Chapter 9

Compass

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"Lucie? ... Lucie? ... LUCIE!"

She was pulled back into consciousness by a voice calling her name. Seraphina's voice.

Her eyes remained shut as she heard footsteps running towards her.

"Lucie!"

Somebody shook her by the shoulders, probably Seraphina.

"Lucie! Open your eyes!"

She groaned. "I don't want to." Her voice was hoarse. "I want to sleep."

Seraphina let out a sigh of relief.

"Come on, Lucie. It's no time to sleep now. We have to get back to the castle."

Back to the castle? Where were they in the first place?

Lucie reluctantly opened her eyes, blinking several times. Seraphina's face was hovering in front of her, her features only barely distinguishable in the darkness. Behind her she could see the faint outlines of treetops. All black in the night.

"Where are we?" she asked disorientated.

"You don't know?"

Lucie shook her head. She immediately stopped it. Moving with fast motions was making her dizzy. Her head hurt, a lot.

Seraphina looked her over, worry in her eyes.

"We're in the Forbidden Forest. And we have to get out of here quickly. It's not safe."

Lucie rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't worry about all the Downworlders lurking between the trees. Most of them are harmless, anyway."

"The what?" Seraphina asked with a puzzled expression.

"What?" Lucie asked in return, scratching her head.

Seraphina narrowed her eyes. "You've clearly hit your head hard. You're not making any sense. By the way, what happened to your robes?" She was pointing to the ripped mess that once had been her school robes. "Is that blood?!"

"Maybe ... I don't know."

Seraphina let out another sigh, more exasperated this time.

"We need to get back to the dorm, now!"

She pulled Lucie up to her feet with one forceful yank. As Lucie tried to steady herself, Seraphina held on to her waist to make sure she wouldn't collapse underneath her.

"Can you walk?"

"Mhmm." Lucie made an undistinguishable sound.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Seraphina forced both of them forward. Only very slowly could they make their way back to the castle.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of hooves stomping on the ground. Seraphina was quick to pull them both behind a tree with a massive labyrinth of roots.

"Wait-," Lucie started.

"Sh!"

She ignored her friend. "If I'm not supposed to be here, what are you doing here?"

"Can you keep quiet?" Seraphina hissed. "For the record, I'm here to rescue you."

"Rescue me?"

"Yes! I saw you wondering into the Forbidden Forest, so I followed. What were you thinking?"

"I don't think I was thinking at all..." Lucie's comment wasn't meant sarcastic.

"How right you are!" Seraphina spit.

Something wasn't adding up in Lucie's mind.

"Wait ... you saw me? How did you see me?"

"What do you mean?" Seraphina asked irritated. "I just saw you."

Lucie was about ask another question when Seraphina clamped her hand on Lucie's mouth and pulled her further down behind the roots.

Just then, a tall centaur galloped past. A boy was on his back, struggling to hold on. Seraphina watched in amazement as they passed. She had never seen one in real life before and she followed him with her gaze until he vanished out of sight.

When she finally decided that it was clear to go on, she helped Lucie up and on they went.

After what seemed like hours, they finally made it into the Entrance Hall. Lucie found it much harder to creep through the silent castle without being detected when you weren't able to use glamour. Lucie slipped when climbing down the stone steps, pulling Seraphina with her. The two of them tumbled down just a few steps before coming to a stop. Both of them remained still, their hearts pounding, as they listened for anyone who might have come to investigate where all the noise was coming from.

At last, they reached the Slytherin common room. Both of them slumped down on the sofas, exhausted from the treacherous journey back. They were incredible glad, they hadn't acquired any further injuries on the way.

Seraphina was the first to bring herself back on her feet.

In a hushed tone, she said: "We need someone to look after these cuts of yours. And we can't go to Madam Pomfrey, she'll think Merlin knows what..."

Lucie's eyes were falling shut again.

"Don't worry about it. I'll just-" She could only barely keep herself from saying she'll just draw an Iratze, a healing rune.

"You'll just what?"

"Eh ... I'll just ... let it heal by itself?" It was Lucie's best guess at the moment. She felt absolutely drained.

"Very funny," Seraphina commented with so much sarcasm, Lucie would've been proud of her if she hadn't already been half asleep. "You just wait here. I'll be right back, ok?"

"Mhm," Lucie mumbled.

After looking a couple of times over her shoulder, Seraphina hurried off to one of the corridors leading to the dorms.

Lucie, in the meantime, let her head fall back onto the edge of the sofa, enjoying the warmth and comfort of the common room. A noise made her open her eyes. It had come from the windows to her left. They had a view into the lake. Not onto the Great Lake, into it. And the noise had been the giant squid accidentally pounding on one of the windows again with one of its long tentacles. Lucie suppressed a laugh which resulted in her hiccupping. She shook her head slowly. This whole situation was making her hysterical.

Just then, Seraphina reappeared, tugging along a first year boy Lucie knew from her classes. Delwyn was his name, she believed. Delwyn Pucey.

The boy didn't seem too pleased to be dragged out of bed at this hour. He hadn't bothered putting anything on top of his striped pyjamas. His brown hair was standing off to all sides and his face was scrunched on the side he'd been lying on.

"What is he doing here?" Lucie asked, more awake by the minute.

