Chapter 10
So Celtic, what is the answer to your riddle? (GregsMadHatter) It's a riddle. (Celtic-Dragon-89) Yes, I know it's a riddle, but what's the answer? (GregsMadHatter) A riddle! (Celtic-Dragon-89) YES, I KNOW, BUT...oh, OH! The ANSWER is A RIDDLE! I get it, hee. (GregsMadHatter) And what about the answer to yours, Your Madness? (Celtic-Dragon-89) Edgar Allen Poe wrote on both of them. (GregsMadHatter) That's neither funny nor clever. (Celtic-Dragon-89) Oh yes it is, isn't it Remmi? (GregsMadHatter) I thought it was (RawrRemmiRawr) I WAS BEING SARCASTIC! Jeez, it's just a figure of speech! (Celtic-Dragon-89) OH! (GregsMadHatter & RawrRemmiRawr)
Harry sat tiredly behind his desk, his chin resting on his chest. To any of his employees it would seem as though their Head Auror was napping, on the other hand Tiberius and Jessika knew that he was looking through a file on Muggle and magical catastrophes that had happened over the last 5 years in and around the British isles. Although the magical side of the folder was rather thin, the Muggle side was the exact opposite; taking up the majority of the folder. Sighing for the 50th time that morning Harry lifted up his head pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to take a swig of coffee only to find that his cup was empty. Jessika and three of the Upper Aurors heard an anguished cry of "Ohhh Mmmaaannnn!"
Jessika snorted into her mug of tea while the three Upper Aurors looked at the door with confused faces. Jessika picked up her yew wand and flicked it at the window behind her. A delighted "Yipppee!" made the Upper Aurors chuckle. "Thank you Jessika!"
Not even turning around Jessika said "Your welcome Harry."
Tiberius walked up at that moment to hear "You and your crazy coffee addiction."
Tiberius looked from Jessika to the window before saying "He ran out of coffee didn't he?" Jessika nodded chuckling to herself.
Tiberius walked into the shared office shaking his head, as he broke out in "manly" giggles when he saw his boss moving his cushy chair in half circles while nursing his cup of coffee. "Harry, if you don't stop that people will think that yours a crazy yank that can't stand tea! Anyway here are more of those files that you needed."
Harry stopped his movement while glaring at his second in command. "I drink tea thank you very much! I just prefer coffee in the morning."
Snorting, Tiberius just pointed at the clock indicating that it was 3:30 pm. Harry raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it's almost time for tea!" Jessika heard gales of laughter from inside the office behind her, shook her head and got back to the paperwork that littered her desk. Jessika knew how good of friends her bosses were, even if they denied it.
A running sound came to Jessika's attention, looking up she saw a red haired man running full tilt up the Auror department. Jessika stood up to greet the gentleman when he looked at her saying "Harry needs to come with me to St. Mungos. His presence is needed! The Minister of Magic just died!"
Jessika sat back down astonished, then standing back up turned around and went into the office. Harry looked up as she entered "Fudge is dead. Your needed at St. Mungos."
Harry sighed, grabbed up both files of catastrophes and followed Jessika out of the office. "Sanderson … why are you no-longer at the hospital?"
Sanderson gulped slightly "I … I … I came to get you so you can deal with the minister's body. Nobody seems to want to touch it." Harry rubbed his eyes again, before saying "Fine. Let's go Sanderson."
With that Head Auror Potter and Junior Auror Sanderson left the Auror Department for St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
At 5 pm, the sun began to set, not only all over London, but on the life of Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. Harry had stopped by to lead the handling of his body as it was moved from the land of the living so they could prepare for his funeral. Ginny had gone to her brother's room to be with her family as they sat with an unconscious Ron. Wilson and the rest of Ginny's team had actually managed to find time to catch some Z's in her office while House stood in front of the whiteboard, staring at the symptoms that plauged it. So many things didn't make sense. What was he missing? He heard the door open, but didn't bother to look around. "He's stable now, but his fever is still spiking," stated Cameron quietly, trying to hide the fear and sadness in her voice.
Without looking, he nodded and said, "Keep an eye on him. Let me know if things start getting worse."
Before Cameron left, she asked, "Is Chase going to be okay?"
