Author's Note:

Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for my beautiful reviews - I felt so happy to see that little numeral on my stats page. When I read them, I glowed. Thanks!

To Guess Who: Yes, I know who you are! And I stopped playing the clarinet in Year Six. Nyah!

To Megs: I hope you're happy, I'm missing choir to come to your concert. And happy about it! I think you should know that such a travesty has never before occurred in the history of my life. YAY! (And don't mention use of the name!)

To Imprisoned: I will, and you should hear more about Amy fairly soon. Keep an eye out! Or both...just kidding!

To RosiePosie: I'm glad! My English teacher thinks my dialogue is better than my description, but she says it's improving, and now I have proof that it is! Keep reading, more to come soon.

To Booky: Hmm...I think I've already crushed you in happiness at your glowing review. But anyway, I've taken your advice (as I'm sure you've noticed), so you should see some improvement. Thanks for being such a good beta!

Fred stirred and woke. He had been sitting by Amy's bed, and his friend was still breathing. Just.

George had gone, and he was alone with the barely alive body of a girl who was possibly his favourite person at Hogwarts, George excepted. He leant forward and took her cold hand, rubbing it between his fingers. 'Come on, Ames, wake up,' he pleaded. 'I won't be able to survive without you during NEWTS, you know what we were like during our OWLS, copying off you left, right and centre. You got Outstanding for every subject and we barely managed to scrape three passes each. Think what it's going to be like during NEWTS! And there's your cousin in Wales, and you write letters to her in Welsh every other day, and she writes back; she can't do without you. Think of…think of Ginny! You're like an older sister to her. And there's all your classes…and you're taking Advanced Latin, and Professor Diva's retiring this year…remember you told me that her name literally meant, Professor Pleasant Goddess? How about the time you slipped that potion to the Slytherins…come on, Ames, you have to keep fighting. Hogwarts won't be the same without you…'

He spoke for over an hour, reminding her about Hogwarts, her friends, and the good times she had at the castle. Then he fell silent, rubbing her hand between his palms slowly, chafing her skin.

Time passed. He was dimly aware of the light within the room rising and falling, and someone entering the room several times, but they never spoke.

Someone touched his shoulder. He jumped and winced – after so long spent sitting in one position, his body was stiff.

'Good evening, Fred,' Dumbledore said quietly. 'How is Miss Johnson?'

'She hasn't moved,' he answered, depressed. 'Not since you last saw her, however long ago that was.'

Dumbledore peeled back the gauze from Amy's face and examined the cut attentively. A thin scab had knitted over the wound. 'Excellent,' he said softly, tapping the scab with his wand. A thick dressing appeared over it, padded with lots of gauze on the inside.

He placed the tip of his wand on her forehead and closed his eyes, murmuring incomprehensible words quietly as he concentrated.

Something passed from Dumbledore's wand into Amy's head, something golden with hints of red. It seemed to shimmer around her motionless form.

'Ah,' Dumbledore said happily, removing his wand.

Amy's eyelids flickered. Blue eyes looked blearily out at the world, before focusing on Fred.

Dumbledore conjured a bucket and gravely handed it to her. She stared at him for a moment, and then was violently sick into the bucket. She put it down on the floor and looked at Fred, eyes wide and childlike. Then, as he leant forward and hugged her skeletally thin body, she began to sob quietly into his shoulder.

Ginny put her head timidly in the door. A relieved smile spread across her face as she saw that Amy was awake and crying softly into Fred's shoulder, while Dumbledore beamed impartially at them both. She came in quietly and sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around Amy and resting her head on the older girl's shoulder.

Amy sniffed in a very unfeminine way. She rubbed her eyes and winced as she touched the spectacularly bruised black eyes that graced her face, before turning once again to Dumbledore.

'Good evening, Amy. Nice to see you back with us,' Dumbledore said quietly, conjuring a chair. She smiled shakily at him.

'Good evening, Professor Dumbledore,' she replied, determined to observe the niceties of common courtesy before she started asking questions.

Fred started to laugh. 'Isn't it just like you?' he gasped. 'You nearly die, you sleep for two days, we worry ourselves sick about you, and you're still observing good manners! You're insane!' Amy smiled ruefully.

'Can we tell her, Professor?' Ginny asked.

'Certainly you can, Miss Weasley,' Dumbledore said cheerfully, seating himself in the purple chintz armchair.

