Looking for a New Day

Chapter 3: Cleaning up

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Disclaimer: None of the characters nor the settings belong to me but are all the property of J. K. Rowling.

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The tub ready, the twins began to carefully remove Julia’s clothing, trying not to hurt her any more than necessary although the clothing had adhered to several of her wounds.

“There’s not much point in trying to save any of this,” Fred said, referring to the ripped and torn garments. “Much too far gone…”

The more of her that was revealed, the more the twins realized that relatively no part of her body had escaped injury. Sickened by the bruises and cuts they’d found, both George and Fred sucked in their breath at the lack of underpants and the dried blood between her legs. “Damn them!” one hissed, although the thought was so much in both their minds they didn’t know which one had actually said it aloud.

Carefully, George lifted Julia from the chair and carried her to the tub. After several awkward moments, punctuated by the ever helpful “Don’t drop her!” from Fred, he managed to settle her in the tub without hurting her any more than he did his own lower back.

“Now what?” Fred asked, frowning. “Do we….?”

“Just keep her head above the water so she doesn’t drown,” George directed. “Let’s let her soak in the water for a few minutes.”

Fred sat down beside the tub and tried to keep her head propped up. “You know, she’s got stuff in her hair, too,” he informed his brother. “We’ll need to wash it, too.”

“Lovely…” sighed George, who still hadn’t quite gotten his mind past anything other than letting her soak in the tub and hoping the water alone got all the mud and other stuff off her. Still… Washing hair wasn’t nearly as scary a thought as... Shaking himself, he hustled away to gather a pitcher for water and some shampoo.

When he returned, he noticed the water in the tub seemed to be doing its job of loosening mud and other grime. With a quick wave of his wand and an incantation, he cleaned the water. Moving his wand into his back pocket, he asked, “Now… how do we do this, exactly?”

Fred looked around, considering how to accomplish this without getting the rug soaked. “Well, we could transfigure an addition to the tub, and…”

George interrupted with a laugh, “And out comes the inventor!” Fred was always the one to try to figure out how to do something that hadn’t been done before. “Let’s keep this simple, shall we? Help me move her down in the tub a little…” Together, they managed to shift the unconscious Julia down the tub enough that they could lean her back and pour water over her hair. George grabbed the pitcher and said, “Dammit! Hold her a minute…” He pulled out his wand and spelled the pitcher so that it would remain full of warm water no matter how much he poured out. He started to put a hand back on Julia’s shoulder to help hold her up but stopped. “Wait a minute, this won’t work. Can you put your arm across the tub and let her lean against it?”

Fred started to roll up his sleeves but finally just shrugged and pulled off the jumper and shirt he’d been wearing. George raised an eyebrow but said nothing as Fred tossed away the clothes and stretched his arm across the tub, resting his hand on the other side. George gently let Julia lay back against his brother’s arm and moved to the back end of the tub. He lifted the pitcher and poured water across Julia’s hair trying to make sure all of it got wet.

“Watch it!” Fred warned, using a rag in his free hand to keep water out of the girl’s eyes.

George set aside the pitcher and used the shampoo to lather up Julia’s hair, wincing as his fingers struck several cuts. “Sorry!” he whispered more than once as the girl moaned softly. He rinsed the suds from her hair once, lathering it a second time before rinsing again for the final time. He tried to work his fingers through the snarls as much as possible.

Fred rolled his eyes at his brother’s unconscious delaying tactics and reached out to settle Julia against the end of the tub again. “Come on, George!” he said in exasperation. “You’ve seen a naked girl before!”

George flushed and replied, “It just seems wrong, somehow. Seeing her naked and touching her while she’s unconscious?”

Fred laughed. “So you’d rather she be awake and aware of us bathing her?”

George looked up and stammered, “N-n-n-o!” He flushed an even deeper red.

“Then let’s get it done quickly. And don’t forget that several of those deeper cuts have started bleeding again. We need to get this finished so we can see what to do about those!” Shaking his head, Fred grabbed the soap and washrag and began with her face.

