A/N: One more chapter to go, thank God! I love writing, I love creating stories and I especially love ending them. I'm smiling from ear to ear and, again, I still have one more chapter to write, and then there's the second part of the trilogy to plan and my original novel to begin and Deathly Hallows to read.... I'm really, really happy right now.
At the end of the last chapter I'll give the title of the next "book" and do desperately hope that Ms Rowling hasn't made it all completely AU, like, you know killing or not putting together Harry and Hermione or something. *crosses fingers*
Oh and one more thing, borrowed a clichéd line of my favourite Remus/Tonks fanfics. I'm such a Wotcher Wolvie shipper of late.
All errors, as always are entirely mine.
Disclaimer: Not mine or I would know how Deathly Hallows ended... but then, I would have put together Harry and Hermione in the Half-Blood Prince and never allowed someone to call my fans "delusional". They're my fans and he's nobody, so I'd never allow him to alienate them.
*****
Chapter Twenty
As soon as we got to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, the Mediwizards and Healers rushed us all up to the First Floor, Creature-Induced Injuries, and there we were separated, Milo to the "Dangerous" Dai Llewellyn Ward, the OGB and Connor to a general ward and I was simply attended to in the first available private room while Mum was left screaming and crying in Dad's arms in the middle of the hall. I did not cry aloud, but I could not stop the tears from flowing or the blood rushing in my ears like a kettle whistling at full boil each time she screamed. Mackenzie, who the Healer-in-Charge, Augustus Pye, had allowed to come in with me, was frightfully silent all the while, holding her hands over her ears with her eyes tightly shut until one of the Healers had the presence of mind to cast a Silencing Charm over the room and offered her a set of spare lime green Healer's robes to play with.
I was undressed, made to shower and then force-fed three different potions, one for the pain, one to attend to my damaged bones and the last, the Draught of Peace, to settle my nerves. The calm that settled over me was immediate and absolute, and for the rest of the time while they attended to my wounds, and then went out to speak to Mum and Dad, I found myself observing them as if I was simply going through an interactive class. At one point I even found myself smiling at a cheesy joke one of the Healers made, and when I did, Mackenzie smiled as well, hopped off her seat and ran to wrap her arms around my waist, comforted that I appeared to be all right after all.
It was wonderful to be in outside of the blistering cold, though being inside meant that we were in a pleasantly warm and clinically white hospital room.
The door opened and Healer Pye came in with a smile, "Well this is wonderful. I was just about to let your parents in and I was worried that you would be a bundle of nerves, but instead they're going to meet you smiling. How do you feel?"
I looked over myself, now dressed in a set of St Mungo's patients' robes and my cleaned and repaired jumper, and said, "I think... I feel very good, actually. But my little sister... do you think you could give her some of that Draught of Peace?"
He nodded, "I don't see why not, but just a little-right, Healer Gale?"
He was speaking to a plump young woman with strawberry blonde hair and full pink cheeks. She at once turned to my night table, poured out a tablespoon of the thick pastel pink potion, and popped it into Mackenzie's mouth. After a silent moment, Mackenzie licked her lips and asked, "May I have some more?"
Healer Pye laughed now and said, "I don't think so, but I'm going to let your parents in and I suspect that that should be as if you'd gotten a full dose."
He opened the door for them, but instead of coming in we were treated to their retreating backs, while the Healer they'd been speaking to, Cho Chang-who I knew only because Aunt Ginny had mentioned her being Dad's former girlfriend-came to the door and said, "My, you two are very pretty girls.... They've gone to see your brother; he's awake now and asking for them. He's going to be alright."
"Can we see him too?" asked Mackenzie.
She smiled but shook her head, "Not yet, they're still attending to him so your parents are the only ones allowed. However, (she turned back to the door and beckoned someone over) I believe there's someone here to see you."
She then stepped out of the doorway to reveal Connor, carrying his baby sister, who wasted no time rushing over to my bed and greeting me with firm, warm hug and a gentle kiss on my cheek. When he released me he said, "My parents are dying to see you, you saved us."
I blushed and looked away from him, but he laughed, "Come on... well, if you can leave...?"
He looked around to the other Healers still present, who all nodded, and Healer Pye replied, "Is this your girlfriend... my, don't they grow up fast? Well, I don't see why not, we're keeping you all overnight for observation anyway. Don't go anywhere else though, because I've heard rumours that the press is here and they're going to stop at nothing for information... and I don't think you want your picture on the front page tomorrow in those robes."
