Harry had yet another candidate for worst week of his life. There really shouldn’t be such a long, clearly defined list for that. Then again, there were a lot of aspects of Harry’s life that really shouldn’t be. It he was going to start being particular about it now, he was going to waste a lot more time whining than he had any desire to.

Still, his life seemed to be full of the bad end of coins. He had a chance to make up with Hermione when he was ready, but it was because she had been under the Imperius curse and had done truly terrible things and had terrible things done to her. He had the Prefect badge he had been so jealous of last year, but it was because his best friend since he had gotten to the castle was dead. He had scored a major victory in the war, but he had done so by literally beheading his mentor, who had been trying to at least kill his girlfriend and maybe worse.

Oh, and that girlfriend was only still considered that because she hadn’t been conscious long enough in the last 24 hours for them to talk about the fact that his former rival and now tentative friend was certain that he was going to marry her. Plus his old nemesis was in the castle in disguise, possibly with some of his most dangerous followers, and a riot would start if certain people, or the student body in general, got wind of it. Oh, and Harry was probably facing a murder investigation come morning.

So, of course, Harry didn’t want to talk to anyone or tell anyone the real story. Unfortunately, he didn’t even have anyone to hide him this time, as all the people who would were dead or in the hospital. As a result, he was hiding in a corner of the library, working on problems he could potentially solve, like how he had managed to turn blood and scarring into a tattoo on his partner and former/current girlfriend or the fact that he was apparently a rubbish duelist who got by on luck. Admittedly, he had said as much last year, but everyone had shouted him down. Now LeBeau had said it to him before effectively dropping him as a student, so it was something that needed fixing.

He was just thinking there must be to solve the positive problem and the negative one with the same solution, when the faint but nearby sound of whispering reached his ears. Thinking that this was the fourth person to get bold enough to approach him and ask what had happened of the evening, Harry was already scowling before he looked up, and angry retort to the words he hadn’t actually made out halfway to his lips.

“Oh, Flit,” he said in surprise, swallowing down the retort and managing a tired smile. “Someone I’m actually glad to see in here. What was it that you were saying?”

With a heavy sigh, Felicity made her way out of the hospital wing and to the nearest washroom, tiredly requesting that a helpful little house elf fetch her a change of clothes and getting into a steamy tub of water filled with soothing oils that would work the kinks out of her bones and hopefully clear her mind of the things she'd seen since that fateful Saturday night.

The Hufflepuff was exhausted. She'd been excused from her classes to help in the infirmary, but she'd still been trying to keep up with her studies between patients while she was in the hospital. The mediwitch had force-fed her a dreamless sleep potion two evenings ago, but since then the blonde had dodged the nurse and all her potions. She'd nodded off a couple of times since, but each time her mind filled with spiders and wounds that she was hopeless to heal. She sighed, feeling so overwhelmed as she got out of the tub and pulled on a pair of faded jeans and a grey long-sleeved tee. The jeans were falling loosely on her hips, and she shook her head to herself. The girl wasn't taking good enough care of herself.

After twisting her wet hair into a long french braid, Felicity started for the library, knowing that her patients were finally under control and the nurse had forbidden her from returning until the next day. She was under strict orders to get a full night's sleep. Of course that seemed like wishful thinking to Felicity, but who was she to argue with the older healer? She figured maybe a bit of research would help her clear her head, and she had something in mind that wasn't even medical for once. The Hufflepuff female was going to research the wars through wizarding history. She was determined to find out the ultimate cause of all the fighting and the injuries. She wanted to know why she had to witness death.

As she wandered through the shelves, Felicity grabbed a rather thick tome that seemed likely to have the information she desired and started for one of the tables. Someone caught her eye, of course, and she approached him with a small clearing of her throat and a tired and muffled "Hello Harry... are you alright?"

Her voice was so soft it was nearly inaudible, but that was what happened when one had used up one's voice yelling out orders and spells so as to avoid losing patients. She cleared her throat and tried again as Harry noticed her and asked what she had said. "Sorry, I'm a bit hoarse from all the spellwork of the last few days... I was only saying hello. And... oh, Harry. How are you holding up? I know it's been difficult for you, especially with the loss of your dear friend. Ronald Weasley, right? He had minimal suffering, if that makes it any better. I... I examined his body..."

