Chapter Text
Susan watched in horror as Professor Sprout levitated her best friend and rushed off to the hospital wing. She felt frozen, as if time were standing still, waiting for her to move. Her mind kept replaying what had just happened in her head. She had been looking at her gifts. Susan remembered feeling happy that Crystal liked the gift she had given her, but the next thing she remembered was hearing Crystal scream in pain.
Her hands shook as she raised them to cover her mouth. Blinking her eyes, she felt a wetness fall from them and run down her cheeks. Merlin, she never wanted to see that again. Her friend had been screaming as some red mist surrounded her, and Susan couldn't do anything to help but scream for someone—anyone—to come help. Who would do something like this?
She had got a good look at the contents of the gift that caused this—if you could call that a 'gift.' The box had been full of blood blossoms. Crystal's allergy to the blossoms was well known by now; she didn't try to hide it. Not like she would have been able to keep it secret for long. Gossip travels fast in the castle.
Susan realized she needed to let her aunt know about this. Someone had just tried to kill her best friend. She knew that if it was up to the professors, news of this wouldn't leave the castle's walls. She ran upstairs to her room and wrote a quick, frantic letter. The words were shaky, but they were readable, and that's all that mattered.
She was about to run to the owlery when a pecking at the window caused her to turn her head. There, on the windowsill, she saw Crystal's owl. Susan didn't know how the owl knew that she needed to send a letter, but she wasn't going to look a gifted hippogriff in the mouth. Rushing over, she unlatched the window and opened it.
"This needs to go to my aunt, Amelia Bones. Hurry, it's an emergency!" Susan tied the letter to Hedwig's leg. The owl gave a loud bark before it jumped from the windowsill and flew off.
She stood there for a bit, watching as Hedwig flew away into the distance. It was only when the owl flew so far that she couldn't see her that Susan turned around and went to the common room.
As much as she wanted to rush to the hospital wing, she knew that there would be nothing she could do down there right now. Her eyes landed on the pile of presents, and she frowned. Maybe she could take Crystal's things to her room for her? It was the least she could do, and it would help distract her from the fact that her friend had almost been killed.
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In the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey was barking orders at others while trying to restart Crystal's heart. It had stopped a minute before, and she needed to do something if she didn't want to lose the student. Thankfully, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout were there to help. Headmaster Dumbledore had been alerted by a house-elf about what was going on and was on his way.
They didn't have time to wait for him to get there. As the adults were trying to figure out what to do, Hermione Granger walked in with a skinned knee.
Hermione stared at the scene in front of her. She felt herself pale as she saw Madam Pomfrey trying to use spells to bring Crystal back to life. She froze for a moment, shaking, before running over. Thank Merlin, her parents—both dentists—had insisted she learn CPR.
She dodged the professors who tried to grab her and reached Crystal's side. Hermione started doing CPR, ignoring the adults who told her to get away. She knew they couldn't afford to move her with magic; they could hurt Crystal in the crossfire.
In the back of her mind, she wondered why the magicals didn't use CPR to start with; she didn't realize that magical healers, for the most part, ignored medical studies and techniques from the Muggle world.
She faintly heard Professor Flitwick speak in an alarmed and baffled tone of voice.
"Is–Is Ms. Granger kissing Ms. Potter while she's dead?"
Hermione felt her face flame up, but instead of stopping, she kept going, refusing to let her embarrassment stop her from saving a life.
"Ms. Granger!" She heard the voice of Professor McGonagall cry out, properly scandalized at one of her lions doing such a thing. "That is highly inappropriate behavior! Step away from Ms. Potter at once!"
Hermione, for the first time in her life, ignored the orders of a teacher. She refused to let Crystal die—not when Hermione needed to make up for her rude behavior to her. She didn't care that the professors thought she was trying to snog a dead body; right now, she was focused on restarting the girl's heart.
It took a few minutes of CPR, but soon she felt the body under her shudder as it came back to life. Crystal's eyes popped open as she gasped for air.
