A/N: I've only just realized that my formatting has been a little skewed for these first three chapters. In the places I wanted scene jumps, I've just been putting in a double space, but that wasn't showing up here. Anyone out there who might have suggestions as to how I'm supposed to fix this please let me know, it would be much appreciated. My apologies now go out to those who are crazy grammar fanatics! For those of you who didn't notice the problem, well, I was once young like you....
Disclaimer: All hail the almighty goddess of Harry Potter. (It's quite obvious that I am speaking of JK Rowling, and not myself.)
Chapter Three -
The Spell Damage Ward
Harry, Tonks, Kingsley and Remus left Grimmauld Place half an hour later, and walked as quickly as they could to the underground station. Tonks and Kingsley spent most of the time looking about them for any sign of dark wizards who might be tracking them. Remus and Harry darted their eyes from side to side occasionally, but for the most part, chatted quietly about the Weasleys.
Ron's family was huge, and as much as Harry didn't want to admit it, they would be lucky to escape this second rising of Voldemort and his followers unscathed. Harry had caught Mrs. Weasley fighting a boggart last year that kept turning into all of the members of her family, dead on the floor in the middle of the drawing room.
The boggart was a creature that turned itself into your worst fear. Harry certainly knew that Molly of all people had the right to fear the deaths of her family. With odds in the first Voldemort war being one dead out of every five, a family of seven which was right in the thick of things stood more than a small chance of losing one or two.
At the time, Harry hadn't truly understood that fear. He'd been a little more surprised and, to be honest, honoured by the fact that she considered Harry to be part of her family. Harry's dead body had momentarily lain in the drawing room along with Arthur's, Bill's, Ron's, and the rest of the gang. Now however, he understood that fear above all. Harry now felt slightly guilty that his boggart had never depicted Sirius being killed. Of course, he knew that if he now saw a boggart, he would still remember Sirius' death while staring at the clammy hands of a Dementor.
He was a quite nervous to be seeing the Weasleys now. He wasn't sure he wanted to talk any more about what had happened to Percy. Even though he now knew that Voldemort wasn't trying to possess him, for some reason he still felt guilty about the whole thing. It had been his hands that put that tympanus curse on Percy. He had felt the anger and frustration as if it were his own. It was not a part of himself that he wanted particularly to confront.
They arrived at the stop and left the train, feeling as though eyes followed them wherever they went. They continued on along the road until they came to the tall building with a glass front and ugly chipped mannequins of women wearing out of date fashions. The sign on the door read - CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT.
Kingsley leaned in close, and whispered through the glass. "We're here to see Percy Weasley."
One of the mannequins slowly nodded her head, and Harry, Kingsley, Remus, then Tonks leaned through the glass, and came out inside St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
Harry heard a screech and was immediately attacked by a gaggle of redheads. Ginny, Fred, George and Mrs. Weasley all came sailing towards him and he found himself being hugged, slapped on the back, and in the case of Ginny and Mrs. Weasley, kissed on the cheek. He noticed that they were all rather long-faced, and he could see that Mrs. Weasley's eyes were red and swollen, but he imagined that he probably looked much the same. He hadn't gotten a huge amount of sleep the night before.
"How is he?" he asked with trepidation.
Mrs. Weasley sniffed, and he saw her eyes begin to water again.
"That bad?"
Fred nodded looking strangely somber. "Have you ever met Mister and Mrs. Longbottom?"
Harry's heart sank so deep in his chest he could no longer feel it beating. "Oh, no. Not like them." He whispered.
Neville's parents had been tortured into insanity by a group of Death Eaters led by Bellatrix Lestrange, the same woman who had killed Sirius Black in the department of Mysteries. They were both nearly comatose, walking around the hospital ward like ghosts not really seeing or feeling anything at all.
Fred nodded. "He's just like them. At least, the way they were in the beginning." His shoulders began to shake noticeably. "But he's worse than they are now...And I called him a git." He broke into sobs, and covered his face with his hands. Harry put a hand lightly on Fred's back and George did the same from his other side. Harry's eyes misted over. "Fred, you can't deny that he's made some poor choices over the last year. He was taken from the burrow, so he must have been trying to get a hold of you to apologize."
