Thanks for sticking with me through this story.
Josie sat on the Hogwarts express, in a private carriage that had been organised for herself, Draco and anybody they allowed entry to. Josie wanted nothing more than to bring in Hazel, Ginny, Ron, Neville... Hell, even Hermione and Desmond at this stage would be welcome company. But in order to keep up appearances, Josie had to steer clear of her true friends and allow the scum such as Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle and the forever jealous Pansy Parkinson to accompany them. It had made the first portion of the school year almost unbearable, with Crabbe and Goyle assigned to accompany her everywhere that Draco wasn't. And with Draco's additional responsibilities to Snape, that was frequently.
Josie had immediately become friends with Daphne Greengrass, Millicent Bullstrode, Theodore Nott and Blaize Zabini as they were friendly and welcoming when Josie returned to Hogwarts as Draco's wife, and Josie knew their allegiance was impartial. They tended to shy away from the couple, thinking they were heavily aligned with Voldemort, however, Josie made every effort to welcome them, both to the Head Boy and Girl quarters and to the carriage that they were assigned. Josie found, rather early on, that having people around her that she could just be with, alleviated some of the loneliness. The fact that her marriage to Draco, let alone her relationship with him, was out in the open, was a huge relief and allowed Josie to focus heavily on obtaining her NEWTS.
Christmas at the Malfoys had gone about as well as she could have expected. Lucius was still as cold towards her as ever, however, Narcissa was doting on her as if she were her own daughter. It made Josie feel a little more at ease. She loved Draco with everything that she was, she married him, she adored him. He was her world, however, sometimes it was very lonely.
She had given up her friends for a relationship, something she had always scoffed at. When she had seen girls do it at Hogwarts in the past, she and Hazel had spoken about how disgusting it was, about how 'surely she was never really their friend to begin with, because as if you'd just abandon your friends like that'.
Voldemort had gifted Josie and Draco with the closest seat to him at the Christmas table, which was just as much a surprise to them as it was to everyone else. Despite them being the only ones in the house who were not truly on his side, they were beginning to become his most trusted acquaintances. This was much to the disgust of Bellatrix, who was still fuming over the death of her husband, Rodolphus. Josie wondered why she had been so upset. Their marriage was only ever for convenience and as he was the last known member of the Lestrange family, Bellatrix had inherited the entire Lestrange empire. Josie wondered why the Death Eaters didn't pack up and move to the Lestrange Mansion, leaving the Malfoys to some peace, however, Josie knew that Voldemort still had some doubt regarding the senior Malfoy's allegiance, and he was staying to prove a point.
Throughout the holidays, there had been whispers of a child that had been born over the last few months, however, Josie could never pinpoint who the child belonged to. There were suggestions that Bellatrix had given birth to the child as there had been a time where she hadn't been seen for quite some time. She thought that perhaps Narcissa had had a child, as she was often leaving events and parties to 'take care of something', but Draco guaranteed Josie that his mother was unable to have any children following a difficult birth with himself. No one knew for certain and Josie didn't seem to have the authority to ask, so she just left it.
The train seemed to be taking forever, but Josie didn't mind so much. She had actually enjoyed the Christmas, despite missing her family greatly. She hoped they would understand, once this was all over and done with. She and Draco thought about leaving, about running away to another country, changing their names, using glamour charms to change their appearances, but that would cause far more trouble than staying and pretending to be part of the Death Eater's clan.
Josie kissed Draco as she left the carriage to visit the bathroom, something Draco was hesitant about, but Josie insisted she'd be fine. Afterall having Crabbe and Goyle follow her to the bathroom would definitely be pushing it too far.
Josie was washing her hands when she heard the door swing open and a person approach. She held her breath, thinking she was now being escorted to the toilet and turned to face the person who had come to check on her.
"The door is warded, no one can hear us" Hazel said, putting her back against the door at the look of shock and ear on Josie's face.
