A/N: Welcome back! I hope you're having a great day! I'm here with another chapter to really put the cherry on top. And you'd better put your seatbelts on as there's more fun coming up!

Chapter Thirteen

'Welcome back,' Dumbledore was beaming around at the students. 'I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.'

His smiling sentiment was not shared by Lily and her friends. Lily rubbed at her leg; it had been aching all day and when she stood for too long, she started to feel sick. Dorcas, who was sat to her right, touched her jaw gently – it had been broken by a Death Eater at the protest and Nellie was no professional Healer though she had tried her best. Marlene, Hestia and Emmeline were all staring at their empty plates, a pained flickering in the back of their eyes. And Mary was slumped against the table, her head hidden by her hands; Mr and Mrs MacDonald had been furious to discover that she had sneaked out, to a protest nonetheless that they had warned her to stay away from.

'But I have kept you long enough. Tuck in!'

As talk broke out, Mary slowly raised her head, glancing up at the High Table as the food appeared.

'It's all very well him smiling.' she said bitterly, stabbing two sausages with her fork and dumping them on her plate. 'He's not doing anything. I thought he's supposed to be the greatest wizard of all time…'

'I'm sure he's doing something.' Lily replied, experimentally swallowing a mouthful of soup. It did not settle well in her stomach. 'I think Eup–' she broke of, considering James might overhear her and thus find out she had met his mother. The boy had an eerily good sense of hearing sometimes.

'Well, he's not now.' Mary grumbled, glaring down at her fork.

'Neither are you.' Lily pointed out mildly. 'I think you're both entitled to eat once in a while. If no one ate, we'd all be dead and You–Know–Who would have nothing to do.'

'Oh, you're so funny.' Mary muttered and Lily grinned slightly, shaking her head slightly. She quickly regretted the motion as her stomach churned.

But Lily didn't push the matter any further. Since the protest Mary had been in a rather unpredictable mood. What had been girlish excitement before the protest had been roughly eclipsed by something that Mary had no inclination in sharing.

'Mae, don't get pissed at Lily.' Dorcas piped up from Lily's right, clearly not so deterred by Mary's shift in personality. 'She's not done anything wrong.'

'I'm not saying she has.' Mary retorted.

'Then why're you getting so pissed?' Dorcas' eyes flashed suddenly. ''Cos the way I looked at the protest, you didn't do anything at all. There I was with a broken jaw, we're all fighting and, where were you? Oh, that's right! Flooed away to safety. How was that for you, Mae?'

'D-don't say that!' Mary stood up, tears pricking in her eyes. 'I did fight! I just couldn't… That's not fair!'

She rushed from the hall, sobbing, many eyes following the single student running from the hall, who stood out terribly from the rest. Lily bit her lip, wondering whether she ought to follow her.

'Bit harsh, Dorcas.' Emmeline reprimanded, frowning at her. 'So what if she got scared and left? Weren't we all fighting to get out safely?'

'Yes, we were fighting.' Dorcas agreed, chuckling darkly. 'She didn't do a thing.'

'I think one of us should go after her.' Hestia mumbled, nervous at the sight of Dorcas' angry expression. Marlene nodded her agreement.

'I'll go.' Lily volunteered, making to stand up but Dorcas' scoff made her falter. 'What?'

'Trust me, Lily, you're the last person she wants to talk to.'

'And why's that?' Lily was growing impatient at the way Dorcas had decided to be vague. 'What did I do?'

'You didn't do anything, Mary's just a dick.'

Lily's eyes narrowed. If one were to split up their friendship group into best friends, Dorcas and Mary would be paired together, and, despite the fact that she was clearly furious with her, Dorcas was obviously concealing something for her. Tapping her foot, Lily sighed. She didn't have time for this. Her time putting weight on her leg was limited before she started feeling faint and she had to find Mary.

Stepping over her bench, Lily limped down the gap between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Her head was starting to pound as she reached the double doors into the Entrance Hall. She would have to open one of the to get through and with her brain thumping against her skull, she was sceptical whether she could manage it. Gritting her teeth, Lily reached out and wrenched open the door.

For a second, she her head's condition still felt bearable, but then darkness started to spread across her vision, and she was sucked into unconsciousness. Her leg was really proving to be a significant obstacle.

