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he reception area at St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was a carnivorous room. Healers were rushing past, followed closely by their Healer-school assistants. Family members scoured the maps on the walls to find their loved ones. In the middle of the room stood a large desk where three bored looking receptionist sat, answering phones and attending to annoyed patrons.
Rose stood at the entrance, afraid to go any further. She was hoping to wake up any minute, this all being a really bad dream.
“We’ll have to ask where she is,” Hugo’s voice startled her a little, “They weren’t really sure what was going to happen when I left. I doubt she’d still be in the emergency room.”
Rose nodded silently, willing herself to wake up. But it all wasn’t going away, could this really be happening?
Hugo took her hand and led her to the round desk where the receptionists were. An older witch with horn rimmed glasses looked up at him. “How can I help you?” she asked in a tone that sounded so bored Hugo swore she was trying not to yawn. It actually made him a little mad.
“We’d like to know where Hermione Weasley is please,” he kept his voice quiet. He knew there were a ton of reporters trying to get this story. He could see the headlines now ‘Minister Attacked, Is she alive?, Children Spotted Without Information.’ It all made him very sick.
To both Hugo and Rose’s surprise, the receptionist started to laugh. “Hermione Weasley, like the Minister,” she had to pause for a second so she could laugh some more, “Do you really think we’re going to give you that information?” she continued to laugh even harder. The other two receptionists began to giggle at Hugo as well.
The shrill laughter aroused Rose from her stupor. Now she was starting to get angry.
“You sure as hell better give us that information!”
A witch about Rose’s age sitting to the left of the older witch chimed in. “Well, what makes you so special then? You think you can just go see the Minister,” she started laughing harder as well.
“I DON’T GIVE A SHIT THAT SHE’S THE MINISTER! I WANT TO SEE MY GOD DAMN MOTHER!”
All three receptionists, as well as many people who happened to be walking by, were taken aback by Rose’s outburst. They ceased laughing immediately, but still didn’t seem keen on giving out Hermione’s whereabouts.
The older witch spoke again, this time in soothing tones, as if Rose was some mental patient who could get violent at any moment. “There’s no way we can verify that you’re her kids. We’re not allowed to give out that information,” she turned to the younger witch, “Isn’t her daughter suppose to be in America or something anyway?”
Just as Rose was reaching for her wand so she could hex this lady across the room, she heard a familiar, female voice behind her.
“Rose Weasley! If you get yourself arrested after being home for less than an hour,”
She spun around, calmed a little by the kind face and red hair she saw.
“Aunt Ginny!” she ran toward her aunt, who encased her in a protective hug.
It was then that she started to cry. She hadn’t back in her dorm room when Hugo told her, and she had kept her composure throughout the whole trip, but here in the comfort of her favorite aunt’s arms, she just couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“It’s ok sweetheart,” Ginny soothed and patted her hair, “You’re here now, it’s going to be ok.”
“W-w-where is she?” Rose asked between sobs.
“Upstairs, that’s where I was going. Where’s your brother?”
“I’m right here Aunt Ginny,” he appeared at their side, carrying Rose’s bag. They had come straight to the hospital from the portkey.
“You found her ok then?” Ginny asked him with a warm smile. Hugo just nodded. “Alright let’s get you two upstairs,” She led the way with her arm still around Rose’s shoulders.
Hugo couldn’t help but give a triumphant smile to the flabbergasted receptionists as they walked past.
By the time they got to the floor Hermione was on, they had already gone through three Auror checkpoints. With Ginny being the Head of the Auror Office’s wife (not to mention the patients sister-in-law), they got through easily. While Ginny was saying good morning to the fourth Auror they past, Rose heard another familiar voice booming from the waiting room.
“I should have been one of the ones protecting her Harry!”
“You know that’s against the rules! It’s a conflict of interest Ron!”
“No it’s not! I could have protected her better!”
“RON! ITS NOT YOUR FAULT!” Harry’s voiced echoed in the hallway.
“Your poor Dad,” Ginny whispered to Rose, “He’s blaming himself, because he wasn’t on her security detail. But that’s not his job. Harry’s been trying to get him to see that.”
