Fourth Year
“Mary!” Lily calls out in a sing-song voice, drawing open the curtains and letting light into the room. It’s mid-afternoon, and far too bright, so Mary rolls over in her bed and buries her face in a pillow with an exaggerated groan.
“Leave me here, I don’t want to get out of bed,” Lily tuts and Mary feels the bed dip before Lily’s hand rubs up and down her back reassuringly. All it does is make Mary want to cry more.
“C’mon Mary, I know it’s a Saturday but you still need to get up,” Lily’s voice is soft, and she’s clearly trying to be supportive and kind but Mary doesn’t think she can deal with it right now. It’s too much, all she wants is to curl up in her mother’s arms and sob but she’s stuck over 5 hours away with no way home and no way to contact her family more than once a week.
Her shoulders tense under Lily’s grip and the other girl can clearly tell something is up. Lily moves away slightly, adjusting to see Mary’s face and frowning at the crestfallen expression smushed against the pillow.
“What’s wrong?” Lily looks at her with such tenderness that it makes Mary break, her
shoulders shake as loud sobs escape, tears falling as she curls further into her bed. Lily pulls her in, letting Mary’s head rest on her lap while she wipes the tears.
“It’s okay, we’ll figure it out,” Lily whispers reassuringly, trying to get Mary to even out her breathing and calm down enough to at least explain what the issue is. They lay like that for a few minutes, Mary trying frantically to match Lily’s breathing, Lily muttering words of comfort, a clear line of worry creasing her forehead, but Mary manages to be calm enough to focus on the world around her.
“That’s it, you’re okay, we’re okay,” Mary pushes herself away, suddenly feeling very embarrassed and guilty for her reaction. She tucks her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around herself as much as she can, facing away from Lily.
“I’m sorry, you can go, I know you’re supposed to be meeting your study group,” Mary tries to keep her voice stable, but she’s painfully aware of the break in her voice. Mary can’t see her face, but she can practically feel the worry in Lily’s expression, radiating off of her and smacking into Mary like a tidal wave.
“I can blow it off this once, I’m worried about you Mare,”
“Please leave, I ca- I can’t do this right now,” Lily lets out a sigh, clearly torn on whether to leave Mary alone as she requested or to push and be there to support her anyway.
“You don’t have to talk, but I’m staying,”
Mary fights back a sob, a pathetic whining noise escaping as she tries to balance the overwhelming amount of feelings tearing at her chest. It’s been a long time since she’s hated the part of her that brings her to this school, but right now, if she could claw it out of her skin she would.
“It’s my brother, Sam” Mary breaths out, keeping her voice quiet as if speaking this aloud makes it real, “McGonogall told me yesterday, he’s been hurt, badly,”
Lily moves across the space, wrapping her arms against Mary’s shoulders, not saying anything, not pushing Mary to explain but allowing her to decide what she wants others to know.
“I can’t even see him, or get any updates, he got hit by a car and no one could even tell me for two days,” Mary’s body shakes with the force of her sobs, her voice mumbles as she twists to bury her head in Lily’s shoulder. They sit like that for a while, Mary tries to come to terms with the fact that she’ll have to wait days if not weeks for an update and Lily tries to think of a way to help.
Mary grabs the letter off of her nightstand, three pages of writing, and smoothes it out, reading it aloud. She barely even had to look at the page, she’s clearly read it over and over already.
“I know you won’t be able to come and visit,” Mary’s voice breaks, and she raises and hand to press her fingers to her lips in an attempt to stop herself from breaking down again. “But he is at the Lakeside Pavillion Hospital,”
“Wait I know that place,” Lily interrupts, thinking of a reason she would know, it’s not like she lives anywhere near Mary. “I have a plan, I’ll be back,”
Lily gets up and leaves the room, ignoring the confused splutter from Mary and the way it makes her heart clench painfully, she has a way to help.
Lily knows the hospital, one of the people in her study group ran away from his parents and moved in with his cousin, and her husband, who is a nurse at said hospital. This boy also rooms with and is very close friends with the biggest contraband smuggler in the school, who will definitely have what she needs.
“Reg, I need your help,” Lily ambushes him as he exits the library after the study session she was supposed to be at.
“Oh, so you are alive, thanks for letting us know you weren’t showing up,” Lily rolls her eyes at Regulus’ dramatic behaviour, she loves it but right now she just needs to sort this out and get back to Mary. He looks at her properly and she must look dishevelled and nervous because Regulus’ brow creases in concern. “What is it?”
