Biting the Bullet

"Encourage literally came from "in courage." The courage is put "into" you from outside. Our character and abilities grow through internalizing from others what we do not possess in ourselves."

-Henry Cloud-

At the end of two years, Prince Theodred went home to Rohan and returned with his younger cousins, Lord Eomer and Lady Eowyn. Heather assigned Guiomer and Felicia to them, because any of the other apprentices might cause an international incident.

The city committee meetings were something all four of them hated with a passion. Hermione solved it by creating rotations. Draco made it bearable by placing stating that he required all reports to be summarized. He also set most of their reports to fifteen minutes maximum. Since most of the committee heads were previous students of Hermione, it was a piece of cake.

But the city eventually settled, like a child that had finished his current growth spurt and was settling into his new height tentatively.

The hospital had its own routines too and there were often moments were Luna would have nothing else to do but go and pester Heather. That would lead to both of them travelling out of the city for a couple of weeks. Guiomer usually grumbled good naturedly since he was jealous of his mother's travelling.

It was in these types of events that Luna and Heather encountered a pack of wolves. This was particularly unfortunate since Heather was not carrying the sword and settled for liberally using Impedimenta and Apparition.

"Luna, leave!" Heather shouted. "I can handle this."

It was because of Luna's presence that Heather refrained from killing. She was unwilling to subject Luna to one of the vulnerabilities her gift gave her.

"I shouldn't," Luna cried. "Heather – "

Whatever Luna would have said was cut off by a howl coming from the nearest wolf and then Heather's precognition kicked in and she knew that if she did not move, she would return to the city short of a sister. Heather apparated towards her quickly, covering Luna with her cloak and moving to apparate. A wolf made a desperate lunge and caught Heathers shoulder in its jaws just as they apparated.

They arrived back in Haven, appearing inside the small house that all four of them shared with a crack!

Luna, recovering from her surprise, quickly noticed the spreading blood and the wolf still chewing through Heather's shoulder.

A boiling rage came over Luna. It wasn't often that it happened.

"Accio!" Luna shrieked. A sword came flying towards her and she grasped it and quickly beheaded the wolf. She was too distraught over Heather to notice the wolf dying or the state of its soul.

Heather had collapsed from the pain and had used sheer will to send them back home before she fainted. Apparating injured always made injuries worse.

"She needs medical attention," Phobos said, startling Luna. She was so focused on Heather that she hadnt noticed that they had dropped in on the apprentices and her siblings having a late lunch.

"I'll take care of it," she croaked. She dropped the sword – Merlin, when was the last time she had held a sword? – and carried Heather to the sofa.

"I'll need a sterilized needle and thread," she started. Then she turned to Draco. "Blood Replenishers and that one that stopped a fever."

"Fever few," Hermione supplied. "Luna, are you sure you can do this? I don't think it's advisable."

Luna ignored Hermione and settled down to work. She used everything she had and everybody moved, eager to help. Only when the minor operation finished did she break down into shock.

"My lady!" Meiran exclaimed when she finally started crying.

Draco scooped her up and looked to Hermione, who nodded. "Kreacher will clean her, so you'll have no problems," she said. "I'll stay with feather."

The apprentices, minus Guiomer, were all watching this with worried eyes. Especially the twins. Bugger, even Deimos was wringing his hands.

"You lot, Eilys will be in a fragile state for a couple of days," Hermione said. "I expect you," she pointed to the twins. "To take over her duties for those days and not cause a riot or something. Gryffon will probably descend to a fever anyway, so we'll be pretty busy."

"Yes, my lady," they chorused.

And then Hermione remembered Guiomer, who was sitting in Heathers office while all of them were at lunch. She swallowed, "Felicia, you'll have to tell Guiomer about Gryffon. I'll move her to her room. You lot ought to clean up this mess as well."

The apprentices, who had been sworn to secrecy about their magic, didn't bat an eyelash when Hermione procured her wand. She could have done it wandlessly but Hermione was taking no chances in Heathers state.

When she came back down the stairs, the dishes were washed and there was no blood on the couch, or beheaded wolf on the floor. The twins were there though and looking as concerned as she had ever seen.

"My lady," Demios stated politely. "What do you think happened?"

Merlin. The twins must really like Luna, or even Heather. They were being nice and concerned. And they were paler than anything.

Hermione eyed them speculatively. "What do you know about Eilys' gift?" she eventually asked.

The twins exchanged glances. "That she has really good ears," Phobos said. "She hears us coming every time and we can never surprise her."

