"Pity how the terrorists destroyed it during the war," the healer said. "Then again," he eyed Hermione's clothing and wrists and his lip curled, "I suppose you were one of them."
"Not one who ever attacked a hospital," Hermione said.
It had been a favoured tactic of Voldemort's; attack places that should have been neutral and frame the Resistance terrorists for it. It had helped ally the public with Voldemort, and driven the Resistance further underground.
Hermione remembered when they'd gotten word the Albanian hospital had been blown up. There'd been almost no survivors; all the healers who had mentored Hermione had died in the rubble.
The Resistance in Albania had disappeared soon after.
The specialist continued to study the diagnostic reading over Hermione for several more minutes before he made it vanish with a flick of his wand. He cast a few charms that Hermione felt sink in and it grew strangely cold feeling toward the front of her brain. Then the healer leaned forward and added a drop of Essence of Dittany to her eye.
"I think you may actually make a full recovery. Keep the lights low and apply Essence of Dittany every two hours during the day and an extra drop just before you go to sleep for the next two weeks. Do that, and I think there may end up being little to no long term impairment in your vision."
Hermione watched one-eyed as he stood and turned toward Malfoy, straightening his robes pompously.
"I must say, that's an exceptional little healer you've got there. When you told me what happened I was expecting she'd end up mostly blind in the eye. Sanentur spells are quite obscure and injury-specific. It's remarkable she had the presence of mind to distinguish that it would be appropriate for repairing that particular type of puncture."
"Quite fortunate," Malfoy said, his tone bland. "Is there anything else you recommend? I'm under strict orders to keep her in good condition. I don't want anything overlooked."
"Well — perhaps a cool compress. Essence of Dittany works best in the eyes when kept at a cool temperature. And — ah — um. Nourishing food. Chicken broths and the like. To help the body heal. She probably knows."
"Very well," Malfoy said, straightening and indicating toward the door of Hermione's room which the house-elves had repaired.
The healer looked down at Hermione again.
"Quite exceptional," he said again in a wondering voice. "Pity. Such a waste of talent."
"Hmm," Malfoy said noncommittally.
"And you, sir. Quite remarkable you could perform the spells so well. Very impressive collaboration. You could be a healer yourself."
"So I keep being told," Malfoy said with an insincere smile. "Do you think St Mungo's will still hire me after I murdered someone in their waiting room?"
The healer blanched. "Well — What I mean is—"
"If there's nothing else, I'll see you out," Malfoy cut him off and strode from the room.
Hermione spent most of the next several days in bed. A House-elf arrived every two hours with a vial of Essence of Dittany, watched her as she applied a drop to her eye, and then popped away again.
After four days, her vision within an arm's length was mostly recovered but, beyond that radius, things became blurry and it hurt to try to focus.
Malfoy did not appear again but Hermione thought she heard his footsteps in the hallway.
Then Healer Stroud came.
"You've had a rather unfortunate month, I hear," Stroud said, conjuring a medical table and waiting for Hermione to approach
Hermione said nothing as she went over and seated herself on the edge of it. Stroud pulled a vial of veritaserum out and Hermione opened her mouth and accepted the drop on her tongue.
Stroud cast a general diagnostic on Hermione and they both studied it. Hermione's eye was doing better. Her sodium levels were normal. Her cortisol levels were extremely high.
They were always high, but there was a marked spike in them.
Stroud sighed and wrote something in Hermione's file before casting a pregnancy detection charm.
Hermione already knew what the result of the charm would be. She stared pointedly at the clock on the wall. Her imbalanced vision meant she couldn't make out the numbers anymore or even the hands unless she closed her left eye.
There was a long silence. So long that Hermione finally looked back and found Healer Stroud had cast a more detailed diagnostic of Hermione's reproductive system.
Hermione couldn't make out all the readings clearly but she recognised enough to know that there was nothing unusual in it. She glanced up at Healer Stroud's face.
It was blurred but Hermione could still make out the familiar tensed irritation around the woman's mouth as she manipulated the diagnostic with her wand.
"You're still not pregnant," Stroud said flatly.
The words were both an accusation and a condemnation.
Hermione didn't flinch or even blink. Healer Stroud continued, "You're one of the only ones still not pregnant. And in the case of the others, it is because the — sires have issues of their own."