A Wizard's Misgivings

CHAPTER NINE

TW: minor panic attack

Dan, for some peculiar reason, had expected Lester— or Phil, as he often found himself thinking in the safety of his own mind— to come back and visit him during his stay in the hospital wing. Call him crazy, but Dan had felt something like a kinship between the two of them while they'd been lost in the forbidden forest, he'd felt almost as if they were friends. Phil had been perfectly nice and caring, and Dan had found himself thinking that he'd be able to tolerate a friendship with him.

But now, here he was, his second and last full day locked away in the hospital wing, and Phil had yet to show up. Dan's leg still ached, and Madam Pomfrey said that it was hard to fix because the branch had gone all the way through his leg and torn up a bunch of his thigh muscle.

It was still terrifying to think about too, the way he'd plummeted through the air, falling for what felt like forever but was likely only seconds. He could remember all the branches that had raked his skin as he'd whipped past them, cutting into his face and hands. And then he'd felt pain so horrible, so intense, that he'd blacked out for a moment. When he'd awoken, aware of a sharp, throbbing pain in his leg, he'd managed to mutter for Phil, to beg for help, hurt and incoherent. Surprisingly Phil had come, and that'd helped clear his mind, helped him realize that he was impaled on a branch and bleeding onto the ground below. His leg had felt suspiciously cold, despite the pain and thick blood oozing out of it.

Just because Phil hadn't visited him though, didn't mean that he hadn't had visitors. His Gryffindor friends had been quick to lighten the infirmary's doorstep, and he'd been glad to have them with him.

"What the hell happened to you?" Tyler had asked, plopping himself at the end of Dan's bed and helping himself to a chocolate frog, which he himself had brought for Dan.

"I fell from a broomstick into the forbidden forest and got impaled on a tree," Dan had stated. There was almost a minute of silence, before his friends had bursted out laughing.

"Yeah right," Troye had said, and he'd snatched the chocolate frog from Tyler's hand and bit off the head.

"Hey!" Tyler had protested, and he'd reached for the frog, only for Troye to hold it further away.

"Anyway, you'd never go on a broom," Connor had said reasonably, before plucking the rest of the frog from Troye's fingers and shoving it into his mouth. Troye sulked.

"Toss me one of those," said Louise, who'd been leaning against the headboard with Dan. They were snuggling, as they often resorted to when they were together. Their friends sometimes joked that they were practically a couple, but Dan would never feel that way about Louise, for obvious reasons. His friends didn't know that he was gay though, seeing as he'd never told them. Had never even thought about telling them.

Tyler tossed the chocolate frog, which ended up bouncing off Dan's chest and being picked up by Louise.

"So what really happened?" Tyler asked. He picked up Dan's feet and placed them on his lap, before leaning forward and resting his chin in his fists, his elbows situated on Dan's shins.

"I'm serious. It was for my research project. Lester never knew I was afraid of heights, and I wasn't about to let him find out," Dan had said, stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest. Connor was gaping at him.

"You're such an idiot, Dan," Louise had chided, but she'd hugged him closer into her side, and he'd let himself be cuddled.

"How did you get out of the forest, then?" Connor had asked.

"Lester followed me in," Dan had said with a casual shrug. From the looks on all his friends' faces, this wasn't enough information. "He cut the branch in my leg off the tree and used the broomsticks to carry me back."