We all nodded, even Mackenzie, and so with a nod to Healer Chang, who was still in the doorway, we left to find Aunt Tonks and Uncle Lupin.
When we got to their room, which was actually across the hall from the one Connor had been in, but shared with the OGB and two others who were apparently fast asleep, Aunt Tonks nearly ran into Connor with her hug and anxious kisses. Uncle Lupin was even more thrilled, and no sooner than had Aunt Tonks released him, taking care to relieve him of Zoe in the process, he firmly embraced his son as a drowning man rescued would gasp for air. Then he turned to me to do the same, saying, "Oh thank goodness for Magnolia Potter! My little heroine, you saved my son, you saved my family!"
I went beet red, completely embarrassed and shook my head as modestly as I could, replying with some difficulty, "No... I just got lucky...."
He smiled, then pointed to the bandages swathed round his neck and disappearing into his patients' robes, and said, "I believe we're the ones who are lucky, if it hadn't been for you we would have all died."
I shook my head firmly this time, "No... I must have brought that man right to you... I was a diversion. I figured that out, you know, I brought him to you, and I got lucky."
Uncle Lupin still looked as if he strongly disagreed, but said, "Well then I'm just grateful that no one got seriously hurt."
Before I could, Mackenzie replied, "Milo was bitten by the werewolf."
I'd never seen anyone's mood change so fast. Uncle Lupin released me at once, horrified, and backed away until he nearly toppled into the bed, repeating softly, "Oh no... no... not his son... no.... Oh poor Harry, Hermione... I'm so sorry...."
Whatever power the Draught of Peace had over me seemed to temporarily undergo a moment of strain, as I was filled with a feeling of deep sadness, before I replied calmly, "They're giving him Wolfsbane and Healer Chang said he's going to be fine. It wasn't the full moon though, so I'm thinking that he shouldn't become a werewolf, like Uncle Bill isn't one and Fenrir Greyback had scratched and bitten his face."
"Fenrir Greyback wasn't fully transformed, this man was," said Connor.
I insisted, "It wasn't the full moon, so he should be fine."
I wasn't sure of this but for some reason my mind had firmly latched itself around this idea and now stubbornly refused to let it go. I suspected that had I not been under the influence of a potion I would be near hysterically trying to convince them of it, but I wasn't and so must have looked simply stubborn and not distraught as I felt.
Uncle Lupin ended this though, when he said, "It's not the same, if he was fully transformed as you say... the curse is in the saliva, the bite. Oh poor Milo... he's just a boy...."
I changed tack then, needing reassurance in the face of defeat, "But you were a boy when you were bitten, and you're fine. You have a life, and Aunt Tonks and Connor and Zoe-"
Uncle Lupin, apparently realising my state of mind, refused to lie, "I suffered, Magnolia, I almost didn't go to Hogwarts.... Your father may spare him from the worst of it but.... He should not have to face what I did... he should not be suffering for my-"
Then Mackenzie spoke up, "You're a werewolf too? But you're not a monster." No one ever said she wasn't perceptive. We all turned to look at her, and she continued, "The thing that bit Milo is a monster, but you're Uncle Lupin, you're not a monster. You haven't bitten anyone, have you...?"
Clearly a tablespoon of the Draught of Peace wasn't enough. I hastened to apologise, "I'm sorry, she doesn't understand-"
She cut me off, her voice rising, "You're not a monster and neither is Milo. He's not going to become a werewolf; he's going to be fine!"
"I am so sorry, Mackenzie," Uncle Lupin began to apologise, going towards her with his hands out in a genuine gesture of pleading.
But she turned away from him to me, grabbing my hands and pleading, "Tell them Milo's going to be fine! Tell them that he's going to be fine! Tell them, Magnolia!"
I felt the power of the Draught of Peace weaken as my eyes welled up and she blurred before me, dark red hair melding into the khaki of her parka, wide hazel eyes vanishing into a pale, pink face, but I could not give her what she wanted. I wasn't sure of what was going to happen to Milo myself, and when she realised this, she turned and fled, slamming the door behind her.
In the silence that followed I took the time to wipe my eyes, take two calming deep breaths, which allowed the potion to take hold of my emotions again, and then said, "I'm sorry, she doesn't mean that... anything by that... she doesn't understand...."
