Author Note: Okay. Apology time. Sorry this took a month an a half, and all you get is a short chapter, as I haven't reached the other major plot points of the story I have planned yet and it took quite sometime to think of how to get there. But it should be going faster now, hopefully I won't keep getting odd hour shifts at work. I will finish this, so don't you worry. And thank you so much for continuing to read this rambling thing, despite the horribly long wait. Cheers!
Anna supposed it was a good thing that wizarding hospital wards didn't smell like disinfectant and bleach. She hated the scent of that sickly cleanliness. It brought back bad memories.
These errant thoughts flew through her head with no lasting power, like the dust motes swirling through the brightly flickering candle flames of the long hall leading to the ward door.
Seated on a heavy old bench a few paces down the hall, Anna's attention was focused on the back of Elsa's head, ducked low and clutched tightly between her trembling hands. Desperate and unnaturally deep breaths punctuated the seemingly pulsating chill that had taken hold of the autumn twilight fading through the windows set in stone walls.
Anna fought with all her might to keep her teeth from chattering, if only to spare Elsa any further stress as they waited for Professor Alvard, and Headmaster Wesselton to admit them entrance into the ward after they were done questioning Wren about what exactly had occurred only a few hours prior.
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY! THAT'S MY SISTER!"
A short muscular woman wrestled her way through the throng of students attempting to crowd onto the banks of the pitch. She tore the bright checkered fabric covering the wooden barrier as she flung herself over onto the forgiving muddy pitch, and sprinted hard, slipping amongst the mud and snow. She shoved fearful grounded Gryffindor players out of her way until they all let her through.
Hearing the struggle seemed to snap Elsa's attention back from whatever nightmare she had read on her palm as her eyes widened in desperation.
"Fok. Audrey came. She can't…but I need to leave… control it… "
"Elsa."
Breathing raggedly she turned to find teal eyes already riveted to her face, holding calm as they flicked between the fading vein-like lines of an indiscernible pattern on pale hands to petrified blue eyes.
"Anna, we need to…I need to go…I-"
"Elsa, it's okay. You just made a little bit of snow. You saved Wren from being paralyzed probably."
"You don't understand, I shouldn't be able to do this anymore, they were supposed to stop it all but it's too strong-"
"So you can do magic without a wand, how is that anything but-?"
"Anna, please, I just need to get out of here. There are too many people, and I can't—someone will get hurt."
"Wren is already hurt Elsa."
Tears began to leak out of the edges of reddened eyes, bringing the utter fear embedded in deep blue irises into relief. Gazing out at the rush of bodies either stilled in morbid anticipation, questioning each other if they saw who cast the snow out there, or being directed by booming professors and prefects to the exits, Elsa began to shake her head slightly as she took miniscule steps away from the scene unfolding on the pitch.
"…It's my fault. I'm the reason they did this."
Anna wasn't sure if Elsa was even speaking coherently at this point, so feral did the blonde look.
With hands slightly outstretched, splayed fingers attempting to bridge the increasing space between them, Anna hastily took a step forward against the icy air now racing across her face.
"It's not. Listen to me. Please. We can work this out together. Elsa?"
Casting a look down at Anna's hands, there was a split second of indecisiveness, where Elsa's eyes went so perfectly still, reflective as the deep calm the Black Lake sometimes held when the air stilled before the rain began to pour.
Just trust me. Hold on to me.
But Anna knew that somehow, she had lost her in that moment.
Anguish and failure flooded Elsa's countenance. The face of a drowning woman unable to reach a lifeline that was in sight, but out of reach.
"I'm sorry. I'm—Excuse me."
Anna had seen that braid swing to and fro so many times, but watching it whip wildly as it sped down the steps towards the nearest break in the crowd and out of the stadium caused her chest to seize up all too familiarly.
Just me then, once again. Back to square one. I must be getting used to this, because at least I'm still standing. Unlike Wren… Shit.
Stepping up a few rows that were now devoid of students, Anna came out of her numbed phase as she observed the pitch from her higher vantage point, with the feeling of a lead cauldron settling in her stomach.
She watched as the school nurse, Gerda, a portly witch with dark peppered hair make calming motions to the woman cradling Wren amongst the pure white snow and removing the blood smeared on her face with her wand. The patch still remained attached on the upper stitches, and the woman gently pressed it down as she bowed her head into blood matted curly hair.
Gerda's wand flew in practiced spells over Wren's rib, causing small flurries to rise up and whips through the air. Professor Alvard, Wesselton, and several others congregated to the side, Alvard stooping to feel at the white fluff and attempt to cast it out of the way, only to fail. One bearded man attempted to gain the sobbing woman's attention, but was met with a sharp crack and fell back onto his backside roughly.
The woman began screaming in Spanish again releasing Wren to crouch low to the ground, her eyes so wide they were visible even to Anna. Immediately all sound was halted as Wesselton's petrificus totalis spell froze her in place.
With a tremendous groan, Wren opened her eyes and began to move, turning her head to the side. Cheers began to erupt from the banisters and exclamations of relief came from nearly the entire Gryffindor house.
