SUPRA VIRES

CHAPTER SEVEN: IN THE HOSPITAL WING

6th year

It was so warm and soft. She hadn't felt this good in a long time. She hadn't had such a light sleep in a long time. For several months, she had been plagued by terrible nightmares that replayed the scene of Draco Malfoy's death.

Hermione wasn't one to accept with calmness the fact that she might have killed someone. Just as she didn't support the generation of anorexics, bulimics and people considered losers in their own eyes, she didn't support the generation of murderers, cowards and Death Eaters.

And as she lay there in the warm bed, it occurred to her that everything she had been avoiding all her life had now suddenly become a part of her and concerned herself. She ate less and less, and if she did eat something, she had to return it immediately, because it seemed to her that she had eaten some part of a human body. In her own eyes, she lost when she killed Draco. She was a murderer because of the act she committed, and a coward because she couldn't admit to the crime. Finally, she came to the conclusion that she had behaved like a true Death Eater and again she felt like she was going to throw up any minute, so she stopped thinking. She slowly opened her eyes.

She was lying in the hospital wing on one of the beds. They must have moved her here right after she fainted on the grounds. She looked around and noticed her friends whispering quietly under the window. Unfortunately, she couldn't hear what they were talking about.

"She's awake," said Ginny, who was the first to notice her awakening.

"How do you feel?" Harry asked as he approached the bed, as did Ron and Ginny.

"You slept half the day, we were starting to worry," muttered Ginny hysterically.

"Oh, let her say something," said Ron, glancing at the scared Hermione. "And don't lean in like that, she needs oxygen."

Hermione smiled at her friends' faces. She felt a huge lump in her throat that prevented her from saying anything. She was grateful that her friends supported her in he most difficult moments, but she felt like she didn't deserve it.

"You didn't need to stay here for so long... But thank you, you're great," she finally stammered.

She felt weak. She raised her hand to her forehead and brushed away the hair that was sticky from her sweat. Ginny opened her mouth. She wasn't sure if she should ask Hermione anything in this state, but she wanted to take the risk. After all, she had to be sure what caused her to faint.

"Hermione," she began after a while, a little uncertainly. "How did it happen that... you know... you..."

"You fainted," Harry helped the girl.

Ginny felt a sudden, overwhelming expression of sympathy for Potter.

He's so nice, she thought, stealing a glance at the boy. Harry was leaning over Hermione and checking if she had a fever.

I could get sick too if I had such care, the girl groaned inwardly, but immediately scolded herself. She remembered the promise she made to Ron two years ago after the Valentine's Day scandal (she swore she wouldn't bother Harry anymore) and she intended to keep it.

Hermione bit her lip hard. She didn't answer right away because she wasn't sure about it herself.

"I..." she finally said, frowning. "I'm having terrible hallucinations..."

"It's about Malfoy, isn't it?" Harry whispered in his friend's ear so that Ginny wouldn't hear.

Hermione became lost in thought again. She knew she should tell her friends how Malfoy had disappeared. This was the version given to students at the beginning of the year by the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore. Cornelius Fudge, in turn, as the Minister of Magic and a personal friend of Lucius Malfoy, felt obliged to find out the reasons for this unexplained disappearance. And what hurt the most Granger, he gave an ultimatum that if the boy was not found within the next month, Albus Dumbledore would be removed from the position of headmaster.

Pansy Parkinson also didn't return to school after the summer holidays. There was no official version of what happened to the girl yet, but some Slytherins spread rumors that the girl didn't return due to serious family problems. Some students said that she had run away with Draco Malfoy, but only a few were sure that the two's supposed elopement was a complete lie. Hermione didn't know what could have happened to Pansy, but she was sure of what had happened to Malfoy. And finally she had to admit it.

"Harry, no," she denied calmly, then stared at the sheets. "It's not about anyone, just me."

"What?" Ginny suddenly asked, sitting on her friend's bed. Harry and Ron exchanged suggestive glances, after all they had promised each other that they would help Hermione keep her secret.

"It's just that I haven't been doing so well lately," she explained, biting her lip. "This is about everything that happened last year."

"That's when you started acting abnormal," Ron pointed out. "I remember exactly that year, about a month after the Quidditch match. That's when you started going crazy..."

Ginny and Harry looked at the boy reproachfully. Hermione, however, didn't blame her friend for calling her crazy. At least she knew what he thought of her. He probably said what they were all thinking.

"It's not like that," began Ginny, looking at her friend's gloomy face.

"Exactly," Harry said quickly. "We don't think you've lost your mind, we just want to help you but don't know how."

"I can't be helped," she muttered quietly. The more they talked, the more she wanted to ask them to leave. Everything bothered her. The fact that the door to the hospital room was ajar (someone could overhear it), the fact that Madam Pomfrey had just entered (she's probably spying on her), the fact that an owl flew into the room without bringing anything (maybe it was an Animagus?), that Madam Pomfrey left after a while (why didn't she tell them not to disturb the patient?), and finally, Ron was breathing too loudly (did he have problems with his nose?).

"I killed him," she finally said, breathlessly, before Harry or Ron could put a hand over her mouth. "I killed Draco," she repeated louder so that her friends could hear her.