Fic: What Makes All The Difference ~Part IV

[gfeather]

Part IV

After the first ‘discipline’ lesson, there was no reprieve. Less than a week later, Padma snuck back to the D.A. room to treat Dennis Creevey after running afoul of Alecto Carrow for standing up to her bad-mouthing of the wanted fugitive, Harry Potter. He had received an equally vicious ‘lesson’ at the hands of his mostly unwilling peers. Though none of the burns were more than second degree in severity, the surface area they covered was quite extensive. A hastily brewed salve had been applied liberally to the whole of his extremities and a good portion of his torso. Wrapped up like a mummy, Dennis hobbled stiffly from the room under the strict admonition to drink plenty of fluids and keep himself out of trouble.

Following that the incidents became slightly less severe, although the list of names was becoming longer. Detentions were no longer spent scrubbing disused classrooms with Filch. Detentions meant standing at the centre of the curse circle as the Carrows forced your classmates to use you for target practice. Many were allowed to see Madam Pomfrey, but Padma was very aware of the limited treatments the Mediwitch was allowed to provide. Those who ended up in the Hospital Wing for the usual reasons, Quidditch, potions accidents and spell mishaps, were healed fully. Those who ended up there after detention were given the bare minimum of care under the watchful eye of the Death Eater assigned to the room.

Though she wanted to help everyone turned away from the hospital wing, Padma was wary of her status as unofficial student first-aider becoming widely known. During the month that followed the first target practice detentions, she found herself doing more to help terrified first and second years who were too afraid to go to the hospital wing with their everyday mishaps. She had even gone so far as to return to her healing room to retrieve A Mother’s Guide to Magical Mishaps. It was far more useful to her stored in her trunk for easy reference.

It was only rarely that she cared for students outside her house, contacted by Neville most often. Though she would have preferred the amenities of the Room of Requirement, it wasn’t wise to keep returning to the same place. While meeting covertly in unused classrooms and hidden corridors all over the school, Padma had the opportunity to really observe the shy boy she had met when she was younger. He was becoming a real leader, rallying those around him and taking care of anyone who got hurt along the way. She knew he was behind the graffiti on the second floor proclaiming ‘Dumbledore’s Army still recruiting’ which had angered the Carrows so greatly. It marked the first time a full pureblood had been given a formal detention, leaving Ginny Weasley black and blue after a round of Clubbing Curses.

Both Neville and Seamus had stood guard outside the third floor classroom where they had met while Padma gingerly applied salve to the redhead’s purpling skin. The boys were both greatly concerned, yet highly embarrassed by the location of some of her injuries. She and Ginny could hear their worried voices outside the door as they carefully treated each battered section of skin.

“No Seamus, the graffiti was my idea. It’s my fault,” Neville whispered bitterly.

“And Ginny is some sort of wallflower? Willing to sit back and watch everything happen? You know it’s eating her up not to be with them. Do you think she likes being stuck here at propaganda central, listening to the world bad-mouth Harry? She isn’t going to stand for it. Last night you were dreaming and scheming up things we could do to fight back. We want to make a stand.”

“There is no reason for the rest of you to get dragged into my harebrained ideas. I already know they aren’t going to do more than hack off the Death Eaters at the school.”

“It gives people hope, Neville.”

“Seeing Ginny get pummelled gives people hope? Somehow I doubt that.”

“Seeing people fight back gives them hope. Besides, it has the whole school whispering about the D.A. again. They are going to remember what everyone did to Umbridge. It’s going to remind the old D.A. members why there were meetings in the first place.”

“The D.A. is over, Seamus. The graffiti was about tweaking the noses of the Death Eaters. It was a stunt. It was a bit silly and amusing when I thought of it, but I had already ruled it out as a stupid idea. I didn’t even know Ginny was going to go through with it until I found her groaning behind that tapestry on the sixth floor.”

“Ginny’s her own person and she’s not going to turn her back on Harry Potter. Neither am I. I did it once, and I’m not going to do it again.”

“If it had been you, it is entirely possible there wouldn’t be enough left of you for Padma to patch up!”

