TERM 6 - Broomsticks and Ankles - Hospital Wing - Hunter VanDerberg, Aoife O'Donnell, Willow Meana, Ryland Malfoy

Broomsticks and right ankles... Willow managed to break both at once during flying when so collided to the ground in fear of the heights her broom reached. She was still sobbing when her professor had helped her into the Hospital wing.

She sobbed as she curled up on the bed waiting to be seen by the Healer. She'd never felt so much pain and embarrassment together in her life! She wasn't sure what was hurt more right now, her ankle or her pride.

The nurse quickly looked her over and cleaned up a few other scrapes and cuts Willow had with her collision course with the ground. They then put a cast on her ankle and with a wave of their wand set the bones. She was told to rest for a few days in the hospital wing to recover. After that she should be able to walk again, carefully.

Willow buried her face in her pillow and sobbed. How could she have been so stupid!? She'd kicked off way to hard and then panicked about it and let go of her broom! What an idiot she'd been.

DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. SNEAKY AOIFE.

Class had ended, so she wasn't actually being SneakyAoife. She couldn't wait to see Willow, so had ran from Flying. She didn't really know the way to the Hospital Wing but she'd been lucky and found it pretty soon, without getting lost on the stairs. Willow was a lot more important than walking and being patient. For once, she wasn't doing anything wrong.

Aoife ended up just outside of the Hospital Wing. She bounced in anxiously. "Hi, Willow!" she smiled. "Are you okay? Was it really bad?"

Willow pulled her bleary-eyed face away from her pillow and looked up to see Aoife. "H-hi Aoife..." She said softly sniffling and wiping her red, puffy eyes. "Th-the nurse said I broke my ankle and I'm going to have to stay here for a few days..." She said softly beginning to sob again. "I looked like a total idiot in class though! I'm a horrible witch..." She wailed and buried her face back into her pillow.

Her ankle felt much better now that it was set but her pride was hurt more than anything. She felt like an idiot and a horrible witch and suddenly anything anyone had ever said against muggle-borns had hit her line a brick wall. Maybe she really wasn't cut out to be a witch... maybe they were going to kick her out of Hogwarts for being a horrible student and breaking one of their brooms! She continued to sob into her pillow.

"Aww! That's SO bad!" Aoife sympathized. She wouldn't handle it, not being able to go outside or even move very much. "I broke my arm once, but I didn't have to stay in bed, so I was okay! At least you have magic to make it a bit better!"

As for the embarrassment part, it took Aoife a couple of seconds to think of what to say, and she hardly ever thought. About anything. "You didn't look like an idiot! It was all dramatic-like and awesome-cool and everyone's worried about you, 'specially me!" Wise words, wise words. "It's okay! At least you didn't lose points or get a detention like me!" RebelAoife. And there wasn't much else she could say, really. That she was wise enough to say, anyway. Oooh!

"PLEASE don't cry! It makes me cry when other people cry!" The tears were already coming to her eyes.

Willow stopped sobbing and sat up and looked the girl in the face. It wasn't often she looked anywhere except her notes and her shoes when talking to people. "Yeah, magic makes it a bit better." She said softly with a smile, wiping away her tears. "You really don't think I looked like an idiot?" She asked surprised, though the thought seemed to calm her a good deal.

She smiled at Aoife. "Thank you for being worried, I should be ok in a few days though. The nurse had no problem setting the bones and putting on the bandages and such. Just need a few days rest to let it heal, now that it's set and bandaged it doesn't even hurt very much."

Willow reached over and hugged Aoife as best she could from her hospital bed. "You're so nice Aoife, lets be friends!" She said with a huge smile. She'd never really had a friend before so she hoped the girl would agree.

"No, of course not!" Aoife said, eager to reassure Willow. Just in case worrying and being embarrassed made her not get better. "You looked like a...a....a non-idiot. Very graceful." She'd actually WANT to be Willow if it wasn't for the few days in bed. It was so cool and drama-y.

She nodded all understand-y-like, even though she didn't really get all the medical stuff. "Well that's good. In the muggle world you'd probably be feeling much worse!" Ever the optimist, Aoife.

"Really? You want to be friends with me too? That's so GREAT! Or course we can be friends!" She hugged back enthusiastically and then loosened her grip, remembering Willow's condition. Lots of people were her friends now, which was really good. And the Hufflepuff thought she was NICE! And she trusted Willow's opinion, mainly because Hufflepuffs were particularly good finders.

