Chapter 7 – Theato Riddle
I hesitate, leaning one hand on the hospital bed. What... what will he think, if he wakes up and I am still here? Will he kick me out, yell at me, be disgusted with me, or try to curse me? Will he push me away? Yell for the nurse? Call me all of the bad names he can think of? I deserve whatever he decides to do to me, and more.
His drawn out groan of pain knocks the breath from my chest, tears springing to my eyes as my gaze is drawn back to the bloody bandage wrapped around his chest. Most of his bones broke. Madam Pomfrey said that it was too dangerous to try to heal the wounds with him asleep. When has it ever been too dangerous to heal a patient while he is not awake? Is that not when it is safest, for large wounds like this? Apparently, whatever my curse did do him, it needs to be healed while he is able to tell Madam Pomfrey about any discomforts.
Shaking my head, I make up my mind and swallow down my fears, climbing onto the hospital bed beside Caelum's broken body, slowly sliding beneath the blankets, careful not to disturb him. Resting my head on the pillow next to his I shuffle onto my side, slowly bringing a hand up to brush away rogue strands of hair off his forehead. I never meant to hurt him. He found me at the wrong time, pushed me at the worst moment. I... the curse... I didn't even know what it would do to him, it was just something I read in Bellatrix's library over the summer. It… it was just the first thing I thought of.
"Miss Riddle!" Madam Pomfrey's shrill whisper assaults me as she slips around the white sheet hiding us from the rest of the world, eyes narrowed in disapproval. "If you are here to terrorize Mister Longbottom further, I would suggest you leave."
The hazel haired boy beside me doesn't stir as I pull my hand away from him and press it over his heart. It beats softly, feebly, weak from the blood loss and the excruciating pain I put him through. It breaks my heart. If he were awake, or semi-conscious, he would shove me off the bed right now, yell at me, tell me just how bad I am: that is bad enough. His silence is worse. It speaks legions, proves every word he has uttered to me. I told him that he was wrong, and I proved him right. I don't want him to be right, I don't want to be someone bad. I just wanted him to leave me alone. Shaking my head, I glance up at her. "I can't leave him."
Something on her face softens and she nods, placing a vial of clear liquid on the bedside table, next to the flask of pumpkin juice. "The pain will rouse him soon. When he wakes, give him this potion. It will numb the pain. Then come and get me right away. Am I clear?"
"Yes."
She nods curtly and slips back out of the curtains, pulling them shut behind her.
Laying my head back down next to Caelum's, I run a hand through his hair again, chewing my bottom lip.
"I am sorry, Caelum Longbottom. So very sorry. I… please believe me, I didn't mean for this to happen. I just… I just wanted you to shut up. I… I couldn't stand it, seeing you, after all that you said, looking at me with pity." My voice cracks as my vision blurs, tears sliding down my cheeks to stain the pillows. "Why did you have to pity me? Why couldn't you have just left me alone?"
Beside me, Caelum stirs ever so slightly, fingers clenching in the sheets. He groans softly, turning his head away from me, pain flitting across his face. "You were upset. What… kind of person would I have been… if I didn't try to help?"
I can't help the relieved laugh that forces its way through me and I don't dare to move in fear of jolting him. "A sensible one."
The corner of his lip twitches up and his eyes open in slits, glancing around. Struggling to sit up, he gasps in pain, face paling.
Sitting up, I press a hand to his shoulders, forcing him back down before leaning over and grabbing the vial of clear potion from the table. Uncorking it, I hold it in front of his face so that he doesn't have to move to see it. "Here, take this. Madam Pomfrey dropped it off a few minutes ago, to help with the pain."
He nods, and lets me slip my hand behind his head to tilt it up, pressing the vial to his lips. He drinks it gratefully before collapsing back on the bed. "Merlin's beard, it hurts. What did you do to me, Theato?"
"Broke most of the bones in your body and punctured a few organs."
He coughs out a laugh, wincing. "That's all?"
"I might have also dragged you halfway to the hospital wing after you passed out." Slipping off the bed gently, I grab his hand and give it a soft squeeze before slipping out of the curtains. Waving at Madam Pomfrey, who sits in her office and doesn't notice me, I sigh. Jogging over, I knock twice her open door. "Madam Pomfrey, he's awake."
She glances up at me, surprise evident on her face. She shuffles the papers on her desk before grabbing her wand and slipping past me, towards Caelum's bed. "Already? I thought it would take him longer."
