The Aftermath (part 1)
The halls of Hogwarts are empty as Minerva Mcgonagall, one of the transfiguration professors and head of Gryffindor, takes her daily walk to visit her long-time partners, Pomona Sprout and Poppy Pompfrey, in their respective offices. Normally, the silence of the castle would concern her, since her three most… rambunctious… students have had her route memorized since their third year. They’re geniuses, even if at least two are in detention at any given time.
The peace is broken by hoarse screaming, Mcgonagall frowns as she hurries towards the noise, wand at the ready. That voice- it’s the voice of one of Sirius’s younger brothers- the one in ravenclaw-!
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” the words ring out, followed by a painful cough. Mcgonagall can almost taste the outrage and disgust in the fifth-year’s voice. “YOU’RE JUST LEAVING HIM THERE TO DIE?!” He shouts again, words clearer now. She wouldn’t be surprised if the walls shook from the rage in his worn out voice. But what did he mean by that? Who did the order leave to die?! She rounds the corner, eyes falling upon ten or so order members, few she recognized, many she did not, carrying Hydrus Black, who was wrapped up in a thick blue blanket, to the hospital wing. Was there a mission she wasn’t made aware of? She rushes in after them, brows knit with worry.
“YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE GOOD GUYS” He screams, thrashing in his confinements as the member carrying him sets him onto a bed. The rest of his cries are unintelligible, heavy sobs and sharp gasps for air cutting through his words as the order members crowd around him, unsure of what to really do. It’s clear they’re just making things worse. “Out. Out of my way.” She demands, voice authoritative and domineering as she pushes her way through the throng “You’re just making things worse-! Go wait outside.” She orders, using magic to fill the cup on the bedside table with water. The order members trip over themselves to leave, their orders were to just get Hydrus out and to the hospital wing, nothing more.
Mcgonagall sits down on the bed “Shh, shhh, you’re safe now. I have water for you, just take deep breaths” she soothes, unwrapping the blanket and gritting her teeth, she covers him back up. “Poppy? POPPY!” She calls out, the nurse running from her office “Oh gods- Minnie I didn’t expect you so soon- I was just getting the- oh shit what happened-”
Pompfrey comes to a halt at Hydrus’s bedside, eyebrows knit with worry. “Minerva…” “Get him spare masculine clothing, large sizes, I’ll sit with him until then.” Her voice is firm, but the shakiness is there just under the surface. Pompfrey nods and rushes off while Mcgonagall comforts Hydrus, soothing him while he clutches the cup in a vice-like grip. “You don’t have to tell me what happened in detail, but please tell me what you know. It’s important, honey..” Hydrus shakes his head, taking a sip “I- I begged… I b-begged an-and p-pleaded w-with her… sh-she’s h-h-heartless- ” he stutters out, violently trembling- “sh-she still f-forced h-him upon m-m-me”
Mcgonagall’s heart drops as Pompfrey returns with the clothes, the transfiguration professor’s jaw clenched as a primal rage fills her to her very core. “Who is she , honey?” Mcgonagall asks gently, hands shaking while Pompfrey closes the curtains. “M-mother…” he whispers out, more hot, salty tears streaming down his cheeks as sobs wrack his body once more, Mcgonagall gently rests her hand on the crying boy’s shoulder. “I promise you, Hydrus. That vile, vile excuse for a woman will pay for what she’s done.” She murmurs as Pompfrey stands next to him “Now let’s get you into more comfortable clothing, okay?” The nurse murmurs, Hydrus shakily nodding “p-please g-go r-rescue A-Ar…” He mumbles, taking another sip of water “Th-They left him to d-di-die-”
Minerva stands and squeezes his hand “I promise you, Arminus isn’t going to die. Not if I have a say in this.” She assures him, exchanging a look with Pompfrey. She was not to let any adult she did not trust in to see Hydrus. Poppy doesn’t ask questions when she sees the state Hydrus is in underneath the thick blanket, simply nodding as Mcgonagall leaves. She marches out of the infirmary and walks with a vengeance to the headmaster’s office, the gargoyles that guard it stepping aside. Magical or not, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of Minerva Mcgonagall’s wrath. “ARMANDO!” She shouts, scaring the headmaster out of his chair. “MERLIN- Yes Minerva-?” He asks, voice trailing off when he sees the look on her face. “Gather your things, we have a critically injured student to collect.” She orders, the headmaster rushing to his feet to grab his things. “Who’s the student?” he asks, putting on his coat.
