(HBP) CHAPTER FOUR: Recovery
When Ellie woke up, she was in the midst of a seizure.
She had never had the displeasure of experiencing a seizure before, so she wasn't sure how this one compared to others, but she had a feeling it wasn't exactly "normal" for seizures to cause bolts of lightning to shoot out of their victims at random intervals.
"Just stay back!" Merida shouted at Fred, who was attempting to grab Ellie's hand. Beside him, Sirius' dog form was whimpering again. "It's her body and shield's way of adjusting to the vambraces!"
"But isn't this going to drain her shield even further?"
"No—they were charged up before we ever put them on her. Hence the bolts of electricity. She's okay—I promise."
Was she okay? She had certainly felt better. She could feel the prick of each individual needle sticking into her arteries, the surge of magical energy flowing through them and into her bloodstream, and the frantic confusion of her shield as it struggled to comprehend this new, unknown force.
It's okay, she tried to tell her shield—as if it was some sort of sentient being that had ever listened to her before. It's going to help us.
It took another few minutes, but finally the bolts of electricity faded, and Ellie's body stilled.
"Good," Merida said, nodding. "Her body has accepted the vambraces."
"A little warning would have been nice," Fred grumbled as he reclaimed his spot at Ellie's side. Sirius jumped all the way onto her cot with her, snuggling up at her feet.
"We really shouldn't have animals in here until she's more healed," Merida said, giving Sirius a funny look.
"Trust me," Fred said, "he's only going to help her."
A spark of realization showed in Merida's eyes at that, and Ellie had a feeling she knew exactly who the dog was, but, to her immense relief, she didn't comment. Instead, she nodded, said, "I'll give you three some privacy," and headed out.
As soon as she was gone, Sirius leapt off the cot and changed back into his human form.
"Bloody hell," Fred said, darting over to the door of the room and closing it. "Anyone could have walked by!"
"I don't care," Sirius said impatiently, eyeing his daughter with desperate concern. "Are you okay, Ellie? Are you feeling any better with the cuffs?"
That was a tough question to answer. Her pain hadn't lessened, exactly, but she felt stronger—less on the brink of death.
"We're going to Paris," she told Sirius. "As soon as I'm healed up enough to go."
"Well, of course, we are. I'll be sending a bird out to this Dupont fellow as soon as you're in a condition stable enough for me to walk away."
"I'm fine, Dad. Send one now if you want."
"What do you mean, we?" Fred asked Sirius. "You can't go to Paris. You're on the run from the law."
"What about Peter?" Ellie asked immediately. She wasn't sure how long it had been since she was admitted. "Have we heard anything from the Order?"
"He's been imprisoned at the Ministry, pending his trial," said Sirius. "The date was set for two weeks from today. If it goes well, I'll be a free man and he'll be sent to Azkaban."
"There aren't any guarantees that his permanent imprisonment means your exoneration," Fred pointed out. "You've broken other laws since then—"
"Fred," Ellie interrupted sharply, glaring at him. "Do you want him to spend the rest of his life on the run?"
He looked abashed. "Of course not. I'm just—"
"Enough," she interrupted. "I get it. You're mad at him for giving me the shield when I was a baby, and he's mad at you for abandoning me last year. Well, both of you were only trying to help me, so you need to get over yourselves and help me sort out the mess I'm in. I, for one, would love to go to Paris with both of you."
They both remained silent for several seconds. Then, finally, they both burst into laughter.
"I'm willing to call it bygones," Sirius told Fred when their laughter had subsided. "As long as you swear never to do anything like that again, boy."
"I swear," Fred said immediately. "And I'm willing to call it bygones, too—as long as you swear not to try anything like that on your grandchildren."
It took a second for Ellie to register what Fred had said. Grandchildren? As in… their children? Hers and Fred's?
Despite knowing that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Fred, Ellie hadn't thought much about the possibility of having children. It wasn't that she didn't want them; it was just that the possibility of them still felt so far away.
Now, though, her mind wandered—imagining what their little ones might look like. Would they have the red Weasley hair? Would they have Fred's warm, brown eyes, or would they have the silvery-grey eyes of her and her father?