“And if it had been you, Neville, you would have gotten a black eye! Yesterday you were all big talk and rebellion. People are going to get hurt. This isn’t a nice game, and it never was, but there were plenty of people agreeing with what you were saying.”

“I can’t help that I’m treated differently. It’s not my fault what my family is!”

“Look, I didn’t say it was. Things are what they are. But you can’t go beating yourself up whenever something like this happens. The rest of us know it’s a risk. We already know the dangers.”

“I still feel terrible. I don’t think I’m cut out to do this.”

“Then why is the whole of Gryffindor looking to you for advice? Why do they act like you are in charge. They’ve chosen a leader and they trust you.”

“A leader for what? The D.A. is dead.”

“Do you really believe that?”

The voices outside the door quieted and Padma focussed her entire attention to carefully rubbing in the last of the salve. Once she had helped Ginny carefully ease back into her robes, Padma opened the door and gestured for Neville and Seamus to come back in.

Ginny gave the boys a valiant smile. “I’ll live. It would take someone a whole lot brighter than Alecto Carrow to keep me down.”

“Just make sure you use the salve again in the morning and check for hard areas of swelling. I’m still new to deep tissue diagnostic scans. I may have missed something,” Padma cautioned.

Smiling sadly, Seamus shook his head. “I’m sure you got it right. You’re becoming a pro at this stuff.”

“Because that was my greatest desire,” she commented sarcastically, “to become a healer with no professional training to people who shouldn’t be hurt in the first place.”

“Whether you wanted to or not, you’re getting good at this, Padma. Everyone is really grateful to know you’re there to help. I know I am,” Seamus told her emphatically.

Neville nodded in agreement. “If you hadn’t been there, we would have needed to find a way to get Dennis out of the school for treatment, without Snape or anyone else catching us. I don’t think that would have been easy or even possible. It may not be safe for him here, but his burns are almost completely healed now. He says he feels nearly back to normal. Without you, he would still be red and blistered.”

“Thanks guys. I appreciate the votes of confidence, but there is still only so much I can do. Dennis would probably have been completely healed in less than a day if I had gotten to him sooner. These clandestine meetings are difficult to arrange quickly,” Padma observed.

Ginny nodded. “Good point. We need to be able to communicate faster without it looking suspicious.”

Seamus frowned deeply, but Neville had automatically pulled a large gold coin out of his pocket, holding it up in the dim candlelight.

“Did you think to keep yours?” Neville asked quietly.

The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. “We all did, Neville. I’m sure all of the D.A. still has their coin.”

“I was never sure how to send messages with them. Hermione or Harry always called the meetings,” he said with a frown.

Ginny piped up, “I may have an idea where she found the spell. Give me a few days to look in the library for it.”

Padma noticed the thoughtful expression on Seamus’ face was soon replaced by a mischievous smirk. He looked at Neville and said, “I thought you said the D.A. was over.”

A bit of colour filled Neville’s cheeks as he looked down at the coin in his hand and mumbled, “I guess we are still recruiting. Just remember I tried to talk you out of this.”

“Noted,” he said, then turned to Padma. “Looks like we owe you another thank you, Padma.”

In the candlelight, it was harder to see the remains of his facial injuries and the scars left behind, but what she could see still bothered her. She sighed deeply. “I just wish I could do more.”

Seamus shook his head. “They’ll notice if we suddenly appear healed completely. We know that. Don’t worry about it, right, Ginny?”

The redhead nodded. “It may not be pretty, but it is effective. I’d rather look worse than I feel than the other way around.”

Neville poked his head out the door, checking the corridor. He glanced back at them anxiously. “We should probably get going. The last thing we need now is to be found together. Thanks for helping us again, Padma. Take care of yourself.”

She nodded. “You too, Neville.”

Ginny still needed the support of the two boys to shuffle down the hallway and up the stairs. Padma resolutely didn’t look back. It was still painful to acknowledge the limitations of circumstance, more so than the limitations of her own skill. Each time her own skills began to seem almost too proficient for her circumstances.

