Chapter 4

Harry awoke with a jolt to the sound of an explosion.
He sat upright so fast he became dizzy and fell back onto his pillow.

Blood curdling screams sounded straight afterwards, but stopped abruptly.
Harry accomplished sitting up the second time round.

Looking around the dimly lit room Harry realised he didn't know where he was or how he got there.
Shouts were coming from downstairs and Harry sighed in relief because he defiantly recognised Mrs Weasly's voice, Harry knew he was safe if she was here.

"What did you think you were doing testing that in the house!? She screamed "you've probably woken Harry with all of that racket! Now tidy this mess up while I go check on him!"

Harry smiled to himself as he thought of how much he had missed Mrs Weasly's frequent telling off.

After a minute or two he briefly remembered being beat up, but everything else was a blur because a headache was making it almost impossible for him to think.
Looking down at himself there appeared to be no injuries, and apart from his blood stained clothes there was no evidence of him being hurt in anyway.

Finding his glasses on the bedside cabinet and putting them on, Harry looked more closely at his residence. The curtains were drawn, blocking almost all of the light, but he could just still see. The room was vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.

Movement on the far wall made him jump in fear.
A cleaver looking man with a pointed beard, wearing green and silver robes was staring at Harry out of his picture frame mounted on the wall.
It was Phineas Nigellus, Sirius' great-great grandfather.

"Ohhh…you're awake…finally' He said in a bored voice "Feeling better?"
The expression on his face showed that he wouldn't have cared less if Harry had never regained consciousness.
"Umm…yeah, thanks" Harry replied not sure what to say.

Phineas turned and walked out of his portrait without even saying goodbye muttering
"Job done, perhaps I can get some sleep now"

Harry just sat there in stunned silence for a moment, finally knowing where he was.
Number twelve, Grimmauld Place, was the last place he wanted to be.

There was a gentle knock, a pause, and then Mrs Weasly's red hair and friendly face appeared as she opened the door.
"Oh, your up, that's good" she said in a hushed voice as if he was on his deathbed "you'll want something to eat of course"
Without waiting for a reply she waved her wand and a plate that was piled high with sandwiches appeared on the bedside table next to him.

Mrs Weasly moved over to the windows and pulled back the curtains, letting sunlight stream into the room, hurting Harry's eyes.

She turned with a smile on her face towards Harry, but it vanished the moment she looked directly at him and it was replaced with a look of pain.
"I-I want you to eat all of those sandwiches before I get back" she stammered looking in every direction apart from his.

Mrs Weasly moved towards the door to go, but turned to look at him one last time as if to confirm something.
Her eyes filled with tears as she looked into Harry's face.
"Mrs Weasly, what's wrong!?" asked Harry shocked.

He threw back the covers and made to get out of bed to come towards her, but she hurried over and forced him back under the blankets.
"No…no…stay in bed Harry dear" she cried tucking him in as tears poured silently down her face.
"What's wrong…?" he asked again, this time in a more gentle tone.

She sat on the end of his bed and wiped her tears away with the apron she was wearing.
"It-It's just, why didn't you tell us how bad you were coping!" she sobbed, fresh tears leaking down her face "In your letters, y-you said you were f-fine"

Harry stared at her, still puzzled as to what was going on.
"I am fine" he replied.
"No, your-your not!" she moaned.
"What's wrong with me?" asked Harry, starting to feel slightly unnerved.
"Your Aunt told us what you did after you got home" Mrs Weasly answered "Y-you locked yourself in your room and wouldn't come out, y-you even stopped eating" she said taking great shuddering gasps.

Harry remained silent; he hadn't thought he was hurting anyone else but himself.
"I know you cared about Sirius, but please, don't think you are alone, you've still got us…"

At these words she completely broke down into floods of tears, and pulled Harry into a motherly hug.
Harry's own eyes were filling with tears now because of guilt and the mention of Sirius.

