Disclaimer:

I do not pretend to own the Harry Potter world or any character within it: that right belongs to the eminent J. K. Rowling, to whom I most respectfully yield.

Neither do I pretend to be an expert on the early legends of King Arthur and the fabled Isle of Avalon. They belong to posterity and my imagination.

If, in writing, I offend someone, I apologize, but stand by my opinions.

I write this solely for my own amusement and for the appreciation of my audience. NO monetary gain whatsoever is intended.

I have no money, don't sue me, I'm not worth it, and there are bigger fish to fry.

Chapter Seven

Anna stumbled back through the portrait hole nearing eleven in the night. Harry and Ron rushed to see her but it was George who got there first and gave her a congratulatory slap on the back that made her face go white and her knees buckle.

"What's wrong?" George asked the ashen faced Anna, "Aren't you happy 'bout this? After all, it was you that got us the try out."

"Overjoyed," she gritted her teeth, "Lady Raven's just been working a bit on my protection spells, I'm a little sore."

"Oh your poor back!" Hermione exclaimed, "Are you alright?"

"I'm just going to go upstairs for a spell and lay down." Ann walked gingerly up the stairs, "Don't mind me."

Hermione flew up the stairs behind her and helped Anna lay down onto her own bed, face first. George's slap must have disturbed something under her tunic, because red was seeping through the fabric.

"Oh my god," Ron exclaimed softly, he and Harry having followed almost at Hermione's heels. "What the hell happened to you?"

"One of the protections spells for her body didn't work properly last time," Hermione said briskly, using scissors to snip off her tunic. As she began to pull off the blood soaked tunic and shirt she gasped at the sight of the freshly removed, grafted, and inked portions of the skin on her back. "Lady Raven must have removed it and put on the other."

"I thought you couldn't remove a magical tattoo" Harry said, "Especially if its spell bearing."

"You can't" Anna grunted, tightly, through gritted teeth, as Hermione removed the sodden shirt, leaving her bare to the waist, "You've got to take the whole bit of skin off and start fresh" 

 "This is outrageous," Hermione said quietly, enraged at the sight in front of her. All of the cuts were unsealed, still oozing slightly and beginning to get the puffy redness that signalled a possible infection. "Madame Pomfrey can heal split flesh in an instant, and they left you like this."

"I wasn't supposed to use my connections to help the twins," Anna said tightly, "It's my own damn fault. Its only pain, it'll go away soon enough. It needed to be done anyhow; it's my fault that it ended out this way."

"They did this to you because of that!" Ron exclaimed, shocked.

"That's barbaric" Harry muttered, "If this gets infected you could die."

"I knew what I was doing and I knew what would happen when I did it! There's an anti-infector spell in there somewhere. They won't let me die." Anna shouted, frustrated and in pain, "That's just the way it is, there are rules and there are consequences for breaking the rules. Now if you're just going to stand there and criticize my family and my way of life, then you can leave."

"We're not going anywhere," Hermione said firmly. "Ron, go get our potions ingredients. Harry, get her head up, and move her hair out of the way." She rummaged in her trunk and removed a book, flipping it open and laying it on the bed.

"What's that?" Anna asked, as Harry moved her curly hair off of the nape of her neck and pillowed her head on his lap, climbing up onto the pillows of Hermione's bed. Hermione held up her book so Anna could read the title, The Practical Mediwitch.

"Mum insisted I get this after what happened last year," Hermione grunted as she removed a set of jars in a kit labelled, First Aid, from her trunk. "And I think we're going to put it to good use."

Ron came back with their combined satchel of potions ingredients, "I locked the door, but they're having such a party I doubt they'd notice anyhow."

"Good, now come here." Hermione directed, "Get out my cauldron. Start mixing this up." she handed him the book, opened to a specific page. "I'm going to see what I can do for the pain."

"It's just pain," Anna mumbled, "don't bother."  

 "That's it!" Hermione shouted, slamming her hand down on the bedside table. "I'm sick and tired of hearing you say that you're not worth consideration. You deserve more then to sit there in pain, you deserve more than to be punished for simple human decency, and you deserve more then to have to obey the sadistic whims of some batty old witch!"

Anna's shoulders started to shake, at first Harry thought she was crying, but she smiled at Hermione and said, "I can't image Mother's expression if she heard you call her a batty old witch"  

Hermione shook her head, exasperated, and set to work. From his position Harry could see clearly whatever it was Hermione was doing. Curiously he examined some of the other marks on Anna's back. They were runes, some of them Harry recognised, some he didn't. The bloody patches were painfully obvious, and after a few minutes of work he asked Hermione "Didn't you say that you could knit this back together in seconds?"

"Madame Pomfrey could heal it in a few seconds," Hermione clarified, "But I'm not Madame Pomfrey and I don't have Professor Snape and the contents of the Potions cupboard at my disposal." Hermione pointed her wand at Ron, "I've got him and our Student Potions satchel."

