Thanks so much for the reviews, I love to hear your guesses about Jane's secret, which are all very good but you'll just have to wait and see what it is :) Chapter Seven: Cursed by Night
Jane sat in a large pool of blood, on a cold tile floor, clutching the frail, limp frame of a once beautiful blonde woman, whose face was ravaged with cuts and scars.
A tall, dark figure loomed over Jane as she sobbed uncontrollably onto the nearly lifeless body of her mother. The figure overhead laughed a cold, senseless, high-pitched laugh before he pointed his wand at her and a green flash of light filled Jane's eyes.
"Jane wake up!" Jane heard a familiar voice say, in the back of her mind, she felt someone shaking her shoulders vigorously trying to revive her.
"Jane! Oh no! There's blood, she's bleeding!" Jane tried in vain to open her eyes to reassure whoever was there that she was alive.
"Someone get McGonagall quick!" Was the last thing Jane heard before her mind slipped back into itself.
Jane's consciousness only returned several times in which she heard brief snippets of conversations all of which were about the well being of herself or other patients.
"How has she been doing?" asked Dumbledore.
"Well, she's alive," said a kind but stern voice that Jane immediately recognized as Madam Pomfrey, "I truly have no idea what happened to her, but she seems to be stable. I've tried every counter curse and healing charm I know; do you think she'll need to go to St. Mungo's?"
"No, no, no that will most certainly not be necessary," said Dumbledore quickly, for reasons only a few people knew. "Have you found out exactly what happened?"
"The students who were in her room said that she just started screaming and tossing and turning in her sheets but she wouldn't wake up and then they looked at her balled up fists and she had dug her nails so deep into her palms she bleed. That's not where all the blood was from though, because there was far too much in her bed for that; she had started bleeding from cuts all over her arms, legs and torso. I was able to stop most of them from bleeding but it was difficult, they were definitely made by dark magic."
Jane didn't get a chance to hear Dumbledore's response because all noises faded away and she was left in silence and unable to speak or open her eyes. Then in an instant the only thing she could see was a pale face with red snake-like eyes and an evil grin.
"You may have escaped several times but never again, I will win this, don't you worry," it said maliciously.
Before Jane could even try to open her eyes or form a response the face was gone and she was once again encased in dark unmovable silence. Over the next few days Jane struggled whenever she was conscious, to open her eyes, or say something, or even twitch a finger; anything to let the outside world know that she was still there.
Finally one night after who knows how many attempts, Jane was able to open her eyes, which were staring in the direction of what she assumed was a chair for visitors. The night Jane first opened her eyes, there was a dark slumped over figure sitting in the chair breathing deeply as though sleeping. She couldn't tell who it was though because whether it was very early in he morning or very late at night, it was almost completely pitch black and she was only able to see the silhouette.
Jane was so excited that she could open her eyes because it meant she would finally be able to let Madam Pomfrey know that whatever she's been doing has been working.
This joy was short lived however because when she tried to turn her head to look elsewhere, an excruciating jolt of pain radiated through her body. So she just stared at the same hunched over person sleeping by her bedside; she had decided that she would stay awake until it was light out and then she would be able to see who it was.
Alone in the dark Jane pondered many things, most however revolved around this mysterious stranger and why they were so dedicated that they would fall asleep at her sick bed. It can't be Harry or any of his friends because I don't even know them that well, it wouldn't be Seamus because last time she saw him she yelled at him, she thought to herself.
After an indeterminate period of time the figure stirred; it was still too dark to see and Jane was left to wonder the identity as the person gently patted her hand and whispered something she couldn't hear and crept out of the library. The only thing Jane could figure out was that her visitor was a guy and that was just by the voice, she still wasn't positive but it was better than nothing.
After her guest left, Jane slowly fell asleep, where she dreamed of mysterious dark, hooded figures whispering at her bedside.
