Hospital Wing
Typical hospital wing. The matron here, Madame Pomfrey,
can mend almost anything in an instant, though beds have been set up for
prolonged stays.
A strangled sounding shout is issued forth from Harry. He
lays there in bed, eyes wide open, staring upwards at the ceiling. He's gone
rigid with cold sweat beading across his forehead. It takes a few moments for
him to realize that he's safe and sound within the hospital wing. The dream
felt so real. He could feel those cords binding him to the headstone and Wormtail's knife piercing his arm once again. He doesn't
even realize he shouted out loud as he lays there.
The shout tears into some rather bad dreams themselves,
waking Cho with a start that causes her to grasp the side of her bed lightly as
if she was expecting to fall from it. What? What was that? She blinks in the
marginal darkness, trying to recall where she is. Not her room in the Ravenclaw
dorms, that's quickly noticeable. For one, there's a girl in her dorm who
breathes excessively loud. It takes a few moments, then it registers. Hospital
Wing. With.. Harry. She pushes herself up in the bed, swinging her feet over
the side. "Harry?" she calls out softly, just in case the shout was
part of her dream and he's not awake.
Harry lays there stiff as a board for a few moments
longer before he shakily raises a hand to wipe at his forehead. Get a grip
Potter.. it was just a nasty horrible recollection, a memory he'd like wiped
from his mind for good. It takes a few moments more before it registers that
he's not alone and someone called his name. Who..? Oh yeah.. how could it slip
his mind? "... yeah..?"
Cho stays seated where she is, hands touching the edge of
the small bed. "Are you all right?" she asks in the same soft voice,
a little rasped, as she's just woken up and she could really use a glass of
water before she should try speaking. "You.. I thought I heard you
shout." It did sound sort of like him, a boy's voice, most assuredly. But
there's no reason it couldn't be part of her dream, though it would be an odd
coincidence, considering they are both awake.
Harry colors a bit, he shouted? Least it wasn't in the
Gryffindor dorm surrounded by other boys, but still this is embarrassing.
".. uh.. yeah.. m'fine." Really, he's only
just disoriented, that's all kids. There's nothing to see here move along.
".. I don't remember shouting."
Cho doesn't really see the blush, as it's rather dark and
the color receptors of the brain don't function well in low light conditions.
She continues to stay seated up. "Were.. were you having a bad
dream?" She asks in a sympathetic voice. She knows how that can be. And
it's extremely understandable that he would be having bad dreams.
Harry doesn't want to admit that he was having a bad
dream. He already feels like a small child about it. "... not
really.." He forces himself to sit up and fumbles at the bedside table for
his glasses. Finding them, he places them on his face. As the room comes into
focus he adds, ".. just the usual."
Cho didn't mean to make him feel like a child about it,
but the entire use of 'bad dream' does sound a little childish, doesn't it? She
stays where she is, watching him move around, then she nods. "I
understand. If you.. want to talk about anything.." she shrugs lightly.
"If it might help.." She trails off, not really sure what to say. She
did just wake up, so it's not as if her mind is functioning at a coherent
conversation level.
Harry feels like a child all on his own in regards to
this sort of thing. ".. It was about /that/ night." He's not sure if
you want to hear it. It's incredibly disturbing and it makes him want to dry
heave thinking that someone claiming to be a friend of his parent's had a part
in it. ".. yeah.. it might help.."
Cho doesn't need to ask what night he's talking about. He
has a lot of them that could induce nightmares, sure; a good many more than
most people have to experience no doubt, but... she doesn't even second think
about what night he might mean. She takes a slow breath, then nods. "If--
if it'll help.." She has to clear her throat now, the sudden tightness
making it difficult to form words even through the rasped-ness. "I-- I'm
willing to.. listen." There, she said it. But does she really want to hear
it? She's not even sure if she does... but it might be something she needs to
hear.
Harry hardly thinks it's fair that the cross he has to
bear is a crushing one. However as disturbing as it is, it's still preferable
to living that lie under the Dursley's roof. "..
it was after Cedric.." Oh jeez.. can he really talk of this out loud?
Getting started is always the hardest part. ".. Voldemort
had me.. tied against a headstone." He closes his eyes, but the scene
comes back vividly to mind, so he opens them again, "One of the Death
Eaters sliced open my arm to take some of my blood to bring him back." He
doesn't mention the name upon the headstone, nor the Death Eater in particular.
