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A Confession (Zuberi)
Author: Viktor Krum
Date: 05-31-10 12:00
In the weeks - the months - since Professor Dumbledore first brought Zuberi to Sierra Leone as a "volunteer" Zuberi had seen the slow but sure progress made on the school, the dorms of the orphanage, a dining hall, a medical hut, and other buildings. One time he even shoveled dirt for part of a new sanitation system and afterwords found he hadn't minded so much having to do it by hand even though any of the adult Wizards around could easily have done it in no time at all then simply obliviated any of the Muggles who needed to have memories altered about what they'd seen. Today, helping to unload boxes of new textbooks that should have been here last year but as Karamoh cheerily pointed out are just as good to use when the next school term begins, Zuberi experiences a sense of pride in all he's helped with.
There is still something that Zuberi has wonder about since the first day he came and Karamoh had told him all about how the Wizard Joseph Koroma, who is a friend of Albus Dumbledore's, estabished this orphanage. As he opens a box that contains books for something called chemistry, Zuberi flips through the pages and while most of it is gibberish to him even though it is written in a language he knows, he notes that some things look similar to doing potions work. Adding the textbook to the stack he's making as he pulls them out of the box to carry them to a shelf he asks Karamoh, "You once told me that your Wizarding school work is at Mr. Koroma's original orphanage. How come he didn't just expand that instead of building up this place?"
Karamoh Musa, who is unloading literature textbooks, does not pause in his work when he answers. "I mentioned then that it has few huts and very smalls ones but that our numbers were growing. Uncle did increase the space inside the huts while leaving the outsides looking small but out numbers continued to grow as the war raged. The land he owns is a very tiny speck and though it is unplottable and shielded us from the evil Brima Bah,"
"That's the power hungry Wizard?"
"Yes, Brima Bah is most evil. Uncle could not expand his land to allow for the orphanage and school to grow as it needed without gaining Brima Bah's attention. A Wizard such as he would have noticed if land once easily found and accessed was suddenly not so easy to step foot onto. Uncle felt it wise to keep his unplottable holding small so that we could better be kept hidden. Then this land was offered to him and you know the rest of the story. Now we have both Wizard and Muggle children. Uncle cannot turn his back on children who do not even have magic to use against those such as Brima Bah."
"That all makes sense. Thanks for sharing."
"You are my friend, Zuberi. I enjoy when you show interest in how I came to be here. It is good you learn about me just as I learn about you. It is also good that your Professor Dumbledore allows you to volunteer here. Are there not others at your school who wish to help or do they each assist on other projects."
Zuberi doesn't think anyone else was "volunteered" by Dumbledore to do charitable work but he doesn't know that for fact so he answers honestly, "I actually don't know."
"Your school will be out soon for holiday, will it not? Will you return to the DRC?"
"Dosie says we're going to visit but it will only be for a few days, Definitely not above a week to ten days. She has some sort of coaching workshop to attend in Lima, Peru. She's taking Marjani and me with her since we've never been to Lima and has arranged for us to spend time with a tour group sight seeing and, as she put it, learing the culture. There's also Emrys Fest, which is, uhhhh, end of July? Yeah, something like that."
"You are most fortunate to get to see old friends and also have the opportunity to see someplace new. What is Emrys Fest?"
"It's an all day music concert on the grounds of the first actual Wizarding university, St. Emrys, which is in England at a place called Stratford-Upon-Avon. There are lots of bands, lots of food, booths selling things like band t-shirts. I've only been to one so far but it was loads of fun. Hey, maybe you could come! Dosie wouldn't mind, I don't think."
"Yes, I would like that very much. I will have to ask Uncle of course and you must ask your sister."
Zuberi has a thought then, one that he's had any number of times since first bring brought here to work by Dumbledore. "If you come, then there's something you should know. My sisters are already curious as to why I was showing you around at Spring Social. If you come, they would want to know more about how we became friends."
