10,000 Miles
Fare thee well
My own true love
Farewell for a while
I'm going away
But I'll be back
Though I go 10,000 miles
Jenny
5/2/11
6:12 p.m.
"Jenny? Jenny, can you hear me?" Someone was asking me quietly yet urgently.
"How dare you, you had everything you needed, yet you kept pulling more and more! You saw that she was losing consciousness!" A very angry woman was shouting.
"I-" a man was starting, sounding defensive, but the woman talked right over him.
"I don't care if she's not technically a witch, that level of-of-of brutality-" she shouted heatedly.
"Enough, Tonks. You don't want to get yourself arrested." Mr. Weasley sounded furious, yet his voice was quiet.
"I'm sorry, alright?" Dawlish shouted, obviously to something Tonks had done silently, and I heard fast footsteps cross over to the right side of me. "I didn't mean it, I was intrigued-"
"Intrigued? You were intrigued by my daughters memories of being tortured?" Tonks shrieked, and my eyes fluttered open to see Dawlish almost leaning over me, backing away from Tonks, who's hair was literally fire, breathing down on him. He stumbled back as my eyes closed of their own accord again, and I felt a hand suddenly landing on my chest, sending shooting pains into my lungs- I shrieked in pain, eyes fluttering open, struggling to sit up, to get away, the magical restraints tightening of their own accord-Dawlish yelled out in fright at my scream, and Tonks' hair extinguished instantly. She left Dawlish and ran around to the other side to take my hand, a light hand on my shoulder, trying to keep me from trying to sit up against the strap. "Jenny, no one here is going to hurt you, calm down, ok? It's alright-" she broke off as I stopped fighting, starting to hyperventilate and cough at the same time as something hot crawled up my throat, and I felt it on my lips. I knew it was blood; I could feel it filling my lungs again, faster this time-it was in my throat. I tried to sit up again, starting to drown and suffocate in my own blood-
"Out of the way! Curatio Voxmaximo!" A female voice shouted, and I choked as the blood stopped pooling and started to retreat, my lungs no longer searing to inhale and exhale, no longer weighted down by the blood. With a sharp pang in my chest, the blood stopped flowing, leaving me feeling full and bloated.
"You can't do that!" Williamson cried out as I felt hands removing the wrist cuffs, then the heavy strap across my chest. I was propped upright, leaning against what felt like a shoulder, then back against the bed.
"I will do whatever is necessary to make sure my patient survives!" Madam Pane snapped by my head, then I felt her hands take my face. "Ennervate," she said quietly, and my eyes easily slid open to meet her gaze, although my vision was hazy. "Jenny, I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt, but then you'll be all done, perfectly healthy, alright?" She said firmly, propping me back up again when I started to sink. I tried to respond, but clapped a hand to my mouth, feeling sick. The bloated feeling had gone to one of intense nausea. Madam Pane handed me a white bucket, then grimly said, "Expelous." Instantly, I fell over the bucket, throwing up.
"What are you doing?" I heard Williamson ask, sounding horrified.
"When that idiot over there put all of his weight down on her chest, it reopened all of the wounds. The blood from those injuries flooded the chest cavity a little, but mostly her throat, suffocating her. When I sealed the wounds, all of that blood went down into her stomach. She would have vomited it all up over about two hours, but this will speed it up."
"I didn't mean to fall on her, it was her fault!" Dawlish sounded defensive and actually scared. I shuddered then heaved again, and I felt Madam Pane rub my back.
"How dare you-" Tonks started viciously, but Madam Pane interrupted both of them.
"I don't care whose fault it was. All I care about is how far back her recovery has been pushed to."
"And how long will that be?" Lupin asked dangerously.
"4 days, give or take. Not just because of the more recent injuries, but because of past damage, both mental and physical. She said flatly as I retched again, even though I tried to stop it.
"Then she will have to be restrained again! I can't have-"
"DID YOU NOT JUST SEE THE PROOF THAT YOU PLUCKED FROM HER OWN HEAD?" Tonks shrieked, and I heard him take a step back again.
"We- we have yet to review the information. Each memory must be tested to determine if it is fake-" Dawlish broke off pathetically as Tonks let out an unintelligible scream of fury, and I heard someone take hold of her to stop her from attacking Dawlish. Gasping, I paused over my bucket, hoping that I wouldn't vomit again. Madam Pane seemed to notice the pause.
"Evanesco." She murmured, and the bucket with the blood in it vanished. She caught me from falling forwards, and propped me back up. "Can you stay up on your own?" She asked, and I barely nodded, fighting for breath. My throat felt like it had been ripped to shreds. My lungs were searing with each breath I took, my chest feeling uncomfortable with a strange amount of pressure.
"Look, I said I was sorry. We just need time to formally file the information that we found. For that time period, she'll have to stay here in the Psychiatric Ward! I can't go against orders!" Dawlish insisted, then took another step back as Tonks went to stalk over there, stopped by Lupin's grip on her arm.
"You sick motherfucking-" She started yelling.
