Summary: The dust settles after the epic battle in the Department of Mysteries and what remains is a family in tears. Little do they know that this is just the beginning of a long road of suffering.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I have been spending the last few months juggling college, work, and life in general, and have slowly been making progress towards the next installment in this epic story I've come up with that is based off the novels by JK Rowling. In the future there will be action packed adventure, comedy, a little romance, suspense and surprises. In the next installment I will introduce you to bold characters that will drive this story down a road of twist and turns. I hope you will join me on this journey.

~Who Wrote This Crap

Suffering

Chapter One: Waiting

P.S. Give back this Christmas year and write some reviews!

Bill glanced over to George who was checking his watch again. Bill reached into his pocket and pulled out the pocket watch that had once belonged to his Uncle Gideon. So far that was the twentieth time George had check the time within the last two minutes. He was being compulsive, and it was starting to get annoying. It wasn't half as annoying as Fred tossing magazine after magazine aside after having looked at every page with unfocused eyes. They were both as fidgety as Dad, who had been pacing back and forth across the room for hours now. Meanwhile, Mum was sitting quietly hunch over in her chair staring at the doors at the end of the hall that connected the St. Mungo's waiting room to its Emergency Wing. Occasionally she would stifle a sob or wipe stray tears from her eyes; she was probably trying not to imagine the worst.

Billed looked to his father again. Merlin knows what he going through right now, Bill thought, Dad will never forgive himself if Percy dies hating him. Bill shook his head. Percy didn't hate them- he was just angry with them. He knew that they loved him . . . didn't he? What if he doesn't? whispered a horrible voice in the back of his head. What if he truly thinks his family hates him?

He doesn't think that! Bill told the voice firmly. Deep down he really loves us and knows we love him.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

He does!

Mum failed to suppress a sob and Dad stopped his endless pacing to go to her. He put his hand on her shoulder and she let out a shuttering breath. She reached up to her shoulder and laced her fingers with his.

Bill pushed the horrible voice out of his head and let his thoughts drift towards his own love, Fleur. He had been at her flat, in her bed, drifting off to sleep with her in his arms when he heard Lupin urgently calling him from her fireplace. Bill had jumped out of bed and ran to the sitting room. Lupin told him to get to St. Mungo's immediately. Heart pounding, Bill had only asked him 'who?' Lupin managed to say 'It's Percy' before disappearing into the flames.

By the time he and Fluer had arrived at the hospital, Mum and Dad were already here, and, like him, had no idea what had happened or what was going on. The hospital was in chaos. From what they could make of one hysterical witch, the wizarding world now believed that You-Know-Who was really back. Fred and George showed up minutes later half dressed in their pajamas. Together, the six of them asked anyone they saw whether they had seen or heard of what happened to a tall young man with red hair and glasses. But everyone was so caught up in the news of You-Know-Who's return, no one was sparing them any of their attention. They had had no luck until a man with several missing teeth overheard Bill trying to ask a healer about his brother. The man told him he had seen an unconscious young red-haired man bleeding like mad and being rushed into the Emergency Room, just before the news broke out. Needless to say that did nothing to ease their worry. Not long after that they spotted a familiar wizard, bruised and bleeding with torn, ragged clothes -Remus Lupin. They cornered him and assaulted him with questions. But he could only spare a moment of his time to explain.

Bill ran his fingers through his long hair. Lupin had tried to explain what happened, but there was so much chaos going on around them Bill had barley heard the story… something about Harry being tricked by You-Know-Who into thinking that Sirius had been taken prisoner in the Department of Mysteries. He, Ron, Hermione, and for some reason Ginny along with two other schoolmates somehow made it all the way to London and into the Ministry in an attempt to rescue Sirius- who wasn't there. But they were cornered by Death Eaters and a big fight broke out. Then Percy, who had followed them into the department, go involved. Meanwhile, Snape had somehow figured out what Harry was up to and alerted the Order. Then, while the Order was mopping the floor with Death Eaters, You- Know-Who showed up and attacked Percy (who was with Harry)- just before Dumbledore showed up. He scared off You- Know-Who, and sent Percy to the hospital.

Lupin ran off looking for Tonks, after that. Mum tried calling after him, "What happened to Ron and Ginny? Are they okay? And Harry, what about Harry? Is he alright? Where are they? Can we see them?" but he was already gone. Now they were stuck in the waiting room with no answers to any of their hundreds of questions.

The waiting room door opened. Lupin quietly entered the room. Everyone stood up, but before they could ask him a single question he held his hands up and started giving them answers.

"Ron and Ginny are at Hogwarts along with Harry, Hermione, Luna and Neville. Madame Pomphrey says they will all be fine."