"Hazel, you can't be in here. You can't do this…" Josie said,
"Do you think I care? Josie, I know you. You're a Gryffindor. You're not a Slytherin. You're not the marrying type. What has he done to you? Why haven't you been allowed to speak to us? Why did you come back to seventh year in September? Why can't you even look at us?" Hazel asked, firing question after question at her friend.
"You don't know anything Hazel. Please just leave" Josie said.
"I'm not leaving without an explanation" Hazel said.
Josie ran her hands through her hair, something she had picked up from Draco.
"The marriage is consensual. I wanted this. I tested to be moved up a grade, you know me, I'm smarter than most of the professors even. I will always be a Gryffindor and I am still me. I just… I need to do this. For now" Josie said.
That's not good enough. My best friend was involved in the headmaster's death, she ran off and came back 3 months later, married at the age of 15 and is now an exclusive member of the death eater clan" Hazel said.
"Yes, that's true. But think, Hazel, please…" she said, placing her hands on the shoulders of her friend… "Remember what I told you about Draco. About the real Draco. Remember what you know about me. My history. Please understand. Once this is all over, I will explain everything" she said.
"What do you mean over? Wake up to yourself Josie. This will never be over. No one is fighting no one is coming to help. No one is trying to make this be over. We're just along for the death eater ride now. He's won" Hazel said, tears in her eyes.
Josie closed her eyes and used wordless, wandless magic to stun her friend. "I promise, it will all make sense in the end" she said quietly as she opened the door, unlocking and unwarding it at once, without her wand.
Josie returned to Draco, not uttering a word about what had just occurred in the bathroom. She sat quietly, listening to Theo and Daphne talk about their Christmases, which Crabbe and Goyle ate all the sweets that Josie packed from the Manor.
The train pulled into Hogsmead slowly and Josie used her wand to change into her robes, teaching the others the simple spell as well. Nobody could quite figure out how Josie had grown so much in both sophistication, maturity and magical ability in the last 6 months. People assumed it was related to the bonding of magic that occurs when people marry, however, Josie attributed it to loads of reading. She spent so much time in the library at the Manor reading book after book, absorbing as much as she could. She categorised the information in her mind so it could be easily accessed when needed. Spells, charms, historical information, defence magic and more were read, understood and filed away for future use. She had a deeper understanding of the magical world than anyone she knew, more than purebloods, more than even Narcissa, who had been brought up in the purest of families.
She disembarked the train, reminding Draco that, as Head boy and Girl, they had to assist with the coordination of the students onto the carriages. It was slow and tedious, however, eventually, the platform was clear, and the students were safely on their way back to school. She gasped as she felt Draco take her hand and lead her into the small sitting area on the platform.
"Hey you" she said.
"Hey you back" he said with a smile.
"We've been here before" she said.
"If I remember correctly, you rejected me… right… over there" he said pointing to the wall by the door.
"It was a tough time" she said, feigning concern.
"Now look at us" he said.
"Head boy and girl, the first married couple to ever attend Hogwarts and be head boy and girl, also, me, the youngest person ever, to be undertaking the maximum number of NEWT classes possible and set to graduate in just over 5 months" she said.
He smiled at this and pulled her close to him, kissing her as he did. She relished in this moment. There was no senior Malfoys, no Voldemort, no friends, no professors. Right now, in this moment, she was herself, Josie Potter, 15-year-old school student and he was Draco Malfoy, Slytherin prat and they were sneaking in a rendezvous before heading to the castle.
But she wasn't Josie Potter anymore. She was Josie Malfoy, married to Draco. She was the youngest person ever, to get into Voldemort's close circle and one of only a few who had accomplished that without being marked by him personally. She had partaken in the death of Albus Dumbledore and abandoned her family for him and his.
She let it before it happened, her heart rate increased, and her breathing became erratic. He was still kissing her, and she had to pull away and regain her strength. However, she couldn't. It had been months, perhaps a year even, since her last panic attack and now, here, in the warm sitting room of Hogsmead station, she would fall to her knees and succumb to the darkness that was about to swallow her whole.
