Evergreen came to laying in a bed that was basically comfortable but was not a five-star bed. The faces of Headmaster Washington-Frost, Professor Woods, Hr. Killian, Andie, and Glade were the first things that he saw, watching over him. He tried to sit up, but it made him lightheaded, and he collapsed once again on the bed breathing deeply.
"Don't try to sit up. You've been through quite an ordeal." Hr. Killian advised.
"It seems like we have all been had, Mr. Quandary." Headmaster Washington-Frost said. "Georgia Habatatio was not who she claimed to be. In fact, she wasn't a she at all."
"He was a red winkie," Professor Woods piped up, "one of the worst I have ever seen."
"Winkie?" Evergreen asked.
"Creatures which live West of Oz, according to your mother." Professor Woods clarified.
"Yes indeed. He had been using polyjuice potion to change his appearance and fool everyone. How a being which wasn't exactly human was able to use polyjuice potion in that way is still under investigation. Professor Woods will talk with Maggie later to find out how much she knows, and I already sent an owl to MACUSA to begin a search party for the real Georgia."
Evergreen looked toward the old headmaster dressed that day in matching mint robes and hat. He was looking at Evergreen with an amazed expression that the boy found puzzling. He was knocked out; how impressive could he be at that point?
The old wizard sat at Evergreen's bedside and looked at him continuously with eyes of wonder and admiration. Beneath his bushy white eyebrows, his eyes sparkled with the wisdom of experience but the amusement of an old dog somehow learning new tricks. He gripped Evergreen's hand in the two of his.
"You performed some amazing magic. Do you have any idea how much power it takes to wandlessly change someone else's curse as it gets cast and how much power it takes to destroy a wand with its own magic? Plus, do you have any inkling how powerful a wizard must be to perform nonverbal spells?"
Evergreen remembered the day he met Professor Woods and the nonverbal magic she seemed to perform with ease. His eyes widened when he looked her way. He then responded to the old headmaster.
"With all due respect sir, I don't know a lot when it comes to magic."
"Your teachers would disagree, but I digress. Never in my century of teaching here have I ever seen such wonder!"
A century? He thought. One would need to be at least 20 or so to start teaching there, right? So, Headmaster Washington-Frost was at least in his 120's!
"How old are you then, sir?"
"Irrelevant, but I will tell you this. I was already old when they started to build the Titanic." He said this with a cheesy grin.
Possibly older than 120, then.
Hr. Killian came over with a special potion for Evergreen to drink and he did. He had always been good about taking his medicine, so it was fine. However, it was the best tasting potion he had ever had. It tasted like a melted orange dreamsicle and warmed up his body when he drank it. According to Hr. Killian, it was a strong replenishing potion which was necessary considering the large amount of magic and energy that Evergreen had just expelled. He asked the healer why it tasted like an orange dreamsicle. The shaggy-headed healer responded that it tasted different, depending on the person.
In no time at all, Evergreen was able to sit up. When he did, he still felt a little woozy, but he was well enough to at least sit up. He looked around the hospital room and saw Beatrice in a bed not too far from him. She had been changed into a hospital gown over a white nightdress and a small sheet covering her to her chest. Looking down, Evergreen realized that he was in loose pajamas and a hospital gown as well. Beatrice's neck had some kind of salve that must have been healing her puncture wound. For the first time, he thought about how glad he was that she was breathing.
Both Link and Diva were also in bed, separately of course, they were only twelve, after all. They were nearby Beatrice and were also sleeping quite peacefully, the explosive curse used on them seemed to have since worn off thanks to some brilliant potion that Hr. Killian no doubt whipped up himself. Evergreen was filled with pride, seeing his two noble friends there with him.
On his other side, he looked over to see a smaller figure on another bed all wrapped up in a sheet, his clothing, armor, and short sword all carefully organized on his bedside table. Two individuals were sitting nearby him waving their wands in unison. Evergreen recognized the round Professor Fangholder but didn't recognize the witch with him with the copper skin and the beads weaved into her long, dark, straight hair. The little form on the bed was Seta and he was breathing too!
Evergreen nearly leaped out of bed, but he quickly decided otherwise because he almost passed out again. He looked over at Woods with a pained expression. He slurped down the rest of his dreamsicle potion before asking her what was on his mind.
"Professor, what is avada kedavra?" he asked.
"That's the killing curse. It's one of the three unforgivable curses. Anyone who uses them will be locked up in the MACUSA Prison in New York City or on Alcatraz for life. Why?"
"The fake Habitatio tried to use that curse on me, but my bunny got it instead. How is he alive? Did Professor Fangholder do something?"
"No, young man." The beaded witch approached his bed. "There is no blocking or reviving with the killing curse. Your bunny was killed, but then something happened. What do you know about runes and sigils?"
Evergreen nervously looked toward Woods and then the headmaster. He willingly used magic outside of school. Sure, First People's magic couldn't really be tracked by the underage magic use department or whatever, but he figured that he would come clean. He decided to be honest and straightforward. The consequences be damned.
"I learned from my friends the Summerhills how to s-set my family sigil to protect me and my loved ones. I did it in my dorm room and at my and my dad's house."
"Your family sigil is a star in a circle, yes?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
"I'm Macawi Hexmaker, Sioux tribeswoman and professor of First People's Lore. It's my job to know those things. Plus, upon our inspection, it looked like your family's sigil was dyed into the fur of your friend."
