Chapter Fourteen
I Am a Healer
An hour later, Harry was in Headmaster Dumbledore’s office with Draco beside him and Ginny pacing back and forth in front of him. Remus Lupin stood silently in the back.
“It’s lucky we decided to move so fast,” Ginny muttered to herself. She held a map in her hands with dots moving around on it. A single one was labelled; ‘Severus Snape’. Harry couldn’t see much of the map, but he guessed that the other dots were either Death Eaters or other hostages.
“Not luck, Miss Weasley – we knew it would happen soon,” Professor Dumbledore said, smiling kindly at the young woman.
“Shouldn’t we be doing something?” Draco asked. He was sitting in an armchair on Harry’s right side. Madame Pomfrey had decided that the young man wasn’t allowed to get cold and as it was chilly outside, she had made him put on a thick sweater and then placed a spell on it to keep it warm. Draco had had a few things to say to Madame Pomfrey about the arrangement, but in the end, she had won, refusing to let him leave the Hospital Wing unless he did as she asked.
“He has placed the incapacitate-spell on it,” Ginny said, sounding highly annoyed. “We can’t see where he is on the map – only that he’s with a bunch of other people. Until he removes the spell, we’ll only see his dot and a bunch of others, but no names whatsoever.
“All we can do at the moment is secure the others that were supposed to be kidnapped, according to Draco’s vision.”
“Will the other three be taken here?” Harry asked.
Ginny shook her head ‘no’. “Sirius, Bill and McGonagall are meeting them in the Three Broomsticks, ‘cause they can Apparate there and then they will floo here, all of them. They should be here –”
Just then, a bright red light shone from the necklace around her neck. Her eyes widened and filled with tears. “Neville…” she mumbled. “He’s hurt! They’ve taken him, those bastards!”
She was running towards the door when Dumbledore stood and said, “Ginny, stay.”
She stopped dead in her tracks and turned; her eyes wide and frightened. The Headmaster motioned for her to return to where she’d been pacing before.
“Hand me the map,” he told her gently.
She unrolled another piece of parchment, which had been hidden inside her robes, and gave it to him.
“He hasn’t placed incapacitate on it,” Dumbledore said as the map revealed a detailed view of the area where Neville had been taken. “He’s in the Highlands, near Inverness.”
“Let’s go then,” Draco said, standing up. He swayed when he did so and Harry grabbed him.
“Oh no, you don’t,” he told the blonde. “You are staying here.”
“Since when did you become my mother?” Draco spat at him.
“Since we concluded that you’ve been bloody poisoned, you git. Now sit down and stay here. I’m sure you can help organize this with Ginny and Professor Dumbledore.”
Draco glared at him and reluctantly sat down. “I’m not the biggest git here,” Harry heard him mutter.
Meanwhile, Dumbledore, Ginny and Remus had started organizing. First, Harry and Remus would Floo to Hogsmeade to tell Sirius, Bill and McGonagall what was happening. There they would all wait until Dean and Angelina had arrived. Dumbledore and Ginny would have contacted the Order by this time and filled most of them in. They would in turn Floo or Apparate to Hogsmeade. From there they would continue to Apparate to the Highlands.
Harry felt his stomach turn at the thought of him being expected to Apparate. He didn’t know how!
Just then, Dumbledore placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t be nervous about Apparating, Mr Potter,” he told him, his eyes twinkling. “You’ve done it before; your body knows what to do. It won’t be as horrible as you think it will.”
Harry stared at the Headmaster. “Y-yes, Professor,” he mumbled. Again, he wondered just how much Dumbledore really knew.
“Harry?”
He turned around at the sound of Draco’s voice. “Yes?”
“Audiosis Harry,” Draco said softly.
Harry smiled at him. “Audiosis Draco.”
Standing up, Draco leaned in and gave Harry a kiss on his cheek.
‘Good luck.’
Harry felt his cheek burn where the blonde’s lips had come in contact with his skin, but was dragged into the fire by Remus before he had time to think more about it.
They arrived in Hogsmeade a moment later and spotted McGonagall, Bill and Sirius immediately. A quick set of hellos were exchanged, as well as a kiss between Sirius and Remus. The spot on his cheek still felt hot.
