Chapter 34. Hospital Wing Trysts
I left the Room of Requirement before the bell for lunch rang so I could check up on Roxana one more time. Madam Pomfrey wouldn't be very happy to see me.
That's why I wasn't going to let her see me.
The Hospital Wing was mostly empty now, most of the injuries sustained were far from severe. A few students had just gotten 1st-degree burns, some had scorched hair while others got bruises and cuts from the scuffle.
It was a relief that there were few casualties but if enough of these kinds of attacks happened often, someone would end up dead.
I subconsciously thought of Roxana, she was always quick to protect me. What if the next time something went wrong?
The pang in my chest told me how I would feel about that.
"Hey," I whispered peeking through the curtains around her hospital bed.
Roxana shot up halfway on her bed. "Audric?" She called out with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"Shush." I hushed her quickly, freezing up for a couple of painful heartbeats to check if Madam Pomfrey had heard us.
After a while of silence, I heaved a sigh of relief, stepping inside her partition. "How are you doing?"
"Great!" Roxana whispered to match my tone. "But Madam Pomfrey won't let me leave." She made a face.
"Who is it?" Madam Pomfrey's voice rang out, she sounded awfully close.
'Speak of the fucking devil!'
I froze up in place, my eyes darting around for a route of escape in case she decided to check inside this partition.
"Is someone there?" Madam Pomfrey called out again, her voice sounded even closer. "Roxana? Is that you?"
Roxana and I shared a wide-eyed look, Madam Pomfrey was getting closer and closer.
The next moments were a blur, Roxana pulled me down on her, throwing the covers over us both.
"Yes, I just wanted to stretch my legs a bit, I'm back on my bed now!" She called out in response.
I was in a very conflicting position, I tried to support my weight on my hands so that I wasn't pressing her down into the bed.
I curiously tried to peek out but she pushed my head down and whipped the covers over me. Thank goodness she did because Madam Pomfrey peeked through the curtains in the next moment.
She had a brief conversation with Roxana but I couldn't follow them, not when Roxana pushed my face down on her chest.
She was soft and she smelled like sugar and flowers…
The covers were thrown away and I scrambled off her, my ears burning. "Sorry about that." I whispered, looking at everywhere in the room but her face.
"Thanks for checking up on me but you should go before Madam Pomfrey comes back."
I managed to escape successfully, making my way down to the Slytherin dorm in a daze.
A ding shook me alert, startling me so much that I stopped moving for a few seconds.
=========
<ATTENTION!!!> : 'Fire Tamer' acquired
<REWARD!!!> : 5 SP Awarded
++++++++++++++++
<ATTENTION!!!> : Romantic moment lv2 acquired
<REWARD!!!> : 10 SP Awarded
=========
I started walking again only to stop again when the second notification came in.
What did it mean by Romantic moment lv2 acquired?
It worked with anybody?? Not just Hazel??
It made sense though because the previous occupant's emotions had come into play the first time I met Hazel and because the system said she was an important character, I just guessed that she was supposed to be my love interest.
It was probably a bonus point from the previous occupant because Hazel was no more important to me than my Blair and Tanner.
If anything, I'd put Tanner and Blair before Hazel and Witter, and Roxana before all of them.
I was free to change whatever I wanted and to do whatever I wanted, even if I wanted to become a playboy.
It seemed like 'Romantic moment' would only keep doubling in SP the more I upgraded it. The system was really equipped for everything.
It was like having a capable assistant who didn't really care what life choices you decided to make but would work with whatever you gave them.
I continued my journey, it would be time for lunch soon but I could just hang out quietly in the common room before the bell rang.
I had gotten used to being alone in my past life but I was also lonely. Here I had made more friends than I ever had in my past life in just a matter of weeks.
Guess all I needed to build a social life was to die and then transmigrate into another world.
'Seems pretty legit.'
I lounged on one of the sofas, thinking. I had no information on the dragon attack even though I had been there when it happened.
Headmistress McGonagall hadn't seemed bothered so maybe it's no big deal and it's not even related to the Boggart incident.
This meant though, that my nightly visits to the Forbidden Forest just became more dangerous.
Not to mention that there might be teachers out patrolling now after the dragon attack.
I had been considering waiting a full week before continuing my Animagus training but after the events of today, just one week might not cut it.
Plus, I couldn't afford to waste more time. I had no idea when I would need to quickly transform into my Basilisk to save my hide.
There was only one decision, the Room of Requirement.
It was perfect! Why hadn't I thought about it before?
Now that I knew what animal my Animagus was, I just had to ask for the perfect place for a Basilisk to move around in.
I snapped a finger, I could go whenever I had the free time so that I could get it off my neck as quickly as possible.
I remembered the last time I tried the transformation and winced, yeah maybe not as quickly as I would have liked but I would be making progress anyway.
The bell for lunch rang and I sat upright from the sofa, making a move to get up only to get pummeled back.
"Fucking hell!" I bit out. "Tanner, you bastard." I cursed, shoving him off me.
He rolled to the ground, sitting up to grin at me. "I thought you were asleep, I was just trying to wake you up for lunch." He said cordially raising his hands in surrender.
It didn't stop me from slamming a pillow on his face. "Thanks, I'm awake now."
"What are you guys doing?" Blair showed up at this point, eyeing Tanner suspiciously.
"Stuff." Tanner answered vaguely, throwing the pillow to the side and getting up to throw an arm around Blair. "Let me tag along with you to lunc…"
Blair didn't let him get all of his words out, sweeping out his legs from under him with hers.
"Audric are you ready for lunch?" She asked me nicely.
"You're always so mean to me," Tanner complained in a muffled voice.
There was free time after lunch because classes were canceled but as much as I wanted to use the time to take a nap I had other things to do.
The Room of Requirement was proving itself extremely useful, it was a little hard to imagine how I survived before it.
To level up my stats, I just had to go there. I didn't even have to take a book with me. All I had to do was think about what I needed and the room provided it to the littlest detail.
In terms of ratings, I would give it 97/5. It would have been a 100 but the deal with no food was a bummer.
With Blair as the Captain, the team was stronger than it had been. Practice happened thrice weekly.
Saturdays for the usual practice on the Quidditch pitch, Wednesdays and Fridays for the secret practices in the Room of Requirement.
I would be spending a lot of time in the Room of Requirement now, practice aside, all of my training would be happening there as well.
In the Great Hall I could see Roxana, she looked all better, you had to hand it to magic.
Ravenclaw sat next to Slytherin as our tables were lined side by side, then Hufflepuff before Gryffindor.
It wasn't difficult to find her but she didn't see me which was great because I could feel my ears burning again from the memory of what happened in the Hospital wing.
I caught Tanner stealing out of my plate from the side of my eyes and slapped his hand away, paying more attention to my food this time because I wouldn't put it past Tanner to try again.
There was enough food to go around though so Tanner didn't have to swipe from my plate, it was one of those things he did just because he wanted to.