Safe As Houses
"So what's this about Percy?" Harry frowned as they crossed the reception area on the ground floor of St Mungo's on their way to the cafeteria to meet up with the twins.
"Ron," Percy said as his brow furrowed.
"Well I guessed that!" Harry said as he rolled his eyes and stopped walking.
Percy pulled up alongside him and sighed before getting directly to the point.
"Well there's the Auror teams all over this place and the Order of the Phoenix undercover patrolling in and around the area in case there's a Death Eater on the inside, like a healer or something," Harry nodded and Percy went on, "but these people breeched the security at the ministry. The ministry!"
"So you don't think it's going to be enough?" Harry said, unhappy at how unsurprised he was at this news.
Percy swallowed and leaned in to whisper to Harry as a small group of people carrying balloons reading 'Get well soon' began to point and stare at Harry excitedly.
"I think that if anyone's going to keep Ron safe it's going to be us; you, me, the twins and Charlie. None of us are relaxing about the amount of security here like Dad and Bill are and mother's just on worry overload and can't see anything clearly."
"What about Ginny?" Harry asked.
Percy noticed even more people watching Harry and put a hand on his back to guide him into an alcove out of sight. Harry walked without protest, focusing upon Percy's words.
"Ginny's concentrating on keeping our mother from driving Ron insane and she's also keeping Hermione together isn't she?"
This was true. Hermione was being strong and professional about Ron's heart treatment. The damage caused by the heart attack was all healed and the heart muscle itself was stronger then ever but the fact remained that Ron's brain could still decide to stop any one of his internal organs functioning at the drop of a hat and, while Neville and Kalra worked on correcting the brain disruption caused by the sapper's 'treatment', Hermione was having to stabilise Ron's vital functions twice daily.
This news was being played down where most of the family were concerned but Percy was too clever to be fooled and Harry and Ginny could see Hermione telling a lie from a mile off so they broke her the very first time they saw her leaving Ron's room on the pretence of getting him a glass of water only to break down in the empty ward next door. Fortunately for Ron and even more so for his frantic mother Hermione was catching these little failures before they became noticeable or even life threatening. The closest call had been earlier that morning when Ron's immune system flooded his body with adrenaline and he had a full-blown fit until his lung collapsed.
"So what do you suggest?" Harry said conspiratorially as two security wizards on patrol eyeballed them suspiciously.
"Shifts," Percy said simply, "One of us, Fred, George or Charlie are to be with Ron in his room at all times while a second is patrolling every possible access to his floor."
"Sounds good to me," Harry nodded.
"I'm thinking Fred and George to cover a shift together and either you and me or you and Charlie depending on when either Charlie or I have to work."
Harry smiled at Percy sadly.
"And ensuring you and Charlie never take a shift together as well?"
Percy mirrored Harry's smile and looked down at his feet.
"Well he's still not my biggest fan right now is he?"
"He's getting there Percy. He really was worried when you got attacked y'know?"
Percy shrugged and adopted a stoic expression.
"Well I can't complain about that can I? What is it the muggles call it? Karma, that's it. I held what happened to Ron against you and now Charlie's holding what happened to Ron at that clinic against me, it's only fair."
Harry smiled at Percy and gave him a slap on the upper arm before nodding towards the entrance to the cafeteria.
"C'mon Perce, let's go sort out the first shift with Fred and George."
Hermione crept back into Ron's room, as much as a person can creep after going through several security checks and being patted down by an apologetic Tonks outside Ron's door, and held her breath as she squinted through the candlelight to see if he was awake or not.
The corner of his mouth curled upward and one of his fingers lifted and waved at her. She gave him a sympathetic smile and waved back with her own finger.
"Have you been given something to make you drowsy?" she said as she crossed the room and settled on the edge of his bed.
Ron's heavy eyelids closed and opened in a slow motion blink as his smile broadened and he lifted his hand to his face lazily. He pinched his chin with his thumb and forefinger and twisted.
"I am I suppose," she chuckled at Ron enquiring whether she was jealous, "I've been on my feet for thirteen hours and I have to be back here for rounds at six in the morning."
