Not a good start to the year (Joe)

Something wasn't right, the air wasn't moving like it usually did when on a broom zooming around the quidditch pitch. There was no noise either from the crowd or the dragons, it was warm too, and she didn't feel like she was falling anymore. Perhaps she'd already hit the ground? Nothing hurt, well aside from a scratchy throat and a blossoming headache. Rolling over to try and get up Louise jumped, forcing her eyes open she glanced around the sparkling white room then down at the plain thin sheets. She sighed and dropped her face into the pillow, she wasn't on the pitch or outside and there were blessedly no dragons. She wondered if she'd loose points for disrupting the lesson? Probably not considering what happened, she looked up again and spied the glass of water on the table beside the bed and gulped half of it down while sitting herself up. When she put it back she spotted another in a bed close by. At least she wasn't alone in here. "I'm gonna get sick of this room sooner or later." She mumbled to herself and looked around for the school nurse, wondering if it was too late to go to dinner, or if it had been long at all since she got here.

She looked over again and thought she recognised the boy in the bed, she was sure she'd spoken to him last year. She smiled and got off her bed and sat on the side of his, poking his shoulder lightly. "Joe?" She spoke quietly wondering how asleep he was or if he was just pretending to be asleep. The poor guy looked pretty rough last year.

The sobs seemed to be never ending; the sound of Morgan Rosier crying filling all of the corners of his mind. He couldn't really remember what had happened. There had been something about a point involved, he knew that much, but the rest was still a little bit fuzzy. Joe's eyes were heavy, and his head was pounding, but he guessed that he had fallen on it. You fell, moron. You fainted his mind-voice huffed, finally starting to clear out the noises that had been haunting him for what felt like a very, very long time.

She smiled and got off her bed and sat on the side of his, poking his shoulder lightly. "Joe?"

The Hufflepuff's eyes were heavy, and for a moment he thought he'd imagined the sound of someone saying his name. He forced himself awake, though, rolling onto his side and trying not to retreat at the harsh brightness that the hospital wing always seemed to greet him with. But no, there was someone at his bedside, and it was a face Joe had started to associate with smiling. Louise Grey, the Slytherin who had tried to make him happy in his bad state last year. "That's my name, get your own," he joked weakly, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "What're you in for?"

When he opened his eyes she smiled brightly and scooted over so he had room to sit up. At least his sense of humour seemed to be intact. "I'm quite fond of my name thank you very much buster." She pulled her legs up to sit cross legged and facing him. "I think I passed out in care of magical creatures." She shuddered. "Why dragons? I hate dragons." She sighed and rubbed at her forehead trying to block out the memories of last year's quidditch fiasco. "What about you? You look like you've gone twelve rounds with a hippogryph. Sans bloody wounds and bruises." She asked, trying to see if there was anything wrong with him, not that she could really tell but he looked pretty pale, she could only imagine what she looked like, she was never a graceful riser after waking up. She started smoothing down her hair that had gotten tangled at some point and pulled out a twig or two, flicking them across the floor.

"What about you? You look like you've gone twelve rounds with a hippogryph. Sans bloody wounds and bruises."

"You always did know how to make me feel better," the Hufflepuff chuckled slightly, blinking a few times as his eyes refused to adjust to the whiteness of the room. Louise was probably only speaking the truth though; Joe knew he looked like a bit of a troll when he woke up, mainly because his hair had a nasty habit of standing up in all directions. "Passed out in Defense... We were dealing with dementors. Well, patronuses really, but all the same..." He couldn't help but involuntarily shudder, feeling the back of his head ache as he did so.

"I think... I fell onto my head." The boy watched as she picked bits of twigs out of her hair and couldn't help but let a bit of a giggle through his lips. He almost couldn't understand the mentality of it, not until he involuntarily reached up to fix his own. "Honestly, you girls and your hair..."

"fell on your head? Well that was clever wasn't it?" She grinned, and stopped fidgeting when he looked at her, placing her hands in her lap and twisted the ring around her finger instead. She felt her cheeks warm as a surge of embarrassment rushed into them. "Yes well 'A proper young lady needs to look her best at all times.'" She smiled again, Vanessa had drilled in that particular lesson the longest and hardest of all other lessons. Not that she minded them anymore. "How do you cast a patronus anyway, I've always wanted to try. Could you show me?" She asked, changing the subject quickly, forgetting about dinner for the time being.

"Well, you know me," Joe said with a lopsided grin. "I'm always clever." He noticed how the girl ceased to sort her hair, and felt bad for a few moments. He hadn't meant to make her feel bad about it, but she soon seemed to be in good spirits again. The Hufflepuff briefly wondered why Louise would feel the need to have to look her best at her age, but he then assumed that she would have had it drilled into her at some point. You always look your best he said as a mental note, deciding not to say it aloud for fear that it could be taken as more than just a friendly offering.

"How do you cast a patronus anyway, I've always wanted to try. Could you show me?"

The black haired boy thought for a few seconds, bottom lip pulled between his teeth. "I, uh... I wouldn't say I'm the best person for the job... I'm sure you could get Josh or someone to teach you?" The first half was supposed to be a joke, of sorts, except... Not really. Having fainted on his first try hadn't really made himself look to great. "I don't really know how he did, but I'm gonna assume he did pretty well."

