s poisoning and had decided to visit the woman at the hospital.
The duo turned around a corner, and finally arrived at the correct room. Daisy pushed the door open and stepped inside. It was private and well-equipped, and Hermione was fast asleep on the bed. But bending over her was…
“Hey, Chris!” Parineeta said, waving happily.
Chris waved at her and smiled briefly at Daisy before saying, “I’ll be out in a moment. Then, you two can sit here for a while.” He took Hermione’s pulse and temperature, and then left in a whiff of cologne that Daisy had admired at some point in her life.
Presently, Daisy and Parineeta moved towards Hermione and sat down on stools beside her, each drowned in her own thoughts. Daisy’s mind was whirring with questions. How did the poison meant for Parvati land in Hermione’s body? What a mistake!
The silent attack had been easily disguised with so many people offering to help, after all… and a stab would really have been a foolproof way to eliminate Parvati, even if it would have required planning. But poison? Why hadn’t this been reasoned upon? And how hadn’t she, Daisy, noticed…? How could she have committed such a blunder?
Daisy sighed. She would have to do something about such mistakes, now… it was high time. No more blunders… no more mistakes. From now on, she would make sure that everything would be the way it should.
***
Hermione’s eyes opened to a white room. She was lying on a comfortable bed with sheets tucked around her cosily. A stream of sunlight was falling through the chink of the curtains, from a window that was on the wall opposite her bed.
It didn’t take more than two seconds for Hermione to realise that she was in the hospital. What had happened, though? Hermione shut her eyes as she recollected the incident. She had felt strange and had gone to Parvati, who had taken her to the living room. Then…? Hermione remembered asking for Ron. She had told Ron that she loved him.
What had he said? Hermione couldn’t remember a reply from her husband. She took a deep breath and sat up as a sinking feeling overcame her.
“Hello!” said a voice, and Hermione saw Chris at her doorway. He grinned as he walked to her. “I am the trainee under Healer Tudor, today. She was here a while ago, with Parvati and Ginny. They just went to get some coffee, and Parvati asked me to check on you in the meantime. You’ve been out cold for almost three days, now. Anyway, how do you feel?”
Hermione opened her mouth to reply, but her lips were chapped. Chris noticed it too, and poured out a glass of water for her. Hermione drank it up and felt her lips burn as they moistened. She smiled. “I feel quite good, actually.”
Chris smiled. He then checked her pulse for two minutes, nodding as he did so. “Pulse is normal… I’ll just do another test… anyway, would you like something to eat? It’s nine in the morning.”
Hermione suddenly realised hunger in the pit of her stomach. “Yeah, get me something light, though… like fruit.”
“Sure,” Chris said. “I’ll be back in a moment. We’ll have breakfast together, then.”
He came back with a plate of cut apples for Hermione and some sandwiches for himself. Keeping them on the table, he said, “Okay, I’ll just do a small blood test first, Hermione, then we can eat.”
Hermione felt a sharp sting as Chris drew out a drop of blood. He placed it on a slide with his wand and began to mutter spells. After five minutes, he looked up and smiled. “You’re fine. I think they’ll discharge you soon…”
“What poison was it?”
“It wasn’t a potion. It was ethylene glycol… or antifreeze, in common words,” Chris said, setting a fork on Hermione’s plate. “It had just begun to metabolise in your body and you felt the symptoms. When Parvati saw you that night, she did some quick thinking and gave you something to stop your metabolism temporarily. Then they got you here, so that some other Healers could look at the problem and find a solution.”
“What did you do, finally?”
“Oh, we just gave you a blood purifying potion. It wasn’t that hard… the poison hadn’t really reached your blood because of Parvati’s potion…”
As he placed the slide on the bedside table, Chris handed her the plate of fruits. He then settled with his sandwiches and they ate in silence, until Hermione asked the question that had been bothering her most of this time. “Where’s Ron?”
“Breakfast,” Chris replied. “You were in the emergency ward on the first night, and he was waiting outside. He was sitting here when we transferred you here and has been with you for most of the time. Becks took him outside for some breakfast just around half-an-hour ago.”
Rebecca… again. Hermione felt her heart sink lower. Hermione had been poisoned and was lying in a hospital bed. But what could Ron think of? Breakfast with Rebecca. That was it. Hermione had taken a decision a few days ago, and had wondered if it was right. Now she was sure that it was the right thing to do.
