Black PV Slytherin Participants Finished

The nurse, Fin, came into her focus as he approached her with an odd bottle of some golden liquid. With quick ease he popped the cork from it before pressing it to her lips for her to drink. Illowy was hardly about to what it was, letting the thick contents work whatever magic it was purposed to. Whatever he was talking about, whomever he was talking to, she only caught the warning of 'weekly'. Even in her sorry state, she could connote his speaking about the medicine he was distributing; the pain in his voice being her main key.

All the same, as the potion kicked in, she could feel the pain dissipating. The iron cloth that felt wrapped around her heart and lungs seemed to loose its hold so she could breathe again, making it easier to see and hear without the white noise of pain clouding her other senses. However, pressure of the curse's spread still felt heavy on her body though, like a weighted blanket. Even so, snake shifted a bit in the bed, slowly rolling over to assess who all was there and if everyone was okay. Her sights first going to their Head of House.

As lovely as it was to have the nurse there, there was something more comforting about having Hjørdis present and helping tend to and comfort the other students. The only thing that worried her was the expression she wore. Illowy like to think of the woman as steel, in a way. She could be cold and indifferent much of the time. Nothing seemed to sway her. However, to Illowy, she was steady and absolute; but now... she looked scared as the nurse explained the medicinal regiment. She'd never seen a staff member scared before. Not since the fiasco in the Forbidden Forest with the Care of Magical Creatures professor the year prior.

Then again, those were similar circumstances to now.

Swallowing hard, the girl pushed herself to prop up on her elbow a bit, catching in that moment the black marble-like scarring that stained her pale skin. Looking around herself, she noted everyone who was being given the potion was suffering the same thing to varying degrees. It struck her how far into more visible places the scaring could have spread on herself in consideration of how many bites she'd suffered in several locations. Perhaps it was vain of her to be so concerned with whatever disfigurement it might've left on her face and neck since she ought to just be happy to still be alive... but she was only a child after all.

Pale, tired eyes flickered between the nurse and her Head of Slytherin, "Are... are we going to be like this forever then?" she asked, unsure if her voice was even strong enough to carry through the noise.

addressing @Hjørdis Jensen or Finlay Vancleaf

"Am I going to die?"

@Bridget Collins asked. The nurse swallowed hard and told a white lie. "No," he forced an encouraging smile but he was an awful liar. "Everything will be fine," he claimed but even he did not believe it.

"I have heard others speaking of a curse. I know you were not around, and you shouldn't feel bad about that. If it wasn't for that blue-haired psycho who ignored the rest of us, this might not have happened. A few students even considered going to wake you." 

@Tyranni Whitethorn explained although that would likely do little to console the Head of House. They thought she was sleeping rather than patrolling, that she dozed through the near massacre of her students. 

"You do not have to worry about me, Miss Whitethorn. But I very much appreciate it."

@Hjørdis Jensen replied.

"You were speaking with the nurse some. Did you hear anything else about what may have been the motive behind this attack? It seemed so random, but those two strange students both experienced similar things that none of us could. It does not seem random."
 
The attack was far from random but they were looking at this from the wrong vantage point. 

"I don't know what happened in that room." 

She was trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle when she was missing most of the pieces. However the fact that there was a pair that seemed to have premature knowledge was noteworthy as well as concerning.

"I can't promise you this was an accident..." 

It would have been preferable if Hjørdis had a cause, but being able to blame something besides the infinite chaos for their suffering was a close second. 

"But I can promise you that I will find out if it was intentional."  

Her tone started soft. Comforting, perhaps. It ended with a firmness. A strong resolve, a confidence. She was clearly determined to find out.

"Are... are we going to be like this forever then?"

Poor @Illowy Magnard, one of the worst afflicted would ask the Professor. Sadly, Miss Jensen would not know, but perhaps she would lie. Give the girl a happy belief, some hope. However this was not a lie Fin was willing facilitate. He simply stayed quiet and continued to feed the traumatized and cursed children.

Poor @Arlo  Reynolds would try to help but he was so small. He could not reach the potion vials, it was not that he was a late bloomer or that his growth was stunted, he would never reach those vials without a ladder. A hopeless sense that would come with something that was completely outside of his control. He had no more power to grow than his peers had to be free of agony.  

That useless, hopeless sense would perhaps eventually wear on the boy.