Mcgonagall looks over her shoulder from her spot at the door, “Arminius Calico.” She states simply, walking out of his office. Dippet hurries after her, eyes wide with panic
“A-Arminius C-C-Calico?!” he hurries after her, a curt nod the only confirmation he gets. “Wh-where is he?!” the headmaster stutters out, tucking his wand into the inside pocket of his worn, dark blue jacket. “We’ll find someone to lead us to him.” Her voice is firm, her rage cold and simmering just beneath the skin. Armando Dippet, Hogwarts headmaster, simply nods. He’s too afraid to do anything other than that.
She returns to the outside of the hospital wing, headmaster in tow, and begins to try to get information from the order members milling about near the doors. The older ones she doesn’t recognize don’t even bother to dignify her questions with answers, the ones she does recognize apologetically tell her it’s their orders not to say. She’s all but ready to storm out and find him herself when the tall, thin, blonde nurse’s assistant approaches, hand resting on a young man’s shoulder- he looks barely a day over eighteen, and very worried. “Tell her what you told me, Pyxis-” he murmurs, pushing him forwards a bit. Pyxis, a rather skinny boy with long arms and even longer legs, fidgets with the loose thread on the end of his black coat… something is clearly wrong. His voice shakes when he starts to speak.
“T-There was a boy, hardly fifteen, with pale hair, blue-blue eyes, and he looked really fucked up- h-he was passed out when we fucking got there- I looked him over before Hallows over there told me to leave it… b-but it was surprising that he didn’t die in that basement.” He takes a breath, just as shaky as his voice, and continues. “A-all of his bones looked broken… he was in real bad shape. I-If I didn’t see this weird bracelet on his wrist, I would say that he was being actively struck by fuckin lightning with how he was shaking” He takes a deep breath, visibly trembling as he stops speaking. “And the location, Pyxis-?” Crypt prompts, gently resting a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “W-We were sent to number three west walburrow street, it’s an old property of the Blacks, some old f-family line or whatever- listen he’s going to die if he hasn’t died already- we need to hurry-”
Mcgonagall and Dippet nod, apparating away. Crypt rolls his eyes and apparates himself and Pyxis to the front lawn of number three west walburrow street, where they’re met with a grizzly sight..
. . .
When Crypt and Pyxis reach the lawn… it’s not good. Dippet is frozen in place, Mcgonagall is casting protective charms and clearly holding back sobs… and then there’s Calico..
The boy’s practically white hair has turned red from the injuries on his head and face, blood sluggishly trickles from the corners of his mouth, and he’s whiter than a goddamn bedsheet… can’t say the same for his normally pristine clothes. They’re torn, tattered even, and the boy’s own blood is starting to stain his soaked shirt, bruises and gashes covering his exposed torso.
Crypt rushes over with Pyxis, who looks like he’s going to vomit. Calico’s face wasn’t spared from the carnage either, the skin of a few areas was completely gone, but that’s an easy fix. A patchwork of swelling and bruises covered the boy’s entire body, not to mention there were bones sticking out of his arms. Crypt shakes his head, dropping into a kneel and whipping out his wand, he moves it over the most pressing matters, Calico’s torso and neck. The limbs and face could wait, he has to get his lungs empty of fluid and this dumbass breathing again.
Pyxis tries not to look at the open gash on Calico’s face, but it’s hard to look away from such a sickening sight. The blood was a bright scarlet, a stark difference from the boy’s paper-white skin, his teeth and gums, seemingly having switched colors, on full display. The wound itself is gruesome… to say the least. Arminius’s skin hangs off of the area in flaps, the edges torn and tattered. Textured, ragged flesh sticking to the skin, exposed to the torrential rain. Further up, it’s a complete, utter mess. No skin to be found on either side of the wound, the interior, lit by a flash of lightning, is a never-ending pit of bright, flowing scarlet. The blood unable to dry because of the pelting rain, it retains its scarlet color as the hole left when muscle, flesh, and skin was torn away filled with rainwater. It makes him want to vomit.
