Third Person's POV
The doors to the hospital room flew open as the two ladies entered. Both of them had the look of true worry and horror when they laid eyes on their friend in one of the beds. The one with short red hair put her hand towards her mouth as sadness washed over her. The older one turned towards the other bed where James Potter was, awake.
"How is she?", Gwen wondered before taking a seat in one of the chairs next to the bed. Rose took a seat next to her sister and immediately grabbed her nest friend's hand in hers. James looked from the older sister to his girlfriend. It pained him to see her in such a state. He had been so close to saving her, but of course he had to loose his grip. The guilt was eating him up.
"The doctor said that she'll be okay and that she only needs rest. They think she will wake up soon, although anything can happen", James truthfully told them. The fact that Amanda would be alright was one of the few things that calmed him. The drop had only been from the second floor and she had therefor not been that hurt. The neglect of food and water mixed with the torture had made Amanda fragile at the time. She had a couple of broken bones, but thankfully it wasn't that hard to mend bones. The doctor said it wouldn't take that long until Amanda would be able to leave. The first step however was that she woke up.
"Are you okay?", Rose wondered as she glanced over her best friend's boyfriend. She had been told that James had tried to save Amanda when she fell and even if he had not done that she knew that James cared about Amanda a lot. She had been able to see it when she visited during the holidays, every time he had looked at her.
"There is nothing wrong with me but they still wanted to run a few tests. They are also keeping me here because they feel like this is a place where I'm safe. Don't really understand why though since I would have been just as safe without this horrible hospital gown." He was clearly not happy with being stuck in the hospital bed. He could leave, but if anyone saw him out of bed one more time they would probably tie him to it.
"Understandable. I just wish that you guys had some miracle serum that could just make people wake up", Rose answered. James wished the same, but he also knew that magic couldn't do everything. No matter how much you wanted it to, magic was limited the same way everything else in the world was.
•••
Amanda's POV
It was all quiet. For a few moments I kept my eyes shut while I tried to figure out the confusion I felt inside. There was some sort of heaviness over my body and every time I took in a breath I felt how my ribs protested. I felt awful to be honest. Although I felt better than I had done before when I had been in the mansion. As I thought that it hit me. The fighting, James almost getting us away from Dominic, falling out the window.
My eyes opened as I was both curious and interested in finding out what exactly had happened and where I was. What met my eyes weren't really that interesting. The room was dark and reminded me of the one I had been in the summer before when I got sick. The only thing that was different was James laying in the bed next to me, asleep. Seeing him like that made me understand that it was night, even though the darkness of the room should have done the same thing.
I started moving different body parts, fingers; foots; neck. It worked although I suspected my right foot at least being sprained and my shoulder hurt incredibly. I had already guessed that at least one of my ribs were broken. Maybe those injuries mixed with the overall pain and stiffness of my body should have made me stay in my bed. It didn't. I really didn't feel like laying there like nothing, nor contacting a doctor, nor go back to sleep. I should have probably pressed the button to contact the doctors, but in that moment I actually couldn't care less about it. If I could survive falling out of a window I could probably survive a night when the hospital workers didn't know I had woken up.
As I removed the blanket from my legs I noticed the cold in the room but not only that though, I was in an ugly hospital gown. I honestly don't know what I should have expected though. It's not as if you just stay in your old bloody clothes when you get treated at the hospital.
After stretching out my legs and testing them slightly I carefully swung them over the edge of the bed. Thankfully I wasn't connected to any machines which I guessed was because I was at a magical hospital. It made it extremely easy for me to sneak out of bed, even if I wasn't going that far. The bigger problem was ignoring the pain in my foot and my legs that had fallen asleep after not moving for a long while. I didn't exactly walk to James' bed, it was more of a limp or a shuffle. My guess was that it at least didn't look that pretty.
