Chapter 7
If Everyone Cared

Dean waited with his hands clasped together outside the doors to the Action and Emergency Room of St Mungo's. As soon as they had arrived at A&E, Parvati had been whisked away from him to be treated and he hadn't seen her since. That had been over two hours ago. At first he had busied himself with contacting her family, which had been difficult in itself because he didn't have the faintest idea where any of them lived and had to get the young auror to send a patronus to Lavender so that she could tell him their address. That had been a mistake. Lavender and Seamus had rushed white faced into the waiting room, demanding answers of him. It took him a good fifteen minutes to calm her down enough to get the address out of her and once he had, she refused to leave the waiting room, despite how many times he told Seamus and Lavender that they should go home and he would call them as soon as he knew what was going on, but they both insisted on staying and Dean was too tired by this point to argue with them.

He had managed to contact Parvati's sister Padma and her husband Terry but hadn't been able to get in touch with either of her parents as they lived overseas. Padma had turned a nasty shade of white and hurried away from the fire, calling for Terry. Dean had assumed that she was coming to join them and had pulled his head out of the fire but he was still waiting for them to arrive and he was starting to worry about that and the fact that he had heard nothing from the Healers about Parvati's situation. No sooner had he started to worry, the doors to the waiting room flew open and Padma rushed in looking petrified, Terry followed suit with a small child in his arms. Dean stood up as Padma reached him, demanding answers before he had even said hello.

"Where is she," Padma said breathlessly, "What happened, is she going to be okay?"

Dean could only shrug and say, "I don't know."

Padma collapsed into one of the few vacant chairs in the room, tears welling in her eyes, eyes that Dean now noticed as being identical to Parvati's. Dean couldn't help but feel sorry for her as he resumed his position of sitting there, blindly hoping for news. He hated being the bringer of bad news. He'd had to do it a few times as an auror and had felt just as bad as the killer would've felt if they weren't raging psychopaths. His mind lingered fleetingly on the thought that maybe the trainee healer that they had sent to deliver the news (because they always sent the trainees, as Dean knew only too well) had chickened out and left them in the dark. He pushed that thought aside quickly, he had to think positively so that Parvati would be okay. He couldn't fathom what the sick bastard had done to her, but she had been alive when he had last seen her and he hoped that it would be enough to pull her through.

"Dean," he heard Padma whisper from his right, "How did you find out about this?"

"I'm an auror," Dean responded softly, "I know these things."

Padma seemed to know that he was lying, "You were there, weren't you?" she said. Dean, even though he knew that she would only pepper him with more questions, nodded.

"Then what happened?" she said through gritted teeth, "If you're an auror and you were there you'd better bloody tell me because my twin sister could be dying right now."

"Oh don't be so dramatic," A healer said, walking out of the doors that lead to A&E and stripping off her gloves. Dean, Lavender and Padma jumped to their feet as she walked towards them, "You're Miss Patil's family, I presume?" she said, gesturing to Seamus, Terry, Lavender and Padma.

"No," Seamus said, "We're friends," he gestured to himself and Lavender, "They're family," he pointed to Terry, Padma and the baby in Terry's arms. The healer nodded at them.

"Alright, well, it's good news, she's going to be okay," The healer said and everyone let out a huge sigh of relief. "but," she said and everyone's attention snapped off being relieved that she was going to live and back to the healer, "We've extracted her memories and-" the healer didn't manage to get anything else out as Padma stood up in a rage.

"You took her memories without her permission?" she hissed, "Without anyone in her family's permission even."

"Miss Patil –" the healer tried but Padma cut her off, becoming more and more enraged by the second.

"That's Mrs Boot to you," she said, "I'm married.

"I'm sorry, but I must ask you –"

"Must ask me to what?" Padma shouted, "Calm down? No, I will not calm down, that is a direct invasion of my sister's privacy and for you to just go in and grab her memories when she's most vulnerable is just sick. It's just bloody sick!" she shrieked, her voice breaking on the last word.

"Padma, stop," Terry said as the baby in his arms started to stir and whimper slightly at the loud noises, "You're upsetting Isaac."

Padma collapsed back into her chair, shaking with sobs as the healer looked baffled as to what to do. Lavender walked over and sat down beside Padma, placing her hand on Padma's arm comfortingly. Dean had never known that they were friends.

