Cursed Together

Part 7 - The Desperate Measures

"Puedo hacer esto." Zari chanted the phrase to herself like an incantation.

Will struggled to keep pace with her frantic step, nearly tripping on the tails of his robes. "You've totally got this. I absolutely believe in you."

"Hágalo, así como así." She clasped her fingers around the golden chain draped down her front from her neck, which glowed red with nervous scratches. It was a quieter period in the school day, yet a healthy number of students still drifted around them.

The threads of Will's robes scraped against his skin, flecks of sweat lining the back of his neck. "You've already done it, basically, you just have to...do it. It's so simple!"

The small door to the hospital wing sat nestled in the wall before them both, its wood brighter and more polished than the stone bricks stacked around it. Though the torches either side of the doorway hung unlit in the light of noon's approach, an intense heat oppressed Zari's muscles as she attempted to push the door aside. "¡No estás ayudándome, Guillaume!" she hissed pointedly. "If you're going to be so nervous, sal de aquí. I don't need your anxiety throwing me off right now."

Apologising, Will watched his shoes flex with his every trembling knock against the wall. Zari placed her hand on the door and froze. "Madre mía, I must look like a mess, what if..."

A force came from behind her, knocking her off-balance. Her core tight with shock, Zari fell through the door and stumbled her way into the hospital wing, the rows of green curtains and beds a misplaced smear over the stony browns of the broad walls. Zari's ankle burned as she finally caught her balance. "¿Qué haces, idiota?" she cried as her hands fixed her skewed tie.

Before her, the back of Barney's head bristled with impatience, with Will's splayed body the apparent source. They exchanged looks after Will picked himself up and let the door swing shut behind him, the rush of the draught along the corridor outside hushing to a whisper. The constant hum of sensitive conversations ebbed away as additional pairs of eyes sought out the disturbance.

Barney sniffed, his eyelids half-shut, but said nothing as he slid into the main aisle of the hospital wing and scanned the cubicles, unfazed by the number of spectators fixated by every twitch of his lips. He stalked over to a closed curtain and pulled it open, his shadow looming in the sunlight over the sleeping Gryffindor he found inside for the fleeting moment he stared inside. Without closing that curtain, Barney moved over to the next one, and found what he sought. "Penny!" he smiled, his hair slightly messy. "I didn't know you helped out here, that's so...like you!"

Stood with a jug of water and a metal cup by the bed of a younger Hufflepuff boy, Penny gasped as the curtain snatched open wider. "Again?" she said, forcing her way out of the cubicle with the jug and cup still in her hands. "You're really starting to bug me. Can't you just, I don't know...pack it in?"

The Slytherin followed, his hand rooted in his pocket. "Not until you hear me out, sweetheart, because I think we both know things can only go one way," he said as he stood tall in the centre of the aisle. "Or did daddy not fill you in on that?"

Penny gagged, nearly spilling her water, but said nothing. Nurses and their student helpers peeked out of their cubicles, from the far corners of the room with their trolleys, or through the cracks of the rear doors, where a chill draught slithered around the ankles of those on their feet. Every breath lingered for a second longer than it needed to, a slow burn that burst the moment another voice entered the room. "Leave her alone," Will stammered.

Barney kept his hand in his pocket as he met Will's eyes, smiling as the boy shook in the breeze. He clicked his tongue and waved the words away with a hollow grin. Despite Zari's hissed orders, Will stepped into the aisle and swallowed roughly. "She's not interested in you, okay? You should just...go."