HELA'S POV
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Snape finally dismissed the class after giving everyone a pile of homeworks on Ancient Magic. I quickly pack up my things in my bag and walk to the hospital without waiting or talking to anyone.
I couldn't handle the embarrassment that Snape caused me in front of the whole classroom. And the sharp staring I was getting at the back of my head and at the front of my face as if someone planted a Dungbomb under me that is slowly burning to explode, made me feel uncomfortable and anxious.
I take off my school robes in a hurry as I get to the entrance of the hospital and hang it on my forearm. I walk in to find that Madam Pomfrey is already busy treating a student as she quietly mutters words to the girl as she rubs some sort of red potion on both of her wrists and down to her forearms.
I watch from afar as the substance vanished into thin air, revealing multiple deep cuts on the girl's wrists and forearms as she hysterically cries while another girl sits beside the bed with her hand covering her mouth as she watches.
I winch at the sight of them before I look up to their faces.
And I immediately recognized the student that Madam Pomfrey treating as Cho Chang and the other as Mariette Edgecombe.
What did she do to herself?
I swallow a lump in my throat as I slowly walk up to stand beside the bed that Cho was laying in shock as I stare at the horrible view in front of me.
Why did I just do that? I should have just walked away.
Cho and Mariette snap their heads at me as Madam Pomfrey walks away to get more bandages and potions, saying that she will check me up after she's done with them.
"What do you want?" Mariette speaks, venom full in her tone after Madam Pomfrey was away from sight, startling me from my thoughts, "Are you going to humiliate us more?" she hisses as I look up at her from Cho's wrists that she tries to hide but was unsuccessful as I've already seen her red scars. "Don't you dare-"
"I rather take my own life than joke about someone's attempt to do the same thing, Edgecombe." I exhale softly as I wave my wand at the chair behind for me to sit.
The words that came out of my mouth has taken her by surprised as she stares at me in shock and jolted up, startling Cho beside her.
"She didn't try to – "
Is this girl joking with me?
"Would you not scream?" I plead with a hard tone of my voice as I scrunch my eyebrows in annoyance, making her tense shoulders slightly drop in acceptance and her mouth shut closed. "I don't reckon she wants the whole bloody school to know about what's going on right now, so please keep your voice down." I urge between Cho's sniffs and sobs of pain, making Mariette sit back down.
"Why are you here?" Cho softly asks after a while of silence, making me look up from my hands to her. But her eyes were not meeting mine as she hides her face with her long hair in shame.
"I umm.. came here for a checkup. I've been – "
"Why are you actually here?" she cuts me off, still not looking at me as she tries to hide her hands again but Mariette softly stops her by holding them down.
"If you would let me finish talking, then you will know." I sigh softly putting my things on the floor as I read her mind.
"Out of anyone in the school, it has to be her."
I exhale heavily through my nose as I look between her and Mariette, who also look defeated with the situation of me being here.
"I just haven't been doing well for the past days with everything going on so I came here for a check-up. I didn't know that you would be here... like this or in any way, actually." I softly add, "And I have no intention to make fun or say anything about this to anyone 'cause that's such a fucked up thing that any human can do." I whisper the last sentence as Madam Pomfrey comes back with a tray of potions and bandages floating in front of her.
I watch as Cho sniffs, cries, hisses cursed words under her breath and her face scrunches from time to time, as Madam Pomfrey continues to treat her wrists and forearms and looks at Cho sharply when she cusses but didn't say anything.
After a minute or so, she was completely done with a thin layer of bandages wrapped over her scars.
"You can rest for a while here, dear. You can't tire yourself out with the pain that's now coursing throughout your arms." Madam Pomfrey smiles warmly at Cho and gives a soft nod at Mariette, "You may also go if you want to but I do recommend resting for a bit while." she adds, softly waving her wand at the tray of empty bottles and bloody cotton balls, making them disappeared into thin air.
"I'll stay here for an hour or so if it's alright." Cho replies softly, looking up with puffy, bloodshot eyes at Madam Pomfrey who nods understandingly.
"Cho..." Mariette starts with worry in her voice but Cho cuts her off, putting a reassuring hand on top of her hand.
"It's alright. You can go if you want." she reassures her as she looks softly at her, "I don't want you skipping dinner for me, so go if you want to."
"I'm staying." Mariette quickly answers.
"That's okay too."
"So," Madam Pomfrey turns to me from the girls as I sit on the bed and watch them speak softly to each other, "what can I do for you today, darling?" she smiles sweetly.
"Umm.. I haven't been feeling well for the past few days." I tuck a strand of my hair that has fallen out of the clipped updo as I turn my eyes away from the two girls to Madam Pomfrey who looks at me with such warmth in her eyes.
"I have been sweating a lot more than usual and uh.. a bit more irritated than usual too." I chuckle nervously as I continue while she checks my body with a wave of her wand. "I've been eating less. I have trouble sleeping at night and I'm constantly tired in the mornings or throughout the day cause of it. I've never noticed anything about them much until my friends point them out." I end with an embarrassed chuckle.
And this time I'm the one avoiding people's eyes.
"Well, you're clearly not ill and there's nothing wrong with you, darling." she starts as she pulls down the sleeves of my sweater after doing whatever she needed to do. "You just seem to be really stressed out." she simply says with a slight frown tugging on her lips. "Is everything alright at home?"
Home? Funny story, I don't have a home anymore, Madam Pomfrey.
"or at school? It's okay if you're not comfortable with talking about it." she reassures with a small smile on her face as she waves her wand again.
Behind her, a variety of potion bottles came floating from the shelves to her.
