Fuck you, Potter

The thunder clashes as lightning strikes. Bright, white, burning light illuminating the terrified prodigy as he squeezes his wand in his hand, his breath seeming to have run out. His mind races, eyes darting from figure to figure as he tries to think his way out, there are so many voices…

Laughter, demented, delusional laughter rings out… at least he thinks it does- It’s hard to tell. His vision swims as he spots the leering… terrifying… face at the edge of the boundary. He shouldn’t be able to see this far… Why are his teeth cold?

“ST-STAY BACK! D-DON’T TOUCH ME!” his shaky voice hoarse and terrified. His words are drowned by the following thunder as he grabs his wand, shakily apparating away as panicked sobs wrack his broken body. One thing about being the upcoming greatest wizard of all time, you tend to be good at magic. So good, in fact, that nobody notices when you apparate away. 

At least, nobody is supposed to. The ones of the group who didn’t notice the young, should-be-dead prodigy apparate away begin to panic, while the ones who saw him vanish apparate away to the place he’s most likely to be.

They have no way of knowing where the hell he was, or if the healing had worked.

To say they’re worried would be an understatement.

.       .       .

He cries out as he lands on the plush rug in Hydrus’s room, the soft material doing little to cushion his full weight as he collapses on the floor, violently coughing up blood as he scoots up against the bed. “F-Fuck-!” He splutters, choking and wheezing on his own damn blood.

A new pool begins to form underneath him, unsurprisingly, it’s from his face and very very broken limbs. He begins to go into shock as he really starts to see the damage, those are his bones sticking out of his legs… he can’t even move without excruciating agony shooting like… like- “shit-” he thinks, trying to hold in the coughs- “I can’t even think of a descriptor- this is bad. Really fucking bad.”

A familiar, sweet voice calls from down the hall “Ari-? Ari, are you back-?”

Fuck.

He tries to respond, but he practically projectile-vomits blood all over Hydrus’s rug… he really owes him a new rug-

The horrified face of Lavender Calico appears in the doorway, hands wrung in front of her blue, star-covered pajamas. “ARI?!” She shouts, hot, terrified tears sliding down her reddening cheeks. 

He can’t bear to have her see him in such a state, not again. The door slams right in her face, the lock clicking as she rattles the handle “ARI!” it seems to be the only word she can manage as she pounds on the door, “ARI! ARI!!”

He wishes it wouldn’t hurt the ones he loved, him accepting what, in his mind, he deserved for not being able to stop Hydrus’s abduction and subsequent… experience. He’s going to be the greatest wizard of all time, and he couldn’t even save a single fucking person? His father is right. Arminius coughs as he continues to bleed out, hating how weak he felt for crying, hell- hating himself.

He really was some useless waste of nine months. Can’t even fucking heal himself. The banging on the door gets louder… heavier… it’s drifting away from him.

“Is this it?” He thinks, eyes unfocused and vision blurry, “Is this how I die? A worthless disgrace?”

He thinks back to the order members carrying Hydrus away, he should be in the hospital wing. “Far away from me. Good. He shouldn’t have to look at me. Fucking let it happen… useless… worth…less”

He slumps forwards, his body having finally given up on him. This wasn’t the first time he had pushed himself too far, but the young prodigy had never pushed himself quite this far before. Merlin knows it won’t be the last time he did this, either.

God-fucking-damnit.

.       .       .

Bang… bang… bang Crypt coughs, his ribs and shoulder aching as he slams himself against the door, sweat beading at his hairline as he hisses. He was going to break in this door. No matter what. “ARI” Lavender practically screams, hands gripping at the ends of her hair. She couldn’t lose her brother- she couldn’t- shecouldn’tshecouldn’tshecouldn’tsh- “Hey, Lavender right?” A voice cuts into her panicked thoughts, gentle, soft, and soothing like her namesake. She nods a bit, her eyes darting everywhere, like her brother, she doesn’t seem to like eye contact.

