Harry didn't want to go to the Quidditch match but unfortunately, no one had asked his opinion and he had been dragged along after breakfast.

Oh, he liked Quidditch well enough, watching the matches reminded him of the football matches he'd been brought to from time to time.

That said it was valuable time that could be spent perfecting his imitation of Goyle (unfortunately he couldn't bulk up like the stronger Metamorphagi so it was just a last resort in case the potion didn't work), continuing with his Animagus studies, or scanning in books. Or some combination therein.

Still, he prepared himself for a good game.

It was Gryffindor vs Slytherin which was always a contentious match but was made more so by the sudden addition of seven Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones for the Slytherin team, provided by Draco Malfoy's father. Many a person said he only got on the team because of the donation.

Gryffindors thought that it didn't matter how good the brooms were if the people riding them were slimy gits with no talent except for cheating.

It proved to be as exciting a match as they all expected, though it was also a bit of a disappointment as the Slytherins immediately pulled out into a lead. It was further dampened by the severe rain that started up part way through.

Before anyone knew what had happened an hour had passed and the Slytherins were up 120-50.

Just as Harry had caught sight of the snitch he noticed a bludger coming straight for the stands, and not veering off course as it usually would. Without thinking he scrambled out of the way which proved to be good instincts on his part as the bludger slammed through the spot he'd been sitting in with a loud crunching of wood.

Several people screamed as Harry let out a sigh of relief.

A moment later he heard a crunching from behind him and he didn't even have time to think before something slammed into his back with a sickening crunch sending him flying forward and out of the stands, then plummeting down to the ground.

Harry woke slowly. Blinking, almost painfully, he stared at the smiling face before him.

"How do you do?" the man asked.

Harry took stock of his body as he glanced around the unfamiliar room. So he was in some kind of hospital.

"Sore, no- that's not right, tender, I guess?"

"That's to be expected, you took quite the beating," the man said, nodding slightly. "And can you tell me your name?"

Harry frowned wondering why they didn't already know it. "I'd rather not if that's all right."

The man's eyebrows rose, "Whyever not?"

"Well if you don't already know it…" he said cagily.

"But I do know it!" He exclaimed, "I'm only making sure that you know it."

Harry studied him for a moment before saying cautiously, "It's Harry Potter."

The man relaxed, "And one final question, and I know the answer to this as well, just so we're clear. What year is it?"

Harry suddenly realized why he was being asked all these questions. He must have had a head injury, "1992."

"Very good," the man approved.

"If you don't mind can I ask where I am? And who you are?"

"Ah, of course." The man said, "I am Healer Smithwick and you're at Saint Mungo's Hospital. Do you remember what brought you here?"

Harry thought it over. "I was at the quidditch game…" he said slowly, "And a rogue bludger was headed for me. I thought I'd avoided it, but I guess not…"

"Oh, but you did!" The man exclaimed, before adding, "Then it came from behind you, crashed into you, and knocked you twelve feet to the ground."

Harry gaped at the man, "How am I still alive?"

The man laughed a little, "Magic!"

At Harry's unimpressed look the man laughed again, "Sorry, I love saying that to Muggleborns and Muggle-raised people. On your way down you were slowed down by several of the Professors, it made it as if you had dropped four feet instead of twelve. Still damaging but not nearly so bad, magicals can easily survive drops of six feet or more. Some even survive up to twenty feet, though not without considerable damage."

The Healer grimaced a bit, "No while the fall did some damage, it was the bludger slamming into you that did the real damage. You called it a rogue bludger, but really it was more cursed. Bludgers used in schools generally don't do more than bruise, sometimes break bones but that's very rare. This bludger broke your spine."

Harry gaped at the Healer, "Broke- broke my spine! Will I ever be able to walk again?"

"Oh goodness yes!" the Healer exclaimed, "Yes, you'll be walking around tomorrow. It's just that the damage was so severe we had to knock you unconscious for five days, but you're well on your way to being fully healed and tomorrow you'll be able to go back to Hogwarts."

Harry stared at the Healer in shock, "You fully healed my spine?"

Healer Smithwick nodded, seeming pleased with himself. "It's healed, now it just needs some time to adjust before you can go walking about. Isn't magic wonderful?"

Harry nodded slowly feeling- well too many things to count.

