Let it all flow out, like a river running

As soon as the door swung open a caterwauling charm went off, because that's how Angelique rolled. What? People had tried to break into her supply cupboard before now, you know.

Angelique herself had the whole helping students in the middle of the night thing down to an artform. She shrugged into a spare (plain) robe and lost no time tying an apron round her waist. It was absolutely disgusting some of the things these brats could bring up. And then her attention was focused on the mirror while she stabbed two pins carefully through her plait because frankly the idea of anything getting in her hair was not one she wanted to entertain. Only then did she stride out into the main room of the hospital wing and turn off the charm.

At least if they hadn't been injured before they got here, they would be now.

A caterwauling charm had been the last thing she was expecting upon entering the hospital wing. Hit strived to never have to come here, after all. She frowned at the shrieking, wincing as she did so, but made no movements to cover her ears. She'd heard worse before.

It didn't change the fact that is was uncomfortable, though. If she hadn't hated the hospital wing before this, she did now.

It seemed like the healer really took her damn time with getting out there to turn off the charm and help then, to Hit. Of course, standing in a room with piercing shrieks running through it would make anyone feel like it took an eternity to get rid of them.

"Was that really necessary?" Hit half muttered once the sounds were gone.

Julian wasn't nearly as stoic as Hitame, who somehow managed to withstand the head splitting noise filling the hospital wing. For his part, his fists were crammed against his head before he could even finish his own statement, eyes screwed up in pain as he flinched against the noise. This was absolutely horrid, and the weakness plaguing his body redoubled with the heaviness of this oncoming headache.

Soon, Angelique Pyrites was sweeping towards them and banishing the screeching noise to the abyss. Julian blinked, feeling faint against the noise and uncertain of his own voice. But, Hitame seemed to prioritize chastising the healer for her choice of welcome rather than cutting to the chase.

"Sorry we're here late," Julian said, voice a little too loud, "but I'm not feeling well. I think I drank something weird at dinner."

Angelique spared a glance for the girl, wondering whether the pleasure of making her leave would be worth the trouble. Experience said probably not. Students were always so stubborn and obnoxious, especially when they thought a friend's life was on the line, which they always did. Merlin forbid anyone come in here with something as simple as a head cold.

So she pretended the kid didn't exist and turned her attention to the boy instead. At least he was smart enough to be polite. Or scared enough; she didn't care which.

"Uh huh," Angelique said, making it obvious she didn't believe a word. "So, you're saying I should quarantine the whole school."

Yeah, she wasn't good at things like this. Sue her.

Obviously, Pyrites had thought the charm was necessary, so her question had been answered without a word having actually been said. Not like she cared if she was answered or not, being ignored seemed to be her thing anyways. She really didn't care if she was going to be considered rude, either.

With a bored look on her face, Hit crossed her arms over her chest. Her task had been to see to it that Julian made it to the hospital wing without dying. He'd made it, so that meant she was allowed to leave, right? Yet she couldn't bring herself to just up and say bye, and be on her way back to Gryffindor tower.

Did she actually care that much?

Probably not. But she didn't feel comfortable just leaving him there. So.. maybe she did care, just a little bit. It could just be the fact that she hated the hospital wing too. Yeah, that was it. The healer's tone made Hit frown, she didn't sound like she was buying it.

Her best choice was to stay quiet, though, because she knew she'd end up making things worse.

Some help she was.

Well... poop.

Julian didn't want to sell out Violet, or anyone else who had been involved with his... drugging? (That seemed harsh, somehow). And even if he did want to get back at them, he certainly didn't want to be responsible for prematurely ending his own party.

"I think," he said, throwing out a good-natured laugh to help fortify the rapidly forming excuse. "I think, now that I'm thinking about it," yep, totally good lie, no way she'd see through it, not stalling at all, "I think my friend might have played a prank on me. We just learned how to brew amortentia awhile back, y'see. Everyone said I got a little... lovey. Lovey, would say, Hit?" he said, glancing towards her for confirmation. "Anyway, it's not a big deal, someone must have gave me an antidote, or something, but I'm still feeling a bit wonky."

Angelique mentally congratulated the boy on his... well, it wasn't exactly quick thinking but it prevented her having to do any excess work and that was the important thing.

"Okay, okay," she agreed, rolling her eyes. Kids were always pranking eachother at this school. She'd never seen the point; it was so immature.

"Just, gimmie your hand. I'm sure you've been magically diagnosed at St Mungos before, right? This is the same thing."

The only difference was that Angelique actually waited for the kid to lay his hand in hers. She'd always hated the way that Lupin lot just laid their hands on anyone in the vicinity like they were entitled to know what was going on under their skin.

((Messing up the post order because #YOLO. Sorry Kim ;D))

A wave of relief passed through Julian's scrawny being, and he found himself marvelling at just how lucky he had been all evening. He had been lucky that Margo and Molly had actually decided to give his party a try. He had been lucky that people actually showed up and started to hit it off. He had been lucky that a friendly face had been there once things took a turn. And he had been lucky that Angelique bought his story.

(And, if he was understanding things right, he could have gotten lucky. Ah well. The night was still young. And girls dug the whole victim thing, didn't they? Maybe he still had some luck left in him.)

"Thanks," he said, thrusting out his hand so that she could examine him. He felt the need to placate her, keep conversation moving. "I always liked this bit. Super cool. A touch and boom - disagnosis. It's like..." He had been prepped to say it was like magic. Genius. He grinned, almost apologetically. "It's cool, is all."

"Shut up," Angelique told the boy almost fondly.

Let him think she was flattered if he must. Really, she just liked stupid people.

She reached through the bond formed by their hands until she felt the odd teetering sensation that meant she'd connected with his magical system. He was right, it wasn't entirely in balance. But then, no human would be. That was the problem with this type of diagnosis, it was supposed to pick up on "good" or "bad" vibes.

"Hmmm," Angelique said. Someone had once told her it was always a useful thing to say.

She tried looking at him. He would almost certainly be thinking about "dinner". Technically this wasn't allowed, but she was just doing her job. One thing you could say about energy healing, it made legilimency much easier.

"Yeah, lovey." Hit nodded.

She wanted to roll her eyes so badly but decided she shouldn't in case Angelique caught it and ended up getting them in trouble. Hit couldn't get in trouble for this, at least not until she got back at Violet somehow. Violet? No, the person who she probably felt the need to get back at was Apollo.

But she technically hadn't even been involved in the first place. She probably just felt betrayed and that didn't sit well with her. That meant if getting back at Apollo meant it had to be through the older girl, then so be it.

Since when did thoughts like that run through her head?

Probably always.

She'd stopped paying attention to the conversation just before Julian had stuck his hand out to her and zoned back in to find Angelique looking st Julian. She shrugged, it looked like she hadn't missed much.

((S'all good. I'm not contributing much anyways lol))