The final countdown

She yawned, but as soon as she did that, she covered her mouth with her green dotted hand that had also some red dots. Blood.
At the very beginning, when the illness affected her, she thought that it might just be a flu. She suspected that after the very first coughs, sneezes and even faints she might even have a fever. First few days she was at the Hospital Wing, in Hogwarts, and even though the healer gave her all sorts of medicine, nothing got better.
Miseria's health became even worse and nothing seemed to help. At the beginning, when the green dots suddenly started appearing, she was able to cover them up with some make-up. Later, that day, she was forced to use her own appearance changning powers, however, on the next day, when she felt more sick than ever, she wasn't even able to concentrate on things around her. Her hair color turned into grey and one of her eyes into yellowish blue, making her look like she had heterochromia. A funny disease. Friendly mutation.
The green rash however was itchy. When she arrived at St. Mungo's she recieved a medication that would relieve the strange rash. That made her better, though she scratched her skin like a dog.
Miseria didn't know wether there were other students or people like her in the hospital. She was separated from the others since the doctors didn't know what to do to her and they also didn't know how to cure her.

For the first time it was boring in the hospital. No one was allowed to visit her and she wasn't even allowed to leave the ward. No books, no nothing. Only the loneliness and the doctors who came there only to check on her.

The bright sun, the warmth, and the singing birds couldn't hide the pain that was going on everywhere. Almost everyone she came in contact with was suffering from the same thing, they were all suffering from that unknown illness that was going around. Being one of the newest Healers and all, Alexis had thought she wouldn't have to deal with so many of these cases, especially since she wasn't sure what exactly she was supposed to do when she was dealing with them. But it didn't matter that she was new, she was still there to help and that was what she was put to do. One of the more experienced Healers had shown her the basics of what to do, and then she was sent off to deal with whatever was thrown her way. Some of the cases weren't as severe as others were, but they were all bad none the less. Good thing she was a determined person, or else she would have quit already.

Not long after she came into the hospital to start her day, a new file was in her inbox. She had grown used to seeing new ones in there so she had just shrugged it off and taken the file out. She stopped by her office quickly to drop off her things and then she opened the file and read through it as she walked to the sector of the hospital that the patient was in. Her eyes stopped on the name for a while and she stopped in her tracks. Miseria Lupin. The same girl who she had almost fought with at the battle of Hogwarts. Who she had turned on Naomi's orders for, so she could save a little girl who ultimately died in the battle. She shivered a little and shook her head. That was all in the past now, she had to get over it, just like everyone else was/did. Alexis just hoped that Miseria would be okay with her being the one to treat her, even after all that happened.

Alexis sighed and knocked on the door to the room where Mis was and she opened the door slowly. "Miseria Lupin?" she asked as protocol. "I'm Alexis. I'm the Healer that will be taking care of you for now."

Counting the numbers till she was confused with other thoughts that came across her mind, reminding herself about pointless things that need to be done and humming quietly at herself didn't make her feel better. She was still bored. Miseria missed her favourite books. Dracula, for example, or Anne Rice's "Vampire chronicles". Mis had read all of them and even though she repeated the habit every summer when she was at home and though she knew the content by heart, she still loved them.
She was also a great fan of the William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Maybe it was because Hamlet was in her eyes different person who was mostly, in her eyes, interested in his own good and was lead by revenge and emotions that brought an end to his love, his mother, and finally - himself.

She started repeating in her head "The Vampire Lestat" first chapter. It was her favourite book. Lestat was such a charming character. Mis fell in love with him as soon as she started reading the book. When she was reading, it felt like the words rolled over her tongue into her brain, filling it with pictures.
Suddenly she heard a knock on her door and Miseria closed quickly her eyes. Even though she felt lonely in this place, she didn't want anyone to visit her. Anyone from the hospital that is. The only thing that the healers did was asking about how she felt and if there were any signs of getting better. Well - there weren't, and Mis was sure that they knew it well by themselves.
For her everything was going on slowly. Until the door opened and until her new doctor introduced herself. Though it was painful, Miseria frowned and she opened her eyes. Alexis... Alexis... sounds familiar. Finally, fighting against herself, Mis looked at the healer and nodded. Yes, the name sounded familiar, but she couldn't remember who it was. She couldn't even remember anything about the battle. The fever made her memories fuzzy or they were too hard to reach for. Curiously, though saying nothing, she stared at the doctor, eyes, in different color, emotionless, empty and distant.

There was something strange about Miseria now. Something waa different, Alexis looked at her carefully as she tried to figure out what it was. When she found it, she felt stupid for having to look so much for it. Her hair and eye colors were different, that meant that she was definitely sick. She doubted that Miseria had done that to herself on purpose, but she couldn't change how she looked right now, so she left it like that. She would probably change back once she was feeling better anyways. Alexis looked the younger girl over and didn't even ask if she was feeling better, since it was clear she wasn't. The other healers only followed the protocol when they asked if a patient was feeling better, but Alexis didn't ask when she knew they weren't.

So she walked up to the bed where Miseria was, and placed her file on the table next to the bed. She Cept Miseria's forehead to check if the fever that was stated in the report had gone down any. Seeing that it was the same, if not worse, Alexis took out her wand and pointed it at Mis. "Gelu." she said softly. Hopefully that would help her fever some, if not she would just have to try something else, or she would have to move on. That spell was pretty much the only thing there was that could lower her fever for now, so she really hoped that it would help her. Alexis picked up the file again and read through it for a moment. She set it down again and looked at Miseria. She picked her hand up from the bed and looked over the spots on it. "Has this rash spread anywhere else?" she asked. "Has it gotten any more itchy?" she added softly. She knew the answer was probably going to be yes, but she had to follow some part of the protocol.

