As far as Juniper could tell, her skin had been perfectly mended. Every so often, she would examine and then re-examine her hands, thumbs grazing over the soft, smooth skin almost as though she were trying to detect the rough, burned skin beneath it. But it wasn't there. The matron had made short work of her injuries, but had insisted that she stay the night in the hospital wing just in case.
After what seemed like an hour or more of constant questioning as to how Juniper was injured, the matron had finally given up, giving her occasional side-eyed-glances from her office door whenever she rose from her desk across the hospital wing. Clearly Tom hadn't actually told her anything at all either, or she was sure she would be surrounded by angry teachers and the headmaster within minutes. It took some convincing, but Juniper was finally allowed to close the curtain around her bed to gain a small sense of privacy.
Lighting the candle on the nightstand next to her cot, Juniper let out a long sigh as she laid back in her bed. Staring at the ceiling, her eyes drifted over to the windows, high up on the walls, nearly touching the ceiling. It must be getting close to dinner time by now- she wondered if the matron would bring her something to eat? She hadn't actually ever had to stay in the hospital wing overnight before- at least while conscious. Quickly becoming bored of staring at the ceiling, Juniper sat up again and grabbed her backpack that sat propped up against her hospital bed. Pulling it onto her lap, she spilled its contents on her blanketed lap.
Separating her schoolbooks and papers with her pens, she rifled around in the bag again, fingers searching. Inhaling sharply, she grasped onto a small piece of paper and pulled it out. Unfolding, she read the now smeared ink on the page.
'Meet me at the black lake. 10:30. Today.'
Staring at the words on the paper, she finally, uncertainly, decided that this was not Professor Dumbledore's handwriting. Whereas his was more loopy and elongated, this was more rushed and the letters were too crowded. 'That means it wasn't Dumbledore.' A sense of relief washed over her before it was quickly overcome with anxiety again. 'Unless he somehow changed his handwriting when writing this to throw me off his trail and-' shaking her head quickly, she tried to push out the thought. She didn't want to go down that trail - not yet at least.
So it wasn't Dumbledore, probably.
It wasn't Tom. Again, probably.
That only left… Well. The entire rest of the school.
Groaning softly, Juni let the note rest in her lap with the rest of her things and rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. Keeping her hands over her eyes, she racked her brain for someone she could have possibly pissed off enough to try to kill her.
"Ahhem," someone cleared their throat at the end of her bed. Jumping and instinctively reaching for the wand next to her leg, she pointed it at the intruder, eyes wide. Tom Riddle stood with an eyebrow raised at her, his backpack slung over one shoulder and a dinner plate in each hand.
"Is this for forcing you to the hospital wing?" She couldn't tell if he sounded annoyed or amused, but she huffed in response either way.
"You startled me is all," she complained as she lowered her wand, putting it back on the bed against her leg. Quickly grabbing the note on her lap and folding it up, she shoved it back into her bag. "What are you doing back here anyways?"
"Delivering dinner," he informed her cooly, setting both plates onto a bedside table nearby and wheeling it over to the bed. Juniper screwed her face up in confusion as she watched him. What was his motive here? To try and get more info out of her about this morning?
"And," he added as he pulled over a chair and sat down, letting his bag slide to the floor. "To finish our session for the weekend. I'm not failing this project just because you decided to make a murderous enemy." He raised his eyebrows at her again as he considered her for a moment before pulling a plate towards himself. "That one's yours."
Juni sat and stared at him for a long moment as he began to eat the food on his plate. Stomach growling softly, her eyes flicked down to the other plate before looking back at him again. His hand stopped halfway to his mouth as he looked up through his eyelashes at her.
"Go on," he prompted her, annoyance clear in his voice now. "Everyone needs to eat... It isn't poisoned, if that's what you're concerned about."
A second rumble from her stomach finally made Juniper scoot out from under the covers and swing her legs off the side of the bed. She felt her sock brush up against something and Tom stopped again to glare up at her. Pointedly taking a small scoot backwards in his chair, he continued eating.
