"Larry, honey, is that you?" a coo voiced from the receiver. Harry felt his throat swell up.
"My name isn't Larry," Harry muttered. He saw Lily throw her hands up in the air out of the corner of his eye. He turned slightly to get her angry image out of his range of sight. "It's Harry."
There was a loud curse.
"Harry, son, how have you been?" her voice was strained.
"Fine…" Harry trailed off.
"You want me to come visit, right, darling?" she asked.
"Now is not the best time," Harry said, quietly.
"Not now, Tuesday," she told him.
"That's not a great time either," Harry continued.
"Well –" Harry could practically hear her teeth grinding. "What about… Thursday."
"I… er… listen, Rita- "
"I am you're mother! Call me – call me mum," he seemed hesitant.
"Er… Mum, listen, I don't know if it is such a good idea – we're kind of… busy? And… I'm still recovering, you see. My mind is fragile and stuff so it's not the best time-"
"They are telling you to say that!" she hissed. "I'm not talking to you, Porter, I'm talking to Larry!"
"It's Harry," Harry smirked. The first time it was disappointing, now it was getting amusing.
"That's what I said!" she was yelling, but her mouth didn't seem close to the phone. "Harry please, I really want to see you."
"I just came out of a… fit?" Harry looked at Lily, questioning his word choice. She, however, wasn't even looking at him. She was having a silent fight with Dr. Weasley.
"You need some stability, then!" she argued. "You need your mother!"
"Can I need my mother at a later date?" Harry snickered to himself, Lily looked at him sharply.
"Are you being sassy with me!" Rita screeched.
"Um, no…" Harry tried to control his laughter. "Dr. Weasley made me say it." Ron's mouth dropped and Lily snatched the phone from his grasp.
"Hello, Skeeter? The answer's no – we need more time to stabilize him! He's doing fine without you! What? No, Dr. Weasley did not make him - I am not covering up for him! Excuse me! This is a fine institution, thank you very much! We do too care about – don't you hang up on me! Miss Skeeter? Miss Skeeter!"
Harry was choking on his laughter. Dr. Weasley didn't seem too shocked about him being disrespectful towards him – he was more shocked at him being disrespectful towards his mother. Harry didn't know he was ever polite towards Rita. Apparently, he was.
"ARGH!" Lily slammed the phone down. Harry grinned innocently up at her as she steamed out curses.
"So…." He purposefully left a long pause. "Thursday, then?"
"No," Lily put on the calmest face she could muster. "Monday."
"So I bought us three days?"
"No, correction. You lost us three."
"You're kidding!" Ron threw his hands up in the air. "Potter!"
"Oops… sorry… well… I could be sick… from…" Harry stalled, thinking of a reason. "That's all I got. See ya!" He turned the door knob, only to find it locked. Oh, how he wished he could have made that exit. His 'scene' would have been perfect.
"You think this is funny, I know you do," Lily's eyes were blazing. "You don't understand!"
"I apologized!" Harry defended.
"You're not holding up your part of the deal," Ron observed.
"What deal?"
"You said you wouldn't be rude and we'd allow you treats," he continued. "Remember?"
"I already blew that because I had a relapse or whatever you want to call it. Why work for something I wont be able to get?"
"Think of the long run – you'd be out of here and you could do whatever you wanted to freely!"
"Cant you leave me alone?" Harry felt a great surge to rant.
"You can't end this discussion like this! You're doing this to yourself! Every time you act like a smart-aleck it sets you back! You think it's funny and it's hurting you in the long run! Don't you ever want to get out of here?"
"I can't help my condition!"
"You can gain a more positive attitude!" she snapped.
"What's life without a little amusement?" Harry argued.
"Doesn't it bother you that you may not recover?" Ron cut in.
"I guess you're stuck with me, then," Harry growled back.
"No, actually, we're not. Once you turn 18, you go to a different place. They have less doctors there and more patients. You won't get the help you need. Now is the best time to work towards getting out of here!"
"Is this done? Can I think about my actions now?" Harry asked, his arms folded. Lily huffed in disappointment.
"Go, Dr. Weasley, escort him," Lily waved them away and sat down to work on paperwork.
