Torn Between Two Worlds

Ron was taking one of his afternoon strolls around St Mungo's grounds when he thought he recognised the profile of a witch entering through the staff only doors. He frowned to himself and followed her through as quietly as he could.

He still couldn't get a good look at the witches' face but something about the shape of her and the formidable warmth and authoritative dominance of her voice let him know that it was indeed the person he thought she was. Nurse Stour was visiting St Mungo's.

Ron felt in his pockets for his notepad but he'd left it in his room. The witch still wasn't well versed in sign language and he wouldn't be able to ask after Jess and his other old patients any other way. He shrugged and thought that he could at least say hello to her and mime some semblance of a conversation with her now that she was at arms length. He reached out to tap her on the shoulder when he froze on hearing what she was saying to the healer she had just been introduced to.

"...missing since late last night and never emerged from the wards against magic use as far as we can tell. A blind girl with her history out there all alone, it's just too much to even imagine what's going through her mind."

Ron's throat did something that would, in the old days, have made a sound to give him away but his exclamation caused nothing more than a short escape of breath. Nurse Stour and the healer were walking onward now and Ron hurried after them to keep on listening in, somewhat camouflaged by the hustle and bustle of medi witches and wizards escorting patents two and fro all over the place.

"So what makes you think she would be heading here if she did get out of the wards to disparate then nurse Stour?" the healer said.

"Well you've a patient here, Ronald Weasley, a former employee of mine at the clinic. He used to work with Jess very closely until he became to ill to continue, well to be honest Jess was something of a catalyst to his illness and the poor boy was in a magical coma here for almost a whole month."

"Oh my word you're talking about the miracle mute aren't you?" the healer exclaimed as they stopped in the corridor and stood face to face.

The miracle mute? Was that his nickname?

"I beg your pardon?" Stour frowned.

"Oh yes Weasley of course, he's the cat with nine lives isn't he, so many lucky escapes. Well do you call him lucky or cursed, I don't really know do you?"

"Well I call him a decent young man who gave a lot to my patients and who made himself critically ill in the process," nurse Stour said in a clipped tone.

"Oh my dear nurse Stour I meant nothing derogatory by that, not at all, it's just that his prognosis when he first came in here was dire. All we could really think to do was offer our condolences to the family but one of our consultants, Kalra, and his little prodigy in mind damage wouldn't give it up and bless my soul if they didn't get that boy to wake up!"

"Kalra you say?" Stour said thoughtfully.

"Yes, genius from Delhi, well actually from Swindon but his father came over from India just before he was born with him and he was a highly respected healer over there."

"I thought I recognised the name," Stour nodded before the two of them set off down the corridor again.

Ron pushed past some trainee healers going through their St Mungo's orientation and followed them as closely as he could without being seen.

"So you think this blind seer is on her way to St Mungo's to visit our mute miracle eh?"

Ron rolled his eyes; he wished he wouldn't keep calling him that.

"Well she was having some quite unpleasant visions of him in some kind of trouble and the night she went missing she had the worst one yet. I think she feels he is in some kind of danger and needs to come and warn him. I don't know exactly," Stour said with a shake of the head, "all I do know is that this is where she wants to get to or contact so I'd really need to speak to Ron's healer if I can."

"Of course, follow me, he'll be on rounds with his students," the healer said as he guided Stour into a lift and Ron stopped his pursuit of them.

Ron let out a deep sigh and leaned back against the wall behind him with his eyes closed to try and take in all this information. Jess was missing and she was missing because of him. He had to do something about this. He knew what Kalra would do. He would put Ron on a secure ward so Jess wouldn't be able to find him even if she made it to St Mungo's and he'd be restricted to it, no more walks to clear his head, no more Sunday afternoons at the Burrow for an hour with Hermione as a chaperone and on-call healer in one. He'd be confined all over again and he wasn't going to stand for it.

"Are you Ron Weasley?" a small boy of about seven asked as he gaped up at Ron, who opened his eyes and jumped to see the mousy haired kid.

Not really knowing how this child knew who he was he smiled a confused smile and gave him a wave hello.

"Stewart leave the poor man alone!" the boy's mother said as she grabbed the child's arm and yanked him away before looking at Ron's scar and then into Ron's eyes sadly, "I'm so sorry, he didn't mean to stare."