"That's one way to put it," Hermione conceded. "But Eilys can hear every living things voice. It makes her incredibly perceptive but it also makes her incredibly vulnerable. Before Haven was founded, Eilys saw a person die in front of her and she heard his soul scream as it was ripped from its body."

Their faces were twin looks of horror. Hermione nodded, pleased that they understood what that meant to gentle Luna.

"She came home a wreck," Hermione continued. "Only Gryffon was home then and she stayed with Eilys for days. Eventually, Eilys decided that she never wanted to hear that again and wanted to learn healing."

"So…" Deimos started.

"This was the first time since then that Lady Eilys took a life?" Phobos finished.

Hermione shrugged. "What I think it - " the door opened with a bang! and cut off the rest of Hermione's words.

"Where is she?" Guiomer demanded. He looked panicked.

"Calm down," Hermione snapped. Her nerves felt frayed and she did not need a frantic Guiomer on top of it. "She doesn't need you fretting. She's sleeping."

"Sleeping or in a magical coma?" Guiomer asked, used to Hermione's euphemisms.

"We're not sure," was the nervous answer.

Guiomer dashed up the stairs. Hermione sighed and turned her attention back to the twins. "I think Gryffon didn't want to kill, not with Eilys with her. She was protecting Eilys so much that she compromised herself."

The twins left the house, ashen faced but very determined. There was a glint in their eyes that Hermione was unused to seeing in the twins. It was the determination that usually came over Draco when it came to creating an antidote for a specific poison, or the will that consumed Heather to make Luna's dreams come true.

Draco's Patronus flitted downstairs, taking the shape of an eagle. "She's awake," came his voice.

Hermione had no time for surprise, or thinking as she dashed up the stairs.

Hermione was right, Luna was in a fragile state of mind, but she was guiltier about Heather than about killing the damned wolf, so that was the one plus in the entire situation. She kept nattering about the should-haves until it really got irritating. Hermione could see Draco biting his tongue and trying to be sympathetic.

And in another case, Heather really did descend into a fever that lasted for two days. Guiomer was hard pressed to be made to leave his mothers bed side and looked like a walking zombie. He did Heathers duties with brutal efficiency and spent what moment he wasn't working to hover over her. Kreacher had to force-feed all of them, muttering unintelligible dire threats about bones and fevers.

When she finally did wake up, Heather reassured her son with a hug and a kiss and then demanded to be carried to Luna's room. Guiomer was more familiar with her stubbornness than anything and acquiesced.

Then Heather proceeded to call Luna all kinds of idiot, not being sympathetic at all and making the spectators gape, and she ended the rant with, "I love you very much, moonbeam. I would give anything to make you happy, but can you stop driving everybody mad? Now, get off that bed and join me in a meal. Afterwards, you can check on my health yourself."

Luna scrambled out of the bed quickly and ran towards her. They did everything Heather said and that slowly set Luna out of her gloom and depression and back to work.

But she found a surprise when she returned to the hospital.

There were no riots and there were no disasters. The twins had curbed their penchant for creating arguments and chaos and had actually managed the hospital even better than she had.

"Are you trying to make a statement?" Luna had asked after she had gotten over her shock. "Or is this because I became indisposed for a couple of days?"

Phobos managed a wry look in her direction, and Deimos gave her a scorching look.

"You underestimate the power of Lady Enid's scoldings," Phobos said. He didn't sound like he meant to be annoyed. In fact, most of their looks and gestures were half-heated. As though done just to stay in character.

Luna smiled when she realized that. "Both of you can stop acting now. And thank you for taking care of the hospital for me."

The boys looked awkward for a moment before giving in and hugging Luna in a twin-sandwich. She laughed and hugged back.

She then left the hospital in their charge, content in knowing that the two of them would do a splendid job. Luna instead focused on the Order and ironed out some kinks in it.

It was also just in time for the first five Order members to come home after a five years journey.

"Welcome home," she greeted them, taking in their tired and lined faces. "I'll give you two days to rest and reacquaint yourselves with the city. On the fourth day, you'll give me your reports and then I'll establish you as Master Healers."

Their faces brightened at that and they trooped out with some laughter.

It was a happy moment for the city as well as the Order because while most of the five Order members were orphans, two of them had a family and it made most of the citizen's smile at the celebrations occurring.

But Luna read their reports with sad eyes, soul heavy and burdened. It was as though no matter how many Order members they would turn out, they were still a lot more people that needed help. Like a ratio of 0.5 to 500.

The journeyman healers had watched her read it and knew what she was seeing.

