Faults
One week later
Guilt is a feeling that Lily has felt more than any typical person would in the past ten years. Guilt is a companion to her, the one thing that has always stuck by her. It follows her on the worst of days, and stands as a shadow on the best. There’s so many things that she feels guilt for: for helping WICKED, for watching everyone in the maze and not doing anything about it, for being immune, for being considered ‘special’ while her sister was not.
Today is one of the worse days, following her around and taunting her. She’s sobbing next to Remus once again, and wishes that she didn’t feel emotions in the way she did. Wishes that she wouldn’t force her friends to deal with her sensitivity and grief. But she couldn’t help it, because in this world that is all she has ever known.
“She’s going to die and it’s all because of me. She’s going to go into that maze and get stung by a Thestral, and she’s not going to be able to get cured because I made sure the cure wouldn’t work on someone like her,” she cries out.
Lily is hiding another reason why she’s so upset behind her words. She told Remus everything, it was hard to hide from him. But there was one conversation she had always been too ashamed to tell him, and now that Petunia was in the maze every time she thought of it, it was like the shattered pieces in her heart were breaking even more.
“Tuney!” she whispered, “Come here!”
Lily had tears of joy in her eyes- this was the first time she had had the chance to talk to Petunia in months and there was so much she had to ask her, and to check if she was okay.
“What do you want?” Petunia spits back, a cold and unfamiliar tone to her voice.
“Tuney, I haven’t talked to you in ages, Dr Riddle won’t let me, I needed to see how you are though so I came here and-“ Lily begins, before being interrupted.
“So now you care how I am? Before we were taken here you didn’t care about me at all, Mum and Dad always ignored me but you didn’t care because you’re their favourite. And now you’re these people’s favourite too while they’re experimenting on me and you talk to me once every few months acting like you don’t enjoy being better than me. You’re just a freak!” Petunia practically yells at her.
Lily’s tears of joy had turned into tears of sadness. Petunia had never been like this towards her before and she had no clue where it was coming from, but in her mind she honestly thought that what Petunia was saying was true. You’re just freak she repeated in her mind, over and over.
“But-but you don’t understand I had no choice if I didn’t do this they were going to hurt you and Mum and Dad, I had to, please understand,” she pleads, but it’s no use.
“Well good job on protecting us, because now you’re the one hurting me and I don’t think our parents would be proud of you now. Never talk to me again. Freak,” Petunia retorts back before walking away. Lily’s eyes linger on her for a few more seconds, seeing if she’ll turn back to get one last look of her sister, but she never does.
It had been over a year since this, and they haven’t spoken since. Lily thinks that they likely never will, and it’s a thought that physically pains her, knowing that that was her last ever encounter with her sister. That forever in her sister’s eyes she was the monster, the villain, always just a freak. And none of them, Remus, Marlene, even James, could ever understand what it felt like for one of the people she would do absolutely anything for to say that to her.
As time passed by, Lily tried to forget all about it. She tried to remember all their memories of childhood from before the sun flares had destroyed the world, all their precious memories where they would play games together and have fun. But it was all tainted by that one conversation. Like everything else that they had been through together was completely erased, a fake memory she had made up to try reassure herself that they had loved each other at one point.
“Shh, Lily it’ll be fine, she won’t die. You’ll get to see her again once our plan works and you go into the maze. I know she’ll hang on until then, just for you,” Remus comforts her.
“Until then, you do have to get out of bed so we can do our jobs. Just think about the plan we made, it has to work but it won’t if you’re going to be in here crying all day.”
Remus is the only one who knows what to say to help Lily once she’s inside her own pit if sadness. Everyone else was always too soft, but Remus is the one who coaxes her out, knowing to be harsh if she needs it. Other times when she truly just needs someone to talk to, Remus is still the perfect person. Lily wants to help him, because they were all going through so so much, but there are only a rare few occasions when Remus would admit that he needs it.
