Love & Scars

16. It's bad, it's really bad

She remembered leaving Remus's house, thinking she would never see him again. She remembered the hard grip on her elbow that bruised on the spot. She remembered once they apparated in their home, he had thrown her on the floor, cursing her as she went. She remembered the pain that coursed through her body as he Crucio'd her, her uncle laughing from the couch, watching her tremble with pain.

That went on for two days. She wasn't in her right mind by the third, so she wasn't entirely sure that there had been a party at their house or if she had just imagined it. Flashes of Regulus came before her, his worried eyes, his trembling hands around her, holding her tight.

She remembered hearing her father spat a name at her, Sirius fucking Black, he had sneered. She remembered that on the third day, late in the afternoon, she had escaped her room. She remembered lying in her bed, curled up to herself, when the door creaked open; her uncle came in with a disgusted, lust-filled look as he undid his trousers. She remembered how a head of black curls had thrown him off her. That was about all she remembered when she first woke up.

***

"Remus." Professor McGonagall said sternly but softly. "She's alive but -"

"She's alive." He whispered, closing his eyes to focus on his breathing.

"Remus, Lily, we'll use the Floo from the station, which would be quicker than the carriages."

"We're coming too." Sirius' voice was hoarse as he spoke, but determined. James had wrapped his arms around Lily, showing the professor that they were a united front.

The professor eyed them for a moment, but she gave a curt nod. They followed her to the train station in deathly silence all the way up through the floo. When they reached the closed doors of the infirmary, the professor turned before she opened the door.

"I have to inform you it's bad, really bad." The ever-so-composed professor was slightly shaking. "Madam Pomfrey has done everything she could; now we have to be patient."

They couldn't do anything but nod; all their hearts were stammering fast in their chests. The professor took in a deep breath before she turned to open the door. Remus hurried forward, his knees shaking uncontrollably, and when his eyes fell upon her, he crumbled to the ground.

"Iz." His eyes started to well up.

"Make way, make way." Madam Pomfrey hurried over, pushing past James and Lily, and tugged him over to the bed next to her.

Izzie was lying in a white infirmary bed. She had bandages over her chest and wore white hospital shorts. The covers under her were tinged red. Remus could see her old scars on her legs, the ones that went from his side up to her back, the one on her shoulder.

But the new ones made his stomach coil. From the looks of it, her stomach was ripped open, a gash of at least five centimetres. Five equally large, bloodied cuts on both her wrists. The bandage around her chest had a dark red spot on the side, and he could smell something, someone foul on her, and he knew what else had happened. He felt sick to the stomach, and he leaned over the side of the bed and retched all over the floor.

Pomfrey made the mess disappear with a wave of her hand, and when he turned back to his best friend, he saw that James had taken a place on his bed, his hand on his ankle. Lily was sitting on a chair next to Izzie, her hand resting next to hers, afraid to hold on.

Sirius was standing at the end of her bed. His hands were gripping the bed end so hard that his knuckles had turned white.

"What happened?" James was the one who asked.