Crossroads of Two Worlds

26- Happy Endings Exist

Kaley POV

As I was hugging my brother I noticed something. My arm didn't hurt. 

Unless I was hallucinating the entire fight with the demons and the severity of my injury, my opinion would be that it should not be healed yet. Even the most talented of healers take at least two days to heal a cut like that. I would know, I have done research on healing. So why wasn't I in pain?

I leaned back from my brother, "Why am I not in pain? I remember the attack and fighting with Rose and Alana... and I remember getting really badly injured. Alana said it was pretty bad, so it shouldn't be healed by now."

I rolled up my shirt sleeve and gaped at the long white scar on my upper arm where the cut had been. I remembered being able to see bone after I'd been cut, so it really was amazing that the scar wasn't worse. 

Noah smiled, "You have Alana to thank for that. Basically, what happened is that she got really angry, and then all of these rays of sunlight just burst from her body, and the demons exploded into dust, which hopefully has been cleaned up since then. When she let out all of that sunlight, it hit all of us who had been injured and completely healed everyone. Since it was a demon that caused all of our injuries, we were all left with scars, but otherwise healed. Unfortunately, she can't heal herself. So she's in here too, with a nasty to-be scar on her leg."

I gasped, "She's hurt? Let me see her!"

Noah stopped me from climbing out of the bed, "No, Kaley, you can't see her."

"Why not?!"

"She's... in a delicate state. No one is allowed to see her, not just you."

"Screw that! Alana is the least delicate person I know!"

I began cursing in about every language I knew but eventually, my brother had enough. 

"KALEY! She is hurt really bad and she released too much energy to kill all of those demons. Basically, right now she is... asleep, and she looks really bad. She shouldn't be there for too much longer but we need to leave her be so she can fully recover on her own."

I sighed, imagining my strong, outgoing, beautiful friend stuck inside her own mind because she didn't have enough energy to wake up. She would hate it. But the sooner she could wake up, the sooner I'd get to pester her again for trying to sacrifice herself for the greater good of Hogwarts. Selfless weirdo. 

"Well at least she won't like it. She hates being stuck anywhere, so no doubt she'll bust free of that coma soon."

Noah chuckled, patting my shoulder, "I don't think that's how it works, sister."

I shrugged, "I don't think Alana will care how it works."

"Well you're dang right about that! Did she ever tell you about when she turned my hair and skin blue for over a week?"

I gasped, "That was you?!?  Wonderful! She didn't tell me who she'd done it to, but that is truly genius."

"She's strong, Kaley."

"I know she is."

Rose's POV

I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner alone for days. 

It felt so strange to not have Kaley and Alana sitting next to me, making fun of me and other people around us. I felt... empty. There was no other way to describe it. Yes, I had only known the two girls for the better part of one school year, and yes they were both different from me and from each other. But I loved them. 

It took Kaley two days to wake up and another three to fully recover enough to get out of bed at the hospital wing. Alana was still in a coma and we didn't know how long it would take until she wasn't. I had visited both of them but whenever I left, the empty feeling returned. I had gotten far too used to their presence. The constant aura of laughter and fun that swarmed around the three of us was intoxicating, and I must have gotten addicted to it because this surely felt like withdrawal symptoms. 

The other Hogwarts students had been sent home for two weeks so the school could get cleaned up and then when they all came back it would basically be time for exams. I wasn't like my mother so much that I looked forward to exams. But I did miss the constant buzz of life at the school. 

Professor McGonagall put me to work while I was waiting for my two best friends to get well enough to leave the school. I was the one who cleaned all of the dust/exploded demons from the floor of the Great Hall and fixed the windows. It took me a whole two days, even with magic. The work distracted me from my sad reality but not all the time.

So here I sat in the Great Hall once again, eating breakfast alone.

Until I heard someone walking in.

I turned my head to see my two best friends walking arm in arm, Kaley holding Alana upright, walking towards me. And I started bawling. 

I rushed to embrace the two of them, abandoning my meal that had grown cold already. Alana had a bright smile on her face despite the fact that she could barely walk, and Kaley had glimmers of laughter in her blue eyes. Now this, this was familiar.

I gathered them both in my arms and we put our heads together, holding hands across each others' backs, determined never to let go. 

Even when I eventually let go and stepped back, I could feel that hole in my heart filling up each moment I gazed at my best friends. 

Alana ruined the beautiful moment by asking skeptically, "How on earth were you the only one who escaped uninjured? You're the clumsiest person I know!"

I shrugged, "Pure luck."

And for the first time in what seemed like weeks, laughter filled the air of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.