Disclaimer: I own nothing of J.K. Rowling's.

Chapter Fourteen: Awakening

Instantly, I wished for nothing more than to simply walk away from the bedside where the unconscious Quidditch player lay. He hardly deserved any medical attention for the actions that he had committed. Perhaps, I was overreacting, but at that moment, I was thinking far too much of my friend who had been hurt terribly by this boy…who may have wanted nothing more than to fit in with his friends, but he had done much more than just that.

Walking away, I encountered Holly who was carrying a tray with several bottles of Skele-Grow lying atop of it. She started to speak to me, but all I could seem to do was stutter over how I was to tell her who the latest patient in the hospital wing was.

"I'm finally done labeling these bottles," She panted, setting the platter down with a clatter. "I felt as though it would never end. My fingers are practically numb! Do you think it is possible for one's fingers to-"

"Holly, I need your assistance at once!" Madame Pomfrey called from around the corner, where I presumed she was examining the Wood boy. I wanted to warn Holly of what she was about to see, but the events unfolded too quickly in front of me and Holly furrowed her brow before tucking a piece of her brown hair behind her ear, meekly tending to Madame Pomfrey's call for help.

I couldn't help but bite down hard on my lip and turn on my heel to watch Holly's reaction to what she was about to see. I slowly stepped forward to see how this was going to unfold. Holly stood, appearing to be very submissive to the head of the medical wing, before peeking between bodies to see the Quidditch robes.

Before any major reaction could be witnessed, Madame Pomfrey happened to see my standing about, and called to me," Lana, please make yourself useful!"

I had no energy to argue her; therefore, I reluctantly turned and grabbed the tray of Skele-Grow en route to re-entering the storage closet. Sighing and silently grumbling over my rotten luck, I opened the door to the closet and wobbly opened the door while balancing the bottles.

Blindly searching in the dark, I swatted my hand about before locating the string, thinking that it would be much easier if I could simply wave my wand and turn the light on. I knew this was not necessarily a plausible idea for one of two reasons: I did not know how to conjure up such a spell and secondly Madame Pomfrey clearly told both Holly and I that we were not to even walk into the hospital wing with our wands.

Not that we would have been of a threat to her anyways, Charms was not necessarily my strongpoint. At first, I had been excited to be able to wield a wand and truly begin to feel like a witch, but I did not seem to pick up on it as naturally as others had. Granted, potions was more in my area of "expertise".

Getting my mind back on track, I began grabbing bottles one by one and lining them up with the other bottles of Skele-Grow nearly at the top of the closet, I had to stand on a platform in order to even attempt to reach the correct shelf. I was rather proud of myself for not dropping any of the bottles, but this seemed to be far too good to be true because Holly stepped in to the closet after several minutes.

"I cannot believe this," She said adamantly, folding her arms over her chest. The sound of her voice spooked me and caused the single, last bottle on the tray to fall, crashing to the ground.

I shrieked as the bottled smashed and the liquid spilled all over the bottom of the closet. Quickly, I grabbed the towel that Madame Pomfrey had told both of us of on the first week of orientation. I never actually thought I would be using it, but low and behold I was wiping up the stray liquid, as Holly grabbed the broken glass bin.

"I suppose we will just have to-" I started to comfort her, but Holly was starting to rave all over again.

"How could this happen? Quite possibly one of the most rude individuals in the entire school and I am stuck watching him-"

"Holly," I said, looking up from sweeping the broken glass. "You really won't have to be around him all that much. I'm sure that Madame Pomfrey will have us locked away in her-"

"That's not what she just told me, Lana!" She fired back, grabbing a piece of glass from the floor. "She wants me to 'get a feel for seeing a patient'. I tried to explain to her that I do not even have an interest for this field, but-"

"You didn't say that," I said, looking at her incredulously.

Holly opened her mouth to protest, but she then dropped her head," Okay, so maybe I didn't say that exactly…but still can she not tell that I am not ready for this?"

"I think you should be happy," I told her softly, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear before standing up and draping the towel over the hook where it once was. "She will barely allow me out of her sight…actually, out of her office. I'm surprised she hasn't told me to leave yet."

Holly shook her head, picking up the bin and setting it back against the wall," That's not true-"

"Molly! Molly, where are you?" Madame Pomfrey called from the other side of the wall, sounding rather livid.

Holly looked at me and rolled her eyes, Madame Pomfrey had a tendency to mix up her name every one and awhile, before turning the handle of the door and revealing herself to the frantic nurse. I followed close behind her, expecting to be ignored, but instead of looking right to Holly, Madame Pomfrey's eyes found mine.

