DEAR DARYA ⎯⎯ regulus black

viii. the bitter war between two brothers

Valerie looked peaceful when she slept. Darya had sat on the edge of her bed for an hour now, looking at her. The sight was the only thing that solaced her.

"It was Hell here yesterday," her aunt said. "She would not stop crying after you left. Poor girl was so full of remorse."

"What did you do to make her calm down?" Darya asked her softly.

"Codium fragile — stag seaweed. Put it under her pillow; makes her sleep and dream of things she loves. She probably won't wake up for a few more hours."

"Good."

"Where did you go, anyway? I didn't even hear you when you came through the door."

Darya avoided her gaze. She looked anywhere but into her aunt's eyes. Suddenly, the carpet was interesting. So was the photograph on the wall. It was of one of the first Sirens. What was her name again? The one with bright red hair. Was it Ligeia? Thelxiepeia?

"Dumbledore was here," Lana said quietly. "He wanted to speak to you. He wants you to help in the hospital wing at Hogwarts this year."

Immediately, Darya got up from the bed, nervously wiping her hands on her dress. She was going back to Hogwarts. She was going to help the students who fell ill again.

"Did he leave anything? A letter? Any information?"

"You are going to speak to Poppy whenever you can. She will give you all the information you need. She's working at the Willard Foster hospital this summer... I thought I would Apparate you there now if you wanted."

Darya had gotten sick of Apparating, but still let Lana Apparate her to the hospital after breakfast. She put on a rather thick cardigan over her dress so one could not see her arms and the mark she had been given the day before. But just to make sure, she said the spell Regulus had thought her to make the mark disappear for a short while before walking closer to the building.

The Willard Foster hospital was newer and smaller than St. Mungo's. They had fewer patients, and treated mostly minor injuries, such as bones that had been messed up by magic, and hexes that had gone wrong and left you either flying in the air or with bruises on your bottom.

Most of the healers working there worked somewhere else. Poppy, for instance, worked at Hogwarts. And Isolde, one of the Swan's closest friends, worked part-time at St. Mungo's and spent the weekend healing at Willard Foster's, though she was getting old and Darya doubted that she would continue her work for long.

Entering the hospital, the Swan walked into a room where everything could be described as chaotic: five children were running in circles, yelling; two older men in wheelchairs were having a passionate discussion which they made sure everyone in the room could hear; a woman was trying to catch her arm, which had peeled itself from her body and was now floating mid-air, though no blood could be seen; three doctors were trying to get control of the situation and calm everyone. Darya tried to keep her head clear. She walked to one of them and asked if they needed help.