.⊹⁀➷ CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE!
↳ ❛st.mungos❜

THE VERY NEXT morning the Weaselys, Annabeth and Harry visited the St. Mungos hospital to see how Arthur was doing.

The girl followed the crowed of Weasley's through the hospital corridors until they had reached Arthur's room.

When Molly Weasley opened the door, Annabeth saw that there were only three patients. Mr. Weasley's bed was at the end of the ward besides a tiny window.

The man was reading the Daily Prophet, a ray of sunshine falling onto his bed before he looked up and spotted the crowd that was walking towards him.

"Hello!", a large beam had made it self onto his face. He threw the prophet aside, "Bill just left, Molly. He had to get back to work, but he says he'll drop in on you later."

The woman bend down to kiss his cheek while she had an anxious expression plastered on her face, "How are you Arthur?—" There was a moment of silence before she stated, "You're still a bit peaky."

"I feel absolutely fine", the man assured her, while he gave Ginny a big hug. "If they could only take the bandages off. I'd be fit to go home."

"Why can't they take them off, Dad?", Fred questioned him, his eyebrows raised.

"Well, I start bleeding like mad everytime they try", Mr. Weasley answered while reaching across for his wand and waving it to make extra chairs appear for them to sit on.

"It seems there was some rather unusual kind of poison in that snake's fangs that keeps wounds open. They're sure they'll find that antidote, though they say they've had much worse cases than mine, and in the meantime I just have to keep taking Blood-Replenshing Potion every hour. But the fellow over there—", Mr. Weasley suddenly started whispering while he nodded to the man in the bed not far away from them. "— Bitten by a werewolf, poor chap. No cure at all."

"A werewolf!?", Mrs. Weasley whispered shocked while she started looking around. "Is he safe in a public ward? Shouldn't he be in a private room?"

"It's two weeks till full moon", Mr. Weasley reminded his wife quietly. "They've been talking to him this morning, the Healers, you know, trying to persuade him he'll be able to lead an almost normal life. I said to him— didn't mention names, of course— but I said I knew a werewolf personally, very nice man, who finds the condition quiet easy to manage."

George have him a curious look, "What did he say?"

"Said he'd give me another bite of I didn't shut up", Mr. Weasley answered him.

Suddenly Fred cut off their conversation, "So are you going to tell us what happened, dad?"

"Well, you already know, don't you?", the man questioned them, a smile on his face while he glanced at Harry.

"It's very simple— I'd hade a very long day— dozed off, got sneaked up on and bitten", the man explained calmly to them.

"Is it in the Prophet, you being attacked?", Fred questioned his dad.

"No, of course not— the Ministry wouldn't want everyone to know a dirty great serpent got—", Arthur said before Mrs. Weasley suddenly interrupted him, "— Arthur!"

"— got —erm— me", Arthur covered up his almost slipup.

"So, where were you when it happened, Dad?", George asked his father curiously.

"That's my business —", Arthur told his son while he snatched the Daily Prophet from his bedside table and opened it to hide his face behind the paper. "I was just reading about Willy Widdershins's arrest when you arrived. You know, Willy turned out to be behind those regurgitating toilets back in the simmer? One of his jinxes backfired, the toilet exploded and they found him lying unconscious in the wreckage covered form head to foot in—"

"When you say you were on duty—", Fred interrupted his dad, clearly not the slightest interested in his rambling, "—what were you doing?"

"You heard your father—", Mrs. Wesley warned her son. "We are not discussing this here! Go on about Willy Widdershins, Arthur." She gave her husband a firm nodd.

"You were guarding it, weren't you?", George continued to push the subject further, ignoring the warning from his mother. "The weapon? The thing You-Know-Who's after?"

"George, be quiet!", his mother immediately snapped at him angrily.

"Didn't you say You-Know-Who's got a snake, Harry?", Fred's head suddenly snapped towards the brunette boy, who stood at the end of the bed.

His head then turned towards Annabeth, a knowing look in his eyes, "A massive one? You saw it in the night he returned, didn't you, Annabeth?"

Annabeth felt goosebumps erupt all over her body when she thought about the gigantic snake that had slithered beneath her feet on the graveyard that night.

"That's enough!", Mrs. Weasley said sharply. "Made-eye and Tonks are outside, Arthur, they want to come and see you. And you lot can wait outside!"

The group said there goodbyes to Arthur before they trooped back into the corridor while Made-eye and Tonks entered the room.

"Fine— be like that! Don't tell us anything!", Fred stated under his breath before he and George exchanged a knowing look.

Fred was searching for something in his pockets until George held up a couple of flesh coloured strings. Smirks spread onto their faces and Fred nodded at George, "You read my mind."

"Let's see if St.Mungos puts Imperturbable charms on it's ward doors , shall we?", Fred grinned at the other's.

He then gave one of the extendable ears to Harry and Annabeth, "Go on, Harry! Take it— you saved Dad's life. If anyone's got the right or eavesdrop, it's you."

Harry held the ear against his ear and Annabeth held her ear as near as she could.

"— they searched the whole area but couldn't find the snake anywhere. It just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur—", Moody's voice reached Annabeth 's ear. "— but You-Know-Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can't he?"

"I reckon he sent it as a lookout", Tonks stated simply. Moody's voice could be heared again, "'Cause he's not had any luck so far, has he? No, I reckon he's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing and if Arthur hadn't been there the beast would've had a lot more time to look around. So Potter, says he saw it all happen?"

"Yes— You know, Dumbeldor seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this." Arthur's voice revealed his wonder.

