I dedicate this chapter to my love of combining Quatre with ghosts and spirits. It's just a good story tool!
"Ghost!" Quatre said with alarm, then his throat tightened as he gasped and an incredibly cold feeling came over his entire being. He shivered, then looked in awe and fright at dozens of ghosts floating in through the walls and passing through the tables. They were a clear, silvery smoky like color, and definitely see-through, as ghosts should be. One, obviously the Fat Friar, floated towards them and, true to Dillan's word, began floating all along the table, greeting students and being greeted back with smiles and laughs.
To Quatre right now, the room felt as though it had gone down dozens of degrees in temperature. He began to shiver as the ghosts proceeded to their intended destinations, and he felt like he was trapped in a block of ice in the middle of the earth's worst blizzard as the Fat Friar passed by him. Quatre noticed that none of the other students seemed to be affected at all. True, he did see one shiver as a ghost passed right through him, but everyone generally seemed just as warm as they had been before, while he was freezing. His fingers started to feel like they were on fire, which is not a good sign, as did his toes and ears.
And then the whispers began. Each ghost's spirit was reliving their demise, and Quatre heard each one as though he was there, as though he was the one dying. Dying in his mind over and over again. Quatre knew the ghost's didn't know they were hurting him as much as they were, since their spirit's were the ones speaking into Quatre. A ghost's spirit was like a person's soul. Hidden from the owner.
"Hey, Quatre, are you okay?" Dillan asked over the table, having noticed Quatre's skin was pale and his lips were tinted a very light shade of blue and he was shivering. A few other beside Dillan and Quatre noticed as well, and looked in concern at the golden white haired boy.
Quatre didn't hear Dillan. He could hear nothing but the voices, the whispers, the pain, the sorrow, the anger, the darkness. It was overwhelming, more powerful than anything he had ever encountered. He couldn't handle this, he couldn't, not alone. He couldn't handle...Quatre's eyes fluttered and closed, and he drew up all his strength, focused all his perception of the outside world, and screamed. He then proceeded to let go of the table, which he had been gripping to keep from falling, and fell off his seat to the floor. He drew a shuddering breath, using his last remaining strength, and then collapsed inside, the spirits washing over him like a tidal wave, pulling him along with them.
Dillan watched Quatre fall with a look of stunned shock as everyone in the room twisted to look at where the scream had originated. Dillan jumped off the table bench and was about to jump across the table to get to Quatre when someone put a foot on the seat he had just vacated and vaulted over the table in talented flip, landing on the other side by Quatre. Dillan watched the boy called Trowa put a hand under Quatre's head and call his name. Dillan saw Duo jump over his own table a second after Trowa. Dillan moved to join them, concerned about his new friend, when another person jumped over his table, and another once again. Dillan now gaped at Wufei and Heero, also by Quatre, who still lie motionless, lips and eyelids tinted blue.
What was happening to Quatre?
Duo heard Quatre scream and saw Quatre fall and saw Trowa react instantly, vaulting like a madman over the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff table to get to his koi. Duo reacted a second later, not having the inner connection Trowa and Quatre had, vaulting over his own table and a surprised Malfoy to land beside his motionless best friend.
"Quat? Quatre!" he yelled, then looked up at Trowa. "What's wrong with him?" Heero and Wufeihad joined them.
Trowa closed his eyes for a minute, then winced and jerked for a minute. He opened his eyes, darkened by Quatre's situation. "He's freezing cold inside, and dark. I can't find him. He's been taken into darkness."
"Well, let's get him out of darkness," Duo said, a statement with which Trowa agreed completely.
"Out of the way, coming through, move aside please," a woman, who they knew was the healer at Hogwart's, Madam Pomfrey, was forcing her way through the crowd of stunned students." She rushed over to Quatre, feeling his forehead. "Oh, lord, he's cold as ice!"
"It's the ghosts," Trowa looked at the Headmaster sharply. "They have to leave, now!"
"Ghosts are not powerful enough to freeze anyone, boy..."
"Now, or he will die!" Trowa interrupted Snape, who looked indignant at Trowa's tone.
