I am so so so sorry! I am lazy and not worthy of you beautiful readers! Apologies for the short chapter too, but I'm a bit stuck. SORRY!

Riddle's POV

I woke up with a pounding headache, as if I'd drunk too much Firewhiskey the night before. I opened my eyes to find my vision fuzzy and the room swayed like a ship on a stormy sea. I squeezed my eyes shut again until the feeling of seasickness abated. Slowly this time, I opened them again and the world was in sharp focus. I was back in St. Mungo's, in the same room as last time. Almost as soon as I wondered how exactly I got there, a tidal wave of images, smells and feelings flashed through my mind. The rush of memory startled me and I couldn't make any sense of it, so I closed my eyes and sang an old nursery rhyme in my head, over and over until the headache went away.

You are the rose about to bloom,
The colour soon to wake,
The perfume set to scent the breeze,
the bud about to break,

You stand upon the lip of time,
Alight with what will be,
And see yourself out to the sky,
Across the open sea,

We see you vertically, a gift,
Too beautiful to plumb,
And treasure all the years you were,
And all the years to come.

I had never known what the poem had meant, but I liked the rhythm.

I had saved Lily Potter. Fudge had stood up, pointed his wand at her and I had leaped in front of the green spell intended for her. I smiled in satisfaction, finally feeling like I was on the way to redemption. I lay there for a while, just smiling, until Natalie came in with a trolley.

"Good morning, Tom" she greeted me cheerfully. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got trampled on by an angry hippogriff," I replied casually. "What was that spell?"

"We think it was one that stopped the blood flow for a minute or two" she frowned. "A new invention. Unfortunately, the authorities believe that Fudge was under the Imperius Curse. The fact that you are no longer magical probably saved you, because spells are a little less effective on non-magical folk."

"So if I still had my magic I would probably be dead?" I asked, astonished.

"Yes, but that's what could've happened, not what did, so I suggest you don't dwell on it and eat your breakfast" she grinned, taking the lid off the plate as she spoke.

"Shortbread" I sighed. "My favourite, how did you know?"

"You forget that we spent a long time talking while you were here," she smiled, sitting on the end of my bed. "You mentioned that you hadn't had shortbread since you were at the orphanage and I managed to sneak some in here as a well done gift."

"Well done for what?" I asked, already halfway through the plate. "I didn't do anything."

Natalie slapped me on the arm.

"You did a lot and don't you dare think for a minute that it was nothing" she chided. "You saved Lily from that spell and James and Harry from a hell of a week."

"A week!" I said. "Is that how long I've been out?"

"Yes" Natalie confirmed. "You've been giving us quite the worry, all we could do was make you comfortable and get some liquidated food into you. We've also been trying to find a quicker solution to that, but that doesn't matter right now. All that matters is your recovery."

"Thank you, Natalie" I said softly.

She smiled and left.

"Well, I can see now that Harry was right" a voice said from the door at the other side of the room.

"Apparently, doing that seems to run in the family" I sighed as James Potter came out from the shadows. "It's more than a little irritating."

"Ah, it's one of our more lovable traits" he grinned as he sat on the chair beside my bed. "It's how we get the gingers!"

I raised my eyebrow.

"Okay, okay" James winced. "It took me years of pestering. Six years, in fact. But as soon as I met Lily, I decreed that all male descendants of mine would be with gingers."

"All female gingers?" I asked slyly.

James opened his mouth to reply, and then shut it. He did this several times as I smirked, knowing I had outsmarted him. Eventually, he crossed his arms and pouted like a sulky child.

"Never argue with a Slytherin" I laughed and then turned to a more serious topic. "So what happened after I hit the sack in the middle of the press conference?"

"Well, the press went more than a little nuts and Sirius smacked Fudge in the face with a paralysis curse" James supplied. "The aurors haven't found the one behind this yet, but we will."

"They have no leads?" I frowned. "That's unusual."

"Yeah" he agreed. "I'm officially reinstated as an auror, but we have to track all these magical trails that someone put down. It's tedious work and none of the trails have taken us anywhere yet. I'm starting to think that this has been planned for years."

"Not necessarily" I pointed out. "When I was into that stuff, I used to plan for months on end, once for eleven years. But none of my plans worked out, so this might be completely random."

James stayed silent, contemplating what I had said. I studied his face and was surprised to see the beginnings of frown lines creasing his forehead. His body was barely forty yet, but he was starting to show just how aged his soul was.

"What?" I asked after a while.

"Nothing, I'm just realising how you can be when you aren't being evil" James glanced up at me. "It's good on you. You're freer and much more youthful. When there aren't serious matters at hand of course."

"Maybe I can help" I suggested. "I know a few Death Eaters that left the masses to start their own little 'campaign'. I've got some really bad news to go with that."

"Then you should wait for a meeting of the order" James said wisely. "It would be best if we all heard it at once."

"No, it needs to be heard now, so you can get started on it" I protested.

"Not until you're rested up" huffed James, standing up. "I'll say Hi to the others for you."

I mentally floundered, figuring out what to do as he strode towards the door.

"Bartemius Crouch Junior is still alive" I called at his back.

The dark-haired man froze.

"What?"

I hung my head and started on the story of the boy's survival.