Draco held her tight, trying not to let her fall. As her vision faded to black and all sound went quiet, Josie fell to the floor and gave in to the panic that had, until now, sat dormant in her mind.
Josie awoke and looked around the dimly lit room. She was surprised to see that she was in the Head boy/girl common room and not the hospital wing. She sat up carefully and looked around, hoping to see Draco. Instead, she found that she was all alone. It was slightly unnerving at first, but as she sat and gathered her thoughts. She came to realise that alone was probably the best she could have hoped for. Draco was incredibly supportive, but sometimes, when he was there with her all the time, she hoped for nothing but alone time.
She stood and walked to her room and took her journal out from her trunk. She hadn't written in months; she had no need to. Her thoughts were all shared with Draco and she didn't want the book to fall into the wrong hands. She opened at the last page that had been written in and was shocked to see that it had been a year since the last entry. She didn't allow herself to dwell, as she knew that is what brought on the panic attack at the station, however, it was difficult to read the last entry in her book that spoke of a task and a boy and loving someone like she hadn't ever loved anyone before.
She spent some time jotting down some points so she could clear her head a little. She hoped that the occlumency she had learnt was the reason for her panic being so subdued and felt that as long as she could partition the guilt and the dread away, she could find a way to function again. She remembered what Draco once told her about her panic. Its all about control. As long as she was in control, she would be fine.
She put the book away in the locked portion of her trunk and found a small box in which she had always kept her jewellery. There were necklaces and earrings that she had been given over the years from her parents and a bracelet that she had been given last Christmas. She picked it up out of the box and held it in her hands. It was really quite pretty and as she realised why she hadn't been wearing it, she felt a tug behind her navel and she disappeared from the room, from the castle, from Scotland.
Josie stood in an unfamiliar room in a strange house she had never seen before. She knew exactly what had happened, not having believed it was possible to be ported out of the castle but believing it as it was happening right before her eyes. The room had clearly been decorated by her mother. There seemed to be too much light for the number of windows that were in the room. There was a couch facing a small fireplace and some small decorative items on some shelves. Moving photos of herself and her siblings littered the place and she realised that she was probably standing in the place where her family now lived.
The bracelet that her fingers were gripping was the one she had been given the Christmas beforehand that she had discovered quickly was charmed as an emergency port key. Her mum must have activated it once Josie went missing.
"Anybody here?" she called out, wondering how she was going to get out of this mess. Draco would be beside himself once he realised she was missing and Voldemort would scour the country looking for her.
"Who's there?" came the voice of Lyra.
"It's Josie" she called back, hesitating before attempting to move through the house. Her little sister, who was almost the spitting image of her, entered the room, her wand raised in front of her. Josie stepped back and her legs came into contact with a lounge chair.
"Bull… Josie wouldn't come here" Lyra said.
"Josie?" came the voice of Harry from beyond the doorway.
"She says it is, but I can't be sure" Lyra said.
Harry entered the room and, as his youngest sister was doing, was aiming his wand in Josie's direction.
"How did you get here?" he asked Josie, before turning his head and calling for their dad.
She held the bracelet in her hand and let it dangle down for them to see. AS she did, Sirius entered the room and exhaled.
"Kiddo…" he said, seeming uncertain as to what to say or do.
"I can't stay here" Josie said.
"What did you say, the night on the astronomy tower?" Harry asked.
"What? Why are you…?" she began to ask.
"Just answer the question. So we know you're not an imposter" Harry demanded.
"I asked you, Harry, not to hate me. I begged, in fact" Josie said.
"Its her" Harry said, looking to Sirius and lowering his wand, directing Lyra to so the same.
"Great, now we're all up to speed on who I am, you can send me back now" she said.
"No way. You're not going anywhere" Harry said.
"Sweetheart, you're safe here. We can keep you safe. It's too dangerous for you to go back" Sirius said.
