DISCLAIMER: That part of this world and those characters you've seen before belong to their Creator: JKR. The rest is mine - although I cannot quit my day job as I make no $$$ from this…
A/N: WOW! What a response to the last Chapter!
Readers who like Cliffies: well if there were any they kept it to themselves.
About 2/3 of readers are hoping I save Jasmine (Luna's Mum)
Out 1/3 wonder if this is Jasmine. And…
There was one who hopes she dies.
One reader called me an "evil girl." Evil? Maybe. Girl is dead wrong. (1) too old, and (2) I have the wrong plumbing.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: A SAVING PEOPLE THING - THE BEGINNING.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13th, 1989 – THE ROOKERY, OTTERY ST. CATCHPOLE, DEVON, U.K.
The recently turned nine years old blonde girl with pale blue eyes descended the spiral stairs from the top floor of the tower. She was still dressed in her night clothes and could hear the melodic sounds as her mother hummed a tune while cooking breakfast. As she had since she first could walk down to breakfast on her own, in other words as long as she could remember, she held her favorite stuffed unicorn in one arm. The only outward sign that she was not the little girl she once had been – aside from her size which was average for her current age – was a wand which she had ticked behind her right ear.
Luna Lovegood was a little lost in thought, which was not an unusual situation for the observant and reflective girl. Those who did not know her would assume she was either a brainless twit or lost in some perpetual daydream, for she seemed to have a faraway expression when she was not involved in course work, reading or conversation. The fact of the matter was she was always thinking. Almost everything she had ever seen or heard had triggered a thought exercise for the girl. Sometimes they led to ideas, more often the thought led nowhere or were lost to the Nargles or Wrackspurts or whatever other invisible beasties there were that could befuddle even the most sharp of minds. Sometime the ideas led to expression, more often they were stored in her mind for potential future use.
Ever since her friends had told her about what had happened to Sensei's Luna in another timeline, she had gone to bed each night both thankful that nothing had come to pass and worried that perhaps the next dawn would bring the feared event. She hoped that this timeline would truly be different and not only would she not have to experience the death of her mother, for years her inspiration and best friend, but that the event that had killed the other Luna's Mum would never happen at all. She also hoped that if that event was as inevitable as the sunrise, this time she was prepared to prevent the worst outcome from happening.
The problem with the warning was that it had so little information. She had done her best to hide her true reaction from her friends when they told her that there was a chance that her Mum would have a terrible accident sometime this year that might well prove fatal. She was honest when she told them that she believed no matter the outcome, this time it would be different because she had such good friends who would be there for her. Still, this did not stop her from worrying both about her Mum and about whether she truly could do something to save her if the worst should come to pass.
Each day was a victory. Each day was another day with her Mum, which Luna was determined to make the most of just in case. She had not told her Mum what her friends had told her because she agreed it could make things worse. She truly believed that if her Mum had an accident spell creating, her Mum's best chance at survival was if someone was there when it happened. Her Daddy was busy with his work with the Quibbler. She had her own activities that took her away from home, most notably the Club and the days she would spend with her friends just being as normal a nine year old girl as the second best O.W.L. student in her year could be. She had subtly expressed her concerns to her mother and all but extracted a witches oath from her Mum that there would be no spell creation without someone else near at hand, just in case something happened.
She had actually begun that campaign well before learning about what had happened to Sensei's Luna. It began with a letter home not long after the beginning of her Fifth Term at the beginning of her Third Session (equivalent to Third Year in British Schools) when she started Arithmancy. Arithmancy was a key art in spell crafting and her Professor was an accomplished Spell Crafter in his own right. It was not uncommon for magic professors to show and tell students about the dangers of misuse or misunderstanding of the arts they were learning and this Professor had a whole slide show on what can go wrong if a person Spell Crafts without adequate training. In that Professor's opinion, and Outsanding N.E.W.T. in Arithmancy is just the beginning. To go out in the world with just that and attempt to become a self taught Spell Crafter usually resulted in … The pictures of mangled bodies were deliberately blurred, but Luna had had nightmares for weeks imagining one of them was her self-taught Mum.
The nightmares had returned after learning about Sensei's Luna.
"Morning Sweetie," her mother said just as Luna entered the kitchen. Her mother removed a pan from the cook top and slid some eggs onto a plate.
"Morning Mummy," Luna said with a yawn as she took her seat at the small table the family used for breakfast.
"Didn't sleep well again?" Jasmine asked.
Luna shrugged. "The dragons were chasing me again to keep me from finding the Snorkacks," Luna said matter-of-factly. The truth was she had that dream as well, but it was not the one that had kept her up.
