Laying Listlessly

[Lady Sylvia Saphricorn]

“Nurse! Nurse! Oh For heavens sake where is the school nurse!”

Lady Saphricorn had started calling out and trying to catch a glance for the school nurse, or Doctor as he probably would have preferred to have been called. Lowering her wand to gently lay the body of Jay Rastan to the hospital bed, making sure he was safely on the bed before cancelling the spell, she ways silently mentally cursing the man for not immediately answering her calls.

The whooshing sound that came from behind her turned back turned out to be Phil, as he flew into the room. All the way from her office as she negotiated her way through the traffic of the halls considering it was just around noon all the classes had been let out for lunch which meant it to slightly longer than she liked to get her student to the Hospital Wing all the while reassuring the students that had asked her the same series of questions over and over. “What happened to him, Lady Saphricorn?” “Is he going to be alright?” and also the surprisingly dim-witted question of; “Is he dead, Lady Saphricorn?” to which she had tried her best to quickly alleviate the students of their concerns with a standard issue answer of “Mr Rastan is just in need of some medical attention and he will be right as rain”

Even as she said this to the students with a forced smile, never stopping her purposeful strides to the hospital wing. Before sinking into her thoughts, she noticed the male attendant had still not arrive, and she was starting to get worried. She was a mother, and nobody liked to see someone their own children’s age in danger. She also had come to think of some of the kids like her very own after spending so much time with them over the seventh years they spend in her care. She could only imagine the terror she would feel if it was her very own Godric laying disturbingly still on the sterile white sheets of the bed.

“Jeremy Cartwright, I require your assistance immediately! Get here right now” She said, her voice seeming to boom as it echoed off the walls in the silence of the room. A school nurse was a school nurse and as always when you needed one, they were never around or were off doing something else.

Hearing approaching footsteps, Sylvia Saphricorn let out a sigh as her thought drifted to the letter she had read that belonged to Jay. It was very cold and commanding, when she read it she felt like it was compelling her to do what it said, she thought she must have been paranoid, but as she pulled it out of the inner pockets of her robe and re-read the words, she felt the same pull as if someone was lightly touching your arm to guide you through traffic.

’It couldn’t be thought could be that, could it? No parent or relative would do such a thing…..Would they?’ She thought to herself, folding the letter back up, knowing she would need to talk to Jay when he woke up. Before she could say, think or do anything out the corner of her eye she saw Jay’s body start to thrash about wildly, causing the house founder to grab his shoulders and press down on them to push him into the mattress trying to restrain him from causing harm to himself, all the while mentally begging the doctor to suddenly just materialize or to just hurry up, not matter how irrational she knew it was.

[Dr. Jeremy Cartwright]

“Nurse! Nurse! Oh For heavens sake where is the school nurse!” the words sounded, though Jeremy was sure he had not heard them. He knew everyone at the school understood he was a fully qualified doctor and no one would be fool enough to confuse the two as the same thing; as they definitely were not.

Dr. Jeremy Cartwright was currently immersed in what were quite possibly the most tediously drawn up medical reports of the century. Every now and then when a magical medical practitioner came across a medical condition they thought was new; they told the whole world about it in detail. This was another of the wild claims that Dr. Cartwright knew to have been someone who had been cursed multiple times, in succession, but several people, with several different curses. This always yielded interesting results, but was something Jeremy had seen many times in his position at Koalingo and had nothing to do with the Wentworth Witch Worm; this doctor was blaming.

If he were not reading, or if Professor Saphricorn had called him by his correct name, he might have heard her calling, though as it was, in the middle of such a medical document; he was so immersed that nothing else invaded his thoughts. He turned the page while he read and moved onto the next case, “Ah I see, a bat bogey hex… maybe a stunner as well, and the wart hex, what an interesting theory, but I saw that one in my first year working here,” he then laughed as he continued reading; this doctor claimed the result of this one was caused by a Taiwanese Jelly Cat.

He lowered his glasses to the end of his nose and set the medical report down. He would read no more this morning though it was good for a bit of comic relief. He got out of his chair and started stretching and bending to make sure he didn’t do himself any damage by beginning to move so soon after doing nothing. He had learned this when he was studying that moving after doing nothing was a very bad idea without some good stretching in between it. He moved across to the sink in his office and; pulling out his wand; he poured some water into his favourite mug and tapped it twice. The liquid was soon bubbling hot and smelling of coffee.

“Jeremy Cartwright, I require your assistance immediately! Get here right now” the sound shook his mind and he almost fell over. Reaching up he felt that it had actually shaken some blood from his nose. A slight drip had appeared below his right nostril. He steadied himself for a moment; wiped it off and moved out of his office curiously. It was there that he saw Professor Saphricorn and a student laying on one of the beds, looking quite comatose.

“Professor?” he said walking out. This sort of thing happened a lot. People got emotional over the medical issues of other, when quite possibly, a lot of them could be written off without a second thought. This was also the case. Jeremy could tell it almost at once, “Hmmm… well isn’t that interesting,”

He moved away from them to a cupboard of concoctions. Looking through it, he knew just the thing, but grabbed a couple of other things to sate Lady Saphricorn in the meantime. He moved back towards the bed, knowing that if he wished it, he could have Jay Rastan awake and as alert as anything, but while his teacher was just a little out of hand….

