Henry blearily woke up to the sterile white environment of the Hogwarts hospital wing. It disoriented him. Why wasn't he waking in his dormitory?
Then it all came back to him. He had been serving detention in the forest. He had met a park ranger tending to an injured wolf mother, and a masked poacher had attacked them. Henry had been shot in the leg trying to escape, and he fell…
"It's good to see you awake, Mr. Fergus."
A really short lady with wavy black hair pulled into a bun entered the room. It was Nurse Pam, one of the school nurses.
"You were out for a week. To think, you had a bullet wound to the leg and then a concussion too! And yet you have no infections, only a small bone fracture, and no lasting brain trauma! I can't even begin to say how ridiculously lucky you are. If Dr. Ann's associates hadn't found you in time…"
Henry wasn't listening to her. He was in shock, and the scene from the forest kept replaying in his head. While he tried to think of a way to distract himself, He reached down and touched the place on his leg were his wound was. It was in a cast.
"Are you even listening to me? I said to leave it alone!"
Startled, Henry jolted his hand away from his cast.
Tentatively, he asked, "Do you know how much longer I'm going to be in here?
"For about a month or so I'm afraid," said Nurse Pam. And then you're going to need to use crutches for a while. Really, why they let you in the forest when there were crooks about I have no idea. As if two life-threatening incidents weren't enough for this year…"
She glanced sympathetically towards a familiar dark-complexioned first-year and walked away towards her office as Henry did a double take. It was Mike Greene.
As if sensing Henry's gaze, Mike opened his eyes and glared back before Henry had the chance to look away.
"What is this, a zoo?" asked Mike. "You're in the hospital wing too, you know, it's not that strange a sight. You're not hitting on me, are you?"
"Are you saying I was staring at you?" asked Henry incredulously. "Because I wasn't. I only just noticed you were here as you woke up. And what does 'hitting on someone mean' anyway?"
Mike looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure that it has something to do with dating though."
"Uggh, I don't want to date you!"
Mike frowned. Realizing that he might have said something offensive, Henry added, "No offense, I don't mean that I think you'd be a horrible date, uh I mean, I don't think I swing that way…but I'm not into all that mushy romantic stuff yet anyway, so…"
This was getting awkward. He was trying to explain that he was still at the so-called "cootie" stage, but because he accidentally said something offensive, he lost his handle on the situation.
"Whatever," said Mike, not paying attention. Then he asked, "Why haven't you been attending the Quidditch games?"
"I don't like Quidditch," said Henry.
"But it's a school wide-event," Mike pressed. "Everybody goes to them. Including all of the teachers, and you know they don't like leaving us first years wandering the building unsupervised."
"But Dr. Cook and Instructor Hayne didn't go to the first one," said Henry.
Mike frowned suspiciously. "Did you see them?"
"Yes," said Henry.
"What were they doing?"
Henry hesitated. He didn't want to spread his and Dr. Cook's suspicion of Instructor Hayne, since they didn't have any real proof yet. So instead he asked a question back to Mike.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I think one of them is trying to kill me," said Mike.
Henry was stunned. "You think Instructor Hayne is trying to kill you?" and then he clapped his hand over his mouth.
"Instructor Hayne? Why do you think it's him and not Dr. Cook?" Mike narrowed his eyes. "You know something, don't you." It was not a question.
Henry sighed. "You remember that time there was an intruder?"
"Yeah," said Mike. "The one who beat up Instructor Hayne on Halloween. How could I forget?"
"I think he was faking it," said Henry.
Mike raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you see his injuries?" he asked incredulously. "And he fainted, right in the middle of the dining hall!"
"Think about it," Henry argued. "He was the only teacher to arrive late to the Halloween feast. Who else could have let in the intruder?"
"What makes you think the intruder was let in?" asked Mike. "Perhaps he got in of his own accord."
Henry thought about it for a moment before saying, "Why didn't any security alarms go off then? Why did we have to wait to find out from Instructor Hayne?"
Mike still looked skeptical. "I don't know. Maybe the intruder found a way to disable them before he got in?" He didn't look so sure of that though.
"Why would Instructor Hayne be trying to kill you though?" Henry asked. Mike didn't answer.
