Bringing the Heat...Literally PV Finished

Spending her afternoon in the hospital wing was not something that Rhea expected. She really thought she had the ability to simply spend an afternoon watering plants without getting into any sort of mischief. Apparently not. Looking at their surroundings as they walked, Rhea felt her ankle start to ache. She knew that her injuries were nothing compared to the redhead's next to her (Amadea was literally burned) but walking all the way from the greenhouse to the Hospital Wing was painful.

The thought of not accompanying the girl to the hospital wing didn't even cross Rhea's mind. Her mentality was that if she hurt someone, accidentally or on purpose, she would do anything in her power to help them. Which of course, made sense, as it was the humane thing to do. The entire time, Rhea reflected on the events that had passed in the greenhouse. Fire had never been something that had scared her - no, it was something of a beacon of light for her. Due to her fear of the dark, Rhea always resorted to some sort of candle or torch to light her room - therefore, she used fire. But after today's events, she couldn't be too sure of her feelings. If her spell had been just a little bit stronger, she could've given Amadea permanent damage! Third degree burns! Who knew the scarring that would have on the other girl, both emotional and physical. 

And the plants. The scary, horrible, terrifying plant. She didn't know what scared her more - the plant or fire. Deciding that they were both equally scary, Rhea shivered as she remembered the plant coiling around her body again. Just with that, she knew she would be having nightmares for some time. Of the fire, of the plant squeezing her. If she felt this way, how did Amadea feel? The girl had been completely wrapped by the plant, and Rhea had no doubt she was also unable to breathe. Another shiver running through her, Rhea pried open the door to the hospital wing and walked the both of them inside. 

Amadea immediately collapsed onto the nearest cot, and seemed to relax, the mattress shaping around her. There was no one around, and so Rhea decided to simply take a seat on the stool next to the cot, in order to rest her ankle. Where was the Nurse? Did she seriously not see the two girls who had just stumbled into the wing, one of them severely burned? Rhea sighed and turned to Amadea, hoping to find a way to distract her from the pain. Of, you know, being burned. 

Rhea laughed at Amadea's words. How could she remain so calm and joking at a time like this? More importantly, how was she not furious at Rhea? Rhea knew that if she was in the girl's position, she would be furious (or at least, not kind) at the person who had burned her - even if they had attempted to save her life. Okay, maybe she wouldn't be angry, but she definitely would not be cracking jokes. 

"Bloody hell, there's so many other better ways to meet," Rhea stated, a smile finding its way onto her lips. Maybe Amadea really didn't her? Maybe Rhea shouldn't feel too at fault here - after all, it wasn't her fault that the Devil's Snare had decided to attack. Composing herself, Rhea looked at the girl laying next to her. "Sorry for burning you... again. Anyway, I feel fine. My ankle hurts, but it's probably nothing." Looking around and realizing once more that there were no nurses, Rhea turned her attention to Amadea. "I'll go find a nurse." Getting up, Rhea walked around the wing, limping. Suddenly, she placed her foot down the wrong way and a jolting pain ran through her. Her legs gave out and she collapsed, but she managed to get up once more. Finally, she saw a nurse, and led her to the cot where Amadea was.

Amadea managed a slight laugh as Rhea spoke. Unfortunately, she soon discovered that laughing caused her a lot of pain. Pretty much everything caused her a lot of pain. She immediately stopped laughing, waiting for the pain to recede while also trying to listen to what the other girl was saying. She was glad Rhea was okay...or at least, as okay as one can be after having a horrific experience like that. 

"Oh, don't apologize," Amadea waved her hand, forgetting it was injured, as she attempted to ward off Rhea's apology. "You saved both of our lives." Waving her hand only added to the tingling sensations that were running rampant around her skin. She had to keep making a mental note to not move but she kept forgetting and moving anyway. It wasn't like she could add much more to the damage that had already been done. 