Harry was locked in his room. He was quite comfortable, but anger weighed heavily on him. He wanted to be left alone and he got his wish, but not he wanted to rant. Rant like he's never ranted before. He wanted to rant the angriest rant in all ranting history – oops… he was getting too far ahead of himself.
He wanted to kick something – destroy something. Right now. He thought better of it, however, because his room was being recorded and sedatives didn't look to appealing at the moment. Remus. He wanted to talk to Remus. He was always easy to talk to. Harry searched around for a buzzer or something to get the doctors attention. There was none that he could see.
"HELLO!" Harry yelled at the top of his lungs. "DOCTORS, HELLO! PATIENT NEEDS HELP HERE!" He waited several minutes for a response, but there was none. Okay. Now he really wanted to kick something. He eyed the video camera wearily, but before he could carry out what he wanted to do, he realized something.
Since they weren't paying attention to him now, why not get their attention? Harry rolled his bed towards the camera and when he stood up he was just feet away from the lens. He tapped on the lens. He might have ripped it off if wasn't protected by a plastic white box that concealed the wires. Harry waited patiently with his arms crossed. When nobody came, he blew on the lens and it steamed up enough that it would be hard to see anything if the monitors tried.
Still nothing? Great Merlin – he could be having another relapse and they still wouldn't come to his aid! What had Peeves said that one time? Something about his mattress?
Harry did the last thing he would have thought of before – he jumped. It was quite bouncy, like Peeves had commented. The doctors didn't like that, did they? After all, he could hurt himself.
"POTTER!" the door slammed open and Harry stopped jumping and let himself fall on the bed in a sitting position. Thank you, Peeves!
"It's about bloody time!" Harry snapped to Dr. Weasley who looked quite irked. "I want to talk to Dr. Lupin."
"He's busy," Ron said with a sneer, but Harry knew how Ron lied. Not very well, that is.
"Liar," Harry growled.
"How do you know if I am lying or not, Potter?"
"Your eyes blink a lot when you lie," Harry shrugged. "I noticed it a few days ago."
"I'll notify him," Ron said through clenched teeth.
"And can we get a buzzer or something in here, I might need – " Harry started, but Ron cut him off by slamming the door.
"Harry, great to see you, everything is good, I trust?" Remus greeted him with a warm smile.
"No," he heaved a sigh. "The other doctors won't leave me alone."
"It's not their job to leave you alone," he said calmly.
"I know, but they yelled at me!" Harry glared at the video tape in the corner with its little red blinking light.
"Were you being sarcastic?"
"No…" Harry grinned, innocently.
"You don't see what you are doing?"
"What am I doing?"
"You are pushing people away. You won't let them get passed your cynical wall you've built around you."
"I had this same exact talk about 20 minutes ago," Harry droned.
"Why didn't you heed what they said?"
"Because – I… Why can't I? Amuse myself, that is. What's a little laughter in our lives?"
"You think everyone is amused?" Remus asked him, not unkindly.
"Well maybe not everyone, but – "
"Don't you think Dr. Weasley and Dr. Porter are frustrated? You're just over a week out of your relapse and they are already upset with you."
"I wasn't trying to upset them!" Harry growled.
"But you were. You've act this way in the past, you've even admitted to trying to annoy them as much as you possibly can."
"Well…. Okay, a little bit, but I don't want to feel controlled."
"Mmm… you haven't shared that part with us in the past. It's a very good thing that you told me, Harry," Remus said.
"Why is that? So you can use it against me?"
"No, how would – no, sorry, why would we want to do that? We want you to recover. Besides, we are not trying to control you, just trying to – "
"- Help me?" Harry asked. "I know, I've heard that once… or twice… or three times… maybe four… or f – "
"- get the idea," Remus held up a hand.
"Well… tell them…" Harry darkly said. "Tell them…"
"Not to control you?"
"Give me some space."
"I'm sure they would without hesitation if you would cooperate," Remus smiled, his eyes wrinkling slightly when he smiled. "But I will tell them."
"Thank you," Harry said and felt very calmed when a guard walked him back to his room.
