Despite their wounds, they all managed to crawl back to the infirmary, under Richard's disillusionment charm. Not none of them were in a proper state. Not enough to fool Ron who just saw their counterparts disappear the moment they nearly collapsed through the doors.
Richard didnt even bother hiding anything. Out of everyone there, he was the most broken.
He didnt even struggle when Dumbledor who saw them return, rushed back with madam Pomphrey.
"I was gone for one second. ONE SECOND!" Madam Pomphrey looked ready to literally burn them all with just the glare as she rushed in holding a tray filled with medical equipment. "Albus, how did one student end up without an entire leg in the moment I turned my back? " She was running, as she waved her wand over Richards raw stump frantically.
Richard struggled to hold himself straight. But he knew that the wound wasn't that bad. The boosted healing had done its best to mend the bleeding parts. And while he didnt have his magical fire healing he had from phenix blood(he sacrificed every bit of his fire powers to make bishop.),Richard was confident of getting things back in order sooner or later.
"I can't deal with this, Albus, this needs professional care! We need to get him to st mungo's immediately to see if we can even recover-"
"My leg's gone, madam Pomphrey. " Richard spoke up weakly. "Pettigrew cursed it off. But that bastard won't be coming after me anymore."
.....
Richard walked out of the ministry with one foot and a peg, with a practiced ease. He had adapted to it much faster than anyone had considered.
His steps were almost silent as he walked through the streets,and few gazes paused on him as his movements appeared to be a little stiff, but Richard ignored them. He walked towards Tonks while carrying the parcel that had the remains of his leg wrapped in.
It had taken more than six weeks for things to calm down, and even then he wasn't out of the metaphorical fires yet.
With his leg being confirmed unrecoverable, and his wounds healed, he was immediately under the ministry's spot light.
He had made it too easy, to place him in the most vulnerable position available. He had coerced fellow students, threatened school teachers, aided a convicted criminal and was directly tied to the death of Pettigrew.
Though, thankfully, those involved didnt let ministry just throw him into the furnace and call it a day.
While Fudge tried to do damage control, and the toady tried to string him up for punishment, Dumbledor, Lupin and even McGonagall pressed details with full transparency.
Snape actually chose to keep his mouth shut.
As for Richard, he didnt try to white wash himself. That was never gonna happen anyway, so he chose a more radical approach.
He admitted to helping Sirius, but he chose a version of truth that he found to be more advantageous to him. In this version, he had found about animagus from professor Snape's lecture, and he had a vision which showed him scabbers, Ron's rat, and then a finger.
Things clicked together when he re read the article about Pettigrew missing his finger.
In his own story, he was a truth seeking martyr who was willing to do what no one was willing do do, and dig deep into the truth.
He had already built a reputation as a seer, with the stunt he had pulled at Trelawny's classes. And the reporters milked every drop of his story.
Richard admitted to being directly related to Petrigrew's death. But not killing him. His corpse was found by Hagrid the very same day, and it was both proof of his story, and evidence to condemn him.
Richard's wand was tested, and while they found many things that could relate Richard to the death, they also found some evidence of a third party.
Richard had even showed them the point where his leg fell into the trap laid, and things started getting stagnant there.
They couldn't exactly condemn Richard, especially considering that the person dead was now an almost confirmed criminal, and even if Richard was the one to kill him, it would only count as self defense.
But a killer was too dangerous to attend Hogwarts. In the end, they gave him an indefinete suspension, and Richard decided to retrieve his leg before he went to his home.
After Richard returned with Tonks to their home, Richard retreat to his study immediately.
He had gained much more than he had lost.
Richard took a glass case, and carefully placed his leg in it, and he placed it next to his other trophies.
His leg wasn't just blasted off or destroyed by the 'death.' Instead it had literally fused his leg with the earth itself. What remained of it was a petrified leg that had multiple stone and crystalline growth, after most of the fragile parts were brushed off. It looked like a fossil left in a dried out salt lake to him.
He stared at it for a moment.
Richard decided to take it away to the knock turn alley to get some preservation charms applied to the case, so whatever organics were left inside won't rot .
Ha ahh
He collapsed onto his chair, and slowly removed the peg leg.
It had healed well, especially with him boosting his body daily. But it was still a stump.
Despite the gains, he did not like the fact that he had lost a leg. And more than that, he didnt intend to end up without a leg for long either.
"Hey, Richard? Still awake?"
Richard turned around and waved his hand.
Click
The door unlocked and opened, revealing Tonks standing out with a bowl of soup and bread.
"Come on in."
Richard gestured. The food did smell good. After spending hours in the ministry going from one office to another then another dealing with that beaucratic nonsense, he was very hungry. But..
"You didnt have to bring that up." His eyes followed the gaze that darted to his leg stump and then away making him smirk. "You really think that loosing a leg can make life harder for me? A wizard isn't defined by his body, but rather his magic. Watch"
With a wave of his wand, everything in Tonks's hand floated towards him.
'That's good.'
Richard thought as he took the first bite, then turned to Tonks.
"So anyway, you know that I've been suspended from Hogwarts indefinitely, right?"
"Yeah, got the letter ." she mumbled something under her breath."I think everyone knows that. Did you really have to go public with this stuff? The letters are practically piling up at the mailbox."
"Burn them." Richard said without a care. Last time he checked, Hermione was still recovering from a coma. So other than that, he didnt really give a rats ass about anything else going outside. Especially not from a suddenly over enthusiastic orphanage owner who wanted to squeeze every Knut from his sob story.
Richard mentally gave the middle finger to Ms Hagner where ever she might be for sending a damn howler for not writing back to her, then returned his attention back to the present.
"Well, Like I said, I'm suspended indefinitely. So..I was wandering if you were interested on going on a vacation trip with me?"
"Huh?"
Richard explained. "Well, The ministry did pay me a lot, so did Sirius Black for clearing his name, and the Bugle for giving out the story. I have a lot of galleons in my vault at the moment."
It was enough for him to pay off every one of his loans, buy every text book, and every other book he had wanted, and still have a lot remaining at hand.
Well, most of the payment from the ministry was to keep parts of his petrified foot, and well, the sum made him waver a lot. He wasn't gonna say that to anyone though.
He had wanted to visit many of the magical places around the world, which were teeming with spells, hexes, items and so many other interesting things for him to get his hands on.
"So, what do you say? Are you in?"