Hunter had seen Willow fall, and had watched Aoife run after her into the castle. He wanted follow and see if she was alright, but he made his way inside more slowly - he wasn't too familiar with Willow, and Aoife seemed to know her. She would probably rather see just Aoife first. So he took his time climbing the stone stairs, and finally found his way to the Hospital Wing. He pushed open the door and peeked his head inside, surveying the scene before him. He'd never been in the Hospital Wing before, and his eyes were greeted with rows of comfortable beds with white linens.

The wing was mostly empty, but he quickly located one bed that was in use, with a little redhead standing next to it. He let himself in as Aoife gave Willow an enthusiastic hug, and made his way toward the both of them. He offered Willow a smile as he came to stand beside Aoife. "Hey Willow," he said kindly, tilting his head to look at her. "How are you feeling?"

Willow laughed brightly to Aoife, clearly she was trying to make her feel better. She nearly burst into tears when Aoife said they could be friends, her first real friend ever! How exciting! "Yay, thank you Aoife, that makes me so happy!"

Willow smiled up at Hunter. "Hi Hunter, better now that my ankle is set, nurse said it's broken and I'll have to rest a few days here before walking again. Things seem to heal faster with magic though so that's good."

She then looked between Hunter and Aoife, maybe Hunter would be her friend too? "Hey Hunter, you came to visit me... do you want to be my friend too?" She looked up at him hopefully.

Ryland had finished his medicine stuff. Though it had been almost a year, he was still letting the elder nurse experiment with the scars on his back. This time, she asked him to use some other magical lotion she had created, but it was done already and so he needed to show her if there had been any improvement. The way he saw it, there wasn't. The three slash marks across his back were still there, and he had grown to ignore them.

He made it to the Hospital Wing with the empty glass bottle in hand. What remained of the green lotion was on the very bottom, where Ryland couldn't get it out. From outside the doors he heard people inside, but since this was only one of the many time he'd been here he didn't mind them much. That is, until he heard a certain voice. A very child-like, annoying voice. Groaining, he opened the door to find Aoife, the boy who had gotten stuck in the stairs, and Willow. He nodded to Aoife and the boy, but he was confused as to why willow would be there, however he soon saw the cast on her ankle.

"What happened, Willow?" He asked her, a bit of worry in his voice. Though he'd barely met her, he was impressed by her determination to be better than most students, Muggle-Borns or not.

"A few days?" Hunter asked, his voice curious. "For a broken ankle? That's amazing!" He'd broken his leg back home before - a horse had stepped on it. It had taken almost two months to heal. To be able to mend a bone in days seemed like a miracle. "Anyway, I'm glad that you're feeling better," he added reassuringly, grinning.

Willow continued, and Hunter almost laughed at her words. He thought better of it, though, because he didn't want her to take it the wrong way. "Of course I came to see you, that was a pretty nasty fall," he said. "Even if Aoife did beat me here," he added, grinning at Aoife. "And of course we're friends." Hunter smiled at the girl. She was shy, but she seemed kind and that was more than enough for him to like her.

His attention turned toward the door as it opened, and an older student walked in. It was the boy that had helped him out with his staircase problem. Hunter nodded back to the boy when he acknowledged him, offering him a smile. He remained quiet as the boy asked Willow what happened - apparently, they knew each other.

Willow looked up and blushed a little as she saw Hunter. Did everyone in the school know about her accident. She looked down at her hands, "I crashed my broom in flying..." she said softly and rather embarassed.

Her face brightened as Hunter said that they were friends as if it was something she should all ready know. "yay!" She said excitedly wraping him in a big hug as well. Two friends in one day and she'd never even had a friend before! Breaking her ankle was so worth this! In fact, tears came to her young brown eyes. "Y-you're all so nice! I-I've never had any friends before... all the muggles thought I was some kind of freak..." she said this very softly and a little sadly.

Then that boy, who she was pretty sure was called Ry-somethingorother, turned up. Wow, Willow was popular! At least he nodded at her, obvious as it was he didn't like her. It was probably aimed at Hunter, who's turned up. Aoife smiled at him, even though she didn't like him much either. They had to be nice and polite at the Sheep Foundation, her charity.

Professor Whatshemicalledit had let her out a bit early, obviously seeing how desperately she NEEDED to see Willow, so of course Aoife had beat Hunter there. "That's 'cause I'm awesome, Hunter," she said, sticking her tongue out. "And hi, it was nice of you to come. WE'RE ALL FRIENDS NOW LIKE THE MOST AWESOME PEOPLES IN HOGWARTS." That was cool. Not Ry-thingy too, though. Obviously.

Willow laughed brightly as Aoife spoke. Clearly this girl was very easily excited. She winced a little as she began yelling though. "Umm... Aoife?" She said gently. "You um... may want to keep your voice down, you don't want to get kicked out by the nurse...

