The Stirring

11 Skele-Gro

Róisín inhaled her lunch of creamy mashed potatoes and roast chicken before hurrying through the castle to see if Anna had woken. She paused at the entrance to the hospital wing and peaked through the glass in the doors. Inside, the marble floor twinkled in the cold winter light. It looks like heaven. Alarmed by the thought, she strained against the huge, teak doors, suddenly more desperate than ever to see Anna. She squinted as she stepped into the light and dashed across the wing, her footsteps smacking against the stone and echoing off the high ceiling.

Anna was sitting up with pillows behind her back, reading the note Róisín had left that morning. Róisín had wrote that she loved her and would come to check on her every few hours. Anna looked up and a smile lit her pretty face at the sight of Róisín, just as Róisín felt her own smile burst across her lips. Róisín made to hug her friend, but stopped herself and instead reached out to squeeze her hand gently. Anna returned the gesture.

"I-" It felt like a snitch was stuck in Róisín's throat. "I don't know what to say."

"It's ok." Anna's voice was soft and hoarse but her big blue eyes shone with warmth.

"I am so sorry." Róisín tasted a drop of salt on her lips. "I can't believe what happened, I will never forgive my-"

"-Stop," Anna cut her off. "It was not your fault. I know you would never hurt me."

"But I did hurt you! You almost died!" Róisín felt tears race wet trails down her cheeks.

"You would never purposely hurt me," Anna said forcefully, her voice becoming more normal, "and besides, it's that git Snape's fault, I'd probably be fine if he wasn't so bloody good at every bleedin' dark spell ever invented." Róisín gave a light snort despite her tears.

"Madam Pomfrey told me what happened," Anna continued, giving Róisín's hand another squeeze, "and I forgive you, Róisín, even though there's nothing to forgive-"

"- Of course there's something to forgive! I flung you against a wall for Christ's sake!"

"You were cursed at the time!"

The two girls stared at each other stubbornly. Róisín pulled up a stool to sit beside Anna's cot.

"I'm still never going to forgive myself," she muttered childishly, although she couldn't help smiling with relief. Anna was awake and had forgiven her. It felt like she'd been pulled in from an icy storm and wrapped in a warm blanket.

"Tell me everything that happened." Anna's round eyes glittered with mischief. "Madam Pomfrey said that Lupin sent his patronus to tell her. Is that true? What form did it take?"

"Em, I don't remember much, I think I had a kind of panic attack when I saw what I had done." Anna's eyebrows angled upwards with concern. "Oh, for Merlin's sake, don't you feel sorry for me, it's bad enough you forgave me so quickly for almost killing you," Róisín scolded.

Anna rolled her eyes to heaven. "But did Lupin seem, you know, concerned that I was hurt?"

"Well of course he did, his student almost died!" Róisín said. Anna was clearly making light of the situation to make her feel better.

Róisín filled her friend in on what she had missed while she was recovering. She told her about yesterday's transfiguration class where they learnt how to transfigure their partner's robes into muggle clothes and they both laughed when she described how the Hufflepuff Martin Brown had accidentally vanished Roman Jacquet's robes instead of transfiguring them.

"I hope he wasn't too embarrassed," Anna said in-between giggles.

"Not at all," Róisín assured her, "to be honest I think he was happy, he knows he's gorgeous."

She told her about their potions lesson earlier that day, even though Anna didn't take that class. Anna's mouth popped open when she heard how Snape told Angelina to cast incendio on him, and widened further when she learnt that he made them test the potion on each other. Róisín desperately wanted to discuss the crazy sióg business with Anna, but she knew she couldn't. She didn't even mention how Snape had prevented her from casting incendio or how she had ruined her essay, unsure of whether it would trigger the tongue-tying curse.

"So, what's going on with you and Eóghan?" Anna asked eagerly.

"Eh..." It was as if Róisín had forgotten how to speak. She moved her lips over her teeth and flexed her tongue but she could not make a sound. Anna gave her a funny look and Róisín coughed noisily. "Sorry, em, something caught in my throat," she lied as Anna cast Aguamenti into a glass for her. Róisín drank the water down in one go while she tried to think of an excuse to change topic, but she was saved by Madam Pomfrey whisking towards them. The matron's grey curly hair bounced beneath her starched nurse's cap. She was holding a bottle made from yellowed bones.

"Good Afternoon, girls," she greeted while checking Anna's pulse. She poured a large glass of what looked like milk from the bottle and handed it to Anna. Anna's eyes squinted with disgust as she forced the liquid down.

"Ugh, that's like rotten milk mixed with cheap firewhiskey," Anna spluttered.

"Not a flavour you should be familiar with Miss Battworth," the matron tut-tutted.

Anna winked at Róisín, but groaned when she saw Madam Pomfrey pour another glass of the white potion.

"You have to finish the bottle, and the sooner the better, so I would start getting used to it." Anna began to protest but the matron continued, "Your pelvis and collarbones were pulverised beyond repair. I had to vanish and regrow them." She looked at Anna sternly, as if it had been her fault. Róisín squirmed on her stool. She remembered the sight of Anna's crumbled body on the classroom floor, all strange angles and deathly still. The memory was full of such exquisite detail that it must have been scraped onto the inside of her skull. She was not surprised that Anna needed a full bottle of Skele-Gro.

Madam Pomfrey continued fussing over Anna like a cat grooming her kittens, full of purpose and with little affection. She checked her temperature, flexed her arms, shoulders and legs, and waved her wand in seemingly random shapes in the air above her.

"While you slept, I gave you half a bottle of Skele-Gro with a skin absorption spell, but you still need plenty more," she explained. Róisín watched Anna's features twist with pain as the nurse palpated her neck. "In fact, I've ordered another bottle just for you." Anna grimaced at the news.

Róisín was partly glad when five minutes later Madam Pomfrey shooed her from the wing, muttering about dangerous school curricula and the essentiality of sleep for bone regrowth. She had been worried that Anna would ask about Eóghan again and could not think of how to reply. In fact, the tongue-tying curse could also get her in trouble if the matron asked how she'd been feeling recently. She would have to beg her professors to lift the curse in their meeting that evening.