He walked back and held his wand to Jay’s chest, holding his left hand to his ear as if he were listening through it, “Ah… yes, I see,” he said after a moment before looking at the Professor, “He is going to be fine, I will give him a few things, but I doubt he will wake up, this is just his body saying it wants to rest,”

[Jay Rastan]

The peacefulness on the outside of Jay Rastan was experience was different to the inner turmoil he faced. While he had no idea he had been moved or any inkling to what might have happened on the outside of his person, inside Jay felt like he was lost in his own mind, surrounded by fog which thinned out in front of him, while he strained his eye to make out a pair of figures that was slowly becoming more distinct as it approached.

Having a bad feeling, jay went to plunge his hand into his robes but found that he couldn’t movie his hand more than his wrist, not could he move his legs, as he now realised he was sitting down, and after a quick glance downward he noticed he had large iron clamps were holding his arms and legs in place again against the hard cold wood of his straight backed chair. After trying to fight his restraints for a moment he gave up, trying to think of a new strategy of breaking free from his restraints, the clearing of a throat interrupted his plotting. Looking up at to his left, he jumped in shock when he realised who was their.

”Father? I am dead? Are you dead?” Jay asked, starting to wonder what on earth was happening, when a soft cough came from his right and his neck swivelled quickly to look up at the other figure. “Mother? Are we all dead? Is this some sort of pureblood heaven waiting room? Why am I tired down and you both free and standing”

Jay started once again in another earnest attempt to free himself from his shackles, only to stop when his mother placed a cool and calming hand on his forearm and shook her head, opening his mouth to fire off another question his mother let out a soft laugh.

”They will get tighter the more you struggle, darling. Remain calm all will be explained in due time. But we are not dead so fear not” She said, looking at him somewhat tenderly with a gentle smile and raised her hand to brush his hair out of his eyes. “But I must ask you what you have been doing, Jay. Why are you fighting us?”

Jay had closed his eyes at his mother’s caring touch to look at her then his father wondering what she was talking about? Fighting them? He couldn’t remember ever really fighting or arguing with either of his parents except when they suggested he consider an arranged marriage. And who was this ‘us’ she spoke of? The only people he had fought with lately seemed to be Mariana, and that other sixth grade girl that he took no notice of, although he regretted fighting with Mariana. And as he thought that very thought an intense pain racked his body, but he did not let a sound escape out of his mouth.

Unknown to Jay, this caused his body to convulse in the Hospital Wing.

“Why do you persist in fighting us, my son?” Ryan Rastan asked his son, squatting down to be at eye level like he used to do when Jay was young. “You are a Rastan”

Jay now feeling the occasional twitch on his nerves after the pain had faded away to a dull ache. He was starting to get more than a little worried, his parents were a picture of perfection, neither of them had suffered the pain he had.

“Where are we? Who is us? Why was I attacked” Jay asked in quick recession, starting to fight against his restraints while looking his father in the eye. “I know I’m a Rastan, Father. Jay Ryan Theodore Rastan. That’s what the birth certificate says”

So he wasn’t dead, and logically he knew he was still in Koalingo, physically, but that wash over of pain from before had really hurt, he could feel the ache in his bones. Trying to figure what had caused such a pain, all he had done was think about the fight he had had with Mariana…Once again there was a pain flooding his body, this time worse than before and longer. He body thrashed against his bindings, which he now felt were much more constricting, once again his mother touched his arm and the pain receded but the ache was still there and more prominent than after last times attack.

“What the…” Jay started to ask again, his breathing heavy coming out in pants as he gulped down air.

“You shouldn’t have thought such impure thoughts, Jay” Ryan said again, this time more sneeringly. “Think of this as a way to train yourself to the ways of a true pureblood like your mother and myself. Your grandfather has been very disappointed in your progress with the letters.”

Jay’s mind was piecing it together, he only had pain when he thought about…he paused at that and let his mind skip over to the end not wanting have it resulting in pain again. Analysing it even closer he realised he had thought those things so this all must be in his mind, so there for he could simply just wake up and it would all stop, right?

“I’m afraid not, sweetheart. While you have rightfully deducted this is all in your mind, any pain you feel in here you shall feel in your body. I’d try to not think anything impure” Sarah Rastan said, her soft tone hiding the stern meaning behind her words. “This is for your own good. You are surrounded by these filth and vermin everyday. We cannot have you stay from the pureblood path all your ancestors before you have walked. You’re cousin disgraced himself and that is why he was disowned. Your father and I will not have the same thing happen to you”

“Yes my son, fun is fun but you sometimes are becoming emotionally attached to these mudbloods and dirty bloods. I cannot and will not condone it. Your mother stands by our decision” Ryan said, standing up straight and walking to his wife’s side. Flicking his hand and gesturing to Jay to look, as another figure stepped out of the thinned fog, this one in blue robes and about his own age, he recognised her. How could he not, the last two times he had thought about her cause him ‘punishment’. Jay looked away, willing himself not to think anything about her. “Now this mudblood…”

“Don’t call her that” Jay snapped, his eyes narrowed at his father, before a cry was ripped from his throat as the pain came back with a vengence. The pain didn’t completely leave his this time, it was still there causing him to squirm, but he made no futher noise. He would not show them weakness. Jay didn’t know what was happening or even how, but the pain was of so real, and it was his parents, from their little quirks of his mother running her hand through his hair, or his father running his hand through his own in his frustration.