Crypt casts aside his wand and places his hands directly onto the wound, the undersides glowing a faint green as he unblinkingly stares, so focused that he might as well be working in a vacuum. Something is off, though, when he yelps. Electric shocks flowing through his hands and rendering him incapacitated for a few precious seconds. That fucking bracelet. “PICK UP WHERE I LEFT OFF” Crypt shouts to Pyxis over the din of the storm, searching Calico’s wrists for the accursed thing. There. On his right wrist. Crypt clenches his teeth and grabs his knife from his belt. The bracelet was constricting on his already, for lack of a better word, obliterated wrist, his hand turning purple from the loss of circulation as well as the dozens of fractured bones and destroyed muscles laying underneath the thin layer of skin that remains.
Crypt grits his teeth as he heals Calico’s right hand with his own, using his left to work the tip of the knife through the top of the steel wiring of the bracelet. He doesn’t make much progress, it isn’t exactly easy to cut through metal with a knife, but he gets far enough that the bracelet sparks and emits this shrieking heard above the rolling thunder, emitting a shock so powerful Crypt and Pyxis are caught in the wave. Afterwards, the shocks get significantly weaker, like the type you get when your friend has been shuffling about on carpeting with socks for a few minutes, and the bracelet loosens enough to still remain on his wrist, but not enough that his circulation is cut off once more.
Pyxis is still shaking as he tries to work on Calico’s legs, the boy’s healed fingers twitching slightly as Crypt, bleeding from the mouth and only having taken a few seconds to recover, works his way up Arminius’s arm in record time. A look of cold, silent determination makes its home on the blonde’s face as he reaches Arminius’s collarbones, the boy’s brilliant blue eyes, the scleras red due to broken blood vessels, popping open.
His eyes are glazed over as Crypt leans over to look into them, but they soon sharpen with panic as Arminius desperately tries to squirm away. “P-P-Please-! N-No! F-Father-!” He whimpers, fresh tears streaming from the corners of his eyes. “P-Please! I-I saved him! D-Don’t put me in the c-cl-closet again! P-Please..!” Arminius succeeds in sitting up, scooting away on his barely healed legs and very broken left arm, right arm brandishing his wand “I-I’ll hex you! I’ll really do it this time, I swear!” He shouts, waving it wildly as he backs into a tree, breaths sporadic due to his panicked sobs. Dippet shakes out of his trance at this, eyes wide with horror as the impact of the boy’s words hit. He looks over to the woman, his best teacher, and trusted advisor, standing next to him. A look of complete, unadulterated, primal r a g e painted across her normally so measured face. “I promise you this, Armando.” She looks over to her boss, “Timothy Calico will not take another breath of this planet’s air if I ever find him after tonight.”
Dippet nods, a bit anxiously, as their medics approach. Crypt goes in front, Arminius sobbing and clutching his wand for dear life “Whitetail- WHITETAIL!” Crypt calls out over the storm, shielding his eyes from the rain “WHITETAIL IT’S ME-”
That nickname… that voice… he knew it from somewhere. Somewhere safe, where his parents had no eyes or ears… but the panic soon took over again. “N-No! Y-You can’t trick me! I won’t go! Y-You can't make me!” He’s shaking again, limbs about ready to give up again. Pyxis is closer too, now. His eyes, filled with horror and anger at this boy’s parents, squinted against the rain. How the fuck Crypt was seeing is a mystery to him, the only glimpses of the panicking teen coming with the flashes of lightning, followed by the low, imposing thunder.
Crypt is crouching nearby, shouting something to the boy. Arminius is shaking his head at the words, continuing his hoarse screams and pleas, Pyxis doesn’t want to think about what his father must do if he’s more afraid of him than who did this to him… and that bracelet… was that from this boy’s father, too? He casts an umbrella charm, looking over his shoulder right as lightning flashes once more. A twisted, smiling face is lurking just beyond the barriers, the wicked, haunting laughter of a deranged and delusional woman just barely audible over the storm. By the next flash of lightning she was gone, and, in his panic, so was Arminius.
Pyxis looks around, his own anxiety setting in as Mcgonagall and Dippet survey the scene. Fuck! Where was he?! Crypt shows up out of nowhere “C’mon. He’s probably gone to the one goddamn place he feels completely safe.” The tall blonde grips Pyxis’s shoulder, soaked fabric squelching slightly. “Wh-Where is that..?” “Hydrus’s dorm.”
“ Oh Merlin ” Pyxis thinks as Crypt begins to apparate them away “ as if things couldn’t get any worse- Dumbledore’s going to have my head- ”