Chapter 59 – Fur and Hide

The sun was low. Students had come out in teams to finish the locating and evacuation of the remaining injured and killed from the battlefield. Working in teams, they were busily gathering wands, friends' and foes' alike, so that Death Eaters and their allies could not grab them and try to fight their way away or disapparate. Some of those injured had only been knocked out by minor curses, Impedimenta and the like, useful in a battle, especially where you have to watch out for friendly fire, but only temporary. Even the Death Eaters had generally held back from the killing curse because of the risk of hitting their own. Wand-to-wand combat was no place for the avada kedavra. Other teams had been assigned to stand guard against the creatures of the Forbidden Forest, many of whom would make a feast of the injured and dead if given a chance.

Harry spied a location a hundred yards away with both red sparks and purple sparks – an ally dead or dying. He pointed and they all ran over. A woman was lying face down, with one leg pointing off at an angle from a point four inches below the knee. The jagged bone was jutting out, but that was not why she had gotten the purple sparks. She was impaled on the remains of a broomstick, visible sticking out of her back, just inside the right pelvis. It looked like it must have entered from the other side.

Harry knelt close to her and gasped. "Tonks!"

Tonks was shivering, barely breathing. She turned a little and whispered, "Harry? You made it! …I zigged when I … should have zagged; … giant got me …like swatting … a fly … against a tree." She tried to swallow and then added, "I'm cold, so c-c-cold."

Harry felt her cheek and she was. She would be dead in no time if he didn't act quickly. He took a breath and felt that he could do this. He knew the injury would heal in him, if he could only bear the pain. But she was in shock and wasn't feeling all of it. He would feel it, every bit. He would have to: his feelings for her weren't the same affection he had for Ron, but he loved Tonks too. He would just have to take this from her.

"Hold onto my shoulders," he told them. "Hold me up – it's, uh, pretty stressful magic."

Ron and Ginny knelt on either side of him and held at the top of his arms. Harry pulled the hood of his robes over his head so they wouldn't see him grimace with the pain. Harry focused his thoughts on caring for Tonks, reaching out to her, connecting, strengthening, healing. He remembered the very special time they shared the summer before, and the close loving friendship and affection that remained. He told himself he loved her enough to take those injuries from her, he believed he loved her enough to take those injuries from her, and then he knew he loved her enough to take those injuries from her. The green glow fell upon her and the others all caught their breath in surprise.

Tonks breathed deeply. "I'm feeling warmer, must be close to dying now. I wonder if Sirius will be up for Exploding Snap."

Harry's eyes teared up. "No!" he screamed, he wasn't going to let Tonks go as Sirius had. He desperately pled for all those injuries to come to him. He didn't care how much he hurt. He had seen Sirius die – he wasn't ready to let someone else go, not if there was anything he could do. The green light became even deeper. The pain set in. He felt his abdomen, intestines and back rip, just as Tonks' had when the broomstick came through. His innards were on fire and freezing at the same time. He felt like he would heave. He gritted his teeth to keep from breaking his concentration. He felt his leg break and his robe shift as his lower leg angled away and his ankle twisted. He hoped the others would not see that. But what was important was that Tonks was starting to sound stronger. She breathed more deeply. Her leg straightened. The shard of broomstick fell out of her and the wound healed over. Harry's leg straightened, the gash in his belly healed over, and the pain subsided.

Tonks rolled over. "I just had the strangest dream. I was injured in the battle and…"

She saw their faces and realized it was no dream.

"What happened? I should be dead by now."

Ginny was the first one who could find words. "Harry can heal," she said. "You were this close to dead! He took the injury clean away!"

Ron remained staring.

"Ron, what …?" said Tonks, and then she realized. The broomstick crash had torn away the entire front of her robe. She pulled what was left together.

"Uh-oh! Not bad for an 'older woman', huh?"

Hermione hit Ron in the arm. "Men!"

"What? I was just seeing, erm, how well she had healed."

He didn't sound very convincing, and Ginny tittered.

"We don't have time for play," said Harry grimly. "There are more purple sparks out there."

As Harry got up, Hermione said quietly, "Harry, while you were healing Tonks, I thought I saw…"

Harry held up his hand to stop her. "Now's not the time. We have to get to as many as we can. Look how close we were with her."

"But Harry …"

"Not now,' he said in a tone of intense finality.

They set out to the nearest purple sparks, as Hermione gave a little sniffle. When they got to the next location, they found Ernie McMillan. They couldn't see what was wrong. He wasn't moving. Hermione checked him several ways: for a pulse, for breath, for pupil dilation. He was dead.

"No!" demanded Harry, as much to himself and Ernie as to the others. "We've got to try."

Harry dropped to his hands and knees over Ernie and soon the green glow bathed him. And just as quickly, it stopped.

"There's nothing there I can heal."

Harry cursed. He and Ernie had never really been close friends. Other than DA meetings and the one weekend in the summer he had visited, they hadn't hung out together. But Ernie was a decent guy and had been a fine and dedicated leader, and it hurt Harry deeply to know with such cold certainty that Ernie was dead.

"Come on. We have to hurry. Every second counts."

Harry would not allow himself to care about physical pain. Too many people had died. He had the ability to stop it for some, if only he could get to them in time – and find enough care in his heart for them to overcome the body's aversion to such pain.

