What Voldemort Left Behind

Chapter 16 - The End of Easter

A few hours later they decided it was time to try the spell that might wake Harry up, it was very dangerous to cast a spell for the first time without testing but they had to. Ginny was focused and ready as she casted the spell.

Harry woke up, he couldn't tell where he was, some kind of room he could barely see without his glasses, and he threw up. Someone gently stuffed the end of a Puking Pastille in his mouth which stopped it and Harry sank back onto the mattress, those small actions had taken up all of his energy. His head was spinning and he could barely breathe, his chest felt very heavy but none of that mattered, all he could think about was Sirius.

"Shhhh Harry can you hear me? It's okay, you're safe, you killed Voldemort, Bellatrix is dead...... She killed Sirius twenty five years ago I'm sorry." Ginny gently placed Harry's glasses on his face and Harry tried to sit up but found it too painful so Ginny lay down to face him. "Gin, you know you don't have to, I'll be fine just give me a couple of minutes..."

"Harry...... what day do you think it is?"

"Um Sunday? It's Easter Sunday."

"Not exactly, you've been.... asleep since Sunday. It's Tuesday."

"No wonder the dreams lasted so long, I couldn't get away from them, I saw Sirius. Dying. I don't remember much else." Harry suddenly flinched violently as if he could feel the memory. Poppy approached him gently and made him take a Calming Draught which he did not turn down for a change, he didn't seem to have the strength to resist, he hated people treating him like this normally but he was so exhausted he didn't care. Pomfrey checked him and gave him a lot of potions, mostly for weight gain and healing, explaining what each one did. The weight gain potion made him throw up again, doing the opposite of what they were meant to, but that was the least of his worries. He hated feeling vulnerable, the connection was haunting him for longer and could overcome him even when he was alert instead of just in his sleep. Finally Poppy left the next day for Hogwarts but Harry was still confined to bed rest much to his annoyance. Ginny made him obey the instructions but made it an awful lot easier by keeping him company.

"Harry, do you remember anything I said to you while you were unconscious? Could you hear me?"

"All I remember is the visions and dreams. Why, was it important?"

Ginny handed him the slightly crumpled letter she had opened days before and Harry stared at her incredulously when he'd finished reading it.

"I only told Pomfrey and Hermione, I figured you'd want to think about it first."

"It's only a trial though, there's no guarantee I'm in, but this is great as long as I can fly by then..."

Soon it was the day that the kids went back to Hogwarts and Harry was disappointed, he'd enjoyed their company over the Easter break as it was a week since he fell unconscious and they proved to be a great distraction to his recovery. He'd been restricted to bed rest technically by Poppy but his family took pity on him occasionally and helped him to move around the house, provided he didn't do anything risky. They'd stayed at the Burrow because Harry needed to be watched round the clock for three weeks to made sure that if he collapsed he couldn't accidentally injure himself. Harry hated this more than anything, but he much preferred when Ginny, Ron, or one of the kids was with him. He supposed that Hermione hadn't been too bad, but Molly was too overbearing and wouldn't let him take what she called "risks" and Harry felt were challenges. No matter who he was with though, Quidditch was off the table until he'd been cleared, so he spent lots of his time coaching the kids from the ground as both his three and the two Granger Weasleys loved getting help from their Quidditch obsessed family but there was very little time usually. Harry now had a load of free time and also observing Quidditch was good practice for his own tryout for Puddlemere that had been put off until he could play, much to Harry's frustration. Harry often played Quidditch with his children and nieces and nephews when they were home from Hogwarts and were absolutely spoilt when it comes to home training, they always had great brooms and top of the line quaffles, bludgers and snitches to practice on as well as many experienced players who adored them. In the family alone, Harry, Ginny and Charlie were all exceptional players and everyone else was very good too, but they also had many other connections to players who loved to teach them, such as Victor Krum and Oliver Wood, both ex professionals. Harry has dreaded today for days, the first day that he couldn't occupy himself by at least watching Quidditch be played. Ginny had gone to work and this morning it was Hermione with him, Molly and Arthur had taken the job of bringing the children back to school. Hermione helped Harry from the bed to sit on the sofa much to his distaste, he hated being babysat but he still found moving difficult, not that he didn't try. Hermione had a lot of freedom in her job to study whatever she felt was necessary so she was often able to work from home. Harry was still often sent things from the Ministry, he wasn't a full auror or Head of the DMLE anymore, but his successor wasn't as experienced, and the whole department was desperate for his point of view when it came to important matters, particularly documents regarding the few Death Eaters who weren't imprisoned all those years ago but were still watched by the Ministry, such as Draco Malfoy. Luckily no Ministry owls arrived this morning, one of the few perks to the day. After Hermione made sure that Harry was comfortable, she sat down beside him.

"Harry... I wanted to tell you something I was reminded of recently. It's not very important but it puts feelings into words. Muggles... they have a word for something you have, something you feel every day, well not just you. Me, Ron, Ginny, everyone who fought suffers from this. It's called post traumatic stress disorder and it happens when someone has been through a really traumatic situation and get flashbacks of it."

"Muggles are really much smarter than us. Like we've got the whole magic thing that they don't, but they know emotions, they learn things that wizards just ignore. I've never heard of that word before. So what do they do to fix it?"

"Talk to people." Hermione replied simply. "They usually go to counseling about it"

"They go to what now?"

"Counseling Harry, I thought you lived in the muggle world for ten years and in the summer until you left school" Hermione said with a laugh.

"Yeah well.... didn't get out much." Harry muttered. He suddenly became much more reserved and started to avoid Hermione's questions, trying to change the subject. Suddenly it hit Hermione why.