The Weasleys were apparently having dinner. They were all around the kitchen table, visible from the living room where Harry had just landed. All of the Weasleys ran towards them. Harry was still partially deaf from the Floo ride. For a moment, he couldn't hear properly. Mrs. Weasley helped Harry to his feet while Mr. Weasley carried Tatum onto a couch nearby. She had fainted at last. The five other Weasleys were standing on the edge of the living room, apparently detained by Mrs. Weasley, who was stretching her arm in front of them. Suddenly, the noise in the room hit Harry's ears. He was looking at Tatum who apparently was in dangerous bad shape. Mrs. Weasley started taking the Quidditch equipment off him.
"What happened?" asked Mr. Weasley taking Tatum's gear off. He was a thin, red-haired man with a kind face, which for now was far from charming. He looked terrified. Harry was led to a sofa.
"We…were attacked by Harpies" explained Harry, breathing with difficulty, looking at Mr. Weasley's eyes fixed worriedly on Mrs. Weasley.
"How long ago?" he asked shaken. Harry didn't understand, but thought this was not the time to ask.
"I don't know. Not long ago…just now" he answered; neither Ron, Ginny, Fred, George or Percy, moved or said anything. Harry guessed being attacked by Harpies wasn't an everyday experience and it was a very serious one for that matter. Mr. Weasley ran towards the coat-hanger without saying another word. Mrs. Weasley gave him some money - 29 Bronze Knuts to a Silver Sickle, and 17 Sickles to a Golden Galleon were the Wizards money - and put the Floo powder pot in front of him. He took some and threw it into the flames of the chimney. He entered and said "Nocturn Alley." Harry saw him banish.
He remembered being in Nocturn Alley himself. It certainly wasn't the right place to be. The things sold in there were dedicated to the use and defense of high dark magic.
"What is he going to buy?" asked Harry to Mrs. Weasley, who was still looking at Tatum worriedly. Ginny had run upstairs for some towels, while she caressed Tatum's head.
"Harpy Venom" answered Fred looking stern, not often did he saw the twins without a big smile on their faces, certainly didn't suit them. Ron passed the towels to his mom who started cleaning his wounds with a wet cloth Ginny had just soaked in the kitchen sink.
"What for?" asked Harry looking at every movement of Mrs. Weasley's hand. His injuries hurt even more deeply when she touched them. He wouldn't make any noise in front of everybody so he clenched his teeth and shifted uncomfortably. Ron came back with more towels.
"The Harpies' claws contain deadly venom. The Harpy Venom refined makes a good antidote. Tell me, this cuts on your arm are from one of them?" she asked as calm as she could turning to Tatum and starting to clean her up too, but her wounds didn't clean like Harry's, hers would sprout more and more blood.
"Yes, but…is she going to be alright?" replied Harry stopping her hand in midair, holding it tightly.
"I'm sure she will" Mrs. Weasley gulped loudly, which made Harry doubtful about her answer. He turned to the rest of the Weasleys, but they kept silent with fear on their faces. Almost after Mrs. Weasley had stopped talking Mr. Weasley came back with a black-green bottle the size of the True-Color powder Hermione had given him. He kneeled in front of Harry.
"Here, drink some of this, Harry." Harry drank a tiny gulp of the Venom. His arm felt like it was being stabbed. He twitched on his seat this time letting out some cries of pain against his better judgement. He recalled the time he had his arm bones grown back, the pain had been really something to fear about. He turned to see his wounds and saw all the skin growing back, closing his injuries. The pain was deep but it went out quickly enough. He felt himself sweating and held by Mr. Weasley.
"Your arm seems to be normal now. Can you move it?" asked Mr. Weasley still with a concerned face on him. Harry waved his arm and nodded. Then, Mr. Weasley kneeled beside Tatum. He poured the potion down her throat. Harry tried to stand from the couch, but Mrs. Weasley pulled him back by the shoulders. He didn't understand why, until he saw Tatum jumping on the couch. Mr. Weasley held her arms tight to her sides and George held her legs down. She was crying, screaming between sobs. Her eyes tightly shut. The wounds all over her body were closing rapidly in front of his eyes. After a minute or so, she slowly calmed down.
"She should be alright by morning" said Mr. Weasley putting Tatum back on the couch. She had jumped right off it with Mr. Weasley holding her. Harry felt more relieved at the sound of those words, even though Tatum hadn't opened her eyes. "Fred, George, sleep in Ron's room tonight, would you?" told Mr. Weasley to the twins. "Go and prepare the beds, please. I need to report this" were his last words before heading upstairs, behind them. Harry realized he was about to send an owl which could mean Tatum's job. He got hurt under her supervision. That hadn't been the intention in the first place.
