WHO: Parvati Patil and Ritchie Coote. WHEN: Friday, May 5th. WHERE: St. Mungos. SUMMARY: Parvati and Ritchie go looking for each other. WARNINGS: N/A? Mentions of the battle and wounds.
It had been a few days, but Parvati had finally decided she was ready to venture out of her hospital room. She still didn’t feel like facing most people, could still barely get through more than a few hours without crying, but there was one person she hadn’t seen yet that she wanted to.
She was wobbly on her feet, the major loss in blood she’d experienced still making her dizzy, and the chunks missing from her legs making them feel weaker. It didn’t help that she hadn’t walked further than to the bathroom since arriving. But slowly she made her way to the room one of the healers had told her Ritchie, wanting nothing more than to just curl up in his hospital bed with him and be in his company. That had always made her feel better before.
Except his bed was empty.
Her first reaction was panic, breath shortening and shaking. What if something had happened and they’d had to move him to a different ward? Or move his body? Her head was spinning. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself against the door frame and took a deep breath. And another. Until she was interrupted by a healer enquiring if she was alright.
“Where is he?” she asked quietly, bracing herself for the worse, flooded with relief when she was informed that he himself was just taking a stroll and should be back soon but no, she couldn’t just wait here, she needed to go back to her own room in case one of her healers needed to check on her. Reluctantly she started the trek back towards her bed.
Ritchie probably shouldn’t have been out of his bed. His upper body felt stiff, almost unnatural, he could only pull in short shallow breaths and his left shoulder and arm pained him when he moved too quickly. But his legs were working and he spent enough time in his room. He heeded his healers about rest and sleep long enough, now he was intent on finding his girlfriend.
After satisfying one of his healers that he could walk without difficulty, he was given Parvati’s location and made his way there. Grateful for the walk, not grateful that he was contained to the hallways of St. Mungos but at least he was out of his room. He was even less grateful when he found Parvati’s own room empty.
He could feel it again, his heart thundering in his ears, pit of worry in his stomach, dread creeping in. He shouldn’t be breathing so heavily and it took him a few minutes and a medi-witch calling out to him before he reassured her that he was fine and made his way back to his own room.
She’s fine, he thought of Parvati standing in the Great Hall. She’s fine, he thought of Parvati making her way towards him. She’s fine, he thought of Parvati finally in his arms again.
Sh— “Parvati? Parvati!” Small cough as he upset his lungs, a rub to his shoulder as that upset it, him movement a bit stiff but he quickly closed the distance between him and her with help of his long legs. “Parvati.”
She let out a sigh of relief when she saw him in the hallway. The healer had said he was fine, but that wasn't the same as seeing it for herself. “Hi,” she said, voice shaking even on that one small word, burying herself into him, forgetting to be careful of his injuries as she tried to get as close to him as possible. “Thank you for not dying,” she mumbled into his chest.
It felt so good to have her back in his arms. Or arm, as his left was currently wrapped and in a sling. He didn’t care about the discomfort he felt, he just wanted to hold Parvati and never let go. “I didn’t stay as safe as I promised but I was careful.” he said, kissing the top of her head. He didn’t want to mention it, Parvati had suffered enough but he found himself still needing to reassure her. “I’m always going to be here.”
She almost made him promise. Promise she wouldn't leave him like the others had. But even if the war was over, she still wasn't sure that was something anyone could promise. “You'd better be, Richard,” she said instead, clinging to him a little tighter.
“Can you walk okay?” she asked, suddenly conscious of the fact that they were in the middle of a hallway in a currently very busy hospital. She wasn't sure how long she could stand, either, already tired from the walk. “We should go to your room.”
“I will.” He said softly, refusing to shift in discomfort just wanting to have her as close as he could. “I can walk just fine.” Ritchie reassured, shifting them tucking her under his uninjured arm and made to lead her towards his room. “Sorry if I haven’t reached out to you. They can’t find my journal.” He couldn’t even remember where he left it last, couldn’t even remember what he was doing before he was guiding the younger years into the Great Hall. “I asked Viola to dump all my things out to find where the house-elves tucked it away.”
“It’s okay, the journals are awful anyway,” she replied, wrapping an arm around his waist as they walked. She wondered what he knew, not having his journal. Tracey or someone might have told him everything though. Hopefully. She didn’t know if she could bring herself to say all the names if he didn’t already know. “Except I saw it said Madison was okay, so that’s good.” She willed herself not to cry over him having his best friend back when hers were now gone. It was good news, and Ritchie had gone almost a whole year not knowing if she was dead or alive. He deserved this happiness.
“Yeah.” Tracey had indeed been telling him, showing him this and that. He knew who was dead, he knew who was in St. Mungos. Then a more upbeat ‘yeah’ at the mention of Madison even if it pained him to think about her in Azkaban all this time. He hoped she had successfully stayed away, instead of captured and taken away into such an awful place. But now she was out. Upset that he stayed for the Battle but she couldn’t be upset over that otherwise he could be upset of her being in Azkaban. A stalemate had been reached.
“It’s weird though. Not having her back being weird. I’m happy she’s back. Just...” he paused then, turning into his rooms doorway. “After everything, after losing people. It doesn’t seem...fair.” Both of them, he and Parvati, were severely injured. But she still going through more than most, more than he. Both of her best friends dead, all but one of her dormmates dead. It wasn’t fair, Ritchie wanted Parvati to have everything she’d want and need. He got his best friend back, why couldn’t she have both of hers?
