Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Harry Potter series and any of the characters. All credit goes to my hero, the wonderful J.K. Rowling! :D
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Hpov
James led me out of Gryffindor tower and seemed surprisingly unconcerned about getting caught by a teacher as we wandered around the castle at two thirty in the morning. Occasionally, he paused and glanced at an old piece of parchment that looked as if it had been folded many times, but whenever I tried to get a proper look at it, he stashed it in his pocket and we kept moving. Eventually, he let me go as we reached a blank stretch of wall on the seventh floor, and he began to pace, all the while muttering to himself.
"James?" I asked a little unnerved. "Are you ok?"
He didn't answer only closed his eyes and kept muttering in apparent concentration. Just as I was starting to worry that he'd lost his mind a door popped into existence on the wall.
"What the-?" I started in amazement but James grabbed me again, wrenched the door open, and pushed me through it. When I crossed the threshold, I felt my mouth fall open.
I was inside a room I'd never seen before. There was only one bed next to a window that was opposite a long counter with a sink, and a series of shelves above it. Scales, a cauldron, and flasks for potions lined the walls along with books on healing and medical guides. It looked like a very small version of the hospital wing.
"Did you find her?" I heard Peter's voice squeak anxiously.
"Yeah she's here." James said letting go of me.
"James what is gong on?" I asked but my question was answered when my eyes fell on the bed again and I realized that someone was in it.
"Oh my god." I gasped running over to a pale Sirius who was lying down his arm over a slashed and bloodied chest. I felt the urge to scream but controlled it as old repressed memories began to surface, paralyzing me with fear. "Sirius." I said quietly my heart slamming itself against my ribcage as if it were trying to break out.
'This can't be happening.' I thought feeling my body start to shake. 'Not again…'
"Hey Hal." He said his voice tight and weak with pain.
"What HAPPENED?" I asked horrified. My brain was reeling, he was covered in blood.
"We can't exactly tell you that." Peter said quietly and I was brought back to reality.
"He needs the hospital wing!"
"He won't go." James said softly his eyes terrified as he looked down at his best friend.
"Why not?"
"We weren't supposed to be, where we were when this happened." Sirius said closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the pillows.
"Does that matter right now?" I asked.
"It does to me."
"James this is mad." I said looking back at him. "Sirius needs medical attention, now."
"That's why you're here." Sirius said.
"Shut up Sirius." I said furiously still looking at James. "Talk some sense into him."
"We've tried, he won't go." Peter said quietly.
"So stun him if you have to!" I shouted and Peter took a step back, plainly terrified. A wild series of emotions were running through me, anger, terror, and something that felt surprisingly like pain. Seeing Sirius like this made me feel like I was seven again, watching horrified, unable to do anything.
"Hallie calm down." Sirius said and I looked back at him. He sounded exhausted, his voice weak, but he smiled slightly when his hand found mine and I gripped it tightly. "I'll be ok."
"You need a healer." I said furious at both him and myself as tears form in my eyes.
"He said he wanted you." James said quietly.
"But I can't fix this!" I said looking at him wildly.
"You fix people all the time." Sirius said his eyes still closed.
"I've never dealt with anything this severe." I said desperately.
"You can do it." He assured me. It was strange, he was the one lying there inches form death, and yet I was the one being comforted.
"Sirius, whatever secret you're trying to keep right now, it's not worth dying for!" I shouted at him, angry tears running down my cheeks and I realized, I didn't want to lose him.
He didn't answer, his hand had gone slack and I knew he must have passed out.
"Hallie, either you do this, or no one does." James said and it was as if his words had turned a switch in me. Instantly, all the horror and confusion I'd been feeling was shrunken down and stored into a dark corner in the back of my mind. I could freak out later. Going to pieces would do nothing for anyone right now.
I let go of Sirius's hand and immediately began looking through the cabinets. I was pleased to see they were stocked with what looked like everything I needed for potion making.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" James asked as my hands automatically found the ingredients I needed and began measuring them.
"Get a cauldron ready and set the flame on the lowest level." I said. "Peter, make some bandages out of one of those extra sheets." I said gesturing towards an open linen cabinet to my left.
"Do you think he'll be ok?" Peter asked me worriedly as he grabbed the sheets.
"Sirius is an idiot." I said furiously while adding lacewings into the cauldron. "But he also tends to be pretty lucky, I'd be very surprised if he didn't make it out of this alive."
