Raylynx's POV
My eyes flew open, but I couldn't see anything. I was too focused on trying to breathe again. I lay there, gasping. Inhaling scraped at my throat like a knife, but I needed the air. It was all I could think of.
"Raylynx! Ray, are you all right?!" A worried voice spoke above me. Two fuzzy faces appeared before me. James and Remus, my mind recognized.
"Ray?" James held up his hand and waved it over my face. That made me dizzy. I blinked hard to clear my vision before nodding to show him I was all right.
"Can you get up?" Remus asked me.
I managed to get onto my feet, though my vision whirled around fantastically as I did. I blinked hard a few more times. While I did, a sharp stinging pain traveled up both my throat and my hand. I looked down at my busted fist, which had somehow caused blood to smear itself all over my arm, too.
And it all came flooding back to me.
"Mar-lene," I managed to choke out, then coughed heavily.
Then, Remus said suddenly, "Sirius, don't-"
Out of nowhere, a hand appeared and grabbed my bloody arm tightly.
"What the hell d'you think you were doing!?"
I looked up to see Sirius, furious like I'd never seen him before.
He was shouting so loudly that it made my ears rings and my head pound.
"Sirius, stop," Remus said weakly.
But Sirius ignored him and continued to shout. "Because of you, Marlene nearly died!"
My heart had stopped for a moment when Sirius had said "Because of you, Marlene...", but it managed to stutter on when I heard the all-merciful word "nearly".
"Is she okay?" I tried to say, but immediately went into a coughing fit.
Besides me, James gently put his hand on my back.
Remus tried to step in-between us, but Sirius harshly shouted, "Don't get in the way, Remus!"
He shouldered Remus aside and yelled at me, "What were you hesitating for? You let that Death Eater get a clear shot at Marlene!"
"Sirius, calm down," James tried to say, but Sirius ignored him. He spat at me, "And you call yourself her friend? Don't make me laugh! You practically threw away her life!"
"-orry," I choked out. I wanted to say sorry. I wanted more than anything to apologize to Marlene a thousand times over for what she suffered because of me, but Sirius, in his furious rant, didn't hear me.
Finally, James stepped firmly in front of me and said, "Sirius. I'm warning you- shut up." And his tone was even such that Sirius fell silent.
"Let go of her," Remus said, his eyes looking at Sirius' firm grip on my arm.
Sirius squeezed it tightly so that pain shot up my arm. He muttered furiously to me, "God, I could kill you right now." Then, he let go and pushed past Remus, leaving.
I stood there, numb as ice. I could not afford to feel right now. Either the physical pain or the emotional pain.
"Raylynx, Sirius isn't in his right mind. It's just that he was so terrified for Marlene," Remus said, attempting to diffuse and justify Sirius' actions. But James shook his head and muttered, "Stop, Moony. Let's just focus on making sure she's okay."
"I want to see Marlene," I finally whispered, feeling a scorch of heat pass down my throat as I did.
"She's okay," James said soothingly, rubbing my back. "She's in St. Mungo's, receiving treatment. The last we heard, she's unconscious, but alive and recovering."
"Unconscious?" I whispered, my throat flaring up madly and decimating my voice to dust.
"Yeah, but she'll come round," James replied. When I stared at him with untrusting eyes, he placed a warm hand on my cheek and promised, "Really."
"Come on," he said. "You're soaked. You need to change into something warm."
"Raylynx!" Remus said, horrified. "Your hand!"
He tried to take it gently to examine it and heal it, but I stepped back from both of them.
"Marlene…" I said hoarsely again.
"She's recovering, I swear to you," James repeated kindly.
"Lily, Dorcas, and Alice are with her," Remus added. "They're keeping us updated."
"The others?" I asked.
"All fine. Emmeline's getting treatment for her arm, but it's nothing serious."
"Sirius." I coughed and had to gesture with my good hand. "Somebody should go after him."
