Chapter 2: The Hospital Stay
Dudley Dursley was beyond pissed. He had spent most of his teenage life, and even the majority of what was before it, using his massive bulk to threaten and intimidate those that were smaller than him.
Now in the space of one week his whole world had been turned upside down. That bitch Moore had gone and ratted him and his gang out to the police and he would have his revenge on her.
Dudley couldn't have been happier to see her walking alone in the park earlier. It was the perfect place. There were plenty of trees and other things that could be used as cover while he took his revenge on her. Hell he even planned on sharing some of her with the others once he tired of her.
Then Mike and his stupid cop buddy had to show up. His parents were going to be pissed. There was no way that he could blame the freak this time. Or maybe……
That was it. He could still blame the freak and get away with it. The cops obviously wouldn't buy his story since he wouldn't talk about the m-word to anyone normal, but that didn't mean that he couldn't pin the blame on the freak when he got to the house. He could just tell his parents that he used 'the m-word' on him and made him do it. Yeah, they'd believe that.
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Harry couldn't believe how much he hurt right now. The only thing he knew was pain. He couldn't even think enough to piece together where he was at. He remembered the beating his uncle gave him and the attempt he made at fighting back.
The attempt was all for naught. His uncle was easily 350 pounds and all of Harry's attempts were equivalent to throwing punches at a brick wall. Then he remembered his last ditch effort to escape the beating as he jumped out of the window. Or he had jumped as well as someone could with a broken leg.
He opened his eyes and took in a breath as he tried to regain his bearings. It was the smell of antiseptic and the white walls that led him to believe he was in the hospital wing at Hogwarts. He closed his eyes again knowing that he was at least safe and away from his relatives.
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Dudley was just finishing up what he planned to say to his parents when Mike, Officer Stanhope, came in and took Piers out of his cell. Having seen his fair share of police movies in his life he presumed that they were questioning him and that the rest of the gang would follow in turn.
It was almost eight o'clock that night when Dudley finally realized something was wrong. All three of his friends had been taken out of their cells one at a time and never returned, but he was still there and had yet to be questioned.
"Hey! HEY! Someone!" He shouted to gain the attention of one of the officers.
"What da ya want?" An aggravated officer yelled, sticking his head through the door to the holding area.
"Where is everyone else? Why haven't I been let out yet?"
"You? Well something's goin on with ya but I'm not sure what." He replied before going back to his desk.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means, fat boy," the officer yelled, angry at having his dinner interrupted again. "That your friends have been bailed out by their parents but you haven't."
"Why not? Have you called my parents?"
"No need tubby. They're next door right now."
"Why won't you just answer me instead of going around in circles?" Dudley whined.
"You aren't going to be released any time soon, so you may as well get used to it here. Your parents are next door in the adult detention facility."
"What for?" Dudley asked fearing the freak had called the cops on his parents.
"I'm not here to answer your questions and I have better things to do. But a short answer is that your father is being held for attempted murder, assault, and resisting arrest. Your mum is in for resisting arrest and assault on an officer.
"Now, if you're finished with the questions I have other things to work on." With that the officer went back out the doors and set down to his microwave dinner.
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Mark Wilson was just returning home to his house on Privet Drive after a very tiring experience. The police had taken them to the hospital and it was almost an hour before they even bothered to return to ask them any questions. They 'had to get their wounds tended to.' 'Tended to' my ass. If it weren't for the hot nurse that was damn near falling out of her top they wouldn't have bothered having a few scrapes looked at.
Professionalism at its best.
He turned past the park and saw some smoke and what looked like a fire coming from somewhere near his house. He hoped that he hadn't left anything plugged in while he was gone, but he couldn't remember. He had left in a hurry and didn't have time to stop back by his house.
As he turned onto Privet Drive itself he couldn't believe his eyes. It seems like some people had taken it into their own hands to defend the boy's honor. He saw a group of black robed figures staring at Number 4 Privet Drive as it burned to the ground.
As he neared his own house, across the street from Number 4, one of the group members turned and saw him. He didn't think much of it as he pulled into his driveway and got out of the car. He had no more that touched his foot to the ground when he was killed by a flash of green light.
