"...In breaking news, an investigation has been launched globally after a possible brainwashing scandal was exposed coming out of Florence, Italy. According to the International Confederation, following the death of Headmistress, Alcina Abate, the Accademia di Magia Crusca has been accused of altering memories of its students illegally, forcing them into professions. This may be related to several cases of alumni students who have been institutionalised in the past as well as related to several cases of murder where the motive has been left unsolved..."
Molly Weasley walked over, carrying two cups of tea in hand, one to offer to James as he sat with Harry in his lap inside the living room of the Burrow. She was hoping to settle the young man's nerves as his legs were bouncing so much in place that it was shaking Harry, who thought it was some sort of game as he happily clapped his hands together. She turned the Wizarding Wireless Network off as it had been covering the Florence case since the news broke a couple of weeks prior.
The Daily Prophet was the first to grab the story, covering the murder of Alcina Abate and her husband, Nencio as little details had been exposed at the time to the public. Many believed that the "beloved" headmistress had been killed in cold blood, along with her husband. However, as the days went on, more the story began to unravel and suddenly, the renowned headmistress became the story of nightmares.
When people learned that her own children had been subjected to torture in order to cover up the harmful practices, many believed it was the work of a possible Death Eater, trying to continue the work of Lord Voldemort, even long after his death. And once Adelmo and Renata were transferred to St Mungo's, every reporter was attempting to get in, hoping for some sort of interview. However, Renata and Adelmo remained in induced comas, along with other alumni students and currently attending students of the academy that needed to be examined.
James wasn't sure how they were going to work in order to help all of them until he saw a pensieve brought in to assist the Healers, along with Obliviators sent in from the Ministry of Magic to offer their own help with uncovering memories. Overall, it was hectic in St Mungo's, morning, noon, and night every time James was there. And he was often very hesitant about bringing Harry, simply because he wasn't sure how his son was going to react.
He remembered Renata being against the idea of children spending a lot of time in hospitals, even if it was just to visit. There was a lot going on around them that they didn't understand and it could come across as frightening. Besides that, how was James supposed to explain to Harry that Renata was asleep but wouldn't wake up even if he tried to wake her? But at the same time, since James had returned home, Harry hadn't stopped asking for Renata.
It was painful to see Harry look around the home for her, as he would look under all the beds, stick his head in Renata's room, look out into the garden or spend a great deal of the day sitting in the window to look out the front. James remembered when Harry looked around for Lily for awhile and he hated seeing him go through the same thing again. He knew he had to take Harry to see Renata, he just wasn't sure how well it was going to go over.
So, he turned to the one and only, Molly Weasley, for comfort and reassurance.
When he returned home, James found that everyone was upset by the news, not that he could really blame them. He was even more upset than he let on, he was just attempting to keep a brave face for Harry's sake, as well as Sirius, who was trying to do the same for him.
"You know, if it's too much for the two of you, you don't have to stay there, James," Molly said as she took to sitting next to him. She followed James' gaze to where he watched Harry playing with Ginny. She was on the floor as Harry dangled a toy over her head, making her laugh hysterically, while Ron made all sorts of huffing noises because Harry wasn't playing with him.
"Renata won't hold it against you if you leave early and you know that," she continued, having him finally look up at her. "She only wants the best for you and Harry, so if it's too much the first time you bring Harry, then leave."
"Right, you're right," he nodded, " I just don't like leaving her there. I just want her to wake up and come home. And I know as soon as Harry sees her, he's going to want the same thing. But I hate watching him pace around at home because he can't find her."
"Well, Harry won't understand everything that is happening but as long as you reassure him that Renata is fine, I think he'll be alright. He's a strong and incredibly smart boy. You can have him talk to her just like you do. Of course, he can't string words together like you can, but it might help."
"She hasn't reacted to me talking to her," James said, "I just pretend that she can hear me."
"It very well might be that she can hear you," Molly said in an optimistic tone, " maybe she can't respond, but it doesn't mean she can't hear you. So, I bet hearing you and Harry will make her extremely happy. It doesn't hurt to try."
Every day, Renata made it a point to return to the fields where she had first met the Romanian Longhorn that wore glasses and spoke like James. She still wasn't sure what the dragon represented, but every day, she was coming closer to the conclusion that she wasn't in the afterlife, that what she was experiencing was something completely different. Harry would join her, but sometimes, he wouldn't talk or interact with her, he would just sit there as the dragon spoke to Renata.
