Sorry, it took so long, and I'm sorry about what I did this chapter, but I felt like I had to...in retrospect maybe Hermione should've gotten it, but whatever...enjoy...I hope...

Chapter Four

Two hours later, and Harry, who was bored out of his mind, hadn't seen hide nor hair of Madam Pomfrey or Hermione…or anybody else.

Harry was bored out of his mind, and despite the fact he was supposed to be exhausted or something, he didn't feel the least bit tired. And it wasn't like he could do anything that didn't require hands…

Why the magical world thought they were so much superior to the muggle world was beyond him…Harry wanted a TV and he wanted one now, damnit!

This was getting pathetic.

No, it was pathetic, it had been pathetic from the get-go, and it would never stop being pathetic.

If Harry weren't so bored…he would cry.

He was also hungry, but there was little he could do seeing as how his hands were magically restrained, not that he could have eaten for the same reason. And was there a possibility his pain medicine could wear off? Harry was pretty sure he didn't want to feel that…

And dear lord, there was someone snooping just outside his privacy curtains, he could see the person's shadow on the cloth. Well, snooping wasn't the best word; it was more like staggering…

The person stumbled into the curtains and it was only when Harry heard absolutely nothing that he realized everything outside the curtains had been silenced. Harry shifted himself up a bit more so he could better watched intruder that was more likely a patient of Madam Pomfrey's up and wandering around when he or she should be resting.

The person stumbled along the curtains a bit more and then, when reaching the opening, pulled the curtains apart.

"Remus?!" Harry exclaimed in shock of the haggard and wounded man's appearance.

"Oh, Harry, thank god you're all right," Remus gasped and he quickly made his way over to Harry's bed. Harry shifted his legs up, so his knees were tenting the generic hospital cloth, his feet planted on the mattress.

"Remus, sit down, please!" Harry urged the man, who followed Harry's instruction. Though there was no telling if it was because he was so exhausted he couldn't stand anymore or if he was just doing as Harry asked.

Remus winced as he sat, one arm wrapped around his chest as he wheezed, the other trembling as it supported Remus' weight.

"I was worried that you'd been hit with something," Remus wheezed to Harry, "Scariest moment of my life. I don't," Remus wheezed in a rattling breath and Harry felt a tendril of panic curl in his stomach. "…don't know what I would've done…They didn't tell me what happened though."

"A magical reaction or something," Harry replied distractedly, "Remus, are you okay? Maybe you should lie down for a minute and rest a little."

Remus shook his head, a wry smile on his face, and asked, "What happened to you, Harry? Just tell me you're all right."

"I'm fine," Harry replied, "but you certainly aren't—"

"I've had worse," Remus replied, and Harry was sure he would have waved the question off if he could have risked the energy, "comes with being a werewolf. I just got hit with a few spells, don't worry about me."

Harry studied Remus suspiciously, taking in how painful his wheezing breaths seemed to be…and then it hit Harry:

"Are your ribs broken?" He demanded incredulously.

Remus smiled his wry smile again, and didn't answer, and Harry began to get really worried.

"Clam down, Harry," Remus said after a moment, "I'll be just fine, nothing I haven't lived with before."

Harry continued looking at him skeptically, and Remus continued his labored breathing…

Moments later, Remus said, his breath wheezing more labouredly now, "Harry…whate—ever…hap—pens…don't…worry…"

Harry straightened in alarm and took in the rather pathetic picture Remus made and demanded, "Remus?"

Remus' skin rapidly paled and he swayed for a moment before the arm supporting him buckled and he fell unconscious across Harry's legs.

"Remus!" Harry exclaimed and then he yelled, "Madam Pomfrey! Help! Help!"

This had to be the scariest moment of Harry's life.

As Remus slowly began turning blue, Harry amended that statement: this is the scariest moment of his life.

…Or it was until Madam Pomfrey and Hermione walked through the privacy curtain and ruined it. Madam Pomfrey stopped in her tracks a second after walking in and stared at Remus in a mixture of confusion and horror.

"Don't just stand there!" Harry yelled, "Do something!"

She immediately flicked her gaze up to Harry and glared at him before leaping into action and whisking Remus away…which, for some reason, didn't do much to alleviate Harry's fears.

Dumbledore quickly followed after Madam Pomfrey which left Harry staring, still feeling anxious and worried, at Hermione who looked like she'd been struck.

Harry tried to calm himself down and then noticed something that Hermione held in her hand.

