we go down together

Chapter Two

Ghost In The Machine - SZA, Phoebe Bridgers

~

It could have been minutes, seconds, hours, or days since Hadrian fell unconscious. He couldn't tell in his groggy state. He had woken up just a moment ago and could feel the ache of magic in every muscle and nerve.

He felt so much better. All the "growing pains" that he had felt for so many years were gone, his head felt clear instead of foggy, and he could feel his own magic coursing through his blood. He could remember things, the things he knew he was missing.

The memories of Weasley and Granger holding him still while Dumbledore violently went through his mind, the fear he felt when the older wizard pointed his wand straight at his forehead.

He remembered reading a Gringotts letter that informed him about the theft from his vaults and then Weasley walking in and snatching it from him. From there, he called Hermione in and told her to go get Dumbledore. He remembered thrashing about, trying to get out of Weasley's grasp before he was hit with a Petrificus Totalus. The same fear as the elder wand was pointed at him.

There were other uncovered memories, but his mind dive was interrupted by a swish of the curtains around his bed. For the first time since Hadrian woke up, he took in his surroundings. The place looked like a hospital, he was in a white bed and had been changed from his ritual robes. There was a curtain around his bed blocking him from seeing outside of them.

He could see the magic in the curtains, and also in the witch that had just walked in. "Greetings, Mr. Potter, I'm Marie Morgan, I'm a healer here at Gringotts. You're still in the bank, just in a separate section. We keep a hospital wing due to cases like yours, you'd be surprised how common rituals are here." She tapped her quill on her clipboard, "Anyways, Mr. Potter. I just have to ask you a few questions and then you'll have to take some potions. In a few hours, you should be on your way."

Hadrian nodded and sat up, groaning when a muscle in his leg twinged painfully. "Alright, do you know the date?"

"No ma'am, I have no clue how long I've been down." He rubbed the back of his neck, almost embarrassed by his lack of time management even though he'd been asleep and couldn't possibly be expected to know how long it'd been.

"It's only been three days, so it's August 5th, 1999. Can you try to stand and tell me if anything hurts?" The young healer wrote something on her paper, the quill scratching against the surface.

Hadrian nodded and threw the blanket off his legs, he was surprised to find that they were splattered with bruises. "A side effect of the ritual, I'm afraid. When they took off the physical growth block, you grew rapidly. Even with your magic, there was bound to be some sort of physical damage. Nothing permanent though, I've made sure of that."

"Oh.. okay, they shouldn't last long right?" He asked while moving his legs off the side of the bed and standing up, wobbling for a second before regaining his balance. The witch shook her head and noted something down again.

"Any noticeable pain?" She asked without looking up, still writing. Hadrian shook his head and wiggled his toes. He hadn't been able to feel them before the ritual, but now he could. He also noticed that he was a lot taller than he was before, he bet he would have been shorter than the healer before, who probably stood at 170cm, roughly 5'6". Now though, the raven could see the top of her head.

"Not much pain, only sore in my legs. Like if I'd just run for a long time." He stretched his arms above his head with a grimace, "My back too. How much did I grow?"

Healer Morgan smiled and turned away from her clipboard, snapping her fingers as a tape measure came flying from the bedside and started measuring him. "You were 168cm before, about 5 feet and 5 inches". And now..." She waited for the measure to stop, "180cm! About 5 feet 11 inches", so you've grown significantly. If those blocks had been taken off earlier in your life you probably would have been taller, but unfortunately they do have their permanent effects."