The Dragon, The Sorcerer and The Witch Out of Time

CHAPTER TEN

Page count: 9

It was sometime later when Hermione had finished administering the 'antidotes' to Arthur. Whilst Gaius' cures had been remedies and such, Hermione had fed Arthur as many anti-poison potions as she dared to, not wanting to overdose him but wanting to give him enough to give him the best chance of survival.

It didn't take long for her to see the results either. Although he didn't wake and his skin didn't lose the sickly pale colouring, his temperature dropped lower than it had yet, his heart rate picked up and his breathing cleared a little more, too.

"Well, that is surprising," Gaius commented in disbelief, apparently not having expected it to work.

"You need to have more faith, Gaius," Hermione said softly, brushing Arthur's damp fallen hair away from his forehead. "No matter how dire the situation may be, I have come to understand there is always hope to be had. I believe in Arthur and that he will fight through this. And I believe in Merlin and that he will find a cure. They are both remarkable people and are destined for great things."

Gaius' mouth pulled in a thin line and he clasped his hands in front of him.

"What do you know?" He asked suspiciously.

"What do you know?" Hermione echoed, briefly looking at him with a raised eyebrow before turning her attention back to Arthur, her mouth twitching in amusement when he grumbled beneath his breath in annoyance.

Hermione pulled back from Arthur and tried to remove her hand from his but his fingers flexed once more whilst the rest of him remained still and unconscious. For an almost dead guy, he was really strong.

Hermione sighed. "Gaius, would you mind fetching some water, please? I would do it myself but Arthur doesn't seem to want to release my hand."

"And you'll get caught," he added.

"Oh, I'd forgotten about that. That, too, I suppose."

"You'd forgotten that you may very well be executed for breaking into the castle and the Prince's bedchamber?"

"Hmmm, my life is not of concern. I'm here for Arthur; my focus should be on him, not my safety."

"Ah, now it all makes sense," he replied, sounding amused.

Hermione lifted her head to question him on his comment but he'd already left the room.

~000~000~000~

Gaius had been gone far longer than she'd expected him to be and although she could easily enough conjure whatever amounts of water she needed, she didn't want to do so and have Gaius questioning where she'd gotten the water from when he did return.

It had been almost an hour since he'd left and she was considering going in search of him, her safety be damned, that was if Arthur would finally release his tight grip on his hand.

Sighing to herself, she felt his forehead to find that his temperature was once again rising and after a quick scan, his breathing and heart rate were slowing back down. The concoction of antidotes and cures they'd given him had worn off and he no longer had anything to fight off the poison in his body. She just hoped Merlin found something and quickly as Hermione didn't think Arthur would make it through the night.

She conjured a small amount of water to wet the cloth before hiding her wand and dabbing and swiping the damp cloth across his face, forehead and chest. The door suddenly burst open and she startled, letting out a squeak of surprise and she turned to the door, sighing in relief when she saw it was only Gaius, but he carried a silver goblet in his hand, a wide-eyed hopeful look on his face.