Air

It was only midday and Natalie was ready to explode. The morning had started relatively normal. She'd woken up in time for her first lesson of herbology, granted she didn't wake up in time for breakfast, but nonetheless Natalie reached the greenhouses in time. Today they had been set the tricky task of extracting bubotuber pus, a petrol smelling substance that does 'funny things' to the skin when undiluted. Natalie was lucky she'd remembered to pack her dragon hide gloves, or at least her hands were lucky. Ten minutes into the lesson and her partner had over excitedly popped one of the swellings sending a plume of pus onto Natalie's neck.

The next hour was spent in the hospital wing as the healer attempted to manage the painful boils that were rapidly rising from the Gryffindor's neck. By the time the healer had stopped the swelling, applied the boil reduction paste and wrapped a ridiculous bandage around Natalie's neck herbology was over and so she made her way to charms class where she wasn't given the most warm of welcomes.

Stepping into the classroom the already seated class erupted into a hysterical laughter at the bandage around Natalie's neck that was so tightly fastened she could barely turn her head. Professor Cooper may have stopped the laughing but whispering and the random giggle from the back of the class couldn't be stopped. Trying to ignore the whispers and the ball of paper thrown at her head by a fifth year Slytherin Natalie was glad when the booming bell sounded the end of class. After untidily shoveling her belongings into her bag Natalie stormed out of the classroom, making an effort to slam the door against the wall as she did so; hurried to the Great Hall, pocketed a couple of sausage rolls and left the castle ignoring the call of her name. Usually she would have stopped to see who it was but right now Natalie didn't want to hear a joke nor a call of concern.

Marching across the lawns, kicked a stray branch out of her way, Natalie finally reached the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. She liked it here, there was nobody to disturb her, nobody to wind her up and it was genuinely a place where she could get some air and cool off. Taking one of the sausage rolls from her pocket Natalie took a bite and swallowed. The warmth of the food was delicious but - Natalie threw the sausage roll onto the ground and watched a pair of blackbirds swoop down and begin to fight over the pastry. There was no way Natalie was going to be able to eat it, her neck was swollen and it hurt to much to swallow.

'Great!' Natalie shouted, kicking the trunk of a nearby tree. She was starving, irritated and in pain. It was official. Natalie George's day could not get any worse ... yet.

It hadn't taken long for rumors and jokes about her friend to reach her and Hitame almost immediately got into a fight with a girl her age about it. There wasn't one day that she could go without fighting or arguing or anything, that wouldn't be very Gryffindor-like, would it? The amount of fights she got in wasn't even Gryffindor-like anymore, it was just stupid, but then again since when was Hitame smart? Especially in her decisions.

Hitame hated when something was said about her friends or family, so she was obviously going to defend one of the only people who was still her friend. In the past year, Hitame had lost almost everyone she was close to. Her friends were basically all gone, her sister was still missing and her brothers were no where to be found. She couldn't depend on them so much, but they were the only people who had been able to keep her grounded for so long. All good things end eventually though, and those good things had ended a long time ago.

All she basically had left now was Trisha, Daemon and Natalie. Most people didn't know about her friendship with Dex because of their houses and she hadn't been able to speak with Tris since her wedding since she was busy with her new husband. The thought of getting married to someone she didn't love still scared her and she hadn't made any attempts to meet up with Nick since their meeting. She just didn't want to, and she would avoid it for as long as she could.

The Gryffindor shook her head as she ran down the path to the grounds, looking around for Natalie. Maybe she could cheer her friend up a little, or do something to help her. Hitame wasn't sure what she could do but she was going to try anything that came to mind. As long as she was kind of helping her friend. She tried to think of where the girl could be, and finally the thought hit her. The forest. Natalie liked being near it.

