While You Were Sleeping
DAY ONE
Hermione and Neville shoved their way past the protesting medi wizard who was blocking the doorway and ignored Healer Kalra's calls for them to stay out of the way while Ron's condition was assessed properly.
"Harry what happened to him?" Neville puffed as he noticed the stunned-looking young wizard slumped against the wall watching the medi witches and wizards doing all sorts of tests over Ron's still form where he lay in the bed just a little way away.
"He...we were just talking and laughing and then he..." Harry was shaking as Neville crouched down in front of him and tried to clam his friend's nerves a little, "...I don't know what happened Neville. His nose started bleeding and he was writing in a foreign language and it was like he wasn't there. It was like he was somebody else and then he just collapsed and I couldn't wake him."
Hermione wasn't looking at Harry as she listened to the story. In fact she wasn't really giving the story her full attention either. All she could do was focus on Ron and do her very best not to let her legs crumple beneath her, as they seemed to want to do so badly right at that moment.
"Miss Granger," Healer Kalra was pulling her away from the foot of the bed where she had frozen in shock and fear, "you really shouldn't be in here."
"But we want to help," Neville said as he rose to his feet again, "we can help with the basics can't we?"
One of the mediwitches was calling for Healer Kalra quite urgently to come and assist them and the Indian wizard guided Hermione into Neville's arms before breaking away from them towards Ron.
"Even if I did allow trainees at your level to assist I still wouldn't in this case as you are both so close to the patient now I really do need peace to help your friend Mr Longbottom. Would you please take Miss Granger and Mr Potter outside into the waiting area and notify his family for me?"
Neville nodded and reached down to take Harry's hand and haul him up to his feet before guiding his two old school friends towards the door, Hermione resisting all the way.
"I'll stay out of the way I promise," she pleaded the healer as he turned his full attention to his patient and tried his best to ignore her desperate sobs, "Please let me stay with him, please. I can't leave him on his own like this."
"Shhh," Neville said as he shoved the slightly zombified Harry through the door ahead of him and used both arms to gently wrestle Hermione outside, "he's not on his own is he? You'll be right outside okay? You're not going anywhere. You're not leaving him."
Hermione's head fell and her face crumpled as she burrowed it into Neville's robes and let herself be practically dragged out into the waiting area across the corridor.
While Hermione struggled to calm herself down and Harry tried his very best to snap out of his stupor and look after her Neville had rushed to the emergency floo at the end of the corridor and alerted Mr and Mrs Weasley, who promptly sent Errol on a Weasley to Weasley round trip with the same frantically scribbled piece of parchment. Soon enough the waiting area became too crowded to wait in and morphed into a pacing area.
Hermione and Ginny clung to each other and watched as medi witches and medi wizards came and went from the room. Sometimes they were bringing potions, other times weighty books on healing, but mostly they were dragging in healers of every different specialty that was available to consult on the case. Every time the consultants left looking frustrated or defeated.
Mrs Weasley was being supported and comforted by both Bill and Charlie while Fleur kept rubbing Mr Weasley's arm and murmuring soothing things in French that made Mr Weasley give a brave smile every now and then. The twins were dominating the pacing, they were almost perfectly synchronised, and Percy was standing outside the door chewing on his thumbnail and turning to stare at Harry every now and then. Harry soon got sick of the accusatory looks and joined the twins in their pacing.
"Longbottom?" a medi witch leaned out of the door and called out to the group while wiping the sweat from her brow.
"That's me," Neville said as he thrust his way through the crowd of concerned redheads, "I'm here!"
"Healer Kalra is asking for you, come in," the witch said with a nod.
"I'm coming too," Hermione said as she jumped to her feet, almost knocking Ginny flat on her back.
"No Miss Granger, Healer Kalra specified that you were to stay out here with your family."
Hermione was shaking with frustration at her apparent uselessness in this situation and Fred stopped pacing and grabbed her into a rigid one-armed hug.
"At least tell me what's going on," she said breathlessly, "tell me what's wrong with him, what are you doing for him. Tell me he's going to be alright," she demanded.
The medi witch looked at Hermione for a moment before turning away swiftly and closing the door behind her. Hermione broke down and Fred put his other arm around her to keep her standing.
"Now now Hermione dear," Mrs Weasley was saying bracingly through flushed cheeks and a waterlogged face, "don't you let yourself get all upset over this. He's going to be just fine I know it. It takes more than a little bit of possession and a couple of headaches to bring down a Weasley."
"Yeah," Fred said with a reassuring shake as Hermione looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, "if You-Know-Who couldn't do it then no one can!"
The door creaked again and Neville came out, white faced and unable to look anybody in the eye, Hermione practically threw Fred off as if he was a light scarf hanging loosely around her neck and grabbed her fellow trainee by the shoulders.
"What did Kalra say? How's Ron? What's going on in there?" she said before being silenced by Neville finally meeting her eyes.
"It's his head," Neville said with a crack in his voice that he tried to clear with a small cough, "something's just shut down in there and they can't seem to find out what it is or...how to restart it again."
There was a whimpering sound that Hermione thought was Mrs Weasley but she didn't pay any attention to it. Instead she shook Neville quite roughly and readied herself for the worst.
"What do you mean? What do you mean they can't restart it? What's his condition Neville?"
Neville took a deep breath and let it out slowly before shaking his head.
"It's a magical coma Hermione. There's nothing more they can do. Nobody knows how to wake him up. If he can...ever..." Neville just shook his head and hugged Hermione, "I'm so sorry."
DAY TWO
"Wakey wakey, rise and shine!" Hermione said cheerfully as she pulled back every curtain in the small private room where Ron was being monitored, "It's a beautiful morning out there. You don't want to miss it do you?"
Harry wiped the sleep from his eyes and squinted at Hermione with confusion.
"Hermione wha-"
"You know Harry I think I might move his bed to the left a little so the sunlight falls on his face, would you help me?" she said breezily.
Harry blinked and shook his head as if trying to identify this strange young woman who had burst into Ron's room in a Hermione costume. Last night she had been a total wreck and Mr Weasley had to almost resort to breaking her fingers to get her to let go of Ron and go back home to get some rest. Harry had stayed at the hospital overnight. He hadn't been able to face going back to the flat on his own. Not without Ron.
"Hermione come and sit down for a moment," Harry got up from his seat and patted it with his hand encouragingly.
