Spellbind

28. A Love [You] Won't Receive

Niyla POV:

How incredibly insane and desperate — in wanting to hope that the beast would accept my death and Krum's and Fred's wounds, as enough to calm down — must I have been? Surrendering to the dragon was all I had left, at any attempt to try and keep them from further harm. I wonder...Why is it, I feel that trying to protect someone feels like something I shouldn't be so willing to do? And yet, in the face of any danger, it's instinct to pretend to be a protector. Pretend...Because, I know I would never be viewed as one.

A single nightmare, not a dream — no dream would ever be so unpleasant. My skin was ice-cold, like being submerged in the Black Lake on the coldest day of the year. There was no air, no matter how much I focused on finding it. I was trying to remember — it seemed, something I hadn't thought about in years — something far beyond the time I started living with my father Remus Lupin. But the more I tried to remember, the faster it stubbornly slipped from my mind; and only added to the aching throbs in my head.

A single name was all I could pull from my deep subconsciousness. But just as quickly as I recalled it, it was gone.

"A name..." I thought, feeling the tugs of myself swimming out of the cold nightmare.

"A name...What name?...Something with 'Lace'...no...That didn't seem right...A...liss—"

"N-Niyla?" an indistinct voice called out.

I sprang upright, eyes widened with unmistakable confusion. I frantically looked around to find out where I was. For a short fraction, an obstruction of a wooden house clouded my vision, at every stoned wall I found. I winced, holding my head from a sudden twinge in the center of my forehead. I panted, shuddering from the nightmare I was pulled from.

"It's okay," the voice that had woken me up soothed. "You're in the hospital wing at Hogwarts."

"Hermione?" I blinked rapidly, taking her in.

She wasn't in her school robes — as most tend not to do on weekends. The cavernous concrete room was lit by candlelight, so I knew it had to be well past evening. She shifted in a plush chair to get a better look at my gaze, a solicitous touch to her own.

"Did I wake you?" She asked gently. "You were saying something, so I thought you might have been waking up."

"I...was talking in my sleep?" I flushed. "What was I saying?"

Granger shrugged. "Something about Alice, I think? Is, that a friend?"

I shook my head. "I don't know anyone named Alice..."

"Oh. Strange, maybe I misheard."

"Fred?" I started looking around again.

"He's okay; he's sleeping over there," she pointed.

He was on the other side of the room. Remembering his secret, I felt my stomach plunge.

"What happened to him? What happened after I...Where's Krum?" I questioned, never taking my eyes off Fred until Granger was done talking.

"Krum's fine too," she assured me in a lowered voice. "He's back on his school's ship in the Black Lake. He and Fred got pretty bad burns, but they're going to be okay. The dragon tamers were able to get in the arena after it...tried to burn you. It did but, you healed miraculously; Madam Pomfrey's healing serum helped to fix you too. Oh..." she paused, the look in her eyes was filled strangely with regret, but also sympathy.

"Angelina Johnson was sent home for a few days. And I heard Ron Weasley's parents pleaded with Professor Dumbledore to let him return home for the weekend."