Miseria couln't consentrate on the healer. Her eyes traveled from the door to the ceiling that was, in her opinion, one of the most interesting things in this ward. She tryed to count how many boxes there were but without a reason she lost a count and then she had to look at the visitor again. Miseria frowned. She knew that the doctors asked dumb questions to her. Like "How do you feel today?", "Did you sleep well?"etcetc. Something told her that they already knew the answers. They only followed this stupid etiquette that was written in the rules.

When Alexis came there and touched her forehead, Miseria turned her head away. She never liked when someone touched her. It was annoying and they broke into her personal space. How rude. But thanks to her spell, although she wasn't able to hear it properly, she felt a little bit better.
While Alexis picked up her hand that lay on the soft blanket, Miseria raised her other hand and ran her fingers trough her white hair.
With every single day Miseria looked more and more like a corpse. Pale with green dots, and bones showing off almost everywhere. Her fingers were long and skinny but the nails on top of them were broken - bitten or cut off.

She nodded as a reply for the questions. The rash had spead over to her legs. It was too damn painful and itchy at the same time.

The spell would only give her temporary comfort even if it was a little bit that it brought. The fever would come back as soon as the spell wore off, truth be told since this was part of the sickness, Alexis was sure that she hasn't even gotten full comfort. Her fever was still there just a bit lighter than what it had been at first. Still there wasn't much more she could do for the fever now. She just had to wait until the spell wore off just to do it over again. It was going to be like a cycle where she just repeated what she did until a cure for this thing was found.

She sighed softly and looked in one of the cabinets for the cream that had been made that soothed the itch the rash caused. Knowing how Miseria was, when Alexis turned back to her she held the cream out to the younger girl and smiled. "I know that you probably don't want me touching you." she said. "So you can apply this yourself. It'll help relieve you of the itching for a while." she told the girl. She turned to the table next to the bed and she placed it close to the bed. Alexis grabbed the file and wrote something down quickly before putting it back down.

Miseria took a deep breathe before closing her eyes. She felt much better although she knew that after two hours or so she'll be feeling sick as hell again.
She didn't say anything, not even a simple thank you, but she stared at Alexis with little amusement. Yes, the girl was indeed somewhat familiar. She was most probably Hogwart's graduate, though she couldn't be sure. In St. Mungos there were also working other doctors from India, France or somewhere else. Not only england has qualified schools that teach healing.

Holding her head on the right side, Miseria looked curiously at the cream. Healers were usually the ones who moisturized her. But hell, she didn't mind moisturizing herself. It was even better. She took the cream and took a little sniff of it and with a quick movement she reached her hand out so that it was far away from her face. It smelled horribly!
But there was nothing else to do. Either would she enjoy that strange smell of this cream or she'd have to suffer from the itchy and painful rash. Sighing quietly, Miseria removed the blanket and shivered as she felt how the air, that was too cold for her, touched her uncovered skin. It took her few seconds before she got used to it and she looked down at her legs.

They were covered in tiny green rash. It was almost like allergy but worse. With slow and sleepy movements Miseria took some cream on her fingertips and started moisturizing her legs.

Alexis didn't know why but she was somewhat relieved that Miseria didn't seem to recognise her. She thought it would make it easier to treat her if she didn't remember who she was. She didn't want any problems now, after the battle was over. She had serious doubts on whether she did the right thing in siding with Naomi during that battle, because by doing that she had sided with the Death Eaters, but she was't one of them. She had never once thought about joining their ranks, if she had then she would have joined the Dark Followers while she was at school. But she hadn't, though she knew her younger brother was among them and her younger sister was among Potter's Army. Alexis never joined either of them from fear of losing one of her siblings, though in the end she lost one anyways. The dark haired girl sighed and looked down at Miseria as she applied the cream onto herself.

She picked up the report once more and scribbled a few things down, as her mind wandered to the battle once more. That little girl, the fourth year. She had been in her house and after the battle Alexis had heard that she perished during it. Miseria must not have been able to help her much after she left due to Naomi's orders. She had thought multiple times of the young girl, being bound with vines and seeming so helpless. Alexis put the report a bit higher amd closer to her face as she thought, not wanting anyone to see her emotions right now.

Right now Miseria couldn't even remember the battle or her failure when she gave her all to save this poor little fourth year student. She was really upset after the battle, though. Really upset. And although no one ever noticed, she had horrible nightmares after it. Pheh, who didn't? She was also the one who had covered her housemate's body when they found her dead and tied to school's gates.
Actually, she was even glad that she couldn't remember anything right now. Otherwise she'd throw that cream out of the window and run at Alexis like a mindless beast. Although she had forgiven the healer long ago, she was still really upset about everything. They seemed to get along pretty well at the beginning. She felt betrayed.

When she finished moisturizing her legs, she put the cream on the little cup-board that was near the bed and hid under the blanket, still waiting for something. Perhaps the healer will ask something or say something that would interest her. For example, what was going on at the moment in the hospital and how many infected witches and wizards there were.
Thanks to Alexis' spell, she felt better with every second. She was able to think, but her orientation was still not good enough. She feared that after lying that long in bed she won't be able to walk or even stand.

While waiting for something interesting to happen or at least a sigh that would come from the healer that would break the silence between those two, Miseria grabbed her white hair and started counting it, yellowish blue and brown eye fixed on Alexis.