"When we move his bed Harry. Nothing encourages a person to wake up more than the sun shining on their face and I think we should position him so it does just that."
As Hermione marched over to the opposite side of Ron's bed to Harry and readied herself to push he leaned over the bed and looked her directly in the eye.
"Hermione the sunlight isn't going to wake him up."
Hermione kept the chirpy smile on her face while her eyes hardened along with her voice as she stared right back at him.
"So you're not even going to bother trying is that it Harry? I never figured you for a quitter."
Harry blinked and watched Hermione for any signs of another tearful breakdown but there were none so he looked down at Ron and nodded.
"You push and I pull then right?" he said as he gripped the side of the bed.
Hermione nodded and her enforced chirpiness faded into a genuinely warm smile of appreciation.
"On the count of three," she said softly.
DAY THREE
There was a knock on Percy's office door and when he looked up and saw Harry Potter standing there his heart almost choked him with the speed it leapt into his throat.
"Oh Godric what's happened to him? He isn't..." Percy said as he rose from the desk while holding onto it for much needed support, "...he didn't?"
"No change," Harry said sadly and Percy dropped back into his chair as if gravity had given him a little extra pull.
"Oh thank..." Percy was sighing before his head snapped up and he scowled at Harry, "What the hell are you doing here?"
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out what Percy recognised immediately as Ron's notepad and tossed it on the desk. Percy glanced down at the crumpled pages and then back up at Harry as he sat down across from him.
"This has something to do with the clinic or somebody at the clinic," Harry began before Percy could ask him what he wanted from him, "the clinic is non-magical. Ron's head problem might be non-magical too."
"You don't seriously believe that do you?" Percy scoffed and sat back in his chair, folding his arms.
"Nope," Harry said coolly, "I think it's more than magical. I think it's the kind of magic the Healers don't know about. I think it's the kind of magic Healers and Medi witches and the like aren't trained in. The kind of magic that is so powerful it can't be detected and that can be harnessed by whatever means within an entirely non-magical environment."
Percy unfolded his arms and sat forward again. He reached out for the note pad on his desk very slowly.
"What kind of magic are you talking about Potter?"
"Old magic," Harry said before nodding down to the pad, "Ron was channelling something ancient when his mind had to shut down to keep him alive. He was channelling powerful old magics or he was being possessed by a powerful old witch or wizard, I'm guessing witch, and his survival instinct's only option was a full blown shut down. All he kept going were his essential internal organs."
Percy looked down at the pad quickly before focusing back on Harry again.
"You think you know who this is then?"
"No idea," Harry shook his head, he seemed to be relieved that there was some kind of a dialogue going on between the two of them, however hostile."
"But you said you thought it was a witch."
"Yes I do," Harry nodded, "Jess, the seer girl Ron would get headaches working with, she'd get a vision every time she and Ron touched each other. She was having reoccurring visions of the same thing she saw whenever she and Ron touched every other day and even at night and in dreams."
"Visions of what exactly?"
"Visions of a young man of about twenty with red hair being burnt with white flames by a powerful witch in medieval looking clothing," Harry said with a sickened wince.
"Ron? She's been seeing Ron get hurt before he ever did and you did nothing?" Percy seethed.
"She's blind Percy!" Harry yelled as he banged his fist on the desk in annoyance, "she didn't know it was Ron to tell us. I only connected it all the day before and it was still so coincidental that I couldn't be sure. I thought it was the sapper guy. We all did, even the medical staff at the clinic, and Kalra checked Ron out just a little while ago for residual magic somewhere inside him."
"Does the family know about this?" Percy said, feeling livid that he had been kept in the dark over his own brother's welfare.
"Nobody but me, Hermione, Ginny and Neville, we were trying to find out what the problem was but there just didn't seem to be one. We didn't have anything to tell any of you."
Percy looked back down at the pad again, anything rather than looking at Harry and trying not to punch his lights out, he read some strange sentences in Ron's handwriting before frowning to see an unfamiliar scribble in and unfamiliar language.
"So where does this come from then?" Percy waved the pad in front of him.
"Ron was writing this when his nose started bleeding and just before he collapsed. He had done something weird like that before. Using words and phrases that were unlike him...more like you in fact," Harry shrugged.
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"Intelligent and articulate, like you and Hermione," Harry huffed before continuing, "He was writing something in a foreign language while his head was being messed up and I think this might be the key to getting him back again. I want to get him back Percy and you're the only person I know cleverer than Hermione when it comes to stuff like this."
"Stuff like what?" Percy blinked; shocked to have just been paid a compliment.
"Languages and translations," Harry shrugged, "It's what you do isn't it? You're fast too. You picked up sign language like it was nothing. You speak how many languages now?"
"Eight," Percy mumbled as he looked back at the pad and squinted at some of the words, "This is really similar to Spanish but it's not. Probably Portuguese, I can work on it if you leave this with me."
Harry exhaled and nodded. For a very brief moment Percy could've sworn that Harry had smiled at him. The stranger thing was that Percy had almost smiled back.
DAY FOUR
Hermione positioned Ron's bed in the 'sitting up' position before lathering up the brush and applying it to Ron's chin generously.
"I didn't realise how fast you could grow a beard Ron," she said with a smile as she tilted his head to spread the lather onto his cheeks, "you're always so smooth normally."
She had stopped in on him during her lunch break and sat talking to him while she sipped her pumpkin juice and barely touched her salad. When she left to return to work she brushed his cheek with her lips and almost tore them open on his three-day growth. Not only was Ron's stubble getting long but it was tough as wire and she had been using chap stick on her lips ever since.
"How am I supposed to kiss you with that barbed wire fence growing out of your face eh?" she said lightly.
She put the brush down and picked up the razor.
"Now hold still for me okay? I don't want to cut you anymore than you already have been," she tried to laugh at this comment but the flash of silver and blood went through her mind as she remembered Harry holding that blade and Ron's awful gurgling sound.
She shook her head clear of that memory and began to shave Ron.
"Now I won't be saying this too often understand? But it is not okay for you to wake up right now. Wait 'till I'm done alright?"
Hermione paused to listen to Ron's reply. It never came.
"Good," she nodded as if the two of them had just done a silent deal.
Hermione finished the rest of Ron's shave in silence. She put away the shaving kit and wiped his face clean before smiling with pride at her work and leaning over to plant a kiss on her boyfriend's smooth cheek.
