To those of you that asked, I'm so sorry that this took so long to get out. In all honestly it's just because I'm lazy; I had computer problems, and work to do, but mostly I'm just lazy. :/

But anyway, here it is, chapter 6. I shall endeavour to be quicker with the next one; much quicker!

TheMightyKoosh

Chapter 6

They had been sat beside Harry's bed, watching his skinny chest as it barely rose and fell, for several hours, barely even talking to pass the time. It was now very early in the morning the day after they had been taken to this strange, empty hospital to wait for a sign that Harry was ok. The silence of the room was suddenly broken by a gasp from the bed, but when Yvonne jumped up and looked down at the prone form of her cousin-in-law, his eyes were still closed and he had not moved at all.

Dudley leaned forwards and clasped his cousin's hand. "Go and get someone." He said to Yvonne, and brushed a strand of hair out of Harry's face. She hurried away and returned with the aging lady with grey hair in a bun, Madam Pomfrey, she thought she remembered. As she returned she heard Dudley talking, where he was still bent over Harry. "Harry, can you hear me, Harry. How do you feel?"

Pomfrey bustled up to the bed and began waving her wand about briskly. "I could see his eyes moving beneath their lids." Dudley said as he moved out of the way of the nurse.

"It's ok Harry," She said in her soft voice, once her wand had stopped waving, "You're safe now, you can open your eyes." She stroked hair back from his face, just as Dudley had been doing before.

And then brilliant green eyes were staring up at her. He hadn't even moved, not a twitch, but he was staring at her solemnly. "Welcome back, Mister Potter. Although I didn't expect to be seeing you here again." There was firmness to her voice.

"Why Hogwarts?" He asked, using as few words as he could.

She smiled at him softly, sadly, "The minister knows you well, Harry." He nodded once, before closing his eyes again. "How do you feel, Harry?" She asked, knowing that it was a stupid question, him having just been tortured, but also knowing that he would not give her a straight answer.

"Fine." He responded raspily. "Is Yvonne ok?" He asked, to the young woman's surprise, shocking her that he would ask such a thing when he himself was so far from ok.

"No you're not." She said sadly, "And yes she is. But you're going to be very poorly for a while, young man." He just closed his eyes again, breathing deeply. She could tell from the tension on his forehead that he was in pain, but knew, after the multitude of times that he had been in her care, that he would not say anything. "Here, drink this." She said, handing him a phial of pain-reliever and knowing that she was right when the frown lines smoothed out and there was a gentle sigh of relief. Yvonne was surprised with the familiarity between Harry and the nurse.

"Go on then, what's the damage?" He finally asked, opening his eyes again.

Pomfrey sighed heavily. "Over exposure to the Cruciatus curse, on top of what you've experienced in the past, it's going to take a while for you to get over it, you had lots of abrasions that are very like to scar, and you lost two fingers on your right hand. There was some serious damage done to your internal organs, I stabilised them and prevented any further damage, but you're going to need more potions before they'll be fully healed, so you're going to have to be careful. The bones on the left side of your body were entirely crushed, so you've been on skelegrow all night, you're leg however has not healed, and the hip seems to be getting worse." She rattled it all of rapidly and matter of factly, knowing that it was always worse to keep things from Harry. "You've got a long road of recovery ahead of you, Harry."

He sighed heavily "Bummer." Pomfrey snorted in response. "Can I have some water please?" He eventually asked.

She jumped into action, surprised with herself that she had not even thought about how thirsty the poor boy must be. She waved her wand and summoned a glass of water with a straw which she held by his mouth. Harry frowned at her and shook his head. With a painful looking shuffle he got his arm behind himself and began pushing himself into an upright position. His left arm, the one that had been shattered, shook and quivered violently at the pressure before collapsing beneath him, his frame falling back onto the bed as it did so.

"You imbibed a lot of potions last night, that means that they are less effective, so the bones in your arm are not quite healed yet." Pomfrey clucked.

