TW AND CW: mentions of blood, scars, mentions of violence, self-harm

A creaking noise made Ana's eyes fly open. 

She was a light sleeper, and even the slightest noise could wake her up.

Ana yawned, hearing the creaking again. She slid out of bed and tiptoed out of the room, certain the noise wasn't coming from the girls' room.

Maybe James and Sirius were getting up to mischief again and were just not being very quiet about it.

Ana exhaled gratefully when she saw their door was already open and peeked around the corner, hoping no one would hear her.

Sirius, James, and Peter were fast asleep in their bunk beds. One of the bunks, however, was unoccupied.

"Remus?" Ana whispered.

The boy sitting on the carpet looked up. "Ana?" he mouthed. "What are you doing here?"

Ana jerked her thumb to the empty room the Potters kept for storage on the other side of the hall. 

Remus nodded, furrowing his eyebrows and getting up to follow Ana to the storage room.

Ana closed the door behind her.

"Why are you up so late?" Remus asked her quietly.

"I sheard a shreak," whispered Ana in a muffled voice.

"What?" Remus said. "You sound weird."

Ana pulled a small box out of her pant pocket, opened it, reached into her mouth, and placed something into the box.

"What was that?" asked Remus curiously.

"Retainer," Ana said simply.

"You wear a retainer?" 

"You didn't know?"

"No," Remus said, shaking his head. "But to the original topic. "What are you doing up so late?"

"I heard a creaking noise and I thought I'd investigate," Ana shrugged. "I was bored."

"At 3:00 AM?" asked Remus skeptically.

"You were awake too!" Ana retorted, then turned red when Remus shushed her. "Right, sorry," she continued in a whisper.

"I couldn't sleep," said Remus.

"At 3:00 AM?" asked Ana with a proud grin.

"Stop using my words against me!"

"No can do," said Ana, smiling slightly. "Now, what's up? What's bothering you?"

"Nothing's bothering me," said Remus a little too quickly.

"You really need to learn how to lie better," said Ana, tutting. 

"I'm not lying," Remus stuttered out, scratching the back of his neck.

"I know you're lying, Rem," Ana said exasperatedly. 

A tidal wave of butterflies crashed on the sides of Remus' stomach when he heard her call him 'Rem'. 

"And how exactly do you know that?" asked Remus, still feeling a swarm of butterflies.

"You scratch the back of your neck when you're lying," said Ana matter-of-factly. "And you scratch the front of your neck when you're telling the truth, but just hesitant to do so."

Remus scoffed. "No, I don't."

"Yes, you do," said Ana. "And keep your voice down. Why are you so insistent that nothing's the matter? I know something is."

TW AND CW: mentions of blood, scars, mentions of violence, mentions of self-harm

If any of the warnings stated above are triggering to you, you can skip this part and I will provide a non-triggering summary at the end :)

Remus took a long breath and pulled up his sleeve.

Ana gasped, and covered her mouth. "Oh my Helga! How did this happen?"

Remus' arms were covered in fresh, long wounds that bloodwas still seeping out of.

Ana pulled her wand out of her pajama pocket.

"What are you doing?" hissed Remus. "You can't use magic outside of school!"

"The Ministry can only track where it was used," said Ana, pulling up her sleeves. "This house is filled with adult witches and wizards. They could have done it, for all the Ministry knows."

Before Remus could even answer, Ana had conjured up three cotton balls and pulled a bottle out of her other pocket.

She uncorked the bottle and dabbed the cotton ball into the liquid. "Come here," Ana said gently. "I'm gonna help you clean those up."

"What is that?" asked Remus, pulling his sleeve back up quickly.

"Dittany," Ana said softly. "I always have a bottle of it with me. Come here, Remus."

Hesitantly, Remus pulled up one of his sleeves again.

Ana dabbed the cotton ball lightly on one of the wounds.

Remus bit his tongue. It felt like hand sanitizer was being poured into his cuts.

"I know, I know," Ana said quietly. "It'll hurt for just a second."

She was right. The searing pain disappeared within another couple of seconds.

Ana kept dabbing gently onto Remus' cuts, on both arms.

"There," she said finally, after about half an hour. "Your arms are all healed up. And I noticed you limping earlier. Is something wrong with your legs, too?"

"Just a small fracture, I think," said Remus, barely louder than a whisper.

"Alright," Ana said. "I'm gonna check for you. Which leg?"

"Right."

"Can you roll up the hem of your pants on the right up to the knee?"

Remus rolled up his pants and Ana started on cleaning the long, fresh cut on his leg.

"Ferula," she said, tapping the fractured are with her wand, and a linen splint rolled around his leg tightly. "Now, I'm no professional Healer, but that fracture looks serious. There's bruising around there, and the small spiky bump right there could mean a greenstick fracture, and that could lead to a compound one."

Remus blinked. 

"Basically, your bone is half broken," said Ana in more human-like terms. "If it breaks any further, it'll be fully broken. But that's not really a professional opinion. Tomorrow morning, we're taking you to a Healer."

"I don't need a Healer!" Remus said.

"Yes, you do," said Ana sharply. "You're badly injured!"

"I'm fine," said Remus grumpily.

"I think the broken bones might give it off," scoffed Ana, putting the bottle of Dittany and the cotton balls back into her pajama pockets.

"I can't go to St. Mungos, what'll we tell them about why I got these cuts?"

"That you hurt yourself badly during a full moon," said Ana gently, sitting back down next to Remus. "The truth. They won't judge. It goes against all that Healers stand for. All they do is take care of you and send you off. It's not their place to criticize you. And if they do, it's them that'll be criticized... in the Wizengamot."

Remus chuckled. "You'd really sue them?"

"I would try my best," laughed Ana, tucking a piece of wavy brown hair behind her ear.

Remus felt another surge of butterflies in his stomach.

Stop it, he chided himself. Stop doing that.

The butterflies in his stomach didn't cease.

"Remus?" asked Ana, breaking him out of his thoughts. "Is something wrong?"

"No," said Remus, and this time he was telling the truth. "Nothing at all."

END OF CHAPTER

Here is the chapter summary for those of you who didn't want to read through the TW part:

Ana heals Remus, and Ana states that she is taking him to St. Mungos the next day because of a broken bone he has. She also says how she would sue St. Mungos if they said anything biased to Remus. They talk for a while about this, and then Remus starts feeling butterflies. They don't stop, and when Ana asks him if anything is wrong, he replies with, "No... nothing at all."

Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)

Sorry that I didn't update for a while, my exams are ongoing and I barely had time to finish this chapter.

Live, Love, HP,

Jui Weasley