"How are you feeling?" asked Harry as he eased himself into a chair.
"Well, I think it's safe to say I've felt better. My arm's broken in three places and dislocated at the elbow and at the shoulder, and I may have a small scar on my neck, but it's nothing that won't heal," said Hermione, examining her cast.
"That was a bit of a stupid question."
"Yes, it was rather," interjected Frizz.
"How are you?" Harry asked her.
"I'm actually feeling quite good, but my hand's a little bruised from the pretty boy's nose. He should be more considerate when I'm punching him, I almost broke my knuckles."
"Hmm," muttered Harry, raising an eyebrow and chuckling slightly.
"You're almost as bad as Severus," Hermione put on a false gruff voice, "'Grr… no smiling, no smiling allowed, might spoil my image, grr… I'm a miserable old git.'"
"Severus is not a miserable old git."
"Of course dear," said Hermione reaching over and patting Harry on the head.
"He helped us, didn't he?" said Harry, sticking his chin out defiantly.
"Yes, but he did make you think he might care? No, he left you in that toilet cubicle, not knowing what you did," said Frizz, shaking her head.
"How do you know about that?"
"So, what exactly is wrong with you, Harry?" asked Hermione, as if she had only just entered the conversation.
Harry frowned but ignored the blatant change in subject.What was the point? They would perv on his love life no matter what he said. "I only got knocked out cold, a few bumps and bruises and a bloody nose. I got off lightly, compared to Toni anyway. How's she doing?"
Hermione's ever present grin faded, "They won't let me in to see her. Her condition is unstable and they're having problems healing her," Hermione looked into her lap, snaking her fingers about each other.
"But I thought her state wasn't so bad, we got her to St Mungo's quickly, and she hasn't got any unknown curse on her as far as I know. Just straightforward blood loss and broken bones."
"It's not that straightforward. They're having problems getting hold of her Muggle medical records, so they don't know what she's allergic to, or if she's had any treatment recently that might react badly with their potions, or if she's taken any medicine that counter badly to any magical treatment, and I didn't know enough about her medical records to make a substantial copy. They're trying to find a doctor that knows enough about Muggle remedies."
"Why don't they send her to a Muggle hospital if a Muggle could heal her?"
"You were wrong. There are a few... unusual curses on her that we couldn't explain to Muggle doctors."
Harry hung his head, "How is Severus?" Hermione asked.
"He should be fine, but he's still out cold. The whole of his left side is pretty much smashed from when he flew out the door,"
Silence fell over the group as Hermione and Harry stared at anything but each other, and Frizz hummed Greensleeves and stared out of the window.
"What happened to Lucius?"
"Azkaban."
"What?"
"Sorry, I keep forgetting you two aren't magical."
"Sorry, Harry but, I think you wrong about that."
"What?" Harry stared at Hermione as if she had just asked if she could tap dance across the room naked playing the maracas.
"I think Toni and I are magical." Harry just stared at her.
"How can you think you are?"
"We never went to a magical school, but we got letters."
Harry gawked, open mouthed, "Then why weren't you at school?"
"Loads of letter's get rejected each year, mostly by Muggles who are scared or think it's a joke. Hogwarts can't go around every year trying to round up 200 or so students. You had Hagrid sent for you because you're Harry Potter. Mine and Toni's parents obviously rejected the letters."
"How do you know all this?"
"A healer told me about it when I mentioned what happened, when Toni made the knife fly out of the draw into Lucius' back."
"How does that make you magical?"
"She asked me some more questions after that, like 'has anything strange ever happened to you?'"
"Are you sure it's not just paranoia?"
"I thought that too, but you see this one time, a drunk was feeling up Toni and dancing with her and I was miming throwing a shoe at the back of his head behind him. The shoe flew out of my hand and began attacking him, then chased him down the street and into a dustbin."
Frizz burst out laughing, "That's hilarious – tell another one!"
