Emma stood outside the hospital wing that evening, thinking to herself. She held a handful of very purple flowers which were beginning to wilt in her hand. She shook her head and went through the door.
In the infirmary, there were several beds up against the walls. Close to the entrance there was a seventh-year boy with messy black hair who was reading the Daily Prophet. Further up on the other side, Gabriel was sitting up in bed reading from an old withered brown book.
"Hey." Emma said, coming up to her and putting the flowers on the bedside. "How're you feeling?" Gabriel shut the book a little way and smiled, as if nothing had happened.
"Much better." she grinned. "Madam Pomfrey already healed it up, she just said to stay off it for a day. I'll be back to tame another hippogriff." she laughed. Emma smiled gratefully.
"Good." she said happily. "I was freaking out."
Just as Gabriel was about to laugh, the door swung back open and in stepped Aerienne, Hunter and Liam. Emma expected that they'd immediately pounce on her, but they paid no attention to the two non-Slytherins and instead went over to the other boy.
"Hows the leg, T?" Aerienne asked, bringing her hand down sarcastically-hard on the boy's leg under the blanket. He winced and smiled.
"Broken again now, thanks to you." he said. Hunter tossed something at him and pulled the newspaper out of his hand while T examined it.
"Gillyweed shortage?" he said, reading some of the paper. "You nerd, Jonathan." he laughed, putting the paper on the bedside.
At this, Gabriel grabbed Emma's sleeve.
"We've been talking since I arrived." she was whispering, smiling. "His name's Jonathan and he's so nice! Not like how you'd expect. He broke his leg on the Whomping Willow, the wind blew his homework over to it." she said, hurried and excited.
"You're just a bundle of hormones, Gabriel." Emma said and she straightened, a smile on her lips, still watching the group. The pale boy, Liam was leaning against the wall examining something on his hand. Hunter and Aerienne were talking to the boy in the bed.
The door swung open again, making Liam jump, and someone stormed in.
"Madam Pomfrey!" screeched a girl. Her hair was bright-red and wispy, but somehow it reached to her waist. The elderly nurse bustled in.
"Oh, Ana. What is it?" she said. The girl showed no sign of needing a doctor.
"This-" the Slytherin prefect began, looking behind her. She was shocked to see that no-one had followed her in. Emma noticed that the four Slytherins had noticed her now, and they were talking, hushed to each other. Ana rounded on her heel and went back to the door. "Get in here, Brianna!" she shouted, pulling on someone's arm and going back to Madam Pomfrey.
The girl she was dragging with her, was probably the most striking person Emma had ever seen, including Liam, with all his piercings and make-up. She was tall and slim with a curtain of shining black hair. Her skin was so pale, Emma thought she might have been transparent. Her eyes were dark and angry. The only color on her was her green tie, the red of her lips and the pink in her cheeks as if in embarrassment. Emma knew the face well.
"She needs medical attention." Ana said primly. Brianna shook her arms free and folded them.
"I'm fine!" she spat. "I don't need anything!" But Madam Pomfrey already had taken her to the nearest bed and pulled her arm over the blankets and pushed her sleeve away. Emma saw a long, dark streak of blood running diagonally across her forearm.
"My dear..." Madam Pomfrey whispered. "How did you do this, Miss Eveane?"
"I fell." Brianna said bluntly. The Slytherin prefect shook her head in dissatisfaction and breezed out of the room. Hunter and Aerienne looked in disbelief. "My dorm mate was practicing some shit for Defense Against the Dark Arts." Brianna said in admittance. "I got in the way."
"I don't believe this." Hunter laughed, running a hand through his hair.
Madam Pomfrey nodded and told Brianna not to move and she went out of the room to get something. Emma looked at the girl to find that she was already glaring back at her, black eyes like fire. Emma nearly jumped backwards and she looked away.
"Who's that?" Gabriel whispered.
Brianna Eveane and her family were no strangers to the Beeches. Her father was a Death Eater, a particular effort of Emma's father to capture and hold responsible. The problem being, no one could prove Ciaran Eveane's allegiance to the Dark Lord.
"Bri Eveane." Emma whispered back. She looked up again. Aerienne was next to Bri, saying something to her quietly. Hunter, Liam and T were in conversation, glancing over at them every now and again. "Her dad's like... number one on everyone's suspicion list. A bit like the Malfoys... only with more money and a bit smarter."
"Oh." Gabriel whispered back. Emma realized she probably didn't know who the Malfoy's were. "Why doesn't someone just go and... suspect them?" With the authorities, I mean."
"They do. All the time. Ciaran, that's her father, hides his tracks perfectly. They only disturbance in their house it seems is her deranged mother crying. My father's been in there, he says the whole place is cold and dark, but there's never anything there to provide strong evidence that the Eveanes are Death Eaters." she whispered back in reply, feeling a little cold. Emma turned her head to look back at the two groups of Slytherin to find Aerienne walking towards her.
"I just wanted to say sorry about that comment before." she said, stopping next to the bed.
"What comment?" Emma asked, seriously not remembering.
"About getting your own way." Rea said, "Earlier, outside Dumbledore's. You looked a bit upset and I just wanted to clear the air..." she shrugged.
"Oh right." Emma said, smiling a little more now. "Thanks." she said. She realized now that there was something the tiniest bit familiar about Rea, like someone she had met years ago, or a forgotten photograph that'd been pulled out when she was a child. "What did you say your last name was?" she asked, not wanting to sound out of place, but wondering.