They stayed like that for a whole minute, but eventually broke apart.
Mrs Weasly seemed better and she gave him a comforting watery smile.

Regaining her composure and wiping the remaining tears away, she walked out of the room and went downstairs leaving Harry alone in silence.

Harry looked down at his T-shirt to see that it was soaking wet from Mrs Weasly's tears. Spotting clean, fresh clothes draped over the back of a chair in the corner Harry got up and changed, hoping nobody wouldn't walk in through the door.
It took a while because he was still sore all over, but he managed it.

On his way back to his bed, Harry caught sight of himself in the mirror on the wardrobe and gasped in horror.

No wonder Mrs Weasly got upset whenever she looked at him.
Harry even wondered if he was looking at someone else and not himself, because he hadn't looked in a mirror for a whole month.

Harry looked painfully thin and his clothes were literally hanging off him.
His face was deathly pale and sunken, like a skull, and his black hair was the messiest it had ever been.
Harry's usually bright green eyes were dull, as well as bloodshot from lack of sleep and tears.
But the thing that scared him the most, was the fact his appearance was similar to the first time he came face to face with Voldermort's human form.

Harry stood there for a while, staring at himself in disgust.
He finally turned away, when there was a knock on his door.

"Harry? It's me and Hermione, can we come in?" Ron called from outside.
Harry wanted to see his best friends, but he didn't want them to see him.
"No!" he shouted back.
"Stop being stupid, it's only us," said Hermione in a disapproving tone "we're coming in anyway, so make sure you're decent!"

Harry looked wildly around the room for a place to hide, but there weren't any good ones, so he jumped back into bed and pulled the sheets over his head, determined that they weren't going to see him, just as the door opened and both of them walked in.

"Hi! -errr, what are you doing mate?" Ron asked.
"I'm not letting you see me like this" Harry replied in a muffled voice under the covers.

"Oh stop being so childish" Hermione complained "you can't look that bad"
There was a sudden tug on the sheets pulling them away and Harry was exposed.

Hermione jumped backward away from him with a small scream and hid behind Ron.

Ron on the other hand just stood frozen to the spot in shock with his mouth slightly open, holding the bed sheets in his arms.

"You look terrible!" he gasped.
"I know! That's why I didn't want you to see me!" Harry said in an exasperated tone.

He was very aware of the fact that they were just staring at him with appalled expressions on their faces, so Harry tried to start a conversation to distract them.

Looking closely at the pair of them, he saw that they both had scorch marks on there clothes, so he questioned them about it.
"Why are your clothes burnt?"

"Ginny set off one of Fred's and George's tester products, it didn't work properly and blew up half of the kitchen" Ron said quietly.

He didn't say anything else, making it was obvious that he did not want to discuss it further, so Harry changed topic.

"Umm…so…how was your holiday?" he asked Ron.
"Er, all right, I guess" he mumbled, now looking at a stain on carpet.
"I bet it was better than mine!" Harry joked, realising his plan wasn't working.
"How about you?" he asked looking round Ron at Hermione.

She let out a squeak, but didn't say anything and continued to stare wide-eyed at him.

"Oh for goodness sake! It's me, Harry! Your best friend?" he snapped.

"We-we know that" Ron stammered "you just startled us a bit, that's all"
Next to him Hermione nodded fervently but remained silent.
"Anyway, this is the first time we've seen you properly" Ron said in self-defence.
"Huh? What do you mean properly? Harry curiously asked.

Ron sat down on the end of Harry's bed, as if he knew it would take a long time to explain, and Hermione sat on the chair in the corner, both of them now looked slightly more relaxed.

"Well, it all started when Mum, Ginny, Hermione and me were sitting in the kitchen just talking, when all of a sudden there's a load of wind and Lupin appears out of nowhere holding a can - hey, it must have been a portkey" he added as an after thought
"anyway, he had you on a levitated stretcher and you were in a bad state, you were really white and covered with blood…we - we thought you were dead mate"

Ron seemed to pale at the memory of this and Hermione let out another frightened squeak.

