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Chapter 28

Heads turned as Harry staggered through the Gryffindor common room, aided on either side by Ron and Hermione. While most returned swiftly to what they were doing, a few of those who knew Harry well stood up and followed the trio. Frowns were on their faces, some of concern, and some of confusion.

Having helped him hobble up the stairs to the boys dormitory, Ron and Hermione laid Harry gently down on the formers bed. The coolness of the pillow soothed him, and he relaxed still further, unaware of the audience that was gathered around his bed.

After a few nervous moments, Ron broke the silence. His voice was unsure.

'Harry, we should probably take off you're shirt, it'll stick.'

Ron's words trailed off as Harry nodded into the pillow, mentally bracing himself. The soft fabric muffled his reply.

'Cut it.'

Hermione nodded her understanding, and went quickly and quietly in search of a pair of scissors. Ron, meanwhile, urged the watchers to leave. They did, though all looked over their shoulders as they went out of the door, worry etched deep into their features. As Hermione returned, Ron fetched a bowel of water, as well as his own bright orange flannel. Nervously, they sat down on either side of the bed.

Ever so slowly, Hermione reached for the hem of his black shirt and lifted it gently; ignoring the smear of red it left on her hand. She began to snip away at the material with the scissors, careful to exert to pressure at the tensely trembling back beneath her. As she went higher, she reduced her pace even further, pulling the fabric free of his wounds strand by painful strand.

Pulling her hands back as she reached his neck and cutting through the sleeves, she slid the shirt from Harry's back entirely, finally revealing to them the extend of his injuries. Hermione's hands shook, and Ron spoke.

'Harry, these look pretty bad, are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital wing?'

When he answered, Harry's voice was tight with pain.

'Just clean them, water. That's all.'

Ron didn't make any reply, but Harry heard the splashing of water as the flannel was rung out, and prepared himself. As Ron began dab the flannel on his back in a painstaking attempt to clean off the blood, Harry bit his lip.

The moments when Ron halted his ministrations as Harry shifted beneath him, guilty to be causing his friend so much pain, gave him plenty of time to examine the wounds in detail with a morbid fascination he didn't know he possessed.

From a distance they looked clean, but up close Ron could see that in some areas strips of skin had been ripped off, while in others the leather had bitten deep. The wounds curled round his ribs, and extended from the small of his back to the base of his neck, in a seemingly endless web of pain and blood.

By the time he had finished, Ron's hands were tainted red, and the water had been stained red with blood. Relieved that it was over, Harry unclenched his jaw, licking away the blood from his bitten lip. His voice was hoarse.

'Thank you.'

Hearing Hermione sniffing once more, Harry tried to lighten his voice.

'Don't worry 'Mione, I'll be fine. Please, don't cry on my account.'

Realising that Hermione needed support as much as Harry did, Ron walked round the bed and hugged her soothing her by his close presence. Noticing this despite the fact he was facing the other way, Harry smiled slightly.

By the time Hermione was back to normal, Harry had drifted to sleep, his face relaxed. Ron separated himself from Hermione, his voice soft so as not to wake their sleeping friend.

'Stay here. I won't be too long.'

Hermione face was confused, the way her face tilted to the left asking a silent question. Ron answered, his voice gaining an angry note.

'I'm going to see if anyone knows who did whatever it was Gray accused Harry of.'

She nodded, comprehension obvious on her face. Ron slipped quietly out of the room, and Hermione settled noiselessly down on and nearby chair to keep vigil over her friend.

Down in the common room, Ron stood on a table and sent purple sparks out of his wand in an attempt to get people's attention. Gradually the hum of conversation died off. Forgetting his aversion to oratory, Ron spoke quietly and calmly, though his eyes were steely.

'I need to see whichever smartarse it was who thought it would be funny to go and mess up Professor Gray's workroom this afternoon. If they're not here but you know who did it. I'd be grateful if you could tell them to come to me. I'm waiting.'

Ron jumped down and made his way over to a deserted corner of the common room to wait. Minutes later he was approached by Fred and George. They were grinning as they addressed him.

'So you've heard about our little trick then.' It was Fred

'It was a good one, you should have seen he place.' George added

'Smashing.' Fred finished.

Neither realised that they were chewing on the wrong end of the stick until Ron stood up, his eyes murderous. When he spoke, his voice was coldly sarcastic.

'Yeah, really smashing. Well, you might as well see the results.'

Exchanging uncomfortable glances, Fred and George followed their younger brother up the stairs and into the fourth form dormitory.

Upon seeing Hermione, their brows creased into identical frowns. About to speak, they caught sight of Harry lying prone on the bed, and were immediately silenced. They spent a few seconds seemingly frozen in place, before they crept slowly up to the bed, eyes wide.

'What happened?'

'Who did that?'

Their voices were panicked, and Ron realised they genuinely had no idea. His voice lost its cold tone, and simply reflected the rage he felt against what had happened to his friend.

'Professor Gray saw fit to deal out a punishment. And you know why? Because his workshop was destroyed. By you.'

Ron was in no mood to be merciful, and he carried on, ignoring the horrified looks of realisation on the faces of his brothers.

'It's because of you that he's lying there. And you know what? I saw him do it, heard it. Because of you.'

Fred and George looked devastated. Seeing the anger drain slowly from their brother face, Fred took him by the shoulder.

'We had no idea...'

'We'll go and tell Gray...'

'Yeah, then he'll punish us and apologise to Harry.'

They bolted out of the room and down the stairs, appalled looks on their faces.

Once they had left the angry lines on Ron's face softened, and he went over to the bed, observing the gentle rise and fall of Harry chest. He knew his brothers would get no worse than detention, and it had made him feel less useless. He hadn't been able to protect his friends, and he would feel forever guilty because of it.

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Okay, how was that chapter. Any comments on the twist at the end? The next chapter will be Fred and George's conversation with Gray, and possible some Harry/twins conversations as well.

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know I returned from my skiing holiday having broken nothing except my ski's, which are now on their way to a repair shop. You should get another chapter, but hen its back to school, and I'm sorry to say updated will be few and probably far between, a consequence of my GCSE's being less than two months away.

On a lighter note, huge thanks to the thirty reviewers on the last chapter, I'm pretty sure that the most I've ever had for a single chapter.

Thanks for any reviews this time round - Pose.