"Sorry," she mumbled as she took more care as to where her feet were as she sat at the small side table across from him, bringing the second plate towards her.
"Don't be."
The two ate in silence, only seeming to grow thicker as she realized they were the only two in the hospital wing. From what she could tell from behind her privacy curtain, even the matron had left, likely to get her own dinner, even though she hadn't heard her leave. Finishing her food, she realized how parched she was. Turning back to grab a small decanter of water off the nightstand on the opposite side of the bed, she set it on the table between them. Taking the small glass off the top of the decanter, she hesitated. Should she offer some to Tom? There was only one cup, though…
"I'm not thirsty," he informed her, seeming to know exactly what her internal struggle was over. She watched as he took a bite of a particularly dry looking biscuit, chewing it slowly. Lowering the cup to the table, she set it down softly and looked between Tom and the decanter. "And I'm certainly not interested in sharing a cup with you."
Ah. That's what it was.
Juniper inadvertently glared at him, offended at his tone. What would be so wrong with sharing a cup with her? It isn't like she was diseased- It didn't matter. She didn't really want to share a cup or her water with him anyway, she just felt obligated to be polite.
Pouring a small amount of water into her glass, she set the decanter down and brought the cup to her lips. Glancing at Tom, her eyebrow raised very slightly as she drank the cup in one sip, setting it down and sighing softly, satisfied. Tom shifted slightly in his seat and licked his lips as he looked back at his empty plate. Glancing at the second empty plate, he stood abruptly, taking both of them and disappearing behind the privacy screen.
A soft clinking of plates told her that he set them down somewhere and before too long he reappeared and took his seat again, straightening his sweater as he did so. Juniper poured another glass of water and took a slow sip before topping it off again.
"Shall we?" Tom asked almost absently as he pulled the books from his bag and set them on the table. Juni watched as his eyes drifted to the water glass for a moment before returning his attention back to the books as he opened one and flipped through the pages. Juniper in turn took the books that had been hastily shoved back into her bag and leafed through the pages until she found one she remembered having open in the library earlier.
The setting sun outside the windows had all but disappeared and left the hospital wing in the soft orange glow of the torches and candles by the time the matron had returned. She had come around the curtain, presumably to grill Juni on what had actually happened to her again, but saw Tom sitting across the small side-table from her and promptly disappeared into her office once more. Hardly noticing the intrusion, the two continued working, almost harmoniously as they scribbled away furiously on the same bit of parchment passed between them.
"Have we decided who was going to actually physically write our paper?" Juniper asked after some time, skimming a line of text and underlining it with her finger to not lose her place.
"I will," Tom said curtly. "I have the nicer handwriting."
"No you d-" Juni began to protest as he slid their shared parchment back towards her wordlessly. She almost laughed as she actually looked at the two sets of writing on the page. His handwriting was considerably nicer than hers ever could be. "That's fair, actually."
Tom slid the paper back towards himself and wrote something down quickly, his eyes never leaving his book.
"Well," Juniper shifted almost uneasily on the end of the bed. "I'll at least help with the writing… Just not the uh, writing writing, if that makes sense." Tom raised an eyebrow and lifted his eyes to look at her, the hint of a smile playing on his lips.
At that moment, Rue burst from the other side of the curtain.
"Juni, I've been looking absolutely everywhere for you and no one seemed to have any clue where you were! What happened? Are you alright?" She suddenly seemed to realize that Tom was sitting in the seat next to her and she took a quick step away from him. Looking between Tom and Juni, her face screwed up in a look of confusion.
"Tom, why are you here?" Ruth knew that the two of them weren't friends and didn't even like one another, so finding him of all people at Juni's sickbed seemed completely ridiculous, especially seeing as she had only found out where Juniper was minutes before.
"We were working on our project," Juni informed her quickly, snapping the book in front of her shut. "But it's getting late, and we were just finishing up." Tom seemed to take the hint and had his things packed quickly and tucked back into his bag. Folding up their shared parchment, he tucked that between his books and stood up.
