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chapter fifty-eight,
runaways vs cowards
She felt hollow, like all her organs had been removed and now she was just an empty bag, waiting to be filled up with more useless junk again. She sat up and realized with a certain confusion that she wasn't in her bed at Saint Mungo's anymore, and suddenly a flood of memories poured back into her head: her father torturing her, apparating to Hogsmeade, taking all those pills, Remus...
"Ah, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey said seriously. "I think you gave everyone here a little bit of a fright. You're lucky Mr Lupin decided to cut his losses and bring you up here."
"Cut his losses?" Beatrice mumbled, and Madam Pomfrey sighed.
"Yes, cut his losses. I'm afraid despite the whole ordeal that brought you here, Professor McGonagall is insisting that you both serve a month of evening detention, and no more trips to Hogsmeade. Can't have our students wandering around at night, reeking of tobacco stench, especially students like you..."
"Oh," Beatrice said. "Where is Remus?"
"I believe he would be in potions right about now," Madam Pomfrey said, flipping through a large folder.
"But we don't have potions on Mondays," Beatrice said, and Madam Pomfrey sent her a sympathetic look.
"It's not Monday, it's Wednesday."
"Wednesday?!" Beatrice yelped. "But I just got back last night!"
"You got back Sunday night," Madam Pomfrey corrected her in a surprisingly kind voice. "Try to take some deep breaths, Cait Fortescue sent me your Mungo's file..."
Beatrice laid back on her bed and groaned.
"Try to stay cheerful," Madam Pomfrey said, "you've got some good friends who care for you very much. Miss Alice Fortescue has been sneaking up here after almost every class to drop off your homework, and I've been breaking my back trying to keep that Black boy away."
Beatrice gave a slight laugh despite herself. "Sirius can be a handful..."
"Not Sirius," Madam Pomfrey said as she started to do a little bit of tidying up around her, "the other one. Regulus, I believe it is..."
Beatrice wrinkled up her nose. "Reg was here? Why?"
Madam Pomfrey sighed, and sat down at the end of her bed. "Everyone was very worried about you, Beatrice. You arrived at Hogwarts so late at night, and your friends tell me that you weren't acting like yourself at all. Remus Lupin said you passed out on him so I did a quick head-to-toe check and didn't find any injuries, however I did find this..." She reached over to the bedside table and showed Beatrice her half-empty container of pills. "Do you have anything you would like to tell me?"
