Explanations and Askings [Diana/Open]

[Adrian Connery]

Sneaking out of the hospital wing before being seen probably hadn’t been the smartest move on Adrian’s behalf but he couldn’t stand being in there for more than five minutes. It was a cold, sterile and informal place that gave him the jitters. Not that it would have mattered if he’d stayed or not, Adrian’s worst injury was his broken arm and he was allergic to bone healing potions. He had a makeshift sling and had thought about going to the nearest muggle hospital to get a cast. He could patch himself up without magic, he'd done it before.

He looked himself over in the mirror of the staff bathroom. Aside from the broken arm he had a black eye, cut lip, some deep cuts on his upper arms and shoulders that he’d patched up and other various other scrapes and bruises, most of which he’d acquired when one Abraham Grey had dragged him semi-conscious back to the castle. Adrian ran his hand over his neck and attempted to get a better look at it in the mirror. From the last time he’d checked it out the bruising had become more pronounced and deeper, that was going to cause a few awkward questions. He could be certain that Abe and Idris wouldn’t let him live down the fact that one, he had a major crush on Diana and two, that he, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, had had is arse kicked by a vampire, something he was supposed to be able to handle.

Speaking of Diana, Adrian fished around in his coat pocket and brought out what was in there. Professor Addair’s wand, intact and in excellent condition apart from a few chips here and there, and his wand, broken in two. He sighed sadly; he’d had that wand since his first year at Hogwarts and now it was completely useless. Ronald Weasley had told him the story of how he had taped his wand back together when it was broken and how it had been unpredictable and dangerous. Needless to say that story definitely pushed any thoughts of home repairing way out of his mind. Well he might as well go find the Divination professor to return her wand and maybe score some sympathy from passersby.

Adrian sighed and made his way from his shelter in the bathroom. He walked as quickly as he could through the halls, limping slightly and trying to avoid all the gawking students. He couldn’t look that bad, could he? He realised he still had his bloodied coat on over some track pants and a polo-shirt. Maybe he did look bad then. He began to grow nervous as he neared Diana’s office, hopefully she wasn’t there and he could turn around and hide in the bathroom again. Adrian’s nervousness turned to uncomfortableness as more and more people began to point and whisper at him. The sooner he got through that door and into the privacy of Diana’s office the better.

He hesitated before coughing and knocking on her door.
“Diana are you there? It’s me, Adrian. I managed to get your wand back,” he mumbled meekly through the door, waiting apprehensively for an answer.

[Diana Addair]

If one word had to sum up Diana’s frame of mind ever since she’d sent Adrian on that stupid quest without thinking it through, it was guilt. Horrendous, mind-shattering guilt. What if something happened, huh? Forget ‘what if’, something had happened and Diana had long ago lost track of if she was just paranoid, if she was worrying too much, or she was actually divining disaster.

The moment she found out Adrian had left she attempted to go after him to try to reason that the morning might be an awful lot safer, but she’d barely missed him just after he left his office. The memories, no matter how fragmented and blurred, put a complete stop on her attempts to follow him into the depth of the forest. She couldn’t even get near the tree line before her legs decided to think for themselves and stop moving. Damn it, why did she have to be such a coward?

So, the whole night had been a mixture of pacing around her office, staring out the window, checking the Hospital Wing to see if he’d gotten back yet, attempting and failing to use the crystal ball because she couldn’t clear her mind of images of Adrian being pinned by a faceless vampire, and repeating the same routine again. Eventually she’d found Abe patrolling the halls for wandering students, told him the story, and saw him run off to find Adrian before she could protest. Great, now she’d sent two men off to their doom.

By the time Adrian and Abe had come out of the forest and gotten into the Hospital Wing, Diana had given up. In realising there was nothing she could do she had downed a sleeping potion to await the morning. Thankfully sleeping potions spared you the terror of dreams, because otherwise she would have been plagued by pictures of Adrian being decapitated all night.

It was the knocking on her office door that woke her up. Diana had slept on the couch in her clothing, so she was looking more than a little rough around the edges as she pulled into a sitting position, trying to work through the lingering effects of the potion. Running her fingers through her hair to flatten it out, she staggered towards the door when Adrian’s voice suddenly came through, reminding her in an instant of everything.

Oh God.

If Diana could have made a flying leap at the door, it was a fair bet that’s what she could have done. She wrenched it open in a hurry, looking wide eyed and tired with un-brushed hair and wrinkled clothing; though she looked a pure sight of beauty to how poor Adrian was at that moment. Diana’s heart had base jumped to somewhere around her feet at the sight.

It was her fault. All her fault.

Yet, somehow, he had her wand in his hand. Battered, but not too much worse for wear. Diana had to resist the urge to throw it out the window. Close as she felt to it, it was replaceable. Adrian wasn’t, and she’d had an awful long time to think about it the night before.

”Oh my God, what happened?” She gasped, grabbing Adrian’s non broken arm and steering him inside at to one of her armchairs in such a way that showed he didn’t really have much choice in the matter. ”Are you alright? Where’s Abe? Did you find the vampire? Are you alright? What happened?” she asked quickly, hoping she didn’t sound as maniacal as she thought she did and repeating her questions without realising. She just wanted him to say he was fine so that she could stop feeling so... guilty.