"There you go," she whispered, "that's more like it."
She kissed the other cheek and then the tip of his long nose before settling her lips against Ron's and hovering there. The two pairs of lips were just barely brushing against each other for several long seconds before Hermione whispered.
"Aren't you going to kiss me Ron?"
She waited and shivered as she felt his breath on her face. She closed her eyes and softly pressed her lips to his before standing up and gathering her things to go home.
"I'm off now, I'll see you in the morning okay?"
She walked to the door and turned the doorknob before looking back one last time.
"Don't go anywhere will you?"
DAY FIVE
"Right I've got too much to eat it all myself so you're going to have to help me out here okay?" Charlie said as he unpacked the huge picnic basket he had brought to St Mungo's that afternoon.
He pulled out a whole cured ham; some steaming hot roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, some slices of roast beef and a steak and Guinness pie.
"Now I've got a roast chicken in the other basket if you'd prefer, I bought the whole thing because I forgot if you were a leg or a breast man. I mean since puberty I figured your preferences as far as those things were concerned might have changed."
Charlie grinned and watched his little brother's face for a moment before shrugging.
"Well be like that then you moody sod. I laugh at all your lame jokes."
Charlie lifted the roast potatoes and wafted them beneath Ron's nose.
"Five days mate," he said enticingly, "Come on you've got to be hungry after five days."
Charlie put the potatoes down and lifted a small gravy boat with an unspillable charm placed upon it for the journey.
"Mum made this especially for you, onion gravy," Charlie leaned over and sniffed deeply, "Mmmm mmmm mmmm, couldn't you just drink it all right from the boat like you did that time when you were little?" Charlie chuckled as he remembered his mother's screeches of protest as her baby boy downed a whole Weasley family worth of gravy before giving a satisfied burp and being sent to his room.
Ron had grumbled about having to miss the rest of his dinner but would always say in the years that followed that it had been worth it.
"Open up and I'll pour," Charlie said as he let the smell drift up into Ron's nostrils.
His face didn't even flicker. Charlie couldn't imagine a world where Ron would ignore food, especially their mother's cooking, and his cocky demeanour faltered for a moment before he pulled himself together again and set the gravy boat down and plunged his hands back into the picnic basket.
"I've got some breaded plaice if you fancy fish?"
Charlie glanced back at Ron's face and shrugged.
"Nah, I'm not much of a fish man either. So what about something light to start you off with then eh?"
Charlie rested his elbows on the bed and cupped his head in both hands while gazing intently at his brother.
"Your stomach must've shrunk by now, you probably don't want a big dinner do ya? I could do you cheese on toast if you like?"
Charlie waited for a response before reaching out with one of his hands and picking a stray red hair off of Ron's face.
"Maybe some eggs?"
DAY SIX
"Right lazy bones!" Hermione said briskly as she strode into Ron's room and threw down her notes from training that day, "It's time for you to get some exercise."
Hermione had been reading some muggle medical books about coma patients and decided that she wouldn't allow Ron's muscles to waste away while his brain recovered from it's temporary shutdown.
"We need to keep those arms and legs toned so you can use them when you wake up. I'm not going to carry you everywhere and how do you expect to sign to me if you can't lift your arms eh?"
Hermione rolled up her sleeves and grabbed Ron's left leg by the ankle and lifted it up to her shoulder.
"Right I want you to push against me on three okay? One two three!"
Hermione braced herself and gritted her teeth dramatically before huffing.
"Well that was just pathetic! I'm going to have to move your leg for you."
Hermione began to bend and flex Ron's leg while moving it back and forth in a rhythmic motion.
"Join in any time Ron," she said as she rolled her eyes.
DAY SEVEN
Fred sat at Ron's left and George on Ron's right. They looked from their little brother's face to each other and nodded before leaning in towards Ron's ears and taking a deep breath.
"Cock-a-doodle-do!" they bellowed in unison.
A medi witch came rushing into the room and looked at the three redheads in a great deal of alarm before regaining her composure and glaring at the twins.
"What on earth do you two think you are doing? This is a hospital not a farmyard!"
Fred shrugged.
"We just figured that nobody had tried that yet."
DAY EIGHT
Hermione crept into Ron's room an hour earlier than usual and pulled the personal CD player out of her beg.
"Morning Ron," she whispered as she pulled out a handful of CDs and stacked them on the bedside table, "I thought you might be getting a bit bored laying around here all day and night so I bought you something to occupy you when I'm not here."
Hermione untangled the wire from the headphones and placed them over Ron's ears gently, pausing tobrush his hair back from his face and stroke his cheek with her thumb, before flipping through the selection of CDs at her side.
"It's a muggle device that plays musical discs to you. I've bought some different kinds of stuff. I'm not really sure what muggle music you'd like really."
Hermione read out the titles and gave Ron a mini summary for each of them as she did. After every album review she hesitated and looked at his face for the tiniest little movement, even just a sigh, before moving on to the next one.
"Right well this is one of my dad's and it's like poetry more than music, Bob Dylan? Heard of him Ron? I bought the Freewheelin' album, it's my personal favourite. Then there's The Divine Comedy, they've got some really clever funny songs as well as some sweet little love songs as well...Ron? Yes or no to that one? Okay well after that I've got One Step Beyond by Madness, don't let the name put you off, they're really lively and fun, I think I'll put that to one side for you, I really do think you'll like it. So then we've got Pulp, they sound the most like the Weird Sisters so that's why I bought their album, although there's a lot more sex in their lyrics, I'm not sure the medi witches would appreciate it if they came in to check on you and you had an erection eh?"
Hermione found herself clamping her hand over her mouth to stifle the uncontrollable wave of giggles that had suddenly come over her. She was so tired these days that she would break out in laughter or tears at the slightest of things. She hurriedly moved on to the next disc in the stack.
"I've brought the Kinks with me too," she paused to see if Ron's eyebrow tried to raise, just a tiny little bit, in that way she knew he would do if he were awake but nothing registered on his face at all, "This is one of my mum's old Elton John albums from the seventies. His older stuff is really beautiful. I might play that when we're both here so we can snuggle up on the bed. I've been missing you at night Ron. I've just been missing you full stop. Come on I know you're stronger then this magic, I've seen you fight so hard so many times. I know you can wake up if you want to."
Hermione took his hand in hers and brought it up to her lips and kissed it.
