A/N: Thank yous to all the reviews and reading my story thus far! I think I will be wrapping this up in a couple more chapters..but not sure how yet as I have massive writers block at the moment :-( So if anyone has any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them! As Always Enjoy!

Chapter 14

Warrington laid Alicia's prone form on the main table in the middle of the room they had set aside. The room itself was bare walls and there was no furniture except for two tables, the main table where Alicia laid and another that propped against the far left wall was covered with medical supplies such as gauze, healing salves, potions and large quantity of water.

"Strip her out of the hideous garb" his grandmother ordered rushing into the room behind him. Alicia had slipped out of consciousness and was unresposive to any reviving charm and spell he could think of, she was just dead weight in his arms. Her skin was pale, cold and clammy. Warrington felt his gut twist in fear and deep concern as he helped peel Alicia's clothing off and transfigured his cloak into a sheet to give her some modesty.

"How long has she been unconscious?" Montague asked as he and Shikai came into the room a few minutes later.

"No more than 10 minutes she's not responding the enervate spell" Warrington told him. Master Shikai clicked his tongue as he ran his hands a few centimetres above her body, white tiny sparks lifted off Alicia's skin and drifted slowly upward like snow before shikai clapped his hands. He looked to Aleksandra and then at Montague and Warrington eyeing them for a moment before he moved to Aleksandra.

"You must go outside, you have bad Chi. I fix you later. First treatment free" he said shooing her out of the room.

"I beg your pardon! I am in perfect health, my chi is perfectly fine" Aleksandra said insulted by Shikai's comment and standing her ground. "I am a renowned healer" she said flabbergasted at the treatment she was receiving from a foreigner.

"Bad chi is poisonous in here now go. Promise first treatment free for you. You'll feel 20 years younger" Master Shikai told her in a cheery tone as Aleksandra left the room. He then turned to the men and gave a serious look at Warrington.

"Lord Montague has told me what I need to do but we need two females with good Chi. Must have a good spirit, healthy heart. Then we can start" Shikai told him. Montague and Warrington exchanged looks trying to think of two women that they knew who could fit the bill.

"Montague, get Bell over here while I call my mother." Warrington said.

"Bell?" Montague said in disbelief.

"She plays quidditch. Healthy heart" Warrington offered. He also knew the woman would agree to help her friend.

"Right" Montague said.

A few minutes later,

"Oh you are perfect, Beautiful Chi" Shikai said nodding his head approvingly at Maura.

"Well I've never been complimented on my Chi before but thank you. Darling, what am I doing here?" Maura asked Warrington in a low voice to him as Shikai went to Katie waving a hand over her face then chest not touching her before he nodded approval.

"We are breaking the bindings Master Shikai needed two women with healthy hearts and good spirits" Warrington answered.

"Please tell me I get to keep my clothes on" Katie said she was dressed in black skinny jeans and black calf high boots and purple off the shoulder top looking thoroughly casual in Warrington's assesment. At least she wouldn't complain about being uncomfortable unlike his mother who looked ready to go out for dinner in a muggle midnight blue knee length dress with boat neck line and 3/4 sleeves with patent leather pumps.

"Oh come on Bell, where's your sense of adventure?" Montague drawled to her.

"How does he qualify for having good chi?" Katie asked Shikai dryly.

"His Chi is muddy but his heart and intentions are in the right place, very virile it also balances it out. I will call you in when I am ready" Shikai answered before he disappeared into the room where Alicia was.

"Hear that Bell, I'm virile" Montague said proudly after door closed.

"Clothes are staying on Bell all you have to do is keep an open mind and not move when he starts whatever he is going to do" Warrington informed Katie.

"Here I was getting all excited for nothing" Maura quipped in good humour.

"Mother" Warrington said cringing as he really didn't want to think of his mother naked.

"Being naked is our natural form. You weren't born in a Versace suit and wingtip shoes. Don't be such a prude it doesn't become you" Maura said chastising him. Katie sniggered at Warrington being chastised by his mother.

"Can we focus on Alicia and helping her?" Warrington asked in an exhausted tone.

"Why couldn't you curse her with something that involved you two giving me grandchildren as byproduct?" Maura asked.

"I didn't curse her" Warrington told her.

