Riding on Firenze's back, Harry burst out of a thicket and saw Tom lying on the ground.
He immediately climbed down from the centaur's back. Firenze kept his bow raised and scanned their surroundings for a while before finally saying, "He's gone. How is the boy?"
Tom looked terrible, as though he had fallen from a great height. His arm and one leg were twisted at horrifying angles and looked broken.
Thankfully, though, Tom did not seem to have been killed.
Firenze came over, glanced at Tom's wounds, and took a few leaves from the pack on his back. He handed them to Harry. "Straighten his limbs first, then chew these up and apply them to his wounds."
The wounds were horrifying, but they were not bleeding particularly heavily. Even after Harry applied the herbs, however, they did little good.
Tom looked at the wound on his arm, where splintered bone was almost poking through, but felt no particular pain. The sensation was closer to the imagined pain he might feel when looking at someone else's wounds.
Just as I thought...
"What do we do? These leaves don't seem to be working..." Harry said in a panic.
"These are dittany leaves. They should heal wounds..." Firenze looked puzzled. "Perhaps the enemy's spell was too powerful..."
No, it's not the leaves.
The problem is my body.
Dittany leaves are for healing the living. They can't repair my body.
Repair...
That's right. Perhaps the Mending Charm would work.
After the troll had attacked him last time, Professor Murphy had treated him with the Mending Charm, and it had seemed quite effective.
"Take me to Professor Murphy..." Tom said.
Harry tore a piece of cloth from his robes and temporarily bandaged Tom's arm and leg. Then he lifted Tom onto the centaur's back