"I suppose you're just a little tired right now aren't you? Don't worry, you get as much sleep as you want to okay?"
She let go of his hand and picked up the next disc.
"Well I don't really know what I was thinking when I brought this one but you might like it, it's very...unique, Led Zeppelin. Then the last one is The Proclaimers; they're Scottish. I really like them. There's this one song, Sunshine on Leith, which I've always wanted to dance to with you. You'll get up and dance with me when you've finished with all this sleeping won't you Ron?"
Hermione bit her lip and opened the CD case and lifted the Proclaimers disc out and placed it into the small CD player. She found the track and pressed play. She leaned forward and kissed Ron on the lips, close enough to hear the music emanating from the tiny speakers, and lifted one of the headphones away from his ear so she could whisper to him.
"Do you mind if I have this dance?"
Hermione lifted the headphones off and set them just above his head on the pillow before turning the volume right up so she could hear the song clearly enough to dance to. Then she raised Ron's bed into the sitting position while she shuffled onto it and curled her arms around him while resting her head on his shoulder.
She began to rock from side to side slowly as she lifted Ron's right hand with her own and interlaced their fingers together.
'While I'm worth my room on this earth
I will be with you.
While the Chief, puts sunshine on Leith
I'll thank him for his work
And your birth and my birth'
"Do you want to dip me?" Hermione sighed and she held Ron close to her and felt the familiar warmth of him.
She leaned as far over to one side as she could go without falling before coming back up again and smiling to herself.
"Look at you, you've got some moves for an unconscious guy!"
Hermione stopped rocking and hugged Ron as the tears fell. She squeezed her eyes closed as firmly as she could to try and hold them in but it only made it worse. She kissed Ron on the cheek and sniffed.
"I love you."
DAY NINE
Harry looked up when he heard Percy clearing his throat from the doorway to Ron's room.
"Oh hi," he mumbled to the bespectacled Weasley as he approached Ron's bed slowly.
"How's he doing?" Percy said so quietly that Harry could almost have imagined it.
"I don't know," Harry said sadly as he tidied away a stack of magazines and CDs that were strewn all over the spare chair so Percy could sit down, "Neville and Kalra are in and out all the time with something new to try and every time..." Harry shook his head, "...he doesn't even flinch."
Percy sat up straight and gave a superior sniff in that arrogant way of his before patting his sleeping brother on the arm quite bracingly.
"Well give it time eh? They're going to make plenty of stupid mistakes before they find the solution but it'll come."
Percy reached into the briefcase at his feet and clicked it open. Harry frowned as he watched, not knowing what kind of ground he was on with Percy right now as the older man wouldn't make eye contact with him anymore, and Percy sat upright again and set Ron's notepad on the sleeping boy's chest before unfurling a small scroll of parchment and clearing his throat.
"I was right you know? It is Portuguese," Percy said as he adjusted his glasses to rest on the tip of his nose as he scanned both the pad and the parchment.
"So were you able to..." Harry began before being cut off but Percy's eagle eyes staring at him over the rims of his glasses and then quickly moving back down to rest upon his brother's face again.
"I was talking to Ron," Percy said sharply before taking a calming breath in and out and addressing Harry while still focusing his full attention on his eerily still brother, "I've heard all sorts of little comments as I walk the corridors at the ministry and I hear them on the wards here too. They think we're all mad Harry. Talking to an empty shell with no mind inside as if it can hear us. Delusional somebody called the family the other day. I'm afraid I had to hit him."
Harry found himself gasping on an accidental laugh as it briefly escaped his lips. He smiled at the strangely stiff Weasley as he shuffled his papers unnecessarily.
"You hit someone?"
Percy flushed in the face.
"Well I attempted to. I have to say I've never thrown a punch in my life and I didn't really do it right. The man, the ignorant fool I should say, just seemed startled rather than hurt. I'd have done more damage had I thrown a glass of tepid water into his face."
Harry really did laugh this time. He looked at Ron and wished that his best friend were alert enough to have just heard that story. He willed Ron to smirk just a little, how could he not do? How would he be able to resist it if indeed he could hear them at all?
"If you mention this to Fred or George please tell them I drew blood. I can do without more of their jibes thank you very much," Percy cleared his throat and leaned over to straighten the covers on Ron's bed, he gave a slight pat on Ron's chest as he withdrew his hand and picked up the pad again, "If Hermione thinks it might be possible for him to hear us then that's good enough for me."
Harry nodded.
"Me too."
Percy looked Harry in the eye and addressed him directly for the first time.
"Well I've got your translation for you Pott- Harry," Percy presented the parchment with a small flourish, "It's almost as if the person, the witch, who's using Ron in whatever way is trying to escape from somewhere, Ron's channelling their plea for freedom. The thing is there are warnings too, it's almost like the sorting hat in a way," Percy frowned as Harry took the parchment from him with wide eyes.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well the warnings it gave towards the end of your time there, just as the war was warming up, like an omniscient presence rather then a living telepath or Legilemens," Percy said thoughtfully.
Harry scanned the parchment while Percy turned back to Ron and smiled. He leaned over his brother's still form and held the pad up in front of him.
"You see Ronald what you have here," he pointed at the first line of Ron's foreign scribble, "is essentially the key to the whole thing, the summary of what this invasion of your head is all about."
"I have to be released," Harry read aloud.
"Exactly, something is trapped and you or your seer friend is the key maybe. It could simply be that you're the negotiator for this...entities freedom."
"But this next line," Harry pointed out, "split between two prisons. One eternal, the other weakening and dying. That sounds to me as if..."
"Ron's one of the prisons this thing is trapped in?" Percy said with an arched eyebrow, "Yes I read it that way too. I was hoping it was just my over analytical brain making me think the worst but you've seen it that way as well."
"Weakening and dying," Harry repeated to himself, "that can't mean Ron can it?"
"Well he isn't weakening right now is he?" Percy said briskly, "but that could be because he's stopped functioning. He doesn't have enough of his brain functioning to deteriorate any further."
"But while he was conscious," Harry said as he began to piece the puzzle together and see fragments of the bigger picture, "he was getting worse and worse every day. He was tired and his head... All that blacking out when he'd never done it before in his life."
Percy seemed to shake himself out of thinking something and focused his attention back onto Ron again with an uneasy smile.
"You see here are some key words Ronald," Percy pointed to the words as he highlighted their meaning to his unresponsive brother, "embarcação, refém, captores, and this one is obviously prisons again isn't it?"
