Emotional Connection

exhaustion

Ashley lay awake, listening to the dragons outside. She was exhausted, but her mind was racing and she couldn't drift off fully. She sighed, getting up, dressing and stepping out, making sure to lock the door behind her again. Her dad had put a silencing charm around his room to sleep through the noise of the dragons, so she didn't need to worry about waking him.

She stared at the surrounding mountains and decided that maybe she'd feel better in the open space, so she secured her emergency medical bag on her hip and made her way to the worn path barely visible in the night. It was a bit of a walk, but she didn't mind it, especially when she reached the top, staring out over the camp, the stars, feeling the wind tangling her hair. It was refreshing to be out in the open instead of coupled up in some forest like they usually were. She smiled to herself, watching below the dragons each finding their own place to settle down, some of the trainers keeping watch overnight. The security had increased a lot over the past few months, according to Pete, the main reason being Voldemort's return. There were a few among them that thought that Harry Potter was lying, but extra security with dragons never hurt anyone. If she was honest, Ash didn't know what to think.

She turned back, to make her way back down the mountain, accidentally falling over her own feet and landing heavily on her knee. She quietly called out in pain, feeling the skin split on impact, sighing as she sat back to check the damage. She cast Lumos, holding her wand in her mouth to free her hands so she could better see, opening her medical bag to try and fix herself up. She sighed, wiping away the blood and wrapping her knee to try and stem the bleeding until she could get back to sew herself up. She didn't trust herself to cast anything on the top of a mountain when she could hardly see, especially when she was already drained from the day.

Standing, she tested how much weight her knee could handle, cursing herself for not making sure her bag was fully stocked before leaving alone at night, especially on a dragon training camp. Making her way slowly down the mountain was a lot more difficult with a busted knee, but eventually, she managed it, breathing a sigh of relief when she finally reached flat ground, finding it a lot easier once she didn't have to worry about falling down the side of a fifty-foot mountain.

Eventually, she made it to the hospital, leaning against the door to catch her breath and take the weight off her knee.

"Hello? Are you ok?" Someone asked, and she nodded, still trying to work up the energy to move to a bed. She could feel blood dripping down her knee, and wondered how much damage she'd really done to herself.

"Ash?"

She looked up, nodding, limping over to a bed. "I'm good, I just gotta sew myself up, can someone get my bag from my cubby?" She blinked, trying to focus on whoever was there with her. The two Healers looked a little doubtful but grabbed her bag anyway. She went through it, grateful for the light and for the fact that she had somewhere to actually sit instead of having to constantly check over her shoulder and be on the move. "Ok, here we go." She muttered to herself, glancing up, noticing Charlie in the bed across from her watching, curiously. She cleaned away the blood, trying to see how deep the cut was, grimacing at the sight of it. "Fuck, ok." She pinched the skin together, trying not to show how much pain she was really in as she sewed her knee back together.

"You must be our new Healer." The girl nodded as she watched. "I'm Laura, that's James."

"Ashley." She smiled, sighing as she finished up and leaned back into the bed. "Crap I'm exhausted, mind if I crash here? Don't feel like limping all the way home tonight."

Laura nodded, grabbing a few more blankets to fight against the cold for her and letting her rest, going back to James who was sat at the back.

"Ashley? How did you get injured?" Charlie asked, properly sitting up.

Ashely could barely form a sentence anymore, exhaustion taking over, mumbling about climbing the mountain before sleep completely took over.