Chapter 07
• Holes •
Somewhere around the time that the whistle blew for the last race Harry finally found a door that looked like an exit. He'd been wandering the halls for nearly an hour trying to discover an exit.
Avoiding the standard hall sentries and the groups of racers brought in on stretchers. He'd even seen Malfoy for an instant as he hid in a corner. He wasn't sure, but he could swear that his enemy had seen him in the shadows. But he was in too much pain to say anything at that time.
The door was a blue color and he was sure he'd come through it soon after entering the building. There was a label above it, but it was so old that it was barely visible.
Quietly he opened the door and walked in. It was not the door he'd thought he'd come through, it led to a room. As Harry turned to leave he heard a familiar curse and a crash. Quietly he closed the door and walked along the lockers, wondering why Tonks would be here.
At the end of the room, fighting with a whole barrage of broomsticks, was Seoniadh, still cursing. Harry didn't get too close, but stared at her from afar. It had to be Tonks, she cursed the same and the voice was the same. She confirmed it by kicking one of them and pouting. "I should've let it go. I'm becoming too much like mother. Harry is responsible, I need to learn to trust him more."
Pulling himself back, Harry slipped back out the door he'd come in, not sure what to think.
After at least another half hour of wandering aimlessly he came face to face with another racer, this one he knew. The racer, who didn't seem to recognize him, pushed him aside and continued on down the hallway.
"Draco." Harry whispered to himself.
The platinum haired boy, who apparently had extremely sensitive hearing, turned back to Harry. His eyes moved up and down Harry, assessing him and he made a half circle until Harry had to turn to him. Finally his eyes settled on Harry's face, with a hint of recognition and unfamiliarity there. "Do I know you?" he asked curiously, not quite being able to place Harry.
Remembering that he wasn't suppose to be there, Harry shook his head quickly. He'd dyed his hair earlier so it would still be blond and hopefully Draco wouldn't be able to place Harry's face without the scar, hair or eyes. "No," he shook his head. "I watched you in the races earlier though. I thought you were good," he said, holding back what he was about to say to Draco.
He was angry with himself for talking so nicely to Draco. There was a problem with being angry with him, it might spark a more vivid picture of Harry. He had a hard time forcing something nice out of his mouth, it would only inflate Draco's already inflated head. He didn't think it was true either, he just did it to get Draco from suspecting him, after all it was the last thing he'd say if Draco knew who he was.
"Hmpphh," Draco snorted. "I know that. It's those other racers, if they hadn't cheated the whole race I might've had a chance."
It took Harry a lot to not yell at him. He'd been the one that almost killed Seona because of his cruelty. "I saw you fly into the crowd," Harry said, covering up his anger. "Are you alright?"
Something about the question got Draco supremely irritated and his attitude changed quickly. "I'm fine," he growled and then pushed past Harry, continuing on down the hallway.
Smiling smugly Harry watched him go, at least he'd gotten some satisfaction in Draco's anger. It didn't last long. The card in his hand seemed to tug on him and he looked down at it again. He had to get to a bookstore and get a book but first he had to get out of the place.
Turning, he followed Draco at a distance. Hopefully Draco was leaving and he'd be able to get out easily.
Outside the sweet warm air filled his lungs and Harry set out at a quick pace heading for the nearest book show he knew of. Inside the store was a mess of books, every sort and not cleaned up like the one at Hogsmeade. Harry had to dig through the section that had books on apparating. Of course, there were a few on top, but they weren't anything that looked as if it were something he might want to look into. He didn't need a basic apparating book, he needed a thorough apparating book - and he knew there had to be a difference.
So, after discarding buying 'Apparating for Squibs' and 'Moving Like Merlin' Harry had to spend almost an hour pulling out several books that had possibilities. After all the work he had a stack of about 12 books to choose from. The attendant (a boy not much older than Harry) didn't look like he could help much and Harry didn't really want to trust him. After all, Darrian did know a lot of people it seemed and he wouldn't put it past him to be have this boy give Harry bad advice.
So for another hour he skimmed through the books one by one seeing what they provided. The first two were two advanced to start and Harry immediately put them aside. He needed something that had the basics as well as more advanced techniques. The third one had possibilities and he set it in a different pile. By the time an hour was up he had three piles. He discarded two of them, one too advanced and one too basic. He did know how to use magic and had a pretty good idea of how it worked, so he didn't need anything that just discussed the why, he needed the how.
When he was finally done going through the three possible books he decided on one scientifically, closing his eyes and picking the one that felt the most durable.
