Y/n's POV:
A few hours had passed, it was now nearly lunch time. I had decided to not wake Fred up, he looked very peaceful and sleepy. I carefully wriggled out of his grip and put my pillow where I once was. I put on my slippers before silently sneaking out of the room and went downstairs to make everyone lunch. To save Molly from doing it.
I made it to the empty and dark kitchen. I turned on the light before I raided the cupboards for food in which I could use to make lunch. I saw plenty of bread and the fridge had loads of sandwiche fillers like ham, cheese and beef.
I grabbed the beef out of the fridge. I realised it had to be cooked, I silently grabbed out a pan and placed the beef in. I turned the oven on and threw the beef in. I wasn't sure how long to cook it for so I done about half an hour. Whilst it was cooking, I buttered the bread and filled some with ham and some with cheese for the people who didn't like beef sandwiches that much. I found a large bag of crisps and divided the bag into three bowls and placed them at equal distances across the long table. I grabbed the metal plates out of the cupboard, as I was walking I had tripped and a few had toppled onto the ground. I knew I had at least woken someone up. My thought was right when I saw Molly come running down the stairs quickly.
"Oh merlin y/n, you gave me a scare" she sighed with relief.
"Sorry Molly" I replied as I picked up the plates. "I thought I would do lunch for us all. I woke up not to long ago"
"Y/n you didn't have to!" Molly said as she ran to embrace me in a hug.
"I know I didn't have to. But I wanted to give you a break" I said to her. "Could you go and get the others up and bring them down here please"
Molly nodded and walked out of the room. I used magic to put the plates on the table as I carved the beef and placed them on the bread, I placed a sandwich at each plate before everyone else came downstairs. The smell of the food wafted through the house causing everyone to rush down. Fred was the first to walk in, I smiled at him and he smiled back as he walked towards me.
"Did you do all this lovey" he asked as his long arms wrapped around my waist.
"Yep. And I just finished"
"May I say you look wonderful in a apron" he whispered.
"I know I do" I said, everyone else walked in and took their seats in front of their sandwiches. I got many thanks from everyone, especially Molly, who looked as though she was about to cry. We all ate quickly, the excitement to see Arthur was building inside everyone.
"Go on then. Go get ready and remember to dress like muggles" Molly said
"I'll stay here, I think Arthur will only want to see his family" I said walking to the first step.
"No lovey. Your coming" Fred replied as he grabbed my hand with a warm smile.
"No Fred. Honestly" I tried to say but got cut off by Molly.
"I won't take no as an answer y/n. Your coming, Arthur sees you as family" she said as she pulled me into a hug. I decided to try not to fight it and accept the fact that I'm going with them.
Me and Fred ran upstairs. Dumbledore sent our trunks whilst we were asleep. I grabbed some jeans and a crop top out of my trunk. Fred wore similar clothes to me.
We all met back down in the kitchen. Moody and Tonks were waiting for us all. We got told they had hired some taxis to take us there. Once they arrived I climbed in one with the twins and Tonks. We had a conversation until school was brought up.
"How's school going" she asked. We all sighed and told her about Umbridge.
"I already know I'm going to fail my NEWT." I moaned. "Then I can't get my dream job"
"What is that" Tonks asked.
"I really want to be a Auror" I said. Fred and George had a worried look on their faces.
"It's such a fun job y/n!" Tonks nearly yelled "maybe I'll persuade someone to let me take you under my wing"
"That would be awesome!" I said. The taxis had stopped and we all climbed out, waving as they drove away.
We had arrived outside a large, old-fashioned, red-brick department store called Purge & Dowse Ltd. The place had a shabby, miserable air; the window displays consisted of a few chipped dummies with their wigs askew, standing at random and modelling fashions at least ten years out of date. Large signs on all the dusty doors read: 'Closed for Refurbishment'.
I distinctly heard a large woman laden with plastic shopping bags say to her friend as they passed, "It's never open, that place"
Right," said Tonks, beckoning them towards a window displaying nothing but a particularly ugly female dummy. Its false eyelashes were hanging off and it was modelling a green nylon pinafore dress. "Everybody ready?"
We all nodded, clustering around her. Moody gave Harry another shove between the shoulder blades to urge him forward and Tonks leaned close to the glass, looking up at the very ugly dummy, her breath steaming up the glass.
"Wotcher,"she said, "we're here to see Arthur Weasley."
I thought how absurd it was for Tonks to expect the dummy to hear her talking so quietly through a sheet of glass, with buses rumbling along behind her and all the racket of a street full of shoppers. Then I reminded himself that dummies couldn't hear anyway. Next second, my mouth opened in shock as the dummy gave a tiny nod and beckoned with its jointed finger, and Tonks had seized Ginny and Mrs. Weasley by the elbows, stepped right through the glass and vanished.
