Healing the Broken

Chapter 33- The Portrait of Albus Dumbledore

Hermione, however, was still not reassured.

They were in Potions class, brewing a particularly nasty potion, which Hermione was naturally perfecting, when she screams suddenly and drops her stirring spoon to the ground loudly.

"What? What's wrong?" Ron asks her as he and Harry rush to her side. Both of the boys set a calming hand on either of her shoulders while she keeps the panicked look on her face.

"Dennis. Creevey. Dennis Creevey. He hasn't come back." Hermione says, and she pushes up from her stool, making Ron and Harry jump, startled. "Professor Slughorn? I need to go speak to Professor McGonagall. Please- it's important."

Slughorn looks up from his papers, nodding. "Alright, go ahead."

"Can we go?" Harry asks.

Slughorn frowns. "Afraid not. I only have one hall pass."

And before either of them could argue, he turns and disappears into the supply closet behind his desk, vanishing from sight. Harry groans, slumping to sit back down on his stool. "We should be able to go with her."

"Yeah- we're her best friends."

"And boyfriend."

"And partners in crime."

"And buds."

Ron snorts. "Her buds. Ha. Bud. That's a funny word." He bursts into a quiet fit of laughter. "B-buds. Haha. Buds."

Harry stares at him, almost scared for his friend. "What's so funny about the word bud?"

Ron continues laughing, shaking his head. "I dunno- sometimes I just start laughing at things that aren't even funny. BUD. HAHA."

Harry frowns. "Right. Right. So. Um. Okay. You just... you just keep laughing about something that isn't funny... I guess. And I'll just-yeah." And then he turns and continues to work on the potion while Ron tries to control his weird fit of laughter.

~~~~~

Hermione jogged down to the Headmistress's office, ignoring the portraits that exclaimed to her as she went by.

"Stop running!" says a man that looks like he tried to look like Abe Lincoln but failed miserably.

"Young lady, slow down!" a woman with a powdered wig hollered at her.

But it was the soft, kind and gentle voice that stopped her.

"My dear, what is it that you're in such a rush for?"

Hermione fall to a sharp and sudden stop, nearly crashing into one of the suits of armor that lined the halls. Hermione hadn't heard that voice in so long, and just the sound of it brought tears to her eyes as she slowly turned around to face the portrait. As soon as the person in the painting saw her tears, he shakes his head sadly. "Don't cry, there is nothing to be sad about."

She wipes her tears away and stares into the eyes of Albus Dumbledore. "I'm sorry- it's just that I haven't seen you in so long."

Dumbledore chuckles softly. "You are very much like Harry, you know. Always apologizing for things that don't need to be apologized for."