I want to start this chapter off by stating that of course, Ludo was not Amy's only living relative. Her father Otto was of still alive, just mindless and in hospital. If Ludo were to be sent to Azkaban, Otto wouldn't be in any state to be Amy's legal guardian either.
I opened my eyes to a white panelled room, with bright lights shining down on me. I tried to lift my head but I found it was being held in place by some sort of contraption.
"Miss Weasley, I would recommend staying still for the moment. You have been in a coma for the last 3 days. It's going to take a while for you to be strong enough to move again" said an unfamiliar male voice to my left.
A coma? Why, I'd only been walking down the corridor... then I remembered what had happened, the sickening, cowardly attack by Lillian Avery and Sarah Bagman!
I'd "ganged up" on Avery, according to her. Such bullshit! I'd intended it to be me vs her alone before Ron had intervened! Plus, she was already knocked out when Ron, Harry and I used those spells on her, and it had been Ron's idea to do so! There was certainly no planned group attack! Not that I was wanting her to have attacked Ron or Harry, no, I'd gladly take the hit instead, but it's the principal of the thing!
"3 days?" I asked the man, who was clearly a doctor, although I couldn't see him. "Why, and where am I anyway?"
"You're in the intensive care unit of the spell damage ward at St Mungo's, and trust me, you are lucky to be talking to me right now. You are lucky that you've only had a 3 day coma. Had your limp form not been discovered within a few minutes of the attack, you would almost certainly have died. You were rushed here, and we performed emergency surgery to repair your broken limbs and brain damage. We've slowly woken you up over the past few hours. In such delicate cases as yours, every precaution must be taken"
"I am not a delicate case!" I said, though I realised at this point, being bed bound with many bandages across my body, that I clearly was. Being described as delicate was still rather insulting though. I then saw that no one was at my bedside.
"Hasn't anyone been to see me?" I said
"Of course they have. Various people have come and gone in the time you've been here. Most of your relatives have sat beside you at one point or another over the last few days. No one today though, we've told them all that we're going to wake you up, and that they can come back once you're able to move freely again"
"What about my friends, my brothers, they're all at Hogwarts, do they know..."
"They are aware, and only your boyfriend has been permitted to visit you so far, under close supervision. Your friends and brothers were under strict instructions to stay away until you were awake"
"Why?"
"We felt it inappropriate to involve too many teenagers at such an early stage"
I rolled my eyes. Clearly adult abuses of power weren't exclusive to parents and teachers. At least Harry had been here though.
"What happened to Lillian Avery and Sarah Bagman?" I said
"Who?"
"The people who attacked me"
"Unfortunately since there were no witnesses to the incident, no one could be punished for the offence"
"But I can prove it was them! Put me under Veritersirum! View my memories in a Pensive!"
"Hmm, those are good points. I would recommend raising them when you are back at school"
"I certainly will!"
I wouldn't be able to return to school for another 3 days however, as I needed to go through a slow process of gradual contraption removal and movement therapy, in order to ensure everything was back in normal working order. On the third of these days, a Friday, meaning I had missed the entire first week of school, Demelza, Amy, Luna, Harry, Ron and Hermione were given permission to visit me. Fred and George had visited the previous day. I was by this point fully sitting up in my bed, with all the contraptions removed, and only my head bandage remained.
"That's 3 times in 2 years that you've ended up in hospital now Ginny!" Demelza said, "at this rate, you're gonna be doing it more often than Harry!"
"Yeah" I said bitterly "I fucking love my life! Apparently this was revenge for us attacking Avery on the train"
"So it was Avery that did this to you?"
"Yeah, she and Sarah hit me from behind when I was walking down that corridor. No witnesses apparently. I don't know what spell they would have used though"
"Probably Impedimenta Duo" said Hermione "that can be extremely powerful when performed correctly"
"How's the first week back been then?" I said
"It's actually been pretty damn interesting, you've missed a lot!" said Ron
"Wow, that's really saying something coming out of your mouth!"
"Yep, so, I mean, this wasn't something your class had to do, but Hagrid's first class contained these things called Blast Ended Skrewts. They're these horrible scorpion like things, that can bite, burn and sting all at once. Hagrid had us experimenting by feeding them, it was awful"
"It was the first time Malfoy ever said something sensible" said Harry. He suggested we should kill them rather than keep them alive. They're bad enough small, god knows what they'll be like big!"
"Just wait till you see Moody's class though, he was incredible! Taught us all about the Unforgivables, and then he put us all under the Imperius Curse!" said Ron
Demelza, Amy and I jumped in shock
"He WHAT?!" Demelza exclaimed
A man turned over in the bed next to mine and said "Oi, keep the noise down!"
"Sorry!" said Amy "How on earth did Dumbledore approve of that?" she added in a whisper
"Yeah, I thought the Unforgivables were sixth year work" I said
"Moody told us Dumbledore said he thought we were worthy of it" said Ron. "It was so creepy, you had Dean hopping around singing God save the Queen, Neville did some ridiculous gymnastics that he could never do if he was in his own mind, I rolled around the room lying down-"
"I had to rip up some copies of Hogwarts a History" said Hermione, scowling.
"Yeah that was a tragedy" said Ron dismissively, "but anyway, Harry actually managed to resist it! He was the only one in the class who could!"
I looked at my boyfriend in shock
"Harry, I thought I'd seen and heard it all with you, but no, you seem to come up with more and more ways to stagger me every day! But that's what makes you so bloody attractive!" I said, and pulled him into a passionate hug and kiss.
"Never let me go" I said, my voice muffled in his hair
"I won't, don't you worry" he replied
We broke apart.
"So, anything interesting to report from our classes?" I asked Demelza and Amy
"No-where near as interesting as the fourth years, unfortunately. Hagrid couldn't show us hippogriffs after last years debacle so we had to do the bloody flobberworms. At least they're not as dangerous as the Skrewts" Amy said
"What did Moody do with us?
"He started the third year Dark Creatures content, though unlike Lupin, he didn't start off with Boggarts, we did Grindylows first" said Demelza
"Not as unsettling then at least. What's Ancient Runes like?" I said
"It's interesting, though quite complicated. Thankfully we've got Little Miss Brainy here to help us if we need it" Amy said, patting Hermione on the back.
"I feel the same about Arithmancy" added Demelza
At that point, the doctor came over and told them their visiting time was up, and that I would hopefully be discharged the next day.