12. Healing

It was still early in the morning when Lily woke up. James sat upright beside her as well, with both mirrors vibrating and calling their respective names.

Remus was calling both of them, and Lily let out a gasp as she saw Remus. He was covered in blood, his clothes tattered and he looked like hell dragged over.

"What happened to you, Moony?" James all but shouted. Remus was out of breath.

"Pick me… up. Please… Can't… move… on my… own." He gasped out between ragged breaths.

He managed to sputter out his location, and James left immediately. Lily came down to the kitchen and started making some coffee. James returned with a bloody and battered Remus supporting his weight heavily, as he gently set him down on the couch.

Lily immediately diagnosed him with a charm and winced to see that he had eight broken bones, broken ribs, and ripped flesh from what looked to be werewolf attacks. Gently peeling off the bloodied and tattered cloth that clung to his body, she quickly cleaned up the dirt and blood and saw large, black bruises all over his body. Thankfully, none of his internal organs were damaged.

She stunned him before readjusting the broken bones and sealing the flesh wounds. She repaired the cracked ribs at last and noticed that the broken bones were slowly mending themselves. Possibly the only perk of being a werewolf, she thought.

She went to fetch her potions kit and took a blood replenishing potion out of it. Unfortunately, she was out of Skele-Gro, so she had to make it in order to heal his bones quickly. She handed the potion and a salve to James, instructing him to feed the potion to Remus and rub the salve on his bruises.

Skele-Gro took around two hours to brew, and during a one-hour simmering period, Lily came back from her lab to see Remus sitting up. Thankfully, James had noticed the coffee and they were both holding a cup. Remus tried to thank Lily but she asked him to stop talking nonsense and tell them what happened.

Apparently, Dumbledore had sent him to talk with the werewolves again, despite previous failures, and still asked him not to show any sort of violence. The werewolves already thought of Remus as a harmless wolf who was nothing but an irritation. This time they sent two others to attack him and chase him as far as they could. Not being able to defend himself, Remus couldn't run away from two werewolves attacking fiercely and was severely hurt. He aborted the mission and apparated to a spot a little far from them and called for help because he wasn't in any condition to apparate long distances.

"Why don't you say no to these missions, Remus? It is abundantly clear that Dumbledore has no idea about werewolf norms, and he clearly thinks that he could win them over with kindness just like you. Clearly, that's not the case, and the only one suffering for his faulty thinking is you." Lily ranted, her green eyes glinting with fire.

"But Dumbledore is our leader. We have to do what he asks us to do if we trust him to win the war, don't we?" Remus replied, not really meeting her eyes.

"That's bullshit, Moony, and you know it. Dumbledore is human just like the rest of us, and he has admitted to mistakes in the past." James said, quite pissed at the old headmaster.

Remus looked down. Deep down, he knew Dumbledore didn't know what he was doing with regards to the werewolf front. Remus knew perfectly well that if he really wanted the werewolves on his side, he had to take the leader down with aggressive dominance. Dumbledore, however, thought that was a crude and inhumane way of doing things, and they should not take that path if they wanted to show that they were different from Voldemort and his Death Eaters. In his noble attempt to humanize werewolves, Dumbledore completely overlooked the fact that werewolves were, in fact, different from regular human beings.

However, Remus couldn't disobey an order from Dumbledore. James and Lily could, of course, but they weren't the ones Dumbledore allowed to attend Hogwarts despite being a werewolf from a young age and posing a danger to anyone around him when the full moon came. He owed his life to Dumbledore and he wouldn't let a few bruises swerve his loyalty from the great wizard. Besides, this was war and casualties are inevitable. It was not like his werewolf abilities would not heal him within a day.

Ioioioioioioioioioioioioi

Harry left a basket of breakfast at Daphne's doorstep when she didn't open the door after knocking for well over ten minutes. The door was locked, and he had checked twice that she was in her room. It was the same as last night, when he rushed back after her but found her door locked. She hadn't answered her door after almost half an hour of knocking.

He didn't count on this part, to be honest. He thought that she would let loose on him and after she got it out of her system, she would be back to normal, or as normal as one could hope for a week after they were orphaned. He didn't count on her breaking his leg into two and then shutting herself out completely. At least she was talking to Harry before.

