Year 5: Head Over Heels
Chapter 46: February 2016
"Truth or dare?" Kara asked.
"Truth," Brianna chose.
"Last night, when I came into the dorm, you were holding something, but as soon as you saw me you hid it in your trunk and wouldn't tell me what it was," Kara said.
"Yeah, that's not a question," Brianna pointed out.
"What was it?" Kara asked.
Brianna sighed. "It was just something from home," she replied.
"Come on Bri," Victoire insisted. "You know you have to tell us."
"It was no big deal," Brianna shrugged. "Just… you know… a picture. Of my family. When I was younger."
"Aww," Kara cooed. "You were being sentimental."
"Fine, I was," Brianna said. "I'm allowed to be sentimental sometimes."
"Of course you are," Victoire agreed. "It's very sweet."
"Okay, well let's just move on," Brianna insisted. "Truth or dare, Vic?"
"Truth," Victoire selected.
"Have you slept with Teddy yet?" she asked.
If Victoire had been taking a sip of her tea at that moment, she'd have spat it out all over her friend's face. As it was, she began to cough violently, and her face heated up to about a thousand degrees.
"Well that's a little personal, don't you think?" Victoire demanded.
"This is truth or dare," Brianna pointed out. "Nothing is too personal."
"You don't have to answer that Victoire," Kara assured her. "Brianna can ask a different question."
"I will not!" Brianna protested. "My question was totally valid. If you can make me talk about embarrassing things like looking at old pictures, then I can ask Victoire about this."
"Those are two completely different things!" Kara disagreed.
As Kara and Brianna argued, Victoire tried to regain her composure, looking anywhere but at her two friends. She knew she was going to have to answer – Brianna would never let the subject drop if she didn't – so she took a deep breath and spoke, interrupting Brianna in the middle of a sentence.
"We haven't," she said, trying to ignore the heat that rose to her cheeks at the confession.
"Seriously?" Brianna asked in surprise. "Still?"
"I believe I've answered the question," Victoire declared. "Can we move on?"
"No," Brianna said. "I want to know why you still haven't done it."
"Okay, well that is really none of your business," Victoire said.
"Don't you want to?" Brianna asked. "If I were dating Teddy, I'd have been all over him months ago."
"Hey!" Victoire cried. "Back off."
"Yeah Brianna, you're taking this too far," Kara agreed. "Maybe Victoire just isn't ready for that just yet."
"Oh, is that what you're telling yourself Vic?" Brianna asked. "You're not ready?"
"No!" Victoire said without thinking. As soon as she said it she regretted it – the looks in both Brianna's and Kara's eyes made her squirm. "I mean – that's not – "
"Then what are you waiting for?" Brianna demanded.
"I don't – " Victoire stammered. "Kara, truth or dare?"
"Oh no!" Brianna interceded. "We are so past truth or dare."
Victoire crossed her arms. "Well we're done with this conversation," she declared.
"Come on Vic, don't be like that," Brianna pleaded.
"Nope," Victoire shook her head. "I'm not saying another word."
VvVvVvVvVvV
That night, Victoire found that she couldn't sleep. No matter what she did – counting sheep, changing positions, focusing on her breathing – but none of it worked. Her mind just couldn't shut off, not after her disastrous conversation with Kara and Brianna.
What business was it of theirs whether she and Teddy were sleeping together anyway? And who were they to claim to know when Victoire should and shouldn't be ready. Though Kara had probably only been trying to help, Victoire didn't like her assumption that Victoire wasn't ready for that next step yet. Especially because Victoire was. And she didn't like thinking that Kara now saw Victoire in the same light as Brianna. Because though they both loved Brianna dearly, Victoire and Kara both recognized that she had a certain promiscuity about her.
And then there was Brianna, who just kept pushing and pushing Victoire, even when she made it clear that she didn't want to pursue the subject. What right did Brianna have to tell Victoire that it was past time that she and Teddy take that next step? That was between Victoire and Teddy, and the fact that they hadn't gone there yet didn't mean their relationship was in any way deficient. And that would hold even if Victoire really wasn't ready for it yet. And the fact that Brianna now knew that she was meant that Victoire could only expect to be hounded with similar questions until she could finally admit that they had – not that it was something she was inclined to share with her friends after that night.
As all these thoughts rolled around in Victoire's head, she didn't even notice the sounds coming from the bed next to hers until they escalated and Victoire heard the thump of Kara's body falling off the bed onto the floor.
"Kara?" Victoire asked, rolling over to see if her friend was alright. "Kara, did you hit your head or anything?"
When there was no response, Victoire felt worry fill her and she jumped out of bed to check on her friend.
"Kara?" she asked again, kneeling down. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except that a fall like the one she'd just had should have woken her friend, and instead she seemed to still be sleeping. "Kara wake up!" Victoire cried in worry. She started shaking her friend in fear that she was dead or something and she must have been making a lot of noise, because Caitlin awoke then.
"What's going on?" she grumbled unhappily. "Victoire, what are you doing? Can't you be quiet or do it in the morning?"
"It's Kara," Victoire cried urgently. "She fell out of bed. I'm worried. How do I check that she's still alive?"
