Enjoy!
Earlier that I thought. I needed a break from research papers.
Please let me know what you think: it is much appreciated.
Chapter 12
PaxLumina
Where is she?
Anger, impatience and desperation were firing in Harry's chest.
We are waiting.
And waiting.
They have been waiting for an hour now, but Harry felt he had been in this room for thrice as much.
Sitting on Ginny's bed, legs and arms crossed, Harry was slouching against the wall and his legs were beginning to feel awfully numb. He circled his knees with his arms as he brought his legs closer to him with caution, wishing not to wake up Ginny. She had fallen asleep; he could feel her back against his right thigh and her hair was drawing a blazing question mark on the quilt. Harry turned his head to her and he watched her normally radiant face scrunched with concern: Ginny was muttering something in her sleep and she was moving slightly her head as she was trying to avoid things that were flying her way.
Harry drew his hand on her shoulder, hoping that his gesture would break through the fog of her dream and appease her. This last hour had been a frustrating one; he was acutely experiencing the strong ambivalent feeling of wanting to be useful and acknowledging his helplessness. Earlier, Harry had paced up and down the bedroom - before Bill told him to keep his cool with a tone that clearly did not invite further discussion.
When Harry asked again for explanations,
I refuse to shut up
I want to know
I need to now
I demand to know
Lupin had repeated to him in a tired voice that everything was out of their hands now, that Tonks would bring the Bearer to the Burrow. He had explained - as if Harry had never heard that before - that she was not a Healer. Lupin had sighed when he saw Harry's frustrated face and he had added reluctantly, « She will Bear the spell, Harry. That's how they do it.»
«Bear the spell?» had inquired Harry with a frown. Lupin had impatiently nodded and said, «Bear, carry, Harry…whatever she's capable of doing. With any luck, Hermione will not be bothered by the spell anymore. She'll get her health back.»
Hope had ignited in Harry's chest and he had trillions of questions to ask Lupin but Snape extinguished all hopes of him learning more about this when the sullen Potions Master said in a monotonous voice, his back to them, «You are showing an unusually optimistic demeanour towards this situation, Lupin. The Bearer will be able to do that…If she accepts to follow the girl.» Red patches had colored Lupin's sallow cheeks and Harry heard him say between his teeth, «She will follow Tonks.» Harry read the darkening eyes of his ex-professor and he understood that the subject was off-limits now.
But right now, Ginny whimpered in her sleep and Harry gently squeezed her shoulder. The only way he could help, after all, was to sit up to the ones who could wake up. Feeling eyes gazing on him, he caught Bill's intense look at him. Apprehending that Bill could think he was too familiar with his baby sister, Harry mechanically lifted his hand from Ginny's shoulder but Bill's smile was sad and Harry watched him hide it behind the fist he was clenching against his mouth.
They had witnessed Hermione becoming more restless, her fingers contracting like claws and her breath labouring in a low, guttural pant.
Where is Tonks?
Bill's lengthy silhouette was leaning against the doorframe, his wand partly slipped under the waistband of his pyjamas. Lupin had conjured two chairs and he was sitting on one, his fingers crossed under his chin and his eyes closed. Harry thought that if earlier Lupin had been reassuring about the Bearer's incoming visit, he was doing a pretty lousy job at hiding his concern right now. Harry fixated on Ron's hair, as his friend was still as a statue.
After Tonks had Disapparated, Ron had covered Hermione with the thin bed sheet. Harry had watched his assured and gentle movements with a lump in his throat.
Ron, please speak
Say something
Shout
Hit something
You don't look like yourself, mate
Ron was now prostrated on Hermione's bedside, his face against the mattress, his head resting on his crossed arms. Harry had tried to talk to him; he had tried to convince him to sit besides him, but Ron had freed himself from Harry's grasp and he had not said a word for more than an hour now. Since Harry could not see his face, he presumed Ron had surrendered to sleep.
