27 Side Chapter: The start of yearly trouble

Health issues in the magical world were solved in a different way than in the Muggle world. If normal people visited the hospital for almost every minor illness or injury; then wizards could perfectly cope with such problems themselves by drinking a suitable potion. All that was required for this was sufficient knowledge of the subject.

That is why self-medication was so common in magical Britain. After all, why go to the hospital or apothecary if you can do everything yourself in a couple of hours of work?

As a result, this led to the fact that people only went to a Healer only if the problem was serious.

So, when Madam Pomfrey saw three Gryffindors on the threshold of her medical wing, her already stressful day became even worse.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, tell me that Mister Potter is all right," she said sternly, walking towards them at a brisk pace.

Ron snickered for a moment, but quickly fell silent when Hermione nudged him in the side with her elbow.

"No, ma'am, I'm fine." Harry hastened to assure her, his eyes scanning the room. "We just wanted to know if everything was okay with that student who… erm…" He stopped, unable to find the right words.

"Who got into the incident at the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest." Hermione added.

Incident was the right word, Harry thought. The whole lesson of the History of Magic, he could not sit still and waited for the call to finally make sure of the fate of the student. If it was a student. The chances that one of the teachers was caught in a fight with Acromantulas wasn't zero.

Madam Pomfrey frowned, looking at the three of them with a displeased look. "And let me ask you, what were you doing on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest?" She stopped for a moment, thinking about something and eventually just shook her head. "No, I don't want to know. In any case, it shouldn't worry you, no one was badly hurt."

Harry didn't believe her words. He had spent enough time in the company of the woman to know how tired she looked, and now she looked tired.

Rumpled uniform, stains of – something on her right sleeve, strands of hair out of place… Pomfrey was the kind of woman who didn't like to show her more disorganized side, because who would trust a healer who couldn't even keep track of themselves? For her to be looking like this, she must've been working and working hard.

"Who got hurt anyway?" Ron asked eventually.

"We just want to know if they're okay." Hermione quickly added, seeing how Madam Pomfrey was frowning more and more.

The girl knew that doctors couldn't just talk about the condition of their patients if random people asked about them – only their family and no one else had access to such information. She suspected that on the magical side of things, everything was quite similar.

Sighing heavily, the Healer turned around and went to the closed off bed, saying "Wait here and don't touch anything," to the students. A cup of tea was levitating right behind her, like a duckling following a mother duck.

As soon as she disappeared behind the safety of the curtains, Hermione took a long look around the entire hospital wing. The only occupied bed was the one where Madam Pomfrey had gone. It was strange in itself, usually at least one unfortunate student lay in the open.

"Don't you think that the professors are acting weird?" She asked, talking more to herself than to her friends. "If no one was badly hurt, then what was Professor Snape hiding from us? What could possibly have worried the Acromantulas so much, that they went outside their colony?"

"I hope it was something unpleasant." Ron muttered, "Those things shouldn't be near the school at all."

Harry agreed, he had no idea why Dumbledore still hadn't gotten rid of the large parasites, especially considering that they didn't even boring any benefits to the school. He would understand if their colony stood on the castle's defense, but they were just an unnecessary danger to everyone around.

'I'd have to tell Bella about them, right?' He thought with a sigh.

After a couple of minutes, Madame Pomfrey opened the curtains around the bed, the woman looked extremely upset and annoyed. Harry had only seen her like this once, when he tried to the medical wing – well, more like he tried to sneak out – without a final examination. To put it mildly, the Healer was not happy with his attempt.

"Come on in, I think she'll be happy to see her friends." She said and quickly disappeared behind the door of her office.

The trio of friends exchanged glances and by tacit agreement it was decided that Hermione would come in first. But the girl definitely did not expect to see the one who was sitting inside.

"Luna? What are you– are you all right?"

The blonde took a sip from her mug of tea and nodded slowly. "Hello, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley." She said with a small smile. "I'm a little sad, but there's nothing wrong with my physical health."

Hermione sat down next to Luna; confusion clear on her face. In their haste to solve a new mystery, they didn't even think that someone from their acquaintances could have been hurt. This was the second time in a year that Luna got into trouble, so the three Gryffindors started to worry.

"What happened?"

Luna opened her mouth to reply, but froze for a moment. Her face scrunched up in concentration and the blonde took a tactical sip of tea to fill the silence.

"I don't think I can tell you anything." She eventually said.

"What? Why not?" Ron asked, his eyes wide with shock.

Luna knew that Dan's very existence was a secret, but that wasn't the reason she refused to say a word. She pouted and put her already empty mug on the bedside table. "The Umgubular Slashkilter doesn't know you, and I don't want to talk about my friends behind their backs, it's not nice. Especially after what they did for me."

"That's…" Even Hermione was at a loss for words. She would never have thought that loyalty to friends could be… not bad, but annoying?

They ended up talking to Luna for a few more minutes, after which Madame Pomfrey kicked them out of her medical wing, leaving Ravenclaw to rest for the evening, leaving the Golden Trio with even more questions than they had before.

Suddenly, Hermione stopped, her hand reaching for her chest.

"Go ahead without me, I need to use the facilities," she turned around and walked towards the lavatory.

Harry and Ron could only shrug their shoulders, they weren't going to follow their friend everywhere.

Hermione, meanwhile, went to a hidden corner of the school and took out one very interesting artifact: the Time Turner. "Four hours will be enough…" she muttered as she twirled the artifact in her hands.

The Dark Forest met everyone in the same way: with an atmosphere of danger and mystery, for Hermione it was the same. She wasn't sure exactly when the Acromantula attack had begun, but she knew that it was almost impossible to hide from them. Their sight and sensitivity to vibrations made them very good hunters. Hermione's only option to find out what happened in the forest was to watch from afar.

Even knowing that she would probably be fine, given the strange workings of the Time Turner, Hermione preferred not to take any chances. The girl went to the place of the future battle to look around. She was upset that she didn't know any eavesdropping spells, they would be dead useful now.

Right now, she could hear some strange noises around, as if someone was walking several horses somewhere on the edges of the forest. But considering that there was no one around, she dropped these sounds on something that was just in the woods.

Satisfied with her preparation, she moved far enough away and hid under the roots of a particularly large tree. A small confounds charm around the tree served as her last line of defense. Now she could only wait.

And half an hour later, she got what she came for.

What she saw was not normal. Even in the world of magic, it was rare to see such a thing. Hermione had never read about a creature that apparated around in battle as often as... this one. She had never seen so much cruelty and rage in one body.

Negative emotions were splashing out of the creature with such force that it could be felt in the atmosphere. Usually, strong magic smelled like electrified ozone, the magic of this creature smelled like boiling blood and adrenaline.

Hermione left the forest two shades paler than before. If it was the Umgubular Slashkilter Luna was talking about, she understood why the blonde didn't want to talk about it. It wasn't an Acromantula attack, it was a massacre that the arachnids definitely didn't plan.

Body parts, blood, and entrails were flying all over the battlefield. Hermione had a hard time keeping lunch in her stomach, the smell was nauseating. Why did she come here again? For her curiosity? To find out what the Professors were hiding from them? Why, oh why couldn't she just let it go?!

A part of her mind was treacherously whispering to her, "but now you know."

For once in her life, she didn't want to know.