Silver Lining
Chapter 13: Hospitals and Happy Returns
This time, when Lillie opened her eyes she found herself in a very bright room; it was so bright, that she had to close her eyes again immediately. Instead of risking the bright light again, Lillie decided to feel her surroundings instead: she seemed to be in a bed, a very comfortable one too, but when she tried to move her arms a searing pain went through her body and she drew breath sharply.
She heard a shuffle from beside her and a second later someone nudged her gently; this caused even more pain and she groaned. The hand withdrew and a slightly familiar voice beside her called, "Nurse! I think she's awake."
"Thank you, Jeremy. How's the leg, dear?" asked the nurse who Lillie could hear approaching from the other side of the room.
"Fine thanks. I don't think that I need to-" the boy called Jeremy started but he was soon interrupted by the nurse.
"Now, I've told you, Jeremy, that's a very serious injury, Lorfet puss can be exceptionally dangerous and we need to keep you in intensive care for 25 days before you can go and anyway there's only about a week left," scolded the nurse.
"Okay," said Jeremy grumpily plonking back down onto his bed. "Can I at least send an owl to my sister telling her that one of her best friends has woken up out of a five week coma?"
"Alright," said the nurse but Lillie barely heard her. Had the boy Jeremy said five weeks? She tried to sit up and regretted it immediately as another burst of pain flew through her body. "Relax, dear," said the voice of the nurse who was now right beside her. "How do you feel?" asked the nurse.
Lillie groaned.
"Wait here a moment and I'll fetch something for the pain," said the nurse and a second later, Lillie heard footsteps and then the sound of someone unlocking a cupboard and rummaging within it. She was just thinking that she would have to wait there no matter what the nurse had done when the nurse returned.
Lillie felt a bottle being pressed lightly, but painfully to her lips and a second later she felt a warm liquid flow down her throat, it tasted a bit like honey. As the nurse had said, the pain in Lillie's body was reduced to a dull ache and Lillie cracked open her eyes. The light didn't seem as bright when it was covered by her eyelashes and she looked around the room: it was clearly a hospital ward.
There were four beds with white sheets and bottles of medication and potions were on the bedside tables. Small cupboards, most likely containing more potions and medications lined the wall, Lillie could also make out a figure standing beside her, but she couldn't see any details with her eyes half-closed.
"Hello, dear," said the woman.
Lillie tried to reply but her throat was too dry and she merely ended up grunting again.
"There's some water on your bedside table, dear. Now, I'm so sorry to rush off, but I have to check another ward, won't be long," said the nurse and then Lillie could see her retreating.
This time when Lillie tried to move, she found that the pain was manageable and when she was sitting up straight she opened her eyes fully and looked at the small bedside table on her right. Sure enough, there was a jug of water and a glass. As she reached for them, she noticed that her hands were covered in cuts, so she tried not to look directly at them.
She drank thirstily and when her thirst was quenched she looked back around the room. This time she saw that the bed on her left was empty but it looked like someone (Jeremy) had just got out of it. The two on her right were both occupied but the inhabitants of these beds were stock-still. One was a boy who was about fourteen and the other was a girl who looked a bit older, perhaps sixteen. At the end of the room she saw a boy with his back to her writing something on a mahogany table.
For about a minute she just sat there but then the nurse came back in. She was quite a short middle-aged woman with a friendly face and her blonde pony tail fell halfway down her back, when she saw Lillie sitting up she smiled and walked over to her. "How do you feel?" she asked.
"I don't really know," said Lillie speaking for the first time, her voice sounded a bit rough. "Alright, I guess."
"You had quite a nasty time, didn't you, poor thing," said the nurse kindly. Lillie didn't know what to say but luckily the nurse spoke again. "Now, you're a bit of a special case: you were brought here by Harry Potter himself and he told us not to notify your next-of-kin or any kin at all for that matter. He wouldn't tell us anymore, not even what had happened to you he just gave us you wand and told us to make sure you recovered. We couldn't argue what with him being the head of the auror office."
Lillie wasn't sure what to do; the last thing she could remember was the man with Chris' eyes flooing her to a strange house in the middle of the night after Ezekielis had left. Then she remembered seeing Teddy and the next thing she knew she had woken up here. How Harry Potter had gotten involved she didn't know and so she just said, "That boy, Jeremy said that I had been here for five weeks, is that true?"