Amadea hadn't taken the time to actually look at her skin yet. As Rhea hobbled off to find a nurse to look at their injuries, Amadea slowly slid the sleeves of her robes up, trying not to rub them against her charred skin. The skin on her arms was bright red. It was blistering and peeling already. It looked absolutely disgusting. Amadea hoped it would be okay, she didn't want to spend the rest of her life looking like a burnt tomato. 

Thankfully, Rhea found a nurse and led her over to the cot where Amadea was lying. Amadea began to explain to the nurse what had happened, how she had walked into the greenhouse and tripped, falling backward into the Devil's Snare. She made sure to stress the point that Rhea had done nothing wrong and that the Gryffindor prefect had actually been the one to save both of their lives. The nurse asked Amadea to roll up her sleeves, which she did, showing the nurse where most of the worst burns were. 

Amadea let her gaze wander as the nurse looked her over and then left to go get some sort of salve to put on the wounds. She tried to think of something to say to Rhea, other than "thank you for saving my life." She had already deducted that the other girl felt uncomfortable about the whole situation, she probably thought it was her fault. Amadea wasn't sure how to reassure her that it wasn't. 

"Do you come here often?" Amadea blurted out the question; it was the first one that didn't have anything to do with the events that had just transpired. Immediately she winced, both from the pain of moving her mouth and also the embarrassment of the question. She wasn't one for making small talk, and she definitely wasn't any good at it. She hoped Rhea would make up for her lack of conversational skills. 

Unable to force herself to explain what had actually happened to the nurse, Rhea simply walked the old woman to Amadea, who was laying on a cot. Fearing that somehow, she would find a way to hurt her -- was she a friend? -- again, Rhea made sure to stand a ways away. For the first time in a while, Rhea found herself speechless - sure, she could contribute to the conversation but she really didn't want to. Her confidence had wavered, and she started to feel unsure of every small action of hers. The feeling really bothered her, and she hoped it would go away soon. It was unfamiliar and unpleasant. 

Listening attentively to Amadea explaining the events that had transpired in the greenhouse, the redhead debated whether she should add that had Rhea known how to properly cast her spell, nothing horrible would've happened. However, Amadea took those thoughts away when she started to stress to the old nurse that nothing had been Rhea's fault. Sighing, Rhea shook her head but didn't add anything. She felt no need to, seeing as Amadea was dead set on not blaming Rhea. How could someone be so kind? Nothing the Hufflepuff said could alter Rhea's thoughts, but the Bishop thought it kind of her to try. Frankly, it showed the qualities that had sorted Amadea into Hufflepuff - or at least, that's what Rhea thought. 

Watching with care as the nurse looked over the other redhead's burns, Rhea cringed. They looked bad, or at least, not like something that would be easily cured. How had the fire reached so much skin, done so much damage? It was ridiculous! The spell shouldn't have been so strong, or maybe it was the plant's fault... Clenching her fists, Rhea tried to dispel the sudden anger that had rushed through her. Where it had come from was a mystery, but the fact was that the stupid plants and the stupid fire had caused Rhea to hurt someone. She doubted that she would ever be able to forgive herself for that, not matter what.

Watching the nurse bustle around Amadea, Rhea sat down on the chair and brought her knees up to her chest. Pressing her chin into the gap between her knees, she watched the nurse's actions attentively, in case she would have to repeat anything while Amadea rested. Rhea fully intended on staying with Amadea until she was out. 

Soon, the nurse walked away, looking for some sort of cream or potion to help with the pain and hiding the burns. Crossing her fingers, Rhea prayed that none of the damage would be permanent. Hearing a voice, Rhea turned around, startled, and listened when Amadea spoke. She managed a small laugh at the random question, before plunging back into silence again. 

