Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, events or situations you recognise here. They all belong to the rather talented JKRowling.
Author's Note: This is going to be my first multi-chapter piece. It will take place both during and after the war. Please review and let me know how I'm doing, I'll take any comments, both good and bad! I hope you enjoy the first instalment (Also, apologies for any spelling mistakes. If I've made glaringly obvious mistakes in character names etc please let me know!).
Lucy Pevral hummed as she took the cookies out of the oven. Quickly taking them off the tray and onto a rack she tossed the tray into the sink before picking up a warm cookie and biting into it carefully, a smile caressed her face as she picked up the glass of cold milk in her other hand and proceeded to the living room. Curling up on the sofa she pressed 'play' on her remote control and settled back into an evening of chick flicks and chocolate, blissfully unaware that miles away from her a phoenix lamented.
Three weeks later and Lucy still had no reason to believe her night in had been anything other than a relaxing night in, once again she hummed as she busied herself in the kitchen, this time piling ice cream and fruit into a bowl and laughing as she caught sight of herself in the mirror "it's a good job I don't want to diet" she murmured, her eyes twinkling merrily as she picked up a small spoon and moved off towards the study. A knock on the door halted her progress and putting down the bowl and spoon she hurried to answer it.
On opening a small boy with wide, fearful, slightly damp, eyes looked up at her,
"Lucy, it wasn't our fault, it was an accident, we didn't mean for Jasmine to fall, you have to come quickly, we were just playing!"
"of course Jake! Quickly! Where are we going?" Lucy grabbed the keys hanging next to the door and closed the door behind her, forgoing shoes in her haste to reach little Jasmine. A brisk walk took them to the end of the road in no time and Lucy was unsurprised to see Jake clamber over a fence and head into the woods, running and glancing back to make sure Lucy was keeping up, the fear somewhat abated in his eyes now a grown up was taking charge.
Almost before any time had passed at all Lucy heard sobs coming from up ahead and she increased her pace, desperate to arrive at once. A couple more twists and turns through the trees and they were there.
Jasmine lay on the ground, her leg obviously broken beneath her and her face deathly pale, scratches up and down her arms, face and body coupled with the broken branches lying next to her suggested a fall from the tree and Lucy looked up seeing that the tree did indeed have a few branches missing. Arriving at the little girl's side she shushed her gently saying,
"Jasmine, it's OK. I'm here, you're going to be fine in just a jiffy. Now I'm going to lift you up a bit and I want you to try and move your leg out in front of you, is that OK? If you can't move it then I'll have to ask Jake to do it, OK."
The girl nodded her head, sniffling slightly still, but calmed by the presence of the older girl. Moving slowly and doing exactly as she'd explained Lucy lifted Jasmine clean off the ground and waited patiently as she inched her leg out from underneath her body. Unable to straighten it little Jasmine cried out in pain as she saw the odd angle of her shin bone.
"That's enough I think Jasmine thank you. I'm going to lower you to the ground, it might hurt a bit but you're being incredibly brave and it won't be for very long, OK?"
Once again Jasmine nodded slowly, trying to be brave like Lucy and knowing that Lucy would make it OK again. All the children in the village of Haelen on Paranema knew that Lucy was the one to go to when something like this happened, she always made it right. Though their parents were less impressed and Lucy knew that Jake's mother had outright forbidden him from talking to her which explained his reluctance to get very close to her now, preferring to stay near some of the trees. She sighed inwardly, her 19 years of life had been far from easy and the last couple of years she'd been living in the tiny village alone accepted by the children but very few of the adults all of who feared her and yet were happy to rush to her doorstep whenever trouble brewed. Admittedly those who she'd helped had become true friends in some cases like the Stymes, Jasmine's parents other's had just lessened their outright hostility to her. Pushing the thoughts aside she returned to the task at hand and knelt in front of Jasmine moving her hands carefully over the lower leg. Feeling the heat bubble to the surface of her skin she looked up into Jasmine's eyes and smiled lovingly at the girl's total trust in her,
"This will only hurt for a moment, I promise."
Allowing the heat to exit her and closing her eyes to guide it to the places where it needed to work Lucy felt the healing magic flowing through and opened her eyes again, knowing that she would now see a Jasmine with a fully healed leg and very few cuts and scrapes. "I've left you a couple of scratches to remind you not to climb onto branches you haven't tested again, sweetheart. Now come here, you have loads of leaves in your hair!"
Jasmine giggled and threw herself at Lucy giving her a big hug, "Thank you, Lucy!" she beamed and Lucy smiled weakly back at her, picking gently at the foliage on the girl's head, "Now, run along home, it must be nearly dinner time." Glancing up she saw Jake looking scared a few feet away,
"Jake, I know your parents have told you to stay away from me and that I'm dangerous but thank you for coming to get me, you were brave and did exactly the right thing and saved Jasmine a lot of pain. Would you like to walk back with me and Jasmine or do you need to run on home?"
Jake, who's eyes had been wary at the beginning swelled visibly with pride as Lucy praised him, he pondered a moment, eyes shifting around the woods as though his parents would pop out of nowhere and reprimand him for consorting with The Freak as they called Lucy. Seeing no one coming to tell him what to do he used the wisdom of his 10 short years and nodded his head, suddenly remembering he was supposed to be above childish actions, "I s'pose I'll come with you" he shrugged and Lucy smiled at him encouragingly.
The journey back was conducted in silence and after climbing the fence the three parted ways, Jake shuffling his feet as he mumbled "thanks" at Lucy. Jasmine, in contrast wrapped her arms around the girl once again and beamed at her, "thank you ever so much Lucy!"
Lucy laughed lightly, "It was no trouble at all, feel free to come round to my house anytime both of you, I have always have cookies you know" she smiled warmly once again and walked down the street towards her small cottage.
Closing the front door behind her Lucy crumpled against the wall and staggered through into her living room, the melted ice cream laying forgotten on the table. She rolled herself onto the sofa and closed her eyes, that healing had taken more out of her than usual, there had been complications in the break and Lucy knew that had she not been around it would've taken at least 6 months to fully heal. Reaching out to the table with her eyes still closed, Lucy felt her way to the shelf below the table top and wrapped her hand around a small plastic container. Opening it she felt inside and picked out a large cookie which she immediately munched, feeling the energy return slowly to her body. She smiled into the mouthful of chocolate thinking how good it was that she enjoyed cooking, she always had a box of freshly baked cookies within reach of any collapsing point in her house.
It was going to be another night in for her curled up with a good book, she might even read back through some of Albus' letters, they were always better than a storybook for replenishing her, knowing that she wasn't the only magical one out there even Albus was unsure as to what exactly she could be classified as. A talented healer she certainly was but that was the only magic she could do. She couldn't use a wand, she'd tried many but to no avail and so had been unable to attend Hogwarts. However, Albus had befriended her and had taught her much about magic and the magical community. She wasn't sure if the friendship had been entirely for her benefit alone and as the years passed Albus had confided more and more to her through the letters they exchanged. She knew that he was dying, knew of his plan to help Harry even through his death and yet it seemed unreal to her really. They'd been exchanging letters at the rate of two or three a week these past 6 years, meeting rarely, she'd couldn't take in that it was going to end.
Opening her eyes wide Lucy started, she hadn't heard from Albus in over three weeks. That could mean only one thing. Blinking slowly as the realisation sunk in Lucy bowed her head and mourned with silent tears the friend no one knew she had.