I had a headache when I returned from the darkness of my mind. That was
not good. However, I was lying down on a hospital bed, which was
better. It meant I wasn't being trampled by a rabid Graphorn. Almost
anything is better than being trampled by a rabid Graphorn. I blinked
against the light, wondering how much time had passed between my my
knees hitting the floor and my waking up. Disoriented was too light a
word.
"Ah, finally awake, are we?" A voice I recognised as McQuillen's asked, all too cheerfully.
"You might be: I'm considering coming back at a more convenient time, myself." I grumbled, and tried to pull the sheets over my head. He wouldn't let me.
"Now, now, I'm a Healer, and you've been hurt." He continued happily. "And it is my duty, no, my right to see if you're alright. It wouldn't hurt to do a small check-up."
"Madam Pomfrey!" I called, trying to be loud and quiet at the same time, since I could see someone sleeping in the next bed out of the corner of my eye.
"Awake, I see," Madam Pomfrey smiled, coming around a white screen. "How are you feeling?"
"My bruises have bruises, and my toenails ache," I confessed somewhat sullenly, "But I'll be fine. Could you please make him stop bothering me?" I indicated McQuillen.
"Why, dear? What has he done?" She busied herself with straightening my sheets and doing all the things nurses do.
"He's on trial for the offence of being horribly cheerful before I've gotten my coffee," I glared at the Healer. "And he wants to examine me."
"What?" Pomfrey's expression turned indignant. "Shoo! Shoo, get out, man! This is my infirmary, and if I need help, I'll notify St. Mungo's. You have no right to move in on my students like that! Out!"
I couldn't help but chuckle as the Healer was chased out of the infirmary by a rather upset Poppy Pomfrey. She returned after a moment, grumbling about Healers and arrogance. Not for the first time, I wondered if she had ever had some past differences with St. Mungo-Healers before, since she'd reacted so violently to McQuillen, and due to her unwillingness to have her work questioned. Once she wound down again and stopped being quite so abrupt in her movements, I settled down against the pillow again.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Well past dinner, dear," she said. "Now, I'm going to give you a little something to sleep on, so you can sleep off the headache."
"Thanks," I mumbled as she handed me a cloudy blue potion. I went out like a light after finishing it.
'''''''''''''
The next time I rejoined the beings known as humans, it was dark outside, and the infirmary was silent. Other that that, the three things differing from my previous awakening was that I didn't have a headache, that I wasn't tired, and no one was there when I woke up. More awake than I had been in ages, I sat up in my bed, looking around me in interest. On my previous extended visits to the infirmary, I had never been awake in the middle of the night, so it was interesting to see it so empty and quiet. Some odd, medical instruments were lying on a bench near the wall, looking a bit like a disfigured carpet with spikes. I wondered what it was, but figured that it took years of medical studies to find out.
"Zabini?"
Seeing to reason to get nervous or jumpy, I turned around quite calmly in my bed and looked Granger, who was in the bed just beside me. She looked battered, but in the moonlight I couldn't tell if those were shadows on her face or bruises. Despite her less than healthy state, she looked cheerful, in an extremely tired way.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Granger." I grinned. "How are you feeling?"
"Like Hagrid just danced the polka with spikes attached to his boots on my ribcage," she rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "But I'll live."
"That's a rather vivid image," I winced in sympathy. "had any visitors yet?"
"No. This is the first time I wake up since we Portkeyed out." She shook her head. "What happened?"
"We appeared just outside the forest, and the damned bubble disappeared," I hiked myself up towards the wall so that I could sit up without falling over. "I told Lucas I wanted to break his nose, and some obnoxious Healer rushed to help us. Did you know that the creeper we landed in was poisonous? No? Neither did I, though I suspected it. We both got fed the antidote, and I had a fight with Potter over your condition while the Healers patched you up. I was sent with you to the infirmary, and then I passed out. That's more or less what happened."