“I-I can’t r-reach it.” 

Arlo stuttered and then cried. 

“I-I need h-help.”

This would be the second of many instances for the boy.

"I asked too much," Fin admitted standing over Arlo. "You cannot change what you are," a sadness within the panic. he collected the last bottles. He did not have many, when this ended he would have none to spare. [Fin is mostly background so you guys can finish up. His last post since he is a background character.]

Selim blinked. Apparently, he had caused more pain, enough for the girl to actually react and catch sight of him.

Despite this, it seemed she was in too much pain to really register who he was because she didn't react any further than that.

Well, no matter.

As he took out the needle, he stored it away after capping it once more. Honestly, this was one of the times that he wished his wand wasn't stubborn, and actually worked with him to learn spells, perhaps he could've learned a charm by now to help keep the syringe with the blood sample chilled so it didn't spoil...

Well, he supposed he'd just have to hope for the best.

A thought then hit him, as he gazed as his housemate... blood clots. He remembered reading somewhere that they could be caused by something such as, say, an improper insertion of a needle.

He pondered the possibility of him having given the girl a blood clot, and perhaps an infection, before shrugging it off.

He didn't care if she died, he didn't know here. Hell, she could even be a spy planted in the school to monitor him. Placed there so that she could relay info to his enemies and tell them when was the best time to strike and take him away again.

Or she could just be a normal student.

Well, no matter, if she died he wouldn't really care at all, just another person who will depart from life. Just like those children.

Goal accomplished, Selim walked out of the hospital wing (If he still wasn't noticed), humming a quiet tune that was oh-so bitterly familiar to him.

The next step was to get the blood sample back to his clan so they could send it through their connections to a hospital for testing. Then he'd see how exactly this curse/venom affected the human body.

He had heard the nurse speaking about a potion, which was seemingly not enough to completely heal all the cursed students.

Perhaps after he received the results of the test, he could better help his peers to keep them from the long-term consequences of the curse. If you couldn't combat the source of the curse, the next best thing would be to try and help fight the side effects, no?

Maybe this was wishful thinking, but might as well try first before giving up.

He supposed, in the greater picture, if that girl died, it'd be for a good cause.

If not, well...

She was just collateral damage in the end.

(Action: Selim exits the thread, if he isn't caught.)

In the vagueness of her nearly passing out, someone else approached her. She didn't know who he was, but she wasn't a student. He carefully brought a bottle to her lips, pouring something into her mouth. It didn't really phase her but it slowely started to bring her mind back to reality. She swallowed and carefully looked up, her eyes tiredly meeting his. "It's all better," He sounded kind. Nearly like a father... "Just come back in a weeks time for more." She nodded softly and rubbed her eyes. Something felt different. Had she gone numb or... The pain. It was gone. It was but a mere sting now. She couldn't believe it, what about her leg? Slowely, Nico sat up in her bed, carefully observing her leg. The black inkiness was gone, however, there were still some black marks visible. Nothing too obvious... Like faint pencil marks. That didn't bother her as much. The pain was mostly gone and that's all that mattered to her. 'T-Thank you, sir..' Her voice was abit hoarse from crying and screaming. It was a miracle that she didn't lose her voice at all... Turning, she carefully dangled her legs off the side of the bed. Would she finally be able to walk again? It wouldn't come back right away, right? Gently, she tapped the floor. Atleast the ground felt solid.

Abit wobbly, Nico pushed herself up on her feet. For a few seconds, she had to wave her arms around to correct her balance. The last hours all she had done, was laying on the floor... She was good. She was recovering. Right? For a moment, she could smile again. The pain faded, she could stand on her own feet. But... What about her appearance? All this time she didn't give a slightest care about how she looked. Slightly overcome with panic, Nico pressed her hands on her face, patting it gently, covering the grounds of her foundation. Merlin. She must look like a ghost... The dhampir had to leave and fix it up. But.. if everyone saw, what did it matter... With a soft miserable sigh, the prefect wobbled out of the Hospital Wing. Stretching her legs would do her good...

Nico exits thread unless stopped.

If there was one thing the night had taught Bridget, it was that adults couldn't fix everything. It wasn't necessarily a new concept--her parents had proved adults too had their shortcomings--but it was scary. She wanted the Professors to have everything under control, to know what to do. But they didn't.

