Tickling the Giant Squid and other Grand Adventures

31. Karou

 I ran out of the bathroom and back to my common room as fast as I could, nearly running through the Grey Lady, humming the melody to move the barrels and crawling up the tunnel as fast as I could, breathing in a fair amount of dirt. I burst into the common room, a little dusty and breathing hard. A couple Gryffindors, a Ravenclaw, and a Hufflepuff named Brandy looked up as I burst in, lungs heaving. But the harder I tried to breathe, the less air I got. Brandy and the Gryffindors turned back to their discussion, clearly unconcerned with my entrance. The Ravenclaw looked concerned, frowning softly at me. Breath still hitching, I hit my knees, desperately gasping for air. A set of black and blue robes swirled in front of me, and I looked up, vision starting to blur.

"Knock on the floor once for yes and twice for no," a boy's voice said, his face a pale oval with strawberry hair. "Are you okay?"

I hit the floor twice in rapid succession.

"Can you breath?" he tried again.

Two knocks again.

"Asthma attack?"

One knock, getting weaker.

"Inhaler?"

One knock, still weak, vision going.

I was lifted up off the ground and dragged across the common room, bursting into the girls' dormitory. I felt my quilt underneath me and I was leaned against the headboard. Breathing hurt, and my lungs were being crushed by great iron bands. My arms and legs were weak.

Familiar plastic touched my lips and I heard a boy say, "On three. One." I expelled the little breath I had. "Two." I wrapped my mouth around the waiting inhaler. "Three." The familiar, bitter tang of my inhaler filled my mouth and I breathed in as deeply as I could. The bands loosened as the boy counted. At ten, I released and took another breath of medicine. We repeated this action several times before I pushed his hand away and burst into a storm of coughing. All around me I could feel concern and worry of my fellow Hufflepuffs. As my vision cleared, I was able to see my housemates surrounding me, as well as a couple Slytherins, several Gryffindors, and three or so Ravenclaws, including the one sitting beside me.

As the coughing started to abate and it became clear I wasn't going to die, the room exploded into conversation and more than one bout of relieved laughter. I took all the questions in stride, still coughing, smiling and waving their concern away, every bit the prevailing, injured hero.

When everyone was satisfied that I was going to be fine, Marissa's boyfriend Castor and Gladys, the Prefect, shepherded everyone back to the common room, leaving Irene (the girl who slept in the bed next to me) and the Ravenclaw boy behind. Irene drifted back to her bed, and I got my first good look at the boy who probably saved my life.

He wasn't terribly pale, but he certainly wasn't tan, with brown eyes and a mop of strawberry blonde hair. His nose was rather pointed, and his face very angular, with long fingers. I gave him my brightest smile, doing my best to assure him that I was indeed fine and there was no reason to worry.

"Thanks," I said honestly.

"No problem," he said, waving a hand and standing from his kneeling position. He was about average height for a first year; I remembered seeing him at the Sorting, and he was in one of my classes. "My baby brother has asthma. The signs were obvious if you know what to look for."

I took my inhaler from him, casually setting it on the nightstand to my left. I opened my mouth to say something but was interrupted by a storm of coughing. I bent over, bracing against the bed, and the boy put a hand on my breastbone as I tried to hack my lungs out. His cool hand gauged the level of my distress, and he took it away as I wiped tears from the corner of my eyes.