Disclaimer: I owe all of my characters and overall themes and locations to Miss J.K. Rowling, though I created Hayden Prewett based on Rowling's characters and families!
Also, I'm new to this fan fiction writing business, so I'd love any and all reviews and comments and critiques you want to give!
"She was lucky she had you boys," Hayden heard Madam Pomfrey say. "She likely would have fainted from the pain of that break soon anyway. It's a very nasty break that I couldn't fully heal. The cut on her cheek won't scar, but I'm afraid her ribcage will. Cuts from the inside don't heal well with magic, unfortunately. And her rib is still broken, so no rough housing with the poor dear."
Hayden opened her eyes blearily to see all four marauders sitting around her bed, Sirius looking at the floor sheepishly, and Madam Pomfrey at the foot of her bed. She glanced around, wondering where her other friends were, and who Madam Pomfrey was talking about, and Peter noticed. He reached forward and grabbed her hand, a flurry of movement that caught everyone's attention. Looking down at her hand, she realized that she was in a hospital bed. She took her hand from Peter's to sit herself up more, gasping in pain when she tried moving. Suddenly, memories flew through her mind and she relived her torture.
None of them knew what was going through her head, only that she started shaking. Remus reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder, and her shaking became a smaller vibration, something that Sirius alone noticed. If Remus actually had a calming effect on his cousin, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they ever actually got together. Madam Pomfrey bustled about, pouring potions into a cup and walking to the side of the bed where Peter sat and pushing him out of the way. She gave the shuddering girl the potion and told her to drink, which Hayden did without a word. The calming draught and sleepless dream potions worked their magic, just like they had on Lily and Marlene.
The three girls were still asleep in their beds when Alice and Frank ran into the hospital wing, completely out of breath. The four boys all started, looking over from their chairs to see what the noise was. They had spread out now, Remus and Peter were still at Hayden's side, but Sirius was at Marlene's bed, with his chair angled so he could easily look over to Hayden as well. James had moved over to Lily's bed, and had been staring at her intently, as if his gaze could wake her.
"What happened?" Alice gasped, still trying to catch her breath. "Madam Rosmerta said something happened."
The marauders shot furtive looks at each other. How could they have not thought to let the fourth Gryffindor girl know what had happened? Maybe not immediately, but at least after the three girls were in the Hospital Wing? As they made eye contact with each other, they somehow managed to assign Sirius the job of explaining it.
"Bellatrix Black showed up, along with Cole Rosier, Wilkes, and Lestrange. They froze Lily and Marlene and made them watch Bella torture Hayden. Lily and Marlene are just in shock, so Madam Pomfrey gave them some potions to help them sleep it off. Hayden is mostly fine, but she had a couple broken ribs, one of which was a really nasty break. When Remus hugged her, it popped through her skin and she passed out. She woke up a little while ago, but after she started shaking, Madam Pomfrey gave her the same potions as the other girls," he explained roughly, trying not to let tears overcome him again.
Alice looked around the room, trying unsuccessfully to blink tears back, at each of the girls and each marauder. Alice had always been the emotional one, crying at the muggle movies Lily had made them watch and at the romantic gestures, however idiotic, James had made over the years. Frank loved that about Alice though. Most guys would run from tears, but he loved how they made her blue eyes sparkle, and how they showed what was in her heart, usually without her permission. Peter, however, was one of the guys who ran from tears.
"Snacks?! I'm going to go get snacks. Everyone want some? Yea? Good!" he squeaked as he trotted from the room. The other marauders rolled their eyes at his inability to deal with emotion, while Frank continued to stand by his girlfriend and rub her back in slow, soothing circles. Alice kept looking between all three girls, trying to absorb it all and figure out what to do next. When she saw Marlene start to move, she thought it was simply the tears in her eyes messing with her vision, until she heard her friend groan.
The first thing Marlene saw as she slowly opened her eyes, was Sirius' silver-grey eyes peering into hers. As she blinked and readjusted, Alice and Frank came into view, as they had just walked over to her bedside. She stretched slowly, trying to remember everything that had happened. She had a fuzzy memory of death eaters in Hogsmeade, and of holding Sirius and crying into his chest while inhaling his unique scent of an earthy mud and pyrotechnic smoke mix. It wasn't a scent she'd ever imagined before, but once she had clung to him and breathed it in, she discovered she rather liked it. It was comforting somehow. Marlene shook her head to clear her mind of these bizarre thoughts, so she could focus on what had actually happened.
"Marls, are you okay?" Alice asked gently, as though hearing the question could send Marlene into a frenzy.
Finally, the memories flew back through her mind. The first gash that Hayden received. The curses Marlene had dodged. The pain of landing on a rock with her knee as she dropped to avoid a stunning spell. Her attempt at ignoring that pain to keep moving, but being too slow to evade the body binding curse that was thrown at her. Being forced to watch Hayden suffer. Hearing her shrieks and wanting to scream with her. Seeing Lily just as stuck as she was. The life leaving Lily's eyes as she cried.