"Come and talk to us elsewhere," Dean said firmly, gesturing to Terry and Seamus. She nodded and the three of them walked across the room.

"So, what about the memories?" Dean asked, "Is there something wrong with them?"

"No," the healer said in hushed tones, glancing fearfully over at Padma and Lavender, "But she's not going to be right in the head after all she's suffered. We're setting her up with a psychologist right now. It's going to be a long recovery process."

Dean nodded curtly, feeling quite sick. Terry bit his lip and glanced over at his wife and Seamus' expression remained blank.

"When can we see her?" Dean asked.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Thomas, but we only allow family in after visiting hours, which only classifies as Mr and Mrs Boot."

"But I brought her in!" Dean said, outraged, "She came to me when she escaped his place before but the bastard broke in and took her back. Don't you dare tell me that I can't see her until visiting hours!"

"I'm sorry, Mr Thomas, but it's hospital policy. Unless you're family we cannot allow you to visit patients after visiting hours."

"Bullshit," Dean said angrily and Terry shot him a meaningful look as he put his hands over the baby's ears, "Sorry," he said briefly before rousing back on the Healer, "What if they give me permission?" he asked, knowing that if she was a trainee he would be able to bend her so that he could go and see Parvati.

The healer shook her head and Dean swore under his breath. The healer turned to Terry, "We've moved her up into Intensive Care, if you want to go and see her."

Terry nodded as the Healer turned away and walked back into A&E. Dean had to admit, she had been stronger than most trainees, but he did notice that her shoulders hunched and started as soon as she was through the doors. Dean turned back to face Padma and Terry, feeling slightly guilty.

"We'll let you know how she is," Terry said kindly, seeing how annoyed Dean was at not being able to see her, "You three should go home and get some rest, It's almost eleven. Seamus and Lavender looked at each other and nodded but Dean shook his head, "I'll wait outside ICU if I have to, I'm not going home until I've seen with my own two eyes that she is okay."

Padma and Terry nodded, not at all perturbed by the fact that even though it was a family situation, that Dean wanted to stay. Perhaps it was to do with him being the one to find her. He didn't know.

With that, Padma and Terry walked off to the elevator and disappeared inside it. Dean turned to Lavender and Seamus, "He's right, you two should get some rest. I'll let you know if anything happens."

Lavender, who had looked like she was going to fall asleep at any moment for the past few hours nodded sleepily and Seamus held out a hand for Dean to shake.

"When you've got the time, mate," Seamus said, "There's something that me and Lav want to tell you."

"I've got nothing but time," Dean said, thinking of the ten hour wait he had before visiting hours opened again.

"My mistake," Seamus said, "An appropriate time," and with that, Seamus and Lavender disapparated, leaving Dean alone in a crowded room.

Parvati was vaguely aware of a beeping sound and hushed voices from above her. The surface that she was lying on was soft and she felt comfortably warm but at the same time, she was nowhere near being comfortable. She could feel every cut and every bruise, the pain magnified by a hundred times as she stirred slightly. She heard the whispering above her increased and it suddenly occurred to her that she didn't know where she was.

She forced her eyes to open slowly and saw nothing but white. Wow, maybe I really am dead. She thought as she narrowed her eyes to slits as the light seeped into them and her vision adjusted to what was around her. That was when she realised that there was not just white, but patches of black too. There were also lots of people and beds around her. She heard her name called and then searing pain as she was engulfed in something blue and white. She shut her eyes again immediately.

"Don't smother her!" she heard a voice say and the weight that was surely about to crush her disappeared with a quick apology. Maybe she wasn't in heaven, maybe she was in some kind of waiting room.

"Parvati," she heard someone say and then felt pressure on her hand as someone took it gently, "If you can hear me, squeeze my hand."

But Parvati didn't want to move, she didn't want to squeeze the owner of the voice's hand, even though there was something familiar about it.

"Please Parvati," the voice said again, "Please squeeze my hand."

Parvati felt something wet splash onto her hand and knew that the owner of the voice was crying.

"Parvati it's me, Padma."