"I appreciate the concern, but its far safer for everyone if I go back" she said.
"What do you mean?" Lyra asked, as Carina entered the room and stood by the door.
Josie sat on the lounge chair and ran her hands over her face. It felt like it had been the longest day, however, she had only just woken up and then been ported here.
"If I'm not where I am supposed to be… I mean, if I am not found, do you think that people wont start looking? Do you think that this won't be the beginning of something completely new that you all have to fight against? Think about it" Josie said, feeling hysteria beginning to show its face in her voice. She took a deep breath as she looked around the room.
"Josie, you've been manipulated into believing that you are in love with Malfoy. You need to let us help you" Harry said.
"What? No way, you're crazy. I have not been imperiorised, nor have I been confounded, poisoned, brainwashed or manipulated any other way. This is real and if you or anyone else had bothered to pay the slightest bit of attention to me over the last couple of years, you'd have noticed that I was changing" she said.
"Years?" Lyra asked.
"Yes, I started talking to Draco during the Christmas holidays of my fourth year" she said.
"How didn't anyone know?" Sirius asked.
"We met in secret, sent notes via a charmed piece of parchment. Not that difficult" she said.
"The map though?" Sirius asked, looking between Josie and Harry.
"It doesn't show the fucking Room of Re quirement" Harry said, clearly overwhelmed with this information.
"Harry" Sirius scolded him for swearing. Josie rolled her eyes. Clearly being of age doesn't make you immune to parental scolding.
Harry also rolled his eyes.
"I hate to break up the family reunion but is somebody going to point out the obvious her?" came the voice of the, until now, silent Carina.
Everyone just paused and looked to her, waiting for her to continue.
"She's a death eater. She was responsible for our house burning to the ground, she literally had a hand in KILLING Dumbledore. Why are we so damn concerned about this traitor? This death eater? As far as I'm concerned, we should have called Aurors ten minutes ago when she showed her face in our house, the House of Black, and had her thrown away in Azkaban to rot" Carina said, venom oozing from her words.
"There it is, that's what I was waiting for" Josie said. "Funny, it took a Slytherin to say it, considering the rest of you are all such brave Gryffindors" Josie added.
"Carina, none of us want to see Josie in Azkaban" Sirius said.
"Dads right, Josie doesn't belong. She's being manipulated by someone high up in the ranks and…." Harry started.
"I'M NOT BEING MANIPULATED!" Josie roared, and as she did her hair sparked and the torches in the house all flickered at once.
Sirius looked at her, the briefest flash of fear in his eyes betrayed his calm façade, "Come, lets go down to the kitchen, we'll make a cup of tea and have a real conversation" he said.
"Wait a minute, what about… where's mum?" she asked, as the twins left the room and Josie was ushered towards the door to the hallway.
"That's a long story. One which I'm not sure we should tell you. If anyone has access to your mind…" Sirius said.
"I'm pretty efficient at occlumency" she said in an offhand sort of way. "That's how Draco and I… Well, let's just say that the public image of us is quite different to who we really are and what we are trying to achieve" she said.
"You're brilliant" Sirius said, as he wrapped her in a hug.
"What… what do you mean?" Lyra asked.
"Josie, you mean to tell us that you're faking it?" Sirius asked her.
Josie, having followed the twins to the kitchen and arrived at a long wooden table, sat down and placed her head in her folded arms on the table.
"What point is there in me being an occlumens, if the four of you, who are rubbish at it, know the truth? If you're captured, and the dark lord gets this information from your mind, I'm dead. So is Draco. I'll tell you, but I have to obliviate you all. Now where is mum?" she asked.
"You will not obliviate me" Carina said.
"You can't" screeched Lyra.
"You're underage, its traceable" said Harry.
"While, yes, I am underage, I haven't had the trace on me in months" Josie said.
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked.
