A/N: Hello! Welcome to Hard to Find, my first Harry Potter fanfiction in quite some time! I've taken down all of my old ones, as they were rather atrocious and made me cringe when I read them. I should note that the title is from the song Hard to Find by The National, but also has some meaning that has to do with the story, haha. Well, none of the characters except for my OC's belong to me, the rest are J.K Rowlings!

"Oi, Nott, toss me that bottle of ointment, would you? I've got a patient down on the third floor who's got a nasty rash around his private areas-"

"Here!" I yelped, tossing the ointment in Gerty's general direction. The last thing I wanted to hear was a thorough description of a patient's infected…parts. And knowing Gerty, who's the head Healer in the emergency ward, she's seen and heard just about every kind of sickness/disease, which is why she has no problem yelling our every miniscule, gruesome detail across the room.

It still makes me sick to my stomach.

I just didn't understand it. I mean, we're the Emergency Wing. I went to Healer School for a year to work in the Mental Ward, helping people recover from brain damage.

Infected scrotums were not at all what I signed up for.

But it isn't like I did much. I sat at a small front desk, as a fill-in receptionist, while the other healers and nurses got all the good action. I wouldn't call Gerty's patient with the nasty rash a piece of "good action", but they still got all the people running in with severed arms and spell mishaps. Tell me, when have you ever seen Luna Scamander run in, holding her 20 year old sons hand as it continues to expand in size by the very second? The day that happened, she fawned over it, crying about the nargles that would surely take advantage of the infection, all while screaming at her other son for not being more careful with his wand.

I'll tell you right now, that's a once in a lifetime thing to see.

So I guess that was a winning reason to work as a receptionist while the real one is off having yet another child. But it was a job that didn't require cleaning out bedpans (ah, the life of a rookie. That's literally what they assigned me. "Clean out the bedpans on the 4th floor. And stop reading, you're being lazy, Nott." My boss's exact words.) so I was happy to have it.

"Excuse me, miss," a shaky voice said from the doorway. An elderly woman walked in, clutching her purse and looking around frantically. I raised my eyebrows, sitting up a little straighter and feeling a pang of sympathy for the woman- she was clearly confused. "I feel responsible to inform you that there's a nasty accident outside, with some young men. They're in trouble, and-"

"Of course, I'll send someone that way immediately," I assured her, lying through my teeth. Hell, I was a Nott, it didn't bother me anymore to lie. It's how I was raised. I put my wand to my mouth, silently making it form into a mic. "Can we please have someone from the Mental Ward come and escort my friend down here in the Emergency Wing? She's got a few scrapes, bruises, possibly homeless or without family, clearly confused…" I trailed off, examining the poor woman. She absent-mindedly sat down and began rambling on about what she'd read in the paper that morning to a family in the seats across from her. The mother, with a red and puffy face, actually listened carefully, perhaps needing something to get her mind off of her son, who I knew was being moved to spell damage after his older sister accidently blew up their oven.

I returned to behind my desk and picked up my book. Newman's Top 300 Defensive Spells to Ward off the Wizarding Worlds Top 300 dark enemies. I'd been reading it for ages, though I was doing it purely to get a bit more knowledge about Defense Against the Dark Arts- I'd been rather good at it while at Hogwarts, but because I was the daughter of a former Death Eater, the idea of becoming an Auror was absolutely ridiculous. I'd chosen to save myself the pain of being turned down (I'd already seen it happen to Paxton Montague, who was one of my childhood friends) so I applied to go to Healer School instead. It wasn't what mother wanted (if you think I'm one to sit at home and watch over children for the entirety of my life, you're bonkers) but it was a good job, for a woman. That was another reason I didn't try to get into the Auror Academy- though I had the grades for it, it was a "woman's position". Meaning, to Mother and Father, it was unladylike and absolutely preposterous. I hated their beliefs, but I wasn't going to end up like Kinser.

Whose name was burned off the family tree after he married a Muggleborn.

My mind was still wandering to my brother when the doors flew open, hitting the walls next to them. This wasn't unusual; mothers with their injured children did it every single day. But now, as I see two boys practically carrying in some other ones, my heart stops cold. I go to press the red button underneath my desk, which alerts the hospital that we're in need of help, but I see that it's already on. Somewhere else in the building, every single Healer and Nurse on hand were gathered over something. Leaving me to take care of these guys.