Remembering how Lily had seemed to have been affected snapped Marlene back to the present. "Yes, Alice. I'm alright. Where's Lily? And Hayden?"
As she asked, James jumped to his feet hovering over the redhead, who started to groan. Lily was starting to stir, albeit slowly. Marlene jumped off her bed and nearly fell over with the accompanying head rush. Sirius was there though, and caught her and supported her so that while she saw nothing but black, his earthy scent soothed and grounded her, and when she could see again, she opened her eyes to his grey ones peering at her with concern. He started to make a move to push her back to her bed, and butterflies flew through her stomach.
"Lily," she said out loud, to her surprise. Marlene had been meaning to mentally remind herself that she had a reason for getting out of bed in the first place, and her reminder had apparently just popped out of her mouth.
When Sirius was the only thing to keep Marlene from falling to the floor, he'd planned to put her back in bed and make her wait there until Madam Pomfrey gave her the all clear to start walking. However, after Lily's name popped out of her mouth, he understood what she needed, but that didn't mean she was walking alone. She had just woken up after all. So he put his arm around her waist, ignoring the way his heart seemed to pump a little quicker and a little louder, and started walking her across the room to Lily's side. When she opened her mouth to insist she could do it alone, he just gave her a look, and she gave up. It was a look that said, "My way. No highway option". A look that told her there was no point in arguing. A look that made Marlene picture Hayden's face every time she decided to do something ridiculous with the marauders and they had tried to talk her out of it.
By the time Sirius and Marlene made it over to Lily's bed, a trek which James had watched as much as he could, given his problems with tearing his eyes away from Lily, her green eyes had finally fluttered open. Marlene dropped her hands to one of Lily's and Sirius finally let her stand on her own, though he hovered awfully close. Remus was still at Hayden's side, while Frank and Alice had followed the others over to Lily, who had no problems remembering what had happened. They all expected something dramatic to happen, but all she did was turn the hand that Marlene was holding so she was holding one of Marlene's as well, and reached her other hand to hold one of James', something that everyone noticed, but said nothing about.
"Lils, you alright?" Marlene asked shakily, a single tear leaking from her eyes. Upon hearing her voice shake, Sirius took a slight step forward and placed his hand on her back, something she found surprisingly comforting. Lily's bright green eyes shot to Marlene's pale blue ones, and Marlene felt her heart ache at the emptiness within them. It wasn't as bad as it had been back in September, but Lily wasn't with them like she had been all day.
They all jumped at the sound of the Hospital Wing doors flying open, and turned, expecting to see Peter loaded with snacks. None of them were remotely prepared to see Professor Dumbledore glide over to them, with his purple cloaks billowing behind him. Lily and Marlene squeezed each other's hands as they looked up and met his piercing gaze.
"Now that you girls have had some time to recover," he said gravely, although with an air of trying to be gentle, "I'm afraid I need to ask you to tell me what happened in Hogsmeade this afternoon."
Marlene looked at Lily, wondering which of them would have to speak first, and was surprised when Lily just hardened her features and started speaking.
"We were having a good time. It was wonderful really. We were just heading to meet the boys at the Three Broomsticks when Hayden saw them and took off running. She started yelling at Regulus and told Lizzie to stay away from him. I don't know what she was on about, but we followed her to make sure she didn't do anything stupid," Lily explained, her eyes flickering up to Marlene's every few seconds. Behind Marlene, Sirius had stiffened at the mention of his brother and started looking over to his idiotic cousin who, it seemed, had been put through all of this for trying to stand up for him. "Then Bellatrix Black was there, and she cut Hayden on the cheek. I didn't hear any of them apparate, but they must have because Rosier, Wilkes and Lestrange were all there around us too. I turned to face Wilkes and Lestrange and next thing I know, spells were flying and I was trying to dodge them all and curse them back but I couldn't." Tears were falling down her face now, and James started stroking her hair, hoping to comfort her somehow, even though he knew he couldn't do anything to fix what had happened. "Then I was frozen, and Hayden was on the ground, and then Bellatrix, she, she, she," Lily tried to finish, but broke down sobbing. James leaned into her slightly and she let go of the hands she was holding to wrap her arms around him instead. He looked up to Dumbledore as he held her gently, one hand resting on the back of her head, and saw him nod in acceptance of her story, before turning to Marlene.
Marlene looked from her friend, who was sobbing into James' chest the way she had sobbed into Sirius' in Hogsmeade, to the headmaster and saw him staring at her intently. She made to sit down in the nearest chair, but Sirius leapt into it before she could, and then pulled her onto his lap. She decided to just accept it this time, only in part because she loved the feeling of him holding her, swallowed, took a deep breath and began to speak.