After watching for a few minutes, George shook himself and started helping. Parts of it went easily enough, although both twins were redder than their hair during certain parts. After a couple of water changes, both decided they had done their best and what was left was bruise rather than dirt. Fred awkwardly lifted Julia from the water while George wrapped towels around her as best he could.

Then they both looked at each other.

“Maybe we should have thought this through better, done some planning…” George commented.

“I’ll put her in my room,” Fred volunteered. “It’s cleaner, and it has the fireplace. We can move another bed into your room for awhile for me to sleep on.” He carried Julia into his own room, leaving George to take care of the bath stuff.

George used a spell to get rid of the dirty water and return the soap and towels to their usual places. Then he transfigured the tub back into a basin and cleaned up the spills. By the time he got to Fred’s room, he found Julia lying face down on Fred’s bed, her bottom covered by a pair of his twin’s underpants. “Hope those were clean…” he remarked with a laugh.

“Of course they were!” Fred snapped. “Help me find that bruise stuff!”

Both twins scoured the room before coming up with the jar of yellow paste. “At least we know it works well,” George remarked, remembering the many times they’d used it on themselves. He moved to the bed and began to gently apply the stuff to the myriad of bruises covering Julia’s back and legs while Fred began the search for something to use on the cuts. Finally he found what he was looking for, and he joined his brother at the bed.

Opening the jar, he turned his head at the smell emanating from the jar. “Good thing it works so well,” he muttered as he stuck in a finger and began to smooth some of the contents over what cuts he could see. There was a particularly nasty one that ran the length of her back, almost as if she’d been struck with something so hard that it had opened her skin. That one took several applications.

“You know, she’s going to need some clothes,” George said aloud. “I mean, how would you like to wake up in someone’s bed and find you’re wearing some girl’s underpants?”

“Her stuff is still at Grimmauld Place, and I don’t know if we could get in to get it. I heard the Order had moved out when Sirius was killed because they weren’t sure if it would still be safe.” Fred had moved down to work on the cuts on the soles of her feet. “I don’t know how well this is going to work on these. Some of these cuts have had mud and other stuff ground into them…” he muttered. George frowned at Fred’s words.

Together, they bandaged the wounds they’d addressed and gently turned her over, beginning to work on the front side. Some of these wounds were more serious, and the paste they had for cuts would not likely work well. Fred looked up several times from the frustrating wounds only to find his brother blushing as he addressed various bruises on Julia’s breasts and stomach. Finally, Fred took the jar from him and finished the bruises along her inner thighs.

“Do you think we should…” he hesitated, looking at her hips.

“Would you want us to if you were her?” muttered his brother.

“Right…” Fred answered and closed up the jar.

The twins bandaged what they could, and Fred pulled out an old, soft shirt that had gotten too small from the bottom of his wardrobe. They gently dressed her in it and laid her more comfortably in the bed. Fred grabbed a comb and tried to work some of the tangles from her hair while George cleaned up the jars and bandages.

“What else can we do for her, Forge?” Fred asked softly.

“Maybe get her to eat something. Otherwise, I’d say let her rest,” George answered after some thought. “I’ll make some soup,” he added, leaving the room.

Fred did what he could with her hair and pulled the covers up to keep her warm. When George returned with some soup and hot tea, the two took turns trying to get some of the liquid into the girl. Finally, George shrugged. “Let’s just let her rest. We’ll try some liquids again later.” He got up and took the tray back to the kitchen.

Fred pulled the armchair closer to the bed and settled in it so he could see Julia’s face as she lay there. George looked in and started to suggest his brother get some sleep. Then he shrugged. “I’ll take a turn later in the night so you can sleep. Wake me up about two.”

Fred nodded and said, “At least we know she’s not a Death-Eater pretending to be Julia.” At George’s frown, he added, “She’s not had a chance to drink any polyjuice potion since she’s been here, and it’s been over an hour.”

George shook his head. “Yeah, but anybody could be under those bruises, brother mine, and we’d never know.”

Fred shrugged, “But she doesn’t have any polyjuice potion on her to drink later, either…”

George nodded slowly. “I’ll just get rid of her clothes and cloak. They’re too damaged to keep and ....” He paused. “Well, just to be sure, anyway,” he added.