Author's Note: I know, it's been a while and it will be a while before the next update. This story is just pulling me in all sorts of ways and not what I had planned. Enjoy, MNF
Chapter 10:
Jolly Christmastime
December 8, 1980
Anwen and Sirius were lounging in bed as she finished giving Violet her last feeding of the night. The children had caught a nasty bug and passed it among themselves and their mothers. With the men working so much, they'd avoided the illness because they'd not been around their wee ones. This displeased Anwen, Alice, and Lily. Anwen seemed to have been hit twice, or once and it was horrid.
"Can you please wipe my nose?" Anwen asked her husband. The way she was holding Violet, who was almost asleep and completely dead weight, she couldn't move her hand to reach her handkerchief.
"That's gross, Win," Sirius complained as he picked up her cloth and dabbed beneath her nose. "Why don't you just take a potion?"
"I am, but because I'm breastfeeding, I can't have a full strength one. Lily looked into Muggle meds, but they're dangerous too, so I'm left with having a runny nose and headaches until this passes." Anwen coughed which caused Violet to awaken and fuss. She was done feeding so Anwen sort of tossed the baby to her husband. Sirius was blessedly awake enough to grab her, and rock her back to sleep while Anwen coughed, sneezed, and sniffled. She looked miserable.
"Peng," Sirius said quietly. The young elf popped in and took the baby to the nursery. "I'm on call tonight, do you want me to sleep in the guest room?"
"No, if I fall asleep deeply you won't wake me, if I don't it won't matter."
"I think you should take tomorrow off, let the elves take care of the kids and you rest," husband suggested to wife.
"It's not like I can do that," Anwen whinged. "Violet still needs to be fed, I have a meeting with the parish priest about what the families are most in need of and the children's Christmas wishes from the village and then Lily, Alice, Eva, and I are going to divide and conquer the different needs. James will fill the envelopes with money, but the rest really falls to Lily and me. We are fortunate that our friends want to help. Oh, and the Christmas baking needs to be discussed with the elves."
"Anwen you're sick, you need to delegate."
"Sirius, my mother is dead. Lily is Lady Potter, but she's still getting used to these duties. I did everything last year, this year it's about fifty-fifty. I can't let anything the Potters have always done fall through…" Anwen started to cry. Sirius gathered her up and held her.
"Oh, luv, you just need a day or two to let this work through your system," he whispered. "Remember fifth year, when you were sick right before Imbolic? You were so worried you weren't going to be able to go home and the potions weren't working on you. Madame Pomfrey told you to sleep for a day, remember? What happened?"
"I did sleep for a whole night, the next day and that night and I was fine. She gave me a sleeping potion for that. I can't take one, sweetheart, or if I did Violet would need to be strictly bottle fed."
"And would that be so bad?"
"She's already refusing my breast sometimes, especially if Uncle Remus or Daddy are nearby when it's time to eat."
"She likes to play with our hair," Sirius said.
"She likes the two of you best." Anwen nearly pouted as she said this.
"Then I suppose Uncle Remus and Daddy will need to spoil her at Christmas," Sirius said with a conspiratorial grin.
"Everyone is going to spoil her. Arcturus and your mum haven't had little girls to spoil, unless you count your three cousins – which I don't. Then there are the four families living here – Longbottoms, only boys. Nighmans – have Alice, but she's the only one. Potters – James and Lily are bespotted by her. I will never need to buy her clothes because Lily and Eva like to make and buy clothes for her. Aurora acts like a third grandparent. Eva and Remus don't have kids, so they're spoiling all of ours. Even Andi and Ted are spoiling her. Our daughter will always be spoiled. I just don't want Alfie to feel left out, ever. Thankfully neither kid will know what's going on this year."
"What do you mean, it's Christmas, Win? It's their first Christmas."
"It is and we will have a nine-month-old and a five-month-old. They'll think the wrapping paper is fun for the sounds it makes and the bright colours. Perhaps a new teething toy will catch an eye, but honestly, it will be more that everyone is together. Alfie and Harry love the attention. Violet will cling to you and chow on your hair and Neville will sit quietly in his lounger and watch. He's very observant and I swear he's introspective."
