A/N:
Story written for QLFC S4 R2
Team: Puddlemere United
Position: Beater 2
Prompts:
Puddlemere United: Charms
Beater 2: Write about someone's hatred for the subject.
Additional:
1. (word) hangover
3. (word) procrastinate
Word Count: 1186 in Google Docs, 1194 in Microsoft Word 2010
All characters, locations, and most familiar terminology belongs to J. K. Rowling and her associates and affiliates.
October 9, 1996 was a regular Autumn Thursday—the students were eagerly anticipating the upcoming weekend, the sun was illuminating the grounds and brightening the Scottish sky, and the featured 'Breakfast of the Day' was Bangers and Mash. General excitement was building over the fact that the first Quidditch match of the year, Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw, was just over a week away. Friends were chatting amicably in the corridors between classes. Luna Lovegood was wandering around shoeless while rambling about Nargles, Wrackspurts, and her other non-sensical, mythological creatures. Harry Potter was being taunted by Draco Malfoy and surviving threats against his life.
Everything was normal.
And then Michael Corner woke up.
For three months, one week, and six days, this was not normal. For three months, one week, and six days, Michael Corner had not woken up. For three months, one week, and six days, Michael Corner had been asleep in various hospital wings. Well, he wasn't necessarily asleep. Michael had been dormant and unresponsive in a comatose state since the day of his last OWL—his Charms OWL—on Friday, June 27.
At 10:14 am, 14 minutes into the exam, Michael, without warning, stood up, screamed in an agonizing fashion, and collapsed into a heap on the floor of the Dining Hall-turned-Examination Room. Hermione, Ron, and Harry, recognizing the scarily familiar anguished expulsion of the sound of pure pain, immediately sprung out of their seats to rush to his aid, all while yelling for somebody to get Madame Pomfrey as fast as possible.
Mr. Corner was quickly rendered immobile, even though the action was completely redundant, so that he could be more easily transported. After being levitated up to the infirmary, he was soon pronounced to be alive, but unconscious. He was given a timetable of 1-4 days to awaken.
However, when the last day of school for the students rolled around, and tests continued to show absolutely no change in his condition, he was condemned to spend the rest of his deep slumber in St. Mungo's.
What no test could determine was exactly how the young man managed to get himself in such a predicament. No test could have shown how Michael's excessive drinking got him into the mess.
Michael began drinking at a party in third year, after Ravenclaw won a wild Quidditch match for the first time in over a decade. The resulting celebration was legendary, thanks in large part to Michael's drunken antics.
After three years, the Ravenclaw students decided to, as a whole, pilfer Firewhiskey from the pubs in Hogsmeade during the Hogsmeade weekends, in order to pull off a massive party for when the brainiacs finally won a physical match-up again. Nine years of steady accruement of the liquor resulted in a storage of more Firewhiskey than there was in Hogsmeade itself.
With such a large, easily accessible stash spilling over onto every table surface available, it wasn't hard for Michael to grab one and try it out.
While it had, at the time, seemed like an innocent-enough action to ignore—as everybody experiments with Firewhiskey at the earliest possible convenience—it would end up changing everything.
After he got over the burning taste, Michael chugged the rest of the bottle, and began to create his reputation as the ultimate partier.
The first outrageous action that he committed was walking up to the Head Girl, Penelope Clearwater, and snogged her in front of everyone in the room.
A few minutes later, after he downed a second bottle, he stripped down, revealing a slender torso that drove half of the ladies present wild, and initiated a dancing contest—which he ended up winning after he broke out his hidden repertoire of break-dancing moves.
By the end of the night, he had made a name for himself as the 'King' of parties.
Over the following two years, he accepted the invites to every party that he was invited to—which was all of them. Almost weekly, he would perform the same routine: show up, to the delight of everyone present; get drunk; commit an unimaginably daring action, getting the crowd pumped and further contributing to the extension his party persona; pass out after consuming dangerous levels of alcohol; and expelling the ensuing massive hangover with a Hangover Potion first thing in the morning.
However, by the middle of fifth year, drinking had stopped being fun for him, and instead it became more of a coping mechanism. Have a lot of homework? Drink. Snape was being excessively rude in Potions today? Drink. Have to go to Charms class? Drink.
Charms class…. That is where he developed the coping mechanism. Sure, Flitwick was his Head of House and a really competent teacher, but that didn't mean that the guy could make learning a charm fun. "Swish and flick. Swish and flick. Remember, boys and girls: swish and flick." "Oh, no, no, no. You are mispronouncing the incantation!" "The emphasis goes on this syllable." "Swish and flick."
Yeah. So much fun.
The first few years were tolerable, in the sense that Michael held hope that it would become fun one day. However, there is only so much that one can take before they lose all hope.
By the end of third year, all of his hope had diminished. A faint glimmer of hope resurfaced early on in fourth year when they learned the summoning charm, and he learned how to summon alcohol for when he couldn't find the energy to get up and grab a drink, but that renewed sense of 'maybe it will get better from here' died soon thereafter.
Even though drinking had lost most of it's 'this is fun' quality, Michael found it infinitely times better than anything related to Charms.
By exam season, Michael needed to find a way to avoid having to study Charms. He would make out with Voldemort if he had to—anything to escape the hell that is Charms.
His old friend, Mr. Firewhiskey, happened to call out to him, and so he began to drink his way through the two-week period. If he was lucky, he would be able to pass out each night to successfully avoid having to revise or study.
Luck, however, was not on his side. The excessive drinking did not lead to any shortened nights or aversion. All it led to was a massive build-up of alcohol in his system. But, what better way was there to procrastinate the nights away than by drinking?
Well, apparently none, as it lead to a 3 month-long coma.
October 10, 1996 was an irregular Autumnal Friday. Gossip may have been circulating all around the school as always, but the topic was one never discussed about before. A large commotion was made in the Dining Hall—even larger than the least popular morning show, "Eating With Ron Weasley." Clouds had robbed the sun of being the most prominent object in the Scottish sky. Friends were silent in the halls. No conversation was focused on any other topic than the one at hand. Luna Lovegood was wearing shoes. Harry Potter wasn't being harassed or threatened.
Nothing was normal.
Because Michael Corner had woken up.