So... I'm so sorry for being so late but I do want you guys to understand so here are my reasons for being so late. Reason 1: My nanny died a few weeks ago and I've had to make sure my mum is okay and I'm going to doing a reading at her funeral which is stressing me out a bit. Reason 2: After the chrismas holidays it seems that all the teachers suddenly remember that they have to set a tonne of homework which I still haven't caught up on yet. Reason 3: I kept having different ideas for this chapter meaning that i'd get a thousand wourds in then restart which is stupid I know.
Thank you Seira228 for reviewing on my last chapter! And thank you for everyone who has followed or favourited this story so far! You guys are awesome! I hope you enjoy this chapter but this is one of my favourites so far even if it was one of the most difficult to write.
Disclaimer - I don't own any of this except stuff you didn't know :)
Chapter 10
31st October 1991.
To say that colds and illnesses were inevitable at a school like Hogwarts was an understatement, to say the least. The Scottish autumn was colder than most of Britain and the fact that the castle was only heated by candles and fires didn't help the matter either. Even if the older years and teachers were using heating charms to their hearts' content. It didn't prevent the younger years from acquiring numerous illnesses then spreading them through the castle.
What had begun as a minor cough during the second week of October, had bloomed into a full-blown sickness with pounding headaches and the occasional regurgitating of food by the time that All Hallow's Eve had come around. Many of the first years had had a brush with the bug but all had recovered quickly after a quick pepper-up potion which left many with steaming ears for hours after.
None, however, had got sick to the extent of Thalia. She forced herself to stay in bed after that morning's disasters.
The morning of the 31st of October began with Thalia waking up with a mild headache, nothing to be too concerned about, yet enough for Thalia to resemble a hag - according to Theo at least. Most likely due to the fact that she had gotten a maximum of 3 hours sleep over the past two days thanks to her body feeling deathly cold, no matter the mountain of layers she had piled upon herself in an attempt to sleep.
She stumbled into the Great Hall and sat at the Slytherin table, not even registering that she was sitting between Adrian Pucey and Montague - both fifth years that were on the Quidditch team - neither of which had spoken a single word to her in her two months of being at Hogwarts. She didn't notice the shocked faces of her friends as they sat a little way down the table, nor the concerned faces of Theo, Harry or Draco - the former two glancing at each other, their faces plastered with worry for their cousin. The latter of the trio quickly covered his worry and wore his poised mask once more.
There, she grabbed a few pieces of toast as well as some baked beans and began to eat at a relatively slow pace. She only managed a single slice of toast before clutching her stomach, a wave of nausea rushing through her. It went away just as quickly as it came, leaving her to quickly forget about it in favour of the glass full of pumpkin juice in front of her. Unfortunately, all the drink did was bring her nausea back, leaving her to clutch her stomach even tighter. She stood up and proceeded to walk to her first lesson, only to be ambushed by her cousins, both of which grabbed her by one of her arms and started to march her toward the hospital wing.
Against her protests, they dragged her onto a bed and Harry waited with her whilst Theo went to get Madame Pomphrey. The older women swiftly walked back over to Thalia, with a pepper-up potion in hand.
"You'll be as right as rain in a minute, Miss Nott, you just need to drink this." Stated Madame Pomphrey as she shoved the vial into the sick girl's hand. Thalia clasped the vial tightly before swirling it around, looking at the contents - the colour didn't seem all that harmful and nor did the smell but Thalia had drunk enough of these potions over the years to know the effects of drinking one. She would have much preferred it if she didn't have to walk around with steam coming out of her ears for the next hour or so.
However, one look at Theo showed her that if she didn't drink the potion, he would force it down her throat, in a sort of brotherly and caring way. So, with that threat looming over her head, she downed the potion in one go and handed the vial back to the nurse, closing her eyes and grimacing when she felt the steam blasting out of her ears. Although, she had to admit that she did feel a lot better afterwards. She pretended that she didn't notice Theo send Harry a relieved look over the top of her - he always hated her getting sick, especially after the death of his mother.