It had taken a fair bit of rummaging through her things, but once she found her charmed Galleon, Padma was certain to carry it with her all the time. Whenever her coin warmed in her pocket, Padma gave a silent thank you to Hermione Granger for creating them and allowed herself a brief moment to wonder where the three companions were now.

***

As upsetting as the detentions were, life at Hogwarts still was a fair imitation of its normal, day-to-day routines and rituals. Homework and assignments began to increase, Quidditch was played and meals were eaten in the Great Hall, with only a token awareness of the uncomfortable tension and general uneasiness colouring daily events.

Until Hallowe’en.

Under the headmastership of Dumbledore, Hallowe’en had always been a day of fun for the student body. He seemed to revel in the excuse for frivolities and always planned an enjoyable activity for the student body as a whole. There was no such hope with Snape as headmaster, but most students entered the Great Hall that morning in higher spirits from the memory of Hallowe’ens past.

Padma seated herself near the head of the Ravenclaw table where she could most easily observe the Great Hall as a whole without drawing attention to herself. As had become her custom, she began her morning survey of the student body. As a self-appointed first-aider, she made it her business to keep an eye on the students she had cared for as well as checking for those who might need help. Skipping over her own table for the time being, she began her observations with the Hufflepuff crowd.

Although she had not treated him, Padma had carefully watched Alexander Bennet over the past several weeks to check that his wounds, at least the visible ones, were healing properly. There was little remaining to be seen, save the line of a scar from one of the more prominent cuts sustained to his face, but out of habit she ticked him off on her mental checklist.

There was also third year Jeanie Poirer sitting closer to the head of Hufflepuff table. Padma had come across the tiny girl quite by accident a week ago, crying her eyes out in the girls lavatory on the fourth floor. During a bit of fun in the halls between classes, the girl had been hit in the leg with a particularly unpleasant jinx which had caused her skin to break out in a rash and slough off skin at an alarming rate. Scared to go to Madam Pomfrey, lest her friends get in trouble and referred to the Carrows for discipline, Jeanie had chosen to hide, thinking the jinx would eventually run its course. Fortunately for her, Padma had found a suitable counter for the jinx and was able to soothe the rash effectively. It did cause her to wonder though. How many students were avoiding the hospital wing for the same reason?

On the far side of the hall was the Gryffindor table. There were more students there she had taken care of. There were moments she thought that their actions crossed the line between bravery and stupidity, yet each time she heard of someone standing up to the Carrows, or giving a hard time to a Death Eater in the halls, it lifted her sinking spirits somewhat. Certainly it made work for her, and their suffering bothered her, but there was hope in their rebellious spirit. After listening to Seamus and Neville while treating Ginny, she had thought a lot about what they had said. The stunts they were pulling were important for keeping everyone’s hope alive. Without them, it would be far too easy to despair and give up on a brighter future.

Padma’s eyes swept along the Gryffindor table until they settled on the small cluster of people she was looking for. Neville was sitting with his back to her with Ginny across from him. She seemed almost her normal lively self, despite the sickly cast of the healing bruises on her face. Just as she had with Seamus, Padma had limited the healing done to visible area’s of the younger girl’s body. She could tell by the way Ginny moved that the salve had done its job and alleviated most of the pain to the torso.

Sitting beside Ginny was Seamus, her first patient. As they did everyday, her brows furrowed at the sight of the scars on his face, several of which were visible even from all the way across the hall. He seemed entirely unperturbed by them, however. Naturally easy going, Seamus chatted amiably with the other students nearby, consuming food at a rate and volume only seen in teenaged males. Her lips twitched. That was certainly a sign he was feeling no lingering effects of his beating, though she hadn’t expected any after nearly six weeks. Actually, his improvement had been so great after the chakra healing that she hadn’t really needed to check up on him for weeks, but the compulsion was still there. Just then, he looked up from his plate, eyes meeting hers across the room and his smile broadened slightly. Holding her gaze for a few long moments, Seamus gave her a wink before returning to his conversation with Neville.

Returning he own focus back to her breakfast, Padma was startled to find Luna Lovegood seated directly across from her. The dreamy blonde was cradling a cup of tea and looking at her contemplatively.