The latter, I hope, he said in her head, grinning ever so slightly.
"I swear," Sirius said after a moment's hesitation. "But let that be the last time we speak of grandchildren until my daughter has at least graduated."
But the glint in his eye told her that the thought had touched him, too.
Other than the intense pain she continued to feel, the next two weeks were happy ones for Ellie. Sirius only left her side once, to send Woodstock out with the message for Matis Dupont, and Fred never left her side. The memories of her time as a captive crept into her nightmares often, but Fred usually showed up to alter her dreams soon after. Occasionally the memories worked their way into her waking life, too, in the form of what was probably post-traumatic stress disorder, but Fred was usually able to calm her there, too.
The rest of the Weasleys, plus Harry and Hermione, were the first visitors she received.
"My poor, sweet girl!" Molly wailed, bursting into tears, as soon as she saw Ellie. She threw herself into Ellie's arms, enveloping her in a bone-crushing hug.
"You never should have been at the Ministry in the first place, Ellie," Arthur told her with a firm shake of his head. "Still… I'm so very sorry this happened to you."
As much as it disappointed her to be chastised by her second father, she knew Arthur was right. They had all been wrong about Sirius; if she and her friends had simply stayed away, none of it would have happened.
She thought of Kreacher then, and of what a perilous predicament he'd put them all in. She had half a mind to kill him for it, but if there was one thing the previous year had taught her, it was that killing was never the answer. So, instead, she made a mental note to try and figure out why, exactly, he hated them all so much—and possibly even convince him to change his mind.
"Hey, buddy," said George, taking a seat on the edge of Ellie's bed and squeezing her hand. "Really glad you and Fred worked things out and I'm allowed to talk to you again."
She granted him a small laugh at that, but it wasn't easy. The truth was, she was still cross with George for leaving with Fred.
Everyone in the room must have sensed it, because, with one silent look from Molly, they all cleared out, leaving Ellie alone with George.
"I'm sorry, Ellie," George said. "I shouldn't have cut the cord like that. I should have reached out more often—checked in on you."
"No, you shouldn't have. The one letter I received from you was enough to make my blood boil, George. You shouldn't have left me in the first place."
He looked pained. "What was I supposed to do? Let Fred go without me?"
"Would it have really been so bad? You could have helped him run the company remotely. You could have finished off your seventh year without being expelled. I know you would have missed him, but…" Her eyes welled up with tears. "You still would have had me."
George sighed, reaching out to hug Ellie. She squeezed him tight, closing her eyes and trying to remind herself that, like his brother, George had never intended to hurt her.
"Try to remember," he said as he pulled away from her. "You think of him as your other half, but I do, too."
It was something she had somehow managed to forget since she and Fred had accepted their feelings for each other. Before Ellie was ever even in the picture, Fred and George were each other's other halves. Frankly, she was lucky George didn't resent her more for displacing him.
"How about," she asked, smiling up at him, "we each be a third from here on out?"
After the Weasleys—minus Fred, of course, who never left Ellie's side—and Harry and Hermione left, Tonks came to visit.
"Blimey, Tonks," said Fred when he saw her. "You look nearly as bad as El."
Ellie elbowed Fred in the rib cage as she hugged Tonks, who did, in fact, look concerningly shabby—red, puffy eyes, dull, unwashed hair, and significantly thinner than the last time Ellie had seen her—aside from the time she'd been half-unconscious, anyway.
"I'm so glad you're okay," Tonks said to Ellie, ignoring Fred's comment. "We were so worried."
"I'm not quite out of the woods yet," Ellie admitted, "but I'll get there—and thank you. What's going on with you, Tonks? Are you ill?"
"I…" Tonks glanced anxiously at Sirius, who was seated in his dog form, peering up at Tonks with curious concern. "Let's just say I've been through a bit of what you went through last year."
She was obviously referring to heartbreak; it was written all over her face. Only… who had broken her heart?
"Fred," Ellie said. "Take Dad for a walk. Please."
Fred hesitated, glancing at Sirius, who looked just as reluctant to leave. Finally, though, he nodded and headed for the door, the great black dog padding along behind him.