They sat in silence for the rest of the day, each of them absorbed in their own thoughts, and then later using their school PDA's to browse the internet, check their email and the like.
Over the next few weeks, Henry recieved his homework through email or delivery from Regulus or Hayato, during which he told them what had happened. They also sent him news about goings-on outside the hospital wing. Most of the information was irrelevant to Henry, but he did find out about how Mike Greene got in the hospital wing earlier that month. He was injured during the December Grydfindor vs. Huflepuff Quidditch match because his bike's computer had been tampered with, causing the autopilot to turn on and keep changing directions unpredictably and zooming all over the place. It was a good thing that Quidditch matches took place in the Gymnasium where there was a safety net, or he would have been a lot worse for wear. Hayato and Regulus had already turned in the missing wolf-cub to Eelop's, though they had to smuggle him out and make it look like they had just found him on the grounds, and not like they had been keeping him in their dorm. Dr. Ann was suspicious that the cub seemed so well-cared for, but she couldn't prove anything, so Hayato didn't get in trouble.
For Christmas he had received candy from Regulus and Hayato, and a highly anticipated historical simulation videogame from Jesse, the one he had waited to buy nearly all his life.
It was from a Japanese RPG series called "Sekai no Yugi" or "The World's Game" although in the U.S. it was commonly just called "The Game". The Game took place during the environmental crisis of the 21st century, and followed the lives of people who lived in that time period. It had amazing storyline, but players had slightly less power over character customization. This turned out to be an asset to the game though, as it allowed for the character to be part of a very rich virtual world, that formed itself based on the player's original characterization of the main character and the characters around him or her. It used a lot of data from the social sciences available in the 2200's, which made it one of the most realistic and advanced role playing games to date, and it was also widely considered one of the greatest games of all time. And best of all, since it was several hundred years old and out-of-date with more current social science, it was a lot cheaper than one might expect
Nevertheless, it made Henry feel really guilty that he couldn't get anything for her, or for anyone else. Although it wasn't really his fault because he didn't get an allowance, and because he was stuck in the hospital wing.
Henry was relieved when he was finally free to leave the hospital wing. That relief was diminished somewhat from the pain of using the crutches though. It was a good thing that Hogwarts was a school with no staircases. Instead, elevators and walkways were used to get around. Another good thing was that because he had been injured, Henry hadn't had to go home for winter holidays. Thinking about that made Henry realize that his first year at Hogwarts so far was the longest time he had ever kept any friends other than his older sister Jesse since he was very little. He didn't know why that was, and he didn't know how long it was going to last, but it was a welcome change. He didnt know if that was the reason a surprising number of people had wanted to sign his cast, though. Considering that there were a lot more people who signed Mike Greene's casts even though he had been released from the hospital wing over a week after Henry, he supposed that people just liked signing casts. Or maybe it was just that Mike had more casts to sign. Eventually, however, Mike's casts ran out of writing space, and people gradually lost interest. By mid-January, both of their injuries had healed, and many people had forgotten about the incidents that had caused them, believing that since there were no more incidents after that, that the culprit had been caught. By March, everyone, the teachers especially were stressed about final exams, which were fast approaching.
During one Social Studies class in March, Mike's father came as a guest speaker. This was a big deal, because as it turned out, Metabiological Security Officer Thorald Greene was a legendary hero from the war on Hypnos and his followers. (Of course, so was Mr. Rooney, but he was the Principal, so everyone was used to him.) Strangely, even though it was a presentation for all of the Block B first years, Mike was nowhere to be seen. As the class ended and everyone began filing out of the crowded room, Officer Greene received a phone call.
"Instructor Hayne? What! Are you serious? Alright, I'm on my way."
He darted out of the room, pushing past all of the students and being careful not to knock any of them over.
"So cool..."
"He's like those special agents that you see on TV!"
"I wanna be just like him."
While his classmates were busy being awestruck, Henry was worried. He didn't trust Instructor Hayne. Since he had no more classes that day, Henry decided to follow Mr. Greene. He walked down the corridor away from the other first years, and once he was out of sight, he broke into a run. If his suspicions were correct, he would know where to go.
A few minutes later, he reached the third floor just in time to see Officer Greene enter the forbidden corridor.