But when the dragon was finished talking, Harry would grab her hand and lead her away until the dragon vanished from the field. Each visit with the dragon, he wouldn't respond to what she said to him, he would talk like she was there, but never truly interact with her. All of his words were words of comfort, always telling her that things were going to be alright. He would tell her that Harry was looking for her, which confused her greatly because Harry was always sitting next to her in the presence of the dragon.
However, she couldn't ask the dragon any questions because he never responded to them, which always left her feeling incredibly frustrated. And to make matters worse, not everything was so pleasant in the afterlife, as she had to live through horrible images of what seemed to be memories stemmed from her childhood and adolescence. She didn't remember any of what she saw, but thinking that her mind was free from the effects of her mother's ways, she was getting a heavy dose of them.
One of the memories involved her walking down the hallway of her home as she heard Adelmo crying from one of the rooms. She had tiptoed all the way to where his bedroom door was cracked open, only to see him on the floor, writhing around in pain while their father stood over him with his wand pointed right at him. He could only be around nine years old at the time and if Renata assumed correctly, he was suffering the affects of the Cruciatus Curse.
She was about to storm into the room and demand that her father stop and help her brother, only to have a firm hand grab her shoulder roughly, yanking her back. She came face to face with her mother, who did not look pleased to catch her spying on Adelmo's punishment.
"Mamma, Adelmo's in pain," Renata's voice quivered, " we should-"
Thinking that her mother would put a stop to Adelmo's punishment, Renata was naive and completely caught off guard as Alcina grabbed a fistful of her hair and began dragging her down the hallway. Renata screamed, feeling the burning sensation all over her scalp, which only became worse when she flailed about to free herself.
"I'm sorry, Mamma," she cried out, " I'm sorry!"
"I know you are, sweetheart, I know you are."
There were so many memories similar to that one and Renata couldn't believe that abuse that she and Adelmo had endured over the years without knowing. It wasn't just the Cruciatus Curse that they were subjected to, there were all sorts of curses and when that wasn't enough, Alcina and Nencio resulted to violence with the use of their own hands. But after every punishment, they would heal Renata and Adelmo, removing the harsh marks and bruises that painfully decorated their skin.
And then, their memories would be altered so that they would remember none of it and they would just carry on as if nothing had happened.
Anytime Renata had to go through one of her memories, Harry was always there when it was over and he would take to wiping the tears off her face. He would also hug her until she calmed down and she would hold onto him. No, the afterlife wasn't as pleasant as she intially thought it to be, it was confusing and having to face terrible memories didn't make her feel any better about being there. But she had a feeling that it wasn't the afterlife, she was stuck in a state or a sort of dimension that she couldn't describe.
Then one day, as she waited in the field for the dragon to arrive, he didn't show and Renata didn't understand why, and to make things worse, when she looked over Harry wasn't next to her either like he usually was. Instead, as she sat in the field everything around her started to fade and she found herself incased in darkness, similar to when she had first arrived to the place.
She was no longer sitting at one point, simply lying on a dark plane of nothing and no matter how hard she tried to sit up or move, she couldn't.
The panic set in rather quickly as she thought something was horribly wrong, maybe she had been in a state of limbo and now she was making the journey to her death? Renata had no way of knowing, but she couldn't even cry out for help and there was no one around her to assist anyway.
Help me, she called out in her head, please someone help me.
"Mummy!"
Harry? Harry where are you? She could hear him, but she couldn't see him. Harry?
As James walked in with Harry in his arms, he stopped in the doorway momentarily attempting to gather himself as he knew it was going to be an emotional day for him. Harry didn't have the slightest idea of what was taking place, all too occupied with the different people walking around St Mungo's before he turned around to face the same direction as his father. That's when he spotted her, the woman he had been searching for for what felt like an eternity. She was right there in front of them, she appeared to be sleeping and since it was daytime, Harry had to assume she was just taking a nap.
But he assumed that as soon as he greeted her that she would wake up and then they could start playing. Immediately, he began squirming about in his father's arms so that he could be placed down on the floor and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he darted over as fast as his little legs could carry him to her bedside.
"Mummy! Mummy!"
