A Cruce Salus:
Chapter 2
It's a heart break that you can't fix up / It's a last try when you've lost your luck / It's a bad day, another bad day / It's a last chance when they've given up / It's a bad ride, falling out of love / Can you take it? Cause I can't take it / It's starting up and never stopping again
When the rain starts shaking the ground / I hope you're ready now / I hope you're ready for it when you / Get caught out in the rain / I hope you're ready now / For all the storms to head your way.
(( Caught in the Rain by October Fall ))
The bedsheets were overpowering, she was on fire, she was dying..
A sudden surge had her bent over the bed, chest heaving on the pristine floor. After throwing up for so long it felt as though her stomach was on the floor with the bile, the blood came.
She heaved and hacked and felt a hand on her back as she coughed up handfuls of the scarlet liquid. Dazed, she tried to remember where she was, but only felt a fresh wave of pain coming over.
"Let it out, just let it out.." Ginny could've sworn she heard someone repeating these words over and over again, but they seemed faraway. Was it part of her endless dreams or was it her only link to reality? She held onto these words for as long as she could before darkness overtook her again.
"But why can't we see her?"
It had been nearly three whole days since Sirius, James and Peter had found the mystery girl, and they had yet to visit her in the hospital wing. Not that they hadn't tried- on the contrary, they had been attempting to knock down Pomfrey's door nearly "every minute of every hour of every godforsaken day!" Remus had gotten well enough to hear all about it, and had been dragged back to the place he had just gotten out of more times than he could count.
The others were absolutely obsessed with finding out who this girl was; even more so after Dumbledore himeslf forbade them to let anyone know that whoever it was was here. Of course, the headmaster knew it was a given that Remus would find out, but he made it very clear that none of the few other people staying for break could. He had also spent nearly half an hour of their time questioning them relentlessly, most of which they hadn't been able to answer. Why was she so important?
"Because," replied the nurse with every ounce of patience she posessed (which really wasn't much), "Dumbledore. Forbids. It."
It really was rather stupid of the staffnot to realize that hyping all this up would only make them more interested.
"But why does he forbid it?" continued James incessantly,"What is she, a Death Eater? An hitman? A drug dealer? ..You know, I could continue this for quite some time."
"So I've heard," she said murderously.
"Where is she? Why isn't she in the regular quarters?"
Pomfrey kept her mouth shut, her lips shockingly resembling McGonagall's.
"Look," cut in Sirius, "can you at least tell us how she is? Considering we saved her?"
"Dumbledore got your detentions dropped from Madam Pince--who is a hard woman to reckon with--so-"
Peter and Sirius rolled their eyes. "Sound like someone I know. They're in this room. Three guesses."
"Who is a hard woman to reckon with, so you lot should be grateful. Isn't that enough!"
"Oh, Poppy, you know us better than that! We're not that easy; of course it isn't."
"You may have saved her, but I don't think ANYTHING will be able to save her from you."
"Spot on!"
"OUT!"
"You know, this would be a lot easier if someone hadn't let Snape nick our map."
"I'm sorry!" said Peter again sheepishly, cowering under Sirius's glare.
"Oh, please," cut in Remus, "This is getting old. For the last time, Sirius, it was an accident and Peter's sorry. Just let it go!"
Peter shot Remus a grateful glance.
"Let it go?" said James incredulously, "We spent years on that thing!"
"And now, in our final glory year, we can't use it!" backed up Sirius.
"How will we ever pull off another prank?"
"Or successfully turn McGonagall's hard into various shades of pink?"
"Salmon happens to be my favorite. Remus! No more salmon-colored buns desperately covered up with tacky hats!"
"How will we ever cause misguided mischief?"
"Or pass it down to future generations of prankers!"
"Or use it for young Pronglet!"
"Or.. Pronglet?"
Remus and Peter snickered.
"You know, the inevitable wonder child you'll be having with our dear Lily Evans," stated Sirius as though this was the most obvious thing in the world.
James raised his eyebrows. "Am I missing something?"
"Well," he launched in, "he will either have long red hair and brown eyes or black hair-that-never-stays-down-right with green eyes. Then, he will have a tiny bit of his mother's aptitude for school, but not enough to qualify him to be a pussy. He will be the fifth-best pranker in Hogwarts history and a fantastic Quidditch captian (seeker, if it was my choice, but his dad'll probably pressure him into Chaser. Poor kid.) If he-"
"You have too much time on your hands," said Remus, but his face betrayed him with a smile.
James, on the other hand, looked interested. "How do you know he won't be a girl?"
Sirius crinkled his eyebrows together in concentration. After about half a minute, he said, "Prongs.. did you just suggest that your son might be transgendered?"
That comment earned him a whack over the head.
"Guys?" cut in Peter, "Shouldn't we get back to the job at hand?"
"Absolutely right, Peter!" said Sirius, "Who was the smartass that interrupted our mission with mindless small talk?"
