The Crash

Part 4

While Pansy and Luna were gone, I tried lifting the carriage several times, resulting in nothing but a sore back and more hopelessness. It made my arm and head throb as well, but I wasn't ready to look at my arm yet.

The two girls finally came back an hour later with Malfoy. He was a mess. His white-blond hair was red with blood, and he didn't move his arm at all, leading me to believe that it was broken. Isn't this the dream team?

"Okay. We have to lift it just enough to get Hermione out of there. Oh. Malfoy, do you have your wand?" 

Pansy shook her head. "I already asked him. He said he left it in his trunk. Because he's a bloody idiot." 

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Says you miss 'my wand was defeated by a rock'." 

I rolled my eyes as I stood. "Stop arguing! We've got to get Hermione out of there!" I saw Malfoy look at me with something that looked irritatingly like pity. "Come on!" 

They all gathered next to me and put their arms on the golden edge. Malfoy was only using one arm, but I could hardly hold it against him.

"Ready? One. Two. Three!" We all started lifting as hard as we could, and the gap between Hermione and the carriage grew. It was only a few inches, but it was way better than before. My muscles strained and my back ached, but I didn't let go.

Luna released the carriage---she hadn't been lifting much, anyway---then knelt down and grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and started dragging her out from under it. Hermione had tears streaming down her face, probably from pain, but she didn't protest.

"We're good!" Luna said, and we all let go of the carriage immediately. It fell with a loud clunk to the ground.

I hurried over and knelt down next to Hermione. "Okay. What hurts?" Probably everything.

"M...My legs. I-I can't really feel them." 

I pulled off one of her shoes and flicked her toes. "Can you feel that?" 

"Feel what?" My heart sank.

"Okay. Erm...is anyone here good with medicine?" I asked, looking around.

"Draco is. He's learning how to be a healer," Pansy said, and I looked up at her in surprise.

"How much do you know?" I asked.

Malfoy was staring at Hermione, his eyes assessing everything about her. She wasn't bleeding, which worried me. She was just trapped under a solid gold carriage, shouldn't she be bleeding more?

She had several cuts all over her face from the glass, but her clothes, which were now severely torn, had protected her from most of the damage.

"I know enough that her legs are crushed. I'm not sure any healer can fix that. It'd take a lot of magic and surgery. The cuts on her face are superficial. I'd need some actual magic to try and heal the cut on her arm."

I pushed Hermione's robe sleeve up. Sure enough, there was a large cut on her arm that went from her elbow to her wrist. How did I not see it before?

It wasn't bleeding much. When it had been, her robes had absorbed it. It wasn't deep, but it was very long.

"Do we have stitches? Or a first aid kit?" 

Pansy thought for a moment then nodded. "All carriages have one, I think. Blaise said it at some point. There's normally a compartment under the seat for that sort of thing."

"But wasn't one of the seats sucked out the side?"

"It could be the other seat," Luna suggested hopefully.

I stood, then walked over to the carriage and climbed up. There was no door, so I just jumped inside and did my best to land on my feet. I failed.

There were several shards of glass on the ground, and I felt many of them slice my palms, but I stood anyway.

"Are you mad, Potter?" Malfoy's voice asked. I heard a slight scramble then saw his face poke over the doorway. As the carriage was on its side, the doorway was now a skylight.

"We have to see if the first aid kit is here." I knelt down and felt along the seat Hermione, Pansy and Luna had been sitting on. The other was gone without a trace.

The chandelier that had hung beautifully from the ceiling was smashed on the ground, hence the glass at my feet. The glass from the window beside me must have been what cut my head. I still felt my arm burning, but didn't want to look just yet. I knew whatever it was would probably make me throw up.

I felt a small hatch and pulled. Sure enough, there was a first aid kit along with a few bottles of water and an empty bag. You couldn't have filled it?

I grabbed it all, then threw it up and out the doorway. By the clunks on the ground, I figured they found their destination without hitting anyone.

"What's your plan now, Potter?" Pansy's voice called. I looked around me, then up at the doorway.

It wasn't a high jump, but I was wary of the glass along the edges of the doorway. There had been a large window there, and I guess it had broken. Shocker.

I saw a hand suddenly appear in the doorway. I hesitated, then grabbed it, jumped up, and was lifted out of the carriage.

When I got out I saw that it had belonged to none other than Draco Malfoy. But why would he help me? What made me even curious was how he was able to lift me with one arm.

"Come on," he said as he slid off of the carriage. I followed after him, then hurried over to Hermione.

I grabbed the first aid kit and saw that there weren't stitches or bandaids like I had been expecting, but potions and powders and leaves. You shouldn't have expected different, really. You live in a magical world, you really thought there would just be ordinary stitches and gauze? You muggle... The voice in my head was humorous. I think I was in a bit of shock.

"What do these do?" I asked as I handed the first aid kit over to Malfoy. He pulled out the potion bottles and examined each one.

"The green is for allergic reactions, the red is for burns, the blue is for pain relief, the white is to help sleep, and the purple is for mending broken bones." I nodded and looked back at Hermione. Broken bones, crushed bones, same thing, right?

"What about the leaves?" Pansy asked, picking up the small, clear boxes. There were only three.

"The one with spiky leaves leach poison out of a wound. The one with almond shaped leaves you grind into a powder and sprinkle onto a wound. It helps close it up. And the one with the large grey leaves, you mix those in water and they become a paste that you can put over a wound to prevent infection."

"You sure learned fast, didn't you?" I asked, and I thought I saw a small smile lift the corners of Malfoy's lips.

"That's not even half of it."