Pyxis gently leads her away from the door, hands lightly resting on her trembling shoulders, as he struggles to find the words to say. “Okay Pyxis” he thinks, leading her a few feet away “you got this, you went through training for this” 

“You're his younger sister right?” Pyxis asks, voice gentle. Lavender nods, she can’t seem to take her eyes off the door as Crypt tries to break through, the hinges getting looser with every go. 

“So what’s his favorite food?” Pyxis asks, trying his best to distract the crying girl from the situation unfolding before them. “He likes fried doughnuts. Sometimes fried dough with strawberries…” Lavender mutters, fidgeting with the sleeves of her pajamas as Pyxis smiles a bit before speaking. “I like fried dough too”

“Does he have an animagus form?” He asks, tilting his head a bit as he leans against the wall. “M-Mhm… he’s a white fox. Sometimes when mum and dad are busy we play together in the woods.” Lavender murmurs, taking deep breaths in order to calm herself down. Pyxis smiles at her again as Mcgonagall and Dippet do crowd control downstairs, Crypt finally getting the door off its hinges.

The marauder’s make their way to each other through the crowd downstairs. They’re looking amongst themselves as they begin to chatter. “What’s going on you think?” James asks. “Is Hydrus back? They seem to be trying to get into his room.” Remus responds, looking over to James.“That can’t be right. Hydrus is in the hospital wing, and will be for a while, why would they be trying to get into his room?” Sirius thinks, staring at the stairs.This whole thing felt off, something was wrong.

Lavender was the first to run into the room, tears flowing freely once more when she gets a good look at her brother. Crypt steps back, clutching his arm with a small groan, dazed gray gaze fixed on Calico as Lavender runs over to her brother and drops to her knees, desperately trying to shake his limp body awake, but to no avail. Her hysterical sobs fill the small room, small hands covered in her brother’s blood. “ARI!! PLEASE WAKE UP!!” She cries, her tears falling onto his robes. 

Pyxis and Crypt are the next to run in, the darker-haired of the two gently moving Lavender to the side while Crypt’s palms glow, sweat beading at his temples as he takes on the pain of the injuries he’s healing. “A-ARI-!” Lavender’s voice is growing hoarse as she clings onto her brother’s hand, desperately trying to get him to wake up…

Once his condition was stabilized, Crypt scoops the dying Calico into his arms, rushing downstairs. Pyxis and Lavender could barely keep up, given the fact he was going down two at a time.

The ravenclaw common room falls silent in a matter of seconds when they see the young prodigy, a goddamn child genius, nearly dead in the mysterious slytherin’s arms. “...Holy shit-” the voice of James Potter rings out, loud and shocking against the stunned silence of the common room… though the silence doesn’t last for long. Chaos erupts after Potter speaks, students swarming in every direction possible in such an enclosed space. 

“Fucking hell, Potter-” Crypt mutters, Pyxis gently taking Lavender’s hand to lead her through the crowd, not wanting her to get lost in the fray.

Crypt slips past Mcgonagall, who’s trying to corral the students back into a state of peace, and out of the common-room, Pyxis following close behind with Lavender. Now the real challenge was getting to the infirmary before Arminius bled out…

Crypt breaks into a full-blown sprint, Pyxis and Lavender once more struggling to keep up with his long strides.

He wasn’t letting this little shit die in his arms tonight. Not if he can help it.

.       .       .

Crypt bursts into the infirmary, Pomfrey nearly jumping out of her skin as her tall assistant rushes to one of the beds with a student in his arms. “Crypt..? What’s-?” She begins to ask, following Crypt and stopping abruptly at the end of the bed he had set the student on. “Holy shit…” She murmurs, springing into action as a tall young man with black hair runs up with a second-year student in tow.

