No Laughing Matter

Chapter Twenty-six

Once they got back to the house, Rowan yawned widely and was herded off to bed by Molly. From what she told George, he figured that she had only gotten about four hours of sleep in the past two days, and so he merely kissed her goodnight and then went off to bathe and change his clothes. Ron, Ginny and Harry would be arriving in just a couple of hours, and he was sure that it was going to be another long night as they broke the news of the house and filled them in on the details of everything that had happened the night before.

Once he was ready, George sought out his mother and told her that he planned to spend the next couple of hours with Fred. He agreed to take the Floo Network straight to St. Mungo's, and so she didn't insist that he have an escort. "Please try and get back in time to be here when the others arrive. Dumbledore's last note said that they would be arriving at seven o'clock sharp."

George promised that he would be there, and set off to take his brother some clean clothes. If he knew anything at all, he knew that Fred would be looking for a way to escape confinement to a hospital bed, and he intended to do what he could to help. As he turned the corner and approached the room where Fred was supposed to be resting, he could hear a female voice he didn't recognize exclaiming, "Mr. Weasley, really!" With a grin, George stopped in the doorway and surveyed Fred, with a mutinous look on his face, and a Healer holding a vial of bright red liquid standing over him.

"I said you're not putting that crap on my shoulder again!" Fred said fiercely, gesturing to the bottle in the Healer's hand and to a tray on the table next to her that held an array of ointments and potions.

"You've got to have your wound cleaned before it can be treated again!" she answered in an exasperated tone.

"No!' Fred said again pressing his back as hard against the fall wall as possible in his attempt to keep the woman with the bottled hellfire away from him.

"Problems, Bro?" George finally spoke up, walking in and tossing the bag he'd brought with the robes for his brother on the other, now empty, bed.

"Yes!" Fred said with relief as he spotted his twin. "This so-called Healer is trying to kill me!'

George chuckled as he entered the room. The bandages had been removed from his injury, and while it made him slightly queasy to look at the raw skin and the large dent in his shoulder where a portion of flesh that had been blasted away, he kept his face cheerful. "Hasn't his wound already been cleaned out?" he asked the attending Healer,

"Of course it has!" she snapped, at her wits end with this patient. "It has to be done every time new salve is applied, to give the medicines their maximum benefit."

"It didn't hurt that bad when Carly did it last time!" Fred accused. "You're trying to kill me!" He was beyond caring that George was probably going to tease him for the rest of his life over this one moment; the potion that had been keeping the pain at bay had worn off, and he wasn't letting anyone pour that awful red liquid on any part of his body. The fact that the evil stuff actually sizzled upon contact with his skin should have been enough to tell these nutters that it couldn't possibly be good for him.

"Oh for Merlin's sake!" the Healer huffed.

"What is going on in here?" Carly asked sternly from the doorway as she took in the sight of the man she loved cowering against the wall while his twin laughed at him. "Fred, I can hear you all the way down the corridor! I leave you alone for twenty minutes and you're causing a disturbance!"

"Poor ickle Fweddie is afwaid of a potion!" George taunted just for the hell of it; he knew that his brother was in no shape to get up and punch him for his cheekiness right now.

"I'm sorry Healer Hayward," Carly sighed. "I can take care of him from here. Healer Thorpe was just looking for you, anyway."

"You're welcome to him!" the other woman answered, handing the bottle of potion to Carly. "I understand that you have an arrangement with Healer Swift in regards to this young man's discharge?"

"Yes ma'am," Carly answered, her tone placating. "I'll have him out of here within the hour if all goes well."

"Well, if he's rally leaving, then this day won't have been all bad." Hayward answered, glaring at Fred meaningfully.

Only Carly's glare stopped Fred from uttering a rude comment at the retreating Healer's back. "Fred!" she hissed. "Will you please keep in mind that these poor Healers - of which I am in training to become - are only doing their jobs?"

"Sorry," Fred muttered petulantly. "But that stuff didn't hurt that bad the last time you put it on!"

"You were under the influence of a calming potion and several very strong pain killing potions when this was done last." Carly said, motioning for him to come away from the wall and sit where she could reach him. "I made a deal with Healer Swift that you would be allowed to be discharged into my care as long as you got one more treatment here, and then I promised to continue your treatment at home; and that you would be taking it easy for the next few days."

"I love you!" he said with feeling. "I want to get out of here!"

"I know you do," Carly said briskly, handing him a small beaker and watching as he drank it down. "So lets get this part over with so that we can all get out of here."

He nodded, but looked very apprehensive when she suddenly said, "George, sit on him."

"My pleasure!" George grinned evilly, and came over to the bed to hold his brother down.

"This is going to sting like the blue blazes," Carly warned. "Even with the potion I just gave you. Just hold still and it'll be over as soon as you know it."

The stream of curses that flowed from Fred's mouth would have made even Mad-Eye Moody blush, but Carly's face remained passive. She competently coated the wound with the syrupy, bright red cleansing potion, and then rinsed the wound gently with warm water from the tip of her wand. With able and steady hands, she applied an ointment to his wound, which now resembled a bad burn, and used her wand to help it form a kind of shell over the area. Over that, she dabbed even more ointment, which seemed to absorb into the shell and disappear. George sucked air through his teeth in sympathy, but kept his hold on Fred, even as he saw a tear slip from behind one of his eyes.

"Done," Carly said briskly. "Now all I have to do is wrap it in clean dressing, and help you get dressed. It looks like George brought you a change of robes."

