The Untold Story of RAB

The Hospital Wing

"Oh Merlin's Beard, she's awake!"

Diana opened her groggy eyes to see Margeret's concerned face looming over her.

Suddenly her bones felt like they were breaking all over again.

"Saoirse, you're going to kill her with that hug," Margeret snapped.

"Sorry," Saoirse said pitifully and pulled away.

"I need to sit up," Diana said, even though it hurt to speak.

"I don't think that's the best idea," Margeret said. Margeret who, always played mother of the group.

Diana gave her a look that said, "I'll do it with or without you."

Margeret nodded but pursed her lips slightly as she and Saoirse helped Diana ease up into a sitting position on the bed. Margeret stuffed about a million pillows behind her back for comfort.

Finally, Diana could look around. She was in the hospital wing. Rows of beds with some curtains drawn lined the wall. At the end of the wing, a large door that led to the rest of the castle and to its left on the wall a smaller door that led to Pomfrey's office. Diana's bed was against the side that had the tall windows, straining her neck to look she could see the sky was dark. The small wall sconces with their flickering candle light cast comforting shadows around the large hall.

"How long was I out?" Diana asked.

"About eight hours. It's supper time now," Saoirse said.

"I'll go tell Madame Pomfrey, you're awake," said Margeret.

"Thanks," Diana said, "and thank you guys for staying here you didn't have to."

"We most certainly did," said Saoirse, "the entire team was here and about half an hour ago Madame Pomfrey finally kicked them all out to have dinner. Ginerva has gone to get us all some."

Margeret excused herself to go find Madame Pomfrey.

Saoirse's voice got low, "even some of the Slytherin team came for a bit."

"Really?"

"Yup, the entire team, except Barty, that bastard. Anyways, it was rather good of them I think. Lucinda said she was very sorry you got hurt, and Regulus Black brought flowers on behalf of Slytherin," she nodded to the white flowers in a vase on the bedside table. "He said their camellias. He looked terrible, he kept clutching his chest like he was having a heart attack, it was the weirdest thing. Ginerva says that he almost fell off his broom right before she caught the snitch. Obviously not a very good quidditch player."

"Amazing! You're awake!" Ginerva exclaimed as she entered the hospital wing. "I'm so glad you're ok! She was carrying a large tray with four bowls of soup and a plate of bread which she set down on the bedside table.

Margeret returned with Madame Pomfrey who gave Diana a once over and prescribed another glass of Skele-Gro, an awful tasting potion that would mend her broken ribs.

Between mouthfuls of soup, Ginerva explained what happened after Diana had passed out. James and Sirius practically attacked Barty for his irresponsible playing. Mme. Hooch didn't take his broom because it technically wasn't foul play, more irresponsible play as she put it, so he was only given detentions. It is against the Quidditch rules to hit a Keeper.

Once the girls finished their dinners Diana was feeling exhausted. She hadn't mentioned her conversation with Sirius but she'd bring that up later when she wasn't so tired. Margeret saw her drooping eyelids and small head shakes to keep herself awake. "We should go and let you get some sleep," Margeret said.

Ginerva and Saoirse mournfully agreed and after a long goodbye, they were all gone.

Diana's chest didn't hurt as much anymore. The cotton hospital pyjama set was very comfy and it didn't take long for her to doze off again.

"Diana."

Her eyes flickered open first seeing the large clock at the end of the hall which read midnight. She turned over to see who had called her. No one was there.

Odd, she thought to herself. But rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

"Diana."

The voice was clear and crisp like someone was in her ear. She jumped a bit causing herself to wince in pain. She whipped her head around looking for anyone else. The only other person in the hospital wing was a young Hufflepuff girl who'd sprained her ankle and was sleeping soundly at the very end of the hall.

"Diana."

"Who's there?" She called out quietly, trying not to wake the girl.

Nobody answered.

Probably just a Peeves, the school's poltergeist, trying to keep her from sleep.

"It's not Peeves."

At this she bolted up to sit on her bed, wincing again as she felt a sharp pain in her chest.

"Ow," the voice said and in that moment Diana realized the voice was in her head.

"What the hell," she thought, and then it dawned on her. Ever so slowly and with a lot of focus she said "Regulus?"

"Yes!" The voice said, or more accurately Regulus said.

Now that she was fully awake she could feel it. It felt as if, in her mind, she had gone into a telephone booth and had answered a call on the line.

"This is the mind bridge, I thought it hadn't worked," Diana said.

"Me too. Yesterday I went and got Snape to go and get some more books from the restricted section. I'm not allowed because I lost a library book last year and Madam Pince is no bullshit with punishments. Don't worry I got him to get a bunch of books on different topics so he won't get suspicious but he does want to borrow the book on legilimency and I don't want to draw attention to the work and act like I'm attached to the book so I don't have it for long. Anyways, my point, there's a chapter that goes into more depth about the mind bridge than the books in the regular library. It says that sometimes it can take a few days to set in even if it felt like it didn't work."

"That's great, I can't believe this worked so quickly. Now we can go to Dumbledore."

"Sometime this week, once you're out of the hospital. There's another thing though. The book- and I'm so sorry, Diana I had no idea, if I had I would never-" he rushed out all at once."

"Spit it out!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know but the book mentions later that the cost to the mind bridge is that you feel each other's pain. Anything from a papercut to a broken bone. I was so confused today about why I hurt so much after the game like someone had cracked open my chest. It's because of that."

Diana let this sink in. She swore mentally hoping Regulus wouldn't hear. "It's ok Regulus, you didn't know. Maybe it can be useful, we'll know when the other is in trouble." She tried to say it cheerily but the reality was hard to avoid.

"Is it just pain or when one person dies..." she asked hesitantly.

"No," he cut in, "when one of us dies then the tie will be severed. Until then the bridge stays up."

"Good." Diana hadn't entirely thought about that, which was stupid, she knew mind bridges were forever, the book had said so, but the reality was setting in. Luckily the bridge was a two-way door, one couldn't enter without the other's permission. Although like today, you could hear them calling to you if they needed.

There was a long pause before Regulus said "did you like the flowers?"

"Yes, they're beautiful."

"Goodnight, Diana."

"Goodnight, Regulus."

As Diana drifted to sleep again she felt the little door to each other's mind close shut, but it would never lock.