Helen began to stir as the sun descended behind the trees outside. She groaned and sat up painfully. Sophie was laying next to her, curled into a tight little ball, her face flushed with fever and still swollen and bruised from the night before. Helen gently kissed Sophie's forehead, examining the bruise more closely, before slipping quietly out of bed.
Wincing as she stood up, the previous night's events came flooding back to her memory. Ignoring the pain in her aching muscles, she raced into the kitchen to find Alice scouring through her father's old Spell books and David trying to rip the front door from its hinges.
"Mom?" Alice asked suddenly, looking up from her books. She released a strangled sob and raced into her mother's embrace. "I thought you were going to die!" She dissolved into incontrollable sobs as her mother gripped her tightly. Without a word, David walked toward his mother and embraced her tightly.
"Where has it gone?" Helen asked fearfully. "Where's your father?"
"It killed papa," Alice wept. "It took him outside and locked us in. We can't get out. We've tried everything."
"I'm so sorry, mum," David whimpered. "The tree papa and I brought home for the fire⦠we let it out."
Helen tried to let everything sink in as her children struggled to explain all that had happened the night before.
"It's going to be all right, my children," she said calmly. "Alice, I'll help you look through the books for some way to destroy that beast and David will keep looking for a way out."
The two children nodded and reluctantly went back to what they were doing. Helen sat next to Alice at the kitchen table and opened another Spell book.
David gripped at the doorknob and pulled back with every ounce of strength he had left. The door burst open suddenly, sending David flying backward into the kitchen table, which collapsed and fell apart on the floor. Both Helen and Alice leapt to their feet to help David as the beast entered their house once more.
Alice screamed and pulled both her mother and her brother back toward the sitting room, hoping to keep them from the beast.
With a vicious smile the beast sent Alice and David flying into the far wall of the sitting room. Helen took a step back toward her children just as the beast clenched its hand into a fist purposefully. Helen's eyes widened and her jaw dropped as her shirt and skirt became drenched in blood. With one last, terrified look at her children, Helen dropped to the floor, blood pooling around her body.
David's face went white as he looked into his mother's lifeless eyes. Blood continued to pour from the cuts all over her legs, arms, and from beneath her clothing.
"No," he gasped breathlessly. "Mum?"
Both he and Alice sat, paralyzed, as the beast rip their mother apart, just as it had done their father, and consumed the small bead of light containing Helen's magic.
-o-o-
Ginny and Ron were lying on their bellies next to the fireplace, looking through Ron's Famous Witches and Wizards cards.
"Who is this one?" Ginny asked, holding up one of the cards for Ron to see.
"Try to read it, Gin," Ron encouraged with a cheeky smile. Ginny rolled her eyes and looked at the back of the card before trying to sound out the name.
"P-A-R-A-C," Ginny began, sounding out each letter with her eyebrows knit tightly in concentration. Ron chuckled softly, causing her to stop and pout.
"That's Paracelsus," Ron explained. "Charlie told me there's a statue of his head at Hogwarts." He took the card back and examined the picture before giving it back to Ginny. "I can't remember why he's famous though."
"We could go ask Charlie," Ginny suggested excitedly. She scrambled to her feet with Ron's card in hand and ran to kitchen where Charlie, Tonks, and Bill were playing card games. Ron followed slowly behind; reaching the kitchen once Ginny had already given Charlie the card to look at.
"He helped discover medicines, Gin," Charlie explained. "You know that really gross, yellow potion mum gives you when your throat is sore. He made that."
Ginny scrunched up her nose and looked at the picture on the card again.
"I don't think I like this one," Ginny said, handing the card back to Ron. She gasped and took a step back, dropping the card on the floor as she looked up at Ron. Ron's right cheek was black and blue and there were red welts beginning to show along his neck.
"Bloody hell, Ron!" Bill exclaimed. "What have you two been doing? Mum's going to be right pissed when she sees you." He stood up and walked around the table to examine Ron's face.
"We were just looking at my card collection," Ron replied innocently. "He looked up at Bill and winced as his brother gripped his shoulder.
"What happened to your face?" Charlie gasped. "And your neck?"