“You will listen to me. You are my son. My heir. My legacy. You will not embarrass me.” Jay fought the urge to flinch as the icy tone his father used, his voice never raised but it was Jay knew the signs well enough. One step wrong and the current dose of pain would be nothing. “Now, as I was saying before I was interrupted, this mudblood..”

“I told you not to call her that…”

That was the last thing Jay managed to spit out, the convulsions tore at him, his nerves screaming in pain. But he made no sound, determined in his decision to not show them weakness. The fog faded as did everything else to black as his body convulsed violently showing no sign of release as he heard his mother’s last words of “He will need more training” before the blackness overwhelmed him completely.

Back in the hospital wing Jay’s convulsions had started apparently out of nowhere, this time worse than the others that had periodically broke out, blood started to trickle from his right nostril.

[Lady Sylvia Saphricorn]

Lady Saphricorn let out a squeaking noise at the sight of her student jerking around uncontrollably on the bed in front of her, before turning her sharp gaze towards the doctor who had moments before told her that the young man on the bed would be alright.

“This is his body saying it just wants to rest?” Lady Saphricorn said, almost mockingly but not quite. “It doesn’t look like its resting to me!”

Rolling Jay over to his side, Sylvia Saphricorn knew she was being more than a little emotion but really, she knew these kids like they were family members and to see one looking so utterly lifeless and in such a state of pallor, nobody could blame her if her emotions were running a little high. She would hate to think what she would be like if it was her very own Godric, lying here in such a state, she knew she would be at such a wits end she might do something incredibly stupid. Shaking her head of such devastating thoughts, she had to focus on the here and now which happened to be one of her students convulsing on a hospital bed in the hospital wing.

As the movement stopped and the boy slumped, after what appeared a long time but was really only a time frame of two or three minutes, Lady Saphricorn sighed and rolled the boy over onto his back again, trying to making him as comfortable as possible. She felt his forehead which was more than warm to the touch, she summoned a moist wash cloth and dabbed it on the heated skin. She needed to feel like she was doing something of some good for the situation and not just sitting around. After she felt was a significant effort to cool Jay’s temperature, he thoughts returned to the letter from his parents and how it seemed like something was more than a little off about it.

Ignoring the school doctor, for obviously he would have to re-diagnose her student because obviously this was more that her student exhausting himself and needing to sleep. And if he still only thought so well, Sylvia would have to talk to her husband about the hiring criteria indeed. Taking the seat next to the bed, she pulled out the letter from her pocket and re-read it wondering if she had missed something. Maybe if she read between the lines.

Minutes later she was still as stumped as she was when she read it the first time, there was something more at play but she couldn’t figure out what, but she knew she had to for it had something that linked all this together, the fainting, the convulsions and the boy didn’t seem willing to wake up. A gurgling sound ripped her eyes from the parchment to her student as he seemed to let out a faint groaning noise followed by another gurgle before the convulsions started again, she was again at his side rolling him to his side, as this bout of his jerking about seemed longer and more intense, going for just over five minutes before all settled down again.

Steeling her determination, she pulled out her want and flicked it at the parchment, muttering a revealing charm that would indeed show her any spells that had been cast on the parchment in front of her, to which it in response glowed twice in affirmation that there had indeed some enchantment cast on it, and not of the privacy sort either. With a few more muttered incantations and wand flicks and swishes, Lady Saphricorn gasped at the red glowing numerals that were a sign of arithmetic equations that was associated with the arithmancy branch of magic. If she was reading the equation right, and she was sure she was there was a control hex placed on this letter, one that would work subconsciously, the flaw in it, as indicated by the figures was that it was broken easily enough by the will power of her recipient of the hex, if their will power was strong enough.

“Jeremy, if you do have confidence in your Arithmancy skills, would you please double check this equation and my findings, when you have finished with Mr Rastan of course” She asked summoning a quill and a blank piece of parchment scribbling down quickly the equation and her findings for him to look over.

Disgusted that any parent would think to stoop so low as to try and control their own child, only child also made her wonder just how far certain pureblood families were going to secure their line stay pure. Lady Saphricorn had met with Jay’s parents once, right after he was sorted, they had tried to strike up a deal of sorts trying to sway her opinion to change him into Ruberagon were he supposedly was meant to be. While they had been stubborn on the manner, they had not been malicious or even rude in the slightest, but Sylvia never liked to think ill of anyone without a strong reason, this presented her enough reason. She was sure this could not be the work of Jay’s house elf who she had conversed with always referred to Jay as “My Jay” not as her master, and it was obvious of the interaction she had seen between the two that there was a mutual respect that they shared more like friends that a master and servant arrangement that most had. So she ruled her house elf as the culprit, which left the most obvious candidate of Mr and Mrs Rastan.

At this stage a strangled noise was emitted by the young man, before a brief convulsion of jerks before his eyes snapped open before they snapped back shut, and the deafening silence of the hospital wing seemed to overwhelm again. Standing up to survey her student, placing her hand on his forehead only to find his temperature was back to normal and after measuring the pulse on his wrist.

Letting out a sign of relief, Sylvia Saphricorn couldn’t help but to feel as if it was a clam before the storm.

