"Emerald!"

As soon as the first scream left her mouth, Remus was by Emerald's side. His hands reached out for her, only to fine her freezing, and if it weren't for the agonized sound that left her mouth he would have thought her dead.

As a second scream left Emerald's mouth, followed by a third and a fourth, Remus could almost feel the echo of her pain resonating inside of him.

"Call a Healer!" he called out, not even caring if the Death Eaters were still surrounding them. "Someone – someone call Madam Pomfrey or – or Professor Dumbledore! Call for help!"

He was vaguely aware of James and Sirius on their knees next to him, of Lily and Peter running towards them and of Moody sending a silvery message away. As his hands wrapped around Emerald, hoping to restore some of her lost body heat with his, he couldn't comprehend a single word that was said.

"Stay with me, Emma," he whispered to the girl in his arms. "Just stay with me."

Madam Pomftey arrived within minutes of when Emerald was hit, but almost three hours had passed before the woman was lying on a bed at the Hospital Wing and the Matron finished looking over her.

Dawn was already upon them by the time the dust settled over Hogsmeade, and the residents were already starting to put the physical and metaphorical pieces back together. They were all shaken, that much was clear, and Remus heard Dumbledore talking of limiting the tours to the village for the following year – or, at least, until they found a way to protect the small town better without harming the businesses any more than the attack already have.

It was clear that months would pass before the village was the same again.

Once that matter had gone and passed, and official statements had been given to the Ministry Officials on scene, Dumbledore turned his attention to the Hospital Wing and the figure on the bed.

"I managed to restrain her magic enough to keep her from hurting herself," Madam Pomfrey said. "I believe that, unless further problems arise, it should be safe for others to stay in the room with her, but I've only ever read about this curse."

"As have I," Dumbledore said. "Though what I read about it wasn't good."

"What… what is it?" Lily asked with a shaky voice.

"Its common name is the Dementor's Touch," Madam Pomfrey replied. "And it is truly one of the most wretched curses I had ever heard of. I daresay that if the curse existed in 1717, when the Unforgivables were classified, it would have made the list."

"It forces one to go through their worst memories in reverse to the order in which they happened," Dumbledore explained. "I believe it started with her latest transformation and by now we've reached December."

"How can you tell, Professor?" James asked.

"She's stopped screaming in pain and stayed crying," Remus mumbled. "That was all she did after that one. Just… crying."

On the bed, Emerald started screaming again and Sirius looked away, ashamed. "How long does it take to transform?" he asked.

"Usually ten minutes at any direction," Remus said. "It fits, since we had two hours of screams for six transformations, and then another hour of crying."

"That is not what I'm worried about," Madam Pomfrey said. "If I understood correctly, she spent almost a month there. Merlin knows when she will wake up."

"Spent a month where?" Peter asked, not understanding.

"At the pack, before she was…" she trailed off.

James's eyes widened with fear. "A month?" he asked. "She can't relive a month! She'll lose her mind! It's a wonder she hadn't lost it in the first place!"

"I know," Dumbledore said sadly. "But there is nothing we can do other than wait for it to pass."

Slowly, Remus reached out and grabbed Emerald's hand in his, holding it tight. On his palm, he could feel the Mark starting to burn.

An hour and a half later, he knew they reached the night she was bitten. He didn't know what was worse – the fact that she was reliving it or the fact that it happened to her in the first place.

"Help!" she called out, eyes closed as she fought against invisible ropes. "Somebody help me! Please!"

It was over rather quickly, but was soon replaced by things much worse.

The House Elves regularly brought him food, but even though he ate it all there was no taste to anything he put in his mouth. Every once in a while, somebody walked in to try and get him out, but they all stopped once they heard what she was saying.

"Just kill me," she told someone they couldn't see as tears marked her face. "She gave me to you so that you could kill me so just do it already."

Thirty five hours after the curse was cast and thirty hours after Emerald's month of hell began, Remus passed out on her bed. He woke up ten hours later when the screams resumed.

"It's a fake!" she called. "Please, the sword is a fake! We found it, I swear! No!" An agonized scream pierced the air. "Please! It's a fake! Harry! Ron!Somebody!"

