Chapter Two- Rebecca
It turns out that Rea and I are the last people you want to help you when you get hurt. At first, we tried wrapping Abby's arms around our shoulders, but her body was limp so she sort of just dragged on the ground. Then Rea tried to carry her like she was giving her a piggyback ride, but Abby slid down her back and plopped back down again.
"Rea, we're only making it worse!" I said, pointing to Abby, who laid helplessly on the soggy grass.
"How 'bout you grab her arms and I grab her legs?" proposed a hopeless Rea.
"Oh yeah, that way we can pop her joints out of place, too! Look, why don't you stay here and I'll run inside and get some help?" I suggested, frustrated by the difficulty of this entire situation.
"Fair enough," she said with a shrug, and then knelt down to lift Abby's head off of the ground, while I sprinted inside.
It wasn't until I reached the Gryffindor Common Room that I realized how absolutely tired I was. Exhaustion seeped through my muscles, making it almost impossible to merely stand up straight. The adrenaline that had once coursed through my veins, filling me with an unfathomable source of energy, left me empty and exasperated. But my worry for my best friend measured higher than my sleepy debilitation, so I kept frantically searching for the one person I knew would help me.
"Flynn!" I cried when I saw his blonde hair in a crowd of celebrating Gryffindors.
"Bex!" He mimicked my tone. I made a mental note to scold him for calling me that later.
I maneuvered my way through the crowd, getting a few congratulatory pats on the back from my fellow Gryffindors. There were a few chants and cries of, "Go Gryffindor!" and our seeker, Grant Hamilton, was hoisted on the shoulder's of some seventh year Gryffindors. Flynn, suddenly reappearing in the sea of people, pushed passed quite a few Gryffindors until he reached me. I grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the mass of cheering students that were crowding the common room.
"Have you finally come to your senses and decided to have your way with me?" He joked.
"In your dreams," I muttered as I pushed through more students, "I really need your help with something."
"Well," he started, "I suppose I could help you."
"It has to do with Abby." I warned, turning around to look at him.
"What? God, no! Ugh, you know I can't stand her," snapped Flynn, trying to break out of my grasp that I had on his arm.
"Trust me," I said, batting my eyelashes flirtatiously, "the feeling is mutual."
"I guess I could help, but for a price," He said, batting his eyelashes in a similar suit.
"Of course you have a price," I mumbled, clearly annoyed.
"I get to take you out on a date," he blurted out much too loud for my liking.
"You-you-you little snake! Why did I ever think to ask you? Ugh! Just go back to the Gryffindor common room and I will find someone-"
"Okay, okay! I'll help you. But the second she starts insulting me, I'm outta there!"
"Deal," I said.
He didn't need to know that she was unconscious and wouldn't be able to insult him even if she wanted to-which she would. I led him through the Great Hall, and outside where Abby and Rea were. Our vision was masked by a sea of gray fog, and there was a cold drizzle that stung as it touched our skin. I could barely make out Rea's thin silhouette against the fog, so I grabbed Flynn's hand and ran over.
"Bloody hell, what happened?" asked Flynn upon seeing Abby.
"She fell off of the herbology greenhouse," said Rea dismissively.
"How," he said, tossing Abby over his shoulder so effortlessly, "do you guys manage to find trouble everywhere you go?"
Rea and I rolled our eyes in response.
"You realize that Abby is going to be furious when she finds out that you got him to help her?" whispered Rea.
"That's why she's not going to find out!" I snapped and then pretended to zip my mouth close and throw away the key.
Rea snickered in reply, and we both walked in silence behind Flynn and the unconscious Abby. The blood had finally stopped flowing down her face, but now it just laid in dried splotches on her face.
Looking at her, I felt overridden with guilt. I should have been up there with her, or should have acted when she was falling. But, like a coward, I did nothing.
And that has to be the worst feeling in the world.
Madame Toubib healed Abby in minutes, and didn't even bother asking us what happened because she knew it would be some outrageous story. Over the years, I've gotten to know Madame Toubib quite well. She's an older lady, with silvery-blonde hair and an aptitude for witty comebacks. And while she might be a little feisty and disapproving of our crazy antics, she was always kind and kept her mouth shut about our 'adventures'.
"Where's the other girl? You know, the one with the wild hair?" asked Madame Toubib.
This was the second time today that I found myself missing Brandi and her wildly colored hair. It stung like it always did when I thought about her, and our friendship that suddenly deteriorated. I thought about how happy she looked this morning at the Slytherin table, and wondered how everything shifted in a blink of the eye.
