Recovering

"Hermione is absolutely right, Chris," Aurelia said coming behind Chris and smoothing her hair. "We all failed, darling, but we don't want these people's sacrifices to go in vain, do we?"

"Absolutely not," Sirius said making Harry look at him. His voice was a bit scratchy and low as he controlled his emotions. "I lost my last best friend but I will not lose my grandson today. Do you hear me, Harry? Don't even think about going to meet him alone."

Looking at Sirius, filled Harry's eyes with a bit of hope and he hugged him tightly.

"Please don't die, Sirius," Harry mumbled.

"I won't," Sirius answered and met Chris's eyes with reassurance. 

Chris looked back at Aurelia and Hermione and wiped her tears. They were right. The fight wasn't over. She may be the protector of Hogwarts, but she wasn't responsible just for the school itself. The walls and statues weren't the school, she stood and fought for the ideas and people that made the school Hogwarts. That was what it meant to be the protector. The successor of the Great Four Founders. And as long as even one person was alive, she would fight for that one person. Because that's who she was.

"Neither will Collin," Chris said taking a deep breath and looking over her friend. "I can't bring back the dead but I can help the ones that are injured. I'm the best healer, after all." Chris added looking at Hermione and she gave her teary smile. Chris cleared her throat and called out, "Fawkes!"

It took a while for Fawkes to appear but the phoenix came and sat on Chris's shoulder.

"Sorry to make you cry, Fawkes but I need your tears. We have to save a lot of people," Chris mumbled petting Fawkes.

And they quickly got to work, Chris took out all her potions and healing gels she had and Madam Pomfrey quickly started working with them. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny also started helping injured people and took care of themselves. Aurelia wanted to talk strategy of their next step but Sirius asked her to multitask and come up with a new plan while helping the injured.

"We just have an hour Auri, we need to work fast," Sirius told Aurelia.

Since there was a limited amount of phoenix tears that could be used, Chris mostly used it on Colin and the people who were extremely injured. Others were treated with her healing potions. After what felt like an eternity, Colin slowly opened his eyes, and seeing Luna and Chris in front of him, he smiled.

"I knew you guys would save me," Colin mumbled softly and tears threatened to fill Chris's eyes again, so she lightly slapped Colin's arm as Luna dived to kiss him.

"Don't you dare pull a stunt like that," Ginny grumbled behind Chris. "Or I will kill you."

But Colin was barely listening, his whole focus was on Luna, who pulled back after softly kissing him, but Colin tugged her back to kiss her again. Chris and Ginny exchanged a smile before giving them some space. Even Madam Pomfrey didn't mind, she quietly went to help others but Chris saw her smiling and brushing a few teardrops off her cheek.

As Ginny and Chris went a few steps away, Harry, Ron, and Hermione joined them. Harry gave Colin a smile and nod, which Colin noticed and smiled back.

"Chris, I need to do something," Harry turned to Chris and Ginny. "Can you handle the situation here and talk to Sirius and Aurelia about what they are planning to do next?"

"Where are you going?" Ginny asked looking panicked. "Harry, if this is about Voldemort's warning --"

"No," Harry shook her head calmly before looking around and explaining. "Listen, I have a memory, which I think could be important."

Harry pulled out a vial from his pocket and sure enough there was a swirling memory inside the vial.

"Whose memory is this?" Chris asked eyeing it.

"Snape's," Harry said and Chris's head snapped up at him surprised. But the next sentence made Chris more shocked. "He gave it to me before he . . . died."

"Snape is dead?" Ginny asked her eyes wide. "How?"

"Voldemort used him as a shield when a vampire attacked him," Ron answered his sister's question, then turned to Harry. "But Harry, are you sure about this? Do you really think, Snape of all people would help us?"

"I . . ." Harry hesitated but after a moment nodded. "I think so. He was dying. Ron. I don't think dying people lie often."

"Ok, if you are sure," Chris gave Harry's hand a reassuring squeeze. "We will handle Sirius and Aurelia and the people that are left and come up with a new plan. You go."

Harry gave a small smile and squeezed Chris's hand back before looking at his friends and running off towards Dumbledore's office. Chris watched him go until Hermione claimed her attention.

