Treacherous - Theodore Nott

Chapter Twenty Five

"Out of focus, eye to eye
           'til the gravity's too much"
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A dull throb encircling my whole body is the first thing I feel.
I can't hear, I can't see. I can only feel the consistent throb and a sharp pain near my abdomen.

I groan and twist into myself, pulling my legs closer to my chest in a fetal position.

Slowly, a distant chatter makes its way to my ears. It sounds like it's getting closer.

"Shhh don't wake her up!" a girl hisses, sounding far away.

"Blimey, I'm just glad she's alive," a boy chokes back dramatically.

I'm suddenly aware that I can't see because my eyes are closed. It occurs to me that I should open them.

A light layer of crust holds my eyelids together, but a small amount of effort lets me crack them open.

"I told you you'd wake her up," the girl seethes. I see a fuzzy outline of her slapping the person next to her's arm.

"Astoria?" I ask.

Or at least, I try to. The word comes out hoarse and cracked, certain syllables not even taking form in my throat.

"Astoria," I try again, this time slightly better.

The figures around the bed slowly begin to take form as my eyes adjust to the light. I take them in as much as I can without moving my head.

"Madame Pomfrey! She's awake," Astoria yells, urgency in her voice.

"Hush now, you'll wake the other patients!" Draco mocks pompously.

I realize it had been he and Astoria I had heard an exchange between as she slaps him arm a second time.

Blaise, Lorenzo, and Mattheo stand behind them, looking at me cautiously.

"Did we win?" I ask.

"What?" Astoria responds, confused as ever.

"The quidditch match, did we win?"

Astoria's mouth drops to an "O" shape and the boys chuckle behind her.

"Violet Alpheratz you have been passed out in the hospital wing for three days and you have the nerve to-"

"We won," Blaise cuts in, smirking. "They messed up knocking you out like that- gave us all a new purpose for winning. We wiped the floor with them."

I grin at him, but it slowly fades as Astoria's words settle in.

"I've been asleep for three days? What happened? The last thing I remember is doing that fake out with Theodore."

Saying his name aloud makes me cringe, and I take a mental note of his absence in the hospital room.

"Peakes hit a bludger right at you. Hard and not from very far away. Looked like he had some personal vendetta to settle or something." Draco said.

"We, of course, repaid the favor," Mattheo interjected, looking very proud of himself.

I smiled up at him and saluted. "Thank you for defending my honor, kind sir."

He grinned back.

"So have you guys just been waiting by my bedside for three whole days?" I asked smugly.

"We all just got back from class actually, we've only been here maybe five minutes. Your timing was impeccable," Astoria explains.

"My voice must have woken her, she missed me too much," Draco shakes his head solemnly.