An explosion of emotions erupted in Parvati's brain; Padma, her twin sister who she hadn't seen in eight months, Padma who she had thought about every day, Padma who she had missed more than her own freedom. Her eyes flew open again, the light blinding her again but this time she saw Padma sitting beside her with Terry and Isaac as well. Tears sprung to her eyes as she saw them sitting around her looking relieved.

"Parvati," Padma said, smiling through tears at her twin sister, "Oh god, I was so scared."

Parvati smiled slightly, trying to ignore the pain in her face as she did so. She was not dead, she knew that for a fact because Parvati wasn't dumb, nor was she stupid and she knew that there were no hospitals in heaven because nobody was hurt.

Parvati didn't have to ask what happened, because she remembered it all. Every single tiny detail, she only hoped that she wouldn't have to tell Padma.

She saw Terry stand up and place Isaac down on the bed beside her. The one year old grinned a toothy smile at her as she looked down at him, "Hello Isaac," she said, her voice croaky and her throat on fire. He grinned and clapped his hands happily. She wished that she could go back to being that innocent.

"Parvati, what happened?" Padma asked, Dean didn't tell us and the Healers wouldn't either."

Terry hit Padma softly on the arm, "Don't pepper her with questions." He said.

Just the small hit rang alarm bells in Parvati's head. She kept seeing the back of Terry's hand hitting her sister's arm replayed time and time again in slow motion. She suddenly felt vulnerable and scared, despite the fact that there were nearly twenty other people in the room. She didn't care how many people were there, she had to get out. She sat up, ignoring the pain that it caused and started pulling out the tubes that attached her to the machines. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and attempted to stand but was met by a sudden onset of dizziness, combined with the pain that made her fall to the ground. She couldn't breathe, every atom of her existence felt like it was about to explode and all she could hear was yelling and a long, continuous beep.

She felt strong arms clasp themselves around her and lift her up, placing her back onto the bed. She heard spells being muttered and felt the tubes being inserted back into her body. She tried to struggle but knew it was useless, she would never get far.

She saw a Healer conversing with Terry and Padma to her left.

"-What happened to make her do that?" the healer was asking.

"I don't know," Padma said tearfully, "I asked her what had happened and then Terry told me not to pepper her with questions."

The healer turned to Terry, "How did you say that to her," she asked sharply.

"I just hit her on the arm and told her not to," he shrugged.

"That's why," the healer said, "It's a trigger, if she sees anything like that she'll go nuts."

"Why?" Padma asked.

"Come with me," the healer said, walking off and leaving Parvati alone, in a crowded room.

By the time that Dean finally got into ICU to see Parvati, she was sleeping. He had been told by Terry and Padma that she had woken up at about three in the morning only to be spooked by him nudging her and try to run off. It was then that he had been called to watch her memories, as he was the one with the most authority to get Theodore prosecuted in the building.

Even though he thought it sick and an Invasion of privacy to watch those memories without Parvati's permission, he had. And what he had seen made him want to throw up. The way that he had treated her, the pain that he had caused her and the language that he had used while talking to her was enough to make him wish that Theodore was standing in front him with his hands tied, helpless, while Dean performed the killing curse.

It was then that Terry understood that the small hit that he had given Padma, while not meant to inflict harm on her; it was enough to trigger fear in Parvati.

As he looked down at her seemingly lifeless body, all battered and bruised, he couldn't help feeling like the inner pain that she was experiencing was so much worse and he couldn't help but think that if everyone cared, they wouldn't be in this mess at all.

AN: Wow, I swear I could write a book on procrastination.

I think I fell asleep about six times while writing this, not that I'm bored of it or anything, but the fact that I am suffering from really severe sleep deprivation. We've got new neighbours and they literally have parties every night with no consideration for anyone on the street and they blast the music, get drunk and climb into my backgarden and bang on the windows until someone calls the police. So basically I haven't slept properly in three days because I keep getting woken up by drunk people bashing on my windows.

Also! I was so pleased that I could sleep because I saw Paranormal Activity 4 and it sucked. I was screaming so much in the theatre because I'm a massive wimp but it was more shock than actual fright. It also made no sense at all. Waste of thirteen dollars.

I hope your week has been better than mine!

Until Next Time

~The Original Horcrux~