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Disclaimer: Nah, I don't own it.



Chapter 6

Hospital Wings and Arguments

Teddy POV

(A couple minutes before last chapter ends)

Victoire was absolutely losing it. She couldn't even think straight. I had the urge to wave a hand in front of her face, but didn't. "What? Oh, yeah. I just talked to…talked to Neville. He said we have… detention, yeah, um… I feel kind of..." When she swayed a little, I knew something was wrong. My stomach turned uneasily.

"Vic. Victoire!" I exclaimed.

And then she was falling.

Thank goodness she fell forward or else I wouldn't have been able to catch her. I cursed under my breath and gathered her in my arms. Just then, Lucy and Wood walked into the common room. They stopped abruptly.

Of course, Lucy being Lucy, she freaked out instantly. "What the hell happened?" They ran toward me, pushing through the crowd of Gryffindors who had surrounded. There were murmurs and whispers of worry.

"I don't know," I said helplessly. "She just sort of collapsed." I pulled Victoire closer to my chest, suddenly extremely protective of her. Her head rested against my shoulder as Wood checked her wrist for a pulse.

"She's just unconscious," he stated. I gave a sigh of relief. "Let's bring her down to the hospital wing."

We turned to the crowd, pushing through, Victoire still in my arms. "Out of the way you gits! My best friend is unconscious!!!!! Do you want detention? I am a prefect!" Lucy was still in panic mode. I couldn't say that I wasn't either. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

We were gathering quite a bit of attention walking down the marble staircase, partly because Lucy continued to scream at innocent bystanders, but mostly because I was holding a motionless Victoire. It was the same in the hospital wing.

"Good heavens!" Madame Pomfrey exclaimed. "What's happened to her?" She stopped tending to a first year and bustled over.

I lowered Victoire on to a cot. I didn't feel able to speak, I was so worried. Victoire looked so pale and fragile.

"Teddy said she just collapsed. She passed out before Wood and I got there," Lucy explained. Wood had put an arm around her in comforting. Then, in a small voice, she said, "Is she going to be okay?"

Madame Pomfrey put a washcloth on Victoire's forehead and began taking her blood pressure. "Well, I don't even know what caused her to collapse! But if she just fainted, of course she'll be fine." I felt relief wash over me. I sat at the edge of the cot.

Wood, Lucy, and I stayed with Victoire for a while, but then had to go to classes, no matter how much we didn't want to. Wood and I made our way to Defense Against the Dark Arts while Lucy sauntered off to History of Magic. All through the lesson, I couldn't stop remembering how helpless Victoire looked in the Hospital Wing. I wanted more than anything to be next to her. No- I wanted more than anything for her to be conscious. It was making me twitchy and nervous to know that she wasn't okay. Wood noticed this.

"She's going to be alright, mate," he whispered during the lesson. "Madame Pomfrey said so. She probably just needs rest."

"Yeah, I guess so." But I couldn't help thinking of all the worst possible things. Instead of taking notes as I was supposed to be doing, I just stared out the window. The makings of a thunderstorm were brewing, only making my mood gloomier.

"Ted, come on. Teddy! Snap out of it, mate." Wood smacked the side of my head. I looked around the classroom, only to see that everyone had left already. I jumped out of my seat, knocking over another chair along the way. "It's time for lunch."

"Oh," I replied. I followed him out of the classroom and into the Great Hall. I silently followed him, not saying anything about the fact that I'd much rather been in the Hospital Wing, making sure Victoire was okay. The enchanted sky of the Great Hall was raining, the raindrops vanishing feet above our heads. Lucy was already seated at the long table in our usual spot. In front of her was a plate that was practically overflowing. We sat down across from her.

"Erm… you hungry, Luce?" Wood asked. She was devouring her food mercilessly. Wood looked like he was afraid she'd actually eat him too.

She abruptly threw the food in her hands back onto the plate. She swallowed and said, "Merlin, how can you stand it?"

"What?" I said. My voice was hoarse from lack of use.

"I mean, Vic being the Hospital Wing. It's practically driving me mad!"

"So you're taking it out on your food?" Wood put in.

"It's what I do when I'm stressed out." She sighed. "I hate not being able to do anything."

"No kidding…" I mumbled. I put some sausages on my plate and tried to eat them, but whenever I put anything in my mouth, it all tasted the same, bland and dry. Wood and Lucy had started a conversation about her Apparition lessons coming up, but I stayed silent. I felt too tired to talk.

At some point, Lucy glanced over at me and frowned. "You alright, Ted?"

"I'm fine," I replied. But it came out less convincing than I'd liked it to.

"You sure? You look a little pale…"

"Lucy, I said I'm fine! Sod off." This, however, came out louder than I'd expected it to. A few people looked over at me, startled by my outburst.

"Relax, Ted. That was bang out of order," Wood said, surprisingly calm.

