{CHAPTER THIRTEEN}
"I could be a doctor after today."
People like to claim that the world is balanced. You get something good, then something bad comes. The world always evens things out.
Because of this, hangovers were invented.
After a fun filled night with alcohol, the pain and nausea takes over. The previous night of dancing and singing replaced with headaches and exhaustion.
Hangovers are enough hassle to make people claim they will never drink again. But they always do. Their swearing off alcohol never lasts for long.
Remus jerked up in his bed with a loud and pain fuelled groan. He very reluctantly and slowly peeled his eyes open and peered around the lit up room. "Fucking curtains." He grumbled as the sun shone directly in his eyes.
Remus heard a rustle to his right followed by a pleading, "Shut up!" mumbled by Peter with a wince as he pressed his hands to his throbbing head. "Godric I'm never going to drink again." He falsely claimed at a quiet whisper and rolled over in his bed.
The loud crash of Peter rolling the wrong way and onto the floor woke up the remaining two Marauders. Both of them hissed and groaned as they awoke.
"Bloody hell." Sirius moaned as he shielded his eyes with his pillow.
"Shut up." James spat as he pulled the curtains around his bed shut, effectively shutting out the light. "I feel fucking awful." He complained and tried his best to ignore the pain and snuggled back into his warm bedding.
"Just. Shut. Up." Remus repeated forcefully, what Peter and James both said. "Someone get something to help." He instructed but was met with a lot of annoying protest. "I'm not going, I also have to do it." Remus concluded and refused to leave his warm and satisfying cocoon.
"Nope." Peter sighed and pulled his blanket of his bed and around himself as he lay on the floor. "Not moving." He muttered stubbornly.
None of them had to as their saviour knocked on the door.
"Come in." Peter weakly croaked out and into the ground, listening to the door creaking open.
"Wow you look like crap." Harlow announced with amusement. She found herself enjoying seeing the usually rowdy bunch, that had a need for pestering her, knocked silent.
"Appreciate that." James sarcastically mumbled as he poked his head out between his curtains. "What'd ya want?" He asked quietly and squeezed his eyes shut.
"To thank you lot for everything you've been doing, I've got something that will help." Harlow explained and showed off her pill bottle. She shook her hand and the sound of the pills inside bouncing against the plastic cylinder echoes through the silent dorm.
"What is it?" Remus asked as it was not anything he recognised. He himself had consumed a lot of different medicines when it came to the full moon, so not recognising it was very strange to him and made him curious.
Harlow rolled her eyes and turned the pill bottle around to show the foreign writing on the front. "You won't recognise it because it is a Russian muggle pain killer. It's stronger than paracetamol."
Harlow walked over to one of the chest of drawers and grabbed the cup on top. "Clean?"
"Yeah." James answered knowing that was the cup he planned on using to get water before he went to sleep, in attempt to dull the hangover. Which he completely forgot about.
Harlow walked over to the bathroom and filled the cup with water. She returned and started with James who was closest to her. "You just need one." She uttered as she handed him the cup and pill. Harlow had used the medicine herself only a few time but knew just how strong it was.
She went round the group helping Peter last. She decided to try and show the boy that he didn't need to be as resistant with her. Unnecessarily gentle and carefully Harlow helped Peter back into his bed and then gave him his medicine.
"Right. I'll see you lot later." Harlow stated as she went round and closed all their curtains.
"Thank you." The boys whispered to her as they all fell back into a pain free sleep.
Harlow moved onto her next destination of the morning. With the exact same agenda she found herself outside of Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Alice Fortescue and Mary McDonalds room.
Harlow wasn't sure exactly how much the girls had to drink during the party, considering she spent it with the boys. She did however notice that Marlene would definitely be in need of her pills.
Harlow knocked on the door and braced herself for a rude welcoming. The door was opened by a shattered looking Alice who was distracted by rubbing her eyes.
