The Lewis House 74 страница

The cinema was crowded and there was no way to sit beside Dudley and Janice, but Harry thought it was probably best if they stayed standing.

"Let's sit here," Sirius whispered.

Harry looked down to his right; there were two empty seats but he didn't want to risk it. "No!" he hissed. "What if someone else tries to sit there?" Almost as if to prove his point, a woman came in and sat in the seat moments later.

"Well, we could take these cloaks off," Sirius whispered. "It's not as if he's going to see us now."

"But if we take them off, we won't be able to use our wands," said Harry, who had been thinking, in the car.

"Our wands?" Sirius sounded excited. "What are we using them for?"

"There are a few charms we use, on the dragons – for communication." Harry pulled his wand. "You probably know Deferus."

Sirius made a sound of approval. "So we can listen in –"

"And talk to him. Right in his ear." Harry laughed. "I know it's not nice, but he did used to beat me up."

"Let's torture him."

"Not torture," Harry said quickly. "Not torture. Just annoy." He concentrated on Dudley. "Deferus."

"Deferus," Sirius repeated.

The cinema fell into darkness and everyone hushed. Harry and Sirius backed against the wall to let an usher walk down the center aisle with a flashlight. They were all the way at the back, and Dudley and Janice were up near the front, but it wasn't hard to tell which dark pair of silhouettes they were. It was all normal people and then a cotton swab next to an elephant.

Harry waited, not sure exactly what he wanted to say to Dudley, and half afraid of what Sirius would say. He found himself watching the film with a bit of interest – everyone was wearing clothes just like Nearly Headless Nick's, and he wondered if Sir Nicholas had ever been involved in the theater. He lost himself in the story for a bit, until a high-pitched voice brought him back to reality, such as it was.

"Oh, oh, oh, Duuuuudddley."

Harry looked over to Dudley and Janice; Dudley's arm was draped around the back of Janice's seat, but Janice wasn't speaking. As a matter of fact, "Janice" sounded incredibly like Sirius Black in falsetto.

Dudley didn't seem to notice. He took Sirius's dialogue as encouragement, and lowered his hand to rest on Janice's bony shoulders. His other hand rested in an enormous bucket of popcorn.

Sirius giggled so effectively that Harry almost believed, for a minute, that his godfather was Dudley's date.

Janice didn't look very comfortable, in Harry's opinion. She looked sideways at Dudley's hand on her shoulder, and seemed resigned.

"Sometimes I like to dress up like a man," Sirius said, in the same high voice. Harry couldn't believe that anyone would believe that he was an actual woman. Then again, he hadn't heard Janice speak often enough, and neither had Dudley.

"What?" Dudley looked concerned. His hand slid back up to rest on the seat.

"I didn't say anything," whispered Janice. "Shhhh! I'm trying to listen."

Harry didn't see how there was anything to listen to. All that was happening on the screen was that a woman was getting all of her clothes unraveled. In truth, it was kind of interesting, and for a moment Harry forgot that Dudley existed.

"Oh," said the false, high voice at his side. "I… I wish someone would do that to me."

Harry clapped both hands over his mouth to stop himself from shouting. Sirius was getting out of hand - but it was funny. And Dudley's hand had slid down to rest on Janice's shoulders again.

"Lower," said Sirius, in a breathy, high-pitched whisper.

Dudley's hand moved lower and Harry had to look away. That was just wrong. Suddenly, Sirius burst into a fit of laughter.

Harry repealed the communication spell. "What?" he whispered.

"Didn't you see that? She jumped three feet in the air – Harry, mate, keep your eye on the Snitch!"

But Harry felt rather sorry for Janice. The point of being here was to unsettle Dudley, but Sirius's pranks were just encouraging him. Harry thought he knew what would do the trick. He recast the communication spell.

"Hey, Dudley," he said, in his own voice. "That's an interesting spot to put your hand."

Both of Dudley's hands flew into the air as if he'd been arrested, and popcorn scattered all over the people to the left of him. "H-Harry?" he whispered frantically. "Is that y-you?"

"What?" Janice asked, turning to look at Dudley for the first time since the film had begun. "Did you just call me Harry?"

"I, er…" Dudley seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Answer the young lady politely," Harry said. "Tell her, 'Yes, Janice, and I'm very sorry, I'll never do it again.'"

