Who Makes the Fairest Show
This time when Odelia woke up in the Hospital Wing, she knew exactly where she was. Glass vials stacked haphazardly on trolleys around the room caught the light and sent it dancing around the white-sheeted room. Ow, she thought, slowly raising one hand to rub the back of her head. What happened?
“Oh ho,” snorted a snide voice from the bed beside hers. “The princess is awake.”
Really? Honestly, of all people.
"Tais-toi, horseface,” Odelia replied, not bothering to look in his direction. Surprisingly, Leander did as instructed and kept his mouth shut.
Nurse Blainey bustled out of her little side office, a ream of parchment clutched to her chest. “Ahh, awake I see! Two visits in one week,” she tutted, “not good at all.” Her bright voice seemed overloud in the otherwise tranquil room and Odelia flinched slightly. “Now then,” she continued, bringing over a trolley and searching through the selection of potions, “you’ve had quite a nasty fall. We’ll keep you in here for the night, but all being well you should be back in lessons tomorrow.” Picking out one of the vials, she gave Odelia a stern look. “This is not an excuse to skip homework, do I make myself clear?” And without leaving time for a reply, the nurse rushed away again.
Leander snorted. Odelia ignored him.
A fall? She turned to rearrange the pillows with a frown.
A fall… How could that have happened? Her last memory of the night before was walking down the grand staircase with Garreth. Perhaps it was then that she tripped and therefore hit her head. But no, she never tripped. Not when her and Coralie would run across the fallen tree over the stream to get to the old abbaye, not when she would walk endless loops on the crumbling cobblestone wall around their cottage waiting for her parents to come home, and certainly not now. Besides, that wouldn’t explain Leander.
So ask him.
Him! Ew.
This’ll be the second time that you’ve ended up in here, with no memory at all of what happened.
Odelia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She glanced over at the boy in the bed next to hers. Away from the crowds of their classmates, he didn’t appear quite so pretentious. His expression was more fed up than disdainful.
It might be worth a try.
“Leander?” she asked cautiously.
He sniffed proudly, his habitual expression restored. “Leander is it, not slimebag or dirt-sniffer or any of the other names that Sebastian likes to call me."
A faint glow of colour appeared on her cheekbones. “Yes.”
A beat passed. He was clearly expecting her to say more.
“Well?” Curiousity must have won out against his obvious dislike of any and every Slytherin.
Odelia sat up to face her classmate. “What happened?” It came out weaker than intended.
Leander exhaled slowly, nostrils flaring. The mask was dropped again. “Your boyfriend wasn’t happy that you were out with us. Started a fight. He’s quite sensitive to any mention of Garreth and his sister.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said automatically. “A duel?”
“Whatever you want to call it.” He lapsed into a moody silence.
A web of connections was beginning to form in Odelia’s mind. She had missed a lot, not just last night but in the past four years before finally coming to Hogwarts. It was like holding the individual threads of a tapestry and yet not knowing what picture they formed.
Ask him. He’s not that bad.
And come across as uninformed? Pathetic. No thank you.
Yes but. It’s important.
Why?
It just is.
Because of Ominis?
… maybe. He basically admitted that he likes her.
Then ask for Ominis.
“So what happened between Garreth and Anne?”
Leander shrugged. “Don’t think there was really anything going on, but Sebastian certainly thought there was. Wouldn’t listen to Anne either - insisted he knew best.”
“Oh. So she was never in an actual relationship with him?”
He snorted again. Odelia wondered if all the snorting might be why his nose had grown so long.
“Of course not, that’s a stupid thing to ask. Anne never dated anyone.”
Leander reached out and yanked across the curtain separating their two beds. The conversation appeared to be over. Odelia sat back and pulled the quilt up to her chest.
Well, that was informatiive.
Was it though?
Yes it was. Anne didn’t go out with him, and from the sound of it she probably could have.
So Ominis might have a chance with her then?
Oh. Yay.
Why do you sound sarcastic?
The clatter of a trolley announced the return of the hard-headed Nurse Blainey. She brandished a vial of foul-smelling liquid at Odelia, practically forcing it down her throat, then left her to fall into a deep and dreamless sleep.
-----------------------
The moonlight poured in through the window and cast a cool glow over the orderly rows of beds and wooden arches that made up the Hospital Wing. There was no breeze to be felt, all was still. Reclined on her pillows, Odelia examined the room, trying to figure out for what reason she had woken up.
A chill crept down her spine. All of a sudden the space felt too large, too open, exposing her to prying eyes. There could be anything out there - watching her.
Watching you.
Right, that was it. She pulled the quilt off the foot of the bed, slipped it over her shoulders and padded barefoot across to the window facing her and Leander. Faint snores confirmed that he was indeed fast asleep. Outside, all was quiet as well. From this high up the surface of the lake appeared undisturbed - a great glass mirror reflecting back your own image yet unwilling to let you see past and into its hidden depths. A single leaf floated past the window, carried upwards by an unwavering breeze then idly discarded.
But Odelia couldn’t shake that uncanny feeling. It whispered to her, soft as anything, leaning in and brushing the hair away from the side of her neck.
