Liar. Harry Potter's sister ~ Book 2

chapter nineteen

The room on the other side was nothing like I'd ever seen before. There was no sign of the window or the mannequin that previously stood there, allowing us entry to this strange room. We were standing in what looked like a crowded reception or waiting room area, with rows and rows of rickety wooden chairs, sitting on which were dozens of witches and wizards, some of which looked normal, whereas some were possessing ludicrous disfigurements, such elephants trunks sprouting from their chests. Witches and wizards in lime-green robes were striding you and down the aisles between the rows of chairs, clutching clipboards and asking questions to sick patients. The emblem that was embroidered onto the front of their robes, I noticed, was a wand and a bone crossed over.

"Are they doctors?" I ask, leaning in closer to Fred, not wanting to make too much noise in the already relatively quiet room.

"Doctors?" Fred says, looking startled, "Those Muggle nutters who cut people up? -Nah these are Healers."

As the Weasleys, Moody and Tonks bustled their way through the crowds, towards the reception desk, Harry and I hung back to examine the posters and the floor guide that was stuck on the wall printed in large, bold lettering:

Artefact Accidents ~ Ground Floor
Cauldron Explosion, Wand Backfiring, Brook Crashes etc.
Creature Induced Injuries ~ First Floor
Bites, Stings, Burns, Embedded Spines etc.
Magical Bugs ~ Second Floor
Contagious Maladies, eg. Dragon Pox, Vanishing Sickness or Scrofungulus etc.
Potion and Plant Poisoning ~ Third Floor
Rashes, Regurgitation, Uncontrollable Giggling etc.
Spell Damage ~ Fourth Floor
Unliftable Jinxes, Hexes, Incorrectly Applied Charms etc.
Visitors Tea Room/ Hospital Shop ~ Fifth Floor.

Mrs Weasley beckoned us over to her. I had to shake off a few excitable children that must have been around four, off my legs as I squeezed through the line at reception. Moody grips onto my shoulder and shoots daggers at the few people staring holes into Harry and I, their eyes wide. He guides me through a set of double doors and down a long narrow corridor, lined with portraits of what I assumed were Ex-Healers and doors leading to wards and rooms. Distant wailing could be heard every few seconds, which made me feel slightly uneasy but I tried not to pay attention to it. We climbed a wide, winding staircase and enter another corridor, lit with floating candles enclosed in a small bubble, looking almost like soap suds. Soon enough, we come to a halt in front of a large, white door.

Moody and Tonks waited outside, not wanting to overcrowd the room too much, while the Weasley's stepped into the room, before pulling Harry and I along with them. The ward was small and dingy with only one square window straight ahead of the doorway. Hovering just below the ceiling, we're small clusters of the bubble-like candles, providing most of the light for the room. Inside the room, there were only three patients: Mr Weasley in the far right corner propped up against some pillows, reading a copy of the Daily Prophet, a man staring at the ceiling looking slightly green and very sick and a witch lying flat on her back with her leg strapped up and bandaged tightly. I was relieved to see Mr Weasley awake and looking relatively happy, despite his limbs covered in bandages.

"Hello!" He called when he spotted us enter the room. He threw the copy of the Prophet aside onto a small bedside table and beaming at us.

"How are you Arthur?" Mrs Weasley says, leaning down and kissing his cheek, before examining his face anxiously, "You're still looking a bit peaky."

"I feel absolutely fine!" Mr Weasley said, happily, extending his arm and giving Ginny a hug. "If only they could take these bandages off then I'd be fit to go home!"

"Why can't they take them off, Dad?" George asks.

"Well I start bleeding like mad every time they try," Mr Weasley said, reaching out and grabbing his wand off the rickety bedside table and waving it so that seven extra chairs pulled up around the side of the bed so we could all sit. I didn't really know what to say to him. I'm sorry that I had a dream about you and saw you get attacked by a giant bloody snake? Comforting.