The one thing adults seemed to be masters at was promising the children everything would be fine. Pretending to have the control they didn't. At least, the false promises came easily; the lie wasn't always convincing. The nurse telling Bridget she wouldn't die was far from reassuring. She still by no means was mad at the man, as, if anything, she was grateful he'd saved her life. A temporary fix would have to do.

Where did that leave her? Obsessively digging for a cure that might not exist? For now, anyways, she wanted to escape. Bridget felt so drained. Sleep had never sounded quite so good. Even just huddling up in her blankets if sleep eluded her was better than this plain, white, bad-news-bringing room. The second year stood, abandoning the Hospital bed. She wasn't sure if they could go yet, but the nurse would surely stop them if they couldn't. Besides, several other students were making their way out. Walking was much easier than it had been earlier thanks to the absence of the excruciating pain, so there was nothing stopping her from leaving. She had the feeling things were going to be different now. While she didn't know if she was ready to face her new reality, the only direction she could go was forward.

Bridget Collins has exited the thread.

Whatever Miss Jensen had given her was helping to alleviate the pain. She would have to check in a mirror to see if the markings from the bite on her back were fading as many of the other students were noticing.

When Miss Jensen patted her head, it was comforting, as it reminded her of an action her mother commonly did when comforting the girl. She liked their Head of House. She was a brave, strong woman. She reminded her a lot of her mother and the other women of their clan in Norway.

Her resolve quickly recovered however as she promised Tyranni that while she was unsure of the events that happened this night, she was determined to find out. Intentional or not, it was just a relief that Slytherin was lead by such a powerful woman. Feeling drawn to the woman, the young girl rested her head briefly against the shoulder of her Head of House. Feelings of warmth and comfort enveloped her during this moment, reminiscent of life at home with her mother and father.

Sitting back up, she looked up into the eyes, watching the spark of fire that flickered behind those windows into the woman in charge of Slytherin House. "I am feeling much better now Miss Jensen. Thank you for bringing me that potion, and for answering my questions. I-" The girl quickly looked down towards her laps, hands nervously wringing. "I want you to know that you remind me of my mom. You are strong, brave, and unwavering, but don't hide your emotions. We are lucky to have you watching us."

With that, the girl slowly got up from bed, walked away a few steps, glanced back at the Head of House, smiled, and turned away to leave the hospital wing.

Interacting with @Hjørdis Jensen
Tyranni has left the thread

Her eyes flickered down to see the first year resting her head on her shoulder. She found her closest hand gently wrapping around Tyranni, landing on her hand and gently patting her. There was little else the Head of Slytherin could do in this moment but to comfort them. She knew she needed to find out what happened in the common room and how everything went wrong. No matter what, she needed to find out. She had a few questions floating around her mind, perhaps even clues of where to start. But there was a lot more to uncover. Her mind raced in thought as her resolve hardened, absentmindedly just holding and patting the first year until she moved away.

Hjørdis nodded, releasing Tyranni from her gentle hold, "That's good to hear," She replied, a bit of relief in her voice. The potion was helping a bit, at the very least. She blinked as the girl got nervous and continued to speak. Tyranni brought up her mum, her qualities and mentioned how lucky they were. Did she really feel that lucky after... all of this? Her heart cracked some more, taking Tyranni's nervous hands in her own and gently squeezing it, "I'm here if you need me, okay?" She said the obvious, deciding that the students could benefit from hearing it. They were not alone in this. They had people who they could come to. With that, she let the girl go. A small smile appeared on her usual blank expression, returning it before nodding.

Her eyes scanned the room, most of them - at least those who were awake - were heading out. A few looked like they might need to sleep it off here for some more time. Illowy Magnard caught her eye. She sighed softly, seeing the weakness on the poor student's body. Her voice was weak too but... Hjørdis heard it. It caused her to inhale deeply. Her eyes flickered to the nurse, who was also being addressed. Fin did not respond. His lack of comfort painted a picture that Hjørdis really did not like. She sighed softly, moving closer to Illowy, "I... don't know..." She replied honestly, "But I will do everything in my power to find a cure..."

Hjørdis knew her words were not as helpful as she would have liked but they were honest. She would not let them suffer, if she could help it. But she honestly had no idea if they could... Perhaps. They needed to identify the curse itself - Fin did not answer that question. Then they would need to find a cure. It sounded simple. But knowing nothing about the curse meant that she could not assume it was something easy enough to cure. She sighed softly, she was definitely sorry but there was no point in apologising to Illowy. Her apology did not help.