"She's probably sulking with her fellow Slytherins," said Rea, breaking the silence.
"Oh, I heard that the game was very close. I didn't make it down to see it. Sorry, Rebecca, I'll be sure to go next time," she said apologetically, and then left us alone.
"Nice save," I muttered, under my breath.
We sat in wobbly, wooden chairs next to Abby's bed, anxiously waiting for her to wake up. Her brown hair laid in perfect spirals framing her face. She looked beautiful; the worried and studious expression completely vanished and was replaced with a soft, peaceful one. Rea and I sat in silence, enjoying the brief moment of peace amidst the chaos.
Abby woke up about thirty minutes later. Her eyes fluttered open for a second, but the bright, intense light was too much for her. She closed her eyes shut, and brought her hands to her head.
"How long was I out for?" She groaned, her eyes still clenched shut.
"About an hour," said Rea, "how do you feel?"
"Peachy," moaned Abby.
I laughed at this. I loved how-despite everything-Abby always had a sense of humor. I handed Abby a small glass of unidentifiable potion Madame Toubib had let for her to drink once she woke up. She slowly sipped the potion, and judging by the look on her face, it was no pumpkin juice.
"This," she said, taking another sip, "is ghastly."
"Rea, you should drink it," I said, smirking at my Hufflepuff friend.
"What? No! You're insane!" joked Rea.
"It was your bloody cat that made her fall!"
"I cannot control the actions of Veronica. She is a free-willed kitty, and you, of all people, should appreciate that!" Rea's words were slightly muffled and incoherent from the laughter she trying to suppress.
"Drink it, drink it, drink it!" I chanted, my fists pounding against the air.
"Never!" shouted Rea, shaking her sandy blonde hair.
She gave me a playful push on the shoulder, making her chair give this incredibly loud creak.I tried to push her back, but the chair teetered back and forth, so I ended up missing Rea, and nearly toppling out of my chair. Unfortunately, this only delighted Rea further.
"What do you say, Abbs?" I asked, giving Abby a playful wink.
"Well," she said, in an even voice, "would ya look at that? I have just enough for one last sip!"
Abby extended the small glass to Rea, who reluctantly snatched the drink from her hand. Rea sniffed the contents of the potion, and gagged.
"If I die from this, you better take care of Veronica," she warned.
"If we can get that vile creature off of the greenhouse, I'll be sure to take greatcare of her," muttered Abby.
Rea shot her a look before chugging the remains of the potion.
"Merlin, I think I'm gonna puke," said Rea, who was, indeed, looking quite green.
"Welcome to my world," said Abby, whose face displayed a faint hint of joy.
"You know I wasn't really going to make you drink it if you didn't want to," I said, giggling at my victory.
"Yes you would," they said in unison.
They had a point; I had a tendency to be relentless, especially when I messed with Rea.
Since the four-well, three now- of us were all in different houses, our personalities tended to be vastly different from one another.
Rea had the rare skill of being able to find the good in everything, even in the darkest of circumstances. Abby's intelligence and logical mannerisms were both mind-bogging and enviable. Brandi's ambition and dream-getting ways were infectious and could inspire even the most dreamless of people. And then there was me, who wasn't as kind as Rea, as intelligent as Abby or as ambitious as Brandi. Supposedly, I'm courageous, but in the grand scheme of things, what does that matter?
"You guys," said Rea, bringing me back to reality.
"What?" asked Abby.
"I feel…incredible! It's like I drank a whole cauldron of Liquid Luck!" Rea was pacing the hospital wing like a madmen, which, in a way, she was.
"And you thought you were going to die," I said, sarcasm laced in my words.
"I-I-I bet I could get Veronica! I bet I could just flyup there and get her," said Rea whose arms were extended like she was, indeed, going to fly around the hospital wing.
Abby and I exchanged looks of concern, while Rea continued to pace-or perhaps fly-around the hospital wing. And just like she always did when she was worried, Abby reflexively reached for her locket. Her eyes widened in shock as she felt that her seemingly unbreakable locket was still open.
"Rebecca, where's the parchment?" Abby's voice was soft, but filled with concern.
"Oh, right. I forgot I had it," I said, pulling the worn parchment from my pocket.
"Let me see it!" called Rea from the opposite side of the hospital wing.
"No!' retorted Abby and I.
Rea, who was giggling and muttering some incoherent chant, skipped over to Abby's bed. Rea's blue eyes were almost completely hidden by her huge, dilated pupils. Her hands were shaking profusely, and yet there was a permanent, steady grin on her face.
"Maybe you should get some water," suggested Abby.
