The Great War

Better than Heroin

"Mummy? Why can't I feel my legs?"

Those seven little words destroyed Bella. She knew it was going to be a possibility but to actually hear it come from her 17 year old daughter confirmed all of the fear she had been feeling over the last 15 hours. "Get Hoffman," she tried to keep her voice calm for her daughter but it was no use. She could already see the fear creeping into Cass's features. "Mummy? Mum?" She waited for an explanation. Bella didn't trust her voice so she looked to her wife to explain the hard truth to their daughter. The truth that she may never be able to live out her life's dreams. Dr. Hoffman came in to do an exam and evaluation of Cass's starting point. They mentioned additional surgeries she could have as well as the intensive physical therapy she would have to undergo but she was still feeling optimistic that Cass could recover to have a semblance of a normal existence. That phrasing did not sit well with the dark witch. "I need a minute," she excused herself from the room leaving Hermione, Cass, Sam and Minnie in with Dr. Hoffman. Teddy followed her outside of the room. "Best not to follow me boy. I'm going outside to smoke and I wouldn't want you to see me accidentally light something on fire."

"Auntie Bella," Teddy was matching her step for step, "if you think a little cigarette smoke and the threat of arson is enough to scare me off, you don't know me very well."

"Suit yourself," she kept walking, not stopping for the lift, utilizing the stairs in order to get to her nicotine faster. Once outside, she told Teddy to wait for her. She apparated away and came back almost instantly. She had two cokes, a couple bags of sweets and a pack of smokes. "I popped to the muggle gas station. Sit?" She walked over to the side of the hospital where the cigarette receptacle was located. "I haven't had a cigarette since Hermione was in the hospital. Apparently surgery brings out my need for my addictions," a self-deprecating laugh escaped as she put a cigarette between her plump lips, lighting it with her wand.

"It's better than heroin," Teddy shrugged. She offered him one which he politely declined. "It's never been for me. Tried it once and that was the first and only cigarette I had." She passed him a bag of sour patch kids and a coke which he gladly accepted. "I'll never turn down muggle sweets. These are some of my favorites."

"I remember," Bella inhaled a deep drag. "I like them, too."

"It's not fair. Everything that happening."

"What's not fair is that nobody is listening to Mininie. She saw what happened. So did Sam. Nobody is taking her seriously."

He had a solemn look on his face, "Minnie showed me. I think you had fallen asleep or something. Why isn't the school doing anything?"

"McGonagall said it was an accident. Didn't bother to listen to my daughter or Sam. Red is no help. It's like she's afraid to have a backbone because it's her fucking brother's daughter. Though I'm sure she didn't see the memory either. She was too busy with Potter to see what happened. It's like nobody cares because she's a Black."

"Maybe after some of the chaos calms down they will listen."

Bella shrugged, taking another inhale, "doesn't really matter if Cass is crippled, does it? Damage is done and nobody cares." Teddy couldn't argue with her on that point, "but you know what hurts the most?"

"What's that?"

Bella exhaled, "her own fucking mother won't even look at the memory."

"Aunt Hermione hasn't watched it?"

"Nope," the word came out laced with venom she didn't know was possible anymore. Teddy carefully extended his arm around Bella's shoulders and brought her into his side. It was strange for her to be comforted by her adult nephew but she wasn't about to turn the affection away. "I just don't want Cass to have to have her dream taken away by something that was out of her control. My father took my dreams away and looked how well that turned out."