I Know Not Love

Chapter 5

Aftermath

lavya0393

Disclaimer: HP is NOT mine, yes, I am ashamed to admit it, but it is so.

Thank You to my first four reviewers, I-See-Thestrals, DarkHonda, brunette-barbie14, and grounded angel2. I love you ALL!

Tom soon picked himself up after Amaryllis left and hurried off to the Hospital Wing. When he arrived, he was placed on a bed next to Amaryllis. The matron, Madam Grinley was most upset when she heard what they'd been doing.

"Tom! I'd never have expected this of you! You haven't even been down to the Hospital Wing since your first year, when you fell in the lake and had to come to get some pepper-up potion. -And now you've been duelling! You've certainly grown up a lot -not the boy I used to know, now are you? You've landed poor Ms. Covington in here too! Look at the state of her!" Madam Grinley sighed, and bustled off to get some more ointment to put on their wounds.

After his little reprimand, he felt somewhat ashamed. He looked over at the bed next to him where Amaryllis lay sprawled. She was fast asleep - knocked out, he assumed, from either the pain she was in, or the potion she was given. She actually looked peaceful for once. Her hair fluttering over her face every time she took another labored breath. She was covered singularly in a dark green robe. He smirked; Slytherin colors. He saw that her clothes were sitting in a small heap at the foot of her bed. He wondered what she would do when she woke up and saw that she was covered in a green robe, with ointment covering her forearms, and Tom Riddle staring at her avidly.

This last thought shook him out of his reverie, and just soon enough, for the matron came back with several more tubes of the same, nasty-smelling ointment, and walked over to Amaryllis's bed. She moved to unbutton the green robe, but seeing that Tom was staring, she shot him a very stern glance as he averted his eyes obediently. There were no curtains on her bed, and it seemed that the matron was rather regretting that she had placed Amaryllis on this bed too. -But what could Tom say; as immune and different as he was to his surroundings, he was still a raging hormonal teenager. His body would only allow him that much of a slip-up in his making.

Try as he might, he couldn't help but take another glance at the bed beside his. To his immense relief, when the robe fell away, he saw that she was still covered. She was wearing a short, lacy, black night-thing which he guessed was of her own compliance. He had expected blue, but then again, how would he have known what she liked to wear under her school things? Tom stopped his train of thinking; he didn't like where this was going. All the same, he looked back at her figure, laying on the white sheets of the crisply clean bed, wearing only a flimsy black undergarment, with her hair splaying in all directions. It was an also added plus that she was unconscious. He knew he was acting differently than what any other normal teenage boy would do in his place, but he couldn't help that he was different.

He looked away a split-second before Madam Grinley looked up to check that he wasn't staring. He thought again: He could always use this against her, right? To wind her up even more? He grinned at what he thought her reaction might be if… or more precisely when, he told her that he had seen her in that black thing. She would most likely scream in outrage and slap him, hex him, curse him, and kick him. She would also yell at him loudly enough to make sure he had gone deaf. He smirked to himself…yes, that would be ideal blackmail.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by the matron addressing him again. She was wrapping Amaryllis's leg in a tight splint.

"Mr. Riddle! I'm going to tend to the first year now, so if you would be kind enough to finish rubbing on the ointment?" She had deemed him trustworthy enough to take care of Amaryllis? -The girl he had put in the hospital wing? He then heard a small whimpering in the corner and turned his head in time to see the small first year duck his head between his hands and hide under the covers. He sighed and nodded.

"Wait, Riddle!" It was the matron again, 'We need to fix you up moderately first, too." She performed a healing spell and he felt some of his cuts close up, and his arm felt a little prickly. He looked at it, expecting to see the burned, blackened flesh and experience pain, but instead he saw his smooth, creamy skin again. He was relieved as he flexed his fingers leisurely. Madam Grinley waved her wand again, and he felt the pain in his chest disappear. "Well, that's the best I can do for now, -you haven't got as many deep cuts as Covington, but you aren't too well off either, well, at least you're conscious enough to help me…" She handed him the tube of clear ointment and nodded her head pointedly towards the unconscious girl on the bed. She then conjured some curtains for her bed and left him to it. Tom gingerly walked over and pulled the curtain behind him.

