July 26, 2003
Alright kids! Here it *ahem* FINALLY is! I'm sooooooo sorry that it took me so long to get this out! (And yes, I do know that I am going to fan fiction hell for taking two weeks to get this out! You may all feel free to hate me!)
BUT! Here it is! It isn't the most exciting chapter (I don't think), but it sets up for some stuff later and does its job well! I PROMISE that the next chapter won't take so long to get up! In fact, it's almost done so it shouldn't take me that long at all!
And! After some serious deliberation after some serious discussing with my good friend NightSpear (author of Phoenix of the Elements, check it out! It totally rocks!), I have decided that this will in fact take place during Sixth Year… I originally planned for it's placement to be Fifth Year, but then, I first got the idea for this before The Order of the Phoenix had come out. However, for the case of this little piece - o - fiction, the death of a certain character will not be honored. (Sorry, J.K…. but YOU were torn up about it too!)
So, in recap, Sixth Year, no death. Got it? Good!
Notes to reviewers:
Usagichan: Haha! Whoo hoo! You still like it!! But you totally have to read this chapter… even YOU haven't seen this part yet! New addition!! That's why it's been taking me so long! And no, Seti~san doesn't know… she'd prolly kill me if she knew! Lol!
Tayce: YAY!!!!! I have a fan that I DON'T already know!!! HURRAY!!! I'm sorry it took me so long! Really! But I'll try and go faster!! And I'm WAY mondo glad that you like it!! :D Please stick with me!
NightSpear: My first reviewer EVER! YAY!! You totally cracked me up with "whoa." Cracked me up! And thanks for all the nit-picky stuff… I went back and fixed the ones I could remember and I'll fix the other ones later and re-post it! Glad you liked it and hopefully I'll let you know "what the he** was going on" soon enough! :D
ANYWHOO! Now that I have rambled on and I'm sure you have been waiting to continue (if you haven't given up on me yet!), I'll let you get to it!
Enjoy!
~*~
He coughed. The man beside him. But he wouldn't open his eyes. Couldn't. He was afraid that if he did, someone would come up to him and give him the bad news he didn't want to hear.
Sirius had been sitting in the waiting room of St. Mungo's for what felt like hours, Harry's blood etched into his tired hands, the sleeves and chest of his clothes, and smeared across his face into his hair.
He could remember perfectly every second of his tenure in this wretched place thus far this dark evening.
*
Standing up in the apparation room with a barely warm body hanging in his arms.
Running through the waiting room with the limp boy, no breath escaping his lips and blood pooling in his school robes.
Having doctors and nurses, healers and orderlies alike telling him to lie him down on a stretcher, and seeing the blood that covered his childish face.
The staff pulling out various instruments to check on the young boy's well-being, being forced to watch as they shifted and moved his arms and legs as if they were dead.
The quick snatches of unintelligible information that they spat to each other.
Telling them quickly amidst there conferring all that had happened since he first saw him.
The pained, yet subdued look on the soiled boyish face, eyes closed and hair matted to his forehead in cold sweat.
The thought that his godson might not make it out this time. These could be his final moments.
But the most horrid memory of all was the jolt he got when they had to hold him back as they wheeled his only family away from him, a doctor shouting, "I've got a pulse," as they ran him along a corridor and out of sight. The last thing he saw through those doors was a stream of dark hair flowing from a young, beautiful woman.
"No! You have to let me go with him! Please!" Sirius shouted.
"I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay out here," a tall, light haired, orderly told him.
"I'm the only family he has left! Please, I won't disturb them. Just let me stay with him."
"I'm afraid I can't let you in, but perhaps in a short while you may visit him." When he made no move to leave and appeared all the more apprehensive, the man said, "Please, have a seat. We'll keep you informed of his condition. What we know, you'll know too. Please," he said again, gesturing toward a row of chairs overshadowed by paintings of past healers, "sit down. I need you to fill out some paperwork anyway."
Sirius looked around himself with anxious disdain. Rather, he was too worried to realize the actual contempt he felt towards St. Mungo's staff for not letting him stay near his godson. But he sat down in the end and the man returned with a clipboard, a quill, and some ink.