Karamoh grins impishly. "What could be so terrible about that? Your older sister knows of your volunteering as she had to give permission for Professor Dumbledore to take you from your school."
"Well, see, that's just it. Dosie doesn't know. She knows Professor Dumbledore has me working on some sort of project but that's all she knows. She agreed to let him handle me and not question it, though I know she's sometimes dying to ask what it is."
"I do not understand why it would be a secret from your older sister."
"When we first met, you went on and on about how fortunate I am and how great it is that I'm helping out. At first, I didn't think the real story was any of your business. Then, as we got to be friends and I came to see who important helping out here is, I have been ashamed about some things."
Zuberi keeps working so that he doesn't have to make eye contact as much with Karamoh as he spills the whole story. "After my parents died, I was devasted and angry but Dosie was there every day. Then she left for Britain and I get even angrier that she abandoned Marjani and me. I didn't want to hear Dosie's explanation that it was for a better job so that she could better take care of us. All I could think about was that our parents had left us forever and that she'd left us too. We hardly got to see her. If we were a Muggle family, I doubt Marjani and me would have seen her even once until she had us join her."
Zuberi opens another box and begins heaving thick, heavy books from it. "I was getting in trouble a lot, acting out on my anger. Cutting classes. Not doing assignments. When I got to Hogwarts, I got so mad that I'd been made to leave my friends that I got even worse about class and was picking fights with Dosie. Just an overall bad attitude. I was constantly doing detention and was no longer allowed to leave the school grounds to go into the village of Hogsmeade on days others were allowed. Last summer I was so bad that Dosie literally gave me over to Viktor Krum to do something with."
"Viktor Krum the professor Quidditch player and owner of the Hogsmeade Humbatas?"
"The very one. Anyway, I dug a hole in the side of the wall of my dorm room. I dug in a spot that was normally covered by a painting so no one would notice. My dorm extends under that big lake you saw there. I figured there were spells and charms around that part of the castle to guard against any leaks that might spring up so I wasn't worried about water seeping in once I broke all the way through the wall. When the hole was big enough I crawled through, ate some gillyweed so I could breath underwater and then started swimming. I thought it would be so easy and once I reached shore I'd find a way to get to one of my friends in the DRC."
"But it was not?"
"It wasn't at all. The water was extremely cold even though I had on a protective covering and it was darker than I thought it would be. I started swimming and it seemed like I swam forever but when I'd look back I couldn't tell that I'd gone all that far from where I'd started. Then a grindylow grabbed me and started pulling me down, down, down. At least I think it was a grindylow. About the time I started to panic, a merman rescued me. He scared me nearly as much as the grindylow! He was scowling and jabbering angrily at me, grabbed me by the arm and hauled me at high speed. I thought he was going to take me deep into the lake but then we got to shallow water and he literally threw me up on shore. I landed right at Professor Dumbledore's feet. He did not look amused."
Zuberi shudders at the memory of how frightening it was to be jerked along with an iron tight grip at an alarmingly fast speed by an extremely pissed off and fierce looking merman.
"Before I could even begin to think of some lie to tell Dumbledore, he informed me not to bother with making up something. Did I really think he wouldn't know when a hole was being made in a part of the castle wall that's underwater."
"He had known all along what you were doing?"
"All along. He even arranged for that grindylow to scare me before having the merman drag me ashore. He talked a little with me but overall didn't say much. He said he would let me know about my detention and then, he surprised me by saying what happened was between us unless I just really really wanted to tell Dosie. I didn't and haven't ever mentioned a word of it yet. I guess if you're going to come visit and her learning more about you, I'll have to come clean to her. Besides that, if I didn't, the second you mention meeting me because I so kindly volunteer at your orphanage and school, she would laugh at you thinking it's a joke then when told it wasn't, she would want the whole story anyway."
Zuberi takes a deep breath and looks across the current box he's working on to looks directly at his friend. "I am a sham and have let you think I'm something I'm not. When we first me, I didn't think I was fortunate at all. I was mad and whinied a lot to Dosie when I wasn't yelling at her. I resented her and everyone else. Some days I'm still mad at her but now I can at least understand what you meant about being fortunate. I at least have some of my family and I have food regularly and a decent place to live and new clothes when I need them. I'm really sorry I led you on."
