Chapter 3

Long enough to call it courage

Fault lines tremble underneath my glass house,

But I put it out of my mind,

Long enough to call it courage;

To live without a lifeline.

Earth, Sleeping at Last

James knew that sound; the sound of apparition. He glanced over to see that hundreds of Ministry officials were after joining the skirmish. His moment of distraction allowed the Death Eater to send one last curse at James. All he saw was the silver burst of the spell before the Death Eater disapparated.

James sank to the ground in pain. His right leg, where the curse had hit, felt like it was on fire. With the little strength James had left, he dragged himself over to the body of the father who had dropped from the air. James placed two fingers at the man's wrist, but couldn't sense a pulse. Feeling desperate, James moved his fingers to the man's neck, forcing himself to ignore his leg and focus on the man in front of him.

And then, James felt it. The pulse was weak, but it was there, and James felt his heart soar with relief. "Medic! Healer!" he croaked as loud as he could, his voice raw from the shouting. "Medic! Healer!" he repeated more frantically. "Please!" he begged, tears rushing to his eyes as he attempted to ignore his leg. He blinked them back, shouting as loud as he could. "Medic! Over here! Someone please! I need a Healer!"

A man in green robes rushed to James's side and knelt down at the man, feeling for a pulse as James had done, before conjuring up a stretcher and levitating the man onto it. James got to his feet, exhausted, tears streaming down his cheeks as he stared down at the spot where the man had lay, feeling weaker than he had ever done in his whole life.

James knew he should also seek medical attention for his leg, which was now pounding a too-loud pulse and felt possibly like it was bleeding, but all James could focus on was the little girl. He had seen her run off after he had caught her, stopping her from hitting the ground, so he headed in the direction he had seen her go. James was still crying, but he forced himself to keep going, to find the girl and explain to her that the Healers had taken her father, and that he was still alive and that the Death Eaters had disappeared as soon as the Ministry had arrived, as late as that had been.

James all but dragged his right leg behind him, unsure of how exactly he could find this girl. He didn't know her name, and didn't know how long she had ran before hiding. Not long was the answer, as he spotted her crouched behind a bin, trembling. James went over slowly so as not to startle her, and crouched in front of her, despite how his leg screamed.

"Hey," he said softly. She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes, and he imagined that his were looking something similar. "My name is James."

"Sally," she offered quietly. "You were the one that caught me."

"I was," James nodded. He paused. "The Death Eaters are gone now. Some Ministry people apparated, so they took off." She nodded to show she had heard, before opening her mouth and hesitating. Sensing what she was going to ask, James answered it for her. "He still had a pulse. The Healers got him on a stretcher and I'd say they took him back to St. Mungo's."

"Yeah?" she asked, relief instant on her small face.

"Yeah," James smiled, for a second forgetting the pain he was in. "We should get you back to the main street, someone could bring you to your dad."

She nodded, before studying him. "What happened to you?"

James stared at her, startled for a second. "I got hit with a spell right before the Death Eaters disapparated," he finally explained.

"Shouldn't you see a Healer?"

"I probably should," he laughed. "But I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Sally shrugged, before picking herself up off the floor with unsteady feet. Slowly, the two made their way back to where everyone was gathered. They found a Healer who had just apparated, probably back from the hospital.

"Sorry to bother you, but this girl's father was put on a stretcher and brought to the hospital. I was wondering if you knew if someone could bring her there," James asked as politely as he could.

"There's a group of people over there," the Healer began, slightly harried, waving his hand in the direction of a group of people who were huddled at the side of the street. "They have family or friends who were also brought to St. Mungo's. After we're finished examining this lot here, we're going to bring them to the hospital, so if this girl wants to wait with them, we'll make sure she finds her father."

"Thank you so much," James sighed in relief. He turned to walk Sally over to the group, but she refused.

"He needs to be looked at," she said to the Healer, crossing her arms to signify that she wouldn't be going anywhere unless he complied.

The Healer glanced over at James and actually looked at him. His skin was ghostly white and his eyes were red raw. He was sweating profusely and looked like he might fall over at any moment. "You're right," he said finally to Sally. He paused. "How about you join the group over there, and I'll take care of your friend."

Sally hesitated, looking between the Healer and James, before consenting. But first she gave James a hug, which shocked him. "Thank you for helping dad, and for saving my life."

"Any time," James replied, hugging her back. Then Sally extracted herself and ran over to join the huddle of people who were waiting to see loved ones.

"Sit down," the Healer told James, who was almost swaying on his feet. "What happened?"

James collapsed to the floor before answering. "A Death Eater hit me with some sort of curse or something, just before he disapparated," James explained, slowly rolling up his right jeans leg wincing when the material scraped over where the spell had hit his leg.

