laconic • t.nott ✓

23 ➺ angry friends

「 ANGRY FRIENDS 」

SEAMUS LET OUT A STREAM of colourful words when Theo took off his jumper.

After leaving the dungeons, Daphne had left Theo in an empty classroom and ordered him to stay there. Not wishing to anger her further, he obeyed. She returned a couple of minutes later with a very confused Seamus, glared some more at Theo, and stalked away.

"Is it bad?" Theo asked lamely, not knowing what else to say and thoroughly embarrassed by Daphne's outburst.

Seamus looked at him incredulously. "Are you serious? What the hell have you done, Theo? I may not be an expert, but I'm sure I didn't do such a lousy job."

Theo tried to grin. Why was he making everyone angry today? "I know. It's my fault. I took a shower and peeled off the bandage."

Seamus shook his head like a parent disappointed at their child. He took the jumper from Theo's hands and examined it for blood. "Well, sit down," he ordered. "Let me take a look. I don't know how you are still standing. Why did you even have to take a shower today?"

"I had to," he muttered quietly.

Theo sat on the floor, in the same position they had been last night. He peeled his shirt away from the wound and hitched it up to expose the damage, but it was too bloody and left a trail of blood on his skin, so he took it off entirely. "I suppose you'll have to give me another shirt," he tried to joke, but Seamus's mind was now concentrated entirely on the wound, so he stopped talking.

Seamus had a stash he kept hidden in his backpack, he explained to Theo while working on his wound, in case he came across anyone needing assistance and he didn't have time to run to his dormitory. The stash, Theo saw, was a small pouch which was tucked inside a secret pocket in his bag and concealed with a charm. There was no guarantee what the Carrows would do if they happened to check their bags and find the potions so they had taken every precaution possible to ensure that they were safe and invisible.

Theo winced as Seamus pressed a wet cloth over the wound, though sighed in relief a second later as a comfortable coldness spread over him and soothed the pain on his side. He tried not to look, afraid of the degree of damage he had incited on himself, almost sure that his skin was gaping open and revealing the organs inside. He stared at the wall opposite and tried not to think about the Carrows, or about Blaise or Luna. He wondered what would happen if one of the Carrows walked into the classroom. A chilling dread spread over him at the thought and the cut on his throat began to hurt once more. He closed his eyes and tried to think of something that made him happy. He couldn't come up with anything special, although his mind kept drifting back to Blaise. He did make him happy, didn't he? Or at least he used to. He could not think of Blaise now without feeling a searing pain in his gut.

Seamus asked him to lie on his side. Once he did, Seamus leaned over him, his wand held tightly between his fingers. He looked nervous. "I'm going to try to close the wound," he said slowly. "I've done it a few times, but with only small cuts. I'm not sure if this is going to work, but I don't know what else I can do." He looked pleadingly at Theo like he was asking for his permission. There was no need for that though. Theo had no choice but to trust him.

"Go ahead," he said with a reassuring nod.

Seamus got to work. As soon as the wand touched his skin, he groaned in pain. But Seamus continued, not letting anything interrupt him while he worked. Theo felt like his skin was being cut open by the knife once again. But it ended soon. The wound throbbed at his side like an amplified heartbeat as Seamus set aside his wand and drew some clean clothes out of his bag. He smeared a thick yellow potion over the now-closed cut and covered it with a strip of cloth. Then he pasted it to his skin with adhesive paper.