Calling Dr. Granger

Calling Dr. Granger

Chapter 2

It all belongs to Rowling, except what you don’t recognize.

Hermione practically ran into the room and closed the door behind her. Then the tears came. She’d been an idiot, an absolute, certifiable idiot. She found a handkerchief and blotted the tears away. She didn’t know what she’d do now.

The eight-week rotation had flown by. She’d never been happier. Indeed, whenever a disturbed patient tried to ‘bother her’ it had been Withercrust to the rescue. She’d gotten used to the old, palsied Wizard with the halo of frizzy, white hair following her around like a pet dog. There was even an interesting story of how he’d become palsied due to his heroism while fighting against Grindelwald in Dumbledore’s unit of Wizards.

She had also fallen in love with Dr. Falco. How could she have not? He was so solicitous of her well-being. He’d introduced her to his grown son and to the teenaged niece that he was raising because she’d had been orphaned by a Death Eater attack as a child. He’d made her feel like he cared about her and was part of her family.

It was at the final rotation meeting that she’d confessed that she was in love with him. She hadn’t meant to say it—it had just come tumbling out when he’d asked her to stay on in his Department. He had immediately started humming and then buzzing and finally apologized to her. With a very sincere look of regret he asked her if she ever listened to hospital scuttlebutt. She said no.

“The mores the pity, I suppose Claudius is right. I need to start wearing pastel robes or using eye makeup.

“Claudius? As in Withercrust?”

“Yes, the love of my life, my significant other. We’ve been together for almost thirty years. Love at first sight, don’t you know?”

“Oh.”

“We danced a Tango at the Fourth floor Halloween party, you weren’t there?”

“I don’t care much for parties, so I left early.”

“Too bad, we shared a rose and he’s an excellent dipper. Oh, dear. I’ve tried so hard to make you feel welcome here. I’ve had you pegged for my Department ever since I read your student application to St. Mungo’s. Cuddles said I might be giving the wrong impression, but old habits die hard. I enjoy flirting.”

“You’re divorced, you’re a father.”

“I used to pretend to be bisexual, but the old soldier barely salutes at a beautiful woman anymore.” Falco turned a bright pink and coughed.

Hermione didn’t remember the rest of the conversation. Something about taking a few days to consider working with his unit anyway and that they should be able to suss something out. Hermione had no idea what working something out would entail except her finding a very deep hole to hide in. Damn him. He’d been described as flamboyant, not queer or gay. He seemed so masculine to her, as did the decrepit Withercrest. It wasn’t right, that they, you know, were that way. Hermione was overcome by a new wave of tears. She felt so angry, so betrayed and then she heard it-- A tiny voice in her mind, ‘help, help me’. She looked up around her. She wasn’t the sort to hear voices, no matter how upset she was. She turned around and looked for whatever could be the cause, and there to her shock she found the body of Severus Snape. He was lying on the occupation therapy pallet. He must have been left there while the therapist went to get a potion or lotion or something.

She was chagrinned that she hadn’t noticed him laying there. But then, he was more of a corpse that a living being. She cleared her mind again, hoping that he’d speak to her, but nothing came. It could be her imagination. Or perhaps it was something else.

She started to leave. Her shift was over for the day anyhow and then she heard, ‘please,’ in her mind. She whipped around to the naked man lying underneath the sheet. He was nothing more than a scarecrow. She’d managed to avoid him for the past two months. Never looked at him, and never looked in his direction. Her time had been spent working with the very animated and loving Lockhart who seemed to make no progress at all no matter what she did in the way of charm breaking and support.

Just then the door opened, banging her on her back, it was Withercrust.

“There you are, Dr. Granger. I’ve been looking all over for ya. Ty says the cat is out of the bag and that he put his foot into it royally. I been trying to tell him you were being given the wrong idea. Eh, come spend a week or two at our flat. The man’s a pig. One week of picking up his dirty socks and watching him sit around in his pajamas, clipping his toenails all over the place would cure ya. Now, there’s a sight!”