Arthur and Molly Weasley had left the room as soon Tonks had Disapparated and from the sounds that could reach Harry, they were intensely discussing.
Snape had transformed the top of a chest of drawersinto an improvised potions laboratory. Harry had watched him closely – with hostile eyes and biting his tongue – as the wizard mixed an astonishing number of infinitesimal quantities of ingredients in what seemed to be a silver-lined wood goblet he had retrieved from his travel bag. Harry had no idea so much ingredients could go in a potion and he could not help feeling angry with him.
For breathing in the same room as me and the people I treasure
And not being able to do anything
Snape was draining a few drops from numerous tiny vials and grating crumbs from what seemed like DragonTree roots to him. Harry felt almost lethargic while looking at the Potions Master precise and assured hands that wavered over the goblet, as Snape measured ingredients in a silver thimble with an obsessive precision. Snape grabbed his wand from time to time and muttered something incomprehensible at the goblet and a light fume or a spark would idly draw from it. He took the goblet between his hands, rolled it between his palms and got an intent whiff of it. Only then, he would take out more ingredients from his travel bag that looked with endless resources.
The fluid moves above the goblet had plunged Harry into a sort of trance and he snapped out of it only when Lupin's hoarse voice spoke, «They're here.» Voices were coming from the ground floor and Harry heard Mrs. Weasley welcoming the new arrivals in an unusually high-pitched voice. Harry jolted when Ron's head shot up, his blue eyes clear and his lips tight. Harry grasped that Ron had not slept a second since he had dropped his head on the mattress.
Harry gently shook Ginny and she lifted her head, a little disoriented, «What?» As she managed to sit besides him while rubbing her eyes, he repeated to her in a low voice, «They're here, Ginny. Tonks and the Bearer. They've arrived.» They all turned expectantly to the door, as Bill was moving back in the room to let them in.
Lupin looked hugely relieved when a disheveled purple-haired Tonks came in, almost tripping on her own feet. An smell of rubbish came in with her and Harry could not hide his frown, as Lupin was scrunching his nose. Tonks shrugged and mumbled with a wince to Lupin, «It's not like I had a choice for the meeting point. But I've brought her back. I did it safely, Remus.»
A woman followed her into the room, and Harry began to feel uncomfortable as she pushed away her hood with a gloved hand, displaying damp curly hair of an indefinable color. Harry had drawn to himself an image of what he thought a Bearer would look like, with the little information he had on her. Being able to help people should give her warmth, Harry had decided.
Yeah, motherly maybe, with a soft face like Mrs Weasley
Comforting, definitely, like Mrs Pomfrey
Sinister, disfigured and downright chilling were words that had not came to Harry's mind.
Incidentally, they are the same words I would have attributed to Mad Eye Moody.
He was reminded as he detailed her scarred face that she was an Auror after all and that she held a dangerous job.
Harry watched her enter the crowded bedroom: the Bearer dropped without ceremony her cloak on the vacant chair and she frowned at Hermione with a serious look that seemed to Harry almost on the verge of anger. She took a few steps in the room and he pondered that her walk made her look like she was some kind of a feline: she was almost walking on the tip of her toes, looking ready to pounce and her gloved hand was firmly holding her wand. A mix of cold rage, sadness and strength was radiating from her. Harry swallowed hard: Lupin had said this woman was a potent witch. She seemed to him plain scary.
Harry stifled an «ow» when Ginny embedded her nails in his forearm, seemingly sharing his opinion about the woman. For Harry, the most upsetting thing in that ravaged face was not the scars that made her look much older she truly was, but those colorless eyes that looked unreal.
A heavy silence was lingering in the room and Harry glanced at the Bearer: her eyes were casted solely on Hermione and Ron. When her gaze finally crossed Ron's, Harry cringed when he saw his friend's back agitated by a shudder. The Bearer heaved a deep sigh, and she seemed to realize they were other people in the room to acknowledge. She tilted her head to her right in a rather curt move and she looked directly into Harry's eyes.