Illowy's gaze held steady on the Professor as she moved closer towards the young witch's bed.

"I... don't know... But I will do everything in my power to find a cure..."

The child swallowed hard, falling away to look once more at her fellow peers. Her Head of House offered no comfort on the matter; not even a sweet, pretty lie. That was respectable though. What could they do with a pretty lie, all for the sake of a hope that possibly didn't exist? Adults lied to children every day to give them a sense of comfort and safety. Illowy's own mother had spent nearly a decade doing that to her and it had gotten her absolutely no where when she found out the truth.

Yes, she'd decided the truth was much better then a lie... but that didn't mean she like it.

Pressing her lips in a tight line, the girl forced herself to fully sit up in bed. She didn't want to be in here anymore with the noise and whimpers of fear and pain. It all felt too overwhelming and she just wanted out now; to just go back to the dorms, go to sleep, and pray when she woke up, this might all have been a terrible nightmare.

Her family's stories about their time at Hogwarts had prepared her well enough to know that the school had plenty of room to be dangerous, that sometimes bad and scary things did happen. Okay, yes, sometimes school events went arwy. Scary things are in the Forbidden Forest, fair, its forbidden after all. Sometimes accidents happened... but she never expected something like this to happen. She was never prepared for something of this degree.

Hjørdis sighed softly. She could see the students around breaking down but there was nothing she could say to comfort them. Finlay's reaction made it clear as daylight. He had no idea what this curse was, nor what the cure was. If he had no idea, how could she be sure that there even was a cure? She could not. This could very much be a permanent thing. She hoped not but... she knew nothing at this point to contradict that.

"I'm sorry, I know that was not what you wanted to hear..." She continued, genuinely apologising to the girl for not having any better news to offer her. She hated this. But there were no words of comfort she could offer. Hjørdis scanned the room. Most of the students had been 'healed' to the best of the nurse's ability and left. Her hand gripped the potion she had been administering to students, clutching it. She was frustrated. There had to be something she could do to make this better but she had no idea where to even begin or what had even taken place in the hours she was out patrolling.

Why tonight? Was it a coincidence or... was it intentionally planned? Not many would know her timetable but anyone could easily have seen her outside, and therefore know that the dungeons were unsupervised. Her eyes fell onto the attractive school nurse. She saw him comforting Arlo. Hjørdis sighed softly, there really was nothing to do except try and figure out what they could about this curse and the cure for it. But she had another worry: this attack. Where did it even come from? How did half of her students end up cursed?

Hjørdis sighed, "Get some rest, Illowy," She said softly, knowing that it would be difficult to sleep in this mess. But... that was all she could offer. They would all be excused from classes for the day, of course.

The Head of Slytherin leaned against the wall. She was tired, and definitely wanted to be asleep but instead, stayed. She would stay until each of the students felt better to leave. There was nothing else she could do but perhaps her presence this time was enough. Then she would go and inspect the dungeons again, and figure out what the hell was going on.

It had been a while since anyone actually moved or stirred in the hospital wing. Everyone had likely already left by now or fallen asleep in their beds. Either was fine with Hjørdis. They needed their rest. Sleeping here was perfectly acceptable. She sighed softly, glancing around the room. Once everyone had fallen asleep, she left to make her way back to the Slytherin common room and double check that. There was no way she was ready to let people wonder back there without any adult supervision after everything that happened in the night.

Though... admittedly, she was kind of unsure as to what actually happened. Spiders attacking the common room. That was the information she was given. Students hearing the noises from the dorm rooms. Just two of them. One boy, one girl. It seemed perfectly coincidental, right? No, not at all. It seemed far too planned and she did not like it one bit. How could only two people hear it - both waking up their entire dorm rooms as a result - be a mere coincidence... It was suspicious, highly so.

And where did these spiders come from? Hjørdis would have seen them before, right? Was this incident timed too? The very night that she was outside patrolling inside of in the office? And the curse...? What even was this...?

Hjørdis sighed. There were far too many questions and not enough answers. But the search was on. It was time to find the answers they needed. The students needed answers. They deserved it.

[THREAD FINISHED]