Regulus woke up warm and dry, but with a raging headache, a stuffy nose, and an achy chest. He seemed to be in a bed in a very dark room, and he couldn't remember how he'd gotten there. He struggled to sit up so he could look around, but whoever had put him in a bed had tucked him in very tightly.
"Here" Someone said, pulling him up by the shoulders. He heard a click, and one of the torches on the wall nearby went on. They seemed to be in some sort of dormitory, except everything was white and there were cabinets full of potions against the far wall. There were also quite a few empty beds- in fact only four seemed to be in use- by Regulus, Phronsie, and the other two boys from their boat. One of whom was standing next to his bed. This was very odd. Regulus could have sworn that they'd just been on a small boat in the middle of a raging storm. Clearly, he'd blacked out.
"Where are we? How did we get here and why don't I remember getting here? And why do I feel so awful?" Regulus demanded. Or tried to- his voice was horribly hoarse and he was wheezing by the time he'd finished.
"Don't talk!' The boy admonished. "You're sick. We all are, actually. That's why we're here- here is the Hogwarts hospital wing, and we got brought here by Hagrid and some Centaurs- well, the centaurs found us first- I can't believe that centaurs actually exist-" The boy stopped. "You're not following, are you?" He said sheepishly.
"No, not really. Why don't you start with when the boat hit the shore, because that's the last thing I remember." Regulus suggested.
"Okay. I'm Keegan McClanahan, by the way. And that's Alasdair Christie, asleep over there. We're friends from before Hogwarts- best friends; I don't know how I could have come to magic school without him, I would have been so scared. I'm Irish and he's Scottish but we've lived in London all our lives, because our dads are both no-shows and our mums are both actresses, and all the work is in London. Alasdair's mum works in a comedy club and mine does Shakespeare." Keegan paused, presumably to breathe. He certainly hadn't while he'd been talking.
Regulus took the opportunity to examine the two boys. Alasdair was fair, with sandy hair and a slight frame. He was outrageously pale, but Regulus supposed that might have been because he was sick. Keegan was stocky, with dark curly hair, deep dimples, and twinkly eyes. Friendly looking, Uncle Alphard would have described him. Uncle Alphard and Regulus both liked to watch people, although they had different reasons. Uncle Alphard watched people because he liked people and liked to understand them. Regulus watched people because he didn't like people and he didn't want to have to actually talk to them.
Regulus noticed that Keegan had sat down on his bed, which was the next one over, and pulled a blanket around him. He noticed that Keegan's face was very pale and that his voice was hoarse as well. "Should you be sleeping" He asked guiltily. Keegan shrugged dismissively.
"Most likely, but I don't mind filling you in. I'll explain about acting and Shakespeare later- don't worry, Phronsie didn't get it, so I guess you won't have either. Because you're both purebloods, so you don't like muggles, she said?" Regulus shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, our families don't. Some purebloods like muggles, and some are indifferent, but nearly all don't know much about them- we never need to interact with them. But it's kind of complicated."
'All right." Keegan said doubtfully. "I will ask you more later- or Alasdair will, he hates not knowing things. But for now I'll get on with it." He took a deep breath. "So, when we crashed, you hit your head and went out like a light. The rest of us were a bit banged up but conscious and we could see that we needed to get away from the water, so we dragged you off the rocks and into the woods. The Forbidden Forest, I think Hagrid called it. Then we tried to wake you up, but nothing worked, and you had this awful bump and you were bleeding a bit-"
"That's enough!" Regulus interrupted, feeling queasy.
"Sorry." Keegan said apologetically. "I forget that some people don't like hearing about that kind of thing, I've always wanted to be a doctor, so-"
"Hold on, a what?" Keegan looked at him blankly.
"You know someone who helps people who are sick or hurt get better." He said slowly.
"Oh, a Healer. "Regulus said. "Okay, go on." When Keegan didn't start talking immediately, Regulus glanced at him, only to find that he looked shocked and a little sad.
"What?" he asked patiently. Keegan sighed.
"It's just- I just realized what it means. Coming to Hogwarts, I mean. I've always wanted to be a doctor. Always. And now I can't, because I'll have an education for something else entirely." Regulus didn't know what to say. After all, he'd been raised in a household that believed muggleborns were worthless, so he certainly wasn't prepared to understand the problems that muggleborns faced when they entered the wizarding world. But with Keegan sitting in the next bed over looking as if he were about to cry, Regulus figured he had to have a go.
"Well, I bet you'll feel better when you know more about the wizarding world. Then you'll still have lost something, but what you gained will be more real, if that makes sense." To Regulus's surprise, Keegan looked much cheerier.
"Maybe you're right." He wiped his eyes on his blanket surruptiously. "So, I'll get on with the story. After we decided we weren't going to be able to wake you up, we decided to get farther into the forest."
"What! You went deeper into the forest? Why?" Regulus shouted, although it came out as more of a painful rasp.
"Don't shout, I said." Keegan scolded. "And it was because we didn't know that the forest was dangerous, we just saw that the trees were thicker farther in so less water was getting through. So we went farther in. But then we got lost, and I was getting tired, lugging you- I mean, Alasdair and Phronsie helped a bit, but I'm the biggest, so I mostly carried you."
"Er- thanks." Regulus said awkwardly.
"Oh don't worry about it. " Keegan said dismissively. "Anyway, we were tired and lost, so we sat down, and I slept a bit, and so did the others, I guess, because Hagrid said that there had been a search party calling for us, but none of us remember hearing anything. It was getting light when we got going again, and by then all of us felt awful. We've all had pneumonia, that's why we're still here- this is the hospital wing."