Mrs. Weasley yelped, and stared at Harry through her tears. "How did you know that?!" Harry only now noticed the restored silence of the other three. "He sent me a note... and I only got it just as we were being told by professor Dumbledore that he was in danger..." This looked like news to everyone, and even Kingsley, Tonks and Remus stared between her and Harry with slack jaws.
"I... I saw it."
"You mean in a vision." It was a statement, not a question, but Harry nodded nonetheless. "How much did you see?" Now Mrs. Weasley looked livid, and Harry was honestly afraid to tell her what he had seen, much less that he had been the one doing it.
Harry shook his head instead. "I... This isn't the place. Some other time... please Mrs. Weasley." He pleaded with her, and the shuddering in his voice must have convinced her.
She nodded, and patted him on the back, sighing.
The Weasleys led Harry up the stairs to the fourth floor. The door read - SPELL DAMAGE WARD. Harry paused before the door. He didn't want to go in. He didn't want to see Percy or Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom, or Gilderoy Lockhart, another failed Defense teacher, who had no memory of him at all.
All of those people were stuck where they were because of him. He knew it was a long shot with Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom, but in a rather roundabout way their insanity was due to Harry. Part of what Bellatrix and her group had wanted to know was where Harry was being kept as a baby, and where their seemingly ghost-like dark lord had gone. When the Longbottoms did not know or didn't tell what they knew, the evil witch tortured them with the cruciatus curse, hoping to get them to break down.
Fred walked back to Harry who was stuck staring at the wall outside the Spell Damage ward. He took Harry's hand with an oddly serious look on his face. Harry looked back at him, and an exchange took place in their eyes.
Fred won, and Harry let himself be dragged into the room, his face the epitome of sadness, and guilt.
He wasn't mobbed this time, but the first person he saw was Ron, and he walked directly to him and clapped his arms around his best friend's back.
"You all right mate?" Ron queried, as they separated, and turned Harry towards the bed. It was obvious Ron could see the dark circles under his friend's eyes, and the uncontrolled shaking of his hands.
"Not bad." Was Harry's response, but the look in Ron's eyes said that he knew Harry was anything but.
Percy lay with his eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling with limbs twitching every so often. Harry found it so hard now to look away. He wore the lavender robes of a St. Mungo's patient, which clashed horribly with his vividly red hair. His skin was tinged with a luminescent green, and bits of purple bruising showed through in some places.
"He's been like this since they brought him in. The healers thought that the sound of our voices would help him, but nothing we say to him seems to get through." Ron looked dolefully at the pale figure on the bed. "It only seems to make him worse."
Harry stared, and a feeling of knowing exactly what was wrong seemed to steal over him.
"Mrs. Weasley, I need you to perform some magic on Percy." Harry said quietly.
Mrs. Weasley's stifled a sob. "W-w-what k-kind of m-magic?" In the background, Harry saw a crowd of people walk in the door. He could see another two Weasleys, Hermione, Neville and Luna with them, but he paid them no attention. This was far more important. They caught his eye, and nodded, remaining unseen near the door.
Harry, who now felt strangely in control of himself and his emotions, walked over to her and took her hand. "I need you to point your wand at him, using a circular motion, and say 'finite tympanum.'"
"What? Why?" Harry felt her hand shake in his.
"Trust me Mrs. Weasley. It will make him feel better. I would do it myself if I was of age." Harry didn't dare mention that he would be coming of age much sooner than any of them expected. Not after the warning he'd gotten from Dumbledore.
Mrs. Weasley took out her wand, and shakingly pointed it at her son. "Finite Tympanum." She said uncertainly, and Percy's limbs stopped quaking. His eyes still stared at the ceiling. Molly Weasley gasped, and slumped into Harry's arms.
"Oh!" She sobbed into his shoulder. "Will he be all right now?"
Harry wished he could tell her for sure. He'd only just realized that Percy had been suffering all day, and nobody had known what to do. In a way, he was angry at himself for not getting here sooner. He was angry at Dumbledore for not bringing him here directly. "Where is the healer for this ward?" he asked, trying not to let the anger influence his tone.
A woman with blonde curls, who was standing beside the divider curtain cleared her throat. "Um, I'm the Healer-in-training." She stared at Percy in shock. "What was that spell you used?"