It was Remus’ words that encouraged her to get up and dressed in her uniform for today, as well as the fact that today she would get to see Petunia. Last night before they went back to their dorms, Dr Malfoy had told Lily that today she would have to be observing the maze and the subjects’ brain patterns because apparently they had some new ‘exciting’ variable planned. This was making Lily increasingly anxious, because their version of exciting was never good. Last time they had said that was years ago, and 3 people in the maze died that day. Lily also despises the way everyone calls them ‘subjects’, treating them like objects. These people were humans, who have the same blood inside them as every other. These people still experienced emotions in the same way all of them did, yet most people in WICKED continuously fail to see that.
It was still hours to go until their jobs began, though. Today they decided they were going to begin the first phase of their plan- getting Dr Riddle on board. In Lily’s eyes, this would be the hardest part. All the fighting, and running could easily be done later, all a matter of how prepared they were. But this? It all relied on Riddle, and if he figures out what they’re trying to do it would be hell.
“You ready?” Remus asks after he’s gotten changed. He’s not just asking if she’s gotten into her uniform. He’s asking if she’s ready to defy everyone they’ve spent their lives working for. If she’s ready fight, because once they start there’s no going back.
“Always.”
As they head over to Riddle’s office, the nerves are starting to kick in. If Riddle somehow knows their plan who knows what he’ll do to all of them. And that fear was evident on both Remus and Lily as they stood outside his office, the door right there but no one has lifted their hand up to knock.
“Can we really do this? I mean would it actually work or are we just getting ahead of ourselves?” she questions, more talking to herself than Remus.
“Look it will work it has to. The worst that will happen is he disagrees and we just have to go about our jobs as normal,” he says, slightly hesitantly because he knows that is certainly not the worst that could happen.
Then she knocks. Twice. And the door opens, a man stepping out. He has rather young and attractive features, with dark smooth hair, but his eyes are so cold and soulless it creates a rather unnerving image to look at.
“Hello, Dr Riddle, Lily and I actually had an idea for a new variable for the maze. We feel it could greatly help the experiment. Could we come in and talk to you about it?” Remus attempts speaking confidently, but Riddle sees right through it.
“Why of course, I’d love to see what your creative young minds have come up with,” he happily says, a smile with empty eyes and no emotion appearing on his face.
Lily is terrified the entire meeting, but she composes herself and talks the most. She explains their idea of sending someone with their memories into the maze to confuse the subjects and see how their brains react. She explains how it would be good to put a creator into the maze, so Riddle thinks of including James and Marlene. All throughout, she does her best to speak the same way Riddle does, attempting to outsmart him, beat him at his own game.
Once they’re out the office, all Riddle tells them is “I’ll think about it. Now go on to the camera room and see the new variable that I’ve come up with for today.”
After he’s gone back into his office, Remus faces towards her with pride.
“Lils that was amazing! I have no clue how you stayed calm that whole time, but because of you this might actually work,” he exclaims.
“You didn’t doubt me, did you?” she beams, feeling a lot lighter than she did before. They walk off towards the camera room together, not noticing that behind them someone else also has a meeting with Riddle.
“Ah Peter, I was expecting you today. Do come in.”
***************
“Hey Reg, are you sure you don’t need anything? You barely ate any of your lunch I’m sure I can convince Benjy to let me get you a snack or something from the kitchen,” Sirius asks, all the while fixing Regulus’ blanket and looking for anything he can do to help him.
“I’m fine I promise, you don’t have to stay here all day. You’re going to be bowing down to me soon, which trust me I would love, but you shouldn’t,” Regulus says, attempting a joke but no sign of humour in his face. Regulus doesn’t have the energy to smile right now. He doesn’t even have the energy to exist right now. His leg is in so much excruciating pain ever since his fall last week and he can barely stand at the moment. If he’s honest, he does need Sirius right now to help him both physically and emotionally.
On the first day, after Sirius had found him and woken up the healers to help Regulus, he had to go running, because Kingsley needed to be there to welcome the new greenie and there was no one else to take his place. In those mere few hours that Sirius was gone, Regulus probably seemed insane to everyone else. Regulus feels insane, has been feeling like that for years. But at that moment, he didn’t care what he looked like to anyone. In the first few hours, he wished he had died because of how much pain he was feeling, and he had just laid there, eyes open, not listening to anyone and letting them do whatever because it truly did not matter anymore.