"You should be back to normal in a minute or two, but if you feel yourself becoming worse then you should come straight back, understood?" Thalia nodded quickly in agreement, merely as a way to get out of the hospital wing as fast as possible.
The trio left and headed towards their first class of the day - Herbology - where they were introduced to Bouncing Bulbs, a rather harmless plant which had many useful properties, especially in potions. It got its name from the fact that it bounced around if not restrained properly. A fact that Thalia learnt the hard way when Harry's bulb wriggled free from his grip, smacked him right in the face before bouncing into Thalia, causing her to drop her own bulb which also bounced into her face. Unfortunately, not only did they get told off by Professor Sprout, but also were laughed at by all of their friends - Thalia suspected that Draco was laughing at Harry more whilst Ronald was teasing her to his heart's content.
It was obvious that the potion had worked and that the fresh air from walking to the greenhouse had kept any nausea at bay, the only downfall of Herbology was the strong smell of manure and fertilisers that reeked havoc upon Thalia's nose causing her to suffer minor waves of nausea the quickly passed, so fast that some of the time Thalia barely noticed a change in herself. Not that she could've possibly noticed the fact that every few minutes her skin turned a pasty white that could rival a vampire's.
Thalia knew that the potion had merely dissipated her illness for the current moment and she also knew that it would most likely come back after the two hours that the potion worked for. She dreaded the constant visits to the infirmary if only for the fact that she could only take the pepper-up potion every four hours too make sure that she didn't become dependent or even addicted to them. Madame Pomphrey had enough of the fifth, sixth and seventh years suffering from those addictions to worry about a little first year.
Thalia didn't know whether she was lucky or unfortunate to have double Herbology on the day that her senses were more fragile than normal. On the plus side, the occasional breeze that fought its way into the Greenhouse kept her headaches and nausea at bay but on the downside, she really was getting fed up from feeling sick every few minutes, especially as she kept dropping whichever Bouncing Bulb she was holding at that moment in time in case she had to run to the nearest empty plant pot.
She was relieved after those two hours were finally over and proceeded to walk with Daphne and Hermione all the way to their Charms' classroom. Once they reached the classroom, they were sad to see that Professor Flitwick had not changed the seating plan and poor Hermione still had to sit next to the youngest Weasley boy. If his mere presence wasn't bad enough thanks to his appalling manners and his lack of knowledge, his attitude towards Hermione had not improved since the incident after their first Transfiguration class nearly two months ago. Not that Hermione minded as much as Ronald wanted, mostly because she didn't care what one annoying boy thought of her. At least, that is what she told Thalia, Daphne and Pansy one evening in the Library, her game plan was to ignore the boy for the rest of her life. Not very useful thought Thalia but hey, who was she to judge?
Thalia's day did significantly improve once Professor Flitwick announced that they would be learning the levitation charm, demonstrating this magic by making objects fly around the room - including Trevor, Neville's ever-wandering toad. Thalia was partnered with Pansy whilst Daphne was partnered with Theo. Flitwick obviously thought that there would be less conflict in his classroom if he put people of the same house next to each other.
"Now don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practising!" Exclaimed Professor Flitwick. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself with a buffalo on his chest." Thalia found the professor to be one of her favourites, not only was charms one of her easier subjects, but he always had a funny anecdote of a story to go with each spell that he taught. She also liked that he was even shorter than she, even if she still had a few years left of growing in comparison to his finished growth.
A small explosion brought her out of her thoughts and back to the present, causing her head to whip around quickly to identify the source of the noise. She need not have worried about an attack or anything that dangerous as the source was none other than Hogwart's pyromaniac Seamus Finnigan who had obviously got impatient with being unable to do the spell. Typical Gryffindors, if they couldn't do it first try or actually had to put effort into it, they seemed to lose interest briskly or become angered.
Ronald was obviously one of the Gryffindors who was angered.
"You do it, then, if you're so clever." Ron snarled at Hermione who had obviously just tried to correct him. It was one of Hermione's downfalls, she was so busy trying to help that she couldn't help but come across as condescending.
