Hi! Just in regards to Sarah0406's comment about the curse - the curse that Cressida is currently under isn't from the ring itself (which she never actually touched in that chapter). It's the box that was cursed. Again - I am taking liberities with anything that is not easily available on sites like fandom wiki or disputed, and I'm adding my own touches and twists but respecting major canon points.
Chapter 9: Ice
Cressida stumbles under Elias' apparation pull. Their feet thud against a dry ground of browned grass. His arms wrap around her, holding each of her elbows steady. "Come on," he urges, pushing her forward. Cressida's teary eyes lift, a slight breath of relief exiting her lungs at the sight of their main safe house. A shadowy figure moves past the window.
The heat of the invisible flame now tingles at the bottom of her forearm, the softest skin in her palm already starting to peel. When will it stop?
Their arrival isn't a surprise as the door opens before they even reach it. "We need help," Elias announces, rushing her through the door. Mary, the one who opened it is the first to step up, the whites of her eyes widening at the sight of her ever-burning hands. "It's not stopping."
"Water," Mary declares. "Running water."
There's no debating the options when there aren't any others coming to light. Mary urges them towards the kitchen, another group of people emerging from the opposite direction.
"Cressida?"
Her brown eyes dart over her shoulder, just being given a glimpse at James before she is pulled into the kitchen. Mary races to the tap, turning the cold on until it flows as fast as it can. Cressida's eyes screw shut before her skin even touches the water. They shove her arms underneath without hesitation, a wash of agonising pain overcoming her at the pressure and coolness, but it follows with just a slight tint of relief amongst it.
The rest of the house catches up to them, Mary being pushed from her view, replaced with a doe-eyed James. His eyes linger on the burns, a hand on her back keeping her as close to the sink as possible. Her stomach aches from pressing against the bench.
"What happened?"
That was Remus. She spares a moment to wonder why they're even here. "A curse," Elias answers. "We thought it just burnt whoever touched it, but it hasn't stopped. It started in just her palms but it's near her elbows now."
"Water isn't going to stop it," Mary rattles in deliberation. Nothing stops Dark Magic. Cressida cries through clenched teeth, her knees bruising from how hard she presses them into the wooden doors underneath the benchtop.
"So we're just going to watch her burn to death?!" James cries, turning the tap on further despite it being fruitless as it already pours everything it can. A new presence arrives in replacement of Elias, dark hair curtaining around his tilted face, creating a barrier for them both.
Sirius' fingers reach out to her sleeve, pulling it even further up her arm, revealing the redness spreading along her biceps. "You're back," she whimpers, realising why her friends have gathered here. His shirt it off, revealing a half-patched wound atop his right breast. They must have been in the middle of patching him up.
"Ice," he states, loud enough for the room to hear.
"You don't put ice on burns," Remus argues.
"It would only worsen them," Mary agrees.
James leans down closer to her, cupping his hand under the tap to splash water further up her arms. "You're going to be fine." Cressida nods, leaning back to bow her head near the counter.
"Well water isn't stopping it," Sirius pushes, voice growing. "It's burning her from the inside out! Ice could stop it if we cool the skin enough. Physically counter the curse." Without waiting for the approval of anybody else, he turns back around, speaking over her to James. "Get a tub or something. We'll use the bath here if we have to. Fill it with water then ice."
James hesitates to leave her side but with one whimper from her, he's sprinting away. Mary re-appears. "You know this could do more damage, right?" she questions Sirius.
"That's the price if I'm right. And what's the price if I'm wrong?" he snaps. "We don't know if this will stop and we have the chance, I'm taking it. It's some variation of the flagrante curse."
Cressida looks over her shoulder, watching as James runs in, empty-handed. "We've only got the bath."
"Fill it," Sirius orders. He looks back to her, waiting a few more moments as the sound of aguamenti spells being cast. Remus trails back after him, Elias gone from the room before she looked. A faint echo of freezing charms reaches her ears, the sound of ice cracking soon after, followed finally by the sloshing of them being poured into water. "Ok, come on," Sirius urges in the softest tone he's used today. He pulls her from the sink, leaving the water to run. Her legs work automatically, taking her towards the bathroom that's never used.
