Charms and Alchemy || Mauraders Era||

Broken

tw: talks of su*c*de and harm

Maggie was sitting in the corner of the common room, as usual, going over stuff for both OWLS and the African Examination. OWLS were close and tensions were high. She had seen several students faint during classes or have mental breakdowns in the bathroom. She had even seen a student sleeping with books under her pillow. Lily and the others were pulling all-nighters but Maggie refused. She had seen what it had done to other students in Uagado and she wasn't interested in the consequences.

'Do you want to see Elven do a trick?' Fabian said as he pulled a chair towards Maggie's table. He was holding the young bowtruckle in his hand.

'Elven?' She dropped her book and looked at the small creature. She didn't know it had a name. The small creature jumped of Fabian's hand and onto the table, running around wildly.

'Short for Elvendork. But don't tell Elven, he hates the name.' Fabian whispered as he covered the ears of the bowtruckle. The tiny thing struggled and tried to remove Fabian's fingers from his ears. He didn't like secrets either. Elven eventually scratched at Fabian's hand, resulting in a light but firm scolding.

'So a trick?' Fabian smiled and carried Elven in his hand once more.

'Yes please.' Maggie said. The boy pulled out a string from his pocket and twirled it around his fingers to make a very small skipping rope. He then brought it closer to the bowtruckle. The bowtruckle started to skip as the string came towards its legs. Maggie was impressed but the show wasn't over. Elven started doing flips and acrobatic stunts that completely stunned her. He soon stopped after he got tired. Maggie reached across the table to grab a snack for Elven.

'That's a good boy.' She said as she handed the bowtruckle the last of her raisins. Fabian noticed that her snacks were finished.

'Maggie, do you want to head down to the kitchens? I heard they have Black Forest.' He said trying to coerce her to go. He felt she had spent more time studying than he had with him or her other friends. He knew that she couldn't resist some cake, especially not Black Forest.

'No. I'm cool. I need to study.' She shook her head and picked up her book again. She continued to read as Fabian stared at her, bewildered. He saw her eyes were dull and tired. Her skin lacked its usual cluster. This wasn't Maggie. Something had to be wrong. He quickly left the girl to her studies and went to approach her friends.

'Where have you been?' Peter asked running up to hug Magdalene as she made her way to the great hall for dinner. Late again, of course.

'In the library.' She replied not bothering to hug back, seeing as she had lots of books in her hands. She continued to make her way to the great hall without stopping. She needed to eat fast so she could go back to studying.

'We've been looking for you for hours.' He said as walked beside her. Lines of worry were engraved in his face as he stared at the nonchalant girl that only had one thing on her mind.

'Yeah, I've been studying.' She spoke softly adjusting the books as Peter opened the door for her and she walked into the great hall.

'Are you alright?' Marlene asked as she saw Maggie leave the bathroom. It was 6 am and Marlene had made the sacrifice of getting up early on the weekend to study. She hadn't expected anyone to be up early, especially after the all-nighter the others pulled.

'Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?' Maggie's voice was light. Too light for the morning. Almost like she hadn't slept. Her braids were still in a neat pile and her bed was neatly made. Something wasn't right and Marlene could feel it.

'Your face is puffy and your eyes are red.' She pointed out. As she said these words, Marlene could see some life flicker out of Maggie.

'Really?' Maggie looked at her reflection in the mirror. She poked her face and stretched out her eyes. She then shrugged. 'Must be allergies.' She said as she climbed into bed. Marlene knew something was up. Her friend was in trouble but she didn't know how to help her. Maggie didn't wake up till lunchtime.