The few hours after that, he sobbed after he realised what he’d done. He felt so guilty, imagining what Sirius was thinking right now and what Barty and Evan would be thinking once they were allowed to see him. He cried for hours, and at one point he wanted to just get away from everyone so he tried getting up but collapsed on the floor. So he just kept crying on the floor, until Fabian, one of the healers, dragged him back up to his bed.
Regulus had stayed in that state for what felt like forever to him. He was grieving something, but he didn’t know what. Grieving the loss of something inside him he never truly had in the first place. Barty and Evan tried to barge their way inside, Barty using the excuse that he was the second in command so could kick Fabian and Gideon off the Cliff if they tried to stop him, but Regulus simply refused to speak to them, was too ashamed to look them in the eye.
But when Sirius came back from running, coming straight up to where Regulus, he couldn’t help but talk. So he talked and talked into the night about everything that’s been going on inside his mind in the past 3 years. He just kept talking, probably cried a little, then talked and cried some more and Sirius just stayed with him the whole time, refusing to leave his side. Sirius was the only person who’s presence could somehow make everything in life seem just a little bit better.
Ever since then, the only moments Sirius has left his side is to get them food and to go to the bathroom, having Kingsley replacing him as runner and Barty as second in command the makeshift leader, which by extension meant Evan as well because those two would rarely be seen apart. When Regulus was still in the infirmary inside the homestead, Sirius got his sleeping bag to sleep in the floor next to him, and once Regulus was fine to go back into their hut Sirius had moved his sleeping bag right next to Regulus'. It was as if he was scared that being away from Regulus for even a second would send him spiraling again, and truth be told it would. But all of this was things that he could never admit to Sirius.
“You know Barty and Evan still want to see you. They still don’t know exactly what happened and they just want to talk to you,” Sirius informs him.
“Well, tell them the next time they can see me is once I’m dead,” Regulus casually states. It’s been a week but he still can’t bring himself to face them. There’s so much he wants to tell them, but that would all require them knowing, and that could never happen.
“You do know you have to start a new job in a few days. You’re not going to rot in here, if anything we have to maintain order in the Glade which, might I remind you, you’re the one who keeps going on about it.” Sirius looks at him with concern in his eyes. Ever since Regulus came up in the maze, Sirius had a felt a sense of protection over him. This boy was like a brother to him, and it hurt Sirius to see him in such a fragile state. It was like after everything he had done, he had still failed to protect him from the horrors of the place they were in. He had failed to care for him enough, and now he had to make up for it.
“I’m sure I can make them all feel sorry enough for me to let me rot in here,” Sirius hears him say.
Then he hears a knocking on the door. It stops for a second then grows more rapid.
“Sirius!” a voice yells out from behind it, in a panicked tone.
In an instant, Sirius is up, opening the door and sees Barty behind it.
“Look if you’re here to see Regulus he really doesn’t want to-”
“I can deal with Regulus later this isn’t about that. Kingsley still hasn’t come back from the maze and look at the time!” Barty anxiously announces.
Sirius checks his watch, a rare thing that only runners get to have.
6:58
Two minutes until the doors close and Kingsley still isn’t back. Fear washes over him, because he knows that unless he was in real danger, Kingsley would be back by now. Kingsley was an even faster runner than him, always finishing his runs within a few hours.
Before he realises it, he’s running towards the door that leads to his typical section that Kingsley would be covering today.
Before following him, Barty glances at Regulus, lying down with a cast on his leg.
“Don’t shut us out. We’ve been with you through everything, so whatever happened that you’re ignoring me and Evan for isn’t going to get rid of us.”
Regulus is frozen, not breaking their eye contact and in that moment he sees how much he’s been hurting Barty. It’s not fair he thinks. I’m just trying to protect you. There are all these things he wants to say to Barty, and just in case he actually does he looks away. Barty sighs, before leaving his hut.
“Wait!” Regulus can’t help himself. “You two are really annoying but I do want to talk to you. I miss you,” he trails off on the last part.
“Sorry can you say that last part again I didn’t hear you,” Barty asks, clearly grinning, before he runs off to go join Sirius.
