Summary: There will be 31 days of mayhem, but I'm not sure there will be 31 actual stories. That would require more brain than Corvus has.

Beta Love: Dragon and the Cold Water Bottle Torture, Dutchgirl01 the Busiest Bee that Ever Buzzed, Commander Shepard the Winter Soldier

A/N: Each story will be a separate chapter to feed my laziness and desire not to post that many new stories for the same event.

Unlikely Salvation

There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.

James Baldwin

Prompt: "Am I alive," he asked.

"Would you like to be?" she replied.

I awoke, which is more than I was prepared for after being mauled by a huge bloody snake—

I was in a clean, neutrally coloured room that resembled sandstone. I looked around frantically for clues, but my wand was near me on the bedside table. There was fresh water for drinking, washing, and towels—there was a broken unicorn horn in the water that ensured that it was as pure as pure got for water—the horn looked old and worn, and its jagged edge proved it had shed in a natural state of likely stallion violence rather than forced removal. It was obviously a relic, well-loved, and well-taken care of.

I drank the water thirstily, and it settled in me like it was making weight leave my body—the weight of so much.

The unicorn horn's purification obviously lingered in the water for more than just one purpose.

I touched my neck, and it was smooth and undamaged. My arm—was pristine. The hated Mark was gone. Not even a trace of it remained.

The Dark Lord was, had to be, well and truly dead.

The unicorn purified water did the rest.

Where in the nine hells had someone found a ruddy unicorn horn?

"It's mine, actually," a voice said. "I was a very excitable filly and I attempted to impale my father with my horn."

I jolted and stared.

It was Granger.

She looked—paler. More lithe. Her riotous mane of curls was a golden colour instead of the brown I remembered. Her eyes were golden—like twin suns looking back at me.

"Fortunately, they do grow back," Granger said with a smile. "But the evidence remains much to my shame that I tried to impale my own father."

"Am I alive?" I blurted, suddenly unsure. Surely this was some sort of insane afterlife.

She chuckled at me. "Do you wish to be?"

I thought about that. "I—am not sure. I expected—I truly thought—I didn't really expect to survive."

"Well, now you can do what you want to do instead of what everyone else expects you to do," Granger said with a shrug. "I know I will. "Hogwarts was incredibly stressful. Seeing my great aunt Irene murdered in the forest didn't do me any psychological favours either."

I startled at that. The murder of the unicorn—the Dark Lord feeding off the creature's blood to extend his life. The very worst of crimes. And Granger—she'd seen the dead corpse of her aunt. Gods.

I thought it had only been Potter and the Weasley boy, but it made sense that Granger would have been visiting her aunt in the forest—and had found her. I grimaced. No child would have responded well to such a horrific thing.

Had Albus known?

Surely not.

The centaur had been very tight lipped. They hadn't even given anyone a clue that Granger was anything more than a know-it-all witchling from Muggle stock.

Muggle.

Right.

That was obviously not true.

"Thank you," I said awkwardly. "You saved me, and I've barely said a word of thanks."

Granger shrugged. "It's a lot to process, I'm sure." She took the horn out of my water and tucked it away in what looked like an inter-dimensional cabinet. I had no idea what my brain was coming up with such things, but I was talking to a living, breathing, shape-shifted unicorn.

Normality was obviously on a new scale of different.

"Master Healer," gasped a young man in green sporting an apprentice sash as he came rushing up. "Apprentice Wiggens added aconite to the healing tincture and turned his patient into a mangy wolf creature."

The expression on Granger's face was priceless. It was MY face on her—the expression that said "idiot" "dunderhead" and "fuck my life" all in one.

Should I be proud or embarrassed?

"Use the blue tincture in the emergency cabinet, and tell Wiggens that he needs to report to Master Healer Morgan immediately to report in precise and exacting detail what he did."

The young apprentice paled at the name. "Y-yes, Master Healer," he said with a cringe. He scurried off looking like Granger had run over his Crup with a Thestral-drawn carriage.

Granger sighed. She rubbed between her eyes with two fingers looking like her job was fending off idiocy rather than healing. I could relate.