"Laura, make yourself busy! I've plenty of files that need labeling in my office," She barked orders at me before looking at "Molly" with a whole new sense of urgency. "Alright, come along now, Dolly."

Holly looked at me with a look of complete disgust before following along.

The next few days followed in the similar manner with Madame Pomfrey yelling orders at Holly, making up a new name for her each time. I couldn't help but pity Holly for being treated, essentially like a slave, but I was being kept busy with other tasks that made my previous tasks look very minor. Madame Pomfrey seemed to leave all of the office work up to me and as an eleven year old girl, it was very…overwhelming, but I was given instructions and tried to follow them as best as I could.

A week after the incident, life in the hospital wing had calmed down a little bit, but there was still a lot of concern for the Wood boy; he had yet to return to consciousness. Madame Pomfrey still had other patients slowly being rolled in, but her concern was still with the Quidditch player. She told us (or mumbled under her breath rather) all about how dedicated she was to bring that boy back and how he was most certainly not going to die on her.

In all honesty, my mind was not on the boy for I had other things to worry about. On evening; however, I was leaving after all of my duties were finished. Madame Pomfrey had taken Holly out across the grounds to show her something of utmost importance and had left her beloved wing in my hands. At that particular time, Wood was the only patient in the wing and all of us were under the impression that I would face little to no problems sitting in her office and organizing whatever she had managed to disorganize during the day.

Just as I was locking the office door and turning to leave the wing, I heard a groan. Initially, I thought this was just my mind playing tricks on me, but when I heard a second, louder ground, the second time, this was enough to catch my attention. Perhaps, it was only the pipes or something in the building, but I couldn't help but feel the need to turn and check in the main beds.

Slowly, I walked to see the line of beds, all empty, except for the one. Moonlight was pouring in to the hospital wing. I scanned the area, looking for the source of the noise and then, out of the corner of my eye, noticed the covers on the bed that Wood occupied, move slightly. I thought that I must have been imagining this, but when I saw the boy move and groan again, I knew that he must have been coming out of his slump.

Nervously, I walked around to his bedside and watched as his eyes slowly fluttered opened. His eyes did not look as though he was completely alert, but rather, in a daze. I eyed the bottle sitting on the bedside table. Though I had not been monitoring Wood, I had heard Holly and Madame Pomfrey talking plenty of times about what they were to do as soon as he woke up.

Whether I liked it or not, it appeared as though I was going to be the one to witness the event that Madame Pomfrey and Holly had long awaited.

Before I did anything, I wanted to be sure that he was actually awake. I shakily asked," C-Can you hear me?"

He blinked several times before moving his eyes from left to right, returning to world which he had been absent from for so long. Though I did not like this boy, I couldn't help but feel a little bad for him at this particular moment. He was a year older than I and yet it appeared that he was at the intelligence of a newborn child.

I thought that he wasn't going to answer me. If he didn't, then I had absolutely no idea what I was going to, or supposed to do for that matter.

Luckily for me, he shifted his eyes over to my general direction and said, very slowly," Yes, I can."

I took a deep breath in before opening the drawer to the bedside table and pulling out a small glass. Slowly and carefully, I grabbed the bottle that Madame Pomfrey had set out. I tried hard to replay what I had heard about the amount…was it in ounces? Glasses? I was thinking this out right?

He continued to search the room with his eyes, fascinated by this seemingly "new world" to him.

There had to be some sort of further instruction in the table, but before I could search anymore, I heard someone clearing their throat behind me as the candle seemingly lit itself.

A disgruntled Madame Pomfrey stood behind me with her arms folded over her chest. My jaw dropped open as I looked her straight in the eye and quickly put my hands off of the bedside table. She looked at me disapprovingly before stepping around me and looking in the table to be sure everything was in order. I took several steps back before she turned back and spat at me," Just what did you intend to do, Miss Stockholm?"

I was caught very off-guard and looked down, embarrassed greatly," I'm sorry, Madame Pomfrey, I just thought that I would have been able to help some-"

I stopped speaking because I knew that the more I spoke, the more I was digging myself into trouble. I could feel her eyes nearly boring holes in me as I stared at the tiles on the ground. It wasn't for another several moments that she spoke.

"Well, I appreciate the thought, but please…go on back to your dormitory," She spoke, surprising me greatly as I felt as though I dodged a very large bullet.

I stood there for several more moments, merely in shock, before nodding to her appreciatively and turning to leave.

In a way, I couldn't have been more relieved for anything I would have put in that boy's system was probably going to be the wrong thing. It was nice to know that someone who knew what they were doing was going to be there instead of me, an amateur.