“Prick,” Regulus mutters under his breath.
And now he’s gone, Regulus is alone once again.
***************
Sirius is anxiously pacing along the east door to the maze, the one that leads to section 3, his section. If Kingsley didn’t make it back, that was all his fault. He’s trying so hard, but somehow Sirius can never save anyone. And in two minutes, if Kingsley isn’t back, that’s another person he can’t save.
6:59
One minute until the doors close, and still no sign of him. That’s until he sees a figure turn the corner into the corridor that leads into the Glade. But he’s not running, he’s walking. One minute until the doors close, and this idiot is walking. Though once he’s close enough, Sirius can tell something’s wrong. Kingsley coughing out random words, but Sirius hears some of it.
“Dementor…stung…help,” Kingsley yells out towards no one in particular, and that’s when Sirius sees the dark black veins on his neck. Suddenly, it all made sense and he knew that if no one helped him, he’d be dead.
So without truly thinking, Sirius runs into the maze. It had to be him- anyone else would have hesitated too much, and he was the fastest runner they had. Adrenaline pumps through him and he reaches Kingsley, attempting to figure out how he could get him back into the maze in time. When he’s close enough, Kingsley tries attacking him and hitting him anywhere he can so it’s a bit of a struggle, but Sirius is determined. He would get Kingsley out, even if it meant he was left behind in there. Trying not to get too close, he grabs both of Kingsley’s wrists, holding them together in one of his hands so they can’t attack him, and runs out of the maze dragging Kingsley behind him. Seconds after they’re inside the Glade, the maze walls start to close.
“Fabian! Gideon! We need help!” Barty yells out, helping Sirius constrain Kingsley. “What happened to him he looks horrendous. So do you by the way but you always do.”
“Barty first of all I look amazing and I always do, second of all this isn’t the time! In the supplies that came today was there any Patronus Serum? He’s been stung,” Sirius pants out, still breathless from getting Kingsley back.
“Oh shit he’s been stung. I don’t know I gave the box of medical supplies to Fab and Gid, I have no clue what was in there,” he admits.
Like they were summoned by those words, the red-haired twins arrive, confused looks on their faces.
“What happened to Kingsley?” they ask, almost in unison.
“He’s been stung you idiots get a vial of Patronus Serum before he bloody dies!” Sirius yells out at them.
But something is wrong. They both exchange knowing glances and Sirius and Barty are equally as confused as each other.
“None came up with the supplies this week. There hasn’t been any for a while now actually, and we ran out a few weeks ago.” Gideon confesses to them.
Instantly, they all turn to look towards Kingsley, who is still thrashing around on the floor being constrained by Barty. There’s a giant cavity in his neck, and you can see the insides that are rotting from the Dementor sting. Black veins are visible all around it, spreading up towards his face and down his shoulders into his arm. They look at the vile condition he is in, knowing they can’t do anything to fix it. Kingsley, who has been their fearless leader, who had taken care of them all, who was a parental figure when they couldn’t remember their own parents. Kingsley was going to die, and Sirius couldn’t save him. Just more blood on his hands.
Suddenly, the thrashing gets even more violent, and Barty calls for one of them to help him. Sirius goes, trying to do what he can to at least protect Barty now. It takes both of their full body weight to keep him down, and Sirius doesn’t know how much longer they can last like this.
“Hand me that shovel over there!” he yells out, and Fabian, the closest to it, throws it towards him. Once he receives it, Sirius hits Kingsley over the head as hard as he can, the others looking at him with shocked faces.
“Well? What did you expect me to do? We need to get him to the healers hut and tie him down.”
In a flurry of movements, the two twins lift him up and towards the hut. That’s it, Sirius thinks. He wants to have hope, but there’s nothing he can do now. There’s no way Kingsley could survive a whole week, even being the strongest one of them.
“Looks like you’re our new leader now,” Sirius reminds Barty.
Barty looks like he’s going to throw up.
***************
This Morning
“Do runners always have to wake up this early?” the new Rosemary who had arrived in the maze around a week ago groaned.
“No, not always, but unless you want to risk dying out in the maze today be quiet Rosie,” Dorcas quips back at her.