Forcing a small smile, Padma greeted her. “Good morning, Luna. Are you ready for the Charms test you were studying for last night?”

“Good morning,” Luna replied in her dreamy sing-song voice. “I’m not really bothered one way or the other about tests. In the end, you’re only fooling yourself about what you do and don’t know. I don’t think they are particularly important.”

“You do have a point, I suppose,” Padma conceded, trying not to react to Luna’s somewhat distracted way of speaking. The girl had enough problems with other students teasing her -even within Ravenclaw house- that she tried her best to be non-judgmental and open to conversation, regardless of how peculiar Luna’s tangents were.

“Did you know how impressed Seamus was when you healed him? He’s been rather effusive with his praise of your skills,” Luna told her in a more focussed, confidential manner.

Padma lowered her eyes to the cold toast on the plate in front of her, feeling somewhat embarrassed, though she wasn’t sure why. “I just did what I could. I’ve been doing what I can for who I can. I’m no great shakes at mediwitchery.”

“False modesty isn’t becoming,” the younger witch absently before becoming more serious. “Madam Pomfrey doesn’t have any spells or potions like what you did for him. It was really quite special.”

“It’s nothing special. My mother did the same thing for my sister and I anytime we were unwell,” Padma insisted.

Luna smiled serenely. “Isn’t a sunrise an amazingly wondrous thing? Just because you see something everyday doesn’t make it any less extraordinary.”

For the first time in a while, Padma really looked at the peculiar girl from her house. It was easy to miss the intellect hiding behind the vacant demeanor, but she was actually rather observant and astute. “You’re right, Luna. The everyday can still be extraordinary. I think a lot of us forget that.”

“So is love,” Luna said blandly.

“Pardon?” Padma asked, not connecting the statement.

“Love is also everyday and extraordinary at the same time,” Luna clarified.

“Oh ... yes. I suppose you’re right. Though, I don’t feel like there has been a lot of love around Hogwarts lately. Right now, love would certainly seem rather extraordinary.”

“Love is everywhere. We just miss it most of the time.”

“I suppose so,” Padma acknowledged, unsure of what to say in response.

Luna smiled brilliantly at her. “It must be wonderful to have someone fancy you that way.”

“Who?” she asked, really confused now.

“Why Seamus, of course,” Luna said simply, standing up from the table. “I don’t want to be late this morning. All Hallow’s Eve is a pretty extraordinary day.”

Luna drifted away in her peculiar, dreamy way, leaving Padma to stare after her, unsure whether or not she should give credence to anything she had just heard. Seamus fancied her? That seemed unlikely.

Glancing across to the Gryffindor table, she thought saw Seamus looking in her direction, but seated where she was, he could just as easily be watching the teachers at the head table. Feeling slightly flustered, Padma abandoned the stone cold remains of her breakfast and left the Great Hall.

***

Her conversation with Luna had left Padma feeling unsettled. Her classes were all normal, or what passed for normal at Hogwarts, but she felt anxious and unfocussed all day. Her classes with the Carrows had been particularly difficult to sit though. Alecto’s lecture on Muggles was more vicious than usual and the curses Amycus demonstrated were, if possible, crueler. Even the other professors seemed ill at ease, as if they too were expecting something to happen. Any joviality from breakfast had long since disappeared by the time the school had gathered for supper in the Great Hall.

The meal was served without ceremony. Headmaster Snape made no speech and there were certainly no dancing skeletons or singing frog chorus to follow. Hallowe’en passed completely unrecognized. During the nearly silent meal, Padma cast her eyes across the hall to see the reaction of Seamus, Neville and Ginny at the Gryffindor table, resolutely ignoring Luna’s comment from earlier in the day. She was surprised, however, to see Neville sitting alone. Further down the table, Ginny was sitting with a group of girls from her own year and Seamus ... wasn’t at the table at all.

Padma carefully scanned the table a second time, but once again she couldn’t see him anywhere. For some reason this made her anxiousness increase tenfold, though she had no solid reason as to why. It was possible he had skipped the meal, or was delayed somehow. Padma did a quick inventory of the other tables to see if any other notable students were missing, but came up empty. No one else she really knew was missing.

