The Founders

Chapter 28

The rest of the week passed in a blur of homework and frost-bitten ankles. Kyra spent most break times standing in the courtyard with Grace under a portico, shivering. Grace didn't complain or ask whether Kyra would rather go into the great hall with everyone else. In fact, they barely spoke. Kyra spent the minutes watching the water in the central fountain form ice traceries of lace-like patterns, the jet of water forced into a scythe of ice.

At lunch time, Kyra would quickly grab a few slices of bread, and maybe some soup, and would leave quickly for her dormitory. It was still difficult to swallow food, so sometimes she could only drink tea. In lessons, she said little. She didn't go near her greenhouse, even avoiding the flagstone path when going to Herbology.

Before her next DADA lesson, she had gone to the staff room and asked to see Professor Brockett; Brockett had grudgingly allowed Kyra to switch partners away from Alexander. Kyra had stubbornly refused to give Brockett an indication why. It was both too ridiculous and too serious to allow explanation, and Kyra couldn't bear to give the situation wings by speaking it. Some selfish part of her had also realised that she would be blamed for growing the plants. Well. They were gone, now.

She still hadn't told Oscar and Kat. She didn't think she could physically get the words out again, especially when she didn't know what to say, or how to explain it. They were confused and being around them felt painful, so Kyra did her best to avoid them.

For a few weeks, Kyra just felt numb. Washing her hair was an effort, as was eating or going to the toilet. She completely stopped doing homework.

On the morning of their last week, she woke up feeling strange. She frowned, raising a hand to her chest and feeling along her collarbone. Standing up, she left Grace asleep in bed, lying in a square of wintry sunlight, to switch the shower in the bathroom on hot.

The mirrors became steamed up as Kyra brushed her teeth and when she stepped into the shower, the hot water felt like a shock of white-cold pain on her skin. She shivered, the coldness running off her in rivulets like the water itself. She scrubbed shampoo into her scalp, feeling crusted grease and dirt wash away down the drain. She picked the dirt from under each fingernail, letting the water run in scalding waves down her back.

When she stepped out of the shower again, her skin very pink and warm, a faint shiver of a cold draught on her legs, she used her hand to squeak a path across the mirror. For a moment, she was shocked. Her skin actually looked warm, and her lips had colour in them, and her hair fell in clean tangles around her face. The necklace of bruises had faded to the blue memory of a rope.

Grace woke up as she came back into their bedroom, wrapped in a towel, and pulled some clean robes out of the wardrobe. Kyra gave Grace a small smile as she moved back into the bathroom.

As Kyra was leaning over the dresser beside her bed, packing her bag, she felt Grace wrap her arms around her from behind, and let out a small, dry sob, head buried between Kyra's shoulder-blades. Kyra straightened up, folding Grace's arms into hers and then turned around to hug her tightly. They stood like that for a few moments, shaking, until Grace laughed and pulled back, wiping at her eyes. She quickly pulled on some warm clothes and they walked up to the breakfast hall together.

"It's a nice day today," Kyra offered with effort as they passed through the entrance hall. White light fell through the high windows in shafts, filling the air with gilded motes. The small door set into the great doors was propped open, letting in freezing air, and outside, sunlight glanced off the blanket of snow in dazzling sparkles and the sky was a pure cobalt blue, stretching out behind the mountains. There was a chill, Alpine feel to the day.

Grace turned to give Kyra a smile. "Perfect quidditch conditions," she replied with a wink.

Kyra gave a half-hearted groan. In truth, she didn't much care if she had to sit in the stands, freezing. "No thanks."