Chris was trying to decipher Hermione’s thoughts, but apparently, he failed. Finally, he managed to say, “Flower was here to see you too…”
“Daisy?”
“Yeah. Pari came with her.” He grinned. “You know what? You look really good in this hospital gown.”
Hermione didn’t smile or thank him. She didn’t have a witty response for his flirtatious comment, either. She was just too saturated with her frustration with Ron for the moment.
Chris looked at Hermione for a second, bewildered by her lack of response. Then he returned to his sandwich as he realised that she was too preoccupied to pay attention. He remembered Daisy’s visit on the day after Hermione’s poisoning. She had looked so pretty in that skirt…
He shut his eyes, as another memory flashed into his thoughts. He groaned. He didn’t want to remember this, but thinking of Daisy always reminded him of that horrible day. The memory still brought stabbing pains to him. It hurt. It pricked. It killed him to even remember that day.
Chris stood, helpless, as their interlaced hands separated. Daisy’s soft fingers were no longer caressing his hand. Instead, they were clutching on to the straps of her bag, as she prepared to pick it up and walk away.
“Daisy, please try to understand…” Chris said, scared at the look on her face. She looked very, very angry.
“I have a life too, you know!” Chris continued. “And come on… it’s all right now…”
She growled in frustration. “YOU ASKED ME TO””
“But it wasn’t possible, come on…”
“Are you even human?”
“Daisy””
“Keep your mouth shut. I don’t want to hear anything from you. Thanks a lot for all your wonderfulness.” She turned around and suppressed a sob.
Chris placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hey Flower, listen… it’s all””
“Go away,” she replied, losing control and breaking into sobs. “I have had enough for today.”
He turned her around and pulled her into a hug. “We’ll always remain friends, okay? This will not ruin our friendship.”
She broke away and wiped her eyes. Then without looking at him, she ran towards the castle, leaving him to stand alone by the lake.
“Chris?”
Chris opened his eyes, to see a concerned expression on Hermione’s face. “I’ve made a grave mistake, Hermione,” he confessed
Hermione looked confused. “I feel fine,” she replied, misunderstanding his ‘mistake’. “I’m sure you’ve done it right. Plus, Healer Tudor was guiding you too, wasn’t she?”
He shook his head. “No… it isn’t that. You’re in perfect health, now. I was just thinking about something else.” Or rather, someone else, he thought, looking away. Then the desperation hit him like a rough, cold gust of wind. He wanted to speak about it. He needed to speak about it. He looked at Hermione. What would she understand about his problems? How would his pain even matter to a person who barely knew him?
“Hey,” said Hermione, smiling weakly. “I haven’t rejected you, if that’s what is troubling you. The only problem there is that it might offend… Ron…” she trailed away. “When did you say Ron left for breakfast?”
“Just half an hour ago,” Chris replied half-heartedly.
“And they haven’t returned yet?”
“I dunno,” Chris said. “The canteen is usually crowded, so they might have had to wait for an empty seat.” A voice in his head prompted him to spit it out. Everyone knew about him and Daisy after the incident at the Aurors’ house, anyway.
“I’m going to survive, aren’t I?” Hermione asked seriously, frowning at the look on Chris’s face. “Please tell me the truth, Chris.”
“You really are fine… but… she” she’s never going to forgive me for it,” Chris finally said, the words tumbling out of his mouth desperately. “I just can’t believe my stupidity and ignorance then… now, when I have come to understand what it must have meant to her…”
“What are you talking about?” Hermione asked. “Do you know something about the person who poisoned me? Have you been forced to do this? Who is it? Chris… what is happening? You’ve got to tell””
“I” I really don’t have any clue about who poisoned you, Hermione,” Chris said quietly. “I’m talking about Daisy.”
There was silence. Chris looked at Hermione, pain swirling into his senses. “I’ve hurt her so much, Hermione.”
Hermione raised an eyebrow. This was the last thing that she wanted to discuss with Chris after whatever had taken place between her and Ron in these past few days. Teenage attraction was just about leading her to a disaster and she had no intention of hearing Chris’s woes about Daisy rejecting him. “She will forgive you if she really loves you,” Hermione pointed out.
Chris chuckled sadly. “Hermione, you don’t know Daisy. She’s horribly stubborn. If she thinks I was the one to ruin her life, she’ll think that way for the rest of her life. She will not accept anything I say. Right now, she accepts that she probably misses me, but she hates me at the same time. So there it goes. She’ll keep hating and missing me for a lifetime.”