"You had a fight with Harry over me?" She inquired, sounding as if she didn't really believe me.
"Yeah. He was convinced it was my fault you looked like you'd faced down a Chimaera." I shrugged. "I snapped a bit at him, but can you blame me? I wasn't exactly myself then. Normally, I don't have to drag semi-conscious girls through a monster-infested forest all by my lonesome."
"You don't?" She murmured quietly. "And here I had you pegged for a girl- dragging monster-fanatic. Do you have some other hobby, then?"
"Sarcasm," I replied promptly. "But it isn't much if a hobby."
"If it is, it's a purely Slytherin one." She scrunched up her nose, "If you don't mind, I think I'm going to go back to sleep now. G'night."
"Night." I said, bewildered that she had bothered with such mundane things as courtesy towards me.
Despite having, perhaps temporarily, buried the hatchet with her, I hadn't expected courtesy. Six years of passive hostility was a hard thing to give up and put aside, after all. Perhaps she had just said it out of habit and fatigue. Crawling back down and pulling the sheets up, only now realising I wasn't wearing a shirt, I tired to put my mind to rest.
Half an hour and six-hundred, thirty-eight and a quarter sheep later, I was finally able to slip off again.
'''''''''''''
The sun, despite Muggle, religious beliefs, was the work of demons. I tried to hide beneath the sheets of the bed, attempted to crawl into the pillow, but none of it helped. Madam Pomfrey roused me mercilessly, though she was kind enough to have found some coffee to go with my breakfast. Hermione watched be from her bed, smiling brightly for some reason. She still looked like death might have been a step up, but at least she didn't look as horribly pale and drawn as she had when we arrived at the infirmary.
"G'morning." I got out between my bites of breakfast. "Feeling better?"
"Marginally." She said. "Zabini?"
"Mmmpf?" I answered through a mouthful of toast and eggs.
"How did you make the Graphorn leave?" There was a note of puzzlement in her tone. "I can't remember much, what with trying to get away, and suddenly it just left."
A flash-like memory of the green flames that had dripped off my fingertips like liquid fire made me stumble on my reply, but I swallowed the mouthful and prepared my answer as carefully as possible. To be truthful, that moment of pure magical power had frightened even me. There was a wildness about it that I hadn't even known I possessed.
"To be honest," I began, lying through my teeth, "I don't remember much either. I remember getting horribly angry, and I remember screaming at it, but between that and trying to get you to open your eyes again, it's kind of blank."
"Hmm." She sounded suspicious, but didn't press the matter, which was exactly what I wanted.
Finishing my breakfast in silence, I began to make a run-down of my injuries. My head no longer ached, and I wasn't the least bit tired after the coffee. However, the skin on my hands felt tender, as if it would break open if I moved my fingers, and the joints in my arms from my shoulders down ached as well. The Moonthorn-wound I'd sustained had left two holes in my arm which were quickly healing, though I was sure they would leave scars. The matter of the green fire would have to be discussed with Lucas. After I'd punched his lights out and broken several small bones in his body.
"Blaise!"
"No Millie! Don't hug me! I'm injured, for Merlin's sake!" I said, trying to fend my rather rabid friend off.
"We're worried about you, you miserable bastard," Millicent said, snatching a quick but light hug anyway. "I thought my heart was going to stop when I came out of the Forest and Lucas told me you'd gone off to the hospital wing!"
"Did you threaten to castrate him yet?" I enquired. "It would do the world a favour, you know."
I heard Hermione choke on her breakfast, but I chose to ignore her for the time being. Millicent had an enquiring mind, and enquiring minds want to know why things happen, such as my sudden peace with Hermione. My best friend settled on my bed, legs crossed, and started firing questions at me.
"How are you feeling?"
"Like mince-meat feels."
"Are you going to be better soon?"
"Would I let a couple of scars stop me?"
"What happened?"
"Rabid Graphorn in the wrong part of Europe."
"How was the exam?"