He didn't concentrate hard on his classes that day. Neville once asked him about his distracted state, but he said that he was having trouble sleeping, which was true. He did not stop by the Gryffindor common room and went straight back to the dorm after his classes. Hermione had asked him if he knew when Daphne was returning to her duties, and he told her that Daphne was not feeling well and he would ask her when she felt a little better.

Back in his dorm, with yet another basket in his hand, Harry knocked for two minutes before he had enough.

"Alright Daphne, if you don't open this door within the next minute I'm gonna blow it right off its hinges. I'm not even slightly joking." He announced loudly.

The door opened after a few seconds and Daphne looked back at him with empty eyes. Her eyes were blood red and she had tear streaks covering her face.

"Thank you. Can I come in?" He asked gently. She looked at him for a long time before stepping aside, making way for him.

Harry muttered another 'Thank you' before coming in, bringing the two baskets with him.

He closed the door and simply looked at her, as she sat down on the bed and looked down. Hesitantly, he sat down beside her.

"Eat, please." He said, holding a sandwich to her mouth. She stayed still for a few seconds before opening her mouth and taking a bite of the sandwich. He fed her the whole sandwich and then gave her an apple before he was satisfied. As he put down the basket, she was looking at him with an unreadable expression.

"You want some pumpkin juice?" He asked, and she shook her head. "Water?" She nodded, and he poured her a goblet of water and she drank it, still looking at him.

"You're gonna say something?" He asked her gently, as he put the goblet down from her hand and faced her.

"Why?" She whispered in a broken voice.

"Pardon?" He asked, not understanding what she was asking. She stayed silent for a while before speaking again, this time her voice a bit clearer.

"Why do you do this?"

"If you mean why do I feed you it is because I don't want to see you die from starvation and you won't eat by yourself. You barely ate anything since you arrived." He explained, avoiding the obvious implication looming in the air.

"I broke your leg." She whispered, fresh tears in her eyes.

"After many attempts over the years." He tried to joke, but she didn't seem to be appreciating it. He sighed and scooted closer to her and put an arm around her.

"Hey, it's okay. Though I have to ask you to not do it again, I'm not mad about it, either. I should have dodged or shielded, but I was not fast enough. Anyway, I was pushing you so you could break out of your funk, not fall into another one."

Daphne's lips were trembling. With all that she went through, she was still trying to hold on to some essence of dignity by not giving in. As much as Harry appreciated her stubbornness, he also knew that she had to let go. He gently took her hand in his hand, pulled her close and kissed her temple.

"It's okay." He whispered.

That seemed to be the breaking point for her. Daphne let her emotions take over after a very long fight, and she sobbed. Her hands were covering her face and Harry turned and gently pulled her head to his shoulders as she cried and she slowly moved her hands from her face to his back, as he held her comfortingly, rocking her slowly and gently stroking her head with his free hand. A weird part of his mind reminded him that this was the second Greengrass girl who was crying in his shoulders within a week.

Daphne calmed down a lot faster than Astoria had done and remembering the previous incident, Harry quickly cleaned up the wet spot on his shirt before Daphne noticed.

"Thank you Harry." She said with a sniff. Harry just rubbed his hand on her arms reassuringly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked gently. Daphne shook her head.

"Not yet, but maybe someday. Thanks for asking." She said gratefully.

"You are still hungry." Harry commented and Daphne actually let out a watery chuckle.

"I am, actually." She admitted after a hiccup. She felt extremely light and her body was reminding her that she hadn't eaten much in the last couple of days. In fact, she hadn't eaten that much in the week before coming to Hogwarts.

"Do you like pizza?" Harry asked, forming a plan.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"Pizza. Do you like it? Actually, do you even know what pizza is?"

Daphne was a pureblood, which meant the concept of pizza may not be something she was familiar with.

"No. Is that muggle food?"

"Yes it is, and we are going to have it now." Harry announced, hoping she wouldn't refuse.

"How?" She asked, bewildered.

"You'll see. Do you have any muggle clothes?"

"Nothing that I can wear outside." Muggle clothing was something she had never explored other than the few items Tracey introduced her to. She had seen some muggle fashion magazines and their dresses looked very elegant and stylish, but she had never been to a muggle shop.

"I think we can manage something."

He beckoned her to follow him to his room.

