Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 36 ⚡️

"So, all in all, not one of Ron's better birthdays?"

Vega nodded at Fred – it was evening; the hospital wing was quiet, the windows curtained, the lamps lit. Ron's was the only occupied bed. Vega, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny were sitting around him; they had spent all day waiting outside the double doors, trying to see inside whenever somebody went in or out while they were there.

Madam Pomfrey had only let them enter at eight o'clock. Fred and George had arrived at ten past and Vega had been both surprised and relieved to see them, for she was feeling immensely guilty and plenty anxious over what had happened today.

"This isn't how we imagined handing over our present," George said grimly, putting down a large wrapped gift on Ron's bedside cabinet and sitting beside Ginny.

"Yeah, when we pictured the scene, he was conscious," Fred said, squeezing Vega's knee gently to placate her while she rubbed his back to comfort.

"There we were in Hogsmeade," George revealed. "Waiting to surprise him –"

"You were in Hogsmeade?" Ginny asked, looking up in surprise.

"We were thinking of buying Zonko's," Fred replied gloomily. "A Hogsmeade branch, you know, but a fat lot of good it'll do us if you lot aren't allowed out at weekends to buy our stuff anymore.... but never mind that now,"

Fred wrapped his arm around Vega, looking down at Ron's pale face and asked her and Harry, "How exactly did it happen?"

And Vega and Harry retold the story they had already recounted, it felt like a hundred times to Dumbledore, to McGonagall, to Madam Pomfrey, to Hermione, and to Ginny. This time, however, Harry did most of the talking and Vega filled details in.

"... I forced his mouth open and then Vega got the bezoar down his throat and his breathing eased up a bit," Harry informed them. "Slughorn ran for help, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey turned up, and they brought Ron up here,"

"They all say that he'll be all right," Vega added in. "Madam Pomfrey says he'll have to stay here a week or so... keep taking essence of rue... you see, for strength and all..."

"Blimey, it was lucky you thought of a bezoar," George said in a low voice.

"We were lucky that there was even one in the room for us to use," Vega admitted in a whisper, shivering at the thought of what would've happened had she and Harry not gotten that bezoar on time and down Ron's throat. "I don't want to think about it,"

At this, Hermione gave an almost inaudible sniff. She had been exceptionally quiet all day. Having hurtled, white-faced, up to Vega and Harry outside the hospital wing and demanded to know what had happened, she had taken almost no part in Harry and Ginny's obsessive discussion about how Ron had been poisoned, but merely stood beside them, clench-jawed and frightened-looking while Vega tried to comfort her the best of her abilities.

It lasted until, at last, they had been allowed in to see him.

"You don't have to think of it," Fred comforted Vega and she simply put her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes to calm down her hammering heart. Fred turned to his sister, "Do Mum and Dad know?"

"They've already seen him," Ginny answered. "They arrived an hour ago – they're in Dumbledore's office now, but they'll be back soon..."

There was a pause while they all watched Ron mumble a little in his sleep. What he was mumbling, none of them had any idea of. Vega opened her eyes and looked around her friends, they all looked very serious and Hermione was still very tearful.