Burning Tears Open Closed

It’d been a few months since Muriel had first arrived at Hogwarts, and everything was going a lot smoother than she’d imagined. She’d slowly learned her way around the enormous castle, been keeping exceptional grades in her classes, and had even managed to make a few friends. But yet, as much as she loved her new school, a longing feeling of homesickness had entered her heart, which had slightly grown everyday she’d woken up in her dorm rather than her true home.

This was why Muriel was in the Hospital Wing. As strange as it sounded, it was the place that she felt the closest to her mother; the whole place had a similar look to St. Mungo’s, which brought back all the memories she’d made while accompanying her to work. It made her feel better, and made the pain in her heart ebb away slightly.

But Muriel knew she couldn't stay for long. The Hospital Wing was only for hurt or sick people, or their visitors. So she planned to just take a quick look around and be on her way. That was... until a bone-chilling scream erupted out of nowhere, temporarily freezing her to the spot she stood in. But what really made her scared were the two words that came soon after.

"Help me..."

The voice was so quiet, that at first Muriel thought she'd imagined it. But as she made her way to the source, she realized with a small gasp that she didn't. Lying in a bed near some curtains was a girl with a half-red face in horrible pain, obviously burned. She stared at her for a moment, not in fear or disgust, but with true concern and sadness. "Nurse!" She turned around and called out, her eyes darting across the room, searching for help of any kind.

"...I'll get you some Burn-Healing Paste," Muriel said suddenly and dashed off instinctively. She knew she could get in big trouble for doing something like this, but she refused to stand around and wait when she knew how to help.

As normal, Luna was wandering around her new school. This time, she wanted to see how the Hospital Wing looked like. Of course, she was just going to take a look, because it wasn't a place to play or to visit when you don't know anyone inside... It was weird since she wasn't going to visit there at first. However, she decided to go here at the last minute. She didn't know why, but she just wanted to do it.

After opening the door and entered, she looked around and kept walking. But then, she accidentally bumped into someone and fell down. Her head hit the ground and it hurt a lot, for an 11 years old girl like her. However, she didn't scream or anything like that. She just slowly opened her eyes and tried to look at the one who she was bumped into. It was a girl, blue and bronze uniform... It was a Ravenclaw. Luna stood up and helped the girl to stand up. "I am so sorry, are you hurt?"

Luna bit her lips. She didn't mean to bump to someone... "Are you... in a hurry? Do you need me to help with something?" Normally she would never ask things like this, however, this time she did a mistake and were hurrying in the Hospital Wing must be something important.

Koko opened her eyes, which had been squeezed shut. "No, really, I don't think I need--" she began to say, but she cut herself off as she realized it was just the other girl being kind. She finally leaned back on the hospital bed and waited. She would have said "thank you" if she'd been less naturally bad tempered, but all the same she didn't really care. If she was in pain, and if the person knew her, they'd know not to talk to her unless they wanted to get yelled at. The sizzling sensation on her cheek had faded until she hardly felt it, but she guesses that was just her wanting not to feel the pain. Her brain was very good at shutting out things that bothered her.

Even if she didn't want help, she could use it. Koko sighed, her hazel irises flitting up to the ceiling for a moment as she took yet another deep breath, as to calm her. As she looked around, she noticed just how neat and tidy the room was--and how clean it smelled. While she didn't particularly like the smell of antiseptic, she was could bask in the scent of rubbing alcohol. She didn't know why, but it calmed her. "Sorry," Koko said after a long moment of silence. "I don't know what exactly is wrong with me, except for the fact that I did get myself burned. Thank you." She realized how much she might sound like a some preppy kid, but at the moment, unlike how she normally acted, Koko wanted to be polite. "I'm Koko." While she usually told others her last name, she didn't add it this time because she was just too tired--and her throat was very sore. She scooted back on the bed until she was hugging her knees with all of her weight on the pillow. Koko watched awkwardly out the window, sure that she'd made a spectacle of herself, and at the same moment, not sure how to handle it.

Sorry this took so long; I've been taking longer on RP replies because I am trying to improve the quality of my writing, so I've been in the Games Room for most of my time recently. I'll try to diminish the wait!

Muriel had just made it to the door of the Nurse's office, trying to peer through the blinds and see if anyone was there. Unfortunately, the room was empty, but a wave of hope ran through her as she spotted some cabinets, most likely holding medicinal supplies. Just as she was deciding on what to do next, her thinking was suddenly interrupted by a large force, knocking both of them to the ground. Quickly recovering, but very confused, Muriel stared at the new girl in front of her.

"I am so sorry, are you hurt?" "Are you... in a hurry? Do you need me to help with something?"

"No, no, I'm fine... umm-" She half-replied as a new idea popped into her head. Turning back to the door, she quickly took out her wand from her robe pocket. "Alohomora!" She stated while performing a backward "S" with her wand. A brief moment of doubt entered her head as she stared at the doorknob, but the familiar click of a lock unlocking diminished it as the door creaked open.

Remembering the other questions the girl had asked, she decided it would be best to justify herself before a misunderstanding happened. "There's another girl over there who looks to have just been burned. It's pretty bad, so I'm going to help her with some Burn-Healing Paste, since there's no one else around... If you want, you could help me look for it?" She explained before walking into the office and opening up the cabinets, revealing a variety of phials full of potions.

A number of red flags were going off in her head, most fearing what would happen if she was caught, and another fear of how the other girl would react. ...Would if she tries to stop me instead? Temporarily shaking these thoughts away, Muriel began gently sorting through the phials, hoping to find what she needed. 

