The Last Fight

Cedric woke me up the next morning when he was getting ready to leave for work.

“You wa’ breakfast?” I asked groggily as he threw on dark blue robes over his Muggle clothes. He brushed my bangs away and kissed my forehead.

“No, I found some cereal. Besides, you need to get ready anyways if you want to hit up Saint Mungo’s. I’m betting it’ll get busy really fast.”

“What are you, my personal assistant?” I asked, yawning.

“No, I think I’m closer to being your mom.” I opened my eyes and made a face. He let out an awkward chuckle. “Uhh, yeah, sorry, that was weird.”

“Really weird.”

He kissed my lips. “Love you. In a totally not-family way.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Same. Have a safe day.”

“You too.”

He left, and I took a moment with my eyes closed to try and get up the will to leave the bed. I heard the front door closed and took that as a cue to get out of the bed. I felt completely horrible, so I just put the kettle on to make coffee. I didn’t want to even look in a mirror. Once the water boiled, I made my instant coffee and sat, sipping, enjoying the bitter taste in my mouth. I took my time, trying to extend my time at home. As much as I wanted to see Ophilia, I was scared to see her. Was she even okay? Could I have prevented it?

‘Shut your stupid mind up, Potter.’

I sighed and got dressed, prepping to go to Saint Mungo’s. I tucked my wand into a bag, threw it over my shoulder, and pulled my hair back before leaving. The hospital wasn’t terribly far by train, but it took me nearly forty-five minutes to get there. I had packed a book as well, but I was too nervous to read. I finally jumped off the underground and made it to the building where Saint Mungo’s was housed, clearing my throat before talking to the mannequin.

“I’m here to see Ophilia McLaggen.”

The mannequin nodded, and I walked through the glass. I took a look at the directory, but nothing sounded close to what I needed. I approached the woman at the counter, swallowing down nerves.

“Hi, I’m uh, I’m looking for Ophilia McLaggen. She uh, came in last night with a broken leg…”

The woman flipped through a rolodex. “She’s just a floor up. Ward C.”

“Thank you.”

I started upstairs, hoping maybe I could run in to Sarlanda. It wasn’t hard to find Ophilia’s ward, and I knocked before entering.

“Come in!”

I grinned at the cheery voice and pushed my way into the room.

“Jen! You came!”

“Yeah. How come you’re the only one here?” I asked, giving Ophilia a hug.

“Well, you know… wizards don’t often get Muggle accidents, so here we are.”

I sat down next to her, and studied her setup. Her entire right leg was in a cast, all the way up to her hip. She looked a little pale, but her eyes were bright, so I guess she felt alright.

“So, how are you?”

She considered for a moment. “Okay, so far. I mean, it hurt like hell. And when Sarlanda got me here, it was just kind of chaos because no one knew what a compound fracture was and I was just kind of bleeding and screaming all over the place… but they got me figured out eventually. I feel loads better today, I had lost a lot of blood.”

“I… Ophilia, I’m so sorry…”

“For what? You saved my life.” Ophilia smiled. “Seriously. Thanks. I… well, they had to reconstruct my artery… but I might have been dead if you hadn’t stopped my fall. All this, the cast and stuff—” She gestured towards her leg, “—they just want to make sure everything is totally stable before I’m released.”

“That makes sense, seeing as they’re sort of messing with Muggle medicine and don’t know what they’re doing,” I snorted.

“Haha, probably.”

“Knock, knock.”

Sarlanda opened the door, somehow managing to look half-way decent in the lime green Healer’s robes, long brown hair braided back and her serious face cracking a small smile when she entered. “Good, you’re here. I was hoping you’d be.”

“How was your night?” I asked.

“Well, it hasn’t ended yet, so ask me again tomorrow.”

“Yikes.”

Sarlanda waved her wand over Ophilia’s leg, vanishing the cast, and began gently prodding her leg. “How’s it feeling?”

“Better. It just aches a little. Mostly stiff,” Ophilia answered, grimacing a little when Sarlanda’s finger found where the break must be.

“Alright. Ginger will be in later, she’s the one who knows what she’s doing,” Sarlanda said, conjuring up a new cast. “Since, you know, I’m just the rookie here.”

“Sure thing. Thanks, Sarlanda.”

“No problem. I’m going to go find a place to take a nap now. I’ll see you lot tonight, we’re having a meeting for that anti-Dementor squad at my flat, eight o’clock sharp.” She swept herself from the room.