Karamoh's face crinkles as his brow furrows in a frown. "What you have told me is very serious. It does sadden me that you were made to work here instead of giving your time freely; but, you have never shown to me or anyone else here you have worked with that you resented being here or that you were not willing to work as hard as the rest of us." Karamoh's frown turns into a smile. "I also think you most fortunate to realize what have have. I think I am most fortunate to know that you trust me with this information before even your sister as it tells me we are truly friends."
Zuberi is so relieved that Karamoh isn't spitting mad at him and he's happier right now that he's been in a really long time. Hell, maybe when he gets back to Hogwarts tonight he'll even tell Dosie he's sorry for being a jerk to her.
(Anthony) Rescue Mission
Author: Beck
Date: 05-31-10 12:31
Anthony looked over the side of the loft and said, "Up here!"
He turned back to the young man and woman and approached them, while the American specialists cautiously climbed the rickety ladder to the top of the loft. As he drew nearer, he made out their features and recognized the man as Arlington J. Montgomery. The woman he knew from photographs, both from Arley's case file and also The Daily Prophet and professional Quidditch magazines. It was Arley's sister, Fallon Montgomery.
She, at least, had all her limbs in tact but she had bruises all her face and arms and looked emaciated and dirty. The stump of Arley's arm was wrapped in a bloody bandage.
Anthony knelt beside him and said, "Hi Arley. It's me, Anthony Beck. I'm here to rescue you."
Arley looked a little out of it, but he managed a small smile and said, "It's about time."
Anthony carefully untied Arley and Fallon, and the other specialists carefully helped them down the ladder. Someone sent a jack rabbit patronus for a medic, a pair of whom soon arrived to take care of the weak siblings.
Anthony stayed with them in the beginning, taking statements but trying hard not to bother them too much considering their ordeal. When it appeared they were too tired and confused to answer any more of his questions, he turned and headed for the house. Half the specialists who'd helped him at the barn stayed with the siblings, while the rest went with him to the ranchhouse.
What they found was Mr. Montgomery passed out on the floor. He had the beginnings of a black eye and blood gushed from his newly broken nose. Desi stod over him, massaging her knuckles while she spoke to one of the Texan specialists standing next to her.
She looked up at Anthony's approach and said, "Well?"
"Arley and Fallon are safe now," he said, stopping in front of Mr. Montgomery. "Did he give you a confession?"
"I had to beat it out of him, but yeah." Desi shrugged. "Not like he didn't admit it before, though."
She asked, "Where's Arley?"
"Outside. Mediwizards are treating him and Fallon right now."
"He's okay?"
Anthony shrugged. "As well as can be expected."
"Good. I'll have to let Seb know so that he doesn't have to worry anymore."
They still had a lengthy process ahead of them, though. As an American citizen, Mr. Montgomery would be charged in Texas, where he resided and where the crime had been committed, and probably go to court there. Arley and Fallon were probably too weak to travel right now anyway and would likely spend some time in a local wizarding hospital. In all likelihood, they would have to testify against their father, too.
They may have been rescued, but their ordeal wasn't quite over yet.
Friendship (Olive)
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 05-31-10 14:11
Olive and her friends, girls and guys, are crowded around two tables pushed together at The Three Broomsticks. There's Alexa Wenlock, Jill Prewitt, Jenny Gabble, Etta Wynbourne, Marjani Batuti, Deak Bennett, Wiggy Hodfuffer, Hadrian Rabnott, Jack Emerson, Daniel Gelson, and Henry Appleton. Others that sometimes hang out with that particular group, such as Christopher Chant and his friend Catriona Amherst, Hunter Rabnott, Alastor Jenkins, and Carlotta Calloway, are doing other things, including some returning already to school. Olive's core group is here though so she's happy.