"Look, based on what I've seen, she's completely innocent! Just give us time to file the damn reports!" Dawlish shouted over her, stopping her up short. "Yes, I think she's innocent, alright?" He repeated into the silence. Unable to ignore the pain any longer, I wasn't able to smother my tiny gasp of pain that Madam Pane picked up on instantly.
"No one kill each other. I'm going to get some medication." She said, checked me one last time, then left. As she passed Dawlish, he turned and walked over to me, making my body tense reflexively, making me wince. But I never took my eyes off of him. I knew that I was free, but I still didn't trust him.
"Jennifer, I'm so sorry. I thought that because you were a werewolf, that you would be like Greyback. I was wrong, we both were." He nodded to Williamson, who looked at the floor, abashed. "I saw everything you saw and more. I went too far, and I apologize. I truly do think that you are innocent, and when I present all of your memories and answers to the Wizengamot and testify for you, I'm sure they'll clear you of any wrongdoing." He said earnestly, and I watched him carefully; I couldn't believe what I was hearing. After all the pain and anger he and Williamson had caused, he actually cared? "I just…got carried away when I started to see your memories. I can't believe," he swallowed for a moment, "I can't believe how-how strong you've been facing so much pain." The sheer kindness in his words made tears spring from my eyes and roll down my face. I looked away from him, my body crumpling down from its tense pose as tears streaked from under my lashes. The last person to call me Jennifer had been my adoptive Muggle father, right before he and mum left for their movie.
"Oh, Jenny," Tonks whispered, then I felt her arms hold me close, and after a moment, I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her back tightly, my tears dampening her shirt. "I'm sorry. For shouting at you." Tonks said over my head to Dawlish, but she said it stiffly. For some reason, she pulled away, and when I looked up, Madam Pane was back, with a bottle in her hand. The potion inside was the same color blue as the summer sky.
"Drink this one at your own pace. It's for the pain, but it will make you sleep too. Take as much as you need. If she gets in trouble again, call right down the hall." She addressed Tonks and Lupin as I took the bottle carefully with both hands, for they were trembling.
"Jenny," The sound of Draco's rasping voice made my head shoot up. He was leaning against the doorframe, his face lined with fatigue and pain.
"Draco," I breathed, and he limped across the room and we embraced, and I couldn't help but cry out in relief. "I didn't want to leave, I wanted to stay with you, to make sure you made it through-it was my fault you were bitten, I'm sorry-" I ranted softly in his ear, starting to cry again. Draco interrupted me just as quietly.
"It wasn't your fault, you were hurt, and the sun had just come up, you weren't a wolf anymore. I just didn't know if they would take you, if you were going to get the care you needed before—before…before it was too late." He sounded relieved as he pulled back and studied me carefully. "You are alright, aren't you? What's this?" He lifted the bottle from Madam Pane out of my lap.
"It's just for some of the pain, if I need it. You're here, I'm fine." I tried to say it convincingly, but Draco frowned at me, as if he were reading my mind.
"No, you're still hurting; I can tell by the way your breathing." He handed me the bottle, and I hesitated, one hand slowly curling around it. "And look, you're trembling!" He insisted, uncorking the bottle for me.
"I'm just a little…emotional. It's been a long day. I was so worried, is all, Draco, I want to know about you." I ignored the bottle he held out to me and pushed myself to a straighter sitting position. "Can I see where…?" Draco caught my drift and set down the bottle, then undid the clasp of his high collared shirt, then undid a few more buttons and pulled the collar away. The bite covered the left side of his neck, his left shoulder, and I could see where it started to disappear down his back. My hands flew to my mouth. "If I had just been faster, I wouldn't have been hurt, then you wouldn't have been bitten-"
"Enough, Jenny. There was nothing you could do. It's amazing that you managed to stop the bleeding with your spells the way they were."
"Spells?" Dawlish asked, looking perplexed. "But you're a Muggle, I don't understand."
"The magic from Greyback's bites and her anger at her family's murderers combined. She could use magic for awhile. But her anger was gone by the time we got to the battle-none of her spells worked completely." Tonks said stiffly.
"But don't you see? If we can prove this to the Wizengamot, it will only help your case!" Williamson spoke up for the first time in a long time. Draco turned back to me, smiling, but frowned when he caught me lightly resting my hand on my chest.
"Jenny, just drink, stop being so stubborn." He sighed, picking up the bottle again and forcing it into my hand.
"But it will make me sleepy. I don't want to sleep right now, not when you just got here. I don't want to miss anything." I tried to insist, but Draco wouldn't hear a word of it. "Draco, listen. I don't want to sleep, when I wake up, I'll be-" I stopped talking.
"You'll be what? Nothing but beautiful." Draco said soothingly, and usually, that would make me smile, but I didn't.
"To get Jenny admitted, they have to treat her as a psychiatric patient until the Wizengamot clears her." Lupin said coldly. Draco looked at me, nonplussed. "She'll be drugged and restrained." Lupin elaborated, sounding colder than ever, and Draco turned on the spot, furious.
"You cannot be serious." He hissed.