It was not even five minutes before Angelina arrived, materializing before them. She looked scared and angry, but unharmed.
“Why are you here?” she asked Harry. “What happened?”
“Neville was kidnapped about a half hour ago and Severus before that,” Harry replied. “Nev’ hasn’t placed the incapacitate-spell on his necklace, so we will be able to find them. We’re Apparating there shortly. You can either come with us, or McGonagall can take you back to Hogwarts.”
“I’m staying,” she said resolutely. “It could just as well have been me that was kidnapped; I need to help the two that were.”
Harry nodded.
A minute later, Dean arrived. He looked calmer than Angelina. Remus explained the situation to him and he agreed to come with the group, just like Angelina had.
In the next ten minutes, the rest of the Order that had been called arrived. Ron was there, coming to stand next to Harry as soon as he had materialized.
“Where’s Draco?” he asked.
“At Hogwarts,” Harry said. “I’ll tell you later.”
The Weasley twins came, George with Katie Bell in tow. Fred immediately went to join Angelina. Percy and Charlie Weasley came next and then Seamus followed. Several people that Harry only recognized from the party at the Weasley Castle arrived as well, before Sirius said that they were now all there.
“Now, the most important thing is that no one gets killed,” Sirius said as they were getting ready to Apparate. “No foolish chance-taking – that will result in deaths. The Muggles are to be freed, as well as Severus and Neville. The hostages are our highest priority. As soon as we have them out of there, you leave. Stay together two and two, leave two and two. No one gets left behind. This is not the time to fight a war – now it’s the time to save innocent people. The war will be fought when we are on home turf. Understood?”
A murmur of agreement followed: they all partnered up. Harry and Ron, Fred and Angelina, Seamus and Dean, George and Katie, and so on.
“Good then. Let’s go.”
A collective muttering of Apparition spells followed, as they all said the destination. A moment later, the previously crowded pub was empty save for the owner, Madame Rosmerta.
Harry heard two words as his world blurred before him.
‘Be careful.’
He was pushed to the ground.
Above him, he saw Ron deliver a powerful counter spell to the one that had just been cast at Harry and himself, then throw another one at their attacker. The Death Eater was fast, but not fast enough. He fell to the ground as though he was dead.
Ron quickly helped Harry get up, and they looked around hastily. They were standing in wet grass and rain was drizzling. Around them, the fifteen or so poles that Draco had described were in the ground, most of them with people bound to them.
“Snape…” Harry muttered and pointed over at the pole to which the Potions Master was bound. Ron followed his hand and they began moving towards him. Ron stayed behind him, checking around him for any Death Eaters. Most of them seemed occupied with other members of the Order, however, which left Harry and Ron open to free the hostages.
Harry felt weakness shower over him as he came closer to Severus. The man was obviously hurt; a burning feeling below his ribcage on the left side told him where to heal when he got to the Potions Master.
“Duck!” Ron screamed again at Harry and Harry did so without thinking or asking why. Once again, Ron deflected the spell and returned it to the Death Eater. This time, the Death Eater in question was faster, however; he shot another spell at Ron.
“Go,” Ron said to Harry, still concentrating on the masked man before him. Harry moved again.
‘Behind you.’
Harry whirled around, his wand pointed at the Death Eater who was suddenly there.
“Stupefy!” he screamed, and the Death Eater was too surprised at how quickly it had happened – he had no time to perform a counter spell. He reeled over, frozen.
‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
Harry continued the last few feet to Snape and quickly put his hands on the wounded area. The black fabric felt sticky; Snape was bleeding. He was barely conscious, yet stirred as Harry healed him.
Katie Bell came running to him. George was closely behind her, fending off any Death Eaters that tried to stop them, much like Ron had done for Harry.
“Take him back, now!” Harry told Katie. “He needs to get to St. Mungo’s; he has a gunshot wound on the right side, below his ribcage. I think he’s taken some pretty strong spells as well, but St. Mungo’s will know what to do about that.”
Katie nodded as she worked on getting the ropes around Severus’ wrists untied. They were magically locked together and she had to break no less than six spells before they came undone. As they did, Snape fell forward into Harry’s arms, his legs too weak to carry him. Katie took him from Harry.
