Chapter Thirty Three
Harry did manage to fall into a fitful sleep, Danica snuggled into his side, breathing softly. His mother woke him at half passed eleven and he trudged down to the dinning room for an early lunch.
Mrs Weasley was already up and arguing with Kreacher in the kitchen once again. Harry had hoped that with everything going on she would be too wrapped up to argue. Mrs Weasley brought out a plate of sandwiches with a large jug of pumpkin juice.
"There." she said with a smile, "I mean it's nearly noon, whoever heard of having breakfast so late? Now eat up everyone. Tonks and Mad-eye will be arriving soon to take us all to the hospital soon. Maybe I should make Arthur something, the food is bound to be terrible…" she walked off, still talking to herself.
Harry ate a tuna sandwich and told Danica to eat the jam butty and stop moaning that there wasn't any cereal. As Mrs Weasley had told them, it wasn't long before Tonks and Moody arrived, both dressed as muggles.
"Are you ready to go Harry?" Mrs Weasley asked, pulling on an old coat that Lily had lent her.
Harry looked at her in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Well, you're coming with us." Mrs Weasley said as though it were obvious.
Ron looked less than impressed.
"I… umm… surely it should just be the family? At least to start with?" Harry asked awkwardly.
Mrs Weasley shook her head, her greying red curls bouncing, "Of course not! You're the reason he's alive. He wants to see you and I won't hear of anything else."
Harry sighed, resined to the fact this was going to happen, "I'll go tell Mum."
Lily also agreed that it was strange for him to go with them to the hospital but said that they shouldn't argue with Mrs Weasley at the moment, it wouldn't hurt Harry to go to the hospital after all.
Sirius and Nikka happily agreed to look after Danica so that Lily could go with Harry, Mrs Weasley tried to insist that Harry would be fine with them but Lily smiled politely and said she was going.
Harry wrote a note to send to Draco, saying that he was recovering from the flu but was still feeling pretty rough and would hopefully see him over the holidays. He wished he could say more but they both knew that all the mail was being watched as it came in or out of Hogwarts. Thankfully there was only a few days left of term and their excuse of him coming down with the flu would explain why he was off.
He sent Hedwig soaring into the sky before pulling on his coat and heading out the door to the hospital.
It wasn't long until they were sitting on the underground, ignoring the looks Tonks was getting for her bright pink pixie cut.
"There isn't any Seer blood in your family is there?" Tonks asked, she was very interested in Harry's vision and Harry was gently trying to distracted her from the topic.
"No, not that we know off." Harry said, "You know Danica loves tracing her finger along the maps when we travel this way. She tells us how many stops we've got until we need to get off."
Tonks grinned, "She is a cutie, and brighter that she lets on."
Tonks looked like she was going to ask something else when Lily told them all it was the next stop and it was time to get ready to leave. The next stop let them out in the middle of London and they were quickly swept up in the flow of people rushing about.
Harry had been to St Mungo's before, once when he'd accidentally picked up Sirius wand when he was about six and made his nose invisible. No one had been able to work out how he'd done it, and they didn't want to risk making it worse so it was a trip to the hospital, with Lily berating Sirius all the way about being irresponsible with his wand. She'd gotten so annoyed at him one of the trainee mediwizards had to leave the room with a fit of the giggles.
They walked up to the old, grubby shop front and looked around before Tonks walked up to the ugly female dummy, it's eyelashes falling off, and grinned.
"Wotcher," She said quietly, "We're here to see Arthur Weasley."
He waited until the dummy gave a small nod and beckoned them forward with a finger before they walked though the window and it's cool water feeling, in one large group.
Harry shook himself on the other side to rid himself of the feeling of cool water running down his neck.
"Are you all right Harry dear?" Mrs Weasley asked, moving over to him.
"Yeah, I just hate that water feeling." harry shrugged, "I hated it last time as well."
"Oh? You've been here before?" Mrs Weasley asked, looking very concerned.
Harry nodded, "Just once, when I was about five or six. I got hold of Sirius's wand."
Mrs Weasley sniffed, "Well, none of my children ever ended up in hospital for something like that."
Harry was not entirely convinced but wisely chose not to saying anything.
Lily smiled tightly, "I think the reception is this way."
She led them through the crowded waiting room, filled with witches and wizards sitting on old wooden chairs, flicking through equally old copies of Witch Weekly or the Daily Prophet.
There were several people in the waiting room being seen to by witches and wizards in lime green robes, taking notes on clipboards.
Harry looked over the walls, covered in informational posters advising people on cauldron cleanliness and not to take unapproved antidotes. Harry thought that by the time they'd ended up in hospital, it was likely to be too late.