"Draco and I got married. I pledged myself to him. I am loyal to him. Technically, he owns me, he commands me, he is responsible for me and my magic. The trace was removed as soon as I said 'I do'. I'm considered an adult now. I can basically do whatever I want" Josie said.
"There you go. He can control everything you do" Harry said, at the same time that Sirius said, "Smart girl" and brought her into his arms.
"He doesn't control me Harry" she said, from the comfort of her dad's arms, "He loves me. He fucking cherishes me, worships the ground I walk on" she added, feeling Sirius cringe at the use of a swear word. She felt the betrayal of tears fall from her eyes. She was exhausted. She should be resting, not facing the inquisition of the century. "Now please, someone tell me where mum is" she said.
Sirius said beside her, taking her hand in his. Josie saw the look of sadness in his eyes and horror crept upon her. Her mother was dead. She had done something that had ended her mother's life.
"she's….?" She began, but the words would not come.
"She's alive" Harry said.
"She used some rather complex magic and it exhausted her. She's been asleep for a little over 2 weeks" Sirius said.
"Where is she?" Josie asked, flashing through images of books she had read throughout her life on magical exhaustion, desperate for something that could help her mother.
Sirius stood and led the way out of the kitchen and up the stairs. They didn't stop n the first landing or even the second. Josie was wondering how big this place actually was when they came to a halt outside a set of double doors. He turned the handle and pushed the door open quietly. Josie gasped when she saw the sight of her mother laying in the bed, her flaming red hair surrounding her head like a halo of goodness.
"What was it… the spell?" Josie asked, not looking away from her mother as she walked to her bedside.
"Fiendfyre" Harry said.
"Fiend... What the hell was she doing casting fiendfyre?" Josie asked.
"Horcruxes" Sirius said.
Josie suddenly looked to him, confusion on her face until she remembered reading about Horcruxes in one of the books at the Manor.
"Does he… how many?" Josie asked.
"Dumbledore believed there to be seven pieces of his soul" Sirius said.
"We've found evidence of six and so far, most of them are destroyed" Harry said.
"The seventh must be…" she began.
"The piece he carries within himself" Harry said, looking to Sirius as though this should have been obvious.
"What are they?" she asked.
"Riddle's diary that was destroyed by the basilisk venom, a ring that was a Gaunt family heirloom, Dumbledore destroyed with a curse that poisoned him, a locket that belonged to Salazar Slytherin and the cup of Helga Hufflepuff that mum destroyed on an island and almost died for" Harry said.
"So, there must be something of Ravenclaw and something of Gryffindor" Josie surmised.
"That's what we thought. But the snake…" Harry said.
"The snake is very humanistic" Josie said.
"Rather strange for an ordinary python, don't you think?" Sirius said.
"Very" Josie agreed.
"We think the last one is the diadem of Ravenclaw" Sirius said.
"You mean the lost diadem of Ravenclaw?" Josie asked.
"That's the one" Harry said.
"No one's ever even seen it. Does anyone know what it even looks like?" Josie asked.
Sirius walked over to a cabinet and tapped it with his wand. A shelf appeared out of, seemingly no where and a stack of papers was presented. He flicked through and took out a few pieces of parchment and handed them to Josie.
"The diadem" he said.
Josie looked at the picture and her eyes went wide.
"I need to go. I need to go back to Hogwarts" she said, standing up.
"You can't do that" Harry said.
"You dot understand. I know exactly where this is. I can get it now and destroy it" she said.
"How are you going to destroy it? Mum almost died trying and she's a hundred times stronger than you'll ever be" Harry said.
"You said that you destroyed the book with the basilisk fang?" she asked.
"Yes" Harry answered.
"Find, I'll go get one. There's an abundance of them in the chamber of secrets" Josie said.
Harry and Sirius looked at her for a second in silence. They were clearly both trying to figure out what to do.
