Two hours passed, but it felt like 2 weeks. Healer Baker went into the surgery room on several occasions to try and bring us an update, but we got very little in the way of new information. Finally though, after the 5th time she did this, she said

"I have some good news. We have managed to stabilise Arthur, and have successfully administered an antidote to the snake venom he was poisoned with"

"So he's going to make it?" Mum said

"Yes" replied Baker

We all jumped to our feet and celebrated wildly for a few moments until Baker managed to calm us down.

"We do still need to find a permanent way to heal his wounds, but we have gotten them temporarily patched up. He will need to remain here for a while yet, but he should make a full recovery"

The relief we felt was unparralled.

"Can we see him now?" asked Fred

"I do not think that would be the best idea at the present moment. He will survive but he still has horrible wounds and has lost a lot of blood. We have put him to sleep, which will help his recovery. It would be best if you returned later today, when he will be moved to a new ward and be more, let's say, pleasant on the eye" said Baker

"Understood" said Mum "thank you so much for being here for us tonight"

"No problem madam, it's what I do. I'm a trauma specialist, which means I deal directly with friends and relatives of some our patients, in addition to directly treating some of the others"

"What was your name?"

"Claire Baker"

"I will make sure to give the hospital a commendation when we return this afternoon"

"Oh thank you so much, that means a lot to me, I've only just qualified. Have a great day"

"You too"

"You won't mention how we knew will you?" Harry said very seriously, giving Baker a hard stare

Baker shook her head

"Stays with me, on my witch's honour, I swear it"

"Good" said Harry, and he followed the rest of us out the doors.

Mum gave us a stern telling off once we got back to Grimmauld Place, but, very unusually for her, did not issue a punishment, as she did understand our reasons for doing what we did, even if she didn't approve. Sirius however, took a very different view on things, well, for me he did anyway. Just before I went back to my room to sleep, having been up most of the night, I went to the bathroom. When I emerged though, I found Sirius standing in front of me, looking murderous. He dragged me bodily into his bedroom. After casting a silencing charm on his door and disarming me, he threw me up against a wall.

"What the fuck were you were playing at last night? Stunning me?! Who do you think you are, honestly?" he shouted in my face.

"You were trying to stop us from seeing our critically ill father!" I yelled back at him

"Yes, because it was going to do serious damage to the order-"

"I don't care about the bloody Order, and neither did the rest of us! Plus, I think you'll find that the Order is perfectly safe, the only person we told about how we knew was Healer Baker, who promised to keep it a secret!"

"Oh so you're going to trust the word of one healer who you saw for a couple hours, over me, Harry's godfather, are you? I said it last night, this type of behaviour shows exactly why you're not ready to fight in this war!"

I laughed

"Oh please, as if you wouldn't have done the same thing at my age, if it was Harry's parents, Remus, Marlene, any of your few good family members, or hell, even fucking Wormtail in hospital!"

Sirius's grip tightened on me for a moment and his eyes flashed

"Do not mention the rat!" he said angrily, but then he softened his grip, and continued more quietly "still, I cannot deny, that yes, I would have done it for them"

"And you'd have used force if you needed to?"

"Yes" Sirius said, now fully releasing me. "But that doesn't make it right though. I care about you all, and I just wanted to stop you acting as recklessly as I did back then..."

"Wanting to see your father in hospital is not reckless no matter the circumstances, or who it might affect. He is more important to me than anything else, family always is" I said

Sirius looked at me for a long moment, then returned my wand

"Very well, I see you are not to be persuaded. Get off to bed then"

I slept very well, now knowing that Dad would be ok. Our trunks arrived from Hogwarts while we were having lunch. We would be dressing as Muggles, because this time we were going to use the Muggle Underground. Quite honestly, I was glad about that. I wasn't wanting to go through apparition again in a hurry!

We were riotously happy and talkative as we changed out of our robes into jeans and jumpers, and we greeted Tonks and Mad-Eye, who had turned up to escort us across London, gleefully laughing at the bowler hat Mad-Eye was wearing at an angle to conceal his magical eye and assuring him, truthfully, that Tonks, whose hair was short and bright pink again, would attract far less attention on the underground. Mad-Eye was very annoyed at us for our nighttime adventure, just like Mum.

Tonks was very interested in Harry's vision of the attack on Dad.

"There isn't any Seer blood in your family, is there?" she inquired curiously, as we sat side by side on a train rattling toward the heart of the city.

"No," said Harry.

"No," said Tonks musingly, "no, I suppose it's not really prophecy you're doing, is it? I mean, you're not seeing the future, you're seeing the present. … It's odd, isn't it? Useful, though …"