Chapter Four
Induction

The results came back two days later, and Hermione was called at the Leaky Phial to make an appointment. The miraculous thing about the Leaky Phial was the way its visitors could use Muggle electricity and magic. The two never clashed. Their room was what they classified "Muggle Living" and it had a telephone, which Ron had fun with, and even a TV, which Hermione had fun with. They decided to take the two days to lock themselves away from the world and spend time together. They hadn't had much time to do that for... well, since the Summer Holidays following the Battle of Hogwarts. Ron or Hermione were either working or Hermione needed to study, so their timetable clash left little time for them to have more than a night together. This was good - two whole days.

They had breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in bed. They went shopping at the muggle supermarkets, and Hermione cooked! Ron was overjoyed. She hadn't cooked since about two months prior. She just didn't have the energy, but after the biopsy she just found a small pocket of energy and took none of it for granted. Both nights they had a romantic bath in the spa-sized tub. Bubbles, chocolates and champagne! They fell asleep at the same time, and woke up together. Then they would sip their morning tea together and talk. No rushing, no silence to read the paper, instead they had all the time in the world... for those two days. They almost forgot about what they were facing, but it was still in the back of their mind.

So, when Hermione got the phone call on the Thursday morning to let her know about the appointment, they now faced the answers which neither of them wanted to hear.
"Hello, Hermione, it's Dr. Wilson. How are you?" he asked.
"I'm okay, Thank you, but please, just let me know what's going on," she replied.
"You need to come in today, we have your results. Will you be free after 12?" he asked.
"Yes, I will be. I'll be there at 12," she said, "Goodbye," and hung up the phone. Ron had just choked on his tea, and Hermione stared at him.
"What did he say?" Ron asked.
"Um... We have to be there by 12," she replied, and looked at the clock on the wall. "Two hours," she said, and her stomach dropped. Two hours until the end of her life.
Ron looked down into his mug. Hermione grabbed a towel and moped up the spilled tea.
"Ron, can we please leave the room? I can't stay in here," she said - suddenly feeling out of breath.
"Calm down," Ron said to her, standing up and rubbing her back. "Take some deep breaths," he said, and instructed her.
After a few moments, she calmed down. "I have to stop panicking," she said. She walked over to the bed and got her bag, and they left. They walked around the block a bit, and went to some Muggle shops. Hermione was already very familiar with the items in the shops, but Ron was most interested. He found things like Mobile Phone Socks. He just didn't understand - phones didn't have feet! He saw children's picture books with pictures that didn't move... "Why aren't the pictures moving?" he asked her, shaking the book, poking the pictures, flicking them... even talking to them. She laughed, explaining it all to him. He still didn't understand.

At 11.30 they made their way to the hospital. Hermione was gripping Ron's hand with a great squeeze, and he was trying not to ask her to release it. They went up to the Receptionist who told them "Please take a seat, Dr. Wilson won't be long."
They sat down, and Ron picked up a magazine. Again - no moving pictures! What was the interesting thing about seeing the Hollywood celebrities being caught doing something, without actually seeing their response? It just didn't interest him. He liked his mum's and Ginny's gossip magazines with people like Iris Scaplen being caught doing her private business behind a bush, seeing the cameras flashing and running away, trying to pull her pants up. That was funny! But before he could ask Hermione, Dr. Wilson came out of his office.

"Hermione," he said, waiting for her to stand up and come into his office with Ron. He shook both their hands, and gestured for them to sit down. He had her file on the desk, and a look of concern on his face. "Now, we have the results, as I said. They... came back to show that you do have Leukaemia, Hermione. I'm very sorry. Now, the cancer has been progressing for quite some time, so treatment will begin almost instantly. Our first step is to insert a Hickman line which is an intravenous catheter surgically inserted under your skin in your chest, and the line will go directly to a larger vein near your heart. The point of that is to allow us to administer your chemotherapy without needing to constantly insert new peripheral lines. Are you free today for insertion of the line?" he asked gently.
"Uhm, Ron? I think I am," she said, a bit puzzled. She was a bit shocked at how well she had taken the news. Sure, she knew there was a high chance she was sick, but she had kept that little part open just in case it was all a mistake. But it wasn't, and here she was accepting what she was hearing, inner-preparing herself for what was soon to come.
Ron nodded, and Dr. Wilson spoke. "Okay, well I'll get the nurses to prepare you for the procedure. We will put you under sedation because it can be quite scary, especially with what lays ahead," he explained. The nurse came in and escorted her to a bed, where she sat and waited with Ron for about an hour. Dr. Wilson finally came up, showing her the line that would be inserted, and explained some of the chemotherapy drugs that would be administered, and explained all the various side effects. "The biggest ones which I'm sure you are aware of, is hair loss, nausea, vomiting and bleeding. There are things we can do to help control the nausea and vomiting, but we can't do much to prevent hair loss, or bleeding. Then there is the extremely high risk of infection due to the destruction of all your good cells. You will get sick easier, so we ask visitors not to come in when they are ill, and if you do get sick you might need to be in isolation. But, it is only for your benefit."

The nurse came in and helped prepare the area, and helped her to the procedure room. The doctor administered the anaesthetic and she fell asleep. When she woke up, about two hours later, Ron was there reading a magazine with a puzzled look on his face. Hermione let out a very weak laugh, and looked at her newly installed Hickman line, ready to start the treatment.

Dr. Wilson came in a few minutes after she had woken up to explain the treatment further. "Now, if you would like we can leave treatment until Monday morning, and give you the weekend to visit friends and family members, collect some things and come back for 8am Monday. Now, we usually begin treatment with the Induction phase which is the first phase of chemotherapy and aims to kill all the cancerous cells in your body. We will do 6-8 rounds of that, and each round will last a week. In that week you will have three days of chemotherapy, and five days of recovery before we start again. The first three weeks we will try to have you in hospital, but after that we will see how you are doing and you might be able to go home for the five days recover. Do you understand what I'm saying?" he asked.
"Yes. So I can go home and see people and then we begin Monday?"
"That's right," he said. He gave her a folder of information specific to her leukaemia, treatment, and her own booklet for dates and times of appointments, and phases. Ron helped her dress and they went to the Leaky Phial, packed up all their things and apparated home. They hadn't checked out because they would be returning. They went straight to The Burrow, where Molly and Arthur were, and they explained everything. Hermione was so strong, and didn't break down. Molly however did. Arthur looked like he had been deprived of sleep the entire time they had been in America. They spent the rest of the day hugging, talking about the next 2 months, and when George, Ginny, Harry, Percy, Bill and Fleur came home for dinner, they broke the news...