After paying for the book he returned to his hotel room where he locked himself in, reading the book as quick as possible that night.
Spending a whole day trying, by himself to apparate, Harry decided it was best to come to terms with Tonks. She was sorry, even if she didn't admit it to him. Deep inside he hoped that she'd understand that he was sorry even though he hated to admit it.
A few hours before dinner time Harry slipped a note under Tonks's door, asking her to meet him for dinner.
At the appointed time Harry was waiting at the front door, his hands tapping nervously on his knee. He needed help and right now all he had to turn to was Tonks. She showed up a few minutes late, smiling to him, but not saying anything even after they were seated.
"So…" Harry started, trying to find an easy way of telling Tonks what'd happened. "I need to learn to apparate," he said, smiling as best as possible.
Tonks didn't seem that interested and as she looked over the menu. When the waiter came Harry stopped, ordering the first thing on the menu while Tonks took her sweet time. The waiter disappeared and Harry opened his mouth to say something else as Tonks sipped on the drinks that appeared on their table.
The minutes ticked by and nothing more was said until the food arrived. Tonks immediately went to work on it while Harry just sat there trying to decide how best to bring it out.
"I've discovered a new sport," he said lightly. "It's called Jack, I'm playing Darrian next week."
"YOU WHAT!" Tonks said, choking on the food she'd just placed in her mouth.
The whole rest of the restaurant looked over to the table they were sitting at and Harry looked down. "Quiet Tonks," he whispered fiercely, gripping his own glass tighter.
Tonks just stared right at Harry, her mouth still agape - bits of rice falling from it as the seconds ticked by. Harry thought it looked extremely funny and despite the circumstances he was in, snorted with laughter.
It took Tonks a full two minutes to speak again. Her mouth closed as Harry pulled out the card from his pocket, handing it to her. She looked it over carefully, nodding her head as she did. "I thought so," she whispered to herself. Harry just stared at her.
"Well, looks like you've really gotten yourself into a mess this time," she said, looking completely content again.
Harry, who was even more distressed at what Tonks had said at first, was now staring at her wide-eyed, hopping that she'd be able to help him. "Yeah," he muttered, apologetically. He hated having to say he was sorry though and, unless Tonks asked him for it, he wasn't about to do it.
"Well," she said, grinning from ear to ear, "I guess we're just going to have to teach you to apparate." Lately her mood had been changing drastically with the slightest events.
Still, the statement made Harry feel better, but he didn't understand how it was possible, he'd spent a whole 24 hours trying to figure out what to do based on the book he'd been given and he hadn't gotten anywhere. Could Tonks, the person who was always stumbling over something, teach him how to apparate in just a handful of days?
"Alright I suppose you've got a book then?" she asked, looking at him quite seriously.
Shaking his head Harry slowly drew the book out from behind his back where he'd hid it from her.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Oh, I know a lot more than that," she said with a smile. "You're going to be using a lot of energy, so get eating. First lesson, you can't not eat when you're learning. It'll really drain you as it is. So if you don't eat, you won't be able to learn. Then - after we eat, you and I are going to go buy some supplies at the apothecary. We have some potions to brew so that we'll be able to stay up for the rest of the week. It's not going to be easy to learn in such a short amount of time, but it is enough time." Tonks said, smiling at Harry. She seemed to be her old self again, with the smile she was giving him.
The food on Harry's plate disappeared rather quickly once he'd been told to eat. A lot of the tension that had built up before about telling Tonks disappeared. Tonks simply ate like normal, looking at Harry in between bites. "You know," she said, stopping after a little while. "I'm surprised this Darrian gave you a whole week, usually once you've been ensnared in the trap then you're stuck with it, they rarely give you more than a day or two. You must have really caught his eye."
Darrian was being soft on him. Harry hated him for it, it wasn't something that he wanted. Then again, it was the only chance he had, so he was willing to accept it. But he hated Darrian now, and he hated himself for being tricked into doing such a thing. How, in two days time could he come to trust someone so thoroughly that he would sign a wizarding contract with them without even looking at it?
"He gave you something didn't he?" Tonks asked, seeing Harry's eyes scrunched in thought.
At first Harry couldn't recall anything that Darrian had given to him, but then he thought about it again. Right before going to Club Craft Darrian had given him a pill that had made him feel weird. He nodded to Tonks who also nodded, covering her face. "I shouldn't have let you go off by yourself. It got you into a lot of trouble, I knew something like that was going to happen if you got to running around the island without someone who knew what goes on around here."