Which worried her very much.

[Jay Rastan]

While laying prostate on the sheets, his breathing rate and pulse having returned to normal while he now dozed but his dreams, or perhaps rather nightmares, seemed to be slightly tainted, images of his fellow house students and friends being hurt through accidents caused by nobodies fault. But one person seemed to feature prominently in things from tripping over a stone to falling into a well, and other things that while unlikely were hurtful to not be able to help against.

“No”

Jay murmured as he rolled over onto his side on the bed, remaining in his deep slumber, one hand tucked under his pillow and the other just laying on the bed beside him as he had made himself comfortable and snuggled even further into the pillow.

“Somebody help her”

This came out in a more anguish tone of voice, as the hand that had been laying on the bed tightened slightly around the sheets that were in his grasp, and he tried to push his head more firmly into the pillow, completely oblivious to the fact that his head founder had just figured out what had causing his recent mood swings of a darker nature, and why he had been saying and doing things different to how he usually conducted himself.

A soft and sweet humming sound reached his ears and as he slowly opened his eyes, Jay knew he wasn’t awake, he couldn’t be. He could see fog, but this time he braced himself to see his parents, but they didn’t come.

”you know you are dreaming, don’t you?”

Jay turned around at the voice to see a girl about his age standing there, a figure of young woman he had seen but had long forgotten her name. Regarding her wearily, he looked at her hands for her wand which she had a loose grasp on, causing Jay to reach for his and thankfully, even though he knew it was a dream he felt more than a little reassured in the knowledge he had his wand.

“I do not wish to harm you, Jay.” She said, her long brown hair was still and that along with her clothes didn’t move as she walked towards Jay, slowly as if trying not to spook a wild animal.

“If this is a dream why can’t I wake up from?” Jay asked, eyeing her even more wearily, making a move to step back as she stepped towards him but found hie back pressed up against something solid as a brick wall. But a quick glance backwards showed nothing that would hinder him. “Who are you?”

Reaching out a hand, the woman caressed his face, and Jay couldn’t help but flinch at the coldness of her touch, he turned his head away as she lowered her hand, before looking at her expectantly to answer his questions.

“You will wake up when you have seen all you need to see, and know all you need to know. Who am I? Well, that’s not really of any matter. I’m neither friend nor foe, merely am here to depart to you what I know and you need. But I dare say later you will remember who I am…” She said this all with an air of mysterious that she could tell was annoying the young male.

Jay was resisting the urge to try to force himself to wake up, but he knew that she knew she had him with the mention of something he wanted to know. But before he could open his mouth to ask what in earth she was going on about she raised her finger to his lips and looked at him imploringly and she waved her other hand and some of the fog cleared to show a square on blackness which was widening with every passing second. Jay wasn’t really feeling comfortable with all this close proximity, nor the touching this woman seemed to be doing. It was irritating where he couldn’t place this girl; she seemed only a year or two older than him at the most.

“Watch” Was all she said as she moved form in front of him to stand beside him, holding onto his elbow with both her hands. With one last look at her Jay watched as he recognised one of the two figures that had appeared, and then another. He watched as one spoke, Jay knew that voice and his eyes widened as he recognised it as Mariana. The scene was playing out a few feet in front of him, as if it was real and he was watching on the sidelines, he watched as she backed into the third person.

“Mariana!” Jay shouted, only to be quietened with a “She cannot hear you, Jay” to which he started to struggle to get out of the woman’s grasp, trying to make his way to Mariana, it had been day when he had passed out yet the scene he was watching was at night, Jay didn’t even think about at that point in time. He wanted, needed to get to Mariana, to help her. He watched in horror as a spell left the wand of the figure that stood opposite Mariana.

“NO!” Jay roared, his chest heaving in laboured breaths, not even realising that the surroundings that met his wide and shocked eyes, all that mattered was he saw Lady Saphricorn there with the school doctor . “Mariana is in trouble. She needs our help!”

Without thinking Jay went to launch himself from the bed, prepared to go find his friend, to save her, only to end up smacking face first into the cold floor of the hospital wing, only when he started to try to struggle to get up did he realise how drained he was, barely had enough strength to stand up.

“Please Professor” Jay begged of her, his eyes never straying from the doorway that seemed a million miles away from his position on the floor.

[Dr. Jeremy Cartwright]

The moment the doctor looked over the equations he knew exactly what to do, and had acted quickly while the Professor maintained his physical wellbeing. Dr Cartwright knew that this would not last long though, if this torture continued, Jay would likely soon be dead.

He crossed the hospital room to a cabinet above his medicine cabinet. This was not an illness, it was a curse, and when it came to a written curse, there was only one way to fix it. He returned to Professor Saphricorn and took the letter from it. He had trolleyed a small cauldron over from his cupboard and was now throwing things into it.

It hissed and popped and many multicoloured puffs of smoke issued here and there while he worked. In the end there was a steady stream of blood red smoke. Dr Cartwright grabbed the letter and threw it into the cauldron.

He watched it catch fire, the fame were red, then purple. The raised to the ceiling and then minimised once more. When they were finished the flames went out altogether and the cauldron itself was quite empty again.

“That was no child’s play,” Dr Cartwright said as he looked at the empty cauldron. He pushed it back to his cabinet and covered it with a bed sheet which instantly turned a sickeningly shade of black purple. He knew he would have to burn the sheets and probably destroy the cauldron.