"If I ever dare say anything to her," James said weakly, holding his head in his hands, "I want you to hex me so bad I don't know what day of the week is it."

"Deal," Remus muttered, not taking his eyes off the woman on the bed.

After that, came a part that consisted mostly of yelling curses into the air. By that point, her magic was so unstable that even with Madam Pomfrey's additional defences, they all had to clear out of the room to avoid being hit with the curses she wandlessly sent art them. Then, she spent nearly an hour screaming for Ron again, before her yells became tears.

"He apparated away."

More duelling followed and then, a broken voice calling "Expecto Patronum" before the memories went on.

Remus was completely and utterly broken by then. It had already been 48 hours, and it didn't look like they were getting anywhere. He didn't even know how far away into the past they were, but the attack on Emerald's mind just went on.

She cried over someone's death, and had a fit of jealousy he didn't understand.

"Don't hurt the baby!" she called before grunting in pain, supposedly as a curse hit her.

Not long after, she fell into silence and he called Madam Pomfrey.

"I don't think it's over yet," the Matron said. "But she's definitely in shock."

"It couldn't be," the girl in question muttered. And then, "We're here for you, Harry. You do know that, right?"

During the third night, Remus thanked everything he held fast that none of the other Marauders were next to him as Emerald started speaking to a Professor Lupin.

That would have been hard to explain, he thought right before she said something about a potion and not being safe, and more screaming ensued.

"It's a Bassilisk," she whispered during the early hours of the morning. "Make sure to look in the mirror. Don't come in," she added mere minutes later. "The potion isn't meant to be used with cat hair."

"Polijuice Potion," he whispered, remembering she once told him of that. "We reached the time when she was twelve!" he called aloud.

"Knight to E4."

"Do I even want to know why she's afraid of Chess?" Peter asked.

"Devil's Snare – but we don't have woods!" and a scream, not of pain but of fear before she started crying again.

"Stop it!" she said. "I'm not a freak! I promise I wouldn't do it again, please stop."

Remus clenched his fists when, at long last, after telling her parents to stop fighting, silence fell on the infirmary.

"Seventy two hours," Madam Pomfrey said. "Poor girl."

"Half of that time was with him," Remus said. "More than half."

"Will she be okay?" Lily asked, shaking.

"Physically, yes," the Matron said. "Mentally… we can only hope. There is no doubt there will be a regression in her state following the events of the past few days." She sighed before looking up at the five exhausted faces in front of her. "You should get some sleep," she told them. "I have a few spare beds here, or I could talk to the Headmaster about granting you access to your dorms…?"

"I think staying here would be best," James said in the name of all of them. "I… I don't think any of us wants to let her out of our sight at the moment."

Madam Pomfrey nodded, helping a broken Remus into the bed next to Emerald's as Peter and Lily fell on the beds across from the two and fell asleep. James was about to do the same when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and followed it silently.

He found Sirius sitting on the hallway floor, tears he'd managed to hold inside so far finally making tracks down his cheeks.

They were a mess, the lot of them. Madam Pomfrey had changed Emerald from her torn green dress and into a hospital gown, but the rest of them still wore the clothes from that night. Clothes that were marked with dirt, sweat and blood, and torn in several places.

None of them dared to stray as far from the Hospital Wing as to take a shower.

James silently sat down next to his best friend, knowing it was best to let Sirius approach the subject on his own rather than force him to talk. It felt like hours before he did, but James was ready to listen.

He didn't expect the words that came out of Sirius' mouth.

"She lied to me," he said. "She… when I first saw her scars, after the full moon Moony visited his mom, I confronted her about it. She said that the man who did it had died."

"And he hadn't?" James asked quietly.

"You didn't see the way she was looking at Greyback that night, did you?" Sirius asked. "That fear in her eyes… it was Greyback who held her captive. It was probably him who bit her, too. She lied to me, Prongs. If she just told me the truth…"

"You couldn't have prevented this."

"She ran out to a battlefield when her head wasn't in the right place, because of him," Sirius insisted. "If I'd have known, I could have helped her calm down rather than let her go on a… a suicide mission."

