FicWad

Chapter 15
Editor: The Resident
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Matt Granger, Hermione's father, and Harry arrived at the children's hospital after a ten minute drive from Hermione's house. Matt was relieved that they could get away from Hermione, because he knew that his daughter would get very upset if she saw all those poor children in the hospital ward. When Harry had arrived early that morning, Hermione had wanted to accompany them to the hospital, but Matt had insisted that they were going alone. Too many people visiting the hospital would look suspicious, and they would have problems getting in. Finally, after a half hour of talking, Hermione relented and let them go alone.

Harry and Matt stepped out of the Land Rover and walked towards the children hospital. The hospital was a large, white stoned building with four floors and large gardens around it. They entered the building via the main entrance and walked towards the receptionist.

"Can I speak with Dr. Hendricks, please?" Matt asked the receptionist, who was sitting behind her desk. The receptionist was a blond middle aged woman with a big hooked nose and penetrating blue eyes. She was staring at them.

"Dr. Hendricks, sir?"

"Yes miss," Matt replied.

"What is your name?" the receptionist asked with an icy voice.

"Dr. Granger and Mr. Potter," replied Matt with a smile.

She looked less stern, took the telephone, and called a number. She whispered something in the receiver and hung up.

"He will be with you very soon. Take a seat in the waiting room, please," she said, pointing to the large waiting room behind then two men.

Both men turned and walked to the waiting room. Harry looked outside through the large windows, while Matt took a chair. They were the only ones in the waiting room.

Suddenly they heard the doors slam open, and two men dressed in black entered the hospital. The two men were obviously soldiers, because they were in uniform... completely black uniforms. Both of them carried weapons, their hair was cut very short, and their faces were expressionless, but they did not wear any rank or have any indication of what rank they were. Matt and Harry looked up and watched the two men marching towards a door next to the receptionist. The stern looking receptionist stared at them briefly, did not say a word, and let the two men pass; they disappeared through the door.

"What are soldiers doing in a children's hospital?" asked Harry

"I have no idea," answered Matt, mystified.

The door next to the receptionist opened again, and a tall and plump blond man entered in a white doctor's robe.

"Is that Dr. Hendricks?" asked Harry.

"Yes, that is he," answered Matt with a smile.

Matt stood up and walked towards the tall man.

"Mike, how splendid to see you again," said Matt with a smile, shaking his hand.

"Matt, it's been a long time since we've seen each other," Mike said. "I was pleasantly surprised when I got your telephone call yesterday."

He turned to Harry.

"Is this the boy you were talking about?" Mike asked.

Harry stood up and smiled hesitatingly at the large man.

"Dr. Hendricks, it is a pleasure to meet you," Harry said politely.

"It is my pleasure," Mike said with a smile, shaking Harry's hand. "I heard quite a lot about you, Mr. Potter. I am very interested to see what you can do to help the children," he said. "Please come with me. The security in the children's ward where we are going is being changed again, so this is the best time to visit them."

"Why is there security, Mike?" Matt asked.

"One of the sick children is from royal parentage," Mike answered with a frown. "They didn't say which child, though."

The walked towards the door and Harry looked briefly to the receptionist, who was glaring at them, but she let them pass.

Dr. Hendricks was leading them through the many corridors of the hospital. Nobody spoke a word to each other. Harry felt a bit anxious... he was not sure why, but he could not help it. Dr. Hendricks slowed his pace and looked briefly at Harry.

"I know that you are a wizard, Mr. Potter," he said with a weak smile. "My daughter was a Ravenclaw at Hogwarts fifteen years ago, but my wife and I are muggles."

They passed an area full of people, who were waiting in chairs in front of a nurse's desk. Dr. Hendricks was quiet while passing, and they entered a quiet corridor.

"I had several medi-wizards here to see if they could help the children, but nobody could," he whispered. "St. Mungo's also sent me several other specialists, but none of them were able to help children with this type of cancer. Their bodies are too much destroyed and nothing can be done against it anymore."

They entered a large empty room, and Dr. Hendricks led them to a yellow door. In front of the door, he paused and looked at Harry.

"In this room are six children... they are all in the last stage of blood cancer. The major forms of blood cancer are lymphoma, leukaemia and multiple myeloma." He looked at Harry. "Do you know what I am speaking about, Mr. Potter?" he asked.

Harry nodded.

"Leukaemia is a form of cancer that affects the body's blood-making system. Multiple myeloma is cancer of the bone marrow," Harry answered.

"Yes, you are correct," answered Mike. "Multiple myeloma is cancer of the bone marrow that results from uncontrolled growth of plasma cells, a form of white blood cells. Normally, plasma cells make antibodies called immunoglobulins to fight infections. In multiple myeloma, however, plasma cells multiply uncontrollably and make too much of a single type of immunoglobulin. The level of other types of immunoglobulin drops dangerously low, leaving the children open to infections. The cancerous plasma cells collect in their bones and bone marrow and sometimes form tumours that destroy the bone tissue, causing the bones to become weak and possibly break."