Hermione looked at the old Wizard carefully for the first time. She’d never really noticed him before. He was always good-humored, always ready with a joke or a compliment or cup of tea. His watery blue eyes stood out in a face as lined and wrinkled as Albus Dumbledore’s. Yet he was only in his seventies. Rumor was that that the war hero had suffered extensive injury, but it was only in recent years was he struggling. She tried to imagine him as Falco’s lover and her mind balked.

‘Help.’

It was so soft, she couldn’t believe she’d heard it. But in spite of it being softly called she heard the pain. She again stared at the body on the pallet.

“Withercrust. Is it right that Mr. Snape should be left alone like this?”

“Oh, no, deary. Unfortunately, there was an emergency down the hall. Mrs. Hastings has got all blown up again and is floating on the ceiling. PT Rossetti and me had to go help strap her to the cot. No, he shouldn’t be left alone. He seems all right though. What about you?”

“I heard him. He asked me for help.” Hermione stepped a bit closer to the body. Withercrust came up next to the Wizard and snapped his fingers.

“He seems non-responsive to me. Here let’s do a diagnostic.”

Much to Hermione’s surprise the orderly was quite capable of using his wand to check on Snape. Within the space of less than an hour, it seemed like her whole life had turned itself upside down.

“Eh, something’s going on. I’ll get Dr. Falco. Can you stay with him? I’ll only be a moment.” The palsy seemed to get worse with the orderly’s excitement. She nodded him on, even though she wanted to tell him she’d go to save him the effort.

Hermione took out her own wand. Although there was no sign of activity from him, his heart was racing.

“Can you hear me, Professor Snape?” His old title just came to her lips, it didn’t seem right to call him anything else. In fact, it was the first time she’d spoken to him since she was a student at Hogwarts. She had a sudden fear that he might be g. g.

The door quickly opened and Dr. Falco was at Snape’s side. He did a quick check of his vitals and then looked up at Hermione. “Withercrust said that you heard him speak?”

“It was more a mental thing, like a voice in my head.”

“Hearing voices now, are we? Well, we want to keep you here, but not that badly.” He chud a d a bit to himself. “I see that something has upset him. Heart still racing, we haven’t had this much activity from him since he first arrived.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Hermione felt so stupid. Even knowing Falco’s persuasion, she still loved him. Her heart was pounding and her palms were sweating just being in his presence.

“Yes. Quite.” He began humming. Hermione wondered if it bothered Withercrust. It probably would drive her out of her mind eventually, all that humming, even if he was brilliant.

“Please leave the room. Walk down to the far end of the hall. Wait ten minutes and then come back in.”

Hermione wanted to ask why, but chose to not be lazy and try to figure it out on her own. She immediately did as Falco had directed. She was pretty certain that he wanted to see if Snape was affected by her proximity. With a feeling of guilt, she remembered how Falco had told her that he’d had some sort of fixation on her. In which case, she probably should have taken Snape’s case instead of Lockhart’s. But, damn, how was she to know. She walked into the door with a sick feeling in her stomach.

“Ah, yes, puzzle solved. It’s you, Dr. Granger. You seem to be the one creating the agitation.” Falco smiled. “I can’t blame him, you are quite appealing.” Falco stopped and turned red, “Oh, my. I forgot, I am so sorry. Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

“What isn’t a good idea?”

“Us, working together. Suddenly I’m feeling most self-conscious. I don’t mean to keep offending you.”

Hermione smiled: there was a reason that she loved him! “Dr. Falco. I think that we could be very good friends. I really respect and admire you. And I’m big enough to take a compliment or two.”

He took her hand and placed a kiss on the palm. “You are like Minerva, Venus and Diana wrapped up into one Goddess!”

Blushing, Hermione took her hand away. “Can you tell me anything about his case? Why was he delivered to the Fourth floor-- is he hexed?”

