Heat, Light and the Properties of Plants

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Chapter published 05 Mar 2006
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Chapter 4 \"Stress is a Muggle Disorder\"

Harry found Mrs Weasley down in the kitchen, busily shovelling piles of bacon, egg, sausages and fried tomatoes onto a plate for him.
\"Oh, there you are Harry; here take this, there\'s toast and pumpkin juice already on the table, I\'ll just make some coffee.\"
\"I really can\'t eat all this, Mrs Weasley,\" Harry said earnestly.
\"Oh, nonsense, tuck in! You look as though they haven\'t been feeding you very well at Hogwarts.\"
\"Aren\'t you having anything?\" asked Harry, spearing a piece of tomato with his fork.
Mrs Weasley laughed. \"Oh, we had ours soon after you arrived this morning. I left you to sleep, you looked so exhausted. But I thought you might like to come with Ginny and me to visit Ron in St Mungo\'s this afternoon.\"
\"Yeah, sure,\" Harry said. \"How\'re we getting there?\"
\"Well, I thought we could Floo to Grimmauld Place - you don\'t mind, do you Harry? - then take the Tube into Central London and walk to St Mungo\'s.\"
\"Sounds fine,\" Harry mumbled through a large mouthful of bacon and egg.

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Ron was sitting up in bed in the Serious Bites ward when Mrs Weasley, Harry and Ginny arrived. \"How are you, mate?\" Harry asked, handing over a packet of chocolate frogs.
\"They said I can come home next week,\" Ron replied cheerfully. \"Good to see you, Harry, what\'ve you been up to?\"
\"Erm, not a lot,\" Harry said. \"Just came down to The Burrow yesterday from Hogwarts. Hermione\'s still there.\"
Ron snorted. \"Why aren\'t I surprised,\" he said sarcastically. \"I knew she wouldn\'t waste a minute. Voldemort\'s dead, anyone normal would be thinking of taking it easy for a few months, but not Hermione. I bet she\'s taking extra coaching from all the teachers that are left so she can get her bloody NEWTS in about a fortnight.\"
\"Ron!\" said his mother reprovingly. \"Maybe you should be thinking about catching up on some qualifications - if you\'re still serious about going in for Auror training.\"
\"Time enough,\" said Ron airily. \"Anyway I think they ought to let us in without NEWTS, what d\'you think, Harry? We sure got plenty of practical experience! - And what about you?\" - looking at his sister. \"You still planning to go to Beauxbatons on that exchange scheme Fleur was telling you about?\"
Ginny blushed. \"I\'m not sure,\" she said, glancing furtively at Harry. \"Anyway, I\'d like to go and do some shopping while we\'re in London, coming Harry?\" and she took Harry by the hand and started pulling him away from Ron\'s bedside. Taken by surprise, Harry went with her, glancing apologetically at Ron. \"I\'ll see you two back at The Burrow,\" Mrs Weasley called after them.
As Harry and Ginny left the ward they nearly bumped into a couple of wizards dressed in lime green Healer\'s robes. \"Oh, sorry,\" said Harry, trying to get past them. But the younger wizard, looking at him intently, said \"Harry Potter, isn\'t it?\" Harry nodded reluctantly. \"Hello!\" said the wizard enthusiastically, shaking Harry\'s hand. \"Have you been visiting Ronald Weasley?\" Without waiting for an answer he indicated the older wizard \"This is our Healer-in-Charge, Hippocrates Smethwyck, and I\'m his assistant, Augustus Pye.\" \"How d\'you do,\" Harry said politely.
But Ginny, staring at the younger Healer, said accusingly \"Hang on, aren\'t you the nutter who stitched up my Dad?\"
Pye went red. \"I did attempt the Muggle art of surgical stitching, yes. Unfortunately they weren\'t appropriate in his particular case. But I wanted to ask you -\" turning back to Harry - \"about your reactions to killing He-who-must-not-be-named.\"
\"Reactions?\" said Harry blankly.
\"Yes, how do you feel about it?\"
\"Fine,\" muttered Harry.
\"You see,\" went on the Healer \"I\'ve been reading about a malady called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and I\'d love the opportunity to study - er, I mean, I was just wondering if you\'d noticed any symptoms?...\"
Hippocrates Smethwyck snorted in disgust. \"Nonsense, Pye!\" he said impatiently. \"Stress is a Muggle disorder. We wizards don\'t suffer from it.\"
Pye looked unconvinced. \"All the same...\" he began, but Smethwyck interrupted him. \"Anyway, Pye, we can\'t stand here chatting all day, we\'ve got that urgent case of hippogriff bites to attend to. Good to have met you, Mr Potter, the wizarding world owes you a great debt.\" And he nodded to Harry, then swept off, followed by a crestfallen Pye.
\"Nobody was glad to meet me, I notice,\" Ginny said angrily. Harry didn\'t know what to say to this, so he kept quiet. But that didn\'t suit Ginny either. \"Of course I\'m not the great Harry Potter -\" she began savagely. \"OH SHUT UP, GINNY!\" Harry snapped. \"YOU SOUND LIKE BLOODY SNAPE!!!\"
\"How dare you compare me to that greasy git -\"
\"He\'s not a -\"
\"Since when did you -\"
They stopped and stared at each other. \"Sorry, Ginny,\" said Harry with an effort. \"I - I\'m not really feeling myself at the moment. Maybe there is something in that stress thingy, after all. Come on, let\'s go and do your shopping.\"
As they walked along the corridor leading away from the Serious Bites ward, Augustus Pye popped his head out of an office door. \"Here, Harry,\" he said, holding out a small leaflet. \"Take this, it tells you all about Post Traumatic Stress. Feel free to contact me any time if you -\"
\"PYE!!\" came a roar from inside the office. Pye pushed the leaflet into Harry\'s hand, gave him an encouraging wink, and disappeared back inside. Harry stuffed the leaflet into his pocket and promptly forgot about it.

