Chapter 6 - Wounded
27 August 1999
"What?" Percy whispered, although Audrey could still hear the shock and urgency in his tone.
Audrey simply nodded in reply. "All right, here's the plan," she started, her fighting instincts coming back so naturally that it almost scared her. "I'll send a patronus to the Auror Office and the Obliviator Headquarters - Merlin knows we'll need it with all the Muggles - but they'll see it, so we have to be ready to get out and duel until help gets here."
Percy nodded in agreement. "All right, that sounds good," he replied. "I don't think they'll be expecting other magical people here so we could catch them by surprise."
"Exactly," Audrey confirmed.
She took a deep breath and then, with the swish of her wand, her tiger patronus flowed out of the tip and ran out from under the table. Audrey threw a warning stupefy before her and Percy rolled out from under the table, wands poised and ready for a fight. When she came face to face with that Death Eater mask, she felt like she was going to be sick, but quickly steeled herself.
Without another moment of hesitation, Percy and Audrey started to throw spells and curses at the Death Eaters - four of them. They held their own surprisingly well, but it was only a matter of time until their end of the fight turned more defensive. The numbers were simply not on their side, and Audrey could feel a slight panic setting in with every step closer that the Death Eaters took to them and every time she would narrowly dodge an ugly-looking curse.
Fortunately, when Audrey did finally get disarmed, her opponent was close enough to her that she could kick the wand out of his hand, then quickly throw a forceful punch at their throat. The masked Death Eater stumbled back with a rasp in his voice and Audrey took advantage of his loss of balance to kick his legs out from under him. She swiftly moved to keep him down with a foot on his chest, then quickly scanned the restaurant for Percy to see how he was holding up. Fairly well, although with her help they could end this mess before the Ministry arrived.
This time, however, Audrey did not move quickly enough.
All of a sudden, Audrey felt a searing pain shoot up the length of her back, from her left shoulder blade all the way down to her tailbone. She let out an agonizing scream and fell over in pain. Her hand hopelessly groped around the floor for her wand but with every little movement of her body, the pain only worsened. She had felt this curse before, and let out a defeated, "Bloody hell," as she realized who their opponents were.
The familiar orange shield of the Protection Charm appeared in front of her, deflecting another curse that had come her way, and she quickly noticed Percy standing over her. She felt him grab her hand and suddenly realized what he was going to do.
"No, no one's here yet," Audrey croaked out. "We can't leave."
"They will be," Percy muttered. "You're my priority now." Then, with the swish of his wand, the whole restaurant was enveloped in darkness. She felt herself getting picked up and, soon after that, the gut-wrenching feeling of Apparition.
"None of the potions for pain are working - this is some of the worst Dark Magic I've seen in a while."
"We need a new tactic. More glass appears every time you pull a shard out."
"Looks like it's just slithering towards her vital organs... like a snake."
Audrey let out a muffled scream as she bit down on the rolled up towel the Healers had put in her mouth and her hand tightened on the hospital bedsheets. She never thought that she would have to experience this again. She had prayed she wouldn't have to experience this again. The Glass Snake Curse - shards of glass appearing in the skin of the victim that would join together as they entered the body and snake towards all of the victim's vital organs. Whatever was closer, so in this case, Audrey's lungs and kidneys. Completely untreatable and agonizing pain, only rivalled by that of the Cruciatus Curse, and every time a shard of glass got pulled out, it would be replaced by two more shards.
A Kelsey Rowle specialty.
"Sabina... get Sabina," Audrey managed to mumble out. "She knows."
Sabina was the one that had taken care of Audrey the first time she had been hit by her Aunt Kelsey's Glass Snake Curse. Back then, it had been something of a learning experience, but by the end of the agonizing day, the former Ravenclaw had figured out the curse's weakness. Not even a minute later, Audrey's childhood friend was standing over her, clad in her Healer robes and sporting a look of worry.
"We need to freeze the wound," Sabina explained. "It's the curse's failsafe - freeze the wound for long enough and the glass will lose its magic and just turn into sand. After that, we just need to extract and clean out the sand."
"Well, it's not like we have any better ideas. Go ahead, Kopitar."
Sabina nodded and took a deep breath. "All right," she said firmly, then turned to Audrey and warned, "This is gonna hurt."
Audrey scoffed, but the action only resulted in more pain running throughout the length of the scar on her back and the rest of her body. Her grip on the bedsheets tightened once more and she closed her eyes in anticipation. As soon as the magical ice hit her back, the curse started to fight back and increase Audrey's pain. She let out another scream, her face buried in the hospital bed and tears streaming down her face. Audrey tried her best not to move, although at one point she had to be restrained. It felt like it had been hours by the time Sabina finished freezing the wound, although it had only been a matter of minutes.
