An Enemy

Chapter Ten- One Foot...Paw...Tail in the Grave

I drifted out of a deep sleep like a boat drifting lazily by the power of a small breeze, and felt the all too familiar, hazy brush of something covering me, it felt like a sheet or a blanket and from what I could gather before opening my eyes and allowing the dust-filled rays of light to lance into my eyes like a hot poker; it hadn’t been on me for long. 

I grunted with pain as I sat up slightly and looked down at what was covering me, one of the many blankets that appeared to be the same as those in the Hospital Wing had been tucked around me, and while this momentarily concerned me, I became abruptly very aware of a large, ugly red stain, thickly clotting the fabric which had stuck, glue-like to my skin, burning pain flared down my left side.

“Ah shit.” I swore through clenched teeth, pulling the blanket away from my body and holding my arm as far away from myself as I could without increasing the pain. I tried to slow my breathing but with every breath I took, the more I panicked, spots of light flaring blindingly. I tightly squeezed my eyes shut, my teeth gritted, gurgling sounds of agony emanating from my throat. The bared nerves of whatever was bleeding, caught every movement of the stale air and I may not have seen or heard (or in fact even cared) what it was that had moved the dust particles towards me but I sure as hell felt it’s presence.

My throat was given some relief as I lost my voice utterly just as the pain began to ebb. I slowly opened my eyes and found Professor Lupin, wand in hand, making soothing noises, his eyebrows furrowed and the rest of his face contorted in a mixture of pain, concentration and concern.

“Shhh, it’s alright, it’s okay.” He assured me, his own voice sounding hideously ragged, “I can’t heal you here though…Poppy would kill me…” He quietly added to himself.

“I’ll…” I gasped, trying to sit up a little again and this time seeing the four yawning gashes that stretched around from just above the ride side of my bum up until just below my left breast- or maybe it was the other way around, either way it had hurt an awful lot and there was a great deal of blood- even now as the sheet peeled away. “You’re not moving.” Lupin told me sternly, despite the obvious weakness plaguing his voice.

“Just… wand…” I croakily managed to say, very short of breath.

“You’re not healing it yourself eith-” he paused, closing his eyes and rocking slightly, as he knelt beside me.

“Professor please,” I begged, my head beginning to thump and the pain returning to my injury every second we wasted arguing about who was going to heal me, meanwhile, blood was running down my torso and coating the floorboards beneath me with a viscous varnish.

I knew that I was either going to bleed out or end up flat on my back screaming again if I didn’t do anything. I observed Lupin through lowered lashes as I thought and he looked worse than I’d seen him in a long time- possibly sufficiently suffering that he wouldn’t manage to get up after me if I was quick enough, although in my current predicament that was rather touch and go. Taking a few deep breaths I looked to the cupboard behind me and assumed that it contained a bag with my things in- hopefully- I also hoped that it wouldn’t be locked.

Choosing my timing meticulously, I waited until Lupin looked particularly unsteady and with a quick breath in to brace myself, lunged to my feet and stumbled to the cupboard, swinging the door wide before Lupin had even seen me move. My scrabbling hands quickly found my wand at the bottom of my backpack and without thinking, and with the least amount of movement I directed it at myself and concentrated fully on the worst of the injuries I’d sustained.

“Oh you silly thing.” Professor Lupin sighed, from somewhere behind me, I had my eyes closed in concentration, and my hearing still wasn’t excellent. “You can tell Poppy that you healed yourself because it’s likely that she’d remove every bone in my body just to put me through the pain of re-growing them for letting you heal yourself.”