Chapter Twenty-Five

With a sigh, Ron sank wearily into the backbreaking waiting room chair. He took a drink from the cup of coffee sitting on his right, grimacing openly at its coldness.

"You can have mine," Hermione said to him. Hers had been sitting untouched for the last ten minutes.

Ron took it from her, trying not to let the thoughts of worry creep into his mind again. Compared to most, he and Hermione had escaped unscathed, with the exception of a ruined pair of dress robes and the odd scrape or bruise. Hermione had been extremely quiet, which was probably partially due to shock and partially because of Remus's condition. He was under close observation and the Healers did not want to risk reviving him until they knew the extent of the damage. When Ron had finally managed to get out of his Auror duties, he had found Hermione in the spell damage ward waiting room.

"Dad's gone back to the Ministry to start an investigation into the attack," he told her.

"Do you have to go in too?"

"Yeah, Moody wants me there in the morning."

Hermione glanced at the clock on the wall, saying, "that's not far off."

"It's not like I can sleep," he said. The events of that night were all too fresh in his mind still. He could picture with perfect detail the positions of the Death Eaters and everyone in the ballroom when the attack had commenced.

She did a very un-Hermione like thing then and didn't press the point or argue further, leaving Ron to wonder if she was a lot more shaken up by than she was letting on.

"Any change?" Tonks asked, walking briskly into the waiting area. She was in her Auror robes now and her normally perfect pink hair was looking frazzled.

"He's still the same," Ron answered.

The Auror's face was expressionless but her eyes gave away how worried she was. "I'm going to go in and see him quickly, then you and I need to get back to the Ministry," she said to Ron.

"Did something else happen? Was there another attack?" Hermione asked.

"No, not an attack, but Jack Anderson is no longer in the Ministry's custody," she said grimly. "He escaped with some help from his Death Eater mates."

"How does a guy escape Auror custody?" Ron demanded, feeling his blood boil.

"Moody's looking into it himself. He thinks it's an inside job."

"A traitor?" Ron said, alarmed.

"It seems likely," Tonks told them. "Only a handful of people outside of the Order knew where Anderson was being kept. It looks like the attack at the ball was just a diversion. Anderson was obviously important to You-Know-Who since he'd been feeding him information on certain projects going on inside the Ministry. Death Eaters aren't known to bust out their own kind once they've been captured. The Prophet is already all over it and the attack. Your dad is going to have a hell of time with all the press this is getting," she finished before walking into Remus's hospital room.

"Are you going to be okay here?" Ron said to Hermione.

She nodded. As much as she wanted him to stay, it wasn't for any logical reason except she wanted him there. But she knew he had other more pressing responsibilities.

"You sure? Because I could talk to Tonks – "

"No, you can't," she cut in, "but I'm fine here, really," she told him, sounding surer this time.

Ron seemed to accept that answer. "At least I didn't ruin it this time," he said with a wry grin. "The ball, I mean," he clarified.

"I think it's safe to say we were never meant to enjoy a ball," she said in response to his comment.

"Actually, I think you've enjoyed them quite a bit," Ron teased.

She expected him to bring up Viktor at that moment because he never passed up an opportunity to do so, so she was thankful when he didn't. "Honestly, I was miserable at them. I just did a good job of hiding it. I've had a lot of practice hiding my feelings," she said, looking at him. She sought out his hand and laid hers on top of it.

Before Ron could get too used to the feel of it, Tonks emerged from Remus's room. He released her hand, sharing a look with herthat meant they would find time later to sort through everything and then left with Tonks.

Since the Death Eater attack at the Christmas Ball, security around St. Mungo's was tighter than ever. Aurors patrolled in pairs, with two permanently stationed at the main reception desk. Harry was required to sign in and list the patient he was visiting. Since Remus wasn't in critical condition he was only allowed a maximum of three visitors. The nurse at reception reminded him he would have to sign in again at the Healer station when he reached the curse wing.

He and Ron had finally managed to convince Hermione to go home and get some much needed sleep, saying they would stay with Remus in shifts. Harry had volunteered to do the early evening until two a.m. shift, since he had the day off tomorrow and didn't sleep much these days anyways.

The only bright side to Remus being in the hospital was Tonks had wasted no time in finding another temporary safe house to shove Malfoy. Harry was quite astonished that Malfoy was actually putting up with it all, even though the Order was treating him far better than he deserved.

