Ch. 24: All Good Things

Song For This Chapter: Sanctuary by Alex Clare

JENNA'S POV :

Call me crazy, but I was worried more than ever for Neville and less worried than ever about Lana. The Gryffindor Common Room was dead quiet as the small remainder of students sat around the warm fire, watching the flames crackle and hiss.

Neville sat beside me, stone silent and reserved. I wanted to reach out and give him a reassuring hug, but I was sure he didn't want that at the moment. I turned to look at Lana and Seamus. She was sporting a wicked smirk as she leaned against his shoulder and watched the fire.

It was nice to see her so happy, despite everything. Seamus's face was hardly recognizable now. He often took beatings for the younger students, and they were beginning to take their toll on his appearance. Half of his face had swollen up in large, black and purple bruises.

Softly, I gripped Neville's hand and smiled up at him. Neville arched a small brow but smiled back at me; it was a bud of a grin and didn't reach his eyes, but I knew he meant it.

I chewed on my bottom lip and dropped his gaze, wanting to say something, wanting to tell him how I felt, but knowing that this wasn't the time, nor the place. He was completely worried about Luna, and so was I.

I frowned and absently watched the dancing flames once more. I felt a sinking feeling in my chest. I shouldn't be worried about Neville; I should be worried about Luna. Who knew what the Death Eaters took her for? Who knew what they were doing with her?

I shuddered at the thought.

"It's going to be all right," Neville said softly, breaking the silence.

His sweet gaze met mine and my heart fluttered. "How do you know that?"

"I don't," he lifted the corner of his mouth into a half-smile before scratching at the stubble at his cheek, "I just... I have faith."

"It's hard to have that," I admitted.

Neville wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled my frame against his, unaware of how this action sent a wave of affection through my pulsing and erratic heart. He didn't know it, and so I kept my feelings to myself, simply allowing myself to enjoy this moment.

"My parents had faith in the cause. So, for them, I'll keep believing in Harry and the others."

ELLE'S POV :

"If you don't shut the fuck up about your arm," I shouted, waving a tub of cream at the boy as he glared up at me from his cot, "I will do something drastic."

He scoffed and sat up, cradling his bandage wrapped stump to his chest as he did, eyes hard. "Look, you're a witch aren't you?! So, you can grow my arm back!"

"IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY, FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME DEVON--"

"--Elle," Blake stressed, offering Devon a sweet smile from across the room where she was patiently helping an elderly woman up from her bed. The woman was ready to leave, having been healed from her excessive burns. "Don't yell at your patient."

I scoffed, pointing an accusatory finger at him as he pointed one back at me. "He's asked this seven times in the last hour, Blake. He think's I'm... well, God or something."

"You're obviously not magic."

"What was that?!"

Blake snickered and led the woman from our shop, closing the door tightly as she left. "You guys are killing me here," she told the two of us as she made her way to Devon's unconscious friend, Anthony. Devon had told us that was his friend's name, as the boy had yet to wake up.

"Look," Devon sighed, turning to Blake in desperation. "If there is really nothing you can do, that sucks. My hand is really important to me. Y'all might not care about losing a limb, but I do."

I rolled my eyes and tucked some hair behind my ear. "Of course I care about lost limbs. However, there's honestly nothing we can do for you. Sometimes, magic can only go so far. It doesn't magically regrow entire limbs."

"What about that Skele-Grow stuff?"

"That's gonna grow your bones, but not your nerves, nor your skin, nor your muscles. You really want a skeleton hand that can't do anything attached to the end of your arm?" I watched a look of contemplation cross over his face, but I quickly wiped it from his mind. "No, you don't. God, kid, you're really not getting it."

He shook his head and flopped back down onto his sheets. "No, fine, I get it. I do."

"Good."

Blake shook her head at my bedside manner and chuckled. "You're really the worst at patient relations, Eliza. You truly are."

I scratched the back of my neck but didn't disagree. I left Devon to sulk by himself as I made my way to the backroom. I had another potion brewing in the back and it was very important that is was monitored.

Sighing, I grabbed a ladle and stirred at the thick, forest green concoction. It bubbled and smoked, hissing purple fumes into the air that smelt of chlorine and sulfur. The whole room was heavy with the stench of it and I tried to hold my breath as long as possible to keep myself from getting too much of it into my lungs.

I lifted the front collar of my scrubs and hoisted it over the bridge of my nose, finding that it helped a little with my breathing. As I continued to stir, I made a mental note to have Blake buy some face masks the next time she was out. Or, at least steal a couple from St. Mungo's.

