"Where is he?", Amy asked Remus as she fumbled on the zipper of her bag and hastily threw in every healing potion she could find.
"I'm not able to tell you", Remus whispered and glanced over to Cavenar. "So I assume you know where?"
"I do", she responded, closed the bag and looked at Remus, who offered his hand to hold on to for apparating. It was smeared with crusty bloodstains like his shirt, making her wonder if this was all Sirius' blood alone. If it was, they should not waste another minute.
Amy turned around and looked over to her boss, who watched them wide-eyed behind the counter.
"Don't say anything. Go", Cavenar said, as if he knew she wanted to apologize. "You know where you can find me, if you need something."
She nodded, inhaled deeply and took Remus' hand. They twirled around each other in a black void and appeared on the Potter's doorstep a moment after.
"What happened?", Amy asked as she followed Remus inside.
"I'll explain later", he told her. "Quick, get in."
She could hear him as soon as she stepped into the entrance room of the house. Tired screams and heavy breathing echoed through the ground floor, each room's door stood open, the atmosphere of their home completely different to the time she had been there before.
She rushed through the living room and into the kitchen, where the noises came from, freezing for a second when she saw Sirius lying shirtless on the kitchen table, James on his right side, pressing down soaked towels on his upper arm.
A thick trail of blood spread from the door, where they must have apparated with him, to the table he was now lying on, drops of it splattered onto the sides of the counters. Someone had stepped into the puddle and had dragged it all across the room, red footprints and streaks covered the floor, making it look like a crime scene.
Lily and Peter stood on the other sides of the table, Peter holding Sirius' legs, Lily next to his face trying to calm him down, but both looked like they didn't know what to do anymore.
"Thank Godric", James whispered through gritted teeth when he saw Amy. "He fainted three times. Help him, please help him. They tried to cut it off. They fucking tried to cut his arm off."
Sirius' wheezes were loud and fast, almost animalistic, his eyes hooded as he watched Amy nearing him. She quickly stepped closer, put her bag on the table next to his legs, tried to remain calm and asked: "What curse?"
"What, I... I don't remember", James said and looked over to Remus, who shook his head as well.
"Sectumsempra I think", Peter said and held Sirius' feet more firmly.
"Okay." Amy went up to his arm, James stepped back to make room for her and pulled off the towels.
What she saw was worse than she had imagined, despite all the blood. There was a clean cut starting below his shoulder, going downwards almost to his elbow. It went through skin, flesh and torn muscles, even reaching the bone, which has been injured as well. He was still bleeding profusely, so Amy snapped her head over to Peter and instructed: "Dittany essence. Quick!"
While he looked for it in her bag, Amy tried to close the wound with the counter spell, pointing her wand directly at the gaping flesh. Sirius' stare shifted from Amy's wand to her face repeatedly, his breathing got even quicker in anticipation of more pain in healing.
"Vulnera sanentur", she sang softly for about ten times, until the bleeding finally stopped and the cut started to slowly close. She put drops of Dittany on every inch of his upper arm, trying to ignore his whimpers when the liquid touched his skin, but couldn't help but flinch as well.
Now that he wasn't in mortal danger anymore she could concentrate on soothing the pain. She put the essence back into her bag and fished out a small purple bottle.
"Sirius this is 'Relevisom's Draught'. It's going to make you sleepy and will take away the pain. Open your mouth please", she said as she unscrewed the bottle.
He did as she said without hesitation, still panting rapidly. Once she had dropped one full pipette of the potion into his mouth, he let out a sigh of relief, his breathing slowed down a bit and his lids got heavier with each second.
Amy wondered why he fought the urge to sleep, struggling to keep his eyes open, but it seemed like something was still bothering him. He lifted his left arm with his last ounce of strength and swung it over to Amy's side, touched her hand with the tips of his fingers, before opening his mouth again, but his eyes closed before he could say a word.
She took his hand in hers and held it tight, reached for his face with her other one, making sure not to lean on his wounded arm and brushed some strands of hair out of his face, then laid the backside of her hand on his forehead to check the temperature. His skin was scorching hot, a thin layer of sweat spread all over his now calm face. She looked down at him compassionately, thought about the upcoming recovery process and frowned, before she was reminded she was still holding his hand, as well as caressing his cheek when James cleared his throat. Amy let go of him, took a step back and started to put the draught back into her bag, while the other three watched her silently.