"Everything is okay, I guess. It might be the studies and with everything going on that might be stressing me out." I confess as I take the potion that she lends me and it reads 'The Draught of Peace'. "My mother is currently taking her position back as an Auror so it's a bit nerve-wracking with Death Eaters and V- "
I quickly stop myself at his name as loads of people are very sensitive about it right now, but I don't think she notice that it almost slipped out as she was busy sorting potion bottles out for me. ", You-Know-Who running around." I breathe out while she nods, agreeing.
"You don't have anything to worry." she says, waving her wand at the unwanted bottles to the shelves to go back to their rightful places, "Drink this," she points at the bottle in my hand, "every morning on an empty stomach and eat lots of food so you won't feel the side effects much."
Side effects?!
"And drink this at night when you feel like you won't be able to sleep so you can have dreamless sleep without any interruptions."
She gives me a quite big bottle of bright purple liquid labelled 'Sleeping Draught'. I sigh mentally and painfully at the bottle which is just a liquid version of a sleeping pill.
Well, of course, another version of melatonin, but I just hope it's a bit stronger. I'm so sick of drinking them, sleeping drugs really don't do much work for me.
"Thank you." I smile, trying not to show my disappointment as she smiled back at me warmly before walking away back to her office.
I sigh as I put both of the bottles in my bag and look up to see Mariette and Cho staring at me but they quickly look away.
"What?" I ask, shrugging my shoulders.
"Nothing." Mariette replies, clearing her throat awkwardly after.
"So.., umm.." I start with a scratch on the back of my head as I think of ways to make a conversation about Cho's situation without being pushy, "how did this happen?" I end, making Cho's body goes completely numb, and I felt it with my own soul. "It's completely fine if you don't want to say anything about it, really. I understand, I just want to let you know that you don't have to do this alone. Everyone is here to help."
"Why would she listen to you anyways?" Mariette speaks, annoyance lingering in her voice as she looks at me straight into my eyes. Rage was definitely burning in her body and it was burning more and more in her eyes as she continues to speak.
"You're the bloody reason that she almost died from a broken head. You're the reason that she traumatized to be around people, around me..." her voice broke and her breathing starts to shake.
What...?
I stare at her in complete shock at the choice of her words as she continues to describe me. I wasn't shocked at her behaviour. No, I wasn't shocked at her either, I always knew she would be like this. Protective. Dangerous when provoke.
It's just the way the words and her voice sounded like she always wanted to say them to me, that she has been holding them back for so long and now they're breaking free right in front of us. It's just the way the anger seems so familiar to me as if I have felt them before in my life.
"Mariette." Cho pleads softly, her voice tired than tired.
"Don't you dare try to sympathize with her," tears are now streaming down her face as she stands up, "after everything you've done terrorizing our group, our lives..."
"Mariette, stop." Cho pleads again, with her hands now put against Mariette's shoulders but she doesn't even budge to sit down.
"Because of YOU!" Mariette angrily points a shaky finger at me, making my head go cold, "because of you, this happened. It's all because of YOU!"
Where are the Professors when you need them?
"MARIETTE!" Cho let out a piercing scream.
Making both me and Mariette snap back into reality to see that Cho's now crying her eyes out again. I quickly read her emotions and felt it stung my soul that even if Mariette was hurt by what I have done, Cho was hurting more.
More than anyone in this room right now.
"Cho -" I watch in silence as Mariette starts but Cho is quicker.
"Get out." she chokes out through tears and swallows while she hangs her head down, avoiding eye contact with anyone.
"What?" Mariette says in disbelief.
"I SAID 'GET OUT!'" Cho yells at Mariette's pale white face, looking taken back by complete shock at her best friend's yelling at her and not me. "That was not your place to tell her. You, my own best friend have no right to put me in much more of a vulnerable state than I'm already in. GET OUT! NOW!"
I have never in my life seen a person like Cho, a girl who looks so naive and sweet on the outside would have this burning rage inside of her. I've never thought I would ever witness something like this ever in my life from someone like her.
Pain really can change someone into something that the person who feels it wouldn't know what to expect.
Mariette's face turned from a pale ghost to no emotions in a switch. Her lips quivering as she slowly and shakily backs away from Cho's bed as tears silently pour down like waterfalls from her eyes. She softly grabbed her bag and house robes before she left the room with her head hanging low without a word in complete silence, with just the sound of her heels clicking on the floor echoing around the room, she was gone.
I look at Cho's face to read her emotions but there was nothing there for me to find, because her mind was already occupied with roaring thoughts. She feels ashamed and guilty that she yelled at her best friend in front of me, her enemy since the day we met. She feels stupid for letting me see the scars on her arms. She felt like her life has fallen apart since that day.
That day has scarred, not only her but everyone that witnessed it with their own eyes.
"I- I'll just leave." I finally choke out as I get up but Cho was quick to grab my hand, tight.
"You want to know what happened, right?" her voice hard as she speaks while her narrowed eyes searched and found mine's, "You badly want to help, right?"
"No- " I quickly shake my head, trying to get myself out this situation, "Yes, I mean. I was just con- "
"Concerned?" she lets out a soft chuckle with a roll of her eyes, "Then sit your arse back down and I'll tell you everything you want to know so badly."
She pushes me back down on the bed with the strength that was left in her fragile body. She stares ahead into abyss as she prepares herself for what she's about to say, while I also prepare myself for what I'm about to hear cause this definitely wasn't going to be boys and love letters but the opposite of it.
What did I get myself into?
"This..." she starts with a very deep breath, indicating her thinly and gently wrapped arms, "This has been happening two weeks after his death." she looks at me dead in the eyes.
"Cedric's death."
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i tried.
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