Ever since Rachel and Sirius had been able to crack Remus and Tonks, everyone else that didn’t know before found out. Apparently Tonks had wanted to go out of Remus for a few months before he finally caved and said yes. Honestly, the two never looked happier than when they were together.
Everyone had gone back to Hogwarts now. Although, Rachel was unable to stay long though before she and Tony needed to go and visit the Ministry. Madam Pomfrey came again to take over the post for the day while Rachel was gone. According to Tony, Minister Scrimgeour wanted to discuss St. Mungo’s with them. There was a rumor going around that the current owner had died of mysterious causes and many people kept thinking that Scrimgeour would make Tony and Rachel the heads, regardless of the fact that Rachel worked at Hogwarts now.
“Level seven,” said the cool female voice in the elevator. “Minster of Magic,”
The gates swung open and Tony and Rachel walked out of the empty elevator. There was a single hallway leading down to a door that they assumed was Scrimgeour’s office. The walls were plastered with pictures of wanted people or pictures of Ministry workers who had received an award or honor of some sort. As they edged closer, Rachel spotted two newspaper articles: one about her first escape from Voldemort and second one about Harry escaping Voldemort as a baby.
Tony opened the door for Rachel and they went inside of the Minister’s office. It was a very handsome looking office with a mahogany desk, three fancy armchairs in front of his desk, and there were portraits and awards hanging on the walls. Rufus Scrimgeour was sitting in his grand chair, fingertips together, looking at them.
“Hello Mrs. Black and Mr. Rossing,” Scrimgeour said and he requested that they each take a seat. They accepted his request and gave the Minister their full attention.
“I have received word that the owner of St. Mungo’s, who was living in Russia for some reason, but he has passed away. In his will, he didn’t specify who would take over the hospital so it was given to his family. They all unanimously agreed that since they didn’t have any medical training that they wanted to give it to the Ministry so they could decide who it would go to. After a lot of speculation, we came to an agreement that we would like the two of you to share ownership.”
“Wow,” Tony breathed.
“I have the documents right here,” said Scrimgeour, grabbing a file of papers and two pens. “Will you sign?”
Rachel turned to Tony.
“I’m actually kind of excited about this,” she admitted. “What about you?”
“I totally agree,” he said with his warm smile. “We’re on board with this,”
“Excellent!” boasted the Minister. He opened the file and gave them each a pen.
“These first papers explain that by signing these papers you are fully aware that you will share ownership,”
Rachel and Tony nodded and signed their names a few times on the papers.
“The next papers explain that by signing these papers you are fully aware that you will be in charge of a hospital. You need to do regular evaluations, help hire Healers, help supply the needed information and supplies, and you need to write up a report for the Ministry annually with both of your signatures,” continued Scrimgeour. “If you agree to these terms, then sign your names and then you will be the new owners of St. Mungo’s Wizarding Hospital,”
Rachel couldn’t help but smile as she signed her name one last time.
“Congratulations to the both of you,” said Scrimgeour, shaking hands with both of them. “You deserve it,”
“Thank you Minister,” said Tony and he gave Rachel a hug.
Just as Tony opened the door for Rachel, a red alarm started going off with a loud and annoying siren.
“Attention all personnel,” said the elevator voice. “Attention, all staff report to the Atrium,”
“Break-in,” Scrimgeour hastily explained. “You two are good with your wands, come with,”
Rachel and Tony pulled out their wands and followed the Minister at a run. Once they got to the elevator, Scrimgeour typed in a code that made them instantly appear in the Atrium. As soon as the doors opened and the three of them left the elevator, they could see different colored jets of light flying all over and there was a large amount of yelling. One of the Aurors came running over and pushed Scrimgeour back into the elevator and stood in front of him due to his boss’s orders. Tony and Rachel nodded at each other before going separate ways to join in the battle.
A jet of green light passed by her face by inches causing her to turn around and quick shoot a stunner at the Death Eater. The spell hit the person on target and the person fell onto the ground. Suddenly another Death Eater threw a curse at her that put a cut near her ankle. She yelled out in pain and then stunned him also. Before any thing else happened, all of the Death Eaters suddenly disappeared from the Atrium. Some random person came running over to her wearing a Ministry uniform and asked, “Where did they go?”
“I don’t know,” she said, completely baffled. “They just . . . disappeared. Are there any casualties?”
The man suddenly adapted a solemn look.
“Two of our Department heads,” he replied sadly. “Someone has already taken their bodies out of here,”
“Great, just imagine when this gets out to the public,” Rachel said, walking away. “Hey Tony! How much do you want to bet that the public is going to have an effing panic attack when they find out about this?”
“Anyone here right now would bet all of the money in the world because this isn’t going to be kept quiet,” retorted Tony walking over to her over some of the rubble. “The world is already in paranoia mode, but this’ll send them into the freaking out stage,”
“Yeah, the paper will be like ‘How safe is our world when the Ministry of Magic can’t even protect its own employees?’”
“Well, let’s get out of here before the press shows up and starts asking questions,” suggested Rachel and the two of them Apparated to their separate locations after saying goodbye.
Rachel appeared just outside of the Hogwarts grounds during a covered sunset. The clouds were thick, low, and dark gray and it looked as though it were about to snow. She didn’t think it was cold enough right now to snow, but it might be cool enough for freezing rain so decided to hurry up before the ground became icy.
