Chapter 8
"Katie please! Katie wake up! Please! Katie don't leave me! Katie ... Kate you can't do this, please!" Angelina felt tears prick her eyes as she watched Oliver sob over Katie's limp body. Fred stepped forward to try and pull him away, but Oliver just pushed him away. "NO! Katie?" Just then, Madame Hooch stepped forward. She took one look at Katie and an expression of anger; shock ... maybe even fear came over her face.
"Get to the infirmary, Wood." Madame Hooch bent over Katie, hugging her close, and disapparated. Oliver stood up immediately and started running towards the school. Angelina, Alicia, Fred, and George ran after him.
The Hospital Wing
"You can't all be in here, you must leave." Madame Pomfrey tried to push the five people out, but they refused to leave.
"Please," was all Oliver said and he said it over and over again. His eyes were fixed on Katie's bed around which half the professors were gathered, including Dumbledore. They were talking in hushed tones and glancing at each other nervously.
"Fine, one of you may stay. The rest of you get out!" Madame Pomfrey turned around and walked back to Katie's bed.
"I'll stay." Oliver started towards Katie's bed, but Angelina caught his arm.
"Over my dead body! Its your fault she's here!" Oliver looked up at her, blinking repeatedly, as if just realizing that what she said was, indeed, true.
"Angelina ..."
"No, Alicia. You go with Fred and George, I'll stay here. Fred, owl Paddy." Fred nodded. Alicia was already holding George's arm, so he gently led her out of the Hospital Wing. It seemed as if George was the only thing holding Alicia together. Fred grabbed Oliver around the shoulders and gingerly led him after George and Alicia. Angelina sighed loudly; she looked down at her clothes and at the clothes of her friends. They were still in their Quidditch uniforms, drenched to the bone, and covered in mud.
"Miss Johnson, you may sit here until they are done." Madame Pomfrey motioned to a chair near the window, opposite Katie's bed.
Once outside, Oliver sat down against the wall. He had said nothing since Angelina yelled at him; he was increasingly pale and his eyes had gotten very wide. He looked distant; as if he didn't know what was going on around him.
"You should go shower and get some clean clothes." Fred looked at Alicia; she was shivering, not to mention the mud that covered a good percentage of her body.
"We should all get the chance to shower but –"
"You go, when you get back I'll go." Alicia nodded and started to turn around, faltering slightly. "George." George exchanged a glance with his brother before turning around. He put his arm firmly around Alicia's waist and helped her up the stairs. Fred looked back at the person next to him.
"Oliver ..."
"I did this, Fred. I did this to her. If I hadn't been so arrogant and prideful ... I should have postponed the game. She asked me to!" Oliver buried his head in his hands and his body started to shake with silent sobs. Fred sat down next to him and put his arm around Oliver's shoulders, just letting him cry.
Two Hours Later
"Professor?" Angelina stood up as Dumbledore turned to leave. The other professors had left a few minutes ago.
"Ah, yes Miss Johnson."
"Is ... is she ..." Angelina pushed back the tears; she couldn't make herself finish the sentence.
"Dead? Not currently Miss Johnson." Angelina felt a wave of relief, but it was bittersweet; the words 'not currently' rang in her ears.
"What's ... what ..."
"Please, sit down." Dumbledore motioned for the chair and Angelina obeyed. He pulled up another chair and sat down across from her. "That Bludger hit Miss Bell extremely hard. Normally it wouldn't have caused anything ... like this. But with the added strain that had been put on her body, she's lucky to be in this state."
"What exactly is this state?" asked Angelina, finding her voice momentarily.
"She has internal bleeding. Was she under any stress before the game?" Angelina almost laughed.
"Stress, yeah. Her and her best friend had just had a huge fight concerning the game." Dumbledore nodded and played with his beard absentmindedly.
"Well, coupled with exhaustion, hypothermia, and stress the Bludger did quite a bit of damage." He reached out and took Angelina's hand, squeezing it. "She hemorrhaged; we were able to stop the bleeding but I don't know if that will be enough. She lost a lot of blood but there's nothing else we can do except make her comfortable and hope she heals on her own. We will simply have to wait and see." This was as much as Angelina could take; she buried her head in her hands and burst into tears. "Go, sit by her and hold her hand. She may find comfort in that if she does indeed know what is going on. If not, I take it her subconscious will still be happier if it knows you are here." Angelina nodded, got up and walked over to the chair next to Katie's bed.
An hour later, Angelina vaguely heard the door of the Hospital Wing open and close again. She didn't turn around until she heard a familiar voice.
"Oh my god, Katie." Angelina stood up and whirled around to see Patrick, Katie's brother, standing just inside the door of the Hospital Wing. His hand was over his mouth and she had never seen him so pale. "What ..." Angelina walked over to him and enveloped him in a tight hug. Taking his hand, she led him to Katie's bed and motioned for him to sit down in her chair. She explained everything that Dumbledore had told her as best she could. "Why did she play?" Patrick's voice was little more than a whisper.