Ellas spoke up when Luna closed the file with shuttered eyes. "We know it is disheartening," he said. "But at least we're spreading hope. It isn't hopeless, Lady Eilys."

Luna sighed. "Oh, I know that. I saw the exact same thing when I wandered Arda for years, asking to be taught healing." Then she straightened up. "For every year after you left, I have only allowed five healers to leave the status of apprentice to become a journeyman healer. Now that you are back, I can finally implement the final stages of the program."

She looked them in the eyes, each of them and saw their burning passion to serve, to heal and to help. "I have a set of then journeyman healers waiting for you. Once you have been vested in the robes of a master healer, they are yours to teach and to guide."

One of them, Corkin, raised a hand. "Why?" he asked.

"Gryffon told me that she accompanies each and every batch of Order members to the nearest town and tells them what to do, instead of leaving them to figure it out for themselves," Luna said. "I want you to do the same to them so that they don't flounder. You don't carry them. You will teach them how to walk in the shoes of a journeyman healer."

Heather knew she wasn't in the right shape to travel soon, but she had to meet the new set of journeyman healers to drop in a bit of advice, so she commissioned one of the children to act as her crutch and another to one for help in case she collapsed.

Instead of looking nervous, the children looked proud of the duty and were as alert as anything. Go figure. If she had been in their shoes, shed have been afraid of the possible collapse happening.

But to go back to the point, Heather went to the hospital/academy quickly and saw, instead of the usual crow of five, grey cloaked healers, threw re ten of them and milling in with them were five blue-cloaked fellows that bore the crest of the Order.

"Master healers," she remarked upon realizing what the color meant. "Luna, you're brilliant!"

One of the blue-cloaked fellows noticed her and drew attention to her by crying out, "Lady Gryffon! You're here!"

Heather laughed. "Yeah, and so are you. Master healers already, are you?"

One of them made a face, "So Lady Eilys tells us. I don't feel like I mastered anything but blistered feet."

That had the group laughing even as they eyed her bandage with professional curiosity. The academy doors opening had all of them turning serious and lining up in neat rows.

Luna came out of the doors, flanked by her apprentices. She was about to make a speech but then she saw Heather standing near the back. Her eyes widened and she signaled one of the children to grab a chair.

"My healers," she started. Her voice was slightly shaky since she was watching Heather settle on the chair. "Five years ago, five of the bravest people went on a journey with little to no idea on what to do. But they soldiered on, easing the way for those who came behind them. They returned a week ago and agreed to be with you as you travel even farther than them."

Luna's speech went on for another paragraph more. It probably would have lasted longer but she saw Heather sway slightly in her seat.

"Feather," Luna said as she approached her friend. "Are you trying to give me white hairs?"

Heather gave her a wan smile. "No. but I've given you a week, Luna. You've been avoiding me."

"Well, but – " she started.

"You might as well admit it, you know," Draco said, making Luna jump in fright. Heather took note of that as she turned to see Draco and Hermione watching both of them with amusement and annoyance.

"What are you two doing here?" Heather asked.

"Following you, of course. What else?" Hermione answered. "You're supposed to be doing bed rest."

Heathers shoulders knotted with tension as she prepared for an argument.

"I'm going to do bed rest when Luna would stop being in denial," she said. When Luna opened her mouth to protest, Heather continued, "Don't lie, Luna! The moonbeam I know wouldn't even think about lying."

Luna trembled and Draco rolled his eyes. "Both of you are making a scene. Let's take this elsewhere."

He hooked his arm around Luna and took her to a nearby alleyway before apparating. Hermione wrapped her arms around Heathers waist and went through the same route.

"I'm not lying!" Luna was saying as they arrived in the Sanctuary.

"Potter has a point, you know," Draco said. "You are in denial."

Luna looked like she was going to do a Heather and turn stubborn. Then Heather spoke up, "Draco surprised you earlier. You didn't hear him. Luna, have you been rejecting your gift?"

That broke the dam.

"It's a curse!" she cried out. "Feather wouldn't have been hurt if she wasn't holding back because of me. What good is it?"

There was a shocked silence because the number of times Luna had shouted could be counted in one hand and there'd still be some fingers left over.

"You think your gift is a curse?" Draco asked in his most reasonable voice. "It's a part of you, just as much as your nose or your eyes are a part of you. It's a part of you, like breathing is."

"He's making sense," Heather muttered quietly. "surprisingly," she added under her breath. "But you can't just reject your gift," she continued. "I did that to mine and it nearly killed me. You can veil it but you must never reject it."

