Amy Riddle - Volume 2: The Half Blood Prince (A Voldemort's Daughter Story)

Part 32 (Part 5 [Final Part] of THE END)

Chapter 32
Harry's POV

"We're going to the hospital wing," Ginny said.

"I'm not hurt."

"McGonagall's orders. Everyone's up there, Ron and Hermione and Lupin and everyone.

I could barely think. Ginny held my hand and led me through the castle. My feet were moving but my brain wasn't telling them to move. My heart was pounding and my head was spinning. There were few things that I could think about: Dumbledore. Snape. Amy.

Amy. 

"Ginny, who else is dead?"

"Don't worry, none of us."

"But the Dark Mark - Malfoy said he stepped over a body -" The more I tried to think of the bigger picture, to imagine what else could have gone wrong tonight, the more my brain felt like it was going to explode.

"He stepped over Bill, but its all right, he's alive."

There was something in her voice that Harry picked up on. Something wrong.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure... he's a - a bit of a mess, that's all. Greyback attacked him. Madam Pomfrey says he won't - won't look the same anymore..."

There was a slight tremor in Ginny's voice and Harry suddenly yearned to be close to her. He wasn't the only one struggling with a loss tonight.

"We don't really know what the aftereffects will be - I mean, Greyback being a werewolf, but not transformed at the time."

"But the others... There were other bodies on the ground..." I couldn't help it. I was panicking.

"Neville and Professor Flitwick are both hurt, but Madam Pomfrey says they'll be all right. And a Death Eater's dead, he got hit by a Killing Curse that huge blond one was firing off everywhere - Harry, if we hadn't had your Felix potion, I think we'd all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us -"

By now we had reached the hospital wing. Ginny, being ahead of me, pushed open the door and I saw everyone inside. I was prepared for things to look bad, but things really looked bad.  Neville apparently asleep in a bed near the door. Ron, Hermione, Luna, Tonks, and Lupin around another bed near the far end of the ward. At the sound of the doors opening, they all looked up. Hermione ran to me and threw her arms around me. Lupin, too, approached me, anxiety filling every inch of his face.

"Are you all right, Harry?"

"I'm fine... How's Bill?"

Nobody answered. I knew this couldn't be good, so I looked over Hermione's shoulder and saw Bill, unrecognizable at this point. His face was scarred and mangled and bloody. Madam Pomfrey was dabbing at his wounds, no doubt trying anything she could to save him.

"Can't you fix them with a charm or something?" I asked her, remembering how Snape had so easily cured Malfoy's wounds with a spell. Although at this point, anything used by Snape seemed like bad luck, considering... all that had happened.

"No charm will work on these," said Madam Pomfrey. "I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites."

"But he wasn't bitten at the full moon," said Ron, staring intently at his brother, hoping that maybe Bill would magically spring into consciousness. "Greyback hadn't transformed, so surely Bill won't be a - a real - ?"

He looked uncertainly at Lupin.

"No, I don't think that Bill will be a true werewolf," Lupin suggested, "but that does not mean that there won't be some contamination. Those are cursed wounds. They are unlikely ever to heal fully, and - and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on."