"I don't, actually," Rhea replied, pursing her lips. "I visit the odd people here and there, but the only time I've actually been here was when I got slightly burned during my duel with Adam - Harringtom, do you know him? Anyway... have you been here before, or at all?" Rhea didn't know what she wanted the answer to be. On one hand, if the Hufflepuff had been here before, then Rhea wouldn't be responsible for making this her first visit. However, that would mean that she'd gotten hurt before, and that was most certainly not a good thing. On the other hand, if this was Amadea's first time here, then that would mean that being here, burned, was Rhea's fault. Both options sucked, to be frank. Burying her face into her knees, Rhea took a few deep breaths to calm herself down before looking up again. 

The air the room seemed almost tense to Amadea, and it seemed to be radiating from the poor Gryffindor who was curled up in the chair, watching Amadea with an unreadable expression on her face. Clearly, Rhea was still feeling badly about the incident, but Amadea didn't understand why. It wasn't like it was the other girl's fault that she had successfully cast the correct charm to combat Devil's Snare which happened to be killing them. Sure, she had to hit Amadea with the spell in the process of saving them, but it would've taken a lot of skill to hit the Devil's Snare without hitting Amadea herself, who had been completely wrapped up by the thing. No matter what Amadea said, however, she didn't seem to be able to console the other girl or make her worries go away. 

Thankfully, Rhea let out a short laugh. At least she could still laugh, Amadea thought. Even though it was a laugh at Amadea's terrible conversational skills, it was still a laugh and Amadea figured that both of them would benefit from some humor at the moment. Then Rhea answered her question, talking about how she had been in the hospital wing only a few times before, which was definitely a good thing. Frequent trips to the hospital wing wouldn't be something Amadea would enjoy for herself or for anyone. Being sick or injured was miserable and Amadea wouldn't wish it upon her worst enemy...well, she wasn't sure about that. She hadn't made any enemies yet, but from what she heard about what it was like to hate someone that much, she figured she probably would wish that upon them. 

She realized Rhea had finished speaking and was now waiting for Amadea's response. Her mind was a bit foggy, maybe from the fire? She managed a smile at her unintentional pun that wasn't actually a pun. She couldn't even think straight enough to distinguish between a play on words and a pun. Was there a difference, she wondered. She shook her head slightly, trying to clear it and focus on answering the question. When had she been to the hospital wing? 

"I've been twice before this," Amadea answered slowly. "Yes, twice. There was one time when I helped a girl who had been cursed with the Curse of the Bogies. And then I was here after the Hufflepuff campout to check on everyone." Those had both been memorable experiences, though not necessarily in a good way. Her memory was slightly patchy at the moment, but she could vividly remember each instance she had been in this room. Both times, she had been lucky enough not to be the one injured. Unfortunately, her luck only got her this far. 

Amadea wasn't complaining though. It could be much worse. The nurse came back with some sort of cream and began dabbing it on her burns. Immediately, she let out a hiss of pain. The cream hurt. A lot. Amadea squeezed her eyes shut for a minute, centering herself and trying to focus on something besides the pain that was coursing through her nerve endings. She remembered Rhea mentioning something about Adam Harringtom? 

"As for Adam," she said, trying to keep her teeth from clenching, "Yes, I do know him. He's--" she cut off abruptly as the nurse dabbed the cream on an especially burned part of her skin and the pain sent black stars to her vision. Amadea was not going to pass out. She was not that weak, she told herself. "He's very nice," she finished, looking at Rhea, who was still curled up on the chair. "We actually were on a team for one of the BlossomFest events," she added, talking about anything and everything to distract herself from the pain. She hoped Rhea had something else to talk about next, since she doubted the Gryffindor wanted to spend the next who knew how long talking about the Ravenclaw prefect. 

Honestly, hospitals were something Rhea never liked. Even a simple trip to the mini-infirmary built into her house made her queasy. Why? It was something that she now associated with the death of her grandfather: from when she stayed in the infirmary, looking after his dead body while other Aurors and scientists rushed around and examined his body to try to find clues about his death. The memories rushed through her head, and that combined with the dull throbbing of her ankle, forced Rhea to bend over in pain. Squeezing her eyes closed and pushing everything away, Rhea pulled herself up again and listened to the redhead's answer. 

