A Black Comedy

CHAPTER TWELVE

"I don't suppose you're gonna try and convince me we should just let her die?" Sirius half-heartedly asked.

Harry let out a loud sigh while looking down on the shuddering form of Bellatrix. He lifted her sleeve and found what he already knew to be there, the Dark Mark. "No. I'm not."

"Stupid bloody Gryffindors," Sirius said, referring to himself and Harry.

"As ridiculous as the privileges provided to a noble Lord are," Harry reluctantly explained while Bellatrix's shivering slowed down. "I can't help but take the 'responsibility to the family' aspect of it to heart."

"Bugger."

"Blame the Dursleys," Harry said looking up with a weak smile. "I do."

Sirius was curiously watching her shudders finally reach an end as she lapsed into unconsciousness. "I don't suppose you happen to know the counter to the blood freezing curse?"

Harry whipped his head towards Sirius. "Excuse me?"

Sirius frowned. "Yeah… didn't think so." He shrugged helplessly.

"Fuck," Harry said, suddenly grasping the full disaster of their situation. He quickly tried to think of anyone they could call in the next minute who would be able to counter that curse. The only people he could think of that might know the counter and would trust him enough weren't from this dimension.

"I do know the counter has to come from the same wand, so we'd need someone compatible," Sirius added seeing the wheels in Harry's head had begun turning. "And I think it's a different blood based curse rather than just a spell reversal."

"Dammit," Harry decided. "We're taking her to St. Mungo's."

Sirius had surmised as much. "You know they're gonna notice-"

"Yeah, I know," Harry said as he bent down to scoop up her body and felt the absence of heat. "Ah hell, she feels like a reptile." Harry grabbed a handful of floo powder and tossed it into the fireplace. "St. Mungo's!" He called out as he and Bellatrix were whisked away.

Sirius quickly followed after.

Harry emerged in the front lobby of the hospital for magical maladies and injuries. He was carrying Bellatrix's limp body, while making sure her sleeves stayed down. Harry scurried up to the front desk asking, "Emergency?"

The lady just looked up at him and pointed towards the right corridor.

Harry nodded and began to jog that way spotting a generic mediwitches' desk. "I need a…" Harry trailed off and had stopped his running as he recognized one of the last people he was prepared to see.

Lily Potter had been visiting an old friend and was headed towards the public fireplaces. She moved out of the way when she saw a young man barreling toward her carrying a woman in his arms. As he approached, she felt something inside of her calling out to him. She was inexplicably drawn to this man. She just stared at him with her wide identical green eyes as he slowed down to walk past in a moment that felt frozen in time. Her mind was belatedly processing the fact that this was one of the new Lord Blacks her son had been so impressed by.

There was an ache inside Harry that he'd not felt in years and didn't expect to ever feel again. If he had been more alert to his surroundings he would have registered her presence much sooner. But it was magic that informed him this was Lily Potter before his eyes had ever made that connection.