Harry latched onto the arm that was closest to him and attempted to pull himself up onto the bed, which caused James to race over and pick him up to stop him.
"Harry, wait," he kept his voice calm, " you can't do that, she's sleeping."
"Wake up!" Harry clapped his hands together as if that was the solution to all of his problems. "Wake up, Mummy! Time to go play!"
Clapping his hands several more times, Harry was confused as to why Renata wasn't waking up. Normally, she was a light sleeper and just the slightest noise or movement would wake her up but as he called out to her, she didn't move or respond to him. Maybe she wasn't responding to him calling her Mummy as she had corrected him sometimes when he called her it.
"Nanny Nanata?"
Still there was no response, leaving Harry to become upset because she had to respond to something, why would she ignore him? Was she mad at him or was this a new game? If it was the latter, he didn't like the new game at all.
"Mummy!"
After just a couple of minutes of Harry trying to get Renata to wake up, he became visibly upset as his hand-clapping didn't work and his yelling was causing some Healers to poke their heads into the room to see what was going on. James didn't mind so much what other people thought at the time, he was just more concerned about how upset Harry was and how there was really nothing he could do besides remove him from the situation.
"I'm sorry, Harry," he whispered to him, " but Mummy can't play with you right now. She needs her rest, alright? Come on, let's go home-"
"Noo!" Harry screamed. "No home! No Daddy! Mummy, let's go play! Let's go play! Mummy!"
Harry continued to yell, twisting his body to fight James in order to get him to let go of him so he could get to Renata. However, at the risk of causing a scene, James decided it was just best to leave and try to get Harry to settle down.
What James was unaware of at the time was, Renata could fully hear the two of them in the state she was in. But it was only causing her further panic as she couldn't bring herself to respond no matter how loud she was yelling in her head to move. On the inside, she causing one hell of a fuss, but on the outside, no one would be able to tell as she remained peacefully quiet with the same emotionless expression and her eyes closed. However, before James left, it made him uncomfortable to see Renata just stuck in that position of lying on her back.
Normally, when he visited on his own, he would take to adjusting her on her side while he was there, moving her arms and legs around as the Healers suggested so that she wasn't completely stiff and was able to get proper blood flow. Seeing as though he had Harry in his arms, wailing loudly, he wasn't going to be able to do it and as he left the room and walked further down the corridor, he stopped one of the Healers.
"I'm sorry!" he called over Harry's screaming, especially as he watched the Healer flinch at the loudness. Apparently, Harry had quite the set of vocals in him, James just forgot how loud he truly could be since it had been awhile since Harry had thrown such a fit.
"I didn't get to move her while I was in there," he told the Healer, " could you roll her on her side for a bit? She likes sleeping in that position instead of on her back."
At that point with Harry's screaming, the Healer was willing to do forty-five somersaults as long as it meant he wouldn't have to put up with it much longer. He gave a quick nod of his head and entered Renata's room to escape.
He walked over to the woman's bedside, reaching out to move her gently to rest on her side as instructed. He didn't think that was going to make much of a difference because it wasn't like she could really respond or do much at the time. But if it offered comfort to the man that was there every single day, he didn't see a problem with it. It wouldn't compromise the patient in anyway as long as they moved her back into her regular position after some time.
Rolling Renata onto her side, she was light as it didn't take much to adjust her and the pillows to keep her in the position. The Healer was just about to adjust the pillow under her head when he peered down and let out a startled screeched.
Renata's eyes were open and she was looking directly at him.
It wasn't as uncommon as one believed for a patient in a coma to open their eyes when they ended up on a sleeping cycle, but Renata's eyes hadn't open during the entire time of her induced state. Not to mention, they weren't just open, they were moving and looking around the room before landing on the Healer once more. She didn't recognise him of course, and out of sheer panic of a stranger looming over her as she woke up, she started to scream herself.
Soon enough, it was just becoming a common occurence that afternoon where everyone was screaming and yelling.
But down the corridor as he heard the Healer screech and then the sound of a woman's throaty scream, James came to a halt and immediately whipped around in the opposite direction of where he had been walking. He looked back in the direction of Renata's room to see the Healer come running out, calling for other Healers.
And just as everyone became alerted, Harry started clapping his hands together.
"Mummy is awake! Let's go play!"