Disclaimer: I own nothing. And could we get some revewis?
Over the next week, things got steadily worse. Hermione had eaten very little; and only when Dumbledore made her. Malfoy just slept on and on and Ron, although improving, was also showing very little signs of happiness. He would always groan, and, although most of the scars had healed, the gash on his throat was still there. Madame Pomfrey couldn't fix it herself, and on a cloudy afternoon, trained healers came in, accompanied by Mr and Mrs Weasley.
'Ron!' Mrs Weasley cried. She turned to Harry 'How is he?'
'He's a lot better,' he said truthfully. 'But he still has a nasty cut there –' he pointed to the slash on his throat. Mrs Weasley went as white as chalk, and only Mr Weasley, who was ghostly pale, talked.
'How're you Hermione?' He said in concern, whilst walking over to her. She was holding Ron's hand, looking unnaturally gaunt. Her face had little colour to it, and she had bags under her eyes. Her untamed hair lay wild, and she wore the same shabby robes day in and out.
'Me?' she said. 'I'm fine, just a bit anxious…you know…she gestured towards Ron and Malfoy, and finally at Harry. 'How's the,' she lowered her voice, 'Order going on? Is everything OK?' Her eyes were opened wide in concern. Mrs Weasley answered.
'Everything's fine, dear. We're tracking down Death Eaters, and we're reporting it all to the Ministry. The Order's bigger now we've gone public,' she smiled thinly. 'We're reporting everything to Fudge, but he doesn't print anything anymore. I've no idea why.'
'Never mind that, though,' Mr Weasley said, still looking concernedly at Hermione. 'Have you been eating? You're very pale.'
'I'm fine,' she insisted, though with little heart.
'If you need anything at all, you know we're here.' Mrs Weasley added.
'We're ready,' announced a blond Healer from the corner. He smiled briefly, and headed for Ron's bed. 'You'll have to step back, sweetheart, I wont be able to see him properly.' Hermione reluctantly let go of Ron, and Mrs Weasley embraced her in a half-hug. Hermione looked through her fingers, as though scared the healers might hurt Ron. Harry's leg gave a nervous twitch. He clenched his fists to stop his hands from shaking.
The healers looked around Ron, and waved their wands intricately, prodding him every now and then. Though several blemishes disappeared, and the cut on his neck healed slightly, they had made no lasting improvement.
'Have you been applying the correct Potion?' the fair-haired Healer asked Madame Pomfrey, who nodded as if insulted, and waved the Potion bottle around. 'Alright then, I can see no reason why…why…why' his voice became strangled, and he could breath right. He clutched his throat, as if to throttle him self…it was like watching someone unwillingly committing suicide. 'Dark Lord … curse … death … eaters … help … help …' he was starting to sound like Malfoy, who also started yelping for aid. Harry had a guess what was happening, and went over to the Healer.
'Think of your family – your wife, kids,' he said, making it up, but the Healer resisted more, 'Think how much you hate them…make that voice in you head say no…say no...Say NO!'
'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO' the Healer shouted, and he lay panting on the floor. 'St-stun me,' he said quickly. 'Stun me before they can curse me again, your friend will heal…watch out for…for…for…' he started to strangle himself again, and Hermione whipped her wand from her tatty robes.
'Stupefy!' she cried, and the man fell to the floor, his hand held loosely at his neck. 'He's not safe,' she said, 'Keep him in here; we can stun him regularly until V-Voldemort is gone. He might be there for some time,' she looked up at Mr and Mrs Weasley. 'You need to tell the Order, now…there might not be enough time.'
'I know where Dumbledore's office is, I'll go now,' Mrs Weasley said.
'I need to go and tell everyone else,' said Mr Weasley. He was even paler than before. He leant over Ron. 'I'll see you soon, son. Don't worry.'
Mr and Mrs Weasley both walked quickly from the wing.
The next day, Dumbledore came to the wing at lunch time.
'Afternoon, Professor,' Harry called, and Hermione merely nodded.
'Good afternoon Harry – Hermione. I see you are both well. As you may be aware, term-time is happening now. You have both missed a fair bit of term, but –' he waved away Harry's question '–I think it is time for you to go back to school. If you find this hard, in any way, please do not hesitate to tell me.' Harry glanced at Ron uneasily, and Dumbledore followed his gaze. 'You may visit your friend whenever you please, as long as it coincides with school rules. Many apologies, but I have to go to a meeting. I will see you two tomorrow. Goodbye.'
