Chapter 2
The weekend Hermione and Ron spent together was indeed spent doing all of Hermione’s favorite things. Friday night after they left the flat they went straight to the Burrow and allowed themselves to be celebrated by the entirety of the Weasley family. They ate an immaculate dinner cooked by Mrs. Weasley and the boys ended the night with a quidditch scrimmage, while the girls looked on and drank their butterbeer.
“I’m so glad I get to add you both to our family,” Mrs. Weasley had said to Hermione while gazing at Harry on the quidditch pitch.
“We’ve always felt like family, now it’s just going to be official,” Ginny replied from Mrs. Weasley’s other side. Hermione smiled into her butterbeer contentedly and watched Ron make a fairly impressive save, considering they were using the boys’ old brooms from their childhood.
On Saturday her and Ron went to all of her favorite book stores, both muggle and magical. They stopped in to see her parents and give them the news of their engagement. The couple preferred to do this in person because even though Mr. & Mrs. Granger were used to owl post when Hermione was at home, it still generally shocked them every time an owl flew into their house unannounced.
They stayed overnight at Ron’s brother Bill's house, Shell Cottage, where he lived with his wife, Fleur. The older, married couple had lent them the house for the night. The view of the stars there was so incredible that Hermione insisted they sleep outside on the beach, with a couple of barrier and privacy wards of course. Ron did indeed end up following through with some of his suggestive paper airplane comments, and by dawn the pair were finally cuddling up together to fall asleep listening to the sound of the crashing ocean waves.
On Sunday Ron tried to make Hermione breakfast but it somehow ended up being inedible so they went to one of Hermione’s favorite muggle diners. Ron had never been to a greasy spoon like this before and he was enthralled with the endless options; he ended up ordering one of everything to try.
Later that afternoon Ron tagged along as Hermione brought him to all of her favorite ingredient harvesting spots. He helped her in silence as she worked, tying bundles of plants together or jarring other more hazardous substances. He admired her knowledge and the way she could focus so wholly on the task at hand. They left to return to their flat with a bag loaded with potions ingredients, all packed and labeled with Ron’s handwriting.
It really was endearing, how much Ron had tried to cram into this weekend to make Hermione happy. No one had ever done anything like this for her before and she had thoroughly enjoyed being the center of Ron’s attention.
By Monday morning when Hermione returned to the castle she was in a very good mood indeed. She walked up to the hospital wing with her satchel full of new, fresh ingredients, excited to settle in and get brewing for the day.
“Ah, you’re here a bit earlier than I anticipated!” Poppy called from her office as Hermione entered the infirmary. “I hope you still have some interesting stories about your weekend to perk up this old woman’s day!”
Hermione laughed and ignored the suggestion, holding up her bag to show Pomfrey her score from the weekend.
“Really darling, an engagement weekend and you go foraging for potions supplies… I also know you are aware we could just purchase most of these ingredients.” Poppy rolls her eyes and accepts the bag from Hermione’s extended hand.
“I am aware of that but why should the school spend more money when I can go get them for free, and probably better quality if we’re being honest. I also know you couldn’t possibly resist fresh ingredients. I found an entirely new patch of dittany, although grove might actually be a better word. I don’t think we’ll run out for a long time now, especially if I keep going back to freshen the patch up.” Hermione explains as she watches the Matron take everything out of the bag.
“Darling, need I remind you we also have greenhouses on the school grounds or did you forget about your seven years of classes there?” Poppy replied sarcastically.
“I would never dream of taking a learning opportunity out of a students hands, they should be learning how to prepare all of this stuff on their own as well,” Hermione countered with an over exaggerated eye roll. “Besides, you know I like my fresh air,” she added as an afterthought.
Once the satchel is emptied of all its goods, the pair begin to sort out ingredients for the potions they need. They work in companionable silence, already anticipating what the other might need in only the week they’ve been working together. They start a couple of batches of wiggenweld potion, a general and frequently used potion in healing basic injuries. They start another batch each of blood replenishing potion, calming draught, and dreamless sleep potion. Any leftover ingredients are prepped and stored for next time, and surprisingly they finish everything before the first student comes in.
The mood shifts suddenly when the door bangs open and Ron hurries in carrying a small boy with tears streaming down his face.
“Quick! I think his wrist is broken!” Ron exclaims as he places the boy down on the bed.
Hermione rushes over and pulls out her wand to perform a diagnostic charm on the boy's arm.
“What’s your name sweetheart?” She asks him calmly as she examines the images before her eyes.
“Holden Krupp,” the boy says tearfully. “I fell off my broom,” he adds pitfully.
“I swear I don’t know what’s wrong with these bloody brooms. It’s almost the exact same thing that happened to Neville our first year!” Ron said as he paced angrily across the hospital ward.
“It’s okay, it’s really a simple fix. Here take a calming draught and I’ll fix your arm right up. You’ll be back on a broom in no time.” Hermione summons a vial from across the room and hands it to Holden. He drains it in one gulp and visually relaxes instantly. “Brachio emendum” she whispers as she points her wand at the young boy’s arm. A faint whooshing sound and a glow of light, and the arm is good as new.