A timer I had set chimed and I quickly removed the potion from the flames, setting the pot to the side to cool. Keeping my shirt over my nose, I made my way to the back door where a small window was placed in the wood. Using two fingers, I delicately lifted the latch of the lock and pushed the frame up.

The window stuck for a moment, the rust from rain and snow having made the hinges tough to fight against. However, after a few good heaves, I managed to push the frame up a decent amount. I pressed my nose against the crack in the window and sucked in a deep breath of fresh air before placing the shirt back in place.

I hoped the small crack would be enough to air out the place.

The potion had begun to cool in a thick, dark paste, as I had hoped it would. The paste was a sort of experimental potion that I had crafted in the hopes of helping Mrs. Belvedere with her purple spots. The poor woman had barely any of her natural skin tone left.

I wasn't sure if it was going to work, or if it would make something worse happen, but I hoped something would change at least. It was a combination of different pox-related recipes with my own, personal twist added in.

I went to the cabinet and hoisted a large tub from the top shelf, taking it down and setting it on the counter beside the, still fairly hot, potion. Heaving a small breath, I sat my tired joints down onto the stool behind the counter and merely stared into space as the time began to pass.

I didn't have very much to do now, as Blake was the Healer here and I was just supposed to make the potions that we couldn't buy at the store every day without the shop owners becoming suspicious of us.

I played with the frayed ends of my ponytail, ripping at the split ends and tossing the dead hair to the ground before returning to rip more dry hair from my head. Fred didn't have very good shampoo at his place, and my hair was beginning to suffer.

Taking out a notepad from the drawer of the counter I was at, I scribbled down a few notes to Blake for her next shopping trip:

SHOPPING LIST

- Face Masks

- Good shampoo

maybe strawberry shampoo?

I sat there for a moment, feeling my eyes droop in the fake light. It had to be sometime in the early morning, and yet I was only beginning to feel tired. It was official, my sleep cycle was messed up beyond belief. I stifled a yawn and added another, barely legible scribble in thick, all capital letters.

- COFFEE PLEASE C:

I smiled at the little smiley face I tacked onto the end of it, thinking it was almost coy. I stirred the pot once more, the ointment had begun to harden even more which was a good sign to me. Soon, it would be ready to spoon into the tub.

I dropped the ladle into the pot as the back door to the room flung open with a gust of wind. Jumping in fright, I clutched at my beating chest as Fred's figure waltzed in, a wide smile on his face while he quickly apologized and shut the door.

"Sorry for giving you a scare, I didn't think the door would slam open like that."

I scoffed at how scared I had been and wrapped him in a hug, kissing him firmly on the mouth before pulling away and returning to my work. "What's up? I didn't expect to see you until later."

"I figured I would take you out," Fred murmured, pressing himself against my back and cradling my waist with his arms as I began to spoon the forest green paste into the container for later. "How does a coffee date sound."

"Sounds like you took George's date idea and are passing it down to me," I teased, recalling the date George and Blake had gone on a few days before. "That's not what you're doing, now is it?"

Fred ducked his head into the crook of my shoulder and kissed my collar bone. "Never, never."

"Mhmm," I said, scraping the last of the paste into the tub before setting the caldron to the side and snapping the top shut over it. "Somehow I don't believe you." I turned so my head and his head were only a few molecules away and I smiled softly. "You know I love coffee."

"You know I love you."

"Yeah, that too," I smirked at the smart frown he sported as I untangled myself from his grip and placed the paste on the shelf for later. It would need a day to fully set. "What time is it," I asked him, wiping my hands on the sides of my shirt as green paste streaked the clothing.

"It's about half past four."

I arched a brow. "I didn't ask for your life story, I just wanted to know the time."

Fred rolled his eyes and shook his head, chuckling lightly to himself as Blake spotted the two of us through the small, backroom window. "It's around four thirty in the morning."

"Ah," I nodded.

Blake grinned as she stepped into the room, tightly closing the door behind her as most of the patients continued to sleep in their beds. "Good morning, Fred. I didn't think you'd be awake this early."

"Sometimes I wake up before noon, it's true."

Blake made an 'ehh' sound, waving her hand in the air before turning to me with a small, knowing glance. "I guess you'll be taking off then?"

"I guess; if that's all right?"

Blake nodded and offered the two of us a shrug as if nothing really bothered her. "I don't have work today, so I'll probably be here more of the day until I can't stand anymore. So, if you want to come back, Elle, that's totally fine with me. Don't think you need to, though."

I nodded and told her that I had finished the next step in my patient's treatment. "I think it might work, but we will have to wait and see until tomorrow. It needs some time. Oh," I lowered my head and turned to look through the dirty window at Devon, who was now sleeping uncomfortably on his cot. "Could you apologise to Devon for me? I didn't mean to be insensitive."

