Harry Potter and The Alchemist's Cell

The Ratway Opens

Harry slept for nearly two whole days, waking only to take the morsels of food and water that his wracked body could manage at a time. Hermione stayed with him as much as she could, entrusting his care to Dobby for all the times she had to attend classes. She excused Harry's absence from lessons as his having a nasty bout of Muggle Swine Flu, which she inflated to be a highly infectious disease that was even nastier in Wizard form. She bore the expected snide remarks from Malfoy - regarding Harry being a swine at the best of times, so how could Hermione tell the difference? - as best she could, thankful that most wizards were too ignorant to delve more into the little ruse.

There were moments when Hermione worried that Harry might not recover at all, but he still refused all her entreaties for outside help, instead drawing strength and energy from her like a type of sponge. Hermione was happy to share with him in this way, despite how tired it made her. She was intrigued by how he was doing it, not that he was lucid enough to explain if he knew what he was doing or not.

On the third day after his explosion of magic, Harry was actually up before Hermione. They had taken to sleeping together every night on the couch, so that if Harry needed to draw energy from Hermione, at least she was resting and recovering as he did it. But on this morning, he rose early, had Dobby bring him coffee and croissants and he sat watching Hermione for a solid hour before she stirred and woke.

Hermione blinked in surprise as her sleep-mussed eyes clicked open. "Harry...you're up!"

"Morning to you, too!" Harry grinned. He poured two cups of coffee as Hermione sat up, passing one to her. "Did you sleep well?"

"Better than the last few nights," Hermione admitted. "But...how are you? You look loads better."

"Yeah, I feel alright today," said Harry. "I think I'm pretty much back to my old self."

"Now we both know that isn't true!" Hermione laughed and, when Harry queried her with a puzzled look, she went on, "breakfast in bed? This is definitely a new you! Not that I'm complaining."

"Yeah...about that," said Harry guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry about all this. You sleeping down here and everything. You must be really tired and achy. Cant have been nice for you."

"Don't be ridiculous, Harry!" Hermione scoffed. "Sharing a bed with you has been...well...really quite lovely, actually. Apart from my worry about you. But, then again, I'm always worried about you. It was quite comforting to be so close, so I could look after you. You really do need looking after. I...I'll miss being back in my own bed, all alone."

"I'll miss that, too," Harry confessed shyly. "Thank you, for everything that you've done for me over the last couple of days...for all that you've given me. I don't know where you learned to do that, and I can only guess what it cost you, but I'm really grateful. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"Hold on...I'm confused," said Hermione. "What? What are you talking about?"

"You must know," said Harry, perplexed. "All the energy you kept sending me...from inside you. I think it kept me going. How did you do that?"

"I didn't do anything," Hermione replied, as baffled as Harry looked. "You were the one drawing it from me. I was going to ask if you knew you were doing it. Are you saying you didn't?"

"Hermione...I didn't know anything after that first night," Harry explained. "I was vaguely aware of you feeding me and stuff, but then I just remember...well...all I can call it is a stream of energy coming from you. I assumed you'd sent it on purpose, but I was too out of it to tell you off, knowing you were draining yourself to help me and everything."