Death Himself | Tomarry

Chapter 10: Vile Touch

Then just like that it was crawling back and running into the trees, disappearing from sight.

Riddle rushed to Harry's side, asking him if he's alright.

Harry was shaking and the patch of skin where the creature made contact still ached terribly.

The rest that seemed to be cursing through his blood stream had dulled but still very much present.

"I.. Yes I'm okay", said Harry quietly, "what was that thing?"

Riddle's brows furrowed and he looked genuinely troubled as he replied: "Harry, I have no idea."

---

Eventually Mr Rambos found them, after looking for them for almost two hours.

He said he eventually saw a piece of fabric stuck on a root and followed the path of trampled plants and twigs until he reached them.

Now they were stuck in the hospital wing and Harry, sitting on a bed, still couldn't believe that their teacher hadn't beat them up some more.

He certainly had looked like he wanted to.

No matter, Mrs Carey came buzzing back in from the backroom, holding a vial of pale paste and a sponge.

"Can't you just heal the cuts and bruises with your wand?", asked Harry in confusion as both him and Riddle were asked to strip to their underwear.

The curtains around the beds were almost completely drawn so Harry didn't think twice before following her request.

"Oh no", she replied, "The forbidden forest is quite wicked in nature. It's trees and roots are deeply infested with the dark magic of it's inhabitants."

She came to Harry's bedside first, applying the paste at every patch of marred skin while continuing to chat away about how and why their injuries are unable to be healed with magic alone.

But she trailed off when she came to Harry's ankle which had an obvious slightly red imprint from the creature's hand.

"My dear boy what is this? What happened?"

"Oh.. It's.. We came across this thing in the forest, I don't know. It was all tall and gangly and it gripped my leg before running off. I'm not sure what it was or why it even came close only to run away."

"I see. Well, I don't know much about many of the various creatures living in the forest. You better go talk to Professor Rose about if you want to know more. Say, did you feel anything beside the beside the expected pain from a tight grip?"

Harry looked at his ankle. It was all red and swollen even though Harry knew that the thing had barely closed its hand around it.

"When it touched me I felt a sudden overwhelming pain that cursed all throughout my body for a bit. It's gone now but it was definitely there."

Madame Carey looked very concerned when she heard this.

"That... Well it seems like we really should talk to professor Rose about whatever that creature may be. Let me run some diagnostic spells on you and hold on-" she opened a drawer and took out a small bottle with a dubious looking green liquid, "please drink this, Mr Evans. The whole bottle."

Harry repressed a grimace but did as he was told.

To his surprise it didn't taste bad.

It actually didn't taste much of anything except for maybe a slight minty note as an aftertaste.

Just as she said she would, the mediwitch cast a couple of diagnostic spells that would hopefully find out what had happened.

"Right", she said and picked the paste and sponge back up, "this will take a while so feel free to rest for a bit. I will tend to Mr Riddle in the meantime."

For once Harry was more than okay with staying for a bit longer.

He was exhausted from everything that had happened that day.

He laid back on the bed and closed his eyes after putting his glasses on the small bedside table.

The sounds of Riddle and Madam Carey's muffled talking carried him to sleep and then he was out.

---

When Tom was finally able to leave the hospital wing and that dreadful wretch of a mediwitch behind, he couldn't surpress a grin overtaking his face.

He quickly covered the expression up with one of his well practiced masks as he made his way towards the vanishing room.

After all him and the knights had much to discuss.