The pain persisted even after Sabina was done freezing her scar, although after a few hours it started to die down into a dull ache throughout her entire body. Audrey remained laying down on her stomach for the remainder of the night. The constant aching that pulsed throughout her body made it difficult to get any good sleep, but it felt nice just to be lying down. This was not something she would have expected to have to face again.
It was early the next morning when Sabina came around to help her off of her stomach and in a sitting-up position, and when the Healers finally let Percy see her.
He let out a sigh of relief when he saw Audrey sitting up in the hospital bed and quickly moved towards her, but Audrey instantly put her arms up to stop him from hugging her. "Please don't," she croaked out, her voice a bit raspy, "everything hurts. I'll just imagine it."
Percy laughed lightly then, surprising Audrey, his hands slowly and gently cupped her face and he leaned forward to softly kiss her lips. "I'm really glad you're okay," he said quietly.
"I'm really glad I'm okay, too," Audrey replied with a slight smirk. A feeling of warmth and happiness coursed through her when he kissed her, but she simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease him.
Percy shook his head in amusement and sat down on the edge of her hospital bed. "Some first date, huh?" he said jokingly.
"I'll have the scar to remember it," Audrey replied, enjoying that she could joke about this with Percy.
Percy looked down at his hands. "I'm sorry, I should've been there to help you," he said sadly.
"Come on, nonsense - I can handle myself. I mean, I took a guy down even after I got disarmed," Audrey bragged. "Besides, another one to add to the collection," she added with a small smile as she moved part of her hospital gown aside to reveal the long scar running down her left leg, from the middle of her thigh all the way down to her ankle.
Percy was about to reply that Audrey shouldn't be so aloof, but the sight of her scar running along her leg suddenly brought back a memory.
It was a bloody miracle they had made it this far, but Percy could tell by how things were going that Dion would not be getting saved. His little distraction did buy some time for the two disguised Order members to escape the restraining arms of the Death Eaters and find their wands, but they were far too outnumbered for it to make that much of a difference. The fact that he would be rescued and not Kingsley's own father left a bitter taste in Percy's mouth.
One of the Order members - a woman codenamed Viper - had blood running down her leg as the other - a man codenamed Ace - fought back curses. Nonetheless, she forcefully grabbed Percy's arm, swung him around next to her, and placed his hand on one of the sconces sticking out from the Floo fireplace that they were cornered against.
"Viper to Royal, we're in position with Knight, over," she managed to say into the enchanted hand radio, her voice clearly strained.
"Your leg..." Percy noted with a worried tone.
"Yeah, I got this saving your bloody arse, so you better keep your hand on that portkey," she bit back, then let out a painful groan. He was about to voice a retort when the portkey was activated and the three of them were transported out of the war zone that was developing before them.
Percy frowned lightly and slowly asked, "How'd you get that scar?"
Audrey paused for a moment. She should have known Percy would be smart enough to put two and two together. "Ah, well -"
"Audrey!"
The door to the hospital room violently swung open in that moment to reveal none other than Zhara Shacklebolt storming in, arms wide and ready to tackle her daughter. Audrey let out a pained yelp as her mother hugged her, and Zhara immediately jumped back with an apologetic look on her face. Her father, Kristopher, and her brother, Keegan, quickly filed in behind Audrey's mum.
"Sabina filled us in," Kris said, immediately getting down to business, as was his style. "When I get my hands on that woman..."
"When you get your hands on her?" Audrey repeated. She turned to Keegan and asked, "You didn't catch her?"
Keegan shook his head sadly. "They were gone by the time the Aurors and Obliviators got there," he replied. "Do you know who else was with her?"
"I can only assume her idiot husband and two other equally idiotic purists," Audrey grumbled in reply. She couldn't believe it. She had gone through all of that Glass Snake bullshit again and Kelsey had still gotten away. It made her mad just thinking about her stupid aunt off somewhere, glad to have simply had the opportunity to cause her own niece some more pain.
"Weasley, what on earth are you doing here?"
The hospital room was suddenly filled with silence as all of the Shacklebolts fixed their gazes on Percy, who now slowly stood up from Audrey's bed. He met Audrey's eyes, which were widened in frozen shock.
"I, uh, well - actu - "
"We were out for dinner at the restaurant that got attacked," Audrey intervened with a roll of her eyes. Leave it to her father to scare even the most confident of men.
"Audrey, do you know what the words 'lay low' mean?" Kris asked with a deathly calm tone and a glare fixed to his face.
"We were in Muggle London, for Merlin's sake, I didn't think it would be an issue!" Audrey exclaimed. "If I'm being honest, I think it was pure coincidence that we were at the restaurant that Kelsey decided to attack."
"There are no coincidences, Audrey, why on - "
" - why, how happy we are that you're alive and well," Zhara interrupted with a pleasant and warm smile on her face, only briefly giving her husband a sharp glare. "We'll discuss the details once you feel better. For now, we'll leave you two alone - and, of course, extend a dinner invitation to Mr. Weasley for looking after you so well."