"Chris, we should talk to your vampire friends first, they are the reason, Voldemort and Malgino retreated back. They are our biggest chance to win this fight."

"Vampire friends, right." Only now Chris remembered Oziyat and Rosaline were there in Hogwarts and helping her.

"Where are they anyway?" Ron asked.

"They are probably avoiding this place because of the smell of blood," Chris explained. "I will go and look for them. How long do we have before they attack again?"

"Almost half an hour," Ron said checking his watch.

"But I don't think they will risk attacking again," Ginny said. "The vampires are far more powerful than them."

"Yes, but we don't know that. Maligno always has a plan and he hasn't made his move yet," Chris sighed and turned towards the door. 

"I will come with you," Ginny stepped forward but Chris shook her head.

"You and Hermione know how to use the healing potions, you two stay and help others. If Sirius or Aurelia look for me or Harry, tell them I'm outside."

Ginny opened her mouth to say something but Chris didn't wait for a response, she took off. Without slowing down she crossed the hall, the stairs, and ran straight outside.

It was an eerily quiet night and after what they went through it felt surreal. Chris took a deep breath and looked around, her gut squeezed taking in the destruction around her. She closed her eyes for a moment and the fight flashed before her eyes. Monsters . . . blood. . . death . . . Jason.

Chris opened her eyes. This was not the time. She needed to finish this. Jason's death won't be in vain. 

"Fergus?" She called softly and seconds later Fergus materialized in front of her. But seeing him did not fill Chris with much confidence. He looked extremely distressed if not more than before. "Fergus? What's wrong? Did you not find anything?"

"No . . . I mean yes," Fergus sighed. "I know it's not in the castle. The power is somewhere on these grounds. But that's not all, Christina. I have a feeling . . . something is telling me Malgino is about to do something and I can't --"

"Christina!" Oziyat suddenly came running in his vampire speed and before Chris could say anything, he hugged her and lifted her off the ground. "Oh, thank first goddess, you are alright."

Chris let Oziyat hug her for a minute before pulling back.

"I was just about to call you. Where is everyone?" Chris asked looking behind Oziyat.

"We decided to stay deep inside the forbidden forest so that the smell of human blood could be masked," Oziyat answered but then his eyes became darker. "Also because we were trying to tear down their defenses. Someone put a heavy shield around them, either it's the dark lord or Maligno, but the shield is for vampires and they are holding up too well for our preference."

"Wait, you kept attacking them even after they called their people back?" Chris asked a bit surprised.

"We are not fighting by their rules, Christina, and you really shouldn't, now that we have the advantage," Oziyat explained. "It's a matter of time before we break their defenses. Wait, let me show you."

Oziyat gently took Chris's arm and made her face him completely and the next second, Oziyat picked him up and ran across the castle grounds and set her down deep within the forbidden forest. 

"Oziyat, I --" Chris started to say what were they doing but quickly realized what was going on.

More than twenty vampires were huddled around a woman as she gave out clear instructions on how to use their strength to win this battle. When Oziyat put Chris down, the women noticed them and hurried towards Chris.

"Christina," Rosaline approached her with a rare sympathetic smile on her face. "It's good to see you again."

"You too. Oziyat told me --" Chris knit her eyebrows together but couldn't finish the sentence. She didn't feel like telling her that she thought Rosaline was dead.

"Yes, I heard. It wasn't me," Rosaline sighed. "It was my mother, our people were mourning."

"So the queen --?" Chris looked back and forth between Rosaline and Oziyat, who stared at the ground without meeting her eyes. "What happened?"

"My shockwave killed her . . . since she was already weak and dying from the curse," Rosaline said dryly as if she didn't just confess to accidentally killing her own mother. "Not to mention, she was experimenting with old magic and potions to help herself cure or get better."

"My god, I'm sorry," Chris mumbled surprised and not knowing how she was supposed to react. She didn't like the Queen much but that didn't mean she wanted her dead.

But her sympathetic response towards Oziyat and Rosaline, only made Oziyat scoff.

"That's not even the worst part, Christina," Oziyat muttered.

[To be continued]