“Someone’s behind you…”
“Someone’s behind you…”
“Someone’s behind you…”
She tiptoed past Nurse Blainey’s office and into the hall. It followed. To her left, water trickled steadily from spouts either side of the unicorn statue and into the bowl of the fountain. The unicorn reared, its horn pointed back as if to say -
“Someone’s behind you…”
The stream of water dripped to a halt. Odelia drew in a breath and kept it there.
“Someone’s behind you…”
The sound of breathing continued.
“Someone’s behind you…”
The sound of breathing wasn’t hers.
To the right a flight of stairs twisted down and out of sight to the floor below. A leaden weight had dropped into the bottom of her stomach, an incoming sense of dread. Still holding her breath, Odelia rushed towards it, all at once desperate to get away.
A flicker in the corner of her vision drew her attention. She blinked hard, then looked again.
Surely not?
An ash-coloured moth sat on the bannister. As it took flight its wings began to crumble, leaving the stairs powdered with black dust.
“Someone’s behind you…”
“Someone’s be -”
A pair of strong hands seized Odelia around her waist, pulling her backwards. She opened her mouth to scream - the ‘pop’ of a silencing charm burst against her eardrums.
She screamed anyway, it made no sound.
“If you don’t stop struggling,” hissed Sebastian, “Blainey will catch us!”
He dropped her, and stepped away grinning. “Don’t really want my eighth, ninth, perhaps even tenth detention of the year now do I?”
Odelia gaped in shock, motioning for him to lift the charm. He obliged with a casual flick of his wand.
“How dare you grab me like that!”
“Shhhh,” he replied, putting a finger to her lips. She felt tempted to slap it away. “It’s dark up here! Didn’t want you to trip down some stairs twice in one day.”
What? I don’t trip.
“I was nowhere near falling, Sebastian what -”
“Hush now, it’s alright.”
“How did you get up here?” she demanded, lowering her voice to a whisper. “How did you get behind me I should have seen you?”
He frowned. “I came up through the Clock Tower. Delly, is everything okay?”
She signed, passing a hand across her face. “Yes. Except Leander was saying that there had been a fight, and there was that moth -”
“Who said what?” Sebastian’s brows knit even closer than before.
“Oh I don’t know.” Odelia shifted her gaze around to avoid meeting the eye of the boy stood before her. “He was saying something about how he said something, and there was a duel of sorts, and, oh -”
“Hold up,” he interrupted again. “You must be freezing even with that blanket. Let’s go over to the Clock Tower, it’s much nicer there. Besides,” he added with a wink, “no chance of Blainey catching us there, eh?”
They walked past the unicorn fountain and along the narrow, wooden corridor. Sebastian unfastened his grey cloak with a flourish and graciously spread it across the wooden boards for her to sit on. They dangled their feet over the edge of the platform, and watched the pendulum swing, ticking, through the hedge of timber beams in silence.
Sebastian finally broke the silence. “Delly.”
“Yes?”
He spoke quietly, and took her hand from where it rested on his cloak, clasping it in his own. “You really think I would ever hurt you?”
Odelia turned towards him in surprise, but did not move away. “Sebastian, I really don’t remember what happened.”
“Do you actually think the professors would be allowing me to roam around if I had started a duel in the middle of the school? Prewett’s not only a filthy liar, he’s simply a bad one too. He’s jealous of us, so he cast at us and my shield wasn’t quick enough to stop his hex from knocking you back. Weasley won’t say of course, Gryffindors stick with their own you know.”
His other hand reached out and tucked a loose curl behind her ear, eyes searching hers beseechingly. “I would never hurt you.”
Odelia hesitated, her lips falling slightly apart. Then resting her head on his shoulder, his arm around her pulling her in, she whispered back.
“I believe you.”
-----------------------
It was not too late the next morning when Nurse Blainey finally released Odelia from the Hospital Wing. She made her way down the stairs, yawning and wondering if she would make it to Transfiguration, when a familiar figure came around the corner and into her path.
“Garreth!”
The boy looked up at her, then looked away guiltily.
“Garreth, what are you doing here?”
He coughed. “I was just on my way to see Leander. And you - how are you doing?”
“I’m fine really, no harm done. Tell him that he shouldn’t feel guilty.”
“What, Sebastian?”
“No of course,” Odelia replied, eyes narrowing in confusion. “Leander.”
He reached up to rub the back of his head, uncomfortable all of a sudden. “Look, ehh, Delly, I’ve got to be off. Garlick has me repotting bouncing bulbs as punishment for borrowing some Shrivelfig seeds.”
“‘Borrowing?’” she raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah,” he grinned. “Needed them for a new potion recipe.” There was an awkward pause. “Anyway, I’ll see you.”
“Oh, bye!”
They continued onwards in opposite directions.
-----------------------
Transfiguration, as it turned out, was a breath of fresh air. Professor Weasley did not seem to mind when Odelia swanned in forty minutes late, nor when she spent the entire rest of the lesson giggling with Natty at the silent impressions of their various classmates that Sebastian, across the aisle, was doing for her amusement. Next to him, Adelaide smiled but as usual was more reserved.
The moment they were dismissed from their seats, Odelia walked over to Sebastian and flung her arms around his neck. He laughed, hugging her back.
“Go on then Delly, what’s got you so happy this morning?”
“Nothing in particular,” she teased back. “Shall we go to lunch?”