Training the new runners was always such a boring experience, but as head runner she was the best person for the job. After all, in the maze it doesn’t matter what she wants- everything everyone does has to be for the good of the Spring.
“I asked you to stop calling me that. My name is Petunia!” she shrieks back.
God that girl has an annoying voice, Dorcas thinks to herself. Of course, she can’t say that because she needs Petunia to like her and agree to this. They were short of runners in the Spring, almost all of them only getting one day off every two weeks, and they were all completely overworked, especially Dorcas. As head runner, and one of the people here longest in the Spring, she’s familiar with the maze and takes up the extra slack of the tired runners. She cares for them all, and would rather it be her going in the maze than any of them. The last day she had gotten a day off was a month ago.
“Okay whatever, just follow me Petunia,” Dorcas orders, rolling her eyes when Petunia can’t see her.
“Why are we going into the manor house? I thought we were supposed to be going into the maze,” Petunia questions.
“So many questions,” Dorcas mutters quietly. Louder, she says, “You need supplies to go into the maze, paper to map it out, weapons, all that kind of stuff.”
“Weapons? What the hell do we need weapons for? Mary said the Thestrals only come out at night!” she exclaims.
Ignoring her, Dorcas continues on to the manor house, the Spring’s slightly falling apart building where most of the Springers slept inside, all except the heads of the jobs who share their own huts. Dorcas was sharing with Mary, their second in command who is both one of the sweetest and toughest people she knew. Mary knows how to defend herself and others, but she also was the one who knew how to cheer people up and comfort them. Dorcas wishes she could do that last part, but her guard was up at all times. She may care, but it’s hard to show it.
“I’m serious, I’m not doing this if those creepy giant bat things are out there!” Petunia continues.
“Don’t worry, they rarely show in the day it’s just a precaution,” Dorcas attempts to reassure her.
Finally they reach the kitchen and Dorcas sees the confused look on Petunia’s face. It’s always enjoyable to her seeing how confused Rosies are after she shows them some of the many secrets of the Spring, this being just one of them.
“What I’m about to show you only runners and the leaders know about. We can’t risk telling anyone else in the Spring,” she announces seriously.
Petunia nods, and Dorcas pushes the fridge to the side to reveal a trap door hidden behind it. Petunia’s bewildered look grows even more as Dorcas opens the door with a key only she and a few others have, and starts to head down the wooden ladder, seeming to lead into a room underground. After getting halfway down, she paused for a second, telling Petunia to follow. Although Petunia is still shocked, she quickly obeys and follows her down the ladder.
Once they reach the bottom, she looks around the room in awe taking it in. At the front of the room is a table with 8 separate stacks of paper and pencils scattered around it. On the sides next to it are dusty shelves filled with clear boxes, inside which hold even more paper, and judging by the amount Petunia can tell they go back for years. At the back is a separate section which she can’t completely see, but from what she can it’s the weapons room, filled with swords and daggers. There’s also cupboards on the side which Dorcas opens, that seem to be filled with trainers and backpacks of all different sizes and colours.
“These are a luxury so you can’t go getting picky with them. You get what you get. Take your shoes off and check what size you are, then pick a weapon and grab some pieces of paper and a pencil. Then the real stuff can begin.”
Petunia does everything she’s told to, grabbing a sharp dagger and running out in her size 6 trainers before grabbing some lunch to put in her bag. Dorcas has to admit, annoying as she is, this girl was good at following orders. That’s the one thing you need to make the Spring work- everyone needs to do their part, and if this girl was doing that, she would be fine.
They start their journey through the maze, Dorcas running slightly slower than her normal speed just to make sure the Rosie can keep up, before she begins to explain the rules of being a runner.
“We are allowed to go into the maze, but all the other rules will still apply. For the first week of your training, you’re not allowed to go into the maze except with me, or another runner that I tell you to go with. Always leave within two hours of the doors opening, and get back an hour before they close if you can. If you don’t it’s your own death wish,” she explains, failing to see how that could possibly scare someone who’s been here for just a week.
