Hell's Itch
(One-Shot)
Disclaimers: I don't own anything apart from some DVD's/books for this series.
AN: This is a short drabble prompt for 'The Houses Competition" based on the first two movies/script books of Fantastic Beasts (the third one along with any subsequent ones will not be included for one obvious reason: TeamDepp!)
House: Gryffindor
Class: Herbology
Category: Drabble
Prompt(s): (Action) Getting a suntan or sunburn/(Spell) Cooling charm
Word count: 988 according to AO3 (2 pages)
Summary: Tina has an unfortunate day at the beach. (This story is based on a sunburn that actually happened to me.)
At long last, the dreary days of a rainy spring had come to an end. Now, the heat wave brought with it a warning of high temperatures that were here to stay for the next couple of months.
Bored, Tina looked up from the page of her book she had been staring at for a long time but without having the concentration necessary to actually read it at the moment. She had been alone all day. Newt was back in England helping his brother with something or other. Jacob was at the bakery. Who even knew where Queenie had gone off to?
With a long sigh, Tina plopped a bookmark dog-ear spell (that didn't cause any damage) at her place among the pages before putting the book aside on the coffee table. Looking through the window at the gorgeous day outside, she decided to go out to the beach for an hour or so. It was high time to start working on a lovely tan for the summer.
About an hour later, she had Apparated to a long sandy beach, dressed in a black swimsuit with red roses threaded down either side. She spread a towel on the sand before casting a sunlight guarding charm over herself. She wanted a tan, but also wanted to spare herself from a sunburn, so a nice light charm would do for protection.
After spending some time in the water (in which she was temporarily eyed by a curious dolphin), Tina lay back on her towel before pulling out that book, determined to finish reading it. She managed to turn a few pages, finally absorbed in the story. The heat rose as afternoon wore on ...
With a jolt, Tina sat up on the towel, book sliding off to the side. The sun was low in a late afternoon sky, indicating that she had been out here much longer than she had planned. She tried to push herself up a little, only to let out a yell of pain.
Looking down at her body, Tina gasped. She was as red as a lobster. No, worse! She held her hands in front of her, gazing wide eyed at the cracked red flesh. The charm had worn off long ago, but she had fallen asleep in the heat, only to wake up into a nightmare of reality.
"Ohh, no-no-no-no! No!" Tina moaned, attempting to grab her wand. The burned flesh protested as it cracked while she moved. "OW!" Tina panted fast as she aimed the wand at herself. Puffing through the pain, she attempted a cooling charm. It worked for one blissful moment. But now, the burn had cooled so quickly that it made her skin peel off fast, leaving the soft delicate burned skin underneath. "NO!" Tina sobbed.
She Apparated home. Once inside, Tina hurried to the washroom, flakes of skin coming off as she went. She turned the shower to cold before getting in. The icy cascade hit her hard, but she bit her tongue against it as she let the water pour over her body.
After several minutes of freezing, even though she felt like she was simultaneously burning, Tina got out. Now came the hard part of peeling the swimsuit off. She gingerly removed the thing before catching sight of herself in the mirror. It looked like she was still wearing it! On top of it all, she felt the burn worse than before. She got into the shower for another round.
Finally, after almost two hours of rinsing off, Tina moved to the bed. She tossed the blankets aside before casting Aguamenti on the sheets, hoping the dampness would cool her burn. Very carefully, she eased herself onto them, using one to cover herself.
After a few minutes of lying there, Tina summoned over a bottle of cream. Using her wand, she let the magic spread it over her body. She settled back once more. Something in the back of her mind told her that this was not a normal sunburn.
After a while, the burning sensation came back, but it was much worse than even before. It was so bad that she wanted to skin herself! It felt like millions of tiny fire ants were crawling under her skin: biting ... biting ... biting! It burned like hell. It also itched like hell, as if she had millions of mosquito bites. Tina screamed.
"What? What is it?" Queenie came running into Tina's room. "Oh!" Queenie stared at the red person lying on the bed. Tina was so burnt that her red skin was showing a bit through the wet white sheet lying on top of her.
Tina didn't know when Queenie had come back, but was grateful for the help. "Cut it off! Cut my skin off, now!" Tina begged.
"Oh honey!" Queenie put her hands on her face as she surveyed the damage. "I think you have the Hell's Itch Sunburn!"
"Wh-What?" Tina gasped through tears.
"Shower!" Queenie cast Winguardium Leviosa on Tina. "A hot one."
"Hot? No! I need cold!"
"Not for this kind of burn," Queenie said. "You need hot water so the pain receptors in your skin will mask the itch. Afterwards, we can deal with the burn."
Queenie was right. A hot shower killed the itch, but now, the burning was back with a vengeance. Queenie rubbed more cream over Tina's body before helping her put a simple slip on.
"Let's get you to the hospital while it's calmed down," Queenie said. "It can last upto two days for Muggles, but our hospital should be able to fix this overnight."
A loud groan was Tina's reply.
Needless to say, it was a very uncomfortable night at the hospital for Tina, but she had time to think about what had happened. She had always preferred a natural tan but now, she decided to use a tanning spell from now on just to be safe!
~the end