"Diffindo." The back of her shirt slices cleanly down the back. He pushes it forward, his square-cut wand swishing at her sides and the fabric of her sleeves cuts just as sharply, peeling away from her skin and leaving only her bra left so it wouldn't meld with her skin. The bath is filled to the brim, ice sploshing back and forth. Elias dips his hand in, wincing simply at the touch alone.
The anticipation of the oncoming pain is enough to make her cower inside, but her face remains as stoic as it can be. The sunburnt skin now creeps along the curves of her shoulder, leaving no pale blemishes behind. Blisters form along the insides of her forearm, her palms now numb. It's a wonder she isn't on her knees, screaming.
James returns to her side, a hand on her stomach and back. "You need to get in, princess," he orders. Cressida stumbles forward, dipping her hand in to know what she's getting into.
She has no time to stop the agonising scream, the pain doubling. Hands grip at her waist, holding her from moving backwards or forwards. "I-I can't. Please, Jam-James." Her lips quiver, tears tracking down each cheek, the pain ebbing away into what it was before. "I can't."
"You need to."
Sirius, braces his hands on the tub's edge, swinging his legs inside. His face doesn't even hint at the icy pain, his jeans darkening as they soak in the freezing water. He holds out his hand without a word and suddenly the arms around her stomach sink down to her thighs.
Knowing that one way or another she is going into that bath, Cressida sucks in her pain, refusing to let out any sound as her feet dive in past the ice. The only whimper she makes is one where the water meets her thighs. "We're doing this together, okay?" Sirius breathes, his voice beginning to shake. He faces her, each hand gripping at her ribcage where there is no risk of burns just of yet.
"Are we sure about this?" Remus questions. Sirius sends him a hard look that shuts up him, and any further doubts that might have been wriggling to their minds. The ice swishes around her legs, leaving burning trails. Her body is in two hells at once.
James leans over the tub. "It's okay to scream. You just need to do it."
Sirius pulls her towards his end of the tub, then kneels down slowly, his stomach clenching as it disappears underneath the sheet of ice. Cressida follows suit, her stomach turning in on itself, hovering her arms just above the surface. "We're going to do this slowly. We're going to-"
He cuts himself off, pressing a hand to the middle of her chest, forcing her under. Pure, blazing white agony shoots through her, indistinguishable from any source. A fight between a raging heat under her skin and the frozen touch of the water begins. Her scream muffles through the water, the hand on her chest releasing before she can swallow any water. Cressida breaks the surface with a gasp for her, Sirius hands moving to her collar bone, keeping her chest underneath.
Though it leaves her with the freedom to move her arms, for he is unwilling to touch her there, Cressida grinds her teeth, creating an invisible barrier on the surface in her mind, keeping her arms underneath. "I hate you," she seethes out to the boy in front of her.
He offers her a meek smile. "Reasonable."
Cressida shuts her eyes, pressing her head into the back of the tub, squeezing her toes to keep her centred.
"Is it working?" Elias wonders, standing near her feet. Nobody has an answer yet, least of all her.
James stays near her head, his face pulled into a gutted expression, thumb stroking her jaw. "Keep your neck under," he murmurs softly. "That's where it's spreading." Cressida nods, sinking further into the tub. Despite a fiery heat lingering in her arms, a chill encapsulates the rest of her, a short but sharp shiver chattering her teeth.
"We can't keep in her in there very long," Mary notes, still the most resistant to the idea. "Not only are we going to increase damage to the burns there-"
"We'll be stopping more," Sirius interrupts.
Mary continues with a short glare. "-But it'll slow her heart rate down for certain. Other risks are hypothermia, shock-"
"Would you just shut it?" Sirius hisses. He sinks in further, the water swaying over his chest, soaking the gauze. Mary presses her lips together, crossing her arms. "We don't need her falling into some psychosomatic shock because you brought it up. And yes, I know what that means."
Despite the bickering between them, Cressida tunes out their voices. There isn't any form of relief that comes to her, only numbness. But numbness might just be better than feeling anything. "I think it's stopping," she whispers to James.
His hand slips to the back of her neck, gently lifting her head up. The redness hasn't travelled any further. Her eyes shut once more in an amused huff that doesn't quite make it out of her nose. A Muggle solution to a Wizarding problem. That's usually the way it goes. The intense bath of chilling temperature has diminished the effects of the spell, cooling her skin as it tries to burn.
