I Need A Hero

Salem had apparated outside St. Mungo's and was now desperately stumbling down the halls, in dire need of help. She had walked right through the full waiting room, knowing she would be dead if she did not get help soon.

It had been a normal day in Hogsmeade when she had suddenly been attacked by a mysterious Death Eater named Zara. She had the Cruciatus Curse on her and many other spells that had banged up, but she was most worried about the Sectumsempra curse. A gash ran from her left hip to her right shoulder, and blood was spreading across her back, her shirt already soaked in it.

She looked around, working a hand into her hair and holding a fist full of it, her lips trembling and hot tears falling onto her cheeks. She trembled and shook, unable to say anything. It was rather inconvenient to be selectively mute when you needed help... She let out a cry and stumbled.

Khaat was working in the emergency room when she saw a young woman come in, badly hurt. She saw she was barely on her feet at all. She saw her start to fall, and she cast a spell to catch her. Healers saw Khaat's magic catch the new patient and they ran to help. They lifted her and put her on a gurney and rushed her into a treatment room, where Khaat followed, issuing a series of orders, taking charge of the girl and her rather serious situation.

Khaat looked into the young brunette's frightened and dazed eyes and said in a calm and soothing tone, "My name is Khaat. You're among friends here. You're going to be fine. " Khaat laid her hand on the girl's forehead for a moment to do an initial diagnosis, beyond the obvious severe bleeding. Then she took her wand and reversed the Sectumsempra by casting the Vulnera Sanentur. She supervised carefully as she cas the spell, watching to be sure that the wound closed and the blood that was lost by the wound had been replaced by the Vulnera Sanantur spell.

Once the most severe wound was healed, she meticulously worked to tend to the other numerous wounds. She studied the girl's behaviors. Despite the pain and the trauma, the girl was noncommunicative. Khaat decided the girl was either temporarily in shock or perhaps...was she mute? Was the silence for her perhaps not unusal for her? Khaat wasn't going to make that choice right now.

"I'd like to keep you here until you feel stronger. You're going to need some rest and some help for a few days," Khaat said soothingly. "Is that alright with you?" She instructed her staff to only phrase their questions in a way that she could answer by shaking her head or nodding. Yes or no questions only. She ordered one of her staff to bring the girl a glass of water, and the nurse brought a glass of ice wate back. "Here," Khaat said. "I'm sure you'd like a sip of something cold to drink. Try this for starters." She put a straw in the glass and handed it to her.

Salem was immediately rushed onto a gurney. The vision swam around her, she could not focus, not understand, nor comprehend. Her eyelids fluttered closed and she allowed for people to continue handling her, trying to reverse the effects of the spells that had been performed on her. She felt the wound on her back begin to shrink and heal.

She could not focus so the next thing she knew she was healed and being told she would be needing to stay in St. Mungo's for awhile. She nodded in response, deciding she would write out contact information for Nixen so they could let him know what had happened. She offered her water and Salem eagerly sat up. Her lips were cracked and her throat parched.

The water was incredibly refreshing and rejuvenating. Her eyes fluttered and she laid back down, her hand brushing her hair back. Finally she looked back up at Khaat, gratefulness showing in her eyes. She quickly did the thank you signal in sign language. A hand to the chest, and then out. She shuddered slightly.

"You're very welcome," Khaat smiled. "You're feeling the fatigue now. Some sleep will make a big difference. I think we're about ready for you to go to your room now. We'll do all the paperwork business in a couple hurs, after you get a chance to sleep a bit." She ordered the girl to be admitted and to be placed in on of the rooms in the trauma wing. She ordered the nurse to change her into a gown and supply her with a robe and slippers, along with a large insulated pitcher of ice water and a meal from the kichen. She also ordered pain potion for her at regular intervals.

"We have a 5 star chef downstairs in the kitchen," she told her with a smile. "One can't feel better if the food is lousy. This is some of the finest quality gourmet food in England. They'll show you a menu and you can either circle what you want from today's offerings, or just point them out, and they'll be happy to get it for you.

"I'll catch up with you in a bit. The pain potion might miake you a slight bit sleepy. Just relax and enjoy the rest. If there is someone you want us to notify for you, you can write their names down for us, and we'll find them. I presume you're a student at Hogwarts, so I presume I need to notify your Headmaster or head of house." She paused and looked at the girl carefully, studying her. She definitely wasn't a Slytherin or a Hufflepuff. "Okay, I get two guesses. You're either a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor. Right?" Khaat asked. Sometimes heads of house were easier to notify rather than the headmaster.

