The Chaser : A Fred Weasley Fan Fic

Fifty Nine: Repair

FRED'S POV:

"Do you think you'll propose to Hermione one day?" I mumbled, flopping my head to one side to look at Ron.

We were still in the hospital ward the next afternoon. With little to no news about Tilly's state. I found myself trying to get any kind of distraction from it all, so Ron and I were at the other end of the ward, trying to make coffee with a pathetic wood-burning kettle and sad sachets of muggle instant coffee.

Hermione was at the other end, talking to a nurse and moving her hands wildly as if discussing something in great depth. She'd gone home in the morning to collect books that she thought might help but the doctors and nurses hadn't paid much attention to her. But Ron was eyeing her with a familiar glint in his eye.

"Ugh, what" Ron cleared his throat, "Yeah of course, but you know that"

I'd forgotten in my daze that Ron had told me a few months prior that he'd been looking at rings.

"Right, yeah of course. Anytime soon?" I asked again. I was trying to make it sound nonchalant and as if I wasn't attempting to see whether our plans would clash.

"Errr..yeah but look you can't say anything. Not even to Till. That trip we're taking, with her parents to France next month, I'm going to do it then" Ron whispered. I'd never seen him look so secretive, he was taking it all very seriously.

"I won't tell a soul" I grinned, patting him on the shoulder.

My coffee still looked gritty after stirring for a good few minutes but I took it back to my chair anyway.

I watched Tilly as her eyes stayed shut and her breathing was steady. I'd been trying not spend all of my time looking at her, because it only made me long for her eyes to open. I'd countdown in my head, 10 seconds at a time, and imagine that would make her do it once I reached 1. But it never happened. I was being childish.

My head went to places it shouldn't and worried that if she stayed like this much longer there would be no return. She's be asleep while everything changed around her. Hermione and Ron might be engaged while she still lay in her bed, unable to move or even wake up. I tried to shake the thought out.

Hermione momentarily stopped my worrying by slumping down in the chair beside, huffing and puffing.

"They just won't listen to me!" she sighed loudly, practically begging for me to ask what had happened.

"What was that about?" I conceded.

Hermione pulled one of her dusty books on to her lap and rifled through a few pages before stabbing her nail into a paragraph to show me.

"It says if we make this ointment and rub it over the wound, it could kick start things again" Hermione explained, "but there's no guarantee it'll work and the stuff in it is rather difficult to find"

"There's no guarantee it'll work?" I repeated.

"Well no, but I think it's the only chance we've got. It's better than us all sitting around waiting for something to happen. All they've done is dress her wounds, they haven't even tried. They're too afraid to touch this kind of thing" she reeled.

"Well, we could try?" I cut.

"Like I said, everything if difficult for us to find. It could take weeks without the proper help" Hermione grumbled.

"Like what?" I pushed. My attention was peaked.

"Alihosty for one. I still don't know anyone other than a Hufflepuff can get it and I'd probably lose my job at the ministry if I was caught trying to-"