Hermione had expected something to happen suddenly, but nothing sudden did. The liquid from the vial trickled into Draco's mouth, and he seemed, reflexively, to swallow-which relieved her, as she had been afraid he would choke. She laid the vial down and took a step back, her breath held.
For a moment, and then another long and terrible moment, nothing happened at all. Then Draco's eyelids twitched, and he took a breath, long and slow and easy, and the color rushed back into his face in a flood. His hands moved, restlessly and gently, on the coverlet, and then his eyes opened, bright and luminously silver.
Narcissa made a little sound in her throat and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly.
Draco looked appalled. 'MOTHER,' he said. 'STOP THAT AT ONCE.'
Sniffling and laughing a little, Narcissa drew back; Draco sat up; he was pale, but moved with his old grace, and clearly without pain. He looked around at the faces crowded around his bed: Remus, Sirius, Narcissa, Blaise, Hermione, and his eyes lingered on each. Then he said, 'Where's Harry?'
'I'm here.' Harry stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in, grinning all over his face. 'Right here.'
'You look terrible,' Draco observed.
'Well.' Harry glanced down at himself. 'You ruined my shirt.'
'Then I did you a favor. It's a hideous shirt anyway. Why must you wear polos? They made your head look like a postbox.' Draco drew himself up, looking around, bright-eyed. 'So,' he said. 'I take it you found the antidote.'
Harry looked quickly at Hermione, who nodded. 'We did,' she said.
Draco waved a breezy hand. 'I always knew you would,' he said. 'No worries here.'
Only Harry laughed, and Draco glanced around, his eyes suddenly narrowing. 'Where's Ginny, then?' he asked.
A sudden and terrible silence fell. Only Harry looked honestly bewildered; seeing where everyone was staring, he slewed around and Hermione heard him suck in a breath. 'What happened?' he said. 'Is she hurt?'
Draco's eyes narrowed further. 'What? What do you mean?'
In answer, Sirius and Narcissa moved aside so that Draco had a clear view across the room to where Ginny lay on her narrow white infirmary bed, Madam Pomfrey bending over her. Ron and Charlie hovered beside her, and even from this distance, the blood on Charlie's shirt was clearly visible.
Draco sat up straight, all the light gone out of his face. 'What happened?'
It was Blaise who answered. 'Your antidote,' she said. 'It turned out it only existed in the past. So she went back to get it-and then forward again, and back again, and forward again, all in a short period of time, and I guess it was too much for her, too hard on her system. The last time she came back, she collapsed.'
Draco stared at Blaise, his lips parted, then shoved his coverlet back and tried to stand, but he was too weak. Sirius moved to take his arm. 'Sit back down, Draco. You're not well enough to walk-'
'I can walk,' Draco said, in a flat, steely voice. 'Let me go. I have to see her.'
Harry stepped forward. 'It's fine,' he said, locking eyes with Sirius. 'He can lean on us.'
Sirius looked at Harry for a moment, then nodded, and together they helped Draco to his feet. Each with a hand under his arm, they moved slowly towards Ginny's bed. Blaise and Ginny followed them; Narcissa stayed behind, biting her lip as she watched her son make his slow progress across the room. Remus stood beside her, his arms folded and his face impassive.
Hermione had heard of time sickness before; she'd been warned about it by McGonagall third year, though the trips she'd taken through time had always been such short distances that it had never posed much of a risk.
She knew that it got worse the greater the chronological distance you traveled, and even worse when you carried objects back and forth with you. But she was still unprepared for the sight of Ginny, deathly white except for the crusted, dried blood around her mouth and under her eyes, her breath rasping in and out of her throat. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, the Hufflepuff Time-Turner pulsing at her throat.
'My God.' It was Sirius who spoke first, his voice tense with distress.
'What's gone wrong? What's being done for her?'
Madam Pomfrey lifted a haggard face. 'Everything's gone wrong,' she said. 'Time sickness is very difficult to treat-it can cause a total collapse of all the systems. Even as I repair one, another fails. Please stand back,' she added, fixing Blaise, who had stepped forward, biting her fist, with a steely gaze. 'She's very delicate right now.'
