In another world, Harry Potter would be seen as a hero, the savior of the wizarding world twice over and surrounded by those who cared and revered him.
Here, however, Harry Potter lay in a cold, sterile hospital room alone and deep within the grasp of a coma. He is eleven years old.
James and Lily Potter were a couple filled with joy and sparks, raising Harry to be kind and bold. The small home on Hollow Road was a thoroughfare for many. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, spent so many nights there that he almost called it home. His work on the police force of London kept him living odd hours, but he could always return to his oldest friend for a moment of peace. Remus Lupin, often ill and weak, sought refuge in the warmth of James' smile and Lily's laughter, especially in the tense moments between jobs. Many more passed through the threshold; Head Officer Alastair Moody, Politician Albus Dumbledore, and several boarding school friends such as Marlene McKinnon and Peter Pettigrew.
Slowly, the Hollow home grew more quiet. Sirius Black was killed in action, a single shot snuffing his light. Remus Lupin's illness sent him to the hospital for longer and longer stays until he never left and lost his battle. Peter abruptly cut all ties and disappeared to America, and the death of Marlene's family drove her to choose her own death over life.
Regardless of the heartache, Harry grew up loved and unerringly brave. James and Lily taught him to stand up to bullies and fight for what he believed in. It was in this lesson our story begins. One summer day, the Potter family stood firm and relaxed in a demonstration that demanded rights for all. It took one closed-minded individual to decide to turn right rather than left and drive through the protesters gathered in Hogsmeade Square. James was one of the first to fall, reaching for his own concealed weapon to shoot out the tires. Lily was the next to go, pushing Harry out of the way before going down. Both would not survive their injuries, but Harry?
Harry would wake only once in the following days, his eyes large and fearful as he searched for a familiar face. The severe injuries sustained in the accident would pull him back within himself, leaving him in the clutches of a coma not yet understood by doctors.
Two years later, little had changed. Harry continued to lay in a gray room with a small window with only a scar across his forehead as a remainder of the day everything changed. His mother's family had taken over guardianship of the boy, but their visits were few and sparse.
Until an eleven-year-old boy with red hair and a smudge of dirt on his nose let himself into room four of St. Mungo's hospital.
Ronald Weasley was the youngest boy of seven siblings. He saw himself in the shadow of his five older brothers and the novelty of his only sister and was content to stay in the background and out of trouble. The Weasleys were not well off, familiar with the assisted aid provided by the government, but that did not make them embarrassed and hide away from society. Arthur Weasley worked a small tier job in the local government office, and to cover the added costs of sending children to the same private school the family had attended for generations, Molly Weasley took a orderly job at the local St. Mungo's, bringing along her two youngest children to volunteer.
Ginny is directed to a room farther down the ward where a little blond girl paints imaginary creatures on her walls, but the kind nurse, a Ms. McGonagall, sends Ron to a young boy who has few visitors, our Harry.
Ron was not sure what to expect when entering room four, but it certainly was not the harsh fluorescents and the way they reflected the pale face of the boy on the bed. Steeling himself, Ron moves forward with a binder in hand and pulls a hard chair next to the comatose boy.
"Hello, Harry," Ron starts, speaking clearly like the nurse had told him, "My name is Ronald, but everyone calls me Ron." A part of him waited to see if Harry would respond, but the room remained still and silent. Ron continued, "I brought some trading cards for this game I like, Ministry of Magic. It's a game where —"
Ron spent two hours in that hospital room before being summoned by his mother to return home. He left his favorite card on Harry's bare nightstand, hoping Merlin would watch over and help wake Harry. In the three weeks that followed, Ron would visit Harry every few days telling him about Ministry of Magic and eventually his family. At the beginning of September, Ron walked into Harry's room to find a girl his age with wild mane of hair reading aloud to his Harry.
"Who are you?" Ron asked, not quite demanding but close enough.
The girl looks up in surprise, "I'm Hermione Granger. I read to the coma patients on this ward and the next," she told him matter-of-factly, gesturing to the book she held in her hand.
Ron frowned and crossed his arms, "Well, I've been talking to Harry for a while so I can take over."
Hermione's eyes flickered with a dangerous glint.
The pair would fight for a week about who had the right to be friends with Harry. Back and forth, back and forth the arguments continued until Nurse McGonagall stepped in and mentioned they could both be friends. The fighting ceased, but the tense atmosphere when both were in Harry's room lasted until Ron once again brought his trading cards and Hermione tripped over her laces in her eagerness to see them. The two stubbornly become friends and strongly protective of young Harry, the boy who lived.