Harry didn't smile. Nor did he answer her question. He felt a little angry at her as well, for not being able to see what was happening. He knew she couldn't possibly understand, but suffering was suffering, and there had to be ways of finding out. "Are you familiar with the Tympanus curse?" he asked.
"Well, yes. I was told it was impossible to tell if one had been performed on a person. How did you know?"
Again, Harry didn't answer her question. "Is deafness not a result of the curse?"
"Well, yes, but there are ways of circumventing and repairing mild hearing loss."
"Do you think that Percy is now completely deaf?"
The healer walked over to Percy's side, and snapped her fingers. Nothing happened. She clapped her hands, nothing.
She clapped them louder and a perceptible flinch crumpled Percy's features for a moment. Percy's eyes closed. Harry also saw Hermione jump a few centimetres out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see Ron put a hand on her shoulder in a comforting gesture.
"Without a doubt, he can still hear some things. The damage should be reparable." The healer smiled at everyone, and Harry felt Mrs. Weasley slide down his side.
He tried to catch her, and was able to slightly slow her descent, but she still hit the floor with a small thud. She had fainted.
"I'll get a hover bed." The healer-in-training said, and quickly levitated the unconscious form of Mrs. Weasley over to the side wall. She lay out a blanket, and lowered the levitating form onto it.
Harry simply stared. "She'll be all right?"
"Yes, of course." The healer smiled. "She's just had a bit of a shock. I won't revive her just yet. She needs to get some rest."
As it was, the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione were staring at Harry as if he had four heads. Harry felt unnerved by their rapt gazes, and didn't hesitate to tell them so. "If you're all finished staring, I would like to visit with your father!" He stomped out of the ward, and moved quickly down the stairs to the day clinic and temporary care ward, knowing that his anger was unjustified, and getting more angry because of it.
He heard the clomping of at least three sets of feet on the stairs above, and made to hurry up his descent.
"Harry! Wait up!" he heard Hermione call.
"I don't want to talk about it all right?" he yelled back.
Ron's lanky frame had somehow nearly caught up to Harry, so he stopped, hoping they would get the idea that he wanted to be alone. "No, Harry mate, we just wanted to go with you, and let Dad know what's going on with Percy!"
Ginny and Hermione arrived just behind him, and Ginny added her bit in. "We know how things always seem to happen to you, we just wanted to be there for you!"
"Well, maybe you shouldn't!" Harry yelled.
"What?! Hermione gasped. "Why would you say such a thing?!"
Harry blushed and shrugged, feeling embarrassed now. He hadn't told them about the prophecy, and to be honest, he wasn't sure that he should. "Nothing." He said morosely.
Ron clapped him on the shoulder. "C'mon mate! It's been two weeks since we saw you last. Couldn't you be in a bit better spirits for us, even if it's just an act? It seems like all I ever see you doing nowadays is frown!"
Ginny elbowed her brother in the ribs, and her eyes darkened in pain and anger. Harry knew that she was remembering Sirius.
Ginny had spent quite a bit of time with Sirius last Christmas, and they had formed a sort of friendship, if one could call it that.
She was seemingly the only one who understood what Sirius had meant to him, and Harry was suddenly gripped by the fierce urge to hug Ginny Weasley. Her eyes didn't pity, but empathised, and felt the pain of loss just as deeply.
"I miss him too." She said quietly.
Harry closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tamped the urge to cry down deep inside himself.
He thought he'd succeeded, when the girl's bony arms moved around him. She clutched at his chest, and Harry felt his breath shudder with suppressed sobs. His arms moved of their own accord around her slight form, and squeezed tight.
Two more sets of arms circled round, taking in both him and Ginny, and Harry suddenly felt his heart lift with the strength their touch seemed to be giving him.
When everyone pulled away, Harry yanked off his wire rimmed glasses, and quickly smeared his damp eyes on the sleeve of his jumper. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed all three of his friends trying inconspicuously to do the same.
He heard a quiet giggle, and not a moment later all four friends found themselves laughing uproariously in the middle of a stairwell in St. Mungo's hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. They were all sniffling and red-eyed, and the giggles only made more tears dribble out. They didn't have a clue what they were laughing about, but it felt ridiculously good.