 “ARI!” The second year screams, letting go of Pyxis’s hand and sprinting over to her brother, skidding to a halt and grabbing his limp hand in an iron grip “ARI! Ari I know you’re still in there you fuck- please- please don’t leave me,” her words are broken by yet another sob, “Don’t you dare give up on me! Stay alive! P-please-!” Lavender grips Arminius’s hand tighter, her hands shaking with the force of her grip, tears of both pain and terror falling onto the bloody, dirt-stained hands of her brother. 

“Fuck-!” Crypt mutters, his hands beginning to shake as the pain from Calico’s wounds started to get to him… he couldn’t stop healing the boy. Arminius could die, and Crypt’s healing was the only thing keeping him from death’s embrace. “How- how was he walking?” he thinks, lips pulled into a tight line and his face pale as sweat drips from his hairline. “Both his legs, broken, both his arms- his ribs- fuck! And then that fucking bracelet won’t stop-” he grits his teeth, hands moving closer to the bracelet, “I can’t take it- is this the kind of pain that causes him to constantly move his hands? To always be writing? How does he just take it?!” Crypt takes a shaky inhale as he fishes his pocket knife out of his pants pocket, murmuring an old norse incantation that one of his aunts taught him over the rune-covered blade.

The runes glow the low fiery orange of hot metal, the blade letting off a low hum as Crypt brings it to the metal of that merlin-forsaken bracelet. The charms and spells welded into the metal of the bracelet spark and hiss before the ancient magic, the metal warping and shrinking back from Crypt’s pocket knife. “That’s right you fucking bastard” he thinks, touching the blade to the bracelet itself, the impossibly old magic overpowering it’s modern counterpart with ease as the bracelet’s enchantments melt away, leaving the bracelet just an ugly, warped decoration. “You can’t hurt him anymore”

After this Crypt has to step away, taking deep breaths while he violently shakes. “Fuck-” he mutters, bracing himself against the wall as Pyxis takes over, using his wand to heal Arminius while Crypt recovered. “Fucking- holy goddamn hell-” He internally hisses, clutching his ribs- “how did he even make it out of there?!” Crypt launches himself off the wall, gently nudging Pyxis out of the way as he takes over again, palms glowing that soothing green once more.

Crypt’s breathing gets heavier as Arminius’s bones shift back into place, fusing together as the wound heals above. Soon Crypt moves back to Arminius’s torso, Pomfrey stepping in to perform more traditional healing magic on Arminius’s legs as Hydrus looks on from his hospital bed in horror. “Crypt-” Pomfrey murmurs, the tall blonde beginning to sway, his vision blurry and spinning as he shakes his head, “I know what you’re gonna say, Poppy, I’m fine.”

She scoffs “Like bloody hell you are-” She mutters in response, setting the fifth-year’s leg and magicking the bone back in- “You look almost as bad as him.”

Crypt just huffs, clenching his teeth against the bile rising in his throat as he mends the boy’s broken hips, He can faintly hear Lavender screaming as she’s pulled away from her brother’s bedside by someone, he can’t tell who, and he nearly falls when he tries to look. Pomfrey shakes her head as she guides him to a chair to sit down. “Take a break, he’s stable enough to go through standard treatment, Crypt.” He tries to protest, but to no avail as he’s forced to sit at Arminius’s bedside, Madame Pomfrey taking over for him. “Shit… ok… stay awake, Crypt. This is only a minor setba- owowowow” He hisses in pain as he shifts in the chair, resting his head on the back of it and closing his eyes. Normally Crypt had a crazy high pain tolerance, with the type of healing he has a natural talent for it’s to be expected, but this?

Holy.

Fucking.

Shit.

.       .       .

The tall blonde was close to passing out from how bad this pain was. His entire world was a nauseating, blurry swirl of agony, and he doesn’t know how much longer he can hold out before he throws up. Tears slip past his iron grip on them and threaten to ooze from his tear ducts and slide down his cheeks, “nothing but hot streaks of shame” He repeats his father’s words in his head, clenching his teeth harder against crying out. “It doesn’t hurt that bad. It doesn’t hurt that bad. SHIT” Crypt pitches forwards, a pair of sturdy hands catching him by the shoulders. “Drink.” A voice Crypt swears he recognizes from somewhere says as the rim of a bottle is pressed against his parted lips, tipping a cool, soothing liquid into his mouth. 

