The Wicked Walk On Every Side

Chapter 7

The noise of the Great Hall did nothing for Wolfbane's already shattered nerves. He tried to focus on his breathing as Aster led him by the hand, but the noise made his ears ring.

"I'm gonna grab Atropa, and then we can head back up to your dormitory to chill out, okay?" Aster said, looking back at him briefly before heading over to the Hufflepuff table.

As the two of them got closer to the Hufflepuff table, Atropa looked up and spotted them. She waved cheerily, before noticing that something was off (with her freaky twin-sense, Wolfbane thought to himself).

"What's up guys?" Atropa said, her voice practically dripping with worry.

Do I really look that bad? Or is it just the twin-sense? Wolfbane's inner voice said.

"Hey, 'Tropa. Wolfbane and I are going back up to his dorm for a quick little nap, and we were wondering whether you wanted to join us?" Aster said. They slipped a small note (When had they written that?) to Atropa, that read: I'll explain upstairs.

With a small nod, Atropa said, "Yeah! I could use a nap, myself." She stood up, and took Wolfbane's left hand.

In doing this, she placed her finger right over the open wound on Wolfbane's knuckle, causing him to jerk his hand away.

Fuck.

At the Ravenclaw table, Wolfbane's absence did not go unnoticed.

"Where the devil is he?" Maxentius grumbled, putting down his fork. "This is the second meal today that he's been late to."

"Maybe he got detention?" Mordecai said through a mouthful of food. Maxentius grimaced and handed the first-year a napkin.

"I highly doubt-" Just as Maxentius was about to finish his statement, he spotted a familiar someone.

"I see him," Maxentius finished with a slight sigh. It wasn't an annoyed sigh, more of an 'I'm concerned for you, but still a little ticked that you haven't really been present for meals' sigh.

Mordecai poked at Maxentius' shoulder. Neither of them were interested in their meals anymore.

"We should go see what's up," Mordecai said, a frown twisting at his youthful facial features.

"Yes, let's."

Ryot watched from his seat as the pale guy and the blue-haired first year stood and walked over to Wolfbane, Atropa and the other Hufflepuff. If he was being honest with himself, Ryot would definitely say that Wolfbane did not look well at all. The guy looked pale and like he was about to pass out.

With that observation, Ryot stood and began to walk over to the small congregation.

"Where are you going, Ryot?" one of the older Gryffindors (was her name Abbey?) called after him.

"I, uh, forgot something up in the dorm?" Ryot said awkwardly. For all the charm he had normally, when it came to lying, Ryot had none. Therefore, he would have made an awful Slytherin.

Abbey (if that even was her name. Ryot had barely met this girl the night before when she showed him around the Common Room) gave him a skeptical look, but left it at that.

With a sigh of relief, Ryot turned back around and trotted over to the group, who was already halfway out of the Great Hall.

"Hey, guys, wait up!"

Wolfbane, who was still holding onto Aster's hand, turned around to see who was shouting. He was met with the flashing yellow eyes that could only belong to Ryot.

The small quintet slowed their pace so that Ryot could catch up with them. Maxentius' upper lip curled slightly when he saw who was approaching them.

"Ah, the stray Gryffindor. How may we be of service?" Maxentius said, his voice dipping into a slow drawl.

Ryot gave him a confused once over before responding. "Wolfbane didn't look like he was doing so good, is all, and I'm worried about him."

Wolfbane took this moment to look directly at Ryot. If his heart was physically able, it would let out a strangled, wounded noise.

"Don't worry about me, Ryot," Wolfbane said, sounding like he was about to shake right out of his skin.

At this, Ryot let out a 'fake' wounded noise, which wasn't really fake, but nobody was asking.

"Of course I'm gonna worry about you, Wolfbane," He said (which made Maxentius' upper lip curl even further), "We're friends, right?" (Maxentius had to fight to restrain an indignant huff), "Friends worry about each other."

This alone was almost enough to set Wolfbane into another round of tears.

Get it together, Wolfbane mentally berated himself, Stop being so weepy!

Wolfbane sniffed.

"Yeah," He said with a small, rueful smile, "Anyway, I'm just really tired, so we were just heading back to the dorms so I could catch a quick nap."

Wolfbane knew that this half-lie had a million holes in it, but attacks always did take it out of him, and he was truly tired. Plus, he needed to bandage his hand before he got an infection.

"Okay," Ryot said, not sounding convinced at all, "Well, I'll see you later?"

"For sure," Wolfbane answered with a weary smile and a nod.

Ryot gave him an answering nod and a smile, then left back down the corridor with a small wave over his shoulder.

Everyone, even Mordecai, had been completely silent throughout Wolfbane and Ryot's interaction.

Aster stroked their thumb over the back of Wolfbane's hand in a familiar and comforting gesture.

"Let's go, Wolfy."

By the time the quintet reached the dorms, Maxentius had to help Aster hold Wolfbane, whose eyes were getting harder and harder to keep open, so that they could get into the Common Room without trouble.

"Come on, Wolfy," whispered Atropa, holding open the door to Maxentius and Wolfbane's room.

Mordecai zoomed in like a bat out of hell and flopped down on Maxentius' bed, which earned him a fond eye rolling from the pale older boy.

"Mordecai, if you reach into the top drawer of my bedside table, you'll find some chocolate bars. Can you grab those for me?" Maxentius asked, his voice going a tad higher and a tad sweeter for the first-year.

"Yeah, Max, I got it!" Mordecai said. The nickname made Maxentius heave another great bemused theatrical sigh. Only Mordecai would ever be allowed to call Maxentius that.

Aster and Atropa worked on laying Wolfbane down in his bed and wrapping him in the quilt. After they were done, the two sat on either side of Wolfbane.

"Don't go to sleep, yet. We still need to bandage your hand, plus I have some chocolate for you," Maxentius said, sitting gently on the bed with two bandages and several bars of high quality chocolate.

Wolfbane made grabby hands at the chocolate, but Maxentius scooched them out of the way. "Not before your bandages, Wolfbane."

Wolfbane gave Maxentius a joking (though not really) pout, which made the other three laugh at Wolfbane's antics.

Maxentius made a motherly tutting noise as he bandaged Wolfbane's hand, and then finally handed over the chocolate. Mordecai managed to weasel a few pieces from Wolfbane, but only a few.

After that, the five of them all piled together and fell asleep. So what if they missed a few classes? Wolfbane was more important to them.