Lisa: Yes! Her we go, I'm working!
Heather: You didn't write anything yet.
Lisa: I'm writing this dialogue aren't I?
Casualties of War
The battle had raged on for hours, and though the young fighters tried their hardest they weren't able to subdue their enemy. Many of the Muggles who happen to get caught up in the fight were either injured or killed, they didn't receive any more help though save for a couple of wizards who lived a few streets over. Unfortunately their bravery was not without consequence, they helped, but they lost both of their lives in the process. It was an unwelcome turn of events, but this was a war.
When the battle died down and the smoke cleared the men and women saw what was left of the street that became their battlefield. The road was torn up and streetlamps were down, it was impossible to tell what some of the debris was, most of it had been blow to bits by some sort of curse or hex.
Sirius pushed himself up from the ground where he was lying on his stomach, groaning in pain as he tried to stand. He didn't remember getting knocked out but here he was. With blurry and unfocused eyes he looked around at the faces surrounding him. He blinked heavily trying to try and rid the haze that covered his normally keen eyes.
"Don't try to move too much, Pads."
That would be Remus… defiantly. Sirius thought after a moment of deep thought. Leave it to him to know exactly what he should be and should not be doing. "Wha' 'appened?" He grunted tenderly touching his head only to find blood dripping down his face and onto his hands.
"You were knocked out by a stunning hex we think, but it gave you a pretty nasty gash too hit your head on the way down we think." His friend explained. "Luckily Chris found you in time before you were killed."
He looked up and saw the face of the new guy peering down at him in worry. "Guess I owe you a lager, huh?" He said with a smirk still trying to stand on his own.
"Sirius are you stupid?" The constantly irritated voice of Andy asked as he heard her heavy boots come closer. "If you move now you'll fall down again and get knocked out…again. And I am not in any kinda mood to lug your heavy ass around.
"Good to see you alive too, Andy." He greeted sluggishly pushing himself up so he was sitting on his feet. "Now help me up."
"Padfoot… I don't think –" Remus began.
"Moony to be honest I don't care what you think at the moment." He snapped holding his hand out for someone to take. "Oh… Remus I'm sorry, I'm just a little on edge."
The werewolf smiled, always understanding and sighed in defeat. "I know, c'mon." He grabbed his arm and flung it over his shoulder for support. "Edgar and Marlene have already gone to alert the Order about the outcome."
"Good to hear." Sirius mumbled as he stood and swayed once on his feet nearly falling down if Remus hadn't been there to catch him. "Oh… bloody hell."
"You okay?" Remus asked.
"Yeah… yeah, fine, just a little dizzy is all."
"We should get him to Mungo's." Heather said as she walked over after checking some of the bodies. "We have a couple survivors over there too."
"We'll take him." Andy said taking Sirius's other arm and slinging it over her own shoulders with a small grunt, somewhere she was injured. "You guys take care of all this." She said looking to Remus and sighing before they apparated away, being so weak there was no way Sirius could alone and Remus wasn't exactly at his top strength at the moment so if they wanted to apparate with Sirius, they would have needed two people.
The three appeared in the front office in a flash with Sirius still hanging limply from them completely in tact. They walked over to a bench and set their friend down on the seat. "Stay with him, I'll go fetch a healer." Remus said and jogged off to the front desk pushing past people as he went.
"I'm really fine." Sirius breathed weakly.
She nodded slowly in disbelief. "If you're so fine then how come ya couldn't take one step forward?"
"I jus'… like th' thought of bein' carried, okay so it's not by beautiful women in bikinis and I'm not on a throne, but… but it works."
She rolled her eyes. "Right, so, it's not that head injury? That big egg on the back of your head's always been there?"
Confused he lifted up his hand and felt the back of his head. Through his massively thick hair he felt a large bump and something wet and sticky nearly covering the whole area. "Bloody hell." He murmured in shock.
"Yeah," she agreed and brushed some hair out of his eyes being unusually kind to him. His breathing was getting a little labored and his eyes heavy, she was no healer but she knew this wasn't a good sign. "Hey," she said patting him on the cheek. "Basic head injury 101, no sleepin'."
"Tired." He mumbled shutting his eyes once more, the apparition must have tired him out more then they thought.
"Yeah, hun, I know," she said shifting his head slightly so it wasn't at such a painful angle. "But ya need to hang in there, okay Sirius?"