Bill let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Fred collapsed into his chair.

"Thank Merlin," Fred said.

"What about Tonks?" George asked.

"Tonks will be fine, as well as Moody and Kingsley." Lupin said reassuringly.

"And Sirius?" Fred asked.

Lupin smiled, "Dumbledore has cleared Sirius' name with the Ministry. He's a free man now. He's at Hogwarts with Harry and the others."

"That's great!"

"It's about time!"

Fred and George cheered, smiling for the first time in hours. The only one that hadn't smiled was Mum who was still staring at the doors to the Emergency Ward.

"Congratulate him for us, won't you Remus?" Dad said wrapping an arm around Mum.

Lupin's smile fell when he saw the stated Mum was in. "Has there been any news on Percy, yet?" Lupin asked concerned.

Bill shook his head. "No, nothing." he said.

Lupin sighed sitting down. "I promised Ginny I'd come back as soon as I learned more about Percy's condition."

"Do you know what curse 'ee was 'it with?" Fleur asked.

Lupin shook his head, "I haven't the slightest. I wasn't there when it happened."

"Bet it must have been pretty dark if it's taking them this long." George muttered.

"Yeah," Fred agreed quietly.

Half an hour later Fred was pretty sure his watch was broken. It had to be. It was impossible that they had only arrived at the hospital four hours ago. It felt like days. The waiting was driving him mad.

The doors at the end of the hall creaked and everyone looked up. A middle aged Healer with salt and pepper hair entered the hall. His footsteps echoed off the sterile walls as he slowly walked towards the anxious family. Immediately Dad and Mum hurried to meet him. Holding each other, they asked him about their son. The Healer spoke to the couple softly. Fred couldn't hear him, but the healer's face said it all. Fred felt his heart drop. Dad's grip on Mum tightened and Mum brought hands to her face. Fred could only make out the words "I'm sorry" before Mum started sobbing into Dad's chest. Dad held her. He was pale with shock, and silent tears were beginning to make their way down his cheeks.

The Healer walked past the crying couple towards the rest of them. He looked at them with a somber expression.

"He's dead, isn't he?" George asked in a quiet voice.

The Healer sighed. "Not yet," he said bluntly. ". . . It doesn't look good."

"What 'appened to 'im?" Fleur asked putting a slender hand on Bill's shoulder.

"He was- he's-" The Healer rubbed his neck, "Look I'm going to be straight with you; whatever curse your brother was hit with was extremely dark and extremely powerful. It created cracks in his chest that cut through the his skin, shattered his bones, ripped through his muscles, and tore open a few organs. We managed to stop the bleeding, mend his bones, and repair the tissue damage to his stomach and lungs, but when we got to his heart dark magic had already seeped inside."

Fred swallowed. That didn't sound good. That didn't sound good at all.

"What does that mean?" Bill asked the Healer staring at him intensely.

"The dark magic will infect his blood stream poisoning him slowly until his body finally gives out." he told them.

The room went silent. After a thick, long pause Fred finally asked the question they were all thinking, but didn't want to ask.

"How long does he have?"

Again the Healer sighed. "It is impossible to tell. It could be a few hours or a few days . . . maybe even weeks. This kind of dark magic is extremely rare and has been crudely documented, so little is known about it."

Fleur swallowed. "Will it 'urt?" she asked softly.

At this the healer paused as if trying to find the right words to answer her question.
". . . He will suffer near the end."

"Isn't there anything you can do for him?" Lupin asked desperately.

The Healer, whose green robes, Fred now noticed read Cris Crispen, scratched the back of his head. "We'll try everything we can think of to stop it, but realistically all we may accomplish is slowing the poising process down."

"Can we see him?" his teary-eyed mum asked from behind Crispen.

The Healer turned to her. "Yes, but he's unconscious now. I don't know when or even if he'll wake up."

"We want to see him." Dad said shakily. "We want to be with him."

"Yes, of course, right this way" Crispen said leading them back toward the Emergency Wing. "We've put him in a separate room, since we don't know the nature of this curse, or what it'll do to him, we've decided to keep him away from the other patients." The Healer awkwardly rambled on, but Fred wasn't listening. He was still trying to wrap his head around the idea that Perfect Prefect Percy was actually dying.

When Lupin had first told him that Percy was in the hospital, he and George had felt . . . what was the right word? Alarmed? It wasn't the icy cold fear that had formed in the pit of their stomachs a few months ago when they had been told Dad was attacked. Dad being attacked was believable. Dad worked for the Order, but Percy wasn't part of the Order. In fact, until tonight, Fred wasn't sure he even considered Percy part of the family anymore. So when Lupin had told them that Percy was seriously hurt while fighting Death Eaters with Harry, Ron and Ginny, and the Order, it wasn't that icy fear he had felt before. No this was something different, this was- it was Perfect Percyfor crying out loud! The man had a desk job! He didn't go around fighting Death Eater's with Harry Potter! The whole thing seemed to be some kind of a joke.