"So, it doesn't really matter what we do for the kids?" Sirius asked.
"Not in the slightest," Anwen confirmed. "But know your mum is knitting them all matching jumpers and Lily is making them matching rompers and we're going to make new stockings for everyone. It's a good thing we have four fireplaces on the ground floor to hang them all at." Another coughing jag started then.
"You're taking something to sleep tonight, and then you're going to let me take care of the kids tomorrow." Anwen tried to interrupt her husband. "Prongs owes me about four days of me covering for him, he can take one of them tomorrow. He's supposed to be off."
"Are you sure?" she asked half-heartedly. Sirius fired off a Patronus to the other end of the house. A moment later a stag paraded through the door and nodded.
"See, covered. I will take care of the kids, you sleep. Now, I'm getting you a half of a sleeping potion, not dreamless sleep I know you hate it, but you need your rest," Sirius said getting up and pulling his shirt on over his bare chest.
"This is why you are the perfect person for me." Sirius smiled at her before disappearing.
The next day, Anwen slept soundly until ten in the morning, when she awoke, ate a bit of toast before nodding back off. At four-thirty-seven in the afternoon, Eva burst into the room.
"Anwen, you need to wake up, there's an emergency," Eva said loudly while gently shaking her friend.
"What?" Anwen said groggily. "Sirius is taking care of the kids today."
"Anwen, I know, but you need to wake up. James was hurt and St. Mungos is out due to Death Eaters taking over the A and E," Eva sort of screamed at her.
"How hurt?" Anwen was fully awake.
"Compound fracture of the right femur," Eva said, as if she was informing a surgeon at hospital. "Curse burns on the abdomen and left shoulder. Several fingers have been dislocated and there is a huge bruise on his face and a small fracture of the cranium near the bruise. I think he might have broken his nose too," Eva rattled off while Anwen threw her dressing gown over Sirius' tee-shirt she'd been sleeping in. With a wave of her fingers, she had some pyjama pants on.
"I'll need Lily's potions box and that emergency bin of bandages and supplies we've been given by Madame Pomfrey. I'll also need my healer's bag." She cracked and flexed her fingers a few times and then Disapparated to the ground floor. James was on the marble floor just outside the Floo. She took in the whole scene quickly.
"Remus, hold him still on the shoulders until I can get a Knock-Out potion into him," Anwen directed. "Lily, I need to you back up and sit by Remus. Blot his head with some of the clean cloths that Eva is going to bring. Sirius hold his foot; I need to look at the leg wound first. Frank, report." She sounded like an A and E healer now, all professional.
"We were just doing rounds on the Alley when five masked figures Apparated in and went to rob the Potions supply store. Spell fire started when we went to intercede. The broken bones were from some new curse the Death Eaters were using."
"Any of these wounds not caused by spells?"
"Just the one on his head. That he got when he fell to the ground. I did what field medicine I could, and then took him to St Mungos. It was crawling with Death Eaters, and they were looting the place. I brought him right here," Frank explained.
"Elapsed time since the incident began?"
"No more than thirty minutes."
"Okay, I should be able to heal this without problem," Anwen said. Anwen's kit and Lily's potions box arrived via Alice and the elves. Eva was already applying pressure to the wound on James' shoulder with clean gauze. "Lily, give him a dose of Knock Out and then once he's asleep I'll reset the leg bone."
The potion took immediate effect and when she was sure her brother was asleep, Anwen used magic to push the bones back into James' leg and then began to knit them together. James whimpered in his unconscious state, and as much as Anwen hated hurting her brother, she knew what had to be done. Nearly an hour later the last of the spells were being used to close up his head and finger wounds.
"Eva, give him a Dreamless Sleep and a pain potion and then can you gents levitate him to the rear lounge. We can make a makeshift medical ward in there. When that was done, and Eva promised to set up the room, Anwen slumped against the Floo in exhaustion.
"How often were your days like this?" Alice asked.
"Early on, rarely. Most of the time I had sick poppets, or a child had fallen off a broom, but my days at paeds became fewer and fewer and I was in A and E doing what I just did. If it was a bad day, I'd have eight or ten cases in my eight-hour shift. Becoming pregnant was a blessing because I was sent up to the ward where I just dealt with little ones," Anwen said. "I never wanted to being doing trauma."