"I still want grandchildren and soon. I'm taking off my shoes" Maura said, Warrington wondered when his mother's personality de-aged to the point she acted like a 20yr old but shook the thoughts away as it wasn't productive.

"Why don't we shelve that conversation for that conversation until Christmas?" Warrington offered. Maura opened her mouth to reply but was cut off when Shikai opened the door and ushered them in.

Katie gasped as she saw Alicia lying on the table face down, her head was turned to her left side with the sheet covering the lower half of her body. Her skin was deathly pale, covered in a light sheen of sweat. The veins on her body had turned black and made a stark contrast with her skin. Katie moved forward to touch Alicia but Montague stopped her.

"Don't touch her" Montague said.

"She's never looked like this before. I don't understand" Katie mumbled in shock.

"I have made the toxins and poisonous blood rise to the top. Please stand here" Shikai said as he moved Katie to a specific spot in the room "No matter what you see or feel stay as you are" he told her, Katie nodded. Shikai arranged Montague and Maura to specific points in the room before he turned to Warrington.

"You stand on her left side, I will be using wandless magic to draw the toxin and poisonous blood out of her as you sever the bindings with the Dagger. It must be one long line and down to the bone, do not hesitate in your movements or stop once you start. There will be a lot of blood and you prepared?" Shikai asked him.

"As I ever will me" Warrington said, he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt knowing the clothes he was wearing would be ruined for life. But he didn't care as he took the dagger from Shikai. He planned on destroying the dagger as soon as they finished with it.

"Start from the base of her neck and slice downwards" Shikai told him.

Warrington held the knife poised at the ready as he placed a hand carefully on her head. Shikai nodded at him and he pressed the blade of the knife into the scars on her spinal of her neck.

He pressed down hard until the blade struck bone, he dragged the blade slowly down her neck and the column of her spine in one smooth line straight through the Dolohov's family crest and through the carvings on her back. As he sliced black sludge oozed from the incision, the horrific smell of decaying flesh assaulted his senses and nearly made him gag but he persisted without stopping. It took effort and a lot of strength to cut through the bindings.

He moved down her back and watched as the blade passed roughly through her flesh and scars of Cyrillic script melted away from her skin and more black sludge seeped out of her body and onto the table then dripped onto the floor. He reached the end of the Cyrillic script at her lower back and sliced until the blade was past the writing before he removed the blade from her body. He placed the dagger on the table where the medical supplies were before he returned to Alicia's side.

He took her hand ignoring the fact it was had a mixture of the sludge and her blood on it and held it. He took comfort in feeling her pulse telling him she was still alive.

Shikai started murmuring in his own language and the light in the room darkened and dropped several degrees in temperature to the point Warrington could see his own breath. The air grew colder, crisper and little sparks of light started floated up from the floor boards like suspended pixie dust. It was unlike anything Warrington had previously experienced. The black sludge for want of a better word continued to flow out of her body but at a slow but steady rate.

After what felt like hours but was probably minutes in real time the sludge slowly changed colour and consistency to something that resembled a mixture of blood and the sludge. He took it that the toxins were clearing out of her body. He watched as the mixture ran down the sides of her body in rivets hitting the table before dripping onto the floor with the toxins that had already been expelled from her body. There was so much blood he could see why his grandmother believed that Alicia would not survive.

He felt her pulse weaken and his heart lurched as he looked to Shikai wondering if he knew what was happening that Alicia was slowly dying. He looked to his mother, Katie and Montague who all watched on in some kind of trance. He looked down at Alicia's body where only blood was seeping out. Shikai flicked his right hand and didn't stop murmuring, Montague blinked out of his trance and Warrington watched as his friend looked oddly confused for a moment before moving to the table with the medical supplies. He came back to Alicia's body with the bottle of dittany and gauze.

Warrington watched as Montague applied the dittany to the open wound, after application the wound was nothing but a faint line. Montague placed the bottle on the table and checked her pupils and her vitals.

"Montague?" Warrington asked in a low voice.

"She's hanging in there barely" he informed him. The news did not please Warrington but it was better than nothing. "Help me clean her up a bit before Shikai wakes Bell and your mother up from the trance. This is a mess. No magic" Montage told him as Warrington had been about to reach for his wand.

"How long do we have?" Warrington asked.