"Could you fill this out please?"
"I can't write," Sirius lied, he felt too anxious to do anything properly right now.
"Well, then can you read this and tell me the answers?" he allowed.
"I can't read either," Sirius lied again, hoping that the young tow-head would take the hint and leave him alone.
"Fine," he said with an air of annoyance, "then I'll just have to read them to you and write down your answers," he retorted, knowing full well that Sirius could both read and write, but if Sirius was going to be stubborn, then he would return the favor. He wasn't much for having sympathy for cranky people, especially ones that wouldn't answer questions that could lead to cures, no matter how stressed out they were.
"What is your name?" he asked in mock neutrality.
"Next question," Sirius replied.
"You can't skip this question! It's your name," the orderly, Stevens, Sirius noted on his nametag, said.
"I'm not the one in the emergency room, am I, Stevens? It doesn't matter. Next question," he said forcefully, refusing to look the orderly in the eye.
"Fine. Hmm… well then you won't answer that one either… or that one… Okay, how about 'What is the name of the patient?'" he asked with a bit of sarcasm.
"Harry. Harry Potter," he breathed.
"The Harry Potter?" was the wondered reply.
"Next question." If he was going to be subjected to this, then he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.
"Alright, birth date?"
"July 31, 1980."
"So that makes him?" he urged.
"Sixteen."
"Okay. What are his parent's names?"
"They're deceased."
Stevens looked up. "That's right. They would be, wouldn't they?" said more to himself than anyone else.
The thought of James and Lily and almost losing their son tonight made stones drop into the heart and stomach of the Marauder and he leaned forward in his chair, elbows to knees, face in hands.
"Legal guardians name, then?" Stevens asked.
"Pass."
"Is it you?"
"Yes," Sirius tentatively allowed.
"Alright then. Any past injuries?"
"Well, he broke his arm playing Quidditch a few years back. I don't think there's been anything else as serious as that, just some school yard fights, I think."
"Like fist fighting?"
"Magic, I believe."
"Oooookay," he drew out as he scribbled Sirius' answers.
"Any special magical abilities? Seer? Animagi? Wandless magic?"
"Not that we know of. Sometimes he's a bit unable to control his magic when he's angry or upset but nothing like that. He has some strong magic flowing in his veins. Both of his parents were very powerful."
"Mmmm, hmmm… Let's see," he was becoming more amiable. "Allergies?"
"I don't know… I don't think s-.. oh! Um, cinnamon," he let through his worry with what could be noted as distant triumph. Little details like that he usually forgot until some time later.
"And how long has he had this allergy?"
"I don't know. We found out about it at breakfast a few weeks ago. It wasn't pretty. It really startled us."
"Does he only have a reaction to it if he ingests it?"
"No, just touching it set it off, but we didn't actually realize it until after he had eaten some of it."
"No allergies to medications or potion ingredients, then?"
"Not that I'm aware of, no."
"Alright," he said with yet another flourish of his quill; Sirius was now staring at an opposing painting labeled, 'St. Catherine, Caring for a Vampire Maiden,' as the women within the painting equally threatened and cowered from each other as they circled the room in their painting.
"Now for the hard questions," he said a bit quietly. "I need you to recount what happened tonight."
A long pause.
"I can't." Telling what little he knew to the doctors was hard enough. He didn't want to have to go through it in detail.
"You have to. If you don't, they could miss something and it could put Harry into some serious danger."
"I didn't get there soon enough to know exactly what they were doing. I only brought him here."
"When did you get there?"
"About," and he checked his watch, "my God, it was only about 20 minutes ago. It seems like it's been much longer than that."
"What did you see when you got there?"
"Death Eaters." He was very quiet.
"What were they doing?"
"Standing in a circle." Sirius was evading true answers and he knew it. If only what happened could remain mostly unsaid, maybe it wouldn't be true. Maybe this whole week would be just be the remnants of a horrible dream.
"But what were they doing in that circle?"
He didn't answer.