"I thought I'd come and see if I couldn't persuade the Healers to release him to me if I promised to look after him," George said airily.

"You couldn't have come before all of that?" Fred groaned.

"Sorry," George smiled blandly. "But we can get you out of here now."

"Thank heaven!" Fred sighed.

Carly helped him to his feet and then left George to help his brother dress while she went and signed out. When she returned, Fred was pale, and his face drawn from the effort he had expended while fighting off the Healer, being treated and getting dressed. She carried a thick pile of patient charts and folders that she was taking back to the house to work on. As George held Fred's arm to steady him, they all made their way down to the lobby Apparition points.

It was only thirty minutes until the expected arrival of Ron, Ginny and Harry by Portkey when the twins and Carly appeared at the edge of the garden. Fred was perspiring, and Carly was sure that only his sheer determination was keeping him on his feet as they made it up the front walk. They found everyone but Rowan and Arthur in the kitchen, sitting around the table enjoying shepherd's pie. When Toolah saw them she hurried to fetch more plates, and soon had the newcomers sitting with the others, and was fussing over Fred.

"Fred!" Molly scolded. "You weren't supposed to get out of hospital until tomorrow! Just look at you, you're white as a sheet!"

"I'm okay, Mum," he said wearily. "I just wanted to be here with the family."

"I'm going to make him relax in his bed after he gets some food inside of him," Carly said with a yawn.

Fred wondered if he would be able to persuade Carly to lay down with him. After everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours, he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and hold her close for a while. With a sigh, he guessed that it would still be a while before any of them got any real rest, and it didn't seem right to be sharing a bed with her while under her Aunt and Uncle's roof, no matter how innocent it was.

"You should get some rest as well," Suzette chided. "Nigel has spoken to your parents, and assured them that you girls are safe and well. You would not want to make a liar out of him, would you?"

"I'll get some rest once Fred is settled into his room," Carly promised. "I have a huge stack of files to update tomorrow, but I shouldn't have to go back to St. Mungo's for a couple of days, except to drop them off. Barring any emergencies, that is."

"They ate a companionable meal, and Molly scolded Charlie and George for all of the robes that had been delivered for her from Madam Malkin's a short while earlier. Suzette and Nigel asked questions about the Burrow, and offered suggestions and help for the rebuilding of their home. It wasn't until the clock in the parlor began to chime that Molly jumped to her feet and said, "Goodness! The children!" and rushed into the large entryway, followed closely by the others.

There was a strange sound in the air, like the sound of a drain sucking down the remnants of water from a basin, and then a loud pop! Three teenagers appeared suddenly in the center of the entryway, and stumbled to the ground as they stopped revolving around a book entitled, Fancy Hippogriff Breeding and their feet hit the ground and they tripped over the carry-alls they had brought with them. As Bill and Charlie stepped forward to haul Harry and Ron to their feet, Ginny scrambled up on her own and fumed, "I'm going to kill that pasty-faced little son of a..."

"Ginny! Ron! Harry! What on earth happened to you?" Molly demanded when she got a good look at her children.

Ron's lip was bloody, and he had thin scratch marks across his cheek. Harry was sporting a red welt where his glasses had been forced against his face, and his nose was bleeding heavily. Ginny had an eye that was rapidly blackening, and her hair was in wild disarray.

"Id wath Malfoy," Harry offered, pinching his nose and leaning his head forward to try to staunch the flow of blood pouring from it. "And hith two goonth."

"They turned up just as we were heading to Dumbledore's office to come here," Ginny said. "Needless to say he had a... disagreement."

Carly stepped forward and said, "Hold still," and then healed Harry's nose with her wand. She was still wearing her smock from St. Mungo's, and pulled a tube of ointment from her pocked and smeared some on the welt. Next she moved to Ron, and healed his lip and smeared some more of the ointment on the scratches on his face. Lastly she turned to Ginny, who looked at her curiously at her as she had her black eye treated.

"Are you saying that Malfoy punched you in the eye?" Charlie growled dangerously. The Weasley boys had been taught not to hit girls; maybe Malfoy needed a lesson as well.

"No," Ginny said, still angry about it all. "It was Goyle, the stupid git; he was blinded by the hex I hit him with, and was just swinging wildly. While Harry was taking care of Crabbe, Malfoy and Ron got into it."

"He fights like a girl," Ron said in disgust. "The little ferret actually scratched me! Would have bitten me, too if I hadn't knocked his front teeth out."

George gave a hoot of amused appreciation at that remark, and Molly glared at him. "Really!" she admonished, "What must Suzette and Nigel think? What could Malfoy possibly have to say to cause all this? You should know better by now!"

"I'm sorry Mrs. Weasley," Harry said firmly, without a hint of apology in his voice. "I won't repeat to you what he had to say, but I can guarantee that we were totally justified in how we handled it."

"Mum," Ginny said uncertainly. "He said... He said our house was gone."

All three teens turned their gaze to Molly, and she reluctantly nodded her head. "I'm afraid it's true. All that's left is splinters and wreckage."

Ginny gasped, and her hand flew to her mouth. Ron stood stock still, while his face turned increasingly redder. Anger was building up in him, and he wanted more than anything at that moment to take the portkey back to Hogwarts and throttle Malfoy some more. Harry stood staring at the woman he'd come to know as the closest thing he had to a mother, and realized that she had lost every last meager thing she owned; a single tear fell down his cheek as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around her. "I'm so sorry," he whispered into her hair. Soon Ron and Ginny had their arms around Harry and Molly and they embraced each other for the strength it could give them all.