Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Waking up	By : Pegasus Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female Views: 2782 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter characters. I gain nothing from publishing this, no money, no fame, no fortunes.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Chapter 11
It took time. A long time. Every single tumor and every little mutated cell had to be located, the nature and extent of the mutation had to be diagnosed and recorded. After about four hours they felt they had found them all. Hermione Weasley left the examination room to find the potions master. What a coincidence that she should meet him here. He was the secret star of the British potions scene, but nobody had ever seen his face or even spoken to him. All exchange was conducted by owl order. Nobody had questioned it because the quality of his products was always outstanding. And outstanding is this case really meant outstanding. Even in years when others had trouble finding high quality ingredients due to weather conditions or other unchangeable reasons, his potions still exceeded all other. Nobody could explain it but after all these years people had just come to accept it. And the other potions masters of Britain had come to terms with the fact that every year the potioneers guild award for Britain's best potioneer was won by a man that never showed up at the ceremonies and never published any of his secrets in the guild's own magazine. How strange it was then that he had left the healing of his wife so long. The cancer had spread and she was deteriorating rapidly. She wasn’t quite sure whether they could still help her. She would employ her husband's potions since this was such an urgent case. Now she had to find him and prepare him for what was to come. Such conversations were never easy. Already in her training days she had found dealing with the relatives the most difficult part of the job. But it could not be helped.
She saw him at the back of the corridor sitting on a chair with a magazine held up in front his face. As she was approaching him somebody called out her name from behind.
“‘Mione!” Ron and Harry. She wondered briefly who of the two had gotten hurt this time and had had to be healed.
“Hello, what are you doing here? Hope you didn’t end up in the creature's department again?”
“No! Hey, Love.” He gave her quick peck on the cheek. His usual way to greet her, in any and all situations, even when she was mad at him. And it always made her smile.
“No, we were just delivering an uncooperative suspect that has to be patched up again and while we’re waiting we thought you might like to take us boys out for lunch.”
He said with his big boyish grin.
“Sorry Ron, but I have a case that can’t wait.” She could see he was slightly disappointed. They hadn’t seen much of each other lately what with her shifts at the hospital and his shifts in the aurors department.
Her assistant just joined them.
“Healer Granger, the room you requested is ready now, do you want me to take the patient in there?”
“Yes please, and prepare everything for the first round of treatment, just as we discussed.”
“Yes Healer Granger.”
Ron looked after her with a frown.
“Why do you still make them call you Granger? I just don’t get it. We’ve been married for 14 years and you still have them call you Granger.”
“Ron, we’ve had this discussion before. I just want this one rea of my life where I am not just your wife and Rose’s mother but my own person. Is it really such a big deal?”
He knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere so he just left it at that.
“Right, I guess I’ll see you at home tonight then?”
“Yes.” Now it was her turn to peck him on the cheek to make him smile.
She turned to her patients husband to address him and saw he had pulled the magazine even higher. As if Ron or Harry would ever recognise a famous potions master!
“Mr. Ashworth?”
“Yes.” The answer came from behind the magazine. Witch weekly. She couldn’t imagine it was his usual past time.
“Ashworth? As in Sam Ashworth?”
Harry came forward from behind Ron. So he did know the name? Surprising since his usual areas of interest were charms, defence and quiddich.
“Yes, actually, Sir, would you mind meeting my husband and our friend Harry Potter?”
She was convinced he would be delighted. Everybody was delighted to meet “the boy who lived twice”. But Mr Ashworth seemed rather reluctant to even lower his magazine.
“If I must.”
There was something very familiar about his way of showing his annoyance. But Hermione couldn’t quite place it.
He put aside the magazine and stood but didn’t look straight at them.
“Mr. Ashworth, this is Harry Potter and my husband Ronald Weasley.”
He shook hands with them but didn’t say a word. And he didn’t have to since Harry took over to end the seconds of uncomfortable silence.
“Yes, wow, erhmmm I have heard so much about you.”
Hermione couldn’t quite believe that.
“You have? I didn’t have you down as a potioneer, Harry.”
“What? Oh, why? Have you forgotten? I won the felix by making the best potion.” He said grinning at her broadly, knowing it still irked her that he had won Slughorn's little competition in their sixth year.
And he received the appropriate response.
“That was only because you had Prof Snape's old potions book and cheated with it, as you know very well.”
There was a slight movement in the corner of her eyes and as she turned Mr. Ashworth had slightly turned to the side and had a rather sickly pale complexion.
“Are you alright, Mr. Ashworth? You look a bit pale?”
“Yes...yes… fine. I just… ahhh… had no food since last night. No time to loose you see.”
“Oh yes of course.”
“Hey, why don’t you join us for lunch?”
Harry chimed in.
“Yes, that’s a fabulous idea! And by the time you are back we will have prepared your wife for the treatment and you can sit through it with her.”
He looked positively alarmed at that proposition.
“No, no, thanks. That won’t be necessary at all. And I would rather stay with my wife.”
“What good will you be to your wife if you faint from exhaustion. You should…”
“No, thank you. I would appreciate if you could take me to my wife know and inform me about the treatment you have planned for her.”
His quiet and a little raspy voice had taken on a steely and determined edge that surprised Hermione. It also didn’t go unnoticed by Harry. He looked at the man with a curious mix of interest and suspicion. Hermione knew she would be asked a lot of questions about Mr. Ashworth when the opportunity arose.
“Of course, I do apologize. I’m sure you must be very worried for your wife. I will take you to see her straight away.”
She turned to Ron and kissed him chastely.
“Bye Boys, have a nice lunch. And Ron, don’t forget to pick Rose up from your parents house!”
“I won’t forget” he said a little annoyed and turned to Harry he added “Just because I forgot her once.”
They left Hermione with Ashworth, who had more interest in his reflection in the wards window then in their departure.
Hermione guided him to his wife’s room.
She was already there when they entered and he rushed to her side when he saw how small and frail she looked in hospital bed.
“Sophie? Sophie?”
“She won’t hear you. We have given her a mild sedative in preparation for her treatment.”
“What will her treatment comprise of?”
“We will in a first step mark the tumors with a spell and then give her a potion that will attack the affected tissue. We will keep her sedated for the entire time. In a next step the parts that were destroyed will have to be re-grown. That will be a very painful process which might also affect her psych. But we will only know that for sure once she is awake again.”
“How serious could these effects be?”
“As I said, we can’t be sure. It could happen, that she shows no effects at all…”
“But what would they be if she does?” he was growing impatient. She hadn’t wanted to worry him, but she had to inform him on possible side effects of the treatment.
“Well, it is a traumatic process and the sedatives will only be able to keep so much from her. She will be going through an immense amount of reconstruction with all the tumors we have located. That will be extremely painful. The individual resilience of a person and there former experience with pain will determine how well their mind is able to cope with such a treatment. When she wakes up, she will most likely not consciously remember the pain, but the mind will remember. It could lead to nightmares, sleeplessness, headaches, phantom pain in the back. It could also show psychological effects such as panic attacks, in extreme cases hallucinations and schizophrenia. But that is extremely rare and as I said, it’s possible she won’t show any signs at all.”
She could see in his face that he didn’t believe her.
“In my experience pain is always leaves an effect on mind and body.”
That was an ominous statement. What would a potions master know about pain of this scale? Maybe there was more to him than met the eye. If Harry asked her questions about him she would have to make sure she would find out what he had researched in the ministry about him.
He turned away from her and conjured a chair which he placed next to her bed on the far side of it. He sat down with his back to the window and facing the door. But he would not look at her any more, he just gently took her hand to hold it.
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Waking up