"It's Lupin," Ellie said as soon as she was alone with Tonks. "Isn't it?"
Tonks' eyes bulged. "How did you know that? You really shouldn't be using Legilimency when you're this weak, you know."
Ellie laughed. "I was never that good at Legilimency to begin with. It just makes sense, is all. The way you two look at each other—act around each other." She hadn't fully realized it sooner, but now, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together.
"He doesn't want to be with me," Tonks said quietly. "He's afraid he'll hurt me—or, even if he doesn't, that he'll hold me back."
"Hold you back from what? You're an established Auror already."
"From… a future, I think. Kids, family—that sort of thing."
"But… that's ridiculous," stammered Ellie. "Can he not have children, with his condition?"
"We're fairly certain that he can. He's just… afraid. Afraid they might be like him, or that even if they weren't, that they'd fear him or be ashamed of him."
Ellie's situation with Fred was starting to dull in comparison. They may have had their share of problems, but fangs and full moons weren't on their list.
"I think Fred should talk to him," Ellie said. "Can I tell him about this?"
"Doubt it would do any good. Besides, you should be focusing on getting better, Ellie. I don't want anything distracting you from that."
"If anyone learned a hard lesson about why you shouldn't leave the girl you love even if you think it's in her best interest, it was him," Ellie said firmly. "If you want me to wait 'til I'm out of here, fine, but I'd really like to give it a go, Tonks. Maybe he can talk some sense into him."
Tonks sighed. "Fine—when you're safely in the clear. Thanks, Ellie."
"Well, of course I'll talk to him," said Fred a few hours later after Ellie explained the situation to him and Sirius. "He's being a bloody fool."
"I'll join you for that," said Sirius, who had changed into his human form for this particular conversation. "Try and talk some sense into my old friend."
A knock sounded at the closed door, and Sirius quickly changed back into his dog form. Fred strolled easily to the door to open it, but froze in his tracks when he saw who it was.
"Ah," said an all-too-familiar voice from the other side of the door. Ellie couldn't quite make him out from behind Fred, but she didn't have to; it was clearly Noel Davies, her music producer/manager from the previous year. "You must be the heartbreaker."
"Noel," scolded a voice from behind him. That voice, she knew, too: Liam. "Sorry, mate," Liam said to Fred. "I told him not to be a complete arse."
"Let them in," Ellie told Fred with a sigh. "Try not to punch anyone."
Fred grunted something incoherent as he backed stiffly away from the door. Sirius padded protectively over to Ellie's hospital bed, growling at both of them.
"What's he doing here?" Ellie asked Liam, refusing to look Noel in the eye.
"What do you think?" Noel asked smoothly. "I came to talk to you about your unfinished album."
"She's an inch away from death, you stupid git," Fred snarled at him. "Do you have any common decency whatsoever?"
"We didn't know how bad it was," Liam told Ellie with a bit of a frown. His eyes were working in overtime, soaking up all her various scars, wounds, and burns. "The papers are just saying you escaped, and that you're being treated for your injuries."
Ellie hadn't bothered with the papers since her escape. "And you're here with him?" she asked Liam. "As, what… his business partner?"
"Of course, not." Liam looked hurt by that. "I was going to come anyway, Ellie. I just figured if I came with him, I could keep him from saying anything too nasty."
"You mean, like how dreadful she looks?" asked Noel with a wrinkled nose. "How long 'til those scars heal, exactly?"
"Oi," said Fred, taking several dramatic steps toward Noel. "You looking to find out exactly how good of a Beater I am?"
"I'm not finishing the album," Ellie told Noel. "If you want to try and press charges, go ahead. I was a minor when I signed with you, I'm still a minor, and neither of my parents were consulted."
"Not to mention, you sexually harassed her the day you met her," growled Fred.
Noel's jaw tightened. "Fine, then. You won't finish the solo album. But would I be correct in assuming the old band's back together now?"
Was he serious? Did he actually plan on offering The Weasleys a deal without the quid pro quo he'd once insisted on?
"You could offer us all the fame and riches in the world," Ellie told Noel in a low, deep voice, "and we would never agree to sign with you. Now, get out of here before I sick my dog and my boyfriend on you."
