A Pair of Reversals

I'd nearly fallen asleep in my chair when I first heard one of the men stir. His formerly broken right arm arced over his head to cover his eyes before I made it to the side of his bed. "Hold still, please." I commanded. "This is Anna again. I'm going to remove the bandages you don't need." I shot a quick charm at him while I turned to get a vial of pain potion. By the time I turned back he'd sat up.

"Bugger..." he groaned, "hurts."

"It should. Get back in your bed, please." He looked at me like he planned to be difficult. Great. "This potion will help with the pain, but you'll need to stay still until your skin finishes closing." He looked annoyed. "I'd rather not have to restrain you."

"Sure you wouldn't." He muttered. Oh, they all think that's funny.

"Drink this please." I pressed the vial into his hands. He held onto it, but didn't swallow it.

"Where's Harry?" I could hear the other man stir behind me.

"Here, George." Harry said. The man looked at me and lowered his head. I was forcibly reminded of a horse getting ready to buck.

"Th'hell's Fred?" George swung his head to the left to see past us. He started to rise—a bad idea on his newly-healed ankle.

"Don't." I commanded. I turned to Harry. "Get the potion down him and keep him horizontal. Bind him if you have to."

"George?" Fred's weak voice barely carried across the room. I hurried to him.

"Fred, this is Anna again. I need to run some checks on you and give you a pain potion. Respond if you can." I started the charm to loose his unnecessary bandages and gripped his wrist to check his pulse the muggle way. Weak. Way too weak.

"Who's Anna?" I could see his brow wrinkling as the bandages from his head unwrapped themselves.

"I'm Anna. I'm a healer. Harry and Tonks brought you here with George. They're all still here." Fred's forehead relaxed. I ran another basic diagnostic. Where the hell was he still losing blood? That's all it could be—why else would his blood pressure be so low?

"Tired."

"I know. I need to give you another potion before you sleep." No further trauma showed up on the scanning spell. How the hell? Where was all his blood? His eyes were still closed, and I could begin to see his pupils move beneath his lids. "Fred." I called. His pupils slowed. "Fred; wake up for me." His eyes cracked slightly, and the tendons of the wrist I was holding twitched. "Fred; where are you in pain?"

"Pain?"

"Yes. Tell me where you are in pain now."

"Stomach." His breath was coming in pants and sighs from the exertion of speaking. I pushed the blanket down from the skin of his stomach, taking some unwrapped bandages off as well. I choked back the fervent desire to curse. I'd originally thought the injury was a burn, but it no longer looked right. Even more telling: it was cool to the touch.

"Fred. Stay awake." I could tell he was trying; his eyelids were twitching. "You were hit with a freezing spell?"

"Yes," he breathed. Harry had moved to the head of Fred's bed. The vial from George's pain potion dangled uselessly in his fingers. From what I was seeing, I believed someone had hit the poor man with a freezing spell that impacted his liver, compromising his blood circulation. I'd read about patients with this battle injury. A blood replenishing potion killed them in an ugly, ugly way.

"Fred. I can't give you a pain potion until I've reversed the freezing spell. Can you sleep?"

"Yes." He said. I ran a palm over his forehead without really thinking about what I was doing. It's a wonder he'd been conscious at all.

"Good. Go to sleep for me." I turned to Harry. "I'll need you to help me. His torso has to stay completely still." Harry nodded. I'd read about this therapy, but hadn't had to do it. I'd only used the technique in healer training, actually—years ago now. Enough of that, Arthur. Focus. The treatment required me to raise the temperature of his body with a spell focusing on the upper abdomen. The spell had to work gradually, but result in a low-grade fever. I took a deep breath.

"Have him?" I asked. Harry nodded. I started the spell. The light of the spell entered his body where the initial damage had been done. Very slowly I could see it begin to work. I strengthened the spell. The flesh of his initial wound began to bleed. I strengthened the heat again. The tone of his undamaged skin began to look better. I strengthened the final time, knowing the spell would singe more skin from the initial wound. I could feel Tonks behind me, watching. Finally, I ended the spell. To my great relief, the wound continued to bleed out. "You can release him," I said to Harry.

"Right," Harry said. He sank into a chair. The smell of the wound was back full force. I debrided the area and bandaged it as fast as I could, leaving an area open to check temperature. I summoned a chair and collapsed into it at Fred's bedside, exhausted but still reading the pulse at his wrist.

"Anna." Harry said. "What was that?" I turned to look at him. He was pale. For crying out loud, Arthur, he's an Auror not a healer. Tonks also looked shaken. Neither of them knew you weren't killing him, Arthur. Good job.

"He was," I started. I cleared my throat and started again. "His liver had been hit with a freezing spell. That lowered his blood pressure and nearly starved his body of oxygen." Harry's jaw muscles twitched.

"He could've died." Tonks said.

"He could have." I agreed. "But he's recovering. The damage from that wound will make him feel weak and off-balance for a while, but I think there wasn't permanent damage." I paused to check Fred's temperature. Good. There's the fever I wanted. "I'll need to monitor both of them for the next four hours or so. After that I don't want them out of the care of a healer. Especially Fred."

