Disclaimer: most of this doesn't belong to me. Most belongs to JK Rowling and publishers. The idea of a Magical Coma is mine, along with the explanation that is with it.

Finding a Place

Part 8

Healing Magic

A house-elf named Hoppy found Albus, sprawled in the front hallway. She ran and woke up Headmistress Drape. When they couldn't rouse Albus they moved him up to the infirmary. As Christmas morning dawned Lobella Drape sent a letter to Albus' parents. Since Albus was a sink, they figured any magical means to wake him up would be futile. By New Year's Day Albus was still not conscious. His parents had come and so had a number of doctors. They could find nothing wrong with Albus besides the fact that he was unconscious. Finally they decided to move Albus to St. Mungo's Hospital.

His parents desperately hoped that he'd come out of it soon.

He didn't.

Halfway through January the doctors discovered something else. One doctor, although he knew Albus was a sink, decided to try a certain spell. When he used his wand however, Albus almost stopped breathing and went very pale. Alarmed, the young doctor fetched some colleagues to tell them what had happened. Three doctors were discussing the event when Professor Flamel, who often checked on Albus, entered the room. He listened to what was being said and then interrupted.

"Pardon me, good sirs, but it sounds to me like a magical coma."

"But how is that possible? He is a sink," one asked, after agreeing that that, indeed, is what it sounded like.

"I don't know, but I don't see how it could be anything else," Professor Flamel shrugged.

That afternoon when Albert Dumbledore came by Nicolas Flamel told him Albus was in a magical coma and described it to him: "A wizard goes into a magical coma when a large amount of magical power is aimed at him. If the power is too much, he will go unconscious as the body tries to regain the correct magical balance. Usually, though, it only lasts a few hours, at most a day. However, magic cannot be used to wake someone from a magical coma, it only pushes him deeper into it." (A.N. this is my explanation for what happened to Snape at the end of book 3 in the Shrieking Shack when all three disarming spells hit him and what happened to Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle on the train at the end of book 4.)

But it was still a mystery as to why he was in the coma at all.

Albus' nose itched, but he couldn't seem to lift his arm to scratch it. He tried to open his eyes, but he was already exhausted. He let out a slight moan and then gave into sleep again.

His mother ran and got a nurse and told her what had happened.

"He may be finally coming out of it," said one doctor optimistically, when he heard the news.

But he didn't wake up that day, or the next, or even the day after that. It was two weeks later when Albus opened his eyes, croaked out the word "water" and fell back asleep. After that he would wake up a couple of times a day, for a few moments. A week later he was able to stay awake for an hour at a time. His parents were thrilled.

It was a month after he first woke up when he thought to ask what date it was. It was May 16th.

Albus was dumbfounded; he'd been out for almost four months. He'd missed so much school that he'd never be able to catch up even if he returned tomorrow. However, he was glad about one thing, nobody had asked him what had made him go into a magical coma because, one, he didn't know himself and, two, he wasn't too keen on telling everyone what he had been trying to do. He was positive the spell hadn't worked and didn't feel like making a fool of himself by letting everyone know.

Albus went home June 1st and was in perfectly normal health by mid-June. He started to worry about his schoolwork, since he'd missed most of the school year. So it was arranged for Albus to spend the summer with the Flamels, where he would get caught up and take his second year exams.

The day before Hogwarts ended, Albus took the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade Station. The train would leave the next morning to take everyone else home. That night he returned to Hogwarts for the End-of-Year Feast. Everyone was glad he was back and he had a wonderful time talking and feasting.

The best part though, was when he returned to Gryffindor Tower that night. In the Common Room he found everyone waiting for him. They threw him a surprise welcome back party; they'd even specially invited Aberforth and Natalie into the tower for the celebration. That night, Albus went to bed extremely happy.

The next morning after seeing everyone off, he rode in a horseless carriage to the Flamels' house.

There was something different about Professor Flamel that kept bothering Albus. But, try as he might, he could not figure it out. Of course, he didn't really have much time to concentrate on the problem either; he had six-months of make-up work to do in two.

It took all summer, but he finally got caught up and passed his second year exams. However, that meant he had not been able to study for early Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark arts and Charms exams, so he could get out of those classes again. Consequently, he didn't pass with high enough grades to exempt them.

Of course, that made scheduling problems because he wanted to keep up with Arithmancy and the Study of Ancient Runes. Eventually they worked out a schedule in which he could fit all his classes.

While he was sitting in Defense Against the Dark Arts one day, about a month into the school year, Albus realized what was different about Professor Flamel, what had been bothering him all summer.

The Professor's hair was white.

He didn't know why it had taken him so long to realize it. Now that he thought about it, it had been white ever since he had woken up. Did that mean Merlin's Spell had worked? Albus' heart leapt, could he actually do magic? He pondered this for the rest of the class period.

Next he had Transfiguration where, after a few derisive comments from Professor Karkaroff, he decided to try and see if he actually could do magic.

He made sure Karkaroff was watching; he took out his wand and pointed it at Patricia Franklin's teapot, which she was having no luck turning into turtle.

Concentrating, he shut his eyes. He heard a collective gasp rise from the room. He opened his eyes. A perfectly formed turtle was crawling across the table. Patricia said, "That was him, not me." Albus stared in awe at the turtle, and then he let out a yell, "Yahoooo! It worked!"

Everyone, including Karkaroff, was staring at him.