Percy examined Ron's face and blinked.
"Ron aren't you going to look? I'm explaining this for your benefit you know?"
Harry cracked a small smile at Percy addressing Ron as if he was avoiding doing his homework in the common room late at night.
"Just take a little peep at it for me will you? You wrote it after all," Percy said before sighing and carrying on with his tutorial as if Ron had complied with his request obediently, "Right well those key words; vessel, hostage, captors and prisons; they've got me thinking that there are three key players involved in this. There's the vessel, which may or may not be you or your blind friend. Then there's the hostage, this is the thing that is causing all this trouble for us all, and it's like a series of escape attempts that aren't working. Then there are the captors who are required to burn down the prisons."
Harry read the translated line from his own parchment to himself.
"Free the vessel. Release the hostage. Let the captors burn the prisons."
Harry swallowed and looked up at Percy with fear in his eyes.
"Jess kept seeing Ron on fire. He has to burn to let this thing go. His 'hostage' kills him from within or he burns to death letting them out."
Percy straightened up and set his jaw with determination.
"Not necessarily. The vessel and the second prison, the deteriorating one that we suspect might be Ronald, are the same thing. This says to free the vessel, release the hostage and then burn the prisons. This might be a cleansing fire rather then a destructive one."
Harry shook his head and remembered Jess's screams every time she had a vision.
"That's a big 'if' though isn't it?"
"I didn't say 'if' at all Harry so no it isn't," Percy said arrogantly before looking back at the pad and reading the next line out to Ron in a perfect Portuguese accent, "Deixe a garra do Raven ir. Dê-lhe a paz."
"Let the claw of the raven go. Give her peace," Harry read aloud.
"And if that needs any explaining you're both stupider than I feared," Percy huffed.
"Ravenclaw's the prisoner? She's the medieval witch who's burning Ron in Jess' visions?" Harry gasped.
"Very intelligent woman Rowena Ravenclaw, she could speak many languages you know?" Percy said nonchalantly, "Except of course sign language. So she'd obviously...have to write."
Harry looked at Ron's pale face sadly.
"So this isn't just old magic that's done this to him, it's powerful secret magic from one of Hogwarts founders? Lost when she died along with so many other powerful spells and ideas."
"What any number of power-hungry wizards and witches would do to get their hands on an insight into the mind of the most brilliant witch in magical history," Percy said with a shake of the head, "rumour has it some in the ministry are still trying to access her spirit or something along those lines to persuade her to share the knowledge with them."
Harry shook his head, rolled his eyes and snorted.
"Why is the ministry involved in everything a little unethical when there's something to gain from it?"
Percy scowled at Harry who folded his arms across his chest defiantly and dared Percy to tell him the ministry was corruption free. Percy said nothing and turned back to Ron again.
"Now here we have mention of two other houses at Hogwarts, no Hufflepuff funnily enough but there's no ambition or exceptional courageousness there so that can be understood I suppose, but I take it sons of Slytherin means..."
"Death Eaters," Harry snarled.
Percy nodded sharply.
"My thought too. Death Eaters seek the eyes, ears and mouth," Percy drew in a breath and winced as he went on with his theory with a great deal of reluctance, "well your friend had her sight taken by Death Eaters and you lost your ability to speak due to..."
Percy paused and glanced from Ron's ugly scar over to Harry who looked pale all of a sudden. Percy swallowed and went on.
"You had your voice stolen from you by the very heir of Slytherin himself, maybe there is another component to all this not yet involved as far as we can tell. Unless of course that Sapper fellow was deafened by Death Eaters?"
Harry shook his head.
"Oh well, worth a try," Percy shrugged, "anyway the Death Eaters need the three components in order to raise the dead according to this. It then goes on to say that the son of Gryffindor can't survive this resurrection."
Harry felt sick. That clearly meant that a Gryffindor was going to die if the resurrection was attempted.
"Which leaves us with the last line which tells us what we already knew. O fogo terminá-lo-á todo. The fire will end it all."
Harry stared at the parchment he held in his hands and re read it yet again while Percy set the pad on Ron's bedside table and surreptitiously took his hand and gave it a firm squeeze before rising up from his seat.
"Well I have to get back to work, there's some kind of special case I've been called on to help out with. A translators work is never done."
"Tell me about it," Harry murmured.
They looked at each other for a long second before Percy shook himself out of his temporary freeze and stooped to pick up his briefcase.
"I'll pop by sometime soon Ronald, goodbye."
Harry watched Percy leave and close the door behind him.
"If you can figure him out feel free to sit up and explain it to me," Harry smiled at Ron.
DAY TEN
"I'm getting so good at these now I could do it with my eyes closed," Hermione grinned as she leaned Ron forward and began to rub the moist sponge up and down his bare back.
There had been a few occasions when a medi witch or a trainee from a different department to Hermione and Neville's would be assigned to give Ron a bed bath but Hermione would have none of it. It wasn't really a jealousy thing as far as the pretty young witches were concerned, well not just that, but a desire to have as much physical contact with Ron as she possibly could.
"Right you, arm up," she said in a business like fashion as she sat Ron back again and lifted his arm to begin cleaning all the way down from his wrist to his shoulder and then giving a good firm scrub under the armpit.
She idly traced the swirling scar tissue that snaked all the way up Ron's arm as she worked before letting it drop and lifting the other one to clean it in the same way.
"I'm thinking of going into business you know?" she said in a carefree kind of voice while she set about dipping the sponge back into the water and wringing it out before rubbing the damp sponge across Ron's chest, "Bed baths and beyond, what do you think?"
Hermione smiled and leaned over to kiss Ron softly on his barely parted lips.
"Of course that little perk is exclusively for you and you alone," she smiled before pulling back the blankets and working on Ron's stomach.
"Oh dear, you're losing all that lovely muscle tone Ron, we're going to have to work on building you up again properly when you wake up aren't we? Maybe it's just that you haven't eaten in...ten days."
Hermione stood still for a moment and tried not to dwell on that fact that Ron's nourishment and re-hydration were all magically achieved and that, if left to his own devices, Ron would have starved to death or dehydrated days ago.
Hermione threw the covers back over Ron's torso and moved around to the foot of the bed to expose his legs and get to work on them.
"I hope you appreciate all this effort I'm going to Ron," she said breezily, "Merlin knows nobody else does."