"Morning." Harlow mumbled quietly understanding the girl in front of her wouldn't currently be too grateful for any loud noises. "I have some medicine to help, only if you want of course." Harlow muttered, mentally slapping herself for sounding nervous.
"Help. Please." Alice pleaded quietly and pulled the door open wider to let Harlow in. "I can't deal."
Inside the room, Harlow noticed how messy it was. Everywhere there was clothes thrown around and makeup items laying on every surface including the floor.
"It's not normally this messy." Alice stated as she continued to rub her eyes, yawning repeatedly. Alice gestured for Harlow to come further into the room. "We tend to get a bit messy when getting ready for parties."
"Just take one with some water." Harlow told Alice and gave her four pills. "Give the rest to the girls when they wake up."
"Okay, you eh don't want to chat for a bit." Alice asked as she pushed her fallen hair back.
Harlow shook her head, "Get some more rest once you've had the medicine. You'll feel a lot better."
And with that Harlow left.
It was later in the day, lunch time. Harlow had spent her day alone in the Library studying some useful spells that didn't get taught in school.
Apart from that, nothing much happened.
That was until she was having lunch in the great hall. The boys had managed to drag themselves out of their beds to join her. Something that made her relieved, and Harlow didn't like that.
"Thanks for this morning." Remus immediately spoke as he sat down next to her.
He had a smile that reached his very prominent eye bags.
"Least I could do." Harlow muttered and shrugged her shoulders. She continued eating her sandwich and was showered in thanks from the remaining three. "Seriously I didn't do much."
"You got us to bed and helped us this morning." Peter reminded her, "It was nice so let us thank you."
"Alright, alright!" Harlow scoffed, "Your welcome." She gave in with a sigh and continued eating her sandwich.
"Ha we win." Sirius yelled with a grin.
"We made a deal, you're not supposed to annoy me." Harlow replied and sent him a glare based on the sheer volume of his voice.
"When?"
"Last night you and James were rat-arsed but a deals a deal. If I danced with you, in return you wouldn't bother me for a week." Harlow explained and sipped on her juice.
"That's not fair we were drunk." James whined with a big pout, his voice squeaking when Remus elbowed him in the ribs.
"Leave her alone." Remus instructed, "Just be thankful she's still around us, I wouldn't be." He joked lightheartedly and scoffed when he saw James and Sirius fake comforting each other.
Harlow shook her head at the boys, but not in a disapproving way. She was finding herself rather amused by the foolish behaviour of the boys., once again.
Her eyes zoned over the room and onto a distressed figure, fighting for her attention. Harlow raised an eyebrow in confusion. Evan Rosier looked completely panic and was trying to subtly gesture Harlow out of the hall.
"Sorry lads I've got to go. I'll see you guys later." Harlow rambled as she swallowed her remaining food and left in a hurry.
What's up with her?" Peter asked as the four of them watched Harlow pace out the hall and to the side. She appeared to be conversing with someone who they couldn't see. A second later Harlow moved, letting the hidden person guide them, revealing themself to be Evan.
"What's she doing with Rosier?" Sirius uttered heatedly as James dramatically gasped at the news.
"I-I don't know." Remus shrugged, his voice etched with concern.
On the other side of the castle Harlow was jogging alongside Evan to the dungeons. Evan's breath was heaving from sprinting all over the castle in search of Harlow.
"He's really hurt." Evan muttered frantically once again, Evan was talking about Regulus. Regulus was injured, and by the panic in his voice it sounded bad.
"It'll be fine." Harlow muttered reassuringly even though her heart was beating considerably fast. "He'll be okay." She uttered and turned to face Evan.
Evan grabbed Harlow's shoulder to stop her when he saw the portrait to the Slytherin common room. "Just try to just blend in, no Slytherin's will appreciate having a lion in the common room." He insisted as they continued to the door.
Evan muttered the password and walked in first. He checked the coast was clear and signalled for Harlow to come in.
