The Other Potter: Book One

Chapter Nineteen: Baby Steps.

[Chapter Nineteen: Baby Steps. Edited.]

*Willow's POV*

There were voices all around me. Everywhere I looked I saw voices, I heard faces, I smelled hands, and felt perfumes. Everything was jumbled inside my brain. Inside everywhere. I was never meant to wake up.

People were leaving. Someone was crying. I was aching.

"We should contact her family."

"They're the reason she's here, Severus."

Green light. Green light. Green light.

Purple drink.

Black.

What felt like years, but I found out later was only two weeks, I only saw the colours green, purple, and black. It took those two long weeks of almost constant sleep, before I was allowed to be awake.

I had no visitors at first (I wasn't allowed) and saw only Madam Pomfrey. She ensured that I eat, although I only ate jelly. The flavour choices were lime or grape, green or purple. They tasted like nothing.

On my nineteenth day of Hospital Wing captivity, I had a visitor, who I did not know. She was a healer, named Augusta, and she helped tend to my damaged arms. Both Augusta and Madam Pomfrey informed me how because of the potion I had taken, my arms could not be healed by magic, and it was necessary for them to heal in the muggle way. Augusta was born into a muggle family, so she knew what she was doing.

I ended up with things called 'stitches' in my arms (and over a few other self-inflicted wounds that they thought needed a little help) and they hurt a lot. It was literally sewing my body back together. Apparently they had stitched me up whilst I'd been asleep, but, for obvious reasons, I didn't remember.

On the twenty-second day of Hospital Wing captivity, a boy named Jimmy came in and asked me how I was, while Madam Pomfrey fetched some ointment for his black eye. I told him I didn't know. Madam Pomfrey chastised him for talking to me, but he said it was important for everyone to have someone to talk to – to have their backs. I thought it was nice.

He returned on the twenty-third day, with a broken nose, two black eyes, and a split lip. Madam Pomfrey disappeared into her storeroom again. I asked him if he was alright. He told me the other guy was worse off in the fight, and then passed out. He stayed over night. We were both awake at dawn, and he came over to watch the sunrise through my window. He told me he'd been defending first and second year muggleborn and half-blood Slytherins from pure-blood elitists. I asked him why, and he said "because pure-blood elitists exist." I thought that was nice.

On my twenty-fifth day, Professor Dumbledore visited me. He read me a story from a book called 'The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard'. Madam Pomfrey gave me oatmeal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because the kitchens were out of jelly. I asked her who ran the kitchens, and she said it was house-elves. I hoped Dobby was okay.

On the twenty-sixth day, Professor McGonagall visited me. She told me about animagi – witches and wizards who could turn into animals at will – and turned into a cat. She said if I ever felt unsafe, I could call her, and she'd turn into her catself and watch over me. She stayed with me from lunch until after dinner, before Professor Dumbledore took over. He read me another story, but I fell asleep long before it was finished.

On the thirtieth day, my stitches came out, and I was sad that it would be the last time I'd speak to Augusta. She told me, in a nice way, that she hoped it would be the last time we saw each other, as that meant I was in good health. She kissed my forehead.