This chapter will have some dialogue from my fic Harry Potter And The Other Side in it. Also, there will be dream sequences in there that will be in italics.

Chapter 159: Wild Thoughts And Recovery

There was an old house that looked as if it would fall apart at the tiniest gust of wind. An old lady in a rocking chair sat and stroked a young boy's hair while humming a tune. The scene was extremely peaceful. The boy was happy. I could feel his happiness.

He was happy to go to Hogwarts too. He was surprised when he got his letter, as his grandmother wasn't aware that he was indeed a wizard. He had been sorted into Ravenclaw. He was excited to go, but from that point on, the old lady didn't hum for him anymore. That made him sad. He liked it still when she would show him that affection.

Over the years, it had gotten worse. The holidays were dismal at his home. The old lady didn't pay him any mind any more unless she had to. She acted like she was scared of him. Finally, in his fourth year, he stopped coming home during the holidays. He would stay at the school, or with a friend.

After his seventh year, a war had happened in his homeland. Wherever that had been. He was recruited, as he had became an adult. He had to fight. He had no choice.

He went to a place where every single day, he had to fight for his life. He used a Muggle object called a gun, but occasionally, he would secretly use his wand to disable his enemy. He didn't want to fight. He didn't want to kill. He had made plans to work in the Ministry. He didn't want any of this.

Time went on, and the war had ended. His side had won. He went home to find his grandmother finally proud of him again. However, she shook when she moved. She could hardly get a word out at times. And she was very sick.

Time went past. He had met a woman. A very beautiful woman who accepted him for what he was. He was happy again. He was beginning to...

My eyes popped open and met the sight of a stone ceiling. I could smell cleanliness as well as some harsh potions. My eyes darted back and forth as I tried to take in where I was. A few seconds later, I realized that I was back at school, in the hospital wing.

I tried to raise my body up, but the moment I tried to brace myself, the burning pain came flooding back. I cried out as if I were on fire.

Moments later, I heard the clacking of heels and soon I was staring up at the face of Madam Pomfrey. She looked worried, but please.

"Oh good, you're up!" she said, feeling my forehead. "Very strong mind you have, Mr. Weasley. I didn't calculate you waking up until much later."

"How long was I out?" I croaked. "What...what happened to me?"

"Well what do you remember, Mr. Weasley?"

I closed my eyes and tried to think back. "Well, we went to the Department Of Mysteries...we were ambushed...and then...I got hit with something that I believe made me loopy...and then..."

My head began to hurt, my temple throbbing. Madam Pomfrey began cranked up the top half of the bed, so I could sit up without moving my arms.

"Yes dear, you were hit with Confundus Maxima, a stronger, more potent version of the Confundus Charm. It causes the victim to become in a more literal sense, almost drunk with confusion. It caused disorientation, lack of proper motor skills, irrational speaking, as well as thinking, which is why you summoned the brain to you." said Madam Pomfrey.

I sighed. I felt completely stupid. Fucked up over a fucking Confundus Charm.

I looked down and noticed that my arms as well as my chest and torso were bound in gauze. It reminded me of a half wrapped mummy.

"The brain's nerves latched onto you, dear." said Madam Pomfrey in a sad voice. They have scarred you both outside, as well as in. Thoughts can leave deeper scarring than almost anything else. Have you been having-"

"Dreams?" I finished. "Yeah. I've had a few that weren't my own."

"Yes, that is a side effect. You may now carry the thoughts of the person to whom that brain that belonged to for awhile. Maybe for the rest of your life."

Madam Pomfrey then had me drink a potion for the pain. She also removed the bandages, and I couldn't help but cringe.

My arms and chest looked as if it had been whipped by a fire whip that Bill had shown me in a book. It was a Dark object that dark wizards used as a form of torture. The curved lines glowed a bright pink against my pale skin, the nerves had cut their way deep into it. In some places, I could see the white of my flesh.

Madam Pomfrey rubbed something that she called Dr. Ubbly's Oblivious Unction. The cooling sensation it gave to my skin was very soothing. It was then that I seen a flash of my own memory, which was Hermione in Neville's arms.