When they entered the waiting room, Rose saw her grandparents sitting at the far end of the room with her cousin Lily sitting next to them. Her Uncle Harry was standing in the middle of the room, looking exasperated and right across from him, also standing, was her Dad. He looked worse than Hugo. His flaming red hair stuck out at every conceivable angle, the circles under his eyes where twice as dark as his son’s, and he looked like he had been in the same clothes for days.
It was Grandma Molly who noticed her first. She got up of the seat she was occupying and crossed the room in two steps.
“Rosie! Your home!” she gave her a very grandmotherly hug and kiss on the forehead. She got her hug from Grandpa Arthur next. Harry had come over and given Ginny a hello kiss and gave Rose yet another hug. Suddenly, she was crashed into and in the middle of a more bone-crushing embrace than Hugo’s a few hours ago. Even though the mass had moved too fast for Rose to see, she knew it was Lily.
“Oh my goodness Rose, I’m so glad your back!” Lily hugged her even more enthusiastically.
“Thanks Lily,” she choked, “But I can’t really breathe,”
Lily loosened her grip. “Sorry, I guess I just got excited.” She looked at Rose in concern. “Are you ok?”
“I don’t think so,” Rose replied honestly. She walked away from Lily and toward her father. He was still standing, actually he was pacing so fiercely she thought he was going to make a hole in the floor. “Daddy?”
Ron looked up from the floor at his daughter. “Rosie,” he stopped pacing for a moment. Even though Rose felt like this was like her thousandth hug today, it was the one she wanted the most. She felt like she was five years old again, and the stupid boys next door were making fun of her. Tears spilled out of her eyes again. She usually didn’t cry this much, she just didn’t think it was practical. But this was something else entirely.
“What’s going on Dad?” she finally asked when she had composed herself. “What happened?”
Ron’s face just got dark and he didn’t speak.
“Dad?”
Harry jumped in. “Your mom was giving a speech outside Hogsmeade. When she finished, she was walking off the stage and like five curses converged on her at once. The Aurors on detail were able to repel a couple but they were caught by surprise. When she got here the Healers couldn’t figure out what curses had hit her, they had all kind of jumbled together. They were able to stabilize her, but they’re still running more tests. They’re suppose to come and see us when they have more information.” Harry shook his head. “We’ve done it a million times before. She has the best security anyone could have. I made sure of that. I don’t know what we missed,”
Harry sat down and put his face in his hands. Ginny sat down next to him and put a soothing hand on his shoulder.
“It’s not your fault either, Harry,” Ginny asserted.
“Yes, dear,” Molly chimed in, “the only people whose fault it is are those terrible wizards who cast those spells.”
“Thank you Molly,” he replied, “But it’s my job to make sure those kinds of people are caught, before they do something this horrible.” Harry stood up and made to walk out the door. “I’m going back to the office, see if I can get any leads on these bastards. The Auror Office’s number one priority now is finding these animals.”
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Over the next several hours, Weasley’s were coming and going through the waiting room. Ginny stayed for most of the day, but said she needed to go check in at work later on. James and Albus came right after they got through work and stayed for a while. Rose was glad to see her cousins again. They were semi-successful in making her feel better. Rose got hugs from almost every aunt, uncle and cousin that she had (and that was a lot).
Once everyone had left, it was just her, Hugo, and Ron sitting in the waiting room. She was just beginning to realize that she hadn’t slept in almost thirty-six hours when the Head Healer came in.
“Mr. Weasley?”
Ron jumped off his plastic seat and rushed towards the Healer. Rose and Hugo were close behind.
“I’m Healer McGinnis,” he shook Ron’s hand, “I just got through with your wife…”
“Is she ok?” Ron asked impatiently.
“Well,” Healer McGinnis had a look of sympathy on his face, “she’s stable. We weren’t able to discern exactly what curses hit her, so there’s not a whole lot we can do at the moment. Right now, she’s in a coma, and we’ll have to see if she wakes up to take any further action.”