"Yes, dear," said the nurse kindly. "It's a miracle you ever came out of that coma, you hadn't been fed for days and you were so badly injured among other things. The other girl didn't make it," she finished wistfully.
"Anna?" asked Lillie remembering the little girl with sandy-coloured hair.
"Yes, she passed away the night you both arrived; her mother and father were distraught. But back to you, I know Mr Potter told us not to notify any family, but is there anyone that you would like us to tell of your recovery?"
At that moment the boy called Jeremy stood up and turned around. She recognised the black, curly hair and the tanned skin as Jeremy Marlon's, Gill's older brother. Noticing her looking at him, Jeremy smiled at her and holding up the letter he winked. He had said something about his sister and Lillie knew that she could rely on Gill to make sure that everyone found out that she was OK. "I think Jeremy's letter will take care of that," said Lillie to the nurse before saying to Jeremy, "Tell Gill I say hi."
"I just finished the letter!" cried Jeremy but Lillie knew that he was joking and he returned to the mahogany desk.
…
Gill's POV:
Gill had just helped herself to toast and eggs when the post owls came in. She was sitting between Parvati and Ted Lupin, who had stopped hanging out with people in his own year but didn't speak to them either, and Chris was sitting opposite her. None of them spoke or even looked at each other but all four jumped when a beautiful black owl landed right in front of Gill, who recognised her brother's writing on the envelope. She knew her brother had shared a ward with Lillie ever since he had spilt Lorfet puss on his leg during Herbology and so dreading the worse she opened the letter.
Dear Gill,
What's going on in the world, sis? I am bored out of my mind here, nothing happens in the intensive care ward, well, not normally. Gill's heart skipped a beat and she dropped the letter.
"What's wrong?" asked Parvati.
"Nothing," said Gill, before adding, "yet." She scrambled to pick up the letter from the floor and continued reading.
Someone woke up today and I've got someone to talk to at last: Lillie! She woke up Gill! She's in a lot of pain but the nurse gave her a potion and she's talking and everything.
Love
Jeremy
P.S. Lillie says hi.
Lillie let out a sort of joyous yelp and threw her arms around Parvati who stammered but didn't say anything intelligible.
"What is it?" asked Chris.
"What's happened?" asked Ted.
"It's Lillie!" exclaimed Gill beaming. By now several other people, on the other side of Parvati, were looking at her too. Ted, Chris and Parvati were now staring intently at her. "She woke up! She woke up!" cried Gill.
There was a moment of silence. But then Ted Lupin stood and, taking her completely by surprise, hugged Gill tightly. This broke the silence and soon everyone was cheering, laughing and chatting merrily. Chris ran over to the Gryffindor table and told Richard, who told Michael Bilding, who told Victoire and soon enough the Gryffindors knew too. Jenny went over to the Slytherin table to tell her brother and evidently someone told the Hufflepuffs because by the beginning of first period, everyone seemed to know. Everyone was suddenly much more relaxed and the atmosphere for the rest of the week was infinitely better than it had been since the beginning of term; even Teddy had started hanging out with his own year again.
…
Lillie's POV:
Over the next few days Lillie got to know Jeremy Marlon quite well. She found him irritating at first but after a while she grew to like him, but considering that, apart from nurses and the occasional healer, he was the only company she had, that wasn't saying much. A few days after she had 'woken up', she had received a flurry of Get well soon cards and they all covered her bedside table, except one from the McDougal twins which she had torn up due to its annoying habit of singing and dancing the conga in the middle of the night.
About a week after her unexpected recovery, Lillie was very glad to hear that she would be able to leave the following day, along with Jeremy. Professor Lugitte, Lillie's Charms teacher, would come and pick them up and they would floo back to Hogwarts.
"I don't see why we can't floo by ourselves, I mean, we've done it before," Jeremy said to Lillie, who shrugged. "Who is this Lugitte guy anyway?"
"He's my Charms teacher," said Lillie.
"Really? I've got Flitwick. He's really good," replied Jeremy.
"Isn't he about a hundred years old?" Lillie asked.
"Older," said Jeremy. "But don't underestimate him; they say he was a master dueller in his day." Lillie shrugged again.
…
The following day Lillie and Jeremy waited eagerly for Professor Lugitte. Meanwhile, a healer was giving them both instructions.
"Mr Marlon you must rub that in every morning for two weeks when you wake up or else it will canker," said the healer matter-of-factly while Jeremy grimaced at the lumpy grey bottle of ointment he was being offered.