Olive is also of the opinion that as much of a jerk as Alastor's been being it's no real loss that he chose not to join them.
Her eyes stray over to where Etta and Deak are sitting shoulder to shoulder, most likely holding hands under the table. Olive wishes Deak had picked her to go steady with. Of all the guys she knows, he's the one she's found she likes best. All of them are cute in their own ways. Some are nicer than others. Some are funner. Some are smarter. Olive really has no idea what it is that makes Deacon Bennett a stand out for her.
Olive decided right after it was clear that Deak and Etta were getting together that it's a good thing Etta is such a good friend. Olive is well aware of the qualities that got her sorted into Slytherin. She is more than capable of doing whatever it takes to succeed. The fact that she was unhestitatingly prepared to kill Happy Haven warden, bearing the title Headmistress, Alecto Carrow is proof to Olive of what she is capable of when she puts her mind to it. Of course she would never take out another girl she view as a rival in the manner she was prepared to do in Alecto Carrow. But Olive would not hesitate to make herself shine above another girl and the other girl were interested in the same boy.
Olive doesn't think she'd out and out attempt to steal anyone's boyfriend, no matter how much she might like him or how much she might dislike the other girl. If a guy broke up with someone to go out with Olive, that's different than her taking action to cause the couple to break up. She could do it but doesn't think she would because of being raised with morals and ethics. It's also different if she makes herself shine and shows off her positive attributes and the guy takes notice then breaks off with the other girl. That wouldn't be Olive deliberately inserting herself between them to provoke a break-up. At least in her opinion it wouldn't be. Some might argue otherwise.
Some people just don't get that unless a spells or potion is used to redirect someone's affections, one person cannot steal someone from another person. That someone plays a part just as much. You can't steal a person away from another who doesn't want to be stolen so that's why it's not stealing really.
Olive could outrageously flirt with Deak. Could make it clear she's interested. If Deak were to realize he's more interested in Olive as a result, she'd lose Etta's friendship. Etta was Olive's very first friend after her parents died and she and her sisters and brother went to live with Aunt Blythe and Uncle Woody and were learning that witches and wizards really do exist. Olive's not about to do anything to ruin the friendship.
She'll be friendly with Deak in the same manner she's always been. If at some point those two have broken up and enough time has passed afterwards and Deak shows in interest in Olive as something more than just a friend, she'll check first with Etta to make sure she's okay with it.
Olive wonders if she's a bad person, a bad friend for hoping that Etta and Deak do break up soon and that come fall he wants to be her boyfriend and Etta's fine with it.
Thinking about all the ways a girl could get the attention of a guy who's dating someone, Olive tells herself again that it's a very good thing she isn't the sort to deliberately try to break up a couple. Because she knows she could. She so totally could.
More Book Inventory
Author: Zabrynna
Date: 05-31-10 20:04
Zabrynna wipes a dusty hand across her brow, knowing that since she's sweating the move will leave a dirty streak. Just one more day to sort all these books for Professor Dumbledore - and by extension, Miss Bramble - or so Zabrynna thinks. She hopes. Sure, she's come across some interesting looking books and she knows she's actually doing something helpful even though sometimes it simply feels like busy, punishment work. Which it is.
She knows there is an actual purpose to going through these piles and piles of books, cleaning them off, making out an inventory card, then putting each book into a systematic order so that Miss Bramble or whomever can easily find a title from one of the inventory cards. Sort of like indexing Zabrynna supposes. Even though she knows the reason for it all, Zabrynna would much rather have spent this Hogsmeade weekend day somewhere out on the grounds, in the sun. Better yet, she would have liked to have been able to go into Hogsmeade with Anne and Philippa.
Zabrynna can easily imagine Anne spending some time hanging out at McFusty's to moon over Indigo, or Philippa wanting to accidently bump into either Bradley Neilson or Cassander Mayfield, both of whom she's suddenly developed crushes on. Zabrynna would be trying not to think of Declan, trying not to compare others to him. It would be nice to fall for someone everyone else would think is currently better suited for her. Zabrynna wouldn't even mind developing some sort of crush on some different older man, like one of the Quidditch players. Of course, the down side there is her absolute phobia of flying on brooms. Maybe some musician is better to have an innocent fan crush on.