"Does she have a pulse?" Caitlin asked.
"I don't know!" Victoire cried. "I'm not a healer!"
"Is she breathing?" Caitlin posed her next question calmly, which only elevated Victoire's panic level.
"I can't tell!" she cried.
There was the sound of movement and then Caitlin was pushing Victoire away as she leaned down to listen to Kara's chest.
"She's alive," Caitlin assured Victoire. "She's fine. She just fell out of bed."
"Then why is she not waking up?" Victoire asked.
"Well she's always been a heavy sleeper," Caitlin shrugged. "I'm sure it's nothing. I'm going back to bed."
Victoire watched Caitlin return to her side of the room, the gnawing feeling that everything wasn't fine chewing through her stomach.
"Brianna?" Victoire whispered, calling out to her friend. "Brianna, wake up!"
Victoire hurried over to Brianna's bed and shook her friend until she awoke.
"Something's wrong with Kara," Victoire said. "You have to help me bring her to the hospital wing."
"Why me?" Brianna frowned, disoriented from being woken in the middle of the night.
"Because I can't levitate anything steady enough and Kara might already have a concussion and I don't want to make it worse banging her head into the wall all the way down to the fourth floor," Victoire insisted.
"Why do you think she has a concussion?" Brianna frowned.
"She fell out of bed. I think she hit her head. And she's not waking up," Victoire replied.
"Alright, I'll levitate her," Brianna agreed. "Are you sure we won't get in trouble for being out after hours?"
"This is an emergency," Victoire reminded her. "Students can be out of bed if it's because they have a medical emergency and they're going to the hospital wing. And besides, I'm a prefect and I say we need to go now."
"Alright, alright," Brianna said, grabbing her wand and climbing out of bed. She carefully cast the levitation spell, lifting Kara into the air and towards the door, which Victoire opened manually for her.
Since it was the middle of the night, the common room was empty as they passed through, and the school was silent as they stepped out into the chilly school corridor. They didn't run into anyone as they made their way to the hospital wing, and as soon as they arrived, Brianna carefully deposited Kara onto a bed and Victoire ran to get Madam Eldridge.
"Wake up!" Victoire cried, pounding on the door. "Madam Eldridge, it's an emergency!"
There was the sound of shuffling from the other side of the door and Madam Eldridge opened it, dressed in her nightgown and a pair of slippers.
"What's the matter dear, it's the middle of the night!" the hospital wing matron said.
"It's my friend Kara, I think she's concussed," Victoire said. "She fell out of bed and must have hit her head because she won't wake up!"
Victoire dragged Madam Eldridge to the bed where Brianna had laid Kara down and waited anxiously as the woman did her examination.
"Oh dear," Madam Eldridge muttered to herself. "Yes, I see what's happened here."
"Can you fix her?" Victoire asked.
"Yes," Madam Eldridge nodded. "I'll just whip up a potion in my office. You girls wait right here."
As Madam Eldridge hurried off, Victoire felt herself sinking into the chair on the left side of the bed. Suddenly, she was exhausted and all she wanted was to go to sleep – but not until she was sure Kara was alright.
"Well you were right," Brianna acknowledged. "Something was wrong. Good thing you woke me."
"I knew something wasn't right," Victoire nodded. "She should have woken up after falling out of bed."
"Why do you think she fell, anyway?" Brianna wondered.
Victoire shrugged. "I don't know. Bad dream maybe?"
Madam Eldridge returned then with two small bottles of potion. She uncorked the first one, and while holding Kara's head up poured it down her throat.
"There we go," she said. "That one is for the concussion. And this one," she continued, uncorking the second potion, "is the medicine she forgot to take before bed."
"Medicine?" Victoire frowned, exchanging a confused look like Brianna. "Kara takes medicine?"
"Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything," Madam Eldridge said. "You girls can go back to your dorm now, Kara will be just fine, and assuming the potions work, she'll be released in the morning."
"Wait, you need to tell us about this medicine first," Brianna protested. "Is Kara sick?"
"I really can't discuss a patient's private information with non-family members," Madam Eldridge said. "You'll have to speak to Kara."
"But you already told us – "
"I've said far more than I should have," Madam Eldridge interjected. "Now run along."
Reluctantly, Victoire and Brianna said goodbye to their sleeping friend and then left the hospital wing to return to their dorm.
"Do you think Kara's alright?" Brianna wondered as they climbed back into their beds. "I mean, if she was sick she'd tell us, right?"
"I don't know," Victoire shrugged. "We know she goes to the hospital once a month. Maybe this is related."
"I always assumed that was for something minor," Brianna said. "I never thought she was seriously sick though."
"Me neither," Victoire admitted.
VvVvVvVvVvV
The next morning, Victoire and Brianna forwent their normal morning routines in favor of hurrying down to the hospital wing to see how Kara was doing.
"I'm fine," Kara insisted, when both her friends expressed their worry. "I'm sorry I scared you, but there's nothing wrong with me."
"Really?" Brianna asked. "Because Madam Eldridge said you forgot to take your medicine last night. What's that about?"