Ron's eyebrows lifted a little and he exhaled while bringing his little finger to his chin and jerking it away sharply. Hermione huffed at his expletive and nodded. Ron held his palm flat at a diagonal angle while moving the index finger of the other hand beneath it and away and then rubbed his hands against his body in small circles. Hermione burst out laughing and Ron gave a silent snigger while his eyes fell closed for a moment and then he forced them open again to look up at her.
"Yes Ron it is definitely too late for passion!"
Ron sighed before bringing the tips of the fingers on both his hands together and twisting them against each other with a hopeful expression on his tired face.
"I think we're both too tired to even pucker," Hermione said sadly as she leaned over him and pressed her lips to his and kissed him, as she pulled away she smiled down at him, "Well it turns out we're never too tired to pucker!"
Ron broke into a grin but his eyes were closing again and Hermione flicked her wand at him to send him off into a deep sleep. Ron's face fell into a peaceful kind of expressionless and she stroked his hair gently for a moment before leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.
"Goodnight love," she said softly as she got up off the bed and pointed her wand at his body to perform one final assessment of his status.
A small glowing cloud swelled above his stomach and Hermione sent in an exploratory remedy charm which emerged to show her a shimmering representation of what was going wrong floating before her as if she was watching a scan on a black and white television. Hermione winced; Ron's stomach acid was trying to digest his stomach lining. Hermione flicked her wand several times until the problem was fixed and made a note on Ron's chart for Neville when he came by in half an hour to clear up Ron's malfunctioning brain again.
She put her wand away and rubbed her tired eyes as she tip toed to the door and looked forward to her comfortable bed. On her way out she bumped into George going inside with a book and a cup of coffee, Fred was lurking at the end of the corridor too. She was too tired to ask them what on earth they were still doing here though.
She'd ask them in the morning.
Healer Kalra and Neville Longbottom were both sitting in his office, on either side of his heavy oak desk, mirroring each other's posture in deep thought. They each had an elbow on the desk which they supported the arm that was propping up their head as they stared into space and sighed every once in a while.
"It's impossible to test for foreign thoughts or memories without putting the mind under enormous strain," Kalra mumbled to himself before furrowing his brow and looking cross with himself for not being able to come up with a solution yet.
"It would be hard enough finding a safe way to do it if it was still a full possession but this..." Neville said as he rubbed his eyes and groaned with annoyance.
"There's only a residual trace that we'd have to find first and then try to eradicate," the older healer nodded.
"Without doing any damage during the search for it."
The two specialists looked into the other's tired eyes for a moment before exhaling and looking away again. Neville sat back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair while Kalra jammed a pencil into his beard and began to scratch.
"Do you think the sapper drove the residual possession up into his brain or do you think it was a side effect from the physical possession?" Neville pondered as he gazed wearily at the ceiling.
"I've never dealt with anything like this before," Kalra shrugged, "I know this isn't irreversible and we've been making progress with the immune system problem haven't we?"
Neville nodded as he began to chew his fingernails idly.
"His blood pressure's still all over the place but, thank Merlin, the multiple organ failure has stopped," Healer Kalra muttered as he spun around in his chair to look out of the window.
"Body temperature's all over the place too," Neville said to himself, "don't know whether he's got a fever or not."
"Well he's still attacking the potions we give him as if they're viruses," Kalra said as he spun the chair back towards Neville and leaned back over the desk to meet his protégé's eyes.
Neville leaned over the desk too and flicked a ball of lint away from his sleeve before meeting Kalra's dark eyes.
"His body's attacking any fluids we give him recently," Neville said with some annoyance, "it's as if his brain can't attack the organs anymore so it's making him reject any foreign element that is introduced to the body, be it food water or strengthening solution."
Kalra blew air out of his puffed up cheeks and dropped his chin back into his hand while his elbow settled back onto the desktop once again.
"We have to get past this regurgitating thing before we do anything else. The lad is going to starve to death."
Neville nodded and bit his bottom lip while settling his own chin back into the palm of his hand as before.
"It's been a day and a half. How do you force a body to keep something down that it thinks is poison?"
The two of them took in a deep breath and let it out before staring off into space again.
The twins were heading down to the cafeteria for some breakfast just as Harry and Percy were showing up for their shift. They nodded a lazy greeting as the passed in the corridor.
