Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from either "General Hospital" or Harry Potter, they are the respective property of their owners. No copyright infringement is intended, no profit is being made from this work of fiction.

A/N: AU

Ron Weasley had no idea how he wound up in a Muggle hospital halfway across the world. One minute he was scurrying to catch up to Ginny and his mother as they were wending their way through a shipyard, and the next minute, he was waking up in a blindingly white room with strange tubes sticking out of him every which way. There was a persistent beeping noise which confounded him and made his head twinge with pain.

Confused, he scrabbled at the tubes, struggling to free himself of their grasp. It wasn't until one of the hospital staff walked in to check out the high-pitched alarm he'd inadvertently set off, that he realized he was in some sort of hospital. In a panic, he fell off the bed and crawled on the cold linoleum floor until he found a corner far away from the door and the approaching doctors. He pulled his knees up to his chest and wound his arms tight around his legs. Whimpering in fear, he buried his head between his knees.

"Please don't hurt me," he whispered repeatedly. "Please don't hurt me. Don't hur…t me. D…don't h…hu…rt me. P…pl..please d…d…do…n't hurt me… " An unclear memory, distorted and dark at the edges came to the fore and yet he couldn't understand it. It was like large chunks of the memory were missing. He remembered running and then falling. No, being pushed.

He fought off the nurse, a slight woman with dark hair, who approached him. Scrunching further into the corner until his back hurt with the effort; he pushed her reaching hands away, his repeated mantra grew in pitch and took on a frantic edge to it that frightened her. She backed away slightly and looked to the others standing in the room with her for help.

Dr. Patrick Drake watched as Nurse Persephone Matthews attempted to calm the panicky teen who'd been brought to General Hospital a few hours ago by Jason Morgan. Apparently he'd found him, shivering and disoriented at the edge of the pier.

He'd been called in to check on the boy's head injury and had walked into a room awash with doctors and nurses and a clearly distraught patient who had backed himself into a corner. The new nurse was making a valiant, yet failed attempt to capture the boy's flailing arms and an orderly had been called in to administer a mild sedative.

Stepping up beside the nurse, he caught a glimpse of the boy's red hair amidst the din and heard the boy's terrified mantra. From what he could see and hear the boy was not in a right frame of mind. That could mean that he had suffered severe brain trauma, or it could mean that he was simply confused and frightened.

"Nurse, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure, the alarms went off, and when I got here, he'd already pulled out all of the IV tubes and was crouched in the corner. We've been trying to calm him, but nothing has worked. I called for help and, well, you're all caught up now," came her flustered reply.

She backed away from the frantic child and was seriously considering pursuing a new occupation. This situation had definitely been far out of her comfort zone. She had liked her rotation working with the neonatal unit and the geriatrics rotation hadn't been too bad either, but this situation and the emergency room in general was far too intense for her. She was exhausted and completely emotionally drained and she still had four hours left on her shift. She honestly did not know how she was going to make it through the next four hours. Nurse Johnson was already on her case as it was, after this failure she was bound to be even lower on the bristly head nurse's approval scale.

"I…I tried talking to him," she said defensively when Dr. Drake looked up from the boy who'd gone still, save for his reiterated intonation. His arms were wrapped around his drawn up knees once again, his head resting atop them. "I…I tried to get him to stop," her voice cracked, "to calm him down, but he just, he, he wouldn't."

Seeing what she mistakenly thought was disapproval in the doctor's eyes, she turned and fled the room, emotional and physical exhaustion having taken their toll on her. Before she made it around the corner in the corridor, she collided with what felt like a brick wall only to be caught up in strong arms before she cold fall flat on her ass.

"Are you okay Miss?"

Embarrassed and weary, Persephone turned a bright shade of pink and tried to disentangle herself from the muscular arms of her 'rescuer' for lack of a better word. 'Would be hallway assassin' just didn't seem fair, especially as it was technically she who had been fleeing a patient's room and had collided with him.

"Fine," she muttered, angry with herself for her overreaction to the whole situation, "I'm fine," she reassured the man who had finally released his hold on her.