"Hermione..." I whispered.

"I'm sorry, dear?"

"Hermione." I said louder and a bit more frantically. "What happened to Hermione? Where is she? Where are the others?"

Madam Pomfrey looked over to her right. Two beds down from me was an area that was curtained off.

"She's there, and she will be fine, considering what she had been hit with." sighed the healer.

I sat up even more and tried to get out of the bed. Madam Pomfrey put up her hand.

"You can't see her right now, Mr. Weasley, she is resting. She is going to need all the rest she can get."

I didn't want to hear that. I wanted to see for myself that she was okay. I needed to see it. I felt like a fucking idiot. I should have protected her better. Instead I went and got myself fucking cursed.

"What about the others?" I asked.

The others are fine." she said. "I mended both Miss Weasley's ankle and Mr. Longbottom's broken nose. Miss Lovegood and Mr. Potter had minor cuts and bruises, but all are completely fine and are somewhere within the castle."

I gave a sigh of relief. Everyone had made it back. And though Hermione and I were worse for wear, at least we had all made it.

I laid back and continued to let Pomfrey rub the cream onto my body. The motherly touch of her hands reminded me of Mum's when she had rubbed me once when I had gotten into sticker bushes running from the twins. Her massaging of the cream into my skin lulled me to sleep.

He was a boy again. He was playing with another little boy from down the street. The two of them played often from the looks of it. The boys had climbed a tree, and were sitting in a makeshift treehouse, playing with cards that had to do with that Muggle game that you played with sticks and balls.

He seemed to had trusted this boy a lot. This boy was quite like him, and they ended up I'm Hogwarts together, only the boy ended up being sorted into Gryffindor. By third year, they only seemed to communicate on the train, which saddened the boy. He had lost a friend.

When I woke up, I was met with red hair and freckles. The red hair and freckles of my sister. She smiled as she watched me stir out of my sleep.

"Thought you were a goner, big brother." she said, beaming at me.

"I thought I was too." I mumbled. "How long have you been here? You look a right state."

Ginny had a few cuts on her face, but they looked light enough to where they would heal. On her arm however, was a huge blue black bruise that stood out on her pale skin like a target.

"Better state than you." said Ginny, touching the bandages on my arm. "With these battle scars, the girls will be all over you."

I scoffed. "Come off it, Gin." I said. "How is everybody?"

Ginny's smile seemed to falter at that question. "Well, Neville and Luna are doing okay. Neville seems to have a real surge of confidence. It's very becoming."

"And what of Harry?"

Ginny's smile completely disappeared. "Well, he really isn't talking to anyone. And personally, I don't blame him, what with what happened to Sirius."

I rose up despite the pain. "Sirius? So he was there?!"

"Not when we were looking for him, of course." said Ginny. "He came with the aurors. So did Lupin and eventually Dumbledore."

"Aurors? Is that how we got back?"

Ginny nodded.

"So, what happened to Sirius? Is he hurt? Did they arrest him?"

Ginny looked to the floor, unable to speak from the look of it. She didn't need to speak a word. Her body movements told me everything.

"He's...he's dead, isn't he?" I whispered.

Ginny nodded slowly.

I hissed as I closed my eyes. I pictured the conversations Sirius and I had at Grimmauld Place and all the moments I had seen with him and Harry. I knew that Harry was 100% blaming himself for it all. It wasn't fair. It truly seemed like my best mate could never catch a break.

He tried everything he could to help his grandmother. He even tried a few spells without her knowing it. And though they indeed helped for awhile, it wasn't enough, and the old lady died while humming and stroking his hair to the best of her ability.

I woke up in the middle of the night as a scream from nowhere in particular disturbed my rest. I looked over to Hermione's bed and seen that the curtain had been moved.

I forced myself out of the bed, trying my hardest to ignore the pain. When my feet touched the ground, I almost fell over. My legs felt like rubber bands. I took a couple steps and finally got the hang of it. I rushed over to Hermione's side.

She looked as if she was having a bad dream. I moved a curl from her face, which had some small cuts on it.