He coughs as it goes down, his vision returning as the pain subsides. “Sh-shit-” he pants, wincing as the sound of hordes of students clamor to get a look at the state of the legendary Arminius Calico. The scarred face attached to that recognizable voice finally comes into view, a concerned look replacing the normally exhausted one that the blonde has come to associate with the werewolf and the infirmary. “M-Moons-?” He murmurs, taking deep breaths as the pain fades. “The one and only, you american bastard-” The werewolf tries to smile, the expression more of a grimace- “Are you okay-? I’ve never seen you that… affected… before.”

Crypt coughs, looking past him at Mcgonagall and Dippet working with Sirius, James, and Rowan to get the crowd out of the hospital wing. Pomfrey’s voice rises above the din of the chaos, “IF YOU ARE NOT STAFF OR A CLOSE FRIEND OF THE PATIENT, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOSPITAL WING!” The normally mild-tempered nurse shouts, anger in her voice and rage flashing in her eyes. Everyone stops in the middle of what they were doing, shocked into silence.

A timid voice rises from the front of the crowd, breaking the brief silence. “y-yes ma’am.” 

The crowd begins to shuffle out, emptying in a couple of minutes to leave professor Mcgonagall, the marauders, Regulus, Rowan, Pyxis, Lavender, and Crypt remaining.

Mcgonagall approaches Pomfrey, wrapping her up in an embrace. “We need to get him to Mungo’s, Minerva…” Pomfrey murmurs into Mcgonagall’s ear, resting her chin on the taller woman’s shoulder. “I’m not sure we can take him to Mungo’s, darling… look at the state he’s in-'' Mcgonagall murmurs back, pulling away from the hug to look at the boy laying on the hospital bed.

“I know, Minnie- but what else can we do? We only have Crypt, Pyxis, and myself… and Crypt doesn’t look much better than Arminius..” Pomfrey mutters to Mcgonagall. leaning into her side while the pair watch Remus help Crypt to his feet, the tall blonde making his way over to them. Though he isn’t without the help of his equally tall friend, the two might as well be brothers with how close they are. “Madam Pomfrey, Professor Mcgonagall, I have reason to believe that if we take Arminius to Mungo’s, he will return more traumatized than when he left.” He states firmly, drawing himself up to his full height via fixing his posture. “Why do you think so, Crypt..?” Pomfrey asks, brows furrowed “Mungo’s would be best for healing him-”

“May I speak with you farther from the group…?” Crypt asks, his eyes flickering to and fro “This is… sensitive… information that Arminius himself doesn’t know I know.” She looks between Crypt and Mcgonagall, pinching the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb. “We’ll speak in my office, Minerva, you’re in charge while we’re gone.” Mcgonagall nods, walking to Arminius’s bedside while Pyxis works on healing the boy, Lavender crying into Hydrus’s shoulder as the two hospital wing staff walk into Pomfrey’s office.

.       .       .

Crypt takes a seat across from Pompfrey on the couch in her office, Pomfrey herself sitting in one of the armchairs on the other side of a quaint, mahogany coffee table bearing a vase of bright red poppies that looms next to a plate of scottish shortbread cookies. “Where should I start-” Crypt starts, making direct eye contact with Pomfrey, steely, serious storm gray eyes meeting worried, chestnut brown. “He’s been severely abused by his parents at home, they lock him in closets for days on end with no food or water, his father beats him, they poison his mind with their words, and they both force him to duel them nearly to the death whenever he’s at home.” He pauses to take a breath, Poppy taken aback and horrified by the accusations against the Calicos. “Clara even uses the cruciatus. Not as often as Sirius’s mother, but she still uses it on Ar. Then there’s the matter of the bracelet, it administers electric shocks when his hand isn’t moving, or at least I’m ninety percent sure it does… I only know about it because it shocked me pretty bad. There’s no other explanation for the bracelet other than his parents forcing him to wear it.”