Harry had the strange feeling of looking at the sun on a cold winter day, when one is blinded, blinks furiously and is not able to feel the warmth of it. He glanced away and Ginny pressed her hand against his.
Arthur and Molly Weasley came in with red spots on their cheeks, a parent defeated and the other one silently triumphant. Bill stared at the Bearer with an indecipherable expression and his voice was incredulous, «Fabiola Luz?»
The woman removed her black gloves finger by finger and Harry noticed with a growing trouble that her hands looked like they had been badly burned.
She's damaged
What happened to her?
The woman looked intently at Bill and she briefly said, her voice creaking as she had screamed too much, «Hello Bill. Nice to see you. Haven't changed a bit. Been a while, isn't it?»
Bill slowly nodded and Harry saw a flicker of pity in his face and something else, something that looked like a pained expression. Bill grabbed one of her hands in his and said, «After all the Goblins told me about the rebellion while I was in Egypt- » His voice trailed a bit but he cleared his throat and he added, «I did believe I would never see you alive again, Fabiola.» Harry heard irony in her voice as she retorted with a jab, «Alive, Bill? Well, look at me. I'm here. Isn't it marvelous?»
She carefully withdrew her hand from Bill's and she stared at Lupin with curiosity, «You must be Lupin. I've heard about you…You're a werewolf, aren't you?» Harry saw Tonks tighten her lips. Lupin nodded and shoved his hands deep in the pockets of his faded trousers, his eyes still on the Auror.
Harry had the weird impression that Luz and Lupin were sniffing each other.
«Miss Luz. What an honour. You left your dangerous missions for us.» Snape's voice, sharp as a knife, brought back Harry to his senses. The Bearer turned to him and she stated, mimicking the bite in his voice, «Professor Snape. I did not expect you would bother to travel for a Contamino.» Snape's face blushed into an uneasy shade of crimson.
Luz circled the bed without waiting for Snape's answer and she lowered her burned hand on Ron's shoulder. She said with a surprising kindness, her pale eyes riveted on Hermione, «She's your friend.»
Harry thought it was much more an affirmation than a question. He watched Ron nodding solemnly and the Bearer kneeled besides the red-haired teenage wizard, « I may help her. I'll need a bit of space to do that, okay?» Ron got to his feet and he sat on the edge of Ginny's bed. Her sister held his arm affectionately as they all leaned closer so they could watch the Auror push back the bed sheet.
Mrs. Weasley's eager voice urgently said: «She was hit on the stomach. She has a mark. A purple mark.» Harry felt uneasy: the young woman did not care about the accelerated breathings around her. Her eyes were closed and her hands were hovering an inch over Hermione's body.
Her slashed hands were moving swiftly above Hermione's stomach, as ifshe was trying to sense the wound. Harry swallowed hard when suddenly Luz traced sharply with her left hand the same move the Death Eater had drawn on Hermione with his wand. With the tips of her damaged fingers, she touched the magical wound and Hermione swished in her troubled sleep.
Disgust reeked from her broken voice, «Dolohov. That sorry excuse of a wizard.»
Harry could not help himself; he interjected, completely thrown aback, «How… How can you know who hexed her?»
The woman slowly turned to him and her ravaged face again stunned Harry. As he tried to avoid her cold eyes, he got a glimpse of three small marks near her eye, three precise crescent shape marks that stood out in her already marked face.
Crescent shape marksIt was familiar to him, who had told him about these?
