Haha, I just hadn't been able to resist leaving it like that last chapter, sorry. XD Well, here's the next one so you can find out what happens. Be sure to review!
When she came to, Carina was lying on the water soaked floor of the bathroom, and she jumped when she saw Snape hovering over her.
"Bloody hell!" yelped Carina, scrambling back away from him. "What are you doing here?"
"Language, Black," he replied cooly. "Ten points from Gryffindor."
She gritted her teeth and forced her irritation down. "I apologize, sir. What are you doing here? Where's Potter?"
"I sent him away. He seemed quite glad to get away, the boy seemed panicked." Snape scoffed. "I healed you the best I could, Black, but I got here late."
The initial shock of having the professor there had by now worn off and his words had her hands quickly landing on her blood soaked shirt, which was undone at the buttons.
She assumed that that was the only way he could get to the wounds without taking her whole shirt off and was thankful for it. She pulled the shirt back to stare down at the pink scars—appearing weeks old—crisscrossing her upper body. "Bloody hell!"
"Ten more points. Really, you'd think you'd learn by now not to curse."
Carina paid him no mind and scrambled to the nearest shard of a mirror and stared at her face. Her own wide gray eyes reflected back at her, but the jagged scar running along her face was new and she swallowed.
Just another scar to wear. She shook her head and turned to face the man behind her.
"Thank you for trying, sir," she managed finally.
He nodded in acknowledgement and stood. "Get to your common room and tell Potter to never use that spell again." His cloak billowed behind him as he briskly left, and Carina got to her feet, running a hand through her hair as she buttoned her shirt, made her way to the common room, spoke the password to the Fat Lady, and silently entered.
Her appearance caused a commotion, to be said. Hermione had leapt to her feet and Harry had slowly followed.
"Harry told us what happened," Hermione said hurriedly, checking her over. "Oh, Carina…how are you alright?"
"Snape healed me," muttered Carina, not meeting her eyes as she pushed past. Just a kiss. A prank. "I'm fine now, they're not the first scars I've gotten." She was headed to her dorm, but stopped abruptly to turn on Harry, eyes suddenly flashing. "You. Snape told me to warn you not to use that spell again, Potter. And the next time you think about cursing me—" she noticed a cold looking Ginny sitting in the corner and realized that there had been an argument here. Her eyes flickered back to Harry. "—I'll kill you myself, Chosen One or not."
"I didn't know what it would do!" protested Harry as she stepped onto the staircase. "You were cursing me and I wasn't thinking!"
Carina whirled around, exasperated. "I was cursing you because you both started firing shots at me! If you didn't notice, I was trying to stop you two from killing each other before I got blasted through a wall, shot with some unknown curse and left to die!"
"Snape told me to leave, what was I supposed to do, fight him? I didn't want to get into any more trouble than I was already, and it looked like he had it under control!"
This reminded her oddly of something that happened years ago.
Eleven year old Carina sat in her first week of detention, sighing loudly as she scrubbed cauldrons for Snape. Really, she found a week's worth highly unreasonable considering all she had done was fling something into Malfoy's potion because he insulted Ron and Hermione, not to mention taken a shot at Harry's dead parents and her own nonexistent ones. Granted, it had caused the boy's potion to explode all over his face and sent him to the hospital wing, but still!
She heard a commotion outside and slowed her scrubbing, listening intently as Snape opened the door.
"What do you want, Potter?" sneered Snape. "Surely you haven't come for a detention because you want one." There was no reply. "Leave, boy."
"No," came the quiet answer. "I want to wait here for her, sir."
"You'll be waiting hours, Potter. Now leave, before I dock points."
Carina stopped scrubbing altogether.
"No, sir."
"Ten points from Gryffindor!" There was a few moments of silence, and when it seemed like the boy would not budge, Snape docked another twenty; still nothing. Finally, the man snapped, "Fine, stay there if you're so stubborn, Potter!" He slammed the door in Harry's face, and the girl hastily resumed scrubbing.
When she left the room hours later with blisters forming on her hands, Harry was roused from his slumber and stood, lightly linking arms with her and silently leading her to the common room, offering a soft smile.
Carina stared at him for a good few moments, before shaking her head until the smiling young boy in front of her became the frowning, messy haired teenager. "Trouble? You weren't even docked points, much less given detention! Look at me!" She lifted her shirt to expose her scarred torso, not thinking anything of it even as Ron entered the room and stared at her stomach with wide eyes. "Snape didn't get there in time because he probably ran into Malfoy in the corridor, and this is the result!"
"I'm sorry!" cried Harry, running his hands through his hair, ruffling it even more. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt like this, but when you started fighting and blew up half the bathroom I got frustrated and said the first thing that came to mind!"
Carina glanced briefly at Hermione, who had her own gaze trained on Lavender and Ron, before turning back to Harry, coming to a decision. She knew there was something more going on with the way he constantly disappeared to meet with Dumbledore and at first, she hadn't cared much. But now, she wanted in on it. The war was about to start and she was sure that Ron and Hermione knew, and as much as she hated to admit it, she wanted to help. If they planned to run off somewhere, she was not going to stand by and do nothing.
"We need to talk," she told him, lowering her shirt. "Now."
Harry did not protest this time and merely followed her out.