Noel glowered at her for several seconds before finally heaving a sigh and turning on his heels to leave. "You coming?" he grunted at his brother in the doorway.
"No," Liam said. "I'll find my own way home."
As soon as Noel was gone, Liam closed the door and stepped carefully over toward Ellie and Fred. He glanced nervously at Fred, then said in a tight, strained sort of voice, "I'm sorry for what I said to you that day at Azkaban."
Fred blinked, clearly surprised. "You are?"
"I was pissed as hell at you for hurting her, but I know you only did what you thought was right." He grinned sheepishly at Ellie, adding, "Only thing that makes sense, I reckon—voluntarily choosing to let a girl like her go."
Ellie's cheeks burned at that, but more than embarrassed, she felt sorry for Liam. He had been careful with his heart that year, same as her, but at least a part of him had fallen for her.
"Well…" Fred shifted from one foot to the other, looking uncomfortable. "Thank you, Liam. Not just for the apology, but for looking after El while I was gone. I would have preferred you dissuade her from some of the more insane stunts she pulled, but I'm still glad she had someone at her side she could trust."
Ellie could hardly believe her ears. She knew from the one conversation they'd had about Liam that he was a sore spot for Fred. Hearing Fred accept the reality that Liam had been there for her when he wasn't made her smile.
"You're welcome," Liam said, managing a careful smile. "And don't worry—I'm not going anywhere."
"He was just being nice," Ellie said that evening. "It wasn't a threat."
"It was totally a threat," Fred grumbled. "He took pleasure in reminding me that he's going to be there at Hogwarts with you this year and I'm not."
It wasn't the first time she'd thought about it, but it was the first time either of them had said it out loud since Fred's return to her. It wasn't just because of Liam that he was thinking about it, she knew; the rest of the B.A. had visited after Fred, reminding him that she'd built a whole new life for herself in his absence, and that all of them—Liam, Katie, Luna, and Neville—would be there with her at Hogwarts that year.
"I could always not go back," she suggested cheerfully. "We could stay in Paris, or find a place of our own. Er—us plus George."
Sirius let out a growl at that. She had almost forgotten that he was there.
"Never gonna happen," Fred said, chuckling. "You have to finish school, El."
"You didn't!"
"And since when was following my lead ever a good idea?"
She sighed, sinking lower into her hospital bed and reluctantly admitting defeat. Before she could steer the subject elsewhere, a gentle knock sounded on the door, and a woman stepped into the room whom Ellie hadn't seen in two years.
"Mum?" she whispered.
Serena Prince was hardly recognizable. She seemed to have aged twenty years in the past two. At least a quarter of the dark brown hairs on her head had gone grey, her dark eyes were even more sunken and gaunt, and she seemed to have lost nearly as much weight as her daughter.
Bloody hell, Fred said in her head. Are all the women in your life competing for who can waste away the fastest?
But she barely heard his joke. After vowing to cut Ellie out of her life completely, Serena was actually here—and in the same room as Sirius, no less.
"Risky move," Serena said, indicating Sirius' dog form with her chin. "Pettigrew's trial isn't for another two days."
Sirius didn't move a muscle. He looked even more petrified than Ellie felt.
"I reckon everyone here at St. Mungo's knows who he is," Fred explained to Serena. "They're just smart enough to know he's an innocent man."
Serena nodded, but she didn't look particularly interested in discussing Sirius. Her eyes were glued to her daughter's. "They told me what you went through," she said quietly. "Albus and Severus. I meant to come sooner, Ellie—got in the car at least a dozen times—but I…" Tears filled her eyes at that, and she pressed her hand against her mouth for several seconds before lowering it and whispering, "I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?" Ellie asked. Her voice, too, was nearly a whisper. "Of me?"
"Of what to say to you. My own daughter, brutally tortured by the Dark Lord and his followers for weeks on end? Are you even… are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Mum. You don't have to say anything about that. I already know what you'd say, anyway. This is exactly what I was afraid of. This is why I didn't want you to go to Hogwarts."
Serena actually cringed at that. "I reckon you've heard quite enough of that out of me already."
