Chapter 3
Verret Comes To Aid
'Aeneas!' came the whisper.
Strosslink was barely awake, in a semi-conscious stupor that the Muggles had inflicted on him with their needles. It was not sleep, far from it. They had merely rendered him unaware and mentally sluggish.
'Aeneas Strosslink!' the visitor was not bothered with whispering any more.
This woke Strosslink with a start.
'Verret?' he asked vaguely.
'That's my name, don't wear it out!' replied Verret.
There was a silent pause as Strosslink desperately tried to arrange his thoughts into some kind of coherent order.
'What hospital is this? St Mungo's?' he asked.
'No, no, no,' Verret shook his head. 'I suppose that's the morphine. Let me help you there.'
He waved his wand at a suspicious-looking tube stuck into Strosslink's arm. It withdrew itself and trickled clear liquid onto the floor.
Within moments Strosslink felt an enormous pain swell up in him, in his leg and his shoulder. He could not suppress a moan.
'And drink this…' Verret offered a small bottle of potion to Strosslink's lips.
The pain disappeared again almost immediately, but Strosslink no longer felt lethargic.
'What are you doing here?' he demanded of Verret.
'Saving you is what I'm doing,' came the sullen reply.
'Well get me out of here then!'
'Sorry, can't. I've been told you're to be left here until you're healed up. As punishment for getting here in the first place.'
He reached into his and drew out a thin rod.
'Alright, give me my wand,' demanded Strosslink.
But Verret merely placed in on same table as the strange contraption that Officer Drodes had kept tapping.
'That's it? "Give me my wand." No thanks or anything? Do you know how difficult it was for me to get that wand from the police station? I had to knock out three video cameras! And no one can just explain that sort of thing away, that door was triple-bolted. There'll be some sort of investigation, I'm sure.'
'Vedo camerars?'
'Don't worry. Hey, while I was getting up here I printed your medical record off of the computer. Don't worry what that means either. But…'
Verret flourished a piece of paper in front of Strosslink.
'You were shot twice by policemen. Using guns.'
Strosslink gaped at Verret in confusion.
'I'll explain. You see, obviously Muggles can't use magic. So instead of being able to hurt someone in the conventional way, they've gone and invented things like guns, that, instead of firing curses at people, actually shoot a tiny lump of metal at people.'
'And that is what hit me?'
'Yep. No magic in those tiny lumps of metal, so that's why most charms don't work. And now you've got two tiny lumps of metal stuck inside you, and it appears that the doctors here haven't taken them out for you. I think that it's possible for them to, but effectively they don't know your next of kin and they aren't going to do it if they aren't going to get paid for it. Welcome to the Muggle world.'
That you know so much about, Strosslink sneered silently. Verret noticed.
'But we've taken care of all that for you,' smiled Verret. 'That potion you've just drunk should heal you up nicely. When you have the strength of course, you'll be able to get your wand and Disapparate right out of here. But you've been warned, no extracurricular activities, alright? You leave as soon as you're able. That should be about morning.'
'That's not fair! Let me out of this primitive place!'
But Verret at that exact moment had drawn out his wand again and Disapparated from the room.
'Barbarian! Useless creature!' ranted Strosslink at the empty air. 'Muggle!'
Officer Drodes strode in through the door, followed by a worried-looking older Muggle dressed in white.
'Oi!' snarled Officer Drodes. 'Stop yelling, you looney!'
'He's got the drip out!' exclaimed the worried-looking Muggle, shocked.
'Well put it back in and stop him yelling!' Officer Drodes rounded on him.
'I'm a Strosslink! You can't do this to me, you lousy Mudblood!' screamed Strosslink; a quiet voice noting at the back of his mind that he'd never behaved like this in his entire life. The yelling, though, drowned the voice out.
'I've got a tranquilliser! I think I might have to use it!' exclaimed the worried-looking Muggle.
'Just stop him yelling!' snarled Officer Drodes again.
'I'm going to make sure you're brought up on this, Verret!' screamed Strosslink, as he felt a sharp sting in his arm, from the side that the worried-looking Muggle was standing. Strosslink's head twisted to the left, as the muscles in his neck refused to keep holding it up. As Strosslink felt all the different parts of his body follow suit, he stared with unfocussed eyes at the Muggle, dressed in his white coat, fearful expression on his face, hands clutching tightly the needle that he had stabbed into the wizard's arm.
Strosslink again felt himself rise from a stupor as the morning light shone in through the room's windows, his consciousness and his mind gradually returning to him.
And it was not the only force that Strosslink could feel coming back. He smiled as he felt the familiar warmth within himself; his own power.
'Accio wand!' he whispered so softly that it was almost inaudible.
His wand, fortunate he was that neither Officer Drodes nor the worried-looking Muggle had noticed it and stolen it again, flew back into his hand, where it belonged.
Strosslink's smile turned into a grin.
'Alohomora!' he whispered.
The chains all unlocked simultaneously. Strosslink also Banished away the tube that had been stuck back into his arm.
Strosslink stood up. He hadn't realised what he'd been wearing. It was like a white sheet, with the back missing from it as well. Strosslink spent a few moments calmly Transfiguring the garments into an appropriate-looking set of black robes, with proper black boots. Then, smiling, he stood stock-straight and pointed his wand at the closed door.
'Reducto!' he shouted.
The door instantly buckled outwards and collided with the wall across from it. Strosslink strode out through the hole that he had created, his smile widening.
The worried-looking Muggle that had stabbed Strosslink with the needle the previous night happened to be there in the hallway. Strosslink considered this quite fortunate; it saved him the trouble of searching out the Muggle himself.
'Levicorpus!' he laughed.
The worried-looking Muggle's body leapt up into the air, hovering. Strosslink would leave him there for the time being; he was harmless for the moment. But where was the Muggle, Officer Drodes?
The Muggle that had been sitting in a chair outside Strosslink's room was dressed exactly like Officer Drodes, but it was very obviously not he. The explosion had knocked him from his seat and pushed him along the shiny floor. Still, he was clutching another of the strange-looking wands in his hand, and Strosslink now had developed a wariness of these things that Verret had called guns.
'Expelliarmus!' he incanted, pointing his wand at Officer Drode's kinsman.
The Muggle fell backwards onto the floor again, and the gun went skittering down the hallway.
Strosslink walked over to his victim, lying prostrate on the floor. Another well-built Muggle, he surmised; he was quite strong-looking.
Strosslink pointed his wand straight down at the Muggle's chest. He decided to use a spell that he'd learned from a friend in the Death Eaters, but didn't have the opportunity to use very often.
'Sectumsempra-' he'd begun, when he heard another explosion, much smaller, but far more dangerous to him.
Down at the other end of the hallway, a woman dressed in white had picked up the Muggle's gun and was trying to use it on Strosslink.
With Strosslink's concentration gone, the worried-looking Muggle fell to the ground behind him with a loud thud. The thud was echoed by a second explosion and then by a sharp crack as the wizard Disapparated.
