How to Inadvertently Make Hermione Granger Get Down on Her Knees

2

The fourth time Hermione got down on her knees in front of Draco Malfoy was due to an overwhelming feeling of massive, sincere gratitude.

She had been on holiday over Christmas and the days afterwards had also been remarkably quiet. It was New Year's Eve when her on-call alarm went off, jolting her out of a cosy dinner with her parents. She fumbled her vibrating wand out of her jacket pocket, gave both her mum and dad an apologetic kiss, sprinted out of the terraced house in Heathgate and disapparated in the front garden, only to dash to the fireplace in her and Ron's shared flat less than two seconds later.

As she stumbled out of the Floo fire and into the entrance hall of St Mungo's, a harried-looking Padma ran towards her. Her pink Children's Healer smock was covered in blood, and the sight of it made Hermione's heart skip a beat.

How, for the love of Merlin, could one of Padma's little patients have lost so much blood?

"What's wrong?" she called out loudly to bridge the remaining distance between them and hurried towards her colleague.

"It's Ron," Padma got straight to the point.

Hermione's blood froze in her veins. She quickened her steps as Padma skidded to a halt, only to immediately rush back in the opposite direction.

"That's the only reason I paged you," she began to explain as they hopped into one of the lifts. "I happened to be in A&E when he was admitted, but I haven't been able to get hold of the Weasleys or Harry and Ginny yet. Their Floos are locked."

"The whole family is with Bill and Fleur at Shell Cottage," Hermione replied, her voice cracking. "Holidays. Ron was the only one who didn't get time off."

Padma nodded gravely and pursed her lips.

"It did happen on duty," she continued. "I'm not going to lie to you, Hermione — it looks bad. His partner said they were ambushed. Ron was hit by a Sectumsempra and a necrosis curse. He wasn't conscious when he got here, he'd lost so much blood."

Needlessly, Padma gestured down at herself. Hermione felt sick.

"The necrosis curse is preventing his wounds from closing. Malfoy is already working on it, but I've never heard him swear so much before."

The lift came to a halt and the grilles rattled open.

Hermione's ears were ringing and her head was spinning. No matter how much she wanted to hex Ron into space some days, he was still one of her closest friends. The panic that bubbled up inside her was suffocating. She had to concentrate on every breath and therefore made her way to the treatment room as if in a trance.

Padma, who didn't seem to realize that she was on the verge of a mental breakdown, opened the door and pushed her rigorously into the room.

Incongruously, the first thought that flashed through Hermione's mind was: what a fucking mess.

Although it was the truth, she was promptly overwhelmed by her guilty conscience and tears welled up in her eyes.

Ron was barely recognizable. The characteristic cuts of the Sectumsempra, which they were unfortunately seeing more and more often in A&E these days as the curse had become increasingly popular since the war, marred not only his upper body but also his face. There was blood everywhere. On the rags that were presumably the rest of his Auror uniform, on the bed sheets and in puddles on the floor.

The fact that Ron was still breathing was probably only due to the Mediwitch standing next to the headboard of his bed, as she was pouring Blood-Replenishing Potions down his throat at minute intervals. And even those would lose their effect at some point.