I Was Younger Then

Now's Your Chance

Lupin's strong arms pinned Penny to the table as she shrieked in agony, feeling every jagged edge of the knife rip mercilessly through her tender flesh.

"Apply pressure to the wound," Snape demanded as he pulled out his wand and began sliding it along the blood-slick metal.

"Sirius, hold her. I'm sorry, Penny, you won't like this very much," Lupin said, moving to her side and gathering the clean dish rags Mrs. Weasley had laid beside Penny.

Breathing heavily, Penny locked eyes with Mrs. Weasley, she was shaking from head to foot, her face pale and streaked with tears. She looked terrified, and that unsettled Penny. Mrs. Weasley was always the person who had a reassuring word, who could mend anything; if looking at Penny made her appear this scared, how bad did off did that mean Penny was? She could not wonder for long because Sirius stepped up behind her and took her hands in his own and pinned them near him, just above her head. While Lupin pressed his full body weight against her wound, sending so much pain through Penny that she thought she might pass out.

"Hurry up, snake, that wound needs closing, now " growled Sirius.

"If you had any intelligence, Black, you would have realized that is a magical wound and the only way to close it is to determine what Carrow cursed this blade with," Snape sneered.

"Please get off!" Penny begged, thrashing against Sirius.

"Can't we try something ?" pressed Lupin, looking agitated.

"Amycus has a particular taste for torment, I would not be surprised if normal healing spells caused more harm than good. Snape said, staring thoughtfully at the knife before his dark eyes flashed to Penny.

"I don't care what you do, just get off! You don't understand--" Penny said, choking suddenly on blood that surged up her throat.

She turned her head to the side in an attempt to let it exit, but it still suffocated her. Mrs. Weasley was at her side, wiping the blood from Penny's mouth in an instant, openly sobbing now.

"Get off her, Lupin," Snape hissed, pushing him aside and looking at the blood soaked cloth he'd been pressing against Penny's wound. "It seems Amycus considered even muggle methods of healing."

"What are you saying, snake, that we just let Penny bleed out? Was that your plan all along, pretending to help so no one would see you for the child-murdering bastard you are?" Sirius said, freeing Penny's hands and making for Snape.

"It--wasn't--his--fault" Penny coughed, more blood pooling into her mouth. "Snape dropped me on the doorstep, but I grabbed his arm--when he apparated. . .please, Mrs. Weasley," Penny said, desperately.

"Penny dear, you can explain it all once we have you mended, just don't worry about that right now," Mrs. Weasley said tenderly.

"Oh yes, how familiar, Black pretending he isn't responsible for anything," Snape spat, raising his wand at Sirius, who also had his wand out.

"For merlin's sake can you two ever grow up," snapped Lupin, sounding uncharacteristically angry. "Look at her! No, really look at her," he went on, his voice booming with such authority that it sent a shiver up Penny's spine. "If you two can't get it together I'm taking her to Saint Mungo's, so decide now."

Everyone remained frozen, as though suspended in time. Hatred so thick it was palpable. Still, neither moved. It was Penny who finally spoke, her vision blotchy before her eyes and the fear in her chest being replaced with that awful feeling of her heart trying its best to beat, but lacking the fluid to do so. The room of people no longer mattered to Penny, in this moment all she wished for was a mother--a mother she'd never known, so she reached for the closest thing, for Mrs. Weasley's hand, searching for the warm comfort that had always been so foreign to her.