10 April

One whole month.  Gone.  Just like that.  One whole month of her life was gone, slept away in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.  Gloria didn’t have a calendar, and she wasn’t sure of the date, but she knew it had been a long time.  Maybe days.  Possibly years.  Too long.  At first there had been Connor tiptoeing over at times to say hello, but he must have gotten better because his visits had been replaced with occasional notes on her side table.  Three more arrived that day, but Gloria hadn’t read them yet.  She only looked at the little paper birds perched on the edge of the table.  Had they arrived this morning?  Was it even morning?  All of the times ran together for Gloria lately, holed up in this dark prison.  When she’d opened her eyes earlier there had been only one, but putting her arm out to pick it up had been too hard.  Now there were three, like something urgent had happened.  

She slid her arm out of the blanket and paused to rest, and then put her blue fingers out slowly towards the note, but she couldn’t quite get a grip on it before the little paper bird tumbled to the floor.  The soft grunt of frustration that followed started a cough that built upon itself into further choking coughs until the room swam and her whole body cried in pain and just not breathing seemed like a better choice than coughing and wheezing for more air.  And then there was nothing at all.  



Gloria Watkins