DAY ELEVEN
"I've got it!" Arthur said suddenly as he sprang up in his chair at Ron's bedside.
He had been sitting alone with his youngest boy ever since Hermione had left to return to work and Molly had been forcibly removed by Harry and ordered to eat. Arthur had offered to stay with Ron so he wasn't alone but that wasn't the only reason.
He wanted some exclusive time with his son.
"Do you remember when you were very little," Arthur began as he yanked the bed covers out from under the mattress at the foot of Ron's bed, "and you used to pretend to be asleep when your mother wanted to give you reading lessons or told you to occupy your sister? Sometimes you really were asleep and wanted to keep dozing so when anybody in the family tried to wake you up they wouldn't be able to?"
Arthur exposed Ron's bare feet and smiled.
"You'd pretend to be in such a heavy sleep that a cannon couldn't wake you didn't you?"
Arthur picked up one of his sons feet and cradled it in his left hand.
"I was the only one who knew your weakness wasn't I? I was the only one who ever got you to drop the act and have to get up remember? Remember what I used to do Ron?"
Arthur smiled at his son's blank face before stroking his finger down the length of the sole of Ron's foot and curling it up again just before reaching his heel to dig his finger tip in and wriggle it just below the ball of Ron's foot.
"Achilles had his heel and you have the arch of your foot and the most sensitive ticklish spot in the history of mankind!" Arthur chuckled as he did the movement once again and stared up at Ron's still face where the was absolutely no reaction at all.
Arthur's smile faded and he sighed to himself as he looked back down at Ron's foot and frowned.
"My word Ron, I've never seen your feet so clean!"
DAY TWELVE
"Do you remember our last night together Ron?" Hermione said as she rested her chin on his shoulder and stared up at his closed eyes.
"I brought you something to remind you," she said with a smile before sitting up and pulling a small chocolate marble from her pocket.
It had begun to melt and she scrunched up her face and tossed the squidgy chocolate sphere into the bin. She stared down at her chocolate smeared fingers and began to lick them clean before hesitating at the last of them and looking back over at Ron.
She smiled and shuffled her chair even closer to his bedside.
"Here," she said as she lifted her finger to his lips and pushed it very slowly and gently into his mouth, letting the melted chocolate linger a little on his lips before caressing the surface of his tongue, "isn't that nice?"
Hermione withdrew her finger and sucked the remaining chocolate off before leaning over Ron and licking her lips.
"You've got some on your face there," she breathed huskily as she bent over and licked Ron's bottom lip free of chocolate.
"There you go...all gone."
Hermione remained hovering over him. Her hair falling like curtains around both of their faces, giving them privacy from the outside world and forming a soft brown cocoon that enveloped them in that moment. Hermione's lips were still almost touching Ron's own and she closed the distance and pressed them together firmly.
"You taste like chocolate," she smiled before planting another softer kiss on his warm lips and returning to her seat.
She took his hand in hers and closed her eyes with a smile.
"Just like I remember it."
DAY THIRTEEN
"Now I know this'll work," Ginny said with determination as she sat down on the edge of Ron's bed and got straight to business.
She pulled a matchbox out of her pocket and slid the draw open.
"There's one thing you can never ignore isn't there? One thing that you'll never have any self control over," Ginny shook the matchbox out onto Ron's forearm.
A small spider with long spindly legs tumbled out and landed on it's back on Ron's arm.
"I bought one of Aragog's descendants to come and wake you up," Ginny smiled as she pushed the spider the right way up and watched as it scuttled along the freckled skin of Ron's arm.
"Can you feel it crawling on you Ron?" Ginny said, teasingly, "it's almost at your elbow now. Can you feel it's eight long hairy legs?"
The spider dwelled for a short time at the crook of Ron's elbow before getting it's legs a little tangled in the fine red hairs on Ron's arm and rushing up onto his bicep.
"Oh look it's heading up to your shoulder now, It'll be on your neck and crawling into the first dark place it can find."
Ginny watched with a fresh kind of pain in her eyes and her brother didn't make the slightest cringe or shudder or even a tiny little flicker of the eye lid as the horror of his young life crept all over him with ease.
"Will it choose your nostrils or your ear or your mouth? Where do you think Aragog junior's going to set up home eh?"
Ginny watched as the spider crawled along Ron's collarbone and she reached out her hand to scoop it up and carry it over to the window in her cupped hands. She set the arachnid on the window ledge before turning back to face Ron where he lay still and passive as ever.
"Worth a try though wasn't it?" she shrugged.
DAY FOURTEEN
"So what are we thinking today then?" Hermione said as she pulled out two t shirts from her bag and shook them out in front of her, "blue or brown?"
Hermione draped the blue shirt over Ron's body and stood back to consider it for a moment before swapping it for the brown one with the chocolate frog logo emblazoned across it in bright orange.
"I know how your mother likes you in earth tones but I think the blue's perfect for you. It's just like your eyes and it'd really make them sparkle in that way they do when you actually open them!" Hermione put her hands on her hips and feigned annoyance before whipping the brown shirt away from Ron's chest, smiling and leaning over him to give him a quick kiss on the lips.
"You're right, who wants to dress the way their mother likes anyway? If I did I'd be in nothing but flowery Laura Ashley dresses the whole time and I think you'll agree that really isn't my style at all!"
Hermione tossed the brown t-shirt back on top of her bag and draped the blue one over her arm and she sat on the side of Ron's hospital bed and sat him up, leaning him against her so she could pull the shirt over his head. She manipulated his arms through the sleeves and rested him back into his half-sitting half- reclining position and smoothed out his hair again.
"Blue is definitely your colour," she smiled.
DAY FIFTEEN
"In a season where the Cannons promised nothing and delivered worse one would have to wonder why the diehard fans even bother..." Harry looked from the quiddich magazine he had bought for Ronto his unconscious best friend and fanned through the pages for a less harsh article to read him.
"The team, in its present format, had an extremely successful season, finishing third in the Conference league, and reaching the quiddich cup first round, before losing fifty-four to five-thousand-three hundred in a real thriller to Leyton," Harry burst out laughing at this, "and they call the Cannons bad!"
"Mr Potter?" the voice of Healer Kalra called from the open door.
Harry turned to see the bearded healer and a very tired looking Neville stepping through into the room hesitantly.
