An Heir

Part Sixteen- Regurgitation

“Madame Pomfrey was telling me what happened, what happened, you were looking okay yesterday?”

“I don't know, I was sick this morning when I woke up and went outside for a bit and then went to wait for classes to start.”

“Professor Snape did mention that you were outside one of the potions classrooms this morning but he said that he gave you the potion.”

“He did Professor,” I passed and sighed, “I just don't know if it’s helping.”

“What do you mean?” He seemed worried.

“I mean that I was feeling alright yesterday, and it was the first night of the cycle-” there wasn’t any need to tell him about my dreams “and then after taking the Wolfsbane potion today I felt ten times worse.” There must have been some explanation like I was just getting used to taking the potion but Professor Lupin had a haggard look on his face that made me think differently.

“That shouldn’t be possible Imogene,” he said hoarsely, “You’re a werewolf, I saw you change myself and I've seen you as a wolf -there’s no way it couldn’t be working…” He looked down and sat on the edge of the bed. “I’ll talk to Professor Snape about it in the morning, for now get some rest,” He smiled weakly at me and stood, he straightened his jacket and with a mild limp strode out of the hospital wing.

I stared up at the ceiling as I flopped gently back into the pillow, I could hear the rustling of leaves from outside my window and birds cheeping gently. There was little I could do to get comfortable, any sort of movement seemed to make me want to throw up so I didn’t move and as a consequence- I didn’t sleep. My ears were aching and I wasn’t surprised that I could barely hear out of the left one, on occasion my eardrum had burst of its own accord and it would take about two weeks to heal properly. The next week or so was going going to be very pleasant.

Madame Pomfrey appeared just as the pale light of day snuck over the window sill and the cold breeze lifted the curtains enough for the grey clouds to loom unpleasantly through the gap.

“You look as pale as a banshee and as green as a ghoul,” she told me pityingly and sighed as she helped me sit up.

“I didn’t manage to sleep, so I'm not too surprised.” I replied quietly in a husky voice.

“Not even a little?” she asked with a frown and I shook my head weakly.

“At least it’ll be over and done within a few days.” She assured me confidently,

“Hopefully,” I whispered, it was not a mutual feeling.

She turned away and I realised that she must have heard footsteps- having only one functioning eardrum was beginning to frustrate me.

XXXX

I slept after that and it was possibly the best sleep I’d ever had in my life, for once I felt like I had benefitted from sleep, though in retrospect it was more likely that I’d been feeling so crap and so exhausted that it was impossible for me to get any worse. My sleep had been uninterrupted and I hadn’t woken in a sweat from nightmares of some haunting presence looming over my every thought, instead I hadn’t dreamt at all and I had sheer exhaustion to thank for it. When I woke up properly and drifted reluctantly back into the world of reality, the sun was invisible behind a curtain of clouds, pouring their tears onto the earth like unforgiving blocks of concrete, what was even better was that it had just started to hail. I sighed and rolled painfully onto my side, I wasn’t as sore as I had been last night but I was still suffering; again my body seemed to know exactly what was coming. There were another two people in the hospital wing and I could barely hear their murmurs of discomfort and thought to myself; “They have no idea of what pain truly is.” Yes it was bitter, but after a night of vomiting, bleeding and pain I was about ready to snap.