Healing Touch

The curtains were drawn around Ron's bed and he squinted as the powerful morning sunlight hit him full in the face, making him scrunch his eyes tightly shut. He rolled over in his bed and nuzzled his face into the pillow to drop back off and enjoy that dream he was having about Frisbeeing dinner plates the size of wagon wheels across Hogwart's great hall into the wall while McGonagall, Hermione and a large man in the shape of a Christmas pudding applauded. He sniggered to himself as he remembered the man and felt the need to return to his dream sleep and puncture that round man just to watch him whiz around like a rapidly deflating balloon.

"Get up Ron," a familiar voice said as he was given a rough shake.

Ron silently grumbled as he tried to ignore the obtrusive healer or medi wizard who wanted to disturb him so desperately.

"Up Ron, now, I mean it!" the unusually harsh voice of Neville was what made Ron open his eyes a crack to see his old classmate shoving shoes onto Ron's feet and tossing a sweatshirt into his face, "put that on."

Ron pulled the sweatshirt off his face and heaved himself up into the sitting position, rubbing his bleary eyes, and stared at Neville with great annoyance. He pointed at Neville and twirled his finger in tight circles at the side of his head.

"Yes Ron I'm crazy now get dressed we've planned a prison break," Neville said as he reached for a pair of jeans that rested on the back of a nearby chair and turned back to Ron's legs, "Oh bugger!" he said when he realised that he had to take Ron's shoes off again in order to put them on.

Ron yanked the jeans from Neville's grip, not at all happy with the idea of him fiddling around dressing his lower body at all, and shrugged while staring at him desperately.

"Me and Percy," Neville clarified as he yanked the shoes off and turned away so Ron could pull on the jeans, "we've worked it all out and we've got an idea on how to get those thoughts out of your body now come on!"

As Ron shuffled the jeans on the doors to the ward opened and Percy strode in, making a big show for the Aurors outside who seemed to find this early morning visit very strange indeed but could do nothing about it as Percy was booked in for this time.

"Ah Ronald, I knew you'd be up, just thought I'd sit with you while Neville discussed the new..." the door clicked shut and Percy pulled back the bedcovers, Ron was thankful he'd just buttoned up his flies in time, and began to wrestle the sweatshirt over Ron's head, "he was supposed to be dressed by now."

"Your brother's not a morning person y'know?" Neville snapped back at him as he set about putting the shoes back on him again.

Ron tried to sign his demand to be included in this plan but his arms were still somewhat constricted within the sleeves of his sweatshirt, the neck of which was forming a slight garrotte that was making him worry just a bit.

"Two Aurors, both huge, only one medi witch on duty, very old and been working all night so she's hardly alert," Percy reported.

"I told you didn't I?" Neville said as he freed Ron from the octopus of doom that was his clothing, "Ron are you deliberately being a hindrance this morning?"

Ron hurled himself out of his bed and raised both his arms to silence his would-be liberators. They both froze and Ron took a breath in and out before twirling both fingers skywards and gesturing to them both with a shrug.

"We're springing you Ron," Neville said with a completely straight face.

He looked to his brother for some sane explanation.

"We think we can help you get rid of Ravenclaw but it's not exactly legal or completely safe either."

Ron looked back at Neville again.

"We're taking you to Cumbria again but you're not really allowed to be there so that'll mean an illegal break-in," Neville nodded.

Ron looked at Percy, pleadingly.

"We need to get the sapper to drain her out of you...which hopefully won't kill you in the process," Percy said with a gulp.

Ron looked back at Neville, then Percy, and then Neville again before shaking his head to clear it. Percy stepped forward and gripped Ron's shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

"We want you out of here, we want that price off your head and we want you well again Ron. We'll do anything to get all those things. We're both doing this for you and we could go to Azkaban for even trying it but it's worth it okay? You're worth it."

Ron had never heard Percy talking like that before. He pointed at himself then crossed his arms over each other with his palm facing the floor and moving away from each other horizontally before putting his hand to the side of his head in a fist and then pointing a finger from the fist upwards.

"I know you don't understand Ron," Percy sighed before smiling, "but do you trust us?"

Ron returned Percy's smile before looking over his shoulder to and anxious looking Neville and nodding. Percy pulled Ron into a quick hug before giving him a look of sincere apology.