Continuing, she tells Petunia ,“When we tell you that you have to run today, don’t try complain or argue. We all get tired but we still do our jobs, that’s how it works here. Don’t slack off running, once again, death wish. You can take a break in the middle for lunch and slow down occasionally but don’t try taking breaks every 5 minutes. Last thing- don’t draw it wrong. We can’t have anyone coming in and fucking up our chance of escaping because they weren’t bothered to rerun a route. Understood?”
“Understood,” Petunia nods her head.
They continue running for hours, Dorcas using her own dagger to cut down the vines from the walls so they know their path back. Dorcas does it effortlessly, however when she orders Petunia to try she has to slow down each time. She becomes better after practicing a bit more, though can never do it as easily as Dorcas makes it look.
Dorcas is thoroughly impressed with this new girl. She keeps up well, even once Dorcas starts to speed up to her regular pace, and although she can be annoying with the questions and complaining, she can see her being a good runner. When she’s running in the maze, nothing ever seems quite as bad. Although it may seem ironic, to Dorcas the maze is the place she feels the most free. Inside the Spring it’s the same four walls, the same people, same gardens, same building. Inside the maze there’s always a different tunnel to explore, and although she’s never found it there’s a chance to escape in there.
They begin their lunch break when Petunia starts walking curiously down a certain corridor.
“What is that down there?” she asks, pointing to silver transparent gateway at the end of it.
“I wouldn’t suggest getting too close. We call that the Void, and if you get within two feet of it, it drags you down into some abyss. Anyone who’s gotten too close is dead,” Dorcas warns her.
The Void is terrifying to her, the thought of being dragged into the unknown the one thought that truly scares her. Petunia doesn’t have time to respond before she sees a giant creature seemingly appearing out of nowhere. The only way she could describe it is as a bony, winged horse, covered in only a thin layer of dark flesh.
“Oh shit run Petunia! We have to run!” Dorcas yells out, making sure Petunia gets ahead of her before following.
The winged creature flies towards them, and their speed is no match for it. Despite making sure Petunia was ahead, she falls behind Dorcas but the Thestral simply flies over her head, barely touching her, and aims for Dorcas. Dorcas is running so fast, faster than she ever has before to get away from this thing, but it just keeps getting closer and closer. It finally gets close enough to touch her, pushing her over onto the ground of the maze and she can do nothing as one of the stingers on it’s wings attempts to sting her. She anticipates the sting, and all the pain that follows but she feels something on top of her, and then the sting never arrives.
***************
Marlene and Peter have been told to watch the maze today for a new variable planned. For Marlene, this is normal, basically her everyday job, but the last time Peter had been told to watch the maze was a few months ago. That day was a massacre inside the maze that she did never wants to talk about.
They’re both watching the maze, observing the brain patterns of certain people who they had been instructed to. They were both waiting in anticipation of something terrible to happen, but it was over halfway through the day and it was just like every other normal day Marlene had seen before. It had been pretty much silence so far, both of them being completely focused on their work, until Peter speaks up.
“Hey Marls, I need to ask you something,” he tells her.
“Go on,” she says normally, thinking he would just be asking her some dumb question.
“Do you really want to go in the maze and fight against WICKED? I mean Dr Riddle basically took us in and saved us, are you willing to go against him? And what about all that they’re doing. If you go into the maze how are we ever supposed to find a cure for the Flare, the world will always be destroyed,” he expresses his thoughts to her, appearing more to be concerned about her.
From these words, Marlene is completely appalled, shocked that he could say something like that. She can’t blame him, knows he’s still brainwashed, but is surprised that after all this time he still is, angry that he doesn’t realise how evil they are.
“You really think they’re going to find a cure? This whole thing has been going on for over three fucking years, so many people have died and yet they’re no where closer to finding a cure than they were at the start. And as for Dr Riddle he couldn’t care less about us, were just pawns in this experiment how do you not see it?” she shouts at him, clearly annoyed by what he said.
“What was the point of all those people dying if we’re just going to give up? Marlene, my mum died from the Flare and WICKED is trying to stop other people from going through that,” he argues, though not yelling she same way she was.
Her voice grows softer at the mention of his mother, because she remembers how traumatised he has been by that. Of course he has every reason to want there to be a cure. But he doesn’t have a reason to not see sense.