Ron arched an eyebrow and gestured down at the boy with a smile and shook his head before pointing at the woman and nodding very disapprovingly. The woman flushed and straightened up.

"I'm awfully sorry Mr Weasley but I don't understand."

The little boy Stewart understood perfectly and giggled.

"I did," he said happily, "he said I didn't stare at him, you did!"

"Stewart shut up!" his mother hissed before dragging her son away and disappearing into the crowd.

Ron laughed at this briefly before remembering that he had more pressing things on his mind. He also noticed exactly how busy this place opposite the lifts was. He looked around himself and realised he was only feet away from the main exit into Diagon Alley. He could just walk out the door if he wanted to. Ron felt in his pockets again, not for his pad this time but for his wand, and found what he needed. He smiled and tried to block out the voices of Harry, Hermione and Neville telling him all the reasons not to do something as stupid as this and headed for the door.

Hermione shoved the empty headed Lockheart back into his chair and grabbed both sides of his face to force him to look at her.

"Listen to me and stop trying to drag innocent bystanders into the ward to give them autographs for goodness sake!" she snapped impatiently.

She was at the end of her tether. Healer Kalra had dragged Neville from the closed ward in a state of total bewilderment and she had been left alone to assess just how insufficient their latest memory restoring charm had been.

"Oh I'm sorry my dear. Jealous are you? Not giving you my full attention am I? I'm just so popular these days. Young witches coming in day after day to see me, they'll have to start booking appointments soon won't they?" the bemused wizard said with a dreamy look on his face.

"It's not a string of young witches Mr Lockheart," Hermione sighed, "It's me every time."

The door banged open and Neville hurried in and grabbed Hermione by the elbow, dragging her out into the corridor with him.

"Neville what the...?" she began but stalled when she saw, first Healer Kalra's sombre expression and then nurse Stour's, "Oh Godric what's happened to him now?"

Harry apparated to the magical, non-magical, border and checked his wand in with the security wizard.

"I don't suppose you saw my friend here a little while ago did you Kev?" Harry asked the man he'd seen during his various comings and goings to the clinic over the weeks.

"Yeah, on his own too which surprised me," Kev nodded with a shrug, "You don't have any other magical devices on you do you?"

"No," Harry said as he scanned the countryside for a red head and saw absolutely nothing.

"Very well, pass through the barrier and enjoy your time in the magic free zone," Kev said as if he was utterly bored of saying the same words over and over again day after day.

Harry moved through the barrier and no alarms sounded, proving he was clean magic-wise, and set off at a jog to find his stubborn and completely stupid best friend.

"Ron!" he shouted after a while, pausing to catch his breath, "Ron, send up..." Harry realised that Ron couldn't send up sparks without a wand, "...never mind just..." Harry kicked out at a nearby tree when he realised that Ron couldn't exactly call out to him.

How on earth was he going to find a mute who didn't want to be found without magic he asked himself?

Ron's head was pounding and he knew that she had to be close by. He also knew that if this migraine got any worse he'd probably be violently sick.

"Ron!"

He stood rigid and listened. Had he just imagined that? There was a sudden diamond splinter of pain that sliced right between his eyes and deep into his head as he heard a second voice calling his name.

"Ron!"

One was Harry, he recognised that fearful yell anywhere and the other, he was pretty sure, had to be Jess and the two voices seemed to be coming from two opposite directions. Ron felt dizzy and his head seemed to be trying to split in two as he reached out to steady himself against a nearby tree.

"Harry was that you? Are you there? Where are you both?" Jess was screaming now.

"Jess?" Harry's voice was roaring, the echo made Ron's brain vibrate inside his skull.

He picked up a large stick from the ground and gritted his teeth as he swung it back, this was going to really do his head in but it had to be done all the same, and began to beat it against a thick tree trunk repeatedly.

Harry could hear Jess asking after Ron, which meant he hadn't found her, and the three of them were still separated in this vast countryside. He was just cupping his hand to his mouth to holler back at Jess to come out into the open when he remembered that she wouldn't have a clue what was open space and what was covered woodland. Just as his hands dropped away from his face despairingly he heard a sound similar to a beaters bat slamming into a bludger over and over again.

"Ron?" he said to himself as he looked into the wooded area at the bottom of the small valley ahead of him, "Ron!" he yelled.

The banging stopped and then one solitary bang sounded. Harry looked to the clouded sky and said a silent thank you.