Hermione momentarily forgot her own dilemma on hearing his answer. This boy was surely troubled, she decided. “That’s strange. How can she hate you and miss you?”
“She can. That’s Daisy.”
“And you want her back, despite the fact that she hates you?”
Chris shook his head. “But then she doesn’t really hate me, Hermione, she… I don’t know! I really can’t understand girls!” He looked harassed.
Hermione laughed. “Oh, my, Chris… all men and boys have one huge problem in their lives, don’t they? Honestly, how tough is it to understand a girl?”
“Tougher than you think. You are a woman yourself. You won’t understand,” Chris huffed.
Hermione ruffled his hair. “But you can understand the general tendencies of human beings, can’t you?”
“Yes,” Chris said, “But Daisy is a complicated person.”
“She may be complicated, Chris, but she has the same emotions as all of us do.”
“But that doesn’t help!”
“Who said that it doesn’t? You can always use the one clichéd weapon that a lot of people in love have used.”
“What?”
“Jealousy. Make Daisy jealous. I told Ginny the same when she wanted Harry’s attention. And believe me, though he had to leave her for the war, later on, it did work.”
“What must I do?”
Hermione shrugged. “You know… go around with a few girls…”
“She already knows that I’m a big flirt. Flirting hugely with even Ginny doesn’t affect her anymore.”
“No, don’t flirt with anyone. Actually go out with a girl.”
Chris flinched as though Hermione had asked him to bomb Daisy’s house. “NO!”
Hermione frowned. “What?”
Chris shook his head. “Going out with someone and letting Daisy see that… no, Hermione, she’ll die! She’s already suffering so much. No… Flower won’t suffer because of me… I’ll make sure of that.”
***
“Antifreeze.”
Harry looked at the report Parvati had given him. It said that Hermione had been poisoned with antifreeze, which had been present in her pumpkin juice, seeing that antifreeze is sweet. But, there was the catch again. Parvati had given Hermione her own pumpkin juice, which meant that the intended victim was Parvati. It would have been easy to point out a culprit if Harry had known exactly who was involved in pouring out pumpkin juice, but it had turned out that almost everyone had been involved in it.
Harry sank into his comfortable chair and shut his eyes. Another deadly attack. Another dead end. What on earth was happening? It was all so confusing…
“Here are the fingerprint reports, Harry,” said a voice and Harry opened his eyes to see Romilda sitting on one of the chairs opposite his. “This glass has been touched by too many people… nothing is really coherent.”
Harry groaned. “Oh no… I was hoping for a bit of evidence… this murderer is just too smart!”
Romilda nodded. “But we’ll have to get them before they murder anyone else.”
“I hope they don’t,” Harry said tenderly.
“Suspect list still the same, then?”
“Yeah, pretty much. We aren’t getting any leads, anyway. I can add myself into the list and still live happily.”
Romilda smiled. “Are you going to see Hermione, now?”
“Yes,” Harry said, standing up. He and Romilda exited the office together. “I guess she’ll be awake.”
“Bye.”
Harry waved at Romilda and she returned to her cubicle as he walked off.
In twenty minutes, Harry was standing outside Hermione’s room with Ginny by his side. They could hear Ron and Hermione arguing inside, and Harry had no intention to walk in right then. Instead, he sat on a chair, beside Ginny. “I see that Hermione’s finally woken up.”
“Yeah,” Ginny said. “She’s fine, though… and she’s pretty upset with Ron. Poor Ron… sometimes I feel sorry for him, too. It isn’t really his fault if he’s been in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person.”
“What were the wrong things this time?”
“He waited beside Hermione ever since they allowed him in and Rebecca just took him for a spot of breakfast. Unfortunately for Ron, Hermione woke up when he had gone. Chris was in her ward at that time, and he obviously has no idea about the tension between Ron and Hermione, so he told her the truth. Parvati and I did join Rebecca and Ron during their breakfast and really, there’s nothing between them that Hermione should be suspicious of. Anyway, any leads on this attack?”
Harry shook his head. “Nothing… this is bad, you know?”
Ginny nodded. “Yeah… too many dead ends…” She adjusted her robes as she shifted on her seat, and her purse fell down. “Oops!”
