Elliot Tanner & The World's Curse

Chapter 5: Imperius Mundus

I woke up in hospital with a splitting headache. I sat up and held my head, groaning with pain before feeling a hand on my shoulder.

"Careful," Amit said. "You should lie still." His amber eyes almost shone gold from the light pouring in from the huge windows, but the concern in them kept them from switching to actual gold as they did from time to time.

I didn't fight it as he eased me back down. I looked up at the ceiling for a long second, waiting for the voice to start narrating again but nothing happened.

"Want some water?" Amit asked with a whisper. "Are the lights bright? I can ask Madam Pomfrey to dim them if —"

"It's fine," I said. My voice was ragged and parched. I sat up as I started coughing.

"Right, water," Amit said. He handed me a glass with a straw, and I eagerly drank. The refreshing cool eased the burning in my throat and left me with only the throb in my forehead as though a pixie were trying to burrow out of my skull.

"Thanks," I said as I handed the water back.

"Madam Pomfrey said you'd have a bit of a migraine." He laughed nervously. "Surprised she can't spell that away."

"That's the first spell working," said a lilting and soft voice. Madam Pomfrey appeared behind Amit in her white apron and nurse's cap and scarlet dress. "I'd hate to heal his headache only to doom his mind."

"My mind?"

"Indeed, Mr. Tanner. Tell me, what year is it?"

"1993?"

"And where are you?"

"The Hospital Wing at Hogwarts?"

"And who is this?" she said pointing to Amit.

"Amit Singh, my best friend."

Madam Pomfrey looked at Amit with a bit of concern on her face.

"He's sort of American-ish," Amit said. "We're best mates."

"I grew up in Bootle," I said. "We moved to the States when —"

"Do you remember what happened, Mr. Tanner?" Madam Pomfrey said.

"No — I —" I looked at Amit. "We were in Divinations together, but then something weird happened."

Amit laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, well, I kind of got carried away." He looked at the Matron, "Have you ever been in love, Madam Pomfrey? Like truly and wildly in love?"

Madam Pomfrey blinked slowly three times while staring at Amit. Eventually, she turned her eyes to me. "He has to go in five minutes," she said. "Then I'll conduct more tests. You need your rest."

"Right," Amit said. "Thank you. And sorry."

She said nothing as she floated out of my view as silently as she appeared. I sat up and expected to see her attending Madeline or Asia, but instead she was working with a first year that broke a bone during flying lessons. No one else was in the Hospital Wing. The simple white beds that lined the large room were empty. I had no other visitors but Amit, and the huge double doors at either end were closed.

When I was sure Madam Pomfrey was out of earshot, I sat up and leaned closer to Amit. "You know that's not what I was talking about," I said.

"Well sure," he said. "But I figure she knew about you having a hallucination or whatever."

"A hallucination?"

"Yeah, you were shouting something about a voice. You kept asking if anyone else heard it, but no one did. I heard Madam Pomfrey explaining to Professor Trelawney that those are called auditory hallucinations. Though I thought luc leans light, like to see. You can't exactly hear false light."