Mr. Weasley was with one of the healers as they walked into the short term care ward. It seemed that they were just doing a final checkup, and the healer was about to release him.
"How are you doing dad?" Ron asked, walking up to him.
Mr. Weasley stood and winced, clutching his hand to the ribs on his left side. "A little tender, but the bones have healed well."
"Good." Said Ginny. "You'll need to go and see to mum."
Mr. Weasley looked at her sadly. "Is she feeling all right?" he whispered.
"She's... resting, actually." It seemed that Ginny didn't want to tell her father that their mother had just passed out cold. "But we actually came to give you good news about Percy."
Arthur's eyes widened. "There's good news?"
"The healers say he has a chance of recovering." Hermione said quietly.
"Just a chance?" Mr. Weasley asked, looking both elated and concerned at the same time.
"Well, Harry remembered..." Ron trailed off when Ginny elbowed him in the ribs again. They both looked over at Harry.
"You were the one who tipped off professor Dumbledore, weren't you?" Mr. Weasley asked with a tight-lipped expression.
Harry, who still had not been able to look at his best friend's father nodded at his shoes.
"You saw everything?"
"Most of it." Harry mumbled.
Arthur stormed forward, and Harry tried to shrink away. Instead of the angry blow he was expecting though, the wizard grabbed him up in the most heartfelt hugs Harry'd had in a long time.
"Thank you." Mr. Weasley ended the hug with a hearty slap on the back for his adoptive son. "And you know what Percy needs to get better?"
Harry couldn't believe he had thought this man would hit him. He silently berated himself for his stupidity. It wasn't as though any normal adult had ever hit him before, but in Harry's tired and confused mind, anything was possible. He tried to cover his flinch by giving a report. "I got Mrs. Weasley to perform the reversal on him. He's still not great, and he's got some hearing loss."
Hermione broke in. "But the healers say they can reverse that, and once he can hear everyone's voices and know that he's safe, then he should come out of it."
"That's very good to hear. I've got to sign some parchments, and I'll come right up to see everyone... Hermione, are you okay?"
Everyone's eyes turned to look at Hermione. She didn't look like anything was wrong, but then Harry remembered that Mr. Weasley had been injured while protecting Hermione and her parents. He wondered what had happened.
"I'm all right," Hermione said sheepishly. "I'm a little shaky, but I can get over it."
Harry now eyed Hermione closely, and saw that she was as pale as Mr. Weasley, and her bushy brown hair was more knotted and unkempt than ever before.
"What happened at your house?" Harry asked her.
Hermione shuddered. "Well, some death-eaters showed up and tried..." she gulped nervously, and her eyes began to water.
"No, it's all right. You don't have to say anything. I shouldn't have asked." Harry quickly promised her.
"No, I think I should tell you. I told Ron and Ginny."
Ron leaned over to Harry, and whispered so that Hermione couldn't hear, "Beware the waterworks."
"All right then." Harry said loudly, to cover Ron's rude comment. He lowered his voice next when he saw that Hermione had winced in reaction to the volume level of his voice. "Lets hear it."
"I'll just go sign those parchments," said Mr. Weasley eyeing the group, and he left.
"I'd been asleep, and I heard a sound downstairs and it woke me up. Well, actually, it was Crookshanks that woke me. He must have known that something was wrong, because he was growling and hissing." She took a deep breath. "That's when I heard the noises downstairs. I thought it might be mum or dad just getting a sort of midnight snack or something, so I went to the top of the stairs and called down. But it was really these four death-eaters. I don't know how they got into the house. I thought professor Dumbledore had set up a protection shield around us. I guess it wasn't strong enough or something."
Harry had a flash of a dark hooded shadow One's even a muggleborn. That should be fun for you, Platt. You may join that team. The shadow was nodding eagerly, anddisappearing through a door. Harry gave himself a mental slap in the face.
"Well, the Death-Eaters saw me up there, and they came running. I was able to stun two of them, but the other two grabbed me, and took my wand. I started yelling, and it woke up my mum and dad. They tried to help, really they did." Harry saw the first few tears leak out of the corner of Hermione's eyes.
"They stunned them, and took us all into the living room." Here, Hermione began to sob in earnest. "They t-t-tied us all up in chairs, and... and..." Harry came over and put his hand on Hermione's arm. She stepped away from his touch, seeming not to want the comfort. "They asked us some... awful questions, and threatened us when we couldn't tell them anything."
