Lily Potter (Harry Potter's Twin)

Chapter 24

If I ever had sat through quite longer night than this one, I couldn't remember it. Sirius suggested once that we all go to bed, but the Weasley's look of disgust was answer enough.

Fred fell into a doze, his head sagging sideways onto his shoulder. Ginny was curled like a cat on her chair, but her eyes were open. Ron was sitting with his head in his hands, whether asleep or awake it was impossible to tell.   Sirius, Harry and I glanced at each other often, intruders upon family grief.

And then, at ten past five in the morning by Ron's watch, the kitchen door swung open and Mrs Weasley entered the kitchen. She looked extremely pale and had red eyes.

"He.. He wants to see you.. They don't think he will make it... lost lots of blood," she said her voice shaking.

Wait, no that wasn't right. This is the part when Mrs Weasley comes in and says Mr Weasley will be okay, not that he won't make it. I felt my world shift slightly. I lost my balence and fell to the floor. 

"I'm okay, just dizzy for a moment...." I said, standing up quickly and becoming dizzy again. I leaned and gripped the table. Sirius put a steadying hand on my shoulder. 

We dressed as Muggles for the trip to St. Mungo's. No one was happy or talkative, we stood just kept silent. Tonks and Mad-Eye had turned up to escort us across London. Tonks hair was pixie cut today, and a dull brown. She looked sad as the rest of us. I felt like I was moving under water the entire time   

The next stop was a station in the very heart of London. We all followed Mad-Eye up the escalator, Tonks bringing up the rear. 

"Not far from here," said Tonks as we stepped out into the winter air on a stone lined street packed with Christmas shoppers.

"Wasn't easy to find a good location for a hospital. Nowhere in Diagon Alley was big enough and we couldn't have it underground like the Ministry. In the end they managed to get hold of a building here. Theory was sneak wizards could come and go and just blend in with the crowd..." Mad-Eye told Harry, Hermione and I.

Mad-Eye seized Harry and my shoulders to prevent us being separated by a gaggle of shoppers.

"Here we go, " said Moody a moment later.

We arrived out side a large, old fashioned, red brick department store called Purge and Dowse Ltd. The place had a shabby, miserable air. The window displays consisted of a few dummies with their wings askew standing at random and modeling fashions that were like ten years out of date. Large signs on all the dusty doors read closed for refurbishment.

"Right, " said Tonks, beckoning us forward the window display. A particularly ugly female dummy whose false eyes were hanging off and who was modeling a green nylon dress was in the display. "Everybody ready?"

We nodded, clustering around her. Tonks leaned close to the glass, looking up at the very ugly dummy and said, "Wotcher, we're here to see Arthur Weasley."

The dummy gave a tiny nod, beckoning its joint finger, and Tonks linked arms with Mrs Weasley and stepped right through the glass and vanished.

Fred, George and Ron stepped after them. Then Ginny and I, followed by  Harry and Moody.

There was no sign of the ugly dummy or the space were she had stood. I had arrived in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of witches and wizards sat on wooden chairs and read copies of Witch Weekly. 

Witches and wizards in line green robes were walking up and down the rows, asking questions and making notes on clipboards like Umbridge's. I saw the emblem embroidered on their chest, a wand and a bone crossed. Healers. I couldn't help but marvel at how smart and top-notch they looked. 

"Over here!" called Mrs Weasley and we followed her to the queue in front of a plump blonde witch seated at a desk marked inquires.  The wall behind her was covered in notices like a clean cauldron keeps potions from becoming poisons and Antidotes are Anti-don'ts unless approved by a qualified healer.

The witch told us that Mr. Weasley was first floor, second door on the right. In that room was three patients. Mr Weasley was occupying the bed at the far end of the ward beside a tiny window. We was sleeping, his chest barely rising and falling. We sat around his bed, the healers were eyeing us, like we were disturbing Mr Weasley.

A healer came over to talk with Mrs Weasley, explaining what was wrong now. "He lost  a lot of blood. We can't get the rest of the venom out without him dying from blood loss. We can't give home more blood, it will just make the wound bleed more," the healer said. "He won't wake for awhile, why don't you kids go to the visitor tearoom. "

"Yeah, we need to talk with Mrs Weasley," said Mad-Eye.

We trooped back into the corridor. Mad-Eye and Tonks must have important news to tell Molly.

When we were all in the corridor again, George immediately pulled flesh colored strings from his pocket. Then he handed us each a string.

I inserted the end of the string into my ear and watched as it wriggled like long skinny worms, then snaked under the door. For a few seconds I heard nothing then heard Tonks whispering as clearly as though she were next to me.

"... they searched the whole area but they couldn't find the snake anywhere, it just seemed to have vanished after it attacked Arthur... But he can't have expected the snake to get in, can he? "

"I reckon he sent it as a lookout," growled Moody ," 'cause he's not had any luck so far, had he? No, he's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing. So Potter says he saw it all happen?"

"Yes,"  said Mrs Weasley. She sounded rather uneasy. "You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this..'

"Yeah, well," said Moody, "there's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that."

"Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry's when I spoke to him this morning," whispered Mrs Weasley.

" 'Course he is worried," Moody huffed. "The boys seeing things from inside his snake... Obviously Potter doesn't realize what that means, but if You-know-Who is possessing him-"

I pulled the Extendable Ear out of my own and looked up at Harry, he look terrified.

Kinda a sort chapter I'm sorry! Next update is Friday the 19th of December.
That is the Holiday chapter so it's special and long
thanks for reading.
-S.S.

Song for this chapter: Fill in the Blank--- car seat headrest