Zabrynna is so involved in thinking of musicians she could have a fan girl crush on like countless other teenage girls that she doesn't notice right away that the ladder she uses to get books from the tops of the biggest stacks and piles isn't evenly settled. It's only when she's leaning to grab the top most books and feels the ladder sway that she notices. She attempts to rebalance but by that time it's too late. As the ladder falls over with Zabrynna toppling off, she grabs frantically for her wand in hopes of using it to at least cushion the fall. She gets it clutched in her hand but it catches on the books and is wrenched from her grasp.
As falls goes it's a goodly drop about 8 feet. At the same time, it's really not that far so it amazing Zabrynna that as quickly as she fell that relatively short way, she had time to time about her wand and pull it out then, when losing it, to think about how best to try and tuck her body to do the least amount of harm. When she hits the floor, Zabrynna involuntarily cries out with the pain of it. She stays still for a moment, the wind knocked out of her.
After what feels like ages she makes herself move, testing to see if she can wiggle her feet. Relief fills her when each foot responds as it's supposed to, even though it did hurt to flex those muscles. One leg bends properly at the knee but the other doesn't want to. It's not at an awkward angle so she doesn't think she's dislocated it.
She leaves that off for a moment to raise both arms, flexing wrists and fingers, bending her elbows. She winces at how stiff her left wrist and and is. That shoulder is slow to move as well but at least she can move it.
Zabrynna rolls slight so that she can better sit up fully, crying aloud when her left hip sends out firey bursts. It's her left knee that doesn't want to bend and her left shoulder and arm that hurt the worst. Nothing like a little consistency.
She's in the process of mustering up enough courage and strength to attempt to get up on her right foot, thinking she can do a sort of hop out of there until she can find some help when she becomes aware of red droplets falling from her head. Gingerly reaching up she feels wetness on her forehead that has a different consistency than sweat. Even before she pulls her fingers away to exam them, Zabrynna knows she cuts her head open as well, though whether it happened when she hit the floor, from the ladder, or from the stack of books she doesn't know.
After straining to get up on her right leg for what's probably only been five or ten minutes, but felt like five or ten hours, Zabrynna has to admit that she just can't do it. At times the pain from her hip and knee make her feel so woozy she think she'll pass out if she pushes to hard to stand. Zabrynna wonders if she called the name of a house elf if it would come. But then she decides probably not because the only names coming to mind aren't ones who would come running to see what she needed, like the ones who work in the library. There's Dumbledore's house elf. Lundy. She'll try Lundy.
Zabrynna opens her mouth and calls out, "Lundy! Lundy!" shocked at how weak her voice sounds. That can't be good.
She makes herself wait before calling Lundy again. After the third try Zabrynna has to presume that Lundy is busy with other things, most likely for Professor Dumbledore, and can't be bothered to drop whatever it is and come running to see what some chit of a student in detention wants. It hadn't been all that long ago that Professor Dumbledore had come to check on her progress so it will be a good while before he returns or someone comes in his place. She's already had lunch and besides that, even if she hadn't had it no one would think twice about an upper year student not grabbing lunch in the Great Hall on a Hogsmeade weekend and it's not like so very many know that Zabrynna is working off detention. Even Anne and Philippa don't know that. They think Zabrynna doesn't go into the village with them because her parents refused to sign the permission slip, wanting Zabrynna to spend time studying instead.
She has no idea where her wand went, unable to spot it anywhere nearby. That means she can't use it to perhaps find a way to get help or even do something like a charm that would allow her to float herself out of the room. There's nothing for it. It's either lie here for what would most likely be hours or she can try crawling out just far enough to find someone who can help.