"You need a Knight in Shining Armor."
"Oh, he was there," Luna replied, now being creative, "but as there was another damsel in distress and I seemed to be doing well enough on my own, he told me to kick it in the privates and then went off for the other one."
"I hope you don't know that Knight," Jasmine chuckled.
"He looked a lot like that politician Daddy's hates."
"And which one would that be?" a male voice asked. Luna saw her Dad enter the kitchen. "There are so few truly reputable folks in our government after all. Morning Snow Flower."
"Morning Daddy," Luna said brightly. "I was thinking of the one you said should have gotten the sack and didn't."
"Cornelius Fudge," Xenophilius Lovegood said. "I'd love to know who he bribed or blackmailed to keep his job. Kept his pet toad on the rolls as well. There are days when I wish I had as loose a notion of journalistic integrity as the Prophet, but once you go there, you never come back."
"Besides," his wife said, "you have more important things to write about, don't you Dear?"
"Indeed! Got the exclusive on the first wedding of an Heir Apparent of an Ancient and Noble House in over a decade! That and you should see the guest list! "Tis a pity some of the more interesting stories have to wait, but I should have a record run in any event."
"More interesting stories?" Jasmine asked.
"For one, that school in Japan! That would raise eyebrows, especially if I could reveal the numbers of families who are thumbing their nose at the establishment. But I agree, it is not yet time to expose the rotten House for what it is. But, you will read it in the Quibbler first!"
"I take it you'll be at the paper today?" Jasmine asked.
Her husband nodded as he swallowed some eggs. "Yes. I want to finish typesetting the unrelated stories so I can focus on what I learn this Saturday for the final print. And you Dear?"
"Unless Luna has other plans, I got an idea for a spell I want to work on. Do you have plans today, Sweetie?"
"No Mum. Clarice is working and Harry and Hermione have to stay around for the early guests. I was thinking of either painting my room or reading a book."
"Are you ever going to show me this masterpiece of yours?"
"It's not finished," Luna started but then had a thought. "Then again, it may be a work in progress for some time so, tomorrow?"
"Looking forward to it."
Luna hoped this promise would encourage her Mum not to take too many risks.
"Little Clarice is working?" her father asked.
"She got her Healer Certificate at school," Luna said as if it should be obvious that any hard working eight year old should be able to do likewise. Of course, Clarice was no more a true eight year old than Luna was a true nine year old, but parents tended to forget that, especially if their little girls still looked like little girls and not the young woman whose minds now occupied the smaller and not yet developing frames.
"And where does she work?" Xeno asked. He sensed a story. He knew it might not be one he could publish anytime soon, but one day…
Luna knew this as well. Her Daddy knew when not to publish something, which was what made him more respected by many than any Editor or reporter for the Daily Prophet. True, he made up stories, just as they did. But his were always written with humor and never about anyone real – although Luna was beginning to suspect this Fudge person with his Giant Toad might become an exception.
"London," she said.
"Not St. Mungos!"
"No Daddy. There's a special clinic she works at two or three days a week. It's for witches and wizards who live and work in the Muggle world."
"Really? And I take it the Ministry knows nothing about them?"
"Doubt it," Luna said. "And before you ask, that's about all I know as well."
____________________________________________________
About fifty yards from the tall tower that was Luna's home was another large building. To just about anyone, it looked like a barn. In reality it was a workshop. This was where Jasmine Lovegood worked on her spells. Although self taught as a Spell Crafter, she was one of the better ones in Britain at the time and occasionally came up with a very useful spell she could then market – by way of books published by her husband's company. Luna had watched her mother do her experiments for almost as long as she could remember, although most of the time, Luna merely sat off to one side of the shop and read a book or drew pictures.
Her mother had said she had an inspiration recently for a new charm – a crossover as she called it. One of the dangers of potion making was that certain very useful potions were incredibly unstable at some critical point in the brewing process where one mistake would at best negate the entire work or at worst end very badly for the brewer and anyone or anything within twenty feet or more. Jasmine had announced when she started setting up the lab that morning that her Arithmancy calculations pointed to a spell that could potentially stabilize an otherwise unstable potion thus making such potions both safer to make and by extension more common and less expensive for the average witch or wizard to purchase. It would be a few hours before she could begin true experimentation as she had to first brew a potion to its point of momentary instability.