“Thanks ma’am!” Holden exclaimed, holding his arm up and flexing his hand. “Although I’m not sure I really want to get back on a broom soon.”
“Don’t worry about that Krupp, you have an excellent teacher here who I’m sure is going to go double and triple check the remaining brooms for any defects,” Hermione said with a very obvious, pointed look at Ron.
“Oh bloody hel… I mean, of course I am Madam Granger. I assume with your impeccable knowledge you will also be willing to help me ensure the safety of all our students.” Ron responds with an equally pointed look.
“Okay Mr. Krupp, you are free to go now. Go easy on that arm for a day or two.” Madam Pomfrey interrupts the conversation with a smirk at both participants. She walks Holden to the door and then disappears into her office with another glance at Ron and Hermione.
“I’m sorry ‘Mione, I freaked out a bit when he fell. It’s like I forgot every spell I knew. Those bloody brooms, they’re ancient. I really would like your help making sure they’re all safe before I have another problem in class.” Ron wrung his hands while he spoke, and then reached out to touch Hermione’s cheek. “Thanks for fixing him so quickly,” he added.
“Well it is my job Ronald,” Hermione said with a grin. “Of course I’ll come check the brooms out with you. I have a couple of potions to finish up and bottle and then I can meet you down there.”
Ron gave Hermione a swift kiss and a wink, and left the hospital wing.
But of course it was never as simple as bottling just a few more potions. The students being back in class meant frequent visitors to the hospital wing. Shortly after Ron left, a pair of students came in who had somehow managed to switch their noses. She swapped the noses back fairly quickly but was having some trouble getting the skin colors to match again and had to consult Poppy. By the time she was done with that, several of her potions had over brewed and she spent several hours correcting them rather than wasting the ingredients.
She arrived back to the flat later that night to find a sour-faced Ron sitting in front of the fireplace. He glanced at her quickly then turned away and asked, “So how did those brooms look?”
Hermione slapped her hand to her forehead. “Oh shoot Ron, I’m so sorry. Those two third year troublemakers managed to swap their noses and then I nearly ruined all of my potions so I had to fix them all or else all the time we spent gathering those ingredients would’ve been wasted.”
Ron sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. “It’s okay ‘Mione, I know you’re busy. I just don’t want you to overwork yourself either. Or forget about lil ole me,” he added with a silly grin. He stood up and took her into his arms, “let’s just get some sleep.”
The following days and weeks passed much the same. Brew potions, collect ingredients, heal students. Usually the healing was never anything dangerous or life threatening, and more often than not it ended up being something fairly amusing. She lost count of the amount of eyebrows she had to regrow, or shave down, or change back to the correct color. There were a few notable cases, such as the fourth year girl who had come in looking like she was halfway through the transformation into a cat. After Hermione questioned her for ten minutes and got no answers, she had to assume the best case scenario was a mis-brewed polyjuice potion made with cat hair instead of human hair. Silly kids, you had to be so careful with these things.
The thing she didn’t anticipate, which she really couldn’t control but still bothered her, was how much time she was not getting to spend with Ron. She thought that them coming here together, getting engaged, working alongside each other, would only strengthen their relationship. It seemed to be doing the exact opposite. Her hours were demanding and Madam Pomfrey had a lot to teach her before she felt comfortable retiring for good. Oftentimes Ron was asleep before Hermione even got back to the flat, and she ended up eating dinner alone, reading a book by the candlelight.
Halfway through October she received a pleasant surprise. She came back to the flat late one night to find a package from her mom. She lit her wand and opened it to find a box of books. The box was labeled “J.Mackenzie”. The name didn’t ring any bells, they weren’t related to any Mackenzies as far as she knew. On top of the box of books was a note from Hermione’s mother,
Hello Dear,
I was at an estate sale and I found this box of old medical text books. I know your magical healing is much different, but you always craved knowledge in any form so I thought you would appreciate them. I threw in a couple of old family pictures, just to make your new flat feel like a home.
Love you, Mum
Hermione rifled through the box and found a number of muggle medical textbooks dating back to the 1960s and some even earlier. There were a handful of framed muggle photographs of her and her parents, one of her and her childhood dog, and a couple of her and some old friends she hadn’t thought about in over a decade. At the very bottom of the box she found what appeared to be a journal. It seemed to be very old, and very delicate. She flipped it over and on the back saw the faint etching of a name. “C. Fraser,” she mumbled under her breath. She gently opened the journal and found extremely well drawn depictions of muggle surgeries. Someone had clearly gone through great trouble to hand draw and write down every single step of each surgery, especially with how old this journal seemed to be. Hermione continued to flip through the journal until the pictures ended and she found only empty pages.
Something compelled Hermione to check every page though, and right at the very end she saw some quickly scrawled notes. They didn’t seem to have anything to do with medicine though. “To travel: stones necessary, human sacrifice? Easier on the observed holidays: samhain, beltane, others?” Hermione read aloud to herself. It didn’t make any sense to her, but she was very intrigued by this C. Fraser person so she tucked the journal onto the bookshelf for safe keeping. Ron was already asleep, of course, so Hermione ate a quick bowl of stew and went to sleep herself.