Gideon Drake and the Fire Within (Harry Potter Sequel/Spinoff)

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Tea and Sympathy

Gideon got out of his hospital bed and noticed that his arm was feeling and looking much better. It had absorbed the salve and was far less red. Gideon drew back the curtain to find Madam Longbottom snoozing upright in a chair nearby with her wand in her lap.

'Err, good morning?' Gideon said.

The matron's lolling head sprung up with a start and she replied much louder than necessary, 'Morning!'

'You weren't sitting here all night, were you?' Gideon asked.

'Of course! I had to monitor you,' she replied while surreptitiously wiping a bit of drool from her chin. 'I wasn't asleep, you see, just resting my eyes.'

'Err, sure,' Gideon agreed. 'Did everything go okay?'

'Oh, yes. For a while, I could tell you were in REM sleep and did get worried when you started fussing and mumbling, but nothing happened. You seemed to work through whatever you were dreaming about. Do you remember?'

'Yes. I don't think that dream will cause me any more problems.'

'Good. Well, let's look at that arm.'

***

The next few days went by horribly slowly. Gideon didn't have much to do other than complete the class work and homework that Professor Voronov dropped off, and read the Daily Prophet, which Madam Longbottom had been giving him every morning with his breakfast. This meant he had a lot of free time alone with his thoughts.

This wouldn't usually be a problem for Gideon, but since Caroline's exposé, he was still page one news and numerous follow-up articles had been published about him by other Prophet writers. As such, he had an awful lot to think about. He considered not reading the articles, but since everyone else in the world was going to take them seriously, he figured he better make himself aware of what was being reported.

Tuesday's Prophet had expanded on the initial story by speculating more about those involved in the cover-up, accusing them of mishandling the incident and making a point of stating the Ministry hadn't yet responded. It also included a piece about Gideon's family history, which was mainly profiles on the Maxwells—an otherwise well-respected wizarding family—but alluded to a mystery surrounding his true origins.

On Wednesday, the focus shifted to the Dementor attack. To start with, it included an anonymous interview with someone from St Mungo's, who claimed to have overheard details of the witness statement and commented that despite Gideon's dangerous magical outburst, he had not been treated in the high-security area, putting Healers and patients at risk.

The source went on to describe the condition of Gideon and his mother when they were brought in:

'That poor woman! She was covered head to toe in burns and left with untreatable soul damage. Meanwhile, the monster who did it—her own son—got off with nothing but a bruised eye!'

Then, they shared tidbits about his treatment. This included how he "violently attacked the Healers and had to be restrained", was "strangely resistant to their potions" and "had to be moved to a private room because he disturbed the other patients."

The claims had enough truth to them for Gideon to tell the source was genuine. However, he was irked by how they had twisted the truth.

There were connected but separate pieces covering the specifics of the attack. One spoke more about the cover-up and the presence of Dementors in London. It expanded on the source's information of the witness statement and asked questions like how and why Dementors were in such a high-profile magical location without being detected, who the witness might have been, and why a top Auror's wife could not fend off the monsters.