Suffering

Cecile ran up the stairs to the seventh floor as soon as the door to the Infirmary closed behind her, sobbing. Before the portrait of the Fat Lady she stopped to calm down and wipe her face from tears, she didn't want the trio to see her like that if they hadn't left yet. The Fat Lady was kindly asking her what was wrong with her and try to comfort her.

She told her, "Those at home have hurt a friend of mine."

"I already knew, Barnabas has come to tell me a while ago, at least they haven't discovered the Room of Requirement," the portrait replied.

"Well, yes, less bad."

"Don't worry, we won't tell. What a year it is yours, girls. Come on, calm down and go inside to reassure your friend. As soon as those heartless ones have left, she has gone looking for you and has not found you. She is very worried but I haven't told her anything, you better do it. Come on, come in."

The Fat Lady opened without she giving her the password. School portraits know everythin, Cecile thought.

Well, at least they're gone now. Lily is sitting at a table, apparently concentrating on a book. Poor girl, trying to distract herself so as not to think.

She moved closer to her and Lily felt her coming. "What happened, Cecile?"

"Nothing serious, Lily, let's go to the bedroom."

"Okay."

She must already be smelling that it has been serious, if I don't tell her right here.

They went up and both got into Lily's bed, Cecile protecting the canopy and conjuring the Muffliato.

"Come on, tell me. They have hurt him, haven't they?" the redhead asked.

Cecile took both of her hands tight. "Yes, honey, they have broken his right arm, letting him fall abruptly with a Liberacorpus."

Lily began to cry bitterly.

"Come on, hug me…"

Lily cried for a while hugging her friend. When she calmed down a bit she began to ask her, "Did it hurt a lot?"

"Yes, Lily, a lot, but he hasn't once complained, not even when Poppy has reduced his fracture."

"Without giving him a potion?"

"She had to check that it hurt less after doing it. That's why I stayed with him, to hold his hand."

"Thanks for doing it, Cecile."

"Do not give them to me, he is also my friend. While we were going to the Infirmary he was more concerned about the others than about what had just happened to him."

(Ugh…Lauren won't find out until tomorrow,) Lily thought. "He was entering the Room of Requirement, wasn't he?"

"He was, the music room. They caught him from behind."

"Damn cowards. Face to face they would never dare with him."

"Of course not," Cecile agreed.

"Jo... and why doesn't he let us know when he goes?"

"It's obvious, Lily. Because he doesn't want us to watch them all the time."

"Yeah, but today is a full moon."

"He hasn't even thought about it. He wanted to relax for a while before the day after tomorrow. He's in a lot of trouble to think about moons right now."

"Jo… when will he be fine?" Lily asked.

"Poppy said Saturday morning."

"Ugh… the letter."

"Don't worry about that. Dumbledore has come to see him," Cecile said.

"Really?" amazed.

"Yes. Poppy went to call him as soon as she finished tending him, and she asked me to stay with him so he wouldn't fall asleep with the pain potion. While we waited we have planned the strategy." They both laughed.

"He never rests. And what have you talked about with him?" Lily asked.

"Sev has asked me to lie, that I had not confronted the trio for defending him, to say only that I had found him lying on the ground."

"Have you faced them, Cecile?"

"Of course, he was defenseless. His wand dropped out of his pocket when he was hung in the air."

"On top without his wand in hand."

"Yeah, he had a Muggle notebook."

"The notebook in which he wrote down the songs he liked..." Lily cried again, her friend hugged her again.

"I should have unspelled him myself, but it would have been exposing myself to Potter and the others," said Cecile.

"Of course, Cecile, how difficult… And Dumbledore? How did he take it?"

"He was very appalled. I think he felt very guilty."

"Of course, last year he didn't listen to him because of the Shrieking Shack when he told on them, and now he knows that he was wrong about him," Lily said. "And on top of that, he has spent three years knowing about his brother and without intervening. Has he read you?"

"I think not, he has not looked us in the eye. He has asked me 'What can you tell me?' And I had already told Poppy that it was them."

"Oh…"

"And then he has been explaining everything by himself without questioning me, a mere formality," Cecile added.

"He has not put you in a bind or tried to get you out."

"Not at all, he praised my behavior and dismissed me as soon as possible so that I could come and reassure you. He wanted to be alone with Sev."

"So they've already made contact," Lily said.

"Of course, in a safe place and without anyone knowing. Sev will have known what to tell him and what not. I'm sure he's asked Poppy to let him out for breakfast on the excuse of training. I don't think he's either pushed the nuts or tried to read him."

"And even if he had, Sev occludes perfectly. Good, so he already has him in his pocket."

"Yes, Lily, Saturday thing is going to work out. Tomorrow we will see him and he will tell us."

"Of course, with the excuse of going to see Remus."

