Tickling the Giant Squid and other Grand Adventures

47. Karou

I sighed, tapping my pen against the table in the Gryffindor common room. Farid sat curled up in a chair before the fire, completely asleep. Avila sat across from me, frowning at the chessboard. On the other side of the empty room, a clock ticked it's way slowly towards one am.

Avila growled in frustration and sat back in defeat. "I don't know how the hell you do it."

I smiled and began to rearrange the pieces. "I just can. Lots of practice never hurts, though. I would give you quidditch analogies, but they'd just go over your head."

"I get Quidditch!" She defended immediately. Then, "Well, mostly... ish." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Stupid insomnia. Thanks for staying up with me."

"Of course. What are friends for?" I got up to stoke the fire and add another log. As I did so, a gust of air came down through the chimney and threw soot into my face. I dropped the poker with a clang, coughing and wiping my eyes.

Oh no. My chest began to tighten and I hit my knees, coughing desperately in an attempt to make my lungs work. I fumbled through my robes, searching desperately for my inhaler.

"Rou?" The concern in Avila's voice was evident. "Are you okay?"

Oh no, oh no I'm not, I thought frantically, trying my best to take deep breaths even though I was getting nothing. My inhaler was in my dorm. "Prefect," I gasped, berating myself for my stupidity. "Get a Prefect. Fast."

"A Prefect? Ok, uhm. Hang on." Avila turned and saw Farid blearily watching us, clearly not sure about what was happening. Avila pointed at me. "Watch her." Then, Avila was gone, and a moment later I vaguely heard her climbing up the stairs.

Farid slid off the chair and knelt next to me, rubbing my back. I laid on the ground and closed my eyes, focusing on pulling what little air I could through my lungs. A thought raced through my fuzzy head. It was Valentine's Day.

I opened my eyes again, and suddenly there were two more pairs of legs in my vision. I heard Avila say, "What do we do, Genie?" Voices swam in and out of my head, an unfamiliar voice said something that sounded like 'host', and then everything went black.

I woke up in the Infirmary, blinking slowly. I felt cold, despite the blanket on top of me, and queasy. Not to mention that my throat felt like it had been replaced with sandpaper. Sunlight streamed through the windows, but I couldn't tell what time it was. Or even what day.

I pushed myself into a sitting position, looking around the empty infirmary. Where were Avila and Farid? I mentally chided myself at that; they were probably in class.

I laid back against the pillows, savoring the air as it went in and out. I always took for granted how nice it was to breathe until after an asthma attack.

The door creaked open, and I turned my head to see a familiar strawberry blond one.

I smiled as Aaron walked up to my bed, smiling uncertainly. He took a seat next to me and held out a yellow rose.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he said, face red and looking at the view from the windows.

I blinked and furrowed my brow as I reached out to take it. "You didn't have to do that." I brought the tightly closed bud to my face and gasped as it opened under my nose. There was a bright flash and I blinked rapidly, looking to see Aaron holding a camera. He smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. I've been waiting to see that expression all day, and I thought I was gonna miss it since you were in the infirmary."

I blushed and fiddled with the rose. "It's okay," I mumbled. I cleared my throat. "Thank you. It's beautiful."

His face blushed even darker as he put his camera away. "Yeah, sure, no problem." He stood, and then paused. "Karou-"

The doors banged open and we both looked up to see Avila marching down the hall with a pie in her arms, followed by a more timid Farid. Aaron smiled at me again and dipped his head before walking towards the doors.

I flinched as Avila slammed the pie down on the nightstand and wilted under her glare.

"Why didn't you tell me you had asthma?" She barreled on before I could answer her. "We could have been prepared. We should have an inhaler in all of our common rooms so if you don't have one on you, it's not a problem!"

"It's not a big deal," I muttered, slumping into the pillows.

"Not-! Not a big deal? Karou, you almost died. Not a big deal my eye. God, 'Rou, you scared us so bad. When you passed out I thought you had died." She looked at me and narrowed her eyes. "There isn't anything else we should know, is there?"

"I have a brain tumor and I'm gonna die in six months," I snapped back, straightening my spine. "Jesus, Avila, it's only asthma. It's not the end of the world, and the doctor said I should grow out of it. Besides, I haven't had an episode for months. It wasn't a big deal. How the hell was I supposed to know that there was loose soot in the chimney?"

Avila pursed her lips, arched an eyebrow, and didn't respond.

"Well... it is a chimney." Farid muttered sarcastically from behind her.

I glared at her. "Oh yeah, like every chimney spews ash in your face when you go to stoke the fire." I gripped the rose tightly and helped at the sting of pain. I looked down and saw that it had little thorns on it.

Avila glanced down at my hand and turned on her heel, stalking out the doors. Farid stood awkwardly at the end of the bed.

"She's bad at expressing it, but she's right you know," the grey-haired girl said. "You scared us pretty badly. I thought-" Her voice caught and she cleared her throat, plopping herself in the chair. "I thought you were gonna die, Karou. I was just sitting there rubbing your back and you were barely breathing. And then, Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let us stay and so we had to go back to our common rooms and lay awake all night wondering if you were dead. We skipped breakfast to come see you, but you weren't awake." I looked away from Farid, but she kept on talking.

"Look, I've never had friends before," she said, running her fingers through her hair, "and I'm not very good at being... open, but you should have told us. Avila was super worried, to the point where she even wore your tie instead of her Gryffindor colors."

I frowned. "I don't think that was a mistake," I muttered, remembering when Avila had taught me how to properly tie it. I sighed and rubbed my eyes. "I know I worried you guys, and I am sorry, but you have to believe me when I tell you that it really wasn't a big deal. My throat never constricts completely, so I would have woken up eventually."

Farid stood and smiled at me. "I'm going to go fetch her, and you can tell her that yourself."

I closed my eyes and sighed, rubbing my forehead. The door opened again a few minutes later, and a distinctly angry Avila came to stand at the foot of my bed, toe-tapping impatiently. With another sigh, I told both of them in extensive detail about my asthma, and how it wasn't fatal but it was concerning. I finished with, "And I'm sorry I worried you both. It just didn't seem important enough to mention."

"You don't understand. You did more than worry us Karou." Avila sighed, and she seemed to relax a bit. "We didn't know, which meant, for us, it could be fatal, and that was the really scary part. Because we didn't know. If we'd known, it would have been better."

"I said I was sorry," I muttered, rolling the rose in my hands.

Avila was silent for a moment, then sighed. "Fine. Have some pie."

I poked it suspiciously. "What flavor?"

"It's not poisoned," I could almost hear her roll her eyes. "I made it myself. It's cherry."

"Ah... about that..." I made eye contact with Avila. "If I'm supposed to be more open, is now the time to tell you I'm allergic to cherries?"

Avila threw her hands in the air. "I knew I should've made apple."

I laughed and pulled the pie into my lap, picking the edge of the crust off. "For future reference," I said, plopping the crust into my mouth, "I like biscuits."