"Got something else to try?" Harry said with that same fake hopefulness that he adopted every time the healer and his brain specialist trainee came by with another charm or potion to administer.
"A modification of what we used last time actually," Healer Kalra smiled as the approached Ron's bedside, "Good morning Mr Weasley."
Harry smiled at Neville as the healer began to swirl his wand over Ron, delivering the basic re-hydration spells and filling him with much needed nutrients. The healer didn't buy into this whole talking to a patient with a partially functioning brain in a deep magical comatose state but he would still greet Ron and bid him farewell out of courtesy to his family who were all adamant that it was doing some good.
On one occasion the wizard had spilled a little potion on Ron's cheek while manipulating it down his throat and instinctively apologised to him. The Weasley's really liked him and respected him as a healer despite all his best efforts getting them nowhere so far.
"Mr Longbottom if you would be so kind?" Healer Kalra mumbled to Neville as he set about casting a swirling white mist around Ron's head that soon turned to patchy grey, "Now you see the cloudiness here, that's what we have to clear alright?"
Neville nodded silently before pointing his own wand at Ron and muttering something so rapidly that Harry couldn't even begin to make it out. A silver jet of what looked like steam but soon took on the appearance of cotton wool emerged from Neville's wand and began to swirl around the grey cloud that surrounded Ron's head. The snake like silver fluff seemed to be trying to mummify the grey patches, wipe them away or absorb them in some way, Harry couldn't tell what the intention was but he could see that it clearly wasn't working.
Both wands made a fizzing sound and a clump of, what appeared to be foam from a bubble bath only dark grey, splodged onto Ron's head.
"Oh buggering wank!" Healer Kalra grumbled while Neville huffed his own disappointment at this new failure.
Harry was trying not to laugh at hearing such a well respected man cursing like...well like Ron himself and watched as the disgruntled healer flicked his wand at Ron's head and snapped the cleaning spell to remove all trace of the grey bubbles.
"Well sorry Ron, maybe next time," Healer Kalra said before slapping Neville on the back and guiding him back out of the door, "Don't be so despondent boy, if at first you don't succeed."
"Fail five or six more times and then develop a drinking problem!" Neville sighed.
Harry laughed at this and Neville turned around and gave a smile of apology before waving.
"Bye Harry, Ron, until next time eh?"
Harry waved the pair of them off and picked up the magazine he had been reading from once again.
"Right where were we? Oh yeah, This season has been a momentous one for the Daggers, culminating in the trophy final, their sixty fifth match this season. Where they bravely lost by only one hundred and seventy points despite playing the last fifteen minutes with only a beater and the seeker in the position of keeper as all the other players were sent off for beating an opposing fan into unconsciousness with their broomsticks."
Harry threw back his head and roared with laughter.
"Oh mate you're definitely supporting the wrong team!"
DAY FIFTEEN
Bill stepped as softly as he could into Ron's room so as not to wake Hermione who was sleeping in the chair at his bedside. He was the epitome of stealth if he did say so himself. Well he had been right up until he tripped over an empty potion bottle on the floor and screamed like a little girl as he fell with a thud to the floor.
"Ron?" Hermione gasped as her head snapped up and she grabbed the unconscious boy's limp hand.
"No it's Bill," he called up from his position sprawled on the floor, "sorry!"
Hermione regained her composure and crossed the room to help him up.
"What happened?" she asked him as he stood upright and massaged his back.
"What happened was, I used to have this enigmatic kind of grace and then I lost it!"
Hermione chuckled at this as she helped him over to an empty chair.
"Somebody left a potion bottle on the floor, I skidded on it a bit," he explained as he groaned with discomfort.
"Yes Neville and Kalra were back in here again, there were bottles everywhere, we though we'd got them all."
"Any luck?" Bill said as he forgot his own bruises and looked Ron up and down eagerly.
"Nothing," she shook her head sadly, "all they managed to do was inflame his old scars from the department of Mysteries but they fixed it again just before they left.
Bill sighed.
"Y'know I saw Neville the other day in the cafeteria and I could've sworn he was going prematurely grey."
Hermione smiled at this.
"Well he probably will do what with all the worrying he puts himself through but that was just an accidental explosion he caused while trying to send a patient suffering from memory loss into a trance."
"He caused an explosion trying to hypnotise somebody?" Bill exclaimed.
Hermione shrugged and felt thankful that nothing quite as bad as that had happened during Neville's work on Ron so far.
"So is there anything we haven't tried yet?" Bill asked as he absentmindedly ruffled Ron's hair in his trademark big brother way.
Hermione responded to this query while, in a display of similar absent mindedness, flattened Ron's hair back down again.
"Well I gave up on my incessant poking idea, scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one I think," she smiled wearily.
"Incessant poking?" Bill frowned, not sure he really wanted to know more about this method.
Hermione rolled her eyes and began to demonstrate by prodding her index finger in fast firm jabs into Ron's shoulder repeatedly. As she continued to do so she looked up at Bill and explained herself.
"I'm trying to annoy him into waking up."
Bill smiled and shook his head at the downward turn Hermione's sanity appeared to have taken before pulling his chair further up the bed and beginning to incessantly poke his brother's other shoulder too.
"How long do we keep this up for then?" he asked.
"Until we get cramp or somebody interrupts us and demands to know what on earth we're doing to him," Hermione said carelessly.
"Cool," Bill shrugged.
DAY SIXTEEN
Molly took off her coat and set it on the back of her chair. She pushed Ron's hair back from his face and planted a kiss on his forehead before grumbling about blue really not being his colour and settling down to tell him all the family news like she always did.
"You father's collection is ridiculous now Ronnie it really is. As soon as he saw that 'seedy player' Hermione brought you to listen to he got a bee in his bonnet about electronic music and now he's talking about pods that grow eyes that you can listen to thousands of different kind of music with."
Molly shook her head and wondered where in her precious garden her husband would be planting these pods so he could harvest a whole crop of eye-pods for his own personal use.
"Bill and Fleur have had an argument about Gabrielle, you remember Fleur's little sister don't you Ronnie dear? Well she wants to attend Hogwarts for her N.E.W.T. year but Fleur won't have it, thinks that 'Oggwarts' is an inferior magical education to Beuxbatons. What a pile of tripe!"
Molly did like Fleur a little more these days but she still felt as if her daughter in law's family considered the Weasley family beneath them socially somewhat.
