"...doing better?" I heard a voice, but I couldn't place where it came from or who it belonged to.
"It's hard to tell. You'll just have to wait her out." This was a different voice, one with a higher pitch. Where were these voices coming from? And why did my head hurt so bad?
My eyes seemed to be glued shut, but I was curious enough that I managed to pry them open. I was in a bed, but it wasn't my bed. A warm light filled the room. I blinked a few times, and then a face appeared over me.
"Alexa?" I recognized that face... "Alexa, please, tell me you're okay."
Oh! Cedric! The face belonged to Cedric. Suddenly, everything came rushing back. The Quidditch match, the celebration, the storm. Being slammed into the ground at a million miles an hour.
"Ugh, everything hurts," I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut again. I blinked slowly a few more times, then focused back on Cedric. "I'm okay though, yeah."
"Thank God." As he sank back into his seat the rest of the room slowly came into focus. I was in the hospital wing, of course. You'd think these wizards and all their magical healing and shit would've cured my aches and bruises by now, but apparently not. "How... What happened?"
"Honestly Ced I don't even know." I pushed myself into a sitting position, grimacing through the pain. Thankfully, a high pain tolerance seemed to be genetically inherited as a Stark. "Some crazy magic storm or something came out of nowhere and hit me with a pile driver into the ground."
"How did you... I mean, one second I was looking at you and the next I was in front of the doors to the castle." Cedric looked extremely confused, and I realized with everything going on I hadn't explained about sling portals to him yet.
I didn't have the energy for an in-depth explanation, but I gave him a basic outline about my armor and the portals to explain what I could. He took it all in without any real hesitation, but he still looked shell shocked. He kept staring at me like he couldn't believe I was real.
"I ran back down after you used your sling portal, but the storm was gone," he explained. "Instead it was just you, laying there in the grass like... like you were dead."
I could actually see tears in his eyes. I reached out and gave his hand a squeeze, just to reassure him that I was still here. I was okay.
I'd seen a lot of people dead or almost dead in my time with the Avengers, many of them being people that I cared about. I still wasn't used to it, and I knew how much worse it was experiencing that feeling of dread for the first time.
"I'm sorry, Cedric. I didn't mean to scare you like that."
"It's alright. You're a Gryffindor, I could've guessed that you would run into the middle of the storm instead of going somewhere safe. I have enough Gryffindor friends that I'm used to it by now." He gave me a weak smile, and if I could actually move I would've tackled him in a hug.
I started to speak again, but I was interrupted when the hospital doors flew open and like ten people marched through, all headed straight for me.
"Alexa!" It was my Gryffindor friends and the rest of my Quidditch teammates. They came barreling towards the bed, each wrapping me in a massive bear hug. It would've been sweet if it didn't crush my already bruised ribs.
Everyone was talking at once, so I couldn't process any of what was being said. All I saw were happy, relieved faces, giving me big smiles and gesturing wildly. I thought we would just continue like that for the rest of the day until Madam Pomfrey shouted over the noise, barging into the middle of our huddle.
"Too many visitors! She needs rest, she only just woke up! OUT!"
Everyone gave me apologetic smiles and squeezed my hand or shoulder before being herded out of the room by the angry matron. When she was done, only Fred and George were left in the room with me.
Madam Pomfrey turned to the twins, her hands on her hips and a stern scowl on her face. The twins just stared right back, grinning from ear to ear.
"Please Madam Pomfrey, let them stay. They'll cheer me up so I can recover faster," I said. I wanted her to say yes before the twins pissed her off enough for her to kick them out.
She gave a long, heavy sigh before speaking again. "Fine. They can stay. But if you add any excitement or stress to her life you'll both be out of here before you can say 'prank'!"
The twins nodded quickly, and then Madam Pomfrey turned to me.
"I'm going to be blunt. Your injuries were quite unlike anything I've seen before. I wanted to wait until you were awake to treat most of them to ensure I didn't make matters worse, but you may just have to heal the slow way."
I sighed. "That's okay, I understand. Thank you."
She gave me a curt nod, then turned on her heel and went back to her office. I was confident she'd be watching the twins and I like a hawk.
"Alexa, you'll never believe what happened last night," said Fred excitedly, being careful to keep his voice down.