Dudley stepped forwards to his cousin and hooked his hands under Harry's arms to hoist him up into a sitting position, Yvonne placing pillows behind him to lean against, so that he would be comfortable while he drank his fill. Harry jumped when he caught sight of them, having not noticed their presence without his glasses on.

"Dudley?" He asked, as he settled back against the pillows, nodding slightly in thanks to Yvonne.

"Hey Harry." Dudley said, his voice quiet in the hush of the infirmary.

Harry was saved from having to say anything as Pomfrey thrust the glass into his hand and he took a grateful drink of the water, soothing his parched throat. But his hand shook too much from having to hold the glass, the muscles in his hand spasming as he moved it, and he dropped the glass, spilling cool water across his lap, much to his humiliation. Pomfrey cleaned it away with a wave of her wand and summoned another glass, which she held to his lips for him to drink from. But he just shook his head and leaned back into the pillows. "I was finished anyway." He said. But she knew that he hadn't, was just too stubborn to accept any help; that he hated being seen so vulnerable.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Harry asked.

"We were worried about you." Dudley answered, before Yvonne chimed in too.

"I knew something wasn't right when you disappeared." She said, a note of hysteria in her voice, "And then your colleague was asking questions and they hadn't even known that you'd gone, and we told him to tell us when they found you, oh we were so worried, and then he brought us here, with a feather. What was that thing, that that man was trying to give me?" She spoke quickly, all of the worry from the past two days falling off her in a wave.

"A portkey." Harry said, his voice still weak, even after the drink of water, "It transports you to a pre-set destination. I hate them. That's probably what brought you here as well. Did it feel like a hook behind the navel?" He asked. She nodded. "I hate them." He mumbled again, his mind beginning to wander.

Pomfrey, who had wandered away while they spoke, came bustling back over with an armful of potions. "I want you to drink these for me, Harry, and then get some sleep."

"When can I leave?" He asked, after taking the phials but before drinking them.

"Not for a while yet, Harry, I want to make sure all of your bones and organs are healed first, and there's still evidence of dark magic that we haven't worked out what it is yet."

He did not reply, but just drank the potions, falling asleep almost immediately after.

Dudley and Yvonne stayed by Harry's bedside for all of that day, waiting for him to wake up again. John and Susan were looking after Pippa and had said that they would return the next day with her to see how Harry was. A couple of people, teachers that worked at the school, as they learnt that they were at Hogwarts, had come in to see how the young man was. They were surprised at how much affection they all had for him, each saying a few soft words for him, most of them stroking his hair out of his face before bustling away again.

The teachers that taught in the school were an eclectic mix of people, all dressed in flowing robes. The first was the headmistress, who had introduced herself as Minerva McGonagall, with a brisk hand shake. Her grey hair was pulled back into a severe bun and she looked stern and quite intimidating for all her age. But when she turned to Harry, her face softened perceptibly and she stroked his pallid face. "I never expected to see you back in here, Harry, especially not as a patient." She had whispered, slightly disapprovingly, before straightening up and sweeping from the hospital wing with a brisk nod in their direction.

This had been followed by a man who was positively massive. He towered over anybody that Yvonne had ever met before, having to duck slightly in order to get his ginormous frame through the door. He had bushy black hair that was as tangled as the bird's nest of hair on his head. Dudley had blanched slightly as the man had come in, much to Yvonne's confusion, but neither one had said anything to the other. In fact the man had eyes only for Harry.

"Harry!" He had wailed, making a bee-line to the bed, where he had grasped one of his lifeless hands in his own dustbin sized one. "Oh Harry." He had sobbed into his chest, before delving into one of the many pockets of his duffle coat and pulling out a card with 'Get wel sooon, Harry' scrawled across it in childish handwriting and a box of what looked like rock cakes. He had left with a sniffle when Madam Pomfrey had pointed out that if he kept on wailing then he would wake up Harry, who needed sleep to recover.

