Can't Go It Alone

Chapter 6

Cnorth

Disclaimer: All HP characters belong to JKR.

Credit: Winthrops Slayer and whitv.

A/N: This chapter is a teaser, chapter 7 will be up soon, but until then, this should keep you interested, folks. pixiehumor, you are giving away too much. And don't worry, all the houses will get their turns at being prominent. And George and Fred will figure in more soon, too. Regina, you have NO IDEA just how insane my life is. It would startle even the people reading this. This is somewhat toned down…

Ashley was on her way to her magical healing class when a beautiful yet tragic song arose from a bush a few feet away. She gasped, following the sound, and pushing aside the boughs to find a gorgeous bird with red plumage, that looked like it was injured. As she reached out to touch the bird, a wave of recognition washed over her.

She pulled her hand back slightly. "Fawkes?" she asked, even though she knew the bird couldn't answer her. The bird did, in it's own way, however. A soft trill of song issued from it's beak. She smiled and held out her hand, and he hopped onto it. There was a slight injury on one of his wings, and Ashley gently carried him to Hagrid. He set the wing, but as soon as he was done, and tried to relocate Fawkes to a perch, the phoenix squawked loudly in complaint, and hopped back onto Ashley's arm.

When she went inside for lunch, she was able to move Fawkes to her shoulder, but other than that, the phoenix stayed put the entire day.

After lunch, Luna was on the way to her classroom to meet Kevin and go over some lesson plans, and heard a quiet groan coming from a side hall. She drew her wand (ebony, 12", with a core made from her soulmate's hair and runic engravings covering it), and advanced into the short hall, muttering "lumos" under her breath.

She looked to her left and right cautiously, and continued forward, illuminating the ground in front of her as she walked. There were no windows on this hall, and the light was very dim. Finally, she saw what the source of the groaning noise had been. A person lay sprawled on the floor, face down, shoulder length blonde hair splayed out covering both sides of her face from view. Luna frowned, and moved closer.

"Brittany? Is that you?" She turned the slumped form over, and it was indeed Brittany. The girl had lived on the same floor as the rest of the girls, and had, presumably, been turned into a portrait like the rest of the people who had to be saved. Luna felt wetness below the hand that she had on the girl's shoulder, and pulled it closer to her to see that it was covered in blood. She swore, and levitated the girl with a simple "mobilicorpus" spell.

She hurried to the hospital wing, bellowing for Madame Pomfrey as she walked in. The nurse was always somewhere around, she simply couldn't resist hovering over her patients. The older woman took a look at the girl and blanched. "I can't heal this girl," she whispered softly, "and neither can St. Mungo's. We'll have to hope for the best."

"Why can't you heal her, Poppy? I thought you could heal any human injury!" Luna snapped, looking on as her friend's bleeding continued uncontrollably. Poppy had put bandages on, but already the amount of blood that was being lost was overwhelming the strength of the bandages.

"She's half-elven, at least. Look at her ears…" Luna took a second to look, and sure enough, they were pointed. Just slightly, but pointed nonetheless. She nodded in understanding, knowing that elves were highly resistant to magic, especially the human variety.

"Well, what can we do? We have to do something…" The nurse shook her head, and looked sadly out the window.

"There really isn't much that can be done, unless the elves in the Forbidden Forest could be convinced to send one of their healers to work with her. I could approach the Headmistress, and see if she wants to send someone in, otherwise, I'm afraid the best I can do is use muggle medicine to treat her."

Luna bit her lip. Vampires were hated by elves. She would go by herself otherwise. But knowing that the cautious headmistress would not wish to send people who would get hurt, she resolved herself to the fact that she was going to have to go in, even if it meant taking some others with her, and endangering them in a way she usually would not.