Frustrated, I ran a hand through my hair. My reflection in one of the trays showed me that my hair had turned red. I changed it back to blue and said, "I know, sorry." I sighed. "I'm just a little…" I couldn't even find the word.

"Jumpy? Pissed? Put out?" Lucy said, clearly still offended. Wood gave her a pointed look.

"Merlin, Luce. I said sorry!"

"Yeah well, the next time Victoire has a fainting spell or something, keep in mind that you're not the only one that cares about her!" she exclaimed. She took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry Lucy," I said sincerely. "I really am. I'm just a little... edgy today."

She waved her hand at me. "Oh, it's quite alright. It was just a rough day for all of us."

"Not as rough as Vic's," Wood put in.

"Yeah, not as rough as Vic's…"


After the rest of the day's classes and a very short dinner, I made my way back up to the Hospital Wing. There was only one other student, a second year, whose face was covered in hideous splotches. Madame Pomfrey was nowhere to be seen. Vic was still in her bed, but appeared to just be sleeping.

Her cot just showed how many people liked her. There were about thirty cards charmed to the wall and candy and flowers sat on the bedside table. Most of the cards were from the Gryffindor house, three of them from the rest of the team. I was reading through one from Jack Lufkin, one of the Chasers on our team, when Madame Pomfrey came scurrying out of her office.

"Oh! Good, Teddy, dear. Could you help me with something? I can't seem to find the Boil-Cure I just put down. I would Summon it, but it's in an open cauldron," she trailed off, looking around her furiously.

"Oh yeah…sure." I went up to the nearest countertop and started searching. After a while, I found it and handed the cauldron to her.

"Thank you dearie. I'm getting too old for this." She poured the potion into a mug and handed it to the second year to drink. Within seconds, his face was cleared. He murmured a quick 'thank you' and exited the wing. I walked back over to Vic's cot. "I'll tell you, Mr. Lupin, I'm not quite sure what to do with your friend here…"

My heart quickened. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, she seems to only be sleeping! She just won't wake up. That's the bit that's changed in the passed couple hours. I think she must have had an allergic reaction of some sort when she fainted. " She paused and got a thoughtful look on her face. "What was she doing before she passed out?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Well, she had just gone to see Professor Longbottom." I left out the part about her discussing our detentions with him.

"Well then we're just going to have to ask him," she said. She stepped out into the hall for a moment and I faintly heard her ask, "Could someone please go fetch Professor Longbottom for me? It'll be ten points to your house…Oh thank you, dear."

In a few minutes, a flustered looking fifth year came into the hall with Neville. When he spotted me through the door, a confused look came across his face. I stood up and walked over to him.

"What's wrong?" he asked. And then he saw Victoire. "What happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know, Neville. Apparently not ten minutes after she went to see you, she passed out with what I think was an allergic reaction. And now she just won't wake up!" the nurse exclaimed.

He looked thoughtful for a moment and said, "Well, she came down to talk about her detention…Then she told me she couldn't sleep so I-" A look of utter horror spread across his face. "Oh, her mother is going to kill me."

I shot a confused look in his direction. "Why?" Madame Pomfrey asked, however, sounding like she did not want to know.

"Well… I gave her some fitterplum juice… You see- it's quite interesting really- the juice is a sleeping draught. She said she hadn't been able to sleep so… I thought it might help."

"You thought it might help?" Neville winced at her harsh tone. "For goodness sake Neville, she had an allergic reaction-"

"-I didn't know she was going to have an allergic reaction. It's always been fine for me-"

"-For you maybe. Honestly, Neville, you're just as clumsy as you were as a boy-"

"Well, she's sleeping isn't she? The juice works! I mean-"

"Oh, I don't care if your blasted potion works! She's not even waking-"

At this point, I thought it was a good point to slip away. Hearing their argument behind me, I walked back into the wing. I pulled up a chair next to Vic's cot and sank down into it, facing the bed. I crossed my arms on top of the sheets and rested my head on them. My eyes had been drifting shut when I felt Victoire's hand slide on top of mine. Looking at her, I saw that she was awake- but just barely.

"Hey," I said quietly.

"Hi." Her voice was groggy from sleep. She looked around her. "What's goin' on?"

"You fainted."

She had a thoughtful look on her face, and then giggled. "Guess it was dodgy after all."

I didn't know what she was talking about, so I just squeezed her hand. I was quiet for a while before I said, "You scared me."

"I'm sorry." Her eyelids drooped a little. "Hey, Teddy?"

"What."

"Stay here, okay? Don't go."

"Yeah, okay," I murmured. But she didn't hear me because she already fell back asleep.

So that's why that night- instead of sprawling out in my nice and comfy four-poster bed- I fell asleep in a hard, wooden chair; head on my arms; with one hand still in Victoire's.


Another chapter! At first I thought it was going to be real short, but it turns out I was wrong. It's about the same as all the other ones.

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