Harry was still worried for Hermione, but now he was also curious. "What sorts of questions did they ask you?"
Hermione was pacing back and forth now. "They really just wanted to know what Dumbledore was planning. They asked about the prophecy again, but they wanted to know if I had heard what was said in it. They also wanted to know what kind of person Dumbledore was... I think he said, 'putting into the Dark Lord's chosen place.' But I don't know what that means. He said he needed to get that person somehow. Then he told me I was stupid for not knowing what he was talking about."
Harry remained silent. He had determined that his fate dictated by the prophecy would not in any way put his friends into danger, but it seemed he was too late for that. He knew he should tell them what the prophecy said, but he just wasn't ready. In fact, it might be better for everyone involved if he never told them what that horrible glass sphere had actually contained.
"Most of it was stupid stuff. They asked if I was proud to be a m-m-mudblood, and if I thought I was smart. They asked dumb things that made me feel awful. They said I was worthless, except for what I could tell them about Dumbledore, and for... and one... one of them tried to... M-m-my dad was really worried, and he kept trying to get them to talk to him instead of me. They- they put the c-cruciatus curse on him."
Ron suddenly looked as if a lightbulb had gone on over his head. He looked suspicious and angry. "Wait a minute," he stopped Hermione's ramble. "Did one of them try anything fresh with you?" he stared at her, his eyes shooting fire.
Both Harry and Ginny's eyes widened. Obviously Hermione hadn't told them everything if the way she was now looking at her toes and chewing her fingernails was anything to go by.
When she spoke again, it was in a whisper. "He said that... when he grabbed me, he'd felt good about being able to just f-f-force me where he wanted, and he said a little more forcing couldn't hurt. He only touched... my face... but I still felt..." She shuddered, and hugged herself tightly. Obviously the experience was more than a little difficult to talk about.
A crash, then a tinkling of glass made Hermione jump, and squeak nervously.
Harry and Ginny looked around to see that a nearby beaker with dregs of potion in the bottom had exploded. They both looked back at Ron, who had turned completely red with anger. Harry couldn't be sure, but he had the feeling that Ron had just let some of his anger release itself in a spot of accidental magic.
"Oh, Hermione." Ginny whispered, and moved forward to hug her friend.
Hermione sniffed, stepping away from her and let out a nervous giggle. "I mean, at that point, your dad, p-professor McGonagall and Mundungus Fletcher were there, and they stunned the two death-eaters, and untied us.
"I got my wand back, and we were about to go, but one of the guys that I'd stunned earlier had woken up and we didn't realize it. A big fight broke out, and Mr. Weasley got caught by that hex. He was the one with the portkey, so we all made our way over to him, and we portkeyed out." She sniffed again. "That's pretty much all there was to it."
Hermione shook her fanned hands in front of her, as if to get the blood flowing again.
Ginny tried to move forward again to hug Hermione. This time, she let her come in, but the hug was stilted, and looked quite uncomfortable. Hermione hugged back lightly, as if she didn't really want to be doing it.
"I wish you'd told us earlier about that." She said. "I'm sorry."
More tears leaked out of Hermione's eyes, and she tightened the hug unconsciously. "I d-d-didn't want to w-w-worry you." She shuddered.
Ron, who had been silently fuming through the end of her story was cradling his fist in his palm menacingly. "When I find out who..." he grumbled, then looked at Hermione being hugged by Ginny. "They're the ones who should be worried, Hermione."
She smiled at him sadly.
Ron's machismo died down after a moment, and soon all four friends were hugging again. Ron and Harry encircling both Ginny and Hermione.
When they all pulled away, Hermione giggled. "This feels familliar."
They all knew she wasn't just talking about their encounter in the stairwell. Sometimes it was just comforting to have your friends near by.
Harry had already been hugged so many times he couldn't feel his torso. Every one of the Weasleys had thanked him, especially Molly, who had near broken Harry's spine when she woke up.