Rea erupted into laughter.
"How come she is having such an extreme reaction to this?" I had to speak loudly in order to be heard of Rea's fits of chortling.
"She wasn't supposed to take it. I feel loads better but I was hurt in the first place. Rea wasn't," said Abby matter-of-factually.
I passed the parchment to Abby, who eagerly took it from my hands. She studied the faded cursive script; her eyes fixated on the riddle that none of us understood.
"'Find me in the room that comes and goes'. What's that supposed to mean?" said Abby, confusion laced within her words.
It was then something odd happened. A small, incomplete melody popped into my head. I sat, in that blasted wobbly chair, trying to figure out the missing notes that were somewhere stored in my memory, but I couldn't quite find it.
And then I remembered: my grandfather had given me a music box the day I was accepted into Hogwarts, and inside was a thick piece of parchment with faded cursive writing…
"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed.
"What?" asked both Abby and Rea.
I stood up, my mind racing from the memory of the music box and the mysterious parchment that I never understood. Rea, who was squirming wildly in the seat next to me, and Abby gave me a strange look.
"I-I need to go check something. I'll be right back, I swear!" With that said, I dashed out of the hospital wing.
For the second time that day, I found myself sprinting to the Gryffindor common room. When I arrived, the cheering crowd had dispersed, and everyone was off in their own little group doing their own little thing. I noticed Flynn, lounging around with his friends near the stairs to the boy's dormitories. Not wanting to be bugged by him or his bothersome friends, I stealthily maneuvered my way into the girl's dormitories.
The dorm was relatively empty, which was a nice relief from the nonstop squealing and laughter that was usually filling the dormitory. I ran to my room, flopping down on the ground to get my suitcase that I kept underneath my bed. I had to give the handle several tugs until I was able to slide the suitcase out.
To say my suitcase was falling apart was an understatement. There were some claw marks along the side of it, whom I know to be from Satan's pet, Veronica. A few buckles were missing from the time that Brandi, Abby, Rea and I almost missed the Hogwarts Express and I threw my suitcase inside of the train as an attempt to board on time.
The second I unbuckled my suitcase, I flung through my items, tossing clothes, robes and various items onto the floor behind me. I eventually found it, wrapped in my favorite maroon silk scarf. The music box was in the shape of a heart, and played a soft, lullaby-like song. It was incredibly old, and every time I opened it, the hinge threatened to break. The inside was incredibly small; I could only keep a few spare galleons and sickles in it.
The parchment was where it always was: stuck in between the velvety lining inside. My hands were shaking as I plucked it from the music box. I unfolded it carefully, making sure not to rip it. In careful, cursive script, it read:
Find me in the room that comes and goes
I didn't bother packing the things I had thrown out of my suitcase, I just took off to the infirmary as fast as my tired body would let me. As I raced across the common room, I could hear Flynn hollering after me, but there was no time for his bad jokes and petty pickup lines. Sprinting down the corridors, my head was racing even faster than my body.
I skidded to a stop in front of the hospital wing, and dashed to Abby's hospital bed.
"Uh, Rebecca?" asked a very concerned Abby.
I kneeled over, hands on my legs, desperate to catch my breath. Even Rea, who was still obviously crazy, managed to stop her squirming and watch me. My lungs were still burning, and my legs felt like lead. I waited a few more seconds, slowly catching my breath.
"When I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter," my voice comes out airy and soft, "my grandfather gave this music box. He said that it was tradition for it to be passed down in my family. Anyway, that-that-that's not important, what is, is the parchment I found inside of it."
I handed the piece of parchment to Abby, who then compared it to her own. Her face lost it's peace and was back to the thinking, logical expression she almost always wore. Rea leaned her face in close to the parchment, biting her lip to keep from laughing.
"What does this mean?" inquired Abby, clearly confused as I was.
"Well, it means that we've got to find this bloody disappearing room!" I said, bubbling at the thought of some mystery that needed to be solved.
"That's just it," said Abby, "we've got to find this room that comes and goes. And then what? Are our grandparents just going to magically appear there?"
"Let's take it one step at a time. Have either of you heard of a room that comes and goes?" I asked.
"No," said Abby
"Wait-don't you see? It's so obvious I can't believe that I didn't realize this earlier," cooed Rea, who was back to her pacing.
"What?" asked Abby and I in unison.
Rea stops for a moment, her blue eyes big in anticipation and discovery.
"The room that comes and goes? Come on guys, this is an easy one." teased Rea.
"Just spit it out!" I cried
"It's the Room of Requirements."