Bill pulled back the neck of Ron's t-shirt to reveal a dark, painful looking bruise on Ron's right shoulder; a few smaller bruises trailed down Ron's arm.
"And the rest of you?" Bill exclaimed as he lifted Ron's arm to get a closer look at it. "Shirt off, Ron. Let's get a look at you."
Ron grabbed the bottom of his shirt before Bill could pull it up. His cheeks and ears flushed with pink as he looked over at Tonks.
"Bill, not while Tonks is looking!" Ron hissed with embarrassment. He dropped his head, unable to look up at Tonks.
"She's seen you in your swimsuit, Ron," Bill chuckled. "It's really no different. Let's go into the sitting room then." Ron nodded and quickly turned and led Bill into the sitting room.
Ginny looked over at Charlie with surprise.
"He didn't look like that before," Ginny explained.
"It's ok, Ginny," said Tonks reassuringly as she took Ginny's hand and pulled her over to a seat at the table. "We'll get him fixed up once your mum comes back." Tonks looked over at Charlie worriedly and shrugged her shoulders, hoping he could explain what had happened.
Charlie looked stunned and shrugged back at her. He excused himself from the table and walked into the sitting room to check on Bill and Ron. He stopped suddenly as he took in Ron's appearance. There were cuts, scrapes, and bruises all down Ron's right side.
"Are you sure you didn't fall?" Bill asked, turning Ron around so that he could look at his back. "The twins didn't push you into something?"
"I swear, Bill," Ron whimpered. "I was sitting right there with Ginny. We weren't doing anything."
"It's ok. I'm not mad," Bill explained as he turned Ron back around. "Just worried." He squeezed Ron's trembling hand reassuringly and smiled at his little brother. He helped Ron put his shirt back on examined the black eye that was beginning to develop and the split lip that had just suddenly appeared.
"Should we try to get dad?" Charlie asked. "I could floo to Diagon Alley and try to find mum."
"Mum shouldn't be much longer," Bill replied. "If it keeps getting worse I'll call for a healer."
The three of them walked back into the kitchen and sat at the table. Bill got up and rummaged through one of the cupboards before walking back to the table with a handful of homemade biscuits.
"Let's ruin our appetites before tea, shall we?" he announced with a cheeky smile. He passed the biscuits around and sat next to Ron.
Ron started giggling as he wrapped his fingers around the biscuit. Everyone frowned and looked at Ron as the expression on his face became quite sinister. His eyes almost seemed to glow as they changed from blue to red. He looked over at Ginny and smiled evilly.
"You'll be next," he hissed, breaking his biscuit in two and chuckling deviously.
Ginny pushed back from the table, but was halted by Tonks, who quickly grabbed her hand. Tonks stood up and pulled Ginny close, watching as Ron's eyes glazed over.
"Shit, Ron!" Bill gasped. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
He turned toward Ron and gripped Ron's chin, forcing Ron to look at him. The bruises on Ron's face had begun to fade and his lip looked completely healed.
There was a flash of green light as Molly appeared in the fireplace. She dusted herself off and walked into the kitchen to find four of her children and Tonks around the table.
"What's going on?" Molly asked as she looked over at Bill, who was still gripping Ron's chin.
"Something's wrong, mum," Bill replied as Molly rushed to his side. She looked at Ron and turned Ron's face to examine the bruises.
"What happened to his face?" Molly gasped.
"They're going away now," Bill replied. "The entire right side of his body was bruised and scraped up. They just came up suddenly and now they're disappearing."
Molly lifted Ron's shirt to expose the bruises along his torso. They had gone from purple to a light yellow, as though they had been healing for a few days.
"He just did that laughing thing and scared Ginny too," Charlie explained.
"I'm taking him to St. Mungo's," Molly announced as Ron began to come around. "Can you keep an eye on the little ones until I get back?"
"Of course," Bill replied.
"Mum!" Ron exclaimed, jumping out of his chair. Molly gently pulled Ron toward her and cuddled him tightly. He was shaking and breathing quickly while struggling to get out of his mother's grasp.
"It's all right, darling," Molly whispered, kneeling before Ron to look him in the eye. "We're going to make you better."
-o-o-