"But tell us what happened to you first," added George. Both boys were on the edges of their seat, and I could tell they'd been itching to have this conversation.
I gave them a rundown of what happened to me as accurately as I could. They had questions about the storm or whatever it was, but I didn't have any answers yet.
That would have to change as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, I couldn't escape Madam Pomfrey just yet to start investigating. I'd make a plan now with Ana, and then I could get to it as soon as I got out of here.
"So, what did I miss while I was out?" I asked. The twins had told me it was the morning after the Quidditch game; I'd been unconscious for a little over twelve hours, and at a crazy school like this, that was enough time for anything to happen.
"Sirius Black broke into Gryffindor Tower!" exclaimed Fred. I could tell he'd been waiting to share this news for a while, and I understood why. A murderer made it into our dorms!
"Oh my God!" I cried, trying to stay quiet enough that Madam Pomfrey didn't notice me. "What happened? Is Harry okay? Did he hurt anybody?"
"Everyone's fine, but Ron woke up to Sirius Black hovering over him!" said George.
"Holy shit! Are you kidding me?" I couldn't help but raise my voice, and unfortunately Madam Pomfrey noticed. She came out of her office and started speed walking towards us, so I knew we had only minutes before she kicked the twins out. "Tell me everything you can as fast as possible!"
"We think he was going for Harry but got the wrong bed," Fred said.
"He slashed up Ron's curtains with a knife and then ran for it!" continued George.
"The fat lady's back since Sir Cadogan let Black in."
"Neville's in loads of trouble because Black used his list of passwords to get in."
"There's security trolls marching up and down the hall outside Gryffindor Tower!"
That was the last sentence they managed before Madam Pomfrey literally dragged them out of the room by their ears.
Once the twins were gone, Madam Pomfrey came back over and started checking my injuries and trying to heal me. I mostly zoned out, completely lost in my own thoughts. Was it just a coincidence that the storm happened at the same time Sirius Black got into the castle? Maybe, but that seemed unlikely. So if it wasn't a coincidence, how the hell were the two things related? If Sirius Black was responsible for the storm, why would't it have started at the castle?
I needed answers to every one of these questions, and I resolved to get them no matter what as soon as I was out of the hospital wing.
"All right Miss Stark, let's see if those spells managed to cure your injuries." Madam Pomfrey had been waving her wand over me for like, ten minutes, and I could still feel the bruises across my entire body. I felt better, but still not good. I had work to do though, so I decided to make her think her healing was complete.
She pressed my shoulder, and the pain made me want to scream a string of swear words that would've made Natasha blush. But I was a Stark. I was tough as nails, and I was no stranger to pain. I could take it.
I managed to make it through her entire examination without flinching, although I have no idea how, and after giving me one last look up and down, she let me go.
I kept my head held high and strolled calmly out of the hospital wing, and then as soon as I cleared the doors I doubled over and curled up against the wall. Fuck.
"Ana, give me an assessment. I don't have any serious injuries do I?"
"No internal bleeding or broken bones," she said after a minute. "You have bruises all across your upper and lower body, but nothing that will do any permanent damage."
"Ugh, okay, thanks Ana. Where's the suit?"
"Waiting in the Astronomy Tower."
"Sounds good." I groaned as I stood back up, using the wall for support. I took a minute to collect myself, then limped off down the hallway towards the Astronomy Tower. This was going to be a long walk.
I actually made it to the Astronomy Tower in just under the usual time. It took a lot of groaning, leaning on walls, and swearing, but I did it. I found the suit waiting for me, and I couldn't wait to start going through whatever footage it got above the storm.
Originally, my plan was to take everything back to the dorm and go through it in bed. But I was so tired and the walk was so exhausting that I decided to throw that plan out the window. I could at least look at the footage here, and then when I had more energy I could make my way back to the dorms and start analyzing it.
If the suit wasn't supposed to be a secret from all the wizards I would've just flown it straight through the hallways to get where I wanted to go. Probably good that that didn't work out though, since apparently there were security trolls lurking in the hallways. I'd already had one magical smack down in the past twenty-four hours, and I did NOT need another one.
"Alright Ana," I said, the suit closing around me. It was like a security blanket; I already felt better just having it on. "Let's see that footage that cost me twelve hours in a coma."