“You know your cousin, the one whose husband is a nurse,”
“I am familiar with them, yes,” Lily stops them in the hallway, grabbing both of Regulus’ arms and getting him to face her so she can properly explain her plan.
“I need your help to get to that hospital,” Regulus doesn’t respond for a minute, clearly lost in thought.
“You don’t even live near them? Why would you need to go there?”
“I don’t, Mary does. I can’t explain too much but her brother’s there and she can’t contact anyone regularly.” Regulus agrees almost instantly, without even hearing the plan.
“Okay, what can I do,”
“If we found a way to get to the hospital, could you ask them to help us get in to visit her brother, his name is Samuel.” Regulus nods, thinking it over while Lily tries to come up with a way to get to the hospital.
“The fireplaces here are connected to the floo network,” Regulus offers, but Lily just stares at him blankly, she doesn’t even know what that means. Regulus rolls his eyes, muttering under his breath about the stupidity of the education system.
“I can send you from here to Andromeda’s house via the fireplaces, go grab the book ‘Transport in Wizarding History’ the 1964 version, not the 1899 one and read up on it. I’ll meet you outside your common room in an hour with the floo powder.” He walks away, lifting a hand to wave lazily as Lily calls thanks after him.
☆☆☆☆
“It’s ridiculous really, having the student fireplaces connected to the floo network,” Regulus drawls, rolling his eyes as he sets it up, casting a spell to remove the tracing charm, allowing Mary enough time to visit her brother and come back before anyone even notices. “But Hogwarts isn’t known for its security, and it can be useful,”
He turns to Mary and hands her a small pot of green powder, there’s not much and Mary is slightly wary, she’s never used this before, and it’s nerve-wracking. In the muggle world, they have cars and trains, in the magical they have a green powder that transports you across the country through fire? She’s right to be cautious.
“Just throw a pinch of this in the fire, step in and read the address written here,” Regulus folds a piece of paper into Mary’s other hand, “You’re going to my cousin Andromeda’s, she’ll side-apparate you to the hospital and then help you back afterwards, I already spoke to her, she’s waiting for you,”
“Thank you Reg, I owe you, big time,” Lily smiles at him and squeezes his arm, moving past to grab the paper from Mary and read over the instructions he wrote down.
Mary isn’t really sure what comes over her but she rushes forward, wrapping her arms around the younger boy. He stiffens in her grip, clearly not sure what’s happening, but pats her on the back awkwardly a couple of times. She wipes her tears when she steps back and looks at Regulus with a wide smile she hopes conveys her gratitude.
“Thank you,” Mary could stand there for hours talking about how grateful she is, but it’s already taking everything in her to not run all the way to her brother’s side so she settles for thanking him further when they get back.
“It’s your brother,” Regulus shrugs like it’s’ obvious, he would’ve helped if it meant walking Mary to the hospital doors. She makes a mental note to hug him again later and steps into the fireplace, calling out the address and trying not to scream as she feels a strong tug behind her sternum, dragging her through a dark compact tunnel before shooting her out onto the floor.
Mary coughs, pushing herself up from when she fell flat onto the carpet. There’s a quiet laugh, and Mary’s eyes dart over, catching on a tall woman who watches her with a gentle glow in her eyes.
“First time?” she questions, walking over and extending a hand to help her up. Mary grabs it gratefully, pulling herself to stand and dusting off her clothes. “I’m Andromeda, you must be Mary,”
Mary nods cautiously, waiting for Lily to appear, slightly worried that it’s taking so long. Andromeda must notice this because she rolls her eyes at the fireplace and places a hand on Mary’s shoulder.
“Reggie is probably just being overly careful, the first time he used the floo his brother landed on top of him and broke his arm, he’s been paranoid ever since.” The woman laughs fondly, reminiscing as she tries to make Mary feel better. It doesn’t work, all Mary can think about is her brother, and how close she is to seeing him again.
Lily tumbles through the fireplace, landing much more gracefully than Mary did. She’s on her feet, for one, and doesn’t even seem fazed by the journey. Lily smiles, wandering over and extending her hand to greet Andromeda, who smiles back like they’ve known each other for years.