'Could she die?' Harry, horrified, was looking at Ron, but Ron was staring at the floor, his hands in fists at his sides.
Madam Pomfrey looked as if she were weighing her words. Finally, she said, 'It's quite possible, yes.'
Blaise burst into tears. This was so unexpected that everyone stared at her for a moment, and she turned away, her hands over her face as if she were horribly embarrassed by her own reaction. Hermione wondered where her own tears were; they felt scalded away by horror. She kept seeing Ginny, a small, brave little figure in her braids and sweater, the Time-Turner gripped in her hand, begging for the chance to risk her own life to save Draco's. And I let her, Hermione thought, appalled. Please, she prayed, please let her be all right, and I promise I'll never treat her like she's a little kid again. Let her be all right and I'll even be happy for her and Draco if that happens, I promise, if she'll just be all right.
Charlie, swearing under his breath, turned away to stare at the wall.
Hermione chanced a glance sideways at Draco: his healthy color had fled and his lips were a bloodless line. 'Let me go,' he said, his voice as colorless as his face, and shrugged off Sirius and Harry's grips on his arms.
He took a step forward, and Madam Pomfrey looked up sternly. But the warning died on her lips as Ron cut her off gruffly. 'Let him,' he said.
Draco moved slowly forward, not quite with his old grace yet, but not limping either, and leaned down over Ginny. Gently he touched her bloodied face, and bent to whisper in her ear; his hair fell forward, hiding them both, and Hermione did not hear what he said, though she might have guessed at it, if she'd been so inclined.
Draco drew back. Ginny's head moved a little on the pillow, but she didn't open her eyes. Her breathing was rougher now, and more blood leaked from the corner of her mouth. The hourglass at her throat pulsed and pulsed like a heart. 'I must tend to her,' Madam Pomfrey asserted, gesturing firmly but kindly for Draco to move back. 'Or she'll drown in her own blood.'
Draco made a noise in the back of his throat, and moved back, almost stumbling into Harry, who caught at his shoulders to steady him. As Madam Pomfrey bent to tend to Ginny, her wand already out, the infirmary door opened again, and Seamus walked into the room.
Hermione stared at him, astonished. She had almost forgotten his existence. He was neatly dressed, in a black shirt and trousers, clothes she didn't remember him owning before. They showed up the pallor of his hair and the newly-dark blue of his eyes. He strode forward with such confidence that Ron stepped aside, and even Madam Pomfrey straightened up, staring, as he moved to stand next to Ginny. 'She's dying,' he said.
'Seamus Finnegan,' said Madam Pomfrey, finding her voice, 'I understand that you're upset about your girlfriend, but would you stand back immediately please-'
Seamus ignored her. Instead, he reached out, and closed his hand over the hourglass at Ginny's throat. Draco made a low growling noise and began to move forward; Harry held him back, staring, as Seamus, with a sudden, jerky movement tore the ancient Time-Turner of Hufflepuff from Ginny's throat. The chain sundered with an audible snap, and Seamus hurled the Time-Turner to the ground-still pulsing with its odd light-and trod on it. It held for a moment, then shattered.
Draco pulled away from Harry. 'You idiot,' he shouted at Seamus. 'What have you done?'
Seamus regarded him calmly. 'Look at her,' he said, and pointed at Ginny.
They turned to stare; Hermione heard herself gasp. The color had returned to Ginny's face and she was breathing steadily and evenly.
Madam Pomfrey snatched the wand from her pocket and touched it to Ginny's chest, whispering a word under her breath; when she removed it, the tip of the wand was glowing a healthy and reassuring pink. Madam Pomfrey looked around helplessly. 'She's all right,' she said. 'She's going to be fine.'
Charlie let out what must have been the longest-held breath in the world; Ron stared in blank amazement, and Draco, still wordless, slumped against the wall. He was nearly expressionless, but Hermione saw that the
