The Healer | Part 2: The War

The Seekers

Loathe as I wanted to admit it, but Ginny was extremely helpful in battle. We made our way down the rest of the corridor, searching for people in need of help and keeping an eye on the battle outside. Once we cleared the second floor, we headed for the third floor.

Ginny was excellent at spotting trouble long before I would have been able to. I suppose she had played Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team the year Harry had been banned. I didn't know much about Quidditch, but I did know Seekers needed sharp wits and keen eyes for the task. I was able to focus on Healing the person who needed help while she kept the area safe.

We found our first body on the fourth floor.

'Do you know him?' I asked. It was clearly a student, he was small with mousy blond hair and he looked young, younger than Ginny, and I felt a surge of guilt as I looked at him. It had been my task to evacuate all the younger students, and now one of them was dead. He was wearing Gryffindor robes, surely Ginny must know who he was.

'Dennis Creevey,' she answered, her hands shaking as she bent down to brush the bloodied hair out of his eyes. 'He's the year below mine. Gryffindor. He idolised Harry.'

I gave Ginny a moment. I was having a hard time myself. But a nagging feeling in the back of my head was telling me we needed to get a move on. If someone was dead all the way up on the fourth floor, that meant there were Death Eaters inside the castle. How we had managed to avoid too much trouble so far was beyond me.

'We should move him,' I said. 'The History of Magic classroom is right here, at least that'll get him away from all this.'

Ginny nodded. I pointed my wand at the small body and it levitated in the air. Ginny checked the classroom to make sure the coast was clear before I brought him inside and laid him on the floor.

'We'll come back for him,' I assured her. 'When this is all over.'

I wondered how many bodies we would have to come back for when this was over. There were Death Eaters in the castle, they were gaining ground on us. We were outnumbered. Maybe we wouldn't be coming back for anyone, we may not make it through the night ourselves. I gave my head a mental shake. It wouldn't do to think like that. Best to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Take things on one at a time. Make it up as we go along as Fred had said earlier. I smiled to myself at the memory.

We found several more bodies as we went, some Death Eaters, which Ginny was sure to stamp on the faces for good measure, just in case they weren't dead, she told me. But many others, many more than Death Eaters, that were students, parents or members of the Order of the Phoenix. I was finding it hard to control my emotions. I had never thought my first task as an amateur Healer would be so intense. There was so much death. I had no idea how we had managed to avoid it or even serious injury so far. I fingered the pendant around my throat. Maybe it was bringing us good luck. My heart ached as I thought of George for the thousandth time. Surely he was okay, he was with Fred, after all. They could handle themselves.

We checked the corridor one last time before heading up the steps for the fifth floor. There was a hole in the wall here too, Ginny let out a little scream when giant spiders started crawling inside. I yelped too at the sight of them, I didn't normally mind spiders, but these ones were huge. And fast.

'Arania Exumai!' I found my voice and pointed my wand at a particularly large spider that had spotted us. It flew back down the corridor. 'Arania Exumai!'

Ginny caught on and we repeated the spell until the spiders seemed to get the message and went for another opening.

'Edie!'

'Mia! Cho!'

They were at the opposite end of the corridor with their wands drawn. It seemed as if they, too, had been helping banish the spiders back outside. I ran the remaining length of the corridor and caught them both in a tight hug.

'We thought you were right behind us earlier!' Mia exclaimed.

'Madam Pomfrey took me to the Hospital Wing for supplies,' I explained. 'Are either of you hurt?'

'No, we've just come from the seventh floor, the Room of Requirement is burning,' Cho replied. 'Fiendfyre, we got away as quickly as we could.'

There was another loud explosion.

'Protego!' I shouted instinctively and grabbed Ginny so she would be protected by the charm as well.

The wall behind us had exploded open, I thanked my lucky stars that I had been so quick with the charm, we all would have been buried by rock and rubble had I not. More spiders hurried inside and we had to regain our bearings quickly to repel them once again.

Behind me, Cho screamed. I wheeled around, a spider had caught her.

'Relashio!' I screamed. The spider dropped her.

'Arania Exumai!' Mia yelled, the spider flew out the opening again.

'Expelliarmus!' Ginny yelled that time. I looked over. Masked Death Eaters had entered the corridor. Perfect, just what we needed.

I turned to Cho. The spider had bitten her on the cheek, she had started to wobble on her feet, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.

'No, no, stay with me Cho,' I kneeled to the ground and pulled my rucksack off. All around me, spells and curses were flying in every direction. I took a moment to finger the pendant again, it certainly seemed to be doing its job. I hoped again that George was alright, wherever he was. I guided Cho to the ground before she fell.

I opened my rucksack and pulled out vial after vial, looking for something, anything, that could help. Acromantula venom was fatal if untreated quickly and it would require a strong antidote. I hoped Madam Pomfrey had thrown something in here that would be useful. I certainly didn't have time to brew an antidote.

I pulled out a vial labelled 'Phoenix Tears.' That would work. I unstoppered it quickly and poured a few drops onto Cho's face. She had lost consciousness by now, her breathing was slow and shallow.

'C'mon, stay with me!' I urged her as I waited for the tears to take effect.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a masked man point his wand towards Mia.

'Expelliarmus!' I yelled, he went flying through the hole in the wall.

But more were coming. I abandoned Cho to help with the fight, there was nothing that could be done for her anyway but wait. Spiders continued to crawl in and Death Eaters were shooting spells from either end of the corridor. We were trapped in the middle of it. It was all we could do to keep them at bay.

With Cho out of commission, Mia, Ginny and I were severely outnumbered. We shot spell after spell and dodged jinxes and curses but weren't able to gain any ground.

'Protego!' I yelled and we had a few moments of relief while I bent back down to check on Cho. Her breathing was deeper and more regular and her colour was returning to normal. I couldn't see the mark the spider had left on her face anymore.

'Avada Kedavra!'

Something dropped to the ground beside me. My heart stopped and I wheeled around.

'No!'