Fred was pulled from his thoughts when he walked into Fleur, who had stopped suddenly.

"Walk much?" George muttered into his ear. But before Fred could say something equally, if not more, clever to his twin, Crispen started speaking again.

"Well, here we are." Crispen said, opening the door. "Like I said before, we don't know how much time he has, or even if he'll wake up." Mum and Dad rushed inside, but came to a sudden halt at the sight of their son. And Once Fred managed to slip inside he understood why. Percy was lying motionless- nearly lifelessly, in the hospital bed, his glasses on the nightstand beside his bed. His skin was so white even his freckles looked pale. The slight, slow rise and fall of his chest was the only indication that he was still alive. Lupin waved his wand and six chairs appeared beside his bed; three on one side, and three on the other. Mum and Dad took the seats closest to their son.

"Percy? Percy honey can you hear me?" Mum said tearfully. She held his hand and looked at Dad worryingly. "His hands are cold." She looked back a Crispen. "Why are his hands cold?" she asked in a voice slightly above a whisper.

The Healer frowned. "We've given him a Blood-Replenishing Potion it should have warmed him up by now," Crispen said coming over and feeling Percy's hand. "It could be an indication of the curse poisoning his heart. If that's the case then there's nothing we can do about it."

Mum looked at Percy and started crying again.

"-for now" Crispen added quickly, seeing that he had upset Mum. "Um, well, yes, err, visiting hours are from 7 am- 9 pm. I have to- I need to- I think I should leave you alone now." he said awkwardly slipping out the door.

"Well, his bedside manner leaves something to be desired." Fred muttered to George. George, however, merely nodded; his attention was focused completely on the lifeless brother in front of him.

Percy.

To him the very thought that Percy was dying was bizarre. Percy was the kind of guy that was always there- annoyingly so. Whether he was there to get them in trouble, or to be their target for their pranks, he was just always there. And when he wasn't, it just didn't feel right. It wasn't the same. That's one of the things that really got to him and Fred when he left the family. That and making Mum cry. Though they had tried to convince themselves otherwise, they both secretly had always hoped he'd come back to the family- then things could go back to normal. He and Fred had said on several occasions that Percy was dead to them, but that wasn't true. Even if he wasn't physically there, whenever they were coming up with new pranks and merchandise he always ended up in their thoughts.

Now this Healer guy was expecting them to believe that Percy was really going to be dead? Who was he trying to fool? Percy's too ambitious to die. To think otherwise was just . . . well . . . bizarre.

George moved over to Percy's nightstand. He picked up Percy's glasses. Or what's left of them, George thought. They looked utterly destroyed. A lens was missing and the remaining lens was crack, one of the temples had been blow off its hinges. In short it was beyond repair. George looked over to his speckle-less sleeping . . . well, more like unconscious brother.

George always thought Percy looked weird without his thick horn-rimmed glasses. When they were little, taking Percy's glasses always seem like a fun thing to do. He use to make a funny face when he squinted that would just crack him and Fred up. But he couldn't see a thing without them. One time when they had taken Percy's glasses, he had yelled for ten minutes straight, until he realized he had been telling off a chair and not his twin brothers. George smiled at the memory. That had been hilarious. But then they had done something that, even George had to admit was a bit too cruel.

It had been a few days after Percy started flying on a broom. He wasn't a natural like Ginny, far from it actually, but he wanted to get better so that he wouldn't look like a fool when he went to Hogwarts in two years. Percy had been practicing twenty feet in the air, when he and Fred came out and started yelling at him to come down so they could hit him. Percy had gotten them in trouble and they were mad. When Percy didn't come down, but started lecturing to them about how they deserved it, Fred got so mad that he magically made Percy's glasses disappear. A knot of guilt and regret formed in George's stomach as he remembered them laughing and pointing at the site of their older brother clinging to the broom for dear life, desperately trying and miserably failing not to cry. He was so scared that Dad had to go get him down. To this day Percy was terrified of flying.

"I should get back to Hogwarts and let the others know about Percy." Lupin said excusing himself from the room.

"Hold on, I'll come with you." Fred said hurrying after him. Fred stopped and looked at him. "You coming, George?"

"Yeah, be right there." George said quietly. He slipped the glasses into his pocket.

They wouldn't do Percy any good anyways. He'd replace them once he got back. And what could he say? Old habits are hard to break.