I stood up swiftly, noting that the elderly woman from a few minutes ago was now shouting about the boys. I cursed under my breath and looked at the tall one who was carrying a small one on his shoulder. "Follow me," I ordered him, and he nodded, jerking his head to the other guy. Unfortunately, the other one was small, so he was having to drag a tall one. I shoved a room door open, and luckily, it was free. "Here, can you lie him down?" I asked, but I knew he could, so I rushed out the door, into the closet down the hallway. I grabbed a disinfectant before knocking bottles to the ground gracefully in search of the Essence of Dittany. Finally, I found it, and hurried out the door, back into the room, where the boys were twitching in their beds.

I ran a hand through my hair and blinked, starting in on the small one. I flicked my wand so part of his shirt came off, revealing the splinch lines across his left shoulder. I took a deep breath before holding my breath and just dumping a large amount of disinfectant onto the boy, whose brown eyes widened as he howled in pain. I winced, imagining it hurt horribly. As I pulled the stopper off of the Dittany, though, he reached up with surprisingly quick reflexes, catching my forearm roughly. He shook his head, clearly in an immense amount of pain. I looked to the other two for help, to which they nodded and pinned the boy's arms down so I could drop the Dittany across his shoulder gently. Twice he jerked upwards, which caused me to have to shove him down even further. I felt sick as I looked downwards, seeing the blood across my uniform. I swallowed and moved onto the next boy, ordering the spare two to make sure the difficult one didn't roll out of his bed and leave the Hospital. St. Mungo's security had been lacking these last few months.

The boy I moved to had his jaw clenched and was trying desperately not to cry out in pain, I could tell. His black hair was messy and his eyes were squeezed shut. I don't know if it was his daring jaw line or attempt to be brave, but I spoke to him in a tone I didn't know I possessed as I pulled his shirt off gently, my breath catching for a minute at the splinch mark along his ribs.

"I know it hurts a lot," I said, my hands shaking as I picked up the disinfectant first. "But this is going to get rid of any dark magic or infections that might come with it, okay? So just, please don't hit me. Your buddy over there already did," I mumbled. To my surprise, he let out a hollow and dry laugh. I wanted to make him laugh again, to distract him from this pain, but I'd already began tipping the bottle over, and his small smile was quickly replaced by a scream that must have started at the pit of his stomach. I could tell he'd been holding it in for quite some time, because it made him appear almost relieved. I scooped up the Dittany and dropped it along his chest, the wounds reattaching to each other. The boy sighed, and I reached up into the cabinet above his bed, cursing as I had to stand on top of a chair just to reach the medicine.

My hands were shaking horribly as I popped the cap open and shook it so two pills fell out and into the boys open palm. His face, which was looking more relaxed, allowed him to open his eyes. My heart launched into my throat at the sight of his them; they were bright green, the color of freshly clipped grass at the Clubhouse. His eyes fell to the pills, and I nodded to him, us making eye contact that made it understood he needed to take them immediately. He threw them into his mouth, swallowing them instantly, and let his head fall back against the pillow. I shuffled and did the same thing to his friend, who was relaxed by that point, his buddies still keeping a grip on his arms nonetheless. The smaller boy hesitated before taking them, glaring at me and then his friends. I took a glance at the two boys before washing my hands off in the sink, feeling hollow inside. I looked over at their friends, who appeared to be confused by the whole situation. "Can we talk outside? I figure you should know their names," one asked me.

I nodded and led them into the hallway, the smaller one in bed gazing after us. I shut the door behind us, reaching out and snagging a clipboard from the wall. "Well, the one that was throwing a fit is Ethan Finnigan," the other friend told me, and I filled in the squares with sloppy handwriting as my hands continued to shake horribly. I ignored it and kept writing, but the two boys noticed immediately, I could tell. "The second one is-"

"I know who he is," I cut him off, filling in Albus Potter's name on the second piece of paper. Who doesn't know who Albus Potter is? Not only were we in the same year at Hogwarts, but we played against each other in Quidditch yearly at the great Slytherin vs Gryffindor match. He was quite good, and everyone was surprised he didn't go pro like his brother, James. "Who was apparating you guys out? And where were you leaving? Any spells caught in the apparition?"