"He needs to rest. You can levitate him into a bed now, it should be safe", she said, grabbed the Dittany Essence and put it on the table. "Apply this once a day all over his arm. I'd say he'll need at least a week of rest before he can start to try and move it again. And he's got a fever. That's good, because it eliminates viruses and bacteria. Just make sure it doesn't get too high. You can use this potion to treat it in case. And-"
"Thank you Amy", Lily sighed, her voice almost breaking, before she went up to her and hugged her. "Thank you for helping us. I don't know what would have happened if it weren't for you."
"It's alright", Amy said and squeezed her tight.
"We've tried everything. I tried every healing spell I know, every potion we had here, but nothing worked", Lily went on as she let go.
"You don't know this curse? And who invented it?", Amy asked and was met with confused faces. They all shook their heads. "It's Snape's."
Lily's face fell at the same time as Remus and Peter began to murmur angry cusses.
"Fucking hell, Snape", James hissed. "I knew he was one of them."
"Didn't you recognize who attacked him?"
"No, those cowards always wear masks to hide their faces", James replied hardly able to hide his anger.
"It doesn't mean it was him who attacked Sirius, his curse seems to be well known among dark wizards and witches", Amy told them. "I've seen damage from this spell before. But never so severe."
James mumbled something about killing someone, so Lily interrupted him: "Would you bring Sirius upstairs? You can lay him in our bed, we can sleep on the couch tonight."
The three did what she asked them to and levitated Sirius, who was still asleep, upstairs.
Amy felt the adrenaline leaving her body as her hands started to shake. "I'm going to leave now", she said and attempted to pick up her things. "You can always ask for help if you're in need."
"No", Lily replied. "Stay for a bit, please. At least wash off the blood and let me make you coffee."
"Okay then", Amy gave in and walked over to the kitchen sink where they both washed their hands. "Where's Harry?"
"He's sleeping in his room upstairs. I put a silencing spell outside of it, so he wouldn't hear us", Lily explained as she put the coffee on the stove. "A child shouldn't be growing up with things like this. We always try to not let him know, but I'm so scared of the day he will find out his parents are hiding like prey."
"Lily", Amy mumbled in sympathy and started to rub her arm.
"It's not fair", Lily whispered and wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye. "Don't get me wrong, I will always protect my son, but I wish we could just live a normal life."
"I can't imagine how hard it must be", Amy said as she heard the guys coming back into the kitchen.
Peter cleaned the remains with a series of spells, while the other two tried to wash off most of the stains from their skin and Lily filled four large cups with coffee.
"Does anyone else want a sip of firewhiskey?", Remus asked and offered a flask. Peter and James held their cups his way, so he poured some in, before doing the same to his own. Lily said she had to check if Harry was still sleeping and left, so he looked over to Amy, who shook her head, even if she felt weak in the knees and could have used some alcohol to calm down.
"You prefer cigarettes, am I right?", Remus asked and took a pack out of his back pocket. "I snatched them from Sirius, he doesn't need them now anyway."
Amy breathed a single laugh and took the pack. "I really could use one right now."
Remus went outside in the backyard with her, where she lit a cigarette, took a drag and threw her head back before releasing the smoke from her lungs.
"How do you know I smoke?", she asked him.
"Sirius told me", he said and took a sip from the mug.
She spotted a tiny smirk on his lips, so she asked: "Did he tell you anything else? Like what happened the last time we met?"
"Oh, your drunk fight? Yes, he told us. And I told him he's always looking for drama."
Amy flicked away some cold ash and said: "Apparently, yes. But I've said some pretty shit things too. I wanted to apologize, but didn't know how to contact him. And after two weeks of silence I thought he didn't want me to anyway."
"Well, you're both here now, so", he said and took another sip while raising his brows. There was this smirk again.
"He's asleep", she said sarcastically.
"True, but he won't be sleeping forever. If you didn't give him a potion overdose intentionally."
She laughed quietly and inhaled once more before saying: "I didn't, don't worry. But I'm not going to force him to hear me out when he can't escape or defend himself."