"No," James said and his voice was hard. "He deserves to be alone right now."
"Prongs," Remus said softly. Clearly, he'd had the thought of going after Sirius.
"No, Moony, leave it. You can't always soothe things out with words for him," James said harshly. "He has to realize that he can't just prioritize his emotions over everything and take it out on other people."
Remus seemed torn, but finally he turned to me and said, "I'm not nearly at good at wounds as Madam Pomfrey, but I can clean your hand, at least."
"I need to go back out and set up the boundaries I pulled down for you guys to Apparate here," James said, and without further ado, he walked outside.
Sirius' POV
I stood there in the shower, barely registering the rush of water coming down on me, too busy with feeling moody as all hell.
The situation had been so awfully clear: Death Eaters on our tail, the ice cracking, the stalactites falling, and no other way out of the cavern. And yet, Raylynx had hesitated.
And it had almost cost Marlene her life.
The complete prison of helplessness that I felt when I saw her go under the ice intensified when I saw Raylynx also dive into the ice.
But a strange thing happened: Just as Raylynx disappeared into the ice as well, suddenly a great wind swept through the cavern, as though many magical barriers had just been broken through. The magic holding the stalactites up broke, and they began falling one by one. In mere moments, the entire sheet of ice that constituted the cavern floor was breaking up. The Death Eater I was fighting suddenly dove straight into the icy cold water and the Death Eater Remus had been fighting was suddenly able to Apparate out. Unable to make sense of this, but more worried about Marlene and Raylynx, I started to run towards where I'd last seen them. Abruptly, my foot broke through the ice, and I nearly fell in. I managed to fall forward fast enough so that it was only my leg immersed in the freezing cold water, and with a bit of careful struggle, I could pull myself out.
"Sirius!" Remus scrambled over to me and helped me up, but the ice began to crack under our weight combined.
"I saw Raylynx go in after Marlene over there!" I told him, pointing to a gaping hole in the now breaking ice. We rushed over, with the floor breaking away at our very heels.
Just as we reached the area I'd pointed to, Marlene's head broke the surface of the water.
"Marlene!" I shouted and reached for her, but the ice broke away under me. Remus jerked me back. I cursed and said, "How are we going to get them out of the water when all the ice is breaking up?"
"I'll try to make the ice stronger by magic," Remus said.
When I looked at him quizzically, he hurriedly explained, "It should be allowed now, as I think the siren's magical barriers barring wizard's magic are gone. The Death Eater I was fighting Disapparated. That shouldn't be possible with the sirens' barriers."
He closed his eyes and pointing his wand at the ice began to mutter spells to keep the ice together. I stepped forward and then, leaning over the water as much as I dared, managed to pull Marlene towards me. Using as much strength as I could muster, I pulled her clean out of the water. But she was unresponsive and ice cold.
"Remus, she's… she's-" Fear clogged my throat.
Remus put his hand up in front of her nose. "She's breathing, Sirius," Remus said, breathing his own sigh of relief.
I held Marlene in my arms, trying to warm her up, even as the ice broke up further around us. We were standing on one of the last remaining islands, held together, no doubt, by Remus' magic. I looked around to see that we were the only ones left. So, that meant that everyone was safe.
Thank Merlin, I thought. But then I realized that I hadn't seen Raylynx come out of the water.
"Raylynx," I said suddenly. "Where is she?"
"Did you see her Disapparate?" I asked Remus.
Remus' eyes widened as he shook his head. In a panicked voice, he said, "She must still be in the water!"
"I'm going in after her!" I said, but Remus shook his head furiously.
"No, you need to get Marlene to the hospital," he instructed. "Leave Raylynx to me." Without further ado, Remus dropped to his knees and frantically gazed into the murky depths of the water, holding his wand aloft.
My heart thundered in anxiety, but Remus was right- I needed to get Marlene to the hospital. With no other choice, I spun, holding Marlene in my arms.