Fred, George and Ron stepped after them. I glanced around at the jostling crowd; not one of them seemed to have a glance to spare for window displays as ugly as those of Purge & Dowse Ltd;
nor did any of them seem to have noticed that six people had just melted into thin air in front of them.
"C'mon," growled Moody, giving Harry yet another poke in the back and pushing me next to him, and together we stepped forward through what felt like a sheet of cool water, emerging quite warm and dry on the other side. Fred had immediately pulled me into a hug and had interlocked his hands with mine.
There was no sign of the ugly dummy or the space where she had stood. We were in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of witches and wizards sat upon rickety wooden chairs, some looking perfectly normal and perusing out-of-date copies of Witch Weekly, others sporting gruesome disfigurements such as elephant trunks or extra hands sticking out of their chests. The room was scarcely less quiet than the street outside, for many of the patients were making very peculiar noises: a sweaty-faced witch in the centre of the front row, who was fanning herself vigorously with a copy of the Daily Prophet, kept letting off a high-pitched whistle as steam came pouring out of her mouth; a grubby-looking warlock in the corner clanged like a bell every time he moved and, with each clang, his head vibrated horribly so that he had to seize himself by the ears to hold it steady.
Witches and wizards in lime-green robes were walking up and down the rows, asking questions and making notes on clipboards like Umbridge's.
I noticed the emblem embroidered on their chests: a wand and bone, crossed.
"Are they doctors?" I asked Fred quietly.
"Doctors?" said Fred, looking startled. "Those Muggle nutters that cut people up? Nah, they're Healers."
"Over here!" called Molly before I could ask more to Fred, above the renewed clanging of the warlock in the corner, and we followed her to the queue in front of a plump blonde witch seated at a desk marked Enquiries. The wall behind her was covered in notices and posters saying things like: A CLEAN CAULDRON KEEPS POTIONS FROM BECOMING POISONS and ANTIDOTES ARE ANTI-DON'TS UNLESS APPROVED BY A QUALIFIED HEALER.
There was also a large portrait of a witch with long silver ringlets which was labelled:
'Dilys Derwent
St.Mungo's Healer 1722-1741 Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry 1741-1768'
Dilys was eyeing the Weasley party closely as though counting them; when I caught her eye she gave a tiny wink, walked sideways out of her portrait and vanished, assuming she was going to her Hogwarts painting in Dumbledore's office.
Meanwhile, at the front of the queue, a young wizard was performing an odd on-the-spot jig and trying, in between yelps of pain, to explain his predicament to the witch behind the desk.
"It's these — ouch — shoes my brother gave me — ow — they re eating my — OUCH — feet — look at them, there must be some kind of — AARGH — jinx on them and I can't — AAAAARGH — get them off." He hopped from one foot to the other as though dancing on hot coals.
"The shoes don't prevent you reading, do they?" said the blonde witch, irritably pointing at a large sign to the left of her desk. "You want Spell Damage, fourth floor. Just like it says on the floor guide. Next!"
As the wizard hobbled and pranced sideways out of the way, the Weasley party moved forward a few steps and I read the floor guide:
ARTEFACT ACCIDENTS...................................... Ground floor
Cauldron explosion, wand backfiring, broom crashes, etc.
CREATURE-INDUCED INJURIES........................ First floor
Bites, stings, burns, embedded spines, etc.
MAGICAL BUGS.................................................... Second floor
Contagious maladies, e.g. dragon pox, vanishing sickness, 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' TEAROOM / HOSPITAL SHOP.......... Fifth floor
IF YOU ARE UNSURE WHERE TO GO, INCAPABLE OF NORMAL SPEECH OR UNABLE TO REMEMBER WHY YOU ARE HERE, OUR WELCOMEWITCH WILL BE PLEASED TO HELP.
A very old, stooped wizard with a hearing trumpet had shuffled to the front of the queue now. "I'm here to see Broderick Bode!" he wheezed.
"Ward forty-nine, but I'm afraid you're wasting your time," said the witch dismissively. "He's completely addled, you know — still thinks he's a teapot. Next!"
A harassed-looking wizard was holding his small daughter tightly by the ankle while she flapped around his head using the immensely large, feathery wings that had sprouted right out through the back of her romper suit.
Fourth floor," said the witch, in a bored voice, without asking, and the man disappeared through the double doors beside the desk, holding his daughter like an oddly shaped balloon. "Next!"
Molly moved forward to the desk.
"Hello," she said, "my husband, Arthur Weasley, was supposed to be moved to a different ward this morning, could you tell us?"
