The Potion Princess

Harry

But Audra paused, fighting against her one last time.  She twisted to face Draco, knowing that he would pay attention to every word.  "Threaten any of the Weasley's again, and you'll find out exactly how much I share with my aunt."

Madame Pomfrey mended her hand in an instant, but she left the lip and the eye to heal the muggle way, as punishment.  Emmeline left her there, a little angry, probably because Audra had elbowed her in the face sometime during the fight.   Audra had decided to stay and visit Harry.

"How you doing?"

He doesn't answer her, not that she blames him.  Instead, pokes at her hand, which was still crusted in blood.  "How'd you break your hand?"

"I broke Draco's face."  He smiles, and she shrugs, pleased to make him happy even for a second.  "Makes me feel better to punch things sometimes, but it's always awful after."

"I'm fine, actually.  I could leave if I wanted.  It's just that, not that I don't want to be around Ron and Hermione, it's just too exhausting sometimes."  She doesn't comment on it, because she gets its, really, and he seems to like that better than if she had spoken.  He lets her pick through the candy that had been left for him, and tells her about how he saved Ginny in his second year, as if he could convince himself that that victory would make up for the time he lost. 

"I better go, Harry."  She rests her hand on his shoulder.  "But if you need anything, you come find me, alright?"

The time for her help came a few days later.  She had been sitting with Ron and Hermione, telling them the story of how she broke Draco's nose, teeth, cheekbone, jaw, and lower ribs in one go, when Fred skidded around the corner.  "Girls are scary,"  Ron said, awestruck.  "Brilliant, all of you, but you're bloody terrifying."

"Audra?"  Fred comes up behind them.  "Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah."  She knows right away that something is wrong, can tell that the smile on his face is wrong and his shoulders are too tense.  The worry coiled up in her stomach, wondering what could have happened.  "What's wrong?"

"It's Harry.  He, well, he broke his hand and he needs someone to fix it."

"He what?"  She had been jogging to keep up with him, but now they were running towards the statue of the humpbacked witch.  It was the one that led to Honeydukes, where apparenltly Harry and George were waiting.  "Why didn't he go to Madame Pomfrey?"

"He broke it himself."  They were whispering, slowing to a walk as the statue came into sight.  "Me and George found him, just standing by the lake hitting this tree, over and over.  His hand was a mess, bleeding and everything, and I think he broke all his fingers.   I told him you could fix it, mended us enough times."  The statue slid over, revealing George and Harry.  Harry was clutching his arm to his chest, and George was hugging Harry like he sometimes hugs Ron.  The sight made her chest hurt. 

"Hey, Harry."  She crawled in beside them.  "Heard you lost to a tree."

"Yeah."  He laughed, but the sound cut off in a choke.  "You know how you said that you feel better after you punch things?  It didn't work."

"Well, to be fair,"  She took his hand in hers, unbent the fingers, ignored the blood that was smearing her skin.  "The thing I punched was an annoying prat.  I can probably find him somewhere if you want to take a turn."

He laughs, then gives a strangled cry as she made his hand go flat.  She rapped it with her wand, starting at the wrist and moving up.  It hurts to have a bone mended like this, each break that gets healed a tiny flash of heat and pain.  Audra had once reduced George to tears when she mended his leg in four different places, but Harry didn't look concerned.  The skin takes a few passes to knit back together, but when she's done, it looks like he didn't do anything.  "There."  She helped him make a fist, then straighten back out.  "It'll be stiff for a while, but it should be okay."

"thanks, Audra."  Harry sniffed, thanked Fred and George, then dissappeared out into the corridor. 

"Jesus."  George said, staring after where he disappeared.  "Poor bloke."

"Can't imagine."  Fred said.  "He's going to be a nutter by the end of this, isn't he?"

"What are you talking about?"  Audra's voice was sharp.

"I mean, he's watched Cedric get blasted away like he's nothing,"  George said, using his robes to wipe the blood of his hands.  "Met you-know-who in the flesh three times now.   How many more of us do you think he's going to watch die before this is over?"

"No one in this bloody tunnel is dying!"  She yells, and then she bursts into tears.  It's an action that shocks her as much as it shocks them, and George looks horrified.

"Aw, Audra, no, don't do that."  He rubbed at her arm.

"We're going to be fine."  Fred pulled her into a hug, staring pointedly at his brother.  "The three of us are going to get out of this just fine, you'll see.  Nothing seems able to hurt us, you know that."

And she did know that, had watched them walk away unharmed from things that should have killed them ten times over.  Still, it didn't do anything to warm the icy fear that seemed to swell in her chest as she thought about the coming days.  Yet, it's hard to think that two people as alive as the twins could ever die.  It seemed silly to even consider. 

"Yeah.  Yeah, I know."  She stares down at her hands, the ones that were stained in blood.  "Just, poor Harry."

And, yeah.  Poor Harry.