Luna paled when she learned this. To her horror, she knew this was a situation that fit the vague events Sensei had apparently described. However, she knew she could not know if this was the potion or the day. Part of her wanted to warn her mother, now more than ever. But she also knew that could backfire as well. Her mother might give up Spell Crafting altogether, which would certainly give Luna some peace of mind, but would also make the brilliant woman miserable. Jasmine was not the housewife type at all. The more likely option was that recognizing the potential danger, Jasmine would bar Luna from the lab which might well mean any chance of saving her would be lost. Luna decided it was better for her to wait. If this was the day, then her being here might increase the chance that the disaster that beset Sensei's Luna might not come to pass. Even if it was inevitable, Luna wanted to try to help and if help was not possible, to be there for her mother. No one should die alone it at all possible, she thought. It was not a comforting thought at all.
Her parent's chosen crafts had always inspired her. Her mother was the Spell Crafter. She invented spells, or at least tried to do so. Luna had gone off to Japan hoping one day to learn that craft as well and was thrilled to learn that her school offered a Mastery – actually more than one – in Spell Crafting. Next summer, she would finish up her N.E.W.T. studies and enter the Mastery Levels. In addition to Defense, which she thought was both fun and, given the last War, important to learn, she was also considering Spell Crafting even though that was a twelve term course of study, the equivalent of six years.
Still, Japan had been somewhat distressing if only because it seemed to highlight how backwards Britain was compared to much of the magical world. Her mother worked on what were known as magic-on-magic enhancements. This meant new magic that made old magic either better or easier or both. Witches and Wizards had been doing this for centuries. The truth was the new discoveries in this field were fewer and farther between. Then again if you did make one, and her mother had made more than one, it could be quite lucrative. The problem was many of the ideas had already been tried and either failed, sometimes spectacularly, or were patented. There were some spell crafters out there who did not make money by selling their discoveries, rather by suing other spell crafters who later came up with the same idea and tried to sell it.
Luna learned the real open field was in something unofficially called Technomancy. This was adapting magic to work with or power muggle technologies or adapting muggle technologies to work with magic. Given the sheer scope of what Muggles were able to invent and the fact that no one had come up with a one magic fits all solution, the sky was full of possibilities. She learned that magic does not affect electricity at all, despite everything she had heard from her parents and others. Potter House was an example. It had electrical stuff and it worked despite the high levels of both ambient and active magics (ambient being in the wards and enchanted objects that radiate low levels of magic all the time – not to mention the weak magical fields any witch or wizard naturally generates, active being spell cast by magical or elves during their day to day activities.) Magic did, however, wreck havoc with electronics. All the really useful Muggle stuff used at least some electronics – even their cars. Enough magic, and the stuff did not work. So the cutting edge research was finding ways to shield electronics from magical interference or make a magical equivalent of the device or make a hybrid. Right now, Potter House had a whole "magic proof" wing for their muggle devices: television, stereo, computers and all sorts of other electronic stuff. One day, that kind of solution might not be necessary. That sounded far more interesting to Luna than stabilizing a potion. Unfortunately, it was also technically illegal in Britain.
Her father was a journalist and published a bi-monthly alternative paper called The Quibbler. A lot of it he would admit was stuff submitted by faithful readers that probably did not have a grain of truth behind them, but they were always an amusing read. He tried to have one or two real stories in each issue about people or events of interest to the reading public and tried to do his best to report those stories as accurately and truthfully as possible. Most of his readers knew this and would always look to the Quibbler's take on the events of the day as it would generally be closer to the truth than the Ministry propaganda that everyone knew polluted the national paper called the Daily Prophet.
Her father was also and amateur naturalist and spent several weeks each year in far off places looking for new magical creatures. Sometimes he even found them. Luna had heard in Japan that her father was considered one of the better explorers in the world at the moment, although her Magical Zoology professor did comment that her father, while good at finding new species, was not so good at describing them for science. Fortunately, whenever he found and reported upon a new species, the professional naturalists were there in days. Xenophilius Lovegood was credited with almost as many new and confirmed discoveries as the famous Newt Scamander who had died over sixty years ago. Luna was a little disappointed that her father was not the renowned scholar she had once seen him as, but proud none the less for his world reputation as an explorer and chronicler. She was taking Magical Zoology as one of her electives as well because she enjoyed it and in honor of her father. She was also surprised to learn that her school had a journalism degree at the college level, something she was considering for her future study, although that would not be until the summer after next at the earliest.
Luna was contemplating these things as she pretended to read her book while surreptitiously keeping an eye on her mother. She soon knew the potion her mother was making, one of many useful in Healing and one she had learned herself in her O.W.L. level Potions class. This potion, she knew, became very unstable after about two hours and had to remain that way as an ingredient rendered down. If the next ingredient was added too soon, the result was quite violent. But, even if it was added at the right time, the brewer had to stir it in and for the next several minutes, it could explode. (The school had used self-stirring rods at this point in the process as those almost never over agitated the brew at this critical time.) Luna was certain that was when her mother would try the spell.