Hermione grinned, she had obviously been dying to tell someone about all these crazy things ever since they happened, "Last year I was going out with a guy I thought was alright, but Toni had heard him talking to his friends in the pub about... unmentionable things he had forced other women to do. I'd told her I was going to go down to the pub that night to meet her. So she waited for me to turn up to tell me. When I didn't she got worried and went back to the apartment and found me there with that guy on the balcony. He had me trapped against the wall and was leaning against the banister when suddenly it disappeared and he feel two storyes down into a huge pile of snow, which took him ages to fight his way out of. By then Toni and I had obviously locked the door. The look on his face! And when we were in school Toni was getting a huge bollocking from the Art teacher, because she was late for a lesson because some other students wouldn't let her into the building, and he was being really unfair. I was so angry for her, a shelf broke and all the oil paint fell on the teachers head."
Frizz was by now rolling around in stitches while she clutched her side as if she expected it to do a runner.
"That's one of the most ridiculous things that I've ever heard," Harry said, staring at her blankly. Then he burst out laughing. Trust those two to do something bizarre with their powers as opposed to something that got the police involved.
"So what is Azkaban?" asked Hermione.
"The wizard prison, he'll be in there for awhile. It's guarded by Dementors."
"Dementoids?" asked Frizz, cross-eyed.
"Great big things in long black cloaks."
"You mean Ring Wraiths!"
Harry and Hermione ignored her.
"I saw one!" shouted Hermione, suddenly.
"Where?!" shrieked Harry, looking round and clutching his chair.
"No, I mean a while back. The night you got back from fighting Rick, I saw one outside the bar, floating past. My drink and the windows froze, but everyone else was dancing so no-one else saw it."
"No one else would have seen it, they're invisible to Muggles."
"Toni and I were trying to make you jealous so I didn't think to mention it."
"You were trying to do what?"
Just on queue the door creaked open and Hermione walked in.
Harry got up and wrapped his arms around her, "Are you okay? What the hell happened?!"
"You son of a silly person!" Harry felt a sharp pain cross his cheek and his nose began to bleed again.
"Bloody hell, Hermione, that only just healed!"
"I told you not to send me any damn letters! What did I tell you? I told you not to! NOT which, Harry, is a NEGATIVE" Hermione screamed, frantic. "Why didn't you just go and tell the Death Eaters where you are? Hell! It might have been harder for them to find you that way!"
"I'm sorry!" Harry shouted over her, ducking the bag she was swinging at his head and trying to heal his nose at the same time, "I was stuck with Snape! What would you have done?"
"If I was as gay as you I'd have shagged him," Frizz chipped in.
Everyone stared at her stunned.
A cricket chirped outside the window.
Just then a healer came in. "Is a Hermione here?" she asked curtly.
"Yes," Hermione said, jumping up and looking anxious, "How is she?"
"Still critical, but it all depends on her now. She asked specifically to see you,.
Hermione hurried out the room after the healer looking apprehensive.
"Do you think they will be able to get the medical records?" asked Hermione.
"I don't know if they will," Harry said anxiously, their previous fight completely forgotten.
They both looked at Frizz, but she was staring out of the window, seeing if she could spot the cricket.
"What happened to the rest of the Death Eaters?" Harry asked, trying to break the silence.
"We've only been able to find one of the ones that escaped, but I doubt that they would be stupid enough to try anything again," Hermione answered, all comments of Harry's sexuality clearly forgotten.
"Your owls revealed our location, the Death Eaters found and us and tried to dispose of us all. No-one was too hurt, but Ginny has disappeared."
"Oh." Harry did not find himself as desperately disappointed as he supposed he should be.
"Apart from that everything is okay. We're back on track and affairs can only get better from here. All the Death Eaters are captured now, Harry. You can get on with your life, marry a beautiful woman, have kids, do whatever you want to do. The media will still be on your back for a bit but we can handle that. You can finally be happy, Harry. I'm sure we'll find Ginny, don't worry. Justin Finch-Fletchly is on her tail right now!"