The next purple and red sparks they saw led them to a pile of shabby robes that looked familiar. But the shape inside them was not. There was a sharp furry snout projecting. A low furry forehead was deeply indented. Harry looked up at the full moon.

"It's Remus!" he said. "Hold me up again. Hermione, stand by to stun him as hard as you can. With the full moon, he'll be dangerous once I've healed his injuries. But wait until he's healed – I don't think he could take it right now."

It occurred to Harry that Lupin must have decided to put off taking his wolfsbane potion, which would have left him too weak and docile to fight. If not for the injuries, he would have easily made it back to the castle before the moon rose. Harry knelt on hands and knees, pulling his hood as far forward as it would go again. Ginny and Ron grabbed the shoulders of his robe. The green glow came much quicker now. Harry was getting much better with practice. His skull crushed over the left eye and ear. He felt pain searing through his entire body as fur erupted, his hands became paws, and a snout erupted between his eyes. Lupin's body transformed back into a human again, with no injuries, and the green light subsided, as Harry painfully became Harry again. It had taken little more than two minutes, but they were two absolutely awful minutes.

Lupin opened his eyes and saw the full moon. He started to yell, "Stun me, bind me, do something before I change to the werewolf!"

"No worry, mate," said Ron smiling. "You already were. Harry changed you back. He's learned to heal people."

Lupin put his hand to his head.

Ron continued glibly. "That's gone, too. He just draws the injury out."

Harry knew that it was more than that, but that would do for now. Remus held his face straight-on toward the full moon filtering through the broken branches above, testing to see if he would change again.

Harry waited a few seconds and then, convinced the lycanthropy was over for this month, said, "We've got to hurry. If you're okay, 'Mooncalf,' they'll need you to help get the injured back to the castle. You know what needs to be done. Sorry to be short with you. There are others in need. We'll talk later."

Remus remained staring at the moon, speechless. Harry moved on; he couldn't wait for thanks. It was unnecessary and it took time – time he could ill afford.

"Harry?" Hermione said, catching up to him as he strode on ahead of the others toward the next set of flares.

"Not now," he said impatiently, "we have others to get to."

"It's something different. We'll talk as we go. When you were healing Remus, I got to feeling quite drained, like I had some sort of illness. And once you and he were healed …" (Harry pursed his lips at the realization that she knew that he had to take on the injury to heal others), "I returned to feeling fine - better than before."

"Listen, thanks for telling me, but there's no time to noodle it out. We'll work on it as we go."

They found four more, auror Wimbush and three adult volunteers, near each other. Harry remembered two of the volunteers from training camp. At first it was hard to get the healing started. It's easy to say you love all mankind when it doesn't cost anything, when it doesn't mean taking life-threatening injuries and the pain that goes with them into your own body. But these were wizards and witches who had fought alongside his friends. They had people they loved and who loved them. He pictured the gap that would be left in so many lives were these people to die. He remembered the gaps left in his own and others' lives when people he knew had died. He taught himself the focus needed to heal them. He could heal three, one witch was gone. It haunted him to think that if he had been able to act more quickly, that witch would have survived. He couldn't bear to let that happen again: pain be damned!

He ran on to other sites with purple sparks, healing three more, finding six more dead.

Just then, quite deep in the forest, they heard a howl. It was a howl they had all heard before.

"That sounds like Hagrid - he must have gotten back from the Acromantula colony."

"Oh, no!" said Ginny. "This is the area where Madame Maxime ended up fighting some of the remnants of the dark forces. I saw she got hit with a green spell. I was afraid it was the killing curse, but I didn't know. I had never seen it."

"Sounds like their way," said Ron. "And they would have felt safe firing it over their own people's heads at someone that tall."

They ran around a dense thicket, where the terrain would support underbrush but not large trees. They saw Hagrid sitting on the ground holding Madame Maxime, his legs splayed out and her shoulders propped against his left thigh, his enormous hands cradling her head. Her whole body looked like it had been beaten severely, giving the intensely bright reddish-purple bruises one gets from breaking both arteries and veins. She had to be very near death from internal bleeding and whatever other injuries the spell had caused; but she was still moving a little – some twitching, some shivering. She wasn't dead, not just yet. Harry remembered how two years ago Hagrid had been hit by multiple stunners from highly experienced aurors and was still able to run away. Apparently, that tough half-giant hide of hers had protected her as well. For now; sort of: because it was clear she was near death.

"Hagrid, it's okay, Harry's got a new power - he can heal anything!" Ron enthused.

Hermione gasped. "Ron, I don't think …!"

Harry put a hand on her arm to stop her. They both saw Hagrid's joyous, expectant look. He reminded Harry of a four-year-old waiting for Christmas. Yet Harry was afraid, deeply afraid. Could he heal the Avada Kedavra? Could he take all the injury that her half-giant body could hold?

Quietly he told Hermione, "Hagrid would do anything for us. I'll do everything I can for him, and Madame Maxime."

"Be careful, Harry. We need you. We love you."

Harry sat between Madame Maxime's body and Hagrid's other leg and leaned back against Hagrid's belly.

"Hold me tight, Hagrid, but not too tight," he said, and Hagrid placed his enormous arm across Harry's chest. Harry was getting much better at it, and the vivid green light was soon flooding the area. Harry started to feel like every nerve, every cell, was slowly but surely swelling and exploding. His body screamed in pain like he had never known before. Ginny, Ron and Hermione fell over. Still he continued, and his vision went black.