17. Aftermath

Rufus let out a sigh of relief, Alan was here, letting his shield down, he focused on Thomas, he had passed out, and there was a lot of blood coming from his leg.

Quickly casting charms to stabilize him, his auror training coming into full effect, all aurors had basic first aid, and knew enough to stabilize most of all wounds.

He ignored everything else, and only focused on Thomas, he could not lose him! Never! Not after he lost his beloved to the war, he would never lose another again!

Having stabilized the leg, so it would temporarily no longer bleed, he picked up Thomas and hurried down the alley, ignoring the carnage around him, the bodies of the fallen and all the injured, he didn't even dare to apparate, injuries could become worse it he apparated, so running it was.

All around the alley pops sounded out as Aurors started arriving, arresting the werewolves, and helping keep calm and stabilize the wizards who were hurt. And finally helping them by conjuring stretchers and sending them towards the hospital.

At St. Mungo's, a large crowd of people was out front, with the healers going through the crowd, marking them for triage.

A healer approached Rufus with Thomas in his arms, he ran a quick diagnostic spell over Thomas and frowned, "He has a dark curse running through his leg, he will need to be immediately treated, or he may lose it, go ahead inside". As the healer said this he conjured a small paper slip that attached to the shirt of Thomas, and then moved on.

Rufus carried Thomas inside, and was met with more people inside, there were a lot of crying kids, injured people and chaos all around.

He was approached by a nurse who quickly read the note, and led them both to a room, Rufus had no other focus than Thomas and the nurse, and simply followed, he was unaccustomed to the fear and nervousness he was feeling, as an Auror he had lost colleagues to dark curses before, and none of them had affected him like he was right now. So as he placed Thomas in the bed, and he was surrounded by healers and nurses that started to treat him, he could only stand back and stare at the bed surrounded by people.

"It's going to be okey mr. Scrimgeour, they will fix him up quick, they fixed Harry up within minutes without issue, I'm sure Thomas will be treated just as fast, it doesn't look as bad as it could have been", with a jolt by the hand that landed on his shoulder and the voice that spoke, Rufus turned with a slightly haunted look and saw James Potter standing beside him, behind him on the other side of the room, Harry was lying in bed sleeping, seemingly fine.

He cleared his throat and responded in the affirmative, James led Rufus to a chair on the other side of the room, and brought him some water, "Here, drink this, it's a shock, but remember he will be fine!".

As the healers surrounded Thomas, he was able to hear them speaking as he slowly came to, he felt groggy and could feel a throbbing pain in his leg.

He looked around him and a nurse placed a hand on his arm "It's going to be okey, you were hit in the leg, but we are almost done fixing it up, it will only be another minute, then you will need to drink a potion, and then you can talk to your dad".

The healers, having neutralized the curse, wrapped up his leg with a salve, and made Thomas drink a foul potion, which immediately made him fall asleep.

Thomas awoke a day later, with the morning rising, the room was empty besides another kid that was sitting up in his bed, reading what appeared to be a magazine.

"Hello?, where are we ?" The kid looked up from his magazine and looked at the confused Thomas, "You're at St. Mungo's hospital mate, all that were wounded was taken here from the attack site in Diagon Alley, I'm Harry by the way, Harry Potter".

I was slightly shocked to see Harry Potter right now, and for the fact that I just survived a terrorist attack as well! I didn't see Rufus anywhere and the room was empty besides the two of us. I looked beneath the covers and saw my still bandaged leg, it didn't hurt at all anymore, so at least the damage wasn't permanent.

The brief battle was nothing like I imagined when I trained with moody, this was absolute chaos, and the spells were unrelenting, and so much more powerful, then what I had experienced so far. I really needed to up the training with him, and continue it at school as well!.

I spent the next hour just talking with Harry, he was a lot different than the books, he wasn't shy or withdrawn, he was smart, engaging and mad about Quidditch! He was reading a magazine about the current highlights in the professional league, going into statistics and who was favored for the rookie of the year and so much more!