"We're going to have to fake a medical emergency to smuggle you out okay?" Percy explained before moving to stand behind Ron while Neville drew his wand and pointed it at him.

Ron swallowed, closed his eyes, and nodded.

The last thing he remembered was the sound of Neville shouting the sleeping spell at him.

"Obdormio!"

The fireplace exploded with green flames and Hermione staggered out of it in floods of tears. Harry was only wearing his boxers and was slightly abashed as she threw herself at him, spilling his bowl of cornflakes all over the floor in the process.

"Tell me he came home Harry please tell me he came home," she was sobbing as her legs buckled and Harry slowly lowered her onto the sofa while beginning to feel slightly sick.

"What do you mean Hermione? What are you talking about?"

"Ron," she said before her shoulders began to shudder and her lungs fought her sobs for the air in her body.

"Why do you think he's here?" Harry's voice seemed so thin and empty as he spoke and he realised that he was shaking violently.

Surely his worst nightmare hadn't come true.

"He's gone Harry!" Hermione wailed into her hands.

Again the fireplace exploded with emerald flames and Fred ran out with a livid look on his face and his wand drawn. As Fred stormed into Ron's bedroom without a word to the two of them the fire threw George out into their living room too.

"Where is he?" George snapped, face burning red with fury, "Where is the selfish little bastard?"

Fred charged back into the living room and glared at Harry.

"Where's he hiding?" he demanded.

Harry couldn't piece together any coherent sentences, he could barely string two thoughts together at that moment, and simpley shook his head as he stared up at the twins.

"He's here, he's got to be!" Fred snarled.

"That stubborn little bastard," George hissed to himself, "risking his own neck just to do a runner. I'm going to kill him!"

"He's not..." Harry began when the green flames erupted yet again and Charlie bounded out looking as if he had just been in a fist fight, Harry looked up at the new arrival and tried again, "He's not..."

"Here, I know he's not," Charlie said as he turned to the twins, breathlessly, "Something went wrong first thing this morning, they couldn't wake him and Percy and Neville took him to another floor for treatment..."

Hermione made a whimpering noise and the twin's faces, almost burgundy with anger just moments before, paled chalk white. Harry found that he was hugging Hermione, rocking her and stroking her hair without realising it, but shaking like a leaf himself.

"...and now we can't find them either. All three of them were taken," Charlie said while balling and un-balling his hands into fists and looking on the verge of explosion.

Fred made some kind of exclamation that was lost in a breathless exhalation as he put a hand to his face and closed his eyes. George sank down into the armchair silently, his eyes wide.

"I've been down Nocturn Alley, where you said you saw that gang that time, the Death Eater scum," Charlie said, still quite breathless as he pounded his fist into his palm, "I beat the shit out of everyone I could find and none of them know anything. At least none of them are telling."

Harry felt a sudden surge of adrenaline and leapt to his feet, Hermione being thrown backwards and being caught by George before she fell off the sofa altogether.

"Sorry Hermione," Harry said blankly, "I've just got to get dressed."

With that Harry marched purposefully to his bedroom and closed the door.

Ron led the way from the checkpoint, where the new security wizard thankfully didn't recognise him to advise him to turn back, and towards the clinic. Percy was getting more and more nervous all the way but Neville seemed to be elevated into an eerily calm state of detached confidence.

Ron turned to Percy and rubbed his knuckles down his upper arm, tapped the side of his head with his thumb, pointed to himself and then connecting the fingers of both hands and pulling them away from each other.

"I know Ron but don't worry about that for now okay?" Percy swallowed.

It was true that the healers would have noticed Ron was missing and that the Aurors would be on red alert at that very moment. There had been no note left explaining their intentions. No clues or hints as that might cause the clinic to lock down and keep them for completing their plan. It made Percy sick to be doing this to his family but as long as everybody thought that the Death Eaters had taken Ron there would be no need to send reinforcements to the clinic, at least not right away.

The three fugitives reached the top of the steep hill where the clinic was practically balancing and Percy pressed against the door, not holding out much hope for this to be their lucky day. It wasn't, the door was locked. Ron shoved his brother aside and put his hands together like saloon doors and swung one of them open before getting to his knees and feeling around the dirty ground. Percy and Neville shared an uneasy glance.

"You know where there's a spare key hidden?" Neville frowned.

