An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Forty-Seven

"...doing better?" I heard a voice, but I couldn't place where it came from or who it belonged to.

"It's hard to tell. You'll just have to wait her out." This was a different voice, one with a higher pitch. Where were these voices coming from? And why did my head hurt so bad?

My eyes seemed to be glued shut, but I was curious enough that I managed to pry them open. I was in a bed, but it wasn't my bed. A warm light filled the room. I blinked a few times, and then a face appeared over me.

"Alexa?" I recognized that face... "Alexa, please, tell me you're okay."

Oh! Cedric! The face belonged to Cedric. Suddenly, everything came rushing back. The Quidditch match, the celebration, the storm. Being slammed into the ground at a million miles an hour.

"Ugh, everything hurts," I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut again. I blinked slowly a few more times, then focused back on Cedric. "I'm okay though, yeah."

"Thank God." As he sank back into his seat the rest of the room slowly came into focus. I was in the hospital wing, of course. You'd think these wizards and all their magical healing and shit would've cured my aches and bruises by now, but apparently not. "How... What happened?"

"Honestly Ced I don't even know." I pushed myself into a sitting position, grimacing through the pain. Thankfully, a high pain tolerance seemed to be genetically inherited as a Stark. "Some crazy magic storm or something came out of nowhere and hit me with a pile driver into the ground."

"How did you... I mean, one second I was looking at you and the next I was in front of the doors to the castle." Cedric looked extremely confused, and I realized with everything going on I hadn't explained about sling portals to him yet.

I didn't have the energy for an in-depth explanation, but I gave him a basic outline about my armor and the portals to explain what I could. He took it all in without any real hesitation, but he still looked shell shocked. He kept staring at me like he couldn't believe I was real.

"I ran back down after you used your sling portal, but the storm was gone," he explained. "Instead it was just you, laying there in the grass like... like you were dead."

I could actually see tears in his eyes. I reached out and gave his hand a squeeze, just to reassure him that I was still here. I was okay.

I'd seen a lot of people dead or almost dead in my time with the Avengers, many of them being people that I cared about. I still wasn't used to it, and I knew how much worse it was experiencing that feeling of dread for the first time.

"I'm sorry, Cedric. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"It's alright. You're a Gryffindor, I could've guessed that you would run into the middle of the storm instead of going somewhere safe. I have enough Gryffindor friends that I'm used to it by now." He gave me a weak smile, and if I could actually move I would've tackled him in a hug.

I started to speak again, but I was interrupted when the hospital doors flew open and like ten people marched through, all headed straight for me.

"Alexa!" It was my Gryffindor friends and the rest of my Quidditch teammates. They came barreling towards the bed, each wrapping me in a massive bear hug. It would've been sweet if it didn't crush my already bruised ribs.

Everyone was talking at once, so I couldn't process any of what was being said. All I saw were happy, relieved faces, giving me big smiles and gesturing wildly. I thought we would just continue like that for the rest of the day until Madam Pomfrey shouted over the noise, barging into the middle of our huddle.