Just a short summarization is gruesome enough.
Cho listens silently, not even making a sound as he mentions
Cedric. If the light was better he might be able to see subtle changes in her
expression and the tightening of her hands on the edge of the mattress. The
mention of Voldemort's name causes her to move a bit,
the bed squeaking gently under her. "Oh." is the first thing she
says, voice touched with pain, though not pain for her really. "So that--
Harry.. I'm so sorry." What else can she really say?
Harry manages a faint shrug. ".. nothing to be sorry
about. No way around it really." Death Eaters were surrounding the entire
graveyard, he couldn't rightly fight his way out. Not to mention he wasn't in a
right frame of mind after witnessing Cedric being murdered like
that. He sighs deeply and looks around the room.
Cho sits there a bit awkwardly. She isn't really used to
having friends with problems of this magnitude. Generally it's just 'Oh no, my
cat ran away' or 'My mom won't buy me a Cleansweep!'
Her friends tend to have fairly minor and rather silly things that they seek
comfortable about. Now she has an idea what her friends were feeling trying to
figure out what to say around her all year... Finally she slides down from the
bed, slowly, as if unsure if her legs will move quite right at first. She
doesn't fall over, so there's a good sign.
Harry knows how to block out those sorts of 'problems'.
He's had to listen to a spoiled cousin whine, wheedle, cry and throw tantrums
because he may not have gotten exactly what he wanted. He looks over as you get
up from bed. He's even been tiptoeing around you. He wasn't sure if you blamed
him over the event. Some students seem to be doing so. Staying still a few more
minutes, he kicks himself into action. As much as he wants to just lay there
and dwell, it's not going to do him any good. It's probably safe to assume we
can leave now. He pulls his wand out from under his pillow and finds his shoes.
He has to catch himself as he starts to ask where his broom went.. oh yeah.. Hehehe. *Grr*
Cho wishes that she could fix everything, but she knows
she can't. It hurts her too, hearing what happened to him after Cedric.. Even
just thinking about Cedric in that context makes her want to crawl into a
corner and curl up for a while. As she notices you start to get up, she bites
her lip a second, then says, "I wish there was something I could do.. to
help.." But she honestly can't think of anything. So instead she asks,
"Do you-- do you want me to walk you back to your common room?" Isn't
that generally the boy's question? Well, she /is/ a
higher year than him.
Harry slips his shoes on and blinks, ".. there's
little anyone can do to help.. Shouldn't I be asking YOU that?" He
honestly doesn't want to see what kind of reception he'll receive in
Cho laughs for a moment, reaching up to run a hand
through her hair. Perhaps it was something that he should have asked, but she
just had to say /something/. "You probably shouldn't wander around... but
then again the worst they could do is deduct points." They've already
taken their brooms! Can't get much worse than that! "But if you want to
walk me back, I won't argue." She grabs her own shoes and slips them on
carefully (and her feet are /extremely/ small, as he might notice), makes sure
she has her wand and everything else, then nods. Only thing missing is her
broom. Wai.
Harry blanches, ".. I think I've already lost
Gryffindor enough points so far, more than my first year." He's so pleased
about this. He stands up and nearly falls over. You didn't just.. Okay so maybe
the day is starting to look up a bit. "Alright then." Another look is
taken around the room. His wand is pocketed. Maybe he could go plead at Sirius
about his broom. Not that any good will come of it..
Cho smiles, "Look at the bright side, you've never
lost more points than Gryffindor has. Imagine ending the year with negative
points." So maybe it isn't quite that funny, but she seems to think so.
She tests out her legs again, walking a few steps. No falling on her face, so
she deems herself fit to leave the Hospital Wing. "I'm just going to leave
a note on the bed, for Madam Pomfrey. She doesn't like students
disappearing." And she'd likely like you disappearing even less
Harry groans outwardly, "Don't joke. I think
Professor Snape would love to try and get us that far. Which
shouldn't take too much work this year." And without Quidditch,
he's going to have to find a
Well, just don't go and try to wipe out the Dementors single-handedly.
Cho is tempted to say that, but decides against it. Don't want to give him any
ideas. She walks over to a place where paper is kept and scrawls a quick note,
then walks over and drops it onto her bed, after straightening the covers and
dusting hair off the pillow. Uhoh, she's neat.
"All right. Do you know where the Ravenclaw Common Room is?"