Louise just smiled but at the mention of Josh it faded and she looked away. "We're not really talking much this year. besides no one else is here and I'd go stir crazy if I just simply lay about doing nothing." She looked back and shifted so she was comfortable. "Just tell me what you know and I'll try and work it out from there. I know you need to think of something happy but that's about the extent of my knowledge on the subject. What do you say?" She grinned and poked him in the leg for good measure, showing she was fine.

"Well, I guess the theory behind it is relatively simple," the Hufflepuff started, twisting his hands subconsciously in his lap. "You have to think of a happy memory. That was where I fell down. It can't just be something you enjoyed, it has to be powerful enough to make your heart swell and makes your entire being feel alive..." He spoke with passion, something he'd been lacking as of late, and he smiled slightly as he looked down, away from the girl sat opposite him.

"Then, you say the incantation. Expecto Patronum," Joe explained, mimicking the wand action with one hand. "Sometimes you make a shield-type thing, and then if the caster is particularly powerful or if the memory was a good one, they make an animal. One that represents them..." Mine's a bloody rabbit. Of all things, a rabbit... he added mentally, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Joe knew, of course he knew. He'd been practicing in his dormitory since he had been back at school, with luck only on one occasion.

Louise gave Joe her fullest attention, listening to his explanation of how to cast a patronus. She tried to think of a memory that would spark strong feelings, most were stressful or usually angry with Josh. Then she remembered coming home and Miss Sheridan holding her almost in tears, that felt as strong an emotion as she was ever going to get. She went back to her bed to pick up her wand and came back to Joe's bed, smiling at him. She mimicked the wand movements for a few minutes to make sure she got it right.

She smiled at Joe and then held onto the memory as best she could and cast the spell, at first it looked like silver wisps were weakly forming a small shield form of the patronus. She tried again and this time squeaked when something a bit larger shot out of her wand and soared around the hospital wing. It opened up revealing a corporal form, a small hooked beak, large fathomless eyes and elegant wings. Soaring above their heads was a peregrine falcon patronus. "Wow!" Louise was stunned at the sight of it and waited for it to land on the bed, hopping from foot to foot it looked between the bed's two occupants. She grinned and hugged Jo tightly. "This is awesome! Thank you, what does yours look like?"

As soon as the majestic creature erupted from Louise's wand, the boy found himself unable to stop the grin appearing on his face. The Slytherin was really good if she could produce such a strong patronus first time. She was a lot more powerful than he had otherwise given her credit for. It wasn't that he disrespected the young witch; on the contrary, he just always had seen her as the innocent, happy-go-lucky sort of person. His eyes stayed on the falcon as it hopped on the bed between the two of them, and he found himself caught in a transfixed state until he felt the younger girl's arms around him.

He felt his cheeks blush a little as he hugged her back, all be it a little weakly. For whatever reason, her fellow Slytherin seemed to keep a close watch on her and if he were to come in at any moment he didn't want to be caught hugging what was likely deemed "his property". Everything always was his bloody property, though. "Mine's- uh... Mine's a rabbit. I've only been able to make it appear once, though... I don't really... Have any 'happy' memories."

"Bunnies are cute though." She giggled trying to picture a silver bunny hopping around the hospital wing, it would be much more bearable than sitting doing nothing. She let go of him eventually and cancelled her patronus. "I'm sure you have something I mean if you've done it once surly you can do it again right? What memory did you use?" She asked, not realising she was probably being a bit too nosey for her own good.

She gave a small jump when two trays of food appeared on the bed in front of them, guessing they had missed dinner and the elves knew they were awake she shrugged and picked one up. "I guess we're here for the night too if no one's come to tell us we can go back to our dorms."

"I'm sure you have something I mean if you've done it once surly you can do it again right? What memory did you use?"

At first, the Hufflepuff was reluctant to say the memory, mostly because every single time he thought about Morgan Rosier he felt as though his heart was being pulled out through his back. He looked down at his lap yet again, mumbling his response to the girl's question. "I uh... You remember Morgan, right? Ravenclaw, died last year?" he asked, looking up through dark lashes as his cheeks went ever so slightly flushed. "She-... She was my best friend, and I uh... Well, most of my memories of her are tarnished ever so slightly. But we- she-... I..."

Damnit Astrid, get it together his ever critical inner monologue spat at him, his poor heart threatening to beat out of his chest. "The memory was the first time I met her. Three years ago, but every time I think of it, it feels like yesterday. It shouldn't be as strong as it is, I know, but... It reminds me that I'm not always alone." That was enough of a response, he figured. The gory details of the pair of them shaking like mad and stammering through sentences were ones that he reserved only for himself.

The trays of food appearing on the bed made Joe feel the need to blink rather incessantly, sure that the pounding in the back of his head was making him go loopy. "If it gets me out of classes, I'm fine with it. Still, there are a lot worse places to stay the night, I guess..." The Hufflepuff was only half joking; lately sleeping was the best thing since sliced bread.