Tom sniffed the tube and felt instantly nauseous. He should not have been made to do this; he was above such things, and besides, that was the matron's job. -Weren't there anymore people working here? He sighed in resignation and started to apply the cream to Amaryllis's wounds. He decided to start at the top and work his way down. He moved her head to one side to put cream on the gash in her cheek. As he swiped one long finger on her skin, he noticed that she was very cold indeed. Was she always that way or was it just now, when she had lost a lot of blood? It was also then that he realized that there was a singular tube attached to her wrist and running all the way up the little blood sac at the opposite side of her bed. Now Tom felt realized how much it must have taken for Amaryllis to hobble all the way up to Infirmary by herself, he felt another pang of shame. Had the nurse purposefully made him apply this cream only so that he could see exactly what he had done? Well, he had to admit, it had appeared like Amaryllis had done much worse to him back at the site of the duel, but in reality, it was him who had battered the other up the worst.

As much as he tried to stop it, Tom couldn't help the tiny smirk that formed on his face now. He had won the duel. -And Amaryllis knew it. He saved that singular thought as he continued applying more of the treatment. He went to her collarbone and then her shoulder, dabbing the oozing, thick, gloopy liquid on all the cuts and numerous abrasions. It was quite difficult as he had to squeeze the tube very hard before anything came out, and it had a high viscosity so he had to wait quite a while for it to settle on his finger before he could move to treat the wounds.

As Tom was rubbing the cream thing on the girl's upper arm, Amaryllis suddenly stirred, and jerked. A small scream escaped her lips. Tom was confused; what had he done? Nothing. But before he could do anything, the curtain was ripped back and the aging head of the matron was peering beadily through.

"Mr. Riddle! What are you doing to the poor girl!"

"I didn't do anything, Madam Grinley, she just jerked and screamed." Tom replied calmly.

The nurse moved to examine Amaryllis, but not before she had snatched the tube of ointment away from Tom and motioned for him to move back to his own bed. Tom complied, but watched carefully as the matron unhooked the blood sac and removed the tube from the semi-conscious girl's wrist. Amaryllis winced as the needle came out of her wrist and her hand was grasped roughly. The matron wrapped several bandages around her wrist and pushed the stand containing the now-empty sac of blood -(she had vanished it)- away. She then measured Amaryllis's pulse and checked to make sure that her blood pressure was in order. Madam Grinley used her wand to close up as many wounds that didn't need stitches or further treatment as she could. She then put the green robe around Amaryllis again, and pointed her wand at her face. She held a small, clear crystal bottle ready.

"Enervate!" She said and as soon as Amaryllis blinked her eyes, the Matron had uncorked the tiny bottle and forced the silvery contents down Amaryllis's throat. She suddenly appeared quite blank. Tom recognized this effect; Veritaserum. -But what did she need Veritaserum for, he wondered as the matron began the questionnaire.

"Do you remember your name?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"Amaryllis Catarinna Shirley Yvonne Covington III." She spoke very clearly. Tom was amazed that someone could have such a long name. And the fact that there were two others with that long name before her.

"Very good," the matron said, "now, can you tell me the last thing you remember from reality before you fell unconscious?"

Tom was confused; from "reality?", did she have a dream while she was unconscious? What would he know; he wasn't an expert on the human mind.

"I remember you giving me medication to put me to sleep on this bed after I'd suffered injuries in a duel that I had with him." She nodded her head towards Tom, who was still watching.

"Very good," the nurse said again, "Now, can you tell me why you screamed - was Mr. Riddle hurting you?" Tom scowled; how dare she?

"No, Mr. Riddle was not hurting me, but I had a dream."

"What kind of dream?"

"A nightmare." Amaryllis answered simply. Here, her face contorted in effort; it seemed that she was trying to resist the effects of the potion, but why though? What did she not want to say out loud? She seemed more indifferent when answering too… as though she was trying to be as vague as possible.

"What was the nightmare about?" the nurse continued.

Here Amaryllis tried to resist again, but gave in, pausing as she spoke. She was choosing her words carefully. "It was about… A bad night that I had."

"Could you expand?" the matron prompted.

Amaryllis struggled with herself fruitlessly again before she responded. But this time, she didn't give anything away. "No." She said. Tom was amazed that she had even the sense to try to resist, though he knew it wasn't a rare feat. But she continued on. "I can't tell you. It's too complicated. But I had this same nightmare before once… when I was living it."

The nurse froze, but quickly regained herself, " Yes, that will be all for now," She took another small bottle from the inside pocket of her robes and fed it to Amaryllis; the antidote. "You both will have to stay the night, you're too beaten up and exhausted to leave. You will both be dispatched in the early morning, now get some rest." With that, she moved away to get some supplies, muttering about carelessness and no enforcement.

Amaryllis chanced a glance at Tom, who was still staring at her, though this time making no effort to hide the smirk that covered his face. She turned her head away, and irritably pulled the hangings to their full length.

Tom was now staring at a sterile, blue opaque curtain, his mind swarming with a jumble of incoherent thoughts.