Luna sat shakily on the floor, prompting all of them to join her in an unofficial pile-up. She shook slightly as her gift awakened again.

"I forgot how difficult it was at the start," Luna whispered.

Draco snorted. "You are brilliant by yourself, Lovegood. Don't do a Potter and get yourself killed."

Despite the insult, Heather didn't react because it was a sort of a compliment to Luna. Hermione was the one who kicked him though.

Luna struggled with her gift for a couple of days. She had, apparently, been slowly killing it in the course of the week. Her gift struck back with a vengeance, making her twitch at the slightest sounds.

The only plus that occurred after the whole confrontation, as Hermione noted to the rest of her relatives, was that Luna had a stronger sense of control over her gift and wasn't quite so vulnerable anymore. That removed the burden Heather hadn't known she had been carrying.

Heather eventually recovered without being driven insane by the amount of fussing she received from everyone. The moment she was deemed well, she escaped her well-meaning siblings, borrowed the sword of Gryffindor from Guiomer and went to look for Training Masters. They were warriors like her, retied but still warriors. It was something you carried with you until death. They understood her need to be able to wield a sword and were not gentle as she slowly worked her way back to her old strength.

Prince Theodred and his cousins were among the spectators as she managed to disarm the Training master, even in her recently convalescent state, and they cheered her as she wielded her knives with graceful efficiency and deadly accuracy.

"You've been recently ill?" Prince Theodred asked. "Is that why Lord Guiomer has been a bit absentminded lately?"

Heather nodded just as she sighed. "Wolf caught me in the shoulder. And that child would worry, even if I just got a minor flesh wound."

"You are very good," thirteen year old Eomer said. "Have you been training long?"

Her nose scrunched up as she thought. "I first held a sword when I was twelve. I floundered a lot because the only instruction I received was to put the pointy end in the enemy. My first real lesson on the sword was with the Dúnedain, when they told me I'd get myself killed if they didn't teach me."

"How old were you then?" ten year old Eowyn asked. Her pale face was serious.

"Nineteen, I suppose," she answered after doing some quick calculations in her head. "We've stopped counting years."

It was hard to count years if you weren't familiar with the calendar. At best, she could give an approximate guess for her age.

Just then, the wards around the city, which was intimately connected to the four of them, shivered. Heather stood up abruptly, the stiff shoulder forgotten. She signaled one of the Training master. "A Blue signal." And the man quickly scampered off. It meant alert, wary and prepared for evacuation at a moment's notice.

"What is it?" Prince Theodred asked, eyeing her straight posture and the way she gripped her sword.

"There are protections in this city, your highness," a nearby man answered for her. "And our Lords and Ladies are tied to it, protecting us from all threats."

"I'll check it out," she told the commander who had marched up to her the moment he saw her. She had switched to Latin, the language they used for war. "Do not incite a panic. This is a Blue signal, commander."

Heather strode into an empty alleyway and apparated to where she had felt the wards poked. The rest were already there, watching a grey-robed figure kneel to where they had etched the runes deep in the ground, hidden from the rest of the world.

"Who is it?" she asked after she had recovered her breath.

"Gandalf the Grey," Luna answered.

Omake:

When Meiran met the Twins

"And who're you?" one of them asked. "Another idiot?"

Meiran felt her temper rise. Only Hodur could do it these days, and she only unleashed it on him because he deserved it, but these two were going to be fair game. They were asking for it.

"If you keep talking to me like that, I'm going to become your worst nightmare," she snarled.

Like I mentioned in the story, it's hard to convert their age to Arda's sense of time passing since their calendars are a bit different. But if we're going to follow the Earth's sense of passing, then the guys will be approximately thirty two to thirty five years old, with Hermione the eldest and Luna the youngest. Draco comes in after Hermione and Heather is before.

This is their birthdays:

Draco – June 5, 1980

Heather – July 31, 1980

Luna – September 1, 1980

Hermione – September 19, 1979

I can't exactly build an accurate time line. I bungled it up a bit with the Hobbit. That is supposed to happen 60 years before the official start of LoTR, but I made it into 20t to 30 years instead. Bugger.

Ah, well. This is what they call FANFIC, and I am liable to mistakes. I am sincerely sorry for not being perfect. UGH!

So this just became AU, then. Well, it was AU to begin with.

So, they were eighteen when they fell into Arda. Whatever age you pick in my approximation, then that's a decade plus that they've been slowly changing Arda to a better world.

Hope that answers questions.

~Hallen