So this wasn't Amadea's first trip of the rodeo, it seemed. Rhea listened with attention as Amadea explained that she'd been here after the Hufflepuff campout, and immediately felt her eyes widen. She remembered the events that had taken place then. Someone had burned something, Rhea wasn't too clear on the details, but there was a huge fire and some of her friends had gotten really hurt. Like Serena Towers, for example - who became scarred and now refused to go anywhere, and only with the utmost amount of convincing on Rhea's part did she manage to get Serena anywhere. 

Narrowing her eyes, Rhea wondered if she should bring up the campout conversation. Having not known Amadea for very long, she didn't know what she could talk and not talk about yet. However, she had a feeling that the two would soon become close acquaintances, simply because of the event that had made them bond. Maybe saving someone from a deadly plant by setting them on fire really was the way to make friends. Whatever it was, Rhea was glad she met Amadea. 

Also, it seemed Amadea did not really want to talk about Adam. Why, she didn't know, but there must've been a good reason for it. Biting her lip to think of a change of conversation, Rhea decided to bring up campout nevertheless. She hoped it wouldn't be too intrusive, but she wanted to know how sticky of a topic it was. 

"Were you... hurt, during the campout?" Rhea asked, tilting her head. "If you don't mind my asking."

As she waited for Amadea to respond, Rhea leaned her hand back, swiveling around in her seat in order to get more comfortable and have somewhere to lean her head against. When she did, Rhea cringed as she saw the nurse apply cream and other salves to Amadea's rough burns. It was all her fault. No matter how much she tried to convince herself it wasn't, she couldn't. It would take some time for her to come back from this accident, but she prayed she would... soon.

"If you don't wanna talk about it, that's okay too," Rhea stated, scratching the back of her neck. "Sorry in advance, oof." 

Her eyes starting to droop as the day's events caught up to her, Rhea shook her head to snap out of it and tried to turn her full attention towards the scarred redhead in front of her. The nurse had left once more--permanently for the night or not, Rhea wasn't sure--and therefore, the two girls seemed to have the entire wing for themselves. Apart from, that is, the many students that were still suffering from the campout's disastrous result.

As Rhea asked about the campout, Amadea's thoughts drifted. She hadn't actually attended the campout, mostly because at that time, she hadn't known many students at Hogwarts yet and she was still too nervous to go on a campout with a bunch of people that she didn't know. Looking back, she realized she had made the right decision. Even though her fellow Hufflepuffs had probably come away from the experience with lots of tight friendships, Amadea wasn't willing to risk her life to make a friend. Then again, Amadea had just had her own (near-death?) experience of being burned and come out with a new acquaintance that she hoped would blossom into a friendship. 

Everyone who had attended that campout had been scarred one way or another. If it hadn't been physically, it was mentally. The fire, the spiders, the near death experiences...Amadea was terrified just thinking about it, and she hadn't even been there. She definitely understood why it was a touchy subject for most of her fellow housemates. 

"Thankfully, I didn't participate in the actual campout itself," Amadea responded. "I wasn't there for my injuries." The main reason she had gone to the hospital wing was because she had heard of the terrors that had occurred during the event and wanted to see if she could help anyone out. Unfortunately, she had just sat uselessly on an empty cot listening while people told scary stories. She hadn't understood why they wanted to hear scary stores after that kind of event, but Lear had suggested it and no one was going to just ignore him. 

She was still thinking about the campout as the nurse finished applying the salve to her skin and Amadea wasn't sure if her skin was burning from the salve or from her thoughts. Thankfully, the subject kind of changed as Rhea apologized for talking. Jeez, this girl really did apologize for everything. Amadea wanted to slap her across the face and console her at the same time. Slapping would only end up with more injuries for both of them, so Amadea went with the consoling option, not that she would have done differently if neither of them had been injured. 

