"Mr. Behrens, we're from the Ministry of Magic. Could you tell us what happened while you and Mr. Potter were missing?"
Several people immediately crowded into the hospital room.
The Ministry of Magic staff had arrived quickly—or rather, they had been waiting all along. Will was the Triwizard Tournament champion, after all, and the only person to disappear unexpectedly during the tournament.
Fudge had given some of his staff strict orders to watch over Will. The moment he woke, they were to question him about why he had disappeared and what he and Potter had faced. Fudge wanted proof that Voldemort had not returned and that Dumbledore was talking nonsense.
Dumbledore had never wanted to make a spectacle of Will's disappearance. He wanted people to know Voldemort had returned so they would stay alert, not so they would panic.
But Hobert had thrown his plans into disarray. Dumbledore had never expected him to search for Will by offering a bounty, let alone put up a thousand Galleons.
"Uh—cough, cough—ah, cough, cough!" Will broke into a violent coughing fit on the hospital bed. He looked to be in terrible pain.
The Ministry staff gathered around the bed, at a loss.
Hobert sprang to his feet and pointed his wand at them. "Get out! All of you, get out! He needs rest!"
The Ministry staff exchanged glances. They knew Hobert could afford to put up a thousand Galleons to find someone. He clearly wasn't from a well-known pure-blood family, but that kind of money said plenty.
As seasoned Ministry employees, none of them wanted to stick their neck out and offend him. But their superior had ordered them to get information from Will as quickly as possible. They couldn't very well leave, either. They were stuck.
Just then, a Healer came in.