Chapter 3
Alex
Alex knew better than to go places with both his girlfriend and his brother. Somehow, it seemed, Marissa and Liam always succeeded in bringing out the worst in each other.
And yet, he had accompanied them to London anyway. It had gone reasonably well, Marissa had thrown one of her notorious fits because Alex wouldn't buy her a silver Pygmy Puff, Liam had disappeared into Knockturn Alley for a couple of hours, reappearing with a rather suspicious looking bulge in his left jacket pocket, and Alex had ordered all the required textbooks for his seventh and last year at Hogwarts. Nothing out of the ordinary. Until Liam had decided he needed a drink, and they had all gone to The Fourth Broomstick for Firewhiskeys.
Pure chaos ensued.
Sure, Alex had gotten into fights before. Especially for trying to wipe off smug grins of even smugger looking Gryffindor's faces. But this afternoon had been different.
By blasting Arachne's Curse, Alex' brother had crossed an invisible line. The line between harmless wand work with easy counter-curses, and illegally invented incantations. The line between excusable teenage escapades, and unforgivable Dark Magic.
And all Liam had done when Hastings had fallen to the floor, was laughed like a mad man. Alex would not have believed that horrible cackling noise was coming from his brother's lips, if he hadn't watched the petite blonde that had been with the Gryffindors silence Liam with her fist.
She'd punched him right in the nose, moving with incredible speed, before turning back to and kneeling by the motionless figure that was Julie Hastings.
Alex had thought of the girl as immensely strong. Her little fist had sent his brother flying when connecting with his face, and he wouldn't be surprised in the slightest, if she had managed to break Liam's nose. He had also thought this a good moment to leave the scene.
Alex had backed up in the direction of the door, unfreezing Marissa and grabbing Liam by his elbow in the process.
"Let's go!", he'd yelled.
Marissa, for once, had obeyed immediately, but Liam had tried to resist, clasping his nose between his hands, eyeing the girl by Hastings's side with a down-right evil look on his face.
"Liam, let's fucking leave!", Alex had hissed at his brother, tightening his grip on Liam's arm, and dragging him out the door.
Marissa had followed quickly. She'd grabbed his shirt, and with a loud bang, the three of them had Disapparated into the night.
Elisa
"Found anything yet?" Daniel shouted from downstairs.
"Do you think we'd still be up here if we had?" Matt yelled back heatedly, while tossing a voluminous leather-bound book titled Curious Cases of Contagious Incantations over his shoulder.
With a thud, it landed on the deep burgundy carpet that covered the entire floor of the Aragons' luxurious library. Matt's mother, who happened to be one of St. Mungo's most celebrated healers, was the proud owner of a seemingly endless collection of books on magical maladies. It had been Dan's idea to come here.
"What about this?" I asked Matt while tapping a caption in the book I had been browsing through.
He walked over to where I was sitting, squatted down and leaned across my shoulder to read for himself.
"Acromantula Bite", he spoke out loud.
"Highly poisonous, highly lethal. Symptoms: immediate loss of consciousness, veins circumventing the bite pulse and eventually turn black, uncontrollable movement of limbs and screams indicate final phase.
"What do you think they mean by final phase?" I asked, my voice noticeably quivering with concern on the last two words.
"Doesn't matter, does it? No spider, just a very nasty curse." Matt said firmly.
I had a feeling he was trying to convince himself, too.
"Keep looking", he added.
"Matt, if we can't get her better in the next ten minutes, we're going to St. Mungo's." I couldn't care less if your mummy found out, I added silently.
He looked up, about to answer me, but then was distracted by the sudden burst of angry shouts coming from downstairs.
"What the bleeding fuck are you doing here?" we heard Daniel roar.
I scrambled to my feet, and followed Matt into the hallway, where we both ran down the stairs two steps at a time.
"Chill out, Danny-boy, I'm here to help" a cool and calculated voice answered.
"We don't want anything from you, Greengrass, let alone help." Matt, who had reached the front door by which Dan was standing, fired at the visitor.
"Oh really? Tell me Spaniard, how's dearest Julie? Her veins turning black yet?" the voice, seemingly bored, said.
Finally reaching the front door as well, I could now see for myself to whom the voice belonged. I should've known. Tire-Boy.