He had gotten some rather interesting comments about his methods of Healing from the healers, and Neville to his surprise had discovered that the Tympanus curse had also been used on his parents. As an experiment, he had given them a deck of cards which was set to explode as if they should play 'exploding snap'. The two of them threw cards onto the table in a random order until one of them exploded. Neither parent flinched. Apparently the tympanus charm had faded ages ago, leaving them both mostly deaf.
Neville was of two minds about the issue. For one thing, he now had a definitive answer regarding why his parents had never responded to him, and there was now the possibility of reversing it. It seemed they still had some hearing as well, but the damage was quite extensive. On the other hand, Neville thought he had been telling his parents his deepest secrets and most fervent desires his whole life, when the only true listeners had ever been the walls.
The problem with the cruciatus curse was that it needed comforting sounds to pull the people out of their personal hell. When crossed with the Tympanus curse, it made the effects of the cruciatus impossible to reverse.
So there was hope for Neville and his parents yet.
Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna and all of the Weasleys stayed the rest of the afternoon. Tonks and Kingsley told them they would remain in the Hospital, and would have to follow Harry and his friends around. Harry didn't really mind so much. As long as they kept him updated on what they were doing. The dark mood seemed to have lifted from the spell damage ward.
"So, Hermione, got all of your classes picked yet?" Harry asked her that afternoon while in the tea shop on the top floor. She, Harry, Neville, Ron, and Ginny all sat laughing and taking a break from Percy for awhile.
"What? You know we have to wait for our OWL results to pick classes." Hermione said.
"We do, but you don't. You're a cert to get all Outstandings. You can just pick whatever classes suit you best."
Hermione blushed. "I'm not guaranteed all O's," she said looking at the table.
Neville piped up. "I don't know. I actually think I did well for once. Even in potions. And we're all pretty much guaranteed O's in Defense." He looked at Harry gratefully. "and I think that if I can say that I did 'not badly', you've got to be one hundred and ten percent in everything."
"Speaking of Defense..." Hermione began, looking around at the crowded tea shop. "Will we still have the DA this year?" she asked in a whisper.
Harry grinned. "I can unconditionally say that we will."
"Good. Any ideas for the first few meetings?"
Harry leaned forward. "Actually, I do. More a sort of set up idea. I want to get as many people involved in this as possible, so I thought we'd start trying to recruit some of the first and second-years. I need a team of people who I trust not to spill the beans unless they see potential in students. I think you guys fit the bill. I was going to ask Hannah Abbott to deal with the Hufflepuff students. She seems pretty trustworthy."
"That's a great idea. But how are you going to teach us all at the same time? I mean, won't that be a little difficult, what with two levels of meetings going on?"
"Not if I ask my recruiters to act as assistant teachers."
Everyone sat back stunned.
"Harry! That's an incredible idea!" Ginny beamed at him, and made him blush.
She suddenly looked a little worried. "Uh, you did mean that I would be helping too? I mean- if It's just Hermione and Ron you wanted, then by all means-"
Harry held out his hand to stop her. "Don't worry Ginny. I meant all five of you, plus Hannah, if she's willing to join. I mean- who would be able to teach a better bat-bogey hex?"
Ginny smiled again. "Thanks. That one's my best."
"Just don't practice it on me okay?" Harry shuddered theatrically, and everyone else laughed.
"You really want me to help teach?" Neville asked in almost a whisper.
"Of course I do! Didn't you tell me that you've bought yourself a new wand?"
"Yeah..." Neville answered, uncertainly. "My dad's old one was broken beyond repair."
"Well if there's one thing I've learned about anything, it's that people are not always like their parents. You're not your father Neville, and his old wand was not for you. It's not an insult or anything I'm giving you, it's just the truth. I'm sure this new wand will suit you much better."
"Are you sure?" Neville said, pulling his new wand from the waistband of his jeans and eyeing it closely. From what Harry could see, it looked like it was made of maple.
"Of course I'm sure. From what I know about my parents, my mother was quite good at Charms and had a willow wand, and my father hated Defence Against the Dark Arts class and had a mahogany wand. Does that sound anything like me?" he pulled out his own wand and lay it on the table. It was very obvious, since wands and wand makers were studied in charms class, that his wand was a sort of holly.
Hermione giggled. "Not at all!" she turned to Neville. "Don't worry. You'll pick things up easily with that new wand."
Neville smiled, and put his wand away very carefully.
