We're finally getting some things revealed in this chapter!
Just a week to go…
Harry found himself more often than not, immersed in his memories form the past. Ten, nearly eleven years ago. They were still painful, but it was somehow dulled by the passing of time. It was only in his dreams that everything seemed to just be happening, the emotion just as raw. It left him drained and sullen for the whole day whenever he had a bad nightmare. He tried to hide it from his kids but he wasn't always successful.
§§
He had been huddled on the floor, among the rubble and dirt, for who knew how long, hugging his knees and crying out in frustration.
He couldn't do anything right. he couldn't save Cedric. He couldn't save Sirius. Or Remus, Tonks, Dumbledore. He couldn't save Fred.
And now he wasn't even able to free his body from the wreckage to bring him back to his family. How much of a fuck up could he be?
How could they call him Saviour when he only thing he was able to do was putting people around him in danger? He hadn't even been able to properly die! No, he had to come back to life while hundreds of people remained dead. Why not him?
He sniffed trying to stop the tears from flowing but it was like the floodgates had slammed open and there was no way to close them back against the force of the water.
"You… done… with the pity… party?"
His head snapped up at the sound of the low scratchy voice.
"Down... here"
"F-Fred?" he was alive? But how? He had been buried under that wall for a full day, hell, his legs were still trapped under the stones. Sure, there had been a little bubble of hair that could have kept him alive but… the impact...
"Aren't I the lucky one?" the man smiled deprecatingly.
Harry tried to talk but words didn't come out. Instead his brain seemed to be cataloging all of Fred's injuries. He had a nasty gash on the back of his head, probably some rock hitting him from the falling wall; one of his eyes was swollen shut and his eyebrow was cut too. His body was littered with black angry bruises and his wrist was definitely broken, the hand laying at an odd angle. He couldn't assess the condition of his lower body since it was still trapped but it probably wasn't good.
"Can't feel my legs anymore if that's what you're wondering" Fred rasped painfully. He still hadn't moved an inch, not even his head.
"What do you feel?" he asked "Does anything hurt?" 'Please Merlin let him not be completely paralyzed' he prayed in his head
The man scoffed "Everything from waist up is killing me. Think you can dig me out of here?"
"I… I'll try again" he said biting his lip, hoping that his magic would collaborate this time because there was no way he would be able to move those huge rocks bare handed and going back to call for help would take an hour minimum. He wasn't sure how long Fred would resist.
Raising unsteadily to his feet he palmed his wand and concentrated. It was requiring much more strength than usually but slowly he started moving the stones again. It went slowly, almost painfully so but he was using every drop of magic he had left and needed to be careful to not further injure Fred.
"Alright, that's the last one and then you're free and we can get you to some help" Harry said shakily. His hand was trembling as he directed the last piece of the wall away from Fred, and he was lucky because a moment later it fell loudly on the ground, only mere centimeters away from the redhead's foot.
"Take a rest… I'm not going anywhere" Fred coughed
"No… no. You need medical attention. Like Yesterday!" the boy protested "I'll.. I'll just.."
"Harry!" Fred shouted before coughing again "Nothing's going to change if we wait…. Spinal injuries can't be healed. And everything else is not fatal"
"But..."
"Sit. Before you faint" the older boy ordered.
Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Harry fell on his ass, uncaring of hurting himself.
"Surely, there is something they can do?" he asked in a small voice
"Nothing." Fred signed "Magic can do plenty of things but the spine, much like the brain, is still untretable"
"But... I've never seen..."
"Never seen a wizard on a wheelchair?" the young man chuckled bitterly "of course not, they're hidden away like dirty secrets. The shame of the family, almost on par with squibs"
That sounded an awful lot like something the prejudiced bigots of the wizarding world would do.
"Your family is not like that though" Harry mumbled
"No, they're not. And it almost makes it worse" Fred argued "Could you stand being looked at with pity and coddled like a toddler every day for the rest of your life?" he asked "Of course not."
Harry bit his lip "I still have to take you back"
"No, you don't" Fred smiled sadly "I just wanted somewhere a little more comfortable where to die."
"The hell are you talking about?" Harry snapped "I'm not letting you kill yourself!"
"I won't. I'm not suicidal" Fred assured him "The full moon will do it for me"
§§
"Alexander Sirius Potter!" an angry male voice bellowed through the house jerking him from his thoughts "Come here this instant or I will tan your hide so badly your grandchildren will feel it!"
A raven-haired missile run into the study and hid behind the big leather chair on the other side of the desk.