"Tooper." she said. "But I don't think you'll meet many more Aeriennes in your lifetime." she laughed a bit. Then she turned to Gabriel. "And you?"
"Gabriel Diniz." Gabriel said. She held out her hand and Aerienne shook it. "I cut my ankle on a hippogriff." the girl explained quickly and Aerienne laughed at her choice of words.
"Rea, what are you doing?" Hunter called from behind her. Rea turned so her dark brown hair fell around her shoulders.
"Being friendly, Hunter." she said. "Something you can't do." she turned back. "Sorry. Forgive the boyfriend, not the nicest guy to non-Slytherins." she sighed.
"I figured." Emma said. "I don't think many of your friends are..." she said, looking at Liam and the other guys over Rea's shoulder. She didn't dare look at Bri, incase she was still glaring.
"Oh they are... T is anyway. The one in the bed." she said. "The others are... from long Slytherin families." she explained. Something about the way she said it made Emma assume her family was not the same.
"I don't understand this... house rivalry thing." Gabriel said from the bed.
"Rea!" Hunter called again.
"It's just... stupid?" Gabriel continued, questioning her word choice.
"What is it Hunter?" Rea called back, aggravated, rounding on her heel.
"Here we go then..." Madame Pomfrey said, bustling into the room again with a bottle of something in her hands. "Oh... dear!" she cried stopping at Bri's bed. Everyone looked. The dark haired girl seemed to have fainted. "Miss Tooper, you were watching her?" The elderly nurse asked, running over to the other side of the room to reach something from a high medicene cupboard. Everyone -aside from T and Gabriel, the two invalids- rushed over to the bed.
"Oh shit..." Rea cussed under her breath. "Shit, shit, shit!" Bri's arm was still seeping blood which had stained the crisp white bed sheets a bright crimson. Emma felt the slightest bit sick. The girl looked dead. Liam grabbed her wrist with one hand.
"She's got a pulse, Rea, it's fine." he said, his fingers on the spot. Madame Pomfrey ran back, parting the crowd and immediately closed up Bri's wound with a swish of her wand. She uncorked a little blue bottle and held it under Bri's nose. Immediately her eyes opened and she sat straight up.
"Shit!" she shouted, putting her free hand to her head. "Oh fuck, my head!"
"She might rave like a lunatic for a few minutes," Madame Pomfrey said, chuckling a bit now that the danger was over. "My strong things were the only thing I could find in time."
"My fucking head! You bitch!" Bri raved, glaring viciously at Madame Pomfrey who was putting a bandage around the closed skin on her arm. "Let go of my fucking arm, you bastard!" she shouted at Liam who immediately let go.
"Alright Bri..." he said, looking surprised and a bit hurt.
"She doesn't mean it." Emma told him.
"I know that, thanks." he said snidely, glaring at her immediately afterwards. Rea was laughing.
"One night here for supervision I'm afraid, Miss Eveane." The nurse said, stepping away from the neat bandage.
"Bitch!" Bri swore again. She hugged her arm to her and said nothing more, just looked sad and mistaken.
"Sorry for leaving you, Bri." Rea said, patting her girl's shoulder. Emma looked over her shoulder at Gabriel, feeling bad for leaving her, only finding she was totally occupied... talking with Chase who was holding a brown bag and giving it to her.
"Hi, when'd you get here?" Emma asked, going over and standing on the other side of the bed.
"I think at... 'My fucking head, you bitch.'" Chase said, smiling.
"Sounded exciting." Gabriel said.
"I guess." Emma said. "What'd you get?" she asked her.
"Chocolate frogs. Want one?"
"No thanks."
"Oh look." Came a voice from over at Bri's bed again. Liam. "It's Beech's boyfriend."
"He is not my boyfriend!" Emma said, just as Chase said the same for her, changing the proper words. They both looked at each other and then looked away.
"That was awkward." Gabriel said, biting a chocolate frog. She looked very amused.
"Come on now, you lot." Madame Pomfrey said. "The infirmary is closing and these lot need their sleep." She tsked, ushering out the three Slytherins and looking at Chase and Emma.
"Bye T, see you tomorrow." Hunter said, waving at the boy in the last bed.
"See you."
Emma waved to Gabriel and then followed the crowd sweeping through the hospital wing.
"Bye Bri." Rea said just as they got through the door. "See you tomorrow!" the door shut and left the remaining five outside.
"Well... see you lot tomorrow." Liam said, not even addressing them. He began to walk away quickly, hands in pockets.
"Yeah, bye guys, nice meeting you." Hunter said, hardly truthful, following his friend after placing a kiss on Rea's forehead.
"I'd better follow them." Rea said, smiling at the two. "Sorry for my friends."
"It's understandable." Chase said. "I'm Chase, by the way."
"Rea." she said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe bright and early again, Emma?" she grinned and then turned and followed the two boys.
When the corridor was clear again the two remaining students walked together to the Great Hall.
"Was that the Eveane kid?" Chase asked.
"Yeah." Emma said.
"I thought so." Chase said, thoughtfully.
"I feel bad about leaving the three of them together."
"Why? All they'll do is take some pills and go to sleep and we'll visit them in the morning."
"Right." Emma said, "I just forgot my reasoning." They reached the stairs. "I'll see you tomorrow then, Chase." she said, starting up, while he continued to the moving staircase.
"Bye. Night Em." he said. "Oh wait." She stopped and turned. "So about that Hogsmeade weekend?" Chase began. Emma laughed.
"Goodnight Chase." she smiled and went up the stairs.
"Goodnight." Chase sighed and then he disappeared into the shadowy castle darkness.