Students slowly began to trickle out of the room, tacitly acknowledging that there would be no festivities of any kind tonight. She saw the sixth and seventh year students of the other houses stand up to leave, and Padma followed suit. Perhaps it was best if everyone simply returned to their respective common rooms. The uneasiness hanging over the school suggested a quiet night in the relative safety of their houses would be best. As a prefect, she had to patrol the hallways during the last half hour before curfew tonight, but in the mean time she hoped a good book would quell her restlessness.

Padma hadn’t sat down in her chair by the towering bookshelves for more than ten minutes when she felt her pocket warm. Any tension that had been alleviated upon entering the Ravenclaw sanctuary returned instantly. Something had happened.

Cautiously, she drew the DA coin from its hiding place and tucked it into her book to read the message.

G PAT 1Omin 6E SupClos

Her heart pounded. Due to the size of the coins, any message sent had to be abbreviated, but they were no less upsetting for their brevity. G PAT stood for Gryffindor Patil. Something was wrong with Parvati. It scared her to think her sister was hurt and needed her amateur healing skills.

Gently closing her book, Padma attempted to walk in an unhurried manner to her dorm room to gather the small collection of healing potions and supplies she had accumulated over the past six weeks. She slipped the small bag under her robes and adjusted her clothing so it wouldn’t be noticeable as she walked through the halls. In the mirror, she straightened her Prefect’s badge, praying she wouldn’t need it to pass unrestricted through the halls.

When she was ready, Padma walked to the common room exit as calmly as she could. She didn’t wish to draw attention to herself nor did she have time to evade questions from her house mates. Making it to the east wing of the sixth floor from Ravenclaw house took at least ten minutes if the staircases were on your side. If they weren’t, it could take upwards of twenty. However, in the corridor outside the door she was nearly knocked over by a frantically whispering group of fourth years coming back to the common room.

At the head of the group, a short, blonde girl named Karissa stopped dead at the sight of Padma. “Sorry! It’s not curfew yet, is it? We heard about the message and we had to see for ourselves if it was true. I promise, none of the professors saw us and we didn’t lose Ravenclaw any points.”

The other half a dozen students, both boys and girls, nodded in agreement as she looked them over with a frown on her face.

“What message?” she asked sternly.

“You haven’t heard? Someone wrote ‘He beat You-Know-Who once and he can do it again. Hogwarts supports Harry Potter!’ in the second floor corridor where everyone says the Heir of Slytherin messages were done before. Looks like blood, same as before, according to Ernie Macmillan. And it didn’t actually say You-Know-Who, his name was written!” one of the boys told her frantically.

The fairies that had been fluttering around in her stomach had suddenly become rampaging hippogriffs. The message on her coin couldn’t be a coincidence. This was not good.

Addressing the group, she cautioned them against speaking too loudly about what they had seen and sent them scurrying into the common room. Carrying on down the corridors towards the sixth floor, all she wanted to do was run, but she forced herself to walk calmly, as if on patrol. Thankfully, the staircases were more cooperative with her than they had ever been, and she made it to the east wing supply closet on the sixth floor only a couple minutes late.

No one was standing guard outside the door, so she cautiously opened it and slipped inside the confined space. There was a dim light above her, and she was standing face-to-face with a seemingly healthy Parvati.

“What’s wrong? Are you alright?” Padma whispered urgently.

Parvati dumped her outer robe on a shelf and began tugging roughly at her school tie. “I’m fine. Quick, we need to switch clothes.”

Suddenly very confused, Padma complied and began unfastening her robes. “Why? What’s going on?”

“We need to switch places. Neville sent me. He went up to his dorm after dinner and found Seamus there in a very bad way. Said he couldn’t even get him to sit up in bed or tell him what happened. He came down from the boys dorms and sent me here to meet you straight away,” Parvati explained, finally managing to free the knot of her tie.

Her sister then began to help Padma out of her clothes, fingers fumbling in their haste. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to pass for you. Won’t the rest of your house notice?”