Word of what happened at the Ministry was the front page story the next day and Rachel wasn’t surprised. When she’d returned to the school the previous day, she’d told the entire staff what had happened. Now, when people were coming up to the hospital wing, they would full out ask her about it. Another story in the paper was about her and Tony taking ownership of St. Mungo’s. Tony had called her a couple of hours ago and told her that the owner usually made over 10,000 Galleons annually, and since they were splitting ownership, they agreed to split the annual wage in half. Although, the owners couldn’t keep it just for themselves because they use their own money to help supply the hospital.
Honestly, Rachel didn’t need the money. She’d been well off since she was a baby and had inherited her parent’s money when they had passed away to help take care of her sisters. The job at St. Mungo’s had paid decent wages, and Dumbledore was quite generous when it came to his employee’s wages. Not to mention that Sirius was from one of the richest Wizarding families in the world and had a lot of gold in his Gringotts vault. Plus, when he’d been proven innocent, he’d received a large sum for wrongful imprisonment for the twelve years he spent in Azkaban.
Things up until the first day of March went smoothly and efficiently. There had been no major injuries at Hogwarts and the mass killings that were reported weekly, sometimes daily, had suddenly stopped. Remus and Dumbledore called it ‘the calm before the storm.’ Unfortunately, Voldemort was a genius when it came to mind games, and stopping the killings was putting the public into a state of paranoia.
Rachel was currently sitting in one of the hospital wing chairs testing out a foot massager. It had been a Valentine’s Day gift from Sirius, and this was the first time she’d used it. Even though she wasn’t that stressed, all of her cares seemed to melt as she sat there, feet in the bubbling water. She was seriously considering buying enough of these for each of the students in their fifth and seventh year to help deal with the stress of exams.
Unfortunately, her relaxation didn’t last another minute longer, for the door burst open to reveal Horace Slughorn accompanying Harry, who was supporting Ron. Ron looked almost as white as Voldemort and that was never a pretty sight. Harry set him down on the bed next to Rachel’s foot massager.
“What happened to him?” she asked, not getting up from the chair quite yet.
“Well, we went to Professor Slughorn’s office because Ron accidentally swallowed a love potion and I didn’t want to risk messing up the antidote. But we got it taken care of and we had a little drink to celebrate. Unfortunately, Ron took a drink and he started convulsing and then I shoved a bezoar down his throat and he’s been unconscious since then.” Harry explained quickly.
“Was Ron the only one that took a drink?” she asked, now getting up and doing some tests on Ron.
“Yes,”
“Horace, what was the drink?”
“Some of Rosmerta’s finest oak Meade,” he replied. “I was actually supposed to be giving it to Dumbledore for a friend, but he won’t miss what he never had.”
“There was definitely a poison in that drink,” she informed them, stowing her wand in her pocket. “It’s in his bloodstream now, but if you hadn’t used that bezoar, Harry, Ron would be dead right now. You saved his life,”
“I swear I didn’t know that it was tainted,” Slughorn said quickly.
“I believe you Horace, I really do. But for now, I need to start making an antidote for Ron, so why don’t you go back to your office. And Harry, you and your friends can visit him a little later. I’m going to give him a little something that’ll wake him up in a few hours,”
Both nodded, but Harry left the hospital wing reluctantly. He didn’t want to leave Ron’s side, but decided to trust Rachel and just come back later with Ginny and Hermione.
What a bad birthday present for Ron, Harry thought as he went down to the Great Hall for some breakfast.
Later that day, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione came into the hospital wing first. Both Hermione and Ginny were pale at the sight of Ron, but it eventually got better. An hour later, Molly and the twins showed up. Fred and George were planning on coming to the castle today to give Ron his present, but said that this is not how they wanted it to happen.
“How’s he doing?” Fred asked Rachel as she, Fred, and George moved away from Ron’s bed to check on the antidote that was currently brewing.
“That was a nasty poison in that drink,” she told them solemnly, stirring the currently lilac colored potion. “I know for a fact that Slughorn didn’t add this poison; it was something dark. Plus I can tell when someone’s lying to me; it’s a thing I learned from Dumbledore.”
“Will he be okay though?” George said concernedly.
“Of course he will,” she reassured them, adding some crushed moonstone to the potion turning it into a midnight blue color. “The bezoar stopped the poison from killing him and it’s just a matter of hours until this will be ready for him. He’ll definitely have to stay for a couple of weeks for observation, but he’ll be just fine.”
“How can we ever thank you for taking care of our little brother?”
“You guys don’t need to do anything; it’s my job,”
“Well, we do have a little something for you anyway,” Fred admitted.
“We heard about you co-owning St. Mungo’s,” George continued.
“And when we were in Diagon Alley,”
“We saw this thing that instantly reminded us of you,”
“And since we’re making good money now,”
“We bought it for you,”
“No, you guys didn’t need to,” she protested.
“No, we insist,” the twins said simultaneously. “But we added to it a bit,”
Fred pulled out a small square white box and handed it to her. She opened it and saw a silver bracelet with a blue round stone on it.
“It’s so pretty you guys,” she said, hugging them both and giving them a kiss on the cheek. Rachel slipped it on her wrist with a little help from George.
“Push the blue stone three times,” Fred instructed with a grin.
Although she was a little hesitant about it, she followed the directions and after the third press, a little voice that sounded an awful lot like the twins said ‘Voldy stinks!’
“I love it,” she said while chuckling. “I’m guessing that you added the little voice?”
“Of course,” they replied wearing identical grins.
“Well thank you, but I’m sure your brother wants to see you,” she said when she heard a low moan coming from Ron. They nodded and went to his bedside.
Write a Review The Marauderette AKA The Other Chosen One: The Second War: Promotion & Poison
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