Priori Incantatem [HARRY POTTER FANFICTION]

Chapter 9: Aftermath

Chapter 9: Aftermath

Dumbledore and the professors that had accompanied him said little as they conjured stretchers for those who needed them and escorted the entire company of students present to the hospital wing to be inspected by Madam Pomfrey. None of them needed to say anything, their furious, sickened expressions said it all. Professor McGonagall looked as though she were working hard not to say anything, and when Dumbledore and Flitwick passed her with Lily's stretcher, her eyes went rather red.

In the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey too was more upset than any of them had ever seen her. As the group entered, Madam Pomfrey rushed to those on stretchers, Lily, Alice, Morwenna, Dorcas, and Kathleen, first, exclaiming over them, and began to treat Lily, who was by far the worst off. Before she could get very far, Dumbledore and McGonagall pulled her aside, presumably to tell her what had happened, because when she came back she wore the same furious, disgusted expression all of the professors wore.

"I'll see to you lot shortly, though I'm sure you don't deserve it," Madam Pomfrey informed the few Slytherins who had sustained minor injuries in the fray in a cold voice. She then continued to examine Lily's injuries.

"All right, mate?" Sirius nudged James, keeping his expression carefully neutral. James nodded wordlessly, even though he was fairly certain that he'd never felt worse in his life.

"All of those who do not need their injuries tended to will follow me," Professor McGonagall announced in a tightly controlled voice. "Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak with you."

James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Frank followed their classmates out, all of them stealing glances over their shoulders at the people lying in the beds. All with the exception of James. He couldn't even look at Lily now, not now that he knew how she really saw him.

*** 

Lily had very possibly never felt worse in her entire life.

Broken ribs and ankle, a fairly severe concussion, and loads of bruises, Madam Pomfrey had said. No one had mentioned the injuries that Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix. How was Lily ever to feel safe again? How could she, knowing that there were people in the world like Bellatrix Black and Rodolphus Lestrange who did things like this and revelled in the pain and misery they caused? 

"Lily?" a kind, wise, and familiar voice interrupted her thoughts. "Are you able to tell me what happened?"

Lily sighed and, summoning her courage, opened her mouth and began to tell Dumbledore everything, starting with the incident on Halloween.

Dumbledore kept them waiting almost two hours.

Even though the tension in the room could have been cut with a knife, no one said or did anything. Professor McGonagall sat there, daring them to. And nobody did, even though it was a close thing.

Many of the Slytherins wore rather smug expressions, but none more so than Bellatrix and Lestrange, who were positively ebullient. James found it very hard to be in that room with them and not throttle them both, and he knew the others did too.

Sirius was just as furious and possibly more so than James. Every time his eyes rested on his younger brother Regulus, a Slytherin who had participated in today's debacle, Sirius would emit a deep growl from the back of his throat, fists clenched. He couldn't even allow himself to look at Bellatrix.

None the worse for wear after being dropped to the floor by James, Bellatrix looked, in fact, as if she'd never been better. James was fairly certain that had McGonagall not been keeping such a close eye on her, Bellatrix would have laughed aloud out of sheer glee.