Luckily, the ever-efficient staff of Healers were able to get Marlene onto a bed, where they began to use magical spells to combat the dangerously low temperature that her body was at. I knew I should stay with her. But there was a tight tugging in my chest that urged me to go back to Raylynx's house and to wait with James to see for my own eyes that Remus and Raylynx were safely back. Raylynx might have been in the water for even longer than Marlene. Did Remus find her in time? I gritted my teeth and tried to kill the impatient curiosity raging inside of me, but I lost.
I left St. Mungo's and once outside of the Ministry, Apparated to Raylynx's house. As I approached her house, I felt the magical barrier shoving me back. I murmured the password and it melted away to allow me in. I hurried to the front door, which I banged on impatiently. I prayed that Raylynx herself would open it.
Instead, James did.
"Are Remus and Raylynx back?" I demanded.
"No, not yet," James said.
My eyes clouded over.
"Sirius? What happened?" James said, worry etched in his features. "Did you succeed with the mission? Are the others in trouble?"
"We failed the mission," I said grimly. "The sirens rejected our offer and then a duel broke out with Death Eaters. Then, the cavern began to break apart. Marlene and Raylynx fell into the freezing water. I got Marlene out. She's at St. Mungo's now. But I didn't see Marlene. When I left, Remus was looking for her in the water."
James exhaled forcefully. He didn't know what to say. I was grateful for the silence, grateful that James did not try to push false assurances on me.
But while we waited in the silence, fraught with worry, I thought back to how this had all unfolded.
It had started when Raylynx had failed to block the Killing Spell that was coming directly for Marlene. No, it wasn't just that Raylynx had failed. It was that she hadn't acted at all. She had done nothing, while her best friend had just been marked for death as surely as one marked Christmas on a new calendar.
I let out a sigh of deep frustration and aggressively ran my hands through my hair.
Why had she hesitated?
Now, just to clarify, my angst wasn't just about the fact that Raylynx had hesitated today. Her inaction today, considered in a single moment of time, was not such a big deal. People get scared, I know that.
However, this was just one event in a series of events that had suddenly begun to go terribly wrong. James had told me the other day that although Dumbledore did not wish for the Order to begin suspecting each other just yet, Dumbledore heavily suspected that there was a traitor in our midst.
With the Order members, each of us went on our own fair share of missions, and none of us always knew the details of other people's mission. It was a precaution against information leakage.
Still, I had heard the stories of late. The Prewitt brothers had been ambushed as soon as they'd arrived on their mission site, even though they were told that Death Eaters would not know where they were. Dorcas and Jay had taken precaution and leaked an alibi before their last mission, but somehow, the Death Eaters had been forewarned and discovered them. Everybody on guard that morning had had to rush to aid them and they'd barely escaped with their lives.
In the midst of events like these, Raylynx's actions did take on a highly suspicious tingle. At the very least, they were problematic. And then, I had felt so frustrated. I wanted more than anything to be able to protect Marlene, but my hands were tied as I tried to keep the damn Death Eater I was fighting at bay. Whoever I'd fought that day was incredibly skilled, and I could not spare a single spell if I wanted to stay alive. I'd felt so frustrated in my own powerlessness. Even when Marlene fell into the water, I couldn't do much but continue the duel. And then to watch Raylynx do nothing had been too much for me.
James went outside for a moment. When he came back inside, he explained, "I put down the defenses. Remus should be able to Apparate straight here."
As if on cue, Remus and Raylynx Apparated on the living room floor just then. They had Apparated together holding hands. I expected that Remus had managed to reach out to grab Raylynx's hand, but could not have pulled her out of the water given that the ice was becoming so fragmented and thing, and thus just Apparated holding her hand. As soon as they appeared, Raylynx collasped onto the floor, letting go of Remus' hand. But I could see her chest rising and falling and her eyes flickered behind her eyelids.
