Ron and Ginny slipped quietly through the Hospital Wing doors, which flapped backwards and forwards noisily, as they entered.
They were worried that people would notice as the door opened on its own, and Dumbledore knew about the invisibility cloak that Harry owned, but everyone seemed to preoccupied with Harry to notice.
They tiptoed into the corner of the room nearest Harry, but as they looked onto his bed, a horrible sight met their eyes.
Harry had a drip stuck in his arm, and a tube down his throat. He was now so pale, his skin looked grey with a greenish tinge, and his eyes were forced closed with white tape over them.
Ginny burst into silent tears at the sight, but Ron was outraged.
How dare they do that to my best friend! What they're doing to him is barbaric! He thought, as Madame Pomfrey turned away from Harry to check on Slughorn's findings.
Ron was suddenly hit with an absurd idea: while no one was looking, he tried to free his friend of the awful contraptions, starting with the tube down his throat.
So he slipped under the cloak, ignoring Ginny's questions, and placed his hands on the tube, ready to pull it out of his friend.
He tried to do it quietly, but as soon as he pulled it, the machine it was attached to started to beep furiously, which sent Madame Pomfrey, Remus, Mrs Weasley, and Dumbledore running.
Ron froze, as everyone looked at him in surprise.
"What are you doing Mr Weasley?" asked Madame Pomfrey, as she fixed the tube back into Harry's mouth properly.
"What are you doing to him? Why does he need that thing in his arm and that tube down his throat?" Ron asked nervously.
He looked up at Dumbledore, who smiled at him, then said. "Ah, your scared for your friend are you Ron? Well, I assure you, we wouldn't use muggle methods if we didn't have to. Harry is in a coma. It is keeping him alive while his body tries to repair itself. It's a bit like a very deep sleep, which he has to wake up from himself. This can take days, weeks, months, or even years. The longer he stays asleep, the less likely it will be for him to survive. If he takes too long, we will have to shut off the machine."
"So he will die?" asked Ginny, after coming out from under the cloak.
"I'm afraid so. But I don't think it will come to that. Now, I think Miss Granger has been waiting for you to get back for a while, so why don't you go back to your dormitory and tell her?" Dumbledore smiled at this, and ushered them away.