"Wait!" Harry called to Mr. Weasley who made a sudden halt. "I don't want you to think she didn't take care of me. She did, but I…I just…." At the sound of his own explanation, Harry thought this wouldn't have happened if he had obeyed in the first place. He hadn't meant to cause any trouble, but he had.
"Harry, calm down! I'm not going to tell on Tatum. You are alive, to me that is not failing!" Harry didn't say any more. Mr. Weasley walked upstairs.
"Have you eaten yet, Harry?" asked Mrs. Weasley whom Harry turned around to see.
"I'm not very hungry. I would like to go to bed if you don't mind. I'm quite tired" he said, feeling his body weighting more and more every second that passed by.
"Very well. I'll prepare the room for the four of you" she said finally patting Tatum on her bloody shoulder before leaving the living room. She walked upstairs as well. Then, Percy started talking from where he was standing. He was red-haired like the rest of the Weasleys, but he was as stiff in character as he was in posture.
"Don't worry. We'll solve this. Some of the responsible for situations like yours, walk right out of judgment. Really, if more power rested in me I would…"
"Not now, Percy!" shouted Ron. "Harry's not in the mood for you to postulate yourself for Minister of magic." Ron was Harry's best friend. He felt a soft laugh coming out of him. As for Percy, he shot himself towards his room. They heard the door shutting loudly. Silence fell over the living room. Nobody seemed to know what to say. Ginny gave a hug to Harry. He patted her on the back as a thank you, staring at Ron. She let go and smiled. "Good night" were her last words before joining the others. Ron walked to a couch next to Harry's and sat down. He was turning red in the face, which told Harry he didn't know what to tell him either.
"Are you alright?" he asked finally. Harry gave a laugh, making Ron go even redder. "Of course you're not, what a stupid question!"
"Relax, Ron. I'm fine. It's her I'm worried about" he turned to Tatum who breathed ever so slowly.
"How did you get attacked?" popped out of Ron's mouth. Harry explained everything with details. He knew by experience that letting it all out was a good therapy for the aching sensation inside his chest.
"It was something! We were all scared when you landed on the floor like that!"
"Tatum was awake until after the journey. I think I was lucky she didn't faint before or I wouldn't have been able to carry her! "
"You did fine! Did she bring you here?" asked Ron pointing at Tatum with a stare.
"She sent me, but I wouldn't leave her behind, why do you ask?"
"Easy. Dad has been telling mom he was the second person they assigned to look after you. You were supposed to be brought here if something happened" explained Ron.
"She didn't mention it till…" replied Harry to this. On the other hand, he had been in her house for only a day.
"Weird, she was supposed to tell you about it all."
"But I thought Cornelius Fudge hadn't believed my story. He didn't believe Voldemort was back! How can the Ministry be taking care of my safety?" Ron shuddered at the sound of the name, but didn't complain. Cornelius Fudge, the minister of magic, had heard the whole story of Voldemort returning to his body, but hadn't believed a word Harry had said. Why was he assigning people to look after him then?
"Oh, he doesn't know what to do? There's been more attacks in the Wizarding world, he started to wonder if it was true or not. He decided to take some security measures in secret, but not to admit he might be wrong!"
"I think Dumbledore was right about him! He is blinded by the fact he's Minister."
"Anyway, the Ministry knows nothing about this whole protecting-you thing. He's been keeping it secret, and…Tatum didn't tell you all this?"
"She didn't. I think she was trying to make it a good weekend. She was unusually pleasant. A little too much at some points, I gotta say!"
"Yeah, that's her" said Ron smiling gloomily.
"Do you know her well?"
"Yes, kind of…did she tell you she used to be dad's assistant when she began at the Ministry?"
"No. Not that I recall; although she didn't tell me that much about her."
"All I know is dad hired her as an assistant because they wouldn't give her a job of her own at the Ministry. Odd…she usually speaks non-stop" ended Ron mingling both subjects. Harry wonder for a second why the Ministry had refused hiring Tatum, but then remembered she had been expelled from Hogwarts on her fifth year, so she might have not fulfilled requirements.
"I know! But don't get me wrong! She did speak loads, but she mostly kept asking me if I needed anything else." Ron twisted the corner of his mouth, apparently puzzled.
"I thought she knew all about you already" Ron answered.
"Me too" Harry replied. "I mean, everybody does!" he said at the infuriating fact.
"I mean. Dad has mentioned her sometimes, and he says she learns everything about every underage wizard before she visits. She dedicates a lot of herself to the job, she says she doesn't want to let Dad down, because he was the one who gave her the chance."
"I guess that's fair. Does she ever take the other underage wizards to her house though?"
"Not that I know of, we've been over her house as well, but just visiting and not too often. She tries to keep you as comfortable as possible. Dad used to invite her to dinner as well. Mom didn't like her very much at first, but then she kind of grew on her, especially when she started dating Charlie."
