Taste of Youth

McGonagall was yelling at me as we ran, something about complete recklessness and idiocy. My wand arm was bleeding, leaving a trail of spatter behind us as we rushed to the Hospital Wing. We passed by a group as we went, Remus’ face flashed by and a few others that like he had looked vaguely familiar. There was a murmur of voices but McGonagall and I were already around the corner.

“Poppy!” McGonagall shouted out as we slammed through the doors.

“Dear Merlin! What did you do this time, Luciana?” Poppy shouted hurrying me over to the nearest bed waving her wand wildly at my shredded arm.

“Exploding jinx.” I explained, “According to wandlore delicate wands should not be able to preform spells of this magnitude. In reality, my jinx should have just been a small pop. My wand isn’t made with combat in mind. Ow!”

“Well maybe if you wouldn’t go testing your theories, Luciana., you wouldn’t be say ow. Now stay still!” Poppy scolded working through separating the remnants of my sleeve from my torn flesh.

“Yes, ma’am.” I muttered as a head of bright red hair peeked through the space in the door.

“Ms.Evans, is there something we can help you with?” McGonagall shot toward the door as she tapped her foot glowering at me.

The head dipped and the door opened all the way, a very pretty girl slipping inside. She was tall, maybe three or four inches taller than me, and her brilliant green eyes caught the light as she walked toward our little group. The slight opening of the door revealed a few more people outside before it slipped all the way shut.
“Um, I saw you run by. Is everything alright?”

“Regardless of what these two will tell you, everything is fine.” I told her before yelping when Poppy poked at my arm with her wand, “I don’t think that was for healing purposes.”

“Not at all.” Poppy sent me a smile and flicked her wand a few more times my skin scabbing instantly, “You’re coming back three times this week to get the bandages redone.”

She summoned a bottle of dittany from the storage room and a roll of bandages, setting to work making me look like a mummy. The girl McGonagall called Evans shuffled her feet a bit avoiding looking on my arm. After finding that I wasn’t dying McGonagall went to leave, greeting the girl and stalking out the door.

“I don’t believe this is a place for congregation, ladies and gentleman! Don’t you all have unpacking to do?” The professors voice traveled through the closing door and the redhead giggled a bit before stifling it.

“Ms. Evans, this is Luciana Rein.” Poppy said while taping my bandage down at the top of my elbow, “Luciana, this is Lily Evans, the Gryffindor prefect this year.”

“Oh, hello.” I offered my working hand to her, “I’m rooming with you I think.”

“Yeah, we’re dorm mates now.” She smiled shaking my hand, “Are you from America? You have a, uh, accent.”

I laughed, “Yes, I am. Moved across the ocean a little over a year ago.”

Something happened behind her eyes, “You work at the Apothecary! The one in Diagon Alley. Sev used to…”

I covered her tracks quickly seeing the hurt that resided in the depths of her green eyes, “Yeah, I work there. I also work at the book store that’s in the same place.”

“You worked at Flourish & Blotts? Oh how lucky, that place is amazing.” She relaxed and smiled brilliantly.

“If you don’t mind mess and constant fighting, yes it is.” I told her and we laughed easily.

“Alright, Luciana, you’re ready to go. You send yourself back here one more time this week and I’m taking your wand, young lady.” Poppy pointed her finger between my eyes, “You understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.” I murmured and hopped off the bed.

“Go change, Professor Cormack is waiting for you for your Defense lesson.” The nurse hurried Lily and I out the door.

The hallway was empty, the faintest of chattering coming from a portrait a few paces down. Lily turned part way and looked like she was going to say something before closing her mouth again. I made a vague motion towards the stairs mumbled something and set off toward the common room. Lily paused for half a minute before following me her hands in her jacket pockets.

“So, are you from a wizarding family?” Lily asked tilting slightly froward as she did, “I’m a Muggle-born, myself.”

“I don’t really know. I’m no pureblood, that much I know for sure.” I smiled a bit shrugging.

Lily nodded and made a motion toward my left arm, “What happened?”

“Miscalculation with an Exploding jinx. Wonder how Cormack will take my out of commission wand arm.”

“Who’s Cormack?”

“The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Was he not here last year?”

“No, we get a new one every year. People call it a curse or something.”

We came up to the Fat Lady and she greeted us excitedly. It took ten minutes to get her to let us in but we managed. We trudged up the stairs headed for the dorm we would be sharing. Silence had settled between us neither of us having much to say. I pushed open the door and made a grand gesture toward the room.

“You can pick whatever side you like, I just stuck with what Pince put books on. So I don’t care much.”

“This side is fine. Has a nice view of the lake too.”She motioned toward the empty side and her trunks appeared with a pop, “So that’s how the stuff gets up here, huh.”

I laughed, “Dragged my bag up last week only to a have a house elf show up and apologize for her neglect. Poor thing, made me a chocolate cake too.”

“Was it the really moist kind that’s almost like peanut butter because it sticks to the roof of your mouth?”

“That’s the one.”

Lily laughed and a knock came from the open door. A pretty girl with brown hair cropped close to her head poked her head through with a smile.

“Hey, I heard from McGonagall that you got put in another dorm, Lil. Thought I should come and say hi and meet the new girl of course!” The girls smile fell a little and she flailed her arms at me, “Sorry, you probably won’t like being called that. I mean, oh bother.”

“It’s okay. I figure I’ll get a lot of it when school starts up.” I walked toward the door sticking out my hand, “My names Luciana.”

“I’m Alice!” She smiled brilliantly shaking my hand, “How are you liking Hogwarts so far? The Marauders and I overheard Dumbledore talking about you, said you’d been here a while.”

“I’ve been here for a month, playing catch up. I like it here, it’s better than home.” I told her turning back to grab a fresh shirt from my trunk, “’Scuse me, I have to change.”

I disappeared into the bathroom leaving the door only partially open. I could hear the two of them laughing as I struggled to get my shirt over my left arm. I spent five minutes like that, struggling to get the fabric over every inch of the bandage. A soft knock came before the creak of the door.

“Luciana?” Lily poked her head in and smiled gently at the sight of me, “Need some help?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.” I said to her helplessly shrugging my entrapped body.

“It’s not a big deal.” She gently tugged the fabric of my shirt over my arms.

I smiled at her and quickly pulled on my white button-up shirt. When I turned around I caught her staring at the places where my scars were under my shirt. I gave a soft coughing sound and her eyes snapped up to my face.

“Thank you for helping me.” I told her and turned away to clean up my shirt and the bit of blood that had smeared off the sleeve onto the tile.

“No problem,” Lily paused for a moment, “Luciana?”

“I did them, if that’s what you were going to ask.” I told her still turned away avoiding the look I knew to be on her face, “About four years ago I was having a lot of problems, those were what I used to fix it. It took me three years to stop. It wasn’t the boat load of pills and therapy that did it either. A friend of mine, jumped out of the window of the room we shared. She hit the ground wrong, chocked on her blood instead of breaking her neck. There were three doctors on staff that night and no one came when I started screaming. She died in my arms.”

“I- I’m so sorry.”

I shrugged, “Don’t be, it was the last thing she gave me.”

Lily looked confused, “What was that?”