She ran across the lawns, almost gasping for breath when she finally slowed down as a figure began to appear before her. "Nat." she called out, clearing her throat as she tried to slow her breathing. "You okay? I've been hearing unpleasant things." she frowned, looking at the bandage on her neck. Natalie seemed aggravated and frankly, Hitame couldn't blame her for feeling that way.

The blackbirds continued to peck at the pastry, ignoring the meaty sausage roll inside. Withdrawing the other sausage roll from inside her pocket Natalie tossed it besides the blackbirds who, for a moment, appeared torn between their choices before continuing to fight for the old one. How stupid. They had the option to have one each and instead they choose to stand their ground for the one they already had.

The sound of a voice made her nerves twitch for a moment. How humiliating. Natalie hated her temper, she hated making others feel that they needed to comfort her, she hated people having sympathy towards her. Looking up from the blackbirds Natalie let out a low sigh. Thank God it was Hitame, had it been anybody else she probably would have ventured further into the forest to employ the out of sight out of mind trick.

'Hi Hit.' Natalie sighed. 'Yeah I bet you have.' The Gryffindor said with a grimance to her dorm mate. She wasn't mad at Hit and if she sounded rude she really didn't mean to, Hit was used to it by now, it was simply Natalie's way of trying to calm down.

'I got hit in the neck by bubotuber pus and now I look like invalid.' Nat explanined making an effort to clarify exactly what had happened. 'And now it hurts to swallow and I haven't ate anything all day!' She concluded slumping down the tree trunk to sit safely within its roots. Sulking.

"I bet." she replied softly, glancing at her friend. "It probably doesn't make it better to have to wear that thing on your neck all day." she pointed lightly to the bandage and sighed. She wasn't exactly sure how she was supposed to comfort her right now. Hitame had been in a lot of different, unpleasant position before, but strangely enough, this was something that had never happened to the Gryffindor.

"I'm not sure what I can do to help you right not Nat, but if you want to rant about anything, or everything, you know I'm here to listen to you." she said, offering her a gentle smile that she rarely gave anyone lately. With Naomi missing, she hadn't been able to trust many people anymore, or give them any kind of smile that wasn't a fake one. Even then, not many people even got a smile from her at all anymore.

It was true that Hitame was a tough nut to crack, but once you got in, it was easy for her to trust you. That was something that never happened though, unless you were the three that were mentioned before. Besides her family, who she didn't even trust that much anymore, her three friends were all she had and she couldn't be anymore grateful that they had actually stuck by her for as long as they had.

She had honestly thought that Natalie would have run away from her the day they met. She was a strange person to be around and everyone who met her usually couldn't be around her for long because she always ended up doing something that messed it all up. But Natalie hadn't run away just like Tris and Dex hadn't and she really couldn't understand why none of them had, but she liked it.

Hitame was there if Natalie needed a rant. A rant was exactly what Natalie needed and Hitame didn't need to say anymore as Natalie had already stood from her slump against the tree and was pacing back and forth.

'Why are people so stupid? I clearly told the Litherland boy to let me handle things but did he listen? No! He just went ahead and popped the bloody boil instead of squeezing it. And this-' Natalie pointed to the bandage around her neck, '-this ridiculous bandage is making my neck itch, which I wouldn't mind too much apart from the fact I look like I've just walked out of a fight with a river troll. Oh, and to help matters I can't even swallow anything because it hurts too much!'

The last few words were more screamed than spoken and the two blackbirds flew off in fright leaving behind the half-pecked sausage rolls.

She didn't need Hitame to say anything in particular, the fact she was simply there to listen was enough.

'Sorry.' She said to Hitame whilst running a hand through her hair Natalie realised that she may have been a bit full on. 'I just needed to vent.'

'So what's been going on with you lately?' Natalie asked, hoping to distract herself from her own anger. She knew Hitame had wanted to talk to Professor Mist about her seer abilties and no doubt she had gotten up to other things she hadn't told Hitame. If she hadn't? Well, it didn't matter, Natalie simply liked to hear someone elses voice.