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"Alright," said Harry, once they were safely hidden behind a tapestry in an abandoned corridor. He sat cross legged on the floor, invisibility cloak in one hand and wand in the other, lit up as he placed the Marauder's Map on his knee so that he could check for intruders. Carina sank down across from him. "What is it? You wouldn't normally drag me off like this for nothing, especially after I attacked you."
"I want to know what's going on during the meetings you have with Dumbledore," Carina told him bluntly.
"What?" The boy's brows shot up, and he immediately went onto the defense. "No. How do you even know about those?"
"You're not as good at sneaking around as you thought." She snorted. "Or, sneaking around without me noticing, that is. I just haven't said anything until now."
"Why do you even want to know? I thought you wanted nothing to do with me."
"I didn't, but the war will start, and when it does I don't want to sit around doing nothing. I'm going to fight."
"For a society that sent you to prison? For people that hurt you and made Padfoot spend twelve years in Azkaban alone?" Harry watched her carefully, and he made a point. She owed them nothing and should by all means have no qualms about leaving them to die.
She regarded him calmly. "You're right, I don't care about them—any of them. But I do care about Luna and Hermione. I want to protect them, and my father's death shouldn't have to be in vain. He came to rescue us because of our own stupidity and got killed—" They both winced at that, though neither seemed to notice the other had done it. "—and I don't want to live in a world with Voldemort in it anymore. He needs to go, and if you won't tell me, it won't stop me and you know it."
Harry sighed. "I know. But he told me I could only tell Ron and Hermione…"
"Telling one more person won't hurt, especially if they could help in the long run." Carina leaned forward, face expressing just how serious she was.
So, he did. He told her every last detail, even the ones he wasn't sure he should have, and as he watched her process this, a muscle worked in her jaw. She was thinking hard.
"If you can't keep telling me everything," she said with a pause. "I'll force the old man to let me join in."
"I'm not sure you can do that," Harry pointed out. "He's the most powerful wizard around."
"Doesn't matter." She waved him off. "Guilt trip, blackmail, I'll do it if I have to. You got that?"
"Yes," he sighed, leaning against the wall. They sat there in silence for a good few minutes before he spoke again. "I really am sorry for doing that to you. And for Azkaban. I would have apologized earlier but I didn't think it was something you needed to hear during all the chaos when you got back. And, to be honest, I didn't want to be attacked like Ron and Smith." She let out a hum of acknowledgement, but did not speak, instead sat there and stared at her hands. "Sirius told me how bad it was there, how it affected him. You weren't there even half as long and it probably hit you just as hard." He watched her with forlorn eyes, and when she met them, for a brief moment she saw the emerald green eyes of the young boy she had known staring back. "I know you're on your way to forgiving Hermione, probably already have, but I hope someday you can forgive me as well." He seemed more mature than normal at the moment, showing just how serious he was. It was a far cry from the teen she had seen earlier.
"We'll see," murmured Carina. "Only time will tell." She did not know what to do with all the people approaching her on such matters or asking her for forgiveness. She was not sure about Harry, but she definitely knew that though she may be able to be civil with Ron Weasley, she did still did not like the person he had turned into and had no intention of becoming friends with him again. She peered up at Harry, before getting to her feet and dusting herself off. "We're done here. It's past curfew, let's go."
He silently threw the invisibility cloak over both of them and they huddled under it together, moving quickly and in practiced sync back to the common room.
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Carina lay awake in her bed later that night, not really thinking so much as she couldn't sleep. She had tossed and turned all night, but nothing worked, so here she was.
She stared at the ceiling, arms folded behind her head. Everything had been quiet in the dorm, until she heard a whimper.
She glanced over, noticing that Hermione was tangled in her sheets and it was her who had made the sound. Her eyes were squinched shut, and her fists gripped the covers so tightly her knuckles were white. She whimpered again.
"No," mumbled Hermione, and when the tears began to fall, Carina slowly sat up and made her way over, perching herself on the edge of the bed. "Mum, Dad…"
It hit her then, what she was dreaming of. She was having a nightmare about the night her parents died, were tortured by Bellatrix—disguised as Carina—until their bodies shut down. She did not know anything else about that night.
Carina reached over to shake Hermione, only to be met with yet another small cry of pain, and quickly shook her again. This time, the bookworm's eyes snapped open to meet hers, and she pushed herself up, untangling herself and wiping at the tears streaming down her cheeks. It did nothing, however, for more and more came soon after.
"I didn't save them," whispered Hermione, not seeming bothered at all by the other girl being there. "I tried fighting, but it was no use. There were too many, and by the time the Order showed up they were already gone. I heard their screams, and saw someone that looked familiar apparating away. They told me it was you and I didn't want to believe them, but then I realized why that person was so familiar." Red rimmed eyes gazed at her. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," sighed Carina softly, scooting back so that she was next to her friend, both of them side by side and leaning against the headboard. "Doesn't matter. I'm sorry about your mum and dad. They were good people."
"Thank you." The brunette sniffed, and the younger witch got the overwhelming urge to comfort her.
It's okay to feel, Carina, she remembered Remus's words from before.
So without saying a word, she carefully slid an arm around Hermione's shoulder, allowing the older girl to huddle closer, gripping Carina tightly around the waist.
"It's okay," Carina kept her voice quiet as she felt Hermione's shoulders shake. "I've got you."
Hermione's body was soon wracked with sobs, and Carina sat there in silence, free hand running over bushy hair as the other girl had done for her so often.
She didn't move for the rest of the night.