Chapter 19: Nominations

The first thing that Harry noticed as the group tumbled out of the fireplace in the Room of Requirement was that there was a massive amount of injury in his party. Harry quickly laid Ernie down on his back; Ernie's eyes were glossed over, seeing nothing as he stared at the ceiling. In a panic, Harry checked for a pulse. Harry let out his breath as he felt one; Ernie seemed to be merely stunned. Muttering the counter curse, Harry watched as Ernie blinked a few times then sat up.

"You okay?" Harry asked. Ernie gave the thumbs up. Harry then turned to the rest of the group. Ginny was holding on to Neville so tightly that her knuckles had turned white, her eyes looking somewhere over Harry's right shoulder.

"I forget the counter curse," Neville said, his fingers intertwined with Ginny's.

"Reoptementem," Harry said. Ginny looked right into Neville's eyes.

"It's so good to see you again," she whispered to him; Neville smiled.

"Come on, you two…we have to help the others," Harry said. He moved on to Seamus when he heard his name being called.

"My ankle…I think it's sprained," he said through gritted teeth.

"Just try to tough it out, I don't know how to fix that…we'll get you up to the hospital wing in a sec," Harry said. Harry heard Parvati and Lavender's loud sobs; he went to them immediately. Parvati was crying, holding onto Lavender's hand and gently stroking her hair.

"Help her, Harry…please," she cried as he approached. Harry knelt down beside Lavender; she looked terrible. Her leg was mangled, to say the least. The bone was clearly visible just under her knee. Shattered glass was embedded into her face; she was hardly recognizable.

"Er…I don't know what to do…hold on, I'll get Hermione, she might know something," Harry said now looking for Hermione. It was then that he truly saw the damage that had been done to the group as he stood. There was so much blood on the floor that Harry had no idea who it belonged to. Harry now frantically looked for Hermione…then he found her. She was lying in her own pool of blood; Harry rushed to her side. She looked as bad as Lavender; Harry remembered hearing her crash through the window back at Malfoy Manor, but then how did Lavender get glass in her? But this wasn't the time to think of how it happened; this was the time to act on how to make it better.

Harry hands were trembling; he had no idea what to do. "Ron, help me," he said over Lavender's cries of pain. "Hermione…why is it always you?" he mumbled softly. Ron came to Harry's side in an instant.

"Oh…Harry…I don't know…" he said, looking down at Hermione.

"Ron, we have t-to save her…" Harry said. Now he was shaking all over; he reached out and clutched Hermione's hand. "Get help!" he cried. Ron dashed from the room. Harry began to cry softly, rocking back and forth; Cho came up next to him and lightly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Harry…" she started.

"No…don't say it," Harry choked. Harry looked down at his girlfriend; even though blood completely covered her body, Harry couldn't help but think that she still looked beautiful. Harry closed his eyes…she can't leave me…not like this, not now. Harry's eyes snapped open as he felt her familiar hand on his cheek.

"You worry too much," she whispered. Harry sobbed openly as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I thought…I saw you…oh, Hermione…." He cried.

"It probably looks worse than it feels…the glass barely hurts at all," Hermione soothed. Harry knew better than that; there was no doubt in his mind that Hermione was in a great amount of pain. "My leg; that's what's killing me," she said. Harry looked down at it; it was like Lavender's; smashed beyond anything he had ever seen.

"Hermione, how did this happen?" he asked.

"I'll tell you later," she said.

"Cho, how's everyone else?" Harry asked.

"Everyone's okay as far as I can tell," she answered. At that moment, Dumbledore came into the room, followed by Professor McGonagal and Madame Pomfrey. They were all fully dressed, as if they saw this coming.

"Professor, I-"

"Not now, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said. "Poppy, get to work," he ordered. Madame Pomfrey, with the aid of Professor McGonagal, went to each individual student fixing what she could. Lavender and Hermione posed the largest problem, but amazingly, they were fixed in what must have been record time. Everyone in Hermione's group had to be placed into casts containing Skele-Gro, which were to come off the very next day. The cuts from the glass could still be seen, but it was a small price to pay for what happened to them. Harry was shocked at the ability of magic in medicine.

"Now, if you please, where were you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Getting him," Harry said, pointing to Percy who was standing next to Ginny and Neville.

"My word…" Professor McGonagal said, putting a hand over her mouth. It was odd seeing the usually stern and self-possessed teacher stare at a former student with a look of complete shock.

"Harry, you were told that we could not get him!" Dumbledore said, his voice stern. "Now we have no advantage over Voldemort!" Harry jumped back, never before had he seen the Headmaster this angry.

"He needed us! He needed help!" Harry said. He felt an overwhelming anger rising towards Dumbledore; why didn't they want Percy back? "Listen, I don't care if we lose some kind of advantage, Percy is human, too! Remember? I'm the one fighting Voldemort in the end, so what do you care?"

"Harry, listen to me carefully. You might be the one fighting Voldemort, but the war that goes on until then involves all of us. Understand?" Dumbledore said as if speaking to a child who just had a temper tantrum. Harry was frustrated; he thought that the entire conversation was ridiculous. He, Harry, had done the right thing.

"You're wrong," he said. "I was right in what I did and somewhere inside you, you know that,"

"Harry, I'm not saying that what you did was wrong, I'm saying that it was at the wrong time-"

"No! It was the perfect time! When would have been the right time? When Percy was tortured to insanity? When he was dead?"