Crescent shape marks
Tonks
Suddenly afraid of the idea that infiltrated his mind, Harry stuttered, «You…you… know him. » Fabiola Luz stayed impassible as she looked intently at his forehead, «Nice deduction, Mr. Potter. I wouldn't say I know him, but it's certainly not the first time I've been in contact with his-» She briefly paused and Harry heard Snape impatiently snorting while she said slowly, «How shall I say? His… handiwork. I know only a few wizards who would be cruel enough to cast a Contamino on an underage witch.» Luz turned back to Hermione and she jumped to her feet, raising her wand menacingly across the people in the room, «Now, listen carefully to me: it will be my way or no way. I can Bear it for her, no problem. But decide now if you leave this room. If not, I don't want anybody to approach me while I'm working. No pretext will hold; I'll defend myself and I won't be able to control my strength. »
Luz turned on her heels; Harry saw her wand dangle in front of his nose and she pierced her forehead again with her gaze, «You need to move farther away from me.» Before Harry could protest, she pointed Snape with her wand and she sneered, «You too. Please move away from me.» Dumbfounded, Harry slipped to the feet of the bed and Tonks pulled him close to her. Her grip was strong for such a small woman and Harry watched Snape move reluctantly near the door.
Arthur Weasley looked at his wife with a frighteningly severe face, «I won't watch this.» He turned his heels and went out the room while Bill circled his mother's shoulders. Mrs. Weasley said, in a pleading voice, «Ginny…Please, I want you to go with your father and -» but the teenage girl pressed herself against her brother, «I'm staying, Mum.» Ron grabbed his sister's hand and they cuddled up against one another on Ginny's bed.
When everybody stopped moving, Luz gave a last look around the room and she finally looked satisfied. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, while Harry stopped breathing. Her arm drew a swift gesture over her head, as she was cracking a whip in the air and her broken voice snapped in the room, «Duoprotego!»
Harry felt Tonks jolt against his back and he blinked furiously: the air was vibrating around Hermione and Luz. Harry rubbed his eyes. A glittery silver cloud was enshrouding them and Harry had the feeling the air was blurred. Tonks strengthened her grip on him. Around him, everybody had ghostly shadows moving in their faces. They were all blinking and Harry was relieved he was not the only one having trouble seeing.
To his left, he saw from the corner of his eye that Snape was moving slightly and Luz, in a rapid move, aggressively pointed the wand to him, her voice muffled by the protection shield, «If you move, Sir, I'll Stupefix you. I won't hesitate a minute. Don't contaminate my space. You'll kill her.» Bill grabbed Snape's arm and firmly pulled him back as the Potions Master scowled.
Harry could not see very well the Bearer's expression but he saw her head bow towards Hermione's limp body. Her wand drew the same gesture the Death Eater had done on his friend and she muttered something that sounded like «Aditus!» to Harry. The air began to quickly pulsate in the shield and Harry found himself not relieved at all. A feeling of dread sank his stomach.
I'm not sure I want to see thisThe Bearer closed her eyes and Harry realized that in the blurriness of the silver bubble, the scary woman looked terribly pale and frail.
She breathed, «Paxlumina!»
The intense light that pulsated in the room made Harry scream, going against his initial will of not wanting to be impressed: a thick, purple smoke infused the protection shield Luz had conjured. Tonks was holding his arm tightly; he could hear her shallow breath in his ear, «She's attracting the spell out.»
Harry squinted, trying to see what was happening behind the purple blur. When it started to fade a bit, what he saw made his blood freeze in his veins; the Bearer's body was arched backwards and she was soaking herself with the smoke. Tonks lowered her forehead on his shoulder as she cringed and Harry drew his hands to his mouth. The smoke was disappearing slowly in the shield and Harry's hands quivered when he understood what the Bearer was doing: it was awful, horrible to see her willingly absorb the hex.
Purple flickers were illuminating Ginny and Ron's horrified faces. Mrs Weasley screamed, «Good Lord!» and Bill held her closely to him as she circled his waist. The only person in that room that did not seem shocked was Snape: Harry caught a mere look of interest in his face.
A powerful light, gleaming and painful to the eyes, bolted in the room with violence. Harry covered his eyes with his hands. Harry heard a few pained expressions and the light became feeble again. The silvery shield popped with a grave sound. Fabiola Luz was on her knees, cradling herself with her burned hands, breathing hard and fast.
