Beautiful Misbehaviour | George Weasley

Chapter 8

"What bloody holiday are they celebrating now?" Artemis hissed, the green flame of the Floo roiling around her as she stepped from the large fireplace into a familiar sitting room.

"Merlin only knows," Andromeda responded, not looking up from the young wizard who was writhing on her carpet.

There had been an increase in attacks on the muggles for no apparent reason, a bare two weeks into February. As a result of this, Artemis went flying about almost thrice a week to outposts all over England, patching up members of the patrols.

Artemis stalked over to the sofa, where a red-headed wizard lolled against the red cushions. Good. Hopefully, the blood leaking through his shirt wouldn't stain Andromeda's antique. The Weasley twin grinned up at her despite how grey and sweaty he was and opened his mouth, "I think it's to celebrate Valentine - "

"Shut up, Fred," Artemis grunted and split his blood-soaked shirt down the middle with a wordless spell she'd completed a thousand times on linens for bandages for Pomfrey.

"Whoa ho ho," Fred wheezed but continued to fight to keep his grin on his face, "take me to dinner first, Williams."

"Afraid I'm all booked up," Artemis retorted absently, studying the diagnostic of his chest, "do you want a numbing potion for the pain? I'm going to remove the blood from your lungs and heal these lacerations."

"No - " Fred began before promptly coughing up a clot of blood.

Artemis forced the potion down his throat, then waited a minute for it to settle. Once she was sure it had, she raised her wand and began her work.

"Aruspices Expello," she hummed, drawing the fluid and blood from his lungs up and out. Fred made a horrible gasping choking sound, but she continued, sending the wobbling bubble into the roaring fire. Then, she began to work on the thick, deep gash she had originally believed to be many due to the amount of bleeding, "Vulnera Sanentur."

The cut didn't begin to close.

"Shite," Artemis whispered, then she shook Fred's shoulder a little roughly in her panic, "describe the spell that hit you. I've never seen this before; I need more information."

"It - " he blinked heavy lids once, twice, "it ... was a blue flame — "

"Fire," Artemis smacked her forehead, "Scourgify."

Clean, the wound glistened up at her, an angry red mass of bubbling skin. It appeared as though a blade of fire had sliced at him, cauterizing the wound as it went but fading inside his chest as it bled from within.

Artemis squeezed her eyes shut for one moment to think, "Dromeda?" she called, "wounds burned up but open. I think I should cut away the seared flesh and try to seal it again. Should I? I could try the burn paste, but I don't think it would do much on magic so dark."

"You already know the answer," Andromeda called from behind, her voice hard and confident in the face of great pain.

Artemis opened her eyes to find Fred's unwavering gaze on her. She held his gaze as she raised her wand, "Accio Goblin Blade."

The dagger was small and glinted in the firelight with an unnatural shine. Kingsley had given her the knife for both self-defence and to help with potion-making, as the blades were the sharpest in the world. She hadn't asked him where he'd gotten such an expensive weapon.

"Best not kick the bucket, Fred," Artemis murmured, trying for a joke as she changed the blade to her right hand and her wand to her left, "otherwise, who will I turn down for such dinner invitations?"