Victoire saw Kara stiffen at the question. "That's none of your business," she said. "Just drop it."
Knowing Brianna, Victoire could tell she wasn't going to drop it, so Victoire spoke before she could.
"Of course," she nodded. "It's your business. We're just glad you're alright."
After receiving a last medical examination from Madam Eldridge, Kara was free to go, and the three returned to the dorms so that Kara could put on some clothes besides her pyjamas and they could all get ready for school. While Kara was in the shower, Brianna pulled Victoire into the dorm.
"Are we really not going to insist Kara tell us what's going on?" she demanded. "She's our friend, we have a right to know."
"We don't have the right to know anything she doesn't want to tell us," Victoire said harshly, pulling her arm from Brianna's grasp.
"Hey, this isn't about you," Brianna said. "And I'm not asking about your sex life with Teddy. This is serious. This is important. This is about Kara's health."
"It's about Kara's personal life," Victoire contradicted. "And just as much as my relationship with my boyfriend is my business, Kara's health is her business until she decides to tell us otherwise."
"But what it – "
"None. Of. Our. Business," Victoire stressed each word, trying to get it into Brianna's head that she couldn't just expect people to tell her everything all the time. "Don't you have things you don't tell us?"
"It's different," Brianna insisted. "I'm not falling out of bed and concussing myself."
"For all we know, this could have been totally independent of whatever illness Kara has," Victoire said.
"And it just happened to happen the one night she didn't take her medicine?" Brianna pointed out. "They're connected."
"Well either way, we can't ask her about it again," Victoire said, ending the discussion. "Now I need to take a shower before we're late and have to miss breakfast."
VvVvVvVvVvV
The rest of the day passed normally, except for the lack of communication between the three girls. Brianna and Victoire were both mad at Kara for hiding her sickness from them, whatever it was. Kara in turn was mad at Victoire and Brianna for prying and also embarrassed for having concussed herself and needing to be taken to the hospital wing. Brianna was mad at Victoire for not letting her question Kara any further, and Victoire was mad at Brianna for thinking she had the right to pry into Kara's personal affairs.
"Is everything alright?" Teddy frowned when he joined the girls for lunch and noticed that none of them were talking.
"Fine," Victoire responded, moodily stabbing at the food on her plate. "We're fine."
VvVvVvVvVvV
That evening, as the three girls sat together in silence, each working on a different assignment for one of their classes, Kara sighed loudly, dropping her quill and leaning back in her chair.
"This is ridiculous," she said, breaking the unofficial silence. "Neither of you will talk to me, and every time you look at me, it's like you think I'm dying or something."
"Well are you?" Victoire wondered, deciding that it wasn't prying if Kara brought it up.
"No," Kara shook her head. "I'm not."
"So what's going on?" Brianna asked, earning herself a kick from Victoire.
Kara sighed. "I'll tell you," she said. "But only because I know you, and I know you'll never let this go."
Victoire frowned at Brianna when Kara said this. It was exactly the reason she'd answered the truth the previous evening – because she knew she wouldn't have a moment's rest until Brianna had her answers.
"I have a condition called magical hyperplasia," Kara said.
"What does that mean?" Victoire frowned. The word was much too technical for her to understand.
"I don't know how much you know about the biology or genetics or witches and wizards," Kara said, "but basically, we all have a gene that is what makes us different from muggles and able to do magic."
"Really?" Brianna asked. "I didn't know that."
"Yeah," Kara nodded. "What's wrong with me is that my magic gene is compromised and it's causing all these magic cells to reproduce way faster than they're supposed to."
"English please," Brianna requested.
"My body is creating magic faster than I can diffuse it," Kara said. "So it builds up inside of me. The medicine I take each night slows the production of the extra magic cells, but when I forgot to take it last night, they started multiplying and the magic got to be too much for my body and I had a seizure, which is how I fell out of bed. And then I hit my head and got a concussion, which you knew."
"That sounds really bad," Victoire said.
"It's not really," Kara replied. "It's totally manageable. I was just distracted last night, but if I'd taken my potion like I was supposed to, then nothing bad would have happened."
"And the reason you go to the hospital wing every month?" Brianna wondered.
"Medical exam to make sure everything's alright, and to replenish my medicine," Kara replied. "I don't have an unlimited supply after all."
"I'm glad you told us," Victoire said. "Now we know. And we can help you, if there's ever anything you need help with."
"Thanks," Kara smiled.
"Why didn't you want to tell us?" Brianna wondered.
Kara shrugged. "I don't know, it's just not the kind of thing you talk about. It's a burden, having a sick friend."
"But that's what friends are for," Victoire reminded her. "To share each other's burdens."
"You're right," Kara nodded. "I should've told you sooner."
"I'm just glad you're alright," Victoire said. "I was terrified when you didn't wake up."
"It's a good thing you got me to the hospital," Kara nodded. "It would have been so much worse if I'd been lying there all night. Madam Eldridge agreed."
The girls fell silent for a moment, none sure what to do now that they'd had such a serious conversation. Finally, Victoire broke the silence.
"Exploding snap?" she asked.
"Exploding snap," her friends agreed.