Ron shook his head and kept on searching before making a sudden hissing sound and gripping his head. Percy bent down low and grabbed Ron's shoulders tightly while the sound of a girl screaming from within the clinic chilled him to the bone. Ron was feeling Jess vision from outside, this was getting so much worse now.

"Listen Ron, move away from the door, we'll try a window alright?" Percy said as he tried to drag his wincing brother away from the source of his discomfort but Ron shrugged him off and snatched up what looked like a paperclip from the overgrown tufts of grass that sprouted in between the cracks in the concrete. He pulled it flat before manipulating it into another shape and then fed it into the keyhole and began to wriggle it in a state of deep concentration.

Neville sighed and met Percy's eyes with a smile.

"The twins."

"What else have they been teaching you while I was away?" Percy found himself demanding of the back of Ron's head in his time honoured older brother kind of way.

Something clicked and Ron turned to look up at Percy with a wicked grin on his face and he turned the door handle and swung it open.

"Remind me to thank them later," Percy mumbled as he helped Ron back up to his feet.

"How are you feeling Ron?" Neville said as the sounds of Jess' screaming grew even louder now that the front door was no longer muffling them.

Ron nodded his head and gave the thumbs up. Percy and Neville both knew he was lying but didn't say any more about it. Ron set off along the corridor on tip toe, waving for Neville and Percy to follow on behind him and keep low. The three of them ducked under the window at the nurses station before running around the corner and over to a door where Ron stopped and gestured to with a nod.

"This is his room?" Neville confirmed.

Ron nodded again. Percy spun around as another door opened and the screaming grew so loud that it was as if Jess was only an inch away from his eardrum at that moment. Ron winced again and held his head. Neville grabbed him as he doubled over in pain and tried to hold him up.

"It'll pass soon Ron, I'm sure," he was muttering, "just ride it out. Not long now, I promise okay?"

Ron held his breath and gritted his teeth before giving a single nod. Percy looked back in the direction of the screaming and willed the vision to pass. The sapper was a big enough risk without the added trauma of Jess's trigger mechanism on Ron's involuntary possession. They heard heavy footsteps running and the three of them pinned their bodies flat against the wall. It wouldn't have done them much good if the passing nurse Stour had actually been looking their way but thankfully she was more occupied with helping the seer with her vision.

"Come on now Jess please, why aren't you letting go of this one? Why have you started holding all these things inside? Let it pass Jess, let the vision go!" Stour was begging her.

"No!" Jess wailed through her agonised sobs.

Ron pulled away from Neville momentarily but the young would-be healer yanked him back and shoved him back against the wall with both hands.

"No Ron," he barked forcefully, "you've got to look after yourself before you can start worrying about looking after other people!"

Ron swallowed and nodded. His eyes were becoming unfocused and he blinked the a few times before exhaling deeply and looking Neville dead in the eye and nodding again more confidently this time.

"Good," Neville said as he released Ron from his grip.

"No stop him," Jess was screeching at the top of her lungs, "Stop him please you can't let him do this. Stop it!"

Percy looked to Neville and they both nodded. This part of their plan wasn't going to go the way they wanted. In the original plan the clinic was peaceful and the occupants other than the night nurse were all going to still be sleeping. Now however they had to resort to plan 'B'.

"You stay with him," Percy said to Neville, "watch the door an don't let anyone past until you think it's done. Then you get him out and straight back to St Mungo's you hear?"

Neville nodded.

"Right, so I'll go running to Stour and tell her Ron's been taken and that I'm searching for him. I'll keep everybody away from this corridor as long as I possibly can. At least then if word comes to the clinic that they need to lock down because of Ron's abduction my story's all but confirmed. I'll just buy as much time for you as possible okay Ron?" Percy smiled at him brother who smiled and seemed about ready to pass out now.

"Ron?" Neville said as he tapped the side of the younger red head's face.

Ron smiled at him and gestured over his shoulder to the closed door before putting his finger and thumb to his eye and then pulling them apart.

"He's awake," Percy said as he understood that the sapper was already affecting Ron without even knowing it.

Ron took a deep breath, shook his head and slapped his face to wake himself up a little more and then grabbed the door handle. Percy's hand rested upon Ron's shoulder and squeezed very briefly before the brothers shared a smile.

"Don't make me regret trying this," Percy warned before running down the hall and disappearing around the corner calling out for nurse Stour urgently.

