TRYING TO REMEMBER

Earlier that day some boys hiking near a bridge found the body of a man barely alive. By his appearance he must have been homeless. They called the authorities and he man was taken away from the scene and rushed to a nearby muggle hospital. Due to his extensive injuries he was then air flighted to a hospital in London.

Harry and Ginny were on the sofa cuddling when Sirius flooed back.

“You’re back early I’m almost afraid to ask how did it go?”

“He wasn’t there. I looked all over for him. Inside the cottage outside the cottage. He was drunk where ever he went.”

“How do you know that?”

“There were five empty bottles of firewhiskey.”

“Five?”

“Werewolf metabolism.”

“Do you know where he could be?”

“I have a couple of ideas. The Shack or maybe Godrics Hollow.”

“You take the shack I’ll take Godric’s Hollow. Ginny stay here in case he shows up here.”

Half an hour later they met back at Grimmauld Place. “Find anything?”

“No, you?”

“No.”

In a muggle hospital in London the doctors were removing the clothes of the vagrant that was brought in and were shocked at all the scars and bruises all over his body.

“There’s blood building in his brain we’re going to have to operate.”

“Maybe he went to sleep it off. We’ll check back tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

Sirius looked at a picture it was labeled “The New Order”. Remus was in a hospital bed surrounded by Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, Neville, Shacklebolt, Charlie, Tonks and Molly.

“Is this all that’s left of the Order?”

“Yeah. The last battle was horrible, we lost twenty people that day. It was in June the night before the full moon. Voldemort knew that Remus would be weak feeling the pull. Take out the strongest member, he also knew that Greyback would be at his strongest without being a full werewolf, close enough. Greyback wanted Remus badly for spying on him. When the battle began he drew Remus from the rest of us, and we don’t really know what happened after. But we had our hands full the order went off to fight the death eaters while I went after Voldemort. It was a long hard battle and I’m not even sure how I did it. I guess I used all the love that I had for everyone and everyone had for me, especially you, mum and dad. After I defeated Voldemort, I went to go join the order in battling the death eaters. After we defeated them we went to look for Remus. We found him with his chest ripped open, Sirius I saw his heart beating inside of him. Bellatrix found us and performed the killing curse and Snape jumped in front of him. Killing Snape instead. Neville then stupefied Bellatrix and they took her to Azkaban. It was awful and then we saw Greyback dead. Poppy came and took him to St. Mungo’s any healing that was done was destroyed by the transformation. Every transformation since it keeps opening up, like it was cursed. It does seem to get better with each one though.”

Sirius remembered how he flinched from pain whenever he touched it, no wonder.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

“I’m glad you’re here now. He’ll show up don’t worry.”

“I hope so I want to spend the holidays with him.”

“You will.”

The next morning the remaining members of the Order were called in. They were going to search for the remaining Death Eaters and see if they had any information regarding Remus’ disappearance. That failed too. It was been two days since Sirius couldn’t find him in the cottage, two days since Sirius had anything of substance to eat.

In the hospital Remus lay unconscious at lease the bleeding on his brain had stopped. A tele crew came by looking for holiday special interest stories when they came across the mystery patient and decided he would be a perfect story.

On Christmas Eve the Grangers were watching the news on the tele, when there was a story of a hit and run, the victim was yet to be identified, They showed a picture of the victim, who they believed to be a vagrant. Even through all the tubes, machines and a shaven head there was no mistaking who the victim was. Lying in the bed was her former professor.

The scene at Grimmauld Place was somber to say the least. Sirius in tears that he would never see his lover again. Worst of all his last words were of anger. Hermione came through the floo.

“I think I found Remus.”

Sirius looked up.

“There was a news report about a hit and run, they showed him as a mysterious vagrant, covered in scars that looked like animal scratches. He’s in a coma.”

‘Where?”

“St. Francis, here in London.”

“Let’s go.”

“Wait a minute Sirius, muggle hospitals are different than wizarding ones. Remus is in a ward called Critical Care he’s going to be hooked up to various machines. Some are to monitor him but some are there to keep him alive. You can’t mess around with what they are doing.”

“Okay, okay I get it. Now can we go?”

“Harry, Hermione and Sirius walked into the hospital and went straight to the information desk.”

Hermione did the talking. “Hello, we’d like information about the vagrant that was on the tele earlier you know the hit and run.”

“Do you know him?”

“He’s a friend of ours.”

Sirius was slowly losing his temper there was no time for talking he needed to be with his Remus.

“He’s on the third floor Room 315. I’ll let the staff know you’re on your way up. The lifts are around the corner.” The three of them went in to the lift, Sirius by this time was a wreck he was nervous at what he saw. When they stepped out of the elevator they went to the nurse’s desk.

“Hi, you must be the friends of the victim from the mobile accident.”

“Before you can see him we need for you to answer a few questions.”

“Fine but could you tell me how he is first.”

“The doctor is on his way and he’ll explain everything. Name?”

“Sirius Orion Black.”

“Sirius, I think she means Remus’ name.”

“Remus John Lupin.”

“Age?”

“Thirty-eight.”

“Date of Birth?”

“March 10, 1960.”

“Address?”

“Twelve Grimmauld Place, London.”

“But he was found in Wales?”

“He has a cottage there, for now he’s at Twelve Grimmauld.”

“Employer?”

Sirius looked at Harry and Hermione. Harry spoke.

“He’s self employed.”

“Religion?”

“Episcopalian.”

“Insurance?”

“None.”

“Whom do I send the invoice to?”

“Me, Harry Potter, Twelve Grimmauld Place.”

“Okay. Now I need some medical history.”

“Has he ever been hospitalized?”

“Yes.”

“Explain.”

“He was bitten by a w” Harry kicked him, “wolf.”

“Was it rabid?”

“No.”

“Any broken bones?”

Sirius was putting his fingers through his hair struggling to answer. He knew the answer is yes but how could he explain. “Not that I’m aware of.”

“Allergies?”

“Yes, silver and aconite.” Sirius wasn’t going to mess with these answers, either one could kill him.”

“Any history of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease?”

“No. Is this over? I want to see Remus.”

“One last thing he has scars all over his body can you explain this?”

Hermione interjected at this point. “He’s a wild animal trainer. Had a few accidents.”

“Here’s the doctor now.”

“Hi there I’m Dr. Samuelson; I’m working on the victim’s case.”

“Remus.”

“I’m glad we have a name attached. And you folks are?

“I’m Sirius Black, and Remus is my lover.”

“We’re friends of Remus.”

“Can I see him now, please?”

“Before you go in I want to let you know his condition. He had some life threatening injuries when he was brought here. The fall was pretty nasty. He had internal injuries which we took care of and actually are healing nicely. Both his lungs were deflated and we have to keep him on this machine to help him breath. He lost a lot of blood, needed a full transfusion between his injuries and the surgeries. As I said he’s healing from those injuries. He had head trauma in which we had to operate to drain some blood; he still has a shunt in just in case any more fluid builds up. Until we wake him we won’t fully know the extent of that injury.”

“Until you wake him?”

“Because of his lung injuries, he is kept alive by an airway if awake patients try to fight it. Once he can breathe on his own we can remove it.”

“How long should that take?”

“Two to three weeks.”

“Worse case scenario on his brain injury?”

“He’s an invalid.”

“When was the last blood transfusion?”

“When he was brought here, three days ago.”

“Can we see him now?”

“You should be thankful Mr. Black, he is alive and he will recover from at least most of his injuries.”