The Hogwarts Rule~ Tale of a Dangerous Invalid

The girl's strong back arched in agony. She strained against its pull, but the sickness threw her around like a ragdoll, her limp body was simply no match for her ailments. The pain seemed to be attacking her like an animal, sinking vicious claws into her body... ripping, tearing, hitting her harder each time it struck. Each wail seemed to intensify as she sank lower to the dusty floor, her pale skin almost blue in the moonlight, glistening with sweat. Fingers clawed her body... her /face. Tears blurred my vision. I couldn't hold them back. She would never be the same again. She would scar her own face forever. Just as I did to mine. I now wear my disfigurement as a badge. More like a simple label than a medal. There is no pride in true suffering. Now everyone knows I have nothing to envy.
I stood rigid in my hiding-place as I watched her suffer. Too afraid to move. Too mesmerised to run. I knew her pain. I felt it on my cheeks, in my back, behind my eyes. Every time she screamed it/
hit me like a curse. I sank to my knees and found my hands over my ears. There they stayed,
pressed tight, but still the echoing sound of her torment follows me wherever I go...




Dearest Lucy,
I miss you! I miss you like pumpkin juice on a hot day. The school feels somehow empty without you, though I am constantly surrounded by people. People who don't know. People who don't care.
Please tell me you'll come back. I don't think I could stand to know otherwise. Deep down I know I don't want the truth. Lie Lucy! Just lie all the pain away! Then we could return to a normal life.
You. Me. Jose. All of us just having fun! Being kids. Sirius is gonna ask me to the ball- I just know it, Luce. You'll see! And I want you to be there to witness it. You need to come back and get a date before it's too late! Everyday I'm wishing for your return. Get better girl! We need you back here!
Lots of love,
Flick xxxxxxxxxx
PS: Only me and Josie know what happened. What /really happened, I mean. The others think
/you have dragon pox (courtesy of me) When you come back no one will pester you. Don't worry!
/PPS: We're sending you some fizzing whizbees by the way. A years' supply just in case you need
them! Hospital must be utterly deadly boring.

Lucielle stared at the words her friend had scrawled across the parchment. Felicity's usually neat script was slanting and smudged in a few places. In her eagerness to post the letter the quill had punctured the yellowy edge of the parchment where she'd tried to dot an "i". Lucy gave a happy, sad, reminiscent grin that cracked her too-dry lips, as she read back over the line:
Sirius is gonna ask me to the ball- I just /know it, Luce./
The first thing many people noticed about Flick was her "too cool for school" attitude. She was cool, collected and confident. Not to mention rather tall for her age, which helps quite a bit.
There are so many "c" words that could be used to decribe Luce's friend, but there was a three letter acronym that described her absolutely perfectly. SBO: Sirius Black Obsessed.
Ever since she and Sirius were been partnered together for second-year potions, Flick has been convinced that the two of the are soulmates. As if blowing up the dungeon together would magically bring them together.
The thing that worried Luce and Josie most, was not that Flick was being rejected for not being good enough, it was almost as if she was too good. Luce always got the niggling sensation that whenever Flick beat Sirius at Quidditch or made a sarcastic reply to some stupid comment he'd made, Sirius' ego took a serious beating. And boys like Black never reacted well to desperately-needed reality check.
It seemed like a strange way to woo a crush... Luce always thought after experiencing this. Surely, Sirius Black only falls for girls who kiss the filthy ground he walks on.
But still Flick continues to chase after Sirius. Flirts outrageously, then crushes the pride out of him. Constantly pulling him close then pushing him away again. Luce almost managed to feel sympathy for the poor boy. Almost being the key word.
She may have felt sorry for him, if he weren't doing the same to her friend. The way that their relationship appeared in Luce's mind, was as a game of computerised ping-pong. The little strips of colour on the screen, tossing the ball back and forth to each-other. Bounce, bounce, bounce....
But in reality, the little white ball was a grenade. Eventually someone would slip and drop the deadly ball, sprawling in the dust as their dignity was cut down. Needless to say, Luce had a vivid imagination.
The scar that stretched across her cheek seemed to prickle with sadness. Or was it guilt? Luce knew that she wouldn't be returning to school. Not now, not ever.But Felicity didn't need to know that just yet. The memory was still too fresh...
Running her tongue over the blistery surface of her upper lip, she lifted a large blue box off the bedside table and placed it on her lap. The box itself was silver with a pale blue ribbon tied around it. Both Luce's favorite colours. She lifted lid with weak hands and squeaked with excitement. It was so packed with multicoloured sherbet balls, that two fell out and rolled across the pale wooden floor.
Lowering herself off the bed and carefully placing the box back on the bedside table, Lucy bent to grab the sweets out from under the bed. She stared at them hesitantly in the palm of her hand. One pink and one blue.
"The floor's pretty clean..." She murmured, glancing quickly around before shoving them both in her mouth. "Five second rule, eh?" Not quite sure who she was trying to convince.
The floor started to drift away, her feet rising almost a metre into the air. A slightly hysterical giggle escaped her lips. The door of the room swung open abruptly.
"Lucielle! What the bloody hell do ya think yer doin'?" Freya Jamonts burst into the room, her heavy northern accent punctuating the silence of the room. "Get down here, girl. Or yer'll lose me ma job!"
The hovering girl gasped and dropped like a stone, landing in a heap on the floor.
Luce flexed her muscles and found herself uninjured. The fizzing whizbees however, had cracked inside her mouth and sherbet was making her cheeks bulge.
"/Mer-in/ Freya!" She swallowed an acidic mouthful that stung as it slid down her throat.
"Calm down! I was just having a little fun. I've got absolutely bugger-all to do sitting in here on my own all day. Everyone's too bloody scared to see me... I'm sick of it! But knowing you "Healer People", I'll probably have died of utter boredom in the next day or so. I may as well just go now!"
Luce stopped suddenly for air, glaring through her fringe.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
In...
Out. Pale wisps of hair heaved up and down with every breath. The Healer's had drilled into her the importance of managing her temper. Luce found that her rage had cooled and guilt began to eat at her insides like vicious rats. Freya looked deflated. The nurse was very young to be working with a patient like herself. All that Luce really needed was a friend. A friend that she could talk to, cry on, laugh with and even verbally abuse when the need arose.
Lucielle knew that she was a hard case and Freya did her job as a makeshift buddy pretty damn well.
"I'm sorry." The sickly girl hung her head in shame. It was bad enough that she wasn't going back to school... Correction: Couldn't go back to school.
Now she'd gone and hurt the only friend that she could be sure wouldn't sue her if they were injured on a surprise visit.
One thing was for sure. The way that a condemned animal knows that its life is effectively over, Luce felt the terrifying emptiness of depression weighing on her.
Her life was gone. There was no ball for her.
Only scars.