“Blimey… I’d better take one too, then,” I said. “We’ll just keep you in the loop, yeah?”

“I guess so, unless by some miracle I get discharged before eight,” Ophilia said, sinking down into her pillows.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’ll probably be boring anyways, I’m sure Fred and George will give you a better play-by-play than you would get from actually being there.”

“I guess. Say hi to them for me, I saw them earlier, but… still.”

I smiled. “Will do. You get better, okay?”

“I’ll try my hardest.”

I gave her another hug before departing for home again, this time actually taking advantage of the train ride to read my book.

-

“Right, glad you all could make it.”

Everyone in the room looked bloody exhausted, but it still reminded me of a meeting of Dumbledore’s Army. Everyone in the room was familiar to me, all of us recent graduates. Sarlanda, Cedric, Colin and myself were standing, while everyone else was sitting. Brittany Chang, cradling a sixth-month-old Diana occupied the armchair. Fred and George sat in stools at the counter. On the couch, Stacey Fires and Jared Hood, two of Cedric’s friends from Hufflepuff, and Lee Jordan and Sophia Warbeck squished together.

The gang is getting back together.

“So, some of you may know that Dumbledore put up an assignment to the lot of us. We’re to start patrolling the streets at night to fight off the Dementors and Inferi that have decided to take up residence in London and the surrounding areas,” Sarlanda started. “Obviously, we are all busy, but we’ve got to keep people safe, Muggle and wizard alike. We should do this in pairs, as it’s safer. I know my schedule is weird because of the hospital, but does anyone else have any potential conflicts?”

“Ministry might have us working overtime,” Cedric piped up. “I mean, they already are, but night hours may happen for some departments.”

“Good to know. So we should try and keep an open schedule in mind?”

“Yes, please,” Jared said.

“How do we want to determine pairs?” I asked.

“I’ve already made a list, if you want to hear it.” Sarlanda fished a piece of parchment out of her pocket.

“Oh no, I’d better not be paired with Fred,” George commented.

“Yeah, that George has no idea what he’s doing, I’d rather not be with him,” Fred added.

“Well, you’re in luck because I didn’t put you two together,” Sarlanda said, raising her eyebrows. “Fred, you’re with Lee and George, you’re with Stacey.”

I could have sworn I saw the Twins actually look upset at the fact they weren’t together.

“Sophia, you’re with Jennifer. Jared and Brittany. Cedric and Ophilia. And myself and Colin. We’ll try and keep this pairing system. Or, it could all go to shit and we’ll just be filling in whenever we can,” Sarlanda concluded. “Does that sound relatively fair to everyone? We can each do one night a week, and then take turns doing Sunday eve.”

Fred and George looked at each other and shrugged.

“It’s a big city,” Lee said. “Will two people be enough?”

“Well, currently. There aren’t that many Dementors… right now. Pairs should be sufficient,” Sarlanda answered.

“If things get bad, we’ll just have to double up,” I said. “I know that that’s not terribly appealing to anyone, but… it’s what we’ve got to do.”

After a few moments of silence, Colin said, “Well… I guess if no one has any questions… then we’re done? Sarlanda will get the schedule figured out and let you know how that’s supposed to go.”

There were some general murmurs of agreement, and everyone started getting ready to go. I said bye to the Twins before Cedric and I Apparated away back to the flat.

“Oh, Jen, there’s something I want to show you in the Prophet,” Cedric said, walking over to the table and handing me the newspaper. “Here.”

He had circled one of the small ads on the ever-shrinking “Wanted” page.

“Wanted – book keeping assistant. Must be able to track numbers and have good organizational skills. Please inquire within Flourish and Blotts, number seventeen, Diagon Alley,” I read, and smiled. “Ha, excellent. Working in a bookstore would be a cakewalk.”

“Yeah, only if you manage to bring home a paycheck. You’ll probably spend it all at the store,” Cedric joked, and I playfully hit him with the newspaper.

“Very funny. I’ll go ask tomorrow, see if they’ll give me anything.”

“Sound good.”

-

Cedric left before dawn, so I wasn’t even awake to say goodbye. By the time I decided to crawl out of bed and take a shower, I finished off the hot water about a minute into in and was treated to frigid water thereafter. I dressed in my best clothes (which were far too hard to locate) and made sure my hair would be tame today. I ate the rest of the cereal and milk, made a mental note to get groceries at some point in the day, and headed off to Diagon Alley.