"Anything else you need right now before they take you upstairs to your room?" Khaat asked.

Salem nodded throughout the healers little speech, holding up a finger when she asked if she was a Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, indicating the first. She shook her head when she asked if there was anything else she needed, knowing she needed to just get to sleep. Her head was pounding, her body aching all over, and sleep was the only cure.

They helped her into a room and then a gown, helping her out of her bloody clothes. She was brought a meal and some water, though she could not even think about either. One of the healers brought her a pen and a small little notepad. She stared at it and took them in her hands. She wrotes as legibly as possible:

Salem Everwood, sixth year Ravenclaw, 16
Please contact Nixen Everwood.
Thank you

Her last word was smeared as her hand slipped. She faintly pushed the pad and the pen onto the table next to her. She faintly considered the meal and water, but before she could, she fell back onto her bed. Her eyes fluttered a few times and she pulled the covers over her, up to her shin, curling into a small ball and falling asleep.

It was a relatively normal day, Nixen sat in his tiny living room, strumming his guitar as he struggled with the song he was working on. He had his tongue between his teeth as he flipped from one page to the other, tried a few chords, and then shook his head, crossing out some notes before repeating it all. But there was something nagging in the back of his head. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, and Salem had yet to visit him. Maybe she had grown up and gotten some friends, forgotten about her big brother, but somehow he doubted that. She had always been helpless, and he had always helped her. The only one she had enough strength to speak around, he had grown used to consoling her.

Nixen was jarred into reality when an owl flew through his window and landed in front of him. A letter baring the St. Mungos crest adorned it and he tore it open, fearing the worst. His eyes scanned the piece of paper inside, and then jumped to his feet. Salem was hurt, Salem was in trouble, and he had been contacted. Grabbing his shoes and his coat he disapparated out of his apartment and straight into St. Mungos. "Salem Everwood, she's my sister, I got a letter." He said holding it up and running his hand through his hair nervously. What had happened? What would he expect when he opened the door to the room.

The witch nodded and then instructed him into the trauma wing. "Trauma wing?!" Nixen asked with a squeaky voice. The nurse took one look at him and nodded and then touched his shoulder. "She's alright now, but better prepare yourself." She said kindly and then led the unresponsive Nixen down the hallway, where he was left alone in front of the door of the room Salem was in. He gulped, ran his hand through his hair, and then carefully opened the door, fearing the worst. What he didn't expect to see was Salem sleeping in a ball on the bed, she didn't appear to be in any pain, and he couldn't see any scars, but hospitals were good at hiding those. He crossed the room in a few quick strides and fell to his knees beside her. "Salem?" He whispered, reaching out and pushing back a strand of her hair from her face so that he could see her better. "Salem..." He whispered again, almost afraid of waking her, but wanting to see her awake at the same time.

The blankets in the hospital were not the thickest she had ever had and the robe was rather flimsy. Salem was used to many layers of black, and now she was in a hospital robe, her makeup almost all rubbed clear, so she was rather cold. Her scrawny arms and legs trembled in the cold and she nestled into a tighter ball in her her sleep.

Something or someone brushed her hair back, and she was reminded of a time when a cruel Death Eater stroked her hair. Alarms went off in her subconscious mind and her eyes flicked open as she jerked into consciousness. She contracted into a tighter ball, but her eyes did not find the cruel, cold ones of a Death Eater named Zara. They found the concerned ones of her brother Nixen.

She straightened out of her fetal position and relaxed, letting out a small sigh. She swallowed and opened her mouth, almost unable to speak for a moment, something that rarely happened in her brother's presence. Her arms quaked slightly and her bottom lip trembled. It was terrible seeing him look so worried for her. She saw that expression on him too much...

"Nixen," she whispered, her eyes burning as tears began to press against her eyelids, though she would not cry. It would only upset her older brother and she did not to do that any more than she already did. She shook her head, her arms tucked against her sides by the blankets which were tucked quite tightly. "I'm so sorry. I was taking a walk, a-and... I didn't think... I was alone... I'm sorry."

Nixen was so surprised at her sudden defense against him that he realized something terrible had happened. Something terrible and painful for her to be recoiling like that. But when she realized who he was, she automatically relaxed. He reached out and touched her face, so devoid of makeup and looking so pale and colorless it was like he wasn't looking at his sister anymore. Tear stains stained her cheeks, and he could see blood in her hair. Her face grew even more concerned when she tried to speak and couldn't. She looked as though she were going to cry, and it had been a long time since she had cried.