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The next day Harry was alone at The Burrow: Ginny and her mother had gone out shopping (is that all she does? Harry wondered). He stretched out on his bed with a copy of the Daily Prophet and tried to read, but found he wasn\'t concentrating very well. In the middle of an article entitled \'Life after Voldemort: an analysis\' which he\'d started five times without taking much in, he heard a tapping on the windowpane
Harry opened the window and a large owl, which he recognised as one of the Hogwarts post owls, swooped into the room. It perched on the back of his bedside chair and held out its leg to him so he could take the small roll of parchment it carried. Harry unrolled the parchment: it was from Hermione.

Dear Harry, I\'m staying at Hogwarts for now to try and get all my NEWTS so I can go to University this autumn...

Harry sniggered, remembering Ron\'s comments.

... Professor McGonagall says that in the circumstances all our year can come back any time in the next three years to complete the course, but I\'d like to do it as soon as possible. How about you, what are your plans?

Harry shrugged. He had no idea what his plans were. He glanced down at the letter again.

...and that Healer from St Mungo\'s is driving Professor Snape mad: she clucks over him like a mother hen and has insisted on washing that greasy hair of his with a special potion of her own invention...

Harry snorted derisively.

Mind you, it has made him look a lot more attractive - I could almost fancy him myself(!)

\"Well you can fucking have him Hermione!\" Harry snarled, crumpling her note into a ball and hurling it across the room. He ran out of The Burrow, grabbed his Firebolt from the shed and flew off in wild, furious swoops.

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Later Harry returned to his room, feeling a bit ashamed of himself, and not really sure why he\'d reacted as he had. He picked up the crumpled note, smoothed it out and carried on reading:

I\'ve sent an owl to Remus Lupin to tell him about our potion and its effects. Don\'t worry, I haven\'t told anyone else (apart from Professor McGonagall and she won\'t tell anyone).

Harry\'s face flamed red. So Hermione and McGonagall had been talking about him and Snape behind his back, had they? Choking down his rage, he turned back to Hermione\'s letter.

So if you need to talk to anyone, Harry, I\'m sure Remus would be happy to discuss things with you. I think he and Tonks are living quite near to The Burrow nowadays. This owl knows where, if you want to send him a message. Take care Harry, love from Hermione

Harry screwed up the parchment and started to put it into his pocket, but found a crumpled leaflet in there - it was the PTSD leaflet Augustus Pye had given him. He opened it up and the following words caught his eye under \'Symptoms\':

emotional numbing, depression, anger, sexual dysfunction, loss of concentration...