They exchanged looks before the taller one said, "I was apparating the 4 of us out. I can't say where from though…" he trailed off. I gave him a stern look, and he shifted uncomfortably. "Sorry. My name's Ridley Thomas though, if you'd like to write that part down."

I rolled my eyes at his smart mouth before taking the clipboard back into the room with me and shutting the door. I leaned against it, taking a deep breath and heading over to Finnigan's bed, where he was fast asleep. I carefully took his pulse and made sure his heart rate was normal. I slowly moved over to Potter, where my hands were beginning to shake worse than ever.

Between the image of his green eyes shining so brightly and the sound of his scream, I couldn't help but be nervous; I reached out to press my wand to his wrist so the pulse would appear on the screen next to his bed, but nothing happened. I frowned and checked to make sure he wasn't actually dead before trying again. Suddenly, he lifted up his spare hand and gently placed it on top of mine, our eyes locking instantly. "No need to be nervous, Nott."

"I'm not," I muttered, pulling my hand away and turning from him, taking a deep breath. "Any chance you can tell me where the hell you were apparating from, Potter?"

I turned back around, looking at him expectantly. He propped himself up in bed, wincing and taking a sharp breath all at once. I watched him struggle to set his pillow up properly for a few minutes before sighing and hurrying over, fixing it myself. He leaned his head back against it, closing his eyes and almost smiling. "The four of us are in the auror academy, Nott."

"Oh?" I asked, watching his eyes open as they locked on mine. "So that makes you unable to tell me anything about where you coming from? Not too often do I have auror trainees in here."

"You never have them in here," he said, hesitation written across his face. "We have our own private Hospital Wing back at Headquarters, with some of the best healers in the world. That way, if we get injured, nobody's going to go around bugging us with questions about how."

I recoiled, feeling slightly offended. "I was asking for your own health," I said through gritted teeth. "I don't actually give a damn about your auror training. I don't care about that career."

Lie. Potter could tell it was one, too. "Now, now, Nott, we all know how untrue that is. You and I were in the same N.E.W.T classes, you were definitely hoping to become an auror."

"Tell me the last time a Death Eaters child was admitted into the program," I said sharply, glaring at him with pure fury dripping from every ounce of me. He remained silent, either thinking or admitting I was right. "Exactly. Besides, I like this job very much."

"Do you now?" he chuckled, looking almost surprised with me. "Doesn't really seem like that now. I saw how you reacted when you had to fix us up. You hate it. It scares you."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "It doesn't scare me," I hissed, my grip on the clipboard becoming tighter. "Just because I wasn't a Gryffindor doesn't mean I'm afraid of everything."

Potter lifts his chin, thinking on this while keeping a steady gaze on me. "You really want to know where we were apparating from, Nott? Well, write this down then. We were apparating from Timothy Forrest in Upper England, where a group of Death Eaters attacked us, thinking we were actual aurors. It was all we could do to get out of there alive," he snapped.

My throat tightened, aching suddenly and unexpectedly. "They're back?" I managed to squeak out.

He snorted. "They've been back for quite a while!" he laughed, shaking his head. In the bed next to his, Finnigan began stirring, apparently waking up. "It's a whole new war, and it's coming fast, Nott. So if I were you, I'd get the hell out of the country before they try to recruit you."

I stiffened; they wouldn't have dared try to recruit me. My brothers and father, however, were totally different subjects. "I have to go," I said shortly, standing and slapping the clipboard onto the table next to Potter's bed. He looked at me, confused, prompting me to add, "Well I'm sure as hell not just going to let my entire family be recruited, am I? Not again, Potter."

His eyes widened, and he shook his head. "No, Nott, you can't leave, you can't say a single bloody word to your family!" he yelped, scrambling to get out of his bed. I realized what he was doing and strode over to him, pushing him back down gently, not wanting to hurt his healing splinch wound. As my hands touched his bare chest, the jolt of electricity shocked my fingertips, and I jerked them away. "I shouldn't have told you any of that. Oh Merlin, I've really done it-"

"Potter," I cut him off, my bright blue eyes staring deeply into his green one as I stood over him. "I can handle myself, alright? I'm 21, not 16," I laughed, giving him a reassuring smile. For all Potter was that I disliked, I didn't want him to get kicked out of the auror academy. "Just stay here, alright? And this will just be between you and I. Our little secret."

