New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|42| Chapter Forty-Two

F O R T Y  T W O 

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Why Saffron woke up in the hospital wing instead of in the Grey, she didn't know, but what she did know was that she was safe and her secret was safe when she saw that her three siblings and Hermione were crowded around her hospital bed, a scenario that had played out way too many times for any of their comfort. Saffron's siblings were able to seamlessly go to the Grey but not Saffron, she almost always had a dramatic event happen to get her there. 

As Saffron blinked, trying to get back to her normal self, amidst the four people around her talking, she tried to work out what Professor Moody was trying to do to her? Was he so convinced that she was hiding something and wanted to know if she was? Did he already know she was a Clairvoyant and wanted confirmation? Was he bluffing all together? That was probably a question that only he could answer and Saffron so desperately craved what that answer was. She didn't have any more time to think about it, however, as Rachel noticed she was awake. 

"She's awake," Rachel proclaimed to the others and Saffron watched as all of their eyes rested on Saffron, all looking somewhat relieved to see that she was awake. "Before you ask, you've only been out for two hours. Harry and Ron came and told us what happened in Defence, so that's how we're here,"

"That wasn't the question I had," said Saffron hoarsely. Her throat was usually painful when she woke up from the Grey. She went to sit up in her hospital bed and got help from Maya and Hermione to do so. "I wanted to know who found me,"

"Oh, I did," Hermione informed Saffron with a small smile. "I wasn't going to let you run off by yourself, was I? No, I went after you but you were already out cold by the time I found you. Professor Moody had already come out to see if you were okay so he helped--- wait, what's the matter?" Hermione noticed Saffron let out a small groan.

"Professor Moody is the reason I'm here," Saffron spluttered frustratedly. She would have continued to talk but Hermione said:

"Of course he is, he's the one who put the Imperius Curse on you,"

"No, you don't understand," Saffron shook her head. "He's the reason I collapsed. He tried to get me to tell him our secret, he told me to walk over to him and whisper it into his ear,"

"So that's why you walked over to him?" Hermione had her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as to why Moody would do such a thing. "I thought that was strange, he got everyone else to do very ridiculous trivial things but yours wasn't like that at all,"

"When did you go to the Grey then?" Maya enquired.

"Technically, when I left the classroom, but no one was there to see me, I don't even remember anything except collapsing. This is the first thing I've seen since then," Saffron began to explain. "But after I heard Moody while under the curse, right before I was about to tell him everything, I heard... I heard our mother..."

The four looks on the four faces around Saffron weren't shocked as it made sense given the context of the predicament. But there was certainly surprise as something like this hadn't happened to any of them before. The Grey had protected them all in many ways before, whether they realised it or not, but this was certainly up there as a unique example. As this was the first time the Grey had saved one of them from harm that wasn't physical harm, that could have ended up seeing them die, like when Saffron was crushed in the Chamber of Secrets. This was different.

"What did she say?" Rowan asked Saffron, gripping the side of her bed nervously.

"No," Saffron answered simply. "She said no, no to what I was about to do and then I felt it go through me, what I felt when I stopped Peter at the end of last year. I couldn't control it, it--it forced me to the ground and--" She cast a look at Hermione. "I think it forced everyone to the ground,"