Ron groaned as he woke, his head pounding. Actually, his whole body ached and he remembered with sudden clarity just why that was. Bloody fucking cultists who worshipped the Dark Arts and enjoyed using them on the Aurors who'd come to arrest them. Ron had zigged when he should have zagged, and a curse had hit him square on the shoulder. He remembered Robards swearing, and then nothing after that except fire shooting down his arm.
He pried his eyes open and peered at his arm, relieved to see that it was still attached. He vaguely remembered returning to consciousness enough for the Healers to tell him they'd reversed the curse, that it had been a mild one for all it hurt like twelve Bludgers hitting him at once, but then he must have passed out again. He thought he was past the passing out at this point, and his eyes focused enough to take in the rest of the room.
"What the bloody Hell?" he asked out loud, as it registered finally that while he was in an infirmary, it wasn't St Mungo's. "Why the Hell am I at Hogwarts?" It didn't make any sense. Madame Pomfrey was a wonderful mediwitch, but he didn't think she knew more about dark curses than the specialists at St Mungo's. And he'd definitely been at St Mungo's the last time he'd been awake, he was almost sure of it. "And why is it empty?"
Even if he was at Hogwarts, in the infirmary, where was Madame Pomfrey? Where were the students? There should have been at least two or three in the beds beside him. Shouldn't there? Something was very wrong.
He shoved himself to his feet, glad that he at least had his wand. His clothes were gone, so he did a rough transfiguration of the hospital gown. He wasn't going to go wandering around Hogwarts like that, even if it was strangely deserted. The pain was still present in his arm, but it wasn't debilitating and anyway, he'd had worse. A lot worse.
The halls were as deserted as the infirmary had been. No students, no professors, not even any ghosts. What the hell was going on? He moved quickly, deciding that the Great Hall would be a good place to find some answers.