Something about my word choice seemed truly awful, like there was something really huge to this, which prompted me to groan at what I'd said. Potter smirked, but I could see this was just a resolve to not show how worried he now was. "Fine, Nott. Just our dirty little secret."

"Take the dirty out," I ordered, giving him a stern look. "I don't want any of that in it."

He waggled his eyebrows, looking at me mischievously. "Are you quite certain, Nott?"

"As certain as I'll ever be," I replied. But my voice wavered, and Potter grinned in an obvious feeling of success. I rolled my eyes and looked down at my watch, spotting the time. "My shift's over. Look, I'll just let Gerty know you and Finnigan are in here, okay? They'll let you go by the end of tonight, and-"

The door flew open, the handle popping a hole in the wall behind it. But it's opener stormed inside, hardly noticing it. Her hair was long and red, her face matching it (except for the long part. Though she did look like she'd been crying). "Oh, bloody hell, Albus!" she sobbed.

She threw herself onto him, crying harder. "His chest has been splinched, don't touch it, Potter!" I snapped, and she jerked up, looking at me with her mother's trademark brown eyes. "Sorry. I'll see you around, Potter. Give Finnigan my best."

And with that I left for my parent's house.

…

I pulled my sweater around myself tightly, soaking up the warmth it provided. But it wasn't much of a weapon against the bitter cold wind snapping at me every angle I turned. I waited by the streetlight, trying just to get to the village of The Sacred Twenty Eight. Now, I've always thought the entire book was just rubbish, and my great-great-grandfather was a complete idiot, maybe even more so than my grandfather, but he did build this village, with 28 beautiful mansions, each for the families mentioned in The Sacred Twenty Eight.

Ours, the one I had been raised in, was planted in between the Malfoy's large and looming house and the Ollivander's rather perky and cheery one. Ollivander, the wand-maker, allowed his son to live in the house with his family when he took over the family shop. Where Ollivander himself lives now, I don't know. But Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy live just next door to us, with Scorpious. Well, actually, Scorpious, like myself, moved out of his parent's house after graduation. He's also one of my best friends, but he worked in the Department of Mysteries, so things were tough between us, with him not being able to visit too often.

I crossed the street, walking briskly and in such a manner one would assume I was in a hurry. Well, I partially was, with my blonde hair getting tangled more and more by the minute as the wind wrapped it up in its hands, toying with it unhelpfully. I hissed in frustration, because the other reason was that I'd forgotten the code for the wall. The wall was what you had to use a code on to get inside the village, and it was changed monthly. I bit my lip, remembering that that month should have been the Weasley's month to pick the code, but they always picked the same thing, since only Percy and Audrey lived there in the summer to get away from their house.

7-7-7-7.

I had to trace the number with my wand four times before the wall parted, revealing the street into the village, it being one I had walked down on several occasions. Just as I was about to step inside, the brick wall slammed together, the sound hurting my ears. I stared at the wall in bewilderment, thinking that maybe I'd gotten it wrong and the magic had just figured that out a second too late. I turned around to look back at the muggle town behind me thoughtfully, wondering if I should just call it a night and come back later after owling Mum for the code.

But then it hit me.

I mean, literally, something hit me square in the mouth, throwing me back into the wall. I groaned but pulled my wand, the tip hitting the chest of a darkly cloaked person. My eyes widened and I blanched, realizing once I looked at the silver mask, exactly what I was dealing with. "Stup-"

My wand flew from my hand and into the gloved one of my attacker's accomplice, who was standing beside him. "Silly little Nott, trying to get a running start at her family before we can get to them," the cloaked figure tutted in a low voice. My heart froze, everything slowing down; they'd been watching me. Watching the village. And waiting.

"Let go of me," I hissed, feeling the strength of his grip on my arm for the first time. "I won't say a word to them if you let me walk free."

He laughed coldly, his partner practically falling into hysterics at the thought. "Your father knows he doesn't have a choice; He isn't 17 anymore, the Dark Lord doesn't just give him busy work. No, Nott, this is much bigger than that. Granted, the Dark Lord's tragic death leaves us in need of a new leader, but alas, we have found one. And he wants your family on his side."

