"Hey, I'm okay..." Protested Alexandra weakly. "Really. I'm fine Hermione."
"No, you're not." Declared the uncontested academic leader of the first-years. "You look really horrible."
Alexandra had a sudden urge to face-palm. Trust Hermione in critical moments to be as blunt as possible.
"Okay, I'm not. But I will be better." It was the truth. The pain had almost disappeared and she could stand on her own. Running might be out of the question for a few days, but walking should be okay.
"Do you want a detailed account of what happened in the Corridor?" Demanded Nigel on the other side of the bed, looking deeply relieved.
Alexandra declined with a negative nod.
"No, thanks. Black and Weasley came before you, thus I had a very loud and detailed report of what happened to your group. Unless you know what happened in the room with the Mirror..."
"Unfortunately not." Sighed Nigel. Then his smile turned...satisfied? "But did the Golden Trio told you what happened to their dorms?"
"What happened?" The Potter Heiress raised an eyebrow. "The Weasley Twins built altars for the sheer number of rules they have just broken?"
"No, but it would have been funny if they did. No, Hermione demolished the boy dorms with mucus, spell fire and a lot of spells I'm pretty sure are not in the first-year books."
Alexandra stared open-mouthed for a moment, believing her ears were playing a joke.
"How in the name of-"
"They pointed a wand in front of my eyes." Commented Hermione in a tone terribly vindictive. "Thanks to the action of this bad of imbeciles, we could all have died. They deserved what they got."
"I appreciate the gesture..." Alexandra smiled." But won't you have to purge a lot of detentions for that?"
"Nope." The grin was similar to the one of a big cat having just swallowed the canary.
"How weren't you punished for that?"
"Professor Snape arrived first on site; Professor McGonagall was busy with the Corridor issues. He said it improved the decoration if anything."
"Naturally." Trust the Head of Slytherin to sow discord and hammer Gryffindor House when it was possible.
A weak pain chose this moment to make her right arm twitch again.
"Are you sure you're right?" Asked Hermione compassionately.
"No. I killed someone and I will have his last moments in my head for a long time." The Ravenclaw black-haired witch told her friends.
"Sorry..."
"It's not your fault Nigel. If you had stayed, the Professors wouldn't have been alerted, and Devkins would have possibly taken at least one of us."
"But now you killed someone."
"Now I murdered someone." Corrected Alexandra. "There is blood on my hands now, Hermione. I'm only eleven, and I've already a body-count. How long until it lies on my heart?"
Her friends had no answer to this. Alexandra had not expected them to, not when she had no start on the answers herself.
Nigel and Hermione talked a bit further, then they had to depart for lunch. The young witch watched them depart with silent thanks for their support and their care.
Then the pain in her right arm woke up again, and a sleeping potion given by Madam Pomfrey sent her back in the lands of dreams.
May 28 1992, Hogwarts, Scotland
After two more nights of sleep and one boring day spent in the infirmary, Alexandra felt almost back in her best form. Almost. Her right hand was still sending her a great deal of pain at irregular intervals, no doubt courtesy of the dark magic which was purged by her system, but she was bored enough to begin plans to escape the Hospital Wing. Hermione and Nigel's visit had been the only noteworthy event yesterday, and having Hermione hugging her again, all the while saying how she was happy Alexandra had not died, had been one thing she was not accustomed to. For as long as she remembered, no one had cared if she lived or she died. Now, she had friends. It was definitely a new and pleasant experience. However, hearing Hagrid speaking to Neville and crying about how the gamekeeper had given the clues to Quirell had been a moral-breaker, and she had been forced to lower her estimates of Quirell's intelligence as he had needed the Keeper of Keys help to pass the Cerberus Trial.
"I want to go to the feast," Alexandra told Madam Pomfrey as she rose in her bed. "I can, can't I?" she added in a hopeful tone.
'Professor Flitwick gave you authorisation to go." The nurse said with a disdainful sniff, as though in her opinion the Ravenclaw House didn't realise how good health could be precious. His past of duellist champion was not playing in Flitwick's favour, Alexandra was ready to bet.
Still, when Alexandra left the infirmary, she was alone and had still her right hand kept in bandages, while her right arm was finally freed. There was no mark or any magical indication she had been hit with a lethal curse, although she could not see her right hand and she thought her skin was quite bit paler than it used to.
Now, however, she had to hurry up.
She was awfully late by her standards, as she had been held up by Madam Pomfrey's fussing-about, insisting on giving him one last check-up, so the corridors were nearly empty while she proceeded to the Great Hall. On the other hand, it was enough to see the effects of Dumbledore "nothing is secret policy": the few students who met her ran in the other direction immediately. Including the Gryffindors. Forcing herself to breath loudly and not erupt in anger at the general stupidity of the average Hogwarts student, Alexandra entered the Great Hall.
It was decked out in the Ravenclaw colours of blue and bronze to celebrate Ravenclaw's winning the House Cup and so breaking Slytherin's record of six successive victories. A huge banner showing the Ravenclaw eagle covered the wall behind the High Table, and smaller ones floated magically above the head of the students.
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