"What do you know?" I asked briskly, lightly pushing Matt aside.
"The counter-curse, of course." Tire-Boy said, now eyeing me.
"Why help us?" Matt asked.
"And where are Liam and Marissa?" Dan added.
"One, because I don't fancy the weight of Hastings's death on my conscience. Two, obviously not here. Now, does that conclude your little interrogation, or are we just going to stand here, and wait for Hastings to die?"
That convinced me, and apparently Matt felt the same way.
"This way" he said, while beckoning Tire-Boy to follow him to the living room.
Alex
"Where the fuck is she?" Alex mumbled out loud, as he stepped onto the pavement outside St. Mungo's.
He was relatively glad Julie Hastings's friends had not taken her to the magical hospital, as it meant no official investigation by the Ministry. Yet. Unfortunately, it also meant it would be harder for him to find her and perform the life-saving counter-curse.
As he started pacing up and down the horribly depressing windows of the store hiding St. Mungo's from Muggle eyes, Alex tried to think. He had absolutely no idea where Julie herself lived, but somehow he doubted Hastings's friends would take her lifeless body to her parents' house. No, the obnoxious little twats would try to find a way to cure their cursed friend themselves. Hollister's house was not an option, because the Gryffindors would have to deal with the prying eyes of Daniel's Muggle family. That only left two possibilities. The petite blonde's house, in which case Hastings was lost, for he had no idea who she was, let alone where she lived, or the Aragons' mansion, which he incidentally had been to before.
Alex breathed out, slowly letting the air escape between his lips.
"The mansion it is, then", he said before Disapparating with a loud crack.
Elisa
"Oh, Merlin, her veins", Matt whispered upon entering the living room.
Julie was lying with her eyes closed on the luxurious leather couch, her head resting on a pillow, breathing evenly. It might have looked like she was asleep, were it not for the disturbingly black, almost visibly pulsating, veins that were on her hands, underarms, neck and face, and any other piece of bare skin.
"Fix her," I aggressively turned to Tire-Boy, my voice resonating the panic that was raging through my body.
"You fix her, or I swear I will-"
I never got to tell him how I would curse him into oblivion, for piercing high-pitched screams suddenly filled Matteo's enormous living room. They were coming from Julie. Of course they were. Her eyes had flown open, bulging dangerously from her skull, and she was now sitting up straight. Then, just as the textbook upstairs had described, her limbs started moving uncontrollably, her arms and legs kicking and hitting around wildly.
"Hold her still!" Tire-Boy shouted over Julie's screams, while he sprinted towards her.
"Hurry, before it's too late!"
Dan, Matt and me immediately obeyed, running towards the couch as well. Dan went for Julie's legs, and only just prevented her from kicking aside the glass (crystal?) coffee table. Matt had to endure a punch in the ribs before he succeeded in grasping both of J's wrists. I bit my lip to keep from crying, and tried to cradle my cousin's head as best as I could, preventing her from head-butting her boyfriend.
"Greengrass, hurry the fuck up!", Dan panted, obviously struggling to keep control of Julie's legs.
"On the count of three!" was the stranger's response.
"One!"
You would think Julie would tire quickly, but her movements only became wilder and more desperate.
"Two!"
Julie's left leg escaped Dan's grip for a moment, and he only just dodged a kick to his nose before regaining control.
"Three!"
Please, please, please, fix her. I silently begged of Tire-Boy. Please. I looked up, and met his cold blue-eyed gaze for a split second.
"Athena dimitte!"
A flash of blinding white light, then Julie went limb in my hands, her head lolling over the armrest of the couch. Tentatively, I let go of her, as did Dan, but Matt's hands remained on Julie's.
"Those should completely fade after a couple of minutes", our mysterious helper said, gesturing towards the veins on Julie's hands that Matt was now softly tracing with his thumb.
"She'll regain consciousness soon after."
"I should get going," he added, lowering his wand and turning around to leave.
"Alex." Matt said, finally tearing his gaze away from Julie.
"Yes?" our helper, whose name was thus Alex, said while stopping in his tracks, looking over his shoulder to Matt.
"Thank you," Matt said in a clear voice.
Alex merely nodded, then left.