Arthur Weasley?" said the witch, running her finger down a long list in front of her. "Yes, first floor, second door on the right, Dai Llewellyn Ward."
"Thank you," said Molly. "Come on, you lot."
We followed her through the double doors and along the narrow corridor beyond, which was lined with more portraits of famous Healers and lit by crystal bubbles full of candles that floated up on the ceiling, looking like giant soapsuds. More witches and wizards in lime-green robes walked in and out of the doors they passed; a foul-smelling yellow gas wafted into the passageway as we passed one door, and every now and then we heard distant wailing. We climbed a flight of stairs and entered the Creature-Induced Injuries corridor, where the second door on the right bore the words: 'Dangerous' Dai Llewellyn Ward: Serious Bites. Underneath this was a card in a brass holder on which had been handwritten: Healer-in-Charge: Hippocrates Smethwyck. Trainee Healer: Augustus Pye.
"We'll wait outside, Molly," Tonks said. "Arthur won't want too many visitors at once ... it ought to be just the family first."
Mad-Eye growled his approval of this idea and set himself with his back against the corridor wall, his magical eye spinning in all directions. I drew back, too as I slipped my hands out of Fred's. But Fred reached out a hand and pushed me through the door, saying, "Don't be silly, lovey, dad wants to see you. Your like another daughter to him" I reluctantly smiled as Fred pulled me into the room.
The ward was small and rather dingy, as the only window was narrow and set high in the wall facing the door. Most of the light came from more shining crystal bubbles clustered in the middle of the ceiling. The walls were of panelled oak and there was a portrait of a rather vicious-looking wizard on the wall, captioned: Urquhart Rackharrow, 1612-1697, Inventor of the Entrail-expelling Curse.
There were only three patients. Mr. Weasley was occupying the bed at the far end of the ward beside the tiny window. All the Weasleys along with me, Harry was pleased and relieved to see that he was propped up on several pillows and reading the Daily Prophet by the solitary ray of sunlight falling on to his bed. He looked up as we walked towards him and, seeing who it was, beamed.
"Hello!" he called, throwing the Prophet aside. "Bill just left, Molly, had to get back to work, but he says he'll drop in on you later."
"How are you, Arthur?" asked Molly, bending down to kiss his cheek and looking anxiously into his face. "You're still looking a bit peaky."
"I feel absolutely fine," said Arthur brightly, holding out his good arm to give Ginny a hug. "If they could only take the bandages off, I'd be fit to go home."
"Why can't they take them off, Dad?" Asked Fred.
"Well, I start bleeding like mad every time they try," said Arthur cheerfully, reaching across for his wand, which lay on his bedside cabinet, and waving it so that seven extra chairs appeared at his bedside to seat them all. "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 an antidote, though; they say they've had much worse cases than mine, and in the meantime I just have to keep taking a Blood-Replenishing Potion every hour. But that fellow over there," he said, dropping his voice and nodding towards the bed opposite in which a man lay looking green and sickly and staring at the ceiling.
"Bitten by a werewolf, poor chap. No cure at all."
I gave a small gulp as I realised that that man will have to go through the painful transformations just like Lupin has to.
"A werewolf?" whispered Molly, looking alarmed. "Is he safe in a public ward? Shouldn't he be in a private room?"
"It's two weeks till full moon,' Arthur reminded her 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 quite easy to manage."
"What did he say?" asked George.
"Said he'd give me another bite if I didn't shut up," said Arthur sadly. "And that woman over there," he indicated the only other occupied bed, which was right beside the door, "won't tell the Healers what bit her, which makes us all think it must have been something she was handling illegally. Whatever it was took a real chunk out of her leg, very nasty smell when they take off the dressings."
"So, you going to tell us what happened, Dad?" asked Fred, pulling his chair closer to the bed but still clutching my hand tightly.
"Well, you already know, don't you?" said Arthur, with a significant smile at Harry. "It's very simple — I'd had a very long day, dozed off, got sneaked up on and bitten."
"Is it in the Prophet, you being attacked?" asked Fred, indicating the newspaper Arthur had cast aside.
"No, of course not," he said, with a slightly bitter smile, "the Ministry wouldn't want everyone to know a dirty great serpent got"
"Arthur!" Molly warned him.
"— got — er — me," Arthur said hastily, though we was quite sure that was not what he had meant to say.
"So where were you when it happened, Dad?" asked George.
"That's my business," said Mr. Weasley, though with a small smile. He snatched up the Daily Prophet, shook it open again and said, "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 summer? One of his jinxes backfired, the toilet exploded and they found him lying unconscious in the wreckage covered from head to foot in"
"When you say you were 'on duty'," Fred interrupted in a low voice, I gently shook my head but he clearly didn't see me "what were you doing?"