Until Wren turned enough to spot the woman frozen.
"NO! UNDO IT! UNDO IT! PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, AUDREY! LET HER MOVE!"
Attempting to crawl her way to the frozen form past Gerda's near strangle hold on her, Wren just struggled as Wesselton attempted to step forward and explain the situation.
Alvard pulled him out of the way just in time as a rippling wave of sound so forceful it ripped through the snow and grass at him.
"THEY PETRIFIED HER LAST TIME AND MADE HER WATCH. YOU'RE TRAUMATIZING HER RIGHT NOW! FUCKING UNDO IT YOU BASTA-!"
Anna found herself tearing across the steps for a better vantage point amid the rising gasps from the crowd as she watched Wesselton petrify Wren, blood still slowly moving down her face.
Sprinting past, she spotted Kristoff shoving madly to move past the barricade only to be knocked back by Evan and Rachel and held down as he yelled obscenities. The remaining professors on the pitch moved to control the students and push them to the exits, wands at the ready.
So focused were they on the students hollering and cowering in fear and confusion, they didn't notice her lone figure hop up three more rows to the highest point possible. Aiming a clear, but very long shot at Wesselton's wand, Anna barely heard Olaf cry out her name (Dammit Olaf, don't draw their attention to me!).
Her disarming spell missed, sizzling on the ground several feet behind the stumpy old man, but close enough to catch his attention.
Moving his wand, he looked down in shock. Something blue was surrounding it, but Anna was far too high up to make clear of what it was.
All she knew was that as the Hufflepuff prefect grabbed her and drug her down the stairs, even over the still howling wind, she heard screams of pure agony and fear amongst the utter confusion and chaos that had taken hold of the rainy afternoon.
She hadn't heard a sound like that since the night they hauled her to Boone Regional.
Anna had managed to get herself marched roughly to the hospital ward where she was sternly told by a scarlet-faced headmaster to wait outside until he could "deal with her insubordinate Taig self."
She had stood there clenching her jaw, nose drawn up in a snarl as the heavy door was slammed shut in her face. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a shift, only to find Elsa seated on that bench, in the exact position she was currently in, like some mourning statue that Anna had seen on the other graves littering the yard on a long gone blistering afternoon.
"She's going to be fine."
Anna's attempt at breaking the silence was met with nothing more than a stilling of trembling hands.
Steadily, Anna reached out to take hold of the now still forefingers on Elsa's left hand. Here, she was met with a stern jerk, "Stop", and again watching Elsa's braid swing back and forth as she stepped across the hall to sit stiffly up against the opposite wall.
Wow. How the hell did that hurt more than earlier?
"Elsa, what's wrong? Did I do something-?"
"I just came here to see how Wren is doing. Nothing more."
"Then why are you treating me like shit right now?"
Silence. Once again.
"Are you just going to not answer me?"
Don't make her feel worse. Just keep your mouth shut.
Anna shut her eyes tightly against the wetness piling at the corners and the sting pulling between her eyes.
Turned out, Anna wasn't strong enough to let the fact that Elsa kept her gaze trained stiffly on the floor as she began to sniffle slide.
"You're not being fair. You can't try to kiss me and then act like I don't exist."
Infuriating quiet.
"I saw it Elsa. Those lines? Why were you so scared that you can do magic without a wand?"
Elsa sat like a mute, eyes closed and body rigid up against the wall.
"All I want to do is help! What are you so afraid of?"
Blazing, furious blue eyes snapped open, pinning Anna back in her spot on the dark bench.
"I don't want your help. I want you safe."
Forehead wrinkled in confusion, her retort was interrupted as the ward door swung open, and Professor Alvard's deep navy robes fluttered down the hallway towards her.
She halted next to Anna, peering at Elsa over her ever present navy tinted spectacles.
"Miss Kaldrskra, did you have some business to discuss?"
Man, can she pull that mask out of nowhere.
With an expressionless face, Elsa rose gracefully. "How is Wren fairing?"
Brown eyes narrowed momentarily at the steady, calm face of the Slytherin prefect. As she rubbed her hands together to warm them, her lined brow wrinkled further.
"Several broken ribs and superficial bleeding around the skin of her left eye. Gerda healed her in minutes. Though she will be staying in the hospital ward until Headmaster Wesselton and I can piece together the entire story of what happened today. Who exactly ripped out all but the top stitches keeping her patch on, and who halted her fall with heavily enchanted snow remain our top priority."
Alvard didn't manage to catch the flash of panic in Elsa's eyes, since she began to lead the quiet red-head at her arm into the ward, but Anna sure as hell did.
And just as Elsa had made her decision to abandon her amid the turmoil of the afternoon, Anna came to a conclusion of her own as she put on her game face and strutted like royalty (did I really do that just this morning?) into the hospital ward, leaving the nearly unoccupied hallway to be littered with unseen gently falling snowflakes.
If I can't keep you with me, then I'll just have to keep you safe as well.