…

Lily awoke feeling like she was floating in the air. At first, as her drowsy eyes took in the view of the ceiling above her, she thought she might be, since it was far closer to her than that of the Great Hall. Then she blinked, realising she was lying in the hospital wing. Hastily, she pushed herself into a sitting position, her eyes scanning the room for Madame Pomfrey.

She found her by an open window, accepting a letter from a delivery owl. As she shut the window, she unfurled the letter with her free hand, read it quickly and then started striding over to Lily's bed. She was so focused on walking that she started when she noticed her patient was awake.

'Did I faint?' Lily asked unnecessarily. The matron nodded. 'I thought so.'

'Yes, well, I've just received word from St Mungo's. They've scheduled an appointment for you in less than half an hour so I'm going to have to Floo you there.'

'An appointment?' Lily's heart was thumping uncomfortably fast. Surely, that didn't mean she what she thought that meant.

'Since you didn't decide to make one yourself after plainly worsening your injury, I took the liberty of doing it myself.'

'And how was I supposed to do that?' Lily muttered under her breath. 'I'm Muggle-born and I don't own an owl.'

'A – er – friend of mine is the hospital's specialist on curses. He's agreed to see you on such short notice given the urgency of the matter. If you are to have your leg amputated, he will also be your physician.' Madame Pomfrey informed her, starting to usher her out of the bed.

'So, I'm definitely losing my leg?' Lily checked, trying to keep her voice as casual as she could.

'Nothing is definite until you've had your appointment.' she replied vaguely, leading Lily over to the fireplace.

Pointing her wand at the flames in the grate, she murmured something, turning them a vivid green. Together, the two women stepped into the fireplace and as soon as Madame Pomfrey voiced their desired destination, they started whizzing through the world of fireplaces.

Despite how uncomfortable it was, this method of transportation had always made her wonder at the magic behind it. How they flew through this labyrinth of chimneys and fire grates must have had some very complex magic making it function. Ancient magic perhaps. Like that that had caused her injury. The injury that meant she might lose her leg…

Lily's stomach lurched as they stumbled out into the St Mungo's waiting room. For the only magical hospital in Britain it was very quiet, there was only the bored receptionist to keep them company, but then Lily recalled that it must have been quite late. She had fainted at the evening feast and now it would be even later.

'Poppy?'

A tall man appeared at the foot of a set of stairs at the side of the waiting room. He had a thick set of hair that sadly showed sides of receded when one looked closely, despite the voluminous locks that hung over the forehead. He grinned at the pair of them, coming over in his lime green uniform.

'Exon!' Madame Pomfrey smiled in recognition and Lily glancing between the two adults, smirked to herself. 'It's so good to see you.'

They embraced for a little longer than two individuals who were simply friends. Lily coughed.

'I – oh, yes!' Exon let go and held out a hand to Lily, the two adults both blushing brilliantly. 'You must be Lily Evans.'

'That's me.' Lily accepted his hand, blinking a little in surprise at his enthusiasm in shaking it.

'I'm Exon – I mean, Healer Fawley.'

'A pleasure to meet you.' she replied politely.

'Well, we'd better go take a look at your leg. Poppy, you're free to come with us.' He grinned at her and the Hogwarts matron blushed deeper, patting her hair.

'No, no. I'll wait here.'

Nodding, Exon led Lily up the staircase he had come from, helpfully offering her an arm when her leg gave her a little trouble after a whole set of stairs. They eventually reached the second floor and walked along a long corridor of wards until they reached Exon's office. The door was a wonderful mahogany one and he pushed it open, indicating Lily lie down on his examination table.

She obliged, slipping off her tights first and then clambering onto the table. Carefully, he undid the bandage covering her wound and then pulled a magnifying glass out from his robes, polishing it quickly and then peering through it at the blackened flesh.

'Incredible.' he murmured, producing a scalpel and prodding at his area of interest. 'Sorry,' he added hastily, a flush creeping up his neck. 'I'm a researcher by trade… I don't deal with a lot of patients… But I specialise in curses so I'm the man for the job.'

'I don't mind.' Lily assured him, smiling slightly. 'It's nice not to be fussed over.'

Exon didn't say anything for a moment; he had been distracted by one of the streaks of bright green.

'You don't happen to know who cast the curse do you?' he asked, poking it experimentally with his scalpel.