The moment I saw Raylynx, a flash of relief flooded through me, which was unexpected, given that I'd just been wondering whether or not she was a traitor. But actually, the relief that flooded through me at that moment was indescribable. For a second, so great was the feeling of mercy, as though I had personally been spared and survived from the siren's cold waters, that I literally couldn't move.
James knelt beside her and called her name.
Remus stepped back to allow James to kneel down. I looked over Remus. Other than seeming utterly exhausted, he looked like he'd managed to escape any major physical wounds, though a nasty bruise was forming on the side of his right forearm, where his shirt had been ripped as his arm dug into the side of the ice fragment he was standing on as he reached across to grab Raylynx's hand. Although I was always anxious that something might happen to my friends in the order, I knew that when it came to dueling or dealing with Dark Creatures, that Remus would be all right. He was the best in Defense Against the Dark Arts in our year. He was fully capable of holding his own, at least in defense.
Taking James' hand, Raylynx, dripping wet and exhausted, pulled herself onto her feet.
But then, in knowing that she was all right, the rage that had been shoved back by my worry suddenly came back in full force. I suddenly wanted to punch her in the face for all the grief she'd caused Marlene, Remus, and me. Yet, at the same time, watching her cough pitifully, with cold water dripping down her hair and robes, the smallest part of me wanted to grab her and embrace her, wanted to hold her tight to me. I didn't linger on that thought at all, though, didn't even allow myself to register it, as I abruptly strode forward.
Besides me, Remus saw where I was going and said cautiously, "Sirius- don't-"
But my body acted on its own. Before I knew it, I had reached out and grasped her arm. But the rational voice inside me warned: What the hell d'you think you're doing, Sirius? Didn't you just think that she might be the traitor? And it's because of her that Marlene is fighting for her life in St. Mungo's! In reaction to this voice, my hand squeezed her arm tightly enough to hurt her. For a moment, I started to pull her towards me, but then I stopped myself, and she stumbled slightly because of my sudden yank.
"What the hell d'you think you were doing!?" I shouted, and it was far louder than I'd meant to be, but truthfully, it was barely loud enough to release some of that horrible pent-up frustration I'd be feeling since the fight back in the caves.
"Sirius, stop." Remus' voice was soft, as he seemed to registration my frustration.
But I ignored him and shouted at Raylynx, "Because of you, Marlene nearly died!"
Raylynx tried to say something, but started coughing again.
Remus tried to sidle himself between us, but I said angrily, "Don't get in the way, Remus!"
"What were you hesitating for?" I asked Raylynx. "You let that Death Eater get a clear shot at Marlene!"
"Sirius, calm down," James said, but I was too far gone. I had to be. Because if I wasn't the protector, what could I be? All my life, I'd been "tough guy" of the group- "an idiot, but at least he looked out for his friends"- and it was a role I purposefully shouldered because it was the only role that persuaded people to trust me and to see that I wasn't like the rest of my deranged pureblood family. And since Dumbledore already didn't trust me because of that damned Snape, I knew when I joined the Order that I had to adhere to this role even more strictly than before. And suddenly, without any warning, Raylynx was making this difficult for me. Because even if Raylynx was the traitor, I couldn't quite bring myself to hate her. There was another strange, unexplained feeling working its way inside of me as I stood there, gripping her arm. This confusing feeling made me lash out in a far stronger tone than I intended, because it threatened how I understood myself, and I knew that, with everything going on, I needed to stick to my protector role more than ever.
I shook my head and spat more vicious words at Raylynx. "And you call yourself her friend? Don't make me laugh! You practically threw away her life!"
Suddenly, James defended Raylynx. He stepped firmly in front of her and looked me dead in the eye. There seemed to be a fire burning in his usually cheerful eyes. "Sirius. I'm warning you- shut up."
"Let go of her," Remus said, and I knew by his tone that he, too, was about to lose his patience with me.
But the trouble was, I didn't want to let go of her arm.
I muttered furiously, "God, I could kill you right now."
Sirius, the voice in my own brain said. Let go.
