Chapter Two: The Aftermath

Dear Diary,

People are beginning to give me odd looks. Sirius and James are being particularly nosy- they know I never had a diary before, and suddenly I'm (and I quote) "all obsessed with it!". Alice and Lily are taking it a bit more calmly. They assume that I'll tell them what its about when I'm ready- just like I used to with everything else. Used to.

But enough about the here and now- onward to the past! (Oh, that was an oxymoron. I've always liked those.)

The Aftermath, or How They Found Me: Monday Morning, June 5th, 1775

I woke up hours later to discover that very little had changed about my predicament. Though I was no longer tied up and my wand had been placed near my head, I was still lying next to a wall in an unidentified corridor. And, even worse, my leg was still broken, and if the pain the climbed up the left side of my ribcage was anything to go by, so was one of my ribs.

Nevertheless, I attempted to stand, grabbing onto the wall like a lifeline and hoisting myself up inch by inch. I was surprised to find myself at the bottom of a staircase that, unless I missed my guess, led to the astronomy tower.

So that was how I was expected to explain my various injuries. I had to give it to Bellatrix, she was far from stupid. Now all I had to do was wait for someone to find me, and tell them about my fall down the stairs.

The first person to stumble across me was a small Ravenclaw second year, and he took one look at me and ran away screaming. I sighed as I glanced down at myself from where I was seated on the stairs and grudgingly admitted that I really couldn't blame him.

My leg was clearly bent at an odd angle, and there was just enough blood to trickle down my leg and turn my white socks a dull red. I wasn't exactly a pretty site. But I really wished he would have at least had the sense to ask if I was alright. If I was really lucky, he would run into an older student, who would come and help me. Heres a hint: I wasn't really lucky.

It was at least another hour- though time passes oddly when you're by yourself and in pain- before I heard footsteps.

"Hello? Hello! I could use some help over here! Oi! Person walking away! Listen to me!"

There was a slight scuffle as the person stopped. Then a hesitant, "Hello?"

"Help me!Oh, bollux- sonorus! Help me! I'm at the bottom of the stairs!" I screamed as loudly as I could. Despite the fact that he could only be a few meters away from me, the movement of sound in Hogwarts was strange.

"Okay, okay, don't freak, I'm on my way..." I heard the voice answer me, and I slumped in relief.

"Mayes?" My rescuer was stared at me from two steps away, looking more pale than usual.

"Potter?" I parroted sarcastically, because honestly, he really should have been able to tell who I was after knowing me for five years. Besides, I was in pain, exhausted, and a little bit terrified. He was lucky I wasn't screaming at him. When he still just stood there in shock, I lost what little remained of my patience. "A little help, maybe? Merlin knows I've only been waiting for someone to come all night. But its no big deal, really."

"Bloody hell, Mayes. What happened to you? Are you alright?"

"I'm peachy." I said with a smile that probably looked more like a grimace than anything else. "And I fell down the stairs. Last night. After I was locked out of the common room. Thanks for that, by the way." I fought the urge to not laugh hysterically, and failed miserably. Potter, for his part, couldn't seem to decide what to do with me. In the end, he settled for sitting on the stair next to me and waiting for the laughter to stop.

"I'm sorry- hahahaha- its just- ha- been a bit -hahahaha- of a rough-ha- night-haha." I said as soon as I calmed down enough to speak. The best chaser on the Gryffindor quidditch team slid his arm around my shoulder.

"Don't worry about it Mayes. Do you think you can stand?" I groaned at the prospect.

"I can try... but no promises..." Not helping the matters was the fact that Potter was the same height as I was, which meant that our weights were similar enough that I'd be a burden for him to carry. Still, he moved his arm from over my shoulder to under my arm, and together we managed to stand- so long as I was leaning on him.

"I'm sorry Potter. But either you're going to have to half carry me all the way to the hospital wing, or we could try... I don't know, does wingardium leviosa work on people?"

He shook his head after thinking about it for a few seconds. "It might work," he replied, "but I don't want to risk levitating you and having something break my concentration. I don't think you need anymore broken bones." At this I started to laugh again, because at that point, my entire mind was on the 'laugh or cry' edge of sanity. Potter, seeing I was about to lose control again, used his free arm to tug on a handful of my hair.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Mayes. But I don't think its a good idea for you to keep laughing like that... It doesn't sound natural, you know?" I nodded to show I understood what he meant, and forgave him. I think he knew what I meant. "Anyway, ready to start the adventure of a lifetime?"