The same fate was met by the rest of the muggles in and around Privet Drive as the Dark Lord took advantage of the failed wards protecting Privet Drive. For almost two decades this land was untouchable because of the old man. Now, Potter or not, he would destroy what the old man spent so much time to protect.
He turned to Bella, "Kill them all Bella. Tonight we will destroy this pathetic town and anyone who stands in our way. Potter may not be here tonight, but I want to make sure that he can never return."
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Veronica Moore sat and watched Harry from his bedside. She didn't know why she was so drawn to him. She had tried befriending him in school but he was the one outcast that she could never get close to. Maybe that was why she was sitting here now. Trying to complete a task that she never could before.
Her dad was supposed to pick her up soon. He had been off in London meeting with his sisters and looking for houses. The officer was nice enough to let her borrow his phone to call her dad on his cell phone. She left out most of the details for the day, only admitting to witnessing a crime and being left at the hospital after the questioning was complete.
She had been sitting at the bedside of an almost complete stranger for the better part of the evening and she was ready to go home. She was tired and so much had happened for it being this early in the summer.
She was dropped out of her musings as a knock came at the door. The door opened a bit more to reveal a uniformed officer. He looked down at his notepad before looking at her again. "Veronica Moore?"
"Yes. Is something wrong? I thought I answered all your questions."
"No, ma'am, no more questions. I've been sent to wait for your father's arrival. I was told that he would be here in the next few minutes to pick you up."
"Is something wrong?" She asked again.
"I can't answer that right now. I need to wait for your father to arrive."
"What can I help you with?" A new voice joined into the conversation.
"Daddy!" Veronica knew it was a childish thing to call her dad but she loved him too much to change the way she greeted him for so many years.
"Come here, V." He said and pulled her into a big hug.
The officer cleared his throat to gain their attention once more.
"Mr. Moore I presume?"
"Yes, sir. What can I do for you?"
"I was sent here to inform you of a situation in your neighborhood."
"What now?" Veronica asked.
"Privet Drive, Wisteria Walk, Manchester Loop, and Charles Drive have all been destroyed."
"WHAT!" Both Veronica and her dad yelled.
"We are uncertain about what exactly happened at this point. All we know is that we got calls of massive amounts of fire and when the squad cars arrived on the scene everything was in flames.
"Mike Stanhope was there when the call came in, he had heard that you were down here and requested that someone come and tell you before you go back there."
"What are we going to do?" Veronica asked her dad.
"I don't know V," he said.
Any further discussion was halted by a groan coming from the bed. Veronica looked over and pushed the button to call the nurse to the room. They had asked her if she wouldn't mind alerting them when he awoke, if he did so before she left. The nurses were running shorthanded as it was that night.
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Harry groaned again and opened his eyes just as the nurse walked in the door. Well he didn't know it was a nurse; as a matter of fact he really didn't know much of anything that was going on right now. The last thing he remembered was Uncle Vernon actually coming at him with his gun.
He remembered the beating this time had been particularly brutal. His uncle had never drawn blood before and had only ever broken one bone until then. This time though his uncle was drunk and apparently still pissed at the Order members threats. After beating him this time, his uncle left the room and came back a moment later with his .45. Harry, being close to the window, took the opportunity to jump out of it while his uncle was trying to load the weapon.
Thankfully his uncle cared too much about his reputation, even when drunk, to shoot at him outside the walls of his house. Harry snorted, immediately regretting it due to the sharp pain in his head, when he thought that if his uncle had actually killed him then nothing would save his reputation. His uncle was certainly too stupid to dispose of a corpse properly.
He bordered between consciousness and total darkness while the doctor examined him. He struggled a bit when the doctor lifted his eye lids and shone a flashlight in them at close range. However what he heard next from the corner of the room caused him to become as alert as humanly possible in his current state.
"….centered around Privet Drive. Then the weird people in white masks spread out and set fire to pretty much everything around. There's no casualty report yet but we expect the numbers to be quite high."
"What happened?" Harry choked out, shocking everyone in the room.
"Nothing to worry about, Mr. Potter. Right now the only thing that you should be concerned about is getting rested and healed." The doctor said, standing between Harry and the guests and effectively cutting off the conversation.