"Hermione, please wake up. They don't know what that bastard hit you with but it must have been bad cuz you've been sleep for almost two days straight. You gotta wake up. I'll never tease you ever again….That's a lie. You know it and I know it. It's our thing, its what we do.

"How about this: I promise to try not to overreact on you too much. I promise to maybe at least a little try to be okay with the Krum situation. He's still an old wanker though but for you, I will try my best to be nicer about him. That's a lie too, he's too much of a git."

I sat down o. The chair beside her bed and grabbed her hand. It reminded me of second year.

"You have to be okay. You were coming to The Burrow this summer remember? We were going to have fun. You and me. Harry too, of course. The two of us can find something to do. Sometimes I rather like it when it's just us two, but-"

"I...like it...too..." whispered Hermione in a croaky voice. My eyes grew wide as I watched her open up hers and look over at me. The feat looked as if it was the hardest thing she had ever done.

"Mione! You're awake!" I whispered excitedly, missing the back of her hand without thinking about it. 'Don't you ever fucking scare me like that again!"

"Language...Ron" she whispered with a tiny smile. I couldn't help but return it.

"How are you feeling?"

"Terrible...dizzy...it hurts , Ron..." Hermione whispered, the pain all in her voice.

I started to panic and rushed over to my bedside table for the pain potion Madam Pomfrey had set out for me. I grabbed it and went back to Hermione, putting it up to her lips as I helped her drink as much as she could.

"Do you feel like sitting up?" I asked. "I can put some pillows behind you."

"Yes, that sounds alright. I don't think...wait, how long have I been here?"

"Well today is Friday, so.."

"Two days?" Hermione exclaimed, starting to panic. "What have I missed? What lessons have I-"

"It's alright, the teachers know. We are exempt from anything we have missed, okay?"

Hermione sighed, though didn't look fully relieved. Then, her face tensed and she hissed in pain. I felt useless again. Hermione was hurting and I didn't know what to do.

"I'll get Madam Pomfrey maybe she will have something stronger" I suggested.

"NO!" yelled Hermione causing me to flinch. "I...I mean, no. Sorry. Not now. Please don't leave me"

I sighed as I took her hand again. "Never. I'll always be here. I just want to get you some help and I'll be right back"

"I'll let you know if I need it, Just please Ron,stay here. Tell me what happened, I don't exactly remember."

"Well we started to battle and-"

Hermione shook her head. "No. I mean what happened to you? To everybody. Is Harry okay? Why are your arms bandaged up?"

"Everyone is fine for the most part. We were the ones that got fuc...messed up the most. Apparently I got hit with a Confundus Maxima that made me act like a fucking tosser, I summoned a brain, and it attacked me. My arms and chest are covered in scars."

Hermione looked at me like she was about to cry. "Oh Ron, I'm so sorry. You do know that it's not your fault-"

"It is my fault. Who summons a brain that tries to fucking kill you? I was useless, I did nothing. "

"No no Ron, you were brilliant. You couldn't help getting cursed just like I couldn't. It just happened. At least we...OWWWWWWW!"

Hermione screamed like she was being burned alive.

"SHIT! Hermione stay still! I'll get Madam Pomfrey! I promise I'll be back!"

I headed off to find her but of course she heard Hermione's blood curdling screams so she was already rushing towards us.

She told me that I had to wait outside the curtain she had drawn up, but I refused. I had to stay with her. She didn't understand. Hermione needed me. However, Pomfrey wouldn't have any of it. She assured me that when she was done I could come back and see to her, so it looked like I had no choice.

It seemed like hours but finally, I was allowed back to Hermione's side. She looked so tired and hurt that I felt like I was going to cry.

She motioned me to sit on the bed beside her. I hesitated. I didn't want to hurt her. But she looked like she needed it so I slid beside her and allowed her to rest her head on my shoulder.

A few minutes later she drifted off to sleep. At least she looked a lot more peaceful than she did earlier.

I made a secret promise to her then and there. To always stay by her side. To always protect her and be there for her when she needs me and even when she doesn't need me.

I was turning into such a sap. But when it came to Hermione, I didn't care.