'Yes, Janice, I'm very sorry and I'll never do it again," said Dudley, who was too afraid to remember the question.

Harry heard something fall to the floor beside him, sniggering, and he was fairly certain it was Sirius.

Janice was now ignoring Dudley, and trying very hard to watch the film. She'd shifted away from Dudley in her seat. Dudley looked from side to side, his breathing labored, his hands still in the air on either side of his head.

"Put your hands down!" said a man behind him. "And both of you, shut up!"

"It's not my fault!" Dudley began in an obvious panic, struggling to turn round in his seat. Janice cringed.

"He told you to shut up," Harry said, enjoying the spectacle. For once, it wasn't him.

"You shut up, Harry!" Dudley shouted into the dark theatre.

"SHHHHHH!" Several people hissed at once. Janice shrank down into her seat.

But Dudley was still looking wildly around. "Where are you? I know you're there! I knew you'd be back! I knew we weren't rid of you!"

"That's right," Harry said, keeping his voice low. The whole crowd was beginning to complain. "I'm back."

Dudley lumbered to his feet and started pushing his way towards the aisle. The people in his way made various noises of pain.

"Get away from me!" Dudley screeched. "Wherever you are, just go back to your world full of freaks! I've had enough of you and your magic!" He stumbled into the aisle and made for the exit door at the front of the cinema, just below the screen.

"I'll never leave!" said Sirius, who had regained his composure enough to gasp out a few words. "I'll be back, Dudley - I'll be back!"

Dudley pushed his way out of the cinema, blubbering like a baby, and Harry couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. "You can't run fast enough," he muttered, knowing that Dudley could still hear him, and from beyond the exit door he heard a howl of dismay. It was enough. He repealed the charm and put his wand in his belt, incredibly satisfied. He wouldn't be back. But Dudley would always wonder.

The audience settled down again, and Janice looked relieved. Harry wondered vaguely how she was going to get home.

"C'mon," Sirius whispered, and somehow managed to grab his elbow. They sneaked out of the cinema and into the car park in time to see Uncle Vernon's car screeching off into the street.

At the same time, they pulled off their invisibility cloaks and looked at each other. Sirius was ruddy, his hair a mess, his eyes alight.

"Wasn't that brilliant?" he demanded. "When are we doing it again?"

Harry fixed his glasses and crumpled his cloak in his hand. "It was fun," he admitted, still grinning. "I feel sort of sorry for Janice –"

"We did her a favor, Harry," Sirius cut in. "Poor girl. That beast was trying to molest her on the first date –"

"That was your fault!" Harry said, but Sirius was laughing and he had to join in. "You - you really thought it was brilliant?" he asked.

"For the first Black and Potter in nearly two decades?" Sirius asked. "Not bad at all, Harry. Not bad at all." He grinned. "My turn next," he said, and rubbed his hands together. "What do you say to asking Trelawney for a bit of advice on your future?"

"Er - no."

"Really? Not even for the joy of seeing the Grim appear in her classroom while you're having your tea leaves read? Come on, Harry, she'll faint dead away, it'll be great."

Harry burst out laughing. Sirius was crazy. Really insane. Possibly not the best role model in the world. But his mum and dad must've known that there was something about him more important than sanity.

He stood in the car park next to his godfather and laughed for a long, long time.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Residual Damage

~*~

A/N: A special thanks from Arabella to Jedi Boadicea, who deserves a co-writing credit for the final segment of this chapter. Jedi is responsible for the bulk of Draco's behavior there, not to mention his dialogue. Also, it is Jedi B on whom I blame my fascination with Mr. Malfoy, the younger. Jedi B is the Queen of all Evil. Bow down, or she'll have you cursed.

Thanks to the crazy Leesburg ghosthunter for taking us on that tour of residual hantings and for explaining to us why our electronic equipment malfunctions so often (we are "high EMs").

And thanks, as always, to the mighty beta team: B Bennett, Cap'n Kathy, Firelox, Joe and Moey

~*~

Remus knew, from the look on Ginny's face, that she was about to ask him for permission to do something stupid, and that if he were any sort of respectable guardian, he would have to say no.

"Remus?"

Her tone of voice strengthened his conviction; it was the perfect blend of innocence and humility and warning. One word conveyed that he was the only person in the world capable of granting her wish, that it was a most desperately selfless wish, and that, if he wouldn't help her, then she would have to throw herself into the sea.