Of course, Audrey's mother was always the one to defuse even the most explosive of situations. The woman had some kind of talent at calming down the Shacklebolt patriarch even when he was at his angriest, although it still somehow ended with Audrey drawing the short straw. In this case, however, it seemed to be Percy that found himself under the piercing gaze of Zhara Shacklebolt.
"Actually, I should be on my way," Percy started, "but dinner sounds lovely."
"Perfect, we'll make it next Sunday," Zhara declared, "I'm sure Audrey can help you find your way."
Audrey mouthed 'sorry' to Percy as he turned to look at her, but he only smiled and said, "I'll see you later, Audrey," before leaving the hospital room.
"Well, that was delightful," Keegan stated sarcastically with a look of glee on his face. Audrey knew he was enjoying not being the one to get the piss from their parents.
"Your mother's right, this is a discussion for another time," Kris declared with the same stoic look on his face.
"Twenty-five years of marriage have taught you well," Zhara joked, giving Audrey a wink, who rolled her eyes but couldn't hold back a light laugh. Pain coursed through her body right after, but it was well worth it in her opinion.
"I'm just glad you're alive, Audrey," Kris continued sincerely, his stoic expression breaking into a gentle smile. "We'll fix this, don't worry."
"Oh, I'm not worried," Audrey started, "If I were Kelsey, I'd be pretty scared right now."
Percy left Audrey's hospital room with a smile on his face. He still felt a bit agitated, both from the events of the night before and having the attention of the most intimidating man in the Ministry focused on him, but the dinner invitation had surprisingly eased that agitation. Any other woman, Percy would have surely been a nervous wreck at the thought of having dinner with her parents - but with Audrey, it just made him happy. As scary as her father could be, he simply had a good gut feeling about... well, all of it. That being said, just because he felt it would end well didn't mean that it would also go well from start to finish.
"Oh, there he is - Percy!"
All of a sudden, Percy felt another body barrel into him and quickly figured out that it was his mother, thanks to the red curls flying into his face. He hugged her back without hesitation and gave his father a nod as Arthur approached the two of them.
"We were so worried when we got the owl from the Ministry, we were all just sitting around and didn't even know - oh, Percy, are you okay? Have they treated you? Merlin's beard, everyone's just standing around!"
"Molly, relax, look at him - he's fine," Arthur said calmly as he gently patted his wife on the back, a look of amusement clouding his features.
"Yes, you do look fine, I suppose, although you really need to change these clothes - "
"Mum! I'm really all right," Percy exclaimed with a laugh. "Does everyone else know?"
"Well, George, Ron, and Bill were there when the owl came," Molly stated. She paused, Percy's cheery expression falling slightly, and quickly added, "They, um, just thought it would be easier to see you when you get home."
"Right," Percy agreed with a nod, fighting to keep his expression as blank as possible.
He really couldn't blame them, but it still hurt to think that they hadn't rushed to St. Mungo's like his parents had done. These were the kinds of moments that he just wanted to tell them why things had gone so sour after he had graduated from Hogwarts. He felt like shouting it from the rooftops, if only in the hopes that things would be better once they knew the whole story. Percy knew, however, that this would not be the case. The perfect time to come clean would have been right after the war - but that had been Fred's time. And after that... it would just sound like he was making excuses for himself. There was no such thing as a perfect moment, and Percy had come to accept that a sacrifice never stops being a sacrifice.
"Well, we shouldn't keep them waiting then, huh?"
"Hold on!" a raspy voice breathed out.
Percy turned around to see Audrey stumbling forward out of her hospital room on crutches. His eyes widened and he instantly rushed towards her to hold her up. "Merlin's beard, are you mad?" he exclaimed.
"No, I'm actually in a rather good mood," Audrey shot back smartly. "I'm sorry you got roped into that whole dinner thing, I can try to get you out of it."
"You know, you could just send an owl and not tear open your back," Percy scolded, although Audrey couldn't take him seriously with the grin on his face. "And don't worry about it. I'm actually looking forward to it.
A small smile appeared on Audrey's face. "All right then, see you Sunday," she said.
"See you Sunday," he replied.
Just then, Keegan came out of Audrey's hospital room, instantly rolling his eyes at his younger sister and moving to help her back into the room. He briefly looked over at Percy and whispered, "This is your last chance to escape," as he pointed at Audrey, who only replied by hitting his arm lightly.
Percy turned and headed back towards his parents with an amused smile on his face, but it faltered slightly when he met his mum's eyes.. Molly had a skeptical look on her face, while Arthur gave Percy a knowing smile.
"So, uh, home?" Percy suggested meekly, trying to avoid his mum's gaze. Historically, she wasn't the best at dealing with her sons' love interests.
"Home it is," Arthur declared, smiling widely.
After all that, Audrey is all fine! And, of course, we have a little more insight to the war... stay tuned for the next chapter :) -C