(I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Long story. Best left untold. One of the last, if not the last, chapter. Either one more and an epilogue to follow or just an epilogue. We'll see. This chapter is really, really medically inclined. There's a lot of drugs, procedures, and what not included. It's my medical training shining through. Anyway, sorry if it's a tad technical. And sorry for my extended absence. Enjoy, loves.)
The scores of the injured laid in various stages of healing about the living room. There was a constant stream of pitiful moans in the air as bones were knitted, gashes sealed, and bruises vanished.
Ginny had insisted that Harry's body be moved to a private room, where she sat in complete silence, his cold hand clasped in her lap. Sirius sat unmoving beside her, concentrating deeply on his sanity. These were losses he wasn't sure he could sustain.
"It's not," Ron muttered from the corner, where he had tightly coiled himself. "fair."
No one answered him.
Molly paused to mop at her face with a handkerchief. She took a deep breath, and moved to continue applying a healing balm to Hermione's ravaged body.
"I'm sorry for your losses," Dr. Sumter said quietly as he exchanged another blood bag. "I wish there was something I could do."
Molly sniffled and nodded tightly. "Will you go and look at Harry?" she managed. "I think it may help – to have a doctor explain things to them."
"Of course, across the hall?" he answered, straightening up. Molly nodded and the doctor paused to tuck a syringe into his pocket before he took his leave.
Upon entering the room where Ginny was holding vigil, Dr. Sumter paused. "Ginny," he said softly. "My name is Jeremy and I'm the muggle doctor that has been looking after Hermione. Molly sent me to have a look at your husband."
"He's dead." She said flatly, meeting the doctor's eyes.
Dr. Sumter nodded slowly. "I'll just check for a pulse then and be on my way."
Ginny shrugged and fixed her eyes blankly on the wall.
"I understand," Dr. Sumter went on, moving to press his fingers against the cold skin of Harry's neck. "that he was killed by an irreversible curse of your kind and that there is no known antidote to it."
Ginny raised her eyes to regard the doctor. "Something like that, yes." She confirmed in a monotone.
The doctor nodded, his fingers still pressed against Harry's neck. "I see. I am truly sorry for your," Dr. Sumter paused and furrowed his brow, pressing his fingers deeper into Harry's flesh.
Ginny glanced up suspiciously. "What?"
"I felt a beat," the Doctor said absently, holding a hand up to indicate that silence was needed.
Ron leaned forward and Ginny found Sirius' hand and clasped it hard. Dr. Sumter removed the syringe from his coat and pulled the cap off with his teeth, spitting it aside.
"This is Amiodarone. It's a drug we sometimes use to force a restart of the heart." He dropped his hand from Harry's neck and squeezed his upper arm tightly, forcing the veins to pop up. Forgoing sanitation, Dr. Sumter plunged the needle into Harry's vein. "The effect can sometimes be violent." He muttered as he depressed the plunger.
For a long moment nothing happened after Dr. Sumter removed the syringe, then, without warning, Harry's body begin to buck viciously.
"What did you do to him?" Ginny screamed.
"He's having a seizure!" Dr. Sumter cried. "You!" he yelled at Ron. "Go get my black bag from Hermione's room! Now!" Ron lunged from the room.
"What did you do?" Ginny screamed again.
"Move!" Sirius yelled, shoving Ginny aside. "You have to be alive to have a seizure!"
He helped Dr. Sumter restrain Harry until Ron careened back into the room. Dr. Sumter seized the bag and pulled out two vials and two new syringes. Rereading the vials to be sure, he drew a dose out of each and ordered Ron to squeeze Harry's arm again. As soon as he depressed the first drug, the wild bucking stopped and Harry was still. He dosed the second drug and stepped back.
"I've given him a dose of both pentobarbital and thiopental. These drugs have forced him into a drug-induced coma. He'll stay that way until I can verify his metabolic functions can be sustained normally. In the mean time," he hurriedly explained. "I need to bag him until I can get a respirator in here."
Ginny looked away as Dr. Sumter removed more supplies from his bag and forcefully inserted a tube down Harry's throat, attached a bag at the end, and began to pump evenly. She swallowed deeply when she saw the even rise and fall of his chest.
"Get me Poppy and Severus, now," Dr. Sumter ordered, not breaking his gentle rhythm.
By the end of the night, both Harry and Hermione were deeply in drug-induced comas, and dependent on respirators, catheters, and electrodes - but alive.
The death toll for the Order was high, with more members succumbing to their injuries every hour.
Voldemort was dead. Most Death Eaters had been either killed in the battle or taken into custody directly after. The Ministry was free of evil influence and the Imperious curse had been lifted from everyone the Dark Lord had placed under it.
The Wizarding world was rejoicing.
The Headquarters for The Order of the Phoenix remained decidedly somber.
Of the 243 members of the Order, 86 were dead, 31 were critically injured, and 78 had been moderately injured.
The 48 uninjured members began the massive undertaking of retrieving the families of the dead and injured immediately. Four days after the battle, all of the families had been located and a mass funeral and memorial was held at Hogwarts.
Dr. Sumter stayed with Harry and Hermione day and night, moving them into the same room, and dozing on a cot he'd set up in the corner. He was constantly adjusting the levels of their IV drug, checking their vitals, and generally fussing over them.
"How are our patients, today?" Sirius asked Dr. Sumter as he entered the room, unbuttoning his outer dress robes.
"Actually," Dr. Sumter began, clearing his throat. "their metabolic processes are stabilized. I want to wean them off the Propofol today."
"That's the drug keeping them under?" Sirius asked.
"Yes," Dr. Sumter confirmed, scrubbing his haggard face briskly. "I dosed Harry quite highly with both pentobarbital and thiopental directly after his seizure. It was necessary at the time to both stop the seizing and put him under quickly. I've maintained him, and Hermione, on Propofol since."