Eventually Jane was able to open her eyes once more; this time it was, thankfully, light out; she was even able to move her head a bit, which is what she did as soon as she saw that the chair next to her was empty.
She saw several others in the hospital wing, none of whom she was acquainted with, then she spotted Madam Pompfrey tending to a couple of redheaded twin brothers in the corner of the room. Jane waited several minutes before she realized Pomfrey was too busy trying to get the twins to drink some medicinal potions, to look Jane's way.
Desperate to get her attention Jane closed her eyes and mustered all her strength and said as loud as she could, "Hello?" Apparently she was loud enough because she reopened her eyes to see Madam Pomfrey looking around the room for the source of the sound, before her eyes landed on Jane's bed.
Her mouth formed a small 'o' in surprise as she told the twins to just sit tight for minute, as she hurried over to Jane's bed.
"Oh yeah, no problem," said one.
"Yeah," said the other, "She's been out cold for a week, and we just lost half the blood in our bodies,"
"We get it, she's priority," finished the first, they then began to talk with each other.
"How are you feeling, dear?" she asked, pressing her fore arm to Jane's forehead before Jane could answer, "You don't feel hot, a bit clammy but nothing too bad." She looked down at Jane who hadn't moved other than the occasional blink.
"Can you speak?" she asked.
Jane shrugged which caused her a great deal of pain and she grimaced, "Oh, my, oh, my," she cooed, "Okay, blink twice if you can understand what I'm saying."
Jane blinked once, "Alright now blink once for yes and twice for no; do you know who I am?" she blinked once.
Madam Pompfrey nodded then asked, "Do you know how you got here?" Jane hesitated then blinked twice.
"Alright, Jane I need you to stay awake so I can get Professor Dumbledore down here to talk to you," Jane blinked once in agreement.
Barely three minutes had passed before the Headmaster came sweeping into the room, his midnight blue robes billowing behind him. He sat down in the chair next to her bed and leaned forward before saying in a soft voice, "My dear girl, you are extremely lucky to be alive, from what I understand, you have little to no memory of how you got here," This statement caused the image of Jane lying over her dead mothers body covered in blood to flash in her head.
"I will try to tell you what has happened to you, to the best of my ability," he paused, "You may remember a dream so vivid it seemed extremely real, however, from what the students told me you were yelling, the events of this dream are impossible for you to have ever witnessed."
"This dream is impossible to be a mere nightmare based on memory because you were screaming for your mother, whom you have never met. Considering the identity of your mother's murderer it is safe to say that the murderer is the person who sent you such horrid images."
Dumbledore paused, as if waiting for a reaction that Jane could not give, "The only reason it felt like you were there was because he was there and forced you to think you were there too, almost like he made you witness it through a pensieve but you were able to interact in the memory. This dream,"
Dumbledore lowered his voice to a whisper, "was a dark type of magic, the likes of which I have never seen before, the magic used on you was some of the darkest I've ever encountered. It was a powerful curse, that was sent to you through a memory, which because you were sleeping came out as a dream."
"This curse is so powerful that it has rendered you unable to do more than open your eyes for more than a week. The night it happened you nearly died from blood loss because the curse gave you many wounds that were very difficult to seal, I would know, I sealed most myself."
"Simply the fact that you can hear me and understand what I'm saying is an excellent sign in itself," he stopped talking and grasped Jane's hand, "Now we are sincerely hopeful that you will make a full recovery; how long it will take, I am unsure but I do know that we needn't fear a second attack because a very reliable source of mine tells me that this curse weakened your attacker a great deal. Although his pain was nothing compared to yours, it was still enough that we can be almost positive he wouldn't risk a second attempt."
Dumbledore very gently released Jane's hand and stood up from the chair, "Now, Madam Pomfrey knows how to maintain your progression towards full help and I will be keeping a close eye on your recovery but for now I must leave you; for I have some other business that needs tending to." With that he left the hospital wing with a graceful swish of his long blue robes.
