This chapter is dedicated to the lovely Lily Christie for her AWESOME review! Have the rest of you seen it? Wow!
Congrats to phoenixtear19 who guessed that 'Argentum' meant silver!
--Chapter 8-The Fine Line--
The thing about my nightmare is that it was true. . .Every detail. That man had hunted me down because he'd thought that I was a werewolf. One of the creatures that had killed his family. . .
Just as he'd gone plunge his knife into me, Ricky had come racing over and tackled him to the ground. Ricky's got a faint, raised scar on his face, right near his eye where the knife got him instead. He had risked being hurt himself to save me. . . As I sat in the snow, Ricky was able to stun the man and restrain him.
Ricky had tried to help me back to Hogsmeade. I got as far as the Post Office before I couldn't walk anymore. I sank to the ground and stayed there. . .to tired, shaky, and terrified to move another inch. Ricky called yelled down the street for William, Sirius, and James.
The thee had been walking up the street to find us, and were rather shocked to find both of us in the middle of the road covered in both old and fresh blood. William sent Sirius and James back to watch the man while he and Ricky both carried me up to the castle. As soon as I'd been dropped off at the Hospital Wing, Ricky went to get his uncle. William stayed to explain what had happened to the nurse as she treated me.
The man was tried in front of a full court at the Ministry and got off almost completely. He was banned from Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, and carrying silver of any kind, but that's it. My dad raised Cain over that one. He demanded that the man who'd almost killed his daughter for no good reason be put in Azkaban for life. His wishes were ignored.
Even three years later I still have nightmares. It's not like it happens every night, but it happens often enough that I'm still terrified of going to the Shrieking Shack alone. Mum and Dad don't know I have the nightmares. I've never told them. They've got enough to worry about as it is.
Plus, that life. . .isn't it?
. . .I woke up screaming.
Panting hard, I tried to figure out where in the world I was. I seemed to be in a small room with the curtains pulled tightly over the windows. A bit of sunlight shown through a crack in the blinds. I was laying in a bed, the sheets where disheveled as I had probably been thrashing around for a bit.
To my left were my parents. They were sitting in hard chairs, leaning against each other, and they seemed to be sleeping, although mum was stirring a bit. . .They looked a little worse for the wear. Dad was thinner than usual and seemed frail. Mum was equally pale and her usually pink hair was a lank brown lightly streaked with gray.
Mum blinked open her eyes and glanced over to where I was sitting. It seemed to take a moment for her to realize that I was awake.
"Enna," she breathed. "Oh, thank Merlin you're awake."
"Mum, what's going on?"
Instead of answering she reached out and hugged me tightly and sobbed into my shoulder.
"Mum?" I patted her back gently. She just hugged me tighter. "Dad!" I called over mum's shoulder, hoping to wake him up. If anyone could make sense of this he could. "Dad!" I called a bit more urgently. He stirred and upon not finding mum next to him, sat up looking worried. When he spotted that I was awake, he joined mum in suffocating me. "I need to breathe at some point," I told them after a bit.
They pulled away, but didn't go far. Mum curled up on the bed next to me and dad sat at the end.
"Where are we exactly?" I asked.
"St. Mungo's," mum whispered.
"Silver poisoning?" I reached up to touch my face, but it as well as my neck was wrapped in bandages. My right hand was as well. How I hadn't noticed it before was beyond me. "How bad was it?" Last time I'd just been able to stay at Hogwarts, but if I was at St. Mungo's it must have been pretty serious. . .
Mum and dad exchanged a nervous glance. "Never mind that now. . .you're okay and that's all that matters," mum patted one of my bandaged cheeks.
I glanced over at dad and he gave a little shake of his head. Subject closed I supposed. At least for the time being. I cocked my head to the side and sighed. A bit of my hair fell in my face. . . a bit of short hair.
I reached up to touch my head and ran my hand gently over my hair. It stopped about half way down my neck at an odd angle. The edges were uneven and slightly greasy. I guess my hair hadn't been washed in awhile.
"What happened to my hair?" I demanded.
"The Healers had to cut it off when you arrived. At least that's what they told us," Dad explained.
"There was silver in it?" Dad nodded. I held on to the ends of my hair feeling a strange sort of loss. My hair's been really long for as long as I can remember. . .but if it had been coated in liquid silver and it had solidified by the time I arrived at St. Mungo's ('cause Merlin knows how long it took me to get here) there would have been no way for me to keep it.
"Well," I finally said, "as long as everything else is alright."
Mum and dad wouldn't tell me anything. Not about what had happened before I reach St. Mungo's, nor after. Every time I brought up the subject, they changed the subject to the weather, or how much headway had I gotten on the mounds of homework that was sent to keep me busy.
I ended up asking my Healer. He was a nice guy by the name of Andrew Woode. Healer Woode was in his mid-twenties, tall with dark blond hair and jade green eyes. He insisted that I call him Andrew. I refused. I told him to call me Enna. He refused. We ended up compromising. I called him Healer Andrew; he called me Miss Selene. It was a pretty good system and worked well enough for us.