“Yes, we believe it was part of the torture. Whether he was driven out of his mind or given an escape route is the question. If he is en-spelled, we need to break tpellpell. But we’ve had no luck. It isn’t a matter of a simple ‘finite incantantum’, I wish it were, then we would only need to deal with the sequelae of the torture.

“Dear Doctor Granger, I don’t want to put you on the spot here. I told you to take a few days off to think things over and I meant it—“

“However, if I understand you correctly, this is the most response that we’d had from him in months and we wouldn’t wish to lose—“

“The opportunity! Exactly, dear girl, I mean doctor. If you were to stay a bit later than your shift, which I believe ended twenty minutes ago, and looked over his chart and file, it may be very useful. Memory serves me right, we’ve tried every anti-hex ritual and every spell breaking incantation in general usage. We have taken the obvious steps, leaving us with the road less traveled. Would you be willing to go down that path for your old professor? You are looking for a hex, spell or enchantment which first induces mania and then catatonia. We have nothing further to give you.

“He was found abandoned in one of the alleys near here by our very own char, Hester Grackle. Oooh, gave her quite the screaming mimis to find him there. It seems she has a problem with naked men, don’t know why she’d chooses to work in a hospital then. Anyhow, that’s all we have on him.” He rubbed his eyes and leaned against the pallet holding Snape.

Just then PT Rossetti stormed in. “Here, this ain’t no office fer you two. Look, I’m all backed up, I told ‘em before I’m a physical therapist, not some orderly. I can’t believe I left Snapey here on his own so long, so I don’t care if you are both high and mighty doctors, I don’t wan no lip about him being left alone!”

“We were just watching him for you, Rosie. Don’t get your knickers in a twist,” said Dr. Falco with a small smile.

“Right.” Rossetti, six foot five and pure muscle, seemed mollified by the doctor’s mild reply and began massaging the body with a vengeance.

Hermione began to walk out the door, trying hard not to notice the sounds Rosie was making as overovered the Wizard in lotion and began exercising the atrophying muscles.

“What about his talents as a Legilimens? Is there any chance that he chose to leave his body rather than continue being abused?”

“Well, we tried getting Albie to come down. He’s our top man in the field, you know. But since Potter’s death, he’s just retired into himself. I’ve asked him several times to join Cuddles and me at our little Lake District hideaway, but he keeps refusing. Our local man said it was most definitely a hex, but I’ve not found him to be terribly reliable.”

Hermione flinched. She’d worked hard to put the past behind her. It wasn’t her fault, it was nobody’s fault, that Harry had committed suicide. They’d all tried to reach him, to talk to him and be his friend. She’d already worked it through, and it simply wasn’t her problem… Life was for the living.

“So there is a chance that it is self-inflicted.” Hermione stood in the hallway just outside Dr. Falco’s door.

“Hardly any, I’d say based on my years in the field. But you never know when the horse might turn into a zebra. Is it something you think might bear some investigation?”

“I don’t know. What if it were a hex which went astray because of his skill in Occlumency?”

“Then we are truly up the proverbial creek without a wand. The effect of Occlumency on hexes?” He shook his head. “It makes my head spin. But go for it, I give you permission to follow your instincts.”

Hermione, very excited by the new vista opening before her, forgot herself and gave her supervisor a hug. She realized what she was doing and quietly said, “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no, carry on, Doctor, carry on.” And he disappeared into his office, buzzing loudly.

Hermione hugged herself and headed off for a quick dinner before pulling an all nighter at the Medical Library.

A/N: I know, I know. I said it’d be just one shot. Well, the bunny has its teeth firmly in my leg and it won’t let go. Do remember, this is a darkfic, so don’t start thinking this is my usual. It ain’t and you’ve been warned.

Big hugs to my reviewers, esp. those who encouraged me to write more: Wendynat, Laiagarien, Pauline, LittleBird, Demonic Angel, Rilla, Amethyst, Lovesthepotionboy.
.