Harry searched his wardrobe for clothes that might look good on Daphne and found a pair of jeans and a Liverpool football shirt. Handing her the clothing, he asked her to change.

"Where are we going?"

"Muggle London, of course." He answered as if it was obvious.

"But how?"

"We'll go to Hogsmeade and then apparate to London."

"Are you mental? That's crazy!"

He simply pointed at the muggle clothes. Sighing in defeat, she went back to her room to use the bathroom, and after a few minutes, she came back, dressed in jeans and a football shirt. She had put on a little makeup to hide the bags under her eyes in addition to a pair of earrings. She also shrank the clothes to fit her perfectly, and Harry had to turn away quickly to hide a slight blush. He never got tired of noticing that under her school robes and roomy casualwear she wore in the dorm Daphne had a very attractive figure. Getting a hold of himself, he looked at her and saw that she was looking down at her new clothes to see how she looked.

"You look good. Let's go." He said, already wearing a pair of jeans and a plain green shirt. Daphne's cheeks coloured a little at the compliment, and she headed for the exit.

"Not that way." Harry said, as he summoned his broom. She gaped at him.

"Please tell me you're not about to do what I think you're about to do." She said in a slightly shaky voice, and Harry grinned widely.

"Oh blondie, we are about to do exactly what you think we are about to do."

"There's no way I'm gonna fly all the way to Hogsmeade. I suck at flying."

"I know." He answered with a smirk and she was a bit surprised. "That's why you are not flying; I am."

Daphne's jaws dropped at the outrageous suggestion and before she knew what was going on, he was already in front of her, hovering mid-air in his broom.

"Hop on." He said with a grin, but she didn't move. "What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid of flying." She admitted in a small voice.

"What are you afraid of?" He asked, wondering if she was afraid of heights.

"I'm afraid I will fall off." She said, and Harry smiled.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes." It scared her how fast she answered, but it was true nonetheless.

"I won't let you fall." He promised sincerely. Daphne looked at him for a long time before climbing up behind him.

"Make sure you don't." She whispered with a slightly shaking voice, already grabbing Harry tightly in fear. Once more Harry had to control his hormones as Daphne clung to him tightly and certain things were pressing up against his back.

He took off from the open window and Harry put a disillusionment charm and a warming charm over them as he left the castle behind.

"You okay?" he asked her, as her head was buried on the back of his shoulder.

"Yes." She replied, eyes tightly shut. Harry laughed.

"Open your eyes. It's a magnificent view from here. And don't worry about falling off. The broom has a charm to hold people to it unless they want to leave." He said and felt her slowly lifting her head from behind his back to look out.

"It's beautiful." She admitted softly, momentarily forgetting about the fact that they were flying. The mountains on their left, lake below, and the Forbidden Forest on their right painted a beautiful picture.

Harry steered downwards towards the lake and for a moment Daphne panicked but he levelled off gradually, the water just touching their feet and Daphne laughed. She hadn't felt this free in a long time and as Harry pulled upward in a sharp climb, she felt her fear leaving as she let out a whoop of joy. Harry was laughing in front of her and she realized that she was barely holding him with one hand, her other waving at the air.

As he levelled off in the air again, she slowly let go of both hands and spread them out like a bird, feeling the air sweeping her face. A single drop of tear escaped her eyes, and she knew it was not a tear of sadness. She also realized that Harry was the reason she felt so free and light, and that he made her feel safe. More thoughts about Harry were trying to crawl inside her head, but she pushed them away and closed her eyes to simply enjoy the moment and feel the wind on her body.

Soon, the ride was over and Harry landed on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. As they climbed down, Daphne had a big smile on her face and Harry was once again struck by the fact that when she wasn't being cold and empty, she was possibly the prettiest girl he had ever seen.

"Wasn't that bad now, was it?" He asked with a smile, and she beamed at him.

"It was wonderful. Thank you." She said softly. He shrunk his broom and held out his hand for her. As she placed her hand in his palm, they disapparated.

They arrived at a dimly-lit alleyway and as they came out from it, Daphne took her first step out into a larger world. Her immediate thought was that there were a lot of muggles. Of course, she had seen muggles before, but never so many at the same time.

