Lemon Squares in the Hospital Wing
Quinn tried to block the last few hours out of her head.
But she kept seeing Lucy hiding her wand, a green stream of magic disappearing from the tip of it. She kept hearing Harry and Leo yelling her name. She kept seeing the concerned faces of Hermione, Phoebe and Lyra standing above her. She kept thinking about how Blaise held the back of Malfoy’s shirt, keeping him from running.
She kept replaying Leo picking her up into his arms, as Harry grabbed her bag from her desk. She kept hearing Sprouts’ concerned murmurs.
She kept hearing Ron yelling at Malfoy, What the hell did you do to her?
Then, clutching Leo’s arms as she sobbed into his chest. Seeing Harry follow behind them, looking more concerned than ever. Feeling Leo rub the back of her head. Hearing Madam Pomfrey murmur incantations to stop the growth of the slime, which had almost reached her lips by the time they got to the hospital wing.
When she finally woke up a few hours later, she thought the sight of the Weasley’s crowding around her was a trick of her imagination. But when she began to open her eyes, she heard Ginny gasp and rush over.
“What the hell happened?” Ginny asked, concerned.
“Blimey,” George said, “Lyra was right, you are a deep sleeper, we’ve been playing Exploding Snaps on your bed for hours.”
Ginny sent him a glare but Quinn just laughed. “What are you guys doing here?” Quinn asked.
Ron just shook his head, “You’re family, Quinn.”
Quinn felt overcome with gratitude for the Weasley’s. They didn’t have to take her in. They could have told Headmaster Dalton to forget it, or could have her sent to an Orphanage.
But they took her in. Even though their resources were already split in several red-headed directions. Even though they had basically adopted Hermione and Harry. Even though they were fighting a war.
Quinn smiled at the red-heads. “Thank you.”
Ron gave her a sweet smile back, “We sent an owl to mom and dad about your condition, but Ginny and I will go send them an update.”
Ron gave her hand a small squeeze and left with Ginny. Fred and George plopped into the bed next to her.
“Bloody Hell, Quinn, your first day of classes and you’re already in the hospital wing.” Fred mused.
“I think that’s a Weasley family record,” George agreed.
“At least you haven’t been possessed by the teenage version of Voldemort…yet!” Fred said, causing Quinn to laugh.
“They got the slime off everything but your shoes,” George said, motioning to her once black leather shoes that were completely covered in green goo. “I’d let you borrow my shoes, but I think they’d be too small for you.” Quinn elbowed George in the ribs, causing Fred to laugh too.
“We don’t want to keep you up,” Fred said, standing. “Madam Pomfrey said she’d come back in an hour and send you back to Ravenclaw tower.”
“You know,” George said, “I bet if you play up your injuries, she’ll let you skip classes tomorrow.
Quinn laughed, “I actually like going to classes, George.”
Fred shook his head, “I can’t believe we let Hermione win that bet, she is so clearly a Ravenclaw.”
George suddenly got serious, “Quinn… if you know who did this to you, please tell us. We’ll handle it.”
Quinn thought about her options. She certainly had a suspect, but she wanted to work it out for herself first. “I’m not sure, yet. You’ll be the first to know if I remember anything.”
After Fred and George left, Quinn got out of bed to look out the window. She could make out some Astronomy students peering through telescopes from the Astronomy Tower. She watched the stars from the window and tried to think through the incident in Herbology.
“Calloway,” a deep voice called from the entrance of the hospital wing.
Quinn turned, Draco Malfoy was standing with his hands clasped behind his back. She thought that he stood like a politician, trying not to give his true feelings away. She had nothing to say, so she just stared at him, waiting.
He looked over her entire body, as if scanning for injury. Then his eyes made it back to hers.
Neither spoke until Quinn finally gave up, “What do you want, Malfoy.”
Malfoy licked his lips and tore his gaze away from her eyes to look at the floor. “I came to see if you were alright,” he said quietly, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear him in the empty hospital wing.
“And why would you want to do that?” Quinn asked, crossing her arms.
