roselyse:

Chapter 3

She pulled back her hood, revealing her fierce brown eyes and pointed thin brows. The stress lines in her forehead opposed her age, but youth was still prominent in her warm cheeks and full lips. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a strained bun.

“What happened here?” She asked Gerald and Gervaise. They stared back at her blankly, Gervaise still shaking. Her eyes went to the collapsed child and she swallowed visibly. “Is that Eric Theodore Cartman?”

“How do you know his name?” Kyle asked as she approached and knelt in front of Eric.

“I’m the Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts,” She explained. “I was doing some errands for the headmaster when I witnessed this boy’s name appear on the scroll.”

“What scroll?” Stan asked.

Gerald tensed and straightened his robes, feet shuffling as he took a step forward.

“Ma’am, I offer my sincerest apologies,” Gerald began. “In the letters I exchanged with the headmaster–”

“It is a list of names that appear when any child in Europe, usually a toddler or infant, displays magical abilities of any kind,” The woman answered Stan as if Gerald hadn’t spoken. “It’s how Hogwarts keeps track of potential students. But a boy his age just now showing abilities… It’s unheard of.”

“Excuse me?” Gerald spoke again, a little more bite in his tone. “I am in charge of these boys.”

“Then why have you left one of them unconscious on the floor?” She demanded and lifted Eric into her arms with a slight wince. Gerald moved forward and took the boy from her, eyes avoidant.

“He was an unexpected addition,” He replied. The woman sneered, her jaw tensing.

“Does that make his life invaluable?” She demanded. “Is this how America treats their children?”

“No! No, ma’am. Not at all.” He said.

Gerald laid Eric on a table and the woman examined him, looking him over curiously. Kyle stuck close by, not knowing what would happen next.

Kyle crossed his arms.

“But he is a wizard,” Kyle grumbled. “That’s all that matters.”

“Yes, he is,” The woman acknowledged. “But with some sort of illness.”

“But he’s a wizard and in Europe, so…” Kenny smiled. “He gets to come with us, right?”

“Yes,” The woman said without hesitation. As Kyle and Kenny shared a relieved smile, the woman’s eyes were twinkling as she felt a dark energy stirring in Eric’s chest.

It felt as though it was beating inside of the boy, like a second heart. But this pulsing was angry, held in for far too long, and the amount of it dwelling inside of him was far too much for any small child to bare. Perhaps she could–

“Don’t you think it unwise to reward that behavior in your future students, the dishonesty? And if he’s so sick–” Gerald started, but shut himself up when he met her eyes.

“I think it unwise for you to continue speaking unless you wish to keep your apprenticeship, Mr. Broflovski. Gervaise is more than capable on his own,” She said.

Gerald paled a bit, his lips pursing into a tight line. He walked over to Gervaise, helping him lift up a shelf that had fallen. Stan rushed over to help them.

Kyle watched the woman as she put her hands on Eric’s chest and closed her eyes. He got a very sudden feeling of dread in his stomach and his head began to ache horribly. He squinted, backing up a little as he watched.

“I wonder…” She muttered under her breath as she concentrated on the flow of Eric’s essence, the darkness of it, the sheer amount of it. If she could take some of this burden away, then maybe the boy would wake.

There was a red glow in her hands that made Kenny’s eyes widen and Kyle fidget. A darker than black shadow like substance began to cover the tips of her fingertips, and she gasped as her eyes snapped open. The tiny bit of whatever this was… it was excruciating to the touch. She winced through it, absorbing as much as she could, which was practically nothing.

“Stop it!” Kyle snapped suddenly.

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