Harry rode the lift up to the third floor. When he got off he was immediately greeted by a bright, floating florescent sign that read all visitors are required to sign in at the desk with a flashing arrow pointing to the Healer station.

While Harry signed in again, the nurse began carrying on a one-sided conversation about Remus's condition.

"The Healer says his condition is improving. Of course, it's still serious though, because there's no telling what the damage from that awful curse did to him. It's possible he could be permanently – "

Harry wanted to thank whomever it was that had stopped the witch from prattling on uselessly, except piercing screams never turned out to be a good thing.

He pulled out his wand from inside his cloak, just as an orderly came stumbling around the corner, blood spilling from claw like gashes on his face.

"Bloody werewolf!" He cried out in panic. "It's going to tear us apart!"

Those words sent everyone in the immediate vicinity into a screaming frenzy. The unmistakable howl of a werewolf echoed through the corridor. Harry searched for any of the Aurors that were supposed to be on duty and cursed. Of course they were everywhere else except where they were actually needed.

While some barricaded themselves in patient's rooms, others dashed wildly for the lifts. Harry pushed his way through and started running towards the frantic screams. Nurses and orderlies ran past him, most of them helping escort the patients that were capable of walking. They tried to stop Harry from continuing, shouting that he was marching to his death but he pushed them aside. The closer he got to the corridor that Lupin's room was down, the greater the sounds of carnage got.

Though he was prepared for the sight of his former professor fully transformed, it still managed to make him freeze in his tracks. The werewolf was swiping at medical carts and visitor chairs sending them wildly in all directions.

Harry swallowed hard when the werewolf picked up on his scent and growled at him. Harry felt his blood run cold at the crimson colour covering the werewolf's teeth and seeping into its fur. He had already begun feeding.

It moved as if to attack him but stopped, as if an easier meal had been spotted. It started running down the hall and into a room. Harry pursued it, cursing and shouting to get it to come after him instead but it didn't work.

He skidded to a halt in a doorway with a room filled with four beds, each of the occupants lay unmoving even with the loud gnashing of teeth. Harry didn't even hesitate to use his wand.

"Stupefy!" He shouted, the spell hitting the werewolf in the back.

The spell didn't even make it falter in the slightest, so Harry repeated the spell again, desperate to get it away from the bed it was towering over. It still didn't succeed in slowing the creature down, but if Harry's goal had been to make it angrier he had succeeded in that respect.

The werewolf had finally decided to take an interest in him and charged forward with its jaws flapping wildly.

"I guess that nurse was wrong about there being any permanent damage," Harry muttered to himself.

Unable to move fast enough, Harry felt something similar to a club smash him in the side before he came crashing down hard on the floor. He wasn't able to dodge the next attack as a pair of claws came scraping across his body, one against his arm the other against the left side of his face. The werewolf grabbed a hold of him like he weighed nothing and threw him against the corridor wall. From the force of the impact, Harry heard several cracks that sounded unmistakably like bones breaking.

He could barely sit up and it hurt to breathe. The creature seemed to pause in its attack, aware that its prey was in no condition to go anywhere.

"Of course you had to wake up in the middle of a full moon," Harry groaned, as he scrambled to find his fallen wand, made that much more difficult by the fact his glasses had fallen off and everything around him was blurry.

But why the Healers had neglected to restrain Lupin when his lycanthropy would have been the first thing to stand out in his medical records escaped Harry.

Without his glasses he was able to see a massive dark blur moving towards him again. He gave up on his wand and focused on what he thought was a set of overturned chairs. They rose off the ground and connected with the moving body of the werewolf. They were smashed to pieces and the creature howled in pain. It stumbled slightly but continued to stalk towards Harry.

With the world still blurry around him, Harry thought he spotted an medical cart lying on the floor. He had to concentrate much harder then before to get it to move. He managed to gather enough force to send it pummeling against the beast, pining it against the wall with a resonating thud.

The werewolf wasn't moving anymore, but Harry could still hear its tiny yelps of pain.

"I'm sorry, Remus," he breathed, clutching his sides.

Harry remained conscious long enough to see the billowing black robes of the Aurors, having followed the path of bloodshed and destruction that had led them to that spot.

Harry considered turning around and coming back later, but Tonks saw him and waved him in.

Harry watched as Remus visibly winced at the sight of him, though he didn't look to be fairing much better. Remus was propped up by several pillows, and besides his face looking its normal worn and pale colour as it always did after a full moon, it was covered in tiny gashes.