"What are the size effects of bringing them out?" Sirius asked as he flicked his patronus to summon the appropriate people for this decision.
"Well," Dr. Sumter mused. "Harry went quite some time without oxygen. His brain functions may have been compromised. There's no way to tell until I cease the cognitive suppression of the Propofol. As for Hermione," the doctor paused as the others began to file into the room. "you are all aware of the recent traumas she has undergone. The ventilator keeps her breathing, the electrodes will restart her heart if need be, and the drugs keep her mind shut down. In light of her recent injuries - there is no 100% guarantee that she'll be able to function without the aide of these machines. But again, I'm sorry, but there's is no way to know until the drug is halted."
"How long after you stop the drug will they come around?" Ginny asked, pushing her way to the front of the small crowd.
"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes." Dr. Sumter answered.
"And how soon will we know the effects?" Remus murmured.
"The physical side effects - the respiratory and cardiac functions - will be immediately apparent. The cognitive aspects, if any, should present within twenty-four to forty-eight hours."
"Ok," Ginny said. "He can't live his life as a vegetable hooked up to machines. If you think it's relatively safe now, I give you my consent to bring Harry out."
Dr. Sumter nodded and looked toward Sirius.
Sirius gulped and twined him fingers with Ginny's. "You have my go ahead, doctor."
"Alright," Dr. Sumter said, moving toward Hermione. "I'm going to do one at a time, Hermione first." he reached up to her IV and clamped the little bag of drugs shut. "As she comes around, if she is physically able to sustain herself, she will begin to choke on her breathing tube. Don't panic, I will have the tube out in under ten seconds. We'll go from there."
The crowd waited, watching Hermione, the tension in the room, palpable. The first sign came in a small twitch in her hand. Her head rolled to the side slowly and she began to gag. True to his word, Dr. Sumter had the tube out of her in eight seconds flat, and Hermione lay gasping.
Her heart monitor began to chirp loudly and her gasping became labored.
"What's happening, doctor?" Sirius' voice edged toward panic.
"Palpitations. I'm going to give her a dose of nitroglycerin to prevent an infarction." Dr. Sumter said evenly, already depressing the plunger of the syringe he had pierced into her vein. The chirping on the monitor stopped and her breathing evened out.
"She's clear." Dr. Sumter said with a smile. "I do have her sedated on morphine, though. She may be able to speak to you and she can definitely hear you."
"'Mione," Sirius said softly, stepping up to her bedside.
She rolled her head toward him and cracked a bleary eye. A brown, bleary eye, Sirius noted with relief. "Where the bloody hell am I?" she whispered thinly.
Sirius struggled against his tears. "Home," he managed to eek out.
She sighed. "The battle?"
"Over." Remus answered for Sirius, who had bowed his head against her bedrail to weep.
Hermione lifted her arm slowly and threaded her fingers into his hair. "The Order?"
"Another time," Molly inserted. "Rest."
Hermione swallowed thickly and narrowed her eyes. "The Order?" she repeated more firmly.
"Sustained massive casualties and injuries, but was triumphant in it's endeavor." Severus interjected.
Hermione took a weak breath and studied the faces around her. Having logged all but one, she looked directly and Ginny. "Harry?"
The crowd beside her parted and Hermione turned her head to see Harry's still form. She gave a tiny gasp. The blips on her heart monitor increased steadily.
"Hermione," Dr. Sumter cut in quickly. "you have to calm down. You're going to give yourself a heart attack." he warned, eyeing her monitor critically. He uncapped another syringe and inserted it into her IV line.
"What…is…that?" she asked, her words slurring.
"An auxiliary dose of morphine." Dr. Sumter said. "You need to rest now."
Hermione furrowed her brows in sleepy agitation. "No," she protested weakly, but she drifted off immediately.
"Now," Dr. Sumter began. "let's bring Harry 'round."
The doctor shut of Harry's drugs and they waited. Ten minutes passed, there was no change. The ventilator continued it's steady hum, forcing the air in and out of Harry's lungs. Fifteen minutes came and went.
"Doctor?" Ginny asked, her voice cracking.
Dr. Sumter bit his lip and for the first time, hesitated. He ran his hand over his face and took a steadying breath. "I'm going to push one of Epi."
"What's that?" Molly asked, squeezing Ginny to her side.
"Epinephrine. It's a synthetic form of adrenalin. It shook shock both his respiratory and cardiac functions into normal rhythms." he lectured, already drawing the drug into a syringe.
"Will that hurt him?" Ginny asked.
Dr. Sumter paused. "If this doesn't work," he stopped again. "Ginny if this doesn't work, Harry will never come off these machines."
Ginny sobbed and turned her face into her mother's shoulder.
Dr. Sumter injected the drug. Harry's heart sped up on the monitors, but he didn't stir nor did he fight the tube down his throat. Dr. Sumter watched the monitors closely. "I'm going to push one more dose." he said to no one in particular.
Ginny refused to watch the second dose be administered and cringed in time with Harry's rapid heartbeat.
There was no outward change.
"Severus," Dr. Sumter said, not looking away from the monitors. "Stop his morphine drip please."
"Do you think that wise? That kind of shock to his heart," Severus began uneasily.
"Severus," Dr. Sumter cut in. "Stop the drip. Now."
Severus complied.
The seconds ticked by.
"Come on, come on," Dr. Sumter whispered. "Come on."
Harry sat stock straight in bed and began to gag violently, clawing at his throat. Dr. Sumter wasted no time in wrenching the tube free. Harry fell back gasping against the bed. Ginny grabbed his hand and rained kisses across it between her sobs.
"Well, I'll be damned." Harry whispered hoarsely, looking around. "I'm alive."