Chapter One- Casualty!
Healer Vento flew through he emergency ward at St Mungo's, instinctively calling out instructions right and left as she threaded her way through the constant pour of stretchers carrying in the wounded.
At twenty Rheanna was a pillar of responsibility. She represented the new generation of young women, the kind that was becoming increasingly common, the kind that was more experienced in handling near dead bodies than in dating. She was rushing towards the ICU to deal with the latest casualty. She sighed. It seemed the war, if nothing else, had taken care of her livelihood for her; her minimum number of patients seen in a day had risen from five to at least twenty.
Heavy losses of healers meant that she had been promoted in a remarkably short time. Yet she was never glad for the circumstances that had given her the chance for the much needed increase in salary.
She felt her heart clench every time she though of the uncontrolled evil that terrorised her world. Every time she had to deal with its effects, every time she had to tell the family of the victim that they won't be seeing their son, daughter, or wife again, every time she saw the pain in their eyes, every time she remembered her father's face at her mother's funeral…
She pulled herself out of them, before she could relive those painful memories again; there would be time enough for that in her many sleepless nights. Right now, a victim of Multiple Curse Injuries needed her. Glancing quickly at the clipboard that was handed to her on entering the operation theatre, she noted the name, Remus Lupin.
Her heart sank as she took in the blood flowing from every visible part of his body, not to mention the after effects of several curses, concussion, bruises to the head, slight paralysis, speech defect, she ran through a mental list. Hope ebbed away even faster when she saw the pain his amber eyes tried to conceal, remnants of the Cruciatus Curse.
Still, it wasn't part of her or her job to give up hope; so summoning all the brisk cheerfulness in her power, she examined the patient.
"Right, Remus, I'm gonna need you to trust me, okay? Can you do that?"
A slight nod and a wink answered her.
Calling up all her strength she started doing what she did best- saving lives.
Six hours later, six exhausting hours later a thoroughly dishevelled yet satisfied Healer staggered out of the op theatre. She fully expected adoring fans to prostrate at her feet, so pleased was she at having succeeded on such a case, but instead her nostrils were bombarded with the most rancid stench imaginable.
Following the unmistakeable odour, she found two men, followed by a third who was sneaking furtive glances at the bench behind them, covered from head to toe in mud, slime, blood and all other grime known to mankind as they stood towering over the poor girl at the reception, bombarding her with questions. The bewildered girl promptly noticed her and immediately introduced her with an obvious sigh of relief, "Here's the Healer now, she'll answer all your...enquiries." With that she wasted no time in beating a hasty retreat into the back office.
Seeing that she now had their undivided attention, she opened her mouth to deliver a lecture about protocol in the hospital, but was shortly interrupted by the tallest of the three, though it was harder to determine any other features under the layers of dirt.
"How's Remus? Is he going to be all right? Can we see him?" the questions were fired at her with barely a breath in between.
Her irritation died an early death as she remembered her latest patient, glad for his sake, that he had people who cared so much about him; far too often, far too many people were brought in and died far from friends and family.
More understanding now, she gently reassured them, "Mr Lupin sustained some serious injury, but with time and the right care, I'm confident he'll make a full recovery." She smiled at the palpable relief her words met with, before carrying on, anticipating their next query, "Yes, you may see him, after you have had time to clean up a little. I didn't go to all that trouble to revive him just so you could knock him out afresh with that awful smell." She added pointedly.
At which gentle rebuke, the three looked sheepishly at each other, before wordlessly following her to the lavatories.
Three hours later found James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew huddled around their injured friend's bedside, newly anointed with milk and honey flavoured soap and smelling strongly lavender, courtesy of hours of scrubbing and one adamant team of healers.