"Well, he won't be getting me," I said harshly, trying to jerk free. But the grip didn't loosen or tighten, just stayed completely firm. "You know that, too. I could never been…trusted."

The Death Eaters both raised their chins in thought. "She has a point," the accomplice pointed out, and my attacker loosened his grip. "Alec'd never be able to trust her, Evan-"

"Do not use names, you fool!" my attacker yelped furiously, turning on his friend and, in anger, letting go of me. My eyes widened, and I took off in a sprint down the sidewalk, my heart beating rapidly, my breath shallow and shaky. I was almost there, almost to the corner, where I could get inside Mrs. Filch's house; she'd have a wand there, I knew she would, I could-

I flew forward, moaning as I hit the ground face first. I could taste the asphalt and blood mixed together, the iron in both of them making me want to vomit. I lied there for a moment, catching my breath as I realized my legs were invisibly bound together. A foot made contact with my arm, rolling me over haphazardly. I looked up into the eyes of Evan Rosier, a long time "family friend" who had removed his mask. "I'd put that thing back on, Mr. Rosier," I said hoarsely.

He laughed. "Why? I'm just going to torture you dumb, Iylee. You won't remember your own name when I'm done with you. You'll finally get to be in the Mental Ward, like you went to school to be in."

I didn't actually hear the spell, because the pain came instantly, first feeling like a punch in the stomach, and then morphing so it was a thousand knives underneath my skin, trying to cut their way out of my body. I screamed as a firey sensation filled in for the knives, like someone dumped gasoline onto my wounds; the fire sensation didn't stop, though, and my entire body felt like it was being burnt horribly fast, my skin surely turning black like the color of ash. I accepted that I was probably going to die like that as I slammed my palms against the ground, the words stop and help going unheard through the neighborhood.

Then it disappeared.

The pain evacuated from my body instantly, leaving me to gasp for air that I hadn't been receiving. The sound of shuffling filled my ears instead, the occasional thud happening. I closed my eyes, trying to stop the tears, but they slid out from underneath my eyelids like a leaking faucet. I wiped at them with my sweater sleeve before giving up and breaking down into sobs, my eyes training on the starry sky in front of me. Stars were so incredible. Surrounded by a sea of darkness and still managing to sit there, brighter than everybody else. Everything was so muffled, the sounds hardly audible. My whole body had gone into trembling mode, and I was just about to try to sit up when a pair of green eyes leaned over my own blue ones, looking down at me worriedly.

I stared back up at them, noting in my dazed mind how remarkably much so they resembled the stars. In a dark situation, but still shining bright. Amazing, really.

And then I realized they were Potter's eyes, and he was muttering something to me, which made me push the thought far into the back of my mind as I let him gently pick me up. My entire body ached, the pain making me want to avada myself right there on the spot.

"My wand…he's got it," I said quietly, my eyes drooping already. Potter nodded, his face solemn.

"Ridley got it already. Stop worrying," he muttered, and for the second time that night, said to me, "No need to be nervous, Nott."

"I'm not," I mumbled, my neck succumbing to the exhaustion as I let it fall onto Potter's shoulder, eyes slowly giving way as sleep snuck up on me wickedly. "Look, though, this cannot be some kind of routine. We are not going to be saving each other's lives every other day."

He laughed, the sound sweet and perfect. "Alright, Iylee, we're going to have to apparate to get to the Ministry. You think you'll be okay for that?" he asked me.

I nodded. "I don't splinch. Genetically, my family's practically immune to it," I said incoherently, and without opening my eyes, I added, "You know my first name."

"I have for some time," he informs me, stopping. "And with all the trouble I've just caused, I doubt I'll be permitted to forgot it any time soon."

A/N: I hope that wasn't horrid. I promise there won't be so much back-to-back action in the upcoming chapters; I don't actually like to write action that much, but it was necessary for this chapter to have so much if the rest of the story is to make sense.

Also, I should say that my penname used to be InsaneOnTheInside, but it's been changed. So incase anyone's confused by that, sorry.

PLEASE REVIEW! It's one of my pet peeves when people don't. Even if it's just constructive criticism, I'll still love it! A review is a review! (:

**Iylee's name is pronounced like "Eye-Lee" for anyone that couldn't get that.

See you next chapter!

-Morgan