the gentle moon / george weasley

i wish I knew how to heal you

"Has anyone actually seen Kreacher lately?" August yawned. Everyone was still at the dining table. Jade had even let August have a glass of brandy with her. Remus and Sirius were sharing a flash of firewhisky with the twins under the table. Arthur thought it was funny, that Molly hadn't caught on yet, but she took the last bottle of wine that the twins and August tried to hide and were too drunk to notice.

"I haven't seen him since the night we came back here," said Harry. "You were ordering him out of the kitchen." He looked at Sirius

"Yeah . . ." said Sirius, frowning. "You know, I think that's the last time I saw him, too. . . . He must be hiding upstairs somewhere. . . ."

"He couldn't have left, could he?" said Harry. "I mean, when you said 'out,' maybe he thought you meant, get out of the house?"

"No, no, house elves can't leave unless they're given clothes, they're tied to their family's house," said Sirius.

"They can leave the house if they really want to," Harry contradicted him. "Dobby did, he left the Malfoys' to give me warnings two years ago. He had to punish himself afterward, but he still managed it."

Sirius looked slightly disconcerted for a moment, then said, "I'll look for him later, I expect I'll find him upstairs crying his eyes out over my mother's old bloomers or something. . . . Of course, he might have crawled into the airing cupboard and died. . . . But I mustn't get my hopes up. . . ."

Fred, George, and Ron laughed; Hermione, however, looked reproachful.

Arthur was the only adult that wasn't drunk by the end of the night, mostly because he had to go back to the hospital the next morning. He should have stayed, but he did not want to miss Christmas with the family.

Remus ended up bringing Arthur back to the hospital when he woke up and realized that Molly and Jade had drunk a little bit more after everyone went to bed and rewatched Pride and Prejudice and was still asleep when he and Arthur got up.

When Sirius had Jade and Molly take a potion that the twins and August knew very well, everyone was off to St Mungo's, leaving Sirius alone again. August was going to stay, but he told her to go with everyone. The journey to St. Mungo's was quite quick, as there was very little traffic on the roads. A small trickle of witches and wizards were creeping furtively up the otherwise deserted street to visit the hospital.

"Everything all right, Arthur?" Molly asked as they all littered into his room. August saw the roommate that George was talking about. He stared at her for a bit and then smiled sweetly at her.

"Fine, fine," said Arthur, a little too heartily. "You — er — haven't seen Healer Smethwyck, have you?" "No," said Molly suspiciously, "why?"

"Nothing, nothing," said Arthur airily.

"Arthur," she said, with a snap in her voice like a mousetrap, "you've had your bandages changed. Why have you had your bandages changed a day early, Arthur? They told me they wouldn't need doing until tomorrow."

"What?" said Arthur, looking rather frightened and pulling the bed covers higher up his chest. "No, no — it's nothing — it's — I —" He seemed to deflate under Molly's piercing gaze. "Well — now don't get upset, Molly, but Augustus Pye had an idea. . . . He's the Trainee Healer, you know, lovely young chap and very interested in . . . um . . . complementary medicine. . . . I mean, some of these old Muggle remedies . . . well, they're called stitches, Molly, and they work very well on — on Muggle wounds —"

Molly let out an ominous noise somewhere between a shriek and a snarl. Remus strolled away from the bed and over to the werewolf, who had no visitors and was looking rather wistfully at the crowd around Arthur; Bill, who had met his father and Remus at the hospital that morning, muttered something about getting himself a cup of tea, and Fred and George leaped up to accompany him, grinning.