"Somewhere between 15 minutes and an hour, he's stabilising her magical core and the balance to her body it's going to take time." Montague said.

They worked in silence as they used the water to wash the blood and sludge off Alicia and the table underneath her. The floor was a mess but there was nothing they could do until Shikai was finished. Then they pull out their wands and scouring charm or Tergeo spell to clean the floors and then remove Alicia up into his bedroom give her a proper bath to make sure there were no signs of what left her body on her. He wanted her to wake up feeling truly cleansed of the curse.

A few hours later, Alicia was lying on the right side of Warrington's bed dressed in soft cotton pyjamas and tucked deeply under the doona. Maura and Katie had bathed her while Master Shikai retired to a guest bedroom to rest and Montague and Warrington cleaned up the mess in the room.

Warrington sat in an arm chair by the bed and looked at Alicia's prone form. Her skin was grey and pale, dark circles under her closed eyes. He sat forward and held her hand in his while his other hand smoothed a strand of hair and tucked it behind her ear. He tried not to let it bother him that her skin was cold to the touch and focused on the weak pulse he felt and her shallow breathing. She was still alive and that was all that mattered for now. All he could do now was wait for Alicia to regain consciousness.

"Katie, perhaps you should lie down for a bit" Maura suggested, the blonde woman looked incredibly pale and drawn as she clutched a snifter of brandy.

"I'm ok, just feeling incredibly drained" Katie said as she took a small sip of the brandy letting it warm her insides. The last few hours had been intense, she remembered entering the room and Shikai making her stand in the room and then when he started murmuring and the rest was a blank like she just wasn't focusing. When she did end up focussing again Alicia's scars were gone replaced with a faint pink line down her back, the floor covered in blood and black sludge. She hadn't seen so much blood grace the floor since the final battle but there had been many bodies that day.

Her friend was barely alive, but at least the scars were gone, the black veins that tattooed her skin returned to their normal colour or disappeared to where they had once belonged in her body. She couldn't comprehend that Alicia had been carrying such poison within her for 4 years.

"That's because Shikai used your magical energy or as he calls it 'chi' to stabilise Miss Spinnet's. It's common Eastern magical practices to use several witches and wizards magical energy as a life support system. Shame it was all for nothing, don't worry a night's rest and you will be fine" Aleksandra said from the arm chair nearest to the fire.

"What do you mean all for nothing?" Katie asked feeling her anger bubble at the old woman's pragmatic tone.

"No amount of magic energy will counteract that amount of blood loss. You're only prolonging her evitable death. I only wished I had witnessed the event" Aleksandra answered. Katie wanted to throttle the old woman and was about to get up when felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Maura.

"Just relax, Aleksandra grew up in a different lifestyle to ours" Maura told Katie.

"Like that sickly thing upstairs is worthy of the Warrington name. Thank the gods she won't live, imagine the weak blood she would breed into the offspring if she lived" Aleksandra scoffed.

"Aleksandra, I believe you have worn out your welcome and I must ask you to leave" Maura told the old woman in a dark tone.

"I agree. Lady Warrington, Cassius would not appreciate you speaking in that manner about Alicia. I think you should retire to your home in Drezna. If we require your assistance then we shall call" Montague informed her. Aleksandra raised an eyebrow at their dark yet polite tones before shaking her head.

"How the times had changed to favour the downtrodden, I will take my leave since I am no longer welcome but mark my words she will not live through the night" Aleksandra said she stood up from her chair and left the room after a few moments the front door closed making the old woman's exit.

"Is it true?" Katie asked.

"What she said about Spinnet?" Montague asked referring to Alicia by her last name again.

"Yeah" Katie said.

"No, she has survived thus far without taking a turn for the worst. It's a good sign, her body needs time to recoup" Montague told her. Katie nodded before placing the snifter of brandy on the side table next to her chair.

"I'd like to go sit with Alicia for a while" Katie said.

"What are your intentions?"

"Oh so now you fill in for her mother?" Warrington asked dryly as he didn't turn his attention from Alicia.

"Cut me some slack ok? I know I wasn't paying enough attention to Alicia as I was wrapped up in my own world but I'm here making up for it. But it's not easy being Alicia's friend. She's a private person who has a lot of pride, she doesn't like to appear weak" Katie told him.

"I know"

"How is it that she'll turn to you for help and not me?"

