Disclaimer: Check out the pen name.

I Hate Hospitals

Harry woke up to find everything startlingly clear. He had never been able to see this well, even with his glasses. From the conversation around him, it sounded like no one had noticed he was awake. This made it very easy to spy on them. He knew that his friends loved him but they had a tendency to keep things from him if they thought he couldn't deal with them. Hiding Rita Skeeter's article – or trying to, anyway – just before the third task was proof of that.

Ginny tended to give it to him straight; if he was moping she would be the one to yell at him until he sorted himself out. But, he sternly reminded himself, he threw that down the drain. It was his own fault he missed her, his own fault she had a new boyfriend.

He turned away from his self-criticizing when he heard Ginny's voice. "I just wish he'd stop being so lazy and WAKE UP!"

Then Hermione's voice replied, "Ginny, it's not his fault that he had so much pain he's been out for a month."

Ginny's reply had him stifling a chuckle. "Oh yes. Poor little Harry nearly kills himself and it's not his fault. Honestly Hermione, everyone who will ever come out of the hospital has except lazy bones over there. The healers don't know why he hasn't come round." She appeared to be pacing. "And yes his scars disappeared so it may be affecting his body as well, but that is no reason for worrying us like that. The idiot could at least open his eyes ONCE. Urgh" She appeared to now be muttering to herself.

Ron finally spoke up. "No one we know died, thank goodness. Harry would never forgive himself if someone in our family died."

Then came Remus' voice, "Hang on a second, he was almost chuckling when Ginny was talking. Harry, are you awake?"

Harry decided to come clean. He sat up, opened his eyes and smiled. "Hi guys."

Ginny was glaring at him, Hermione appeared unsure whether she should be angry or happy, Ron was smiling and shaking his head and Remus was grinning. Harry didn't think he'd ever seen Remus grin before, excluding the time at Fleur's wedding when he'd gotten drunk and kissed Tonks, causing most to yell 'Finally'.

Then Hermione handed him his glasses. "The healers got them here. How are you feeling?"

Harry reached over, grinning, grabbed the glasses and snapped them in half. Hermione was the only one to respond (by frowning. She obviously didn't appreciate her effort being put down like that). "I feel GREAT!" Harry enthused, making everyone stare at him in even stronger disbelief. "I've never felt this good in my life. Well practically never." He blushed remembering his and Ginny's first kiss. "Anyway, I don't need my glasses. I can see better than I could with them. I feel stronger, like my magic is stronger, like I'm more powerful. I don't know what it is."

Hermione appeared to be going over calculations in her head. "Well," she started, causing Ron to groan. "Maybe Voldemort was drawing some of his energy from you. Maybe he was blocking as much of your power as he could, which would also explain why he needed your blood. He was already drawing some energy from you. And I noticed that you seemed slightly weaker after he returned. I thought it might be slightly to do with the depression you went into, but this makes much more sense."

Everybody stared at her. How DID she work that out so quickly, Harry wondered, thinking it over. It did make perfect sense.

"Wow," was all Harry could manage. Everyone else seemed rather frozen. Hermione herself appeared shocked at her own intelligence.

Remus finally managed to close his gaping jaw and promptly burst out laughing. He was pointing at Ron whose response was to immediately blush bright red, yet Harry could certainly not see what was so funny. "So," Ron said, trying to turn the attention away from himself – and what was so funny that it had normally controlled Remus in stitches. "What about the Patronus? Wasn't that supposed to be a really hard spell?"

"Ahhhhhhh, but the Patronus is conjured by a happy memory," supplied Ginny. "A feeling of love, the one thing that Voldemort could never understand, and the one thing that stopped Harry from being possessed. So, maybe that is what kept Voldemort away, during the periods when he needed to cast the spell."

Ron was hit over the head for his next comment. "Turning into a right little Hermione, you are."

After a few minutes of good natured jibing, Ron and Hermione went to get some food. Ginny, instantly business like turned to Remus. "Soooooo, what was so funny."

"Oh, that," Remus' unconcerned voice seemed to reek of insincerity. "Well, Ron was mouthing 'that's my girl' during it, and Hermione was – obviously – completely clueless. Those two are just so obliviously obvious (such a cool phrase – and the name of a story by KeeperOfTheMoon, hope they don't mind). And what's really funny is," a chuckle escaped, "she probably wouldn't believe he fancied her, even if he said it out loud!"

That got the other two laughing as well.

Several days later, the healers finally admitted that Harry was ready to leave – and that his eye-sight was completely healed. They hadn't had any of the ideas Hermione had, as they also couldn't explain any of the changed that had come over Harry's body. Harry and the gang decided not to enlighten them to their ideas. It wasn't necessary.

While in hospital, Harry learned that when he'd killed Voldemort, everyone alive with the Dark Mark was instantly hit with enormous agony that didn't go away for 24 hours. This made it easy to round up the Death Eaters, as St Mungo's had a special machine to direct them to people in that kind of pain. They even found Snape and Malfoy, who'd been on the run, though Draco was eventually let off charges. All others with the Dark Mark ended up in Azkaban, which was newly secured.

Because of the agony, the battle hadn't lasted any longer and deaths were minimal, considering. All those Harry knew personally had survived, though not without several days to a week and a half in hospital.

He'd been visited by so many people; Mr and Mrs Weasley, Bill and Fleur, Fred and George, Tonks, Professor McGonagall (or Minerva as he'd been asked to call. As she'd said, "We are no longer student and pupil, Potter. There is no point in calling me Professor."), Neville and quite a few more. Today was the day to go home.

Harry was really excited to be leaving the hospital. There wasn't much for him to do there, really. There were only so many times one could stare out the window or repeat conversations with the nurses, as visitors had only certain times when they could visit, particularly him. Those summers with the Dursleys meant he didn't get bored as easily, but even so. Thinking of the Dursleys reminded him that he had left some of his belongings there when he had left the previous summer. Harry supposed he would have to go back there at some point to retrieve them.

Remus met him at his room and helped him carry the few belongings – his friends had brought him those for those hours when he had nothing to do – and clothes to wear. They met Hermione, Ron and (the one who got Harry's heart fluttering) Ginny in the lobby and they Apparated (Ginny having passed her test during the year) to outside the Burrow.

Mr and Mrs Weasley met him on the doorstep with glowing smiles. It was obvious that they were glad that this was the first place he came. After all, Harry thought, this was his real home. In fact, that was what Ginny muttered in his ear when he passed. "Welcome home, Harry. Welcome home."


A/N So sorry it took me so long to update. Reviews are really appreciated and I'll try and make my chapters longer from now on. In the mean time, next chapter, we see Catherine interact with Charlie, and watch her meet Remus and Tonks