stardust ⋮ george weasley

forty-six :

F O R T Y - S I X

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Four days after the Third Triwizard Task, Adeline woke up. For a moment, Adeline couldn't understand why her right eye wasn't opening up. It took a few seconds for her left eye to flutter open, but all she could see out of her right eye was near darkness.

And then she remembered.

Memories from the graveyard came flooding back into her, and Adeline winced as she thought about everything she had gone through. Some things were still blurry but there were a few things that were clear. The murder of Karkaroff. The Cruciatus Curse. The gleaming silver knife in Pettigrew's hand – although she still didn't know who he was.

Lord Voldemort returning to power.

She couldn't find the strength to lift her body up, so Adeline laid resting in her bed. Near her, she could hear Madam Pomfrey quietly moving around, whispering to herself as she went through all her different potions and remedies.

Adeline had to the entire right side of her head completely on the pillow in order to get a good look at the rest of the hospital wing. It was completely empty except for Harry, who appeared to be awake and eating a Chocolate Frog. This would've been completely normal, but what confused Adeline was seeing a large dark dog sitting on the ground beside him.

Her voice croaky from not being used for the past couple of days, Adeline mumbled, "Since when did you have a dog?"

Harry looked up from the dog and his mouth dropped. It took Madam Pomfrey a few moments to realize that Adeline was actually awake. But when she did, she gasped quietly and ran over to her, quickly checking all of Adeline's vitals to make sure she was healthy, preventing Harry from asking anymore questions.

But when Madam Pomfrey had disappeared from the hospital wing to run and tell the professors that she was awake, Harry finally had an opportunity to ask, "How...how are you? Are you alright?"

Harry nearly slapped himself for how stupid of a question that was.

But as she laid her head flat back on the pillow, Adeline let out an awkward chuckle and answered, "I'm alive. I think that's all that matters right now. Things could be much worse."

"I'm so sorry for what happened in that graveyard. If I hadn't insisted you get the cup or you hadn't had come with me, none of this would've happened and–"

"You couldn't have prevented this," Adeline interjected, not wanting Harry to feel at all guilty for what happened. "The only people who could've prevented what happened to me was You-Know-Who and that man who...who did this to me. This wasn't your fault, Harry."

Adeline tried to not let her voice show how choked up she was starting to get over the partial loss of her vision. But Harry had been through enough that night and these past few years, and Adeline hated the thought of people worrying about her too much.

"I have the feeling I'm going to have to start trying even harder nowadays to find the positives in situations, even if they aren't too big," Adeline continued. "I think I found one for this. More so for you, but it's still a positive."

Confused, Harry asked, "What is it?"

"You're not the only one in Hogwarts anymore with a noticeable facial scar."

The dog began to bark as if it was laughing, and even Harry couldn't let out a small chuckle. It was the first time he had laughed in days, even if it was just a weak one. It made Harry think for a moment that everything was normal and okay, and he was just cracking jokes like he did with Ron and Hermione.