Because Every Phoenix Needs a Flame

Chapter 7: The Scare

That was their first real Order mission. After that, there were many others. They came face to face with Riddle once or twice, and there were no doubts on her mind that the man was a powerful wizard. He was so full of himself that he tried to recruit them in the middle of a duel, saying he didn't want to spill precious magical blood.

"Thank you for coming so quick, Kenna. I don't know..." Alice was panicking as the Auror Healer came out of the Floo. They were back at their apartment in London. Because if she had brought her hurt husband to his ancestral home, her mother-in-law would kill her. So instead she brought him to the home where they had not slept in months.

"What happened?" The red-headed asked, quick, and expert hands putting her hair into a French twist.

"I- Can't you just help him?" Alice asked, leading the woman to the bedroom.

"Alice, I don't care why, I care about the how," Kenna said, her red lips in a tight line. "You're my Aurors, I will always heal you, no matter if you get hurt in the job or out of it."

"It wasn't supposed to be a confrontation, it was a recon mission. But somehow they found us, even under the disillusionment spell." Alice was rambling, her eyes moving around the room, and even if she was holding tightly onto her wand, she could feel her hand trembling. She had failed. She had failed her husband.

"Werewolves..." Kenna sighed, discarding her Healer bag and instead of summoning something from a little purse, she kept it in an inside pocket of her robes.

"What?" Alice felt her legs go weak, and not in a good way.

"That's how they knew you were there, Alice." Kenna said, cleaning the wound and then covering it with powdered silver and few drops of dittany serum."

"Salazar Bollocks." The Slytherin cursed, letting herself fall into the armchair by the window.

"He will be okay. We're still far from the full moon, the chances are very small." Kenna assured. "And lucky for him, the scar is not somewhere visible, it will be hidden on his calf."

Alice nodded, looking at her unconscious husband, laying on the bed, so still, so pale. "Why isn't he waking up now that you treated the wound?" He had been feverish and burning when Alice apparated home, but now she was even more scared. Only the fact that his chest was rising slowly made her believe he was alive.

"Give me just a few more minutes." The other woman said, casting diagnosis charm after charm, different colours and shapes surrounding Frank. "Not this curse, I swear to Rowena, if I ever come face to face with Severus Snape I might forget that I made an oath of doing no harm..."

"What? How can you be so sure it was Snape?" Alice asked. She knew the boy from school, he was Lucius protégé and he had been on the meeting in Canterbury.

"I've seen this handiwork of his before," Kenna explained, murmuring something under her breath. "Can you get me two bowls? I don't want just to summon them in case they're breakable."

Alice had no doubts that the Auror-Healer had only asked that of her to make her busy, to lessen her worry and to get her out of the room, but she was thankful for the distraction. "Yes, of course. Be right back."

"Good, and some towels or rags."

Alice came back with the large bowls and the kitchen rags that were easier to reach than the towels back in the bathroom. She stopped at the door, trying to understand the sight in front of her. She always felt in awe when she saw Kenna at work. "Put the bowls on the bed and fill them both with water." The auburn-haired woman instructed, and Alice would be more than pleased to assist in saving her husband.