Ok, here you go guys. Enjoy! Please Read and review! This one is longer. Let me know what you think.
Kneeling beside the injured girl, Jessica gently lifted her shirt and groaned. The wound was too severe for her to try and heal with her Mystic Knight abilities. She would have to be taken to Madame Promfrey right away.
Sighing solemnly she carefully picked up the injured girl and quickly made her way back to the alley where the others were waiting.
"Is she ok," Jackson asked looking from the Mystic Knight to the girl, who couldn't have been more then five or six, in her arms.
"We need to get her to the castle as soon as possible." Jessica replied shifting the girl's weight causing her to moan gently, and wake from unconsciousness.
Upon opening her eyes the young girls eyes widened in fear and Jessica rushed to reassure her that she was safe.
"Its ok, don't be afraid, I'm one of the good guys. What's your name?"
"Christine," the blonde girl whispered quietly.
"You're not from Hogwarts are you?" Jessica questioned gently already knowing the girl wasn't.
"No," Christine clarified, "my mommy brought me here today because she needed to talk to Aunt Rosie. She works in the Three Broomsticks pub. Will you help me find them, I need to find them."
"Is Aunt Rosie, Madame Rosmerta?" Jessica questioned quietly thinking of the land lady of the Three Broomsticks. At the girls responding nod she silently prayed the woman had escaped the town unharmed. "I tell you what; let me get you and the others back up to Hogwarts, and then I will come back and look for your mom and aunt, alright?"
"Ok," Christine whispered tiredly.
"Alright, let's go. Follow me and stick together." Jessica stated firmly. Sticking to the wall she quietly crept silently along it. Checking behind her every few feet to make sure her entourage were still following, she expertly made her way to the edge of town and then about fifteen minutes later they made it to the edge of the forbidden forest.
"We're going in there?" a third year cried indignantly staring at the forest in shock and horror. "We can't go in there, Professor Dumbledore said…"
"Look, I thought you guys trusted me. I won't let anything happen to you." Jessica growled. She didn't have time for this. The hairs on the back of her neck had been standing up for about ten minutes, and she had the distinct impression they were being followed. She needed to get them back to the castle right away.
"She's right, she'd never put us in harms way," Jackson stated. "If she wants you to stand on your head and quack like a duck, you'll do it. Understood?
Jessica couldn't help but chuckle at the image placed in her head, "As funny as that would be to see, I just want you guys to trust me. Keep as quiet as you can, and try to stay low to the ground."
"Are you worried about the monsters in there seeing us?" Christine asked quietly as the group trekked carefully through the forest.
'Actually I'm more worried about the Death Eater trailing us.' Jessica thought to herself before saying out loud, "Ya, something like that." A sharp shake of her head stopped anymore questions. Waving them forward the group quietly began its trek to the castle once again.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief as the last Death Eater was stunned and bound by one of the teachers.
"What's the death count?" Harry asked Professor Dumbledore glancing around at the numerous bodies littering the street.
"Most were stunned, not killed," Dumbledore admitted softly staring at the Mystic Knight before him. "Three teachers were injured, as were a couple of Voldemort's followers but other then that… we were lucky this time. But what about you, were you injured?"
Harry shook his head and sighed. He knew Dumbledore was right, they had been lucky. Glancing up and down the street he grimaced at the damage done by the battle. Zonko's joke shop was in ruins, The Hogs head pub was still standing but smoke was billowing out of the roof, as was the same for many of the other stores on the street. Harry watched silently as groups of adults ran from structure to structure searching for survivors and putting out fires.
"I'm ok," he finally answered, "I was hit in the hand by a shattering curse but I'll get that fixed when I get back to the castle, have you heard anything about Hermione and Ron?" He questioned quietly.
"No, but I'm sure they made it back to the castle ok." Dumbledore stated confidently. "Why don't you head back there yourself, see if your partner made it back ok."
Nodding briefly Harry turned and headed for the nearest side street. Once there he shimmered back to the castle, right into the infirmary doorway.
"… and then she picked up this huge tree and smashed the Death Eater over the head with it." Harry heard a young girl on a bed say excitedly and she threw her arms in the air to emphasize the largeness of the tree. The young girls captive audience stood around her bed listening in awe as the girl described the events of a battle she had witnessed. Harry noticed most of the crowd had been in Hogsmeade that day.
"Ok, first of all it wasn't a tree; it was barely the size of a baseball bat…" Jessica stated leaning against the wall opposite the girl's bed, blushing slightly under her mask.
But Christine wasn't listening and simply continued the story, exaggerating certain parts here and there, as only a six year old could do.
Sighing and shaking her head in amusement she glanced to the door of the infirmary when she heard a quiet familiar laugh. Smiling she immediately headed over and punched his arm lightly in mock annoyance.
"What are you laughing at?" she grumbled though Harry knew she was smiling, even if he couldn't see it under her metallic mask.
"A tree, eh? Now that's impressive." He teased glancing back at the bed and the large group of students surrounding it. "How big was this tree? Twenty feet, thirty, surely not forty feet?"
Rolling her eyes she stated exasperatedly, "How about I tell you what really happened. Ok, about halfway through the forbidden forest the Death Eater that had been trailing us since Hogsmeade decided to show himself. I passed little Christine over there off to a fifth year named Jackson," she said nodding to the little girl on the bed that still had her crowd entranced with her story, and then to the far corner where a boy their age was leaning against the wall looking extremely amused. Harry figured the boy was Jackson. "We fought for a little while, throwing curses back and forth, until he got in a lucky shot with a slashing curse."