'It was – well, at least I think it was – Bellatrix Lestrange…' Lily confessed uncertainly, starting a little at how fast Exon twisted his head to stare at her face. Then, much to her surprise, he beamed.

'You know, I actually wrote a dissertation just recently on the curses from old pureblood families. Mine's one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight so I grew up hearing about those kinds of things. Not that my family had any themselves – excellent selection of rare plants though – but some of the others do. They pass on family secrets to the next generation and most of the time it's a spell of some kind.'

'Oh.' Lily wasn't quite sure what to do with that information.

'Well, anyway, Bellatrix Lestrange was a Black before she married, and I'll bet this curse comes from them.' Exon put down his scalpel and magnifying glass, moving away from her to a large bookcase behind his desk. He perused it for a moment before picking up a large red volume that looked relatively new. He flicked it open. 'Here we are.'

'If it's a secret then how do you have a book with it in?' Lily inquired curiously, turning her head so she could see him reading. Exon laughed.

'Unluckily for the Blacks, they've had their fair share of betrayals.' He came back over to where Lily lay. 'This is my dissertation. A lot of my knowledge on the subject has its foundations in the interviews I did with Andromeda Tonks. She's a part-time Healer here.'

'And why does she know about them?'

'She used to be a Black too, but unlike her older sister, she's sane.' Exon pulled out his wand. 'She ran away – good on her – and married a Muggle-born when she was nineteen.'

Lily tried to imagine a sane version of Bellatrix Lestrange but failed miserably.

'And then there's her cousin Sirius.' Exon continued conversationally and Lily snapped into a sitting position.

'As in Sirius Black?' she checked, not entirely sure why she was so surprised when Exon nodded. Sirius, just like James, had the air of a pureblood upbringing but somehow, despite not liking him for her first five years at Hogwarts, she had never connected him with the notoriously Slytherin House of Black. He was just very Gryffindor.

'Yeah, him.' Exon grinned, muttering an incantation that made Lily's injury glow bright gold. 'Sorted into Gryffindor, can you imagine? Actually, you're probably in the same year, or at least around the same year group. Do you know him?'

'A little.' Lily admitted and Exon nodded, going back over to the bookcase but this time rifling around in one of the drawers of his desk.

'I met him once at one of these pureblood ball things.' A chuckle escaped him. 'I don't think I've ever seen anyone less happy to be somewhere in my life and I'd seen myself in one of the mirrors in that ballroom.'

Finding a small potion vial, Exon walked back to Lily and handed it to her. Understanding she was expected to drink the potion, Lily did so, wincing at its sharp taste.

'That should stop any pain for what I'm about to do.'

'What're you going to do?' Lily asked, a little panicked at the sudden amplitude in what he was doing. Everything had been quite tame up until now.

'I'm going to cut off any cursed tissue – and any cursed bone if you have any.' he replied as if this was completely ordinary. 'I'll then regrow what I've taken away but it'll be healthy and that should spare you a complete amputation. If it doesn't work, then I'll have to, but the spell I used a second ago – the one that made your injury gold – should have stopped any more spread.'

'Aren't you going to put me under anaesthetic or take me to an operating theatre or something?'

'Is that how Muggles do operations?' he asked, apparently surprised at her concern. 'There's a Santiation Spell in this room so everything automatically cleans itself every few seconds.'

'But I'm going to be conscious when you cut into my leg?' Lily clarified, a little rattled by how blasé Exon was being about the whole thing. She decided then and there that if she was ever injured in a way that meant she could attend either a Muggle or magical hospital, she would always choose the Muggle one.

'Of course not.' Exon laughed. 'I don't want you to be traumatised. I'll Stun you before I do anything.'

Lily was still spluttering. Everything was moving too quickly. About an hour ago she had thought she would certainly be losing her leg. Now there was a chance to save it.

'Couldn't Madame Pomfrey do this? I mean, couldn't she have done this when I first got my injury? Why didn't you identify the curse straight away?'

'I was still writing my dissertation at the time. This information is very new – well, at least newly available.' he explained, unfazed by her evident stress. 'Just lie back. It'll be over before you know it.'

'Oh, God.' Lily said, lying down and scrunching up her eyes. 'Tell me when it's over.'

'Stupefy.'

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