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Chapter Three
Funny Turn
Ethel woke up the next morning to the sound of rain hitting her window and when she got out of bed and looked out she realised it was absolutely pouring with rain and it was windy too, she could see the trees moving. As the girl dressed she allowed herself a tiny smile as even Ethel Hallow found HB transferring exciting.
At the beginning of every mouth every year group was taken into the local woods to collect potions ingredients as it did not take long for stock to run out. Normally the witches walked, it was only ten minutes from their school so flying was pointless but on a day like it was that day when it was raining so hard you could hear it pelting against the castle walls Miss Hardbroom would transfer them. If it was a small bit of rain she made them walk but even she had limits and on a day like today the girls would be expected to be as quick as possible so that she did not return to the castle with a year group full of the flu.
Ethel dressed into her uniform and then went to the hall to eat breakfast, which she did slowly as she held onto Esmie with her free hand, before long it was time to go and Ethel joined her year group in the potions lab.
Hecate made sure everyone was present before she transferred the third years to the local woods, once they had landed at their destination everyone spoke excitedly because of their treat of being transferred and normally Ethel would join in with them but today Ethel felt very funny.
The entire place was spinning as dizziness overtook her and she ended up falling against the wall struggling to maintain her balance. Felicity looked over and saw the blonde against the wall struggling to stay standing.
"Miss Hardbroom!" Felicity shouted over to her. The black clad teacher walked over and looked at her pupils.
"What is wrong?" the teacher asked concerned as she looked at Ethel and Felicity.
"I feel sick and dizzy" Ethel told the woman, grabbing onto Felicity when she felt like she was about to fall again and finding it was the only way she could keep her balance.
"Does anyone else feel dizzy?" Hecate asked the year group who shook their heads concerned. The woman flicked her fingers making a small bench appear and told Ethel to sit as she was worried the girl was about to collapse, she was deadly pale and her eyes seemed unfocused. She then provided a glass of water and told her to drink.
"Have you ever got travel sick before?" Hecate asked thinking maybe the girl just suffered from travel sickness as like some non magical folk suffered from travel sickness when travelling in a car or boat or plane even after they had done it many times some witches similarity suffered from travel sickness when transferring, even if it was the norm for them. Ethel sipped her water and shook her head.
"Right I am taking you to the nurse" Hecate told the girl highly concerned. This was Ethel Hallow, both her parents could transfer and she suspected her and her sisters had being transferred practically since birth, she shouldn't even flinch at transferring now especially if she didn't suffer from travel sickness.
"No please" Ethel replied trying to protest. She hated being prodded and fussed over but Hecate shook her head.
"There is clearly something wrong Ethel, you are going to the nurse" Hecate told her giving her an order and not a choice. The girl sighed as Hecate and Felicity started to lead her into the castle.
"All of you back to the potions lab, I am going to take Ethel to the nurse, I expect you all to study and keep quiet!" Hecate told the remaining pupils of her class as she transferred them back to school though she wouldn't do that to Ethel again, it could make her worse.
Esmerelda was sat in her witching history class, writing down the things she had to revise for the upcoming test when she saw Miss Hardbroom and Felicity Foxglove walk past her class supporting Ethel. The older blonde gasped and stood up, grateful to see Miss Bat was asleep. As she walked to the door her classmates stared after her as she had never left a lesson before but no-one said anything and Esmerelda quickly left her classroom to catch up with the pupils and HB.
"Ethie" Esmerelda said chasing after them. The three of them turned around and HB glared at her.
"Aren't you meant to be in lesson, Miss Hallow?" She asked the girl angrily.
"Sorry Miss I saw you with Ethel, what happened?" she asked and HB decided against sending her back to class as it might be good for Ethel to have support right now. Felicity, who was getting tired from having her arm around Ethel for so long let Esmerelda take her place and Ethel leaned into her sister, still struggling to support her own weight.
"She had a funny turn after I transferred the class, I was just bringing her to the nurse" Hecate told the girl and then decided as the girl was older she might remember a time that this had happened before.
