Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I speak with Larry Water.
Chapter 24: Wakey Wakey
It was light inside the room. Harry woke up out of a troubled sleep to find himself in a hospital bed. He guessed he was in St. Mungo's. Looking at the clock next to his bed, he saw that it was quite early in the morning.
A flash of events passed through his mind, but unlike other similar times, his scar didn't burn. In fact, it felt quite cool. He then remembered the night before, well at least what he thought was the night before. He remembered the bodies on the floor, the spells streaking the air of the Atrium, and finally Voldemort's body in ashes across the floor. Voldemort was gone.
A smile and relief spread across Harry's face. He was alive and Voldemort was gone, a burden had been lifted. Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters were probably mostly all dead or captured as well. Harry grinned even more widely, not at the thought of death and retribution, but at the fact that the world would be at peace for at least sometime. The time of great fear was over.
"Harry, your awake!" came shout from the door. Hermoine and Ron came into the room.
"Harry, mate, you were brilliant!" said Ron happily.
"Thanks," said Harry. "How is everyone else?"
"Well, there was quite a few deaths on both sides," said Hermoine sadly. "But, in comparison to what could have happened, there was few. About seven Death Eaters, five Ministry workers and two Aurors."
Harry looked down, saddened by the deaths. Then he remembered something else. "What happened to me?" he asked. "I mean, that person who looked like me, or was me, or well…that whole thing?"
Ron gave him a sad laugh. "We know what you're talking about. That wasn't you, in any sense. That was Tonks."
"Tonks!" gasped Harry.
"Yes. She had been captured during an attack on the Ministry. Apparently they wanted to use her as a decoy."
"Is she de—?"
"No, she is alive, but she's in a bad state. She lost a lot of blood, it is lucky that she lived."
"But everyone else?"
"In the battle, all the Order is alright. They had a few bangs and spell damage, but nothing too serious."
Harry breathed; everything would be all right.
A scream issued from down the hall, causing them all to jump. Down the hall, Nymphadora Tonks had woken from a quite unpleasant dream. She had felt blood pour from he body, laughter taunting her, ringing in her ears. She shot up gasping for breath. When she gained it she looked around to take in her surroundings. She was in St. Mungo's. No one was around and Tonks desperately needed to talk to someone, not just about what happened but about all the bandages on her and the intense itchy feeling she was experiencing. Seeing that she felt too weak to get up, Tonks let out a blood-curdling scream.
Immediately an assistant healer ran into the room. "What's the matter, Miss?"
"I itch and I bloody need information," said Tonks with irritation, as if this was completely obvious, but in reality, it was just because she was cranky.
"I'll get Healer Walton right away," said the assistant, slightly frightened by Tonks.
Tonks waited, fuming, for about twenty minutes. She finally got quite sick of waiting and despite the fact that her limbs didn't seem to be working quite right, that her whole body burned in pain to move, she got out of bed. She staggered, but steadied herself on the bedside table. Noticing a cane, she grabbed it a made her way out into the hall.
Down to the right there were several healers entering a room, quite excitedly. Tonks got angry. As of the moment she didn't care a thing about who was in that room, or what was going on, she just wanted her answers. "What the bloody hell do you think you're all doing?" she shouted at them. "This is a hospital, not some sporting event! Get to work, all of you!"
"Miss! You should be in bed!" said a middle-aged healer with steel gray hair and a stern expression.
"I might be if you all did you job right. I need some answers right now," said Tonks thoroughly pissed off.
"Fine, come in here. He wanted to see you anyway," said the healer.
Tonks stumbled forwards, eager for some explanation. She entered the room.
"Harry, why the hell are you here?"
She fell to the floor with a bang.
Down the hall a man walked slowly, as if he wasn't quite sure what he was doing there. He had oddly shaped gray eyes and thick brown hair. He was a stranger. He stopped at room 416. In a clear box were forms bearing the name Nymphadora Tonks. He breathed; he was irritated at himself for doing this. He entered.
Inside was an empty bed; an assistant healer was changing the sheets.
"Where is Nymphadora?" the stranger croaked.
"She's gone," said the healer with annoyance.
The stranger backed out of the room and headed the down the hall with his head down and a twinge, a stitch, in his shriveled black heart.
It was a sad, sad thing to be a full grown adult and be sent to bed. It was especially irritating when you had only been awake for thirty-five minutes. However, this was the position that Tonks found herself it. Damn healers and their authority, she thought. In spite of her misgivings, she turned down the hall.
Still being sore from her fall, Tonks was having trouble keeping herself from doing another face-plant. It did not help whatsoever that she was very thirsty. Being the adult that she was, Tonks decided to ignore the healer and go down the hall for some tasty refreshments before pursuing a nap.
Tonks hobbled passed her room to see a one person traffic jam ahead of her. He was moving very slowly and Tonks could not pass him because of a table the stuck out into the hall. Annoyed, she was about to say something, when her clumsy and weak legs got the best of her and she went flying forwards. No wanting to fall again, she did the only logical thing and latched on to the man for dear life. Unfortunately, this did not work out so well. Tonks only succeeded in bringing the man down with her.
The floor was even less comfortable than it looked. Tonks came to that conclusion very quickly. It did not help that part of the man's weight was spread across her legs.
"I am quite sorry for this," said Tonks. "And I don't mean to be rude, but could you get off?"
The man quickly got off of her, although that didn't spare Tonks the pain. The man stared down at her with what looked like a hint of shock on his otherwise stony face. He made no effort to help her up. Tonks was never the type to care about chivalry, but seeing that she found herself unable to get to her feet, she also found herself to be more than a little testy.
"I know I knocked you down, but for the sake of gallantry and all around gentlemanliness, it wouldn't kill you to help me up," said Tonks with bit more hostility than she intended.
The man looked down at her with a slight glare and resentfully bent to take her hand and pulled her up. Tonks clenched her teeth; this hurt.
"Thank you," she said briskly. She the decided that the tea wasn't worth it and returned to her room.
Because of this action, she missed the weak grin the crossed over the man's face. The man then seemed to fight with himself. In the end he just headed down the hall and slid in the lift. As the doors closed he allowed a sense of relief to pass over him, then struggled with himself once again. In the end he walked out of St. Mungo's with no regret, never to be seen again.
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A/N: And it's drawing to a close! The end is near! The fat lady is warming up her voice! Sorry for the giant delay, but there is good news in sight; the next chapter is started and on its way. Thank you to everyone for reading with an extra special thank you to everyone for reviewing.
---Perplexity