She looked between Ryland and Aoife, clearly the two didn't get along very well but were putting on a good face because they were both visiting her. That was so nice of them! Tears came to her eyes again, people really cared about her here at Hogwarts, she was so lucky!

Hunter smiled at Willow as she pulled him into a hug, and wrapped his arms around her in response. She seemed pretty excited about making another friend. Then, the girl mentioned not having friends before. Hunter frowned and hugged her for a little longer than he would have originally, trying to show her that he would have friends here. "Well, they obviously didn't realize how nice you are," he said to her before pulling away.

He looked over and grinned at Aoife as she stuck her tongue out at him, and flinched slightly as she yelled. I should be used to that by now, he thought to himself, shaking his head in slight amusement. He noticed that she didn't seem to be too friendly with the boy who had joined them. He wondered why. The older boy had seemed friendly to Hunter.

Deciding not to bring it up, he turned his attention back to Willow. She looked like she had tears in her eyes. "Oh, no, Willow, don't cry!" he said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder and offering her a smile. He wasn't sure if they were happy or sad tears, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He thought back to when he'd made Aoife cry, the first time they'd met. He'd fixed it pretty quickly, though. He was good at making people feel better.

She smiled at Hunter and wiped her eyes. "Thanks Hunter... it's ok, I'm not sad, I'm happy that you are all so nice and that you three seem to actually care about me. It's nice to have friends!"

She reached over to her bedside table and pulled out, surprise, a book. It looked like their Charms textbook except much, much larger, she began to read it simply. She wasn't ignoring her visitors, she could actually read and talk at the same time. "I might as well study if I'm stuck in here for a few days." she said with a giggle. Studying always seemed to be an exciting thing to Willow.

"Oh...um...yeah." That time she whispered. It'd be embarrassing to get kicked out. NO WHY WAS WILLOW CRYING? Shouting was allowed in her head. Aoife didn't really know what to do so she was relieved when Hunter had it all under control and the Hufflepuff stopped crying. Happy tears, they were okay but sort of misleading.

Then Willow got out a huge book. No way. She couldn't study while she had time off school. That would ruin the whole purpose of being off school, surely? But if that was what Willow wanted to do, why not? "Fair enough," Aoife giggled.

Willow giggled and stuck her tongue out at Aoife playfully. "It's my free time and normally I study on my free time, this is a compendium of all the charms taught at Hogwarts, I found it in the library!" The hufflepuff practically giggled with glee over her explanation of the book. Anything involving wand work she loved.

Just then a small black cat hopped up onto her bed and lay down beside her purring. Willow pet and snuggled the cat affectionately. She was surprised she knew to find her here! "Oh good now I'll have constant company. Everyone, this is Smudge, my cat." She practically beamed. Her parents had bought her smudge before she went off to Hogwarts so that she'd never have to worry about being alone. Luna, her owl, she'd bought herself so that she could send letters to her parents and they could reply to her in the proper wizarding way.

Seeing Willow begin to cry sent Ryland into internal panic. No, no, no. He desperately wanted to leave every time a girl cried, even his own sister, because he never knew what to do. He stayed though, because Willow was a nice girl and deserved better. Hunter seemed to be so much better with girls than Ryland had ever been, and he was very thankful someone in the Wing had that skill. He smiled as he saw Willow become happy again.

He frowned at the book jokingly. Why would someone study this much? But then he remembered her promise to be a great witch 'Muggle-born or not'. He chuckled as he remembered it, thinking that he had been completely wrong about Willow. "How long are you staying here for?" he asked her. If she was here for a few days, maybe he could come back later and talk to her without Annoying Aoife in the room.

Willow smiled at Ryland, looking up from her book. "Nurse says I'll be here a couple more days, then I'll be up and about again." She returned back to reading the large book before pulling out her wand and setting it beside her in case she wanted to try any of the spells that would be possibly to cast from in bed.

Aoife grinned at the huge book the other girl had before remembering she had to go and owl her family because there wasn't really any other time she could at the minute. It was unfortunate but she was determined to visit Willow later.

"I'm really sorry, but I have to go, Willow," Aoife said quietly. " Hopefully I can come and visit you soon!"

Hunter raised an eyebrow as Willow pulled an obnoxiously large book out to read. "Sometimes I think about studying," Hunter said, pretending to be thoughtful. "But then I realize there's a lot of more important things I could be doing... like sleeping, or eating... or watching some grass grow," he joked, grinning. In reality, he knew that he probably should study more. He just couldn't focus on books for very long.

Aoife announced that she had to take off. "Bye, Aoife," he said to her. "I'll see you in the common room later on." He would have to remember to ask Aoife later on why she and Ryland didn't seem to get along.