James sighed, realizing he wouldn't be able to get to his friend at the state they were in.

"Get some sleep, Pads," he said as he stood up. "And… I know that you probably want to tell Remus –" From the look Sirius gave him, it was clear that he didn't just want to tell Remus, he was moments from doing so. "– but give her the benefit of the doubt. When she's woken up and functioning, ask her about it. I'm not saying don't tell Remus at all," he quickly added. "Just… give her a chance to do it herself. Okay?"

"Okay," Sirius said. "But I'm giving her one chance, Pads. Nothing more."

"You don't have to give her anymore," James replied. "But you have to give her this."

"One chance," Sirius repeated.

"One chance."

It was times like these that Albus Dumbledore hated the fact that he was Headmaster of the school, as well as the leader of the Order. Last he heard before Madam Pomfrey was called to Hogsmeade, James, Sirius and Remus left the Hog's Head to get Emerald to safety. Not even an hour after his brother's message, he finds out that the four took part in the skirmish against the Death Eaters, and Emerald was hit with the Dementor's Touch.

Now, three days later, he was tasked with the job of explaining to one Mrs. Dorea Potter how her son, her adopted son, one of their closest friends and the woman she had all but come to see as a daughter have fought side by side with Order members when they should have been safe at the other end of the village.

Of all the things he feared – and there weren't many things he feared – Slytherin mothers made the top of the list by a long shot, and Dorea more than most.

Somehow, she had managed to turn everything on him, from the boys' involvement in the battle to their presence in the village at the first place. Even Charlus' explanations that nobody could have foreseen their actions weren't enough to calm her down.

"These are my kids you're talking about, Albus," she all but sneered. "And they nearly died three nights ago. Now, if you won't explain how they've come to fight, why won't you explain your reasoning for not notifying us earlier?"

"Yes," a new voice said from the doorway. "I'd like to know that, as well."

Now, anything that could be said about Slytherin mothers paled in comparison to Molly Weasley. Even as a student, she was formidable, and after years of raising her boys and well into her fourth pregnancy, she was a force to be reckoned with. Especially when followed by her two brothers who, though younger, towered over a head above her and were just as hard-headed.

"Where is she?" Molly asked. "Where's Emerald?"

"And why did we have to hear about this from Mad Eye?" Fabian added.

"She is currently still at the infirmary," Dumbledore said, feeling the beginning of a headache forming. "As are the boys and Miss Evans," he added in the direction of Dorea and Charlus.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Molly went on. "We should have known – we should have been informed."

"I'm sorry," Dorea started, "I don't believe we've met before. I'm Dorea Potter."

"Molly Weasley," the younger woman said, shaking the offered hand.

"And your connection to Miss Grey is…?" Charlus asked.

"Emerald's a friend," Fabian said.

"She's more than that," Molly immediately said. "She's family."

"Is it true?" Gideon's voice came out as a hoarse whisper when he spoke for the first time since he walked into the room. "Is what Mad Eye said true? Was she… was she hit with the Dementor's Touch?"

Dorea's hand flew to her mouth to cover the gasp that escaped.

"She what?" she breathed out. "Dementor's Touch? Why didn't you tell us about it earlier?"

"Because she was only released from the effects of the curse less than an hour ago," Dumbledore replied.

The effect of his words on the group was immediate. Dorea almost fell, Charlus' quick reflexes the only thing that kept her standing. Gideon let out a sound that was almost inhumane and Fabian looked like he was going to be sick.

Molly didn't as much as blink.

"Take me to her," she all but ordered.

"She's still asleep," Dumbledore said.

"I don't care," Molly replied. "I don't care if she'll stay asleep for the next decade. This girl is like a sister to me and you will take me to see her, now!"

Knowing a lost battle when he saw one, Dumbledore sighed, standing up and leading the group towards the Hospital Wing.

Further down the castle, Remus Lupin woke up with a start as the Mark on his hand burned a bright red. A few long moments passed before the pain subsided but, if he paid attention, he could have heard a single syllable coming from the bed next to his, where an identical mark turned red, as well.

"Yes."