Headmaster Dumbledore wasted no time. He immediately raised his voice and kindly requested all the ghosts to leave the room. Soon, dozens of ghosts were floating back out through the walls with confused expressions. Trowa then turned back to Quatre and placed a hand on Quatre's left chest, above his heart, and placed his other hand above his own, closing his eyes.
"We need to get him to the medical wing immediately," Madam Pomfrey said, moving to touch Trowa. Heero intervened, taking Madam Pomfrey's wrists in his his hands.
"Just leave Trowa be," Wufei said to everyone. "Don't touch him." And Wufei and Heero stood gaurd around Trowa, Duo holding Quatre's head off the floor. Trowa suddenly stiffened and his jaw tensed. His head drooped for a moment, then he brought it back up.
"C'mon, Tro...," Duo whispered encouragingly. "C'mon..."
Quatre suddenly gasped and began coughing violently, trembling. His eyes opened, darting back and forth between all the people watching him, then automatically made their way to Trowa, who was breathing heavily, having laid down on the floor. He looked at Quatre and gave a shaky yet supportive smile.
"Are you okay, little one?" he said in his calm, collected voice.
"Oh, Trowa, I'm so sorry," Quatre said weakly with a sad expression. "I didn't mean to...I didn't..."
"It wasn't your fault, Q," Duo piped in. "Why do you always blame yourself?"
"I dare say, this has been an interesting adventure," Dumbledore spoke now. "Why don't you five come with me so the others can all get back to the feast. And I doubt if Madam Pomfrey is going to let you get away without her opinion."
Trowa instantly stood up and swooped Quatre into his arms, carrying him out of the room while hundreds of stumped students watched, wondering what had just gone on. Madam Pomfrey began to lead them all to the medical wing to examine Quatre.
"Trowa," Quatre said after a moment. "You don't have to carry me. I can walk, and you're just as exhausted as I am."
"Since when do you object to being carried, Winner?" Wufei said shrewdly.
"Normally, I don't, since being carried is actually really fun," Quatre said. "But Trowa shouldn't be carrying me now, not after what he's been through."
"He's been through you, Quat," Duo mentioned. "I never thought you were that much of a wildcat inside, to tucker poor Trowa out. Oh, by the way, Wufei," Duo proceeded to run at Wufei, hoisting him up into his arms. "Being carried is very fun. You should try it."
"Put me down, you insufferable baka!" Wufei yelled. "Injustice!" He took his fist and promptly leveled it upon Duo's head. Duo stumbled and they fell in a heap, Duo laughing and Wufei cursing. Duo jumped to his feet before Wufei could kill him and ran to Heero, jumping into Heero's arms, who instinctively caught the braided wonder.
"Of course, it's muchmore fun being the carried instead of the carrier," he said nonchalantly, waving a hand. Madam Pomfrey took this time to tell them sternly to stop making fun, while Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in hidden knowledge at the five of them, two of them being carried by two others, one of them fuming. It was quite an odd situation, considering one of them had just almost died. But the danger of that was past, it seemed, since Madam Pomfrey did a number of tests on Quatre and then gave him a clean bill of health. She was completely stunned and confused as to the whole situation, as was Dumbledore somewhat.
"Now that Madam Pomfrey has had her wise say," he turned those half moon spectacles on them. "I ask you to explain what went on in the great hall. You have surely sparked many rumours by your actions."
The five shared a look that had passed between them many times before, and then Quatre took a deep breath. "I'm an empath."
"Ah, I suspected so," Dumbledore smiled.
"But I'm not just a simple empath," Quatre continued. "I'm a highly advanced one, and, as such, I have other abilities normal empaths do not."
"Like?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"As well as feeling the emotions, or souls, of people, I can also feel the spirits of the dead," Quatre said, a bit lower voiced than before. "And spirits of the dead can be very depressing, since they're dead. They almost killed me."
Yes. This may not be the best spot to end a chapter, but it's all I have! Please don't hate me. Anyways, review, and tell me if I wrote that good enough. I'm going to bed now. It's 2 int he morning, I'm tired. But, of course, I couldn't help but post this chapter. Anyways...