𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗻, cedric diggory

˗ˋ 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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-: seventh year :-

── IN WHICH SHE SPEAKS

. . .

It was completely silent in the room beside the Janus Thickey Ward. 

Whilst out in the corridor, Rosie's mind and ears had been filled with the general business of the hospital. The fourth floor was generally a lot quieter then the others, seeing as it dealt with spell damage - which was arguable the most brutal form of harm. A lot of the patients had permanent damage, especially those in the Janus Thickey ward. 

Cedric seemed, for now, to be one of them. 

Rosie felt the same thudding sensation in her stomach as she stepped into the room, slipping through a gap created from her pulling open the door just a touch, having unlocked it and moved through it with quick, hurried moments. Dumbledore hadn't given her a lot of guidance on how to go about her visits, but she knew that considering the limited amount of people who knew about Cedric's presence in that private hospital room, that she shouldn't draw too much attention to it.

And so she locked the door behind her, bag strap slipping down her shoulder and landing with a thud on the floor, disrupting the quiet for just a second. Her footsteps clicked slightly on the hospital tiles, and she turned the corner, sighing when she saw him still just laid there.

Rosie should correct her previous statement. It wasn't completely silent in the room, thankfully, the sound of Cedric's hushed, shallow breathing could still be heard.

Her eyes drifted over the scene, and she was once again taken aback by just how alive he seemed. He was propped up on pillows, the rather squishy-looking duvet pulled up over his shoulders. There seemed to be some form of muggle contraption of tubes attached to him, but Rosie's eyes grazed over it as they always did.

A content smile settled on her face when she saw a new bunch of flowers on the table beside his bed, alongside a jar of what seemed to be candied fruits. A small card next to it invited Rosie to eat one, addressed from Elora to her. 

Picking out what looked to be a sugar-coated orange peel, Rosie ate is as she arranged her stuff and herself, sitting down on one of the chairs by his bed. "Well, Ced." She sighed, crossing her legs. "I hope you had a good couple of days without me visiting."

Considering she was talking to a boy in a coma, Rosie had taken a little while to get comfortable about doing what she would do in the hospital room. She had tried a few things, sitting there in silence and reading, talking to him about her day and a couple of other things.

Finally, she had settled on telling him what her and the twins were doing with the business and reading to him. She had a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard in her bag at all times, and had a tendency of getting distracted whilst reading them and going off topic, rambling about the business. 

She couldn't talk about these things with Fred and George; they already knew everything. And there was nobody in that house who knew any of the amount that Rosie had to talk about, and could not find out about it until down. 

"I have something to admit." She said to the quiet room. "I had to poison a load of doxies. We stole them from the curtains in the drawing room and I needed to extract their venom; but it only works when they're dead." 

She let out a sigh. "It's awful to think about, but I've been doing these sorts of things for years in potions. Of course, I managed to sort out the poison, but I had to get someone else to pour it into the bucket we kept them in. I feel really bad about it, but it's necessary for the business. And after I used money to enhance a Wolfsbane potion... well really I need to do as much as I can for it."

"Either way.. the doxy venom worked. I combined it with the shell of their eggs, crushed into a fine powder and mixed with the venom and several other things. It's helped the Puking Pastilles; George could actually keep it down long enough to swallow the purple end, but promptly threw up afterwards." She laughed softly, pulling another crystallised orange peel out of the jar and sealing it, settling into the chair with her legs pulled up to her chest and the blue storybook balanced on her knees.

"Tomorrow - or tonight maybe - I'm trying the love potion. I'm sure that if you were awake you would be absolutely horrified to hear that I was going be practically head over heels for one of the twins for a few minutes... but I'll have the antidote drunk within minutes - and if that doesn't work.. well I'm simply terrified for my next visit." The Kersey girl couldn't even comprehend what that would be like. To visit Cedric and have that part of her so filled with a strange, longing love to be completely gone, replaced with falsified feelings for one of her best friends.

She turned to Cedric, perhaps hoping for a reply.

But like always, there was nothing. 

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