"He's in our room." Evan noted as he continued to lead the way up the stairs. Evan burst through the door and paced right over to one of the beds. "I got her."
"I told you not to bother her." Regulus croaked out a whimper.
Harlow moved to his side and puffed out some air. "I'm the best person to help in theses situations. For you two I don't mind." Harlow stated, admitting her soft spot for the two of them out loud.
"You love us." Evan mused teasingly, seemingly forgetting the whole situation going on around him.
Harlow ignored his comment and knelt down next to Regulus on the bed. "What's wrong?" She asked tenderly as her hand flew up to his face.
She could easily see his bleeding nose and split lip, but she knew Evan wouldn't have sprinted to get her over something as small as that.
"Lucius said something about Narcissa, Regulus defended her. To get him back Lucius send Mulciber after Reg. And Mulciber is a sodding giant." Evan explained as Harlow repositioned herself so she was perching on the side of the bed.
"Remind me to teach you how to use weight against an opponent." Harlow told Evan before turning back to Regulus "Right. Regulus, what hurts?" She attentively questioned.
"Somethings seriously wrong with my shoulder." He groaned out as he attempted to move his shoulder. "It's the right one."
Harlow nodded and pulled back his cover and immediately knew what the problem was. "That is one nasty dislocation." She spoke aloud and moved her hand to touch it.
Regulus cried out at the contact and Harlow sent him a sympathetic look.
"I need to grab a few things from my room. I'll be right back." Harlow explained. She was back in a flash and straight away took to cleaning up his face.
Regulus grunted and whimpered many times through the cleaning process of his face. Each time Harlow would shush him and give him a second to breath. Once she got his face cleaned up she examined his nose, letting him know it would just be bruised.
Harlow opened her small bag of her own medical stuff. The items she would use to fix herself up after missions if her holders couldn't be bothered to, or deemed her injuries not bad enough and able to heal on their own.
She searched through her various medicines and checked for the strongest pain killer she was in possession of. She was through with reading the bottles when she came across the green whistles she picked up in London.
"Regulus this is Penthrox, you gotta breath it in." Harlow instructed and gave it to Regulus . He did as he was told and exhaled with relief when he felt the pain start to dull.
"Salazar this is magic." Regulus mumbled.
"Nope it's a good old muggle drug. I much prefer medical things that are backed up by science. I'm not risking making it worse by using a spell or charm." Harlow replied and tried her best to gently guide Regulus into a sitting up position. "This is isn't going to be too painful, but you will feel pressure." Harlow laid out to Regulus and gripped his injured shoulder and the arm.
She manoeuvred it up and held the wrist of the arm. With one sharp movement she popped his shoulder back into place. Regulus hissed at the pressure and let his head flop down to rest in the crook of Harlow's neck.
"Thanks." He wearily murmured into the soft skin on her neck.
Harlow let out the breath she was holding and moved her arm to wrap around the uninjured side of Regulus to comfort him. "You're fine." She reassured him and rubbed his back slowly.
"You know I'm feeling really left out." Evan exclaimed as he watched the two of them half-hug.
Harlow pulled back to look at him and she sighed heavily. His puppy dogs eyes worked like a charm and Harlow found herself gesturing him over to join them before she could even realise it.
Evan carefully wrapped his arms around both of them and let out a slight laugh. "You do love us!" He remarked with a silly grin.
"I gotta look after you two. I'm not just teaching you how to fight. I'm teaching you how to survive." Harlow reasoned, there was no way she was going to say she loved them, she wouldn't know if she did.
Harlow allowed the hug to continue for a minute more before she made the boys move. They reluctantly did so, missing the comfort and safety she provided them. To them two, she was like their guardian angel. She was the light in their dark word. A very violent and killer light.
"I could be a doctor after today." Harlow scoffed as she packed everything back into her bag noticing the lack of a few items, the ones she used earlier.
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