Chapter Three
Pain in my "hip"

Hermione woke up in bed. The sun was streaming through a crack in the curtains. She felt awful! What happened? She couldn’t remember anything since telling Molly and Arthur about the Bone Marrow Transplant. “Oh my gosh!” she said loudly, sitting up… slowly. “What day is it? RON? What day is it?” she yelled, crawling out of bed and walking slowly and wobbly to the kitchen. Ron was sitting at the table, with a tissue in his hand. Hermione looked around and saw a few small piles of scrunched up tissues.
“Cancer?” he said. “You didn’t think I deserved to know?” He had been crying. His eyes were red and puffy, and tears kept welling in his eyes.
“Ron,” she whispered, sliding down the wall and onto the floor. “I couldn’t find the words. I love you so much and I didn’t want to hurt you. I was-was going to te-ll you when it-when the diagnosis was definitely ca-ancerous cells,” she sobbed. “How did you find out?”
He stood up and joined her on the floor, pulling her into a hug. “Mum told me,” he said, deeply. “You’ve been asleep for 18 hours, Hermione. You couldn’t even walk home after dinner, and it’s only a 3 minute walk. And then you fainted, and I couldn’t wake you. I had to call mum over here to help me, we carried you into bed and then… She told me. She had to, Hermione,” he said, his voice breaking every so often.
Hermione was sure of one thing. If this cancer didn’t kill her, the sorrow in Ron’s voice just might.
“Oh, no, Ron. I have to be back at the Hospital tomorrow for a B-” she started, and realised she owed Ron the whole story. She told him how ill she had felt, that St. Mungo’s wouldn’t treat her, and how they had referred her to a Hospital in America with, what they had heard, great facilities for Muggles – somewhere that Hermione could be treated. She told him about her two appointments, and the Bone Marrow Biopsy that would be done tomorrow. “We didn’t get into the specific details about treatment, though. But my aunt died of cancer when I was 8, and she had chemotherapy which kills the cancer. But, I’m not sure what the treatment is for this cancer. Will you come with me tomorrow?” she asked, wondering if he would forgive her for keeping this from him.
“Of course,” he said kissing her head.

Hermione packed her small handbag with pyjamas, her pillow, an assortment of books, her photo album, paperwork for admission, muggle money, and a few other bits and pieces, ready for whatever this unfortunate journey may require. Arthur had managed to book them in to a Hotel nearby the Hospital. It was a Hotel for Witches and Wizards called the Creaky Phial and it was only a few towns away from the Hospital, which meant Hermione wouldn’t have to apparate so far.
There was a knock at the door, and downstairs Hermione heard the familiar voices of Molly, Arthur and Bill. After putting Ron’s backpack in her bag, she made her way down stairs to greet them. After a long hug and an extensive ‘good luck’ from everyone, Ron and Hermione went outside and apparated to the greeting hall of the Creaky Phial. They were greeted by a large, balding woman named Elmipha who greeted them with a handshake and walked them upstairs to their room. She was booked in for the biopsy at 11am, but needed to be there at 8am to go through everything.
“Dinner will start being served downstairs in the dining room in half an hour. Then we will have some um… pre supper entertainment,” she said with a smile and a wink and left. Hermione sat down, but after a minute she couldn’t hold herself up and she flopped down. “Ron, can you go into my bag and get me my pillow, pyjamas and my robes?” she asked.
“Bloody hell, Hermione, you’re not going to bed now are you? Tonight could be the last night we are actually out. Please come down for dinner and to watch whatever they’ve got going on down there with me,” he said.
“Ron, I’m not going to sleep. I just want to have everything ready for when I get back. Please, help,” she said, and Ron got her things for her.

They went down for dinner, and ate a three course meal, followed by hot cocoa, and fruit. The entertainment was a comedy show. It was very entertaining, there were three, apparently, professional comedians, and they had a stand up part at the end, allowing the audience to come up. Hermione and Ron sat at their table, drinking and eating their supper, and laughed. For two entire hours, they had forgotten what tomorrow would hold. They were so happy, living in the moment, together.

The next morning, Hermione woke up at 7. Ron helped her get dressed, and helped her downstairs – after triple checking everything was there. They thanked the maids and apparated to the alleyway near the hospital. They were greeted in the day procedure clinic by Dr. Wilson who shook hands with Ron, and pulled a chair up for himself next to the bed Hermione was laying in. “How have you been feeling?” he asked, knowing the answer.
“I feel… I feel so deprived of sleep, and energy. And I’m a bit scared,” she confessed.
Dr. Wilson smiled, sympathetically.
“Scared of what part?” he asked.
“All of it. The pain of the biopsy, the treatment, the outcomes… dying” she confessed.
“All real fears that every one of my patients have, Hermione. As for the pain, we will give you some medication to stop you from feeling the most of it, and hopefully all of the pain. The treatment, we will discuss when we get the results. Of course, your treatment will depend on the staging and what cells might be in your marrow, and the same about your outcomes. When I get the results I will be able to go through those things in much more detail. As for dying, we won’t know anything just yet. Try to take it day by day until we figure out what we are working with,” he explained to them. There was something different about this Hermione… she was different than all the patients he had taken care of.
“Okay, thank you doctor,” she said.

Pretty soon, it was time for the procedure. Dr. Wilson was in the sterile procedure room waiting for her. She was all gowned up and so was he. They had asked her to walk in, because she could, and she was instructed by the kind nurse to lay on the bed on her stomach.
“Now Hermione, we don’t usually offer a sedative, but we do give you a local anaesthetic. It will numb most of the pain, but you might still feel the pressure and it might hurt when we remove the biopsy, but everyone is different,” said Dr. Wilson, as he prepared the anaesthetic. “Just a sting now Hermione, take a deep breath,” he said and injected the needle.
Hermione tensed, it hurt a lot. But Ron was there, gowned up too, holding her hand. They had sat him in front of the bed so that he could hold her hand and help her breathe through it.
“Okay that’s done, can you feel it begin to numb?” he said applying pressure to the area.
“Yes I think so,” she said.
After a moment, he prepared the needle to perform the biopsy. “Hermione I need you to focus on your breathing, deep breaths. I’m just putting the needle in,” he said.
She felt pressure on her back as he put the needle into her bone.
“Okay, now I’m going to take a bit of fluid, and then I’ll take the tissue sample,” he said.
“Oww,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Does it hurt?” said Ron. Well of course, he thought.
“No just… stings a little,” she said. She looked into Ron’s eyes and focused on them. They were open with fear. She knew he didn’t want her to be in pain, and it scared him when she was because it was just something that he couldn’t fix.
“All done, Hermione,” said Dr. Wilson. “We’re just going to clean and bandage the area, and then we will wheel you back to your room."
She smiled at Ron, and then the bed was wheeled back to her room. She was transferred to her bed, and she fell right asleep, Ron holding her hand, and Dr. Wilson standing at the foot of her bed.