“Someone does not like this boy,” he said, not having read the actual letter and only the equation he did not know whether it had anything to do with family, or just someone who didn’t like him.

“The Guild of Avada, ma’am?” he asked her as he watched Jay open his eyes and spring to life.

“Ah ah, we cannot have that now,” Dr Cartwright flicked his wand and the bed came to life, jumped up, grabbed the Rastan boy and pulled him back down upon it. The blankets strapped across him and were quite constricting. The strongest of people would not have been able to shake them and Dr Cartwright was sure, that in his current state; Jay would not be able to move.

“Calm yourself child,” he said as he poured some sweet tasting medicine into a little cup and offered it to Jay, “Drink this,” he said as he looked at him. He would need Jay to be clear of mind and quite alert for him to be sure they had shaken off the curse. Until then he would be at risk of falling back under it, with or without the letter.

[Jay Rastan]

Jay struggled against the bindings that had lifted him form his pathetic position on the floor, his gaze never left his house founder, until the doctor tried to get him to take some potion. Jay wasn’t taking anything he didn’t know what it was, when it was brewed and by a very trusted source, the past recent experiences taught him not to be so trusting.

“Come on professor! Mariana help! She is in danger, being attacked! Please, I saw it, there were two figures, one of them was a man and it was dark, I know she wouldn’t have wouldn’t have just wandered out of the grounds on a school day!” Jay said, continuing to pathetically worm at his bindings crying to create, if nothing else, some wiggle room so then he could make a break for freedom. He was desperate to get to Mariana, he knew she was in trouble and he would rather die than just sit around and wait to see if she could survive it.

Jay had a irrational thought of making himself so irrationally angry that he would be able to loose control of his magic and maybe the binds that held him, as he thought in his mind, from helping Mariana. Jay knew this was a hopeless idea when he realised he was losing more energy in his struggling, so in all his despair, and desperation to go save the girl, he paused in his ramblings against smothering blankets to let out a huge yawn.

“Please Professor. You have to go save her. I can’t” Jay said, begging with all his heart while he had never felt so utterly helpless in his life. “You have to help her, save her, rescue her. YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING….”

’Be cause I can’t…Mariana hold on…’ Jay managed to think to himself with such a heartbreaking desperation before he felt his eyes beginning to close against his mind which was screaming in protest.

“Please Lady Saphricorn, please” His came out with a choking noise before his eyelids finally closed for him and he was too weak to fight any to stay away, and he slumped dejectedly against the pillows.

[Lady Sylvia Saphricorn]

She had watched as the school doctor has banished away the letter and confirmed her suspicions of the control curse on that parchment that had been received by Jay. Not quite sure whether she was feeling more angry or physically sick by the idea of such a despicable act upon such a innocent person. Sylvia couldn’t even begin to understand why from a human being or parent’s point of view. It was just so wrong. When the doctor asked if he Guild of Avada had been responsible for such an atrocity, she shook her head in the negative but stored away that question for further analysis at a more appropriate time and place. . She was both happy to know what had caused Jay’s conflicting behaviour as of late and that it was destroyed but who knew how deep it might have affected him deep down, what lingering mental scars it might leave, but also it filled her with a boiling anger.

“I’m afraid not, Jeremy. That letter which I found in the student’s possession was from his parents, Mr and Mrs Rastan. Everyone seems to have at least a vague idea of who they are” Lady Saphricorn said in a almost completely defeated tone. “But as to why such upstanding and generous members of high society would go to such extents to make sure their son doesn’t find anything more than…well, physical pursuits it seems from a member not of pureblooded status does raise more than a few questions, doesn’t it?”

“NO!” Jay’s sudden outburst had nearly made the woman fall from her seat next to his bed before he started into his ramblings; it took her a moment to understand what he was trying to say as he seemed to just keep talking without taking a breath.

Between her student announcing he had seen another of students in danger or the display of him falling head first from the bed as he tried to make for the door and pleading with her, it tore at her heart the tone of his voice, the sense of helplessness and utter desperation at the whole situation of which he seemed determined to help or prevent even in his current cause of illness.

“Mister Rastan. Mister Rastan. Jay, listen to me. Calm down. I’m sure Ms Torrenne is perfectly fine” She said, trying to keep her face expression and the tone of her voice as neutral as she could, trying not to make the boy even further distressed. It worried her that he thought she was in danger and he had said he had seen her in danger, but how could he have even if she was in danger, she had been in his presence since he had passed out and he had not been spouting off such in her office. So what exactly had been going on in his mind, she hoped she find out some answers when the boy regained his energy.

Knowing not what to do as she felt torn between her student who was weakly wrestling with himself in the bed and checking on Mariana, while she was trying to come up with a plan of action she noticed Phil perched on one of the bed ends neither close or far away from where all the commotion was coming from. While she could not be in two places at once she knew of a way that she could find out an answer quickly.

“Phil, I ask of you to go find Ms Torrenne as quickly as you can and check on her, make sure she is not in any sort of danger, I wish to be able to tell the boy that she is fine when he reawakens, although if she asks any questions do not lie, but direct her here where I will answer any questions. Make haste” Lady Saphricorn said, rubbing her forehead, what had started a wonderful day and severely gone down hill, although she dreaded even the thought of having not been in time to help Jay Rastan form her office to the hospital wing. The result may have been fatal for him.

