Delicate - eng version

The Hospital Wing

"Ding dong the witch is dead!" Myrtle sings out, her banshee-like voice echoing around the bathroom.

"Laura," I say, trying to keep the panic out of my voice, "Laura, can you hear me?"

With great difficulty, I kneel down onto the ground and turn her over very gently. She's so pale and freezing cold. I'm starting to think that Myrtle might be right.

"Wake up, Laura," I panic, "Please wake up..."

Myrtle cackles loudly. "She's dead!"

"Shut up!" I shout, "And go get some help!"

"I will not be spoken to like that in my bathroom!" she shrieks and flies through the wall to spread the joyous news that she will soon have a new roommate to terrorise the full-bladdered girls of Hogwarts with.

I don't even have my wand, I left it in my bag back in the greenhouse. Not that I'd even know what to do if I did have my wand.

"Please, Laura, please wake up!" I plead. I pull myself up off the ground, rush to the sink, fill a glass with water and pour it over her. She doesn't move. I can't feel a pulse. I run to the door of the bathroom, but the hallways are practically empty because everyone is in class. That is except for the one person in the school who doesn't feel the need to go to class anymore.

"James!" I cry, as I spot my cousin flying around the corridor on a scooter. Seriously, that's what he does when he should be in Potions. I don't even know where the hell he got a scooter.

"Alright Red!" he grins, speeding past me on the Muggle toy.

"James you have to help me!" I'm crying now from the panic and starting to get cramps in my stomach. He jumps off the scooter, which keeps going and crashes straight into the suit of armour at the end of the corridor, but James ignores it and runs towards me.

"Are you alright?" he asks, now looking just as panicked as me.

"It's Laura," I tell him and he frowns, "Come on!"

"I can't go in there!" he says, outraged, "Of all the girls' places I've been, the second floor bathroom is one I've never wanted to visit, thanks."

"James, NOW!" I shout, and try to ignore the pain that's now becoming worse. James reluctantly follows me into the bathroom and his brown eyes widen in shock when he sees Laura's motionless body lying at the end cubicle.

"Fuck, what happened?" he gasps and picks up the bottle that's still in Laura's hand, "Slimming Solution?"

I hadn't even read the label.

"We have to get her to the hospital wing," I say, my voice strained because of the cramp in my stomach. James picks Laura up with absolutely no trouble at all – it's as if she doesn't weigh anything.

"Shit, she's way too light," says James, hurrying to the door of the bathroom, "How the hell did she get hold of Slimming Solution?"

I shrug and rush after him up the stairs towards the hospital wing.

"Laura," James says softly as he half-runs, "C'mon Laura talk to me..."

The hospital wing is empty when we arrive. Madam Pomfrey rushes from her office as James lays Laura down on the first bed he finds.

"What on earth?"

"She's overdosed," I explain, breathing heavily like those antenatal books told me to, "on Slimming Solution."