Wednesday - Magic
...Let's see how many plot bunnies rabbits we can pull out of this hat!
Today is going to be all about "Magic." This could be traditional magic, from stage magicians and spell-casting to fairies, fairy tales, magical creatures and situations. Or perhaps this is a more real-world sort of magic, based on chemistry between people (sexual or otherwise ( Read more... )
Today is going to be all about "Magic." This could be traditional magic, from stage magicians and spell-casting to fairies, fairy tales, magical creatures and situations. Or perhaps this is a more real-world sort of magic, based on chemistry between people (sexual or otherwise ( Read more... )
*
Cedric had dreamed of terrible things. He'd dreamed of snake-like faces, of hoods, of graveyard soil so real he could feel the clods under his hands.
He dreamed that he had died-- just a moment, just a breath, and then green light and falling forever.
And then, he'd woken up.
No one believed him.
*
It was the stress of the accident.
It was a hallucination from loss of blood.
It was his brain's way of filing away the problem.
It certainly wasn't magic.
Cedric Diggory had been in a car accident on his way to the mall with his father to find his mother a birthday present. He'd been thrown free from the car. It had been touch-and-go for the first couple of weeks, but he was slowly recovering. Miraculously, he hadn't broken any bones, and the internal damage was healing.
No magic about it, just the skilled doctors in the ER and the ambulance.
*
"I believe you," she said.
Cedric opened his eyes and looked at the girl standing at the end of his bed. She was thin and pale, with ocean-blue eyes that stared straight into his. He tried to remember who she was through the painkillers. Luna, wasn't it? She kept drifting down here from the psych ward. At least, that was his assumption. She didn't appear to be physically ill, but she was really, really strange.
"Huh?" he said. His voice was still cracking and breaking. He'd only been awake for about six days now; in a row, anyway. They said he'd woken up several times, moaning about the green light and some sort of Dark Lord. The nonsense that no one would believe (so why did he almost believe it? Why were there words under his breath, like puffs of air trying to escape? Why did he wake and reach for his wand? He didn't even have one, Harry had-- Harry had taken--).
"I believe you," she repeated, cocking her head to one side and staring like an interested pigeon.
Cedric coughed. He wasn't quite sure how to respond.
"I'm not sure why they thought it was necessary to wipe your memory," she continued, in nearly a sing-song tone, "but they obviously didn't do a very good job."
"I'm sorry?" he said. "Who wiped my memory?"
She looked thoughtful. "I don't know, really. They should have taken you to St. Mungo's, except that the Dark Lord blew it up when he came back. So perhaps that's why they decided to try a Muggle hospital."
He didn't ask what a Muggle was. The answer was hovering at the corner of his mind and suddenly he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
"I'm Luna Lovegood. You don't remember that," she breathed, coming closer to his bed. She leaned over a little and her blonde hair dangled onto his sheets, almost made white by the lack of contrast.
"Ah, I'm... I'm," he began automatically, feeling stupid to be introducing himself to the crazy girl, but continuing anyway. Hufflepuffs were polite, weren't they?
(What was a Hufflepuff?)
"Cedric Diggory," he said hastily.
"Oh, yes, I know," she said.
Reply
Leave a comment