Charlie laid still with his eyes tight shut. He felt very groggy. His limbs felt like lead; his eyelids too heavy to lift, his ribs aching in pain. He wanted to lie here, on this comfortable bed, forever...
"What amazes me most is the behavior of the Dementors... you've really no idea what made them retreat, Snape?"
"No, Minister... by the time I had come 'round they were heading back to their positions at the entrances..."
"Extraordinary. And yet Black, my son, Harry, and the girl -"
"All unconscious by the time I reached them. I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers, and brought them all straight back to the castle."
There was a pause. Charlie's brain seemed to be moving a little slow, as the words he was hearing seemed to be processing slowly, making them difficult to understand.
In an instance, he opened his eyes.
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Everything was slightly blurred. He was lying in the dark hospital wing. At the very end of the ward, he could make out Madame Pomfrey with her back to him, bending over a bed. Charlie squinted. Ron's red hair was visible beneath Madame Pomfrey's arm.
Charlie moved his head over on the pillow. To his left lay Harry, wide awake, and in the bed to his right lay Hermione. Moonlight was falling across her bed. Her eyes were open too. She looked petrified giving the boy déjà vu of the time where she was actually petrified - oh god, that haunted image.
When Hermione saw that Charlie was awake, she pressed a finger to her lips, then pointed to the hospital wing door. It was ajar, and the voices of his father and Snape were coming through it from the corridor outside.
Madame Pomfrey now came walking briskly up the dark ward to Charlie's bed. The three Gryffindors turned to took at her. She was carrying the largest block of chocolate they had ever seen in their lives.
"Ah, you're awake!" she said briskly. She placed the chocolate on Charlie's bedside table and began breaking it apart with a small hammer.
"How's Ron's leg?"
"He'll live," said Madame Pomfrey grimly. "As for you, you'll be staying here until those fractured ribs of yours heal properly - Hawthorne, what do you think you're doing?"
Charlie sat up, threw the covers off of himself, and picked up his wand before heading for the door.
"I need to see my grandfather," he said.
"Hawthorne," said Madame Pomfrey soothingly, "it's all right. They've got Black. He's locked away upstairs. The Dementors will be performing the kiss any moment now -"
"WHAT?"
Harry had now jumped up out of bed; Hermione had done the same. Harry's shout had been heard in the corridor outside; next second, Fenwick and Snape had entered the ward.
