The Snake Pit || Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 17: The Hospital Wing

'Oh mon, Merlin!' Octavia squeaked. She was pushing Mattheo away and running towards the body. Her converse hard on the stone floors. She didn't recognise him, but he must have been a year or so younger. She was kneeling over him hands shaking. The boy wore a Ravenclaw tie but his white shirt was growing red.

Blood gurgled out of his pale lips. He looked at her with wide grey eyes, tears pooling.

'You're ok, it's going to be ok,' she whispered to him. His lips quivered, he looked so afraid, so weak. Her hands pressing into his bloody chest she tried to sound reassuring, but she didn't have her wand, she didn't know how to help him. She imagined her father, in the same position. Her chest tightened so hard she gasped.

He was covered in blood. Gasping for air, blood bubbling out of his lips and down his chin. She was screaming, crying in an empty house. His eyes turning glassy and pale. Her father going still.

Octavia pushed the swimming memory away. Breath's heaving, she felt his pockets for his wand, nothing. Whoever had attacked him had taken it. His breaths came in short pants, hands limp at his wounds, trying to staunch the blood but too weak. The air misted with the coppery stench of his blood.

'Who did this to you?' Mattheo, kneeling beside her. He had taken his robes off to use them to press into the boy. The Ravenclaw's mouth moved but only pained whimpers escaped his bloodied lips. He was pale as a sheet. He looked so young, eyebrows creased in pain, pitiful sounds echoing down the empty corridor.

'We- uh- the Infirmary! We- huh- carry him,' Octavia sobbed, tears hot and fast on her cheeks. She was stumbling to her feet, eyes blurring, hands covered in blood. Mattheo was faster, he hoisted the boy into his arms without her help. A sharp cry of pain from the boy cut like ice shards into Octavia's stomach. And they were running.

She was screaming for help. Her throat tearing like swallowing thorns. She ran in front of Mattheo, throwing the infirmary doors open, meeting a wild-eyed Healer on the other side of them.

The Healer levitated the Ravenclaw from Mattheo's arms and into a hospital cot. She waved her wand at no place in particular but seemingly satisfied; she was over the body murmuring to herself.

'What happened?' the older witch commanded, pulling the boy's shirt away to reveal the deep wounds. Octavia was shaking her head. Muttering something unintelligible. The Healer was erratic, shouting. Octavia couldn't make out her words. The room was blurry, warping with tears. She was shaking so hard.

A tight arm wrapped around her shoulders and crushed her into a chest. Every time she blinked, she saw them bleeding out. Blood all over her hands. The pathetic noises they made. The paralysing defeat that she could do nothing. Octavia sobbed harder.

'We don't know, we just found him,' the chest rumbled beneath her cheek. She held him to her. The only tangible thing keeping her from falling through the floor. His shirt tight in her blood-soaked hands. Head pounding. Chest restricting every breath.

'You certainly don't think I'll believe that, boy,' she heard the older witch hiss. The rushing in her ears was so loud, but not loud enough to drown out the Ravenclaw's slowing heaves. Lungs stuttering.

'He was just lying there in the corridor,' Mattheo snapped, he held her tighter. One large hand holding her head to his chest. 'Do something!' he snarled. His chest vibrated with his heart beat. Octavia tried to tune in just to that. To hear its hard Dum-dum Dum-dum Dum-dum.

'What on earth?' another voice carried to her, an echo. It made her jump. Then a swarm of voices. Of hurried frenzy. She was being pulled away, stumbling. The not seeing the noise made her heart race. She removed herself from Mattheo's grip. Breaths slowing but tears still falling steadily. A heat in her cheeks as he surveyed her. She murmured an apology, noticing the blood she'd stained into his white shirt. He nodded stiffly, eyes lingering on the tears on her cheeks. They stood awkwardly.