"I think we've redefined the meaning of ´hellish´."
"Did you, like Potter claims, stab Granger with a thorn?"
"Do I look like a psychopath?"
"Did you carry her all the way to the infirmary?"
"Dragged would be a more appropriate word: she wasn't conscious for long."
"Weasley says you raped her. Should I call Aurors, the mental hospital or just beat the snot out of him?" A grin appeared on her face at this.
"Whichever comes first. He's a lying rat, though." I assured her, while Hermione was trying not to laugh. "I'd never rape anyone, and you know it. I might go sarcastic on her to the point of pain, but raping her would be morally wrong, not to mention despicable."
"Slytherins don't have morals, Blaise," Millicent informed me seriously. "Didn't you get the memo?"
"We mightn't have morals, but there is such a thing as honour." I reminded her. "And freaks of nature. Such as me."
"Good, now that I've given you the third degree, I'll go tell the others how you're feeling." Millicent chirped, hugged me again and was off.
Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it and shut her mouth again. She shook her head, muttered and picked up a book, which I assumed her friend's had brought her before I woke up. On my bedside table, there was nothing but an old crossword. Mentally grumbling, I grabbed the quill next to it and set to work distracting myself from boredom.
Pomfrey came in and fed Hermione some more potions, but I ignored them the best I could. From the feeling in my arms and legs, the pain was fading and I'd be out of the infirmary before dinner. Upsetting Madam Pomfrey in any way might extend my stay, and I certainly didn't want that. Not when punching Lucas and kill the rumours about me were on my to-do list. Let's see, Japanese water-demon, five letters. That would be Kappa then, wouldn't it? Carefully filling in the letters, I listened with half an ear to the conversation between Hermione and Madam Pomfrey.
"...And my ribs hurt." Hermione apparently concluded her list of injuries.
"Yes, they were broken, but they're healed now. All you need is bed-rest and a few medical potions, and you'll be up and running around in no time," Madam Pomfrey said. "Before that happens though, I want to have a word with your Professor."
"He'll be a broken-nosed eunuch if you're not quick enough," I piped up. "Millicent Bulstrode wants to castrate him, and I want to break his nose."
"When I get a hold of Vincent Lucas, he will be spending the rest of his time in St. Mungo's, having to get help with eating on account of having no teeth," Madam Pomfrey informed me. "He might have entertained himself by going into that ruddy forest when he was a student here, but this is going too far."
She bustled out of the infirmary, saying something about seeing Dumbledore and we were once more left alone. I chuckled at the nurse's sudden departure, and wished that she would find her mark well and good. Lucas could hide in the most distant nooks of the castle, but Dumbledore would find him, and when he did, I'd be there to punch that infuriating smirk off his face. Preferably with something hard, like iron, on my knuckles. I was so angry with him that my hands shook when I thought about it.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Hermione said.
"Professor Lucas," I shrugged. "I'm pondering ways to complete his gruesome murder. Do you think I can work in needles and a streetlight?"
"If you put your heart to it, you could do anything." She assured me.
"Probably." I agreed, but thinking of different things than she was. While she had in mind determination and force of will, all I saw were breakdowns and those roaring green flames. If I could burn a Graphorn badly enough to scare it off when I wasn't even trying, the things I would be able to do when I had my magic under control were frightening.
Lucas' tale of the wizard San, who had sunk a whole island reappeared in my mind. If San had been the most powerful wandless-magic wizard, which was likely, my green fire wasn't a drop in the ocean even. But then what he had told me of the Mongolian witch, who had blasted such a big hole in the Gobi- desert that it had been made unplottable, crept back into my mind, and I shuddered. If San's island destruction, and the Mongolian witch's breakdown was any indication of what masters of wandless magic could do, I didn't even want to think about what I could cause.
Opting to sleep instead of worry, I closed my eyes and caught up on some of the sleepless nights I'd spent studying.