"It looks like cat sick," he complained, but the healer glared at him and he subsided.
The healer then turned to Lillie and with a frown on his face said, "Now you are a little bit more complicated Miss Whitehead." Then he pulled out a small bag in which there were four large bottles and one small one filled with various pills, potions and powders.
The first one was filled with a golden-brown liquid, which she recognised as the pain-killing potion. The healer said, "This is for the pain, take one capful each morning and you'll be fine, as long as you don't do anything too rough."
The second was filled with luminous orange pills and the healer said, "Take one of these with each meal and it should prevent most infections; each one contains a tiny fragment of a bezoar."
The next bottle contained purple powder. "This one should help with the scarring," said the healer. "Put a spoonful in a glass of water in the morning when you wake up and then drink it before you go to bed."
The fourth bottle was a clear green potion which was warm to the touch. "You drink two capfuls of this at lunch, and another one an hour after dinner," said the healer. "This will stop the cuts from reopening."
"Now, as you know, that blade was cursed, and this bottle must be drunk at midnight on the new moon to prevent… well, not very nice things." The healer held up a tiny flask of what looked like tar.
Lillie glanced at Jeremy, who shrugged and said, "Rather you than me."
The healer once again started speaking: "Now the first four you have to take for a month but the last one," he indicated the small bottle of tarry potion "must be drunk at the new moon until… until whoever used that blade on you dies. I believe he is called Ezekielis Bamforth."
The healer looked at Lillie nervously, clearly expecting some sort of reaction, but Lillie couldn't be bothered to feel anxious or apprehensive at the moment and so she just nodded and said, "Okay." She realised that Ezekielis must be some relative of Mindy Bamforth in Slytherin.
"I've written down all those instructions down, in case you forget," said the healer and Lille nodded. The healer left.
Jeremy gave a low whistle. "That's a lot of medication," he said eyeing the plastic bag warily.
Lillie shrugged, "At least I get to go back. This is place is so boring."
"Tell me about it," said Jeremy. "I've been holed up here for twenty-five days.
At that moment Professor Lugitte walked in and smiled warmly at them. After a short greeting he led the two Ravenclaws down the corridor and into a small room covered in ash. After a bit Lillie realised that they were in a huge fireplace, probably so that stretchers could come straight here. Professor Lugitte walked over to a corner and took a fistful from a large pot on the wall. As he threw the powder onto the floor he cried, "Pouxdelard!"
The familiar green flames burst up around them and, even though Lillie knew that she was perfectly safe, a surge of fear passed through her body and she found herself remembering that cold tower room, Ezekielis and the red blade. The red blade moving towards her, digging into her skin, she screamed.
"Lillie!" someone cried distantly. "Lillie! What's wrong? Oh merde!"
Lillie opened her eyes, she found herself on the floor of a strange room, Professor Lugitte and Jeremy were standing over her but she didn't see them, she saw Ezekielis and Dulcia. Dimly she heard Professor Lugitte say to Jeremy, "Go get Madam Cunaxa."
"Lillie! Lillie can you hear me?" she heard Professor Lugitte's voice but she could only see Ezekielis. "Merde! Tu m'entends?" Once again she heard his voice and for a fleeting second she saw his warm face but it was soon replaced by Ezekielis' once more.
"No," moaned Lillie. "Please, no more."
"Lillie! You're safe! You're at Hogwarts, you're inside Hogwarts! You're safe, Lillie." Lillie felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her into an embrace and as quickly as it had come Ezekielis' face, the blade and the tower were gone; they were replaced by black robes.
Lillie sobbed into Professor Lugitte's chest for a full minute while the Charms professor tried to comfort her. Then the door was burst open by Jeremy who was followed by a terrified looking Madam Cunaxa, the school nurse and matron. Professor Lugitte gently released Lillie, who was still sobbing uncontrollably.
"The poor girl's traumatised," said Madam Cunaxa.
"Jeremy, you can go," said Professor Lugitte and Jeremy reluctantly left. "I think it was the floo," he then said to the matron. "That was when it started, she screamed and sort of went into a…how do you say?"
"Fit?" suggested Madam Cunaxa and Professor Lugitte nodded. "Nothing we can do but wait until it passes, I'm afraid," she said.
