The Potter Twins and the Deathly Hallows {7}

14. The Thief

"We're the asteroid that's overdue" - Our Love is God, Heathers 

I open my eyes and I'm dazzled by gold and green: I have no idea what's just happened, I know only that I'm laying in what seems to be leaves and twigs. Struggling to draw breath into my lungs, which feel flattened, I blink and realize that the gaudy glare is sunlight streaming through a canopy of leaves far above me. Then an object twitches close to my face. I push myself onto my hands and knees, ready to face some small, fierce creature, but see that the object is Ron's hand. Looking around, I see that we're lying on a forest floor, apparently alone. 

My first thought is of the Forbidden Forest, and for a moment, even though I know how foolish and dangerous it would be for us to appear on the grounds of Hogwarts, my heart leaps at the thought of sneaking through the trees to Hagrid's hut. However, in the few moments that it takes for Ron to give a low groan and for me to start crawling toward him, I realize that this is not the Forbidden Forest: The trees look younger, they're more widely spread, the ground is clearer. 

I meet Hermione and Harry, also on their hands and knees, at Ron's head. The moment my eyes fall upon Ron, all other concerns flee my mind for blood drenches the whole of Ron's left side and his face stands out, greyish white, against the leaf-strewn earth. The Polyjuice Potion is wearing off now: Ron is halfway between Cattermole and himself in appearance, his hair turning redder and redder as his face drains of the little colour it has left. 

"What's happened to him?"

"Splinched," says Hermione, her fingers already busy at Ron's sleeve, where the blood is wettest and darkest. 

I watch, horrified, as she tears open Ron's shirt. I've always thought of Splinching as something comical, but this...My insides crawl unpleasantly as Hermione lays bare Ron's upper arm, where a great chunk of flesh is missing, scooped cleanly away as though by a knife. 

"Haylee, quickly, in my bag, there's a bottle labelled 'Essence of Dittany'--"

"Bag -- right --"

I speed to the place where Hermione had landed, seize the tiny beaded bag, and thrust my hand inside it. At once, object after object begin presenting themselves to my touch: I feel the leather spines of books, woolly sleeves of jumpers, heels of shoes. My breath quickens with every passing seconds, the image of blood burned into my eyeballs, and I see Taylor in the Ministry of Magic, Draco in the bathroom --

"Quickly!"

Cursing under my breath, I fumble for my wand and point it into the depths of the magical bag. 

"Accio Dittany!"

A small brown bottle zooms out of the bag; I catch it and hasten back to Hermione, Harry, and Ron, whose eyes are not half-closed, strips of white eyeball all that are visible between his lids. 

"He's fainted," Hermione says, who is also rather pale; she no longer looks like Mafalda, though her hair is still grey in some places. "Unstopper it for me, Harry, my hands are shaking."

Harry wrenches the stopper off the little bottle, Hermione takes it and pours three drops of the potion onto the bleeding wound. Greenish smoke billows upward and when it has cleared, I see that the bleeding has stopped. The wound now looks several days out; new skin stretches over what was just open flesh. 

"Wow."

"Its all I feel safe doing," says Hermione shakily. "There are spells that would put him completely right, but I don't dare try in case I do them wrong and cause more damage...He's lost so much blood already..."

"How did he get hurt?" I ask, noticing that my voice is shaking slightly. "I mean -- why are we here? I thought we were going back to Grimmauld Place?"