Again, she wondered whether she should warn her mother. And once again, she was torn. In addition to the obvious problems, warning her mother would mean explaining how she knew about a future event. This meant she could tell the truth, and that would mean revealing the existence of Sensei – an avatar of a wizard from the future sent back to radically change the past. However bleak the future might be, changing time was a serious matter and Luna knew it. She and the others believed the future being changed warranted the effort, but most witches and wizards would not see things that way. At the very least, she would be in serious trouble. At worst, her friends and her would be in serious trouble. The absolute worst would be their inability to prevent the end that would come if the future was not changed. With billions of lives at stake, Luna could not take that risk.
The other option was to lie. This posed two problems for the young girl. First off, she had never lied to her parents before. Secondly, what if they believed her? Her Dad might think her a Seer. That was too horrible to contemplate. Her Dad was into that sort of thing and would probably want her to do readings and all that rubbish. The problem was Luna knew she was not a Seer. They had been tested for that talent when they started school for only those children who showed evidence of the gift would be allowed to study Divination as an elective. Only three out of over four hundred students in Luna's years showed evidence of the talent and Luna was not one of them – much to her relief.
No, she thought, this is the best course because there is no reason to believe for certain that today is the day. Besides, Luna had a backup plan. She had her wand with her and was now twirling it absently in her right hand. The first thing she would have to do was keep her mother as safe as possible then get help. She knew loads of spell with and without wands that might be useful in protecting her Mum, getting help was the issue that caused some concern.
The easiest way for any person living in a magical household was the floo call. One simply stuck their head in a magical fireplace, started the magical fire, called out the destination they wanted to talk to and they could do so. There were two problems with this. First of all, somebody had to be on the other side to get the call. She could only call from one fireplace to another. What if no one was home? What if no one was in the room? The other problem was there was no Floo in the workshop. She would have to run back to the house just to use that method. By then, it might be too late for her Mum.
The patronus charms was her best option and she knew it. She had learned the defense charm in Fourth Session (Year). In her O.W.L. Session she had learned the Communication Variant. The Defense Variant was the harder to learn, but had to be learned first. The Communications Variant was probably the more useful. A patronus was a magical projection of positive energy that, when properly case, took on the form of an animal. In the Defense Variant, it could drive off a manner of nasty dark creatures with ease. The Communications Variant could almost instantaneously communicate with another person or persons over vast difference. It was not a two way communications channel. She could send a simple message. But for this potential situation, that was enough. Her patronus would find Harry, Hermione, Clarice and Neville wherever they were even if they were separated from each other by hundreds of miles or more.
Still, it was not an easy spell to cast when under stress. Luna knew this as while she was the first in her class to cast either spell successfully, when she was faced with a dementor under controlled conditions, it took her four tries to cast the spell. You needed some happy thought to get the spell to work right and she was sure that might be a problem if she was watching her mother die.
Fortunately, she had learned a way around that problem in her Charms Class. Her professor had taught them a spell called Priori Incantatum, which could be used to determine what spells a wand had cast. What it did was force the wand to reveal ghost like images of the spells it had cast in reverse order of casting. A powerful enough witch could determine every spell a wand had ever case. However, the reason they were taught that spell was to learn a more advanced variant. Apparently, wands could store a finite number of full power spells. This had all sorts of applications. In Combat Defense, for example, one could load their wand with five or six offensive curses before going into a fight and with a slight wand movement fire a barrage of spells at opponents in the opening second. However, almost any wand spell could be "front loaded" into a wand and as soon as Luna was told about Sensei's Luna, she had front loaded her wand with the Communications Patronus. It would take but a fraction of a second to send out her call for help and she would then be free to use her magic, either wand, wandless or both, to help her Mum until help arrived. She just hoped it would work.
Luna noted the small puff of green smoke rise from her mother's potion. She knew this meant her mother had just added the active ingredient and the potion was now at its most volatile stage. She gripped her wand and watched. Would her mother try the spell now? Or would she try it later. Just how much potion was in that caldron? She knew that it was best to brew that potion in small batches even with full precautions, but that was a large caldron her Mum was using. If it was two thirds full – the recommended fill for most effective brewing, which was why caldrons came in so many sizes – that was a bomb her Mum was playing with.
