The Queen, The Knight and The Marauders

16. The Family Trait

Chapter 16

Lily woke up when James' snoring got loud enough to shake the walls. Miraculously, she was the only one awake in the Hospital Wing, as Evans and James slept in their cots and Sirius seemed to be in a sort of coma in his armchair. The other victims of the village attack had either been transferred to St. Mungo's or had already been deemed healthy enough by Madam Pomfrey to leave.

She got up, wiping the remnants of her nightmares from the corners of her eyes and used her wand to freshen her mouth and comb her hair. Her hair, which had been a short pixie cut, was growing with an alarming speed and was already a short bob, as she had been too lazy to cut it. It was curling and becoming even more uncontrollable the more it grew, one of the things she had inherited form her father. Thank Salazar for magic and the lack of chromosome Y, she usually managed to tame it to look nothing like the birds nest the males in her family sported.

She drew her jumper on after performing a cleaning charm on it to get rid of most of the blood stains from the previous night and approached Sirius' armchair, tucking her own pillow under his head. The poor boy's neck would hurt like hell when he woke up for sleeping in such a bad position. Sirius muttered something in his sleep and moved his head, but didn't wake up.

She jumped when she heard a small groan behind her. Turning around quickly, she hurried to Regulus' bedside.

"Hey," she whispered at the boy.
"It's okay, you're safe. You're in the Hospital Wing."

Regulus groaned a bit louder, opening his eyes. He was still lying on his stomach to allow his back to heal, but he turned his face to her, eyes widening as he realised who she was.

"Wha–"

"You were attacked last night. I healed you the best I could, but you lost so much blood you passed out. You're lucky only your back was hurt, and the attacker didn't hit an artery. Madam Pomfrey gave you a lot of Blood Replenishing potion and eased your pain as much as she could."

"Why?" He asked in a small voice. Lily's face crumbled.

"I don't know. I wish I did, because then I could at least go after them, but no one knows."

Then, a thought came to her.

"Did you see him? Did you recognise him?"

Regulus closed his eyes and shook his head lightly.

"It hurts."

Lily looked at the bandages, but luckily there was no blood to be seen. The wounds had closed. The worst was over. Now, he only had the pain and large scars across his back. They would take time to heal.

"I know. I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will be here soon to give you more pain relief potion and check on your back."

"How bad is it?" He asked, and she knew what he meant. He wanted her to be honest.

"The scars will be pretty large and there are a lot of them. But they won't be that bad, you'll still have your handsome face," she joked and was pleased to see a ghost of a smile on his face.

After a moment he opened his eyes again, looking around as much as he could.

"My parents?"

Lily shook her head, rage filling her mind and heart as she closed her fists tightly enough to draw blood from her palms.

"They're not coming." Regulus nodded, as if he'd expected it all along.

Finally, his eyes fell on the sleeping form of Sirius. Lily followed his gaze and smiled a little.