They walked together for a few minutes, and Daphne tried not to gawk at the huge shops displaying wonderful shoes and clothes. Soon, they were climbing up a flight of stairs to enter a shop that looked very warm and cosy. The waiter guided them to a seat by the glass window overlooking the street below. Harry ordered, as Daphne was clueless, and they sat in companionable silence for a time.

"Thank you for doing this." She spoke quietly, looking down at the table. He shrugged.

"I wanted to have pizza, and house elves don't even know what a pizza is."

"No, I don't mean the pizza thing." She clarified. She was not really one for expressing emotions, spending most of her life doing the exact opposite, but she felt like she had to do it now. "I mean thanks for everything you have done since I got back. I know I was turning away from everything. It's unfair to you and Tori."

Harry discreetly put on a few privacy and notice-me-not wards around them, and Daphne noticed that a young man who had been staring at her breasts suddenly looked confusedly around.

"I hated it when I saw you put on that cold and indifferent mask of yours when I knew that you were hurting. Astoria told me that you have been keeping it all inside, and it will eventually lead to an explosion. I knew that feeling too. And I knew that if you exploded on Astoria, you would never forgive yourself. As far as I knew, the only other person that you would let in to your life enough to break down was me, so I knew I had to push you because you are one stubborn prat."

"So are you." She whispered with a slight smile, as she dabbed on her eyes.

"I know." He said with a grin. "And I knew that it had to be done for both your and Astoria's sake. Don't tell anybody else, but I kinda like talking to you. Because of that, it was not a very hard decision to make."

"But I hurt you!" She quietly exclaimed, tears running down her face freely. "I snapped your leg in half. You should have stayed away from me." She whispered. He took her hands and sandwiched them between both his hands.

"Daphne, I knew exactly what I was doing and I don't blame you in the slightest. Yeah I'll admit that it hurt for a bit, but you did not do it out of malice or hatred towards me. You were angry and upset, and that is exactly what I was trying to get you to let out. I fanned the flames on purpose. Though let me say, you have a mean arsenal at your disposal. Some of the curses you started throwing around on the later stages were pretty dangerous." He complimented her, and she ducked her head.

"I really wanted to hurt you because you were dodging or blocking most of my curses." She admitted shamefully.

"Yeah, I gathered as much. I tried not to block or dodge the less harmful ones so that you didn't get even more frustrated, but your spells got downright lethal in the last few minutes and I had to block them or evade them."

"Wait, what do you mean by you tried not to block? Are you saying you could have blocked all of my spells if you wanted?" She asked disbelievingly.

"Why do you think you never landed a major curse on me but several small ones got through when it's easier to block the small ones?" He asked with a wink, and she closed her eyes for a moment.

"You allowed me to hurt you intentionally?" She asked.

"Which part of blowing off your steam includes missing your target or get them all blocked? And anyway, the last one genuinely got through. I was distracted and didn't have enough time to get a stone up in time. And if you try to apologize about my leg one more time, I will leave you here." He warned as she opened her mouth.

There was a silence between them and seeing their waiter returning with the pizza, Harry dispelled all the wards to allow him through.

Daphne immediately decided that she loved pizza. This was one of the best things she ever tasted. Harry had ordered three large pizzas so she could get the full monty. When she mentioned that they could never finish all of these, he told her that they would take away the leftovers home. At this point, Daphne decided that muggles were very smart for that brilliant idea.

They talked about unimportant things while eating, and Daphne tried muggle wine, which she loved. Harry got a bottle and Daphne tried to protest, saying that he was spending too much money. However, Harry said that muggle food was way cheaper than wizarding foods, and when Harry paid the bill in cash and converted the amount in galleons for her, she realized he was right. It was very cheap.

As the waiter handed him the boxes of leftover pizza, and they left the restaurant, Daphne linked her arm through his as they walked towards the alleyway where they would apparate.

"I want to visit muggle London again sometime." She said softly, as he reached out for her hand.

"Consider it done then." He replied with a smile before disapparating away.

The journey back to the castle was more blissful as Daphne enjoyed the ride back to the fullest this time. Seeing her lifted spirits, Harry asked her to hold on tightly and when she obliged, he pulled down on a steep dive straight towards the ground. Daphne was screaming in fear and thrill all at once and whooped as he pulled out of the dive, only a few yards away from the ground. He then proceeded to fly in a spiral and then shooting straight upwards for a while before turning back and gently entering their dorm window.