She held her breath as her Mum raised her wand. Was this it? It was the last thought Luna had. She saw the flash long before she heard it it seemed and at that moment flicked her wrist. Whatever she saw the second flash of white telling her that the message was on its way just as the blast wave hit her full on. She had been seated in a chair, but the blast had knocked her over and she was certain she was deafened. It took a second for her to regain her wits and another second to realize that aside from a loud ringing in her ears, she was otherwise unharmed. Either that or she was in shock. Oddly she remembered that bit from her magical first aide classes.
She looked back at the scene of the disaster. The potions stations was now an inferno and the flames were spreading rapidly, but her Mum was not there. She panicked for a moment, then saw her Mum lying against the opposite wall of the lab. Her Mum was clearly bleeding – a good sign as dead people don't bleed she had been told – and probably unconscious. That was not good. Even worse, there was a large wooden beam directly over her mother that seemed to have been knocked loosed and was starting to move. With her wand, she cast a levitation spell to keep the beam from falling. She dared not try and move her Mum as she was. She had no idea how injured the woman was and without a petrification spell, movement might kill the woman. She thought about using a wandless levitation charm on the beam so she could use her wand to tend to her Mum and get her out, but the fire was spreading too rapidly. She ran over to her Mum, keeping the beam from falling and then casting a wandless shield around them and pushing it out keep the fire at bay and allow help to enter the shop. Already, she was starting to feel weak and was wondering how long she could keep this up. She hoped help would arrive soon.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13th, 1989 – POTTER HOUSE, LONDON, U.K.
Six people were sitting in the back parlor of Potter House. Sirius was there with his soon to be wife visiting with his Grandfather Lord Black and Harry and Hermione. Clarice had only just returned from her work at the Healing Clinic. A silvery rabbit popped into the room surprising all. The children immediately recognized it. A scared voice of a young girl was then heard. "HELP!"
Clarice jumped up as Harry and Hermione looked at each other and paled slightly.
"I'll get my kit," Clarice said and she immediately vanished.
"Stave?" Harry asked Hermione.
"Shrunken and in its holster, you?"
Harry nodded. "Wands?"
Hermione nodded.
"Let's go!"
The two children also vanished from the room.
"What just happened?" Lord Black asked.
Just then Clarice reappeared with what looked like a large backpack on her back and a wand drawn.
"What's going on?" Sirius asked.
"Luna's Mum is in trouble," Clarice said. "That was the call."
"Bugger!"
"Sophie?" Clarice asked. Sophie looked at her in confusion. "Who's the on-call in Casualty at St. Mungo's right now?"
Sophie blinked. "What?"
"Do you know who the on-call in Casualty is?"
"Er – I think it's Healer Tonks, why?"
"I thought he was Pediatrics."
"We all have to do a turn in Casualty. Why?"
"Can you go there and tell them we have a casualty coming in? Probably in serious to critical condition. Get the hypochondriacs out and get ready for a critical patient - full surgical suite."
"How do you know…"
"Please. Not much time. We'll be busting down the doors there in ten minutes, twenty at the most. If we're not there in half an hour, alert the morgue." Before Sophie could respond, Clarice vanished again.
"Sirius?" Sophie asked in confusion.
"I don't think this is a joke, Sophie," Sirius replied in a very serious tone.
Sophie nodded. She walked over to the huge fireplace, took some dust in her hand and stepped in. She called out "St. Mungo's!", dropped the dust to the ground and vanished in a flash of green flames.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13th, 1989 – THE ROOKERY, OTTERY ST. CATCHPOLE, DEVON, U.K.
Harry and Hermione both shifted to almost the same spot, a path just before a gate in the white picket fence that led to the front door of the tall tower what was Luna's home. They had both been there many times before and this was always where they had arrived. They did have to look for Luna the first time as she was off in the woods, but this was their arrival point.
"It looks okay," Hermione said. She was right. Nothing seemed out of place or damaged or anything. "False alarm?"
"It's Luna, Hermione," Harry said.
Hermione nodded. Luna was too honest to do something like that. "Is there a basement or something?"
"Never got past the lowest two floors," Harry said. "Don't know."
"Must be one," Hermione said. She watched as Harry stepped to the gate.
"Let's check it out," he said.
"Guys!" voice called from behind them, "it's over there!"
The two turned and saw about fifty feet away their friend Neville pointing off to the right. They ran up to him, or they would have except he took off to the right of the tower. They followed and soon saw what Neville was on about. A large barn was partly afire and what was not burning was billowing smoke.
"Bugger me!" Harry said half expecting Hermione to chide him for his language.
"Got that right," she said to his surprise.
"Neville?" Harry asked his friend.
