When the second Healer saw what the first was doing he asked Kingsley where the “other one” was; he had seen Peter sitting but believed it could not be the boy, he was still alive. But Williams stammered that it WAS the boy receiving the memory. Turning to Peter, the Healer saw that he was in a catatonic state, barely breathing, but definitely alive. Then the six used an emergency Portkey to go directly to St. Mungo’s Emergency Room.
After having seen Percy and Peter removed to an examination room, Shacklebolt turned to Williams. “Son, go home and stay there. I’ll be in contact with you. Did you contact Weasley?” Seeing a nod, Shacklebolt Apparated to his office and then back to the hospital to wait for Arthur.
At seven-thirty, the Burrow residents and guests were in the middle of their game of exploding snap when an owl, which Arthur recognized as coming from the Ministry, brought a scroll directly to his hands. Everyone watched his expression go from relief to puzzlement. Standing, Arthur told George to go to Hogwarts and find Ginny, bringing her back immediately, no matter what Snape might say or do. His alarming tone frightened Molly and she tried to ask what had happened, but Arthur ignored her pleas. Turning to Ron he told him to “follow me.” Ron and his father removed themselves to a back room where Molly and Hermione could not hear them.
“Ron, I need you to stay here with Hermione. I have to take your mother to St. Mungo’s; Percy’s been found but appears to be injured. When Ginny gets here I want you to send George to find Fred, then you, Ginny, and Hermione meet us at the hospital. See you shortly, son.”
With that puzzling request, Arthur ran back to find his wife. By the time Ron returned to the dining room his parents had already left. Ron told Hermione about the conversation, still in shock about Percy. Together they went to the parlor to wait.
George returned first saying that Snape had gone to find Ginny. Hearing his father’s instructions through his brother, George Apparated back to the twins’ flat. He reappeared in about twenty seconds with an evil grin saying Fred would be here as soon as he got himself unattached and dressed. While waiting for Fred and Ginny, the three traded gloomy speculation about Percy; then George remembered that the message was still in the kitchen. Returning with the note, George looked no less puzzled than his father had been an hour earlier.
“The note’s from someone named Williams and says: ‘Found Percy Weasley, taking to Mungo’s. Come ASAP.’ Not very helpful, is it?”
The door to Hagrid’s hut flew open with a crash startling Harry and Ginny. Turning to see who had entered, both were horrified to see Snape run through the door and approach them. The expression on his face was not the anger they had expected, but relief.
“Get up! Potter, Floo to the Burrow with Ms. Weasley, immediately.” Seeing Harry was too startled to move, Snape cursed and yelled again, “Both of you, now!” Needing no further encouragement, Harry and Ginny made a quick departure and soon found themselves at the Burrow where Ron, Hermione, and George had been waiting for Ginny. After a few more minutes Fred arrived, but before he could get an explanation about what was happening Tonks appeared in the fireplace saying she was looking for Harry.
“I’m right here, Tonks.” Harry called. Everyone tried to tell her all at once that Percy had been found hurt and they needed to go, but Harry noticed something was wrong with Tonks. Telling the others he would meet them at the hospital, Harry grabbed a handful of Floo powder, said, “12 Grimmauld Place,” and threw the powder down, disappearing into a cloud of green smoke. After Harry left, everyone else Floo’d to St. Mungo’s to find out what had happened.
Harry arrived at Sirius’s old house and found Tonks waiting for him, looking more confused than upset. Harry couldn’t get over how much visiting the old house still bothered him, but he put that aside to find out why Tonks needed him.
“Harry, thanks for coming. Um, Harry, something is happening, or not happening. Remus…” But she appeared to be unable to find the words she was looking for. Her hair was rapidly changing colours and the expressions on her face seemed to be coordinated with the odd shifts in hue.
“Tonks, is Remus ok?”
“Yeah, Harry, he’s fine. Harry, look outside, up in the sky.”
Harry went to the window and pulled back the heavy curtain. Looking up to the sky it suddenly hit Harry, it is a full moon tonight, Remus must have transformed.
“It is a full moon Harry, you saw it, right?”