"How'd it go?" Harry asked Fred.
Fred stretched his arms outwards while George answered the question with a yawn.
"They're having to do the re-hydration spells again, he can't keep anything down, not even water."
Harry grimaced, a puking Ron was very unpleasant but his body had managed to absorb some of the nutrients before rejecting the food altogether.
"So what did the medi witches say?" Percy asked them, "Are we trying to get him to eat or are we leaving him alone until Neville and Kalra correct the mixed signals coming from his brain?"
George was yawning again and waved to Fred to answer for him.
"They've left this nutritional drink thing at the side of his bed for when he wakes up. Madame Bahn wants him to down half of it at the very least."
Harry nodded and waved the twins off as the smiled lazily and set off back towards the lifts while Percy led the way to Ron's room. There was a sudden booming noise and the floor shook. Fred and George froze and spun around to look at Percy and Harry who were also rigid with shock at Ron's closed door.
"What in Merlin's name was that?" Fred yelled down to them, not the least bit sleepy anymore.
Percy threw open Ron's door and saw that his little brother was blinking his eyes and glancing around his empty room.
"Ron are you alright?" he called across as Ron began to sit himself up in bed.
Ron nodded and twirled his index fingers with a shrug.
"I don't know but stay there you hear?" Percy ordered, "Do not move!"
Percy closed the door and drew his wand just as the twins heard a door bursting open and running footsteps and spun around to aim their wands at the person trying to bypass the Auror security measures.
"Charlie you twat!" Fred snapped as he lowered his wand with annoyance, "I nearly hexed you into last Tuesday."
Charlie bundles past the twins and ran for Ron's room with a frantic look in his eyes. Harry glanced at Percy who was watching his burly brother charging towards them with all the force of a locomotive.
"It's an attack!" Charlie was yelling as he skidded to a halt, "Death Eaters, dozens of them, all fighting their way up here. We've got to secure his room."
Percy nodded and moved to grab the door handle and go inside to be sure that Ron's windows were secure but Charlie put his hand out first and met Percy's eyes before smiling at him.
"I'll be the final defence Perce," he said firmly, "no offence but if they get passed all those Aurors and the Order at the security checkpoints we're going to need some muscle standing between Ron and the rest of them."
Percy stared at his brother before pulling away from the door handle. Harry was setting off down the corridor after the twins who were covering both ways onto Ron's floor. Charlie smiled at Percy again and turned the door handle before freezing at the sight of Percy drawing his wand at his older brother.
"Percy what the hell do you think you're doing?" Charlie said with alarm and annoyance.
Harry skidded to a stop mid way down the corridor and turned to see what was going on outside Ron's room.
"Order checkpoints," Percy said without blinking as he moved his body between Charlie and the closed door to Ron's room.
"What?" Charlie said as he shook his head in an attempt to shake some understanding into his skull.
"He's right," Harry said as he too raised his wand and pointed it at Charlie, "you said there were Order checkpoints."
Charlie looked from Harry to Percy and then over Percy's shoulder at the closed door in front of him before drawing his own wand on Percy with wild eyes.
"I don't think this is Percy," he said as the two redheads glared at each other while keeping their wands raised.
"What the...?" George was saying as he set off towards Harry with a confused look on his face.
"No," Harry yelled while keeping the sibling face-off outside the treatment room covered by his wand, "we need you and Fred covering the entrance points. Get back up there and don't trust anybody no matter what they look like or what they say."
"Harry he's a Death Eater on pollyjuice," Charlie said while keeping his unblinking eyes on Percy at all times, "I can tell, I know my own brother."
"I know my brother," Percy seethed as he gripped his wand even tighter, "and my brother wouldn't sit and wait while others fought to protect Ron. He would be the first one into battle, he'd be the first one rushing downstairs to keep them from even getting up here."
Harry looked from Percy to Charlie and tried to pick up on any tell tale signs that one of them wasn't who the appeared to be.
"Harry's he's buying them time," Charlie roared, "he's been under Imperious since the attack at the ministry and now he's got his orders to take Ron to them while they cause a diversion downstairs."
Harry frowned and saw Percy's eyes light up as his grip on his wand grew steadier and he took a confident step in towards Charlie.