"I can, and I did."

I frowned but didn't say anything as she grinned wider.

"Yeah, you often mess up with your patients, so I go around and apologise for you every now and again."

I shot her a glare, feeling wounded by her calling me rude. "That's very considerate of you."

"I know." Blake grabbed the list from the counter where I had left it and chuckled. "I'll make sure to pick these things up by tomorrow or so for you, Elle. I'm not sure about the strawberry shampoo, though."

"Strawberry shampoo?" Fred arched a brow, looking down at me. "What about the products in the shop?"

"I honestly haven't tried them," I admitted, ducking my head. "And, the wash you use in your shower is totally hurting my hair."

Fred pulled a face and I laughed. "All right, I'll use one of the things in the shop before I swear off Weasley products for good."

Blake folded up the note and placed it in her pocket. "Well, I'd hope so."

LANA'S POV :

"So, what's up with you and Neville?" I asked, offering Jenna a licorice wand as I propped my feet up by the fire. All the other Gryffindor students had retired to bed, and the morning was quickly approaching.

However, Jenna and I seemed to be unable to sleep, so we remained in the midst of the Common Room, letting a comfortable silence overtake us.

Jenna sunk her teeth into the tip of the wand and yanked, biting off a large mouthful and chewing slowly as she thought about what I was asking. I considered, only for a moment, how much differently she would have reacted a few years ago. She was more... thoughtful, and it scared me a bit.

I forced a cheery grin to my lips and nudged her, making a funny face to get her to laugh. Jenna watched my face and huffed a little giggle, but I knew something was definitely wrong.

"What's the matter?"

Jenna swallowed and groaned, shifting from her place on the couch so that she could directly face me. "I just think it's funny how--"

"--Here we go."

Jenna chuckled, a real laugh this time, and continued on. "No, I mean... I just think it's funny how shit I feel for having a crush on him."

I paused, candy wand mid-air, and I tried not to roll my eyes. "Oh, Jenna."

"What?" She pressed, resting her head on her hand as she watched my reactions. "Tell me."

"Even when it's the end of the world, you're still thinking about boys!" I held out the bag of candy to her, and Jenna took a handful of licorice and shoved a large amount of it into her mouth, as much as she could fit as she stared me down.

I twisted the wand in between my fingers and watched as she sloppily chewed. "You know, Jenna, I think that you're not... you're not wrong to feel bad."

I could tell she was caught off guard by the way she stopped making obnoxious munching sounds. My eyes met her downcast ones and I offered her a reassuring look. "Jen, Neville is so caught up in Luna right now. And, she's on his mind. You'll only be hurting yourself right now. I think... I don't know; I think that you're doing the right thing by being his friend first."

Jenna forcefully swallowed the mouthful of sweets and played with the ends of her blonde hair. I watched as her face switched through different emotions.

"I know you're right, Lana. I know that." Her lips formed a couple soundless words, but she didn't say anything else for a long moment. The two of us turned back to the flames and remained quiet for a while.

A dirty thought crept into the front of my mind and I could feel a small, wicked smirk spreading over the left half of my face as I continued to watch the fire. "Neville has gotten rather hot, though."

"OUT OF COMPLETELY NOWHERE!" Jenna heaved out, arms flapping in the air as she turned, consciously aware of how loud she had shouted, to make sure no one had heard us. "Out of nowhere," she whispered again.

I snickered and bit another chunk from my candy. "When this is all over, you and I are going to a pub and getting plastered."

"Cheers to that."

ELLE'S POV :

The sun was glowing orange on the horizon under the break of winter clouds as Fred and I sat in the middle of a Muggle coffee shop. We needed to be safe, so the two of us figured that no Death Eater would be caught dead in one of these places.

I sipped quietly at the latte in my hand while Fred and I locked gazes, not wanting to look anywhere else. I felt cheesy, but I just wanted to enjoy my time with him. "I love you," I told him after a long sip of caffeine.

"I love you too."

Fred grabbed a spoon and stirred the cup of coffee in front of him, dropping our gaze. "There's something I have to tell you."

"Oh?" I immediately grew suspicious. Fred often liked to hold something away from my knowledge until it would cause the most fun effect for himself. "I thought we weren't going to keep things from each other, hubby," I stressed the word, tapping the rock on my finger.

Fred tapped his spoon on the rim of his cup and flashed a cocky grin. "Actually, George just told me about it before I left to pick you up."

"What is it, then?" I perked up, setting my cup down so he would know it was serious.

"Hermione is home."