And her mind would constantly remember how strange it was to work on a patient who had no heartbeat. Felicity had been so shocked, so... sad. The boy hadn't deserved to die, but luckily the poison numbed the body before killing the victim. The redhead hadn't suffered much pain. Fear, yes, but pain? It was a relatively good death as far as deaths went. He could have been in agony like the Slytherin boy who had been ripped apart by the creatures well before the numbing agent could take effect. Or the Ravenclaw girl who had been wrapped in the silky web of a spider and left to suffocate, most likely so that she could be devoured after the fighting.

Felicity shivered and took a seat across from the Gryffindor, her eyes bloodshot and haunted. "Was it really the headmaster behind the attack? I... I need to hear the facts directly from you, Harry. You know the truth, so please, share it with me. Who put so many people in danger? Who made it so that I had to witness so much pain and suffering?"

Harry nodded as his godsister raised her voice so that he could tell what was going on, though he almost wished that she hadn’t been able to. Pretty soon he would be either reliving or actively telling all the bad that had happened in the last few days. Still, if anyone deserved to hear about it, it was the blonde who had done so much helping in the aftermath, and Harry was absolutely the right person to tell her, even if he didn’t like it.

He sighed and began speaking, figuring it would be best to get it all out as quickly as he could. “Thanks Flit, I’ve been a hell of a lot better, but I’ve probably been worse a time or two also.” Wow, did that suck to say. The first friend he had ever had was dead, he had just killed someone for the first time, and he still thought he had been worse before, possibly more than once. How screwed up was Harry’s life really?

It did not good to dwell on that, though. It wasn’t like it would make it any better. “I’m glad Ron didn’t suffer,” he said, trying and failing to force a smile. “That makes at least one person here who didn’t.” He shook his head as he realized how bitter that sounded. “Sorry, I also broke up with Sky on top of all of this, so it really hasn’t been my week.”

Harry moved on quickly, hoping she wouldn’t have a chance to comment on that if he moved on to the topic of the Headmaster and the violence quickly enough. “It was most definitely the Headmaster. Unless you had the misfortune of examining his body as well. That one was kind of me.”

As soon as he was on that topic, Harry realized both how terrible that sounded and how little he wanted to talk about it as well. Unfortunately, he didn’t really have anything else important to talk about. Then again, he did need to see how his godsister was. Maybe that would keep her from wanting to talk about him or any of the other things that he didn’t want to talk about.

“How are you holding up?” he asked. “You’ve seen all of it and been right there in the middle of the nasty part.” That and she was having trouble talking, possibly from having to yell over the screams of the dying and badly injured. Maybe he could at least do something to help with that part. “Is there anything I can do to help with your voice? Or anything else for that matter? Just say the word and it’s done.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Felicity couldn't hold herself back. She practically threw herself at the boy before her, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his shoulder in a tight hug that said 'I'm here' while the tears finally fell from her hazel eyes. How was she holding up? She wasn't really sure how. She was holding, though, until that moment, when she finally felt like she had permission to let go. To break down.

It was so hard. There was so much pressure, mostly from herself, to do good and to do it right. Felicity had never felt so high strung before and she was starting to crack. The older nurse might have told her to go take a rest, get some real sleep, but she didn't even think she could do that. The images wouldn't leave her mind even while awake, and the dreamless sleep just made her feel lost. It made her panic. She lost her grip on reality if there was nothing to ground her, and so the potion wasn't an option.

The Hufflepuff was left with so much stress and worry and fear weighing down on her that she could barely function. Finding Harry, having him there showing concern for her and giving her this chance to just let go... it was just what she needed. Felicity pulled back and looked at him through glassy eyes, tears streaking her cheeks and only adding to the tiredness that the bags beneath her eyes already portrayed. "I'm sorry. Not just for this but for everything. Merlin, Harry, I couldn't save them. There were so many I couldn't save. I... I had to cut a leg off of someone. The venom was too strong... I... I never expected something like this to happen and... and... Oh, Harry, I'm so glad you're okay!"