"Well you just gave yourself away didn't you?" Harry said as he moved towards them both, "First rule of lying is stick to your original story no matter what and you just said he was on pollyjuice potion."
Harry turned his wand on Charlie; well the person who claimed to be Charlie anyway, while Percy swallowed and pressed his own wand tip into the impostor's throat.
"Well it's got to be one or the other hasn't it?" the fake Charlie said, "I don't know exactly but I do know that he's not protecting Weasley he's..." Charlie's face fell while Harry and Percy looked as if they had both swelled to twice their height.
"You just called him Weasley," Percy said with furious triumph.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry roared while the wand flew from Charlie's grip and Percy flicked his wand at the wizard who appeared to be his brother's chest and sent him flying into the wall behind him, out-cold.
"Don't trust anybody who comes through those doors!" Percy bellowed down the corridor to the twins.
"No way!" both Fred and George responded as one.
The floor shook with another explosion below and Harry and Percy jumped as Ron's door opened behind them. Ron was standing there with his wand drawn and a confused look on his face.
"Get back inside!" Percy snapped at him.
Ron looked incredulous at this and slammed his open palm onto his other fist before waving a hand dismissively. Harry couldn't help but laugh at Ron's protest as he shoved him back into his room.
"Look I know it sucks to just sit in here while we fight but you're bloody well going to have to okay? You're not well enough yet."
Ron looked annoyed as he pointed at himself before banging his fists together with his index fingers pointing upwards.
"Ron I said no!" Percy barked.
"Look mate," Harry said with some urgency on hearing shouts growing louder from somewhere, "I want you to take cover in there and have your wand ready. Aim at the door and watch the windows but don't do anything stupid okay?"
Ron looked thoroughly fed up but Harry didn't give him the chance to protest any longer and closed the door. He locked it with a flick of his wand and turned to meet Percy's eyes.
"He can barely stand up."
"He shouldn't be standing up," Percy huffed with annoyance.
"Stupefy!" either Fred or George roared as screams and shouts suddenly came from the far end of the corridor.
Harry and Percy took in a deep breath and got ready to defend Ron's door with their lives. George was suddenly blasted off his feet while Fred dodged out of the way of being hit by his brother as he passed and sent a series of hexes from the tip of his wand at an unseen attacker who was firing curses back at him.
"Protego!" Harry yelled out as he threw a protective shield over George so he could get back to his feet.
Two bright red curses bounced off Harry's shield as George got up and threw a grateful nod his way. Just as the shield fell George was ready with his second defensive attack and ran out of sight and into battle again.
"Petrificus totalus!" a familiar voice was shouting over the sounds of battle, "Fred, George, where is he?"
"He's safe Hermione," Fred yelled back as he threw himself around the corner for cover and Percy cast a shield over him for good measure.
"It might not be Hermione!" Percy shouted to him.
"I know but she's holding them back so I'm going to let her keep fighting with us for now okay Perce?" Fred said with a lost shrug.
"Harry, stay by the door," Percy said as he ran up the corridor to help them fight.
Just as Percy joined Fred's side and the two of them began firing off a barrage of defensive spells something crashed through the wall to Harry's right and he found himself the only thing between three enormous Death Eaters and Ron's closed door. He swallowed and raised his wand to cast a shield before him.
"Get me that vessel of die trying," the lead Death Eater snarled before blasting Harry's shield into nothing but a fine mist.
"No you don't!" Harry growled as he kicked one of the oncoming dark wizards in the side of the knee, causing him to slam hard onto the floor.
"Wingardium leviosa!" Harry said as he lifted the fallen Death Eater with a levitation charm and threw him out of the window at the end of the hall.
The sound of the falling wizards rapidly diminishing cries would have been quite comical if it hadn't been for the fact that they were so high up that Harry knew that man was plummeting to his death. He cast a second, more powerful shield, and faced the two remaining Death Eaters.
"You get into this room over my dead body and no one's been able to kill me yet," Harry said angrily.
"Sectus sempra!" George's voice roared as the cutting curse sliced across the shins of one of the Death Eater's legs.
The wizard fell to the ground, bleeding heavily and rolling around clutching his torn flesh. Harry saw George running down the corridor to assist Harry but brought down by a rugby tackle from behind as a Death Eater threw Fred at Percy and the two of them slammed into a smashed window and fell right through.