"Hm?" he answered.

Neutrality was a trait he possessed naturally, and he had honed it to a skill during his years at Hogwarts. Having been thrust by James and Sirius into more unwise situations than he could count, he had learned how to stay well back from the edge of peril. "Hm?" was always a safe answer, when he was approached in this way. It implied that he could not even tell that Ginny perceived her situation to be dire, and sometimes the most effective deflection was simply to pretend ignorance. He kept his eyes on her latest Arithmancy assignment and dipped his quill into red ink for the hundredth time, thinking that it was a very good thing that Ginny Weasley was a Healer. She certainly didn't make much of a student in the more theoretical areas.

"I have to ask you something."

Remus circled a mistake on her paper. "About Arithmancy?" he asked, knowing full well that she was as likely to approach him about Arithmancy on a Saturday as he was to forget a dose of Wolfsbane Potion.

"No… but first, how are you feeling?"

Remus looked up and smiled. Last night had been a blue moon, and though he had slept in this morning, the whole process had never felt so casual. Almost restful. "Very well. Thank you, Ginny."

"Oh good." She shifted to her other foot and moved her eyes from his to look at her paper. "Did I really get that many wrong?"

"More than that many. There's another page left to mark."

"Oh. Am I going to fail, or anything?"

"No, but your work is slightly below average."

She didn't look concerned. "But in my Healing courses I've improved a lot, haven't I?"

"Mmm," Remus said noncommittally. Whatever she wanted, it was something to do with Healing, and she was trying to trick him into saying something that would give her implicit permission. It was a subtle tactic, but Remus was a subtler interpreter.

"I think the dragons have given me a lot of strength," Ginny said.

Remus turned the page of her assignment.

"I feel ready to try something new."

Remus dipped his quill into the red ink.

"So I was thinking of stopping by St. Mungo's today to see the Grangers."

Remus paused. A drop of ink splashed onto the paper. He had known this request was coming, but he hadn't expected to field it quite so soon, and he had certainly hoped that the dragons would have taught her not to tackle too much at once. "Is that so?"

"Yes." A little iron entered her tone. "That's so. But I wanted to tell you, first."

"Tell, or ask?"

"Well, ask - but Remus you have to let me." Ginny's subtle tactics vanished; she dragged a chair to the desk and sat down to look him in the eye. "I promised Hermione."

Remus gave her a hard look. "What exactly did you promise? I hope you haven't got her hopes up, Ginny, because there's no precedent -"

"I told her that I didn't know if anything was possible, but that I'd have a look at her parents today and see what I can feel. That's all I want to do, just hold out my hands and see." Ginny's eyes shone but there were shadows beneath them. "Please say it's all right, please."

"You," said Remus, putting down his quill and folding his hands on the desk, "are spreading yourself too thin. You're involved in a major Ministry project, you handle my transformations, you've just finished studying for your Apparition examinations, you've got schoolwork to keep up with, you haven't even begun to prepare for your N.E.W.T.s, you're trying to balance your - friendships -" Remus raised an eyebrow. "And who knows what other mad experiments you're trying out, behind my back."

"Remus, I can do it."

"Ginny, you're overextended."

"Oh, don't say I can't go. Don't make me disappoint Hermione."

The guilt card. Ginny must have been taking lessons from Sirius. "If you are disappointing Hermione, then it is no one's fault but yours. You should have known better than to say yes without asking."

"Please -"

"No. And that's the end of it."

Ginny sat back in her chair. "I don't want to disobey," she said, and crossed her arms.

"Then don't." But Remus understood the warning. If he didn't permit her, she'd go without consent. And there was no way to stop her, really. She was of age, she had her license, and she was on the designated family list of wizards permitted to enter the Grangers' room.

"Remus, I have to do this. I have to know if there's at least a possibility, it's Hermione. She's my friend, and they're her parents, and you'd do it if you could. Imagine if it was Sirius's parents - you'd've done it already."

Remus couldn't think of an answer for that.

"I have to do this," she repeated. "But I'd really like for you to come with me, if you're not too tired. That way, you can supervise me and make sure I don't overextend myself."

And she had won. Remus sighed. "Are you a chess player, Ginny?"

"Yes - well, I'm not as good as Ron, or anything - why?"

"No reason. Get your cloak, let's visit the Grangers."