Mad Eye Moody's false leg thumped loudly as he paced up and down before the crowd of Aurors, Order members, DA volunteers and terrified Weasleys. Tonks and Lupin were holding onto Molly from either side as she shook violently. The thought of one child in mortal peril enough to stop her heart from beating but the idea of two of them in danger was too much for her to bear. Hermione and Harry were ready to run into battle, her having pulled herself together when she saw Harry's determined look as he emerged from his bedroom with his wand drawn and prepared for action, and were having to be calmed down by Bill and Ginny before they ran off and got themselves or Ron, Percy and Neville killed.

"Well, this is not what we first thought it was," Moody said gruffly and with no hiding his annoyance either, "Weasley going off his trolley and escaping I mean, and it is also not what we assumed it to be after that."

Moody stopped pacing up and down, the sound of his banging wooden leg seeing to punctuate his point and demand absolute silence.

"Weasley didn't not have a medical emergency, he was not taken by Longbottom and his brother to a treatment room at all, and the three of them went to the first place it was possible for them to disapparate from and did just that."

There was a collective gasp.

"You mean," Charlie said, not quite knowing who to be furious with at that very moment, "the three of them...planned it between them?"

"No," Arthur said, more to himself then to anybody else in the room, "why would they? Why would Percy?"

"Percy!" Fred said while sounding as if he had something lodged in his throat, "Maybe if it was one of us but Percy? No he'd never...He wouldn't break the rules."

Moody stamped his wooden leg on the floor noisily to render the Weasleys silent once again.

"And Longbottom wouldn't risk one of his patient's lives, especially not a friend so we are left with only one option," Moody declared.

"Unethical treatment," Hermione gasped as her hand covered her mouth.

"Exactly Miss Granger!" Moody said with a flourish of great annoyance, "They've managed to convince themselves of a way to treat Weasley that is not only illegal but of an incredibly high risk that the lad will even survive it."

Harry shook his head vigorously.

"No, no Neville would never do that."

"He has done it Mr Potter! The portraits act as witnesses and they have testified that Weasley was revived in the seventeenth floor corridor beside the kitchens delivery hatch where apparition wards were down for that morning's shipment and the three of them disapparated of their own free will."

Something crashed behind them and everybody jumped to see Charlie punching his fist through a supply cupboard beside him.

"Bastard!" he roared.

"I'm gonna kill 'em," Harry seethed to himself, "if anything happens to Ron I am going to kill them."

"Miss Granger," Mad Eye began as he stomped over to Hermione.

Tonks moved in front of him and faced Hermione with a warm smile.

"Hermione," she said softly but with enough warning in her voice to Moody that yelling at Ron's distraught girlfriend would get them nowhere fast, "did Neville or Ron ever confide any theories to you? Any crazy ideas or fantastical treatments maybe?"

Hermione shook her head before looking to the floor.

"I hadn't been allowed to see him all week. He was upset about being locked up and we had an argument," she said with a whimper.

Ginny put her arm around Hermione and hugged her.

"Don't feel bad Hermione, you didn't stay away because you wanted to, it was medical advice wasn't it?"

"Longbottom's advice?" Moody barked over Tonks' shoulder.

The young Auror turned on the old pro and glared at him until her hair darkened to jet-black along with her mood.

"Actually it was mine," Healer Kalra said from the corner of the room, "and Mr Longbottom confided no theories or ideas to me over the past week, although he was doing a great deal of extracurricular research in his free time. I also recall seeing Percival Weasley a lot more in his company now I think of it."

Harry drew in a shuddering breath and shook his head.

"I'm going to kill 'em!"

"But," George began while Fred gave Harry a pat of consolation on the back that did no good at all it seemed, "why didn't Percy come to us? He knows we the big rule breakers in the family. Why weren't we let in on it?"

"Because this was an intellectual form of anarchy," Hermione said, suddenly sounding as clear and as furious as Harry was, "they were planning on doing something that could be harmful to Ron, hurt him or put him back into an irreversible coma or just plain kill him stone dead, and they were going to do it on an intellectual theory as if Ron's condition was a logic puzzle to be solved."

"They're going to risk him on an experiment?" Fred said in disbelief.

"They're just using him to see how bloody clever they are?" George said in a similar exclamation of denial.