"Find me whenever they let you out," Tom instructed plainly to Juni before turning to Rue. He flashed her one of his charming smiles, his voice softening slightly. "Miss Abbott, a pleasure as always." Turning on his heel, he disappeared behind the curtain and they listened to the sound of his footsteps as he left the hospital wing and closed the door behind him.
Juniper felt a small knot form in her stomach as she watched the curtain where he had left. Shifting uncomfortably to sit back further on the bed, her eyes drifted towards the pitcher of water that had been set back on the nightstand by her bed. Pouring a glass, Juni tried to remember what she had eaten that would hurt her stomach.
"Juniper," Ruth's voice made her jump slightly, forcing her back to the present.
"What?" she asked quickly, looking at Rue as she took a sip from her water glass.
"What do you mean 'what'?" she asked incredulously as she climbed onto Juni's bed and sat cross legged on the end, facing her. "Start explaining."
"Rue-"
"Everything."
"Why were you meeting with Professor Dumbledore again?" Rue's expression was a mix between confusion, concern and anger.
"To talk with him about a concept I was confused about- just to go over it a few times." Ruth hesitated before leaning in closely and whispering.
"Do you think maybe it was him?" Juni chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment before shrugging a shoulder. Obviously she couldn't tell her the whole story with Dumbledore. There was a lot more to consider about him than either Ruth or Tom could ever know. Other motives that they would never know about.
"Honestly, I have no idea," she admitted, almost sounding defeated. Rue looked down at her hands in her lap, which was now covered with the end of the blanket.
"Oh, and how in the actual hell did Tom Riddle know where you were?" she demanded, looking up. Rue both sounded and looked offended that he knew where to find her and she didn't until hours later.
"He, um," Juni rubbed her end of the blanket in her lap between her thumb and fingers, watching it and avoiding Rue's gaze. "I went to the library afterwards to meet him to work on our project."
"You're joking," Rue's mouth dropped open slightly as she watched her. "Absolutely joking."
"Look," Juni looked up at Rue before glancing at the curtain in the direction towards where the matron's office was on the other side of the room. Scooting forwards slightly so their knees were touching under the blanket, she continued in a hushed whisper. "I wasn't sure who attacked me - I'm still not. I wasn't sure if maybe all the professors and staff were 'in on it' or something, so I panicked." Rue opened her mouth as if to protest but Juni cut her off.
"Then, I figured that being alone wasn't going to help a damn thing but would probably get me killed, so I went to where I knew someone was waiting for me. I had no idea where you would be, but since I was supposed to meet up with T- Riddle anyways, I just went there."
"Okay, and?" Rue shook her head slightly. "That still doesn't explain why he knew you were here-"
"The pompous ass practically dragged me here himself." Juni sat back, crossing her arms, still annoyed at the interaction this afternoon, as though that were the worst thing to happen to her today somehow.
"How did he even know? You said you had your burns covered up."
"It was a little harder than I expected to hide 2nd to 3rd degree burns on my fingers and palms, so he eventually figured it out and made me tell him what happened."
"Oh."
"Then he went all 'I'm head boy I have to take you to the hospital wing or I could get in trouuuuble." Juni rolled her eyes and huffed slightly. "Otherwise I never would've come down here myself."
"I would've probably made you come down instead," Rue pointed out, her eyebrows raised.
"Probably true," Juni admitted, smiling slightly at the girl across from her. "That would've been slightly less annoying, though."
"Only slightly?" Rue laughed, causing Juni's smile to grow.
After a few moments, the two fell into silence again.
"Did he bring you dinner?" Rue's voice was softer than before as she looked at her hands in her lap again. Something in her tone made Juni look up at her face. Why did she sound upset again all of a sudden?