She knelt down to get it, just as Harry did the same and the two of them grabbed the purse at the same time. They looked up into each others eyes and everything came to a standstill. For the first time in years, Harry was looking deep into her eyes, as she looked into his. He could smell the flowery scent of her hair, and feel her tantalising breath on his face.
Unaware of what he was doing, Harry leaned forward, his face now dangerously close to hers. Her lips parted. “Harry…” Harry leaned even more, tilting his face sideways”
“What on earth is going on in this place?”
Harry jerked, drawing his hand away from the purse and looked behind. Parvati was heading towards him and Ginny, a harried look on her face. Harry gulped. He had almost kissed Ginny and Parvati had seen them.
Ginny had gone very red. “Listen, Parvati”” she spluttered hopelessly. There was no explanation, anyway… they had been caught.
“Oh, those two,” Parvati said, frowning, “Hermione is not supposed to overexert herself!”
Ginny raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Apparently, Parvati had not really noticed her and Harry. Promising herself that she would remain two feet away from Harry at all times from now on, Ginny let out a sigh of relief.
“I know,” Parvati said, taking Ginny’s sigh for an expression of exasperation. “Hermione has become too suspicious these days. I think I should go in now.” Ginny followed her in. Hermione and Ron were looking at each other angrily. Parvati shook her head. “Hermione, we were there with Rebecca and Ron during breakfast. He was sitting here beside you when he was finally let in. He only came up for breakfast… why are you getting angry?”
Hermione frowned. “Parvati, I wouldn’t get angry if he weren’t so obsessed with Rebecca.”
“He is just friends with her, Hermione. Like Chris and Rebecca are friends, Ron and Rebecca are friends, too.”
“That’s just what you think,” Hermione huffed, as Ron sat on a stool, looking upset. Parvati shook her head and gave Hermione her potions. Hermione was being way too stubborn.
***
Ron lay down on his bed. Hermione was finally discharged and he was happy, but also utterly tired. He was tired of being suspected by Hermione. Why the hell was that woman so emotional and suspicious? He had done nothing, nothing at all! Hell, why was he being penalised for talking to Rebecca?
Ron felt very angry, now, and he turned around, punching his pillow into an appropriate shape. Tonight, he didn’t have to take care of the children either, because Ginny had agreed on babysitting them until things were calmer between Ron and Hermione. Just then, Ron heard a tap at the window. Someone had sent an owl.
Yawning, Ron stood up and walked to the window, opening it. A large owl flew in and stuck out its leg at him. He untied the scroll attached to the bird’s leg and it took off, leaving him to stare at the delivery for a few moments. It was from the Ministry of Magic, addressed to Hermione. But why had the owl delivered the letter to him, then? Shouldn’t it have gone to Ginny’s room? Anyway… what was the trouble in accepting the letter?
But why was Hermione being contacted by the Ministry? Something was wrong…
Ron began to open the letter. Was it ethical? No… but he did deserve to know if Hermione was involved in legal issues. He was her husband, after all.
Ron broke open the seal of the envelope and removed a letter.
Dear Mrs Weasley,
This is to inform you that we will be requiring a few documents before we can file your divorce petition. Please report at our office tomorrow”
Ron threw the letter, feeling sick. Divorce? Why? What had gone so wrong? Finally, he stood up, extracted the letter and resealed it. If Hermione wanted divorce… Maybe they could reconcile? But how? Hermione was refusing to even face him these days.
Ron got out of his room and saw Ginny walk down the stairs. “Ginny?”
She looked at him and came to his room. “What happened?”
He gave her the scroll. “Just give this to Hermione.”
She cast him a long, calculating look. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes,” he lied. “She” she just received this… so I thought I’d give it.”
Ginny nodded and patted him on the shoulder before leaving. Ron shut the door immediately and fell down on his bed again; helplessness and pain filled him just like Hermione’s poison.
Killer Instincts by Ginny Weasley Potter
Chapter Notes: Hello readers! Here's chapter fourteen... I hope you'll enjoy it.
Once again, all the credit for making this fit to read goes to my darling Beta, Pauie *hugs*. :)
Please don't forget to review, guys, they really make me happy. I just need to know why the chapter was nice/ not so nice. :)
This one is dedicated to my dear friend, who almost shares her name with Naina. :D
Chapter Endnotes:
Just as a matter of interest: can anyone guess what Chris has really done to Daisy? And any suspects for the murderer? I'd like to know, honeys... :D