Chapter 57 - Hit

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Cedric had just caught her in time, Gwen was lying unconscious in his arms. "Winnie?" His voice shook. He lowered them both to the ground, his back towards the others in the room. He didn't hear anyone move towards them, but then his old professor was next to him. Remus had pulled out his wand and waved it over Gwen calmly. But if he would have turned, he would have seen the concerned look on his face. It only took a few seconds to check her over, but it felt like hours. On his other side, Fred kneeled down. He grabbed his shoulder as they looked at Gwen.

"Molly." Remus looked over his shoulder to Mrs Weasley. "Where can we put her? I need your help to heal it. She's..."

"What?" Cedric and George's voice croaked. But Remus ignored them and looked to Bill.

"Did you see her get hit?"

"No." Bill frowned, and Cedric saw his hands shaking, Fleur had noticed too, and wrapped her hand around his. "We were surrounded immediately. There were curses coming from every direction, but I thought nothing hit us, I-I thought we were good." His voice wavered.

Cedric took in a deep breath to control his own ragged breathing. "It's not your fault, Bill."

"It is!" He almost yelled. "I promised to keep her safe, and now..."

"It's not your fault." Cedric repeated, looking him straight in the eye. "She wanted to go, we were ambushed, it wasn't your fault." Bill just looked down to his feet.

"Can you lay her down?" Remus asked him. Cedric looked at him for a long moment, before he lowered her to the ground. Remus gestured them to stand up before he levitated his wife from the ground. "Don't want to make it worse."

"What's wrong with her?" Someone asked, but Cedric couldn't make out who it was, he was in some sort of trance.

"Dark spell, something familiar like George's but not quite." Remus glanced around the room. "Molly?"

"Yes." She nodded, she glanced over to George for a second, who waved her off from the couch and she hurried over. They started walking to the room next to the staircase, Cedric followed.

"Cedric." Remus stopped him.

"I'm not leaving her."

"Ced." Fred placed his hand again on his shoulder. "Let them do their work."

Cedric closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, and his shoulders slummed. He watched the three of them disappear in the room and the door closed behind them. Fred's hand disappeared and he walked away, presumably back to his injured twin. Cedric just stood there, looking at the closed door before he leaned against the wall and let himself fall to the floor, his head buried in his knees.

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He felt someone slide down next to him and he lifted his head up to see who it was. Fred had helped George from the couch and had placed him next him. George's head was bandaged, covering the hole on the side of his head. He glanced around the room. Harry, Hermione and Ron had disappeared, Fleur was talking to Bill quietly in the corner. Through the window, he could see Kingsley talking to Hagrid. Tonks had taken Ginny to the kitchen to make some tea for everyone.

"She's going to be okay, Cedric." George said, but he didn't sound convinced himself. "She survived a lightning strike; I think she can survive a curse from a sodding death eater."

Cedric stared at the closed door in front of him. "I can't lose her." His voice trembled.

"You won't. She's one of the strongest people I know." George said and they fell silent again.

After a while Fred asked. "Why didn't she say something?" George and Cedric both turned to look at Fred. "About that she got hurt."

Cedric let out a dry chuckle. "She probably pushed the pain away until she knew that everyone she loved was safe." He said as he looked to George. George looked a bit gobsmacked but turned to look at the floor. "And we don't know what spell it was, if it's something that goes slowly, she barely felt it when it hit her, and since they were trying to get away from death eaters and You-Know-Who himself, her mind was trying to get to the safe house alive."

When he reached the end of the sentence the door creaked open, and Molly looked frightened in the hallway. The look on her face made Cedric's heart break, unbeknownst to him, the twins too. He felt the tears stinging in his eyes, afraid for the words as Molly stepped closer.

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Remus ripped open her shirt without a second thought. The dark blue, almost black spot was spreading quickly over her stomach. Molly had rounded the bed and stood over the old professor.

"It's some kind of internal bleeding." Remus murmured as his wand flicked over her stomach.

"But?" Molly asked, afraid of the answer.

"But it probably has something to do with dark magic, since a death eater used it on her." He murmured a spell under his breath and his wand started to resist as a white glow came from the tip. "Fuck." He cursed.

Molly was placed a wet cloth over her forehead, not knowing what to do. "Is there something we can do, something I can do." Her eyes flickered from the unconscious girl to the werewolf.

"I don't think-" He started but stopped himself. "Can you put her under? Like a sedative?"

"I can, but she's already unconscious, Remus."

"I know but what we need to do... she can't be awake for that. If she woke during the process."

"A-alright." Molly nodded with a shaking voice and waved her wand over the young girl's head.

"Can you grab Bill?" Remus asked. Molly didn't answer but walked to the door with shaking legs. She was afraid of this, as she saw Cedric sitting with the twins in front of the door. She took a little step forward, but Cedric's face crumbled at the sight of her. Was her face that bleak he thought the worst?

"We're still working on her. She's still here." She saw the three boys lean back against the wall, and Cedric let his head fall between his legs and his shoulders started to shake. Fred and George both rested a hand on his shoulders. She turned her head towards the living room. "Bill? Can you come in? Fleur, maybe you too." She had the afterthought and thought bringing two curse breakers in is better than one. She saw Fleur whisper something to her eldest son, before they rose from their seats and came in the room with her. The two curse breakers went into the room and before she followed them, she looked over her shoulder. "I'll let you know when we know more." But Cedric didn't look up, she gave a sad look to her twins before she walked in.