“The ones who would will know why you are there anyway. Don’t worry about it. Is there anything I need to know to be you until tomorrow? I don’t know how long you’ll need, but it’s likely we won’t be able to switch back until morning.”

“I have patrol until curfew tonight and a group of students told me about some graffiti on the second floor. The whole common room is probably buzzing with the news by now. Oh, and Mandy, Morag and I have an Arithmancy test next week. They may want to study tonight.”

“On a Friday?” Parvati asked, incredulous.

Padma managed a small smile. “And this is why you are in Gryffindor and I am in Ravenclaw.”

The girls quickly exchanged robes and school ties. Padma smoothed the slightly rumpled fabric over her sister’s shoulders and pulled her long hair into a tail, securing it with the tie from her own hair. Parvati fussed with Padma’s tie and informed her of the Fat Lady’s new password. Readjusting her small pouch of supplies and running her hands down the front of her robes, Padma nodded to her sister. “Be careful in the halls and good luck with the door knocker. Unless I send word, we’ll meet in the library after breakfast tomorrow morning.”

“You be careful, too. Here,” Parvati said, handing Padma a textbook. “If anyone asks, you can tell them you went to get your book from the Transfiguration classroom. Professor McGonagall will back you up. She won’t turn anyone in if she can help it.”

The sisters parted ways, making their way down the less familiar routes to each other’s house. Padma felt herself more afraid than she had ever been, including the times she had encountered dementors on the train and at checkpoints. She wasn’t brave or adept at sneaking around. She was just a reserved, studious Ravenclaw. Daring deeds were not in her repertoire.

She encountered no one the entire way up to Gryffindor tower and passed through the portrait hole with no problems using the password her sister had given her. Upon entering, it was not the appearance of the common room that surprised her, the sisters had both visited each other’s dormitory a few times, but the mood of those in it. The few times she had been there before, Gryffindor tower was a lively and usually noisy place to be. Now, however, there were no boisterous antics or loud conversations. It was disturbingly quiet.

Straightening herself up as she came through the hole, Neville approached her. “Did you find your book?”

Padma nodded, holding up the book Parvati had given her. “It was in the Transfiguration classroom, just like I thought.”

Neville gave her a careful look, then tilted his head towards the staircase on the left. Padma followed him to the foot of the stairs and after a quick survey of the room to make sure no one was paying attention, they slipped unnoticed up the stairs.

The dorm at the top of the stairs was empty, save for a quietly whimpering figure on the bed closest to the window. When she approached, Padma noticed that all the covers save a single cotton sheet had been tossed off the bed, despite the chill of the room. Seamus was curled on his side beneath the sheet, his body trembling involuntarily every few moments, and not from cold, she suspected. Kneeling beside the bed, she gasped at the sight of his face. What she could see was swollen and purple with bruising. His nose was almost unidentifiable from the swelling, a dried mess of blood along his upper lip making it look worse. His eyes were closed, and he seemed unaware of anyone else in the room.

“Seamus,” she whispered softly.

A pained groan was her only answer.

“Seamus,” she called again, “I need to know if you’re awake. Can you open your eyes?”

The groan was louder this time, but he responded, swollen eyelids opening to look at her. “Padma?”

“Yes,” she said nodding, “How long have you been like this?”

“Happ’n durnin’ dinner,” he muttered.

Padma glanced at her watch and nodded. She was beginning to piece together the story of his absence from dinner. It wasn’t turning out to be a good one either, but she pressed on. “Are there any major injuries beyond your face?”

“No.”

“I’ll see what I can do for you then,” she answered positively, fumbling in her robes to get at her bag of supplies and trying not to look worried. While his face looked awful, he seemed to be in worse shape than could be solely attributed to that.

Neville came up beside her. “Is there anything I can do?”

Padma looked over the shaking form in front of her speculatively. “I think I can manage the injuries Neville, but some of the spells I may need are harder to cast the more people are nearby. It’s something to do with interfering magical signatures. Do you think you could keep people out of the dormitories for about twenty minutes to half an hour?”