Luna didn't say anything and just watched the Ravenclaw girl weirdly. If she wasn't wrong, this girl was from Ravenclaw, why was she doing... this? Using Alohomora to unlock it... was she going to steal something? She stepped back a bit, not wanting to get herself in trouble. When the girl turned around, Luna just looked at her with many questions on her head.

After hearing the girl explained the reason, Luna was a bit shocked. She could still remember how hurt it was to be burned... She gave the girl a nod and walked to her and tried to find the potion. The little snake mocked herself, she couldn't imagine that she would break the rules because of this. However, she could still hide it if no one saw her did that, right? Luna turned her gaze to the girl near her. As a Ravenclaw, the girl must know what she was doing, and she must know that she shouldn't tell anyone else about that. And even if they were caught, they could still say that it was because someone was hurt... A soft sigh came from her mouth when she was trying to remember the place of the potions and seeing where the Burn-Healing Paste was.

Muriel continued to sort through the phials silently, using her peripheral vision to glance at the Slytherin girl every few moments, tensing up in fear of a sudden outburst or lunge. Instead, however, the girl simply stood where she was with an odd, seemingly surprised look on her face, making Muriel just feel even more guilt.

This is wrong... you should stop now while you can...
No! You have the right reason, you're only trying to help!
But you're helping in a way that causes trouble for others...
But someone is hurt! They need help!

The constant battle in Muriel's mind was suddenly put to a halt as she heard a quiet sigh escape the other girl. Seeing it as a sign of resignation, she eased up a bit and turned her full attention back to the current phial in her hands. The familiar viscosity and orange color of the substance inside caused her eyes to widen. "This is it!" She suddenly exclaimed in triumph, setting it down to quickly and gently put back up the rest of the phials she'd taken down. "Let's go, that other girl is waiting!" She called to the Slytherin as her instincts took over once again, grabbing the phial and dashing back to the occupied bed.

Sorry for the really late reply, school's been really busy for me   

So they were still trying to help. That was a first. The girl in the Ravenclaw robes made her way over to the hospital bed that Koko sat on, and Koko tried not to seem surprised. Not that it worked.

"O-oh. Th-thanks," Koko stammered, taking the phial of Burn-Healing Paste that the black-haired one had given her. She uncorked it and rubbed some of the paste onto her burnt cheek. The tiny tingling sensation that had remained began to fade. Koko shot a smile at the girl who had helped her--and then she realized that there was another, a fellow Slytherin. We'll accept Ravenclaw. We would love a Gryffindor. Even a Hufflepuff would be welcoming. But never a Slytherin. The voice of Koko's adoptive mother rang through her head. She wanted to scream at it, tell it to shut up, but not in front of people. No. That wouldn't help at all. "W-what's your name?"

Koko never stuttered like this. Never. That was what surprised her. She normally knew exactly what she would say, and how to say it, but she could tell that her voice wouldn't follow the commands that her brain sent. She was just so... astonished.

If that was the real emotion she felt, she wasn't sure. Maybe it was a mix. But for some reason, she felt so darn happy.

Sorry for the delayed and shabby response! I haven't been able to get on my computer recently and I don't do RP on my phone due to spelling errors.

Luna nodded and followed the little raven. She didn't expect to find it that quick, however, she was glad that they could find it before anyone stepped inside the Hospital Wing.

rolled her eyes when she realized that the Slytherin girl seemed like she was... scared of her. She did not do anything wrong to the little snake, so there could be two possible reasons. One, the girl was too shy in front of the other people. And two, she was scared because Luna was from the Slytherin house. However, since the girl was from Slytherin too, so the first one was more possible, at least she thought so.

"My name is Luna. Luna Choi, nice to meet you guys." She took the potion and decided to go back to the door where the other potions were."I'm pretty sure that you guys do not want to others to realize that we took this without permission, right?" Not to mention, she wasn't good at caring the others, then she should let the Ravenclaw Girl did it instead of her. Before she went, Luna waited for the girls to introduce themselves, she still wanted to know their names, and she didn't want them to introduce again when she came back.

Muriel beamed as she watched the potion take effect on the girl's wound, it was already starting to look better. She always had a soft spot for the sick and injured; perhaps it was from her mother, who also had the same spot in her heart, or maybe it was simply a learned trait; she was taught it was always good to help people.

Either way, she felt even happier when the girl stayed awake and began to talk; that was always a good sign for a patient's health. "I'm Muriel, Muriel Carroll, nice to meet you all as well." She replied with polite nod right after Luna introduced herself, noting her name down in her head along with all the other names she'd heard throughout her year at Hogwarts. She watched as Luna took the potion back, all the red flags she'd temporarily ignored suddenly being brought back with the girl's question.

"O-Oh ya!" Muriel stammered, her eyes darting to the entrance of the Hospital Wing and back to the unlocked office door. Thankfully, there was still no one in sight. "Y-you should put it right back where we found it... and lock the door again! ...If you're willing to that is...," she added timidly, the words fumbling out rather unsmoothly. She still remembered how reluctant Luna was in helping in the first place and worried that the girl might bail out now, or worse... tattle.

With a nervous smile, she turned back to the bedridden girl. "So... what's your name?" Muriel asked nonchalantly, trying to hide away the thoughts she was having. It seemed like a good question to start off with; simple, not too personal, though kind of redundant as it was just asked to the two of them a moment ago. In reality though, she was really curious to know how she'd gotten burned so badly, and on her face. But maybe that was a question she'd slowly work up to first.