After Hagrid, as they had learnt his name to be, a man who was shockingly small followed, especially when compared to the size of Hagrid. He had politely introduced himself as Filius Flitwick, the charms professor, whatever that was, before setting a box of shortbread on the bedside table beside the rock cakes, which he smiled at gently, before murmuring to Harry to get well soon and shuffling away as well.

The next visitor had completely ignored them, just placed a bouquet of flowers down, muttered something about a fish called Francis and left them to their bedside vigil. By this point Susan and John had returned, having left Pip in the capable care of Michael and his wife, both worried to see what kind of a state Harry would be in.

Now Headmistress McGonagall was back, sat with them beside Harry, simply watching him as he slept.

Yvonne eventually broke the uncomfortable silence. "Shouldn't he have woken up by now?" she asked.

"No." McGonagall replied. "He shouldn't have woken up in the first place, not until now anyway, but he did, because it's Harry," there it was again, Yvonne frowned, "and that probably wore him out. What with all the potions Poppy undoubtedly has him on, he'll sleep right through now, probably, but you never know. Either way I wouldn't worry." There was a pause as she gazed at his immobile face. "Harry's a survivor. Lucius sodding Malfoy isn't going to do him in."

Yvonne was taken aback at the vicious way she spat out the word, surprised to hear it pass her lips.

"Believe me, with the amount of skelegrow I have him on, he wants to be asleep."

Yvonne jumped as Pomfrey appeared behind her. She waved her wand again and although nothing visibly happened, she seemed to be getting some information from Harry. She swore, again surprising Yvonne, before pocketing her wand with a frown.

At McGonagall's questioning glance she explained "The skelegrow isn't working, the bones that I mended last night are broken again and his hip and leg are still shattered. I'm going to give him more skelegrow and see if it does anything but could you please contact Robards." She ordered the Headmistress.

"Robards?" She asked, arching an eyebrow "He's probably busy with Lucius, why don't I get Williamson instead?"

"No, there's a reason that Robards is head of the Auror department, he's the best, the most experienced that there is. Heck, I'd rather consult Shacklebolt but I think that a bit unlikely. I want Robards."

Minerva simply nodded at her friend before flooing for Robards from the fireplace in Poppy's office. In the meantime Pomfrey poured a goblet of skelegrow down Harry's throat, waving her wand to help it along. When she returned she was tailed by a tall, thin man with thick, chocolate brown hair and an unassuming face, the kind of which one would forget very quickly.

"Oh Harry." He said when he caught sight of the boy. It seemed that he was yet another to add to the list of people that seemed to care for Harry.

"Auror Robards, sir, thank you for coming through so quickly on such short notice."

"Not a problem. What exactly is it that I can do to help?" He asked politely.

"I've given Harry a lot of skelegrow, more than I probably should have, but I had to do something, but his bones just aren't healing. They were crushed all along the left hand side of his body, they heal for a while, starting at the top and working their way down, but once it starts working on his leg the entire thing begins to shatter again. There's also evidence of unidentified dark magic that I think has something to do with it. Is there anything you know about this?" She was wringing her hands together and Yvonne and Dudley could see just how worried she was.

Robards sighed heavily before pulling out his wand and waving it about with a murmured string of words that were indecipherable to Yvonne. He rubbed at his forehead tiredly.

"You know it?" Pomfrey asked.

"Aye, I've seen it before. It's the same curse that Moody was hit with. It'll keep shattering all of his bones and it'll spread beyond these, eventually killing him in a very painful manner; or killing him of an eventual overdose of skelegrow."

"How can we get rid of it, then?"

"You can't. Or rather, not exactly. When it's at its weakest, just after you've given him skelegrow, you've gotta chop of the limb that it's infecting. That's the only way to get rid of it."

All of those in the hospital wing listening at that time, even those that did not know Harry as well as the others, felt their stomachs plummet to their feet at this news. They were going to have to amputate Harry's left leg.