Spov
When I woke up, the first thing I was aware of was pain. My head hurt and my chest felt as if someone had torn the skin open with a jagged knife a couple times. As scenes from the attack came back, I realized that was pretty much what had happened. But you couldn't expect to run around with a werewolf without a few mishaps.
I opened my eyes and winced as they adjusted to the early morning light streaming through the window.
"Welcome back." Said a familiar voice. I blinked and Hallie came into focus, her deep blue eyes looking down at me in concern. "How are you feeling?"
I was struck with a sudden sense of déjà vu and I realized that those were the exact same words she'd said to me when I'd woken up to see her in our fourth year.
"Like I've been slammed into a wall." I groaned while sitting up and resting my elbows on my knees. "Repeatedly."
"Drink this." She said handing me a glass full of a periwinkle potion. I took a drink and immediately the pain lessened. The potion tasted light and fresh, like the way I'd imagine flowers would taste. "Better?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said nodding. "Thank you."
"Finish it." She said sternly.
I did as she instructed and steadily began to feel much better. The pain was almost entirely gone.
"You know Sirius, you've faked a lot of injuries to get my attention, but don't you think the near death experience was a little extreme?"
"You think I did this for you?" I asked her raising an eyebrow.
"Well I couldn't think of any rational reason as to why you'd allow yourself to be mauled then refuse to seek medical treatment, so I stuck with something I knew." She said shrugging. While she looked as if she didn't care, her lip was trembling slightly, and I noticed her eyes were rather red. Had she been crying?
Once again I found myself wondering if sarcasm was her default for rebuffing difficult situations.
We looked at each other for a moment, neither of us speaking. She seemed to be organizing her thoughts, as if she wanted to ask something but decided against it, but eventually she was the one to break the silence.
"So." She said looking at me with suspicion. "You're not going to tell me what beat the crap out of you, are you?" She asked me.
"No." I said shaking my head. I wouldn't betray Remus's secret for anything, not even her.
"You do realize that it could help me fix this." She said tapping the wounds on my chest and I felt a shock go through me as her fingers touched my skin
"You seem to be doing a pretty good job on your own." I said catching her hand as she started to draw it away, trapping it to my chest with my own. The feeling intensified.
"It might help with the scars." She said her voice a little uneven.
"I don't mind." I said shrugging, but she still looked upset so I figured I might as well distract her with something be annoyed with.
"They're very manly." I continued smirking. "Besides, scars get girls all excited."
"I'll try to contain myself." She said rolling her eyes, this time managing to pull her hand away.
"You'd better." I said grinning. "I'm a person with feelings, you know. Not just your piece of very appealing eye candy."
"I should have let you bleed just a bit more." She said her eyes narrowing and I laughed.
"Why so you could spend more time with me as you nursed me back to health?" I asked. "That's very sweet of you Hal, but how could you restrain yourself from throwing yourself at me?"
"I think I'll manage." She said grinning and walked towards the counter.
I slid off the bed, wanting to follow her but she turned and said. "Sit."
"Whatever you said healer Hallie." I said amused and sitting back on the bed. "Do you think I'll ever recover?"
"From this?" She asked gesturing towards my chest as she walked back to me a thick yellow potion in her hand. "Yes. From your continual reckless self-endangerment and apparent fascination with risk?" she frowned. "I'm not sure. That might be a lost cause."
"Well a sponge bath couldn't hurt." I said grinning at her and she raised an eyebrow. "And a sexy nurse costume. You know, the ones muggles wear, with the short white dress and the low cut top."
"I'll instruct James to give you one then." She said smirking. "Although I don't think we'll find a costume in his size."
"You're no fun." I said shuddering at the thought of James in a nurse's uniform.
"And you're an idiot." She said giving me a significant look. "But you don't hear me complaining."
I grinned.
"Why do you do this to yourself?" She asked sitting next to me on the bed and dipping a rag in the potion as she looked sideways at me. "Doesn't it scare you how bad this could have been? Or do you lack the innate sense of self preservation?"
"What can I say?" I said feeling the corner of my mouth twitching into a slight smile. "I'm a bad boy who enjoys doing naughty things."
"Like getting your ass kicked." She said skeptically and my smile grew as she dabbed the yellow potion onto my chest.
"Don't be so uptight Hallie." I said meeting her gaze. "You should know by now that the dangerous things are the most fun."