"Because I did not pity her, you look at her like she is a victim, less than what she is just because she was not 100% healthy. As an answer to your question, I don't know what my intentions are long term but whatever they are they do not concern you" Warrington told Katie.

"She is my best friend"

"Still gives you no right to question me. I would think my conduct in regards to her would speak for itself. Now if you are done with your interrogation I'd prefer to sit in silence" Warrington said as calmly as he could. He couldn't understand why Katie was making him feel like the enemy when he had helped Alicia more in the past weeks that Katie had in years. The woman should be sitting in quiet appreciation instead digging him for questions.

He lifted Alicia's hand and placed a gentle kiss on the back of her hand watching Alicia breathe. Katie didn't say anything further and they lapsed into silence.

For the first time in four years Alicia woke up not feeling her body quiver in sickly fashion, no sheen of sticky sweat or nausea. Instead she found herself feeling slightly fatigued, a little lightheaded, and hungry, very hungry.

She slowly opened her eyes taking in her surroundings. She was in Warrington's bedroom and was dressed in white soft cotton pyjamas; the lights were dim as she looked around the room. Her eyes rested on Warrington who was asleep in an arm chair by her right side, his clothing was wrinkled and his hair was a mess and it looked like he hadn't shaved for a few days. She mused that it was the first time she had seen him less than immaculate. He shifted in his chair waking up, opened his eyes and cleared his throat. His eyes locked with hers.

"Hey" She said, she grimaced at the sound of her voice as it sounded scratchy. She blushed from the way Warrington was looking at her as it made her feel self-conscious. "Wow I must look really bad if you're speechless" Alicia said she touched her hair self-consciously as she had no mirror to see what she looked like. It couldn't be good.

"No, it's just that I thought you might never wake up" he said, he continued to stare at her. He got up from his chair and sat on the bed next to her helping her sit up and placing pillows behind her back for support.

"How are you feeling?"

"Muscles are a little sore, a bit woozy…Hungry. Really hungry, I'd kill for some breakfast right now." Alicia said with a smile. Warrington returned the smile knowing it was a good sign that she was hungry.

"Well we can have some dinner after Montague checks you over and I send word to Bell and mother" he told her, Alicia frowned in confusion.

"Why would you tell Katie that I'm awake? What did I miss?" she asked grabbing his arm to stop him from leaving. He sat back down on the bed and sighed.

"You were unconscious for nearly five days. It's a long story but the short version is Montague and I recovered the dagger and with Master Shikai's help the bindings have been severed. You're free" he informed her. Alicia reached a hand to the back of her neck.

Warrington's heart clenched as he watched her run a shaky hand up and down the back of her neck and her spine that she could reach from the angle her arm was at. He was almost afraid of how she was going to react as her eyes went wide as tears ran down her face. He wasn't sure if he should hold and comfort her until the tears were soon joined by a smile and she gave a watery laugh.

Alicia laughed as joy bubbled in her she felt nothing but smooth skin under her fingers. Her hunger and wooziness were forgotten momentarily as she marvelled at all the smooth skin, she leaned forward and lifted the back of her pyjamas and felt the rest of her spine.

"There is a fine pink line but a few more doses of dittany it will disappear entirely and then it will be like nothing but a distant memory" Warrington told her, he watched and enjoyed the relief, the freedom among other happy emotions cross her face as she shook her head in joyful disbelief.

Alicia gave a happy sigh, the smile on her face was the brightest, most genuine smile he had seen her wear even with the tears. All he could think about was kissing her senseless, even though she was still considerably pale with dark circles under eyes she was utterly breathtaking. He reached out with one hand and cupped her face gently wiped the tear streaks from the left side of her face with his thumb. Her smile softened as she pulled his hand away from her face and moved up onto her knees and grabbed the sides of his face and kissed him in a deep searing kiss. Not breaking the kiss, he picked her up carefully by the waist so she was straddling his lap. He felt her body quiver from fatigue as she settled against him, he wound his around her torso. After a few moments of indulgence, Alicia broke the kiss first and pressed her forehead to his.

"I owe you" she said.

"You owe me nothing" he told her.

TBC~ Honestly not sure where I'm going to go from here... So I welcome suggestions! See you all in two weeks with more hopefully :-)