Escaping Tonks' powerful grip, Harry jumped to her and she pointed her wand towards him with a fierce expression, «DON'T TOUCH ME!» But Harry's hand grazed hers unwillingly and he let out a pained cry: her skin was burning. Luz let fall her wand on the bed and she raised a trembling hand, «I'm fine. Don't touch me.» Her eyes grazed his and Harry saw with alarm a wisp of purple smoke looming in her colorless eyes. She faintly whispered to Mrs. Weasley who approached her with a fearful expression on her face, «The dream is gone. She was tightly holding to it, though. She'll need rest and a visit to a Healer so she'll be assured I did not leave anything behind.» Luz turned to Ron and her casual voice contradicted her pale face, «Your friend put up a good fight.You'll have her back.»
Harry touched Hermione's leg with the tips of his fingers, «Hermione?» Her face looked calm, appeased: her cheeks seemed pinker to him and she moved her head, as she was about to wake up. Ron jumped to his feet and he rammed into Harry, almost making him fall under the impact. Harry crossed Ron's gaze and he felt an overpowering impatience to see Hermione open those big, brown, intelligent eyes again.
Meanwhile, Snape walked swiftly to the chest of drawers and retrieved the silver lined goblet. His robes clapped soundly when he turned around and he curtly held it towards Luz, over Hermione slowly awaking body. The Bearer looked at him suspiciously, her face harden by pain. Snape croaked,« Purity Potion. I'm convinced you did not dare to prepare it yourself. » The young woman finally blinked and took the goblet from the Potions Master's hands. She drank the red liquid in long sips and when she held back the goblet to him, she did not look him in the eye as her face was softening from relief, «Thank you, Sir.» This time, there was no irony in her broken voice.
Snape knew she would comeHe knew it all along
«Hmmm….» Hermione whimpered and Molly Weasley caught her hand with tenderness. She let out a small cry of surprise, «The mark! It's not there anymore! This is incredible! Miss Luz, I don't know where to start...»
Harry watched with amazement his friend's perfectly smooth, white skin. A small crescent shape scar veined with purple and pink subsisted on her stomach. Luz straightened up wearily and let her place to Ginny who took her friend's hand between hers. She said with a voice that sounded like velvet to Harry, «It's over Hermione. You'll be just fine.»
Hermione's eyes slowly opened and she looked dazed to see so much people around her. Mrs. Weasley pulled back the bed sheet on her and cupped her face with her hands, kissing her on the forehead in a relieved gesture. Hermione did not seem to register the big fat tears that were lining Mrs Weasley's cheeks.
Shoulder to shoulder, Harry and Ron glanced again at each other. Harry suddenly felt so relieved to see Hermione batting her eyelids he let out a chuckle, half laughing half sobbing. Ron's eyes crinkled as he broke into a mixed smile. Harry thought Ron was doing a very good job at hiding his happiness, but he could see his cheeks blushing as he kneeled to her bedside, finally looking like the old Ron.
The one who has no idea what to do with his limbsHermione turned her head slightly towards Ron and Harry bit his lip: he understood now that Ron's feelings for Hermione were much more complex he would have thought they would be.
Ron was boisterous and loud and looked deceptively like a simple chap, but what Harry had witnessed in the last few hours was much more than he could expect from a bloke with the emotional range of a teaspoon.
Hermione frowned, looking confuse. She looked at Ron, who was becoming redder by the second and her parched lips opened to let out a murmur, «Vi...Vik…tor?» Thunderstruck, Harry looked at Ron whowent from flaming red to snow pale; he stood up so hastily Ginny fell back on her bed and he left the bedroom like a storm, pushing out of his way a gaping Tonks in Lupin's arms. Harry exchanged with Ginny an appalled look.
«That's a nasty blow, » appropriately whispered Tonks while rubbing her elbow as Lupinclinged to her.
Can't the writer leave Ron alone for a second?
Let me think about it...
No.
To be continued.