"Now come on," Lupin said, attempting to be the calming voice along with Tonks in this pot of anger and fear that was about to bubble over, "neither one of those young men would risk Ron's life on a whim. I'm sure they thought that the only other option open to them, the option to do nothing and simply hope everything worked out, was more of a danger to Ron then their plan."

"Doing nothing," Charlie snarled through gritted teeth, "doesn't make my little brother's head bleed from the inside."

Molly burst into tears and Ginny shuddered while Charlie went on.

"Doing nothing doesn't expose Ron to Death Eater attack and possible torture."

Bill left his wife attempting to comfort his mother while shoving his way through the crowd to get to his livid brother.

"Doing nothing doesn't get his mind and body taken over by a dead witch who can kill a room full of people without a fucking wand!"

"Charlie shut it!" Bill said as he reached his brother and shook him by the shoulders, "Your way to keep him safe is to shove him in a room and lock the door while rampaging through dark wizard territory beating seven shades of shit out of everybody you come across with a dark mark. Hermione's way of keeping him safe is to work herself half to death looking for a way to cure those scars of his. The twins way of helping is to install all their best anti sneak products at every entrance to this bloody hospital for free to catch anyone attempting to get in and hurt Ron."

The twins flushed slightly at this, they hadn't been aware that anybody knew about that.

"It's because of them the Aurors caught Layton before he could get to Ron's ward and do Merlin knows what. Ginny is the glue holding this family together while we're tearing each other apart and I have been trying to keep my mother from going insane with worry while using every contact I have to try and obtain some medieval magical texts to give the staff here so that my baby brother can actually go home again at some point in his life!"

Bill's scars were twisting and contorting the more wound up he was getting while yelling at his brother.

"So Percy and Neville think they have a way to save him from driving himself nuts, and bleeding internally and being possessed. They think that can remove that colossal target from Ron's head and give him back what he has of his normal life and that's good enough for me Charlie. They want to help him and he went of his own free will, Moody said so, and I trust them."

Moody cleared his throat but Bill maintained his focus into Charlie's eyes.

"No offence but your brother was desperate enough to do anything, free will or not, that's no excuse," Moody said gruffly.

The doors to the ward burst open just as Charlie was about to speak and Kingsley Shacklebolt ran in panting heavily and brandishing a piece of parchment in his hand.

"Shacklebolt," Moody said as he thudded over to his colleague, "what is it man?"

"Found this amongst Weasley's notes at the ministry," the man wheezed.

Moody snatched the parchment out of his hand and read it quickly. Everybody was silent while they watched the Aurors face. When Moody finished reading he looked as if he had just received word that he was no longer allowed to punish dark wizards but simply give them a slap on the wrist and let them go free.

"Healer Kalra, is that your name?" he barked as his magical eye moved to focus on the healer while his normal eye stared from face to face as they all stared back at him.

"Yes Auror Moody, what is it you need?" Healer Kalra said, stepping forward.

"I need a team of your best healer's ready and waiting here for when we bring Weasley back. He'll need somebody for his brain, for his scars and he'll need as many people you can find with knowledge of ancient magic and magical replenishment. Strength replenishment too."

"Sir?" Kalra blinked, wanting more details on the condition he was being expected to treat.

"Your patient's about to be drained by a magic sapper," Moody said with disgust.

"No!" Hermione gasped as she clasped both hands over her mouth.

"That guy knocks him out just pointing at him," Harry yelled, "that guy knocked him out in his sleep!"

"Tonks, Kingsley, Lupin, and Bill seeing as you are keeping you head the best amongst the lot of you; you're coming with me to Cumbria right now. We're getting that boy back here before those bloody fools get him killed."

"I'm coming too," Harry said.

"No you're not Potter," Moody said gruffly.

"Whether I come with you or go there alone I'm going to Cumbria too," Harry said as he stepped forward to dare Moody to tell him what he could and couldn't do, "Ron's my responsibility and I will not let him down again."

"He's burning, help him, he's burning him!" Jess' was screaming as Ron closed the door behind him and looked at the sapper as he sat up in his bed and blinked.

He's burning me? Ron thought, wasn't it always a witch before?

"What are you doing here? I told her not to bring you back. I told her what would happen," the sapper said as he ran his bony fingers through his messy dark hair.

"Don't let him come, don't let him in," Jess was wailing, he voice sounding so raw now that it must've been hurting her, "don't let him burn please!"