"No!" Harry yelled before forcing himself to stop thinking about the fact that Fred and Percy were falling hundreds of feet to the ground and prepared himself to defend against the ring leader of the attack as his second shield failed.
"Let's see what we can do about that dead body I have to walk over shall we?" the dark wizard sneered.
Just as Harry was about to utter some kind of defensive spell and the Death Eater his attack the bulky hooded figure shook as if filled with ten thousand volts and dropped to his knees on the floor before Harry before slamming face down at his feet. Behind him, in the very hole in the wall the three Death Eaters had created, was Mad-Eye Moody and he looked livid.
"No mercy to scum who attack hospitals and healers and sick people!" he boomed before turning and blasting the Death Eater who was attacking George into unconsciousness.
George was panting heavily from the fight but only allowed himself a fraction of a second to recover before his eyes widened and he scrambled to his feet and ran for the broken window.
"Fred! Percy!" Harry wanted desperately to go to him but he couldn't tear himself away from Ron's door for anything in the world.
"I've got them George!" Hermione was screaming from somewhere, "pull them back inside I can't levitate them much longer."
Moody set of at as much of a sprint a man in his condition could manage to assist George with the recovery of his precariously floating brothers just as Charlie, the real one this time, leapt over a heap of black robed bodies slumped on the floor and ran down the corridor to Harry with a desperate look on his face.
"Harry's one' of them's like me you mustn't..." Charlie reached Harry and gagged on his words when he saw the unconscious body of himself on the floor outside Ron's room.
"Oh thank Godric," Charlie looked about ready to fall over with relief, "he had everybody fooled all the way up and I thought...I thought..."
Harry slapped Charlie on the shoulder and smiled before nodding over to the window where Fred was being hauled through while clinging onto Percy's right foot while he hovered outside the window under Hermione's weakening levitation charm.
"He didn't fool everyone Charlie," Harry said, "Percy knew right away."
Charlie followed Harry's eyes and then sprinted over to the window to help haul his brothers inside to safety. He hugged Percy tightly as soon as they both stumbled backwards on the levitation charm being lifted once and for all and Charlie began to thank Percy over and over again. Harry's legs shook and his knees buckled with the relief that they'd actually managed to stop it. They'd stopped the attack they knew was coming. He slid down Ron's closed door to the floor while an exhausted Hermione ran down the corridor to him.
"He didn't get inside did he? The other Charlie?" she was frantic as she reached the door and opened it before Harry could answer her.
Harry's back support gone with the opening of the door he slammed down backwards onto the floor and smacked the back of his head painfully while Hermione began to call out for Ron in desperation.
"Oh my god he's not here! Ron! RON!"
Harry sat up, rubbing his skull with a wince.
"I told him to hide Hermione, calm down will you?"
Harry looked around the apparently empty ward and quickly scanned his brain for something to convince Ron that it was really them.
"Um...When you thought you were in love with Romilda Vane you said you couldn't stand it because she didn't even know you existed!" Harry said, picking the most humiliating thing he could think of that Ron would never have ever told another soul in his life.
There was a thudding sound and Harry jumped as he saw Ron hitting the floor hard from where he had obviously been suspended quite uncomfortably beneath one of the empty beds in the far corner with his wand at the ready. Ron crawled out from under the bed and got to his feet as he massaged his back, it looked as if he had cramp from waiting in such an uncomfortable form of cover, and glared at Harry before crossing his hands over each other sharply and pointed from his mouth and away and then making a throwing motion over his shoulder.
"Okay mate, I swear," Harry gave a relieved chuckle, "we will never speak of that again."
Hermione ran across the room to shove Ron backwards onto the bed he had used as his hiding place and set about assessing how badly the exertion had aggravated his condition. Harry jumped and spun around with his wand drawn as Neville barged inside.
"Don't hex me, it's really me Harry I promise!" Neville said with both arms raised.
"Neville get over here and check his head!" Hermione ordered.
Neville complied without another word and Harry stepped outside to reassure the others and report to Moody and the undercover members of the Order who had joined the fight what had happened outside Ron's room.