Hermione didn't notice that, though. The second Crystal had opened her eyes, she was stuck frozen in shock. Instead of the emerald green eyes that were normally on Crystal Potter's face, her eyes were now an icy blue color that Hermione knew well.
Soon, the blue faded back to emerald, but Hermione knew what she saw. She finally let herself be taken away from the girl on the bed, who was gasping for air. She was shaking in shock as she came down from the adrenaline that had been pumping through her veins since she saw the lifeless form of Crystal on the hospital bed. One question kept running through her mind, though.
Why did Crystal Potter have Sapphire Phantom's eyes?
"Ms. Granger, how did you do that?"
The voice of Professor Sprout brought her back to the present. She could ask Crystal Potter about her eyes changing colors later. She shakily turned to face the three professors. Madam Pomfrey was checking Crystal over to make sure her heart wasn't about to stop again.
"It's called CPR. It's where you push on a person's chest to stimulate a beating heart while blowing air in their mouth to fill their lungs with oxygen." Her gaze moved to Crystal, and the reality of what she just did finally hit her; if it wasn't for Professor McGonagall steadying her, then she would have fallen.
"I–I'm so glad it worked. It doesn't always work to restart a heart, but Merlin, am I glad it worked this time," Hermione cried, wrapping her arms around herself as she watched the healer hover over Crystal.
Just then, the doors to the hospital wing burst open, and Albus Dumbledore and Amelia Bones stormed into the room together. For once, it looked like Albus didn't seem to mind having the Head Auror in the school.
Dumbledore's face was stormy, furious that Crystal had almost died like this. No one knew it, but it wasn't the fact she almost died that had him furious; it was the fact that she almost died before the correct time.
Amelia, on the other hand, looked like she was about to breathe fire. She was enraged that someone would try to kill a child. She was going to find out who sent those blood blossoms and make them regret it.
"Is Ms. Potter alright, Pomfrey?" Dumbledore asked, his voice full of anger and concern.
Madam Pomfrey nodded. "Thanks to Ms. Granger doing something she calls CPR, she is. I don't know if we would have been able to restart her heart with magic."
Amelia spoke up next. "What's CPR?"
Hermione then had to explain what CPR was once again. At the end of the explanation, she offered to teach the adults on the off chance they ever needed it. Madam Pomfrey and Director Bones jumped at the chance to learn a new way to save lives.
The other professors hesitated before agreeing that it would be best to learn this CPR thing as well—even the Headmaster said it would be wise to learn.
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Crystal didn't know what was going on; the last thing she remembered was Professor Sprout levitating her before she blacked out. The next thing she remembered was waking up, gasping for air, with Hermione Granger's teary face hovering over her own.
She was exhausted. She just wanted to go back to sleep, but Madam Pomfrey said she had to stay awake so she could be sure everything was alright. The healer had been so nice to her in the past; Crystal didn't want to upset her, so she forced herself to stay awake. She vaguely registered the others in the room talking about CPR. She didn't know magicals knew what CPR was?
Her chest felt sore. Did this mean that someone had to use CPR on her? The image of Hermione flashed in her mind; maybe that was why that girl was hovering over her when she came to.
Wait, this meant she died. Like, fully died. Her soul was probably en route to the Ghost Zone when she was brought back. This realization made her feel like a bucket of ice had just been dropped over her head. She loved the Ghost Zone and visiting Danny whenever she could, but she still wanted to live.
If it hadn't been for Danny's Christmas gift to her, she would have died all the way! Help wouldn't have reached her in time. Merlin, even with the amulet, she still almost died. That was terrifying.
She wanted to grow up one day, maybe get married, and have kids! She couldn't do that if she were fully dead. Madam Pomfrey noticed her rising panic—the way her hands started shaking and the sweat coating her face. She forced Crystal to drink a calming draught before finally allowing her to rest.
Right before she fell asleep, she heard the Headmaster and someone else come into the room. She didn't care, though; she was so tired it was a fight to keep her eyes open. At least this time, when the darkness claimed her, she knew that she was going to wake up again.