Thalia watched in fascination as Hermione rolled up her sleeves and flicked her wand while saying "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The feather rose off the desk on her very first attempt of the spell, much to Thalia's shock and a small amount of jealousy.
Her jealousy increased by a minuscule margin when Professor Flitwick cried "Oh, well done! Everyone see here, Miss Granger has done it!" without even allowing Thalia to try the spell. With a small huff and a glance at Pansy who was even worse in the jealousy department (She never wanted to be worse than anyone at anything), Thalia pointed her wand at her feather and said the spell.
Slowly her feather also rose off her table, perhaps a tad bit faster than Hermione's, probably due to the Slytherin girl's emotions that were also poured into the spell. Much to Thalia's dismay, a wave of nausea broke her concentration causing her feather to fall back to the table before Professor Flitwick could witness her accomplishment. The only reason she managed to get out of the ten-inch essay about the levitation charm and plenty of practice was because Hermione and Pansy vouched for her when Professor Flitwick came to check if anybody else had accomplished the charm.
By the end of the lesson, her waves of nausea had stopped becoming irregular waves and was now continuous and building in severity with every passing moment. She waved Theo away at the end of the lesson, fed up with his hovering, and declared that she was going to walk with Hermione toward the Great Hall for lunch. They were one of the last people to leave the classroom thanks to all of Hermione's extensive notes but as they were stepping into the corridor, just behind Harry and Ron.
"It's no wonder no one can stand her. She's a bloody nightmare, honestly." Harry didn't laugh or respond but it didn't stop Hermione becoming tearful. She pushed passed the boys and rushed off but not before Thalia could see tears rolling down her cheeks. After everything Hermione had said about the redhead, she still cared what people thought of her.
Thalia walked briskly so that she was in front of the boys before turning around to face them with her darkest glare. Both Gryffindor boys paled considerably, Ron's freckles becoming more pronounced and Harry's face taking on a shameful expression. Thalia opened her mouth to spit a fierce retort towards the Weasley boy only to promptly clasp her hand over her mouth as she felt a surge of nausea wash through her. Knowing that she was most likely going to be sick, she rushed in what she thought was the general direction of the girl's bathroom - even if it was most likely going to be Moaning Mrytle's.
She forced open the door and sprinted to the nearest cubicle just in time as her practically non-existent breakfast made a reappearance. She continued to vomit until she was dry heaving and even then, she couldn't stop herself. Tears ran down her face as she struggled to breathe between heaves, Thalia began to panic at the thought of suffocating but it seemed to make things worse. She wasted what little breath that she had gasping out for help once before continuing to struggle for breath.
It seemed like her plea for help had been heard, slightly, when the head of Moaning Myrtle popped her head through the cubicle wall. The ghost normally made teasing remarks or complained about her own life but for once in her spectral life, she actually did some good. She took a few seconds to assess the scene of the little Slytherin first year who seemed to not be able to stop heaving and then instantly left in search of a teacher who could perhaps help the pitiful first year. Luckily Moaning Mrytle's toilet was in close proximity to the Transfiguration classroom where Professor McGonagall was teaching a class of third years.
"There's a girl dying in the bathroom! A girl dying in the bathroom!" Wailed Moaning Myrtle which caught the Scottish woman's attention immediately.
"What did you say, Mrytle? Which bathroom?"
"A girl is dying in my bathroom!" At her confirmation, the professor quickly rushed out of the room, not bothering to give any instructions to her third years, and followed the ghost back to her bathroom. The Transfiguration teacher quickly observed the scene, hearing the dry heaving and desperate gasps of the unnamed girl, She hurried into the stall only to spot Thalia Nott, her hair was as messy as her cousin's, tears streaming down her face in a never-ending river and her face was a red as the tartan robes the Scottish woman was wearing.
The older women knelt beside the young girl and pulled her hair back from the girl's face with her left hand whilst vanishing the unpleasantness that was in the toilet. Once the foul smell was gone, she placed her hand back into its wand holder and began to rub the small girl's back comfortingly, trying to calm the girl down so that she could take deeper breaths.