"Is that it?" Harry asked, pointing to her hand.

"Yes," Hermione replied, walking over to his bed and holding it up before him, "Dumbledore wasn't overly keen on letting it go, but he figured since he couldn't find any magical residue, it would be okay to let you look at it before he destroyed it."

Harry looked at the crowbar, he wasn't quite sure what he'd expected it to look like…but he was somewhat disappointed by how un-sinister the crowbar appeared. It looked like a plain, simple crowbar…until the metal bent and twisted off into nothing, probably where he'd held it. It certainly did look like it'd been melted in a really hot furnace, it was really hard to believe that his hand had done that…well technically magic did it, but that would just make it entirely believable, that didn't work out as well.

Hermione began fidgeting a little and then said, "Well, I'd best take this back to Dumbledore then…"

What Hermione said moments earlier suddenly flashed back into Harry's brain, "Wait, he's going to destroy it right?"

"Yes," Hermione replied, "it's a lot safer for you this way, even though there's no magical residue there could be skin, bone, or blood tissues left in the metal from where they melted together."

"I…I guess I understand that, but…" Harry couldn't explain it, but after seeing the damn thing…he really kinda just…

"I want to keep it," he declared abruptly.

Hermione looked taken aback, "Well…"

"I mean, it's safe if I keep it, right? I'm going to be safe, and it's not like I'm going to use it against myself." Harry told her, "I want to keep it, and I don't think there's any harm in that."

"But…Dumbledore," Hermione reminded him.

"Don't worry," Harry replied, "just leave it with me, and I'll explain it to him, I won't let you get in any trouble."

"Because you're so good at that," Hermione mumbled, but she clearly didn't think that Harry heard her, and Harry wasn't sure that he really wanted to go there right now. But the bubbling resentment in his chest let him know that he would probably never forgive her for that.

Hermione was still looking at him, unsure and slightly upset, and Harry tried not to let the hurt show on his face. Hermione had always stood by him before…was it because she'd gotten hurt during the battle? She appeared to have recovered just fine…and then Harry wondered why he was worrying about her, after what she'd just said…

Harry dropped those thoughts and continued entreating Hermione, "Please Hermione, just let me keep it, I'll handle Dumbledore…and if he really thinks it's best that the crowbar's destroyed then I'll let him do it."

…Not bloody likely, though.

"I think you should discuss this with Dumbledore first, Harry, really. He'll explain everything about it to you, I'm sure."

Also not bloody likely.

"And then you'll see that you don't want or need it and then it will be destroyed and it won't loom over anyone's head, like you know it would if Dumbledore had to take it away from you."

Harry would still loom it over everyone's head if he didn't get the damn crowbar like he wanted.

So that also equaled not bloody likely, and that was Hermione's third strike.

"Just give me the fucking crowbar, Hermione," Harry would've growled if he had the ability to do so, as it was he just barely managed to skip "pissy prima donna" and hit "fed up."

"Harry!" Hermione gasped.

"Hermione!" Harry gasped right back at her, "Give me the crowbar!"

"I really don't think that would be best," Hermione told him, "I'm going to give this back to Dumbledore now, goodbye."

"There are a lot of things in my life that would have been best for me," Harry retorted right as she turned to leave, "and strangely enough, they weren't what everyone else ended up doing."

Hermione froze in her tracks.

"Now, please…give me the crowbar."

As he told Hermione to just put the crowbar beside his arm, which she did, he congratulated himself on a job well done. Now just needed to make sure that he didn't let Dumbledore take it from him…

He couldn't really believe that he was getting so strung out over a crowbar, but he just couldn't shake the weird feeling he got from the thing. That didn't make any sense either, because according to Hermione and even Dumbledore there was no magic on the crowbar…

Harry shrugged it off and moved his arm as best he could, considering that his hands were pinned down to the bed (magically), and managed to make it so the crowbar could not be entirely easily removed. He also wasn't dying of discomfort.

Now he just had to wait for Dumbledore to come so that he could overcome the next hurdle.

…Unfortunately, Dumbledore never came.

Remus was in critical condition, apparently one of his broken ribs had punctured his lung and he'd been slowly drowning and bleeding to death the entire time he'd looked for and spoken to Harry.

Harry was told by a tearful Madam Pomfrey two days later that Remus slipped into a coma while she healed him and the transformation on the full moon earlier that night had put his body under so much stress that he'd died before the transformation was even halfway through.

Harry was completely orphaned now.