"Got Luna's patronus," he replied. "Where's Clarice?"
"Coming," another voice said and the three turned and saw Clarice running to them with her large pack on her back. "They're in there, aren't they?" she said when she arrived looking at the burning barn.
The others nodded.
Clarice dropped her pack and took out a smaller bag. "This is the Casualty Control Point," she said. "And Rally Point if anything goes wrong."
"Agreed," Harry said. "Right then, we have a fire and at least one injured. Bubble Head Charms for air, we enter with shields up and Flame Freezing Charms in place. Locator Charms for us and just in case Luna and her Mum are separated. Rally back here!"
"I deal with the injured," Clarice addded. "Get me before you move them!"
The others nodded in agreement.
"Let's go!" Harry said.
____________________________________________________
There was not much more than Luna could do and she knew it. The shield she had cast was holding and keeping the fire contained to the other half of the barn and with her wand she was keeping the massive wooden beam from falling on her unconscious mother. While they were safe for the moment, Luna did not no how long she could keep this up. She knew far more magic than most children her age, but magically she was still eight years old and ever second of maintaining the spells was draining. Worse, while the flames were kept at bay, the heat was not and she had never felt such heat before in her life. She hoped her friends had received her message, for if they had not, in a couple of minutes she knew it would all be over for both her and her Mum.
'At least I tried,' she thought. 'At least I could try, and if the end comes, we'll still be together.' It was her last conscious thought as the darkness took her.
____________________________________________________
Harry and the others entered the barn with Harry in the lead. The first thing they all saw was the raging inferno. The next was Luna standing near her mother who were it not for the blood otherwise would have looking like she was seated against the wall taking a kip. Luna had her arms raised, her empty left had looked as if she was trying to hold back the flames while her wand was pointed at a beam that was directly over her mother. The poor girl was trembling, a sure sign that she was approaching magical exhaustion.
"Neville? You got your stave?" Harry asked.
"Sure do," Neville said. "Want me to keep that beam up?"
Harry nodded. "I'll hold back the fire."
"I'll help Clarice then," Hermione said.
Neville and Harry drew their staves and wands. With the staves held in their left hand and in contact with the ground, each cast their spells just moments before Luna collapsed. The two boys watched as Hermione and Clarice said something to each other and Hermione went over to Luna. She checked the fallen girl over for only a second before gathering the girl's wand and casting a spell that made Luna float in the air. As the boys concentrated on their spells and Clarice checked over Luna's mother, Hermione levitated the girl out of the barn.
Hermione seemed to be gone for a while, but in reality it was only a couple of minutes before she was back and beside Clarice and her patient. Harry and Neville were both grateful for the staves as magically they both knew they could keep their spells going indefinitely. The heat, however, was another matter altogether. Physical heat exhaustion was a condition that affected Muggle and Magical alike and the boys knew it, each hoping Clarice would hurry and get the woman to safety.
"Don't move her," they heard Clarice say to Hermione. "She's impaled on something in back. A nail or spike or something. Move her now and it would probably make things worse."
"What should I do?" Hermione asked. "We can't leave her here."
"Use a severing charm between her back and the wall, carefully," Clarice said.
"You want to leave that spike in her?" Hermione asked.
"Safest thing," Clarice said. "Remove it and no telling what will happen. If it damaged a major artery, she could bleed to death before we could begin to treat her."
Hermione nodded with understanding as she carefully aimed her wand behind the unconscious woman. A second or so later, Hermione leaned back. "Okay, she's free."
Clarice cast a petrification charm on the woman explained it was the safest way to move a person with unknown injuries. The woman was soon levitated into the air and Clarice began to move her from the barn.
"How will you two get out?" Hermione asked with real concern in her voice.
"Shift," Neville suggested.
"Good idea, Nev," Harry said. "Once you all are clear, Hermione, send us a patronus and we'll shift out of here."
Hermione nodded and followed Clarice from the barn.
A few minutes later a silver otter appeared in front of the two boys. "We're clear," Hermione's voice said.
Harry and Neville looked at each other and nodded. The two vanished from the barn Neville a split second before Harry. They reappeared a few feet away from the others, although neither looked at the girls for the scene of the barn practically exploding in flames and collapsing upon itself held everyone's attention except Clarice who was busy with Jasmine.
After a few seconds, Harry turned to the rally point and saw two gurneys. On one was Luna, who appeared unconscious and on the other was her mother whom Clarice was checking.
"Well," Harry asked, "how are they and where did these gurney things come from?"