"Why is Harry here?" he encouraged.
"Because he was nearly beaten to death!" came the exasperated cry. "If I knew something don't you think I'd tell you? I don't know what they did to him! I don't know what spells they subjected him to, what tortures they inflicted upon him. I don't even know why they wanted him in the first place! He's just a boy. An innocent boy who's punishment is to hold his own against that wretched serpent while the rest of the world ridicules him and puts him down!" Sirius nearly shouted, standing up with tears in his eyes. "Look, I'm done with your questions! I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore. Please, just leave me be!" he said, standing over the orderly, looking oddly menacing and small at the same time.
"Alright, I'm sorry. I know that this must have been as hard for you as it was for him. We're here to help him, and we'll do everything in our power to make sure he gets well again. But, if you think of anything that you saw or heard that could help us in any way, please tell us." Stevens said from his seated position.
Sirius sat back down, his head hung low in shame.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- It's just…" He couldn't finish his words.
"Yes?" Stevens prodded him.
"I just haven't seen him in four days and I've been so worried about him and then the first sight that I do get of him…"
"It's alright. I understand," Stevens cut in. He felt horrible inside for it, but in some deep rooted place, he felt justified in the fact that the man before him was so upset. "But you said four days?"
"Yes."
"And this would be the fourth night?"
"Correct."
"By any chance do you know where he was being kept during these four days?"
"No," Sirius said shakily, "but, um, when we found him, he was in the forest."
"Which forest?" Stevens was being careful to appear merely curious and not pumping him for information. The more casual things stayed the more answers he'd get.
"The um…" he thought, eyes closed, head shaking, "the um… the Trixaline Forest," he finally got out.
"Trixaline?"
"Yes. By the lake. In the middle."
"Hmmm... That's very interesting." Sirius looked up.
"Why? What would make that interesting?"
"I don't know," Stevens replied, "it just seems interesting that he would choose a forest to do his dirty work instead of some place more secure, if I may be so bold." He hoped Sirius hadn't caught his use of the word 'he,' as the gender of Harry's capture was yet to be determined. A sly trick he had learned from a previous nurse to get more information.
"Yes, well, Voldemort is a twisted bastard." Stevens shivered. Sirius didn't notice.
'Good Lord. Lord Voldemort? I need to get this upstairs to them now.'
"Alright, then," Stevens said professionally, successfully hiding his own apprehension, "I'll leave you now. Just remember to tell us if you think of anything else, okay?"
"Sure. I'll try," Sirius replied, looking down again at his feet.
"Don't worry; I'm sure Harry will be just fine." Stevens comforted him, and the orderly stood up, preparing to go, but just as he did so, a woman came running through the double doors, her dark hair flowing behind her.
"Stevens!" she called. "Do you have the paperwork yet? We need it!"
"It'll be up in just a second. I need to get it signed and then it'll be yours," he called back.
"Well don't dawdle! We need that as soon as you can get it. Room 293, got it?"
"Yeah, Eleanor, I've got it. Now if you don't go it will take longer for me to get this through," he said.
"We're waiting!" she shouted as she went running back down the hallway from whence she had come.
"I'm going!" he called over his shoulder, walking through a door and to the offices behind it. But Sirius had heard it all. He looked up hearing that familiar voice and indeed it was the same dark haired woman from before. The dark hair that followed Harry.
'Room two-ninety-three,' he thought. 'I'm coming Harry. I'm coming.'
~*~
Hurray! Chapter finished!! :D Whatcha think? And f.y.i., yes, this sort of is a flashback chapter that will be finished in the next one… if you get confused, just let me know and I'll try to make it clearer.
Okay, because of the aforementioned issue of my not posting very quickly thus far, if you want me to email you when a new chapter is up, drop me a line at amimegan@sailormoon.com. (Dang, I've got a LOT of names! Lol!) Just put "TiniTinuviel" in the subject box so that way I know who you are and that you're not spam! Otherwise, I'll prolly end up deleting your message!
More coming *hopefully* soon!
~Tini :D
P.S. Harry was born in 1980, right?