"James?", I spoke in a croaky voice as I grabbed the side of his hospital bed to hold onto as support. After not speaking for a long time my voice wasn't that strong but at least I could make out the words. James however did not hear this. It wasn't until I placed a hand on his that his eyes suddenly flew up and he jolted slightly. There was fear of danger in his eyes, but it settled after he had realized that he was looking at me.
"Amanda? What are you doing out of bed? Are you okay like that? Aren't you going to fall?", he mumbled in still a slightly sleepy voice. I smiled because it was a bit cute seeing him like that and especially when his hair was messy.
"I wouldn't mind sitting down", I answered which had James immediately shuffle to make room on his bed. I sat down with a little bit of help from him and I felt such content at getting to rest my legs, even though I hadn't used them for that long.
"When did you wake up?", James wondered as he took one of my hands in both of his. He was warm, much warmer than me. That could have just meant that I was cold and by the look on James' face that was the situation.
"Just now. I... I can't believe that actually happened. I mean, magic and this whole world hasn't been that difficult to soak in... But torture and evil villains and falling out of a fucking window... Is it weird that I think that sort of things are unrealistic?", I wondered and turned my head to look at James. He was watching our hands and he looked more troubled than I had been expecting him to. It wasn't just the memory of what had happened and all of those negative feelings. There was something entirely else. At first I couldn't see it, possibly because I rarely saw that expression on James' face. Then I realized that it was guilt.
"I'm sorry, Amanda. I'm so incredibly sorry for all of this. Not just getting kidnapped now. I'm sorry for getting you involved from the beginning and then keep on involving you in danger. I'm sorry that I let you go on alone with dealing with the messenger. I should have seen that you were lying. I should have gotten you out of all of this. I'm sorry for being the reason you got hurt", James spoke without answering the question I had made. His words more than shocked me, they didn't make any sense in my ears. I had never seen him as the reason to my problems, nor had I seen him as the one getting me involved in everything. I had been the one finding the Quidditch ticked and I had decided to go there. Everything afterwards had been just a part of the whole world. Seeing him with not only guilt but sad tears in his eyes while telling me this didn't make any sense.
"You're not the reason this happened. It wasn't like you told me to ever do anything. You never forced me into this world. I wanted in and got more than I had expected. Why would you think this was your fault? It wasn't", I tried to explain through my confusion although my words didn't seem to be understood by James. He still looked as troubled as earlier.
"Because I am who I am, the son of someone who was famous for stopping the most evil wizard to ever exist. Because I'm the son of The Chosen One. Because it makes me a target. Sure, the people I hang out with otherwise have parents that were involved and they understand. You didn't. I don't know if you know at this point how big it was", James told me and it looked as if he was trying to convince me that he was right. I knew that he wasn't. I shook my head before speaking just at hearing James' words. They sounded truly absurd to me.
"James, I do understand and I always have. The thing is that I don't really care, I never really did. I don't know if it's because I have some secret wish of my life serving some greater purpose or if I just act more impulsively because I'm a teenager. The facts are still the same no matter what. I still chose to do the things I do and I never blamed you for anything. Even though I'm telling you now that this was more my fault than yours, the people to blame are actually Dominic and Pandora. They did this", I spoke truly before softly taking James chin in my hand. I tilted his head upwards so that he would look at me. I saw that the sorrow was still there. With a simple tilt of my head I kissed him, simply because I felt like I needed the kiss.
Once we pulled away we didn't move that far apart. Only our lips parted while we rested our foreheads on each other. I held my eyes shut for a couple of extra seconds, wistfully hoping that James' expression had by some miraculous way changed. When I opened my eyes I saw that it actually had. He looked as if he had admitted defeat and he also looked a little relieved.
"Please don't ever blame yourself for the actions of others, especially not the actions of evil villains. You never did anything to cause this and I will never blame you for it."
A/N: Hi!! There are only three parts left after this one and they've all been written now so they will be published quite soon. Thank you for reading!! :)
Sofija