"They are part of my kit," Clarice said. "They're shrunken down in the pack. Just had to enlarge them. Luna's out cold, suffering from magical exhaustion for certain and maybe heat exhaustion as well. She'll probably have to stay in hospital overnight. Mrs. Lovegood is in bad shape. I have her in stasis for now…"
"Stasis?"
"For her, time is standing still. Several of her injuries are potentially life threatening. The one in her back is really serious. Were she to move through time at normal speed, she might bleed to death before we can stabilize her conditions."
"What are with the bags?" Neville asked. He saw there were clear bags hanging beside the two Lovegoods with tubes that seemed attached to their arms. Harry knew from his own hospital stay that they were IV bags of some kind. Luna had two and Jasmine three.
"Intravenous potions," Clarice said. "Luna has one to replenish her fluids and another to help with her magical exhaustion and Mrs. Lovegood has a pain killer, a blood replenishing potion and a variant of the Draught of the Living Dead. Of course, while she's in stasis, they won't do much. But we will have to bring her out of it soon to treat some of her injuries."
The others nodded. Clarice was the Healer so they left it at that.
Harry nodded. "Now what?"
"The Gurneys are portkeys," Clarice said. "The patients are restrained for transport. We portkey them to St. Mungo's. Sophie should have gone ahead and Casualty is waiting to receive them. All we have to do is hang on and activate the portkeys."
"Right," Hermione said. "Let's grab hold then. Two to a gurney."
Harry and Clarice grabbed hold of Jasmine's gurney while Hermione and Neville grabbed on to Luna's."
"Activate," Hermione and Clarice said in unison.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13th, 1989 – ST. MUNGO'S, LONDON, U.K.
The Welcome Witch at St. Mungo's had seen a lot of things over the years, but never this. Four young children had porkeyed into the reception area along with two wheeled beds of a type she had never seen before. Upon the beds were a woman who looked severely injured and a young girl who appeared unconscious. Before she could say anything, the four children began pushing the two beds down the hallway at a near run. Well, one could not have that! This was a hospital, not a playground!
"You lot!," she cried out. "Come back here this instant!"
The children did not even slow down.
The Welcome Witch drew her wand and aimed it at the back of one of the boys. "Stupefy!" she called out and a red jet of light shot at the retreating boy with sandy hair, only to seemingly bounce back right at her. She barely had time to avoid her own spell by diving to the floor. By the time she got up, the children had disappeared somewhere.
Neville smirked. He had cast a silent and wandless shield charm expecting such a reaction and smiled to himself that it had both been necessary and it had worked. He and Hermione followed Clarice and Harry around a corner and through a large set of doors beneath a sign that said "Casualty." Waiting for them inside, it seemed, were two witches and a wizard. He recognized one as Sophie Tompkins who would marry Sirius Black the day after tomorrow. The other two he did not know.
"Right," the wizard said, "what's this?"
"Critical patient is the adult," Clarice said with a professional tone in her voice. "Her name is Jasmine Lovegood. Don't know her age. Multiple injuries, several are or may be life threatening. She's under a stasis field."
"The Ministry frowns on those," the Wizard said.
"Yet without one she'd be in the morgue," Clarice replied. "As far as I'm concerned those idiots can sod off!"
No one corrected the girl for her language, although Hermione was tempted.
"The other is her daughter, Luna, age nine," Clarice continued. "Serious but stable. Suffering from magical exhaustion and probably heat exhaustion. No apparent signs of other injuries, but she should be checked out."
"And you are, young lady?" the wizard asked.
"Healer Clarice Jameson," she replied. "Basic Cert from Watanabe Healer College in Japan. I have my cert if you need it. Any you are?"
"Ted Tonks," the wizard replied. "I'm Dora's dad. It's a pleasure to meet you. I know Harry here and Dora said Luna was on her floor in Japan. We were supposed to meet at Lord Black's wedding, but there you go. The others?"
"Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom," Clarice replied.
"Ah yes, Dora's speaks highly of them as well. Aside from you, any other Healers?"
"No Sir."
"Sophie said there would be casualties so I hope you don't mine if I brought help?"
"No Sir," Clarice replied. She knew the other witch. "Sharon, nice to see you again."
"You to Cousin," the witch replied. "You're really a Healer?"
Clarice nodded. "Just got off shift when this went down. Neville," she turned to the one person who most certainly did not know the young witch, "this is Sharon Evans. She is the oldest of the Evans family." She turned to Sharon. "Neville was at school in Japan with Jason and Amber."
"Oh! You're that Neville," Sharon said. "They speak highly of you, you know."
"Thank you, Ma'am," Neville said with a blush. "I think highly of them too."