I dropped her arm, turned on my heel, and left immediately.
It was only when I'd Disapparated and arrived at my own house that I realized the hand with which I'd gripped her arm was covered in blood. I hadn't bled at all over the course of the mission. So it was Raylynx's blood. Guilt poured into me. I nearly went back, but then I remembered she was with James and Remus. They would take care of her. They were allowed to take care of her. Their loyalties weren't at risk if they stayed by her side. But me? I shook my head. If there was one thing I was sure of from all that happened today, it was that I wasn't supposed to be at Raylynx's side. Neither of us was good for the other. But that was fine. It wasn't so difficult to steer clear of her, right?
Easy, I told myself firmly as I shut off the shower faucet. She'd never been anyone of interest to me. I certainly didn't expect to start changing now.
Raylynx's POV
We sat at the edge of the tub. I had my hand out and Remus was tapping his wand and murmuring basic Healing spells to try and clean out the wound and to prevent it from bleeding.
"Here, Remus," I said, and pulled out my own wand.
"Mundare vulnere," I recited quietly, and then grimaced as dark blood oozed out of my hand.
Remus gently pulled my hand towards him and murmured, "Aguamenti." A clear jet of water splashed down onto my hand. I winced in pain as my wound stung due to the water coursing through the flesh, purifying it.
Remus unstoppered the bottle of Dittany and started to tilt it over my hand.
But I shook my head. Withdrawing my hand from his lap, I said, "No, it's all right, Remus."
Remus looked at me, puzzled. "The Dittany will help you heal faster."
"I know," I said. "But even without it, it'll heal soon enough."
"Nonsense," Remus said, frowning a bit. "We have some. You should use it. Not everybody has the luxury of using it, you know."
"Well then, it shouldn't be wasted on someone like me," I said, shame flooding my feelings as I thought of Sirius' words.
"Raylynx," Remus said, and his voice was a strange mixture of exasperation and kindness. "You really must learn how to value yourself more."
With that, he anchored my arm down and carefully poured some Dittany across my wound.
With a sizzle, new flesh began to expand over my fist, though it did not entirely cover my wound. Remus pointed at my hand and muttered, "Ferula."
Bandages appeared in thin-air and began to wrap themselves around my hand.
"Are you thinking of what Sirius said?" Remus guessed.
I nodded.
"Why didn't you fight back?" Remus asked me quietly. "You must have a reason for it."
I thought back to that awful moment, where I'd felt like my body had frozen over and my mind gone blank as a sheet of ice.
"I… I saw one of the Death Eater's faces."
"And it was someone you knew from Hogwarts?" Remus guessed.
I nodded.
"Well, shouldn't that be expected?" Remus chided me gently.
I tried to explain, "Yes, but, Remus, I'd just hit a Death Eater with a full-on jinx. He collapsed from it. He might have died, for all I know. But then to suddenly realize that the other Death Eater I'd been aiming to harm might have been…"
"Who?" Remus asked. "Who were you scared of hitting?"
I tried to answer honestly without giving myself away. "Well, for one, if I'd killed Snape, I'd never be able to look Lily in the face. Even if she is past that and obviously, she's happy with James. And I'd be terrified of harming Regulus..." My voice trailed off. "For Sirius' sake, of course," I murmured as a pitiful afterthought.
"Well, I can understand that that might suddenly disarm you," Remus said sympathetically. "You must have suddenly been afraid."
I sighed and put my head in my hands. "But Sirius is right," I admitted. "I acted unforgivably, and it's because of me that Marlene is suffering. I have no excuse for how I acted, as I wouldn't trade any Death Eater's life for Marlene's."
"Sirius was just panicking. He didn't mean what he said. And besides, that's not fair," Remus pointed out. "It's not like you asked that Death Eater to fire a curse at Marlene."
"I know, but I could have prevented it," I said heavily, lifting my head and facing Remus. "I just needed to have my head on straight. It would have been so easy to prevent it."