House didn't answer, not because he didn't know what to say, but because he didn't know the answer and he hated admitting not knowing. Figuring she wasn't going to get a response, she turned and bid, "Get some rest, House."
The door closed behind her as House stared at the board. His eyes ran along the Muggle symptoms, identifying where Chase's condition sat and what would come next. Slowly grabbing his wand, he gave it a smooth flick and Chase's appeared next to his symptoms. He did the same for Ron, then caste another spell that would cause the patient's names to move whenever they progressed further in the disease. It would track their progression and maybe, he could prevent the next symptom from happening to bide them some time. The door opened once more and this time, House did turn around. There stood Ginny, her ponytail doing a poor job of keeping her hair out of her face and her eyes red from both crying and fatigue. "How's your brother?" asked House.
"Still unconscious, but he seems to be fine, for now. His skin is showing signs of Spattergroit already as well. I'm having one of the nurses starting treatment for that now."
"And your family?"
"Mom is probably the worst. Dad keeps telling her it's going to be alright, but I don't think he believes that himself. Hermione keeps going through books on possible diseases this could manifest from and treatments, but she's really distressed by the situation. She refuses to sleep, so I'm having another Nurse give her a cup of tea with a simple sleeping potion. Everyone else just refuses to talk to anyone."
Taking a few steps toward her, he asked, "And you?"
Turning her face from House, she replied, "I figured it would hit our family sometime, but I was hoping it would happen AFTER we found the source and the cure."
"You didn't answer my..."
Before House could finish, Ginny wrapped her arms around him and said into his shirt, "He can't die, Uncle! It would rip us apart...the family, I mean."
Slowly, House wrapped his own arms around her and whispered in her ear, "He's not going to die."
"How can you know that?" she asked, looking into his eyes.
"Because I refuse to let it happen. Now, cheer up and go do your job."
"I don't know..."
"Ginger..."
Ginny backed away a bit and looked up at him, something clicking with her nickname. "Besides me, you are the cleverest Healer in this hospital. What did I tell you to do should something bad like this happens?"
Pushing some hair behind her ear, she shrugged. "To be honest, I don't remember either, but that's not important. You want to save your brother? Then do so by working this out. If anyone can figure this out, it's you."
Ginny nodded, then said, "Thanks, Uncle Greggie."
And with that, Ginny nodded and left the room. As House turned around, he watched as Chase's name moved on the board, but it did something unexpected. "No...it can't be."
Quickly, House limped as fast as he could to Chase's room where he saw Cameron fast asleep in the arm chair. Rushing into the room, House walked over to Chase and watched him. With a violent sneeze was accompanied with a shake and the moment the sneeze happened, the glass of water on the night stand shattered. Chase sneezed once more and House's cane vanished from his hand. Staring at his now empty hand and back at Chase, House looked perplexed, but when Chase sneezed again and his cane appeared in his hand once more, House smiled and muttered, "Oh, this is fantastic."
TBC...
Well readers did you catch a reference there? (Celtic-Dragon-89) Oh lay off them! Besides ... what reference. (GregsMadHatter) *blink ... blink* HAHAHAHA *wipes tear away* I can't believe you didn't catch the reference to your own Harry Potter crossover story! (Celtic-Dragon-89) *Crosses arms* Not my fault that you had to do it in a round about way! (GregsMadHatter) But that's the funniest! *snickers* (Celtic-Dragon-89) *growls at Celtic* (GregsMadHatter) HEY!! That's my job! (RemmiRawrRemmi) *gasp* REMMI!!! *bear hug* (Celtic-Dragon-89 and GregsMadHatter) BTW, A reviewer wanted to take credit for the whole MoldyWart comment we made in the last chapter. I would like to take the time to refer said reviewer to Chapter 36 page 746 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. J.K. had Peeves do a little ditty wherein he says "And Voldy's gone moldy, so now let's have fun" It only took two seconds for ANY Harry Potter fan to put the two together, so Voldemort turned into Moldywart. So they do not get credit, ALL THE CREDIT GOES TO J.K. ROWLING. (Celtic-Dragon-89) *snickers in the distance* Oh my, that's bad. Please Review. (GregsMadHatter)