It'd been a week since I'd awoken and I was getting immensely curious about what had happened. My parents weren't going to show up that day, or the one after (full moon was that night after all. Dad needed his rest and mom needed to be with him, so I insisted that they'd stay home the next two days. They finally agreed after protesting for a bit.), so I figured it'd be the best time to ask.
It was midday and Healer Woode had come in to bring my lunch and change my bandages for me "Do you feel any discomfort?" he questioned as he unwrapped my head.
"Couldn't say really. I've been on pain killing potion since I woke up. No one's given me a chance to find out."
"I won't give you your afternoon dose then. We'll see in the evening, just before bed. Sound alright?"
"Yes, it sounds good to me," I shrugged, not caring either way really.
"How was your nap?"
"Fine, thank you," I smiled at him. I picked up the spoon resting on the food tray near my bed. I inspected my eye color carefully before putting the spoon in the oatmeal that it was meant for. "I really am a genetic marvel, no?" I quipped.
Healer Woode laughed, "You are at that, Miss Selene. Either way you do have amazing eyes. Many people would pay a lot of Galleons for purple or gold eyes."
I blushed, "Thank you! You're the first non-family member or friend that's ever told me that."
We fell into silence as Healer Woode dabbed some thick blueish paste onto the portion of my face and neck that'd been covered by the silver. It smelled strongly of aloe and and evergreen, which isn't an unpleasant smell, but because it was so strong it gave me a slight headache.
"Your skin seems to be healing nicely. It's still red, but that's to be expected."
"What happened?" I asked and turned around to face Healer Woode. He gave me a slightly confused look. "I mean, what happened between when I got here and woke up?"
"Haven't your parents explained that?"
"They won't tell me anything."
"Well, I don't know. If your parents won't tell you, I'm sure they have a good reason."
"They're just being a bit over protective about the whole thing. I'd like to know. Especially if all my friends and schoolmates know already. I'd feel a bit dumb if I didn't know what happened to me."
Healer Woode measured out clean white bandages for me. With a slight frown he said, "You arrived here about three hours after you initial poisoning. The nurse at Hogwarts did what she could on the way over, but considering the severity of the poisoning, it didn't do much. You were nearly dead by the time you reached me--you probably would have been if not for the young man that alerted the nurse. For just over a week you were on the fine line between life and death, Miss Selene. I'm sure this is why your parents didn't want to tell you. They were probably worried that that fact would shock you and keep you down longer.
"Anyway, after the first week, you started to make some improvement. You'd made enough in fact that we had been able to move you into this room. . .not that you were out of danger of course. It was still another week before we knew for certain that you'd be fine."
I pushed a bit of my hair out of my eyes. I had nearly died. . .it didn't scare me really. It was more of a grim confirmation of what I pretty much already knew. But who had saved me? Was it Ricky or that Hufflepuff boy. . .Casey, no Cody something or another. . .
As Healer Woode finished securing the bandages to my head I asked how my parents had been.
"Worried as all parents would be. I had to get some of the Trainee Healers to convince them to eat something during your first week here."
"Oh, Merlin," I groaned. I hated to think they were worried to the point of them not eating anything.
"I'm sorry," Healer Woode apologized quickly, "I shouldn't have told you."
"No, no, it's fine. It's just. . .my parents have been through so much in their lives already. It hardly seems fair that they had to deal with this as well."
"Your parents love you, Selene Lupin, and they wouldn't have wanted to leave you alone while they just treated the time like it was just another day."
"I know," I smiled at my hands shyly.
"Enna! Thank goodness!" A frantic voice cried from the doorway.
"Hermione!" I leaned over to see the person in the door properly. Sure enough, Hermione Weasley was standing in the door way clad in her Healer's robes. She rushed over and hugged me.
"It took me forever to get clearance from the boss. Something stupid about not being a blood relative."
"It's good to see you!" I hugged her back.
"It's wonderful to see you awake! It was a happy day when we heard you were going to be alright."
Yep, I made Hermione a Healer. She certainly is smart enough for the job. But why would she need clearance you ask. Well, it's sorta a restricted floor. -coughs- You'll see next chapter. :D
Reviews:
Ginevra lily: Thanks very much!
Daft Angelus: Yep, it WAS bad. . .Sorry! I hope I got this up quick enough for you.
TrubySCS3: hehe, thanks. Gotta love Tonks and her Tonksishness! Thanks for the review!
frizzyhead: -nods- I don't like how some writers do that. Thanks for supporting my choice and reviewing.
phoenixtear19: wow. . .I feel loved! -hugs- Thanks so much for you kind words. Hope that this chapter explained the dream enough for you. . .though I believe that it'll be mentioned again sometime late in the story.
Lily Christie: Dang, girl! I'm going to have to email you your reply! I got it from your profile. . .I hope to have it to you within a day. Thanks again for your amazing review!
bograt: :D, I'm SO happy that you liked it! lol, it IS! Sorry about your essays. -gives bograt a chocolate bar- Enjoy.
The Female Nerd: I know. I was kinda hesitant about posting it actually for that very reason.
Until next time,
Your Author,
Anne