I tail her back to his bed, where she stops just outside of the curtains and looks back at me, lips pursed. "Are you certain you want to be here for this? It will not be pleasant."
"I'm positive." The words leave my lips without question, without hesitation, and Madam Pomfrey smiles wryly.
"Of course you would. Minerva did say you never let anyone you hurt go through the healing alone," she mutters, shaking her head and pulling the curtain back. "Take his hand. It is the only comfort you can give him. Everything else is bruised or broken. And try to keep him calm, it'll make my work faster."
Nodding, I slip to Caelum's side and slip my hand into his. Meeting his pained eyes, I give him a reassuring, if not a little uncertain, smile and squeeze his hand again. "Just a bit of healing and then it'll all be over."
He nods and looks at Madam Pomfrey. "Make it as quick as you can."
She nods and gives me one final look before waving her wand over Caelum and murmuring a healing spell. The same sickening snapping sound from when I cast my curse echoes through the hospital wing, matching Caelum's scream as he latches onto my hand, squeezing until pain shoots through my body.
"Hold him still, Theato!" Pomfrey hisses, muttering another spell, followed by more snaps and another drawn out scream, ending in a choked moan as Caelum arches up, trying to get away from the healing spell.
Squeezing his hand, I let it go and reach my arms over his chest to force his shoulders back onto the bed, leaning over him and glaring down into his pained eyes. "Calm down, Caelum. It's almost over, just hold on a few more minutes." He jerks against my hold, eyes snapping open to stare at me, filled with pain and a misty fog as slow recognition lights his eyes. "Stop struggling, Longbottom!"
He clamps his jaw shut tightly, lips turning white with his effort to hold his screams in as another healing spell falls over him, snapping bones back in place. His body jerks on the bed, against my holds, forcing me to nearly tumble off the bed. I barely manage to keep my hold on his shaking body as he tilts his head back, his collarbone snapping into place. His scream forces its way out of his throat, jarring me off of him.
Scrambling back up onto the bed, I lung across his shoulders and force my full body weight onto him, successfully pinning him down and stopping another attempt to arch away from the healing spells. Moisture clouds my vision as he stares up at me through narrowed slits, hissing out a pained breath. "Caelum, control yourself!"
"It's quite alright, Theato" Pomfrey whispers, a cool hand falling onto my shoulder. She looks down at me tiredly, sweat creasing her eyebrows, as she slips her wand into a pocket on her apron. "I am done. All of his bones have been reset and mended, and the bruising should be gone in a few hours. He will be sore for a day or two, but that is to be expected. The next time you two decide to duel, try not to use lethal curses."
Guilt rushes through me, suffocating and asphyxiating, but Caelum relaxes underneath me and slips his hand into mine, squeezing. I manage to muster up a smile for her, extracting myself from Caelum, all of me except the hand he holds tightly. "I will try to restrain myself."
"I suppose that is all I can ask of you. You may stay with him for however long you like, but let him get some rest, dear. He deserves it." With her words, she offers me a weary, fatigued smile before patting my shoulder and slipping back out of our sanctuary surrounded in curtains.
I straighten my clothes and fix my hair, reaching in my pocket to check that my wand is still with me. I find anything to do that doesn't include looking at the Hufflepuff boy laying in pain on the cot next to me.
Caelum's voice forces me to a standstill. "Theato, look at me."
Huffing, I glance up at him, narrowing my eyes at his efforts to sit up. Extracting my hand from his, I force him back down onto the bed and reach across, for the glass of water. Holding it to his lips, I force him to drink all of it before replacing it on the bedside table and stepping away. "You should get some rest, Longbottom. You look like you are about to faint."
"Your concern is truly touching." Caelum rolls his eyes, coughing. He reaches for a tissue from the bedside table, wiping the flecks of blood off of his lips. He looks at it with distaste before dropping the handkerchief onto his bandaged chest, for later use. "I don't think I want to sleep. If I close my eyes now, fear that when I awake you will be nothing but a memory, a ghost, and I won't get to talk to you again."
Heat rushes to my cheeks, no doubt painting them an embarrassing pink, and I can feel the change in my body stir. I swallow the temptation down and set about fixing Caelum's blanket, which he crumpled and kicked off while being healed. "If you refuse to sleep, there is a herd of angry students waiting outside the hospital wing, to check on you and make sure you are ok and to flay me alive."