He paused to see if Harry understood him; Harry nodded slowly, unsure what to expect.

"Multiple myeloma is a fairly rare form of cancer, affecting only three to four out of every 100,000 people each year. It tends to occur in older people, but children are affected also, as we will see."

He opened the yellow door, and they entered the room. There were six beds in the high-ceiled room, three beds on each wall. At the end of the room was a large window and a table under it with four chairs. All the beds were occupied with children who were surrounded with equipment, tubes and wires, and small display screens with flashing displays that were making a cacophony of beeps and static noise. On the walls of the room were posters of fairytales, cartoon figures, and on small tables, piles of teddy bears, soft, plush animals and dolls.

"Here are the children who are in stage three, which is the last stage before... the end. All of the children had their Bone marrow transplant some weeks ago. Now they have infusions of immunoglobulins, to prevent serious infections," Mike whispered.

The children on the beds reminded Harry on the television programs about starving children from Africa. Their heads were bald and huge, and their bodies were extremely thin. Harry could easily see their bones. Harry saw that one child was awake. She lay next to the window, and her big brown eyes were staring fixedly at him.

He slowly approached the bed, took a chair, and sat down. He did not say a word, and did not break eye contact with the girl. The girl was only watching him... every movement he made she followed, saying nothing. He could see the pain and loneliness in her eyes, terror and despair. Harry's heart broke, and he felt terribly sorry for the girl. Here was a girl who knew that she would die in a terrible way. This girl was doomed to die. He wondered about her parents... why were they not here with their daughter to support her... to hold her? He nodded his head slowly; he understood the loneliness, because he experienced similar things in his past when his uncle beat him and there was nobody for him as well.

The pain was very different. He was not a stranger to pain, but what he saw in the eyes of the girl was beyond his comprehension. What he saw in the eyes of the girl, he partly understood. He read in her eyes the dull expression of pain... physical, emotional and psychological pain... terrible pain, pain which could not be described in words.

Harry could not help but whimper when he looked into the eyes of the girl.

The girl seemed to react a bit to his presence. She blinked her eyes, and watched him more intently.

The two doctors were watching Harry and the girl...

Harry called his earth elemental and concentrated on one element. He willed the element to 'feel' the girl in front of him on her bed. He felt something very alien. His skin tightened around his limbs, his back and stomach, a burning pain in his back and legs, piercing pain in his arms and a strange hollow feeling in is head. His skin felt like sand paper, he was itching all over... he felt strangely dizzy... he felt like he was floating.

Then the pain started...

Harry started to cry. He could feel what the girl felt, the terrible, never-ending pain, somewhat dulled by medicine... deep piercing pain... wave after wave... Harry's eyes went wide open in fear and alarm.

That pain singed through his body like fire... from his abdomen streaming through his legs and stomach, wave after wave setting his chest in flames... breathing became hard... not enough air.

His crotch felt like it was squeezed tightly; Harry bowed over in pain and vomited on his trousers and on the ground. Before one of the adults could react, Harry slid onto the ground, clutching his abdomen and screaming in pain, horror, fear and despair.

Several things were happening at the same time. Two blacked dressed soldiers came running into the room with drawn weapons, Harry was screaming like crazy, the two doctors were rushing towards Harry, and a greenish shield was covering Harry. The two doctors stopped straight in front of the shield, not knowing what it was and what to do.

One of the soldiers moved smoothly in front of Harry, the other took up a position at the back of the room; both of them their weapons pointed at Harry, ready to shoot.

The soldiers had no idea what was happening, except that the young man with the glasses and unruly black hair was radiating a strange greenish glow and was screaming... maybe he was a patient. Why were the doctors standing in front of that patient and looking almost afraid?

The soldier in the back of the room activated his radio and gave an alarm alpha, which meant highest priority danger signal. The soldiers knew that within minutes the entire hospital would be sealed off... nobody allowed in or out anymore.

The young man did not seem to pose a direct threat, but he was much too close to the princess. One of the soldiers looked briefly at the girl... she was acting very different now compared to before. The little thin girl was staring with her wide eyes at the glowing boy.

The pain searing through Harry's body felt terrible... never in his short life he felt so terrible as this, and he starting to panic. The few times he had used the earth elemental he had never experienced such pain, but on the other hand, he had never 'scanned' a person as sick as this girl. He realized that he needed to do something; otherwise, he would get into serious trouble. He remembered during curing himself that he used an earth elemental to suppress the pain he felt at that time. Harry tried to concentrate on an earth elemental and willed it to suppress the pain.

It did not help. The pain was still there and Harry could not help but scream. The girl slowly held out a very thin and bony hand. Harry could clearly see the bones in the hand... not much flesh left.