'You're in the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix which is at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Fred, George and Lupin found you in Diagon Alley and brought you back here,' Ginny explained.

Amy's face lit up. 'Lupin's here?'

'And Sirius and Mum and Dad and Ron and Hermione. And Harry's coming in the next few…oops.' Fred put his hand over his mouth.

'What's wrong?' Ginny asked.

'Sirius Black?' Amy asked calmly. Fred nodded wordlessly.

'What are you worrying about?' Amy demanded. 'I'm not going to go off my head, jump out of bed and run around the room shrieking and faint dead away. I thought you'd know that, Fred,' she told him severely.

Dumbledore smiled. 'As pert as ever, I see. However, I fear I must interject a rather disagreeable question. What happened in Knockturn Alley?'

Amy grinned. 'I thought that would come soon. Well, here goes.

'I wasn't in Knockturn Alley to start with, actually. I was in Wales, visiting my cousins – they live with my aunt and uncle on a little farm near Cader Idris.' She seemed to give Dumbledore an ambiguous look. He nodded gravely.

'So I was on the Welsh Knight Bus coming back from Cader Idris when suddenly everything went black. When I woke up, I was in this house with men and women a couple of metres away. Then a woman came over to me; her name was Electra or something; and she wanted to know if I'd had a nice little sleep. And I didn't answer her because I didn't want to get hurt unnecessarily. She slapped me across the face and pulled her wand out.

'Then the other Death Eaters – that's who they were – all pulled out their wands and simultaneously put the Cruciatus Curse on me. The Cruciatus Curse as a singular entity hurts a lot, but fourteen Cruciatus Curses at once have a special sort of pain of their own, for some reason.'

'Electra, you said? Not Alecto?' Dumbledore interjected.

Amy nodded. 'Yeah, it was Alecto. So then after being hit with fourteen Cruciatus Curses at once, I blacked out. When I woke up, I was being kicked around by all fourteen of them and then I heard myankle crack as someone jumped on it. I felt myself being dragged out and they took me through the Floo Network to Borgin and Burkes, and then dumped me in a side alley. That was the last thing I remember before I woke up here, except dreaming about my cousins screaming at me; something about me being their sister and not telling them for seventeen years.' She looked at Dumbledore steadily. Ginny laid her head on Amy's shoulder, revelling in the feeling of her hair against her face.

Hermione poked her head in. 'Professor Dumbledore, Mrs Weasley said…' Her voice trailed off as she saw Amy, her face blackened with bruises, and Ginny's head on Amy's shoulder. Sharp eyes found the trail of tears down Amy's cheeks.

She flushed bright red. 'I'm sorry, I didn't know…'

Amy called out impulsively. 'No, don't go!'

Hermione turned, puzzled. She hesitantly smiled at the strange, bruised girl in the bed, and at Fred, who was grinning broadly.

'Are you Hermione Granger?' Amy asked inquisitively.

'Yeah…I'm Hermione.'

'I'm Amy Johnson. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'd get up, but my ankle's pretty much useless at the moment. But I've heard a lot about you. Ron sings your praises every time I see him, which is quite a lot,' she said pleasantly, smiling at Hermione.

Hermione went even pinker. 'Oh…does he?'

'Yeah, he raves about you, really.'

Hermione paused, confused. 'Nice to meet you too, Amy,' she said, feeling bewildered at the sight of this strange girl whom Ginny, Fred and Dumbledore seemed to know so well.

'What did Molly want you to convey to me, Miss Granger?' Dumbledore asked pleasantly.

'Oh, she said to say that dinner's ready, and it'll be getting cold. Fred is to come down and eat as he hasn't eaten all day. And she wants to know whether Amy is awake yet, but you obviously are, so…' Hermione disappeared from the door, very much wrong-footed and flustered.

Amy laughed. 'Poor Hermione. Is she always that flustered?'

'No, not often, but then again it's not every day she gets told one of her best friends doesn't stop raving about her,' Fred said, grinning.

'Slight diplomatic fiction there. However, it doesn't matter.'

'No, it doesn't really, does it?' Ginny said, laughing.

Please review! You know how much you love that little purple button over there...so, you know what to do...CLICK IT!

Quote of the Day - Don't just sit there. You get up (hanging onto the bus handholds at the same time), you walk over and you ask that guy you've been staring at for a month to go out with you. Never mind he's a Year Six girl (who hates you)'s brother. GO AND ASK HIM OUT!

From personal experience. I wish I had the courage to do this!