Pomfrey brings a hand up to her mouth, hot, enraged tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “Shall I continue, Poppy..?” He’s met with a hesitant nod and he takes a breath.

“Timothy and Clara Calico are vile, manipulative people who care more about their reputation as a great wizarding family than the wellbeing of their son. They will see him being injured as him failing, no doubt they’ve already heard of the entire thing from their informants. We can’t risk him physically going to Mungo’s and the Calicos catching wind of it, they’ll only make things worse on his already tormented mind and body.” Crypt maintains eye contact, expression deathly serious. “I can heal him. I can do it on my own, I just need someone to hold me so I don’t collapse-” 

Pomfrey cuts him off “No. We can call in healers from Mungo’s- have them use the floo network- I’m not risking your life as well, Crypt. Hydrus and Arminius still have two to three years at Hogwarts, we need you here.” She smiles at the last part, though anger is alight in her eyes. “Go make sure he’s stabilized until the healers get here, I’ll join you in a moment.”

Crypt stands to leave, Pomfrey gently grabbing his arm. “How do you know all of this, child? Arminius doesn’t strike me as the type to talk about these things to just anyone-” He looks down at her, that carefully maintained blank look in his eyes once more. “I know how to recognize abuse, I figured out the specifics through an owl.”

With that, he walks out of Poppy’s grip and her office, leaving her to contact Mungo’s.

Sometimes she wonders what kind of life her assistant has had to have such a carefully maintained mask, but Arminius Calico was a more pressing matter right now. She throws the floo powder into the fire, the flames turning an emerald green before she steps into them. “St. Mungo’s, London.” and she’s gone.

.       .       .

Crypt rushes back over to Calico’s bedside, James, Regulus, and Rowan all by Hydrus’s bedside trying to comfort Lavender and Hydrus. The tall blonde pushes past Remus and Sirius, who were standing at the foot of Calico’s bed, only to come to a grinding stop when he makes eye contact with the boy. 

“Why am I not dead…?”

The first words out of his mouth, so many emotions swirling in Arminius’s fractured blue gaze.

Crypt’s bedside manner falters. “I took your pain, I’m not letting you die.” That's what he wants to say. He can’t bring himself to speak, he doesn’t have the words. Not yet.

“I should be dead.”

The next words out of his mouth, Crypt can hear the self hatred and loathing in his broken voice.

“Come ON Crypt-! Thinkthinkthinkthink-! Say something you useless oaf!” Crypt thinks, opening his mouth to speak, and by Merlin’s left arm he didn’t mean to say the truth.

“I saved you. With my healing- I nearly passed out.”

Arminius blinks, frowning as panic sets in. His breathing quickens as he laughs a bit, shaking his head in disbelief. Crypt worries his bottom lip with his teeth, “shitshitshitshitSHIT-”

“Why?! Why did you almost pass out?!”

Crypt’s heart drops into his stomach, opening his mouth to speak even though he can’t think of a single word to say in response to this. “I should’ve known he’d catch on eventually- they don’t call him prodigy for fucking nothing.” He takes a step closer.

“Answer me!”

He can see the tears gathering at the base of Arminius’s eyes, the usual sharp, vibrant blue irises set against a reddening sclera. “Crypt! Whatever you do, don’t reveal how your healing works. He’ll never let you heal him again if he knows.”

“It’s because I take people’s injuries, minus the actual injury itself. That heals.”

“For fuck’s sake, Crypt. What did you just tell yourself.”

“what?”

.       .       .

