Legilimens [Dramione]

Incident

Hermione had a headache. She could feel her brain pulsing against her skull, causing continuous bursts of pain. She brought her hands to her temples even before she opened her eyes. When she finally did, she had to blink several times to get used to the darkness surrounding her.

There was a ringing in her ears, and as she tried to stand up she was overcome by a strong sense of vertigo. She stopped, taking deep breaths. Then she tried again, more slowly this time.

She placed her hands on the mattress beneath her. The room had no particular smell, but that scent of disinfectant and medicine was unpleasantly familiar.

When her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, she began to look around. She vaguely recognised this place. The clean smell emanating from the cold sheets, the thin mattress, the oversized pillows.

This sure wasn't her bedroom.

Yet, although she thought she recognised where she was, there was too much silence all around her.

After sitting up in bed, she waited a few seconds for her head to stop spinning. A moan from her stomach made her wonder what time it was and how long it had been since she had eaten. Slowly, she slid one leg after the other over the edge of the bed. As soon as one of her feet touched the cold floor, the bedroom door swung open.

She blinked at the light coming in from the corridor as a nurse walked towards her. She wore the typical uniform of St. Mungo's employees, yet Hermione had never seen her before in the countless times she had been here.

She approached her bed with a smile on her face and a folder in her hand. Despite the headache, the ringing in her ears and her eyes struggling to adjust to the light, Hermione looked for the card on the woman's chest, where her name should have read.

There wasn't any.

"Don't get up," the woman said, approaching the bed. Gently she grasped Hermione's feet, placing them back on the mattress. Then she adjusted the pillow behind her. Hermione did not protest: she felt far too tired and even keeping her eyes open was an effort. She wished she could just close them and rest, but she couldn't do that, something... something was wrong.

"Where-" she swallowed, "Where am I?"

"Don't you remember?" The woman backed away from the bed. "You had a seizure, they brought you here in urgent care."

"Wh-what?"

"You attacked one of your colleagues at work this morning, Miss Granger."

A twinge of pain in her head prevented Hermione from answering, then she felt bile rise up her throat. She threw-up on the floor as the bare room all around her continued to spin.

The woman, still with her gentle touch, reached up to hold her hair. "Now you are upset, Miss Granger. Your magic played a nasty trick on you, you were in terrible conditions when we found you".

"N-not" she tried to fight back the gasps. "That's not what happened" her throat burned and her stomach kept turning in on itself.

"Don't worry, we'll figure out what's wrong with you. Just rest now."

Hermione didn't have the strength to object to those gentle hands resting her head against the pillow and the heaviness of her own eyelids, but her mouth was dry.

"Here, drink."

When she felt the rim of a glass against her lips, she did not resist, letting the cool water caress her throat and bring relief.

And then her exhausted mind and body surrendered to the darkness, which enveloped her again.

When she woke up again, the headache was less insistent. She deduced from the light she saw beyond her closed eyelids that it was now well into the day, wherever she was. She waited a few seconds before opening her eyes, taking deep breaths.