Uncle Lupin sighed, "She has every right to be upset. Wolfsbane may preserve his mind, make the transformations less traumatic, but his life has been ruined."
I looked up at him, but it would be Aunt Tonks who spoke, "And what is this that you have here? You have a wife and children... I don't understand how could it be ruined?"
Uncle Lupin would not look at her, but his face took on a closed expression, "I can barely get a steady job, our children face humiliation, our home... oh our home.... Don't you remember how difficult it was for us when we tried to get another? Don't you know how difficult it will be now? To even attempt to rebuild the Ministry will have to get involved, `supervising', `advising' and having the final say on our plans.... Milo at least has the advantage of being Harry's son, and his future is provided for, but for how long? Not very many want to associate with werewolves. I was lucky to have you, but how many other witches out there will so kindly take to his condition? Even those attracted to the name `Potter', like to his father, won't want to deal with that."
"But you have a life, so isn't that hope for Milo?" I reasoned. "You're an example to a lot of people of what can happen."
He looked up at me, sadly, "I'm afraid I'm no example to go by. You know well that some at the Ministry, particularly those in power, are more in favour of stricter regulations on werewolves, and that many who have suffered at the paws of my less... humane counterparts, may be less than open to the idea of better treatment. Being a werewolf carries a stigma in the Wizarding world and one that is more overtly upheld than blood purity nowadays."
"Mum and Dad will get the laws changed," I replied.
He gave a wearied sigh this time, then pinched the bridge of his nose with his eyes tightly shut a moment, as if thinking, and then said, "They can try, but they, we all have been trying for longer than you have had life to change things. They may succeed this time, I don't know, your little brother is the only son of the Man-Who-Triumphed. But that is not the only problem, for how do you deal with someone who's already suffered because of the regulations but not come out as rosy as I appear to have to you? Like the individual who nearly killed us, for example? That man... his name is-"
"-was," supplied Connor.
Uncle Lupin arched an eyebrow at him, "-was Artie MacNicol. I didn't remember him until just now, and your parents wouldn't know him because had he gone he would have been at school with Nymphadora, and Charlie Weasley. He was bitten at seven, he'd told me-"
"-he told you that earlier?" I asked.
Uncle Lupin shook his head, "I met him before... during the Second War, before Albus Dumbledore was killed. The Order-you know of the Order?-well because of my... `advantage' in that particular area, I'd been given a mission by Professor Dumbledore to infiltrate and convince the werewolves who followed Greyback and Voldemort that supporting the Order would be a better idea. I cannot say that at the time we had the means of providing the opportunities I promised to those I spoke with, but the alternative of Voldemort turning them into his tools... well, it was not acceptable. Artie was the first of the pack I'd met, and he followed me practically every day after I arrived. I think, even, that he may have been one of the few willing to believe me."
He stopped and was silent for a time, lost in his memories. Then he exhaled, and continued, "You see, he told me his entire life story shortly after we first met. He'd grown up in the Highlands, the son of a Curse-Breaker and an Unspeakable, and had always been a bit of a rebellious child. He blamed this on his parents, their careers being secretive and adventurous to him, spurring his imagination to the point that he liked to pretend that he was both and an Auror too. They and his many babysitters may not agree with this assessment of the situation but... well, his is the one that matters here. And one night, while he and his friends were out after bedtime pretending at being Aurors and Dark Wizards, he was attacked by a werewolf. `It changed his life,' he liked to say, but he never clarified whether for the better or worse.
"After he'd been bitten his parents did their best to help him, they took many of the same precautions my parents did to protect him from himself and others, like building a secure room for him to transform in and setting up chains to restrict his movement when he was transformed. They went to the Ministry for advice, which at the time wasn't much, they sought out Professor Dumbledore to get him into Hogwarts, and after he got his letter even arranged for him to have a tour of the measures they were taking, but he took one look at it all and, ever the rebel, ran away. He firmly believed that he wouldn't find friends at school or that he'd be forced out by their frightened parents. It took him two months to run into Greyback and be adopted by the pack after that, and he'd been with them ever since.
