SHE KNOWS - that none of this is meant to be malicious. everything right now is built upon tension, and the not knowing is exhausting, isn't it. not knowing if your friends will be there tomorrow, if your goodbyes will be the last ones you get. and oh merlin, the fighting, even when you got a moment together, it was, traded barbs, the worrying, the memories spoiled because you simply couldn't move past the emotion that lumped up your throat.
              she gets it. THEIR HEARTS LAY BLEEDING.
but no, it's not the heart, now, is it? it's james, who's come bursting through her doorway, others dragging him in because hers was the closest space with which they could trust to bring him, even if it darkened her doorstep. it's only lucky her parents aren't here, that there's nobody to BLOW UP her cover, a tangible fear that sits and rots within the back of her skull. but she pushes it aside as ted's fled into the night, begging her to do what she could as the blood drips and she sets to pressing into his wound to stop the bleeding while she could, spells on spells on spells on spells, the anxiety of it jolting within her veins, that terror, that she might lose him too something that left her one the edge of tears.
leave it to james to be half in and out of awareness as she stress smokes, waiting for consciousness. a proper one, though, when it hits, he's trying to rise up already, his thoughts already on everyone but himself. "shut the fuck up and sit down. you're bleeding." her words are harsh cut against her tongue, yes, blotting out the embers of her cigarette as she knelt by him, who's posted up within her bedroom, away from a portrait's prying eyes, and wagging tongues. blotting, quietly, at the sweat that ran down the side of his face. "ted said you were the only one hurt. i can't keep you here long but..." her expression contorts. the hurt cuts her to the bone. "YOU NEED TO RELAX or you'll burst what i've only just mended. can't risk you going to st mungos now, can we? just..." what could she say? don't? they were all sacrificial lambs, now, to the greater good. the grand cause. a brighter future that they might not see, a crushing realization for those who had barely even started to live their own young lives. "lily's going to be waiting for you. let's not worry her, yeah?"