Malfoy said nothing. He took the ring on his index finger off and on several times. “I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t…,” he stated after a moment, looking back up at her slowly, “me, who did that. Or told anyone to.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow in suspicion. For a millisecond she swore she saw his gaze soften, but just as quickly as it came, it was gone and his usual unreadable demeanor returned. “I just didn’t want you to think my revenge would be something so juvenile,” he stated, manner-of-factly.
“Is that so?” Quinn asked. She tilted her head slightly, watching him fidget with his ring. “Because it almost sounded like you cared about me for a second.”
Malfoy scoffed.
“We wouldn’t want anyone thinking that, would we?” Quinn asked, trying to gauge his reaction.
Malfoy didn’t let himself slip again. “I could never care for a filthy blood traitor,” he said dryly, “or whatever the hell you are.”
Quinn just shook her head and turned back to the window. “I know you say that kind of thing to get a rise out of people,” she stated, watching the first-year marveling at the sky in the Astronomy Tower. “Blood traitor, mudblood, whatever, hell, I gave you a reaction the first time I met you.”
Quinn watched as the first-years gazed at the stares in amazement, innocent to all the possibilities of life. She remembered feeling like that.
“But it doesn’t make me mad anymore,” Quinn continued, “it just makes me feel bad for you. I feel bad that you were raised to think that you had to hate people and the fact that you refuse to see otherwise.”
Malfoy said nothing. He just stared at the back of her head, trying to decode what she had just said.
They stood there, in silence, for a while. With Draco Malfoy staring at Quinn Calloway, the first person to ever say they felt bad for him. The first to leave him speechless.
Finally, Quinn turned back around. “Is there something else you wanted?” she asked, crossing her arms.
Malfoy looked at the floor and shook his head once. He turned on his heels to leave, his hand was on the knob when Quinn called back to him.
“You should probably figure out why Nott’s cousin wants your attention so badly.”
Malfoy was just about to turn around when he saw a figure coming down the hall. “Good night, Calloway,” Malfoy said as he opened the door for Albus Dumbledore.
“Ahh, Mr. Malfoy, what are you doing out of bed?” Dumbledore asked innocently.
“I was dropping off the notes from Professor Sprout’s class,” Malfoy said, not sparing a glance back at Quinn, “I was just leaving.”
Dumbledore nodded, “Say good-night to the Giant Squid for me!” he called back. Once the sound of Malfoy’s footsteps disappeared, the Headmaster turned back to Quinn. “How are you feeling Ms. Calloway?”
“Just fine, sir,” Quinn replied, “thank you for stopping by.” Quinn sat at the end of her bed.
Professor Dumbledore gave her a smile as conjured two lemon squares out of thin air. “I brought you a lemon square,” he said, handing one of the sweets to Quinn.
She hesitantly took it. “Thank you?”
Dumbledore sat in the chair across from her bed. “I was hoping to speak with you today to see how you were adjusting to Hogwarts.”
“It’s fine,” Quinn answered, “besides being attacked with slime of course.”
Dumbledore chuckled softly. “I was hoping to set up a weekly meeting with you to track your progress here at Hogwarts.”
Quinn frowned. “Do you do that with all the transfers?”
Dumbledore smiled. “Not usually, however, with the tragic nature of your Aunt’s death, I would like to keep in touch with how you are doing.”
Quinn just stared at him. “Why were you the only emergency contact left by my Aunt?” Quinn asked. She wasn’t sure Dumbledore could ever be surprised, but she saw a momentary look of surprise cross his face. “I mean, if the Weasley’s are my Godparents, why weren’t they listed? Headmaster Dalton said only you were mentioned.”
“Your mother was one of my students,” Dumbledore stood to pace in front of her bed. “She was one of the best witches in the Order. I told her to put me down if anything happened to you, so that the Death Eaters couldn’t trace you back to the Weasley’s.”
“So then you were the one who sent me to Aunt Kendra’s then?” Quinn asked. “If you were the first person on the list, it was your decision to send me to America and not the Weasley's. Why?”
Dumbledore just smiled, which annoyed Quinn to no end. “You are so much like your mother. A true Ravenclaw.”
And before she could respond, Albus Dumbledore was gone.