The tubing beneath the skin on Nerissa’s chest had begun to restrict, causing the act of breathing to become quite painful as the oxygen that she inhaled tried to force its way through. The cold air chilled her insides, and for that moment, she felt as though she had frozen on the spot, unable to breath correctly, with thoughts flying about her mind at an almost impossible speed. “My head…” she whispered, though it had not been her intention to speak the pair of words aloud.
Her skin had begun to turn to stone, she could see it clearly with her eyes, and it was starting from her hands, working its way up. Of course, nothing had happened in order to trigger these events, and therefore, said events were not logically possible- yet, not a single one of the thousands of thoughts that Nerissa’s mind continued to sift through was dedicated to piecing this information together, and so, she believed what she was being told by those mouse-like eyes of hers… and she was quite frightened. “N-n-nick!” she stuttered, skipping across the boy’s name; her lungs were turning to stone, after all.
For an entire year it had been this way; the smallest drop of fear was all that was needed in order to ignite every inch of the redhead’s brain, causing her senses to malfunction catastrophically. The wolf was forgotten; it had stopped to stare into Nerissa’s eyes for only a short moment before it had taken off into the Forbidden Forest once again, and now that she had begun to become nothing more than a pretty piece of stone, she had far more to worry about than being ripped about by a sharp set of pearly whites. She would be dammed to a life of solitude, left alone to become another of Hogwarts’ fairytales…
...but it was at that moment when Nerissa Hatts realized that solitude was no curse- in fact, she preferred it, so long as she had functioning ears to listen to distant conversations. Not to mention the grass beneath her bare feet- feet which had begun to turn a very chalky pale due to both the cold (in truth) and the virus that was rapidly spreading throughout her body (according to her damaged senses)- and the trees that stood so very near. Perhaps… just perhaps the redheaded child would enjoy the life of a statue.
Poor Nick,, Nerissa thought, pitying the boy, for she had realized that he would be there to witness her transformation, and had a feeling that he would not be to pleased with her for not putting up any sort of effort to wiggle free. He would forgot, or would pretend to forget, and would go back to fighting off frightening creatures in the night, she knew. It was his way.
The Ravenclaw struggled to close her eyelids, which had become quite heavy and difficult to command, but managed to force them shut after a few seconds, and she continued to breath, each breath becoming shallower as her throat was coated with a thin layer of rock. It stung, and it itched in a way that Nerissa could never explain, not even to herself with the help of her thoughts, but she held perfectly still- as still as rock.
"Are you ok?", came the strong, yet concerned voice of the Potter that Nerissa had become quite familiar with – could he not see what was taking place right before his very eyes? Could Nick be so blind to have missed the fact that Nerissa’s flesh was, well, no longer flesh? “I will be,” she replied softly after tearing her lips apart, and forcing her tongue to move as it once had with ease.
Nerissa needed her medicine. She needed fixing.
by 