Ginny leapt to her feet. "Oh, thank you -" And she was gone and back in seconds, wrapping a cloak round her shoulders, stuffing identification into her pocket. "See you there!" she said happily, and was gone.

A few minutes later, signed in and permitted entry, Remus pushed open the door of the Grangers' hospital room. He had only been here twice, at the very beginning, when they had all come to ensure that Hermione got her way and that her parents would be given proper wizarding care, as they deserved. He had forgotten the fetid air, the overlying sterility not quite masking the true illness and pain underneath. Behind him, Ginny drew an uneven breath, and he was still too much wolf not to hear it.

"Are you all right?" He turned to look at her and she nodded, but was bone-white.

"This place… the whole hospital."

"Overwhelming?"

"So… many people are in pain. I can't…" Her eyes filled with tears. "There are children upstairs, aren't there?"

Her senses had grown powerfully acute if she could feel that much. "Do you want to leave, Ginny?" Remus put out his arm and Ginny grabbed it as if it was a banister and she was about to fall down stairs. "That's it, we're going," Remus said, and attempted to steer her out of the room, but Ginny straightened with what must have been incredible effort, and walked across the room to Hermione's mother.

"Give me a minute, it'll only take a minute, I just want to see what…" Ginny looked into Mrs. Granger's face. "Hermione has her bone structure, doesn't she?" she murmured. "But she's so thin." Ginny stretched a hand out, and held it two feet above Mrs. Granger. "Oh no, no…"

"What is it?" Remus went to stand with her. "What do you feel?"

"N-nothing," Ginny said. Her lip trembled. "I don't feel anything. There's no aura. What does that mean?"

Remus didn't want to say what he thought it meant. Mrs. Granger's face was lifeless except for her wide-open eyes. And except for the frozen horror in those eyes, Remus believed that all life had gone out of her.

But Ginny did not give up. She moved her hand a foot closer to Mrs. Granger. "Nothing," she said, and dropped it several inches lower. When she was nearly touching Mrs. Granger's stomach, Ginny shrieked and snatched her hand away.

"What?" Remus said, worried.

"Put your hand there, put your hand there. Can you feel that?"

Remus put his hand where Ginny told him, and felt nothing. "I'm sorry, no."

"Damn. Hermione's aura is close to her body, too, but not this close," Ginny said, talking rapidly. "Hermione's is sort of an ellipse, it's really tight and smooth, but this isn't even an aura, this isn't human at all, this is - this is - I don't recognize -" she winced again, and took a small step back. "But I suppose it could … I mean, I have no idea… but what does the Cruciatus Curse feel like?"

Remus gave a short, involuntary laugh. "You want words?"

"I… " Ginny looked a bit lost. "There aren't any, I'm sure."

"No." Remus blocked out a very disturbing memory that drifted into his mind. Twenty years hadn't dimmed it. How bizarre. "Do you think you're feeling the Cruciatus Curse?"

"Is that possible? Could it still be… on her?" Ginny looked disgusted, but she extended her hands again and ran them over the air above Mrs. Granger. Quickly, she snatched her fingers back and shook them. "Whatever it is, it's all over her," she said. "Is that possible?" she asked again.

"What do you feel? Be specific."

"It's like needles. Hundreds of very sharp needles, very hot - like they're going to burn my hands."

"Yes… but you didn't scream."

"No," Ginny said slowly. "It's bearable pain. Almost. I can't leave my hands there for long, though. I couldn't possibly work on them, through whatever it is."

Remus nodded. "But if I told you to reach out your hands again, you could do it?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

Ginny shrugged and slowly extended her hands once more. She winced, left her hands where they were for several seconds, then drew a hissing breath and pulled her hands back. "That's about it."

"If you can voluntarily leave your hands in it for that long, then it's not the Cruciatus."

Ginny went a little pale. "Then I don't know how people stand it," she said, very quietly. "I know they made people stand it for hours."

"Not hours. Not unbroken hours, anyway. Hours, and you've got madness on your hands." Remus studied Mrs. Granger's horrified face. "Or this. Whatever this is."

"It…" Ginny looked at her hands and pressed her mouth shut. "I think it is the Cruciatus," she said. "I worked on someone who had this in his aura. Not exactly like this, much weaker, but I think it's the same."