"Well, next time you'll know what to do," Remus said comfortingly.
I tried to smile at his kindness, but then my eyes traced the bruise that just peeked over his neckline. It was hardly noticeable, but I took notice of it because I'd seen him come flying out of the chamber and hit the ground, hard. I wouldn't be surprised if his entire side was bruised.
Curiosity was overwhelming me. I had to ask. "Remus, what happened in the Chieftain's Chamber?"
A shadow fell over Remus' eyes.
"How much did you hear?" he asked me slowly.
"Nothing, really. Just… a howl," I said timidly.
Remus sighed at the word 'howl'.
"The Chieftain…She sensed I was a werewolf. I hadn't even gotten a word out before she hissed at me and began to curse what I was. She said that Dumbledore, in his arrogance, had sent her a living insult." Remus closed his eyes. "I can't believe I didn't think about that. I'm so sorry."
"Remus, it's not your fault," I responded immediately. "We were dealing with sirens. We didn't know what to expect. Nobody thought about that, not even Dumbledore."
"Dumbledore. I'll have to tell him that I failed the mission," Remus murmured hollowly.
"It wasn't your fault," I repeated. "We all decided you should be the one to go. We all chose you to be the final messenger: Peter when he volunteered to distract the Death Eaters, Emmeline when she gave you the shell to carry, Sirius when he covered for us to get to the Chieftain, and me when I asked you to present the shell to her. Every single one of us thought you were the one who should present the deal."
He looked at me with such sad eyes, but I hadn't missed the fact that he hadn't fully answered my question.
"But Remus, what did she do to you? When you came-, "I bit my lip, almost saying "flying back out", which would surely hurt his pride, "back out, you seemed…off," I finished lamely.
Remus looked down at his hands as he answered in a tone of shame. "I don't know how she did it, but she suddenly cast a full moon night over us. I was helpless, except to transform. I could feel myself losing my mind. I was terrified, and then she did this… this thing." He swallowed hard. "She showed me her own vision of me- a monster, writhing on the floor." Remus closed his eyes and pressed his palms to his eyes hard. "It was tormenting. She kept making me see that- that beastly form, that hideous form that was none other than me. I'd never seen myself like that before. It only confirmed that I was more disgusting than even I'd imagined. I understand now why people treat me with such revulsion because you see, it's not just the physical hideousness. I saw in my eyes my ability to kill and my desire to infect. I saw it all. Everything I didn't want to be, everything I told myself I could fight if I just studied harder and socialized more… But none of it worked. I am a monster."
Remus finally stared up at me. His eyes were bleary and tired, and yet so vividly haunted.
I didn't see a monster. Only a scared boy who hadn't been able to make sense of himself for a long while now.
I couldn't think of the right thing to say. I didn't know how to make it so that he would truly hear my honest feelings and not just the things we'd all said to him over and over again: it's not your fault, it's okay, that's not you… But it was him and he wasn't okay because of it and regardless of fault, it was his reality. That was why it was gripping him like that, swallowing him in fear.
"Maybe it never mattered whether we went or not," I said finally.
"What are you saying?" Remus asked.
"You told me the Death Eaters could Disapparate, but we couldn't until they lifted some sort-of magical barrier first, right? So maybe they had already made a deal with the sirens and that's why they could Apparate when we couldn't. See, the sirens must already have made a deal to reject us and was simply waiting for us to show up. Then, she found some excuse as to why she rejected us. But to me, it sounds like she'd already made a pact with the Death Eaters. While you were in the chamber, I asked the siren guard if he'd ever seen wizards or witches before. He said he had. I bet you they were Death Eaters."
Remus frowned, trying to work out how that would work in his head. Truth was, I didn't know myself, but it was a possibility.
Finally, he shrugged and said, "Maybe", but the darkness remained in his eyes.
Then, I noticed a purple bruise blossoming up on Remus' forearm. I gently took his arm and drew it towards me.
