WHO: Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet WHAT: Overcoming trials and tribulations: inferi & werewolves edition! WHEN: October 1st, 5th and 9th WHERE: The Magpies pitch and home WARNINGS: Blood/injuries
The smell of rotting corpses was still heavy in Angelina’s nostrils and the very moment she tried to put weight on her leg without the help of Alicia to hold her up she nearly collapsed. She kept her whimper behind her teeth and reached for Alicia again, her grip tight and scared. Though she would never admit to being scared, she was and her eyes darted towards the door.
Suddenly, they were sitting on one of the benches and Angelina couldn’t quite say how they’d gotten there. She opened her mouth and meant to ask Alicia if she was okay, but all that came out was, “Oh my god.”
Alicia swallowed, willing herself to stare straight ahead and not at the blood stain blooming down the leg of Angelina’s kit. “This is really happening,” she said, drawing a sharp breath and letting it out in a shudder. “That happened.”
All at once, her own words sank in and she turned, wide-eyed, to Angelina. “You — you’re hurt!” She pointed at her friend’s leg. “We need to find Nora!”
“It’s fine,” Angelina murmured roughly, sounding anything but fine as her world narrowed in on hurting and making sure Alicia was okay. “It’s just —” She had to pause to lean heavily into Alicia, squeezing her eyes shut against the pain before opening them again to fend of the visuals of everything she’d just seen.
One of her arms went automatically around Angelina’s shoulders, but Alicia’s eyes darted around the room in search of someone who could help. She could hear shouting from outside the locker room and was sure everything out there was still very much in chaos.
“It’s clearly not fine! We need to get help,” Alicia insisted, her heart still pounding in her chest. “You’re bleeding!”
“I’ll stop bleeding eventually,” Angelina insisted with a very weak laugh. She glanced around and tried to sit up straight, but for some reason that hurt, too. She held it, though. “Can you find my — my phone? I need to hext my mum. You should — yours, too.”
It took a beat before Alicia to cut through her fog of panic before she was on her feet and rummaging through their lockers. She slid back into the seat beside Angelina a moment later with both their phones in hand. “I’m calling my brother first,” she announced before lifting her phone to her ear. “You need to go to St Mungo’s.”
Having her phone in her hand made Angelina feel less adrift and she glanced over at Alicia. “I can wait,” she said, which was a lie, but she wanted to make sure the innocent people, the ones who hadn’t signed anything, were looked after first. “Your brother should help — he should help the fans.”
“Everyone’s going to get help,” Alicia said, tapping her free hand impatiently against her thigh as the phone rang in her ear. There was no answer — he was probably already there, helping someone else. Her eyes swept over Angelina’s leg to see the bleeding looking even worse than before. “Ang, look. Now’s not the time to be a hero.”
Angelina tried to hide her leg, which she still refused to look at herself, from Alicia, but even just twitching it to move it made her clamp her mouth shut to stop herself from crying out. Tears sprang to her eyes and she stared down at her phone. “I’m not — Look, it’s Fred.” She angled her phone so Alicia could see what Fred wrote.
Alicia’s eyes scanned the screen and she had to restrain herself from taking it out of Angelina’s hands to reply herself. “Tell him we need help,” she urged, the inferius receding to the back of her mind with every sign of pain from her friend. “I can get us out of here.”
“Yeah, okay,” Angelina murmured, but she didn’t want to worry Fred almost as much as she wanted everyone else was okay first. With some effort, she reached over and patted Alicia’s knee. “It’s going to be okay. Don’t tell them I’m bleeding.”
“Ang,” Alicia said, covering the other girl’s hand with her own. “They’re going to know as soon as they look at you.”
“I know,” Angelina said, tilting into Alicia again. “I don’t want to freak them out yet, though.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Alicia said, squeezing Angelina’s hand. “But we have to get you out of here.”
“We will,” Angelina replied, turning her hand over under Alicia’s and squeezing back. She slid her hand away to tap into her phone before aiming what she hoped was (and probably wasn’t) a reassuring smile at her friend. “They’ll come.”
Four nights later, their living room was illuminated by the light of the full moon and Angelina and Alicia were huddled on the sofa with Mittens, their neighbor’s cat.
Angelina had no idea where the werewolves actually were. Only that they were too close for comfort and the Ministry didn’t actually seem to be sending someone to help the town of Tinworth. “Merlin,” she said, absently scratching Mittens behind the ears, “this has been A Week, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’d call it,” Alicia agreed, pulling a blanket more tightly around her. With her other hand, she felt, for the umpteenth time in the last five minutes, to make sure her wand was within reach. It was only that and the low purr from the cat beside Angelina that kept her calm. “This is mad.”