After finishing a plate Harry looked to the waiter again as he took their plates. He wasn't sure how to ask, but he was still hungry. It suddenly occurred to him how hungry he was. He hadn't eaten for almost a day and a half and even then it felt as if he hadn't eaten in a week. Something was different, maybe he was really doing something and he didn't know it. He must not have been paying enough attention to it.
Tonks made a motion and the waiter nodded, moving away very quickly.
"You know… I'm surprised you got a good book," Tonks said as she flipped through the first few pages of it. "Most people don't get this they get something like 'How to Apparate in a Week' or 'Apparition for Squibs'. None of them ever tell you enough to learn to apparate, you have to have someone train you or none of the methods work."
The waiter served Harry another plate of food and as Harry pressed his fork into the meat, he looked up at Tonks. "How is it that you know so much about the game?" he asked before stuffing a piece of the meat into his mouth.
"I used to play." Tonks said, disheartened. "I used to do a lot of things around here, stuff I probably shouldn't have done, but I still did. When I would come here I could get away with anything, especially after I learned to change my looks."
Nodding Harry didn't tell her that it was her he'd seen at the races. She'd told Darrian that she loved him which was quite embarrassing to him, and he didn't know why she's said it.
"So why did you leave?" he asked.
"Well, you see, this wasn't my home. I only came here for a few years because I was always getting into trouble. I came back and went to Hogwarts for the last four years of school. I did come here, during the summers, but when I went to be an Auror I decided that it was best if I didn't come back, it's part of my life that I don't always like to remember."
"Why?" Harry questioned. "What happened?"
Tonks gave him a disapproving look and he realized that he was prying into her personal life, which wasn't any of his concern. Then with a dismissive look she held out her hand, palm upwards. Harry saw nothing strange at first but noticed her skin was melting on her forearm. It took a minute but it slowly darkened until a tattoo appeared. It was like nothing Harry'd ever seen before, dozens of triangles surrounding one with an eye in the center. The whole pattern roughly formed a triangle itself.
"Viatorian," was all Tonks said.
What it meant Harry wasn't sure of, but he didn't want to push anymore for information, she'd already given him more than she needed to.
Some time later, Harry stood just in front of Tonks, his head leaning against the nearby wall. A few yards from him stood Tonks, looking just as weary.
"Alright. One step at a time," Tonks said, slightly frustrated. She'd had a very long three days and Harry was barely progressing.
Taking a few steps back from Harry she looked around, making sure there was nothing that would be too close to cause harm. "Right here. That's under 4 yards. I'm going to hang that blanket again, so take a good look at this area, you can't see it this time."
Harry nodded and memorized the scene. He shouldn't have to do it he'd seen it a good number of times already, but his mind kept clouding up. "Remember Harry," Tonks said, holding the makeshift wall (a dowel with a large blanket hanging over it) in front of him. "I don't want you to splinch yourself; I'm already going to get in enough trouble when Dumbledore does find out. Remember you have to close your mind from everything else even if it's only for a brief second, it has to be empty, just you inside."
Once again, Harry nodded. He concentrated for a long time trying to picture himself in that place on the other side of the blanket. It took a lot of concentration to picture everything around him, but Tonks said it was necessary to see it all perfectly when he started. In the beginning it was because she didn't want him to splinch himself, she said the easiest way was to perform a detailed jump from one place to another.
An unbelievable feeling filled him again, a sort of jolt of electricity running through him and he knew it was about to happen. Concentrating harder Harry continued to picture the place on the other side of the sheet, he needed to learn to do this.
With a slight tingling sensation he moved. In the room, an ear splitting cracking sound reverberated through the walls quite a bit deeper than the normal sound. Tonks immediately covered her ears, but it was useless, the sound had already come twice when her hands finally made it there.
Wearing a proud smile Tonks could see that Harry had moved from one place to another. "DON'T PUSH SO HARD." She said overzealously, dropping her hands and quieting down. "You don't need to push so much energy into the jump, you're not going very far. You're going to take the whole room with you if you keep doing that. Look, you even brought part of the chair. You can get splinched if you bring other things with you, it's a lot harder to control other things," she finished, pointing to an object which had fallen to the floor.
Turning, Harry could see that the corner of the nearest chair had been removed completely, leaving a three legged chair behind. He combed his hands through his hair smiling nervously, but almost laughing too. "I still did it right? And with something between were I was going."
"Yeah," Tonks said returning his nervous smile with a much brighter one. "You're finally getting it now. You've just got to trust yourself more, don't worry about working so hard. You're obviously good enough to apparate, you just have to train your body to do it better."