It is a special kind of person who can be lighthearted in the midst of a crisis. James Potter, for all his faults, was exactly the person I needed that morning. He carried me all the way to the Hospital and didn't complain once. Not even when I rested my head on his shoulder and fell asleep, or erupted once again into hysterical laughter that turned into tears. He just walked beside me, holding me up, making little jokes, and telling me, whenever my steps seemed to falter- "You can do it, Mayes. Just another few steps." or "I've got you, just keep putting one foot in front of the other."

And when we passed other students, he glared at them or, when necessary, told them off for staring. Lily may have hated him, but I couldn't help thinking that underneath the arrogant, toe rag type exterior, James Potter was a great guy.

I don't know how long it took us to get to the Hospital Wing. It was probably over a half hour, with the way I moved slower than a slug. But eventually, we did it.

"Look Mayes- its the dragons stash of gold!" James said when we caught our first glance of the place.

"Yay! I've been itching to defeat a dragon all morning." I said, smiling at him as we crossed the threshold. "Hey, Potter? You can call me Erin, if you want. All my friends do." He looked at me askance for a moment before smiling in return and performing the largest bow he could with me leaning on his shoulder.

"It'd be my pleasure, Erin. And you, of course, must call me James."

For the first time all morning, I laughed without lapsing into hysteria. Then James called for Madame Liment, and I was quickly placed in a bed while James was shuffled off to class.

"Tell Lily and Alice where I am, alright?" I called as Madame Liment literally pushed him out the door, and he had just enough time to say "My pleasure!" before the door slammed in his face.

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Hell hath no fury like a school healer scorned.

"What do you mean you fell down the stairs? Your entire right leg is on sideways! Your rib is fractured! Not once, in my seventy years of healing, has anyone ever managed to do this to themselves by falling down the stairs." I think that if she hadn't been dolling out a potion, she would have used air quotes. "Lets try this again, shall we? What happened?"

"Honestly, Madame Liment, thats what happened! It was dark, I fell, and thats it!"

"Don't you raise your voice at me, Ms. Mayes." She fairly hissed at me as she shoved a yellow potion at my lips. "Drink this." Then with a huff, and a final reminder to 'get some rest', I was left alone with my thoughts.

Thoughts that were swimming with the reality of my torture- some people will tell you that traumatic events blur and sometimes are even wiped away from memory entirely, but this was not the case for me. I could still feel the shooting pain from my leg, how difficult every gasp of air was, despite the comfort of a hospital bed and the influence of a Pain Potion.

Worse than that was the reminder of the spell that took away my free will. I looked about frantically in my mind, searching for some hidden persona hiding in the nooks and crannies of my brain. Nothing showed up, but I was far from relieved. I did, however, decided to look up the curse as soon as possible, acknowledging that there was very little I could do about it until I knew exactly what it did, and hopefully, what its limits were. Around this time, the sleeping draught Madame Liment had forced upon me finally started to work, and I fell into a fitful slumber.

"What happened to her?"

"Why didn't she come back to the dorms last night?"

"Potter said she fell..."

"Well thats what she told me."

Faintly annoyed, I opened my eyes to see a crowd of people around my bed.

"So its lunch time then?" I asked, pleased to see Lily jump in surprise.

"You're awake!" She exclaimed, while I rolled my eyes.

"Very astute, Lily. Thanks for locking me out of the dorm, by the way." And though I tried to stop it, the last bit of my statement came out harsh and angry. She flinched, and James, Alice and Frank all turned to her in shock.

"You did what?" James accused, for once not even trying to charm Lily.

"It was an accident! I-I thought you'd be back before curfew." She whispered into her hands. It was, at best, a half truth. Lily would never honestly want to hurt anyone, but Lily also didn't consider lack of sleep to be 'hurt'. More likely, she the thought that I could be seriously injured hadn't even crossed her mind. It was a school after all, and with Dumbledore around, what was the worst that could happen?

"Lils, its okay." I allowed, and the rest of my visitors looked at me with wide eyes. "Really. You warned me, after all. And its not like you're a psychic and knew I would fall down those stairs... You're not, right?"

Lily finally looked up from her hands, a hopeful smile on her lips, though her eyes were wet. "I'm still really sorry, Erin. I swear, I'll make it up to you." I gave her a wry grin as I thought about possible ways to exploit that sentence.

"So, you really did all that to yourself just by falling?" This was Alice, who had apparently decided she'd had enough of being quiet. "It seems kind of hard to do."

"Well, I have been practicing." I announced, as the sudden image of Bellatrix raising her wand filled my vision. James laughed lightly before putting in his two cents.

