Meeting friends in a muggle pub
Ron looked at his best mates Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, both had been there for him after the second wizarding war had ended with the fight at Hogwarts School.
It was not to dramatic to say that Ginny, Percy and himself had nowhere to go when they stood up against the Order of the Phoenix and the ministry of magic after both had wanted to throw Harry into Azkaban for using a unforgivable to off Lord Voldemort. Hermoine had left the magical society, and had become a lawyer in the muggle society, he and the others had not blamed her at all. In fact they were still friends and met as often as their schedules would allow.
Harry sat down with his group of mates at the muggles pub table, with the drinks he had brought and asked the question “So what is the problem with Fleur and Bill’s youngest then”
“Nobody knows, Harry!” Ginny explained “The poor thing is home maybe a day or two and then becomes seriously ill”
“Then he is admitted to hospital, and his illness abates, they carry out tests and they come back as normal. The poor mite is sent home again and cycle repeats itself” Percy explains “Actually! Fleur and Bill are so grateful that mum and dad help them look after their children, especially with how Phoenix needs extra care because of his illness” Percy finishes
“So what is the actual diagnosis then?” Hermoine quizzes the members of the Weasley family, that are still in contact and friends with Harry and herself.
Ron looks disappointly at his three friends as he answers “The medical experts in St Mungo’s still don’t 100% what is wrong with Phoenix, but thinks he has a very rare form of the muggle disease Sanfilippo Syndrome. Phoenix was just a regular toddler and then the symptoms started. He started to lose the abilities and knowledge he had learnt. In some ways it is better and worse than the muggle version through! Although he is slowly deteriorating over time, it is much slower than it would be if he was a normal muggle child”
Harry sat at the table in the muggle pub near Diagon Alley, and looked at Hermoine. She nodded her head as if she was glad that at least Bill and Fleur had Molly and Arthur Weasley to assist them in caring and looking after their children. Just because the Weasley parents were money grabbing individuals, who after the war had used their enhanced fame of being close to the famous ‘Boy that Lived’ to ensure they got money and endorsements.
That Harry could almost live with, but the Weasley parents with the twins, Charlie and Bill with his wife had almost managed to get him and his adopted father Lord Sirius Black imprisoned because he had stood up for their Professor Severus Snape, a man who had tried to save so many!
Harry had been physically sick when he had read the ‘supposedly true’ account of his life that was to be published. Luckily Rita Skeeter had known a good unknown writer who had with the assistance of Rita and himself wrote such a ludicrous story about his life, the wizarding world and war. That muggles and even the young wixen thought it was children’s fiction.
Harry’s adopted parent and Godfather had howled in grief when he realised that his mate Severus Snape and good friend Remus and his wife had died unnecessary in the dam war. Even seven years after the end of the war, Sirius still had bad days where he couldn’t even get out of bed with depression.
Sirius had shown not only his anger, but the cunning use of his power of the Black Lordship when he had managed to ensure that the Great Albus Dumbledore was imprisoned in Azkaban for his planning of the two wizarding wars, in fact when Sirius as Lord Black had finished with the Hogwarts staff, most of them had been imprisoned for their crimes against abusive children. As Sirius had put forward the staff had blindly followed the Headmasters orders, never once being interested in the children under their care.
Harry looked at Draco to change the topic of the current conversation, and asked him “So, is it true what everybody is saying? About Professor Snape”
“Oh yes, sadly it is true. He is known as the harbinger of death! Its sad that a man that tried to safe people and children, now as a ghost will enter the room of a person or especially a child that is to die immediately” answered Draco
“But, it cant be true that the patients rooms he is seen as going into are people who were not expected to die?” Hermoine queried
Draco just shrugged and responded as he looked down forlornly at his drink on the table “I know! Even I still have difficulty believing Uncle Severus would be the harbinger of unexpected death. Unless I had not heard it from nurses and doctors who actually experience seeing Uncle Severus doing this”
Everybody sat around the table just looked at their drinks for a moment, thinking unpleasant thoughts while the muggle music blared from the speakers in the pub. Muggles mixed and sat together, meeting in couples or groups on a Friday evening just enjoying each other’s company before the weekend got started.
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The next day Draco walked onto the children’s medical ward at St Mungo’s, he noticed the children that had been discharged the previous week. Draco often thought the magical world had no idea how lucky they were that most magical individuals nearly always 100% recovered.
Draco volunteered on the Children ward at St Mungo’s maybe once or twice a month or more if he could, but he was now a foundation doctor in the muggle NHS. Seven long years of training, and now the hard work of him becoming either a specialist consultant or GP had started.
As he had told his friends Harry and the rest on numerous occasions, volunteering in St Mungo’s was rewarding, but also it raised his spirits when he saw most of the patients especially the children be cured and leave the hospital.
Draco looked down the list of patients that were now on the ward, and noticed that Phoenix Weasley had yet again been admitted on the children’s ward. He had asked one of the specialist neurologist consultants in the Hospital that he now worked at (for the next three years) about Phoenix’s case. The consultant had ermed and arred before stating that unless he was to see Phoenix personally he couldn’t actually say professionally what was wrong with Phoenix. The consultant had then talked to the nursing staff about a patient that was on the ward that he had come to visit. Draco had a horrible feeling that the consultant (a really nice person) was looking at him questioningly
The most senior and respected registered nurse on the ward he was working on at the moment, had asked to speak to him privately. What she had said, had shocked him to the core, she stated that what the neurologist couldn’t say to him, was that in his opinion Phoenix was not suffering from Sanfilippo Syndrome but from treatment from a individual like muggle nurse Beverley Allitt. Draco had been shocked at the nurses statement, he knew without a doubt that the Weasley’s especially Arthur and Molly loved Phoenix, and he knew that no member of St Mungo’s staff would intentionally hurt a child in their care.
It had been a long but rewarding day for Draco, as he visited the children on the ward to perhaps read and look after them while their parents perhaps took time to do things they needed to do. The ward it self was open plan and portioned into four sections. There was down a corridor private rooms, that housed very ill and dying children. In one of those rooms Phoenix Weasley was in, Draco never went near the room as he knew that his presence to the Weasley parents and other family members would not be appreciated.
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Draco would never forget the time, and where he stood that day when he saw the ghost of his Uncle and Godfather Severus Snape look straight at him and in full view of Draco and a nurse calmly walk through the wall of Phoenix Weasley room. Afterwards Draco and the nurse would swear that time actually stood still