Looking over at the little bunny, it appeared that right smack dab on Seta's snow-white forehead was his family's sigil, a purple circle and a golden star speckled with small runes, showing a stark contrast to the eggshell-colored fur. It appeared to shimmer slightly and when it did, Seta stirred just a little, like he was having an intense dream. Sleep it off, my friend, he thought, if anyone deserves a little rest, it's you.
"Just like Rabbit Boy. He died and the sun, or in this case, my family's star brought him back!"
"You know Rabbit Boy? Of course, you would. It seems that his blessing followed your friend here. He should wake up any time."
"Professors," Hr. Killian began coming back over and taking the flask from Evergreen's bedside table, "I think we ought to let Mr. Quandary get some rest before his dad comes over to take him for the break."
"Of course." Headmaster Washington-Frost said, with another of his glances of admiration toward Evergreen, his old, brown, wrinkly face still so full of zest.
It was for a few hours that Evergreen laid awake in bed. He found his wand laid out next to him on his bedside table and used a few spells just for show and just to pass the time. He noticed a tray of the splintered wood from the fake Habitatio's wand was kind of out there in the middle of the room. Some blood was also on the tray. He guessed that it made sense, when the wand exploded, some of the shrapnel would have naturally found purchase in Beatrice's neck, most likely. Ouch. Sorry about that, he thought, as he looked toward Beatrice, dozing peacefully.
He tried remembering a charm that he had heard one of his professors once use to get something from across the room. Even though he was advised against experimental magic, he tried a few pronunciations until he said accio. The tray flew toward his bed and landed just short of his feet. He sat up crisscrossed and did the only cleaning spell he knew on the tray to rid the shrapnel of the blood. He did a decent enough job, he thought. As he looked at the shards, he thought that the wand wood looked a lot like his. It was a little darker, but likely from the same family. He was sure that it was also made of cypress. He brushed the shards into the envelope that he remembered he had within his robe's pocket and hid the tray behind his headboard. He had all the writings from mom about wand lore that he got the previous winter. He figured that he could run a few experiments with the wand shards and see what happens.
After returning the envelope, resealed to his pile of clothes and other things, he heard Beatrice stirring. He turned around and saw her just as she was opening her eyes. He got out of bed carefully and sat in a chair that was by her side.
"Hey Beatrice. How are you?" he whispered.
"I don't know." She replied, rubbing her eyes. "I have been so rotten to you all year. Have you lost your mind? You went toe to toe with a fully trained wizard to save me?"
"I guess I was hoping it could be a sign of goodwill and no hard feelings." Evergreen replied, looking at his feet.
"Well, it was a sign of being stupid, that's for sure. But message received, thanks Evergreen and for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I've always had a better hand with animals than people."
"I'm sorry too. If I wasn't so distracted by my dislike for Swab, I may have seen something off sooner with Professor Habitatio."
"No chance." She replied with a laugh, "You're Glinda's kid, you have no choice but to see the good and the potential in everyone."
"So, I guess this means that our story has been entwined since before we were born, eh?"
"If Glinda's in trouble, I'd like to help, if possible. My ma owes her big time."
They continued their talk well into the night, at first hesitantly, but over time their words were freer. They talked about their experiences, their families, and their time at Ilvermorny. Beatrice had apparently been raised on a farm in Spearville, located in South Central Kansas and was able to kill and pluck a chicken, milk a cow and churn it into butter, and ride a horse all by the time she entered the public no-Maj elementary school she attended. She was the oldest of four and had all brothers. Her mom, Dorothy, was a witch but didn't know it until she went to Oz and accidentally killed the Wicked Witch of the East. Her Dad was someone who grew up with her mom in Liberal Kansas but moved when he was able to purchase a large piece of land across from the windmill farm.
When the sun came up, they didn't even notice that it had been several hours that they had been talking. Behind them they heard a frantic rustling in the sheets of one of the beds. It was Seta. He leapt up with great force and yelled out for no one in particular to stand and deliver. In no time, he realized that he wasn't wearing his outfit and he leapt back beneath the covers with shame. Evergreen and Beatrice didn't react to anything but his reaction because to them, he was a bunny. They found it quite funny.
Evergreen went back over to the bunny and handed him his tunic. When Seta slipped into it and fastened it properly, he leapt out right into Evergreen's arms.
"I thought I lost you, old friend."
"So did I." Seta replied, burying his twitching nose in Evergreen's pajama shirt. "How did I survive a killing curse?" he asked when he came up for air.
"Let's just say that magic older than civilization itself played a role." Evergreen said, locking eyes with the bunny, "I can't believe that you gave your life for me."
"Of course, I did. I love you, Evergreen."
"I love you too, Seta."
Preoccupied whistling startled them out of their moment, and they turned to see Beatrice who was sitting up and giving them a cheesy smile. Seta's face lit up when he saw her, and he hopped over to her. She looked slightly surprised and unsure what to say.
"You look just like your mother when she was your age. It was a year before she went to Ilvermorny after all that she went to Oz."
"You know my ma?" she asked, mystified.
"Of course not. My father showed me their pictures. It was years ago when she shrunk down to enter Bunnybury. Years before me."
At some point, Link and Diva woke up and Evergreen caught them up with the past events and they asked the lion's share of questions. Hr. Killian came in and checked everyone out and removed the salve from Beatrice's neck, showing a single black mark on her flesh, but she was otherwise unharmed. Apparently, when you get touched with a dark curse, even one unspoken, there are some marks that even magic cannot heal away. She accepted it straightaway and resolutely. They closed their curtains and changed back into their robes as they were cleared by Hr. Killian to leave the hospital room. They left with a new sense of camaraderie that didn't exist before. Startling occurrences tended to have that kind of effect.