"Anna, you're asleep on your feet." Tonks said. "You won't make it four hours."

"I will." I contradicted, blinking hard. That spell's always taxed my energy. I was worn out. In the end, Tonks was right. I fell asleep in my chair with my head on the bed by Fred's wrist. An hour later Harry shook me awake.

"Tonks has gone to get supper from the Leaky." He glanced at each twin in turn. "Neither one's been awake."

"Th—Thanks for waking me." I yawned. I blinked and rubbed the back of my hand across my eyes. I swayed when I stood, and Harry grabbed my elbow and waist to steady me. For a moment I peered at him, confused. "Thanks," I said, stepping toward George's head. "The pain potion ought to have worn off by now. Don't know why he's still asleep." I ran a general diagnostic over him, checking his pulse out of paranoia. Just as I expected. Nothing left but aches and pains. I turned to Harry. "He should rest, but he's fine. He'll feel like he's fallen off a horse for a while—he can take whatever muscle pain potions he's got around if he wants."

"He'll know what that's like," Harry said, "he and Fred were beaters for Gryffindor."

"Then I'll give him my speech about staying off his broom for a week." I declared. Harry chuckled. The general diagnostic on Fred was a great relief. All it showed was a fever. I had to wake him up, unfortunately, to get more information. "Fred." I called. "Wake up for me, Fred." Nothing. "Fred; it's Anna. I need you to wake up."

"That won't work," contributed a voice from the other bed. I jumped. "Allow me."

"Sorry?" I turned to question George, who'd sat up to level his wand at his twin's head. "What're you—" I blurted, but he'd already acted. A stream of water hit Fred squarely between the eyes.

"Faugh—bloody—gah!" Fred twisted his head toward George, eyes wide and annoyed. "Bloody wanker!"

"Oi! Not in front of the lady, Fred," George teased. Looking at their laughing faces I experienced a genuine qualm. This situation was no longer in my control. No, no it wasn't. "You must excuse my other half. He sometimes confuses himself with our poor brother Ron." I blinked. Harry snickered.

"Ah. Okay." I stammered. Business, Arthur. Back to business. "Fred, are you still in pain?"

"Only the pain of having you so far from me." He batted his eyelashes. Harry gave up on stifling his laughter and guffawed aloud. Fred grabbed at my hand and batted still more furiously. I swallowed hard, trying not to giggle like a moron.

"Focus, Fred." I said in my best stern healer voice, snatching my hand back. "I need to know about the wound on your stomach." I pulled the sheets back. He hissed as they moved over the skin. "How's the pain?"

"It's there." He grimaced. I shot a local numbing spell at the skin.

"Now?"

"Not as much."

"No deeper pain? If it's serious it'll feel like stabbing that radiates to other parts of the abdomen." He shook his head. "If there's nothing, I need you to try to sit up."

"Right." He lifted his head and shoulders; I bent to steady him as he made the attempt. I could see the pain in his face. "Bugger." He hissed.

"Is the pain in your muscles, or deeper down?"

"Muscles." He bit out. I lowered him back to the bed.

"Good." I retrieved a vial of pain potion. "Swallow all of this and sleep as long as you can. I'll tell you more about what I've done when you wake up."

"Right," he said, clearly tired. After he was asleep and Tonks had returned with food, I brought up an idea that had been bothering me since I realized what was wrong with Fred.

"As I said, they should both just need rest from this point forward," I said. "But that's no guarantee." I looked at Harry and Tonks as sternly as I could. "I want you to be in close contact with a healer who knows what's happened to them for the entire length of their recovery. In Fred's case, that will take a week. If you won't use St. Mungo's, you need to find another way." They exchanged a look.

"Poppy's in France," Tonks said.

"St. Mungo's is out. We couldn't explain." Harry said. I sighed.

"I can't hide them at Hogwarts, but I can be in contact." I offered. Something was trying to make its way back to the front of my brain, though—something that would ruin that plan. Oh yeah. "Damn. I was going to be out of town for the next week." They both winced. Guess Idaho can wait, eh? "Oh, never mind. I can postpone my trip."

"Well, if you're expected…" Tonks started. Harry gave her a don't-screw-this-up look and she stopped.

"No, I'm not. I was just visiting home for a while. I can do that later." Why am I going to do it later? Oh yeah—anything for work. Healthy attitude, Arthur. "I think only Severus knows I'm supposed to be gone, apart from Abby in the infirmary."

"Do you think," Harry paused and turned to face me squarely, "you could leave as though you were going ahead with your plans?"

"Sorry?" I thought I was supposed to stay?

"I mean leave like you're going home, but stay here and look after the twins." Harry clarified.

"That way there's not so much explaining to do." Tonks nodded. "But she can't stay here."

"They'll stay at Grimmauld Place." Harry announced. "That's easy enough."

"Hold it." I cut in. "They don't need a live-in healer, they just need periodic checks. And why should we go to some special location for a week?"

"You see," Tonks started, "we'd rather not…"

"We'd rather keep this secret." Harry finished.

"I see." I mulled for a moment, but there wasn't actually much to consider. They're Ginny's brothers. They need a healer. End of story. "Should I just come back here with my things?"