“I would never have thought of that. Don’t worry about it. I’ll clear everyone out into the common room. No problem,” he said in a rush and hurried out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

As she watched him leave, anxious to help in anyway she could, Padma felt slightly guilty. She didn’t actually know of any healing spells that were interfered with by the proximity of others, but she felt it would be best if she got rid of Neville for the time being. Seamus groaned weakly from the bed, squinting at her through his swollen eyes. “Wha?”

She shook her head. “Let me take care of your face first.”

It was surprising to her how quickly the healing spells had become second nature. While it had never occurred to her before, Padma wondered if perhaps the current circumstances were set in her path to help her narrow her studies down to a single field. Her wand movements were almost automatic now, efficiently cleaning, sanitizing and mending his broken nose as if she had been doing so for far longer than a few weeks. The nervous and unsettled feelings she had felt all day began to ease with each spell she cast. The thick salve she smoothed gently over his swollen skin began to take effect quickly and, within a few minutes, the face before her was recognizable as Seamus.

Although his face looked much better, Seamus didn’t seem to have improved much on the whole. His body still shuddered and twitched, even when she wasn’t touching him and his pain didn’t appear to have lessened much. With a quick glance toward the door to make sure it was closed, Padma leaned closer and whispered, “Neville isn’t back yet. Tell me what else happened.”

Seamus drew in a few shaky breaths before answering. “Carrow. He caught me red-handed.”

“The graffiti?”

“How did ...?”

“I heard from some people who had seen it on my way up here.”

“S’it still up?”

“I haven’t heard. I came straight here. What did Carrow do to you?”

“Couldn’ tell Nev. He’d take’t bad.”

Padma took the edge of the sheet and pulled it back a few inches. As she had suspected, Seamus wasn’t wearing a shirt and he whimpered in discomfort. Tentatively, she drew her index finger along his exposed shoulder with a feather light touch. His trembling increased and he keened softly. Her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped. She hoped she was wrong, but in her heart she knew she wasn’t. There was a good reason Seamus hadn’t told Neville what had happened.

“How many times? How long were you held under the Cruciatus?” she asked with as much detachment as she could muster.

“Dunno. Four? Five?” he answered so quietly she could barely hear him.

“Four or five times?! Seamus! Your nervous system must be shot,” she hissed at him incredulously.

“S’alright. I know there’s nothin’. Jus’ didn’ wan’ Nev t’ know.”

Padma sat staring at him for several minutes, at a complete loss for words. There wasn’t any treatment for the Cruciatus Curse, not that she had heard of anyway, but she couldn’t accept that there was nothing to be done for him. He was right about Neville, though. If his dorm mate realized what had happened, he would beat himself up about it to no end. Neville was proving himself more capable than most had thought possible, but everyone had their limits.

Padma found herself wondering as she stared speechless at Seamus just what had been tried for the treatment of Cruciatus. It was possible a sensation inhibiting potion might ease some of his symptoms or perhaps an ointment could ease the dermal sensitivity, but she was certain those things had been tried before. The healers at St. Mungo’s had access to the latest and greatest research and resources available, yet nothing had been found. She wished a simple chakra sweep would work as the cure-all her mother had always professed it to be, but that was just wishful thinking.

Or was it. After her initial use of chakra healing on Seamus, she had sent away for additional information on the practice. From what she had learned, stimulating chakras helped release the flow of magical energy, clearing blockages and purging buildup independently of other types of spells, malignant or benign. It was possible that could help alleviate the residual pain, though so much about the Cruciatus was still unknown. She certainly hadn’t found any information about treating Cruciatus with chakra spells.

Padma was startled from her thoughts by Seamus’ voice. “Wha’reya thinkin’ ‘bout?”

“Whether or not I could fry your brain with my amateur healing skills,” she told him, her voice sounding less sarcastic than she had hoped.

Seamus caught the doubt in her tone. “Don’ worry ‘bout it. ‘Snot much left in there to fry. Whatcha wanna do?”