[Mariana Torrenne]

Mariana had been running an errand for her teacher when she had seen Professor Saphricorn rush by with a person in her arms. She had wanted to check it out then and there but the bucket of boburtuber puss was not exactly the best thing to go running around the school carrying. She had patiently returned the bucket to where it needed to be and joined her class for a moment trying to calculate what had happened. Though she did not actually worry about it until another student had returned from running another errand for the same teacher. The student was a Ruberagon and he had sat several rows behind Mariana and was talking animatedly with his friends. Mariana was not normally a nosey person, though when she heard the name Jay Rastan. She became an avid listener and had soaked up all the details that she could, all the while pretending to go about her work as she had been asked.

“Professor?” she asked after the Ruberagon’s were finished. She raised her hands and sat with all of her things just where they had been when she was working. She wanted to leave the class and find out Why Professor Saphricorn had been running around the castle with a limp Jay Rastan in her arms, and she was not going to remain in the class anymore then she needed to. Likewise she did not wish to upset the Professor and so remained in her seat and in position as if she was not going to assume his answer.

“Professor, I need to see Professor Saphricorn before break starts, she asked me to meet her before class ended, professor, and seeing as class ends in fifteen minutes, I was wondering if it would be ok, If I left now?” she asked while sitting in her seat, teetering on the edge of jumping up but trying to remain subtle through her request for permission to leave.

The Professor looked at her with scrutiny and for a moment even looked as if he was not going to let her go, as if he did not believe her. She maintained what she thought was her best innocent looking face while the Professor searched her for some truth in her words. She didn’t know whether he believed her lie or whether he thought that he need to leave the class was as great as she made it out to be, or perhaps greater, either way, when he nodded without speaking a word. She stood carefully and begun to pack her bag.

”Professor!” another student spoke. It was an Ameraid and Mariana had brief glimpses of the Ameraid telling the Professor that she was lying and that she should sit down. She looked at the Ameraid trying to project her reasons for wanting to leave and pleading the Ameraid not to speak further, but the Ameraid looked as if he was going to persist, ”Professor, aren’t our assignments on on Dunbogey’s due today?” the Ameraid asked and Mariana sighed realising that though the Ameraid was not stopping her from lying and leaving, it obviously thought she should also not get away with not doing the Dunbogey assignment. She resented the Ameraid for that, but likewise was happy the Ameraid did not stop her from leaving by telling the professor she lied.

”Actually, you know, I think you are right,” the Professor said looking from the Ameraid to Mariana, whom was cursing in her own mind about how she knew she would get in trouble about not handing it in, but all the same….

The Professor, luckily, said nothing else. And Mariana headed for the door as if she had not heard the Professor’s remark. She moved towards the door and grabbed the handle, waiting for him to call her back, though when he did not. She shut the door behind her and started scooting off down the corridor’s.

The corridor’s were a dangerous place to be in during class. Teachers that did not have classes often patrolled the corridor’s and one could be held up many times with silly questions about why they were not in class. If it was a study period what were they studying etc. Mariana did not have time for this and utilised as many secret passages as she could until she came to the Hospital wing.

She slowed down near the entrance and was moving towards it with slow steps as she came to the door and peaked in. Jay Rastan seemed unconscious now. And she moved in looking to a worried looking Professor Saphricorn, and a curiously looking Dr Cartwright. She approached with caution and wondered briefly if the Professor might tell her off.

“Um… Professor?” she said as she neared them and saw Jay laying lifelessly in his bed, “Is he… is he ok?”

[Lady Sylvia Saphricorn]

Sylvia jumped slightly when she heard a new voice bounce of the walls of from a position close to her seat. Raising a hand to run it over her forehead and rub tiredly over her face she looked at the young girl, the events of the day were catching up with her and she felt inexplicably older than her years and like she hadn’t slept in days. But the irony of the situation made her want to laugh out aloud. The boy in the bed was distraught thinking the girl in front of her who looked to be perfectly fine maybe a little flushed in the cheeks presumably from hurrying to the hospital wing, and yet the boy had seemingly just thrown off a powerful controlling spell just short of the imperious curse, and yet all he was worried was about was a girl.

The aforementioned boy decided at this point to try to roll over in his slumber which looked like a uncomfortable wiggle and murmured something which did make Lady Saphricorn laugh, a genuine, relieved tinkle of laughter, as she realised what he had said before he buried his head deeper into the pillow.

“He just said snog, didn’t he?” Lady Saphricorn said the rhetorical question through her laughter, as she wiped a tear from her eye. He was having a normal dream, not about someone being hurt or in trouble, but what seemed to be an ordinary dream about the opposite sex. It made the weight on her shoulders.

Turning her body slightly before waving her hand and conjuring chair identical to her own and gestured for the newest arrival to take it. Phil gave a squawk which Lady Saphricorn took as his sign of saying that he wouldn’t be needing to leave his perch after all, she just nodded to the bird.

