Almost

Chapter 35: Illvermorny

Any other day, Katherine would have been so excited to see the school that she would have hardly been able to tear her eyes away from the stone façade. Today, however, she had bigger worries. She spent all of her energy to simultaneously keep her magic anchored in her chest and race to keep up.

They'd entered the school through a fireplace in a large office Katherine assumed belonged to the headmaster. The man who had greeted them there, who had offered his name to no effect in Katherine's mind, kept a brisk pace as he led them through the maze of grey stone hallways. Finally, when Katherine was finally considering the structural effects of widening the grout in the stone pattern by a quarter of a centimeter just to make room to breathe, they came into a long corridor where Picquery stood.

The auror had on the navy suit Katherine knew he loved, but the white dress shirt was splashed with bright red streaks of blood.

"Headmaster Fontaine," he said with a quick nod to their guide before turning to Katherine.

"He's asking for you. Chris is getting the Crawleys here as we speak, but you two should have a few minutes."

"Picquery—" Hollinghunt started, but he shot her a look that yanked the words from her mouth.

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Angelina asked. Katherine couldn't offer anything more than a small shake of her head, unsure if her voice would come out or if magic would simply spill out if she opened her mouth.

Picquery held the door open and Katherine rushed inside. The room was long and narrow, with two neat rows of beds inside. Each had a divider for privacy, so she could only see the ends covered in folded burgundy blankets. In the furthest bed, next to a desk where a man in long grey robes was rifling through bottles, she could see that the blanket was askew, covering only one of two feet.

Without thinking, Katherine made her way to the bed. When she was nearly there, she managed to call out to him with a tight, contracted voice.

"Ezra—"

Her voice caught as she reached him, and she nearly doubled over as his warm, light brown eyes met hers. She didn't care what Hollinghunt would think, she dropped the disguise as she took control of her breathing and fought to keep calm. She sank to her knees by the side of his bed, clutching his hand tightly in hers and bringing it to her chest.

"What happened?" she asked, her free hand roaming up to push the hair from his face. It was flushed, covered in beads of sweat that made his waves damp and limp.

"I was in with Professor Jashem," he said, his voice strained.

"He's been stabbed," the wizard in the grey robes said, walking over with a tincture of pale purple liquid. "This should help."

"Angelina is with me," Katherine said to Crawley, who was trying to sit up in the bed. She put a hand behind his neck so he wouldn't have to strain. "We were at the Burrow."

"Is Hollinghunt with you still?" His eyes looked panicky and frantic, so she nodded quickly. With that assurance, he turned to watch the wizard drop bits of the liquid onto his other arm.

His face pinched as the liquid reached its destination, and Katherine thought she might never breathe again as she gave his injury a proper look. There was one long gash that seemed to be surrounded by a web of black veins near popping out of his skin.

"That's no normal knife," she said through gritted teeth as Crawley squeezed her hand again in pain. She kissed his fingers softly, wishing desperately that she could take the agony from him.

"What is that you've given him?" she asked the wizard returning to his desk.

"It's just for the pain," he replied. "Though I don't know how long it will work. We should really get you to the hospital—"