“I’d like our next creature encounter to be something really cute,” Angelina said, sighing. “Like bunnies or puffskeins.” She lolled her head against the back of the sofa, aiming an uneasy smile at Alicia. “Do you think Nora would set Pea and Carrot after us just so we could break our streak?”
“Maybe if we asked really nicely,” Alicia said. She heard a howl in the distance and reflexively shuddered, her eyes growing wide as her gaze snapped to the nearest window. They’d drawn the blinds already, so she couldn’t see through it, but she couldn’t help being hyper vigilant either. Not with while werewolves were wandering through town. She let out a breath as the sounds seemed to grow further away. “Why’d they have to come to Tinworth?”
Even with the howls getting softer, Angelina’s eyes slid to the window and then, with a start, the door. There was no way she’d be able to get away from a werewolf if it burst inside, not with her leg laid up. It’d probably latch onto her leg the second she tried to apparate away. She wondered if they’d have to just chop the leg off if it got bitten again.
Alicia pulled a face at the thought and slouched deeper into the sofa cushions. “Maybe Tinworth’s cursed.”
“Yeah, but the thing with Fred and George’s shop yesterday,” Angelina pointed out. “We’re the common denominator here.” She tried to make it sound like a joke, but it was dark and there were werewolves so her voice came out a little small. “We’re clearly cursed.”
“Cursed to live in the same place at the same time as Death Eaters,” Alicia muttered, her own voice heavy with bitterness. “They’re the common denominator here.”
Angelina lifted the cat into Alicia’s lap and scooted just a bit closer, so she could link arms with her. “Right, it’s all them,” she agreed without conviction. “We’re too cool for curses. We’ll be okay.” It sounded hollow, though, especially as a distant howl cut through her words.
Alicia didn’t point it out. Instead, she tilted her head to rest on Angelina’s shoulder. “You’d better be right.”
Running on her own was far from the worst thing Alicia had ever had to do, but it was nothing like going for a run with her best friend to keep her company. She’d had to try to find the right songs to make up for her absence and the most interesting routes to keep from getting bored before she’d made it halfway through her run. She’d spent much of the time mentally counting down the days until Angelina would be back on her feet.
When the morning finally arrived, the only person more excited than Alicia had to have been Angelina herself.
“You’re sure you don’t want to give me a head start?” Alicia teased while she tied her trainers tight. “You probably have enough pent up energy to outrun me ten times over.”
Angelina already had her trainers tied and was bouncing around Alicia while she waited. “I haven’t decided yet, but hurry up, I need to snog the pavement because it’s the first time I’ve seen her in days!”
“She told me she’s missed you,” Alicia said, grinning brightly up at her friend. A moment later, she was on her feet and tugging the ends of her ponytail to secure it. “I should’ve hung a ribbon at the finish line.”
“Hmm,” Angelina hummed, bouncing to a stop at Alicia’s side. “I think I can manage to imagine one.” Without warning, she threw her arms around Alicia. She was so relieved to be able to count on her leg not to give out under her. It still felt strange, but Angelina suspected that had more to do with her not using it for days. “I missed standing!”
Alicia’s arm went automatically around Angelina and she squeezed her close. Standing on her toes, she hooked her chin over her shoulder and grinning into her hair, she said, “I missed bear hugs!”
“Me too,” Angelina said. “They’re just not the same sitting down!”
“They’re not,” Alicia agreed as she pulled back, still grinning. “I almost forgot I’m not taller than you.”
Angelina laughed, pulling back, too. “I don’t miss being shorter!”
“The only thing I miss about it is being able to outrun you,” Alicia said, echoing her friend’s laughter.
After considering the door for a beat, Angelina turned back to Alicia. With a laugh and a put on magnanimity, because she definitely wasn’t going to be faster after a week of bed rest, she said, “I’ve decided to let you have a head start.”
“Well, in that case,” Alicia said before bolting out the door, leaving it swinging on its hinges behind her. Outside, she bounced from one foot to the other and waited for Angelina to appear behind her. She wasn’t in any rush to leave her behind. “The pavement’s calling you, Ang!”
“I’m coming, my love!” Angelina called from inside. And then, with a relieved grin for their living room because finally she was escaping, she jogged out to meet Alicia, pulling the door shut behind her.