''''''''''
Discharged from the infirmary just in time for dinner, I headed for Lucas' office as soon as the door was closed behind me. The rage that I had kept in check since yesterday, around midday, suddenly returned with vengeance. It bubbled in my veins like poison as I made my way down the various floors and landings between the infirmary and Lucas' office. I arrived, slightly out of breath and with my shoulders aching, but still in possession of a feeling that had passed white-hot anger and arrived in the calm sea of icy rage. My fingers didn't shake the slightest as I knocked on the door.
"Come on in."
He was sitting behind his desk with his glasses in his hand when I entered, eating a sandwich with what looked like chocolate. On the desk in front of him lay a list of some kind, and a discarded quill.
"Ah, Zabini. I see you escaped Poppy's clutches." He said. "How are you holding up?"
The cheerful question made my last restraint snap like a dry twig, and I hauled off and hit him. There was a satisfying snapping sound when my fist made contact with his nose, and he reeled back as I drew back and shook my stinging hand. It hurt, and I tried to massage some feeling back into my numb fingers as Lucas sat up straight again and inspected the blood that was dripping from his nose with a calm detachment I had come to expect.
"I should report you for unwanted student/teacher contact," He informed me, "But I won't. You know why? I deserved that. A fist to the face and a broken nose is nothing compared to what happened to you and Granger. I truly am sorry about that."
"As you bloody well should!" I couldn't keep my voice down and shouted at him. "I might be walking around like normal, but she's up there in the infirmary, looking like the Grey Lady. Her side was split open from the top of her ribcage to her thigh! If she hadn't opened her eyes when I screamed at her to wake up, I don't know if I would have lost my mind! I nearly did anyway, and it's all your fault!"
"Calm down again, Zabini." Lucas looked angry for a moment. "I know you're worried, but that's no reason to lose your mind."
Taking several deep, calming breaths, I collapsed numbly in the second chair in his office. The rage had dissipated soon after I had hit him, and now I just felt tired. Bones that shouldn't ache ached, and muscles I didn't even know I had screamed in protest as I willed my body to sit up straighter.
"I think I've already lost it," I sighed. "Raging fire isn't something I've learned how to summon, even with a wand."
"Fire?" He questioned.
"Mmmh. Of the green variety, unless my memory fails me," I nodded. "When the Graphorn charged at her, something in my head, right about here," I pointed right behind my ear, "snapped, and suddenly there was green fire everywhere. It hurt, and I don't know where it came from."
"Fire, you say? Interesting." He mumbled. "But there's not much to be done now about it. School ends in three days, and after that you won't be around any more. Neither will I, come to think about it."
"You're leaving?" It wasn't much surprise around though, since no Defence teacher to date had lasted more than one year. But, despite his craziness, it had looked like Lucas would last.
"Only for the summer." He shrugged. "I have to look into the family home. It's been abandoned for some time. But by fall I'll be back and teaching again."
"That ought to be a first." I muttered. "You're not going to hold our N.E.W.T's, are you?"
"No, there's a special committee at the Ministry for that." Lucas denied. "You will not have to suffer through another gruesome exam at my hands."
"Thank Merlin." I said sincerely and got up from the chair. "That exam was bad enough to last me a lifetime. I've got to go and tell everyone I'm alive now, so I suppose I'll see you come fall."
"I'll be taking the train, so you're not quite rid of me yet." He reminded me. "But go on now: I've got some last-minute grading to do."
"Have as nice a summer you can have when you're a manipulative bastard," I said, heading out the door.
"I'll do my best." He called after me as I shut the door.
Well, I thought as I leaned against the wall, it was time to face the wolves and kill the outrageous rumours about me and Hermione. If I let it go on, by the time Hermione was out of the infirmary, people would probably be convincing each other that she was pregnant with Voldemort's spawn and that I was, in fact, a demon in disguise. I had listened to Hogwart's rumour mill too many times to believe they would just stop.