"How long do we keep her in there then?" Remus wonders. It could start up again the moment she steps out.
"Until I say so," Cressida answers, finally finding her proper voice. The panic that had rendered her almost silent seeps from her, letting her finally regain a sense of presence and consciousness.
Elias steps back. "I'm going to get let Alastor know what's happened." She's too focused on staying calm to reply. James asks Remus to fetch some warmed towels and Mary leaves with him.
"This is going to be a long healing process," Cressida mutters, spending the energy to give the boys a weak smile.
Sirius taps her knee underwater. "You feeling tired, princess?" She nods, breathing heavily through her nose. "You need to get out then." As soon as Remus returns with three heavily warmed towels, Sirius returns his grip to her ribs, urging her up to her feet. Her eyes lug heavily downwards, arms hovering at her sides. "By the look James just gave me, I think I need to come up with a new nickname for you."
"It wasn't that," James mutters. He lifts her from the tub, placing her feet back on the floor. Cressida shivers, pain returning to her arms, but nothing like it was before. She can't feel the burning underneath her clear skin. James wraps a towel under her arms and across her chest. "We'll get something for the pain first."
"Clothes," she corrects with a feeble laugh through chattering teeth. "Please, my jeans are freezing." And would become a problem if she couldn't warm up because of them.
James nods, looking to Sirius. "Can you go get some clothes? I have some at my place if it's easier to get to."
"He shouldn't apparate if he can help it," Remus points out, ripping off the hanging bandage that the water soaked through on Sirius' chest. There's a hole in his skin, deep but cleaned. It's crookedly cut, but sharp and the skin has no jagged cuts. "Stresses the body. I've got plenty of pain tonics at home, I'll get some of those but I'll have to go to the shops to get some stuff for burns."
James sighs, flaring his nose but nods. "I'll get something warm, but it'll have to be a singlet for the top. I'll bring a cardigan or something for when we get it wrapped."
He leans forward, pressing a firm kiss to her forehead. Sirius takes over holding the towel, rubbing her skin softly as her hands are raw and blistered. She doesn't want him to leave, but it was either that, or wait until Remus fetches clothes too and wait longer. So they leave, Mary now the only other person at the safe-house but she's retreated somewhere out of sight and mind, almost ensuring that she's out of the blame if something did go wrong with Sirius' plan.
Despite the warmth of the towel, Cressida continues to shiver, her chest shaking along with her teeth. Sirius breathes heavily behind her, tightening the towel. "I need to get you warm." Cressida shifts, sniffling and paws her foot against her soaked jeans. She'd do it herself if she could, but she can't even bring herself to look down at her arms. "Do you want me to get Mary?"
Cressida shakes her head. She likes Mary, but she doesn't want her here. It was bad enough her seeing Cressida like this. Elias she could handle, but Mary had always had the biggest wall against her of her old dorm. Sirius moves around to her front unravelling the towel and resting it on the sink top.
"You always go real quiet when you're scared," he murmurs with a soft smile. A distraction as his fingers go about finding the buttons of her jeans. "Then you burst."
"I keep thinking that I should've tried to break the curse rather than just push through it," she murmurs, eyes settling over his shoulder. "But I touched it either way before. I couldn't see what it was."
"Did you find out?"
"A chest," she answers. "Found a ring. Nothing else. How are you not shivering?"
"My mind is occupied," he answers, his smile widening but closed as he tips his head. He runs his thumbs along the band of her jeans, pushing them down to her thighs. "Never thought it'd be a girl I was undressing first."
Cressida manages a huff, a faint smile on her own cheeks revealing itself. "I'm sorry to steal the position. Though I wouldn't exactly call this intimate."
Sirius starts to crouch, and Cressida sits on the edge of the tub as the jeans come off her legs with a slurping noise. He winks at her. "I can change that if you want." He laughs at himself, glancing over his shoulder. "Not sure if James will skin me for that type of comment."
Maybe this is what everybody sees. Why people ask her. Why Elias, who always saw her and James together before she even admitted out loud, thought to bring it up.
"He'll probably skin me for this anyways," he adds under his breath, tossing the heavy material aside. "May as well make the most of it." He grabs the second towel, rubbing it along her legs.
Cressida offers him a short smile, but as the effects of the ice bath wear off, pain returns but only where her burns already lay.