"But I saw an opening when we first met, he looked lonely and clearly missed his parents the way he spoke of them sometimes, wishing he could see them but afraid of what Greyback might do... and so I told him my story. I told of my family, of going to school, being the reason he had those precautions in the first place, and making friends who did not reject me. I think I gave him hope.... Then Professor Dumbledore died, Greyback was caught and, well, while I managed to convince a few of them including him to join the Order against Voldemort, the others largely ignored us. Many were killed... and though MacNicol helped, you know my situation. Like I said your parents and I have fought the Ministry for years for change, but MacNicol, among others, had hoped for immediate reconsideration. It never came and coming now, it may be too late."
"Then we should do nothing?" I asked looking at him surprised.
He shook his head, "I'm not saying that but...." He fell silent, pondering what he'd just told me for a moment himself, then replied, "It's just.... He told me tonight how he's suffered since then... I should have done more."
He said nothing more after that, so that we were left to absorb his story, and understand his reasoning ourselves. I didn't get it, and I was sure that I never would, but then he asked, "What happened to him tonight? Connor made me change my tense because...?"
I looked to Connor and replied, "Dad killed him after he bit Milo. He wasn't going to let him go and nothing else was working... so Dad killed him."
For a moment Uncle Lupin looked at me shocked, then he and Aunt Tonks exchanged a look, and Aunt Tonks asked, "Did they take him into custody?"
"Who, Dad?" I shook my head. "The Minister said that he did it in self-defence."
"The Minister? For Magic?" asked Aunt Tonks, wide-eyed.
I shrugged, "He was there. But I don't think they'd arrest Dad anyway. Do you want to take in the Man-Who-Triumphed for murder? He was defending Milo, everyone saw that."
Uncle Lupin gave a sad smile, "We're not meaning to imply that he should have been arrested.... It's just that your father would have probably surrendered himself regardless. Even though MacNicol attacked his family repeatedly... Harry was adamant that he be taken in and sent to Azkaban. Your father must be taking this rather hard and-"
"Oh no, I'm fine," said Dad from the doorway. We all looked around, we hadn't heard him come in, but he continued nonchalantly, "It was either him or my son... you would have made the same."
Uncle Lupin did not deny it, and studied him for a moment before asking, "Are you really alright?"
Dad confessed immediately, "No, but I love my son and I would do anything for him. And that should hold me until I am."
At this Uncle Lupin asked, "How is Milo?"
Dad looked anxiously to me and replied, "He nearly lost his leg in the attack, but this is the magical world so they've fixed that right quick and are attending to the main bite. He's so brave, much better than I'd have been... he even joked just now that he should write to Romulus Kveld-Ulf and ask to be written into the story like his sister."
I could not help a surreptitious glance to Connor. He gave no visible reaction, but took hold of my hand and squeezed it.
Dad continued, "I would be with him now but all he wants is his Mum and she's the only one they're letting in, no matter what I say. So I decided to find Magnolia and Mackenzie, and then see how you're doing. Apparently you're all fine... Tonks...?"
She smiled, morphed her hair hot pink, but still cropped short, and said, "Yes, Wolvie's only got some rope burns, Zoe's starving and Connor's... well, he's upright so I guess he's okay."
To my surprise, Connor morphed his hair blue, going from navy at the roots to electric blue at the spiked tips, then back again, and chimed, "Yes, I'm okay. We're all okay, and it's all thanks to Maggie."
I blushed and looked to Dad, "Is Mackenzie okay, she kind of ran out... upset."
He nudged the door open a little wider with his hip to reveal my little sister wrapped tightly round his left arm. "She was sitting quietly in the hall, but as I got to the door I suddenly grew another appendage. I think I'll keep her though, she's cute." He then turned and swung her up into his arms, kissed her forehead and cheeks and said, "You heard me right, your little brother's going to be alright and no, Uncle Lupin is not a monster."
Uncle Lupin smiled and told her, "I didn't wish for you to find out this way, but... no, I'm not a monster, only on the full moon each month, and thanks to that potion they're giving your brother, I'm usually pretty tame then. In fact, I believe a scarier monster once a month would be your Aunt Tonks."
Aunt Tonks' jaw dropped and she stared at him in shock for a few seconds, and then she smacked his arm. He grinned at her, and returned to Mackenzie, "He'll get a little hairier than normal around the full moon, and he may get a bit hoarse after. You may not be able to be around him for about the three days around that time either, but he can't turn you into a werewolf unless he bites you as a wolf on the night of the full moon. I know the man who bit him was one and the moon's not full, but he apparently has been able to morph himself outside of it. This is highly unusual, not unheard of, but thankfully not something that can just happen. It'll take years and the Dark Arts, which you may not understand but that's what werewolves are classified under, and to give in to that... madness within is to dabble in them.... I'm sorry Milo got bitten, that he'll have to live like me but-"
He was interrupted by Mackenzie asking quietly, "When it's the full moon and he's a wolf, are you going to be with him? He's going to be scared if we can't be with him, so will you?"
