ADDICTED | j.p x oc

57

The next hour was spent with James staring at an unmoving El, horrible flashbacks of her in a similar position on Christmas eve, couch below her stained with blood, flooding his mind. He was sat on the edge of his seat, elbows on his knees, no one dared speak to him. Marlene was fretting around, desperately searching through all her medical books and supplies for what else she could possibly do, muttering incantations to herself until her eyes suddenly lit up with tired hope. As she recited words from the book on her lap several times, the patch of red on El's stomach began to shrink, as if the blood was seeping back into the wound.

"I think i did it," she whispered, everyone perking up at the first words spoken by anyone in an hour. "I did! Merlin, i actually did it, she's stopped bleeding!"

"So she'll wake up soon?" James asked hopefully.

"I don't know, i thought she'd wake up after i did that spell, but she should be fine now, she'll wake up when she chooses to."

Morgan had left with an unconscious Marcus a while ago, she muttered something about taking him to Moody with the hopes he would issue more of a ruthless punishment than Dumbledore, to avoid any of them killing him themselves—they all agreed it was best he left before El woke up. He had already been gifted with a heavily bruised face and several broken ribs.

Sirius stood over by the window, smoking his way through his pack of Marlboro's, Dorcas approached him cautiously, placing a mug of tea in his hand. He had developed a line between his eyebrows from keeping the furrowed for so long.

"Fuck, i should've done something. I was right there when it happened," Sirius said, hitting his forehead against the glass of the window.

"You were fighting Death Eaters, Sirius, don't blame yourself," Dorcas gave him the kindest smile she could muster.

"I feel sick," he rubbed a hand over his face, "her blood is on my shirt, i need to—ugh fuck," he rapidly pulled the shirt over his head and threw it away as if it were on fire.

"It's fine, Sirius, she's gonna be fine, she has to be fine," Marlene reassured, picking up Sirius' shirt and performing a cleaning charm before handing it back to him.

James suddenly stood, "How can you say that, Marlene?! She's clearly not fine! She is dying over there."

"No she's not!"

"Marlene her blood is all over your sofa! You said yourself she should've already woken up! She's been stabbed!" James shouted, tears building in his eyes.

"Yes thank you, James, i'm aware. I've done my healer training, just have a little fucking faith will you!"

"It's hard to have faith when my witch is an inch from death!" James continued to shout.

"I'd say i'm a little further than an inch," El croaked, her voice weak.

"El!" The four standing teens rushed kneel by the sofa. "How do you feel?" Marlene inspected El's body thoroughly, then collected several bottles of various potions.

"Like i've just been stabbed," she tried to sit up, holding the bandage over her midriff. "What happened to Harby?"

"Black eye, several broken ribs and a seriously damaged ballsack," Marlene counted Marcus' ailments on her fingers as she spoke.

"Who should i be thanking for that?"

"Who do you think?" Sirius said with something that sounded almost like a laugh.