Metathesiophobia | H. Potter [3]

7 | mungo's

They all flooded into the hospital room almost as soon as they had arrived. Arthur beamed, "Hello, everyone."

"How are you feeling?" Abigail asked.

"Could be a lot worse," he replied.

The Weasley's all took their turns greeting their father and telling them how worried they were.

"Tonks and Moody are outside and would like to speak to your father," Mrs. Weasley announced, "Why don't you all get tea?"

They all nodded and left the room quickly. Ginny, Fred and George chose to stay behind and the other four went off to find where tea would be.

"I think it's the fourth floor," Harry explained as they made their way to the elevator.

"Woah, Harry, is that...?" Ron trailed off.

"Professor Lockhart," Harry finished.

"Professor who?" Abigail asked as a blonde haired and blue eyed man approached her.

"You must want my autograph, don't you?" he spoke up. "Everyone seems to want it, although I'm not sure why. Probably the good looks."

"I haven't the slightest clue who you are," Abigail stated as the man tried to give her a picture of himself and she declined.

"Neither does he," Harry pointed out.

Abigail turned to him in confusion, "Sorry?"

"In our second year he tried to perform a memory spell on Ron and I using Ron's broken wand and it backfired. He erased the entirety of his memory."

"Visitors!" a nurse exclaimed as she approached them. "He doesn't get very many of those. And during the holiday too!"

"Oh, no, we're actually-" Abigail began but stopped. The group exchanged looks but followed the nurse nevertheless.

"A dozen autographs!" he suggested, "Enough for each of you and your friends."

"For someone who doesn't know who he is, he sure is fond of himself," Abigail commented as they entered a room with a few other permanent guests.

Most were blocked off by curtains but others were out in the open.

"Does that plant look familiar to you?" Abigail asked Ron who looked over at it and shook his head.

Abigail frowned as she looked at the plant in confusion. There was definitely something off about it, however she had no idea what that would be.

"Ms. Longbottom, leaving already?" the nurse inquired and both Abigail and Harry looked over at this.

They exchanged a look and made to distract the other two but Ron had already noticed.

"Neville!" he shouted. "What are you doing here?"

He seemed embarrassed as he stood by his grandmother and just smiled awkwardly.

"You should not be embarrassed of your parents for having survived the Cruciatus Curse as they did," his grandmother scolded, "You should be proud to be their son."

"I am proud," Neville protested.

"Neville!" his mother shouted from behind the curtain and she stepped out, her hand held outward for him.

"Oh, not again," his grandmother mumbled.

Neville put his hand out and his mother dropped a gum wrapper into it before waddling back into the closed off area. Neville smiled tightly at the group of them and walked off with his grandmother not saying anymore.