Love is a Dagger to Destroy: A Dramione Story

Chapter Twenty-Two

Hermione's POV

Draco had fallen asleep with his head resting on my bed by the time Harry woke up.

Harry let out a groan and slowly started to sit up, his hand moving to clutch at his head. 

"Don't move," I warned. Harry stopped and opened his eyes all the way.

"Hermione. What's going on?"

"You tell me. The Fat Lady found you unconscious outside the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. No one saw what happened."

Harry furrowed his brow, obvious searching for his memories for what happened. "I don't remember." Suddenly, his eyes shot up to meet mine. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Harry. It was just exhaustion. I should be good to go soon. How about you? How do you feel?"

"Got a headache, but that's what usually happens when you're stunned."

"Yeah." Harry's gaze fell on Draco sleeping.

"Wow, he looks horrible. He should really get some sleep."

"I know," I said softly. "It's probably been days since he last slept."

"We'll make him go back to his dorm when he wakes up," Harry promised. I gave him a smile.

"We'll see how well that works. He's almost as stubborn as you are. He also has the same 'saving people thing' you have."

Harry snorted, remembering the comment I made almost three years ago. 

"Oh wait! I almost forgot. You figured out Dumbledore's weird poem thing. What was it?"

"Hold on, I need the parchment." I looked around the foot of my bed and the sides, but didn't see it. "Where'd it go?"

"Here." The groggy voice of Draco caused both me and Harry to look over at him. He was sitting up, holding the parchment in his hand. He handed it to me and rubbed his eyes. 

"Nice to see you up," I said teasingly. Draco glared at me, though the effect was muted due to the fact that he was still half asleep.

"Finally woke up, eh, Potter?"

"Yep. No clue what happened or who knocked me out."

"Huh." Draco turned back to me. "What do you got?"

I looked at the sheet of parchment I took from Draco. "See these bolded words? They're anagrams." Draco and Harry looked at me blankly. "If you switch the letters around, they make another word. If you switch the letters of CHEAT, you get TEACH. If you switch the letters of SILENT, you get LISTEN, and so on and so forth. It's the same for all of them, except for PAIRS. There isn't a word that matches PAIRS."

The boys were still perplexed. "So, what does that mean?" Harry asked. "I mean, it doesn't make much sense."

"I think we are supposed to find the matching anagram to PAIRS. If we do that, we might have a lead."

Harry nodded.  "Then let's get to work."

Beatrix's POV

Doc calmed down the family and treated a few of them for shock. I stayed silent the entire time, watching him warily. He was obviously a wizard, so why was he pretending to be a muggle doctor? None of this made sense.

Once everyone had calmed down, Ella sent Joy, David, and Tyler to their rooms with Olivia. Blake was allowed to stay. Eddie had also arrived at some point and was filled in by Gary.

Doc sat in the only armchair available while the rest of us sat on couches. I sat between Eddie and Blake. No way was I sitting next to Gary.

Everyone settled into their seats and turned to Doc. Doc looked at me.