"Still here?" Regulus asked cautiously. 'How long have we been here?" Keegan looked up in surprise.
"Didn't I tell you? It's September 2- well, its past midnight, so I guess its September 3. You were out all day. And we were the first first years ever to miss the sorting and the first two days of class- we're not allowed to start until Monday."
"Excellent." Regulus muttered. "What an auspicious start to my Hogwarts career. Well, go on then, Keegan. "
"Er, all right. So we started wandering around, but I don't think we really got anywhere. We tried to get back to the lake because we had no idea how to get anywhere else, but we could have been going in the wrong direction entirely, for all I know. Then we ran into a bunch of centaurs. They were so cool! I mean, I've read stories about centaurs, but when Alasdair and I found out that magic was real, we weren't sure whether any of the other things would be real- like centaurs and dragons and elves and vampires."
"Muggles know about magical creatures?" Regulus asked incredulously. "It's the Ministry's biggest job to make sure that muggles never find out about our world!"
"Well, they don't know about them, they just have stories about them, and nobody believes they're true. There are a lot of stories about centaurs, but none of them are right. Like, the Chronicles of Narnia says that centaurs are proud but usually fight for Aslan- the good guys. But the centaurs we met didn't seem to want anything to do with humans at all- the ones who noticed us. Some of them kept saying things like; 'Jupiter is in Saturn's house this month.' or 'Leo and Canis Major are moving quickly'." Keegan made his voice deep and vibrant in mimicry of the centaurs' dignified tones.
"That's funny. Leo and Canis Major are the constellations my and my brother's stars are in." Regulus observed.
"You have stars?" Keegan asked, brow furrowed with bewilderment.
"We're named for stars." Regulus corrected. "Most Blacks are. Either stars or constellations."
"Oh. Do a lot of wizarding families do that?"
"Only the Blacks do stars, but a lot of Pureblood families use old fashioned or unusual names. Greek or Latin, usually. Phronsie's real name is Sophronia, and her sisters are Ariadne and Clio. My brother's name is Sirius." Regulus explained patiently. It suddenly occurred to him that according to his mother's standards, he should not be talking to this boy. He made a mental note to remember to tell Keegan to be less friendly in front of others. Regulus had no intention of drawing everyone's attention as a rebel. He was no Sirius.
"Well, I suppose it's not so bad if everyone has weird names. Shall I go on?" Keegan asked. Regulus nodded, and Keegan launched back into his tale.
"Well, the centaurs did turn out to be helpful, because one of them said that Hagrid was looking for us and that they would take us to him. And we got to ride them!"
"They let us ride them?" Regulus exclaimed, suddenly sorry he had been unconscious.
"Hagrid was surprised too. They didn't seem too happy about it, actually, but I guess they could see that we were pretty sick. Anyway, they took us to Hagrid's hut, and he brought us back to school- he carried you. And we came in through this big hall with a lot of doors, the Entrance Hall, and then we went into the Great Hall, which was so cool. The ceiling looked like the sky outside, and there were five tables, one for each House and one for teachers, and they each had a banner. You'll get to see it later, that's where we eat meals."
"Keegan, my family has been attending Hogwarts for hundreds of years. I know about the Great Hall." Regulus said patiently.
"Oh right." Keegan smiled sheepishly. "It was just so exciting, although I would rather have seen it when I was clean and dry and didn't have a raging fever." He paused to wrap his blanket tighter around himself. Regulus felt a brief pang of guilt for keeping Keegan up when he was obviously still sick, but pushed it aside. He wanted to know what had happened.
"So, we went through the Great Hall…" He prompted.
"Oh, well, the whole school was eating breakfast there, and everybody cheered when we came in. I guess they all knew we'd been missing. Then Professor McGonagall came and apologized- she was the one who said that a first year had never missed the sorting before. Then a boy wearing a red and gold tie-"
"A Gryffindor." Regulus interrupted.
"And a boy and two girls wearing green and silver ties-"
"Slytherins."
"They came running up and all shouted at once, wanting to know whether we were all right and what had happened. Phronsie told me later it was your brother and her brother and sisters. Anyway, they all followed us to the hospital wing, but Madam Pomfrey sent them all away after she told them that you had concussion and we all had pneumonia. Do all staircases move around in the wizarding world?" Keegan asked.
"No." Regulus shook his head. "Hogwarts is famous for them."
"And portraits? Do they all move, and talk?"
"Of course. What do muggle portraits do, stand still and be silent?" Regulus asked incredulously.
"Well, yeah. But we don't really use portraits anymore, we use photographs. They don't move or speak either." Keegan explained.
"Weird. Wizarding photographs don't talk, but they do move. Did anyone tell you when we're going to be sorted? Or are you already sorted?"
"No, we're going to get sorted at dinner tomorrow- we're going to be allowed out of the hospital wing to sleep that night, because it's a Friday and we won't have class the next day. So we'll only have missed two days of class, today and tomorrow. We were really bored today- well, yesterday, but your brother came by to visit four times, and he promised to bring us all something to do tomorrow." Keegan yawned. 'I think I'm going back to sleep. You should too. If you need a headache potion, it's one of the blue ones on your bedside table, and if you need a decongestant it's one of the pink."
"All right. Thanks, Keegan." Regulus rolled over and uncorked the blue potion. He swallowed it in one gulp, grimacing. "Disgusting."
"The decongestant's even worse." Keegan said sleepily. "Night."
"Night." Regulus took the decongestant, which was, indeed, worse, and lay down. He only had time to worry briefly about what dangerous thing Sirius would deem appropriate to amuse four first years in the Hospital wing for a day before he drifted off to sleep.