Gyack! Neat freak! "...
uh.. no clue.." He knows where Gryffindor is naturally and he knows where
Slytherin is.. he's a bad boy isn't he? Good idea, don't joke about him single-handedly
going after Dementors, he just might feel inclined to do something that stupid.
He tries to flatten down his hair by hand, and fails miserably at trying to get
it to lay flat.
Yup, neat freak. But on the bright side, she doesn't seem
to push her own cleaning morals on anyone else, because she doesn't even give a
second glance at his bed. Cho smiles lightly, "It's actually not too far
from yours. Just go as if you're going to your own House's room, and I'll tell
you when we need to go a different way."
Harry laughs.. "alright.. That should be easy enough
to recall.. and heeey.. are you spying on the Gryffindors to know that?" He manages a grin over his
shoulder as he heads towards the door.
Minerva has connected.
Cho shakes her head, smiling, "No. But it's not that
difficult to figure out the general area." Certain people, namely Filch,
tend to keep a rather close eye on that particular area. "We better get
going before Madam Pomfrey comes in and finds a reason to detain us."
Geee, I wonder why Filch would
want to keep an eye on the Gryffindors, it couldn't
be because of a few certain students, no never. Harry shakes his head,
"Why on earth would she want to detain us further? We're both fine
now." Aside from nasty dreams overnight, but that's a given.
Professor McGonagall returns to check on the status of
the students, hoping to find them in better health. "Madam Pomfrey says
that you are clear to go," she says, not sounding entirely convinced.
"So Potter, please try to stay out of trouble?" She shakes her head,
knowing it's futile.
Cho is smiling at Harry when the Professor appears. She
actually jumps, mouth opening in the start. Well, that clears up /that/
question. "She did? Oh, good." Then the note is probably useless. She
quickly moves over to the bed and picks up the note, folding it quickly in her
hands. Nothing to see here, move along. They weren't going to go ahead and
leave before they got word allowing them to do so, nope.
Harry nearly trips over his own two feet. Well it's nice
to get permission before sneaking off, eh Cho? ".. Alright
Professor." Never mind that he was about to set foot into the hallway and
looks quite guilty suddenly. "I DO try to stay out of trouble, it just
knows how to find me. We'll just be on our way then." What on earth could
possibly happen now anyway?
Professor McGonagall doesn't want to THINK about what
could possibly happen next. So far Quidditch has been canceled and Hogsmeade
visits limited. Not much else to do from there. "anything suspicious at
all, I want you to come and find me." She says, suddenly stern once again.
"And if you see Mr. Malfoy..." No, she'll leave him to Snape. She's
sure that Professor Flitwick won't deduct
points...but, hmmm. "Try the library. Nothing possibly could happen to you
there." Wishful thinking. Well, back to the office and hope that she can
find Professor Major.
Cho gives Harry an odd look, one of those 'trouble
certainly does seem to come to you whether you like it or not' looks, then nods
to the Professor. "Harry was just going to walk me back to my Common Room.
I... think I'd like to get a bit more sleep in my own bed." Nothing against
the beds in here, but there's just something about a familiar bed. But she does
nod a bit at the uncontained 'if you see Mr. Malfoy'. Even if it isn't
finished, she has every mind to keep an eye out for him. Got questions for the
blonde seeker.
Harry looks up at Professor McGonagall as innocently as
possible, "Well there are those books that bite. I supposed we could
create some mischief with that. Just kidding Professor." He has no
intention of talking to Malfoy if it can be helped. "After you Cho."
The door is held open for the elder girl. o O ( What
is there to do after that? I don't quite feel like sleeping. )
Professor McGonagall raises her eyebrows. Since when does
Harry know where the Ravenclaw common room is? Never mind... Better not to ask.
Instead she nods slightly at Cho, "Of course you do." She frowns
slightly at Harry's joke, then steps over to the door. "I'll hold it. Get
along, you two."
Well, he'll know where it is in not too long a time,
Professor. Cho nods, offering a kind smile to them both. The Professor earns a
slightly longer one for a moment, and a, "Thank you, Professor." For
showing up and telling them they could leave, then she starts towards the door
to go to her common room with Harry.
Harry offers a weak grin up at McGonagall in regards to
the 'joke'. He's got to find some sort of humor in things now doesn’t he? The
grin fades a bit as he heads out the door with Cho. "Things are going to
be quite dull for awhile I can tell."