Uncle Lupin looked at her in shock for a long while, and then turned to Dad. Dad in turn looked down at Mackenzie whispered something in her ear, she nodded, and then he looked up at Uncle Lupin smiling, "If you want to you could.... I mean, Hermione and me, we'd both really appreciate it if you could be there... since we can't."
Uncle Lupin then turned to look back at Aunt Tonks and Connor, and Connor said, "I know I'd want you to be there... if it was me."
Uncle Lupin replied then, "I'd have to speak to Milo...."
Aunt Tonks glared up at him, looking for a moment like a very annoyed sprite, "I don't see the boy disagreeing with this idea, he likes you a lot."
With this Uncle Lupin nodded at last. "I don't see why I shouldn't; I certainly wished I had someone around sometimes when I was younger.... Before I earned myself some pretty good friends."
Mackenzie smiled, then jumped out of Dad's arms and ran to him. When he looked down at her smiling, she tugged on his sleeve and pointed up, so that he would lift her up into his arms. And once he was holding her, she wrapped her own about his neck, kissed him and said, "Thank you."
When he blushed in embarrassment, Aunt Tonks shifted Zoe in her arms and said, "I'll have you know Miss Potter, that I saw him first."
We all laughed.
*****
Half an hour later we were interrupted by two Aurors who came to inform us that we were to be interviewed individually on what had happened at the Lupin cottage and in Hogsmeade village that night. They were not, as the Minister had said, going to arrest Dad, but they needed to have an accurate and complete recount of events for an official report. Through their questions I was able to piece together what had happened earlier.
The attack on Gryffindor Tower must have been another diversion for after he was "chased" away by the teachers and Aurors, the man formerly known as my attacker, Artie, or Arthur MacNicol, had flown directly southwest to my parents' house in Godric's Hollow. Whether he had suspected this to be the final straw for those who wanted me out of Hogwarts or not, we'll never know, but he went directly there and was therefore able to overhear Connor's address when he, Dad and I arrived. We took the Floo to the Lupin cottage, but while we'd all been sitting casually in Zoe's room, having hot chocolate and chatting, he flew nearly all night to join us, arriving only in the very early morning and "boarding" with Mr MacFingall. There was no need for him to hurry, with everyone else busy at work with Dad trying to set up an ambush at our home, he had all the time in the world to set the final part of his plan into action.
The next day he went out and set the fires, all magical, all around the Lupin property, and it was just his luck that Uncle Lupin had heard their neighbour complaining about a fox in his things. He was then able to return to the MacFingall house and await the moonrise with his "host", while the fire did the work for him. That work was to spawn Ashwinders, the red-eyed, grey-skinned snakes whose eggs were an ingredient of many potions, but also had the tendency to set buildings on fire if not found and frozen in time. The Ashwinders of his fire slithered directly to the nearest warm building, which unfortunately turned out to be the Lupin cottage, and lay eggs all around the first floor and in the cellar. The smell of burning we'd noticed all day then wasn't the newspapers, but the house as the eggs caught fire.
Aunt Tonks was the first to notice them as she went down to the cellar, and at once ran back up to get Zoe and us, while Uncle Lupin sent Ophelia off with a warning to Dad. Luckily MacNicol hadn't seen her flying away or he would have surely killed her. With us warned and Zoe retrieved, Aunt Tonks then decided to go to Mr MacFingall to wait for help, while Uncle Lupin stood waiting for us to come down. MacNicol wasted no time in incapacitating Aunt Tonks before that, petrifying her first and then forcing her to drink the Draught of Living Death. It was why Connor and I hadn't been able to revive her later. As the name said she was in a state of living death, in a sleep so deep that had he succeeded MacNicol could have done anything he wanted while Uncle Lupin watched helpless. But then, that was the idea I guess.
Uncle Lupin hadn't been there when Connor and I came down though, but that was because MacNicol had drawn him away by shaking Zoe until she cried. That this could have killed her did not concern him, he who had spent weeks nearly killing me to get to them. When Uncle Lupin went out to see what was the matter, he was instead greeted with a magical net that trapped him to the ground and a few minutes worth of silent torture with the Cruciatus Curse before we arrived.
