Harry Potter The Final Straw

The smell of antiseptic and cleaning products assaulted her nose while she tried to figure out where she was. A slight groan escaped Daphne's lips when she tried to sit up and the pain washed over her in waves.

"Shhh. Lay still, Daphne. Your father went to fetch the healer." Her mother said softly while holding her daughter's remaining hand. Realizing that her daughter was trying to speak, Evelyn Greengrass held a cup of water to her eldest child's lips while cradling her head.

"Thank you." Daphne rasped after she swallowed some water. Confusion spread across her features momentarily as to why she couldn't move her right arm even though she could feel it. When she glanced over at her arm, she was shocked to find nothing there but a mass of bandages. Too shocked to speak, she tentatively reached her left hand over to confirm that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

Fear, anger, and despair washed across her face as she looked up at her mother momentarily before breaking into soft sobs and starting to rock back and forth.

Evelyn gently swept her daughter into a hug and began mumbling words of comfort as tears leaked from her own eyes.

After a few minutes, Daphne croaked out, "What happened to me?"

Finding it difficult to tell her daughter what really happened, Mrs. Greengrass faltered a few times before managing to say, "You were hit by debris from a stray spell." Softly, she whispered into Daphne's hair, "You're lucky to be alive."

Daphne didn't disagree with her mother's assessment at all. Especially if the injuries were so severe that she was missing her arm. Tentatively, she reached up with her remaining hand and touched the bandages on her chest and face as if inspecting the damage. "Who did this to me?" she rasped while her fingers traced the bandage on the side of her face.

"Draco Malfoy fired a spell at Harry Potter and hit the Slytherin table instead. He was expelled and turned over to Amelia Bones." Evelyn answered. "Astoria told me the details, she's fine the debris missed her." She supplied quickly seeing the mounting worry in her daughter's face.

"Was anyone else injured?" Daphne whispered fearfully, dreading the answer.

Looking at her daughter and trying to gauge her emotional state, Evelyn decided that Daphne needed to know the details to help with her own recovery, so she said, "Tracey Davis was seriously injured but Harry Potter saved her life. The complete coverage of what happened is in the Daily Prophet and Astoria assures me that it is a very accurate article for once."

Daphne began slowly running her hand across her face and body while her mother filled her in on the details of the article. It was a few minutes later when she realized that her mother had stopped talking and was watching her trace her newly acquired scars with her fingers.

Softly, she asked, "Mum, can I have a mirror please?"

Evelyn had been dreading this moment since her daughter woke up. She knew that Daphne wasn't vain, but did take pride in her appearance. Slowly, she pulled her mirror out of her purse and held it up for her to see.

The tears welled up in her eyes once the bandages were removed and she looked at her 'new' appearance in the mirror. Most of the smaller cuts had been healed and the scars were almost invisible. There was a large scar that no amount of magic could remove that ran from the corner of her mouth and down the edge of her jaw line where a piece of the table had injured her.

Terrified, she slowly undid the drawstrings on the hospital gown and let it pool around her waist so she could see how bad those scars were as well.

Silently, Evelyn enlarged the mirror so Daphne could see her entire torso. She carefully kept her sobs stifled as she too got her first look at how lucky Daphne was to even be alive.

A tentative knock on the door interrupted the silent moment. Composing herself as best as she could, Evelyn said, "Enter."

The pale form of Tracey Davis entered the room and made her way over to the now covered Daphne. Reaching out, she clasped her hand with Daphne's remaining one and whispered, "I was so scared."

Daphne pulled her best friend into a one armed embrace and sobbed quietly, "I don't have any recollection of what happened at all. I'm just glad that we're both alive."

"Me too, Daph. Me too." Replied Tracey in a choked voice.

....

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