“Now, you must be eager to get to the hospital,” Andromeda starts, gesturing for them to follow her. She exits the room, leading them down the corridor to the kitchen. “My husband, Ted, works there and is sorting everything out for you now,”
Mary doesn’t want to be rude, but she can’t find it in her to say anything right now. Lily seems to notice, bumping their shoulders together and speaking to Andromeda quietly. None of it registers to Mary until there’s a quiet pop outside and Andromeda claps her hands together.
“That will be Ted, are you two ready to go?” Mary nods enthusiastically, already following Andromeda out to the garden. Ted walks over to greet them by the back door, pressing a kiss to Andromeda’s temple before coming to shake Mary’s hand.
“Okay, I’m going to side-apparate us just down the road from the hospital,” Ted explains after a brief introduction, “You’ll be able to see your brother for an hour, and then I’ll bring you back here to floo back to Hogwarts.”
“Thank you, we really appreciate it,” Mary speaks up, her voice weak with hope and fear as they both grab onto one of Ted’s arms. He nods, smiling at her before counting down from three, and then there’s another sharp tug pulling on them, expelling them into a dark alleyway.
They walk in silence, taking less than a minute to get to the hospital entrance. Mary can feel her heart trying to beat out of her chest as they sign in and make their way up to her
brother's room.
Despite all of her desperation to get here and see her brother, Mary hesitates outside the door. Her hands rest on the handle, all she has to do is push it and she’ll be able to see her brother, alive and safe, resting up. Somehow it makes it all seem too real, like if she wasn’t here he wasn’t hurt, she could tell herself that he was fine and be reassured but now, he’s hurt and she can’t stop that.
Lily places a hand on Mary’s shoulder, grounding her, and reminding her that everything is going to be okay. It gives Mary the push she needs to open the door and enter.
Samuel, Mary’s youngest brother, the one she remembers holding in the hospital the day he was born, his eyes wide a bright looking up at her in awe. The one that clung to her long skirts, babbling and mumbling nonsense as he learnt how to talk, the boy she taught how to tie his shoelaces and read to when he had nightmares.
He lies unconscious in a bed in front of her, an array of wires connecting to him. One is monitoring his heart rate, and another administering fluids, some of which she doesn’t know the meaning of but trusts are there to help him.
There’s a chair next to the bed that Mary collapses into, a pained whine escaping her throat when she sees the slight twist of pain in her brother’s face while he rests. She strokes a hand over his hair, trying to provide any sense of comfort she can, breathing out harshly in relief when he twists slightly to lean into her touch.
“Is he, how,” She stumbles over her words, unsure what to say, nervous to hear the answers. “Is he going to be okay,”
“He’s going to need some rest, and a lot of TLC but he’ll be okay,” Ted nods reassuringly from the doorway, “He had a minor surgery and has 37 stitches but we are confident that there won’t be any lasting effects. It’ll scar, but he’ll be okay.”
Mary sobs, clutching Sam’s hand like it’s a lifeline, fighting every urge in her to grab him and cradle him like he’s still a newborn. She has felt more guilt than she ever thought she could feel for not being here for him, for not even knowing he was okay until she ran away from school.
“C’mon, let's give them a little space,” Ted gestures for Lily to follow him out of the room, “We’ll go to the cafe, Mary when you’re ready, come meet us downstairs,”
Lily rushes over to wrap her arms around Mary briefly and murmur a quick get well soon message to Sam, before traipsing out of the room behind Ted, sending concerned looks over her shoulder the whole way.
Mary sits with her brother for an hour and a half. Yes, she was only supposed to stay there for an hour, but this is her baby brother, she would’ve stayed there until he left the hospital if she could, however, she is aware that they will be checking everyone is back in their common rooms for curfew in less than 30 minutes so they need to get back before it's obvious they aren’t in school.
She walks down slowly, dragging her feet and wiping away tears. When she eventually finds the reception area with the help of two different doctors who give her directions with a sympathetic look and pat on the shoulder.
Mary hadn’t even noticed how exhausted she was until she pushed through the heavy doors, her eyes catch on the bright red of Lily’s hair, and her nervous smile as she talks to Ted. All Mary wants to do is run and collapse in Lily’s arms, fall asleep and pray this is all over by the time she wakes up.
Mary moves towards them, and Lily notices, running over to meet her halfway, wrapping her arms around Mary tightly. The air leaves Mary’s lungs once more, an overwhelming feeling of love pounding at her chest as she thinks about how much Lily means to her and the sheer amount of love she holds in her heart for Lily.