how it feels to be alive {tom riddle}

fifty-nine: erratic

Tom's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Lucia?" He raised his voice slightly, leaning forward.

Her hair was wet from her own sweat, and her skin was flushed and boiling to the touch.

Tom shook her with a bit more urgency this time, ripping the covers from her body to reveal her whole body overheating and perspiring heavily.

A groan passed Lucia's lips, and her chest began convulsing. In a panic, Tom pulled her into a sitting position quickly. Her head lolled forward just in time as she vomited into her own lap.

"Oh my God, Lucia what's wrong?" Tom rushed out, supporting her in a sitting position as she continued to throw up.

The heat was radiating off her like a blazing fire, but she was also shaking in his grasp. When his hand came to her neck to feel her pulse, he was met with a fast thrumming under his fingertips.

"I'm so sorry." Lucia mumbled as strings of acidic saliva dripped down her chin. Her eyes were half closed, and she was having trouble holding herself up.

"Don't be- Just Lucia, you have to tell me what's going on." Tom spoke in a panicked tone, "I need to get help."

"Don't..." Lucia's voice caught in her throat, "No one-"

"Is it drugs? Lucia I need you to be honest to me."

Her silence was an answer in itself.

"Coke? How much?" Tom grasped her cheeks in his hands to force her to look at him. Her eyes were bloodshot and pupils enlarged so wide that only a sliver of her blue irises were still visible.

"More than..." Lucia coughed and spat down onto herself, "More... than usual."

"Fuck." Tom muttered to himself, "When?"

"Not that long ago." Lucia leant her forehead into Tom's chest uncontrollably.

Tom cursed under his breath again, "I can't deal with this myself, I'm so sorry Lucia."

Her hands came loosely to ball his uniform in her hands, "Please, no." She pushed herself up from his chest to sit up again, "They'll expel me, please."

"I'm sorry." He squeezed her hand in his grasp, "I can't lose you."

***

"Explain to me how you found her." Madame Pomfrey insisted as a stretcher with Lucia lying on it was levitated quickly down the hallway. The witch's white robes were billowing behind her as they hurried towards the doors to the infirmary and the end of the hall.

Tom explained the details of how he'd found her to the matron. By the time he'd finished, Lucia was being placed on her side on a hospital bed. Her breathing was erratic and her heart was thrumming hard in her chest.

The nurse ran a series of diagnostic spells on Lucia, a concerned and concentrated expression on her aged features.

Tom felt incredibly useless just standing and watching, but this was well out of his hands.

Madame Pomfrey rushed to a cabinet of potions, filing through the bottles to find the ones she required for treatment.

"She'll be okay, won't she?" Tom's jaw was tensed.

"I believe so." The witch mumbled with a shaking head, returning quickly to Lucia's side.

It was then that the door to the Hospital Wing opened and McGonagall strode in worriedly.

"What in the name of Merlin has caused such a commotion?" Her Scottish accent sounded through the room, "Mr. Rosier, I shall ignore the instance of you being reported in Ravenclaw tower, again. However, please explain to me the situation."