“Of course I get that, but imagine if it was you in that maze. Memories wiped, all your friends dying around you and you can’t even do anything because you’re still so young. Imagine your life just being taken away like that,” she tries to make him sympathize with them. She sees Peter pause, clearly deep in thought before he responds.
“You’re right, I think. Their lives are being taken and we have to do something about it,” he admits defeat to her.
Content with herself and Peter, she gives him a small smile before continuing with her own work. She knows it’s going to be a bit awkward with them after that, because she knows she can’t reverse his whole mentality with one conversation. But he was going along with the plan and she could trust him, and that was all she needed.
Her and Peter had grown up together, brother and sister, best friends. They weren’t related, but they might as well have been. From the ages of 9-15 they spent practically every moment together and with James, before their jobs got split up between observing the maze, designing it, helping the kids, and doing all sorts of other jobs for WICKED. The doctors were always strict with them, but after they turned 18 their work stopped being supervised and it was a lot easier for them to go back to the casual way they were before. They were inseparable, and one day all 3 of them would be free, all together. So of course she trusts Peter, because she did not know life without him.
***************
Mary is heading off to get food after her long day of work in the gardens, when she hears a voice that she knows very well yell out.
“Help! Alice, Pandora, we need help get some Patronus Serum she’s been stung!” the voice yells out. Dorcas.
Mary rushes over to her and lying on the floor next to her is their new Rosie who Alice had decided would be fit to be a runner, and Mary knew was starting her training with Dorcas today. She was passed out lying on her stomach, and then Mary saw the rip in her shirt, and brings it up to reveal the gruesome sting in the middle of her back- a Thestral.
“There was one now, in the middle of the day?” she asks confused.
“She protected me…it was going to sting me and she got in the way and I could’ve died in there,” Dorcas gasps out, clearly out of breath and on the verge of tears.
“Shh it’s okay you’ll be fine Pandora will take care of you both,” she assures her. Dorcas looked a mess, grazes on her dark skin, many of them covered in dried blood and her tied up curly hair falling out from all sides.
Suddenly their blonde healer arrives with an injection in her hand, filled with Patronus Serum. Every week, in the box came medical supplies and there were always these vials filled with some serum, labelled Patronus Serum and they had investigated using it for different things, until they realized it would help cure people with a Thestral sting. You would go through the Pensieve as they called it, where it felt like excruciating pain and you regained some of your memories. Mary was one of the few people to go through it, and it was torture.
“Who’s been stung?” she questions in her typical sweet, soft voice, with a hint of urgency.
“Yeah who’s been stung?” a much stronger voice asks behind them- Alice was the leader of the Spring, one of the oldest there and the most responsible.
“The Rosie, her name was Petunia,” Dorcas tells them, seemingly still in shock of what happened.
Finally seeing the sting on her back, Pandora injects the serum into that area. Normally there’s a slight instant change, the black veins turning a dark greenish colour and the person normally screaming out.
Petunia doesn’t scream out loud and writhe in pain when she wakes up.
She wakes up from being passed out and simply says the words “Lily I remember you. You’re not a freak, you’re not a freak.”
She keeps muttering that phrase over and over again, until she passes out a second time, but Mary can’t help but pay attention to the first part. The name Lily had triggered something in her, a sense of familiarity, like she knew Lily, except she didn’t know Lily. But that sense of familiarity kept lingering, feeling like something more than that, like maybe she’s just remembered a friend from a past life.
But she forgets about that, once she realises that the dark veins in Petunia’s back have not changed colour, and still continue to spread. Petunia is passed out, not screaming in pain. The serum didn’t work.
**************
Lily is watching it all through the camera, and the final straw is when Petunia doesn’t change. She stays there unaffected as the cure is put through her, because of course it doesn’t work on someone non- immune like her.
“She’s going to die,” Lily whispers to Remus next to her. Not saying it sadly, angrily, just as a statement. Remus just hugs her as she stands there, completely motionless.
“Marlene it’s all my fault,” James whispers to her, on the verge of tears after she has told him about what happened to Kingsley. “All my fault.”