Now that she could do so, she took a step back and looked at the walking brick wall, nearly fainting as she realized that she had inadvertently run into the infamous Jason Morgan. She'd heard all about the alleged hit man who worked for the equally alleged mob boss, Michael 'Sonny' Corinthos, when she had first moved to Port Charles to begin her nursing internship, but she had no idea he was so drop-dead gorgeous. His eyes were mesmerizing pools of sapphire blue and currently she was being hypnotized by them, there was no other way to explain her present state of immobility and inability to formulate coherent thought.

"Uh…?" She eloquently replied when she realized that he had asked her a question she hadn't even heard, in spite of the fact that her eyes had been steadfast upon his rather mouthwatering lips.

"What happened?" He gestured in the direction of the room she'd just escaped. "Is the kid okay?"

The concern in his voice caused her heart to flutter. Could this obviously kindhearted man really be a coldblooded killer?

"I'm not sure," she replied hesitantly, ashamed of how much out of her element she had felt in that room not five minutes before. "He just freaked out and I couldn't get him to calm down. Dr. Drake is in there with him now."

"Thank you, Miss?" Jason's eyes were on her, a question in them and she felt faint."

"Miss Matthews," she supplied breathlessly. "But you can call me Persephone," she offered, blushing and feeling foolish.

"Thank you Miss Matthews." Jason smiled his gratitude and she nodded, quickly turning and walking to the nurse's station before she could embarrass herself even further.

Jason shook his head and headed in the direction of the room Nurse Matthews had vacated. He could hear Patrick's voice and stood just outside the door, listening.

"My name is Dr. Drake," he spoke quietly. "What's your name?"

Jason peered around the door, slightly alarmed at what he saw. The red-haired kid he'd brought to the hospital earlier was sitting on the floor, his back to a corner, knees drawn up protectively. His blue eyes were eyeing the doctor who was standing across from him with wariness and distrust.

"Pl…ease don't hurt me," the kid's voice was hoarse as he pleaded with the doctor.

"Is everything alright?" Jason walked into the room and carefully approached the two. The kid's eyes darted to him and he read relief in them.

"I've got it handled Jason," Patrick replied, not taking his eyes off his patient.

"I see," Jason said without sarcasm. He knelt next to the frightened kid, so that they were at eyelevel. "You're safe now; no one is going to hurt you. I've brought you to a hospital," he explained.

The kid's eyes bore into his, questioning and searching for truth. They were bright with unshed tears and Jason's heart clenched. The kid reminded him of Michael and Spinelli rolled up into one.

"I…" the kid gulped, looking at a point over Jason's shoulder where Dr. Drake stood. "I've never been to hospital before," he whispered, tucking his chin behind his knees.

"That's okay," Jason assured him, smiling, "I don't much like hospitals myself."

"Are," the kid bit his bottom lip, "is," he drew a deep breath in, "are they going to hurt me?" He asked in a single breath.

"No," Jason promised, "they're going to help you."

"I…" the kid raised his head, "I…there was all this stuff attached to me when I woke up, what's it all for?"

"Most of it is to monitor things like your heart rate and brainwaves. Some of it is to make sure that you are getting enough nutrients and being kept hydrated," Dr. Drake answered, pointing out the different machines and IVs as he spoke.

Ron peered around Jason as Dr. Drake spoke, looking at everything in turn. It was overwhelming and he was confused. Where were his parents and Ginny? Where were Fred and George? They had all been on vacation together and here he was, alone in a Muggle hospital. His father would be ecstatic, but he was just frightened.

"Can you tell me your name?" Dr. Drake was now crouched next to Jason and looking him in the eye.

"Uh, sure," he tucked his chin into his knees again, "I'm Ronald Bilius Weasley, but you can call me Ron."

"Okay Ron." Dr. Drake smiled and it eased some of his fear. "I need to examine you, make sure that the bump on your head didn't cause any permanent damage," he explained carefully. Ron felt the back of his head experimentally, wincing when his fingers came into contact with a large knot. "Think you can get up? Jason," he looked at the man next to him for confirmation and Ron saw him nod, "and I will help you onto the hospital bed. Okay?"

Ron nodded. His heart felt as though it were going to thud right through his chest.