"I must say, you look a sight better than you did this morning. I was worried you were going to swoon into my arms and then I'd literally have to carry you up here!"

"At least then it would have sounded more like a fairy tale. 'And the princess swooned upon seeing her gallant knight come to-'"

"Ravish her?" Interrupted a voice from the doorway. Everyone turned toward the sound, and I gratefully used the time to return my cheeks to their usual fair, if freckled, state. "Come on Prongs, we've got to finish that thing now or we'll have to wait another two weeks!"

Feeling recovered, I too turned to look at the rest of the Marauders, who stood just inside the Hospital Wing. "Thanks for checking up on me, James." I said as he stood to leave.

"Anytime, my lady." He quipped, though I couldn't help but notice that his eyes were on Lily, and not myself.

"Come on Prongs!" Black cajoled, his leg thumping the floor impatiently.

"Don't worry, people who are in the hospital wing but haven't even bothered to ask after my well being. I'll be good and ready to hex you as soon as tomorrow." Lupin, who had been standing slightly behind Black, opened his mouth, his eyes staring at mine in apology, but before he could speak, Black had pulled out his wand.

"Guess I should get my hexes in while you're indisposed then?" He countered, the corners of his mouth twitching madly.

"Guys! The thing!" Pettegrew snapped, already pulling Lupin toward the door. "Mayes, I'm glad your alright. Now come on." And with that, the marauders walked out, James sneaking looks at Lily until the door shut behind him.

"You know," Alice admitted, "I never thought of Pettegrew as the take charge type." Lily and I shrugged, but Frank answered her after a moment of thought.

"He is, though. In the dorms, he's always the one with the deciding vote. Sure, the other guys do most of the talking, but if Peter doesn't like it, they don't usually do it."

"Alright, so Pettegrew has hidden depths. But how were classes, did you guys copy notes for me? What did I miss?" And with that, we entered into a lengthy discussion about Transfiguration, Potions, and the impending O. , only interrupted when Madame Liment shooed everyone out so I could sleep. She did however, imply that I would be free to leave in the morning after she checked me over.

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True to her word, Madame Liment sent me on my way before classes started. The remainder of term was spent catching up on the lessons I'd missed and trying to find out more about the Statua Curse. This was, of course, interspersed with Lily's semi-weekly rants about the importance of O.W.L's, the O.W.L's, themselves, and my own ever increasing panic that there was someone controlling my body and no one else, including myself, could tell the difference.

Finally, the day before we were all set to get on the train for summer break, I broke down and asked someone I swore I would never talk to again about it. Eldon Greengrass, a Ravenclaw in the year above me, whose family had ties to the Dark Arts- but Eldon himself didn't hang around the 'future death eater's club'.

"Hey, Greengrass, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked as I approached him outside by the black lake. He nodded slightly and turned towards me.

"What is it, Mayes?" The words were flat and toneless.

"Do you know anything about the Statua Curse?" Subtlety had never been my forte. His eyebrows went up dramatically.

"Why would you want to know about that? Its not exactly light magic, Mayes."

"I heard some of that crowd talking about how useful it'd be- one of them even said she'd love to use it on a student here. I just want to know what to look out for, but I couldn't find it in the library." Greengrass nodded, and I felt some of the tension ease out of my shoulders. He would tell me.

"You wouldn't, if anything it'd be in the restricted section... Alright Mayes, but only because you're decent for a Gryffy." He smirked at me, and his face was so familiar in that moment that I wanted to forget the reasons I couldn't associate with him any longer. "So, the Statua Curse is one of the stronger Curses, but it needs the victims consent to work. Once they have that, the person casting the curse can choose one person to 'control' the victim." I nodded along, though I knew all of this information already.

"But are there any restrictions? A counter curse?"

"I don't know about counter curses, but the victim can only be controlled when the 'master' vacates his own body. I think great distances would be a hindrance... Oh, and the victim won't remember anything that happens to them while they are under the 'master's' control. Thats all I've got Mayes. Should be more than enough to tell you that the best option is to just say 'no', right?" He laughed a bit, but stopped when he saw I wasn't smiling. "Oh come off it, Mayes. Its not like they're going to use the thing on you."

I forced a smile and nodded. "Thanks, Greengrass." Then I walked away, and to the best of my knowledge, neither of us looked back.

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I'm too tired to write anything else- its almost one in the morning and I have double potions tomorrow morning. I don't want to blow up the class because I'm too tired to remember the number of newt brains to add.

Until Tomorrow,

Erin Mayes

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