And he walked out of the Hospital wing.
The hospital wing had become Harry's home for a while; he had arranged he beds how he liked them, and moved various other bits of furniture around, which made him happier – he liked things his way.
What also pleased Harry was the fact that the twitchy first-year hadn't been seen since he went into his own private room. Only Madame Pomfrey saw him to give him food.
'He's not feeling his best, poor dear,' she would say.
He wasn't the only patient that wasn't feeling well. The people that Dumbledore'd dropped off were moving, but they were all green faced.
Only yesterday were some new students submitted to the hospital wing, with a variety of hexes done to them. They now arrived weekly, and, although Madame Pomfrey could heal them within seconds, it still bothered Harry – Hogwarts was usually a friendly school; why was there all this duelling all of a sudden?
Harry spent the last night in the Hospital wing reminiscing the days before he was stuck in the Hospital Wing … they felt like they were years ago. Harry remembered hiding from Ron and Hermione under the cloak, and vowed never to do it again.
He glanced over at Hermione, who was reading a thick book. She hadn't read for days; Harry supposed she thought she might be bottom of the class. Her eyes were reading so fast they were blurred. Harry presumed he would be very far behind the rest of the class. He thought again, and realised he wasn't as bothered as he thought he was. Then he thought of being an Auror, and resolved to work harder. He knew he ought to read books, too, and do homework, but he couldn't; he was permanently tired. He lent back onto his pillow.
'Night, Hermione,' he whispered. She smiled back at him, and finally went to bed.
In the morning, Harry woke up late. Professor McGonagall came to see them when they were having lunch, still in the Hospital Wing.
'You will start the term again after lunch. I daresay you will need more copies of your timetable. In either the Christmas, or Easter holidays we, the staff, will be glad to give you extra coaching, so you are to catch up on the work. Here is the list of things you have missed,' she handed them a piece of parchment, and both Harry and Hermione were pleased to see that it was short. Harry checked the list again, and saw that he already knew most of the things on there. He breathed a sigh of relief.
But leaving the Hospital Wing was harder than he thought.
Hermione whispered something to Ron that Harry couldn't hear, but Ron smiled, and Harry said goodbye. They went strait for the common room, Hermione going over the things they needed to know.
To their surprise, no one pestered them too much about the night after Halloween. They talked to them perfectly normally, and Harry was grateful for it.
The lessons continued as though there had been no break in them; they were still on human Transfiguration, and Hagrid had brought another creature to his lesson.
'This,' he said 'is a Demiguise. Does anyone know wha' it does?'
'The Demiguise mimics a primate, but has the will to turn invisible,' Hermione answered. This explained why Harry couldn't see it.
'Excellent, ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, why are these beasts so rare?'
'No one really knows how many there are; they turn invisible when they sense danger,' said Hermione, again. 'They are also hunted with difficulty for their silver hair; it's spun into invisibility cloaks.'
'Ten more points,' Hagrid said, and Hermione beamed. It seemed that she was not behind at all.
Hagrid gave the Demiguise a stroke on the head, and it slowly came into view.
'Ooh,' the class chorused.
'Ooh' fitted the Demiguise nicely; Hermione was right; the Demiguise had silky, silvery hair, and it looked like a large ape. It picked up some nearby vegetation, and started munching on it.
'Now terday we're going ter learn how lo look after these creatures. This is the food they like ter eat…'
Hagrid showed them a large selection of foliage, and they started to prepare the food for the animal. Hagrid gave them no homework, and Harry knew this was because of him and Hermione, whom he beckoned over to him.
'How're yeh?' he asked them, as the rest of the class went up to the castle.
'I'm fine,' he and Hermione said together. And, in a sense, they were; they didn't feel ill, they were reasonably happy, and they weren't behind work. They had just seen too much in one hit. To both of them, the first term (that hadn't even finished yet) had dragged on and on.
Their little ray of sunlight was a nearby Quidditch match. Although this cheered Harry up slightly more than Hermione, it kept them both occupied.
Harry had to get the Quidditch team in Order. He found Katie n the common room after dinner.
'Hi Katie,' he said, and, instead of scowling at him, smile. Harry was relieved. 'What's the Quidditch team so far?'