“We’ll take it from here,” she said, and a moment later, she and George had Apparated away from the war site.
Harry looked around. He spotted Ron a few feet away, fighting yet another Death Eater. Harry couldn’t get a grip on how many there actually were – and he was not about to stop to count them.
‘The one on the far left side is dying.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Don’t ask, just get there!’
Harry didn’t need to be told twice. He captured the attention of Ron and motioned to the redhead where he was going. Ron managed a small nod in understanding, never taking his eyes off his opponent. Harry knew that he was on his own.
‘Duck!’
Well, perhaps not completely.
He ducked.
Then he rolled out of the way of an Imperius Curse.
“Incendio,” he mumbled and a fire started at the bottom of the Death Eater’s robes. Quickly, to distract the Death Eater from the fire, he threw another curse, which the masked man blocked. He threw a new curse at Harry, which he in turn deflected. In the meantime, the flames had grown, and the Death Eater started screaming as he really noticed them.
A spell came from behind and the Death Eater keeled over, unconscious. Ron placed a magical bind on him before extinguishing the fire and then, together with Harry, he ran towards the faraway pole.
As they ran, Harry looked around and saw that most of the poles were now empty. Death Eaters lay scattered all over the place, with Bill in charge of binding them to take them back to the Ministry so they could be prosecuted. Several of the Order had Apparated away with the hostages; as far as Harry could see, there were only two left – one who was being cared for by two wizards and the one that Harry and Ron were headed towards.
They reached the person and Harry noticed with slight surprise that it was a young woman. She hung limply in the ropes binding her, her hair obscuring her face. She was wearing Muggle clothes; jeans and a shirt that had once been white, but was now stained red by blood.
Harry felt the by-now familiar pain as he approached her. His head hurt the worst, which must mean that she had some sort of head injury. There was a burning pain in his shoulder and he saw the large areas of semi-dried blood there. She had, just like Severus, been shot.
He put one hand on the back of her head and the other one on her shoulder. She didn’t move as he did so, which worried him. He could feel the slight pulsing of her heart though – she wasn’t dead. Besides, he could feel her pain clearly. She wouldn’t be in pain if she were…
“Let’s go,” Ron said to him as he broke the last binding spell.
Ron took the young woman in his arms and said, “You strong enough to Apparate by yourself?”
Harry nodded, although he wasn’t sure he was. The young woman was more important than he was right now. “St. Mungo’s?”
Ron nodded. “I’ll see you there.”
A moment later, he was gone, together with the woman. As the last wounded person had disappeared, Harry felt the energy drain from him. He suddenly felt how his clothes were sticking to his body, wet with a combination of rainwater and other people’s blood.
‘Apparate, Harry,’ he heard Draco tell him.
‘I can’t… I’m not strong enough.’
‘Yes, you are. You need to get out of there. Apparate to St. Mungo’s and they will take care of you there.’
Harry sighed heavily and drew upon the last of his powers. Mumbling the words, he felt the world change around him. When he opened his eyes again, he was at the hospital.
Someone caught him as he stumbled and helped him onto a bed. He vaguely recognized Charlie Weasley through the haze that his mind was captured in. He felt pain all around him, and realized that St. Mungo’s probably wasn’t the best place to go to if he wanted to get stronger. There were too many injured and ill people, especially after the operation they had just come through.
He was, however, wheeled through the corridors and he felt the pain diminish. His wet clothes were dried with magic, leaving Harry warm and the feeling of tiredness even more prominent. The people wheeling him were taking him to the same place he’d been the last time he was at the wizard hospital.
‘Go to sleep, Harry.’
‘I should stay… awake… There are people… they need me.’
‘Sleep for a few hours and then you can heal them.’
‘But… Snape… and the woman… they need me.’
‘They are both still alive. You can help them after you’ve slept and regained some strength. You are, unlike our future selves, not used to being out on the battlefield like this.’
‘Now who is whose mother?’
‘Shut up and sleep, Potter.’
‘Fine.’
He shut his eyes, blocking out the alarm of the hospital.
‘Good night, Harry,’ he heard as he drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
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