"What did you do to make your father so furious?" Harry asked still writing calmly
"Nothing" the ten-year-old mumbled
"BZZZ. Try again, wrong answer" Harry replied "It's in your best interest telling me the truth and quickly before he sniffs you out."
"I… may have been playing with that old robe.."
"The one he keeps is our closet and doesn't even let ME touch?" Harry asked disbelievingly
"Yeah…"
"Alex…" he sighed, pushing away from the desk and rubbing his eyes "You only see an old robe that looks cool to play with, but you know how important it is for him. It's the only thing he brought with him from back home when we left to come to the States"
"I didn't mean to make him so angry…"
"Then why did you take it?"
"I just wanted to play a little." He protested "I would have put it away before he came back home…"
"And what is it that went wrong with your brilliant plan?"
"I put it back…"
"But?"
"It's torn…" the boy whined on the verge of hysterical crying "I swear I didn't mean too! I didn't want to make papa so angry!"
"Come here Alex, stop hiding, you know that it's useless and your father can sniff you from the other side of the house... as well as hear you" Harry said gesturing his son to sit on his lap "I understand that you didn't tear the robe on purpose, but you took it without permission and you ruined it. It can be repaired of course but the sentimental value he has for that object should keep your grubby fingers well away from it. Your father has every right to punish you"
The boy whimpered already feeling the pain of the major ass whooping he was going to receive
"But" he said raising his voice a little to make sure that both his boys knew he expected them to listen "He will do it only after he has had some time to calm down. Sounds fair?"
Alexander nodded furiously, anything was better than being punished by his angry father, especially so close to the full moon. A grunt came from the other side of the door before they heard the angry man's steps moving away.
"You know, sometimes I regret naming you after my marauder godfather" Harry sighed with a small smile "You take the mantle far too seriously"
§§
Moving silently under his invisibility cloak, Harry checked the corridor before entering the hospital wing. It was full of injured people but all of them were asleep and the few who are awake were too busy entertaining themselves to notice the door opening on his own.
He needed to get a few potions and leave as fast as possible before someone caught him. Of course, the possibilities were pretty slim, the only one always able to find him had been Snape, who always seemed to sense where there was someone to punish around. The man was dead though so unless he suddenly appeared in his ghostly glory to rat him out, he was safe. He had the marauder's map on him, so neither of his friends could try to use it to find him. Ron was too busy mourning with his family and had wasted no time in turning away from him when he realized that his friend had brought back everyone, death eaters included, but his brother. The redhead took it as a personal slight instead of it simply being out of Harry's control.
Of course, Ron didn't know that he was actually right in being angry with him because not only he did reach Fred, but he was alive too and he did leave him back there.
He would think about what to do with his friend later, right now he needed as many potions as he could get for the injured twin that was waiting for him.
He didn't care what the older boy said, he was going to shove as many healing draughts down his throat as possible. He wouldn't let him die for any reason.
Opening the potion cupboard, he started shoveling pain potions, blood replenishers, skelegrow, pepper ups, bruise paste and general healing and antibiotic potions in a small bag he had nicked somewhere on the road.
"I'm telling you. Mr. Potter seems to have vanished into thin air." Madam Pomphrey huffed "And I still haven't gotten my hands on him! Circe knows how injured he is with his track record…"
"Calm down Poppy" the always cheery herbology teacher soothed her "I'm sure he simply found some isolated nook to escape… well, everything for a little while"
"I know Pomona, that would be like him. I'm just worried" the matron confessed "You know that the more I see a student in my infirmary the more attached I become with them"
Harry shuffled carefully back, he was happy to hear that the woman cared for him but he didn't want to be found. Let alone get strapped to a bed to be pocked and prodded. He knew that he probably had some injury he was ignoring thanks to his adrenaline rising again, but once she got her hands on him, she would see the new scar and he would have to give explanations. There was no end to what the woman would do once she found out that he had been hit with the killing curse again, died and come back to life.
He would never leave one of her beds, he shuddered at the thought.
Taking advantage of someone entering the infirmary, he slipped past the doors. Only a strange current at his passage making the poor guy turn confused, but nothing was there for him to see.
He felt bad for avoiding the school nurse, but he would take one or two of the potions he stole for himself to make up for it.
Now that he was actually thinking about it, his whole body hurt, but he forced himself to keep walking so he could get back to Fred. Once there he would take care of both of their injuries as best as he could while trying again to convince the older wizard to agree to be seen by an actual healer.
And... Yes, dear Fred was alive after the Battle... you'll have to wait and see what happened to him though...
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