Eeman

Moves time along

Over the next few weeks, Harry finished with the IV antibiotics, had long physiotherapy sessions with Ben, chatted with Hermione following her physio (they mostly discussed books, and she supplied him with books she thought he'd like) since she had gone home, read said books voraciously, and ate. He ate a lot, in fact, which everyone seemed happy about. His bruising was gone. It was the best he'd felt in a long, long time, even without his leg. Sometimes he had phantom pain, but so far, it hadn't been all that bad (thought the boy with incredibly high pain tolerance.) Miss Tina came to talk to him sometimes, Tara (as she had told Harry he may call her), Tim (who seemed nice, so Harry was not quite as frightened as when he had first heard the idea ), and a hospital psychologist once or twice. They wanted to make sure he was doing well emotionally. He wanted to tell them he was fine, but that he had no idea if he really was. He had bad dreams at night sometimes that woke him up. Sometimes he dreamed of his uncle's attack. Sometimes he dreamed of missing other body parts. Sometimes he had nightmares of green light, and when he woke, the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead would hurt. Mostly, though, he felt safe for the first time in his life.

Nearly four weeks after he lost his leg and was left with his limb, he was told it was time to leave and go to Hermione's house. The legalities had been taken care of and schedules set for when Harry would go back to the hospital for his therapy. It was decided that for now, Harry and Hermione would be tutored instead of finishing the school term. Harry would have needed to start at a new school, and he was very thankful that he need not do that yet. The tutor was able to work around their therapy sessions.
Harry had his schoolbag back. He had been informed that the Dursley house had been searched for evidence, and they were able to retrieve his bag. Miss Tina had also gotten him a large bag in which he could stow his new clothes, and now that he was being released, he carefully folded the additional clothes both she and Tara had purchased for Harry, once they had realized that Harry had so little. (They were appalled that all he had to wear was Dudley's old clothing. If it had fit Harry and was in decent repair, that was one thing. This was another!) He was now wearing jeans that fit him properly, and a blue striped shirt. He had new pants, socks, and trainers. Tara had helped him pin up the left leg of his jeans after he had got on his clothes that morning. She had taken the day off to take him home.

Once his clothes were packed, he picked up his school bag to place some of the many books he had acquired, both from Beth and Hermione. When he opened the bag however, he saw THE book. It was the book he'd begun reading almost four weeks ago. His hand froze for a moment, and then trembled as he reached in. It was the book he'd been wanting to read that whole miserable evening. His green eyes sparked in anger, and he pulled the book roughly from the bag, hurling it as hard as he could across the room. It hit the wall and slid down. Still angry, he grabbed his crutches with rough movement, and went over to where the book lay open on the floor near the wall. He wanted to stomp on it. Tears were running down his face as he leaned on the wall so he could hit it with a crutch instead. He felt all sorts of energy flowing through him, anger and sadness. The book exploded into tiny shreds of paper.

He found himself on the floor against the wall a few minutes later, still holding his crutches tightly in his hands. The paper had settled down around him.

"Harry, are you packed? Tim would like to take your things to the -," Taraneh said as she entered the room. "Oh, Harry joon, what happened?" She sat down next to him and put a hand on one of his clenched hands. He began to loosen is his grip on the crutches and then let them drop. Taraneh took his hand into hers and started massaging it.

"You are probably feeling life isn't very fair right now, are you?" she said. He shook his head nearly imperceptibly.

"You have good reason to think it. I am not going to dismiss your feelings about this. You need to feel them. I can tell say we promise that in our home, we are going to help you. We hope to help you with your feelings and to show you what a good home life is about." She paused, thinking carefully about what to say. "I can't re-grow your leg, but we'll make sure your PT continues, and we'll try to get you a good prosthetic leg. I know it won't be your original leg, and it's all right to be angry about it."