"Just let me go back. I need to go back before anyone becomes suspicious. Draco was due to return any minute and once he finds me gone, he'll search the entire school. Once he's done with that, he'll go home to the Manor and start looking there. Once he finds that I'm not there, he'll tell you-know-who that I've been captured or killed or worse and there will be hell to pay. You have no idea how hard we've worked to build ourselves up in the ranks. He will literally burn the entire world down to look for me" Josie said panicking.
"You're in his ranks?" Sirius asked.
"Yes. I'm his second most trusted person. You have no idea what you've done" she said.
"But you're not even marked" Harry said, looking to her left arm in case there was a dark mark that had been hidden.
"No, I'm not marked, I'm married. That's why. Draco and Narcissa didn't want me taking the mark. That's why I got married at 15. Merlin you boys are slow" she said, turning back to sit beside her mother.
"Can you get to the snake?" Sirius asked.
"I'll need something… something else. I can't kill it with a fang, can I?" she asked.
"The sword" Sirius said.
"The sword of Gryffindor?" she asked.
"You need to find it. It is imbued with basilisk venom" Sirius said.
"That's easy. Its in my vault" she said.
Harry and Sirius looked to each other and sighed.
"Now give me a minute" Josie said, looking back at her mother.
She places a hand on her mother's forehead and closed her eyes. She could see colours in the darkness behind her eyelids. Some were bright, others dim. She could see that her mother was near death, magically exhausted. There was something else that Josie saw, however. There was some darkness there. She wasn't really surprised, given that her mum had used a dark spell.
"I can save her" Josie said.
"How?" Sirius asked, looking hopeful.
"Well, its clear that she will die if she is left here like this. I can see that her magic is still there, only just, but there is some dark magic inside her too. I can absorb the dark magic, lock it away with occlumency and dispose of it later…" she said, as Sirius cringed. "… I can try a spell that will give her some of my magic, temporarily. Her own magic will slowly dissolve it as she becomes stronger, but she will live. I will be weak and will need to go back to Draco immediately…" she said.
"No way, you're staying here" Harry said. "Especially if you're weak" he added.
"You don't understand Harry. When you're married, you're magically bonded to that person. You give them half your magic and they give you half of theirs. Your magic grows around them" Sirius said.
"So why isn't she getting better around you?" he asked. "Why can't you fix her?"
"She already gave away half of her magic when she married your dad. We're married, but it's not the same the second time around" Sirius said sadly.
"Its complicated. Some of mum's magic died when our father died. She was able to grow some of it back, but magic doesn't recognise second marriages Harry" Josie said.
"How do you know all of this?" he asked.
"I'm a Malfoy" she answered.
"You will always be a Potter. Don't ever forget that" Sirius said.
"I'm as much a Potter as mum is an Evans" she said, turning to focus on her mother.
"Like I said, I can give her my magic, which will cure her. She'll wake up and slowly, her magic will grow back… But I'll be running purely on Draco's magic. You'll need to send me back so I can get some of mine from him. They already think I'm unwell, I'll just say that my magic is compromised or something" she said.
"You're unwell?" Sirius asked, glancing down her body towards her stomach.
"Merlin, I'm not pregnant. I'm not stupid" she said. "I had a pretty nasty panic attack and I was out of it for a few days" she said.
"And now you're here" Sirius said.
"Well, its not helping… but I'm fine. I'll be fine" she said.
"And you're sure you can do this?" Harry asked.
"I can do this. Just…" she took a piece of parchment from the stack beside her on the bed and tapped it with her wand. "That's the charm to reverse the portus spell that brought me here. You'll need to send me back as soon as she opens her eyes so she doesn't take too much" Josie said, fearing that if they delay sending her back, that the spell will drain Josie of every ounce of magic she possesses.
"How do you know this will work?" Harry asked.
"There's not much to do at the Malfoy Manor other than read or chit chat with the darkest wizard of all time. I spent most of my time in the library. Then again, so did he… hence the great relationship that I now have with the evil piece of sh…." She stopped her sentence at the look Sirius was giving her.
"So you and… him… would sit and read together?" Harry asked.