"I don't care what any of you say I knew this would happen and I want him out of this place right now!" Molly Weasley said as she shook with a mixture of fear, rage, relief and determination while standing up to Alastor Moody and his Aurors.
"Now Molly I understand how you must be feeling but really..." Moody began.
"Understand?" Molly screeched, "You understand what it's like to see your children attacked by pure evil. You understand what it feels like to watch a happy, healthy twenty year old man get sicker and sicker until eventually he has a heart attack. You understand what it's like to know, and I knew Alastor, that Death Eaters were coming to this very hospital to hurt and possibly kill my little boy and be told that the very people who are supposed to be protecting him won't move him somewhere safe but leave him here as bait for a trap. Well your trap didn't work did it Moody?"
"Molly dear please calm down," Arthur said as he tried to rub soothing circles upon his wife's back but she shrugged him off.
"Two of my boys thrown through a window, poor Harry having to fight of three Death Eaters single handed right outside Ronnie's door. Right outside Alastor! How safe was my Ron then I ask you?"
"Molly please," Lupin stepped in and guided Molly away from the confrontation she had thrown herself into during the impromptu post battle meeting of the Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix, "Nobody here wanted it to be like this and nobody wanted them to get so close but Harry was there wasn't he? Harry and Percy and the twins, Charlie told us about their own private watch over Ron and it all worked out of the best didn't it?"
The flushed faced matriarch of the Weasley family drew in a sharp breath between clenched teeth before growling back at Lupin while glaring at the Aurors over his shoulder.
"That is my point exactly Remus. I said I wanted him back at home with me and that the family could look after him better then all of you and I was dismissed as a hysterical post menopausal woman whose opinion meant nothing."
"Molly no," Tonks tried to protest but she was silenced by Lupin's hand rising behind her and resting upon her back.
"Now come on Molly you know we weren't disregarding you in that way."
"If my family hadn't been here undertaking their own watch over Ron then that...man pretending to be Charlie could've...he would've...we'd have lost him."
Molly sniffed and dropped her face into her hands. Lupin hugged her and Arthur rubbed her back again. This time she didn't pull away.
"I know you feel let down Molly but I'm sure, I more then sure, I'm positive that if we try to remove Ron from St Mungo's his safety and security will be jeopardised and there will be nothing any of us would be able to do to prevent it," Lupin sighed sadly.
Molly looked up at the tired looking wizard's eyes and sniffed.
"I can keep him safe."
"Mum..." Ginny said as she stepped out of the shadows where Bill had been holding on to both her and Fleur tightly.
"Stay out of this Ginny," the mother said to her daughter.
"No," Ginny said with determination as she moved forward a little more, "Ron's ill mum, what can you do for him if his heart or his head go wrong again? What can you do for him if he starts bleeding again?"
"Well him being in here doesn't seem to be stopping any of that does it?" Molly snapped and Ginny flinched as if her mother's words were a projectile being thrown at her.
"Molly, no matter what you say aboutthis, Ron is of age and if he refuses to check himself out then that is that," Arthur said as gently as he could.
"Ronnie's not of sound mind right now so I'm making the decisions here Arthur and I'd appreciate it if you would back me up."
"Not of sound mind?" Bill was saying before Fleur shushed him and he thought better of joining Ginny in her battle of wills against their undefeated mother.
"He's moving," Molly said with her hands on her hips as she looked Moody in the magical eye, "fair enough, he said he didn't want to come back to the Burrow...that's fine, but he's not staying here. I want a secret transfer to another hospital, a secure hospital, and I want him moved before sundown."
Moody stumped forward on his false leg and put his gnarled hand upon Molly's shoulder with resignation.
"He'll have to have a escort of trusted protectors and healers in case anything goes wrong in transit Molly and that doesn't mean you and a home made remedy."
Molly bit her tongue and gave a nod.
"St Mungo's is the safest place I know of apart from Hogwarts. Are you sure you won't let him stay here? We plan to treble the security we had before even though we've now depleted the Death Eaters numbers."
Molly's eyes opened wide and she seemed bolstered by something she had just heard.
"Hogwarts, that's it!" she smiled, "Safest place there is and Madame Pomfrey can take good care of Ron if and when he needs it. I want him transferred to Hogwarts hospital wing."