The deliberate word choice didn’t escape Rose, “What do you mean if she wakes up?”
“People respond to getting cursed like this in different ways. There is a chance that she may not wake up from the coma, there is also a chance that she will wake up and she’ll be fine.”
“How much of a chance does she have of not waking up?” Rose narrowed her eyes at the Healer, making him slightly uneasy.
“She has a slight to moderate chance….”
“No way, give it to me in numbers,”
Ron couldn’t help but smile a little, he imagined that’s exactly what Hermione would say if the situation had been different. He was truly glad Rose was here.
“Ok,” Healer McGinnis was looking scared now, “I would say about 60%…”
“Of her being in a coma forever?!” Rose said this a little louder than she wanted to.
An obviously frightened Healer McGinnis just nodded.
“Well, that is not acceptable. You figure out how to make those odds better and then you come back to talk to us,” Rose was sure it was not her who was talking, who the hell was this person.
“Yes ma’am,” he replied and quickly scurried from the room. ‘Some Head Healer,’ Rose thought.
“Wow Rosie, you really told him,” Hugo was in awe, “You sounded just like…”
It was at that moment she knew whose voice had been speaking. She clasped her hands over her mouth and gasped “Oh my god,”
Just then a kind faced nurse came into the waiting room. “Mr. Weasley?” she said softly.
Ron turned around.
“You can see her now, if you wish,” the nurse gave them a reassuring smile and they followed her down the hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over 3,000 miles away, Kenny was checking the voicemails on his phone. The night before he had thrown it on his couch, not wanting to take any calls, especially from her.
‘Why wouldn’t she just talk about it?’ he thought to himself, ‘She’s always making excuses not to share things with me. Aren’t girls supposed to want things like that? And that whole I-can-do-magic thing, maybe she needs to see a professional?’
Just as he was thinking about her, he heard her voice on his phone.
“Um Kenny, hi, it’s Rose. Um my brother showed up at my dorm right after you left and my mom, well, my mom, she’s been in some sort of…accident. They don’t know what’s really going on so, um, I wanted to let you know I’m going to London with him, so I guess I won’t have phone service. I’ll talk to you later…hopefully.”
Kenny shut his phone without deleting the message and ran out his door.
Rose stood at the entrance, afraid to go any further. She was hoping to wake up any minute, this all being a really bad dream.
“We’ll have to ask where she is,” Hugo’s voice startled her a little, “They weren’t really sure what was going to happen when I left. I doubt she’d still be in the emergency room.”
Rose nodded silently, willing herself to wake up. But it all wasn’t going away, could this really be happening?
Hugo took her hand and led her to the round desk where the receptionists were. An older witch with horn rimmed glasses looked up at him. “How can I help you?” she asked in a tone that sounded so bored Hugo swore she was trying not to yawn. It actually made him a little mad.
“We’d like to know where Hermione Weasley is please,” he kept his voice quiet. He knew there were a ton of reporters trying to get this story. He could see the headlines now ‘Minister Attacked, Is she alive?, Children Spotted Without Information.’ It all made him very sick.
To both Hugo and Rose’s surprise, the receptionist started to laugh. “Hermione Weasley, like the Minister,” she had to pause for a second so she could laugh some more, “Do you really think we’re going to give you that information?” she continued to laugh even harder. The other two receptionists began to giggle at Hugo as well.
The shrill laughter aroused Rose from her stupor. Now she was starting to get angry.
“You sure as hell better give us that information!”
A witch about Rose’s age sitting to the left of the older witch chimed in. “Well, what makes you so special then? You think you can just go see the Minister,” she started laughing harder as well.
“I DON’T GIVE A SHIT THAT SHE’S THE MINISTER! I WANT TO SEE MY GOD DAMN MOTHER!”
All three receptionists, as well as many people who happened to be walking by, were taken aback by Rose’s outburst. They ceased laughing immediately, but still didn’t seem keen on giving out Hermione’s whereabouts.
The older witch spoke again, this time in soothing tones, as if Rose was some mental patient who could get violent at any moment. “There’s no way we can verify that you’re her kids. We’re not allowed to give out that information,” she turned to the younger witch, “Isn’t her daughter suppose to be in America or something anyway?”