"You are older, do you remember Ethel ever reacting badly to transferring?" the woman asked her as they hurried down the corridor with Ethel.
"Yes, the first few times she was transferred, but never again after that, Sybil use to get travel sickness sometimes when she was younger but Ethel never suffered from it" Esmerelda replied and this just worried Hecate more.
Arriving outside the nurse's station Esmerelda helped her sister to sit down as Hecate explained to the woman what had happened and she nodded before she started to check Ethel over.
The woman poked and prodded, much to Ethel's complaint, for ten minutes before she was ready to give her diagnosis.
"Travel sickness" she told everyone in the room
Ethel breathed a sigh of relief at that. She had an inking she knew what the matter was but luckily the woman had not looked her over deeply enough to notice. Esmerelda was hugging Ethel but when she heard the words travel sickness she started to speak.
"Sorry I don't think that is correct" Esmerelda told the nurse, trying to be as polite about it as possible.
"Excuse me!?" the nurse asked her insulted her authority was being questioned.
"Ethel has being transferred since her toddler years, she has never reacted like this before" Esmerelda explained not seeing how Ethel could suddenly develop travel sickness to transferring when she had being through it so many times and was thirteen.
"Are you a nurse?" the woman asked Esmerelda rudely and Esmerelda shook her head before she spoke.
"No I am just saying, I just want to know what is wrong with my sister" Esmerelda told the woman frustrated that the woman didn't seem to bothered about this.
"Have you being eating and sleeping properly?" she asked Ethel ignoring Esmerelda rudely.
"On and Off" Ethel replied. She hadn't being sleeping well at all and her eating was on a low, though she was still eating.
"There we go, your body was not able to take the shifting because of your lack of nutrition" the woman told the girl but Esmerelda cut in again not caring that she could tell the woman was getting annoyed with her.
"She ate this morning though, and yesterday, she only skipped lunch yesterday but ate every other time" Esmerelda told the woman knowing there was something more going on. She knew her sister and knew something was wrong with her.
"Fine then, it was her lack of sleep" the nurse then replied just wanting the older girl to get of her case and leave her alone. She was really annoying her with her persistence.
"But she told me she had a good night last night and I am sorry but I still don't see how a lack of sleep at anytime could make someone dizzy during transferring, a lack of sleep does not cause dizziness unless..." Esmerelda went on but she was cut off.
"Why don't you diagnose her then if you know everything?" the woman replied and Esmerelda finally fell silent, she looked at Ethel and spoke her voice still in an annoyed tone. The nurse was clearly just as mean as the dinner witches and hated when pupils tried to tell her she was wrong.
"You need rest and you will be as right as rain in a few hours, if this happens again then I will start looking for another cause but as of now you are not ill" the woman told her and Esmerelda helped her sister down, wanting to tell the woman she was useless but biting her tongue as she led Ethel out who was walking more straight now but was still not back to normal.
"Take your sister to rest, if the nurse can find nothing wrong we must trust her" Hecate told Esmerelda who started to lead Ethel up the stairs to her bedroom, the girl was not as dizzy but was still struggling to hold her weight. Breaktime started as this was happening and Sybil soon spotted them and took the other side quickly even though it was hard for the girl as Ethel was much bigger than her.
"What happened?" Sybil asked concerned having never seen her sister so dizzy before.
"She took a funny turn whilst being transferred, she might be coming down with something so we should keep an eye out" Esmerelda told Sybil not telling her it was just travel sickness as she knew it wasn't.
The eldest and youngest sister got Ethel into her room and into bed to rest and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep, clearly tired from trying to hold her weight for so long.
"Is she going to be okay?" Sybil asked as her sister came out of the bedroom after her and closed the door behind her.
"I am sure she will be just fine Sybie, let's just leave her to rest for a bit" Esmerelda told her sister trying to hide the worry on her face from her sister. Something was wrong with Ethie, she could just feel it.