The nurse had now walked away to put the salve away and come back to look at Rhea. Amadea wasn't sure what to say to make Rhea stop feeling bad or stop apologizing for everything, even if it didn't merit an apology. "Don't apologize," she began. "The talking is fine...actually it's distracting from the pain." She watched as Rhea's eyes began to droop. Amadea immediately felt a stab of guilt run through her. She was too busy fighting her own pain and wanting Rhea to talk to distract her from it that she was being distracted from the fact that Rhea was injured too. Rhea was just as tired out and broken from what had happened as well. 

"Are you okay?" she asked Rhea for the second time. She knew it was a stupid question that would be answered probably with a yes either way, but Amadea still asked it. She sat up in her bed, ignoring the fights of protest from her arms and looked around the room. The nurse had disappeared somewhere and was nowhere to be found, leaving the girls alone. That wasn't going to be much help in healing Rhea's wounds. Amadea prayed that the nurse would arrive back soon to make sure Rhea was okay. 

Apologizing wasn't going to do or fix anything, and that fact was something Rhea needed to realize. She had never been held at fault before, ever, so the feeling as unfamiliar and she didn't like it. But it seemed that Amadea did not blame Rhea at all (why, the redhead didn't know) and the thought put her at peace, at least a little bit. With that, the idea that it was all her fault slowly started to leave Rhea - it would take a while, yes, but eventually she would accept it. 

Perhaps the campout was a sore subject for most Hufflepuffs, but fortunately for Rhea, it wasn't for Amadea. Otherwise, she would've been left dealing with another bout of guilt over bringing up such a touchy subject. Thankfully, it wasn't, and the conversation drifted yet again, this time to bring up Rhea's constant apologizing. Never in her life had Rhea uttered this many apologies - in fact, the amount of times she'd apologized today surpassed the number of times she'd apologized in her entire life. If her father could see her now, he would be disappointed. So, so disappointed. Thinking about what he would do, how he would yell, got Rhea's mood down, and the fact that it did did not please the redhead. Pressing her lips together, Rhea, once more, threw out all thoughts of her parents. Just the barest thought sent her off into a state of sadness.

Amadea, ever so kind, continued to ask Rhea if she was okay. How could she be out here caring for someone else, when she herself was so injured? It was peculiar to the young Bishop, who, ever since she'd been little had been taught to care for only herself. Sure, that habit had slowly started to change, but the basics were still there, and someone being not selfish was a foreign concept to her.

"Yes, truly, I'm fine," Rhea replied to Amadea's worries, and brushed off the slight pain of her ankle. "It's just my ankle that's vaguely throbbing, but I doubt it's anything - the nurse can just treat it later." With a smile, Rhea shrugged off the Hufflepuff's worries. 

It seemed as though Rhea was finally coming to terms with the fact that it wasn't her fault. There was nothing that could have been done to change what had happened, unless Amadea hadn't been so careless and clumsy. Then she wouldn't have tripped into the Devil's Snare. She knew it was all an accident, but couldn't help but feel slightly guilty that she was so klutzy. They could have both died! 

Amadea wondered how her life would have been different if she had been at the campout. After the whole fiasco in the Herbology greenhouses, Amadea was quite terrified of fire. She couldn't imagine what would have been different if she had experienced the terrible fires from the campout. Many of her Hufflepuff friends had been there and she had heard the stories about the burning and the spiders...and especially Serena. The poor Hufflepuff had been so traumatized by the event. Amadea just hoped that she would recover soon. 

Amadea moved her thoughts away from any type of burning, and focused on Rhea. Thankfully, it seemed as though her Gryffindor friend was okay, or she was just putting up a good facade. Amadea tried to get a glance at Rhea's ankle to see how swollen it was. She couldn't get a good view, but Amadea could make her own assumptions about what it looked like. Based on how tightly the snare had been wrapped around Rhea's ankle, Amadea would guess that the swelling and bruising was probably very significant. 