"Oliver ... they had a row over it." Patrick nodded and then turned back to his sister, lying on her cot. Angelina patted his shoulder and then got up and walked out of the Hospital Wing. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, trying to calm her breathing. Fred was at her side in a second and wrapped his arms around her just as she broke down.
"Shh, it's going to be okay."
"No it's not!" she choked out. Fred allowed Angelina to slump to the floor and sat down next to her, rubbing her arms and making a good attempt at being comforting. She had done a simple drying spell on herself, but she was shivering now. Not from the cold, but from the realization of what was going on inside the Hospital Wing.
Angelina looked up, about to yell at Oliver, but then she saw him. He was still drenched from head to toe (he wouldn't let anyone perform a drying spell or give him dry clothes). He had his head resting on his knees, a silent sob shaking his body from time to time.
I never got to tell her ... how much I loved her ... the last thing she said to me ... this is all my fault! I never got to tell her how sorry I was ... for everything! Oliver pounded his fists into his thighs repeatedly. He vaguely noticed his friends come over and sit down next to him. He heard several voices and felt several arms on him, apparently an attempt at comforting him. But he was far beyond comfort.
Gryffindor Girls' Dormitory
Angelina looked around, quite confused. She sat up to find both herself and Alicia in their Dormitory. Furthermore, Fred and George were curled up in the pair of cushy armchairs that flanked the window. Seconds later, realization hit; she remembered the events of the previous night as tears started to well up in her eyes. She slowly got out of bed and walked over to Fred; the armchair was plenty big enough for the both of them, so she curled up next to him. He stirred slightly and wrapped his arms tightly around Angelina. She buried her head in his chest, trying to fight back tears.
"It's going to be okay."
"I wish I were as confident as you," she choked out. Fred kissed her forehead and started to rub her back comfortingly. "Someone's there right?"
"Of course, Paddy's staying until tomorrow and he insisted that he stay with her. You two fell asleep outside the Hospital Wing so George and I brought you up here. McGonagall did a spell to change you into your pajama's." Angelina murmured something that sounded like 'thank you'. She noticed for the first time that she wasn't in her Quidditch uniform; not that she would have been worried about Fred doing something inappropriate. As perverted as he acted, he wasn't that kind of a guy.
Fred glanced at his brother; he wasn't quite sure how the two of them had kept it together all this time. George was the one who had seen her fall, but somehow he wasn't falling apart like everyone else, with the exception of Fred. Fred was amazed by both himself and his brother; he never would have guessed that they would be the strong ones in a situation like this. But then again, he never would have guessed that a situation like this would happen, not to them anyways. He glanced at the clock; 7 AM. I've functioned on 2 hours of sleep before, I guess 3 ½ will have to do, he mused.
Suddenly he heard a sob, but it wasn't coming from Angelina. He looked over at Alicia's bed, where Alicia was sitting, head in her hands, shaking with each sob. Fred started to get up, but George was already there, enveloping Alicia in a tight hug.
George looked up to see Fred comforting Angelina in much the same way he was attempting to comfort Alicia. They exchanged a tired, sympathetic glance.
"You should talk to Oliver about what you said." Angelina murmured against Fred's chest. "I know you're angry ... but it's not his fault. He would never even dream of doing something that he knew would hurt her."
"He loves her ... you can tell." Angelina had picked up her head far enough to speak coherently.
"She's going to be okay, right?" Alicia's voice was shaky as she looked at George with a worried expression. He pulled her into a tight hug.
"I don't know."
A/N: Poor Oliver! Wouldn't that be sad if he never got to tell her all those things? Mwahaha, I'm so evil! The next chapter is the confrontation with Paddy and Oliver, there will be some French in it (like real live French), but at the bottom of the chapter will be the translations, fyi!. How was this one? Sorry for the wait ... I've been sick and my teachers are still giving waaaaay too much homework. Time to Burn should be updated this weekend!
ProtectorofMeladon: Yay! So happy that you liked it! How was this chapter?
Mibiscotti: Haha, yeah, the friendship thing is really modeled after my friendship with this one guy ... but there's no like romance, just the friendship part. Cedric ... he's going to kind of end up as the villain, sry!
HarryPotterFan670: Thanks, how was this chapter?!
DarkRose: You never know, I just might. But no one seems very worried about whether or not Katie will die ... tear
MasterHarperMenolly: So glad you liked it! I'm hoping to have the next chapter up by Tuesday ... since I had like no homework this weekend!
KooKoo: Yeah, Arthurian isn't so great when you have to study it with this crazy, old, feminist with rose-colored glasses (literally) that are way too big! But, we're done with them anywho ... now it's on to Julius Ceasar! Haha, yes the Cedric-hating reviews are starting to grow ... eventually, my dear.
Disclaimer: Although Harry Potter is abfab (that's absolutely fabulous for all you untrendy folk), Star Shmucks Coffee House doesn't own him!