Gritting her teeth, Zabrynna positions herself to be able to use both arms even though the left one is throbbing something painfully by now and so that she can use her right leg. It takes an absolute age to reach the doorway from Zabrynna's perspective and the more she moves the more her left side screams in pain, especially from hip to knee. As bad as it is to move, stopping is even more.
Her voice sounding even weaker than before, Zabrynna says aloud as firmly as she can, "You CAN do this. Just far enough to be noticed."
Zabrynna ignores the chiding little voice in her head reminding her just how far away from regular castle traffic the room is and the maze of halls and staircases between her and help.
Discovery
Author: Declan
Date: 06-01-10 19:49
"I've never been to this part of the castle."
"Me either. If not for this map AJ gave me I wouldn't where to go."
Kissy stops at an intersection of corridors. Declan looks over her shoulder without trying to give her that someone's reading over your shoulder feeling and studies the map she holds. "That indicates the stairs we just came up there," Declan says pointing down the hallway behind them.
"And we just walked along here," she says, indicating a line that represents that hallway he's just pointed down. "So we go left." Kissy taps a line on the map for emphasis. "I wish he'd said what he wants us to see."
"Did you ask?"
"I did but the only reply I got was him shoving this map at me and telling me that as soon as you got back, you and I should follow the map, then he hurried off. I was busy with a student who came back from Hogsmeade early to get in some practice for the Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL or else I would have gone after him to find out more."
"I'm betting he's found something he wants to work into one of his novels."
"Like that secret passage and room off the library."
"It's funny how Harriet Snider never learned about that room. AJ scurried off to hide there so often it's a wonder she didn't catch him."
"What's amazing is that you didn't feel the need to go into hiding as well when that woman was lurking around. She made no effort to be subtle in her desire to bed all of you."
Declan does an involuntary full bodied shudder. "Don't remind me. It's creepy just thinking about. Makes you wonder what her husband was like. Did something just move down there?"
Kissy peers ahead into the gloom of the unused corridor as both hold their lits wands aloft. She starts to say, "It was probably just a shadow," but doesn't get out more than the, "It was prob," before changing course mid-word. "There is something there."
There are sconces all along the wall but none are lit, most likely because hardly anyone passes along there. Declan uses a spell to light them all at once, the torchlight brightening the hallway immediately. Even though Declan was gone much of the day he'd already heard about one incident with an intruder intent on doing Illyria Jones harm and if he's heard about it no doubt Kissy has as well since she spent part of the day in the castle. This means both were ready in case the intruder hadn't been alone, though why an accomplice would be in this part of the castle would be an interesting question to have answered.
Even with the corridor suddenly much brighter, they can't make out very well what was doing the moving. The hall hooks to the right and whatever it is is more around the turn than along this hallway. Both are on the alert, moving forward, both with eyes fixed on whatever it is but also very alert to anything else that might be around.
Whatever it is they are seeing looks red from here. A famiiar sort of red at that. Both Kissy and Declan reach the same conclusion at the same time, hastening their steps. They keep their wands out and ready in case whoever is lying on the floor was attacked by something or in case the person is setting some sort of trap. Declan even wonders AJ is playing some sort of prank on them.
That questioning thought is very brief as they reach the red hair spilling into that section of corridor then turn the corner to see a female form half turned so that she's partly on her side but with her head and shoulders more facing down. The familiarity of the red hair clicks in Declan's brain and he knows even before they kneel down that this is Zabrynna Ravensdale.
Kissy is reaching towards one of Zabrynna's shoulders, the left one, as if to move Zabrynna fully onto her side or turn her so that she's on her back but then her fingers hover uncertainly a hair's breadth away. "I want to check her breathing but if she's injured and not simply knocked unconscious, I don't want to risk hurting her more."
"I know what you mean." There's enough room between Zabrynna and the wall she's near for Declan to crouch there with Kissy on the other side.
Before either Kissy or he can do anything, Zabrynna stirs. She says something but it's so faint Declan can't make it out and from the shake of her head when he looks to her, Kissy can't either. Kissy very gently places her hand on Zabrynna's back and says, "Zabrynna?"