"Hey!" Ron protested, "I'm working on it."

"I know, Ron," Hermione's voice softened, "it's just frustrating not to have what I need to make this work." She walked over and stroked Anna's hair, "Are you in pain anymore?"

Harry felt her shake her head, knocking against his knee slightly, "I can't feel a thing, and it's absolutely marvellous."

"Good," Hermione said, satisfied, "Ron, are you almost done?"

"Yeah, just let me…" he swished off the fire underneath the pewter cauldron, with his wand "We're good, now what are you going to do with it? Can I help?"

"Get me those jars," Hermione pointed at the First Aid kit, "and, no offence, but just go away. I need to concentrate."

Ron nodded and sat at one of the chairs at the dressing table. From that position both he and Harry could see what it was Hermione was doing. She used her wand to shred the shirt and tunic Anna'd been wearing into strips. The strips were wet in the potion that Ron brewed up and used to gently clean out the cuts.

Anna flinched, but held still. Hermione muttered an incantation and the bleeding stopped, Hermione wiping up the last droplets. She rubbed on potions and spelled with her wand, until the angry cuts and welts started to fade considerably. She gently bandaged the last few bits, the deeper cuts, and poured Ron's potion over them.

"Alright, you can roll over now" Hermione said at last.

"No," Anna disagreed, "I can't."

"What!" Hermione exclaimed, "I did everything right, you should feel fine."

"I feel great, love, you did wonderfully." She reassured Hermione. "Just can't roll over because I'm not wearing a shirt." Harry could feel her face heat while it rested on his leg. Her fingers, intertwined with his, gave him a squeeze.

Suddenly the two boys realized that they'd been watching her be treated while she was still only half dressed. They nearly fell over each other to get out of the way and turn their backs to give her a moment of privacy.

"You can turn back now," she said softly, "Thank you."

They saw her sitting on the bed, wet spots staining Hermione's coverlet from her potion pouring escapade. Anna's face was drawn in an expression they weren't familiar with, vulnerability. Her eyes were shadowed and tear tracks were still fresh on her face. She had her arms wrapped around her middle, rocking slightly, scared.

Harry's heart contracted, he hated to see people hurting. He crawled back onto the bed and awkwardly put his arms around her, being careful to avoid the sore spots on her back. She turned into him, sobbing softly, nestling her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Here," Hermione said thickly, pained at her patient's pain, "Drink this."

"What is it?" Anna asked, her voice muffled by Harry's shoulder.

"Dreamless sleep potion" responded Hermione, "Drink it, you need to rest."

"Ok," she took the small phial, and chugged down the bitter liquid and Harry felt her muscles go almost instantly slack. He held her, sliding off the bed and cradling her sleeping body. He walked over to her bed and waited. .

Ron and Hermione pulled back the coverlet and sheet on Anna's bed, making room for her and Harry tucked her into it. She weighed a lot less than she probably should. He tugged the sheet back up, gently so not to jar her, and pulled up the coverlet.

Quietly he, Hermione, and Ron cleaned up after themselves. Harry cleaned up the spilled ingredients, putting them back into the satchel and Ron scrubbed out the cauldron. Hermione stripped the bed sheets they'd dirtied, fetching fresh ones from the closet nearby.

"I can't believe they did that to her" Ron finally said, "That's just inhuman."

"It needed to be done anyhow," Hermione said, "The old spell didn't work. It needed to be taken out and replaced. It didn't give them the right to leave her without the pain spells, though, no matter what they think she did."

"I'll bet they didn't use one during the procedure either," Harry said angrily, "it must have been…" he couldn't find a word to describe what she had to have felt.

"They knocked her cold," Hermione said softly, "There were still traces of the spells on her back, an anti-inflammatory spell and an anaesthetic. She didn't feel a thing. It's just the recovery they left her for and I'll bet that Wren's up here in the morning with a better potion than we could make to really heal her."

"Why are you defending them?" Ron asked; hurt "Look at what they did to her!"

"They need her too much to treat her too badly," Hermione said simply, "It's like if Harry did something bad enough to get expelled: do you think Dumbledore would truly kick him out right now?" both boys shook their heads.

"No, he'd never do that, because we need him too much, especially now. She knows that she'll never be 'expelled' if you will, but they can still make her life as miserable as possible." Hermione pushed some bushy hair out of her face, "It's just like she said: there are rules, and if you break them there are consequences. She was willing to take the consequence if it meant breaking the rule." Hermione slammed her trunk shut, "they just believe that pain is good for the soul."

"That's insane," remarked Harry, "Why does she put up with it?"

"Because," Hermione said simply, "If I'm not mistaken, and I don't think I am, it's all she's ever known. They've given her everything she has in her life, what else can she do?"

Ron looked at Harry and Harry at Ron, neither of them could find anything to say to Hermione's argument. How do you tell someone who's been raised to obey, that her obedience of a lifetime is wrong?