"Also," I said, as I tapped my wand over his arm. "Thank you for protecting me from the siren. I really thought for a moment that it was over for me."
Remus' eyebrows drew together. "A siren? You were attacked by a siren?"
"Yes, when I was underwater. Didn't you see? Then how come you…?"
Remus shook his head. "I only got you out of the water."
"Really?"
I finished my spellwork and gently bandaged his arm.
We sat there quietly for a minute. Then who had saved me from the siren?
"Raylynx?"
Without knowing it, my eyes had slipped shut and I'd nearly fallen asleep right there.
"Sorry," I murmured, trying to keep my eyes open.
"Watch it, you'll fall in," Remus said, grabbing my shoulders.
"Though I don't blame you for being so tired," Remus said sympathetically. "Come on, let's get you to bed."
I don't know who saved me when I was underwater, I thought drowsily as I stumbled into bed.
As Remus warmly patted down my covers over me, I thought of the warm hands around my waist. I hadn't been able to turn around, but if I had, would I have seen those silver eyes?
My heart thudded. It was a rhythmic pain throbbing along with the blood beating through my swollen wrist.
Torn between my desire to have Regulus save me and my desire that Regulus not be on the battlefield at all, but still safe in school, I drifted under the strange waves of sleep.
As soon as my eyes opened that morning, I jolted awake and said to myself, "Marlene." My voice sounded hoarse, but much of the pain from my throat had relaxed. I hurriedly got dressed and rushed downstairs, where I found that Remus with his daily tea, toast, and newspaper.
"How are you feeling?" Remus asked, putting aside his newspaper.
"Fine," I said, despite my voice coming out a bit gritty.
"You might want to take some extra honey with your tea today," Remus noted, waving his wand to summon me a cup and a plate of toast with eggs on it.
"You already made this?" I said, pouring myself tea and stirring some honey in.
Remus shrugged. "I was up."
"You're not tired?" I said, and looked closer at him. I frowned when I saw the deep circles under his eyes. It wasn't that he wasn't tired, it was just that he was so haunted that- "You couldn't sleep?"
Remus avoided my gaze and said half-heartedly, "I got enough."
I shook my head. "Stay and get some rest, Remus. You know how to brew a Dreamless Sleep Potion, don't you? There should be enough ingredients in the cabinet downstairs."
"Where are you going?" he asked me hesitantly as I crammed the toast in my mouth and slurped down the tea.
"To St. Mungo's," I replied. "Where Marlene is."
She was sitting up and flipping through a photo album when I arrived.
"Marlene!" I embraced her tightly.
Marlene smiled and warmly patted my back.
"You all right?" I asked her.
She nodded. "Yeah, I'll be out by tomorrow morning."
"That's good to hear," I said, settling in in a chair besides her bed. "I heard you were going to be all right, but I wasn't sure what had happened to you. What did the Healers say?"
Marlene shrugged. "It was mostly about getting my body temperature back up. Although one Healer told me that somebody had used the Ennervate Charm on me and that had saved my life. Otherwise, my lungs might have stopped working completely."
I opened my mouth to tell her that it had been my last-hope attempt at keeping her alive, but she continued, "I reckon that was Sirius," and smiled to herself.
My mouth fell shut on its own. Then, Marlene said to me, "Oh, I heard about what Sirius said to you. Apparently, he was yelling like a madman. I wanted to say I'm sorry."
I looked at her blankly. "What? It's not your fault. He's the one who said it, not you."
"Yeah," Marlene said, "but still, I figure if it wasn't me, he might have been more calm about it, you know?"
She paused. "I didn't know he was still so overprotective of me. He must still care about me."
I opened my mouth and then shut it again
I was no better than a fish.
I saw Jamie before I left as well. He was in a happy mood, telling me that the Healers had said that if all went well and he kept up this pace of progress, he'd be able to clamber back onto his ever-beloved broomstick sometime in the not-too-distant future.