"Alright then, let's do it again," Harry said, moving back to where he was. "Come on, hold up the sheet."
Shaking her head Tonks sat down. "I need a break Harry, we both do. You're almost completely worn out from all the work we've done to get this far. I doubt you could even keep your eyes open if it wasn't for that draught we concocted. We're both going to take a break, a short nap should do it."
The look in Harry's eyes betrayed his emotions but Tonks didn't see it, she was tired. When they'd been working on the potion the night before she'd had an accident with a nearby lamp and spilled the ginseng. With Harry's quick thinking they'd been able to reclaim about half the contents, but it was nowhere near enough to keep them awake for as long as a full strength potion would. Then Harry had insisted she drink half of it even though it wouldn't have been enough for just one person.
Truthfully they were both exhausted and Tonks knew it. The shop was closed or they would have just rebrewed the potion, it'd be open tomorrow though and she'd be able to straighten the whole mess out. This time she'd insure the bottle was unbreakable and still capped until she gave it to Harry.
After sending Harry to bed she turned to her own room, collapsing quickly into a deep sleep.
Tonks woke up, still rather tired. When she looked to the clock on the wall she sat up quickly, much more awake. She'd slept for nearly eleven hours. Which wasn't much, considering the circumstances, but was far longer than the three hours she'd planned on sleeping. Somehow her body clock had got knocked off schedule and she didn't wake up like usual.
Hurriedly she rushed out the door to her room. She knew they didn't have the time to sleep that long. She'd been pushing it with the few hours of sleep she'd forced Harry to take. If Harry was going to continue at the pace he was going it would take all their time to get him good enough to apparate in mid-air.
A rumbling from the next room caught her attention and she slowed as she passed by the table in the center of the room, pulling her wand from her side. The door that connected the two rooms was closed, but she'd left it unlocked. Carefully she slipped her hand around the doorknob and turned it slowly, keeping her hand tightly against it as not to make noise. If someone was on the other side of the door she wanted to surprised them.
Dashing through the door she was immediately greeted with a large pile of broken furniture. Before she could even gasp it started to topple on top of her. Her hand came up and from her mouth came a charm, but before the words had finished a small piece of a table had struck her wand, throwing the charm into the wall where it harmlessly was absorbed.
The charm was not in vain however. Harry, who was standing on the other side of the pile snapped around and quickly stopped the pile from falling completely.
He looked surprised as Tonks pulled herself out from under the pile of broken items.
"Hey," he said quietly, helping her up.
Looking to the pile that had nearly buried her Tonks sputtered. "What was that?" Then she looked around the room. "And… what happened to everything?" The room was completely void of any furniture at all, it had all been placed in the pile she'd run into.
The guilty look she received made her feel awful inside for pushing it so quickly. Even the floor had some areas that it was missing boards.
"Yeah, well I was going fix everything, really," he replied soon after. "I kept trying after you fell asleep, but I think I have it now. Watch," he said, smiling when Tonks didn't scold him for not going to bed. He wasn't sure how she'd feel about him defying her directly.
In an instant, Harry disappeared in front of her. The room filled with light and Harry appeared across the room. An odd feeling passed through her body and she paused her thoughts briefly, not sure what it was. It was almost as if something was pulling her. A crack followed by a deep rumbling made her tremble. He wasn't doing it right, she'd seen someone apparate similarly and it always ended up with that person being splinched.
Somehow, Harry was just fine, albeit breathing harder than normal, but he seemed in perfect physical condition. Tonks stared at him openmouthed as he took a few jaunty steps across the room. "So?" he asked eagerly, "was it alright?"
At first Tonks could not answer. She was astonished that he had made such progress in the few hours she'd been asleep. Had she not seen it she would have considered in impossible. Remus had been right, Harry was quite keen when he put his mind to it.
Finally gaining her wits Tonks opened her mouth slowly. What' about another room, somewhere you haven't apparated into yet? Somewhere you don't feel as comfortable apparating into."
Harry nodded his head eagerly. "Alright, what about your room?" He asked and before she even answered he was gone. In the room she barely heard a sound, the usual noise that was produced was somehow being almost completely muted when he left, there was a slight whizzing sound but she only noticed it because she was listening for it.
In the other room however she could hear a deep rumbling through the room and was glad they'd got the end room for Harry, he hadn't disturbed anyone as of yet, but if he was going to continue in this fashion he was going to definitely disturb someone else.