"Is there any reason you can't come out from the cover of the woods?" Harry called out and listened intently for the response.

There were two bangs and Harry ran down into the valley without another word. He scanned the edge of the woods for Ron's vivid red hair as he panted and cursed himself for not staying in shape while he was hanging around the hospital worrying about Ron.

"No!" Jess was screaming as he drew nearer to the woods and his muscles began to burn with the sudden exertion or his sprint, "You have to hide from them. You can't let them find you!"

Harry was about to start worrying about what Jess was talking about when he heard a whistle just behind him and he spun around so fast that he fell over backwards with the momentum and slammed down onto the grass with a heavy thud that he knew would leave him with a very bruise backside. Ron was trying to smile with amusement at this but he was holding one hand to his head and rubbing it firmly as if trying to massage something out and to the surface.

"Shit Ron your head," Harry said as he scrambled back up to his feet and stomped over to his best friend in a rage, "How could you be so stupid you moron?"

Ron's hand dropped and he stared at Harry as if he thought his friend was being overly harsh with him but Harry was having none of it and began to punctuate every word he said with a whack to Ron's shoulder that made him wince and cower at the same time.

"You stupid, stupid, wanker!"

Ron took a step out of Harry's reach before touching his little finger to his chin and moving it away sharply and sliding his palm across the other.

"Well you deserve it!" Harry yelled as he tried to contain his display of relieved rage before taking another step towards Ron and putting his hand to his head while looking into his clear blue eyes, "Is it really painful?"

Ron shrugged. Harry set his features into a hard 'no nonsense' expression and Ron rolled his eyes and huffed before nodding and then gesturing out across the countryside and signing the letter 'J' desperately.

"Yeah right," Harry nodded, "Well find Jess and then I'll beat the crap out of you. I think her voice was coming from somewhere over..." Harry was pointing into the middle distance over to his right when he felt Ron's fingers curling around his arm so tightly that he almost cried out in pain, "Ron what's that matter with you?"

Ron's eyes were glazed over and his nose was bleeding again. Harry had to get Ron to go back to the magical border and disapparate the hell out of there before he shut down again. Just as Harry was about to pat Ron firmly on the side of the face in an attempt to snap him out of it when a jagged fork of bright yellow lightning burst out of Ron's arms and knocked him off his feet.

As Harry slammed hard onto the ground for the second time in as many minutes he watched in horrified awe as Ron's arms thrust in the direction of Jess' shouts and sent out the lightning bolt which left a lingering trail for them to follow, no doubt leading them via it's yellow glow all the way directly to Jess, and Ron's eyes rolled completely back into his head as the blood flowed from his nostrils as the lightning bolt left him and he fell to his knees.

"What the hell was that Ron? How did you do that without a wand?" Harry said too fast for it to really be articulate.

Ron's eyes rolled back into view and he looked up at Harry as he pulled Ron into his lap and tried to wipe the blood from his face with the sleeve of his jumper. Ron blinked a couple of times before coughing and then focusing on Harry in a state of utter confusion. He twirled both his index fingers around at the side of his head, pointing them upwards towards the ever-darkening sky, and gave a lost shrug.

"You just sent out a spell, a locator spell I think,it was incredible Ron. You just did it with your bare hands," Harry said as he helped Ron sit up and fumbled in his pocket for a handkerchief to offer Ron as his nose was still bleeding quite heavily.

Ron seemed to mouth something to himself, the urgency of whatever he had just realised overriding his instinct to sign, and he pulled himself up to his feet and set off after the fading yellow trail of misty light.

Fred and George had just left Lee Jordan minding the shop and were rushing along Diagon Alley towards the magical entrance to St Mungo's when they passed the small gathering at the junction into Nocturn Alley. The crowd seemed to be deliberately blocking their path and they both pushed their way through with plenty of grumbles and swearing as they went.

They needed to get to their brother's ward to find out what the great emergency was. All they had got out of their mother before her head withdrew from the green flames in their fireplace was that the seer girl was missing and nobody could find Ron anywhere in the hospital.

"Out of the way you fat hooded prat!" George hissed at one particularly large figure standing directly in front of him.

The hooded figure turned and seemed to be looking right at the twins. All either of them could see was the crooked grin showing on the only part of the wizard's face that was illuminated by the setting sun. It made his skin seem almost red.

"Sorry boys, didn't see you," he said before turning away and rejoining the crowd of dark robed figures again.