Suddenly the pain diminished... only the feeling of extreme unease was left. Harry stopped screaming and looked intently to the girl. He would not make the mistake again to 'feel' the girl. What she had was too terrible to comprehend and to experience. He concentrated himself on four earth elementals and willed them to help the girl.

Harry was vaguely aware of many people rushing into the room, vague sounds of slamming doors and hard voices and sounds of metal against metal. He was trying to cure the girl... if needed he would make the girl healthy, like what he did to his girls.

The girl's expression changed immediately. Her expression changed into one of ultimate surprise... she lost the energy to hold her head up and relaxed on her bed. The pain was gone... or nearly gone. She wondered if she was dying now.

The girl briefly flashed green... the same colour as the glow surrounding Harry. She fell back to her bed and seemed to relax, if you would believe the expression on her face. She smiled faintly... her body started to float... he sheet fell from her skinny body. Then she started to glow... the contours around her body started to become vague... nobody could see what was happening... a greenish fog appeared around her.

Harry sat there... waiting until his elementals were ready with the girl. He felt much better now, and he concentrated himself on his only remaining elemental that the pain would be totally gone.

After a very long time Harry started to feel something strange. He felt exhaustion... very strange indeed. He got the impression of... three times exhaustion. He suddenly realized that he felt the state of his elementals. They were exhausted! He looked up and saw that the earth elementals were still not back... none of the earth elementals was in their place. One elemental was with him, the other four elementals were busy with the girl. He willed his earth elemental to help to girl, because there was nothing else to do with himself anymore, and he was waiting.

After what seemed to be ages, his elementals returned to their place. He looked up and saw that the colour of four elementals were pale green, the fifth one was still green. He understood that four elementals were exhausted. He could not use them anymore to cure other girls. Talking about curing... he looked towards the girl... but that was hard to do, because the girl seemed to be behind a green layer of fog. He concentrated on his healthy elemental, and willed the fog to go away... and it went away.

The first thing he saw was the girl: she seemed to be sleeping, because she lay flat on her bed. He saw that a man was covering the girl with a sheet, and Harry saw a glance of a pale body, but in a much better state then it was in before. He assumed that his elementals did their work, and he hoped that everything would be fine. He remembered that there were five more children in the room, and he needed to treat those children as well. He looked again to his elementals, but there did not seem to be any change in the colour of his four exhausted earth elementals.

Then he looked around him, and was shocked. He saw many soldiers in the room with weapons at ready; in the back of the room, he saw Matt Granger and his friend Mike Hendricks looking very nervous, and next to him he saw an older woman and a man with a straight back. The elder couple were looking at him... smiles were on their faces. He suddenly realized that sound was noticeable.

"Good old chap," the older man said to him. "Are you alright? Do you need something to drink?"

Harry nodded. Drink... he was thirsty.

The older man turned to one of the soldiers in black and gave a short and sharp hand gesture. The man immediately turned and disappeared, shortly coming back with a large glass with water. The soldier gave the glass to the older man, who promptly offered it to Harry. Harry took the glass in his shaking hands, and drank the glass with one gulp. That was definitely better. He wondered if they were in trouble, because there were so many soldiers here.

He looked to the elder couple again, and he realized that the older woman was somehow familiar. He could not place her immediately, but something was... the queen? Was that the queen who was standing here?

"Do I know you, Mrs.?" Harry asked with cracking voice.

"Some more water, Charles," the older lady said with a voice of a lifetime long authority, while still smiling at him. "You have just created a miracle, young man," she said with a powerful voice. "You have saved the life of my granddaughter, and we never will be able to pay you back for this."

Harry looked at the girl, who was leaning with her upper back on her pillow, and was watching him.

"How do you feel," Harry asked the girl.

"Thanks to you I feel wonderful," she said happily.

"What is your name?" Harry asked.

"My name is Zara," She answered his question and looked up at the older woman. "Grandmother, can he stay with us?"

The woman looked briefly at the girl, then at Harry.

"I am aware of your world, Mr. Potter. You are a wizard, and a very well known wizard at that. Your father was James Harold Potter, and your mother was Lily Jacqueline Evans. Both of them were killed on 31 October 1981 by an evil wizard with the name Voldemort. On the same day, you killed that evil wizard, and for that, you are famous in your world. You, Mr. Potter, are my nephew eight times removed," she said with a firm voice. "We are family."

The only thing that Harry could do was gape at the old woman.

"Mr. Potter," the woman said with a stern voice. "Please shut your mouth, because you are gaping, and that is not polite in company."

Harry closed his mouth immediately.

He could see that the older man behind the woman was looking amused, but said nothing.

"I am your queen, Mr. Potter," she said calmly. She turned to the smiling older man behind her. "And this is Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh."

Then she looked fondly to the little girl on the bed.

"And this young lady, who you have saved from a certain death, is my granddaughter Zara Phillips. "

Zara looked at her grandmother and blushed.

"Grandma, please," she almost begged.