He tried to only glance briefly towards the patient. He had always found the scene unsettling. She was locked in a magically-induced coma that slowed her time to a near stand-still. Her mouth was starting to pull into a grimace that stretched the fresh claw marks on her neck. The claw marks were full of a silvery substance that contrasted sharply with her dark brown skin, making the marks glint maliciously like sharp knifes.
He turned away from the painful sight. It had been a mercy that Harry had vetted the werewolf pack quickly enough that Teddy only spent his first three changes here.
He left the patient and crossed the room to where his cage had been. One of it's corners had pressed up against a window.. He had spent most of his lucid nights here staring out that window at the moon. It was practically all he had been able to see.
He stepped closer to the window and gazed down. Below him was the traffic of people, buses, and cars that was London. Just a normal Sunday. It seemed cruel that there hadn't been a hitch in this bustle of life even in the Wizarding world when Lilith had died. None of the people close to Teddy seemed to care either; even though his world had frozen around Lilith's death. Sure, they didn't have a reason to care. That didn't stop it from rubbing him the wrong way. He pressed his forehead against the glass and heaved a huge sigh. He was abruptly struck by the image of Lilith's blackened skin and a second image of the awkward angle her head had fallen in death.
He jolted away from the glass and gasped. He blinked violently, trying to get the after-image to go away. Why the hell had he been hit with Lilith's death image so suddenly? Usually something triggered it.
He glanced warily around. Nothing had changed. It was still just him and the patient in the room. What had triggered those memories of Lilith's dead body? Did it have something to with the patient? Reluctantly, he crossed the room to exam her more closely.
The patient had been helping Harry with the Moonlight Killer case when she had been attacked. When she had port-keyed into the hospital in rough shape, the healers had done everything they could to treat the wounds. But, after a few days, it was clear she was dying. As a last effort, she was placed in a magical coma until they figured out how to heal her. Only, they never did.
Teddy cynically wondered if they would have put in the effort to keep her in the coma if she had been anybody else but best friend to Harry Potter and one-third of the Golden Trio.
Had the killer planned to do the same thing to Hermione that he had done to Lilith? How had Hermione managed to survive? Why hadn't Lilith?
What if Hermione had been able to describe her attacker before she was too far under? Lilith wouldn't have been killed. So many people wouldn't have died if she hadn't had to be put in that coma. "What do you know about your attacker?" he asked. "How do we catch him?"
She, of course, did not answer.
He sighed again and the same visions of Lilith pricked his mind. Only this time he finally realized what the connection was. It was scent. Each time he sighed, he breathed a large lungful of the potion cocktail that covered Hermione. Her smell was more complex, but over it all was the same nauseating combination of scents that had been on Lilith's body.
Teddy moved closer. Hermione's wounds were larger than he had previously thought. There was a set of slashes that started at her throat and then dragged down her left neck to her breastbone. Like maybe something had gone to rip out her throat but she had turned away from the claws.
Her wounds were not as dark as Lilith's had been. They were still dark on the outsides, which made the wounds looks smaller than they were, but the silver substance had pooled into the deepest parts of the gashes. The silver had also gathered into a thicker goop at her collarbone. The silver potion was probably something the hospital had put on her, but why was it the scent on both Lilith and Hermione?
It was a very strong smell of burning and rust and would have been hard to miss. Surely they would have neutralized any potion she had in her system? Maybe the smell had just ingrained itself into her hospital gown. Or the smell hadn't been neutralized when the potion had been?
Still, it was something worth looking into. Or, at least, asking Hasan to look into for him. Had they found anything when they compared the potion and magic screens from Lilith and Hermione? Could they use the similarities as a lead? Maybe Hermione could help them catch the Moonlight Killer after all.