"I don't think he would mind actually", Remus replied. "Don't tell him I said that, but he wanted to talk to you from the morning after your little fight. He just didn't know how."
"Really?"
Remus nodded and smiled at her. "I'm going to check if James and Peter need a refill", he said and went back inside, leaving Amy alone with her thoughts and the halfway smoked cigarette.
She felt more relaxed when she went back in and found the guys sitting in the living room. Lily was seemingly still in Harry's room, so Amy sat down next to them.
"Thank you again", James said and Remus raised his cup to show his gratitude.
"Yes thank you Amy", Peter mumbled from the other couch. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you from the start and for the dumb shit I said last time."
He offered his hand and smiled, so she shook it and replied: "It's alright Peter."
The four of them ended up sitting in silence, staring into their empty cups. After a while James intended to get up and said: "I'm going to look what Lily's doing."
Amy held him back and said: "I think she just wants to spend some time with Harry. She would never say it out loud, but I think she'd like to pretend that today never happened and keep Harry from seeing Sirius in that state."
"You're right", James sighed. "You're absolutely right. And we have another mission tonight, where I have to leave them behind again. I wish we could call it off, but we can't risk to let them know we're weakened."
"So she'll have to look after Harry and Sirius?", Amy asked.
"I'm afraid so, yes", James replied and rubbed his brows with his index and middle finger.
"Shit", Amy whispered and watched the last sip of cold coffee running back and forth in her mug. "That's going to sound stupid and it's probably the last thing Sirius wants, but should I take care of him for a while?"
Their expressions couldn't have been more different. Peter pretended like he wasn't there and kept on staring into his cup, Remus wore his stupid smirk again and James beamed at her: "That would be a giant help. I thought of this earlier but didn't want to ask you for such a huge favour, after everything you've done."
"I think Lily deserves some relief, doesn't she?", Amy said. "I'm going to ask Sirius if he's okay with it when he's awake."
She went upstairs an hour later, opened the door to James' and Lily's bedroom quietly and found Sirius still asleep in bed. She walked up to him, checked his arm and started to bandage it. The skin was still sore and the cut hadn't healed completely, but it was far better then hours before.
She laid the back of her hand on his forehead again and noticed that he was still hot, however not as bad as it had been.
Sirius opened his eyes slowly to the touch on his face, blinked tiredly and looked around the room in confusion.
"Hey", Amy said softly and sat down on the mattress next to him.
"Hey", he croaked when he recognized her.
"How do you feel?", she asked.
"You saved me", he said slowly and looked down at his arm. "I felt like I was dying. How long did I sleep?"
"Two hours maybe", she told him and watched as he ran his left hand over the bandage and hissed as soon as he touched it.
"Fuck, it still hurts", he moaned.
"Yeah don't ruin the bandage, I just put it on", she joked and earned a tired smile from him.
His expression went blank again when their eyes met and he tried to sit up, but ended up wincing and suppressing a cry.
"No, no, no, don't sit up", she instructed and laid her hand on his chest to gently push him back down.
"Okay okay", he gave in and exhaled sharply. He took a few deep breaths and went on: "Listen, I wanted to apologize."
"Me too", she said.
"I'm sorry I threw a fit. I was drunk and I'm a drama queen when I'm drunk. Well, Remus said I'm also one when I'm sober but I think it's not always that bad."
Amy laughed and said: "I'm sorry for comparing you to some douche bag from the past. I still don't know why I said that and I'm embarrassed about it. You're obviously not the same kid you were back in school. You've changed."
"For better or for worse?", he asked provokingly.
"I'm not sure yet", she grinned. "So are we good?"
"We are", he said and reached for her hand. His thumb ran softly over her knuckles and he held it a little tighter when he said: "Thank you for saving me."
"No problem. You should rest for about a week and try not to move your arm."
"I don't think I'd be able to without passing out on the spot."
"Good", she laughed. "Oh yeah, I talked to James earlier. They have to go on a mission again tonight. Lily's alone with Harry and I think she doesn't want him to notice any of this", she said and pointed to his arm.
"Yes sure. I can apparate home", he responded.
"I don't think you'll be able to take care of yourself during the next days. So I said I would look after you for a while. If you want to", she offered and squeezed his hand now.
"Okay. One question though."
"What's that?"
"Your place or mine?"