Hurriedly she moved into her room to find Harry kneeled over, breathing heavily. She was quite surprised that it hadn't happened before if he'd been apparating the whole time. Then she considered that maybe he hadn't, the first two weeks she'd worked at it she could barely do it for more than an hour or two at a time. "Harry," she asked, "have you been working on this the whole time?"
"Yeah," he said quietly. Tonks barely heard him at all. She wondered why he was being so different from normal. Usually he was quiet, yes, but not like this. It was as if he were afraid of her.
When he finally stood up and it was a little more obvious what was going on - he was exhausted and he was trying to hide it. "You need to get some sleep Harry."
"But, I'm so close. Show me how to do it right - I know its not perfect, it doesn't sound right. That way I don't have to remember as much next time."
Shaking her head, Tonks almost refused. Then, seeing his face she couldn't say no he reminded her of a puppy dog that had lost its master and there was no way she could say no to it. "Alright," she heaved a sigh hating herself for allowing him to control her. "Explain it to me, how you're doing it. If you don't understand just explain it as best as possible."
Nodding Harry opened his mouth and yawned. "Alright. If I find a place I want to go to I close my eyes for a second and picture it. I focus on it like you taught me… and when I open my eyes up again it's almost like I can see a hole around me. It's easy after that, I just pretend I'm stepping through it and all of the sudden I'm there. What I don't get is if I'm not doing it right what I'm doing wrong. I tried everything I could, I even actually walked into it, but nothing was different at all."
Once again Tonks stared at him confused. She had no idea exactly what he was talking about. She'd never actually experienced it like that, and she'd never had anyone tell her that that was the way they did it until now. "Uhm… Well. Up to the concentrating you have everything right. But you shouldn't have to open your eyes at all, once you've found that place you should just simply move there."
"Then… why do I see a hole?"
Tonks wasn't sure. She didn't know what the hole was if it only represented something then who had made it in the first place? "I… don't know Harry, I don't even understand what the hole is," she answered, hoping it wouldn't make him worry. "What's the furthest that you've gone exactly?"
"To your room," Harry said. "I've been just jumping back and forth in this room the whole time. I knew it was a little bit noisy and I didn't want to get us in trouble. I put a silencing charm up too."
"I'm afraid it's worn off already," Tonks said. "But that isn't a big deal, you have the back room, no one can hear you through me room if that's where you've been apparating the whole time."
Putting all the information together Tonks made sense of why she'd slept so long. It had probably been the rumbling that had awakened her in the first place. But it hadn't been more than a minute for her to get up… so… "Harry, how many times have you done this?"
"Apparate? I don't know, I lost count around four hundred. That was a few hours ago though, so maybe six or seven hundred times. I slowed down a little, you're right I'm just a little tired."
Without a doubt, Tonks was speechless. Even though she knew he wasn't lying she couldn't conceive that he'd actually done it that many times without more potion. Harry noticed it this time, it was more than a little obvious. "I tried to do it more, really, but I just didn't have enough energy."
"No, it's alright. You just surprised me. Why don't you try going somewhere really far. Like say, Hogsmeade."
Though Harry didn't look very sure that he could do it he still nodded his head. He was listening to everything that Tonks told him to do, well almost everything. He was sure he was doing it wrong and he had to figure out what it was.
Meanwhile Tonks stared at him. She was surprised that he'd accepted the offer, but then, after a while she thought it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise, he was really trying to prove himself as quick as possible. What he didn't know was that she'd said it just to see what would happen if he couldn't go somewhere. She really didn't want him to try going to far and end up splinched, but she had to see. Hogsmeade was too far for her, she already knew that, she'd tried it more than once.
She blinked and as quick as that Harry was gone. There was a much louder hissing this time. Tonks looked around, wondering if he'd just gone to another room or something, but as the seconds ticked by she heard no rumbling and her hands started to quiver. To the best of her knowledge Harry was dead. There was the option that he'd made it but it was so remote she didn't even think of it at first.
Meanwhile Harry appeared in front of the shrieking shack, right where he'd imagined he was going. His legs collapsed underneath him again and he laid on the ground for several minutes while he recuperated his strength. He didn't know why, but the longer he was working at it the more tired he was getting physically. It was magic, and he wasn't working that hard, why was he getting tired?
When he'd gained enough strength to stand he saw that a boy was staring at him from the road that led directly to Hogsmeade. His mind had utterly closed off the noise he made when he'd come in, but several people had heard it. Another person joined the first, this time an older woman. She scolded the first and with continual glances at Harry hauled him away from the site.