Fred seemed to freeze, wanting some kind of explanation for that vocal inflection, while George wanted to get out of there right away. As the robed mob began to depart Fred could've sworn he heard that same voice sniggering to another.

"Don't see no evil...don't speak no evil...don't hear no evil...put 'em together and what have you got?"

"Did you hear...?" Fred said with alarm as he began to fight his way back to chase after the mob down Nocturn Alley.

"Fred not now, we've got to find Ron!" George said as he physically dragged his twin brother along with him.

Harry reached Ron where he was panting, bleeding and trying to reassure Jess that it was indeed him and not whoever it was she was so scared of.

"Jess are you okay?" Harry wheezed while he massaged the stitch in his side with a wince.

"There's somebody out here, I know there is," Jess said frantically, "I've been trying to hide but I don't know exactly what I'm hiding in or if it's good enough or..."

Ron shushed her and started to rub her arm comfortingly but the pain in his head seemed to kick in as soon as he did so Harry bumped him aside and forced the tattered paper napkin he found folded in his back pocket into Ron's hand before taking over comforting duties.

"I haven't seen anybody since I've been out here, Jess it's okay, Ron have you?" Harry turned to see Ron wiping his bloodstained face with the paper napkin.

Ron shook his head before staring at the amount of blood he was cleaning off his own face in shock.

"Don't worry mate I think it's stopping now, just pinch the bridge of your nose for a bit," Harry suggested before looking back at Jess to check her for any injuries she might have sustained since her moonlight flit from the clinic.

Jess seemed to pick up on Ron's physical distress, or maybe it was the heavy smell of fresh blood in the air, but she reached out to Ron to get some kind of assurance that he was doing okay. Just before Jess could touch Ron's arms, which Harry now noticed were quite inflamed around the scarred areas, he took her hand in his own and moved it away from Ron.

"I don't think that's a good idea Jess," Harry mumbled, while avoiding Ron's accusing eyes.

Ron didn't seem to want to face the fact that he was in no fit state to look after Jess by himself while being slightly thankful for Harry presence so he didn't have to suffer the side affects of physical contact with the blind witch.

"Why not?" Jess frowned, looking very lost indeed.

"It hurts him," Harry said sadly and Jess seemed to understand immediately and pull her arms right into her own body.

"I'm sorry Ron," she said shakily, "I'm sorry I hurt you before too. I'm glad you're getting better."

Ron and Harry shared a look that silently agreed not to tell Jess the whole truth about Ron's condition not being healed at all and Harry was about to speak when a distant crack sounded and he stopped with his mouth hanging open like a stunned guppy.

"Was that somebody apparating?" Jess gasped.

"It's not possible, we're within the borders," Harry said as he scanned the horizon.

Ron shrugged before making a gesture from his ear outwards and twirling his fingers.

"Well plenty of things in the magical world make a sound like that but there's only one thing I can think of that would work in here and that's a muggle weapon."

Ron frowned at Harry. They'd never had the gun conversation, they'd never really needed to, and in comparison to wands and curses the handgun was like a Stone Age tool. A Stone Age tool could still be lethal all the same though.

The cracking sound happened again and something grazed Harry's shoulder, making him yell out loud and throw himself flat on his back, and he yelled at the other's to get down. The three of them were flat to the ground and it was almost completely dark now, the sun long down, and Harry knew that staying in the open and in the dark was a death wish.

"Run for cover!" Harry yelled out and reached to take Jess' hand.

He was fumbling for thin air however and cursed as he heard Ron hissing through his teeth. He had obviously grabbed Jess to pull her towards the woods and caused himself a whole lot of pain in doing so. Jess was stumbling, Harry could only see her strangely shaped silhouette as it was hauled along while she held her head and screamed at whomever she was seeing to leave Ron alone. Another crack sounded and Harry flung himself face down onto the grass and hoped that Ron and Jess had done the same.

When he got up again he couldn't see them anywhere. They must've made it to the cover of the woods as if either of them had been hit they'd be on the ground in front of him somewhere. Harry ran as fast as he could. He couldn't call out to them and give away either of their positions. He ran into the woods and through the darkness of the trees.

He didn't even have the dying glow of the sunlight or the rising silver luminance of the moon to guide him and tripped several times before feeling a rough wall of bark slamming him full on in the face. He didn't feel anything after that.