AN: Sorry for the long delay guys. A boy in my grade died in a car crash, I was rejected from a large amount of colleges and spent most of April flying about the country visiting some. (Anybody here go to Washington University in St. Louis? I'll be seeing you!) Thus, this sat half-written on my computer for a long time. I just couldn't bring myself to write about hospitals for a while. Now I'm off to finish studying for APs - but otherwise, my updates should be more often! Enjoy.

Chapter Eight
About Falling
II
But I don't wanna get lost in the ocean, now…

Times moves strangely in hospitals. It seems to trickle by when you sit, alone and bedridden, but the moment healers or visitors appear, it stutters and jumps. Oliver stayed at my side, day in and day out, looking more and more haggard, even with the care package of clothes George had dropped off.

Thank god for magic. I was on constant Skelegrow and pain drips – my leg and wrist had already been charmed whole – but my back and skull were, they explained, too delicate to be rapidly healed, hence the Skelegrow. But it was still a fraction of the time spent healing if I'd been in a muggle hospital.

Three days into my stay, I started going stir-crazy. I spent nearly three months in the hospital in my last year at Hogwarts, recuperating from my curse – and I think I've had enough of St. Mungo's for the rest of my life. And when I get stir-crazy – I hate to admit it – I get mean. I snapped at the nurses and the healers, drummed my fingers like a madwoman and cursed like a sailor.

One week into my stay, I woke up with a crick in my neck, my back stiffer than ever, and saw Oliver, sleeping by my bed. It was sweet, sure, but Jesus, did the boy never go home? Seriously, he needed to stop babying me – all the healers said I was doing just fine, and besides, we still hadn't done anything about Farrow. I ground my teeth in irritation. Fred and George had promised to really visit me the next day, Angelina and Alicia had said, the last time they were here, casting worried looks at Oliver, from his dour place in the seat. I flinched at my inner monologue. I had no reason to be angry at Oliver – he was just concerned, and besides, I had begged him to stay, hadn't I? And it would really make me feel better if he went off and snapped Farrow's neck – no. (It totally would, let's be honest here.)

I sighed. I just needed my space, I decided. I hadn't had a moment without Oliver's worried presence in a week. Plus, he probably needed a break, right?

"Oliver," I whispered. He snored slightly. "Oliver. Oliver, wake up. Oliver." I sighed. "Oliver! Quaffle!"

"What?" he jerked awake, eyes wide. I smiled slightly.

"Oliver, you need to go home."

"What?" He sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

"I – it's been really sweet of you to stay, but seriously, you should take a break and head home. I'll be fine."

"But – no, it's fine, Kat. I'd rather stay here."

I closed my eyes, breathing deeply. Short temper.

"No, Oliver. You should really – you can't stay here all the time. It's not healthy, okay? You don't need to watch over me all the time. I'll a big girl, Ol."

He frowned, stubbornly. "No. No, you're hurt. And I don't like the looks of that one healer. Kent. I should be here. I want to be here."
"Oliver, you haven't shaved in a week. You look like Bigfoot. And forget about Kent, I can handle myself."

"I don't want you to be alone here!" He was getting angrier, harsher.

"Oh, really?" I couldn't stop the bitterness seeping into my voice. "You didn't seem to care about that when I was here for three fucking months, Oliver!"

He froze.

"What?"

I couldn't stop the tidal wave of angry, teenaged, tear-stained words that poured out of me.

"You didn't visit me once! Not once! I woke up to a pile of things – from Fred and George and Ange and, hell even the kids still at Hogwarts and all I wanted was just one letter - fuck, Oliver, you could've sent me a goddamn Puddlemere U shirt with a note "Quaffles don't catch themselves, y'know, sorry!" and that would have been better! But that's – that's fine. If you're trying to make up for that or something – don't. I'm over it."

Oliver looked like a deer in the headlights.

"Katie? What are you talking about?"

"Like you don't know." I stared at him, his eyes wide and helpless.

"You – you don't know?"

He shook his head wordlessly.

All the fight left me. I swallowed, hard. I hadn't actually wanted to talk about this but – he didn't know? How hadn't he?

"In my seventh year. December. I got – I got cursed. Someone – someone imperiused me, apparently, and I had to carry this necklace – this old, cursed necklace and it ripped and it touched me and –" I sucked breath in gaspily, "t-terrible things, Oliver. I barely – I barely remember. I woke up a month or two later. I- you didn't know? How did you – how did you not know?"

Oliver blinked. His knuckles were white on the chair back.

"What – why the – why the fuck didn't they – why – why did no one tell me?" he almost growled the words, teeth gritted.

"I – I-"

"The fuck-" His hand twisted angrily and the chair cracked under his fingers.

"Oliver!"

"Shit-" he brought bloody fingers to his mouth, grimacing at the clean slice from the broken plastic had cut into his palm.