"Would you allow them to see me now?" Caelum watches me, no judgement in his eyes, nothing but curiosity. He reaches down, offering to take the blankets from me, but I swat his hands away, annoyed.
Something hot boils in my stomach at the thought of letting the others dote on Caelum. No doubt Malcolm and Jackson would take over, not let me near him. No, that cannot happen. It is my job to take care of him. "No." The answer comes out sharper than I meant. I cough to cover it, pulling the sheets up to his chest slowly to give myself a moment to compose before looking back up at him, scowling. "Both for your sake and for mine. You would embarrass yourself if they saw you like this: weak, pathetic, and disgusting. And I would be to blame."
He smiles wryly, the flicker of something soft in his eyes, as if he knows a secret that I do not, as if he just learned something important about me that I myself am not even aware of. "I thought so."
I roll my eyes, fighting the smile that tries to make its way onto my lips. "Then stop arguing and get some rest, Longbottom. I won't say it again."
"You look about as tired as I am" he shoots back, grinning without restraint. He shuffles on the bed, wincing in pain, yet the colour is already returning to his skin, making him look healthier, less likely to collapse into a cold corpse. "I'll make you a deal."
I arch an eyebrow curiously, propping my hip against the edge of his bed and crossing my arms across my chest. "As long as it involves you resting and healing, I am listening."
"I will consent to sleep for as long as you'd like me to if…" He grins up at me, moving over until he is squished to one side of the cot, leaving a space beside him comfortable enough for me to slip into, "you get some rest too, and promise to be here when I wake up." He holds up a hand before I can process his words, flipping the corner of the sheets up. His grin fades to something with more concern. "Before you argue, you look about as bad as I feel, and probably almost as bad as I look, and I'd bet my gold that you are just as, if not more, tired than I am."
My hand reaches for my hair self-consciously, feeling its texture. It isn't greasy. And my face doesn't feel oily, either. How could I possibly look as bad as he does? He, covered in a thin layer of sweat that he accumulated while setting his bones? He, with his messy hair that still has traces of dried blood in it. He, who flinches in pain every time he moves. "You expect me to get in the same bed as you? You, all sweaty, and bloody, and gross?"
"You were in it before" he answers, patting the spot next to him while making himself more comfortable, a soft pink tinge to his cheeks, making him appear all the healthier. "It's probably the only way I will get any sleep. Otherwise, I will just worry about you leaving and being cursed to a bloody pulp by Jackson."
Shaking my head, I uncross my arms and glare at him darkly, trying to conceal my emotions, the confusion and embarrassment and… something… I don't quite recognize. "Alright, if it'll get you to shut up, then I'll do it" I sigh in defeat, kicking my boots off and setting them up neatly as I crawl onto the bed beside him, slipping under the blanket. He turns onto his side to face me, opening his mouth to say something. I hold up a hand, pursing my lips. "Ah ah ah, what did I say? I don't want to hear your voice, I want to see you asleep."
He sighs softly, a smile grazing his lips, and threads his fingers through mine before closing his eyes and relaxing into the bed, head sinking into the pillow. His breaths even out quickly, turning from shallow and pained to deep and soft. His fingers lose their tight hold on mine, relaxing into a soft embrace. All of the pain, the agony, the misfortune that plagued his face and his body before melts away, leaving the innocent, beautiful Hufflepuff boy that I remember first seeing, minus the tension from fear. He seems almost relaxed by my presence now, instead of scared stiff by me. It's… different.
I wait a few minutes, letting myself relax into bed next to him, allowing myself to absorb his warmth and comfort, that he offers readily, before slowly detangling my hand from his and pushing off of the bed. I climb off as gently as I can, so as to not rouse Caelum, and slip back into my boots. Though I would love to rest next to the boy, to relax and let all of my guilt wash away, and get a decent night's sleep for the first time since arriving in this future, I would rather deal with the angry mob waiting just outside of the hospital wing first.
Releasing my charm from the doors, a charm that I put up earlier to keep visitors out, I place a hesitant hand on the door and prepare myself. I can hear Malcolm and Joss arguing about something, but other than that, it doesn't sound like the are readying to curse me. Taking a deep breath, I pull the door open ever so slightly and step into the crack, composing my face into a mask of indifference. I focus on the first person I see. "It is a bit late to be standing outside the hospital wing, is it not, Amelia?"