"Justin!" screamed Frizz, jumping to her feet, "Justin Finch-Fletchly?"
"Yes," stammered a rather startled Hermione.
"That lying son of a RARRGHH!" screeched Frizz, trying to detach her hair from her head.
"You know him?" asked Harry, feeling as if he were stepping on eggshells.
"Know him?! We're engaged! I can't believe he didn't tell me! He promised me there wouldn't be any fucking secrets when we married! how do I know I know him any more? He could be a drug dealer or an assassin for all I know!"
Harry felt it unwise to tell her how unlikely this was while she was in her current state. He wanted to protect Justin's marriage, he really did, but not at the risk of his internal organs.
"Well, um, I have to go, and um, sort out some reports for Azkaban," Hermione stammered, "I'm seeing Justin later, about Ginny, I could take, um-"
"Frizz."
"I could take Frizz with me and she could, um… discuss matters...with him," Hermione finished lamely.
Frizz nodded red in the face, apparently trying to hold in another explosion. She inclined her head to Harry, reluctant to open her mouth, and stalked out.
"I'll see you later, Harry," Hermione smiled at Harry and followed Frizz out of the room.
Harry had only just sat down when the same horsey healer came in.
"Mr. Potter? Mr Snape is awake, would you like to see him?"
"Yes!" Harry choked. He wanted to throttle the nurse when she walked slowly, slowly down the corridor to Severus' room.
The nurse pushed open the door for him, "Don't over excite him. He still isn't well."
"I won't," said Harry, absentmindedly shutting the door in the healer's face. He looked across the room to see Severus, his whole left side encased in bandages and a strip of tape wrapped around his head.
Harry caught himself before he asked something stupid like 'how are you feeling?' as he reminded himself Severus' answer would not be forgiving.
"Oh, it's you, Potter."
"How are you feeling?" Harry asked, as he mentally slapped himself.
"Fantastic," Snape drawled, raising an eyebrow, "My whole left side is encased in plaster, and am currently in the process of re-growing half the bones in my body. And to top it all off this bloody hospital has awful beds and no damned pillows."
Harry made his way over to Snape, lay down and took the other man in his arms so he was resting on his chest.
"That was a hint for you to go get me a pillow, not to make yourself into one, Potter,"
"As much as you may like to tell me, I am not stupid, Severus," said Harry, pulling his old teacher into his arms.
"Stop that, Potter. You may jolt my arm," Harry smiled into the top of Severus' head. "Can you just go and get me a pillow," Severus said, wrapping an arm round Harry's waist.
"I can't get up," Harry said, chuckling lightly. Severus did not reply; he merely lay on Harry's chest.
"Do you really want me to get out of your head?" Harry asked after a while.
"Your blind stupidity never ceases to amaze me, Potter," was all Severus would say.
After some time Severus' steady breathing lulled Harry to sleep.
I can't believe this took me so long to update. I have been trying to write in between lessons. I got up to 1,500 words that way. Then I couldn't write properly for ages because, as Hermione would but it, I have been 'burning the candle at both ends'. I skipped Modern Dance (no great loss) intending to finish it and I fell asleep at the computer. And I've only just had time this weekend. But better late than never, as I always say.
Well, I never say that, except when my fanfiction is late.
I know wizards generally don't use plaster for injuries, but I have decided they needed to keep Severus' bones in place. And I am the writer so I can do as I please.
Anyway that was the last chapter. There is an epilogue coming up and then pouf (haha! Such puns) it's all over. I will post the epilogue ASAP. Hopefully it won't take as long as this chapter, but I can't see it happening this week. I will try my hardest. Thank you all for reviewing and being so patient with me. You are all my batteries (weird comparison, non?) Much thanks to Hermione, who is Zeus like in her editing. Also it is her birthday so everyone sing at her.