“Well Ms. Torrenne, I’m not exactly sure how to answer your question because we are unable to fully speculate any damage until we can get him to completely awaken, regain his senses and answer a few questions for us. Although I assure you he is merely sleeping now” Lady Saphricorn said, giving the girl a smile she hoped would comfort and give some reassurance to the girl to a degree while her own mind raced over what she had just told the girl. They couldn’t yet determine how long Jay had been under the influence of the curse, nor how it may have affected him other than his recent outbursts of uncharacteristic behaviour.

“I must ask you a few questions now Mariana, all regarding Jay Rastan” Lady Saphricorn began, hoping that by using the girl’s first name that she would encourage her to answer the questions as best as she could. “I know you and Jay are…friends, have you noticed anything different about him as of late? Like his behaviour, mannerisms, saying thing things that he wouldn’t usually. Do you know how long this may have been happening if you have.”

Needing to know more about how Jay had been acting and for how long would give then a better idea of the length of his exposure to the curse and considering the number levels that had been displayed when she had looked over the spell cast on the latest letter, it had been a large dosage and if it the exposure had been the same large amount… Well, Sylvia shuddered to think of what mental scars it would leave on the mind of the young man.

“I ask you these and any other questions not for the sake of being nosey but it is of great concern as to how we can best help Jay and his current state”

It took all she had not to spit out that last word, knowing what she knew and how he had come to be in this current state. She knew wizards had a slightly higher accelerated magic recovery for when they exhausted themselves or their magic, but when both was exhausted, it could be very dangerous because it left them vulnerable and defenceless. Vowing to herself that she would not allow any further harm to come to the boy in front of her while he was in her guidance, she also vowed to visit his parents after Jay was alright and whole again.

[Mariana Torrenne]

Mariana was a little frightened by what she saw in front of her. Jay seemed like a pretty strong sort of person, the strongest she had come to know at a level as intimate as she did. And to see him in this state brought on new feelings that she didn’t realise were there before. She looked at him nibbling on her bottom lip and wondering so many things, like had her reaction to his pro-Ruberagon attitude, done this?

Surely not?

“I don’t know Professor… up until a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t really know him,” she said as she sat robotically in the chair the professor gave her. “I mean, I know he had that little thing about shouting at muggle borns, but I kind of realised that was a bit more of a habit he always had rather then something he only picked up recently,”

She turned things over in her mind as she thought about them and started counting things off in her head, “The first morning I really spoke to him he seemed alright, we were getting along really well, and then he started sticking up for Ruberagon’s like they need someone to stick up for them…” she trailed off angrily, it was a touchy subject and one she had not fully forgiven Jay for.

“And then… well one night some friends and I were liberating a… um….” She realised she had to be careful, the teachers did not find out about their little cow fiasco and now the cow was quite safe living in the kitchens where the house elves had set up a stable for it and took it out for walks twice a day.

“-Well we were swimming, and he was talking to a Ruberagon, and then for no reason he attacked us, he froze the pool solid,” she said knowing this was not the entire truth. She had probably goaded him into it, but all the same. She didn’t want to get into that.

“I don’t know how helpful that is?”

[Jay Rastan]

This time Jay knew it was merely a dream, but even in his dream his body ached, he felt bruised, sore and the occasional twinge of pain as if he had been on the losing end of a muggle fist scruffle. But as he took in his dream’s surroundings he felt all the pain take a backseat to what was in front of him, it was the magical nightclub he had visited in Paris the summer just gone, there was no mistaking the tasteful surroundings, the smoke that billowed out of the corners thick at the bottom but thinned out as it got higher, the pulsating strobe lights and the multicoloured flash of lights that came from seemingly nowhere as there were no light bulbs in sight.

Jay rose from his seat on the leather lounge in the VIP box and looked through the glass walls at the crowd of wizards and witches dancing to the seductive beat on the dance music, for people that prided themselves on being superior than muggles, this club was quite close to mimicking that of muggles, except the floating large glass floating squares that were the VIP rooms, you could see out but they couldn’t see in. Looking down at his clothes he was dressed in black slacks, his shiny black dragon hide boots, and black silk shirt. Jay noticed certain similarities between his visit to the club now over a month ago now, the same models were in the lounge with him and they were talking about the same topics. Surmising he was just reliving the memory he was about to turn around and descend downstairs to the dance floor to show off and have some fun, when suddenly a pair of slender arms wrapped around his waist, soft puffs of breath on the back of his neck caused the hair on his nape to stand up, her front pressed against his back.

With a feeling of dread in his stomach he turned his head to the right and looking into the smiling eyes of the young woman who had been in his previous, well Jay wasn’t sure what it was, dream or nightmare but she had been there regardless. Jay immediately stiffened; this did not bode well with him in the slightest.

“Hello again Jay”

Jay gave her a look before raising his hand to his ear indicating he hadn’t hear what she said. She removed one hand from his stomach where she rested them, the loud music and chattering drowned out to nothing but a dull buzz at the back of his senses.

“Is that better? Now we can talk” She smiled at him, blowing some strands of her brown hair out of her face and beaming at him.

“Why are you here? Who are you? Why am I here? Why do you seem so familiar to me?” Jay said, trying to shrug out of her hold of him but she held onto him, not tightly yet firmly he could not escape without hurting her. “Will you let of me and stop touching me?”