“Yeah, did Remus forget his Potion?” Then to Harry’s astonishment, Remus walked into the room, wearing only his boxers, and looking just as puzzled as Tonks.
“No Harry, I took it like I always do.”
St. Mungo’s emergency room was a mad-house as Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, and Hermione entered. None of them had seen it so busy since the war, but only a couple of the people looked like they were injured or sick. Mostly everyone looked surprised, almost in shock. Pushing their way to the receptionist, George said they were Percy Weasley’s family and where could they find him? The lady behind the desk, looking frazzled from all the activity, directed them to Examining Room 3.
The scene that greeted the five new visitors in the examining room was unusual, to say the least. It held three Healers, all in a huddle at the far end of the room. Two nurses were standing, one each, next to the two tables; one table was holding Percy, the other an adolescent they did not recognize. Percy’s wand was taped to the side of his head, a sight none of them had ever seen, and making him look like he had a single horn protruding from the side of his skull.
Noticing that Arthur was there, Ginny asked where her mother was. Arthur simply pointed to the door, “Your mother was so upset we had to sedate her, she’s in the next room.”
Ginny looked at the others, and then asked the question they were all thinking. “Why is Percy’s wand taped to his head?”
Before Arthur could answerm, one of the Healers drew his attention. “Mr. Weasley, is this the rest of your family?” Seeing Arthur nod his head the man who appeared to be the senior Healer addressed everyone.
“I’m afraid we have an unusual situation here. When your son was brought to the hospital two hours ago, he was examined and pronounced dead.” Ginny and Hermione both let out cries and the men just stood, shocked and rooted in place. The Healer held up his hand and continued. “But at this time we are not certain if your son is dead or not.”
“How can you ‘not be certain?’” A very confused Fred asked. “He’s either dead or alive, right?”
The senior Healer scratched his head and looked back at his fellow Healers. “I want to show you something, something extraordinary.” Walking up to Percy’s head the Healer removed some of the tape holding the wand in place and asked each person to look at the tip of Percy’s wand.
“See these fine silver threads? This may be the only thing keeping him alive, and I’m still not certain he IS alive. There is no known case of a wizard surviving a break in a memory transfer from one wizard to another; the bond between the two must be kept unbroken until the transfere’s complete. This is why we recommend strictly controlled environments for these procedures. They’ve become so common no one thinks about safety any more.”
Arthur interrupted and addressed the others. “Yesterday Kingsley Shacklebolt told me that Percy had been located when he used magic in front of a Muggle. I was waiting for word from him when the ministry owl delivered a puzzling note from…”
“Yeah, dad, we saw it.” George cut in.
“When I reached the hospital with your mother I was met by KingsleyShacklebolt who told me that Williams had thrown a disarming spell when he saw Percy put his wand at this lad’s head. Apparently he didn’t recognize the memory transfer and…” Arthur stopped and looked lost.
“Then that’s why Percy’s still alive.” Hermione declared; not a question but a statement.
“I beg your pardon. You are?”
“I’m sorry, this is my future daughter in law, Hermione Granger.” Arthur explained. “Why do you say that, Hermione?”
“Because this other boy isn’t a wizard.”
The Healers suddenly looked perplexed, but did not dismiss Hermione’s theory outright. Sensing an opportunity to add more convincing information Hermione pointed to the boy. “I imagine you didn’t find a wand, did you?” Continuing off their blank stares and looks of confusion, “Look, you know Percy was doing magic in the presence of a Muggle, and you know that if they both were wizards they would be dead, therefore this other person has to be a Muggle.”
Now the Healers just looked like they missed a simple math question. One ran out of the room and the other two checked the lad again for a wand, hoping that they would not be as stupid on their second search.
“Remus, why haven’t you transformed?” Harry was staring at his friend with a mixture of delight and wariness. If Remus started transforming again they would both be in serious danger.
But Remus just shook his head. “Harry, I thought I WAS starting to change, the familiar feeling in my extremities began, but then it stopped with no visible results. After about an hour I called for Tonks and then she went looking for you.”
“Think we ought to take him to St. Mungo’s, Harry?” Tonks suggested.