"Oh." Fleur gasped as she took Molly's previous place, her eyes scanning the darkening abdomen.

"Great, you're here." Remus said as his brows were knit together, his wand pointed on the black spot. "I seemed to have contained it. Can you two see what kind of curse it is. I just know it hit a lot of her organs." The sweat was started to roll down his forehead. "It's taking everything in me to stop it from spreading to the rest."

Bill, who was looking white faced at Gwen, took a step closer and raised his wand in a trembling hand. Fleur rested her hand on his, and he looked at her confused. "Let me." Her voice soft. Bill nodded just once and lowered his wand while his fiance went to work. Long, silent minutes went by. The sweat from Remus's head was dripping down on the blanket while Molly paced behind the bed.

"It's-" Fleur started slowly as she swirled her wand again. "It's a kind of haurientes curse. It causes all of the organs to bleed out until..."

Bill stepped closer to the bed and raised his wand, now more steady than before as Molly said. "Is there a way to stop it? Remus can't hold on much longer."

"There is." Bill's voice shook. "But it will be painful."

"She's sedated."

"I hope that's enough." Bill said strained and looked to Fleur. "Ready?" She could only nod. "Three, two, one." The two curse breakers twister their wand like they were trying to stir a thick goo in a cauldron. Molly had positioned herself at Gwen's head, and saw the girls brows furrow together. Fleur and Bill both started to sweat like Remus, it took them a lot to counter the dark curse, but the spot was getting smaller. The frown on Gwen's face turned into agonizing pain, and she started to twitch.

"She needs to keep still." Bill grunted, his attention on her abdomen. Molly held her shoulders tight, but it didn't seem to work and suddenly Gwen screamed. She was still under, but her scream, the scream of true agonizing pain filled the room. But not just the room, if the filled the house and ran over the hills behind them. The door crashed open and Cedric and the twins tumbled in, their eyes red.

"Out." Molly cried over Gwen's screaming.

"No!" Bill said. "Come hold her." He said not looking at who had come in, but since the attack for Greyback, he could smell it without seeing them. "George, Fred, her legs. Cedric-" He grunted and twisted his wand again. "Her arms."

The three young men moved without saying anything. Cedric saw the concentration of three adults as they pointed their wands on her stomach. Fleur, who was concentrating so hard that her fingers had turned white, had tears in her eyes.

"Winnie." He whispered as he came closer and lunched himself over her bare torso, only a bra covered her up, and clamped her arms next to her body. "Winnie, please." The tears ran freely down his cheeks as her cries went on. Cedric had his face buried in the crook of her neck, so he didn't see what the others were doing, but he trusted their compatibility.

Then after Merlin knows how long, her screaming and trashing around stopped and she went limp under him. Cedric thought the worst but saw the light movement of her chest. He looked over his shoulder to the others. Fleur, Bill and Remus had sunk to the ground, breathing heavily with shaking hands. The twins were shaking at the foot of the bed, their faces paler than he had ever seen, their hands still resting on her legs. His eyes drifted up, and saw that she had a scar on her stomach.

"Is she -" Cedric tried to ask, but he was too afraid of the answer. Remus took in a deep and slow breath before standing up.

"She's going to be fine. We'll need to monitor her for a few days, but it's looking good." He said softly.

"The scar." He frowned as he straightened up. Molly quickly covered Gwen over with a blanket and proceeded to stroke her hair. "What did you do?" His eyes drifted to Bill and than to Fleur. Bill stood up shakily and walked over to Fleur and pulled her up.

He took in a steadying breath. "We needed to take out her appendix. That's were the curse hit her, if we didn't..." Cedric waited for more. "She would've bled out."

Cedric gave a slow nod. "And she can live without it?"

"Yes, she can live perfectly without one. Muggles need to remove them regularly, if it gets infected."

"So, if..." His voice shook again. "If she was hit anywhere else, somewhere you couldn't remove..."

"Yeah." Was the only thing Bill could answer, and Fleur wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Thank you, all of you." He looked around the room.

Remus clapped his shoulder lightly. "We'll let you two alone for a while, we'll come back to check on her in an hour."

Cedric could only nod as they filtered out. He stopped the twins as he held out his hand. "You two saw it." He suddenly realised. The twins had direct view of how Fleur and Bill had removed the appendix from his wife, from a girl they both loved, albeit either in a different way. The twins just paled as the picture came back like a flash. "Thank you. For being here, for taking care of her."

"We'll always take care of her." Fred placed a hand on his shoulder, George was looking at Gwen's pale face behind him.

"Can you promise me, though?" Cedric's voice wavered. "If something were to happen to me..."

"Cedric-" Fred started but he interrupted.

"No, it's a war. You don't know what's going to happen." He rubbed his hands over his face and groaned. Then he felt two hands covering his shoulders, he looked up to George.

"If, and I emphasis is on the 'if', if something were to happen to you, I promise you we'll take care of her." Cedric nodded slowly as he started to tremble. George pushed him softly on the bed. "Just give a shout when you need something, alright." And the twins walked out the room.

Cedric turned to his wife, he laid down next to her and wrapped her in his arms. One hand caressed her pale cheek softly, as the tears started to fall.