It was several minutes before Lillie had gained full control of herself at which point she was handed a chocolate frog by Madam Cunaxa. "Eat up," she said. "It will help."
Lillie ate the chocolate frog and then looked up at Madam Cunaxa and then at Professor Lugitte who was still sitting beside her. "What happens now?" she asked.
"Nothing happens for now," said Madam Cunaxa. "It's trauma there's not much we can do, only it's probably best if you stayed away from floo." Lillie shuddered and nodded. "Now it's almost third hour what do you have now?"
"Me," said Professor Lugitte.
"Very well then, I'll leave you to it," she said and left the room.
"Are you ready," asked Professor Lugitte kindly.
Lillie nodded before saying, "Thank you." Professor Lugitte said nothing but just smiled. "I'd better go get my books, Sir," said Lillie.
"No, you won't be needing them, it's a practical lesson today," said Professor Lugitte.
"Sir, why did you say 'Pouxdelard' back there instead of Hogwarts?" asked Lillie, as curiosity got the better of her.
Professor Lugitte laughed, "I'm French. If I said 'Hogwarts who know where we would have been," he explained.
When they reached the classroom Professor Lugitte left Lillie out in the corridor. A few minutes later the bell rang for the end of break and almost simultaneously Chris walked round the corner he looked angry and dejected. Lillie smiled for the first time in weeks. "Hey," she said. Chris looked up. His face changed completely going first to astonishment, then to disbelief and finally a broad grin spread across his face. Lillie had missed that grin she looked into his eyes, the eyes that had given her strength during her imprisonment.
Chris dropped his books and an ink pot smashed on the floor but neither of them cared. Chris ran the last few feet between them and he pulled Lillie into a huge hug. "Jeremy Marlon said that you…" he started but trailed off.
"Bergh, that's disgusting, Timberlake," said a voice from the end of the corridor. Chris and Lillie stepped apart before looking towards the source of the voice: Mindy Bamforth and standing next to her was her usual crony, Katy Carroll.
Chris looked like he was about to charge at the girls but Lillie stepped in front of him and, putting all the venom, all the anger and all the pain she had felt over the past weeks into her voice, said, "Muddy's back, Bamforth. That knucklehead Ezekielis couldn't finish me off."
Mindy took a step back she had not expected the small girl to seem so dangerous. "How dare you talk about like my father like that! You filthy mudblood!" she cried.
Professor Lugitte chose that moment to step out of the classroom. "150 points from Slytherin, Bamforth," he said. "You will also have detention and now go see the Headmistress and tell her word for word what you said." Lillie had never seen Professor Lugitte look this way, he looked extremely and dangerous his voice was so threatening that Mindy's face went completely white and she ran away towards the Headmistress' office. "Okay, you can come in," he said, and he had completely returned to normal.
Chris gathered up his books and then the three people who were still there entered the classroom; Katy Carroll went to her desk at the front while Chris and Lillie went to theirs which was right at the back. The next people to arrive where the McDougal twins when they saw Lillie they both cried "LILLIE!" at the top of their voices and came rushing over to her.
Soon everyone was in the classroom; most people came over to speak to Lillie who was becoming a bit overwhelmed but luckily Professor Lugitte called the class to order.
The next lesson was supposed to be Transfiguration but because no replacement for Professor Selwyn had been found yet they were given a free period.
By dinner, Lillie had seen pretty much everyone who she wanted to see, Victoire in particular had been keen to hear everything and Lillie had assured her that she would tell her everything during their free period tomorrow morning. She had seen everyone except Teddy, she had tried to find him at lunch but she couldn't spot him and when she asked Jeremy about it he said that he hadn't seen Teddy since that morning when he had told him about Lillie's fit that morning.
After dinner Lillie went into the grounds, sure that she knew where Teddy would be. She passed the Quidditch pitch where she could see the Hufflepuff team practising. Eventually she reached the bank of lake and headed for a tree where she could see a silhouette sitting with his back against the tree.
The sun gave Theodore Remus Lupin a golden lining but Lillie could tell that his normally healthy complexion had gone sickly grey and his hair had become black. Lillie was only a few feet away from him when Teddy noticed her standing there.
"Lillie? But Jeremy said that you-" he started.
"I'm absolutely fine," she said.
Teddy got up and slowly moved towards her, as he did so, Lillie saw the colour flood back into his skin and his hair went from black to an almost gold colour before he hugged Lillie so tightly that she felt like she was about to break. "Steady on, Ted," she spluttered and Teddy immediately released her looking at her nervously. "I'm not hurt, don't worry. Just a bit fragile." She grinned and so did Teddy.