“Yeah, I...” Then Harry remembered Percy and filled the Lupin’s in. “We were all about to go the Mungo’s when Tonks appeared, someone named Williams found Percy, but he must be injured.”
Hearing this news, Remus went to get dressed and then all three Floo’d to St. Mungo’s. The crown in the emergency room was so large it had spilled outside into the quadrangle. Remus and Harry told Tonks to wait outside so she wouldn’t be jostled around by the crowd. As they were about to start pushing their way in, a Healer exited the emergency room; touching his wand to his mouth he spoke to the crowd in an amplified voice.
“Please, may I have your attention? Everyone please quiet down. Thank you. I must ask that all non-injured patrons please leave the hospital grounds. There are a number of legitimate emergency cases that need our immediate attention so those of you having problems with spells please leave immediately. All Werewolves who did not transform this evening please gather to my left. Thank you for your cooperation.”
“What does he mean, Harry?” Tonks asked, but her husband answered the question.
“I know most of those men over there.” Remus pointed to a small group of men and women of all ages. By the way the departing crowd was shying away from them Harry knew they must be Werewolves. “They must not have transformed either. I’ll see what they have to say. Harry, after the crowd thins out why don’t you and Tonks go find out what you can about Percy.” With that, Remus headed off toward his fellow Werewolves while his wife and Harry fought the crowds to get into the Emergency Room.
Despite the reduced size of the crowd, many “uninjured” cases still lingered inside. Harry took Tonks’ hand and pushed his way to the receptionist telling her they were part of the Weasley family and asking where they would find Percy. Directed to the examining room, they were nearly run over by a small group of Healers too busy talking among themselves to watch where they were going. They finally reached the room, and after a perfunctory knock, entered.
Searching the second boy, Arthur Weasley found no wand, but he did find a student identification card with the lad’s name and address. With this information Fred volunteered to take it back to the ministry so they could determine the best course of action. Meanwhile, Hermione had joined the two remaining Healers and was asking questions about memory break injuries.
“Well, Ms. Granger, the fact is that even with sixteen hundred years of records we don’t know what happens with these cases, except that both the memory owner and receiver have always died. We’re certain it has to do with the brain, but any more than that is just speculation; and there aren’t a great number of these case to study, maybe one every ten years. We had many more in the days before pensieves became the standard storage device.”
Ron and Ginny had wondered over to stand with Hermione and listen in, as did Harry, having just entered the room. Tonks went to speak with Arthur and get updated, as well as giving them her news. A few more minutes of discussion between the two Healers ended with one moving over to Percy and, after ensuring that all the memory filaments were gone, removing the oddly placed wand from Percy’s temple. They knew there was no real hope for a change when they did this, and they were not disappointed.
Percy lay still, with no discernable respiration, and a heart rated of one beat every minute. He looked like he was in hibernation. When Hermione voiced this opinion the senior Healer said it was as good an evaluation of Percy’s status as anyone could make.
After a few more minutes Percy was taken up to the seventh Floor, ward 49. Harry and Ginny volunteered to accompany him while the rest of the family moved to the cafeteria to get a snack and wait for Molly to wake up.
Harry knew Neville’s parents now lived as almost complete mental invalids on the seventh Floor, not far from Percy’s new room. Upon reaching the Floor, everyone was surprised to see far more activity than expected, but most in the way of visitors, not new patients. Escorting the senior Healer and Percy to his room, Ginny and Harry arranged some chairs around the bed and waited for the other to arrive.
“Harry! Ginny!” An excited voice called after they sat down. “I saw you come in and I had to come see...” But Neville, who had startled Harry and Ginny, stopped when he saw Percy’s nearly lifeless form on the bed. “Blimey, Harry, what happened?”
Harry filled Neville in on the tragic situation. He could tell that Neville was sorry for Ginny’s family, but he seemed distracted and kept looking out to the hall. In fact, Neville looked happier than Harry had ever seen him.
“Neville, dear, are these some of your friends?” A voice asked from behind them.
“Yeah! This is Ginny Weasley and that’s Harry Potter. Harry, Ginny, this is Alice Longbottom, my mother.” Neville beamed as he introduced his friends.