Are socks important?

If he wasn't forced to shut his eyes in pain when Moody accidentally rammed his foot into the door frame on the way in he would have been quite shocked. And if he had better eye sight he would have seen that not even a speck of dust blemished the floor, and that the rather loud portrait was finally gone, replaced by a very large hole in the wall through which you could see straight out across the street. As it was, when he opened his eyes all he took to notice was that the entrance way had better lighting and unlike last time, didn't feel like he badly needed to sneeze.

Moody proceeded to guide him into the living room occasionally prodding him in the back for more momentum. Mad-eye then sat him down on a brownish moth eaten couch, sat his leg comfortably on a foot stool firmly told him not to move or else (Harry briefly had a vision of a bouncing ferret) and hurried from the room. A few moments later his clunking footsteps could be heard heading upstairs and Harry was left alone with pain in his leg and his mind thinking non to clearly.

Anyone would expect him to feel generally awful in that house so soon after Sirius's passing. But he didn't then, not really. Maybe he had his leg bumped to many times or it hadn't really sunk in yet, in any case the emotion replacing sorrow was disappointment. He had planned not to get involved with them. Darn it after all that trouble with the black eye. As Sirius might say "Fuck this, I'm pissed". (Note: For those of you that are against Harry's cussing, I figure Sirius certainly would just not as much around him.)

Harry was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard crashes upstairs just over his head. It sounded like maybe a desk was over turned followed by very loud and very angry voices. Deciding that it took to much energy and caused too much pain to get up and investigate the argument he ignored his curiosity and instead idly picked at the fuzz poking out of the couch.

Apparently picking at the furniture was a task which required all of Harry's attention and therefore did not notice that Remus Lupin was standing at the doorway. Remus was trying to restrain himself from jumping on the kid as his immediate instinct was telling him to. He felt this should be a happy greeting; Sirius would have absolutely tackled Harry. In the end he simply walked over as quietly as he could, making note of Harry's propped up leg. Guess Mad-Eye wasn't exaggerating. That's one broken leg. Must be a very well cast shattering charm.

Halfway across the rather large room he of course stepped on a soft spot resulting in a creak sound which inevitably gave away his approach. Harry looked up apparently very bored, then his eyes focused on himself and Remus didn't like what he saw in them. Harry was actually glaring at him, his jaw was clenched tight shut and his eyes were watering slightly adding to the angered look making it seem that he was so mad his head was going to pop off. How can he be that mad at me? In all honesty he hadn't done anything to warrant that look.

Harry is brought back to earth when he hears someone walking across the room. The last thing he wanted. He really didn't want to explain what happened, it was embarrassing now and, well, he didn't want to see an Order member, the very people he had promised himself to avoid. He wasn't mad at THEM so much as at himself. A very frustrating thing that. So he glared his best at Remus Lupin, the man he should be happiest to see.

The glaring only lasted moments before Moony (aka Remus) cracked and slowly walked forward again and tentatively sat next to Harry on the couch. Neither moved at first; Remus again broke the stand still by asking if he could put a spell on Harry so he wouldn't feel the pain. At first he was surprised by the question. His whole lower leg was smarting a bit. (Top ten under statements of the year.) He had assumed everyone who could help was to busy to see to him. Then he remembered that Moony cared a great deal for him (busy or not Remus was here now) there and agreed with a simple nod of his head. Moony got up and brushed himself off and pulled out his wand. Crouching next to Harry he rolled up Harry's pant leg until it was just above his knee. Next he banished his sock with a wave of his wand and spoke quietly, though distinctly the intended spell "pasindu". A small spray of baby blue light spread from his wand over his ankle as directed by Remus's hand. Harry wondered a bit irritated if he'd get the sock back, no matter how big and smelly Dudley's feet were, hand me down socks were better than none.

Apparently his work was done as Remus sat back down on the couch and stared at his now wand empty hands. The pain was beginning to fade, which actually felt kind of, odd. It was like it was being drained out of him. He figured a couple of minutes and it wouldn't hurt at all; not that he was gunna be walking on it. The silence was bugging Harry, if Remus had to be there then he could at least apologize for the Order's lack of organization or keeping him there in the first place. Or he could explain the argument upstairs! Which – has stopped? Huh? When'd that happen? Looking up at the ceiling confused he strained his ears to pick up voices, but nothing ever went his way. All he could make out were the foot steps of a few wizards thumping faintly against the wooden floor, not as many people up there now he figured. But then where'd they go to?

Remus glanced at Harry whose sudden movement had caught his attention. The boy was staring at the roof, not the most fascinating past time he had to admit. He was waiting for Harry to start the conversation, but maybe that wasn't going to happen. He was frankly baffled as to why Harry was so mad at him. Did he blame him? For everything? Somehow he didn't think so.

He was about to try to get Harry to talk to him when said boy spoke up in a whisper "what's goin on upstairs?" When I said nothing he dragged his gaze from the ceiling and asked instead "why'd they stop fighting?" Why he had even noticed something like our "argument" was beyond me, he should have been preoccupied. I stumbled over my words sounding something like "wef thesll merph…" I was about to correct myself when Harry burst out laughing. He is so bizarre today. It was contagious or something, I began laughing at my words too. After all, he probably never heard a teacher figure mess up that bad. When we were both calm enough I cleared my throat and pronounced clearly "Mad- eye was badgering the rescue team before I came down. Dumbledore probably took care of it." Man, was that the wrong thing to say.

Harry instantly took on the angry look and asked with a hint of sarcastic pleasantness in his voice "he's here?"

Right at that moment a wizard charged down the stairs making a substantial bit of noise. He cut through the hallway past the room Remus and Harry straight to the room with the fireplace. What he did was apparent in a minute when Mme. Pomphrey raced into the room medical bag in hand, spotted Harry, ushered Remus out of the way and began asking questions. "What happened?" And "Where does it hurt?" Harry briefly considered asking for something to get rid of the constant headache he had without his glasses, but didn't want to explain the black eye and everything, not after all that effort! He could wait for the contacts. It's not like they can get them in any faster. Well, maybe they could. Point blank he didn't want them all to feel sorry for him. It was in a way actually pretty funny. The school year hadn't even stared yet and already he was in the care of the school nurse. That's one for the history books. A few waves of her wand she countered the pain release spell, fixed his ankle and had it mending, although she wasn't impressed. The nurse then did a second check of him, looking for any other injuries. She almost missed his eye seems the wound was healed after all but somehow she did. Magic. Her face darkened and she began putting her things away muttering something about talking to Dumbledore. Well she'll just have to wait her turn, I'm sure.

Remus had left the room and gone innocently (or perhaps not so innocently) to the Dumbledore designated part of the house, right above their heads. The second his leg stopped hurting he deemed it "walkonable" and quickly zipped out of the room, discovering that actually wasn't a good idea; the second his foot touched the ground his foot and the whole right side of his lower leg were shot with the pins and needles sensation. Ignoring the pain but wincing at every step he made his way upstairs ignoring Mme. Pimphrey (sorry Pomphrey) nagging him below to lie down. He was almost there when he heard Remus talking in the next room to his right and Harry noted happily that the door was ajar, for showing a bit of his Fred and George worthy perfected eavesdropping abilities.