"You're good at it."
"Thank you, Alice, but I need a bath. I'm not sure I can save Sirius' Queen shirt either." She looked at herself and everything was soaked in blood. She was quite certain she was soaked through in places as her skin felt clammy. "Can you go check on the kids, please? After I'm clean I want to snuggle them."
"I'll tell Sirius where you are." Anwen Disapparated to her room.
A&S A&S A&S A&S A&S
Three days later, Anwen watched as her mentor and friend assessed the quality of the healing that James had achieved. There was something very wrong with how the broken leg was recovering, and Anwen wasn't sure what she'd done wrong. Poppy hummed and made faces as she did her evaluation before she turned back to her former student. They moved away from James, who was still heavily potioned, and stood near the window.
"Well, there's something about that cursed break that is resisting common cures," she said to Anwen and Eva. "I wish I could tell you what, but I haven't come across anything worse that the Bone Breaker, and that was during the war with Grindelwald. The reversal spell for that is simple, as you know."
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Anwen said. "I was hoping that it was something I'd done wrong."
"I told her she hadn't done anything wrong," Eva interjected.
"It wasn't you, Anwen," their former matron said. "In fact, you've done such a stellar job with the headwound I doubt anyone would know he had a cut that close to his ear."
"Thank you," Anwen said without enthusiasm. "So, what do I do?"
"Can you see any spell residue?" Poppy asked.
"No, all I see is a combination of my magic and my brother's, which is what I should see," Anwen explained. "I was wondering if I gave him a partial dose of Skele-grow?"
"While he's growing new bone, it will only make him uncomfortable," the older healer said. "I would instead urge you to use a strong magic flushing potion. Yes, it will remove your magic as well, but you can always inject more into the wound when the potion is out of his system. I'd use Milk of the Poppy while you're doing this, as it will hurt badly."
"Anwen had the same thought, and already has Remus brewing it," Eva said. "I'll go see how he'd doing."
"Is there a reason Mrs Potter isn't brewing the potion?" Poppy asked.
"My sister-in-law is a mess. She needs James to help her be Lady Potter to the community, and he's not here to do that. Sirius is helping as he can – he knows as much as James does – but it isn't the same. I think I've wished for my mother fifty times in the last few days. She handled it all with aplomb."
"Anwen, so do you. I wouldn't have healed that leg as well as you did. Perhaps when life calms down and this war is over, you'll consider surgery as a specialization?"
"That will only happen if it's with the under seventeen set. I like children, and I very much like working with them."
"And how are yours?"
"Wonderful," Anwen said as they slipped from the room. "Alfie is starting to cruise around holding onto furniture and Violet has discovered her feet. They are endless enjoyment and with my nephews our house is usually bubbling with happiness. I need to get James together so we can celebrate our first Christmas as parents."
"You're on the right track and I'll be back in a few days."
December 20, 1980
"Try standing up, James," Anwen prompted her brother. "You can use the cane."
"I swore I would never use one again after that back injury at school," James said as he swung his legs around, so he was sitting on the side of the bed. Sirius was there to aid him, if needed. Lily was hovering as well, but Anwen wanted to give her a Daught of Peace as she was too much like a hummingbird.
"Slowly, let your blood pressure stabilize before you stand," Anwen prompted.
"What is blood pressure?" James asked her.
"The amount of pressure created in your arteries when the heart beats. Suddenly changing positions can cause a temporary drop and you get dizzy."
"How do you know about that?" James looked at his sister perplexed.
"I read Muggle medical books. Okay, let's give this a try. Lean on Sirius at first and then shift your weight onto your leg and the cane." James followed her directions, but she could see the pain in his face. Her brother made it three steps and then sat down in the chair Lily usually used at his bedside.
"It really hurts, Win."
"You didn't need to tell me," she said with a defeated air. "I could see it all over your face. Lily, give him a pain potion. After he's had the potion, Sirius can you levitate him downstairs?"
"Sure, luv," he said, but he'd rather stay with his wife, as she looked defeated.