Arminius can feel the walls closing in around him as his throat tightens, “why? WHY?! WHY DID HE WASTE HIS TIME ON A WORTHLESS FUCK LIKE ME?! WHY DID HE SAVE ME WHEN IT DID NOTHING BUT HURT HIM?!” His breathing quickens, lungs burning with each gasp of cold air as people-shaped shadows crowd around him. “Not safe- bad- worthless- gonna get hit- put in the closet-” He raises his shaking hands up in front of him, balling them into fists and moving his forearms in front of his face. “L-LEAVE ME ALONE!” He shouts, violently shaking as the shadows get closer, his father’s voice ringing in his ears as one looms over him. 

“YOU USELESS FUCK! ALMOST DYING?! WHAT KIND OF FUCKING BULLSHIT IS THAT, YOU BRAINLESS WORM! WHY ARE WE EVEN SENDING YOU TO SCHOOL IN THE FIRST PLACE IF YOU CAN’T RESCUE SOME FUCKING TRANNY FROM A DEATHEATER?!”

Arminius shakes his head, shrinking back with a whimper as he struggles to breathe. “N-no- f-father- please! I-I can e-e-ex-explain-! PLEASE! J-JUST STAY AW-AY-!” Arminius sobs, shaking so much his teeth clatter against each other.

“I-I tried my b-b-best! P-Please-!” He’s lost in his own trauma-induced nightmare as the group gathering around him, save for Crypt, look on in shock.

Sirius clenches his fists as Mcgonagall takes a few steps back, the eldest Black brother turning to the rest “C’mon you dickheads! Back up! He’s clearly having a severe panic attack, and we’re all making it worse- Back the fuck up! C’mon!” He starts to push and shoo his worried friends and relatives away from Arminius’s hospital bed, Remus helping him corral them over to Hydrus’s bed. “Of course he has parents like yours, Sirius. Look at him, he acts almost exactly like Regulus did.”

Arminius, still consumed by his panic, begins to frantically look around for his wand. He wasn’t safe, he needed to protect himself- “where is it?! Whereisitwhereisitwhereisit- aha!” He spots his wand, a twelve inch mahogany stick wrapped in sapphire-studded silver vines, on the small bedside table. “C’mon Arminius- you can do it- just- reach-” He coughs as he stretches his broken, torn arm towards his wand, pained whimpers rising from his lips as he struggles to wrap his fractured, dislocated fingers around his wand. He trembles as he tries to hold himself up on his left arm, more healed than his right but still sprained and weak, beads of sweat rolling down his face from his bloodied hairline.

 Arminius gets ready to apparate away, his hand violently shaking as he tries to maintain a tight grip on his wand. It’s a vain effort, the wand flying from his hand and across the room to lay at the feet of a shaking, crying Lavender Calico, her usually neatly braided brown hair loose and messy as she sprints to her brother’s side and grabs him by the wrists. Arminius thrashes and tries to throw her off, not recognizing his own sister as he wheezes and sobs. “Ari!” She tries to get his attention, lowering his wrists and staring into his wide, blue eyes. Blue like the vast ocean when the sun hits it just right, and filled to the brim with terror and trauma.  

He tries to get up, to swing his legs off the bed, but Lavender is quicker, climbing onto the bed and straddling his legs. “You’re gonna be alright, Ari. I’m here now, I’ll never leave your side. Never again.” She murmurs, her grayish-purple gaze, like the heather of the scottish moors combined with the swirling gray of rain-clouds, searching her brother’s blue one. “Never again, okay?”

Arminius’s jaw quivers as fresh tears roll down the sides of his face, a shaky nod his only response to his little sister’s words. She smiles, kissing his forehead before climbing off, the warped, twisted metal of the bracelet giving way under her retreating hand and slipping off of Arminius’s wrist, landing with a metallic clang as it hits the smooth, polished stone floor, shattering into dozens of tiny shards, each one more hated than the last.