"'Kay…"
She looked around franticly seeing that she couldn't keep him from falling asleep for much longer. "Where's that damn healer?" Once again staring down at him she noticed the blood dripping further down his face and on his chest. "Hey, ya know its a good thing that tank top is black, huh? No stains to worry about." It seems though her humor was lost because his condition was rapidly deteriorating in front of her eyes.
"Andy?" She looked down at him, his dark eyes were open and staring at her with a slightly furrowed brow. "You hurt?"
"Huh?" She asked dumbly.
His gaze settled down to her shoulder where there was a long tear in her shirt across her collar bone, she didn't even notice it. "Would you look at that…?" She whispered and tenderly prodded it with her finger, she hissed.
She reached for the collar of her leather jacket and gently pulled it down over her shoulder. All along her shoulder she saw several lacerations and her shirt was horribly torn, they were still bleeding. That must have been the reason she felt so light headed. "Holy Christ." She mumbled, how could she not of noticed this?
"Sectusempra." Sirius mumbled closing his eyes once more.
"What?"
"It's a curse… you need to get it healed… blood." He managed to force out.
She immediately brushed off her injury and was once again helping him. "C'mon Sirius, no sleeping, you know better."
"Can't help it."
"I know, just… just stay awake just for a little while longer. Where is that damn healer!?" She cried looking around once more, when she looked back down he was drifting off fast, she grabbed his face and made him look at her. "Sirius don't make me kiss you just to get you to stay awake, that punishes me just as much as it punishes you."
"Sorry." He mumbled.
At that moment two medi witch and wizard came running over with a levitating gurney. "Finally," She walked over to Remus. "What took so long?"
"Apparently Voldemort really gave us one hell of a blow this time." He motioned around to the many other people in the room waiting around with injuries of their own. "Love," he said getting her attention. "You're bleeding."
"Yeah, I know." She said pulling her jacket around her tighter. "It's nothin'."
"The hell it's nothing."
"Oh come off it, what about you? You're limping."
"It's nothing."
"The hell it is." Andy growled, not noticing the similarities between their answers. "Don't give me that shit." She said as they followed the healers down the hall, however once they took him into a room they were forced to stand outside of it and wait patiently.
They only sat still for a few seconds before she felt her jacket slowly being pulled off. "This is hardly the time or place, Remus." She moaned.
"Shut up… you're lucky, looks like it just skimmed your shoulder. This could be so much worse."
"Did it rip my jacket?"
"Little bit."
"Damn."
He rolled his eyes. "Are you positive you're okay?"
She sighed deeply and gave off a low sound from the back of her throat. "You know I am." And without warning she dropped down to her knees and pulled up his pant leg, surprising him. "What have we here? And you think I'm bad off."
She gently poked at the swollen ankle Remus was currently supporting. "Doesn't look too bad, just a sprain, you should at least splint it. Have you been walking on it this whole time?" She asked allowing him to bend down and, using his wand, put a splint on his foot.
"I'll have it checked out." He promised her. "Now you come up here so I can look at those little cuts of yours."
"I told you they're fine."
"But they're still bleeding." He shot back irritably once again using some spell to wrap some bandages around her shoulder and under her arm. When he was finished he watched her move her shoulder around in painful circles, testing the tightness of the bandages.
"Not bad." She commented.
"Of course." He smiled.
Just before their conversation was able to go any further they saw a few people coming briskly down the corridor, they must have been yelled at for their running because both of them were a bit shocked to see them simply walking. They were first approached by Benjy who had a thin sheet of sweat covering him and Marlene hanging on his arm for support it looked like, behind him was Chris, Heather and Laura.
"What's the good word?" Benjy asked stopping in front of them.
The two shrugged but Remus eventually answered. "He's in there now." He pointed to the door. "Took us a while to get a healer, apparently the place is pretty swamped."
Andy agreed, "he was getting' pretty bad though he had an egg in the back of his head, the apparition must have taken its toll on his system. Or the blood loss was finally gettin' to him. Almost passed out before we got anybody to look at him."
"Did he?"
"No."
Benjy sighed. "Well at least that's good news."
"And what's the bad news?" Andy asked hesitantly. "Are any of you hurt?"