''''''''''''''''
Ending Notes: And so he's out of the infirmary and into the fire again. He hasn't snapped yet, so I'm going to have some fun torturing him over the next few chapters. Next chapter he will finally be out of Hogwarts again: a change of scenery will do me good at least.
"Ah, finally awake, are we?" A voice I recognised as McQuillen's asked, all too cheerfully.
"You might be: I'm considering coming back at a more convenient time, myself." I grumbled, and tried to pull the sheets over my head. He wouldn't let me.
"Now, now, I'm a Healer, and you've been hurt." He continued happily. "And it is my duty, no, my right to see if you're alright. It wouldn't hurt to do a small check-up."
"Madam Pomfrey!" I called, trying to be loud and quiet at the same time, since I could see someone sleeping in the next bed out of the corner of my eye.
"Awake, I see," Madam Pomfrey smiled, coming around a white screen. "How are you feeling?"
"My bruises have bruises, and my toenails ache," I confessed somewhat sullenly, "But I'll be fine. Could you please make him stop bothering me?" I indicated McQuillen.
"Why, dear? What has he done?" She busied herself with straightening my sheets and doing all the things nurses do.
"He's on trial for the offence of being horribly cheerful before I've gotten my coffee," I glared at the Healer. "And he wants to examine me."
"What?" Pomfrey's expression turned indignant. "Shoo! Shoo, get out, man! This is my infirmary, and if I need help, I'll notify St. Mungo's. You have no right to move in on my students like that! Out!"
I couldn't help but chuckle as the Healer was chased out of the infirmary by a rather upset Poppy Pomfrey. She returned after a moment, grumbling about Healers and arrogance. Not for the first time, I wondered if she had ever had some past differences with St. Mungo-Healers before, since she'd reacted so violently to McQuillen, and due to her unwillingness to have her work questioned. Once she wound down again and stopped being quite so abrupt in her movements, I settled down against the pillow again.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Well past dinner, dear," she said. "Now, I'm going to give you a little something to sleep on, so you can sleep off the headache."
"Thanks," I mumbled as she handed me a cloudy blue potion. I went out like a light after finishing it.
'''''''''''''
The next time I rejoined the beings known as humans, it was dark outside, and the infirmary was silent. Other that that, the three things differing from my previous awakening was that I didn't have a headache, that I wasn't tired, and no one was there when I woke up. More awake than I had been in ages, I sat up in my bed, looking around me in interest. On my previous extended visits to the infirmary, I had never been awake in the middle of the night, so it was interesting to see it so empty and quiet. Some odd, medical instruments were lying on a bench near the wall, looking a bit like a disfigured carpet with spikes. I wondered what it was, but figured that it took years of medical studies to find out.
"Zabini?"
Seeing to reason to get nervous or jumpy, I turned around quite calmly in my bed and looked Granger, who was in the bed just beside me. She looked battered, but in the moonlight I couldn't tell if those were shadows on her face or bruises. Despite her less than healthy state, she looked cheerful, in an extremely tired way.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Granger." I grinned. "How are you feeling?"
"Like Hagrid just danced the polka with spikes attached to his boots on my ribcage," she rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "But I'll live."
"That's a rather vivid image," I winced in sympathy. "had any visitors yet?"
"No. This is the first time I wake up since we Portkeyed out." She shook her head. "What happened?"
"We appeared just outside the forest, and the damned bubble disappeared," I hiked myself up towards the wall so that I could sit up without falling over. "I told Lucas I wanted to break his nose, and some obnoxious Healer rushed to help us. Did you know that the creeper we landed in was poisonous? No? Neither did I, though I suspected it. We both got fed the antidote, and I had a fight with Potter over your condition while the Healers patched you up. I was sent with you to the infirmary, and then I passed out. That's more or less what happened."
"You had a fight with Harry over me?" She inquired, sounding as if she didn't really believe me.