"Pretty much" Josie said, thinking back to the days upon days where she sat in the library across from Voldemort while they both read and read and read and he attempted to figure her out by not so subtly digging through her mind while he thought she wasn't aware. Josie knew, however, as soon as her walls were penetrated and her mental compartments begin to shift that someone was in her mind. Voldemort had a subtle way of doing it though, so that most people would have no idea he was in their heads.
"Anyway, I read some books on magic, magical bonding and how to remove someone's magic from them..." she said, pausing at the horrified looks on their faces.
"So… he knows all this. He knows that you have all this knowledge" Sirius asked.
"That's right" she answered.
"So, you're either highly valuable to him as a supporter, or completely dangerous as an enemy" Sirius said.
"Exactly. So, if he thinks I've been taken and swayed by my family, he'll hunt me down, kill you all and kill me for good measure. Then Draco will likely end up dying in search of vengeance because no one will know he's actually unkillable until we destroy the bloody horcruxes" she said, getting worked up. "Now, let me do this. Let me save her. I'll recover enough to get the sword, kill the snake and destroy the diadem" she said. "That should be enough reparations for my part in… in everything" she said sadly.
"Do what you need to do and we'll send you back" Sirius said, hugging his daughter.
Harry hugged her as well, followed by Lyra. Carina stood back, looking at the floor and not saying a word.
"It'll all be ok, I promise" Josie said as she held her hands above her mother's head.
It was all over in minutes, Josie felt the magic pull out of her body and enter her mother, and even though she knew it was enough, she couldn't stop. That was the part that she feared. That they wouldn't recognise the signs and wouldn't send her back in time, if at all. Her magic depended on them knowing when.
If she could move, she would have collapsed on the floor. Instead, her mind went foggy and she felt her body go limp. Her magic was still flowing from her into her mother and she thought she heard the far away sound of her mother's voice say her name before she felt the familiar pull behind her navel.
She felt herself being lifted and placed on something soft and thought she heard two voices in the room. One she recognised as Draco, although he sounded so far away and the other, she was too weak to place.
The familiar sensation of legilimency flashed though her senses and she immediately threw up the barriers to prevent anyone finding out what had happened until she knew who it was. She attempted to open her eyes but the effort it took was too much. Her mind was clouded with such a harsh fog, that it took every ounce of determination to keep her mind closed.
"Draco, you need to give her some of you magic. She has been exhausted" came the voice of Snape.
"What do you mean?" she heard Draco ask.
"Josie, you need to let me in. Show me what happened" Snape asked.
"I'll do it. She trusts me" Draco said, and she felt his soothing magic enter her mind. She allowed him to see, second by second what had happened and showed him the important parts of the information from her memories of how to heal her.
It felt like hours had gone by before the words of the spell were being said above her. She felt the fog beginning to lift, just a little at a time, so far, just enough for her to open her eyes and blink once.
"You're back" Draco said as he kissed her on the forehead.
She could feel his magic within her, as well as a small portion of her own. She closed her eyes and felt enough of her own magic and knew she would be able to regenerate it completely, with enough rest.
Opened her mouth to speak but Draco places a finger on her lips.
"You don't need to say anything. I know what happened and its all going to be ok. We have a plan my love. But... Josie… you've been unconscious for a month" he said.
AN - There are more than 150 fires currently burning in my state alone and 10 of these are at emergency level. The area that has burnt is at least 4 MILLION hectares (9.8 million acres) and it is estimated that over 480 million animals have perished. The closest fire to me is 30km (18.6 miles) away and it is raining ash and burnt leaves in my front yard. Celebrities such as p!nk, Keith Urban and more have dedicated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the relief effort but it will never be enough. People are saying this is the result of climate change, some are saying it is a government conspiracy to free up the land for high speed rail. Either way, it is happening. Its real. It feels like the apocalypse, like hell on earth.
Whatever higher power you believe in, please, beg for rain for us (not too much, because floods are a thing too).