Yes, he was experiencing all of those. Hmmm, sexual dysfunction – the only times he\'d got hard lately was when thinking of Snape – how dysfunctional was that? He couldn\'t get it up for Ginny any more ... the last erection he\'d had was the night before last, dreaming he was bending over Snape\'s desk ... he hadn\'t even had his usual early morning hard-on this morning...
So this was why; this was what was wrong with him, not some crappy potion! Post Traumatic Stress following on his final encounter with Voldemort. After all, however you looked at it, he, Harry had become a killer. Okay, these \'symptoms\' hadn\'t appeared until well after he\'d killed Voldemort, in fact not until he\'d fled from Hogwarts - but that was probably just delayed reaction.
\"I can forget Snape and his \'connection\' talk,\" Harry told himself. \"I just need to put this behind me and get on with my life. Maybe Augustus Pye can help me with some treatment or something.\"
He ignored the small voice inside which was trying to tell him that a wizard who tried Muggle stitches for a magical snake bite was perhaps not the best of advisors.
So, he should just get on with things, Surely this stress thing would fade in time, and he\'d recover his old feelings for Ginny. He\'d better make sure he didn\'t lose her...
When Ginny and her mother arrived back with large bags full of shopping, Harry was waiting for them. \"What did you get?\" he asked. \"A lovely dress, look,\" said Ginny, pulling it out of the bag to show him. \"And some shoes, and a new pair of jeans - sexy undies -\" she giggled \"- lots of t shirts-\"
\"I hope you won\'t be spending money like this when we\'re married,\" Harry said.
Ginny stared at him. \"Married?\"
\"Yeah,\" Harry went on doggedly, \"I think we ought to get married as soon as possible, don\'t you?\"
\"Oooh, yes Harry,\" Ginny said happily, and hugged him. But Mrs Weasley looked doubtful. \"You\'re both still teenagers\" she said, \"Maybe you should wait for another year or two.\"
\"We\'re of age,\" said Ginny. \"I don\'t see any reason to wait.\"
Mrs Weasley still looked unconvinced. Harry went over to Ginny and helped her put her shopping back into its bags. \"We\'ll just go upstairs and put this stuff away,\" he said, then whispered in Ginny\'s ear so her mother couldn\'t hear \"You can model those sexy undies for me.\"

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Up in Ginny\'s room Harry sat on her bed watching her pose saucily in her new bra and panties. Ginny was blushing a little and looked wholly delightful, but all Harry could feel was a dull regret that she hadn\'t done this for him while they were still at Hogwarts. Still, the problem must be that PTS stuff; things would be better once they were married...”Come over here, Ginny,” he said, smiling at her.
He pushed one of his knees between Ginny\'s legs, stretched out his hands and began raking his fingernails backwards and forwards across her nipples through the sheer bra. Soon she closed her eyes, moaned and started to rub herself against Harry\'s knee.
They were interrupted by Mrs Weasley calling loudly from the landing. \"What are you two up to? Come down to supper, your father\'s home.\"
\"Shit!\" Ginny exclaimed. She backed hastily away from Harry, her hands modestly protecting her crotch. “You\'d better go downstairs or we\'ll be having Mum in here telling us off.”

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Mrs Weasley had obviously told her husband that Harry and Ginny wanted to get married as soon as possible, because as they were eating their supper he said to Harry \"Of course we\'re delighted to welcome you into our family, Harry, but I agree with Molly - I think you should wait a bit longer.\"
\"We don\'t think there\'s any point in waiting,\" Harry said steadily. \"Do we, Ginny?\" She shook her head.
\"Well in that case Harry\" said Mr Weasley, \"You should nominate your best man as soon as you can.\"
\"Can\'t that wait a bit?\" asked Harry.
\"Oh, no. A best man in the wizarding world has many more duties than his Muggle equivalent,\" Mr Weasley explained. \"It\'s his job to advise on everything to do with the prospective marriage.\"
Harry considered. There was Augustus Pye, but he hardly knew him, and besides...
\"I\'ll ask Remus Lupin,\" Harry said. \"I\'ll send an owl off to him tonight.\"
Early the next morning as Harry was getting dressed he heard a murmur of voices in the kitchen; Remus had arrived already. As he opened the kitchen door he heard Mr Weasley say \"- and so we\'re rather worried, Remus, he seems -\" He broke off when he saw Harry.
\"Hello, Remus,\" Harry said. \"It\'s really good to see you, thanks for coming so soon. So you\'re okay with being my best man?\"
Remus looked seriously at him and nodded. \"I\'ll do whatever I can, Harry. The first thing we need to do is go and see Sextus Twayblade.\"
Harry gaped at him. \"Who is Sextus Twayblade?\"
\"He\'s the custodian of the Mirror of Betrothal.\"

TBC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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