"Yeah, well, there's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that", Moody stated like it was obvious and Annabeth felt how Harry tensed up besides her.

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

"Sirius said that the boy's seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake. Obviously, Potter doesn't realize what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him—"

Harry suddenly pulled the Extendable ear from his own while a panicked look was spreading in his eyes. He looked around the other's, who were all starring at him in disbelief and even Annabeth could detect the fear in their eyes when they glanced at her brother.

THE FOLLOWING DAYS the whole Weasley family and Annabeth were hanging up the christmas decorations. Nobody really saw Harry in that time, he hadn't left his room since what had happened in the St. Mungos hospital.

Annabeth knew that he probably felt like everyone was afraid of him. She was convinced that he was probably thinking that they wanted nothing to do with him.

The brunette handed Sirius one of the last lights when the doorbell rung, immediately waking up the portrait of Mrs. Black, which immediately started screaming.

A few minutes later, Hermione appeared in the hallways, snowflakes covering her brunette hair, the tip of her nose red from the cold weather.

"Merlin, Hermione!", Annabeth immediately exclaimed happily while she fell into her best friend's arms. "What are you doing here?"

The two girls let go of each other and Hermione shrugged, "Well, my parents wanted to go skiing— and that's not really my thing. So I'm gonna stay here."

Annabeth smiled at her, excited about her best friend spending Christmas with them.

After Hermione had stored her things in their usual room she gave Annabeth a questioning look, "Where's Harry?"

"He's in his room—", Annabeth answered. "Hasn't left it much since St. Mungos."

"Well, then let's go talk to him." Hermione immediately got up onto her feet before the two girls made their way over to Harry's room.

Annabeth knocked on the door, but Harry didn't answer. Hermione and the brunette exchanged a look, before Hermione spoke, "I know you're in there! Will you please come out? I want to talk to you!"

After a moment the door was opened and Harry had a confused look on his face, "What are you doing here? I thought you were skiing with your mum and dad?"

"Well, to tell the truth, skiing's not really my thing— soo I've come here for Christmas", the brunette stated while she shrugged with her shoulders.

"But don't tell Ron. I told him skiing's really good because he kept laughing so much. Mum and Dad are a bit disappointed, but I've told them that everyone who is serious about the exam is staying at Hogwarts to study. They want me to do well, they'll understand. Anyway— let's go to your bedroom, Ron's mum has lit a fire in there and she's sent up sandwiches."

"I came on the Knight Bus." Hermione took off her jacket while they entered Harry's room. "Dumbeldor told me what had happened first this morning but I had to wait for term to end officially before setting off. Umbridge is already livid that you lot disappeared right under her nose, even though Dumbeldor told her Mr. Weasley was in St. Mungo's and he'd given you all permission to visit. So—"

Hermione and Annabeth sat down besides Ginny and Ron, looking at Harry.

Hermione gave him a curious glance, "How're you feeling?" Harry held his answers short, "Fine."

Hermione immediately rolled with her eyes before she gave him a pointed look, "Oh, don't lie, Harry— Ron, Annabeth and Ginny say you've been hiding from everyone since you got back from St. Mungo's."

"They do, do they?", Harry questioned while glaring at the other's. But they all seemed pretty unimpressed by his glare.

"Well, you have! And you won't look at any of us!", Hermione argued with him. "It's you lot who won't look at me!", Harry spat at them angrily.

"Maybe you're taking it in turns to look, and keep missing each other", Hermione joked while she gave the boy a small smile.

Harry seemed unamused while he gave Hermione a bored look, "Very funny."

Hermione gave him another pointed look, "Oh, stop feeling all misunderstood! Look, the other's have told me what you overheard last night on the Extendable Ears—"

Harry gave them another sceptical look, their eyebrows were raised, "Yeah— all been taking abiut me, have you? Well, I'm getting used to it."

"We wanted to talk to you, Harry — But as you've been hiding ever since we got back", Ginny pointed out.

"I didn't want anyone to talk to me", Harry shot back at them.

Annabeth could see that Ginny was growing more and more angry by the second, "Well, that was a bit stupid of you— seeing as you don't know anyone but me who's been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels."

Ginny seemed to have left Harry speechless. His face expression fell, "I forgot."

"Lucky you", the sarcastic tone in Ginny's voice could be heard.

"I'm sorry", Harry apologized to the girl. "So— do you think I'm being possessed, then?"

"Well, can you remember everything you've been doing?", Ginny questioned him. "Are there big blanks periods where you don't know what you've been up to?"

There was a moment of silence before Harry slowly answered, "No—"

"Then You-know-who has never possessed you— when he did it to me, I couldn't remember what I've been doing for hours at a time, I'd find myself somewhere and not know how I got there."

"That dream I had about your dad and the snake, though—", Harry mumbled to himself.

"Harry, you've had these dreams before", Annabeth tried to assure him. "You had flashes of what Voldemort was up to last year."

"This was different — I was inside the snake. It was like I was the snake — What if Voldemort somehow transported me to London?—", Harry spoke his thoughts out loud.

Hermione sighed deeply before she spoke, "One day— you'll read Hogwarts. A history, and perhaps it will remind you that you can't Apparate and Disapparate inside Hogwarts. Even Voldemort couldn't just make you fly out of your dormitory, Harry."

Ron shook his head, "You didn't leave your bed, man— I saw you trashing around in your sleep for at least a minute before we could wake you up."

After that there was silence filling the room, but at least Harry's questions were partly answered and he knew that none of his friends were blaming him or were afraid of him.