The months and then years begin to pass, and Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are regulars on the coma ward, especially in the room of one Harry Potter. More Weasleys begin to visit the corridor, especially the youngest. A firecracker of a child, Ginny hopelessly falls in love with a boy she has never spoken to. The innocent romantic in her tried to wake Harry with a kiss like the fairytale her mother read to her when she was little, but he does not stir. The twins Fred and George dramatically tell of the pranks and fun the two spin at school, but are certain to edit when their mother is in the room.
The pack of redheads and adopted dark-haired sister do not spend all their time in room four. The other members on the coma ward need visitors as well, which is how a timid Neville Longbottom finds his way into the group of friends. The fearful moments of seeing his own parents who no longer recognize him left Neville with a crippling fear of hospitals until he is nearly run over by a girl with fiery-red hair.
"Oops! Pardon me!" Ginny explained, partly out of breath from racing Fred up the stairs.
Neville stared at the girl in shock, the first real example of life on this dark, painful ward. "Do you know someone here?" He blurted out, before blushing red at the rude question.
But Ginny nodded excitedly, "Yup! Harry's just down the hall, and I'm actually heading there now! Would you like to come?"
Neville found himself nodding and follows the girl down the hall. Whatever Neville was expecting to find was not what he was greeted with when he entered Harry's room. Colorful banners and art covered the walls. Sunlight streamed in from the open window, and a homemade knitted blanket covered the smuggled rocking chair in the corner. In the middle of it all, Harry remained still and quiet on the bed. Neville stayed quiet on that first visit, shocked to silence by the familiarity the people of the room include Harry in their conversations and laughs.
Neville added himself to the list of visitors to room four.
As time goes by, the world of St. Mungo's is shifted into detail. Many become a part of Harry's story: Mr. Hagrid, the night janitor who brought Harry a lopsided cake for his birthday, Severus Snape, the lab tech who handles the comatose boy a bit harshly in his blindness of unrequited love, and Ms. Dora Tonks, the new nurse whose hair color changes as often as the day.
Not all are welcome. Nurse Quirrell was quickly removed from Harry's care following his odd fascination with Harry's scar. A Mr. Lockhart was escorted off of hospital property for attempting to access Harry's personal files for a publication. The son of a board member, Draco Malfoy liked to pick fights and his mother ultimately chose to leave him home on any further visits to her sister on the locked ward.
Such is life for Harry until one month before his eighteenth birthday when everything begins to change. Ron and Hermione are sat side by side near Harry's bed, telling him of their plans for university come fall. The couple's hands are intertwined, far from the days of fighting to hide their true feelings. It is here that Nurse McGonagall told them of the Durselys' plan to terminate Harry's life support.
Hermione started screaming first, her hair flying around her face like magic. Ron gently reached out and took Harry's limp hand in his own, blinking away the tears threatening to fall. McGonagall left before they could see her shaking hands and the sobs she was barely holding back.
Hermione was poised to fight for the boy she grew up and had shared so much of her life with, but the Durselys were unmovable. Vernon gave as much as he got, and Petunia said nothing, sitting stiff and tense in the hospital room she had barely visited.
It had been too long, Vernon argued, He was not going to wake up.
Hermione had grown quiet by the time the Durselys had left, but there was a dangerous gleam in her eye. She called a meeting of all their friends, those who had woven themselves into each other's lives thanks to Harry. The plan was simple: keep moving Harry around until they gave up on terminating. The Weasley twins and Ginny agreed heartily and eagerly. Neville nodded fiercely, willing to fight in place of those who cannot fight for themselves.
The plan was foiled as quickly as it was formed.
The day arrived in a mess of rain and wind. Petunia had the small kindness of allowing Ron and Hermione to be in the room when the machines were unplugged, the smallest part of her hurting to lose the only part of her sister that she had left.
There was a click and a long beep.
Harry Potter was dead.
Then there was a heartbeat and another one.
Harry's eyes open for the first time in nine years and immediately found the friends he had never met.
"Ron? Hermione?" He asked in surprise, "You look different than how I pictured you."
Hermione flew forward with a cry and hugged Harry close, and Ron shakily sat down on the bed grasping Harry's strong hand in his own.
Harry went on to make a completely recovery, but his mind only held snapshots of the past years. Mrs. Weasley quickly takes Harry in as he had been a member of the family for a long while. The plot of the Dursleys ' attempt to take Harry's inheritance and his miraculous awakening made local headlines, but this Harry Potter would fade from people's minds at the next big event.
To his friends and family, Harry Potter would always be the boy who lived.