There's More To You Than You Let On

Chapter 22: St. Mongos

It's been two weeks and Hermione still hasn't acted on her decision. She barely ever talks. She doesn't raise her hand in class and she sits at the back, if she decides to show up. She spends most of the time in her common room. She does, however, eat regular and still has her check ups with Madame Pomfrey everyday about the baby. He's healthy and growing much bigger. Hermione was a little worried that he was growing to much for only 3 months but Madame Pomfrey said it was perfectly normal.

Today she had her St. Mongos appointment about her dreams. She hadn't gotten any sleep the past few weeks due to them. Ginny and Luna tried to stay with her to make sure she would be okay. Sadly, she wasn't. Every night she'd try to stay up and distract herself with studying but every time she fell asleep she'd shoot back up crying only a few moments later. The dreams were the same, though she never told anyone what they were about. Ginny grew more worried about her by the second. The bags under Hermione's eyes grew darker and her skin paler. Ginny noticed her slouching a lot and she'd always used to think Hermione had the perfect posture.

When Ginny and Luna woke up on Hermione's bed, she was nowhere in sight. They got up and walked into the bathroom to see it full of steam, which meant Hermione had taken a shower. The door to Draco's room was cracked open. Ginny and Luna got excited to the thought of her in there cause it meant there was a sign of hope she'd choose Draco (not that they were biased or anything). Ginny pushed the door open more and peered her head in. She saw Hermione sitting on Draco's green, silk sheeted bed reading a note with an owl on her shoulder. Tears stung Hermione's eyes as she read. "Hey 'Mione, what's wrong?" Ginny asked carefully as she walked farther in.

"Nothing," Hermione sniffed. "I heard something in the room when I was in the bathroom and came in to see that it was. There was an owl at the window with a letter addressed to me. I just sat down and read it, I knew I probably should've left the room I just..." she shrugged and wiped her eyes. "Well I best start to leave for St. Mongos." She started to get out of the bed but in the process she knocked the pillow over, along with whatever was hidden under it. Papers flew everywhere and Ginny and Luna went to help her pick them up. Hermione got down on her knees and lifted the pillow to put back on the bed and saw Draco's sketchbook sitting under it. She put the pillow on the bed and started to pick up the other papers before opening the cover to slide the papers inside. When she opened it she stopped completely, her body, her breathing, her blinking, everything. She put the papers down next to her and took out the one sitting in the book. She traced her finger down the paper and sniffed a little. It was picture Draco had drawn by the lake on her birthday. It was her reading in the rising sun light. She admired how well Draco drew and realized why it had taken him all morning.

"Mione? Are you ok?" Ginny asked. She gave a small nod and put the rest of the papers away before tucking the sketchbook back under the pillow. She walked over to the window and let the owl leave before walking out of the room. She grabbed her books so she could study at St. Mongos and put them in her bag. She walked down to the hospital wing to have her daily check up with Madame Pomfrey before heading to have a quick breakfast with Luna and Ginny.

-

"Look at her," Pansy mumbled sympathetically to her friends at the Slytherin table. "She looks awful."

"Well yeah, she hasn't slept in weeks," Blaise said.

"Hopefully she'll get sleep tonight," Astoria said. "Draco told me today is her St. Mongos appointment."

"Why doesn't he come down for breakfast?" Pansy asked. "I saw him in the common room and he always comes down for lunch and dinner."

"He won't tell me," Astoria said.

"It's because Hermione only ever comes down for breakfast," Theo said. "He can't bare to see her. Not after she ran away from him two weeks ago."

"She didn't run away from him. She just didn't run towards him," Blaise corrected.