The Healer went pale at the sight and James felt like he was going to faint. There were two red knife-like slashes in James's leg stretching around his calf and shin, and they were currently oozing blood. His jeans themself weren't cut, but they were beginning to stain dark. James hadn't noticed at first, because they were covered in dirt and dust. "I think there is another cut up here," James said, indicating to his thigh.

"I'm going to use my wand to cut away your pants leg. I promise that I've done this many times before, and that I am not going to hurt you. Is that okay?" the Healer asked clearly. "We can do this another way if you'd prefer.

James hesitated, remembering the feeling of his leg on fire after the Death Eater had hit him with the curse. "Okay," he said finally, "you can do it." James shut his eyes and looked away, knowing that it was illogical for his heart to be pounding so much. He knew that the Healer was here to help him, but he couldn't help the way his stomach clenched and his throat constricted.

"It's done," the Healer said, still pronouncing his words very clearly.

James sighed, feeling as though all the air was being exhaled out of his body. "I didn't feel a thing," he croaked.

"Good," the Healer smiled gently. James looked down at his leg and winced. He was right in saying that there was another cut on his thigh, but seeing all three together was sort of harrowing. His leg was swelling around the cut, but that didn't do much to ease the flow of blood.

"James!" he heard someone call from behind him. He tried to twist around, but couldn't turn all the way without moving his leg and he didn't feel up to that. "Prongs!" the person called again, and this time James could here that it was Sirius.

"Over here!" he called back, hoping that Sirius could tell which direction his voice was coming from. He was lucky Sirius had dog-like hearing, because his best mate found him soon enough. Perhaps James should've waited until his leg was looking less deformed.

"Oh my-" Sirius dropped to the ground, kneeling next to James. "James..." he trailed off whispering. "What the hell happened?"

"There was a Death Eater attack actually, don't know if you knew about that," James said, attempting at humour, though there wasn't much heart in it.

"James, I'm serious..."

"I know you are. I'm James."

This time Sirius cracked a small smile. "Wow, you must be feeling really terrible if you're making a 'serious' pun."

James grinned in reply, before instantly wincing when the Healer touched the skin around one of his calf cuts.

"Sorry," the Healer said softly. "I'm just trying to assess the situation."

"It's fine," James said through gritted teeth, even though he meant the sentiment. He knew the Healer was just trying to examine his leg, and knew that that would include actually handling the cuts, but it was impossible to ignore the pain that flared up in his leg when the cut had been touched.

"What happened?" Sirius asked, bringing James's attention back on him.

"I'm not sure. When the Ministry people arrived, I got distracted for a split second. I don't know what spell the Death Eater cast, he did it non-verbally."

"Don't that mean the spell wouldn't have as much power as a verbal spell would?" Sirius asked, brow furrowed.

"You'd think," James said, wincing again as the Healer continued with his assessment.

"Do you remember what colour the spell was?" the Healer asked him. "It might help me to identify the spell and therefore, the problem."

"What do you mean 'problem'?" Sirius asked, his voice climbing higher and higher. "It's very obviously the cuts in his leg."

"The spell was silver," James replied, ignoring Sirius. "He made three slashes in the air I think, which could equate to the three slashes in my leg."

The Healer nodded. "That could mean that the spell doesn't specifically make three slashes, it was only three because the Death Eater decided then and there."

James nodded. "So whatever the spell was, it makes a sort of knife-like cut in my leg?"

"It would seem so," the Healer replied slowly. "But I've never seen cuts like these before. I don't think they're the regular sort of knife cuts. And not just because of the fact that they were made with a wand, but because of the way your leg is swelling."

"I thought that legs swell when you're cut? Or at least a small bit."

"Sometimes, yes," the Healer admitted. "But I don't like the look of the swelling."

"So what can we do?" Sirius asked, his voice still pitched higher than usual.

"We'll have to get him to St. Mungo's," the Healer explained to Sirius, "we can run more extensive tests there, and can do a better job of patching him up."

"Where do you need me to wait?" James asked.

"Over there is where some less critical patients are waiting," the Healer said, gesturing to a group not far from where Sally had gone.

"I'll help you over," Sirius offered.

"Thank you," James said the Healer, who smiled slightly before to see if someone else needed his help.

"This is probably going to hurt a lot," Sirius warned.

James took a deep breath. "That's fine."

"1, 2, 3," Sirius counted down, before hoisting James up. James did his best to help, but felt instantly weak once he was off the ground. He could feel the blood draining from his face, and he felt like he was going to faint. He staggered a small bit, with Sirius there to help him stand straighter. "You okay?" Sirius asked, looking concerned as he stared at James's grey face.

"I'm fine," James replied through gritted teeth.

"No one who has said that they're fine has ever been fine," Sirius joked, though his face remained worried.

James let out a strangled laugh, before promptly fainting.