"Besides, Poppy has installed him behind the screen, right in front of where Remus sleeps."

"The four of us will be able to talk," Lily said.

"Yeah. Poppy must be smelling it all by now, too."

"Thank you, Cecile, I'm much calmer."

"Sure, honey, and so is he," Cecile reassured her. "Poppy gave him a sleep potion to put him to sleep right away, and I've left his notebook for her to give him in the morning to keep him entertained. At noon we bring him some novel that I have."

"Sure. He will spend the day much calmer than if he were all the time with the snakes. Jack needs to be warned somehow so he knows Saturday thing is all under control."

"Yeah, we should have made a system of written messages with them too."

"Well yes."

(Maybe Lauren can project him,) Lily thought. "We'll meet him in the afternoon in the small clearing, so we can tell him what Sev has told us."

"Yeah, the poor guys are going to spend a tense day."

. . . . . . . . .

Remus heard his 'friends' coming down the passage sooner than he expected. It was not yet night and he had not transformed. They hadn't either.

"Why do you come so early?" he asked.

"Whoa… Moony…" Wormtail said very excitedly. "We have broken Snivellus's arm."

The other two were very serious.

"And that makes you laugh?" asked Remus in a deeply contemptuous tone. Damn rat… "Tell me what happened," he said to Sirius. He will be the most impartial.

"We caught him from behind in front of the portrait of Barnabas," Sirius replied.

Walking to enter the Room of Requirement, probably to consult the books or play the piano, Moony thought. He has so many things on his mind that he has forgotten that today is a full moon. "What have you done to him?" he asked. "A Levicorpus, I suppose. Your favorite spell since you copied it from him."

"Yeah."

And they have dropped him suddenly because they don't know how to do it carefully, as he has taught us. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. We have lowered his pants," Padfoot answered.

"You brats. At least you will have helped him get dressed and get up so he could go to the Infirmary."

They were silent.

"What's happening? Not even that? Have you left him lying there?" Remus asked.

Black swallowed hard and replied, "No, it was Cecile who stayed with him. She has faced us."

Of course, idiots.She triples the courage of all three of you together, and probably triples in Dueling as well.And after this I have to put up with you all the damn night. He looked at the three with deep contempt. "Let's see if it serves as a lesson for the next one. Because Sev isn't going to tell on thirty-six hours from the damn letter.I hope he's recovered by then and that they didn't tell Lily anything while Cecile was with him in the Infirmary, and she was able to.I don't think so, because of how frightened they are.

That night the foray wasn't exactly fun, Moony didn't communicate with them at all. I don't care if they suspect that I'm on his side.I will endure them as long as it takes to protect Lily, and then goodbye forever.

. . . . . . . . .

Lauren, seeing Sev leave the Common Room after dinner, already began to worry. He has escaped again to the Room of Requirement for the third time in a week, thirty-six hours from the key moment. Still, those two hours of waiting for him to return as usual, just before curfew, she managed to focus on her homework and study.

But when ten o'clock struck and he still hadn't returned, her restlessness began to consume her. The Gryffs have caught him, the Gryffs have caught him… Last year they almost killed him and they haven't caught him all year.They really, really want him… booaaah… She cried for a while, with her back to everyone, in front of the window, until she recovered.

Well, maybe not.He will come later, before he always escaped at night.But that's impossible, what am I saying?He wouldn't risk getting punished just before the key moment.Shall I run off to the Infirmary to see if he's there?I can't give myself away... Merlin... how difficult.

Maybe they're healing him and he'll come back later, I'll wait all night. Totally, I will not be able to sleep. If he hasn't come back by five I'll take Restorative Potion and be in peace.

And so she did, she waited seven hours tormenting herself, thinking that he might even have died. When she was left alone in the Common Room, around twelve, she broke down and wept bitterly for hours, just as Sev had done that Friday in December as he debated whether or not to go to Cokeworth for Christmas.

I feel so guilty for tricking him like this into a quest he may not be up to, and making him take such a risk. So much paraphernalia would not have been necessary to free him from the malefics. Now I don't care about all that anymore, not even beating Voldemort, only that nothing serious has happened to my eternal love.

And I haven't even written him the letter I promised, I was going to do it tonight and leave it tomorrow in the homework stash, so he'd read it just before his crucial moment and give him plenty of gas to hold on, because he's going to have neither of us for a while.

I'm going to do it now, and I'm going to always carry it with me until he shows up. And if I never see him again, I will have the memory of the feeling I have for him. But I must not let him see what I am suffering. Just love and hope, like he does with me.

She wrote to him, getting over it and putting her whole heart into it, so that the indelible memory of what she felt for him would remain. At five in the morning, knackered, she went to bed and drank potion for three hours. The potion that he invented, perhaps the only thing that he has been able to bequeath to the world.Hopefully Lily has the recipe.