There was a large portrait of Dilys, the witch with grey ringlets that sat in Dumbledore's office. Harry watched as she looked over the group, gave Harry a quick wink and left the frame. Harry had a knot in his stomach at the thought of her reporting to Dumbledore, he didn't know why but it made him feel rather uneasy.
They moved to the front of the line and Mrs Weasley stepped forward to the rather bored and irritable witch at the desk.
"Hello." She said, "My husband, Arthur Weasley, was supposed to be moved to a different ward this morning, could you tell us-"
"Arthur Weasley?" the witch said, cutting across Mrs Weasley and running her finger down a list in front of her, "Ah yes. First floor, second door on the right, Dai Llewellyn Ward."
"Thank you dear." Mrs Weasley smiled, leading them all to the lifts.
The Dai Llewellyn ward was easy to find, it was written in large letters over the ward entrance along with the words 'Dangerous' and 'Bites'.
"We'll wait outside Molly." Tonks said, "Arthur won't want to deal with the lot of us right now. It should just be family to start with."
Mrs Weasley nodded and smiled, running her fingers though her hair and straightening her clothes, "Yes."
Harry hung back to stay with his mother, Tonks and Moody but Mrs Weasley took his hand, pulling him forward.
"Don't be silly Harry." Mrs Weasley smiled, "Arthur wants to say thank you."
Lily looked nervously between Harry and Mrs Weasley for a moment and smiled, "I'll be right here Harry. Just shout, if you need me."
Harry nodded and followed the Weasleys into the ward. It was small and dingy but it had lovely oak panelling on the walls and was spotlessly clean.
There were only three beds occupied in the ward, the rest of the beds made up with sheets covering them to keep them clean. Mr Weasley was in the bed at the far end of the ward, beside its one and only small window.
Harry was very relieved to see that he was sitting, propped up in the bed, reading the paper. He beamed a smile at them as he saw them come over.
"Hello!" He called, "Bill has just left, he needed to get back to work but he's going to pick Charlie up and drop in on you all later." he said, putting the paper down.
"How are you?" Mrs Weasley asked, giving him a light kiss on the cheek.
"I feel absolutely fine." Mr Weasley said, he reached over with his good arm to give Ginny a hug, "If only they could take the bandages off, I could go home."
"Why can't they take them off Dad?" Fred asked, moving in for a hug.
Mr Weasley sighed slightly before smiling again, "Well every time they've tried taking the bandages off, I start bleeding like mad." he reached for his wand and created six chairs for them all to sit down on, "It seems there was some sort of, rather unusual poison in that snake's fangs that keeps wounds open. They're sure they'll find an antidote thought. They say they've had much worse cases than mine, Lily's for example."
Harry tried not to look too shocked at what Mr Weasley was saying.
"She was very touch and go for a while, after the torture and then the magical explosion and then half the house falling on her..." Mr Weasley seemed to remember suddenly that Harry was sitting with them and stopped suddenly, "Sorry Harry. What I mean is that they're very good here. I just have to keep taking a Blood-Replenishing potion every hour. But that fellow over there, bitten by a werewolf, no cure at all. Poor chap."
"A werewolf?" Mrs Weasley whispered, "I mean, is he safe? To be on a public ward? He should be in a private room surely?"
"It's two weeks until the full moon." Harry said quietly.
"Exactly." Mr Weasley smiled, "The healers were talking to him this morning, trying to explain to him that he would be able to live a nearly normal life. I said to him, I didn't mention names of course, but I said I knew a werewolf personally, a very nice man, who finds his condition quite easy to manage."
Harry bit his tongue, he didn't think Remus would agree with Mr Weasley's assessment of 'easy'. He knew that even when he could get the Wolfsbane potion it was very painful and there was a lot of stigma around being a werewolf. He knew now was no the time to mention it though.
"What did he say?" George asked.
Mr Weasley looked sad for a moment, "He said he'd give me another bite if I didn't shut up."
"How rude." Ginny said.
Mr Weasley shrugged, "That woman over there, won't tell the healers what bit her, which makes us all think it must have been something she was handling illegally. Whatever it was took a good chunk out of her leg, awful smell when they have to change the dressings."
Fred leaned forward, "So, are you going to tell us what happened?"
Mr Weasley looked suddenly guarded, "Well you know. I had a long day, dozed off, got sneaked up on and attacked by a snake."
"Is it in the Prophet? You being attacked?" George asked.
"No of course not." Mr Weasley said bitterly, "the Ministry wouldn't want people to know a dirty great serpent got-"
"Arthur!" Mrs Weasley warned him.