Ron pulled a chair up to the side of the sapper's bed and sat down before he fell down. This guy was making him feel dizzy just looking at him.

"Get out of here," he wizard snarled fearfully as he moved back until he was pressed right up against the wall, "I can't stop it from happening. I can't stop it draining you. Get out!"

Ron took a deep breath and shook his head, partially to clear it and partly to tell the sapper he wasn't going anywhere.

"Don't touch him!" Jess screeched, "Stop, stop, no!"

The sapper nodded over Ron's shoulder to the door.

"You hear that? She's telling you. I'll kill you and I can't help it. Get out before I put you back in hospital."

Ron leaned forward and blinked his hazy vision back into focus. He rolled back his sleeves and displayed his scars to the sapper. The man's dark eyes scanned the swirling scar patterns rapidly before looking up at Ron's face again.

"That's it isn't it? That's where the magic is."

Ron nodded.

"You were burned with magic?" the sapper frowned.

Ron pointed at his arms and then to his head and back to the scars again.

"Mind burns?" the sapper said as he tried to understand without the benefit of an interpreter.

Ron shrugged and nodded again. Ron trailed his finger along on of the scars that ran the length of his arm before putting both hands to his head and making a pulsing movement, opening and closing his hands at either side of his head, and then rubbing at the scars again and pretending to pull them away from the skin and toss them away.

"The scars are what's hurting your head?" the sapper confirmed he understood this correctly, "you need to get rid of the scars?"

Ron nodded so eagerly that his whole body swayed and he temporarily lost his sense of balance. He put a hand out to steady himself on the side of the bed and knew that if he didn't explain this to the sapper soon he would faint before Neville and Percy's theory could even be tried.

"I'll get a nurse," the sapper said as he tried to climb off his bed without touching Ron in anyway.

Ron moved to block him standing in front of the door so fast that he staggered into it more than anything else. The sapper looked scared now. This man wasn't a bad person, Ron could see it now, and he wasn't even grumpy really. He was just sick and tired of hurting people through no fault of his own. Ron found the need to speak to this man, lack of vocal chords be damned, and began to mouth as clearly as he could the words 'You can help me' while pointing from the sapper to himself.

"Help you die you mean," the sapper said, looking sickened, "I won't be a part of that. Find somebody else to assist your suicide."

Ron shoved himself away from the door to cross the room and follow the sapper. It was getting really hard not to just pass out now and he could barely even see straight anymore. The sapper turned around and jumped at the sight of Ron standing unsteadily right in front of him. Ron took a deep breath in and let it out before grabbing at his forearm with his other hand and making a pulling motion away from it while mouthing the words 'you take them'.

"It doesn't work like that," the sapper said as he rubbed his hand over his face, his stubble making a scratchy sound as he did.

"His skin! Jess screamed, "he's burning his skin, he's burning!"

The sapper gestured to the sound of Jess' voice as if she was proving the point he was trying to make. I felt the last of his strength inside of him and drew upon it for one last effort. He pointed at himself and mouthed 'I' then he crossed his hands over each other and moved them apart horizontally while mouthing 'have no' before just gesturing desperately with his hands around himself and mouthing 'life'. Then he held out both his exposed arms and looked the sapper in the jet black eyes and mouthed the word 'please'.

There was a scuffle outside now and somebody was shouting. Percy was yelling to Neville.

"Has he done it yet?"

"I don't think so," Neville was calling as he sounded like he was struggling with somebody.

"Don't let them in!" Percy was shouting.

"You don't know what you're doing!" nurse Stour was yelling while some other voices shouted and hollered over each other.

"Longbottom this isn't helping him!" the voice of what sounded like May-Eye Moody roared.

"Bill no," Percy was shouting down the corridor, "it's what he wants. You can't lock him up like that again you can't!"

Ron's desperate eyes stared at the sapper and he felt as if he was falling before he actually did. His eyes welled and he pleaded silently with the sapper one last time just as the door burst open and Neville leapt on Kingsley Shacklebolt's back to stop him interfering. The sapper took a deep breath and grabbed Ron's forearms with both hands.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Ron was blinded by white light and his skin felt as if it was being scalded for the fraction of a second he remained conscious. His knees hit the floor and he was lost to the blackness before the rest of him followed suit.