"You need to breathe deeply now, Miss Nott, those short breaths will just make you want to be sick even more." It was obvious that the Slytherin first year was trying to calm down but the fact that she was crying wasn't helping matters. McGonagall gently grabbed the girl's face and forced Thalia to look at her.
"It's okay, Miss Nott. Just try to match to match my breathing." They stayed that way for a good five minutes until McGonagall was assured that everything had calmed down with the girl.
"Thank you, Professor." Mumbled Thalia, embarrassment was clear in the way that she lowered her head and her cheeks bloomed red - this time not from lack of oxygen.
The Scottish woman smiled slightly. "It's quite all right, Miss Pot- Nott." Thalia noticed the minor slip up but considering what Professor McGonagall just saw, it wasn't exactly fair or right to bring up her mistake.
"Will you at least tell me how you ended up in such a mess?" Thalia winced internally at the blunt honesty of the Head of Gryffindor, living for two months with snakes made her miss the Gryffindor honesty that her mother used all the time.
"I haven't been feeling brilliant these past few days but today I felt my worst so far. Theo and Harry forced me to take a Pepper-up potion three hours ago in the hospital wing which made my headache go away but my sickness feeling kept coming back. I still have another hour until I can take my next one. Although if I am being honest, Professor, the potion just made me feel worse than I had before in regards to my nausea." She omitted any mentions of added stress caused by Ron and Hermione's argument and put the full blame on the potion just so she didn't have to take it again. It was embarrassing walking around with steam coming out of her ears, for Merlin's sake!
"Well, I must insist that you go to the hospital wing to get checked over by Madame Pomphrey." Stated Professor McGonagall. Thalia's eyes widened in panic at the thought of being at the Nurse's mercy again.
"No!" Exclaimed Thalia before watching the Scottish women raise her eyebrow in question.
Thalia sheepishly smiled at her before beginning to explain her reasoning. "If I go there, she'll make me wait an hour then drink another Pepper-up potion which may make me feel sick again. If I could, could I go back to my dorm and have a shower then a nap? I would feel much better after that." She decided it was desperate measures so she deployed her most innocent look that made her dad fall for her tricks everytime.
One thing she had forgotten was that Professor McGonagall had taught her mother so while Thalia hadn't used the innocent act on her before, her mother had used it hundreds of times.
"Miss Nott, I ask you to not bother using that look again on me, it will do you no good. Blame your mother for that. However, you do pose a good point so I will agree as long as you come to the Halloween feast tonight, you haven't eaten anything all day. I would suggest that you only eat a little tonight though, and no sweets, just to be safe." Thalia couldn't believe how easy it was to get the usually strict woman to agree - she was planning on going to the feast anyway!
"Thank you, Professor, and I apologise for disrupting your lesson." The Professor merely smiled kindly before leading the Slytherin girl out of the bathroom, Thalia quickly shouting a thank you to Myrtle who had helped her. They two females parted ways once they left the bathroom, the older women turning left back towards her classroom to see what chaos had descended in the 20 minutes she had been gone. Meanwhile, Thalia briskly walked down to the Slytherin common room.
Once she reached the entrance she stated the password quickly and sprinted towards her dorm room, all the way trying to pull off her outer robe. She grabbed her pyjamas, shampoo, her de-frizz conditioner and her body wash before jumping into a bath that she'd asked the elves to start running. Somehow, the elves had managed to make the bath water smell faintly like cinnamon which matched perfectly with her vanilla body wash. She spent a good half an hour relaxing in the bath, surprised that her nausea had not made a return at all, but when her skin began to prune, she decided that her nap was long overdue. She emptied her bath, got into her pyjamas and crawled into her canopy bed. It wasn't long before she fell asleep.
Waking up, Thalia was slightly disorientated, wondering why there were no girls in her dorms yet it was still dark. Was there a party going on somewhere that she didn't remember? Or worse, wasn't invited to?