"Charlie got called out to capture an out of control dragon in Minsk but he'll be back this evening. Promises me he didn't get a scratch on him but you know what a good liar he is? Percy has been almost getting along with Harry too."
Molly shuffled forward in her chair and lowered her voice.
"I know I thought that too but they really are...I don't know, accepting of each other these days. They still don't really like each other in the same way the rest of us all get along but it's like the spite is gone. Oh I really hope so, I hated all that unpleasantness I really did. Even the twins noticed it at Sunday dinner last week."
Molly thought about the twins and sighed. She knew that they had been really struggling with this whole coma thing and didn't know any other way to behave other than like themselves. Molly hadn't thought that 'themselves' was really suitable for a hospital but she couldn't dictate how her family coped with this any more than she could order Ron to open his eyes and sit up.
"Open your eyes and sit up right now Ronald Bilius Weasley!" she snapped suddenly, shocking even herself.
She huffed and fussed with Ron's pillow. It had been worth a try.
"Ginny sends her love and thinks she's got another brilliant idea to get you to come round. I dread to think what her first brilliant idea was Ronnie but whatever she did I'm sure it was out of love."
Molly took his hand in hers and stroked it gently.
"Can you squeeze my hand for me dear?" she said softly, "just a little squeeze to let me know you can hear me."
She brought their two hands up to her face and leaned against them with her forehead, closing her eyes.
"Just one little bit of pressure with one of your fingertips Ronnie, please. Just to show me that you're still in there."
She waited...and waited...and waited...
DAY SEVENTEEN
Ginny burst into the room with something under her robes and a look of determination on her face. She pulled the small feathery bundle out with one hand and held her wand to it with her other.
"Wake up or the owl gets it!" she demanded while Pig cheerfully hooted and squirmed to greet his master.
Ron didn't move.
Ginny huffed and let Pig go where he fluttered over to Ron and perched upon his head.
"I would have done it y'know?" Ginny grumbled as she sat down.
DAY EIGHTEEN
Hermione signed out with reception after her first night shift ended at five o'clock in the morning and wandered up to Ron's room for a hug and a kiss before she went home to sleep. She opened the door and saw his face lit by candlelight and smiled.
She reached his side and gave him a peck on the cheek, then the other and then a lingering kiss on the lips before stifling a yawn and leaning in close enough to smell his hair.
"I'm knackered y'know that? On my feet all day and yet here you are lapping up all the sympathy. I don't know Ron, how d'you do it eh?" she smiled and sat on the edge of his bed and began to play with his hair inbetween her fingers.
She had to got home, get cleaned up, get into bed and then get a few hours sleep before coming back to St Mungo's by noon. She didn't have a shift, in fact she had the whole day off, but she couldn't miss a single day with Ron. She'd come and be with him whether she was required to be at the hospital for work or not.
"It's a shame I have to leave at all isn't it? I'm so tired I could just curl up with you and sleep 'till you wake up," she sighed before leaning over and kissing him again.
She thought for a moment. Why couldn't she sleep with her boyfriend? He wouldn't mind, she'd done it before, and she was sure he'd like the company. She shifted on the bed and lifted her legs up so she was now lying on her side facing Ron.
"You don't mind sharing do you?" she smiled as he eyelids hug heavy over her eyes.
She rested her head on Ron's shoulder and draped her arm across his chest, curling her hand around to pull him into a hug and she snuggled comfortably into him.
"'Night love."
DAY NINETEEN
Fred dealt the cards between himself George and Ron before fanning his cards out and considering his options.
"Ooh I see Ickle Ronniekins has been working on his poker face, can't read him at all these days can you Fred?" George said with an arched eyebrow.
"Nope George, he's definitely Mr Cool these days," Fred tossed a galleon onto the bed, "I'm in."
"As am I," George said throwing in his own galleon, "Now Ronnie what do you think? Are you going to play blind or are you going to have a look at what you've got and fold like the girl we know and love?"
Fred picked up Ron's cards so he couldn't see them and fanned them before his little brother's closed eyes.
"You wanna see? Then crack that eyelid just a little and there they are little bro," Fred waited, "No? Brave men play blind Ron, are you one of them?"
George leaned in close to Ron while Fred put the cards face down on Ron's chest again.
"Okay then," George said, "If you want to stay in then lie perfectly still and do nothing, if you want to fold sit bolt upright and sing Weasley is our king in sign language."
Fred chuckled.
"Anything but a singing Weasley please!" he pleaded with his unconscious brother.
They waited for a few seconds.
"And he's in!" George declared with jubilation.
"We are going to take you to the cleaners little brother," Fred said as he looked at his own cards again.
DAY TWENTY
Neville bounded into the room with Healer Kalra following closely behind him and Harry practically fell over himself getting out of their way while Hermione remained sleeping in the uncomfortable chair at Ron's bedside.
"I know we overlooked that whole business Healer Kalra I know it!" Neville was saying fiercely as he paused at Ron's bedside and withdrew his wand.
"How is more damage a good thing Longbottom?" Kalra said fearfully as he too took out his wand and pointed it at Ron's head.
"Sometime illnesses have to happen to build up the immunity, you taught me that yourself didn't you?"
"Yes but this isn't an illness it's..."
"And some signs are warnings to stop while others happen to let you know you're moving in the right direction?" Neville said again, his nerve seeming to falter as he faced off with his teacher.
"That is also true but we don't know enough about either of this boy's conditions to make this sort of leap just yet."
"We do know that while healing one the other reacted. How does that happen when we were treating a brain injury, explain that?" Neville said, getting his second wind.
Hermione stirred in her seat but didn't wake. Kalra lowered his voice and gripped his wand tightly.
"Well you said yourself that despite being unrelated and completely exterior that we are in fact dealing with two brain injuries aren't we?" the healer said.
Neville smiled and nodded. They appeared to be on the same page as each other now.
"Ron's got two brains?" Harry found himself saying aloud and very stupidly.
"No Harry," Neville said without looking away from Healer Kalra, "Ron's got one internal brain injury and one external brain injury."
Harry looked at Ron's arms and shook with hope.
"So you know how to fix them both, now that you know you're dealing with two?" he said shakily.
"Mr Longbottom and I will continue to research this and complete out healing process on Mr Weasley here but for now we'll make do with waking him up shall we?" Healer Kalra said with a smile to Neville.
"Let's do that," Neville nodded while beaming like Harry had never seen him do so before.