“You’re here because it’s your subconscious we are in,” The girl stated, as she loosen her grip and let her arms fall to her side, but she didn’t step back to allow him room as he turned around. He had his back pressed up against the glass wall, and his front now against hers, he tried to step left to get around her but she moved with him, not giving him a chance to escape. Grabbing his hand suddenly she commanded “Come with him”

Jay wasn’t given time to object as she grabbed his hand, and he within the space of a second he found himself on the dance floor that had been below him, as he watched himself dancing with the girl that was still holding his hand to which he tried to pull out of her grasp but she was strong for such a dainty girl, and he wouldn’t not hurt a girl, it was against his morals.

“I don’t mean to be rude but, I don’t remember dancing with you. I know I have seen you before but that’s it. I was pretty far from sober that night” Jay said, feeling bad he couldn’t remember it before another thought struck him. “How do I know your not manipulating my mind? Creating these images”

His eyes never left the figure of himself dancing energetically with this other girl, laughing and dancing and then, to his wide eyed horror, the image of the dancing girl stood on her toes and kissed him. Jay certain didn’t remember that, and from the looks of it, he thought he should have remembered that.

“Why did you snog me that night?” Jay said, moving away from her as far as he could since she wouldn’t relinquish her hold of his hand. “I don’t remember that. But I am starting to remember you, kind of”

The young woman at his side smiled indulgently at him before remarking with a large amount of amusement, “Well it was one of our more memorable snogs, as you called it?”

“W-what?” Jay spluttered, tugging his hand away more violently now, when she let it go he stumbled a few steps.

“That’s how I am able to be here, to help guide you. I leave you with a imprint with each kiss. I’ve been in here since I was twelve and you were ten, surely you remember your first kiss, even if it was a peck, Jay” She said, advancing on him, which in turn caused Jay to back up. “Surely you remember your first kiss.”

“Of course I do, it’s up there with my solo broom ride, and my first day of Koalingo” Jay remarked, still walking backwards but he never seemed to bump into any of the people dancing to music they could hear but Jay could not. “But you do not look like the girl I kissed when I was ten; she was blonde, with long hair and her eyes…”

Jay looked at the girl watching as her hair faded to blonde, lengthening as it changed and her eyes turned a cool metallic grey from the murky brown they had been, her thin body stayed the same. A blinding pain in his head made Jay open his mouth, but he released no sound except a grunt as a serious of pictures rolled before his eyes, he remembered each moment as it played out over various stages of his adolescence so far each of him. He blinked as they came to an end.

“You. You. You’re….” Jay stammered, the room was beginning to spin, as the music rushed back in, Jay stepped back as it the noise had dealt him a physical blow. “You’re her. You’ve tricked me… I remember you, I remember it all now”

But what Jay remembered would stay locked behind his lips as his eyes rolled upwards and he fell to the ground, as the woman rushed forward to catch him, but she was not quick enough, and Jay never heard her anguished cry.

Back in the hospital wing, Jay’s body remained in its calm state as his the blood resumed to flow from his right nostril again, heavier than before.

[Lady Sylvia Saphricorn]

Sylvia nodded as Mariana told her of her short history with the other boy, picking up on the slight change of tone when she mentioned Jay sticking up for Ruberagon’s, while she knew that Jay was the only member of the Rastan and Claremont families to not pull the Ruberagon sword from the stone completely so while his defence of them could be understandable, he would usually be more selective about whom he was speaking to about such things, particularly not someone of muggleborn heritage such as Mariana.

While she knew from the way started to talk then stopped and started down a different track that her student was hiding something probably a misdeed of some sort, Lady Saphricorn was more concerned about what was said about Jay hexing her and her friends, while it seemed like a harmless prank, she had to wonder if there was more involved of the conversation between Jay and the Ruberagon student.

“Do you know anything of the verbal exchange between the Ruberagon and Jay?” Sylvia asked starting to wonder if this was wider than she thought that just a case of dominating parents controlling their child with extremities. “So you and Jay aren’t very close I take it then?”

This surprised the Saphricorn founder; the boy had woken up just short of screaming and prepared to run head first into a dangerous situation for a girl he wasn’t close to, something didn’t seem to add up. She had seen them at the de-gnoming now a few weeks ago and had been positive there was something there from the way they seemed to act and react to each other. But history shown she could be wrong, very rarely, but it was possible all the same.

“What were you doing before you came here to the hospital wing?” Lady Saphricorn asked the girl all the while looking deep in thought almost as if trying to answer one of the many legendary theories of all time. “Why did you come here, also if you don’t mind me asking”

As she had fired off her last question for the moment to the younger female, she returned her seeking glance to the boy who looked mostly peaceful in his slumber, his forehead occasional winkling, but it did nothing to mar the young man’s good looks, it was in her watching she noticed the first sign of his nose bleeding again, she conjured a wet cloth for his forehead and some tissues to stem the bleeding from his nose, but the tissue was soaking in his blood in minutes and while she conjured another tissue before her eyes widened in realisation.

“Dreams. It’s his dreams. That’s how they are controlling him” Lady Saphricorn said all the while holding the third tissue to his nose, as the flow was starting to slow somewhat. “Mariana go to the cupboard and get me some dreams draught. Quickly”

She knew it was a temporary solution, a band-aid on a fatal wound, but it was all she had for now and it would have to hold it together until she could figure out a more permanent solution. It made sense, the blood noses came while he was sleeping or unconscious on the outside but he was still very much active inwards. They were using his dreams against him.