"How long have you—"

"I've been studying under Master Morgan since I was five," Granger said. "By the time the war was done, my pinning and laurels were more a formality and congratulations on having not murdered anyone. As a unicorn, it was rather important that I not have murdered anyone. Not that it wasn't tempting."

My eyebrows raised. I could feel them creeping up into my hair. "Striving to become the black unicorn of violence?"

"My great uncle was a war medic," Granger said. "He had to impale a few soldiers to save his patients. They gave up soldiering for a life of peace and social service."

"I suppose that's one way to convert people to peace," I said.

"They apparently gave up drugs and alcohol, too," Granger said.

"To be expected after being purified," I agreed. "So—why pretend to be human?"

"We've always been able to shapeshift—it helps us hide from hunters."

"Makes sense. Effective. I had no idea," I confessed.

Granger chuckled. "That is the point." She smiled as if considering something. "You are well enough to leave the infirmary and sit outside, if you wish. I would, however, recommend you stay a week with us just to make sure there are not any—unforeseen problems."

I realised that I was not in the typical infirmary—this place was a private room, complete with a washroom, desk, and a comfortable bed—more comfortable than the one at Hogwarts, strangely enough.

I stared at my hand, flexing it. It felt—new. Like I was a teen again—sans the usual malnutrition.

"That would be—acceptable," I said. Who knew what would happen as a result of my survival. What was a week going to hurt? If they'd wanted me dead, I'd be dead.

Granger's smile was fleeting but genuine as she nodded her head to the side.

A black cloak zipped off her shoulders, picked up a picnic hamper from the shelf and zoomed off with it.

Granger chuckled. "Walter is setting the table for you," she said to me. "Please," she said, gesturing to the door. "Enjoy the outdoors a bit."

When I went outside, I realised I was in a wildlife sanctuary that just happened to have a clinic within it—

A sprawling golden beach extended out as far as I could see, with cliffs all around us—the clinic itself was set inside the cliffs with a significant glamour over it to make it look like the kind of place that would murder you for trying to walk along it and sink your ship just looking at them.

A blink, however, and I could see what was really there. Shady trees provided relief from the sun, and I sat at a reclining chair and table only to have "Walter" deliver the picnic hamper, smack my hand when I tried to open it, serve me food, poured my drink, and then zipped off after tucking a napkin around my neck.

I blinked.

Well, that was new.

The drink was light and refreshing, and the food—good gods. It might as well have fallen from Olympus.

Hogwarts didn't have bad food, but this—

This was inching towards the positively divine.

And that was just the salad.

The pan seared steak had me drooling before I even stuck a knife into it.

I think I was in love.

What was this place?

A seed pod thunked into my head, and I winced, rubbing my head as I looked over to see an angry squirrel fighting with another squirrel on top of the sign that clearly said Sanctuary Cove Healing Clinic.

Well, then. That solved that mystery. I had no idea where it was, but that was probably the point.

There was a water dragon burbling in the shallows—or whatever a water dragon considered shallow. There were fawns and dryads playing on the beach, and kelpies grazed lazily amongst the seaweed.

And that was when I saw it—

A huge water dragon was curled around the cove like a reef. Every so often his nostrils would flare and a fountain of sea spray would shoot upwards and fall back to the water. Children were climbing all over him, polishing his scales and giving him tiny offerings of fish and shellfish they caught. Such offerings seemed paltry to a being so huge, but the dragon seemed perfectly happy to take them, sticking out his bright blue tongue to let them place the food on it, then dragging it in with a thoop!

I felt—

Like a wide-eyed child of eleven seeing Hogwarts for the first time.

That same feeling of utmost wonder at discovering a world I hadn't ever known existed.

I saw a shark get too close to the children, and that dragon snapped his teeth around the offending interloper so quickly, had I not been staring I would have missed it.

Well, nothing was getting past the borders from the seaside, that was for certain.

I'd inhaled the food so fast, I couldn't remember eating it—but my stomach was full and my brain was content. For once. Truly at peace to just live in this moment.

It was then, I saw the small notice on the sign board:

Potions Master Wanted, Please Apply Within Clinic

I smiled. Well, then.

Here was to a peaceful future—and perhaps.

I thought of Granger's small but genuine smile.

Perhaps even a future shared.

I was always good with goals.