"Yeah. He was convinced it was my fault you looked like you'd faced down a Chimaera." I shrugged. "I snapped a bit at him, but can you blame me? I wasn't exactly myself then. Normally, I don't have to drag semi-conscious girls through a monster-infested forest all by my lonesome."
"You don't?" She murmured quietly. "And here I had you pegged for a girl- dragging monster-fanatic. Do you have some other hobby, then?"
"Sarcasm," I replied promptly. "But it isn't much if a hobby."
"If it is, it's a purely Slytherin one." She scrunched up her nose, "If you don't mind, I think I'm going to go back to sleep now. G'night."
"Night." I said, bewildered that she had bothered with such mundane things as courtesy towards me.
Despite having, perhaps temporarily, buried the hatchet with her, I hadn't expected courtesy. Six years of passive hostility was a hard thing to give up and put aside, after all. Perhaps she had just said it out of habit and fatigue. Crawling back down and pulling the sheets up, only now realising I wasn't wearing a shirt, I tired to put my mind to rest.
Half an hour and six-hundred, thirty-eight and a quarter sheep later, I was finally able to slip off again.
'''''''''''''
The sun, despite Muggle, religious beliefs, was the work of demons. I tried to hide beneath the sheets of the bed, attempted to crawl into the pillow, but none of it helped. Madam Pomfrey roused me mercilessly, though she was kind enough to have found some coffee to go with my breakfast. Hermione watched be from her bed, smiling brightly for some reason. She still looked like death might have been a step up, but at least she didn't look as horribly pale and drawn as she had when we arrived at the infirmary.
"G'morning." I got out between my bites of breakfast. "Feeling better?"
"Marginally." She said. "Zabini?"
"Mmmpf?" I answered through a mouthful of toast and eggs.
"How did you make the Graphorn leave?" There was a note of puzzlement in her tone. "I can't remember much, what with trying to get away, and suddenly it just left."
A flash-like memory of the green flames that had dripped off my fingertips like liquid fire made me stumble on my reply, but I swallowed the mouthful and prepared my answer as carefully as possible. To be truthful, that moment of pure magical power had frightened even me. There was a wildness about it that I hadn't even known I possessed.
"To be honest," I began, lying through my teeth, "I don't remember much either. I remember getting horribly angry, and I remember screaming at it, but between that and trying to get you to open your eyes again, it's kind of blank."
"Hmm." She sounded suspicious, but didn't press the matter, which was exactly what I wanted.
Finishing my breakfast in silence, I began to make a run-down of my injuries. My head no longer ached, and I wasn't the least bit tired after the coffee. However, the skin on my hands felt tender, as if it would break open if I moved my fingers, and the joints in my arms from my shoulders down ached as well. The Moonthorn-wound I'd sustained had left two holes in my arm which were quickly healing, though I was sure they would leave scars. The matter of the green fire would have to be discussed with Lucas. After I'd punched his lights out and broken several small bones in his body.
"Blaise!"
"No Millie! Don't hug me! I'm injured, for Merlin's sake!" I said, trying to fend my rather rabid friend off.
"We're worried about you, you miserable bastard," Millicent said, snatching a quick but light hug anyway. "I thought my heart was going to stop when I came out of the Forest and Lucas told me you'd gone off to the hospital wing!"
"Did you threaten to castrate him yet?" I enquired. "It would do the world a favour, you know."
I heard Hermione choke on her breakfast, but I chose to ignore her for the time being. Millicent had an enquiring mind, and enquiring minds want to know why things happen, such as my sudden peace with Hermione. My best friend settled on my bed, legs crossed, and started firing questions at me.
"How are you feeling?"
"Like mince-meat feels."
"Are you going to be better soon?"
"Would I let a couple of scars stop me?"
"What happened?"
"Rabid Graphorn in the wrong part of Europe."
"How was the exam?"
"I think we've redefined the meaning of ´hellish´."
"Did you, like Potter claims, stab Granger with a thorn?"
"Do I look like a psychopath?"
"Did you carry her all the way to the infirmary?"