After the Healer left Harry was left to digest what he had learned. He'd known magic could heal a lot of things but a broken spine? That could change the world.

Just as he was about to reach into his things, which were sitting on his bedside table, and pull out his emergency cell phone to report in suddenly an alien appeared on his legs.

Harry stared at it in shock while it twisted its pointed ears, "Harry Potter must-"

Before the elf could finish its statement the door slammed open and the scarred man cast a spell at the alien. The alien popped out of existence right before the spell could hit it and it slammed into the wall causing ropes to fling uselessly at the wall.

Harry looked back and forth between where the alien was, where the ropes were, and where the scarred man was standing, panting heavily.

"Damned house elf," the man, who Harry belatedly recalled was called Alastor, spit before leaving the room once more.

Still, Harry didn't feel comfortable calling in to report when Alastor could know what was happening in the room. Maybe it was that eye, it certainly looked magical and seemed like it could see through the back of his head, it'd make sense if it could see through walls too.

Shivering at the thought Harry picked up a book from the bedside table and began to pretend to read, his mind working furiously.

At least there seemed to be no damage to his mind.

Harry was walking around very stiffly as he went searching for his bed. He didn't really want to be in bed but it was imperative that he call Jennifer.

After ensuring the dorm was deserted he pulled the curtains shut, activated the enchantments, and pressed the first-speed dial option. She picked up at once.

She was, predictably, furious.

To put it mildly.

"A cursed bludger broke your back and caused you to fall twelve feet?"

"I'm telling the truth."

She let out a slow breath, "Of course you are, at least you're awake now. How long will you be in the hospital?"

"I'm already out. Jennifer, they healed my broken spine."

"What?" she asked sounding shocked.

"They healed a broken spine. And a concussion, I suspect, though no one actually came out and said that bit. I walked up to my bedroom. Up several flights of stairs."

Jennifer was quiet for a moment before saying, "It's too bad for them that I don't actually care about them being able to heal you so thoroughly. The fact that you were hurt so badly is too much for me. They will pay."

Harry shivered a bit and wondered if this entire thing had just become personal for her.

For as long as he could remember she was going along with the plan to tear down the magical world because the Prime Minister had ordered it, but now that he'd been hurt… well it seemed all bets were off.

After that, there was little room for the conversation to go anywhere else and Harry hung up to go in search of his friends. He'd have thought that they would meet him at the Hospital Wing or in the Common Room but they were nowhere to be found.

In fact, Hermione wasn't even in the library when he went looking for them. Feeling rather hurt that they didn't seem to want to see him he asked Percy if he'd seen them but all he did was mutter a dark joke about them not being in the girl's bathroom again.

That, of course, gave him the idea to check there and sure enough, they were in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

As he opened the door he heard a gasp and the plop of something dropping into water.

"It's all right, it's me."

"Oh Harry," Hermione exclaimed from inside a stall, "You scared me."

Warily Harry walked around until he could see inside the stall. Hermione and Ron were crouched around a toilet, the bowl of which had been covered with a board, on which sat the cauldron. The book was open on the ground and Ron was grinding something with a pestle.

Hermione dropped something in the cauldron then got up and hugged him, "I was so worried! First you then Katie…"

"What do you mean? What happened to Katie?"

And that was how Harry found out that not only had he not been the only one to be injured, Katie Bell had been petrified later that night.

"Apparently she was coming down to visit some of us, we think the twins."

"What do you mean to visit?"

"A ton of people were hurt by the bludger," Ron said. "After you fell it went berserk, flinging people all over the place. You were the worst but I think some twenty-something people were sent to the Hospital Wing."

"Twenty-three," Hermione said, "Excluding you because you were portkeyed straight to Saint Mungo's."

"Everyone's okay?"

Hermione nodded, "But you'll never believe what I overheard! I was hurt by the bludger too, it broke my wrist and Professor Lockhart made the mistake," Ron coughed and she shot him a dirty look, "he made a mistake and vanished the bones in my arm."

Harry gaped at her, "How'd he make a mistake like that?" Ron snickered.

Hermione rolled her eyes and continued, "I woke up in the night because apparently regrowing bones hurts and I overheard the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall say that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before!"

"We think Malfoy's dad opened it, then passed the word down to his son on how to do it."