"She went out with your brother?"
"Yeah, for a while… but then she dumped him and we hardly ever see her anymore"
"This might sound weird, but when you met her, didn't you feel like you had already…"
"Met her before?" interrupted Ron.
"Yes. I mean…she's got something…I don't know what" babbled Harry feeling happy of not being the only one who felt strange around Tatum.
"Yeah, dad says it's quite a quality" At that moment, Mrs. Weasley came down the stairs along with Mr. Weasley and entered the living room.
"Harry, Ron, you should probably go to bed now" Mr. Weasley told them. In the meantime, he was picking Tatum from the couch, heading upstairs.
"Ron, go to bed it's getting late. And Harry, are you sure you're not hungry?" Mrs. Weasley repeated to Harry for the second time holding him back. Harry's stare was with Tatum.
"I'm sure, thanks." Harry answered, then he and Ron went upstairs. They passed by the twins room. Mr. Weasley was covering Tatum with a half-burned blanket, which unmistakably belonged to Fred and George. They used to do experiments inside their room, and explosions commonly burned their properties. "Good night boys" said Mr. Weasley while they passed, wearing a smile. He hadn't been wearing one since they had arrived. Harry reached Ron's room at the top of the stairs. Fred and George weren't there yet, but a couple of extra beds had been crammed inside the small top room.
"I'm guessing we'll be going for your stuff tomorrow morning" said Ron jumping on his bed. Harry sat at the edge of his. He had already stayed there more than once and he felt like home.
"I guess" replied Harry taking his shoes off. He put his glasses on the bedside table, inevitably staring at the ceiling once he lied on the bed. The ghoul in the attic seemed to have noticed them inside the room, because it started banging pipes against the floor. Harry didn't pay any attention to this. "You think she'll be alright?" asked Harry turning his head enough to see Ron still sitting on the bed opposite his own.
"I don't know. But I do know a Harpy' scratch is something to worry about, if my dad hadn't brought the antidote on time you wouldn't be alive now."
"So the poison would have killed me?"
"Yeah. I'm sure Tatum would be just fine. I mean she can't die once she had the antidote… can she?" asked Ron twitching his lip. Harry turned sideways, said "Good night, Ron" giving a last faint smile. Ron smiled back and lied down as well. Ron had been trying to cheer Harry up, but had failed, Harry felt more worried. Harry closed his eyes for a while. The snores coming from Ron's bed told him he was fast asleep. After half an hour or so, he heard the twins entering the room, shushing each other. Harry turned on his other side, and kept his eyes closed.
"You're going to wake them!"
"No, I'm not. You big head!"
"Don't call me that, I rather the term mindless git!"
"Oh shut up, George!"
"No, you shut up!" Harry heard them lying on the other couple of beds squeezed inside Ron's bedroom. "We should wake him though."
"What for, you idiot? He's been through enough for a day."
"He'll be through more if the antidote doesn't completely kick in. We both know those Harpies keep mutating their venom"
"Oh you are a mindless git! Don't you know that potion is renewed every time?"
"Are you sure about that?"
"You know what? Go to sleep! You big head."
"I told you I prefer…"
"SHUT UP!" Fred said in a hushed shout.
"I wonder if Mom's telling Charlie?" said George.
"Don't know, but if a girl dumped me right before the wedding I wouldn't hurry back"
Harry heard no more of their discussion.
Tatum had been close to being one of the Weasleys? He knew Bill and Fleur had started dating but that was about it. Then again, there were far more people than just those he was accustomed to be around. The whole world knew him, and yet he knew the world so little.
He tried to sleep but it was useless. He stared at the ceiling yet again, thinking whether George was right or not. Maybe the Harpy Venom Antidote wasn't strong enough and Tatum wouldn't make it. He kept thinking about it over and over, repeating every thought he had had the moment he crossed the boundary. "It's no big deal! It's just a feet away!" and to this he kept saying to himself "You idiot!"
The time ran slow. He straightened up, and looked at Ron, George, and Fred sleeping undisturbed. He got out of bed carefully. He started walking towards the door leaving his shoes behind, thinking he was going to wake everybody if they heard footsteps. He passed Fred, who was near his bed. Fred stretched his arm and almost touched Harry's. Moving quickly, Harry managed to open the door, get out of the room and climbed down the stairs.
He reached Fred and George's room in no time. He pushed the door open. He half closed it, walking towards one of the beds, where Tatum laid not moving at all. Her breathing was extremely slow and spaced. Harry sat on the floor by the left side of the bed. He held her hand, and said "I'm so sorry." He stayed there holding her hand for a while, until he started feeling sleepy, watching the burned right wall of the room. He hadn't realized he was already falling asleep.