"Dragged would be a more appropriate word: she wasn't conscious for long."
"Weasley says you raped her. Should I call Aurors, the mental hospital or just beat the snot out of him?" A grin appeared on her face at this.
"Whichever comes first. He's a lying rat, though." I assured her, while Hermione was trying not to laugh. "I'd never rape anyone, and you know it. I might go sarcastic on her to the point of pain, but raping her would be morally wrong, not to mention despicable."
"Slytherins don't have morals, Blaise," Millicent informed me seriously. "Didn't you get the memo?"
"We mightn't have morals, but there is such a thing as honour." I reminded her. "And freaks of nature. Such as me."
"Good, now that I've given you the third degree, I'll go tell the others how you're feeling." Millicent chirped, hugged me again and was off.
Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it and shut her mouth again. She shook her head, muttered and picked up a book, which I assumed her friend's had brought her before I woke up. On my bedside table, there was nothing but an old crossword. Mentally grumbling, I grabbed the quill next to it and set to work distracting myself from boredom.
Pomfrey came in and fed Hermione some more potions, but I ignored them the best I could. From the feeling in my arms and legs, the pain was fading and I'd be out of the infirmary before dinner. Upsetting Madam Pomfrey in any way might extend my stay, and I certainly didn't want that. Not when punching Lucas and kill the rumours about me were on my to-do list. Let's see, Japanese water-demon, five letters. That would be Kappa then, wouldn't it? Carefully filling in the letters, I listened with half an ear to the conversation between Hermione and Madam Pomfrey.
"...And my ribs hurt." Hermione apparently concluded her list of injuries.
"Yes, they were broken, but they're healed now. All you need is bed-rest and a few medical potions, and you'll be up and running around in no time," Madam Pomfrey said. "Before that happens though, I want to have a word with your Professor."
"He'll be a broken-nosed eunuch if you're not quick enough," I piped up. "Millicent Bulstrode wants to castrate him, and I want to break his nose."
"When I get a hold of Vincent Lucas, he will be spending the rest of his time in St. Mungo's, having to get help with eating on account of having no teeth," Madam Pomfrey informed me. "He might have entertained himself by going into that ruddy forest when he was a student here, but this is going too far."
She bustled out of the infirmary, saying something about seeing Dumbledore and we were once more left alone. I chuckled at the nurse's sudden departure, and wished that she would find her mark well and good. Lucas could hide in the most distant nooks of the castle, but Dumbledore would find him, and when he did, I'd be there to punch that infuriating smirk off his face. Preferably with something hard, like iron, on my knuckles. I was so angry with him that my hands shook when I thought about it.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Hermione said.
"Professor Lucas," I shrugged. "I'm pondering ways to complete his gruesome murder. Do you think I can work in needles and a streetlight?"
"If you put your heart to it, you could do anything." She assured me.
"Probably." I agreed, but thinking of different things than she was. While she had in mind determination and force of will, all I saw were breakdowns and those roaring green flames. If I could burn a Graphorn badly enough to scare it off when I wasn't even trying, the things I would be able to do when I had my magic under control were frightening.
Lucas' tale of the wizard San, who had sunk a whole island reappeared in my mind. If San had been the most powerful wandless-magic wizard, which was likely, my green fire wasn't a drop in the ocean even. But then what he had told me of the Mongolian witch, who had blasted such a big hole in the Gobi- desert that it had been made unplottable, crept back into my mind, and I shuddered. If San's island destruction, and the Mongolian witch's breakdown was any indication of what masters of wandless magic could do, I didn't even want to think about what I could cause.
Opting to sleep instead of worry, I closed my eyes and caught up on some of the sleepless nights I'd spent studying.