"It's like Lily said, Professor. It was a lovely day, and then Hayden ran over to Reg and started yelling at them. Then the death eaters must have apparated in because they were all around us. I turned to face Rosier and Lestrange while Bellatrix taunted Hayden, and then spells were flying. We fought, but I went down on a rock and couldn't get up quickly enough. They froze me as well and turned me to face Hayden on the ground. Bellatrix started torturing her and Lily and I couldn't do anything while all the death eaters laughed. Then, Sirius showed up," Marlene continued, squeezing his arm where it wrapped around her middle. He was currently resting his head on her back, setting it on top of her thick, brown curls. "He knocked Bellatrix off her feet, she looked up and then they were all gone and I could move. James ran to Lily, Remus ran to Hayden, who was just lying there, and Sirius came over to me. We thought we were ok until Hayden screamed again. Sirius ran over to her and brought her here," Marlene concluded, still looking into Dumbledore's eyes.
"Thank you girls. You all went through a lot today, and I'm quite proud to say that you are all my students. I daresay, the lot of you will need each other far more than you realize, before this war is over."
James looked up to the professor at that statement. "War, Professor? Is that really what this is?"
"There's rarely a point in time where anyone can say this is the beginning of a war, my boy. But I'm afraid that Lord Voldemort is certainly set on making this a war, so I think it's best that we look at it as though it was," the old man replied solemnly. James nodded seriously before turning back to Lily, while Sirius gritted his jaw and lifted his head away from the flowery scent he'd been resting it within. He looked to where his cousin was lying, and saw Remus' jaw gritted the same as his, although Remus had never looked away from Hayden.
It was at that moment that Peter arrived, laden like a pack mule with a large variety of snack food. The headmaster took his arrival as a queue to stand and leave the friends in peace. Peter's eyes widened as the professor walked by him, but trotted into the room and laid all the snacks on an empty bed save one. The bowl of chocolate pudding he had retrieved from the kitchens was set on the night stand next to Hayden's bed for when she awoke.
Sunday morning, Hayden was released from the hospital wing. She'd had breakfast there, so went straight to the head dorm, knowing that's where everyone would be gathering to do their homework. Only Remus had been there when she'd woken that morning, but he'd been silent. After she'd waken, he merely said that he was glad she was ok, and that he should let everyone know, before he'd left the room. As soon as he was gone, she'd found it harder to keep herself from thinking about what she'd been through. So, Hayden had pleaded with Madam Pomfrey to let her leave until the fussy nurse had cleared her, which was only after she'd had some porridge. Apparently chocolate pudding didn't make a good enough breakfast.
Hayden thought about what she'd say to Remus the entire walk up to the head dorm. When she had almost reached the portrait hole, she saw her cousin walk through it. Of course he wasn't going to let her make a quiet entrance. He'd only known she was so close because of that damn map of theirs, Hayden was sure of it. It was one of the things Sirius had made her swear to pretend she knew nothing about, so he was still allowed to use it to ambush her whenever he felt like it.
When his stormy grey eyes met hers, she knew there was no avoiding the little chat he had planned, so she turned to follow him without a word, until after they had entered the room behind the lion tapestry. It was one of their favorite rooms to talk, since so few knew about it and the tapestry was so heavy that it kept all the sound within the room.
"Wildfire," Sirius said with tears in his eyes, "you really scared me yesterday. Why'd you do it?" Hayden knew he wasn't just talking about the torture, but was asking about her confrontation of his baby brother.
"I don't want to see you lose Reg. And I don't want to lose him or Lizzie. They still have a chance, you know? And I was just so mad at him for everything he said to Evan. I just couldn't help myself, Stormy." He nodded, having known the answer before she said it.
"Are you okay, Hayden?" he asked, looking into her tearful brown eyes. She couldn't lie to him, he'd know. So she told the truth.
"I don't know Stormy. It hurt so bad. I didn't even know I was screaming until it stopped and they were all laughing. I couldn't fight back, Stormy. That's what scares me now. I fought and fought, but it wasn't enough. I couldn't protect Lily or Marlene, and I couldn't even protect myself. I tried, but it wasn't enough and they hurt me so badly. I didn't even know it was possible to hurt so much. And it still hurts, and I can see where I was broken. And what about Lily? I'm sure she's broken again, and this time I could have stopped it from happening. I should have been smart enough and fast enough to keep her whole, but I wasn't."
By that time, Hayden had started shaking without realizing it. Sirius reached around her gently, hugging her to him while shushing her, trying to soothe her. Suddenly, Hayden leapt from where they were sitting on the floor, to the rubbish bin under the desk across the room. As she hurled, Sirius rubbed her back gently, hoping he wasn't hurting her.
When she'd finished and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, he conjured a glass of water for her, which Hayden accepted gratefully.
"Stormy," she began after she finished the glass of water, "I'm going to be ok. I just," she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "I just need everything to go back to normal. And so does Lily." She opened her eyes to look at her cousin, "Can we do that?"
Sirius knew she was right so he nodded and offered her his arm to guide her back to their friends. He started skipping, which she joined in on for a few steps, before she stopped and clutched at her ribs.
"So normal, but not that normal, alright?" she said looking at him with laughter in her eyes, despite the pain.
Sirius chuckled before he ruffled her hair and said, "Ah Wildfire, I guess you're fragile now. I should put some of that muggle packing tape on you so everyone knows."