Don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoy the chapter! :)
The first thing Lyssa was conscious of was the thick grey sludge that passed down her throat. It was cold and bitter and tasted of strange herbs. Her smell came back next as she inhaled a large whiff of whatever it was that was travelling down her throat. Next, she felt the soft hands of Madame Pomfrey easing her limbs into a more natural position. Lyssa began to hear people shuffling around her and hastily shouting directions at one another. The last sense to return to Lyssa was her vision, and it came back very slowly.
At first, she could only see in her peripherals but slowly the blackness faded toward the center of her vision, but, after a few minutes the darkness had gone completely. Lyssa tried to speak, to ask what had happened but her voice faltered.
"Don't speak dear, you're body needs time to adjust to being conscious again," Madame Pomfrey soothed. Lyssa nodded slowly.
She looked at the other occupants of the hospital wing. The other petrified students seemed to already be awake. Many unfamiliar wizards flitted about the beds helping the students. Some were guiding their limbs to ease the stiffness, others were pushing them to start talking, and all of them were fielding many questions about what had happened.
Lyssa was handed a mug with hot water and honey. She sipped it slowly while her own set of healers began guiding her through the recovery routine.
Once she could speak again Lyssa asked the same questions as everyone else. She came to find out that she was the last person to be petrified and she had only been unconscious for about ten days. The mandrake draft had only just been finished and a whole team of healers had been summoned from St. Mungo's to help Madame Pomfrey.
It was late when the students were awoken at nearly half past seven at night. Long past Madame Pomfrey's usual working hours but obviously, it was an exceptional circumstance. All the students worked for hours to get used to walking, talking, and generally just being alive again. Additionally, Lyssa was also treated for the ailments she had come in for the day she was petrified. She spent the hours of occupational therapy sipping on a nourishment potion and while she was still a little frail by the time the team of healers retired she was in much better shape. Maybe a ten-day nap had been a good thing after all.
The healers slowly worked Lyssa from just repeatedly bending her joints to tentatively putting weight on her legs. They worked hard to have Lyssa relearn how to use her fine motor skills. Eventually, Lyssa could walk pretty okay on her own and had regained enough dexterity to hold a fork or spoon. This was deemed the best they could do for today but Lyssa and the other students would resume there physical therapy the following afternoon.
At around half past eleven that night, Madame Pomfrey roused the students from their beds after no more than an hour of sleep. There was to be a late-night feast to celebrate that Harry Potter had defeated Slytherin's monster and saved the school.
When Lyssa and the other recovered students ran into the hall to join their friends the hall came alive with even more delight if that was even possible. Lyssa stopped short of the Slytherin table however unsure of how warm her welcome would be.
Flint saw her first and practically climbed over the table to get to her. Lyssa was bracing herself for him to hug her or something but instead, he grabbed her by the shoulders.
"You had one job!" he shouted at her, "I gave you specific instructions not to get petrified!" he huffed in mock annoyance.
"Oh, I'm sorry Flint did my near-death experience interfere with your quidditch program?" Lyssa teased. The rest of the quidditch team had gathered around them now, trying to bury their amusement from the exchange. "Sorry, I didn't personally ask you to be excused from quidditch practices but I was a little occupied." All of them burst out laughing and Flint and the other players all personally told Lyssa that they were glad she was back. Everyone except Malfoy of course who opted for a curt nod.
When the group broke apart Lyssa followed Malfoy to where the rest of the second-years were sitting. Milicent lept up at once and engulfed Lyssa in a tight hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay," she said as she pulled away and they sat down at the table.
"Thanks," Lyssa said quietly.
Her housemates were a lot nicer during the late night feast, whether this was due to their obvious lack of sleep or the pity they had for her being petrified Lyssa didn't know, but, she found herself not caring either way. The feast was like none Hogwarts had seen in years. The celebrations lasted till dawn and everyone was wearing their pyjamas. It felt to Lyssa kind of like a very big slumber party.
When the students finally did retire to their chambers that morning and tucked themselves into their beds, Lyssa found that while the weight of her anxiety on her chest was significantly lighter than she remembered, however, it had not vanished completely.
This year had given her new insight into her place not just at Hogwarts but in the whole wizarding world. Though last year she was bothered by the pureblood sentiment carried by her housemates it was more of a minor inconvenience than an actual threat. Now she saw that even if her housemates warmed to her there would always be wizards who saw her as a target, a blight on the perfect pureblood society they strived for. Someone had actually plotted to murder muggle-born children this year.
So the anxiety Lyssa felt didn't cease, instead it morphed from a fear of a tangible enemy to a sense of vigilance for the danger held by the idea that she was less than. The wizarding war may have ended over ten years ago but her battle against it's survivors was nowhere near complete.
𝀈𝀈𝀈
The end of the school year came quickly. Exams had been cancelled and the term had let out prematurely as a result. The only thing Lyssa had on her schedule was physically therapy with the healers, luckily enough she was okay after only one additional session given she was only briefly petrified.
Lyssa's trunk was packed with all of her belonging, including a slip of parchment with Milicent's address. The caveat to this was Lyssa had to send any letter by owl because while Milicent wasn't sure if her family even had a mailbox she was sure that if anyone tried to deliver any muggle mail her parents would hex the poor soul who had the misfortune of delivering it.
Lyssa had also been given a review guide for the summer so she would not start the next year behind on what she had missed. She counted herself lucky though after seeing the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff boys' review packets. They had been left so far behind the ministry had given them special permits to practice underage magic in order to catch up.
On the train ride home Lyssa sat with Milicent, and a collection of other Slytherins in her year. All of the girls from her dormitory were there and Theo and Blaise had joined them because Malfoy was off terrorizing first years with Crabbe and Goyle, an activity in which they had little interest.
The train ride was one of the least unpleasant Lyssa had experienced since starting Hogwarts. Yes, Pansy had taken every opportunity to make digs at Lyssa, and yes, Daphne and Isobel laughed and played along every time, but Milicent also always stood up for her. On occasion, so did Theo.
The whole trip was spent exchanging rumours about what really happened the night Harry went into the chamber. Everyone knew the basics at this point but it was fun to theorize about how it could have went down. Theo was positive that Harry had gotten lucky with finding the chamber and Pansy was sure that Weasley must have wet himself at some point. All in all the only thing everyone could agree on is that they were glad that no Slytherins had been involved after all.
"We get enough bad press as it is," Blaise had said with a chorus of agreement as the response.
Soon enough they arrived at platform 9¾ in London and everyone parted ways. Millicent made Lyssa promise she would write and Theo clapped her on the shoulder and wished her a fun summer, a sentiment she whole heartedly returned. She hoped being home for the anniversary of his mother's passing wouldn't be too hard on him.
Lyssa put all of her concerns out of her mind, however, as she collected her trunk and levitated it onto a luggage cart. Mentally, she braced herself for what came next. Lyssa casually waited in the line to exit the platform, there was a small portly witch directing people through a few at a time so as to not arouse suspition from the muggles. Lyssa quickly consulted the letter she had received a few days prior as to where she was to go. The portly witch gave her a small smile and waved Lyssa forward when she reached the front of the line. She calmly walked through the barrier and let out a deep breath as she emerged back into muggle London.
She pushed the cart away from platforms nine and ten and made her way towards a busy little cafe near the entrance. She slowed the cart to a stop next to a small metal table and sat down across from the woman sitting at it.
"Hello, mum," Lyssa smiled tentatively.