“Hey,” Parvati said, surprising herself even. Now they were in his room she turned to face him, reaching up to kiss him lightly. He was right, it wasn’t fair, but that didn’t mean he didn’t deserve to enjoy having Madison back. She could remember how happy Seamus had been when they’d heard for sure that Dean was safe. It had been a long time since she’d seen him that happy, and Ritchie deserved that same moment. She hoped Seamus had gotten to see Dean before. Well. And just because she felt miserable most of the time didn’t mean that Ritchie had to feel the same way. She had Ernie for that anyway. “It’s good that she’s back. Any extra person who is okay is a good thing, and even better if it’s someone you care about, okay?”
Ritchie smiled against the kiss. Still so glad to have her near again. So glad to be able to kiss her without both of them rushing off in anticipation for a battle. But still not glad that Parvati had been hurt worse than he, would still be hurt most likely longer than he would. “Okay.” he replied softly but with a firm nod in agreement. It just felt weird feeling so happy when the person he cared deeply for felt so bad. He considered vocalizing this but he decided against it. He could deal with his feelings, he didn’t have to pile onto hers.
Ritchie leaned down, pulling her once more into a proper hug against him. Pressing his head against hers and sighing contently. After a while he turned his head slightly to kiss along the side of her face until reaching her lips and kissing her deeply.
She returned the kiss, amazed at how good this was for taking her mind off things. A little moment of relief from all the pain. She still didn’t feel like smiling, but at least she no longer felt like she was only moments from tears.
“Where are you hurt?” she asked when she eventually broke away, lightly trailing her fingers down his uninjured arm. “Do they think you’ll need to be here for long?”
Ritchie made to get them to sit down on his bed, done with standing for the time being. “My left shoulder and arm mostly. Slashing hexes tore a lot up, got hit across the chest too. Some burns.” He remembered the feeling of stinging flesh along with the sensation of blood flowing freely from his wounds. “I took a depulso straight on. It messed up a lot.” Internal injuries, blood loss, it was all said to him. “But I think they just want to make sure that my shoulder is healed a bit more until they let me go. Maybe over the weekend.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “You?”
She listened carefully as he spoke, chest tightening at the list of injuries. She shouldn’t have expected him to stay and fight. She knew she’d never asked him to, that it had been his decision, but it had also been the decision she’d wanted him to make and she wasn’t sure it was the right one anymore. They’d won but at no point had it felt like a victory to her. Maybe that would come, she wasn’t sure.
“Not too much longer, I don’t think. I don’t really listen to what the healers say,” she admitted. “But mostly I just have a lot of really deep wounds from a gouging spell.” Some were being left to heal on their own, cleaned and dressed frequently, while others required more work. The time from her receiving the injuries to the end of the battle meant there’d been concern that they had time to get infected so they’d been cleaned and monitored but were soon due to be stitched up. “I was lucky, really, apart from like some blood vessels or something, the spell didn’t hit any major organs or whatever, and they fixed that up quickly so I would stop bleeding everywhere. So now it’s more about closing the holes in my body.”
Ritchie’s forehead creased as she spoke and deepened as she continued. He took a deep breath and exhaled. It was hard, again, knowing there wasn't anything he could really do. His own healing skills rudimentary, enough that he could heal people on the fly but not in depth enough to deal with more serious injuries like hers. "I'm so glad it wasn't worse than it could have been." He made a mental note to ask his father if he could find out what her healers were saying that she wasn't listening to. "Do you know who did this to you? Did you see their face?" He only managed to know Joanna's dad was who did this to him because of the career fair.
“No,” Parvati replied quickly, looking away from him. She didn’t think she’d lied to Ritchie before. Left out details, not given the whole truth, sure, but that had been part of being a member of Dumbledore’s Army, and Ritchie himself had said he didn’t consider that lying because he understood why. But this was the first outright lie she’d told, scared that if he knew who it was and then saw their name on the death list he’d put two and two together. This was the closest she’d felt to happy since seeing Seamus at the ceasefire. She couldn’t ruin that by having him find out he was dating a murderer. She’d only been able to tell Ernie because his opinion of her didn’t matter so much, but Ritchie’s opinion was one of the ones that mattered the most.
“So Ernie’s going to bring me some of Hannah’s baking,” she told him, desperate to change the topic suddenly. “I’ll bring it to your room to share and make up for not being able to organise us our date.”
“Okay,” Ritchie said, quickly accepting her words. She didn’t want to talk about it or maybe she didn’t want to dwell on it. He knew he didn’t want to dwell on it too much. He’d much rather focus on what she brought up next. He made a sound of approval at the mention of baked goods. “Sounds like I plan, I can get Henry to sneak us some ice cream or something at some point too!” He smiled broadly, liking the idea of this quickly organized date though he could do without the setting but anywhere was fine as long as he was with Parvati. “Want to try and catch a quick nap together before they come looking for you?”
Parvati nodded, kissing him once more before shifting so they could lie down in his bed. “Just tell me if I press into one of your injuries, I don’t want to hurt you.”
Another smile against her lips and he settled himself back onto his bed with Parvati on his uninjured side. “I’ll be okay,” he cradled her head to his chest, tucking her into his body as close as he could. “you don’t have to worry about me.”