MacNicol had clearly planned every moment of this beforehand. But if Uncle Lupin had been right about him he had had nearly sixteen years to do it and therefore had no excuses for being rash at the last minute.
Since it had taken MacFingall nearly all night to get to us I wondered how Ophelia had managed to get to Godric's Hollow so fast, but she hadn't, she'd instead gone to Hogwarts and Professor McGonagall. My Headmistress then warned Dad through the Floo, Dad moved his ambush to Hogsmeade, as they were all unfamiliar with the Lupin property and couldn't just Apparate, and they flew to us from there. Just before he left though, Dad had called Mum at the Burrow, and she had decided to bring Milo and Mackenzie to meet me, believing that it would be a good idea for me to see them as soon as I arrived. I knew she was regretting that decision now, the look on her face after her interview said it all.
After my escape and Dad had begun the chase that would take us to Hogsmeade, the other Aurors had gone on ahead to see what had happened at the cottage. There they met Uncle Lupin and Aunt Tonks out in the snow and their home nearly completely gutted. Mercifully a number of things had been spared, including most of Connor's stuff, Zoe's crib and my school trunk, but the house was uninhabitable. When I met Connor again, if it were not for the Draught of Peace I would have surely begun crying. My family still had a home to go to once we left St Mungo's but his were reduced to the charity Grandma Weasley once said Uncle Lupin steadfastly disliked receiving. They would have no choice but to go to the Burrow now. Knowing Grandma Weasley when she arrived there was no way he was going to get away with refusing.
We had just finished up our interviews and were filing into Milo's room to see him, once again in one piece, cleaned, bandaged and relishing in the advantages of the Draught of Peace, with Mum to his right and Dad perched on the foot of the bed, when she arrived. Or rather, Rigel, with his mother and two grandmothers in tow, bursting into the private room as if he owned the place (as usual) and, after a moment of nodding to everyone else, he drew me into a bone-crushing embrace as if he hadn't seen me in days. But then he hadn't, when last we'd laid eyes on each other it was Friday evening at dinner.
Connor exhaled heavily, annoyed, but said nothing and did not release my hand, which he had been holding since I walked into the room. Grandmother Malfoy's and Grandma Weasley's eyes darted to our joined hands for a moment, and then quietly flicked back up to everyone else while I said, "Okay, okay, enough Rigel, it's just been two days, we've gone a week without seeing each other at school."
He mumbled into my hair, "Yeah, but you were in school, not being chased by a madman."
I conceded that point, "Okay, true, but I'm fine... and Milo...."
He released me at once then, and he turned to the others, "Hi, goodnight, or good morning. How's Milo?"
Milo, looking flushed, and picking at the bandages on his left leg, looked up at Rigel's question and said, "I'm right here. Why does everybody run to Magnolia first? She didn't do anything special, I got mauled!"
From the look on Mum's face it was clear that she thought that the Draught of Peace was working a little too well.
Rigel smiled at him and walked over to the bed, as Aunt Ginny, Grandma Weasley, looking for all the world as if someone had died, her eyes puffy and red and her red hair falling out of her coiffure, and Grandmother Malfoy, ever the martyr with her expression of mock-sympathy, stepped further into the room, closing the door behind them, and Grandmother Malfoy said, "Good morning."
Everyone else stopped and looked to her, surprised, as if they hadn't noticed her before. But then they probably hadn't, no one was expecting her to actually come in. And it did not help that though she was wearing what looked like her simplest navy blue winter cloak, and her sleek white-blonde hair was a bit more mussed than Grandma Weasley's, and the slight bags under her deep blue eyes revealed her exhaustion, which made me wonder, she still exuded a sense of detachment. She was not welcome here, this she knew, but she had come in and determinedly appeared as though she had every right to.
Rigel, oblivious, continued to Milo, sat down on the bed beside him and asked, "How's your leg?"
"They gave me a potion so it stopped hurting, but they said it isn't going to heal for a while. Mum's worried because the full moon's in two weeks, but I'm not, Uncle Lupin is going with me," Milo replied with a grin, looking up at Uncle Lupin.
At this Dad asked, "So everyone knows what happened to Milo?"