They climbed down from the broom, and Harry saw that Daphne's face was flushed from excitement.

"You always fly like a lunatic?" She asked breathlessly, but with a smile.

"Actually, I never fly that boringly." He said with a cheeky grin and she laughed, but there was a battle going on inside her head.

Sometimes, Daphne hated her stubborn and sensible head. All she wanted to do right now was snog the daylights out of him, but she knew that would be more due to the emotional rollercoaster she just went through. And she really did not want to complicate or jeopardize what they had.

Hesitantly, she moved towards him and kissed his cheek, exercising all of her self-control to not shift her lips those agonizing few inches, before engulfing him in a hug. He was a bit surprised, but hugged her back.

"Thank you." She said, letting go.

"Anytime."

Ioioioioioioioioioioioioi

"Lily, this is a pleasant surprise. Please take a seat." The headmaster smiled at his guest. "Sherbet Lemon?" He offered a bowl of candy and Lily declined.

"Thank you Albus, but no."

Dumbledore nodded. "May I help you? Or is this a social visit?" He asked. Lily took a deep breath.

"I wanted to have a chat with you. About Remus."

"Of course. I have some free time now." A kettle of tea and two cups appeared in front of him as he served tea for two. Lily added sugar to her own.

"Do you know what happened after his last mission?" Dumbledore nodded.

"Ah, yes. We encountered failure again. I think we should give it a few days before trying again."

"Trying again?" Lily said in a dangerously calm voice, and Dumbledore recognized it immediately. Even he had once taken the brunt of Lily's anger, and it was not a pleasant experience.

"My dear Lily, you have to understand that we cannot afford to have the werewolves join Voldemort's side any more than they already have."

"Do you have any idea exactly what happened last time Remus came back from the mission?" She asked, her voice rising gradually.

"Remus did not say anything specific, no. He just told me they turned him away again."

Lily looked at him for a long time before calming down. If he didn't know about his condition, she couldn't really blame Dumbledore for trying to send him again.

"He couldn't come back on his own. He called James for help, and he had apparate him back to our home." Dumbledore was shocked.

"You mean he was hurt?" He asked, knowing that hurting a werewolf was not an easy feat.

"Let's put it this way. If Remus was not a werewolf, he would have died three times over. The amount of blood he lost was more than enough to knock even a werewolf unconscious. He stayed awake to call for help simply out of sheer willpower. All of his ribs were either cracked or broken, and he had to down three vials of Skele-Gro to mend all the broken bones. I couldn't even keep count on the number of flesh wounds and bruises, and keep in mind that there are not many things that can puncture the flesh of a werewolf. Should I go on, or do you get the picture?"

Dumbledore's eyes were misty. He never imagined Remus had been injured to this extent.

"But he didn't… say-" He started in a voice full of despair but Lily cut him off.

"Yes, he didn't tell you, do you know why? Because let me tell you that he knows perfectly well that he would be attacked but approached them anyway because you asked him to do so." Lily nearly shouted and Dumbledore looked a century older.

"I had… no idea… about-" He admitted but Lily was not finished yet.

"And you want to know why he did it anyway? Because he feels like he owes his life to you because you let him attend Hogwarts and therefore is willing to die if you asked him to. He knows that you are going about it in the wrong way but he would rather die than question you because you are ALBUS FUCKING DUMBLEDORE!" She screamed the last part as Dumbledore winced.

"Lily, I had honestly no idea that he would put himself in danger like that-"

"Cut the crap, Albus. You asked him to not defend himself in case he got attacked. COULD YOU BE ANY CLEARER ON ASKING HIM TO GET HURT?"

"I only asked him to not use violence-"

"YOU DON'T DEFEND YOURSELF AGAINST A WEREWOLF WITH A FUCKING FLOWER ALBUS! DON'T ACT INNOCENT BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT INNOCENT AT ALL!"

"But using violence means we are no different than Voldemort and his Death Eaters." Dumbledore cried out. Lily sighed and counted to ten in her mind.

"Albus, how many werewolves do you know?" She finally asked, in a normal voice.

"A few."

"And how many werewolves have you consulted with before taking the decision to approach them with 'no violence' as a critical condition?" She asked, and he looked down uncomfortably.

