The Dark & the Middle

Chapter 2

The following morning, Hermione was woken abruptly to assist in the makeshift hospital ward. One of the Order's safehouses had been attacked just before dawn and while many of their duelists had held off the Death Eaters long enough, they had all come away with injuries. What hurt the most was that several children, orphans the Order had taken in for the time being, had been injured as well. Hermione kept busy treating acid burns hastily and hoping they didn't scar. Madam Pomfrey attended to those who had been hit with worse curses and they fell into an uncomfortably familiar routine around the ward.

At some point, Hermione spotted Padma on the other side of the hospital ward, but there wasn't much time to ask her if she'd been assigned a task yet before Hermione was being called away by one of her patients.

"There has to be a countercurse," Oliver gasped, writhing on the bed as Hermione cast a numbing charm over him. With how quickly they were depleting the pain potions, Hermione was attempting to use more charms to cover the feeling of the curse.

"I haven't had time to figure one out yet," Hermione apologised. She checked his vitals, glad to see nothing had jumped to a dangerous position. "As soon as I have a moment, that's what I'll be working on though. Do you remember anything about when the curse hit you? The light colour? The words?"

Oliver shook his head sadly but Hermione promised it would be fine. She made sure he was as comfortable as could be then moved on to her other patients, asking them the same questions and getting little information in return.

The day passed slowly. Even though Hermione was too rushed to eat lunch, the hours seemed to drag by as new patients were brought into the medical wing and current patients continued to need more care. Whatever new curse Dolohov had thought up, it was vicious and there wasn't much Hermione could do to counteract it. All day, those who had been hit with it groaned in pain despite the large doses of pain relief potions Hermione gave them and the various countercurses she'd tried.

As soon as Hermione had a moment to breathe and eat, she was approached by Harry. Just by looking at him, she knew he was not about to bring good news, but she was too hungry to pause her eating and ask what had happened.

"Kingsley supposes two of our safe houses have been compromised," Harry said after a full minute. He sat beside her but stared straight ahead. "Sussex—the one attacked this morning—was levelled completely and three Order members are unaccounted for. The wards on two of the others alerted him just recently."

Hermione frowned and turned to look at Harry. He shrugged but didn't look at her in return.

"I always wondered when someone would switch sides from the Order, play double agent for Riddle," Hermione grumbled. Voldemort's name was still taboo, so the Order had largely resorted to calling him by his surname. The last thing they needed was to trigger a hunt and have Snatchers at their door in seconds. "Do we know who it could be or how much they know?"

"There's no indication the leak was from high in our ranks, but any information shared could destroy the Order," Harry told her. This time, he did look at her, an unreadable expression on his face. "We can't trust anyone now. I know that was technically the case before," Harry said, glancing away again. "But I wish we could."

Hermione nodded in agreement and finished her meal in silence. Harry stayed beside her until she had to return to the hospital ward and continue working, but they didn't talk anymore. Talking about a potential leak in the Order seemed like bad luck and Hermione wasn't particularly keen to push the limits of fate.

Dinner that night was much more solemn. Half of the residents of Dortmouth—the safe house they currently resided at—were moving in and out of the room regularly. Some took their dinner quietly in a corner while others left the room. Hermione found a seat beside Ron, gave him a tight smile, and ate her meal in silence.

"How is the hospital?" Ron asked. He glanced at Hermione and she shrugged.

"Dolohov's founded a new curse," she answered. She knew he likely wasn't interested in all the nuances of it that she'd seen during the day, but she talked through it with him anyway. "It seems similar to the acid burn one from several months ago, but it doesn't respond to the same treatments. We've used almost all our supply of pain relief potions too, but it hardly helps."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Ron offered helpfully.

Hermione just sighed and they finished their dinner quietly.

As soon as she had a moment, she disappeared into her room with a blood sample from one of the current patients. She had hoped to be able to analyze the curse and see how it affected the body of the person hit with it, but after hours of research and analysis spells, she was hardly anywhere near finding a countercurse. She barely managed to figure out just what part of the body the curse targeted before Ginny dragged her away from her work and to her bed.

Even as she laid in her bed and tried to sleep, she kept thinking about what she could try to counteract the curse. There was no telling what the long term effects of it were and Hermione rather preferred not waiting long enough to find out. However, at some point, she managed to fall asleep and dream about curses and battles all blurred into one.

After just a few hours of sleep, Hermione was back at her desk analyzing the curse. She was vaguely aware of when Ginny woke up, grumbling about one thing or another before leaving for breakfast. At some point, the sun started to light up the room enough Hermione didn't need to use her wand to see. She began to work quicker as new ideas flooded to her and she had small steps of success with each created countercurse. When she watched the blood sample revert almost entirely to normal, she knew she was getting close to the end.

She knew how to counteract the remaining side effect of the curse, but it required a potion, not a spell. If the countercurse was a potion, that would change the game entirely. While there was some possibility to use her current countercurse and take care of the remaining side effects with a potion, it was not the most stable way to go about medicine. Besides, it was easier to teach an all in one cure than one that had multiple steps as well as wandwork.

She had just set her wand aside to scribble down a quick idea for a potion when the door was thrown off its hinges and hit the wall with a loud bang.

Hermione startled at the loud sound, twisting around sharply to face the intruder only to stop short at the look of horror on Ginny's face.

"What?" she demanded, jumping to her feet. She rushed forward and grabbed Ginny tightly. "What's happened? Is everyone okay?"

"It's Snape," Ginny gasped with wide eyes. She blinked at Hermione and her voice shook as she said, "Snape's been killed."