"He's here to take care of your wounds," Seraphina said matter-of-factly.

"Him?" Lucie asked again doubtfully.

"Yes, him. His mother is a healer at St Mungo's."

"St Mungo's?"

"The hospital for Wizards and Witches!"

"Right." Lucie didn't notice how annoyed her friend was getting with her.

"Anyway," Seraphina sighed. "I know Delwyn here through his brother, Adrian, who's in my year. He already has some experience with patching up people. Last week, he offered to treat my friend who got stung by Envious Ivy. His mother apparently taught him some tricks."

"I can speak for myself, thank you very much," Delwyn raised his voice for the first time. It was unusually high.

Lucie rolled her eyes out of habit.

Delwyn ignored her display and started rolling up his pyjama sleeves. Like a professional, he asked: "So, where do you have these cuts?"

Since Lucie just shrugged, Seraphina stepped forward and peeled off her robes, revealing several slashes on Lucie's arms and legs. Some deeper than others.

Instead of flinching back, Delwyn came closer and stretched out his hand to touch the skin surrounding the cuts. Most of them were covered with dried blood. Only one particularly nasty one right beneath her shoulder was still bleeding slightly.

"Interesting ... Do they hurt?" Delwyn asked.

Lucie shook her head. They really didn't.

After taking a few more seconds to examine her wounds, Delwyn said: "This doesn't look too bad. I'll just need to clean and close them up. Just this one here-" He pointed to the one still oozing out blood. "This'll need a bandage and some healing potion would help."

"Do you have that?" Seraphina asked.

"No, I'll ask my mum to send some."

"Thanks," Seraphina said while patting his shoulder.

"No big deal," Delwyn shrugged it off. "How did you get these injuries anyways? Do I need to worry about them being poisoned?"

"A definite no to the poisoned part," Lucie said. "An 'I don't know' to the first one."

"Seriously?" he raised his eyebrows, turning to Seraphina.

"Yes," grunted Seraphina. "My best guess is sleepwalking."

Delwyn just snorted. "I'll get to work then."

With that, he started treating Lucie's cuts, one after the other. He murmured several incantations while he let his wand wander over her skin. Lucie watched in fascination as her wounds were first cleaned of the dried blood and then the surrounding skin began growing the slashed parts together. A pleasant tingling feeling spread from the healing wounds. It was like using an Iratze, only without the slight sting of the stele carving into skin.

Soon, Lucie's eyelids were getting heavy again. Delwyn's constant murmur together with the spreading numbness in her limbs sent her off into a light slumber.

Just as there was a tight pull on her upper arm where Delwyn secured a bandage, Lucie opened her eyes again to find Seraphina standing in the same position she had an hour before, her arms crossed and her eyes fixed on Delwyn's working hands.

"That's it, I'm done," Delwyn said, sliding his wand back into a pocket of his pyjamas.

"Thank you, Delwyn," Seraphina said as Lucie murmured a sleepy thanks.

"No worries, I had my fun."

It was Seraphina's turn to snort.

"You won't ... you know ..."

"Tell anyone?" he asked.

Seraphina nodded slowly.

"I won't. I have medical confidentiality after all."

Seraphina and Lucie could barely hold back from rolling their eyes as Delwyn turned on his heel and nearly hopped back to his dorm. Lucie had the suspicion he was feeling a bit too proud of himself.

"Alright," Seraphina yawned, showing the first sign of her actually being tired. "Let's also get to bed."

Quite naturally, she reached down to pull Lucie onto her feet. Lucie, however, stopped her by gripping her forearm.

"What is it?" Seraphina asked, her tiredness now clearly visible.

Lucie swallowed before saying: "I never said thank you."

Seraphina's exhausted features curled up into a smile. "That's alright. You're my friend ... that's what friends do," she added jokingly.

"Still, thank you."

"You're welcome."

They remained silent for a moment before Lucie asked: "What do you really think happened back in the forest?"

"I really don't know, but I'm figuring you'll tell me when you're ready." To Lucie it sounded more than genuine.

Just as they were about to part ways to enter their respective dorms, Lucie stopped them. Something was itching at the back of her mind. She was trying to piece together tonight's events yet it all remained somewhat blurry. It was as if her mind wasn't able to process the night. Everything seemed like a dream to her. Maybe she had been sleep walking after all.

"Wait-"

Seraphina turned around to face her questioningly.

"I think ... I think I used magic tonight. I used my wand."

"Successfully?" she asked.

"Yes, successfully," Lucie answered, her brows furrowed as her mind was working away fast.

A wide grin appeared on Seraphina's face as she pulled Lucie into a hug.

"That's great!" She sounded as excited as you could when you were whispering.

A warm feeling spread from Lucie's stomach all over her body. Even though she had trouble understanding what had exactly happened tonight, she still thought this had been the best night she'd had at Hogwarts so far.

Exhausted from it all, Lucie didn't bother to pull on pyjamas. She just collapsed onto her bed and soon fell sound asleep. The last thought that crossed her mind before she was overtaken by a dreamless sleep was that she realised her bed was the comfiest one she had ever laid in and that the green of the curtains was truly a beautiful colour.

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A/N:

"If we make it out alive, from the depths of the seas
Compass points you anywhere
Closer to me
Where you are, I will be"

Compass by Zella Day