The grey clouds were thick overhead like they had been the past couple of weeks as I walked the streets of London. Inside my bundle of robes I carried in my arms was my wand, and I kept a tight grip on it. I wasn’t going to take any chances today, especially after the incident on the coast. Though it was unlikely that Death Eaters would bring giants into the heart of London, one could never be too careful. I took the Underground over to the Leaky Cauldron and entered the nearly empty pub. Tom looked up when I walked in, looking dismal.

“Hello, Miss Potter,” he said, trying to sound cheery.

“Hello Tom, can I get a Butterbeer to go please?” I asked. He nodded and pulled out a slightly dusty bottle from under the bar. I slid him some silver and left with my Butterbeer for the back alley. I popped open the Butterbeer and took a sip. The buttery warmth reminded me painfully of Hogwarts, just like the opening in the brick wall in front of me did. I slipped on my dark grey robes and walked into Diagon Alley.

It seemed as if they sky was darker just over the Wizarding alley. The few people that were there moved in packs, making eye contact with no one but their friends and speaking only in whispers. They avoided me as I walked down the cobblestone street solo, my wand hand now around my wand handle in my robe pocket. The dark street and several empty shops were giving me the creeps.

At last I stopped outside Flourish and Blotts. It looked more life-filled than Olivander’s across the street, but it was still pretty much empty. Two witches walked out clutching their books tightly, and gave me curious looks. I caught the door and walked in.

“Hello?” I asked, closing the door behind me. No one answered. “Hello?” I said again, louder this time, and moved further back into the shop. A book dropped from somewhere, and I jumped when a man in green robes appeared from behind a bookcase.

“Oh, goodness you—well, I thought you were—” He shook his head and bent down to pick up the fallen book.

“Are you Mr. Flourish?” I asked. He looked back up at me and sighed.

“Blotts. And why, can I help you?”

“Yeah, you had an ad posted in the Prophet about a job opening.”

Mr. Blotts’ face flashed a mixture of surprise and fear. “Oh, that. Well, I meant to—I mean, you don’t think that—”

“So is there a job opening or not?” I asked, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow. Blotts shuffled over to behind his counter, flustered.

“Well, there um—I mean, I wasn’t expecting—”

“A kid? Look, I’m not a kid, and do you even know who I am?” He gave me a blank look, and I sighed in annoyance. “Oh honestly, I never thought I would see this day… I’m Jennifer Potter. My whole family is sort of in the business of dark wizard hunting? You know my brother, Harry? Boy Who Lived? The one who killed Voldemort?”

At the mention of that name, Blotts twitched and made an odd choking noise. “Don’t you know not to say that name?” he hissed. “And anyways, you can’t be—no, it’s preposterous—”

I sighed again. “Alright, fine. It’s obvious I’m wasting my time, so I’ll just—”

CRASH.

My wand was out and I was out the door in two seconds flat. Smoke poured out of the shattered window of Olivander’s, and black-cloaked figures swarmed the street. Two figures in masks were gripping a silver-haired man between them and dragged him into the street. Death Eaters.

“Mr. Olivander!” I yelled, sending a Stunning Spell their way, but the trio Disapparated. I cursed, kicking a stray brick, when suddenly a wave of cold washed over me. “Dementors,” I muttered, trying to concentrate on my magic rather than the fact that I could easily count ten Dementors already approaching me. I recalled that top-of-the-world feeling I had when the Marauders had first declared war on Umbridge last year, and waved my wand. “Expecto Patronum!” And with a snarl, my lion pounced on the nearest Dementor. We tore through about six of them before two silvery ferrets joined us in the fight – Fred and George had come out of their shop from down the street.

“Fancy seeing you here, Jen!” George said, running past me to take on a Dementor.

“Can’t stay away from the action, you know me.”

I couldn’t count how many Dementors we chased off. I only knew that by the end of it, Fred, George and I were all panting from the effort. “There were Death Eaters, but… they got away. And they took Mr. Olivander too,” I said, slamming my fist into my leg.

“What do they want with him, I wonder? Making Voldy-shorts and his minions new wands?” Fred queried.

“Either way, I’ll go send a message to Dumbledore and Kingsley. This is getting out of hand,” George said, and he and Fred departed for their shop.

A bell tinkled, and I turned around to see Mr. Blotts coming out of his shop, face white. “Miss Potter, is it?” he finally asked. I merely nodded, trying still to catch my breath. “Right well—what I mean is—you’re hired.”