We were disturbed by a rap on the door that shocked us both, like the metal head of a cane against the wood, and lo and behold, in the doorway stood none other than Lucius Malfoy or Lord Malfoy with his son standing behind him, looking sleek in their clothes they approached Harry's bed, "Well mr. Potter, it would seem the so-called power did not help you against the rabid dogs that attacked you, a pity, if only you were a better Wizard you could have stopped them, so much damage, and yet you didn't save any of them". Draco laughed as his father talked to Harry; he looked smugly at Thomas, seemingly enjoying the audience.

Thomas was scared at first, but Harry was alone, and Malfoy was a Death Eater! He had to do something. Calling his wand to his hand, he fired off a loud noise from his wand, Lucius turned around with surprising speed and had his wand out, just as it looked like he was about to curse Thomas, a cough sounded from the hallway, unnaturally loud.

Alan Knott took a step into the room, "My my, Lucius… drawing wands on a child? Isn't that a bit too much?", Lucius turned pale, even more than his normal look, he quickly stashed his wand and coughed awkwardly, "Well, ehm, Harry, we hope you have a fast recovery, and you as well", the last bit was directed towards Thomas with a slight nod, as both he and Draco left the room in a hurry.

Alan walked into the room with a smile, I gave a nod and a "Good morning Professor", he smiled at me and chuckled, "Well Thomas, good thinking with the noise charm, Flickwick would be proud, and as am I as your Defense professor. Nothing wrong with calling for help when facing a stronger opponent, it was quick thinking on your part", he turned towards Harry and tousled his hair, "Hope you are okay Harry, It must have been scary, I arrived as fast as I could, and luckily nothing more happened". Harry smiled at Alan, they seemed to know each other well, they talked together for a while, until James and Rufus arrived in the room.

Rufus was relieved and looked much better, they both reassured us that everything was back to normal, and we would be getting out of here by the afternoon.

We all ended up having lunch served in the room and ate and talked together, me and Harry talked about the different houses and he hoped he would be sorted into Griffendor like his father, we also talked about the school Quidditch teams and how he hoped to join as their Seeker when he was allowed.

As the afternoon arrived we all left after the final checks from the healers, Alan had left shortly after lunch, since he had other obligations to attend to.

As we walked out of the hospital we were bombarded with reporters and photographers, they appeared to hope that the Potters would make a statement.

Lord Potter, as his persona seemed to shift into as he looked at the reporters, stood with Harry at his side, "The Werewolves led by Ulrick attacked Diagon Alley, thankfully there were no apparent casualties, and my son only suffered mild trauma to his right arm and shoulder. But that was swiftly healed by the experienced staff at St. Mungo's Hospital. We can all thank Alan Knott for the timely save and defeat of the Wolves, any other questions must be directed towards the Ministry, this is all I have to say.".

While he gave his statement silence ensued, but as soon as he was done, it was apparent that they wanted more as they kept shouting their questions.

But we all left, Rufus Apparated with me to the mansion, and I saw the Potters apparate as well to wherever their home was.

Later that day the Daily Prophet had almost the entire paper filled with Images of the carnage of the attack, condemning Ulricks followers, followed by statements from various people along with Lord Potter, with their picture on the cover.

The next two weeks went fast, we were visited by the Potters, and I got to hang out with Harry again. He invited me to come to their property and fly on brooms. They had a major manor with a small forest available so we could fly without issue.

It was a fun time, and took our minds away from the fact we had both survived a terrorist attack. I also talked about Alan Knott and his relationship to the Potters, it seemed after Voldemort's attack on halloween many years ago, he had visited ever since.

Harry told him he taught him self defense, and was fun to have around since he was insanely good at magic.

When I told him I had been training with Moody, he was surprised and somewhat jealous. He told him how Alan had spoken about Moody and that he admired him, he is one of the best Aurors there are.

We even invited Hermione along since Harry had very few friends, there were alot of the old purebloods who were followers of Voldemort that had tried to assassinate him through the years because of the prophecy. He wouldn't tell me what it was other than what was mentioned in the papers, he told me Alan had made him promise to keep it a secret.

But the three of us had fun, we even got Hermione to fly on a broom once or twice, all in all it was a great way to end the summer.