Remus frowned at her. "Who have you been working on - Harry? I told you -"

"It wasn't Harry," was all Ginny said. She clasped her hands in front of her mouth and stared worriedly down at Mrs. Granger. "If it's really the Cruciatus, and it's all over her body, then she must be just… ruined."

Remus frowned more deeply, trying to remember everything he had ever learned about the long-term effects of serious curses, but nothing came to mind that would explain the Grangers' condition.

Ginny walked around him and over to Mr. Granger's bed, and ran her hands through the air around him. She made a noise like she'd been burnt by scalding hot water, and stepped back. "Same thing here." She looked a bit frightened. "I think it's all over them. The curse has been working on them all this time, I don't know what else it could be."

"No, wait - that's impossible," Remus said, relieved. He had finally remembered something useful. "The hospital curse breakers would have got rid of it if it were an active curse. It's one of the first things they test for here - hexes, potions and curses are all searched for and stripped from the victims. An active curse would have been detected within the first month."

"But it's there. I can feel it." Ginny sounded panicked. She tried to extend her hands again, but pulled them back at once, sucking in another pained breath. "I can't get close enough to help them," she said. "And I can't feel their real energy at all. All I can feel is the curse."

"It's not a curse anymore - it can't be."

"Well then what is it? How can I break it?"

Remus didn't know.

"How can I tell Hermione that the Cruciatus is still all round her mum and dad?" Ginny's voice trembled. "It'll kill her, I know how she is, she won't stop thinking about it."

"It's not a curse," Remus repeated, as firmly as he could. "If the Cruciatus had tormented them for a year, they'd be dead, Ginny." He was fairly sure that he was right - if she could put her hands in it, then it was not the Cruciatus, no matter what she thought she could compare it to. Or at least, it was not the Cruciatus in its full measure…

"A residual," he said suddenly.

"What?" Ginny looked up at him.

"A residual - it's like - it's like the ghost of a curse." Remus felt as if he were standing in the library at Hogwarts. Ginny watched him just as James and Sirius and Peter had used to, wide-eyed and ready to make use of every word that came out of his mouth. "Most wizards don't believe in them. The cursologists here at St. Mungo's would be extremely skeptical, I'm sure, but some of the more liberal apothecaries and the ancient eastern sorcerers believe that all magic leaves its own living energy behind it."

"It does!" Ginny said at once. "At Hogwarts - at Seamus and Lavender's wedding - I could feel exactly where everything had happened. I could remember exactly where Voldemort's wand dropped."

Remus nodded, unsurprised. "If that's true, then the Grangers may not be in pain. Perhaps what you're feeling is a residual of what they endured."

"How can you say they're not in pain?" Ginny demanded. "Look at their eyes."

"Yes, but they're frozen in a moment in time. They look conscious, but they are not. They were in terrible pain, when they lost consciousness, and that is what you see and feel. The pain itself has ebbed away."

"Then… then perhaps if we wait a bit longer, the rest of it will wear off and I'll be able to work on them?"

Remus ran a hand through his hair, pursed his lips and let out a puff of air. "It's very hard to say. Some injuries last forever, even when the pain is gone." Into Remus's mind flashed an old, dark picture. A sharp, white moon. Terrible growling. Yellow eyes and dripping fangs. He winced and continued, mostly to himself. "The residual effects of certain magic can be as bad, in their own way, as the initial traumas."

Ginny gave him a narrow look. Perhaps she knew what he was thinking about, because she didn't ask for further answers. She nodded, and turned her eyes back to Mrs. Granger. "I'm going to tell Hermione what I felt - she should know, no matter what. And she can tell the doctors, and perhaps once they know the residual's there, they can get rid of it. And then I'll be able to leave my hands near them long enough to help them."

She sounded so hopeful and determined that Remus could not bring himself to tell her that it seemed impossible. Mediwizards that did not believe in residuals had certainly spent no time developing the spells that could repeal them. "All right," he said. "You don't look as pale as you did. How are you feeling?"

"Better." Ginny rubbed her head. "The longer I stay in a difficult place, the easier it gets. But I'm… not ready for this hospital." She dropped her hands. "I need more practice. More time around the dragons should do it."

Glad that she had recognized a boundary on her own, Remus steered her out of the hospital room. He met her at home and put on the tea. And for the rest of the afternoon, much to his surprise, Ginny distracted herself by reworking her ruined Arithmancy.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04