"Merlin, Harry, you're a sight for sore eyes," Tonks teased, looking him up and down. His left arm was in a sling and the bruising and scratches along his face made him look as if someone had tried to maul him. In a way, that wasn't far from the truth, Harry mused.

"I can come back later," Harry said, darting towards the door.

He hadn't meant to walk in on them looking so comfortable.

"Nonsense," said Tonks, jumping to her feet. "I need to get back to the Ministry anyways before Moody starts having a fit and thinks I've been captured. His paranoia has reached an all new high," she finished with a roll of her eyes.

Harry didn't miss the quick squeeze she gave Lupin's hand before she moved away.

"You two play nice and try not to kill each other this time," she added over her shoulder as she walked out.

It was Harry's turn to wince and Remus cleared his throat uncomfortably.

Remus looked over Harry's battered body before turning away and staring at the ceiling. "Harry, I – "

"Remus, please don't," Harry said quickly. He didn't feel very mush like he deserved an apology, when he had probably hurt the older man just as bad in return.

"Harry, I'm not sure what you expect me to say after what you did. I would have killed you if you hadn't stopped me."

"Then it's good for me that werewolves get slower with age," he said with a grin, the first one in days. Then, growing serious again, said, "I didn't hurt you too badly, did I?"

It was Remus's turn to smile. "Let's just say I'm glad there wasn't any larger objects around for you to throw at me."

Harry felt his sudden burst of cheerfulness disappearing and didn't know what else to say. Fortunately for him Remus did.

"I certainly didn't imagine our first real conversation in months to be us apologizing for almost killing each other."

He tried to keep his tone light, but with one look Harry could see how much his continued resentment had hurt him.

"I'm not asking for your forgiveness, because I've never actually forgiven myself. I just want you to understand that I was young and I made a mistake but I never tried to get between James and Lily – nobody could, no matter how hard they tried," he told Harry with a fond smile. "Yes, I was in love with Lily," he admitted, forcing himself to look at Harry as he said it, "she was also one of my best friends and the only thing I wanted was for her to be happy. James was what made her happy, even though she frequently made comments as to how arrogant and pigheaded he could be."

Harry just stood there and listened to him talk.

"Harry, it's all right. You can say whatever it is you're feeling," Lupin encouraged him.

"I don't – I'm not sure what I'm feeling," he faltered.

The older man nodded his head in acceptance, not wanting to push. It finally seemed like Harry was willing to stand being in the same room as him and he wasn't eager to put him back on the defensive.

Remus didn't let him hang around there long. Though he was confined to a bed and Harry was able to walk around, he looked to be the worse off of the two. Harry finally agreed to go home, only after promising to come back first thing in the morning.

When Harry got home, he wondered why he had protested so hard to stay. It was too painful to lie down, so he went into the living room and put a couple of pillows behind his back before gingerly sitting down on the couch.

The Healers had given him some pain relieving potions but he refused to take them. They tasted awful and he'd rather take a couple of muggle aspirins then something as potent and addictive as those potions.

A brief burst of green flame erupted in the fireplace and Ginny emerged from it. Harry tried to move but only ended up hurting himself more instead.

"You shouldn't be here," he hissed through the pain.

Ginny would have been offended if she had not been expecting that reaction. "I just wanted to see that you were all right." Which you clearly aren't, she added giving him a quick once over. "Do you need anything?"

"No," he replied, his defenses on full alert.

"So you just want me to go then?"

Harry's eyes darkened. "This isn't a game, Ginny. We're supposed to stay away from each other, and you – you're making this harder." He shut his eyes, hoping that if she could feel how badly he wanted her to stay she could also feel his resolve that she needed to be away from him for her own good.

He felt the cushions shift beneath him as she sat down on the couch beside him.

"Harry, I feel fine now."

He opened his eyes and his expression showed that he didn't believe her.

"Okay, I can't feel anyone except you," she confessed. "But Dumbledore said this might happen."

"And you think it's a good idea for us to be around each other again?"

"I'm starting to regret coming here, actually."

Against his better judgment, he reached over with his uninjured hand and rested it atop hers. "I just don't want to hurt you," he said, his voice heavy with emotion.

"You're not right now," she said softly. "It's not hurting me being with you here just like this."

Harry lost the battle raging inside himself. Instead of doing the right thing, the thing he knew he had to do, he let Ginny stay with him.