Fresh tears fell, but Felicity ignored them for the most part. It seemed her hoarseness was helping them keep the dramatic scene somehow private, and that suited her just fine. The girl felt as if she was losing it, but she couldn't stop herself. "You're doing what you can do to help me, Harry. You're telling me the truth. You're fighting the horrors in this world. Oh, gods..." she shook her head, feeling a bit sick. "Law enforcement took the headmaster's body before we even got a look at it, thankfully. I don't know if I could have handled a sight like that after everything else. Not that I blame you, Harry. You did what needed done. I know that. I trust you."

Silently, Felicity added the thought that she hoped everyone else shared her conviction. She highly doubted that, though. So few were willing to change the way they saw the world, and it was all too easy to turn on a young man rather than change the entire way a world saw 'the greatest light wizard' in said world. "Skyler is with Draco, isn't she? And Hermione... was she really under a curse? She's been babbling a bit while I dress her wounds. They really don't look like anything a spider could have done. It's rather perplexing, really..."

Harry hugged her godsister to him as she finally broke down. He knew better than anyone that this was a necessary part of the process, even if everyone did it in different ways. He retreated into himself as long as he could, and then exploded in wild and irrational bouts of anger. Obviously Flit pretended nothing was wrong and stayed strong as long as possible until it was all too much and she had to break down. Harry was glad he was the one who was here for this. What better use could a brother be, after all?

Eventually the tears and sobbing faded enough that the hoarse whisper that Harry had to strain to hear could return, though he was once again half glad it was him here and half wishful that it was someone else. Not that he wanted anyone else to hear the blonde say such foolish things before he could fix it so that she thought better of herself and more rightly about all of this.

He sighed and whispered to her, serious but choking down the frustration that he knew wasn't really at her, but at so many other people and situations. "You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about," Harry said with great earnestness, passion shining in his green eyes. You're doing the best you can and this castle, and maybe the whole damn wizarding world, owes you a medal when we're done here. If not for you, Pomfrey, and Silas, I'm sure a lot more people would be dead and this situation would be a different level of disaster than it is now."

As it was, it was the worst disaster that had happened at the school while Harry was there, which was saying quite a lot with the kind of terrible luck he seemed to draw, but that was yet another thing that he didn't have the time to worry about yet. If parents started pulling their children out again and the governors started whispering about shutting the doors, well he would have to worry about that after he was finished worrying about keeping his people out of Azkaban. Merlin. Harry hadn't imagined this year would include Hogwarts being closed falling far down his list of worries, and it was only the second month of term. Usually the intrigue of the year was only getting warmed up at this point.

"Skyler was always with Draco," Harry said with the wisdom and distance of someone who had bigger problems to deal with and had already come to terms with it much faster than normally would have been allowed because of the chaos and desperation of the situation overall. "I didn't exactly deserve her anyway with the things I've been doing and the way I've been acting lately. I was worse to her than she ever could have been to me, even if she had of known she was always Draco's, and I don't think she knew that at first."

Just because Harry knew that and was beginning to accept it didn't mean it was easy or comfortable to talk about. He moved on to the next part of her question as quickly as he could, though he was sure they would have to come back to what he had just said at some point, whether he wanted to or not. "Hermione seems to have been under the Imperius Curse, though it's not clear what got her close enough to the Headmaster for him to cast it after we had agreed to stop trusting him and go our own way this year. That's a conversation that I have to have with her at some point, but it's one of many that I'm dreading in my near future."

That brought him to the last thing she had said, though he didn't really want to talk about it either. He owed it to the blonde though, for her safety as much as anything else. "Mione's wounds don't look like anything a spider could do because they didn't come from the teeth or claws of a spider. That's all I can say for now, though. The less you know about Mione's wounds, the better off you'll be in the long run. If you could convince Pomfrey not to investigate too closely and that it's all fine, that would be a great help to me, though."

With that Harry realized that he had run out of whispered questions to answer, though he was sure that he had given Flit more to ask him with that. With any luck, his love life and his transgressions that made him sure he didn't deserve Sky would be way down the list. While it was a subject that he probably needed to talk over with someone he could trust, that was still the absolute last thing he wanted to do, even compared to facing the Minister of Magic, or whoever was coming for him soon in that area. Disappointing and hurting Sky was the dumbest thing he ever remembered doing in quite an impressive list of dumb things for so short a life.