Harry looked at his friend in sudden concern, glancing over her he noticed how filthy she was. Her white ensemble was covered in mud and glancing towards her arm he noticed a large patch of blood. She looked like she had been rolling around in a huge puddle of mud.
"Have you gotten it looked at?" he questioned gently, resisting the urge to take her arm and check for himself.
"Yes, she has," an irate and obviously overworked Madam Promfrey stated stalking over to the pair. "And I would like to take a look at your hand as well."
Harry blinked behind his mask at her no nonsense tone and looked down at his broken hand. Smiling slightly he wondered how it was the nurse always seemed to know when someone was injured. Fighting the urge to sigh in exasperation he allowed himself to be led to a bed. Accepting the potion he nodded once at the medi -witch and waited for her to close his curtain around the bed before removing his mask to drink it.
Grimacing at the fowl taste he shook his head and waited until his mask was replaced before telling Jessica to continue.
"So anyway, I whipped out my sword and we dueled for a while. This guy was good; I mean really good, I was lucky I made it out alive. I don't know who he was but I have a pretty good guess, and I seriously doubt he was a plain old Death Eater." She whispered gently.
Harry frowned in confusion. "But he was dressed as a Death Eater, right? Who else…" Harry stopped suddenly as realization shot through him, leaving him slightly nauseous. Glad he was sitting down, for he surely would have fallen, Harry took a deep breath and whispered, "Voldemort".
Jessica nodded solemnly, "we're not as prepared to face him as we had believed. When he knocked my sword away and I hit the forest floor I thought for sure I was a goner. But Jackson and the others helped me out; they started throwing rocks at him. It distracted him long enough for me to make my move. I grabbed the closest thing, which happened to be a branch, jumped up and smacked him over the head as hard as I could. When he stumbled away from me I rushed to the others and we all got the hell out of dodge."
Sighing lightly she continued, "I'm not ashamed to admit I ran. Those kids were my first priority; I had to get them back to the castle. If they hadn't have been with me I probably would have stayed and fought it out till the end."
Harry was about to chaste her for such thoughts but realized he too would have probably fought a till the end, one way or another, so instead he said, "you did the right thing. And I think your right; we're not as prepared as we should be when It comes to Voldemort. We'll step up our training, both physical and magical. We will be ready, I promise, we just need a little more time."
Jessica nodded finding comfort in her partners confident tone.
"Come on lets get out of here, I think we need to relax for a little while. And you know nothing relaxes me more then flying." He said gently nudging her shoulder lightly as he hopped of the bed. Doing his best to ignore the pain in his hand as his bones mended themselves, he led her past the curtain and back into the now overcrowded infirmary.
Slipping past the teachers and students milling about as they waited for their turn to see Madame Promfrey, Harry and Jessica breathed a sigh of relief as they finally made it out the door.
After stepping into a classroom to 'power down' the duo slowly made their way up to Gryffindor tower.
Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the many outlandish stories he heard on the way up to the seventh floor. It would seem that the students that hadn't been injured in Hogsmeade that day were already telling anyone who would listen about their version of what had happened.
"Harry! Thank goodness you guys are ok!" a relieved voice cried as soon as they were passed the fat ladies portrait and in the common room. Before Harry could blink Hermione had thrown her arms around him and had begun to sob into his chest.
Blushing lightly as the whole common room stared he awkwardly patted his friends back. "I'm ok, 'mione." He whispered throwing glares around the room when the other students began to snigger, eyes widening the other students quickly went back to what they had been doing before Harry and Jessica's arrival.
"Glad you're aright, mate." Ron said seriously clapping Harry on the back as he and Ginny joined the three.
"You too, Ron." Harry acknowledged. "Are you ok, Ginny?" he questioned gently seeing his friends pale face and slightly trembling body.
"Yah," the normally fiery red-head whispered.
Finally releasing her friend Hermione stepped towards Ginny and led her to a couch by the fireplace, "why don't we sit down, eh?"
"What happened to her?" Jessica questioned worriedly.
Ron sighed and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, "she saw a Death Eater torturing a boy in third year," he admitted gently, "She stepped in to help the kid and got hit with the cruciactous curse a few times. Hermione and I managed to distract the Death Eater while Neville and Dean grabbed Ginny and the boy and ran off to the castle. When the teachers showed up and took care of the Death Eater we used the Honeydukes passage you showed us to get back here. By that time Ginny had already been treated and sent back here. The third year hadn't been that lucky he was pretty badly injured and is probably still in the infirmary.
Before Harry could say anything the portrait opened and the students quickly turned to give their head of house, Professor McGonagall, their undivided attention.
"Due to the attack in Hogsmeade Professor Dumbledore has decided to suspend any further trips there." She began, Harry couldn't help but notice she looked a little worse for wear. "Most Death Eaters were captured and I am happy to say no students were killed. I want all of you to get a good nights rest and seeing as tomorrows a Friday Professor Dumbledore has decided to suspend classes for the day to allow those injured a long weekend to recuperate. Have a good night."
And as quickly as she came she was gone. Leaving chattering students in her wake to head up to bed, feeling relieved that their fellow classmates would be alright.
Hope you enjoyed it. Cheers!