“I was wondering whether stimulating your chakras would ease your pain or make it worse. I know that if I just leave you to sleep it off and brew up a revitalizing draught of some kind you should recover on your own, eventually. I want to do more, but I have no real idea if I’d be helping you or making it worse,” she told him plainly.

“Can’t make’t worse.”

“It is possible I could overload your nervous system.”

He looked up at her seriously. “If you thought that likely, you wouldn’t have even suggested it.”

“True, but I really don’t know what will happen.”

“You decide. If ya wan’ t’ try, I’m game. If not, I’ll manage. I trust you.”

Padma watched him laying on the bed, tremors still rippling through his body with distressing frequency and was torn. It was an exciting thought that something so simple might help, but if something went wrong ... His trust was both touching and terrifying.

“Alright. I’ll give it a try, but you need to let me know right away if it’s making things worse. Lay down on your back, just like before,” Padma instructed, trying to keep the quaver from her voice.

Shifting uncomfortably, Seamus eased himself onto his back and slowly uncurled his legs. Padma readjusted the sheet so it just covered his hipbones, then drew her wand. As she began the first stroke of her wand over his root chakra, she felt his magic shift with it. It was slightly unsettling to feel it so strongly so quickly, but, she reasoned, she hadn’t opened his root chakra last time. Each centre was bound to feel different.

Carefully following the rest of the movements with her wand, she began to chant in time with her motions, “Muladhara, muladhara, muladhara, muladhara ...”

Seamus made a sudden sound, pulling her attention up to his face. Another tremor raced through his body, then he stilled, only his breath coming in rapid pants.

She asked nervously, “Should I stop?”

He lifted a trembling hand and pointed to the centre of his chest then to his forehead. “No. Here.”

Startled by his actions, she focussed her attention on drawing open the heart chakra until it released a wash of green energy over him. His breathing continued in fast pants, as if he were running full tilt, though with each breath they seemed to deepen slightly. After guiding the release with smooth strokes of her wand, she shifted to stand at his head. He had pointed to his brow, but Padma was uncertain about stimulating the area in his current state.

Gently laying a finger to his brow, she whispered, “Here?”

“Yes,” he gasped. “I feel it.”

On instinct, Padma took his own wand hand and pressed his index finger to his brow. She drew his finger across his forehead as if he were finger painting the number three on his skin. “You can open it yourself. Let it out.”

A sound halfway between a scream and a groan tore from his throat as Seamus released to blockage himself. Dropping her wand, Padma dragged her fingers through the pulsing mix of green and purple magic, drawing it back towards the base of his spine. His breath shook and his body shuddered, but the tremors began to slow and become less frequent. He still didn’t seem quite right, but Padma felt instinct leave her and anxiety return. Retrieving her wand, she began work at closing his chakras.

“Seamus, you need to close your chakras off. Remember, I can help you, but you need to do it yourself. Start by drawing down your brow and closing it. Do you understand?” she asked calmly.

“Mmm-hmm,” he grunted.

It was difficult to tell initially if he had actually heard and understood her, but slowly she could feel the shades of purple energy pulling down into his root and the flow come to a stop. Without her asking, he began to do the same with the residual green energies, drawing them in and shutting the door. Padma teased the remaining magic into place with her wand. “Pull the rest of it in. Bring it inside.”

His body released a final shudder, and it was over.

Padma felt a wave of exhaustion, greater than she had ever felt before, swamp her and she nearly collapsed. Her legs gave out and she only barely managed to catch herself on the edge of his mattress on the way down. Holding herself up so she could see him, he appeared to have passed out. Concerned, she mustered what little strength she had and shook his arm.

“Seamus! Are you alright? Talk to me!”

“Ohhhhhhh,” he moaned deeply.

“Seamus?”

“Tired.”

“Did I make it worse?”

“Ugh. I’ve been beaten up by a centaur.”

“Oh no ... I’m sorry.”

“No. S’better. Jus’ tired. ‘Night.”

And he was asleep. She only really noticed his relaxed breathing before she herself felt reality fading. Unconcerned about the fact she was on a cold stone floor in the boys’ dormitory of another house, she curled up and was asleep in moments.

***

Part V