"He did," she told her simply and Rue didn't say anything. "But it was cold and bland. Fitting for Riddle, I suppose." Rue looked up again and laughed at the lie and Juni couldn't help but smile again. Maybe Rue just felt that bad that she not only didn't know she had gotten hurt but also wasn't the one to bring food to her while she was in her hospital bed. She felt a soft warmth and admiration for the girl in front of her. Somehow the pair had managed to grow so close so easily. It was refreshing in such an unfamiliar time.
A soft set of footsteps sounded from the matron's office as they listened to her walk over to and around the curtain by Juni's bed.
"Light's out, dears," she told them with a sweet smile that Juni hadn't gotten from her since coming to the hospital wing. "Ruth, you'll have to head back to your dorm now if you don't want to spend the night."
"Oh," Rue looked between the matron and Juni, sighing. "Right."
"You can stay if you want," Juni told her quickly, her heart suddenly racing at the thought of being alone in such a large room.
"Really?" Rue looked back at her, her eyes lit up.
"Of course," Juni smiled at her friend and then looked back at the matron. "If that's alright?" The matron simply smiled again and waved her wand at the bed. The bed nearly doubled in width and seemed to sprout an extra pillow next to the first one and a set of pajamas that matched the ones that Juni had been forced into earlier materialized next to where Rue sat.
"Goodnight, dears," she said as she disappeared behind the curtain again and went back to her office, shutting the door. Juni wondered if she intended to sleep at her desk or if her room was hidden somewhere back there through a door she hadn't noticed or something. After a few moments the torches on the walls all went out one by one, leaving them in darkness, lit only by the moonlight streaming in from the high windows above their heads.
"Well, that's that then," Rue said quietly as she slid off the side of the bed and stood to change into her pajamas. Scooting over to one side of the bed, Juni curled up on one side, facing the middle, her wand tucked up underneath her pillow just in case. After changing, Rue climbed back into the bed next to Juni, turning onto her side to face her.
Groaning softly as she stretched her legs out in bed, Juni rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. Opening them slightly, she could make out the shape of Rue, still facing her, sleeping soundly. She smiled sleepily to herself and glanced across the hall towards the windows on the wall opposite of her bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a dark shadow moving next to the bed. As it disappeared behind the curtain, she noted the figure had longer hair that was tied back.
Inhaling sharply, as her brain suddenly processed what she just saw, she bolted upright in bed, grabbing her wand. Scrambling out of the bed, she ran around the curtain, aiming her wand and ready to fight whoever had just been standing next to her hospital bed in the middle of the night.
The hall was empty save for the unused hospital beds, nightstands and tables and the drawn back curtains around each set. Looking around quickly, Juni ran across the hall and through the large doors into the hallway, again finding no one there.
"Juni?" Rue's soft, sleepy voice called from somewhere in the room behind her. "Juni what are you doing?" Juni's breath was coming fast and unevenly as a hand gently grabbed her arm. "Juni?" Rue asked again from behind her. Turning to look back at Rue, she could see the worried look on her face
"What's wrong? What happened?" Rue asked softly. Juni began to gain control over her breathing as she looked down the hall both ways again and back towards the room.
"I just-" shaking her head and rubbing her eyes again, she shoved her wand in the pocket of her pajamas. "I think I just had a bad dream is all."
"That must been one hell of a dream," Rue commented, wrapping her arms around Juni in a warm hug. Hesitating, Juni hugged her back and laughed slightly.
"Yeah, no kidding."
"Well come on," Rue stepped back towards the room, holding onto one of Juni's hands. "Let's get back to bed. I can protect you from any more bad dreams." Winking at her Rue led Juni back in the room and to the bed. Climbing in, Juni stashed her wand quickly back beneath her pillow and brought the covers up to her chin, eyes wandering over all the dark spaces in the hall where someone could've been hiding. Rue scooted in close to her and curled up, facing her again. Within a few minutes, she was back sound asleep as Juni's mind continued to race.
Was it a dream?
Maybe just a trick of the light to sleep-logged eyes?
Or was someone actually standing over the bed, expecting her to be alone?
