Crazy House

Chapter 19: This Isn't Hogwarts

Chapter 19

I wake up seconds later on the floor, Elias's concerned face very close to mine. I sit up slowly, suddenly very aware of the throbbing on the side of my head. I close my eyes and rub my temples.

"You hit your head pretty hard when you fell," Elias says, explaining the horrid pain. "I would have caught you, but you just fell so quickly. One minute you were up, the next you're on the ground."

"Clearly," I grumble, putting my head in my hands.

"Using our abilities can drain us of energy as it is, I guess you weren't as recovered as you had thought," he says. I snort, but say nothing else. This was not the time to tell him about the vision. "You should definitely get a good amount of rest tonight," he continues. "Just to make sure you are one hundred percent better. As for the headache, I can take care of that." I pull my head out of my hands and look at him as he puts a golden yellow, glowing hand on the side of my head that hurts. Warmth oozes from his hand and hits my temples in soft, soothing waves. The pain is gone within seconds.

"Thanks,"

"Anytime," he smiles.

"Be careful what you promise," I say. "I think we are discovering that this is becoming a habit of sorts."

"This being...?"

"Oh, just me getting into stupid situations and then hurting myself,"

Elias chuckles, "Well then all the more reason for me to make that promise." We are quiet for a few seconds.

"Or I could just learn to heal myself," I say, breaking the silence.

Elias chuckles again, "Yeah that is always a viable option."

"Well," I say, pushing myself up from the ground. "I should go get some sleep."

"Go, go!" he says, shooing me away. "No more excitement for you tonight, just rest." I laugh silently to myself as I walk back to my room, knowing neither of those things are unlikely to happen tonight.

When I get back to my room, I find my friends sitting in a circle around my fireplace. They look up at me as I enter.

"Please tell me you guys already left, because I don't have any more distracting in me for the night."

"Don't worry," Sophie reassures me. "We got everything we need."

"Actually, we got everything in about five minutes," Max says. "We've just been waiting for you to come back."

"And it didn't occur to you guys to come and get me?" I quip.

Max shrugs, "We didn't want to seem suspicious."

"Alright," I sigh. "What did you guys find out?"

"Well, we know for a fact that after he dropped you off at your room, he went right back to his own room and didn't leave again until the next morning, right before breakfast," Sophie informs me.

"Which we know he was at since we saw him there," Amy adds.

"Did you get this intel from anything in his room?" I ask.

"No," Amy replies. "We looked, but there is nothing in his room that we could have animated so that it could speak. Only a bunch of books and some landscapes. Nothing with eyes or a mouth. However, there was a portrait of a rather jolly old man right across the hall from his door, so he would have seen if he had left."