The Healer | Part 3: The Survivors

Caught in Class

George

I don't know what I expected. It wasn't as if she had the book open in front of her right at that moment, waiting for an answer. She had been waiting for over a year to hear from me. It was a bit brazen of me to expect a reply right away.

I turned away from the book and located the kettle and Fred and I had kept in here to make tea. Even though I had been up all night, I wasn't as tired as I would have expected. I was full of adrenaline. Surely I was about to see her again.

I could sneak down to the shop and find an Up All Night Tablet, but those always tended to make me a bit giddier than I like. Plus, they only lasted a few hours. And, if Verity was still on staff, she always kept a strict inventory and would know something was missing.

Maybe I would take her out to breakfast. That sounded nice. Maybe she could take me back to wherever it was that she was living and I could convince her to take a nap with me. Then we would do whatever she wanted for the rest of the day. I could get us a room at the Leaky Cauldron for the night. That sounded really nice.

I smiled to myself as I poured a cup of tea. I was too excited to think about sleeping. I was feeling more hopeful than I had in months after reading all of her letters. Even though she was broken and I was still broken, I had a feeling that together, we could stand some sort of chance in this world.

Come to think of it, I probably shouldn't push sleeping together too hard. It had been a while. She might not be ready for it. I had been planning this for two weeks. But as far as I knew, she still had no idea I was even back in Britain.

I glanced down at the notebook where my messy words were still written. I sighed and closed the book. I wanted to know the second she wrote back and the book would only vibrate if it was closed. I started to pace the length of the workshop, hardly taking in any of my surroundings.

I could be waiting days, or even weeks for her to write back. It was foolish of me to expect a prompt reply, but I still hoped I'd hear from her at some point today. From what I could gather, she checked her book at least once every few days.

The workshop was exactly as we'd left it. I had noticed in my extremely brief visit to the flat that someone had at least tidied up since we'd all left it. But the workshop had been untouched. I was restless. I started gathering bits of old parchment and putting them in a bucket we used to burn our rubbish. There had never been much organization around here, but I needed something to do for the moment.

I put my mug of tea down and started clearing the two shelves on the far wall. It was incredibly dusty. Fred and I had never cleaned in the two years since we'd taken residence here.

'Scourgify!' My voice was hoarse, I hadn't spoken since leaving home yesterday afternoon.

Edith had always been better at cleaning magic than I was. She'd also always been after me to try and get better at it. My spell was decent, but it took two more to make the shelves actually clean. And even then, they weren't as clean as they would have been if Edith had done it.

I placed all the tools and instruments on the work table to try and figure out how I should sort them when the notebook clattered to life.

I lunged for it, my heart racing, and wrenched it open.

Is that all you have to say?

I could have literally jumped for joy at the sight of her writing on the page. She was there, somewhere, wherever she was. I had to find out. I had to see her.

Where are you?

Edith

I struggled to get going the next day. It had stayed up late trying to get all of my work done. In the end, I'd prioritized the classes I had that day, the classes I had later in the week would have to wait.