''''''''''
Discharged from the infirmary just in time for dinner, I headed for Lucas' office as soon as the door was closed behind me. The rage that I had kept in check since yesterday, around midday, suddenly returned with vengeance. It bubbled in my veins like poison as I made my way down the various floors and landings between the infirmary and Lucas' office. I arrived, slightly out of breath and with my shoulders aching, but still in possession of a feeling that had passed white-hot anger and arrived in the calm sea of icy rage. My fingers didn't shake the slightest as I knocked on the door.
"Come on in."
He was sitting behind his desk with his glasses in his hand when I entered, eating a sandwich with what looked like chocolate. On the desk in front of him lay a list of some kind, and a discarded quill.
"Ah, Zabini. I see you escaped Poppy's clutches." He said. "How are you holding up?"
The cheerful question made my last restraint snap like a dry twig, and I hauled off and hit him. There was a satisfying snapping sound when my fist made contact with his nose, and he reeled back as I drew back and shook my stinging hand. It hurt, and I tried to massage some feeling back into my numb fingers as Lucas sat up straight again and inspected the blood that was dripping from his nose with a calm detachment I had come to expect.
"I should report you for unwanted student/teacher contact," He informed me, "But I won't. You know why? I deserved that. A fist to the face and a broken nose is nothing compared to what happened to you and Granger. I truly am sorry about that."
"As you bloody well should!" I couldn't keep my voice down and shouted at him. "I might be walking around like normal, but she's up there in the infirmary, looking like the Grey Lady. Her side was split open from the top of her ribcage to her thigh! If she hadn't opened her eyes when I screamed at her to wake up, I don't know if I would have lost my mind! I nearly did anyway, and it's all your fault!"
"Calm down again, Zabini." Lucas looked angry for a moment. "I know you're worried, but that's no reason to lose your mind."
Taking several deep, calming breaths, I collapsed numbly in the second chair in his office. The rage had dissipated soon after I had hit him, and now I just felt tired. Bones that shouldn't ache ached, and muscles I didn't even know I had screamed in protest as I willed my body to sit up straighter.
"I think I've already lost it," I sighed. "Raging fire isn't something I've learned how to summon, even with a wand."
"Fire?" He questioned.
"Mmmh. Of the green variety, unless my memory fails me," I nodded. "When the Graphorn charged at her, something in my head, right about here," I pointed right behind my ear, "snapped, and suddenly there was green fire everywhere. It hurt, and I don't know where it came from."
"Fire, you say? Interesting." He mumbled. "But there's not much to be done now about it. School ends in three days, and after that you won't be around any more. Neither will I, come to think about it."
"You're leaving?" It wasn't much surprise around though, since no Defence teacher to date had lasted more than one year. But, despite his craziness, it had looked like Lucas would last.
"Only for the summer." He shrugged. "I have to look into the family home. It's been abandoned for some time. But by fall I'll be back and teaching again."
"That ought to be a first." I muttered. "You're not going to hold our N.E.W.T's, are you?"
"No, there's a special committee at the Ministry for that." Lucas denied. "You will not have to suffer through another gruesome exam at my hands."
"Thank Merlin." I said sincerely and got up from the chair. "That exam was bad enough to last me a lifetime. I've got to go and tell everyone I'm alive now, so I suppose I'll see you come fall."
"I'll be taking the train, so you're not quite rid of me yet." He reminded me. "But go on now: I've got some last-minute grading to do."
"Have as nice a summer you can have when you're a manipulative bastard," I said, heading out the door.
"I'll do my best." He called after me as I shut the door.
Well, I thought as I leaned against the wall, it was time to face the wolves and kill the outrageous rumours about me and Hermione. If I let it go on, by the time Hermione was out of the infirmary, people would probably be convincing each other that she was pregnant with Voldemort's spawn and that I was, in fact, a demon in disguise. I had listened to Hogwart's rumour mill too many times to believe they would just stop.
''''''''''''''''
Ending Notes: And so he's out of the infirmary and into the fire again. He hasn't snapped yet, so I'm going to have some fun torturing him over the next few chapters. Next chapter he will finally be out of Hogwarts again: a change of scenery will do me good at least.