It took all of five minutes for Thalia to suddenly realise what the time was and what had happened that day. At 18:36 pm, she knew that she was already going to be late for the Halloween Feast so she rushed about, grabbing a new set of robes that hadn't spent a while on a bathroom floor. She didn't want to run for the feast - to be honest, even if she hadn't eaten much that day, she wasn't particularly hungry - she trolled along at a leisurely pace.
As she was nearing the entrance of the dungeons, she heard footsteps that were obviously running. Deciding that maybe she should've gone into Gryffindor after all, she decided to duck into a small alcove and see who was running (or walking quickly) passed her.
Just as she had managed to hide, Professor Quirrell came running past her hiding spot, not bothering to look around him and not looking scared for once either. Why would the teacher who looks terrified at the mere mention of a Vampire, suddenly running somewhere but not looking scared? The Gryffindor in Thalia wanted to go investigate where he had come from to see what he was running from but the Slytherin self-preservation won out and she decided to continue walking towards Great Hall.
She wasn't sure whether to be alert in case the thing that Quirrel had run from was likely to come after to him or to be relaxed because it might have been nothing.
Her question was answered when she exited the dungeons only to hear the thundering of steps and a stench that was worse than her earlier vomit. She froze and slowly began to turn around, like the idiot she was, to see what was behind her - she thought that it was smart to not have her back facing the unknown living being that seemed to have followed her out of the dungeons.
She instantly identified the creature as a mountain troll, remembering all of what Newt Scamander had written about them in his book 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'. He said that they were easily classified by their large height, their thick, tough, grey skin which was covered in horny growths and the fact that it was carrying a huge wooden club helped to cross out any possible friendly creatures. She remembered how they were bad-tempered and were rather partial to humans which froze Thalia to the spot. Thanks to its hard skin, spells were pretty much useless against it and it had a longer reach than her because of the club acting as an extension of its arm. The only possible weakness Thalia could think of was its impossibly small brain that meant that it was extremely stupid. She guessed that was the only thing that had kept her alive because it took so long to register that she was in front of it, it gave her time to get out of her shock and take off running.
She hoped that by taking a short cut up to the second floor, she may lose the Troll that had then decided to chase her. She tried desperately not to scream but as it let out a roar in anger (most likely because its meal was running away from it) she couldn't hold it in any longer. Trolls were on average about twelve foot high, according to Scamander, but this one was only about nine foot meaning that it was most likely a juvenile. Still, in comparison to her four foot nine inches, its legs were easily gaining on her.
Her lungs were burning from lack of oxygen for the second time that day so she decided to dive into the nearest classroom, hoping that the thick door would hold it off until she could hide. She hoped that the troll's sense of smell wasn't good because otherwise, she would have just cornered herself and practically wrapped herself in a bow for the troll to eat.
The classroom she chose was similar to Professor Flitwick's, with the four long benches, two either side of the room and books stacked all over the place. She slammed the door shut and hoped that the troll didn't have the brains to use a doorknob due to the absence of a key. She hurriedly searched the room for a hiding place before spotting a small cupboard in the corner of the room, she ran over there, legs burning with exhaustion, and pushed all of the rolls of parchment onto the floor so that she could squeeze into the cupboard. For once she was grateful that she was so small as she was able to fit into the small gap with relative ease. She left the door open a crack just so she could see what was happening.
It was a good thing that she had rushed because as soon as she shut the cupboard doors, the main classroom door was smashed open by the giant heavy club. So much for using the doorknob.
The troll squeezed through the door, intent on eating her obviously, and began lumbering around the classroom, smashing everything up in the hopes that she would suddenly appear. She held her breath as it drew ever closer to her cupboard, she even shut the door the rest of the way in the hopes that it wouldn't see her peaking out of it. She waited for what seemed like hours, only gasping slightly when the troll roared in frustration and just when it went quiet and she thought that it left, did it strike.
Thalia didn't know how it happened but one minute she was safely hidden in her cupboard, the next minute, the other side of the cupboard had been smashed in, the wooden splinters flying in her direction and cutting her face. She curled into an even smaller ball and waited for the killing blow.
But it never came.
