Quietly into the Night

Ron Weasley walked quietly down the blank white corridors, his feet leading him along the familiar path to St. Mungo's Long Term Care Ward.  He stopped briefly before his destination, staring at the golden number eleven and feeling a pang of sadness and guilt; guilt because he hadn't visited in almost a year, sadness because... well...

Ron opened the door without knocking.  No one ever came to visit anymore, no one but him and Hermione, and Hermione, well, he knew where she was right now.  Ron grabbed one of the chairs by the door and dragged it to his friend's bedside, sitting down before speaking.  "Hello Harry."  Harry, as always, failed to answer, just as he'd failed to respond to anything said or done in the last five years since his final battle with the Dark Lord.

Ron took a moment to look at his best friend, once so full of life and energy, now, pale and silent, trapped in an unnatural sleep.  'A coma,' the doctors said, 'could wake up at any time.'  Three years ago, they'd changed it to, 'There's still hope.'  On his last visit, one of the nurses told him, away from the doctors, tears threatening her eyes, 'He'll probably never wake up.'

Spells and charms kept him clean, healthy, fed, but nothing could bring back that spark, that one thing that would wake him up and make him Harry again.  Ron leaned forward, resting his elbows on the edge of the bed.  "Sorry I haven't been by to see ya mate.  Been a bit busy."  Ron smiled slightly as he thought of the reason.  "'Mione and I, we've just become parents."  Ron's smile widened as he thought of his wife of five years, resting downstairs.  "Twins, a boy and a girl.  I hope you don't mind, we've named them Lily and James.  Just seemed right somehow."

Harry's breathing was the only sound, deep and even.  Sometimes, Ron wondered if that was the way it had always been.

After a while, he could take it no longer.  "Anyway, what else?  Oh!  Neville finally worked up the courage and asked Ginny to marry him.  Mum was so pleased, going on about her little girl being 'all-grown up'.  And Neville, he turned so red, George said he looked like part of the family already."

Somewhere, further along in the ward, someone let out a bloodcurdling shriek.  The noise made Ron's skin crawl.  "Don't know how you can stand it here, mate.  Place gives me a great case of the willies sometimes."  Ron sat staring at his prone friend, hoping that against all odds, today would be the day he'd awake to greet the world again.

"Oi, I haven't told you about Malfoy yet, have I?" an optimist as ever, he waited for a 'Why no Ron, you haven't,' or even a negative headshake.  When none was forthcoming, he continued on determinedly.  "He's taken over teaching potions at Hogwarts.  They've been lacking a good Professor ever since Snape... well, you know."  For a moment, Ron's memories flashed back to that fateful day, when Snape threw himself in front of a killing curse in a desperate bid to save Harry.

"Anyway, that's not the half of it.  He set up a scholarship program with the school, to help Muggleborn students who may otherwise be unable to attend."  Ron snorted.  "Who'd have thought?  Malfoy, helping Muggleborns."

For a few moments, silence reigned as Ron struggled to find another piece of news to impart to his quiet friend.  A knock on the door startled Ron; he stood quickly, knocking the chair over in surprise.  A terrified looking nurse was peering into the room.  Ron realized he had his wand trained on her and pocketed it with what he hoped was an apologetic smile.

"Mr. Weasley?" she squeaked.

Ron nodded in conformation.

"Your wife is asking for you."

"Is anything wrong?"  A million thoughts flitted through Ron's brain, everything from, 'She's realized she doesn't really love me,' to 'We could be under attack.'

"Oh, no sir.  She's just worried.  You’ve been gone over an hour."  The nurse was ringing her hands frantically, as though worried she'd said the wrong thing.  "She says she's ready to go home."

Ron relaxed, and, pulling up his sleeve, glanced at his watch, a past anniversary present from Hermione.  Time spent with Harry always seemed to move in strange ways.  The glance at his watch revealed that he had been absent from his wife's side for nearly an hour and a half.

"Thank you.  Would you be so kind as to tell her I'll be right there?" Ron asked with all the politeness he could muster.  The nurse nodded, leaving him alone with Harry once more.

Ron turned back to his slumbering friend.  "Well, I don't know when I'll be back, what with the kids and all.  So..." he paused awkwardly.  He always hated this, the leaving.  "If you don't want to wake up, then I hope at least you have pleasant dreams."

He carefully put the visitor’s chair back where he'd gotten it.  As he was about to leave, something made him turn back.  "Good-bye, Harry."

Ron's twins had been born July 30th, just a day before his best friend's birthday.  He had spent the day with his wife and new son and daughter, leaving only after the doctors insisted his wife rest.  He decided to spend the time visiting with Harry, catching up on the news.  When Ron left, he'd expected to be Harry's last visitor for the day, but there was one more person waiting to see Harry.

At 11:59 p.m., a misty shape began to form beside Harry's bed.  At exactly 12:00 a.m., July 31st, every charm set to alert doctors to any change, every spell set up to help keep Harry alive, failed, just as the mist began to resemble a very familiar person.

"Harry?" the voice of Sirius Black, not heard for many a year, filled the silent room.  "It's time to go, Harry."

If anyone had been there to see, they would have seen Harry Potter make his first independent movement in five years.  Harry Potter, hero of the wizarding world, Boy-Who-Lived--Only to defeat Voldemort and fall into a coma, smiled in his sleep.

"Let's go home."

Sirius Black faded once more into the ether, taking his godson with him.  So it was at 12:01 a.m., July 31st, on his 25th birthday, Harry Potter died.

©2003