"You heard your father,' whispered Mrs. Weasley, "we are not discussing this here! Go on about Willy Widdershins, Arthur."
"Well, don't ask me how, but he actually got off the toilet charge," said Arthur grimly. "I can only suppose gold changed hands"
"You were guarding it, weren't you?" said George quietly. "The weapon? The thing You-Know-Who's after?"
"George, be quiet!" I snapped "and you to Freddie"
"Anyway," said Arthur, in a raised voice, "this time Willy's been caught selling biting doorknobs to Muggles and I don't think he'll be able to worm his way out of it because, according to this article, two Muggles have lost fingers and are now in St. Mungo's for emergency bone re-growth and memory modification. Just think of it, Muggles in St.
Mungo's! I wonder which ward they're in?"
And he looked eagerly around as though hoping to see a signpost.
"Didn't you say You-Know-Who's got a snake, Harry?" asked Fred, looking at his father for a reaction. "A massive one? You saw it the night he returned, didn't you?"
"That's enough," said Molly Weasley crossly before I could say something. "Mad-Eye and Tonks are outside, Arthur, they want to come and see you. And you lot can wait outside," she added to her children, me and Harry. "You can come and say goodbye afterwards. Go on."
They trooped back into the corridor. Mad-Eye and Tonks went in and closed the door of the ward behind them. Fred raised his eyebrows.
"Fine," he said coolly, rummaging in his pockets, "be like that. Don't tell us anything."
"To be fair, you both did go too far. If you both shut your mouths about it then we would still be in there" I scolded them. But George completely ignored me and turned back to Fred.
"Looking for these?" said George, holding out what looked like a tangle of flesh-coloured string.
"You read my mind," said Fred, grinning. "Let's see if St. Mungo's puts Imperturbable Charms on its ward doors, shall we? And sorry lovey. We really want to know."
He and George disentangled the string and separated six Extendable Ears from each other. Fred and George handed them around. Harry hesitated to take one. I reluctantly took one and Fred's face lit up in a smile. He looked really cute when he smiles
"Go on, Harry, take it! You saved Dad's life. If anyone's got the right to eavesdrop on him, it's you." George said nearly forcing the ear into his hand.
Grinning in spite of himself, Harry took the end of the string and inserted it into his ear as the twins had done.
"OK, go!" Fred whispered. He held the string in one hand and my hand in his other.
The flesh-coloured strings wriggled like long skinny worms and snaked under the door. At first, we could hear nothing, then we jumped as we heard Tonks whispering as clearly as though she were standing right beside him.
"... they searched the whole area but couldn't find the snake anywhere. It just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur ... but You-Know-Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can he?"
"I reckon he sent it as a lookout," growled Moody, "because 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,' said Molly. She sounded rather uneasy. "You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this."
"Yeah, well," said Moody, "there's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that."
"Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him this morning," whispered Mrs Weasley.
"'Course he's worried," growled Moody. "The boy's seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake. Obviously, Potter doesn't realise what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him"
Harry pulled the Extendable Ear out of his ear, heat rushing up his face. He looked around at me, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. We were all staring at him, the strings still trailing from their ears, looking suddenly fearful.
We spent the rest of the time in silence. Ginny and Ron were comforting Harry. Fred was drawing circles on my hand with his thumb whilst he was holding it, and George sat next to me placing his head on my shoulder.
Molly, Moody and Tonks all came out, we went back in to say goodbye to Arthur before we silently left the hospital and took taxis back to Grimmauld Place. Once we arrived back to HQ, Molly had yelled at the twins for their questions earlier. They both didn't argue but instead apologised and hugged their mother.
We spent a few hours in our room with George. We talked about what we heard in the extendable ear. When I say we, I mean Fred and George. I stayed silent, laying on Fred's lap as he played with my hair. I stared up to the ceiling, my thoughts running through my head.
"Lovey are you okay" Fred said, pulling me out of my thoughts
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" I asked
"You haven't said a word since we got back" George added. I gave a small nod before telling my boyfriend and his twin about my worries for Harry.
"He's only 15" I said "he shouldn't have to go through any of this!" Once I finished my rant, I burst into tears, I was worried for Harry, and the wizarding world. Fred pulled me into his chest where I sobbed leaving a patch of tears on his clothes.
The twins had comforted me for a while, before Molly called us down for dinner. We all ate in silence before we were quickly ushered upstairs and instructed to get ready and go to bed. Me and Fred went into our room after wishing everyone good night. I changed into a oversized t-shirt and some shorts, which weren't visible. We crawled into bed, Fred's arm wrapped around me
"I love you y/n" he whispered to me
"I love you to"
I burrowed my head into his chest and fell asleep