Just as Rose was reaching for her wand so she could hex this lady across the room, she heard a familiar, female voice behind her.
“Rose Weasley! If you get yourself arrested after being home for less than an hour,”
She spun around, calmed a little by the kind face and red hair she saw.
“Aunt Ginny!” she ran toward her aunt, who encased her in a protective hug.
It was then that she started to cry. She hadn’t back in her dorm room when Hugo told her, and she had kept her composure throughout the whole trip, but here in the comfort of her favorite aunt’s arms, she just couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“It’s ok sweetheart,” Ginny soothed and patted her hair, “You’re here now, it’s going to be ok.”
“W-w-where is she?” Rose asked between sobs.
“Upstairs, that’s where I was going. Where’s your brother?”
“I’m right here Aunt Ginny,” he appeared at their side, carrying Rose’s bag. They had come straight to the hospital from the portkey.
“You found her ok then?” Ginny asked him with a warm smile. Hugo just nodded. “Alright let’s get you two upstairs,” She led the way with her arm still around Rose’s shoulders.
Hugo couldn’t help but give a triumphant smile to the flabbergasted receptionists as they walked past.
By the time they got to the floor Hermione was on, they had already gone through three Auror checkpoints. With Ginny being the Head of the Auror Office’s wife (not to mention the patients sister-in-law), they got through easily. While Ginny was saying good morning to the fourth Auror they past, Rose heard another familiar voice booming from the waiting room.
“I should have been one of the ones protecting her Harry!”
“You know that’s against the rules! It’s a conflict of interest Ron!”
“No it’s not! I could have protected her better!”
“RON! ITS NOT YOUR FAULT!” Harry’s voiced echoed in the hallway.
“Your poor Dad,” Ginny whispered to Rose, “He’s blaming himself, because he wasn’t on her security detail. But that’s not his job. Harry’s been trying to get him to see that.”
When they entered the waiting room, Rose saw her grandparents sitting at the far end of the room with her cousin Lily sitting next to them. Her Uncle Harry was standing in the middle of the room, looking exasperated and right across from him, also standing, was her Dad. He looked worse than Hugo. His flaming red hair stuck out at every conceivable angle, the circles under his eyes where twice as dark as his son’s, and he looked like he had been in the same clothes for days.
It was Grandma Molly who noticed her first. She got up of the seat she was occupying and crossed the room in two steps.
“Rosie! Your home!” she gave her a very grandmotherly hug and kiss on the forehead. She got her hug from Grandpa Arthur next. Harry had come over and given Ginny a hello kiss and gave Rose yet another hug. Suddenly, she was crashed into and in the middle of a more bone-crushing embrace than Hugo’s a few hours ago. Even though the mass had moved too fast for Rose to see, she knew it was Lily.
“Oh my goodness Rose, I’m so glad your back!” Lily hugged her even more enthusiastically.
“Thanks Lily,” she choked, “But I can’t really breathe,”
Lily loosened her grip. “Sorry, I guess I just got excited.” She looked at Rose in concern. “Are you ok?”
“I don’t think so,” Rose replied honestly. She walked away from Lily and toward her father. He was still standing, actually he was pacing so fiercely she thought he was going to make a hole in the floor. “Daddy?”
Ron looked up from the floor at his daughter. “Rosie,” he stopped pacing for a moment. Even though Rose felt like this was like her thousandth hug today, it was the one she wanted the most. She felt like she was five years old again, and the stupid boys next door were making fun of her. Tears spilled out of her eyes again. She usually didn’t cry this much, she just didn’t think it was practical. But this was something else entirely.
“What’s going on Dad?” she finally asked when she had composed herself. “What happened?”
Ron’s face just got dark and he didn’t speak.
“Dad?”
