the secret of Erised {s.b.}

chapter 35: explanations

Esmeralda opened her eyes and immediately sat up. The light hit her sleepy eyes too harshly so she shut them for a second as she held onto her pounding head. After a minute or so, she slowly opened her eyes and recognised the room she was in as her own thanks to the enchanted dandelion Sirius had given her for Christmas the year prior. 

She tried to get out of her bed but she felt a pang of pain across her chest and stomach.

"Bloody hell," she muttered.

She lifted the oversized black shirt she was wearing and saw that she had multiple healing scars on her torso. Her fingers ran softly across one across her ribs and she flinched due to the sensitivity of the scar. After examining her body for more scars, she concluded that the most affected areas were her chest and stomach since she only had a couple on her limbs.

Slowly, Esmeralda stood up carefully from her bed and headed towards her closet. She opened it and grabbed a pair of grey fluffy socks to put on so her bare feet wouldn't touch the ground. Once she had them on she opened her bedroom door and looked inside the other rooms to see if anyone was in there.

Empty. All the upstairs bedrooms were empty. Esmeralda groaned because that meant that she had to walk down the stairs to look for everyone. Eventually she reached the lower floor of the house and followed the voices coming from the kitchen. She pressed her hand against the kitchen door and pushed it open.

"What in the world are you doing here ?" Lily asked Esmeralda as she came into view.

The red haired witch hurried towards her friend and helped her walk towards the breakfast table to sit down. The other three chairs were occupied by Perla, Dumbledore, and Gideon. The rest of Esmeralda's friends were scattered across the kitchen leaning over the bar or on the fridge. Once Esmeralda was seated, Sirius approached her and knelt down next to her. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

"How are you feeling, love ?" he asked, a mix of relief and concern written over his face.

"Everyone took serious hits, but you received the most," Gideon said, "I had never seen a spell do that."

Esmeralda looked at the ginger twin confused.

"I can't remember anything," she said.

"A Death Eater-" Lily began.

"Snivellus," James interrupted.

She glared at him and continued talking.

"Severus casted a spell that hit you while you were in your Animagus form," LIly continued.

"No one had ever heard that spell before," Marlene said, "Sirius tried to heal you as soon as you hit the ground, but you had already lost a lot of blood."

Esmeralda looked around the kitchen and saw that none of her friends looked as bad as she did.

"You've been out for two days," Clara said.

"What ?" she exclaimed, "And how come I still look like rubbish ? Couldn't you have given me a pampering session while I was passed out."

Remus shook his head.

"Your wounds needed to heal," he said, "As much as Professor Dumbledore aided you with magic, you still needed some rest and to not be disturbed by anyone."

"I don't know if this counts as pampering, but I've been the one applying the special ointment to help the scars every night," Sirius said.

Esmeralda looked down at him and gave him a peck on the lips. She then looked up at Remus and smiled at him.