It seemed that the troll had given up trying to find her in that room, yet she wasn't going to risk it. It seemed like she waited years for help to arrive and it came in the forms of Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall.
"Oh my, This must've been the path it went on the way to the girl's toilet." Stated Professor Flitwick, his voice a pitch higher than usual, probably in shock.
Thalia didn't see them but determined that it was safe to stumble out of the cupboard.
"Miss Nott! What were you doing in here? Are you okay? Why aren't you in the Great Hall with the rest of the Slytherins?" McGonagall rushed over and began checking the girl for injuries only to freeze when the girl burst into tears and wrapped her arms around the Professor's waist in a tight hug.
"Oh, my child." Sighed Professor McGonagall as she wrapped her arms around the small girl's trembling shoulders. She continued to hold the small child whilst Professor Flitwick fixed the room and returned it to its original state. After the mess was cleared up, the Head of Gryffindor led the first year to one of the benches nearby. Professor Flitwick sat the other side of the girl and they waited patiently for the girl to talk.
It took about twenty minutes for the girl to stop shaking and calm down enough to tell them what happened.
"I had woken up late from the nap that I told you I was going to have, " She began in a small voice, all her self-confidence gone. "I started to walk towards the Great Hall when I heard footsteps so I hide and saw that it was Professor Quirrell." She paused, giving the teachers time to ask any questions.
"Why did you hide?" Asked Professor McGonagall kindly.
"I hide because I didn't know who it was and I wasn't exactly looking like the model student. I didn't want to get told off for not being at the Feast yet." They both nodded in understanding of her point of view. It was a Slytherin way of thinking, being suspicious of everyone and thinking of their image and reputation.
"How did you get here from the dungeons?" Questioned Flitwick as he ribbed a comforting hand up and down her back.
"I kept walking after he passed, but I was a bit suspicious so when I heard heavier footsteps and putrid smell, I turned around to face whatever it was. I wasn't going to have my back to anything potentially dangerous." She paused again, looking to the teachers for approval. When they both nodded, she continued.
"I was in shock but I guess its small brain saved me because, by the time it realised what I was, I had already started running. I thought I could shake it off by going up secret passageways but because it was nearly double my height, it caught up. I hoped that its sense of smell was like its eyesight so I decided to try and hide instead and as you saw, it worked."
"But it nearly didn't!" Exclaimed Professor McGonagall angrily. "I saw how the other side of the cupboard was smashed in, a few inches to the right and you would have been killed!" Thalia paled at her words, thinking she was in trouble.
"20 points for Slytherin for keeping cool in danger and using your smarts instead of your brawn, as your cousin did." Thalia was happy about her gaining points but also curious at the mention of her cousin.
"What did Harry do now?" She groaned, she knew it wasn't Theo, his self-preservation would've kicked in.
"Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger went looking for the troll and when it attacked them, the managed to knock it out."
"Hermione would never go looking for the troll." Thala was confused, what had gone on whilst she had been hiding?
"Well that is what Miss Granger said and considering she is most likely not telling the truth, we took away points for their stupidity but gave them points for sheer dumb luck." Stated McGonagall frostily, obviously she was not happy about the actions of her students but couldn't punish them anymore - for some reason.
"Now Miss Nott, let's get you to your dormitory, I'm sure Mr Nott is worried over his cousin."
"I don't need to go to the hospital wing?" Asked Thalia in a happy tone.
Flitwick looked her over. "You don't seem to be harmed except a few scratches that will heal quickly enough. Just make sure to put that uniform in the wash as it most certainly will have splinters in it."
With that last statement, they escorted her back down to the Slytherin Common Room where she was promptly hugged by a worried Theo, Daphne and Pansy. All of which asked her for a full account of what happened. Millie burst into tears at how close Thalia came to death whilst the rest of the group were as white as a ghost. Even Blaise was extremely pale for once. Theo would barely let go of her to go to sleep and Daphne announced that she would be sleeping next to Thalia that night.
So Thalia finally fell asleep at gone midnight, being hugged to death by Daphne Greengrass and all she could think was how Halloween was just not her Family's night.