She looked around for the nurse that had applied the salve to her skin. It seemed to be working very well and her skin was cooling off (or at least to Amadea it felt as though her skin was cooling off) and the pain was lessening. Hopefully the nurse had some cure for Rhea's ankle as well. Unfortunately, the nurse was nowhere in sight. 

Despite Rhea's assurance that she was all right, Amadea wanted a professional opinion. She was worried about the Gryffindor; Amadea couldn't help but feel like Rhea might be in more pain than she might be letting on. "I'm going to go see where the nurse went," Amadea decided. She pushed herself into a sitting position, ignoring the pain in her arms and slowly moved her leg over to the side of the bed. Placing her feet carefully on the floor, she braced herself with trembling arms and stood. Once upright, she stayed still for a moment, letting herself adjust. Once she felt steady, she removed her arms and began walking slowly to find a nurse. 

As she shuffled across the room, her legs began feeling very tired. That wasn't a good sign. She was determined to make it to the other side of the room and to the door where the nurse had disappeared into. As she took her next step, her knee wobbled and then gave out beneath her. She grabbed onto the nearest bed to steady herself. Maybe this wasn't the greatest idea. But Amadea couldn't send Rhea to go find the nurse; Rhea had an injury of her own. She sat down on the bed, letting herself take a break. Then she turned to Rhea who was all the way across the room.

"Do you have any ideas of how to get the nurse?" Amadea asked. They were both crippled, and Amadea's patience had worn thin. She wanted to Rhea to be healed now. 

Maybe there was something really wrong with her ankle. While before it was simply throbbing, now it had started to go numb, too. Even Rhea, someone who had absolutely no experience with medical (just because her grandmother was a Healer, didn't mean that the trait was hereditary) knew that something was wrong with her ankle. She looked down just to make sure it hadn't fallen off or something, as now she couldn't feel it at all, but was please to see it was still intact.

Shrugging, she turned to look at Amadea. The Hufflepuff seemed tired, but nevertheless stood up to go and attempt to get the nurse. "You really do-" she trailed off when she saw that the other had already stood up and was making her way across the room. What was she doing? She'd just suffered some really harsh burns and here she was, trying to walk. Rhea sighed and tried to stand up to go and help her, but her injured foot buckled the second she stood up and Rhea collapsed back onto the stool. Oh, are you serious? Even someone who had suffered heavy burns was able to get to the other side of the room!

Rhea's eyes widened even more as she took in the amount of space the other redhead was able to cover before she fell down onto a nearby bed. She sighed softly and smiled, shaking her head. The nurse was bound to come at some point - sure, maybe her ankle would have fallen off by then - but she was gonna come eventually, right? 

"Are you okay?" Rhea called out to the other girl, wanting to stand up and go over to her but knowing she couldn't. It really was a pain in the neck, this blasted ankle of hers. Rhea could only hope it wasn't broken, how was she supposed to play Quidditch if it was? She'd be heartbroken. Casting another look down at her ankle, she was surprised to see just how swollen it was. Thinking that shaking it would be the right thing to do, that's what she did-a sharp pain went throughout her entire leg and she sucked in a sharp breath. Okay, maybe moving her ankle wasn't the best option. Had she sprained her ankle or something? Was that even possible, given that she'd managed to walk Amadea all the way to the Hospital Wing? Apparently it was.

Amadea had gotten quite a ways away from her, so it took Rhea a while to hear what was coming out of the Hufflepuff's mouth. When it finally sank in, Rhea shrugged. The nurse seemed to be very bad at doing her job. Here they were, one student with burns and the other with a messed up ankle, and she had disappeared somewhere. Seriously, where was she? Crossing her arms together, Rhea contemplated a way to get the old nurse's attention. It would need to be ear-catching, something that would get the nurse running right to them. When Rhea finally came up with a way, she thought it might just have been a little bit dramatic. But then she shrugged. She was always the dramatic one, was she not?

"Help us! Please, nurse! We're dying... I can see the light... Good bye dear world!"