Rigel nodded, "They were whispering it all over the school before I left, and at least three reporters asked the same question as we were coming up. They all know, but some are insisting that they're not going to print anything until you and Aunt Hermione want to. It's too late though, it was all over Hogsmeade and that's how it got into the school, people were sending owls back and forth."
Mum and Dad exchanged a look, and then Mum said, "We'll tell them later... it's not like we have a choice, I mean, he's-he's probably... he's going to have to go to school there next year, they have a right to know."
Dad arched an eyebrow at her, "But Lupin's parents didn't say anything."
Uncle Lupin cut in, "Well, no... but they had the advantage of no one else knowing I'd been bitten beyond Professor Dumbledore and Fenrir Greyback."
Dad turned to look directly at Grandmother Malfoy as he said, "Right... and Fenrir Greyback... whose days of clear thought and soulless scheming for revenge are going to come to an abrupt end now. Endangering the lives of a minors, attempted murder, murder, destruction of property and trespassing... he's been quite a busy man. And since his tool-I wouldn't go as far as to call that man his accomplice-is unfortunately no longer with us, he'll have to assume the charges. With friends like these...."
Grandmother Malfoy, for her part, remained expressionless as she stared back at him.
Rigel, who had turned to look at his grandmother with him, cleared his throat noisily then and said to Milo, "I've got you something. It's a comic book like your Úlfhéðnar, but it's Father's old stuff, The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. Have you ever read it?"
I looked to Grandmother Malfoy again, but if she was upset by Rigel's choice of gift, like Dad's pointed words, she did not show it. Aunt Ginny and Grandma Weasley though, looked as if they were both desperately trying not to laugh.
Rigel was a right prat, I didn't really care for Grandmother Malfoy but that was a bit cruel.
Milo meanwhile, when I looked back to him, was shaking his head, replying, "No... but isn't that really old?"
Rigel smiled, "Yes, but they still make them, and I don't read them anymore so you can have them." Then he reached into his cloak and withdrew a copy of the colourfully decorated copy book and handed it to Milo. "There's a whole lot more where that came from and I'm sure I can get you the rest."
Automatically then, and unnecessarily, Mum prompted, "What do you say?"
Milo looked as if he were desperately trying not to roll his eyes, but said, "Thank you, Rigel." Then he reached over to hug him, which earned a series of surprised looks all around, for Rigel and Milo were not really friends. And after he released him, he turned to Grandmother Malfoy and said, "Thank you, Mrs Malfoy."
She gave him a tight smile, and then said, "I'll be back later, Rigel. If you need to see me I'll be visiting with Severus."
Then she turned and left without another word. No sooner had the door shut behind her though, than did Dad ask Rigel, "Did your grandmother know that you were going to give Milo Draco's comic book collection?"
"No, she suggested it," replied Rigel, casually.
"What?" Mum asked, surprised and clearly concerned.
"Yes. When I found out that he was here, I wanted to bring something but I had nothing at school. I sent her an owl and she met us downstairs with the comic book... don't worry, Mum checked it before we brought it up," he replied.
Aunt Ginny nodded. "There was no way I trust her to give your son a gift, there has to be a catch."
At this Milo, who had been flipping through the comic book while we spoke, looked up and said, "You know, I would really like it if I got written into a comic book like Magnolia did. That would make me feel loads better."
Once again Mum glanced to the bottle of potion on the night table. I shook my head, "And how do you know that's me in Úlfhéðnar?"
He gave me one of his looks again, "Everyone says it's you, and you're my sister, I know it's you. And since I got bit you should write to Romulus Kveld-Ulf and ask him to write me in like he did you, because it's only fair."
I tried not to look at Connor as I replied, doing my best to sound casual, "I'll see what I can do."
The door burst open again then, and in walked the rest of the Weasleys, my mother's parents and Professor McGonagall, all trying to deliver greetings, ask after Milo's condition and question if it was really Mrs Malfoy they'd seen walking down the hall from the room at once. But they weren't there long before the Healers returned to deliver doses of Sleeping Draught, sending us back to our respective wards and ushering them out to give us all time to rest.
After I bid my parents and Rigel goodbye for the night though, I slipped out of my room to Connor's ward, dragged him back with me, and blushing deep crimson, but not caring for I needed the comfort, we both climbed into my bed, drank our doses and fell asleep facing each other, our hands clasped between us.
At long last it was over.
Or rather, this was just the beginning.
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