"Got...er.. me." Mr Weasley finished with a large, slightly fake, smile.
"So where were you?" Ginny asked, "In your office?"
"That's my business." Mr Weasley said, still smiling.
He reached over and picked up the paper again, glancing over it, "I was just reading about Willy Widdershins's arrest when you arrived. He's been causing trouble for us for a while, likes to play tricks on muggles. One of his jinxes must of backfired, exploded a toilet and they found him unconscious in the mess, covered in-"
"When you say you were 'on duty', what were you doing?" Fred interrupted.
"That is enough." Hissed Mrs Weasley, "You heard your father, now unless you want to wait outside, drop it. Now dear, what were you saying about Willy Widdershins?"
"Well I'm getting my hopes up," Arthur continued, "that he is going to get his comeuppance. He'd gotten off with everything before now some how. All I can think if he managed to slip gold into the right hands." he shook his head, "According to this-"
"You were guarding it weren't you?" George said, ignoring his mother's warning, "The weapon that You-Know-Who is after?"
"George!" Mrs Weasley snapped, "Go and wait outside now, I warned you! You can come back in to say goodbye later."
George sullenly got up and stalked out the ward, followed by Fred. Mrs Weasley vanished the chairs and shuffled everyone up, no one daring to make a sound.
Mr Weasley coughed, "According to this, Willy's been selling biting doorknobs to Muggles, there are two of them in here with lost fingers. I mean, imagine, Muggles in St Mungo's. I wonder which ward they're in."
"Poor people." Harry said, "I mean they'll have at least a month of their lives missing between the regrowth time and then the memory modification, not to mention they'll be missed."
Mr Weasley nodded, "Exactly, very true. Although hopefully it means the menace will be dealt with this time."
"Right, you're looking tired. Lily, Tonks and Moody are just outside, they'd like to see you. Children out you can all come and say goodbye before we go." Mrs Weasley said.
Harry stood up with the others to leave.
"Oh Harry, I just wanted to say, thank you. More than I can say, thank you." Mr Weasley said, gripping his hand.
Harry smiled, feeling awkward on having received such praise and not sure what to say, "Well… umm… you're welcome?"
He walked quickly from the ward and waited outside. Fred and George were waiting, looking rather pleased with themselves. They waited until the adults had filed into the room to pull out the flesh coloured bits of string that were extendible ears.
Fred and George handed around the ends of the ears, Harry wasn't sure if he should take one.
"Harry, Dad's only alive because of you, you should take one. You've earned it." Fred grinned.
Harry returned the smile and put the string into his ear. He watched as the other ends of the strings wiggled towards and then under the door and into the ward.
"They searched the whole area, but couldn't find the snake." Tonks said clearly.
Harry was impressed, he couldn't fault Fred and George's inventing ability.
"It just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur..." Tonks sighed, "I mean You-Know-Who can't really of expected a snake to get in?"
"I reckon he sent it as a lookout." Moody growled, "Cause he ain't had any luck so far has he?"
"Harry has mentioned that Voldemort can inhabit snakes." Lily said quietly, "He might have been trying to get a clearer picture for himself, without having to actually set foot in the Ministry and risk getting caught."
"I reckon you're right there." Moody growled, "And if Arthur hadn't been there the beast would've seen a lot more, had a lot more time to look around."
"Harry says he saw it all happen?" Mrs Weasley asked.
"Yes." Lily said, she sounded a little uneasy.
Harry worried for a moment that Lily was going to tell them exactly how he'd seen what happened to Mr Weasley, but she didn't and Harry breathed a sign of relief.
"You know," Mrs Weasley said, "When I spoke to Dumbledore this morning, it sounded almost like he was waiting for something like this to happen to Harry."
"Well he's been through a bit." Moody said, "Always a bit off."
"Dumbledore seems worried." Mr Weasley said.
"Well I keep telling him that I don't agree with how he'd playing this." Lily said firmly, "It's not fair on… on any of us."
"Dumbledore is worried about Harry." Mrs Weasley said, equally firmly, "He knows what he's doing."
"And yet the boy is seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake's head, if not You-Know-Who himself if he was infecting the beast." Moody growled, "Clearly Potter is too young to know that that means, but if You-Know-Who is possessing him..."
Harry pulled out the extendible ear and handed it back to Fred without thinking. His mother didn't have to say anything, Dumbledore had already told them all, or at least Moody. He took two steps back and slid down the wall, trying to stop his heart hammering so loudly. He didn't need to look up to know that everyone was staring at him, with fear in their eyes.