"Mum screamed when she saw you and looked like she was going to faint, but Lupin calmed her down and they took you upstairs.
We weren't allowed out of the kitchen, never mind allowed to see you.
Of course, we all questioned Mum about you when she came downstairs, but she ignored us and went straight to the fire where she contacted Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore.
Pomfrey apparated in the kitchen seconds later, with nothing more than her wand and she went straight up to you."

Ron paused to get his breath back, because he had said it all in a rush,
Hermione finally spoke up and continued for him.

"We stayed up all night but didn't learn anything till two in the morning, after Madam Pomfrey left.
Professor Lupin came downstairs and told us you'd been in a muggle fight - is it true?"

Harry nodded and gestured for her to continue.
Hermione frowned at him, showing her obvious disapproval, but Harry chose to ignore this, so she carried on.

"He also said you had a concussion, a broken nose, severe bruising, and three broken ribs which managed to puncture one of your lungs causing internal bleeding.
You almost drowned in your own blood, and you'd lost so much, Madam Pomfrey had to make a blood replenishing potion using substitute ingredients from around the house!" Hermione said all of this very quickly, her voice rising till she sounded hysterical and then stopped, apparently in awe of Madam Pomfrey's skills.

"I can add two broken fingers and a split lip to the list" Harry laughed.
Hermione scowled at him.
"It's not funny! What did you think you were doing!?" she asked sternly, sounding just like Mrs Weasly "and on your Birthday as well!"
"Hey! It wasn't my fault! I didn't start it! And four on one isn't very fair!" Harry protested "I also didn't have a choice as to what day it happened on!"

"Harry, why didn't you use your wand?" Ron asked looking thoughtful.
"I didn't have it on me" Harry said simply.
"You wouldn't have been able to use it anyway, because of the Reasonable Restriction of underage Sorcery and the International Statue of Secrecy" Hermione recalled.
"Yeah, that's the other reason, it's not like I can forget, I've been charged with it twice before" said Harry sourly.

"Oh right…where is your wand" Ron questioned looking around the room as if expecting it to appear.
"Probably still in the bushes outside my house"
"How did it get there?" asked Hermione at once.
"My Uncle threw it out of my bedroom window before he tried to beat me to a pulp.
I got out of that fight, but ended up in another" Harry answered with a bitter smile because of the irony.

"Your Uncle did what!?" Shrieked Hermione, obviously surprised a family member would try such a terrible thing.
"It doesn't matter" Harry said quickly, not wanting to pursue the topic.

Reaching over to his bedside cabinet, he picked up his plate of sandwiches and offered them one.
"Thanks mate, I'm starv-OW! What was that for?" Ron whimpered rubbing the back of his hand because Hermione had just smacked it as he was reaching for a sandwich.
"Harry needs to eat those, he needs to get better" Hermione scolded.
"You sound just like my Mum!" Ron criticised.

"And it's a good job too, Ronald Weasly" came a voice from behind them.

All three turned simultaneously to look in the direction of the door.
Mrs Weasly stood there with her arms folded and she was frowning.

"Hi mum" Ron said weakly.
"You two need to leave Harry alone, he needs to build his strength and to do that he needs to eat and sleep.
Go on downstairs, lunch is in the kitchen" she said authoritatively.
Mrs Weasly stepped sideways to let the pair of them out of the door.

They both said goodbye to him and as Ron was leaving Harry heard him grumble to Hermione "see what I mean, you're exactly the same!"

When they had disappeared downstairs, Mrs Weasly gave Harry a stern look and ordered him to eat while she watched closely, which strangely reminded him of Aunt Petunia.

After he had finished and Mrs Weasly finally seemed satisfied, she told him to get some sleep.
Before she left she drew the curtains again, leaving Harry alone and in the dark.

He lay there a while longer thinking about how close he had come to death yet again, but he soon realised how exhausted he was and willingly drifted off into the first dreamless sleep he had in weeks.