Lavender gasps in horror when she sees her brother’s wrist, bruised, bloodied, and scarred beyond recognition. Scars that looked like his very veins, or maybe a bolt of lightning, ran around the circumference of his wrist, having been hidden by that gods-forsaken strip of metal.

What really makes the girl sick to her stomach as those present begin to gather around Arminius once more, is a word burned deep into her brother’s wrist. Their last name, their family name- a name that Lavender was once proud to bear- branded into her brother’s tender, tortured wrist.

Lavender isn’t the only one nauseous at the sight, James Potter having to walk away and brace himself against the nearby wall, forehead pressed into his forearm as tears mix with the sweat dripping from the tip of his nose. 

Remus has a grim look on his face, rage ignited in his suddenly wolfish green eyes, he leaves the infirmary with Sirius by his side, the long-haired boy looking rather angry as well.

Rowan is standing there, his eyes, the same exact shade as bittersweet nightshade, stretched wide with a mixture of emotions rippling through those purple irises like a strong wind does over the purple heather of the scottish highlands. He shakes his head, bringing a hand up to his mouth to stifle a cry. Regulus is the exact opposite, his cool, calm composure remaining firmly in place as he blankly stares at Arminius’s newly exposed wrist, Rowan burying his face into the younger boy’s sweater-clad shoulder. Hydrus is standing on Regulus’s other side, trembling hands gripping his older brother’s arm as he stares at his best friend, tears overflowing from his wide, silver eyes, silver like the light from a full moon in the dead of winter, illuminating a snow-covered clearing in an abandoned forest. “A-Ar-!” Hydrus chokes out, seemingly frozen in place.

Pyxis can’t handle the sight, his face draining of any and all color as he just stares, clenching his teeth against the rising tide of vomit surging up his throat while the world spins like a top around him. He takes a few dizzying steps towards the wall, bracing himself against it as he vomits all over his shoes, panting as his stomach continues to churn and growl while spit dribbles from his trembling bottom lip. “F-fuck- I can-t- shit- fuck-” he chants in his head, arms quivering as he somehow remains vertical, the sweat running down his spine causing him to shiver.

Crypt can only stare in horror… The Calicos were more sick, more twisted, vile than he thought. “The burn will heal,” He reminds himself, blankly walking to where Pyxis is and gently rubbing his back, “It’s just going to scar… oh fucking merlin- It’s going to be there forever-” He can’t stop the tears that flow so forcefully from the corners of his eyes, choked sobs interrupting his quickening breaths as he steps away, breathing heavily as he backs himself into a different section of the wall and slides down to the floor, a panic attack gripping him for the first time since he was a child.

The arrival of the Mungo’s healers didn’t help the matter.

If anything it made it worse.

So.

Much.

Worse.

.       .       .

Arminius is thrashing once more, his screams and cries seemingly inaudible as Hydrus watches the healers from Mungo’s try to heal Arminius’s wounds. Two of them hold the prodigy down while two work on fixing him up the best they can. “S-Stop! Arminius please-! Calm down-!” He mentally begs his best friend, his lips remaining sealed as he continues to just stare. He’s frozen in place, unable to speak the words he wants to say, unable to run to his best friend's side and comfort him- Hydrus is helpless to do anything but stand there, clinging to his older brother’s arm like a scared child. And he is, he is a scared child, only fifteen and having been through unspeakable horrors, and now he’s witnessing yet another as Arminis writhes, screams, and sobs. Clearly terrified to the point his sanity is long, long gone. “Will it ever return..?” Hydrus finds himself wondering as he shuffles closer to Regulus, hiding himself behind his brother’s body. “Will he ever be the same..? Has tonight permanently changed him as well…?” He shakes his head, burying his face into the back of Regulus’s shoulder, tears soaking the wool of his sweater. Hydrus doesn’t want to think about it as he begins to hear the screams, Arminius’s voice too hoarse and desperate to make out any words.

Then the screams stop.

Arminius is unconscious.