Harry jumped in. “Your mom was giving a speech outside Hogsmeade. When she finished, she was walking off the stage and like five curses converged on her at once. The Aurors on detail were able to repel a couple but they were caught by surprise. When she got here the Healers couldn’t figure out what curses had hit her, they had all kind of jumbled together. They were able to stabilize her, but they’re still running more tests. They’re suppose to come and see us when they have more information.” Harry shook his head. “We’ve done it a million times before. She has the best security anyone could have. I made sure of that. I don’t know what we missed,”
Harry sat down and put his face in his hands. Ginny sat down next to him and put a soothing hand on his shoulder.
“It’s not your fault either, Harry,” Ginny asserted.
“Yes, dear,” Molly chimed in, “the only people whose fault it is are those terrible wizards who cast those spells.”
“Thank you Molly,” he replied, “But it’s my job to make sure those kinds of people are caught, before they do something this horrible.” Harry stood up and made to walk out the door. “I’m going back to the office, see if I can get any leads on these bastards. The Auror Office’s number one priority now is finding these animals.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the next several hours, Weasley’s were coming and going through the waiting room. Ginny stayed for most of the day, but said she needed to go check in at work later on. James and Albus came right after they got through work and stayed for a while. Rose was glad to see her cousins again. They were semi-successful in making her feel better. Rose got hugs from almost every aunt, uncle and cousin that she had (and that was a lot).
Once everyone had left, it was just her, Hugo, and Ron sitting in the waiting room. She was just beginning to realize that she hadn’t slept in almost thirty-six hours when the Head Healer came in.
“Mr. Weasley?”
Ron jumped off his plastic seat and rushed towards the Healer. Rose and Hugo were close behind.
“I’m Healer McGinnis,” he shook Ron’s hand, “I just got through with your wife…”
“Is she ok?” Ron asked impatiently.
“Well,” Healer McGinnis had a look of sympathy on his face, “she’s stable. We weren’t able to discern exactly what curses hit her, so there’s not a whole lot we can do at the moment. Right now, she’s in a coma, and we’ll have to see if she wakes up to take any further action.”
The deliberate word choice didn’t escape Rose, “What do you mean if she wakes up?”
“People respond to getting cursed like this in different ways. There is a chance that she may not wake up from the coma, there is also a chance that she will wake up and she’ll be fine.”
“How much of a chance does she have of not waking up?” Rose narrowed her eyes at the Healer, making him slightly uneasy.
“She has a slight to moderate chance….”
“No way, give it to me in numbers,”
Ron couldn’t help but smile a little, he imagined that’s exactly what Hermione would say if the situation had been different. He was truly glad Rose was here.
“Ok,” Healer McGinnis was looking scared now, “I would say about 60%…”
“Of her being in a coma forever?!” Rose said this a little louder than she wanted to.
An obviously frightened Healer McGinnis just nodded.
“Well, that is not acceptable. You figure out how to make those odds better and then you come back to talk to us,” Rose was sure it was not her who was talking, who the hell was this person.
“Yes ma’am,” he replied and quickly scurried from the room. ‘Some Head Healer,’ Rose thought.
“Wow Rosie, you really told him,” Hugo was in awe, “You sounded just like…”
It was at that moment she knew whose voice had been speaking. She clasped her hands over her mouth and gasped “Oh my god,”
Just then a kind faced nurse came into the waiting room. “Mr. Weasley?” she said softly.
Ron turned around.
“You can see her now, if you wish,” the nurse gave them a reassuring smile and they followed her down the hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over 3,000 miles away, Kenny was checking the voicemails on his phone. The night before he had thrown it on his couch, not wanting to take any calls, especially from her.
‘Why wouldn’t she just talk about it?’ he thought to himself, ‘She’s always making excuses not to share things with me. Aren’t girls supposed to want things like that? And that whole I-can-do-magic thing, maybe she needs to see a professional?’
Just as he was thinking about her, he heard her voice on his phone.
“Um Kenny, hi, it’s Rose. Um my brother showed up at my dorm right after you left and my mom, well, my mom, she’s been in some sort of…accident. They don’t know what’s really going on so, um, I wanted to let you know I’m going to London with him, so I guess I won’t have phone service. I’ll talk to you later…hopefully.”
Kenny shut his phone without deleting the message and ran out his door.