"Of course not…"

"Fine then, next time I'll leave it to you guys," Harry snarled. "These kids risked their lives for the greater good and how do you repay them? With telling them that they were wrong? Fine! Whatever, you go in next time,"

"All of you have suffered a great amount tonight; please make your way to the hospital wing. The Ministry will decide the consequences of your actions. I must go inform them now," Dumbledore said as if he hadn't heard Harry.

"Wait, professor!" Hermione said. "I found this," she pulled out the letter that she had found in Mrs. Malfoy's room. Dumbledore read it and put it in his cloak.

"Thank you, Ms. Granger," he said, turning to the door and leaving.

Everyone was to spend the rest of the night in the hospital wing, which wasn't long. They were to be excused from classes the next day so they could recover. During that time they talked mostly about what happened to each of their groups.

"So wait a minute, you guys jumped out of a window…from the second floor?" Ginny asked, amazed.

"Well, we jumped…but Hermione more like threw herself into it, breaking it rather nicely for the rest of us!" Lavender laughed. Ginny stared at them in disbelief. "Hey, at least we didn't blind each other!" Lavender added.

"That was an accident!" Harry said. The group laughed and happily continued their stories. It was different than when Harry had gone down to the Department of Mysteries; this time, the mission had been a success. Nobody had been killed, not even irreversibly hurt. Now that the event at Malfoy Manor was a memory, Harry looked back on it with pride.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley practically broke down the door when they arrived to see Percy.

"My baby!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked. "My beautiful baby!" Percy let her embrace him in a bone-crunching hug.

"Hey, Mum," he said, readjusting his glasses. Fred and George stood uncomfortably by the door; they waved.

"Hey, Perc, heard you got yourself kidnapped," Fred said.

"Bet you told You-Know-Who who's boss, eh?" George added. Percy smiled.

"Now, you must tell me everything that happened! You poor dear, it must've been terrible!" she cried.

"Molly, dear, let the boy rest. He's been through a lot these past couple of days, no doubt," Mr. Weasley said.

"Oh yes, of course," Mrs. Weasley said. Fred and George left a short while after, explaining that they needed to get back to the shop. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were then to take Percy to the Ministry to answer a few questions about his abduction. Harry and his party weren't alone in the hospital wing for long, however. None other than the Minister of Magic herself, Amelia Bones, came through the door. She walked up to the group and stood before them.

"So you decided to get Percy Weasley yourself, eh? That's what the Headmaster just informed me of last night. May I remind you that you were told of what could be lost in retrieving Percy? However, I'm not like the Order of the Phoenix, I value each witch and wizard individually. I commend each of you in your remarkable achievement. Therefore, I'm pleased to announce that all of you have been nominated to receive the Order of Merlin!" The group looked up at her in shock. They had expected to be reprimanded for what they had done, but now it seems that they are going to receive the most coveted award in the wizarding community. "Well, I must be off. I have much to do," and with that, she left.

"The Order of Merlin, wow! I never thought I'd get one of those. Do you think they'll really give it to us?" Parvati asked.

"Who knows?" Ginny said. "I mean, we didn't get one for the Department of Mysteries," she said, motioning to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and herself.

"What happened there? I heard that you all fought You-Know-Who, but what actually happened?" Lavender asked. Everyone looked to Harry; it was up to him of whether or not to break the story. Harry took a deep breath.

"Well, Sirius Black was my godfather and I had a dream saying he was in trouble in the Department of Mysteries. So we all went to save him…"

Harry finished his story to open mouths.

"No…way…" Cho said in awe. "That was the most amazing thing I've ever heard, seriously. You guys didn't get the Order of Merlin for that? That's crazy!"

By lunch, the entire student body had heard rumors of what had happened at Malfoy Manor, but no one had all the facts straight. On more than one occasion, a student would enter the hospital wing, hoping to get a few answers. Madame Pomfrey was quick to get these students out, fueling more rumors that Harry and his group had been seriously injured.

They were released just before dinner, actually, most of them could have left earlier, but they wanted to stay to keep Lavender, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean company as their bones healed. When they arrived in the Great Hall a hush fell over the students. All heads turned to look at them; Harry walked to the Gryffindor house table as if he hadn't noticed. Getting the clue, the rest of the group went to their respective house tables quickly and sat down.

"Y'know, I really expected the Minister to scream at us today," Hermione said. "I mean, we did go against what the Order had decided to do,"

"Hermione, my brother could have died! Of course the Minister let us off; she has family too. Most Order members don't," Ron said. Harry and Hermione agreed.

"What do you guys think about that letter I found? You think Voldemort's really going to break out Lucius Malfoy?" Hermione asked.

"Definitely," Ron said.

"Yeah, I'm just wondering when he is going to do it," Harry said. He looked over to the Slytherin table; Malfoy was sitting talking to Crabbe and Goyle. It looked as if he didn't have a care in the world.

The rest of dinner was uneventful, with the exception of a few students asking about what had happened. For the most part, Harry was more than willing to tell the key facts about it. Harry went to bed that night feeling both exhausted and excited; he never thought it was possible. The Order of Merlin could be his; he could actually have that award. With that on his mind, he fell into a deep sleep.