Chapter 8: Grief and Possibilities

June 16th, 1998

Those in room 4173 at St. Mungo's were silent. It was how Fred Weasley spent most of his days this past month and a half, with his Alexis looking as though she was in a deep sleep. His twin sat in the chair beside him, a silent, comforting support. His parents had left not too long ago in order to have a late lunch. Fred himself rarely felt like eating lately. He only did it to silence his mother's pleas. It was likely a good thing, but the grief in his heart made simple things seem difficult. Things had remained unchanged with Alexis since she had been admitted. And it pained him.

He rarely left this very room. A cot would appear in the corner around 9 o'clock, after Reika had gone home, as it did every night so he could try to get some sleep. There were few nights where he used it.

So long as Alexis breathed, he had hope. Some doubted that he did, that he'd given up, but these people didn't seem to know Alexis. She was a fighter, everyone who knew her would say that. And Fred knew that every moment he sat there, watching her, she fought to live. He also knew that if he was in her place, she wouldn't leave his side either.

It was with a sigh that he pulled away from Alexis later that night, in order to rest. He hadn't slept for the past few days, and knew he'd likely end up in a hospital bed himself if he didn't get some sleep. Besides, Healer Hale was due to talk to him tomorrow about what might be going on.


June 17, 1998

Tessa was unsure of how she would tell Reika Cooper and Fred Weasley about Alexis' condition. Though the young woman was stable, that was only due to the magical coma. Until they found out what the last final spell was that Alexis had been hit with. As she walked through the halls of St. Mungo's towards room 4173, she went over the words she would use with Alexis' mother and fiancé.

She paused outside the door and frowned for a moment, hesitating before she walked inside. Tessa took a deep breath before walking into the room. Only two were in the room, which made her feel only a little better about talking to them.

"Miss Cooper, Mr. Weasley." She inclined her head and offered a small smile. "I do believe that we were going to discuss Alexis' condition."

"Yes, please, take a seat." Reika offered. "It'll feel less informal."

Tessa nodded and sat down in one of the chairs near Alexis' bed. She glanced at Fred, who nodded a mute greeting.

"Now, as we discussed when I first became Alexis' primary Healer that it was believed that the several spells that had hit her all at once were only four spells total. After some extensive research, we know now that there are at least seven spells that are affecting her. Luckily the magical coma is able to halt the effects of these spells from harming her, and we've been able to identify six of the spells." Tessa started to explain.

"What are they?" Fred asked after a few moments of silence.

Tessa glanced at him before staying, "the first spell is vivere lapis, the curse of Living Stone. It was originally meant to replicate the effects of a basilisk, but the effects take much longer to affect the victim and will turn them to actual stone." She paused before continuing on. "The others include more simpler curses that by themselves would be easy enough to deal with, but when combined can have nasty results. The curses and jinxes include the Conjunctivitis Curse, the Entrail-Expelling Curse, the Knockback Jinx, and the Jelly-Brain Jinx."

When no one spoke for a moment, Tessa prayed that neither Fred nor Reika would notice that she had only listen five spells. As it was, luck was not on her side today.

"And the last spell?" Reika asked, her eyes downcast.

"This one will be a bit trickier." Tessa said. "Because of the mix of different spells, it is likely that the effects of this may not be the same as the curse was actually intended to do."

"Just what is it?!" Fred demanded through ground teeth.

Tessa swallowed with some difficulty. "The Lycacomia Curse."

Both Reika and Fred froze. It was completely silent for many long minutes, Tessa herself afraid to break the silence in any way.

"What do you plan to do to heal her?" Fred broke the silence after what seemed like an hour.

"Unfortunately, there is little we can do from here. It is extremely rare for more than three spells to hit someone all at once. We were lucky that Alexis got immediate attention, so that we could have time to recoginize the spells." Tessa said. "But we can't do much unless we know how the combination will affect her."

"But that could mean her death." Reika said.

"I know." Tessa paused and closed her eyes for a moment before looking at the mother of her patient, both regretting and willing to say what she said next. "But there is another way."


Yes I know, no Keira or Harry in this chapter, but I thought I would truly focus this chapter on Alexis and her condition, since some of you have read the TC books and know Alexis from there. But I'm sure the spells I included are some you may not recognize, so to save you from the research, I'll tell you here.

-Vivere Lapis: I made this one up, since I couldn't really find anything for this. Like it says in the chapter, it effects the victim much like as though they'd been petrified by a basilisk. Unlike petrification, the curse of Living Stone, slowly turns the victim into stone. There is a chance that the victim will still be able to move, thus the 'living stone' concept of the curse, but in these rare cases, the movement is very restricted. Vivere Lapis means 'live stone' in Latin.

-Conjunctivitis Curse: Gives the victim pink eye.

-Entrail-Expelling Cures: Pretty self-explanatory. Basically expels the victims entrails from their body.

-Knockback Jinx: Send a person flying back. In this case, there are some possible lasting effects that, when mixed with the other spells, could cause serious damage to Alexis.

-Jelly-Brain Jinx: Affects the victims mental health.

-Lycacomia Curse: "There are several ways to become a werewolf, they include […] being cursed by someone who you have wronged in some way – called Lycacomia Curse […]." –Arsenius Jigger, The Essential Defence Against the Dark Arts. Yup, this curse is a dark spell that can be used to induce lycanthropy. Don't kill me! And the quote came from the Harry Potter Wiki.

Also, sorry that this chapter was so late today. I didn't even have time to read over it, since I only got the chance to work on it a couple of hours ago, and that included looking through different curses and jinxes for what is affecting Alexis. I had a crazy week and am just glad that I was able to get this chapter up today, so do enjoy.

Also, no one has guessed who Keira's Slytherin cousin is yet. No worries, you'll find out when they go to Hogwarts.