He might make a full recovery.
He might not.
The healer had said it was too early to say.
Then Amelia looked at the other witch in the room, the detective.
"And you say," Amelia said, "that the burning matter was Transfigured from water, presumably in the form of ice."
The detective nodded her head, and said, sounding puzzled, "It could have been much worse, if not for -"
"How very nice of them," she spat, and then pressed a weary hand to her forehead. No... no, it had been intended as a kindness. By the final stage of the escape there would be no point in trying to fool anyone. Whoever had done this, then, had been trying to mitigate the damage - and they'd been thinking in terms of Aurors breathing the smoke, not of anyone being attacked with the fire. If it had been them still in control, no doubt, they would have steered the rocker more mercifully.
But Bellatrix Black had ridden the rocker out of Azkaban alone, all the watching Aurors had agreed on that, they'd had their Anti-Disillusionment Charms active and there had been only one woman on that rocker, though the rocker had sported two sets of stirrups.
Some good and innocent person, capable of casting the Patronus Charm, had been tricked into rescuing Bellatrix Black.
Some innocent had fought Bahry One-Hand, carefully subduing an experienced Auror without significantly injuring him.
Some innocent had Transfigured the fuel for the Muggle artifact on which the two of them had been to ride out of Azkaban, making it from frozen water for the benefit of her Aurors.
And then their usefulness to Bellatrix Black had ended.
You would have expected anyone capable of subduing Bahry One-Hand to have foreseen that part. But then you wouldn't have expected anyone who could cast the Patronus Charm to try rescuing Bellatrix Black in the first place.
Amelia passed her hand down over her eyes, closing them for a moment in silent mourning. I wonder who it was, and how You-Know-Who manipulated them... what story they could possibly have been told...
She didn't even realize until a moment later that the thought meant she was starting to believe. Perhaps because, no matter how difficult it was to believe Dumbledore, it was becoming more difficult not to recognize the hand of that cold, dark intelligence.
Aftermath, Albus Dumbledore:
It might have been only fifty-seven seconds before breakfast ended and he might have needed four twists of his Time-Turner, but in the end, Albus Dumbledore did make it.
"Headmaster?" squeaked the polite voice of Professor Filius Flitwick, as the old wizard passed him by on his way to his seat. "Mr. Potter left a message for you."
The old wizard stopped. He looked inquiringly at the Charms Professor.
"Mr. Potter said that after he woke up, he realized how unfair had been the things he said to you after Fawkes screamed. Mr. Potter said that he wasn't saying anything about anything else, just apologizing for that one part."
The old wizard kept looking at his Charms Professor, and still did not speak.
"Headmaster?" squeaked Filius.
"Tell him I said thank you," said Albus Dumbledore, "but that it is wiser to listen to phoenixes than to wise old wizards," and sat down at his place three seconds before all the food vanished.
Aftermath, Professor Quirrelclass="underline"
"No," Madam Pomfrey snapped at the child, "you may not see him! You may not pester him! You may not ask him one little question! He is to rest in bed and do nothing for at least three days!"
Aftermath, Minerva McGonagalclass="underline"
She was heading toward the infirmary, and Harry Potter was leaving it, when they passed each other.
The look he gave her wasn't angry.
It wasn't sad.
It didn't say much at all.
It was like... like he was looking at her just long enough to make it clear that he wasn't deliberately avoiding looking at her.
And then he looked away before she could figure out what look to give him in return; as though he wanted to spare her that, as well.
He didn't say anything as he walked past her.
Neither did she.
What could there possibly be to say?
Aftermath, Fred and George Weasley:
They actually yelped out loud, when they turned the corner and saw Dumbledore.
It wasn't that the Headmaster had popped up out of nowhere and was staring at them with a stern expression. Dumbledore was always doing that.
But the wizard was dressed in formal black robes and looking very ancient and very powerful and he was giving the two of them a SHARP LOOK.
"Fred and George Weasley!" spake Dumbledore in a Voice of Power.
"Yes, Headmaster!" they said, snapping upright and giving him a crisp military salute they'd seen in some old pictures.
"Hear me well! You are the friends of Harry Potter, is this so?"
"Yes, Headmaster!"
"Harry Potter is in danger. He must not go beyond the wards of Hogwarts. Listen to me, sons of Weasley, I beg you listen: you know that I am as Gryffindor as yourselves, that I too know there are higher rules than rules. But this, Fred and George, this one thing is of the most terrible importance, there must be no exception this time, small or great! If you help Harry to leave Hogwarts he may die! Does he send you on a mission, you may go, does he ask you to bring him items, you may help, but if he asks you to smuggle his own person out of Hogwarts, you must refuse! Do you understand?"
"Yes, Headmaster!" They said it without even thinking, really, and then exchanged uncertain looks with each other -
The bright blue eyes of the Headmaster were intent upon them. "No. Not without thinking. If Harry asks you to bring him out, you must refuse, if he asks you to tell him the way, you must refuse. I will not ask you to report him to me, for that I know you would never do. But beg him on my behalf to go to me, if it is of such importance, and I will guard him as he walks. Fred, George, I am sorry to strain your friendship so, but it is his life."
The two of them looked at each other for a long while, not communicating, only thinking the same things at the same time.
They looked back at Dumbledore.
They said, with a chill running through them as they spoke the name, "Bellatrix Black."
"You may safely assume," said the Headmaster, "that it is at least that bad."
"Okay -"
"- got it."
Aftermath, Alastor Moody and Severus Snape:
When Alastor Moody had lost his eye, he had commandeered the services of a most erudite Ravenclaw, Samuel H. Lyall, whom Moody mistrusted slightly less than average because Moody had refrained from reporting him as an unregistered werewolf; and he had paid Lyall to compile a list of every known magical eye, and every known hint to their location.
When Moody had gotten the list back, he hadn't bothered reading most of it; because at the top of the list was the Eye of Vance, dating back to an era before Hogwarts, and currently in the possession of a powerful Dark Wizard ruling over some tiny forgotten hellhole that wasn't in Britain or anywhere else he'd have to worry about silly rules.
That was how Alastor Moody had lost his left foot and acquired the Eye of Vance, and how the oppressed souls of Urulat had been liberated for a period of around two weeks before another Dark Wizard moved in on the power vacuum.