"Only Remus." He answered quietly.

"And what did he say immediately after he heard your proposal?"

"He said werewolves appreciated physical domination over anything else, but he said he would still approach without any violence if I wanted him to."

"Now answer me this with a simple yes or no. Do you think you know how a werewolf's mind works better than a werewolf?"

"But violence is-" He started but Lily cut him off.

"I said yes or no, Albus."

He was quiet for a long time before slowly hanging his head.

"I was foolish."

"Yes, you were. And your foolishness almost cost Remus's life and he would gladly lay it out because he feels he is so indebted to you."

Lily knew Dumbledore was not a bad person, but being old and powerful meant he thought he always knew the best, even when he had no idea about what he was doing. She hoped Dumbledore truly understood what he did wrong and learn from the mistake before it was too late.

"I don't know what to say to you. I will call Remus and take his advice on how to proceed."

"Wonderful. We don't have many fighters in our ranks. It would be a shame to lose the few we do have." She replied, content at her success.

"I will take my leave now. Sorry for yelling at you, but you are a stubborn old man, so you didn't leave me with many options." She said, standing up and Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling.

"Indeed. Would you like to say hello to Harry before you go?" He asked and she considered it.

"Might as well check on Daphne to see how she had been holding up."

"You know the way to your old dorm, I suppose?" Dumbledore said with a smile and Lily nodded before saying goodbye to the headmaster and went to the Head's dorm.

Harry and Daphne were chatting with Astoria, who was becoming acquainted with the muggle idea of leftovers. When the portrait announced that a former Head Girl wanted to come in, they were all confused, and Daphne picked up her wand and kept it ready as Harry went to the entrance. When Daphne saw a beaming Lily Potter, she threw away her wand and ran at her to engulf her in a hug, catching her by surprise. She was only starting to hug her back when Astoria followed her sister and hugged both of them and soon they were in a three-way hug which amused Harry greatly.

"Not to sound like a prat, but she's my mum, you know." He joked and the three ladies laughed. Daphne and Astoria let go of Lily as she gave Harry a brief hug and kissed his cheeks.

"What brings you here mum?" Harry asked as he led her inside.

"Had to talk some sense into Albus and thought I'd stop by to see how my favourite girls were doing. Thankfully, I found both of them here."

Harry poked out his tongue at Astoria.

"Yeah, since you mentioned favourite girls, I have no objection. You want some pizza?" He offered.

"Always." She replied, taking a piece and biting into it. "Where did you get it from?"

Daphne looked alarmed, but Harry winked at her.

"London. Where else?"

To both the Greengrass girls' surprise, Lily didn't even bat her eye, happily chewing on her pizza.

"Did you get caught?"

Looking offended, Harry responded, "Of course not."

"Cool. I found this new place that has this thing called a deep dish pizza-"

Mother and son talked about pizza for a while, and Astoria felt quite jealous of Harry for having such a cool mum. Sure, she loved her mum as well, but she would have yelled at her for an hour if she went to London. Then she remembered that she would rather have her mother yell at her and be alive and tried to choke back tears welling up.

The group idly chatted for a while, with Lily sincerely asking how the sisters were holding up, and they both admitted Harry had been a big help for them. Lily gave him a look of pride so fierce that he actually blushed.

They talked about Melanie, Padfoot, the war, the Ministry and many other things, and Astoria was surprised that Lily never tried to avoid talking about sensitive topics in front of her like her own parents used to do. She knew Lily was cool, but it still didn't stop her respect and love for Lily going further up.

After a while, Lily left, and Astoria soon decided that she had to go as well. Harry was about to get up, when Daphne asked where he was going, and Astoria explained how Harry always escorted her back to the common room since she returned and Daphne shot him a grateful smile which made Harry uncomfortable.

"Mind if I do it today? I haven't been a good sister to her for a while, and I want to visit the Slytherin common room anyway." She asked quietly and he nodded.

Astoria bid him goodbye and Harry went up to his room, thinking that the day ended much better than it had started.

A/N: As usual, my beta slucas123 did a wonderful job on this chapter, but I might have added some stuff at the literal last minute, so please excuse any mistakes. Big shoutout to tripmightfor being the 300th reviewer of the story. Please tell me what you think of the chapter. Reviews are what keeps me writing.