"Sharon's just fine, Neville," Sharon said. "Unless you call Jason and Amber Sir and Ma'am."
Neville blushed and shook his head indicating he did not.
"Right," Clarice said, "we have work to do."
"There's a waiting room across the hall," Ted Tonks added.
The other three children nodded. "We need to leave for a bit anyway," Harry said. "Need to let Mr. Lovegood know."
"Probably should let the folks back home know as well," Hermione added. With that, the three children left.
"Okay, so what do we have?" Ted Tonks asked.
"Jasmine Lovegood is a Spell Crafter," Clarice said. "She has a workshop near their home. There was an explosion and fire. When we arrived at the scene responding to a call for help from our friend Luna - her daughter - the shop was ablaze. Luna was using magic to keep the flames away from her mother and to keep the roof from collapsing upon them. Harry and Neville took over just before Luna collapsed from magical exhaustion.
"As for Luna, she may also be suffering from hear exhaustion and while I found no signs of other injuries, I was more occupied with her mother so Luna needs a full work up. Assuming no other problems, she should probably spend the night here and can be released in the morning."
The other Healers nodded.
"Her Mum is in bad shape. My guess is she took the brunt of the explosion. Burns to her face, neck and arms. She suffered a concussive trauma to her front torso to include multiple lacerations and several penetrating wounds. There are pewter fragments in her chest and abdomen not inconsistent with the remains of a potions cauldron, therefore wound contamination must be considered. Both arms are broken and she has a dislocated left shoulder, again consistent with blast effects. She has a few broken ribs as well, although I found no indication of organ damage associated with that trauma. She was thrown against a wall. No evidence of cervical or lumbar spine injury, but strain cannot be ruled out. Probably has a concussion, which would explain the fact that she was unconscious when we arrived. What concerns me is her back. She was thrown against a wall and impaled upon a large nail or spike. The object was severed from the wall and is still there but its location is of concern. It may have damaged the Superior Mesenteric artery."
"Hence the Stasis Field," Ted Tonks said.
Clarice nodded. "If that is damaged and we remove the object…"
"She'd bleed out in seconds," Ted agreed. "Right then. Sophie? Give Luna here a thorough going over and release her to recovery, if there's nothing else to deal with. Then assist the rest of us with her mother."
"Yes sir," Sophie said.
"Clarice?" Ted Tonks said. "You have lead."
____________________________________________________
The waiting room across the hall soon filled. Harry had found Luna's father at the Quibbler offices and had brought him to the hospital. They were soon joined by Hermione and Lord Black. Sirius stayed behind for the Grangers and arrived a few hours later. Neville and his Gran were there as well, and all were offering what they could in support of Luna's Dad who was understandably devastated, even more so as the hours passed.
Several hours had passed since the casualties had entered the hospital and the vigil was one of foreboding. Everyone was tense. Mr. Lovegood was on the verge of mental and emotional collapse when the door to the waiting room opened and four Healers entered led by the youngest: Clarice.
She walked up to Mr. Lovegood with the other three behind her.
"Mr. Lovegood?" she asked.
His red and puffy eyed face looked up - barely - at the young girl.
"I am Clarice, Luna's friend."
"H-how is she?" Mr. Lovegood asked.
"Fine. She's resting. She really was amazing today."
"H-How so?"
"She saved your wife's life."
"So Jasmine?"
"She's going to live, Mr. Lovegood."
"Oh thank Merlin!" he replied. "Can I see her? Can I see them?"
Clarice nodded. "They're in the same room for now. Luna should be released in the morning. Your wife may be here for a few weeks, but I expect a full recovery."
"How can you…" he began, clearly wondering why this girl was telling him about his wife.
"Healer Jameson was the lead Healer," Ted Tonks said. "Quite an amazing one at that."
"Y-you were not?"
"Healer Jameson was on scene at the accident sight," Ted said. "She was there and, well, but for her and your daughter, we'd be talking about funeral arrangements."
"And you and the others?"
"Ms. Jameson trained at a top notch Healer College. She's learned stuff we don't know here and some of her skills are why your wife is still with us."
Mr. Lovegood looked at the girl in scrubs before him. "Thank you."
"There's more," Clarice said.
"I'm not sure I can handle more." Mr. Lovegood said.
"Can you handle babies?" Clarice asked.
"What?" several voices asked.
"Your wife is expecting," Clarice said. "Twins to be exact, a boy and a girl. She and they should be fine."
Xeno Lovegood passed out.
Clarice looked at the Grangers. "You don't mind if I sleep 'til noon tomorrow? I'm totally knackered! What with a C-Section in the morning and now this…"