Zabrynna stirs again, that left shoulder rising and her head turning to the side. Declan pushes hair off her face, his fingers coming away sticky. "She's bleeding," he tells Kissy.
Zabrynna's eyes flutter then open all the way. She heaves a weary sigh at the sight of Declan peering worriedly at her. Her voice is weak but since she's no longer face down he can hear her better as she caustically says, "Lovely. The one person who would enjoy seeing me in such a miserable state is the one who finds me. Go away."
"You hit your head and are bleeding," Declan starts only to have Zabrynna make a funny snorting sound. "I know that, silly. It's been bleeding and bleeding but not like at first."
"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Kissy asks, handing a handkerchief to press against the cut on Zabrynna's head since he's better positioned to do that.
"Everywhere hurts. You hate me too so go away with him. All this talking is hard. Sleepy now. Time for a nap."
"No! Don't go to sleep!" Declan orders.
"See. Hates me." This seems to be directed at Kissy.
Declan bends closer to Zabrynna. "I don't hate you and you may sleep in a bit. You said you hurt everywhere. Is there anything specific?"
As he's asking Zabrynna this, Kissy gets up and pointing her wand sends off a patronus. He presumes its going to Madam Pomfrey. This is confirmed when she tells him, "I've alerted Madam Pomfrey to be on standby."
"Zabrynna, you need to talk to me. Is anything broken?"
"Don't know. Think so."
"She seems to be favoring her left side," Kissy notes.
Declan repositions himself. "Zabrynna, if possible, I want to lift you up but I won't if the pain is too much."
With a great deal of effort, Zabrynna cracks an open halfway open. "You just want to hurt me. Revenge."
"She's clearly delirious," Kissy says, not because Declan hasn't figured that out on his own but because it's reassuring to hear that Kissy doesn't think Zabrynna truly believes he'd deliberately cause her physical pain out of spite for what she'd done to him.
"Let's get her on her back then I think if I pick her up with her left side against me, that side won't be jarred as much on the way to the hospital wing."
They start to turn Zabrynna but then at the same time exclaim similar thoughts. "We could just summon a litter." "Let's get a stretcher."
Kissy summons a hospital stretcher then both do their best to keep Zabrynna talking to them, even if her replies are becoming shorter and more terse, until it arrives with Madam Pomfrey following at a fast trot. Before she allows for Zabrynna to be moved more than she has been, the nurse does a quick assessment, wanting to see if she can ascertain if there's any spinal cord injury before having them help her put a back board and neck brace on Zabrynna, which Madam Pomfrey had thrown onto the stretcher as it began moving out of the hospital wing. Next, the nurse applies guaze to the oozing gash on Zabrynna's head and tapes it down. "I'll do a proper cleaning and dressing after we get her moved."
Once Zabrynna is on the stretcher, they levitate it to guide it to the hospital wing. As they walk at as fast a pace as Madam Pomfrey will allow, she says she's fairly certain she can treat the girl in the hospital wing without having to get anyone from St. Mungo's involved.
They reach the end of the long corridor they'd been following when they first saw Zabrynna moving just as AJ Hodfuffer comes from the opposite hallway. He Madam Pomfrey, the stretcher and Zabrynna, promptly asking, "What's happened?"
"We don't know yet," Declan replies with a shake of his head.
"We found her down that way at a turn in the hallway."
"What were you two doing down that way?"
"We were following your map," Declan reminds.
"Then how did you end up that direction?"
"Because that's where your map sent us," Kissy says, handing it to him.
AJ looks at it as they walk then comes to a stop. He pauses, turns in place and looks at the map again before turning back around to job the short distance to them. "My mistake. I rushed to draw it. At that intersection there you were to have gone right then taken a left. I drew it in as taking a left then a right."
Declan looks ahead of them to Zabrynna on the stretcher. "It's a damn good thing you do. There's no telling how long she'd have been there otherwise."