Small glances were exchanged between them and Marlene answered. "Benjy hurt his wrist," that would explain why he was holding it close to his stomach. "Laura got a bump on the head from some kinda curse, not bad, I checked her out, no concussion just a little blood but she should still get checked out for any lasting affects." A little while ago Marlene had aspirations to become a healer, but never went through with her plans. "Chris dislocated his shoulder from a fall but Benjy set it straight, Heather's fine, just some cuts and bruises-"
"That's what you say." Heather accused rubbing her side. "Feels like I was plowed into by a train."
"And it seems I may have been hit with some kind of curse like Laura, I'm burned on my side but I was able to fix it and relieve the pain. I'm not sure or how long though."
Remus looked baffled. "How come you're not being looked at by a healer?"
She waved it off. "It's not that bad, people are worse then me."
"Like Sirius." Laura whispered fearfully, she was only voicing what everyone was thinking. The head was a sensitive area to get damaged, they didn't know exactly what he was hit with, they called it a stunning charm but really none of them had the faintest clue. For all they know it could be a curse that none of them knew how to cure, the next time they went in there to see him he might cease to be the Sirius they all know and love.
Remus sat out there alone; he was the only Marauder present. James was off with Lily and no doubt had received a message of some sort by now, peter was Merlin knows where working probably and wasn't able to receive the message or leave without fear of losing his job. No one knew them like they knew each other, sure most of them went to Hogwarts together but they didn't share a dorm room with them or spend the holidays and summers with them… they were brothers and when your brother is in trouble like this you can't help but need your other brothers around.
The four of them were a family, Sirius was the oldest, he was the player, the one who flirted a little too much with the ladies, the one who bummed around but had the uncanny ability to take charge and protect everyone. He protected his younger brothers with every bone in his body when the time called for it, though he wasn't a typical leader. He was rough and crude when people would pick on his baby brothers, spoke with his fists more so then with his words.
James was the next in line, not too much younger then Sirius but seemed to be more together then his elder brother. In times of sure crisis you were inclined to look to him for guidance, he was growing up faster and was the most mature… on some levels, defiantly not all. But you could see in his eyes that he was prepared for anything that would come your way, he was ready to step up and take the damage in place of anybody close to him. Sacrifice himself.
Peter was third child, though he was physically the youngest of the group he was never considered as such. He was the awkward and shy one, who wanted to do good and help but found it to be difficult at times. He could shrug just about anything off and say what happens happens, he always did that with school work when Remus tried to help him. Some would say he was a lost cause, but his brothers knew better then to think that.
And Remus was the baby. He was always the baby. He was tall, thin, a nerd, the one people picked on. Not anymore, thank God, but in school before he was known as a Marauder he ran into his fair share of bullies and he was always pulled out of the situation by over protective big brothers. He could hold his own, but was shy and hesitant to do so, he needed encouragement and thankfully over the years he gained that constant encouragement all because of the three boys he called his brothers.
They were a family, even the girls; he knew Sirius regarded Andy as a sister to him. The two were close, sure their banter was rude and harsh at times but they loved one another like a family and he could see just how nervous she was about his condition. Same went with Heather, they hadn't really known each other for long, sixth year was when they really started talking if he recalled correctly but she was always picking on him in a sisterly manor, the same was said with Lily. Laura was a different case, seeing as the two dated you could never say they were brother sister close… what they had was a different type of close.
"How is everyone else?" Remus found himself asking as he thought about all their relationships. He quickly found his family expanding over the Marauders and entering the entire Order they already lost some, what if they lost more?
"Everyone else?" Marlene asked softly.
"Yeah," he nodded not liking the tone of her voice. "McGonagall, Dumbledore, The Longbottoms, The Weasley Brothers… everyone else." He repeated.
"W – well…" She stuttered slightly. "We didn't want to say anything… because of Sirius… but…"
"But what?" Andy snapped almost standing up but being pushed down to her seat by Remus.
Benjy placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "Gideon and Fabian…" He whispered. "According to Dumbledore… Voldemort took them personally and he… he killed them both."
There was a heavy silence laying itself uncomfortably over the hallway. Andy and Remus held their mouths slack as they stared disbelievingly, Laura had begun to quietly cry causing Heather to put an awkward arm around her.
"They're dead?" Andy dared to ask. "Both of them?"
Benjy nodded, speaking for the group. "We saw them," he motioned to Marlene and himself. "When we went back to check on Dumbledore and the others at Hogwarts. They were on the ground…"
"Dead." Marlene finished for him in a voice that couldn't possibly be heard, but somehow everyone did.