"I don't regret it," Ellie told her. "Even if I had died in that cage, I wouldn't have regretted it. Those five years at Hogwarts were better than an entire lifetime without magic would have been, Mum. I know that it's different for you, but I need you to understand that that's how it is for me."
Several tears slid down Serena's cheeks. "I think I finally do."
"Then…" Ellie bit her lip. "Then maybe there's a chance of you being in my life again?"
"More than a chance." Serena reached a tentative hand out to her daughter's; Ellie grasped it firmly in her own. "I'm so sorry, Ellie. I never should have closed the door on us."
"It's okay, Mum. Really." Ellie glanced carefully at Fred before adding, "There is something I want to talk to you about, though. Fred… think you could take Dad on another walk?"
He knew, of course, what she was referring to. It had been over ten months since the first time he'd asked her to do this, but better late than never, right?
You've got this, he told her with a small, supportive smile as he and Sirius stepped out of the room. I'm proud of you.
Ellie turned carefully back toward her mother, starting to feel incredibly nervous about what she had to ask her. Sure, Serena had been kind and loving since stepping into the room, but how would she react to this?
Ellie decided to start small.
"Fred is my boyfriend. We've been dating… well, a bit on and off, thanks to a lot of factors that have nothing to do with our feelings for each other… since my fourth year. But I've been in love with him for longer than that."
Serena's lips pressed tightly together, and then she said carefully, "According to Severus, your forays into stardom and Death Eater-hunting were both a direct result of his abandonment."
Ouch, Fred said in her head. Remind me to thank your uncle for that one.
"They were," Ellie admitted. "But that was my fault, not his. His 'abandonment,' as you call it, was his attempt at doing what he thought was best for me."
Serena looked doubtful, of course. But Ellie didn't really blame her.
"The point is," Ellie continued, "before he left last year, things got… a bit serious. He didn't want to cross any lines, but… he wanted me to talk to you. Said every girl should talk to her mum about that sort of thing before…"
Serena seemed to understand. She looked every bit as embarrassed as Ellie, but she pressed on. "We should have had the talk sooner, I suppose. Especially considering how you came to be."
She was referring, of course, to Ellie's having been conceived out of wedlock when Serena was still at Hogwarts.
"The most important thing, of course, is to use protection," Serena said. "There are non-magic ways of doing it, and there are magical ways of doing it. I'd recommend the magical—bump that ninety-eight percent effectiveness up to one hundred. You can find the spell in Practical Charms for Everyday Use, among other books. Fred probably already knows it."
I do, Fred admitted. Looked it up last year just in case your torturous attempts at seduction ended up overpowering my excellent resistance skills.
She couldn't help but smile at that. She was glad his resistance skills had won out, but she appreciated him for being so careful.
"As for the rest of it… There's no real science to it, Ellie, but you have to understand that that choice is one you can't ever take back. It changes you—physically and mentally—forever. For some women, it's a small change—almost imperceptible—but for others, it's a complete loss of innocence. They start to look at themselves differently—as adults, incapable of feeling childish or naïve emotions anymore. It's not a bad thing, necessarily, but it's something you want to be ready for. Does that make sense?"
It did make sense, and it served its purpose of scaring her. At sixteen years old, was Ellie really ready to lose her innocence for good?
"As for the partner of it all," Serena continued, "it binds you to them, as well. Don't get me wrong—it's rare these days that a woman ends up marrying her first—but I think it would be fair to say that she still thinks about him often—even years after the two have split. You never forget your first, they say."
That didn't sound so bad. Ellie would never forget Fred, regardless. "Does that go for men, too?"
Serena's gaze almost imperceptibly moved toward the door at that—thinking, undoubtedly, of Sirius. In all likelihood, they had been each other's firsts.
"I don't know," she admitted. "But I reckon so."
Doesn't matter, Fred said in her head. I'd never forget you, either.
Serena Prince probably isn't anybody's favourite (I especially enjoyed the comment about her being a Karen), but hopefully this redeemed her a bit in your eyes! And at least Ellie has finally cut ties with stupid Noel! The next chapter will focus on the Peter Pettigrew case, so make sure to tune back in, and don't forget to follow/review/favourite/etc to show your support. Thanks for reading!