'Well,' she said, 'now that you're back, you're Seeker, me and Ginny are chasers. There's this new kid, Andrea, have you heard of her? No? Well, she's very good, so she has to stay. I suppose the beaters are the same, you know, Sloper and Kirke you know –' Harry nodded glumly – they weren't very good, 'and, er, we just need a new keeper.'
'I suppose so,' said Harry. He felt very sorry that Ron couldn't play, but he needed to sort out the teams.
Harry put a notice up on the notice board the next day for Keeper tryouts on the Saturday. He asked McGonagall to book the pitch Saturday and Sunday, and she did.
On Saturday morning, Harry, accompanied by Hermione, who had nothing else to do (she had already finished the weekend's homework on Friday). He changed into his Quidditch robes, and gave Hermione the task of telling all the team where to sit.
Harry went outside, and took a deep breath. He hadn't been outside on such a nice day for a while. He kicked off on his broom, and felt, almost at last, that he was happy. He circled the stadium, and dived up and down. He saw Hermione lead the existing Quidditch team out (in their Quidditch robes) and other people who were trying out for keeper.
Harry wasn't quite sure on what to do. He decided, with help from Hermione and Katie that they should play as normal, but head for the person trying for keeper's goal. Harry also decided not to let out the snitch; he could watch the keeper instead.
'Whoa,' said Hermione, as she hovered near Harry; she was not too steady on a broom stick.
'OK,' he called out to the group that was watching him. 'I'd like to see these people –' he waved his hand at the new people, and asked for Katie to bring up the Quaffle, and Bludgers. He watched the new people as they did laps around the stadium. He could see one person who was having difficulty turning corners, and he ruled him out. If Harry didn't count him, there were only four other people: a fair-haired girl, a girl with long, dark hair that Harry was sure was Julie Applebry, and two twins that Harry had never seen before, but they both had brown hair. One had a smudge on his left cheek.
'What's your name?' Harry called to the blond girl.
'Alice Palladam,' she said nervously.
'Well, Alice, can you guard the goalposts first please?' Harry asked, and Alice zoomed off towards the hoops, and waited for the Quaffle, which he then threw to Katie. Only then did he realise that someone was missing.
'Where's Ginny?' Harry asked.
Hermione looked around, and shrugged her shoulders. Harry got the impression that she didn't care very much.
'Oh, I'm Andrea, the new chaser,' said a voice from behind.
Harry spun round and saw a pretty girl about the same height as Harry or Hermione. She had short, curly hair, which was loosely tied back. Harry was reminded of Cho; except that Andrea seemed happier.
'Good,' he said, smiling, and he watched play.
Alice was doing a very good job; she hadn't let one in – yet. Andrea was zooming towards the hoops, and put one through easily. She grinned at Harry, who gave her the thumbs up, watching her zoom of to the other end of the pitch.
'NEXT!' Hermione shouted, and Harry jerked his head back. The twin with the smudge on his cheek leapt up, going to replace Valerie, who shot off towards the changing rooms with a wave.
'Name?' requested Hermione, who was keeping score on a bit of parchment she had bewitched in front of her.
'Hector Briggins,' he replied eagerly. Harry hoped he was as good as his enthusiasm, but he wasn't. He let in all of them, apart from when Andrea felt sorry for him, and gave him an easy shot.
'YES!' he shouted, punching the air; as a result, he nearly fell off of his broom. Harry noted that it was a very kind thing for her to do.
'NEXT!' Harry barked. Hermione smiled, and poised her quill again, ready to strike.
The girl with the long dark hair stepped forwards; Harry had been correct:
'My name's Julie,' she said, giving him a nervous smile, which Harry returned.
She was tolerable, but not too good; she missed an easy save. A few minutes later, she missed another simple shot. Harry felt sorry for her, but called out –
'NEXT!' in his businesslike voice, and the last twin flew nervously towards, ready to defend.
The people who were beaters, Harry noticed, weren't doing very well. After a few minutes play, not only had Andrea scored three times, but Harry was nearly unseated by a Bludger – twice.
'Harry, can we go back inside now?' Hermione asked; she looked a bit queasy.
'Course,' said, Harry and he rounded up the team, and sent them off. Harry dived down to the ground, and the others dismounted neatly.
'C'mon,' said Harry. 'If we're lucky, we can finish that diagram thing.' Hermione nodded, and they set back to the Common Room, making sure that they didn't pass the Hospital Wing on their way.
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