"Oh, my god you're bleeding – Oliver!"

"I'm sorry Katie." He cursed again, shaking blood off of his fingers. He looked up at me. "If I had known I – I would have-" he cut himself off and looked at the floor, and spoke quietly. "…I'd have visited you."

"Oliver I'm so-"

"I'm gonna go, Kat. You're right," he rubbed his chin, absently. "I do… need a shave."
"Oliver, I jus-"

"I'll see you."

And he shut the door behind him.

xoxox

"And we have four types of chocolate – chocoate makes everything better – and those caramelly bits of toffee from Honeydukes you always liked? Those. Ooh, and marzipan-"
"Alicia-"
"And I brought a bunch of magazines – Vogue and Witch Weekly and um… MarieClaire? I don't know, I just grabbed all the girly magazines I could find –"
"Alicia-"
"Oh, Leesh. Shut up." Angelina turned to me. "Kat has something to say."
"Oh. Um. Thanks, guys." Alicia and Angelina had burst in with armfuls of candy, magazines and puzzles – everything and anything they could think of to entertain me, an hour or two after Oliver had left. "This is… have you seen Oliver?"

They exchanged glances.

"No…?" Alicia frowned. "He's normally around here, isn't he?"
"Yeah. He… I think I fucked up, guys."

xoxox

"He didn't know?"

"How didn't he know?"

"I don't know!"

The story had come pouring out of me – Alicia and Angelina were excellent listeners, gasping and chattering in response.

"And he just stormed out?"

"Yes! I just – I just don't know!"

"Damn it, Katie. I'm so sorry – I never thought to write him."
"I just thought Fred would've…"

"Or that he would have noticed when you weren't talking to him,"

"I hadn't been."

"What?" Both heads snapped to me.

I frowned up at them.

"I didn't talk to Oliver all of seventh year. He never answered my first letter, and I never plucked up the courage to write him again. And then, y'know, I was out for all that time – and then the war broke out – I didn't talk to Oliver for ages."

Angelina stared.

"Really? But you two – you talked all the time. Didn't you write him after he graduated?"

"Yeah, a little. His responses just got shorter and shorter as he got busier, I guess. By the time we hit 7th year I suppose I wasn't really expecting a response." Alicia shook her head.

"That's weird. Something's not right about that."

"And then just out of the blue he asks you to move in?"
"Well, he knew I needed somewhere to live-"

"After all that time? It's just… odd, Kat."

"Mmm. But, anyways. That's beside the point. What about his response?"

Angelina bit her lip.

"Also weird. Like – sure, I get that he'd be upset but… still, that's kinda a big response. It was a while ago."

"Yeah. I wonder," Alicia paused, thoughtfully. "I wonder if Oliver's known anyone who's been cursed. That could explain it. Or, I don't know, protecting you? That's odd though. It's all a bit strange, Katie."

"Most definitely."

There was a sudden rapping on the window. I turned, fast. "Ahhh - ow-" my neck crackled angrily at me.

"It's an owl," Alicia said helpfully, stepping up to jiggle at the window latch.

"Elladora?"

Elladora hooted dolefully at me, round amber eyes a little traumatized, holding her leg out insistently.

"I'm going, I'm going –" The moment I tugged the parchment from her, Elladora took wing, clipping the windowframe in her haste to leave.

"Jesus. Touchy much?" I grumbled, uncreasing the parchment. The purple wax seal had already been broken, I noticed.

"It's from the ministry," Angelina piped up from behind my shoulder.

As I unfolded it, a handwritten note fell out onto my lap. Brushing it aside, I spread the letter.

Dear Ms. Katherine Bell,

We are deeply flattered by your interest in pursuing a career in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. However, in light of your current injuries, we must regretfully retract any offer of employment this department may have extended to you. These mandates are further enumerated in sec. 6, clause 2 (A) of the gainful employment application you signed on Monday last. Injuries incurred by yourself, ie serious fractures to the spinal cord and/or skull render you ineligible for Ministry employment. You may, however, re-apply for such employment once being cleared by St. Mungo's trauma ward and after a period of up to (but not limited by) five years. I hope you have an otherwise pleasant day.

Yours sincerely,

Mafalda Hopkirk, Clerk to the Minister

"Oh my god." Alicia's voice broke the silence.

I stared, shell-shocked at the parchment that cheerily killed every single one of my aspirations. No, no no no-

"Katie," Angelina's voice was deathly quiet. Something in her tone made me turn to her. She was holding the smaller note, her face ashen. Fingers shaking, I took it, a sudden knot turning in my stomach at the familiar handwriting scrawled across it.

Katie-

Sorry I read this. Had to. Gone to kill Farrow. All the best.

-Oliver

Three pairs of eyes met.

"Shit."

About Falling - Say Anything

drama! R&R por favor. It'll make me super happy, despite totally failing my Biology AP tomorrow =]