Ripples in the Water

Waking Up

There was white - Harry could see it through his eyelids - a harsh light that seemed to grow brighter every minute that he lay still. He tried moving onto his side without opening his eyes but a sharp pain there ended any present and future attempts to roll over.

Deciding he might as well see where he was he opened an eye and blinked quickly to get used to the bright light that was flooding the room he was in. His glasses sat on the bedside table next to him, he reached out from the cocoon of blanket surrounding him and put them on.

He sat up quickly and regretted it almost instantly as not only his side lit up in pain; but also his eyesight exploded into millions of colours. "Mr Potter lie back down this instant!" Madam Pomfrey was at his side in a matter of seconds and she helped ease him back into the lying position he had woke up in. She propped his top half up with cushions so he could see something other than the ceiling; all the while chiding him for being to risk taking though the tone of her voice was kind and caring. "I hope you have had enough midnight wanderings now Mr Potter."

He winced and she looked at him critically "You'll be wanting this." She handed him a lime green bottle of potion. Which he swallowed in a matter of seconds though he almost spat it out as soon as it was in his mouth.

"Ahh!" he complained after swallowing the rest of the foul concoction.

"You should take better care of yourself Mr Potter; that way you wouldn't have to suffer through the heavy pain medication that you need at the moment." Madam Pomfrey lectured as Harry downed a glass of water that she handed him. After his third glass of water Harry looked up to Madam Pomfrey putting her wand on the bedside table, next to his.

He gave her a pointed look "I have to check on the wound - there is a possibility that you might not have contracted the condition." Harry looked at her in shock.

"What do you mean?"

"In some cases, Mr Potter, there isn't enough toxin in the bite to give the victim the condition," she made Harry sit up straight in the bed and continued when Harry gave her a disbelieving look "This can be caused by weakness or mutation in the werewolf who inflicted the bite."

"So I might not be a werewolf?" Harry asked.

"There is a tiny possibility of that, yes," Madam Pomfery started taking off the bandages from Harry's shoulder "Werewolf bites, no matter what the toxin levels are, cannot be healed by magic influence so I'm afraid that you are going to have to get used to the pain."

In a few minutes the bandages were off and Madam Pomfrey was inspecting the wound with intense concentration, prodding it in some places and in others she just moved her hand over the wound which caused Harry to flinch away slightly until she gave him a glare and he, slowly, moved back to where she was. Five minutes later Madam Pomfrey replaced the bandages and started casting (what seemed to be diagnostic) spells on Harry. She nodded as if they were telling her something important. "Well Potter," she said "It will take about twenty minutes for those spells to come to fruit, as the muggles say, so I will tell the headmaster that he can come in."

"Dumbledore's here?" Harry asked, so surprised that the headmaster was there that he accidentally tried to sit further forwards, stretched the wound and let out a surprised cry of pain. Madam Pomfery helped him back into the pillows ("Honestly Potter!") and went to the doors of the hospital wing and stuck her head around the door.

She said something to the person/people outside the hospital wing which was muffled by the door. Before long the door opened a fraction more and Harry caught sight of not only Dumbledore's silvery white beard but also of Ron's ginger hair and half of Hermione's face (which was half masked by Madam Pomfery). Harry even thought he saw a glimpse of Remus' patched clothing before the door closed and Madam Pomfery came back over to Harry's bedside.