All three rolled their eyes and kept on their way to the hospital wing, making sure that no one was following them. (This was something that Sirius would dearly like to point out would also be much easier with the Marauder's Map.)
"Lumos," whispered Peter.
"Put that out!" snarled James, "she might see us!"
Peter quickly rushed to say the countercourse- they were already mad enough at him for one night. But, honestly! It wasn't like he meant for Snape to find it! Peter had a run-in with the Slytherin a couple weeks ago while making his way to the kitchens, and his friends were nowhere to be found. Both seventh years knew what this meant--Snape had an undeniable upper hand. Unfortunately, Peter had chosen to take out the map the moment before he was cornered. It wasn't activated, but Snape had seen them with it before, so he quickly summoned it from Peter. After getting nothing but insults (and snorts of laughter from Peter), he threatened to take it to Filch. Judging by Peter's reaction and the names "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs" on the paper, he figured it would be amusing. Yes, bloody hilarious. Bastard.
Finally, they made it to the hospital wing. The Marauders had enlisted an eager first year to make sure Pomfrey was asleep when they arrived. When he gave them the thumbs up, they headed in.
"Silencio," muttered James and made his way to the private room the girl was being kept in at the back. Sirius reached into his pocket and extracted his knife, hoping it would work on the heavily protected door. He slid the edge through and turned, waiting to hear the soft 'click' that would signal the door had been unlocked..
Click.
Remus couldn't believe their luck. He'd thought for sure a door as secretive and private as this one would take much more than Sirius's pocketknife! They slid open the door quietly, even though they'd cast a silencing charm, and fumbled around for the lights.
"Wow," said Peter.
The girl was as pale as Nearly Headless Nick and as red as the Bloody Baron. The contrast of the magenta on her nearly white skin was akin to blood on snow. In truth, she didn't look alive at all, but rather as though she'd died days ago. Though she looked considerably better than when they'd discovered her, the two days apart hadn't done much for her appearance. She tossed and turned in her sleep as a bead of sweat formed on her brow. A blind man could tell she was in more pain than any one of them--except maybe Remus--had ever been in.
"So.. what do we do now?" inquired Remus.
"What do you mean?" responded Sirius.
"Well, we're here--what was the plan for after we got in?"
"Er.. I didn't exactly think that far ahead."
"Shocking."
They didn't have to worry about their heist becoming lackluster, because at that moment, the girl awoke. She was soout of itthat it was obvious she was oblivious to their presence, but that only worried them more. Her body was draped over the side of the bed and James had to jump out of the way so she didn't vomit on him. Their eyes distended and none of them looked like they knew what to do. She spilled her guts repeatedly, so much that they wondered when if was going to end.
And then the blood came.
If the four hadn't been panicking before, they were now. How long could she cough up her blood like that? Remus, not knowing what else to do, smacked his hand on her back and spoke to her.
"Let it out, just let it all out.." he said.
His friends looked at him strangely. "What? It's what Pomfrey does for me!" he said defensively.
After a while, the girl stopped hacking, but her face was still scrunched up in pain. She rolled back onto her bed and fell into another deep sleep.
"C'mon," whispered Peter, shaken, "Let's get out of here."
"Not so fast, Mr. Pettigrew," countered a visibly angered nurse standing in the doorway. "What a wonderful thing to find while making my night rounds!
"I see you've met our guest, Mr. Lupin. Can't say I'm surprised, with the way you hang around this lot."
Remus looked at the floor, ashamed for betraying the woman who helped him through his transformations.
"What's wrong with her!" shouted Sirius, forgetting to care that it was nighttime, "What's wrong with you? Don't you think we'd want to know that this girl is in here dying? We don't even know her NAME, by the way!'
"The Legendary Rage of Sirius Black," muttered James under his breath, waiting for his best mate to launch into another round of heated accusations. Fortunately, he was cut off by Madam Pomfrey, whose eyes had softened.
"I don't know her name either, Mr. Black, but what I do know is that the headmaster has instructed me to protect the students. Now, whether or not you found her, this woman may be dangerous. Until we confirm that, she will be staying nowhere near the rest of the school. And she's not dying, either. Actually, for injuries as massive as hers, her recovery has been monumentally quick. If she continues at this rate, I expect she'll be out of here quite soon.
"But that DOESN'T justify breaking and entering, you four!" she scolded them, remembering what situation they were in, "Honestly, must you set out to break every rule you're taught?"
"Ah, Poppy, you think too highly of us! I doubt we'd be able to break every one," said James.
"Would be rather brilliant, though, eh?" said Sirius wistfully.
"If and when this girl proves to be a threat, you will NOT be seeing her at all. However, if by some one in a million chance she's not, I expect the whole school will be seeing a lot of her."
But before the boys could figure out what she meant, they were shoved out the door.
(( A/N:What did you think? Any specific lines you particularly enjoyed? Next chapter: Ginny wakes up long enough to be questioned. Thanks for reading! ))