Harry glared at the doctor for a second before leaning to the side a little to see the others in the room. "Who are you? What happened to Privet Drive?"
The police officer stepped around the side of the doctor and approached the bed, ignoring the protestations from the medical staff in the room.
"I need to ask you some questions, Mr. Potter."
"Not until you answer mine. Who are they," he asked pointing at the Moore's. "And, why are you here? What happened to Privet Drive?"
The officer sighed, being on the force for 15 years, he knew that this young man would be stubborn. He decided it best to just answer his questions and then get his own answered so he could get out of there.
"These people are the Moore's. Mr. Moore has just arrived to pick up his daughter. His daughter, Veronica, was the one who witnessed the end of your altercation at Number 4 Privet Drive and had a neighbor call the police."
"What happened to Mr. Wilson," Veronica interrupted before turning to Harry to add, "He's the neighbor who called?"
"Mr. Wilson's home was on Wisteria Walk was it not?" The officer asked.
"No, Privet Drive." Veronica answered.
"Well, Privet Drive is gone. Nothing is left there."
"M-My family?" Harry asked.
"Oh, your family is alive, son." The officer responded, unable to contain the sneer at the word family when mentioning the Dursleys.
Harry wasn't stupid and he was becoming more and more coherent as time went on. Due to his rapid healing, which was stunning the doctors who had remained silent so far, the tone of the officer's voice was not lost on him.
"What happened to them, sir?" Harry tentatively asked.
"They're down at the station in lockup. Where they should have been a long time ago if what we've heard is true." The officer spat.
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"Come on V, we should go. This really isn't any of our business." Brian Moore said. He led his daughter out of the room but she stopped him before he could leave the hospital.
"Dad, can we stay for a little bit longer?"
"Why do you want to stay? You wouldn't happen to have a crush on him would you? You've always been eager to stay away from boys, so why is this one any different?"
"I don't have a crush on him," she said exasperatedly. Even though it was a bit of a lie. She was definitely intrigued by him. One of the only boys she had ever known to not gawk at her and try to be her friend to get in her pants right away. Even the outcasts did that to some extent, but not him. He was cute in his own way, she guessed, but it was more the way he kept to himself that intrigued her so much.
"I just want to make sure he's going to be ok. His family lived on Privet Drive. Even if they treated him horribly, he doesn't have anywhere to go. The officer said it's all gone now. We can't just leave him here."
"I repeat, why the sudden interest? He's not our responsibility and you know that. You don't even know this boy. Why would you want to go to such lengths to help someone you don't even know?"
"I know him." She said indignantly. At her father's disbelieving look she continued, "Well, I remember him from primary school. I-I just feel drawn to him. I can't explain it. How could his own relatives treat him like that dad?"
"Some people are like that, honey. I can't really tell you why."
"I think they may be why he wouldn't talk to anyone in school." Her father looked at her questioningly.
"You know that I was always friends with the kids that other people didn't like, right?" Her father nodded and she continued, "He was the only one that wouldn't be friends with me. He was always by himself and his cousin always bullied him around."
"That may very well be, but I'm not sure there's much you can do about this now."
"Can we please just stay for a little while and make sure he's gonna be ok?"
"Yes, V."
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"….said before, reports came in saying that the ones responsible for the damage were people dressed in funny black clothes and white masks."
Harry's mind was racing. Death Eaters had destroyed Privet Drive because of him. After his Aunt was arrested, the blood wards must have fallen. He had to get out of here. He had to get to the Order and find out what was going on. Not to mention why they had yet to come and check on him or notice the destruction of Privet Drive.
He reached over and pulled the covers back and tried to get out of bed. The doctor, nurses, and officer tried to stop him but just before he swung his good leg over the edge of the bed a blinding white light emanated from him knocking all of them unconscious as well as miraculously healing his more serious injuries.
As soon as he hit the ground he didn't even bother to question what happened. He needed to hurry. He had no idea how he was going to get to London but he had to go NOW.
So, clad only in the hospital gown, and thankfully his boxers that the nurse had left on, Harry Potter raced out of the room and straight through the waiting room, onto the street. Not even noticing the shocked man and his teenage daughter that started to run after him.