"Tell me everything," said Teddy simply before sitting back down by the tree and patting the ground beside him. Lillie told him everything. She spoke for an hour and when they finally went back inside they found that it was nearly curfew. They rushed towards the common room and once in Lillie went into her dormitory while Teddy carried on up the stairs to his own.
Upon entering the girl's dormitory Lillie was bombarded with questions, but saying something about being tired she ran over to her corner of the room where she got changed and got into bed. Remembering that she had to start taking her medication tomorrow she took out the appropriate bottles.
…
Three weeks later it was the last day of term and the girls dormitory was completely hectic as all the girls packed up their stuff before heading down to the end of year feast. Lillie had packed all of her stuff into the old battered suitcase although she had no idea where she was going for the holidays, just that she was going.
On the way down the stairs she bumped into Victoire who was bouncing around looking prettier than ever. "Lillie," she said, "there you are! I've been looking for you everywhere."
"Why?" asked Lillie.
"To tell you that you're coming to stay at my house for the holidays, of course," said Victoire as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Are you serious?" asked Lillie, astounded.
"Of course I am! My parents are cool with it so you're coming. Although," she eyed Lillie's hair, "we are going to have to do something about your hair, you just can't keep it all unbrushed like that."
Lillie laughed. "If you say so," said Lillie and the two girls headed down to the feast together, Victoire gossiping all the way.
The feast was, if possible, better than the beginning of year feast and when Professor McGonagall stood up Lillie was feeling very full and happy. Silence fell across the hall and Professor McGonagall began to speak.
"As the school year draws to an end, I have nothing left to say apart from to reveal to you the final result of the house cup." There were excited murmurings around the hall but a stern cough from Professor McGonagall and they stopped at once.
"In fourth place with 216 points: Slytherin." There was a groan from the Slytherin table before the Headmistress continued. "In third place with 458 points: Ravenclaw." Another groan. "In second place with 599 points: Hufflepuff." A small happy murmur was erupting from the Gryffindor table as Professor McGonagall said, "In first place with 607 points: Gryffindor."
The murmur grew into a cheer but McGonagall held up her hand and the bemused Gryffindors looked back at their Headmistress, along with everyone else. "There are however, some things that have gone unrewarded. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the story of young Miss Lillian Whitehead. If you are not, well I'm not about to go into it now." Lillie was momentarily relieved, but she went scarlet anyway as everyone around her started looking towards her. "The staff and I have discussed the events and have decided to afford Miss Whitehead 150 points for courage, strength while under torture and preventing the return of a great evil." Lillie blushed even more but several people on the Ravenclaw table had started cheering and the people around her patted her back. Professor McGonagall began to speak again, "This puts Ravenclaw house on 608 points and they therefore win the house cup."
The cheer that rose from the Ravenclaw table was deafening and Lillie started to laugh and cheer along with everyone else. But she started blushing again when she heard a chant of "LILLIE! LILLIE!" rising from the table.
…
Lillie rode with Teddy and Victoire towards the station and the three were in a compartment with Gill and Jeremy and eventually Sienna Marlon.
When the train pulled into King's Cross Lillie got the feeling that this summer was going to be much better than the last. Admittedly she had been tortured, but in the end it meant that she wouldn't have to spend the summer with Dulcia but instead she could stay with Victoire and the Weasleys. There was always a silver lining.
Or so she thought. Waiting for her on the platform, was none other than Dulcia Selwyn who grabbed Lillie's wrist the moment she stepped onto the platform. Lillie felt the feeling that she was being shoved through a tight rubber tube. Before she knew what had happened Lillie once again found herself on the floor of the room where it had all began, where she had first heard about Hogwarts.
But surely she couldn't be given back to Dulcia; surely she must have been arrested. Lillie's hopes were dashed when later that evening Dulcia's head popped in around the door and said, "Dinner my little acid pop," before throwing a lump of stale bread into the room.
A/N:
We haven't seen the last of Dulcia! *evil laugh*
Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed.
Thanks to Facetaker and AnimeFlowerGirl.
Sorry for any typos.
End of first year, soon it's going to be second year. I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on the second year, but as for the third year, I cannot say.
Review if you have time.
And HAPPY NEW YEAR!