"Shh." He whispered and pulled himself up, helping her sit up and sat next to her, his arms around her. Trying to comfort her. "It's okay, it's not your fault. Shh." He whispered, his mind going over all of the things that might have made her so afraid, so hurt and so confused. Not one of them seemed more likely then the last. She had been on a walk, so either in the forest, or in Hogsmeade. And there were plenty of not nice people in Hogsmeade, if she had strayed down the path a little to far... He shuddered to think of what might have happened to her, and his mind automatically jumped from one thing to another. Had she been raped? Did someone hurt her so badly she couldn't have gotten here by herself? Well obviously she had gotten here by herself, no one else was sitting here with him.

He rocked back and forth lightly, holding onto Salem for dear life, not to tightly though, he didn't know the extent of her injuries. "Salem," he said softly, still holding her, rocking back and forth and stroking her hair lightly. "Don't worry, you're safe now... you're safe." He whispered comfortingly. It had been a while since he had had to watch after her like this, and he had hoped he would never have to do so again. He didn't want to ask her what happened until she was ready to say so herself. If she was ready, he was ready to find out. She was so afraid and so confused, and he couldn't think of anything else to do but continue holding her.

Her brother helped her up, putting his arms around her and rocking her, the way a parent should have when Salem was younger. But their parents had never been the loving type, leaving them to care for each other rather than grow up like normal kids, dependent on their parents for care and concern. No, that was why they needed each other.

Salem and her brother were not normal in many ways. For ones, 'goth' or 'emo' was not usually a genetic trait. It was not here, obviously, but they both fell into such a category, and such people did not usually come in pairs. Furthermore, brothers and sister usually did not get along, but they had ever had an alternative choice. If they had not cared for each other, no one else would.

So, yes, they were an odd little pair, the gothic siblings. Salem buried her face against her brother like she had when she was a little girl and would have a nightmare or a bad run in with a bully at school. She shivered and sniffled, trying to be strong for her brother, but finding that she was rapidly losing the strength... The strength that Zara had taken from her.

He did not ask her to know what happened and she was glad. She was afraid to tell anyone, but she could not keep him wondering. As tears began to fall down her face, she said, "I was walking down Hogsmeade and I was looking at some lilacs, and... someone jumped out of the tree. A D-Death Eater named Zara. She messed with me, I tried to escape and she grabbed my hair. Used sp-spells against me, l-like Sectumspempra." She gulped. "Tied me up, said it was m-my f-f-fault. She kicked me... t-twice. And l-left. I'm s-sorry, Nixen." She whimpered.

Nixen didn't know what else to do as Salem was overcome with tears. His sister had always been strong. Even if she had lost her voice to everyone else. To him, he had always looked up to her, she was strong, independent, and wise. Much wiser then she should have been. To others she was shy, and was afraid of her own shadow.. to him... he truly looked up to her. But now, he realized he needed to be the one she looked up to. He had his own problems, but Salem had something horrible happen to her, and when she finally started to speak, his arms grew more and more weak as he held her. A Death Eater named Zara.. somehow that name sounded familiar to him, but he wasn't quite sure from where.

Spells, Sectumsempra.. kicked her?! Nixen felt as though his blood was about to boil beneath the surface. If it was one thing he hated it was someone being mean to someone else for the fun of it. The most important thing about this though, was that someone had literally beat up his sister. Beat her up, used horrible spells against her. Nixen had always been passionate against the Dark Arts, horrid spells that did horrid things to people. But never had he actually known someone that the spells were used against. Now his sister had been harmed. The one spark of joy in an utterly joyless life, and she had been hurt. Hurt beyond repair, because even though the body healed, the mind was a lot harder to fix.

"Shh... It's not your fault, don't you ever listen to what someone like that say okay Salem? Don't you ever.." He held onto her a bit tighter, holding her closer to his chest as she cried. Knowing full well that had their parents been anything nice to them, they would have been there, holding her as she cried, but now... well ever since she had been born, they had simply left them on their own, and he had been forced to help her grow up. He rested his chin on the top of her hair and held her. "Don't you ever listen to her, someone will catch her, and she'll be sent to Azkaban... and we won't ever have to worry about her again okay? No one will ever hurt you again.." He felt as though he were trying to reassure himself as much as he was reassuring her. How could someone hurt a defenseless girl like Salem, and walk away without caring? It made Nixen's blood boil, and he wanted to find this woman, this woman named Zara, and go after her.