Even though Harry was exhausted he wasn't too tired to go in for a butterbeer. Tonks had told him to go to here, but not to come back immediately, so he'd take a break for a few minutes and get something to drink. Hopefully she wouldn't mind.
Inside the Three Broomsticks Harry ordered a butterbeer and sat down at the furthest table in the corner. As he sipped on the butterbeer his mind returned to the thought that had been distracting him for the past three days. Korina. Maybe if he asked really nice there was a potion that Snape could make that would make him remember what had happened. but, Snape wasn't around right now, and he doubted that the professor would anyway. Was there some sort of memory charm that could help him? He'd have to owl Hermione about it.
A flash of Korina laying next to him disturbed him. He really didn't know if he wanted to remember, he wanted to forget the whole thing had happened altogether. Taking a full swig of butterbeer Harry just closed his eyes. He hadn't seen Korina yet and so he hadn't had to talk to her about it. Maybe she'd never talk to him again, after all she was working with Darrian, they had to be. He doubted they were even from NorCal or wherever it was they'd said.
Darrian had betrayed him and it hurt. He knew there was a lesson to be learned, but it hurt more than anything just to know that he'd allowed himself to be duped.
After finishing his butterbeer and purchasing a bottle for Tonks he made a quick stop at the Post Office and jotted a few words to Hermione asking her to research a memory charm to help him remember. He signed it and sent it off then headed back to the Shrieking Shack. He didn't want someone to see him Disapparate in the middle of the street, after all he was too young to be doing it. He still had just over two more weeks before he turned 16.
As he mounted the hill he found that several people were standing around the shack, some examining the ground, some walking around the area, looking for something. Harry groaned. They must've seen him apparate in and since he was underaged, they'd come to get him into trouble. Why had Tonks sent him here if he was going to trouble?
Of course it was his fault he realized, if he'd left again they wouldn't have had anyway to trace it to him. It was a good thing that he'd been paying attention or he would have just walked right into one of them. As it was one of them spotted him as he turned and headed after him. Harry didn't want to have to deal with him however and concentrated on the room he'd been in. It took a little longer than he'd thought and the Auror, he could tell now, got within a yard or two of him before he Disapparated.
When he returned no one was in his room. His return was marked by a deep rumbling that incased more than just his room and the next. In truth the whole hotel trembled as he arrived. Tonks, who'd been searching through her things desperate to find the Portkey, stopped. She rushed back into the room to find Harry collapsed again, breathing hard.
"WHERE THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU?" she screamed.
Harry looked at her fearfully. He didn't expect her to be that angry about staying a little longer. "I stopped in at the Three Broomsticks and got you a butterbeer," he said quietly, taking it out of his robe and offering it to her.
The outburst had surprised her as well. She dropped to her knees and threw her arms around her. "I'm sorry, I just didn't think that you'd actually make it. And you were gone for so long… I thought maybe… maybe I'd gotten you…" she stopped and dropped her head sobbing uncontrollably on his shoulder.
An understanding of what she was saying crept over him. Flashes of Cedric grinning down at him filled his mind. Everything had been good but in under a minute it'd changed to the most horrible experience of his life. He knew what she was feeling.
"I'm really sorry, I couldn't come back right away, it really wore me out."
"It's alright," she said, calming quickly. Her sobs disappeared but her eyes were bright red when she pulled away from him. "We need to go do something. You've earned it. Why don't you get some sleep while I go pick up some ingredients," she continued. Pointing towards the bed which was now in its proper place. The whole room had been fixed while she was waiting (hopefully) for him to return. She had panicked at first, but calmed and waited, rather impatiently, for his return, hoping for the best. It was when he hadn't that she'd gotten desperate.
It was hard not to agree with her acting the way she was. He just nodded and laid down in his bed falling asleep promptly. He awoke hours later to a slight noise from the other room. Yawning and stretching he stood and went into the other room where he found her brewing a potion.
"So you finally woke up," she said when she noticed him coming in. "I figured I'd let you sleep until I at least got this potion done. You're almost good enough that I would expect you to win if you know a few of the tricks. I don't think we have to push so hard now."
"How long did I sleep?" he yawned.
She grinned at him. "Oh, almost a day. Personally I'd have thought you'd sleep longer. With the way you were worn out like you were anything less than a day would not have been enough," she paused as she dropped something else into the potion. "Oh, there's a parchment on the table I want you to read, it's a detailed explanation of how you and I are going to win this wager."
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