‘The Dementor’s Kiss.’
“That’s enough.” Cedric barely got the words out, but Adam wouldn’t shut up. The only thing running through his head were those words. ‘The Dementor’s Kiss. The Dementor’s Kiss.’
“Please leave.”
The second time he asked, Venturini left.
‘The Dementor’s Kiss.’
The words wouldn’t leave him alone. Even after he sat alone, staring down at his hands, he kept trying to process it.
‘No, not my hands . . . his hands. The hands of whomever they want to send to Azkaban.’ Cedric looked up at the ceiling. ‘No, they want to send you to Azkaban now. Not him. You. You took that bloody deal . . . without even asking.’
He remembered, all too clearly, the pale, shimmering white stones underneath the yellow sky. It was the reverse of what a normal night sky should have been. The honey yellow sky above him held the twinkling stars, and two large, golden moons completed the strange picture. Surrounded by the marble columns, he willingly entered the amphitheatre.
That’s when he saw her.
‘I think I knew she wasn’t . . . human “ at least not any more “ when I saw her standing by the archway.’
The barking had made him jump, and he almost sprinted away, but then, he saw she held a pair of black hounds by a golden leash. Without turning to look at him, she said, ‘I get so few visitors.’
Cedric slowly crept forward. ‘Sorry, to . . .’
‘No, you are not sorry. But yes, you are intruding.’
Cedric stood rooted to the spot, but he did not take his eyes off the snarling dogs. Finally, he asked, ‘Where am I?’
‘Where do you think you are? You are in the land of things that are not alive. But you knew that. What is more interesting is that you are here, in this specific place. It is the land of things that are not quite dead.’
‘What does that mean? I did die.’
‘But you have not become part of this world. But how long will that last, I wonder? I have met few, precious few, which have held on this long. It feels only like days to you, I imagine, but they have been long, lonely days, and you feel like you are starving, thirsting, and about to die all over again.’
Cedric swallowed the lump in his throat. She knew “ he knew she already knew, but he couldn’t explain how she did “ that he was ready to give up. She was right. He had come such a long way already. He simply had started wandering . . .
‘I can make you an offer.’
She turned around, and if air had meant anything to Cedric, he would have stopped breathing. Her eyes looked the same as the dogs, and her skin looked like smooth, ageless marble. Cedric got the impression he was staring at a statue, but most of her figure was lost beneath the billowing, black robes that seemed large enough to fit two people inside.
‘An-an offer?’ Cedric stammered.
‘Since you have not committed yourself to this world, I can send you back. Yes, you heard me correctly. I can take you back to the land of the flesh. You must simply except the deal.’
Cedric could only blink. ‘The key rule I think is one you already know. If you go back, you cannot own your name, but that is what has kept you here, has it not? You have not spoken your name to another or acknowledged yourself in this world. When I send you back, it will be the same way. ’
‘How do you know . . .’
‘That does not matter to you. What does matter to me is how surprised I am that you have already not been claimed. If someone were to have laid a name on you, you would have become part of this world. That will also apply in the land of the flesh. You must acknowledge what they wish to call you.’
‘Yes. Send me back.’
Silence passed between them. How would she do it? How did you bring someone back to life? Those rules weren’t the only things, were they? Cedric felt certain she wanted something from him.
‘Do you want to know?’
He had been asked. He replied, without a second thought, ‘Just do it.’
Those feral, yellow eyes bored a hole through him. They never blinked, never wavered. They only stared into him. If he would have asked, he would have been told all the secrets of the deal, but he desperately wanted it.
‘I think I knew what it cost,’ Cedric thought as he continued to gaze upwards. He pulled himself out of that memory. ‘Deep down, I always knew I did something . . . unnatural. It was so easy to justify. I had earned it, hadn’t I? Wasn’t it offered to me?’
The questions remained unanswered as the curtain flung back again, and Nissel walked in and set up Cedric’s breakfast on the tray table. However, when he slid it into the bubble, Cedric didn’t glance at it. ‘Hmm, I lost my appetite. And Venturini . . . that bastard knew all along. And he . . . he just kept talking like there was nothing wrong. He was all ready to explain the facts of what it means to have the Dementor’s Kiss performed. Facts! What good are those? He was so bloody pleased that I had no idea what happened.’
Cedric ran a hand over his lips and fingered the scars. ‘I feel . . . dirty, like I need to scrub my insides.’ He ran his hands through his hair several times, purposefully trying to mess up the fine, flaxen locks. Then, he ran his hands over the bony, pale arms sticking out of the white T-shirt. ‘Not mine either, really,’ Cedric thought as he refocused his gaze on the window.
While he stared at the bricks, the curtain swung open again. Cedric didn’t look to see who entered. “It’s time to bathe,” Venturini said, but Cedric refused to look at him.
However, when Venturini walked in front of him, he had no choice but to stare at the Healer. Venturini crossed the bubble threshold and grabbed hold of Cedric, who complied willingly to being yanked out of bed again. Venturini led them through two empty rooms before they arrived at the bathroom. Venturini walked in and conjured a razor and stood there while Cedric shaved. After Cedric returned the razor, Venturini left him alone.
Cedric picked up the sponge and began to scrub his chest. He kept rubbing and rubbing, and soon, his skin began to feel numb from the repeated motion. He moved the sponge vigorously across his arms and then down his legs. A knock on the door let him know someone thought he should be done.
However, Cedric kept scrubbing. “Come on, this isn’t a spa,” Nissel said. ‘It’s good to know Venturini can’t be bothered with me right now.’ Cedric began to scratch at his scalp.
Another knock. “No, really, this is bloody ridiculous. Clean up and get out of there, or I’m coming in,” Nissel complained. Cedric sighed and washed the shampoo out of his hair before drying himself off. He dressed in the clean set of clothes, which were still the standard T-shirt, scrubs, and grey house coat, before opening the door.
“Come on,” Nissel said as he motioned Cedric forward. Unlike Venturini, Nissel always seemed reluctant to touch his patient. ‘Now I know why,’ Cedric thought dryly as he walked behind Nissel. As he was about to pass through the first curtain, he heard voices in the hallway, and he paused when he realized he recognized them.
“She’s doing very well today,” Healer Barnes said in a calm, professional tone. “I looked in on her this morning.”
“You’ve been so good to her.” Cedric froze and forgot to follow Nissel. ‘Dad? What’s he doing here?’
Cedric turned around when he heard his father’s voice. He went to look out from behind the curtain, but stopped himself. He cringed at the memory of what happened last time he saw his father. ‘I hope Nissel doesn’t realize I’m gone . . .’ Cedric thought as he paused and slipped out into the hallway after he heard the footsteps begin to fade. Healer Barnes escorted his father down to one of the other Wards, but neither of them turned around to see him.
Cedric looked around the hallway that, at one time, probably had gleaming white tiles and clean, freshly painted walls. Bathed in the harsh, yellow light that reminded Cedric of Muggle electric bulbs, it was easy to see the dirty hand prints on the paint and the scuff marks across the tiles. ‘I feel a bit exposed.’ However, Cedric began to walk down the hallway that smelled strongly of pungent potions.
He paused and stared up at the golden letters about the double doors the Healer had taken his father through. ‘The Sanguine-Levette Ward. What patients stay on that Ward? Who is dad going to see?’ Cedric wondered as he opened the door and slipped quietly onto the ward. Because it was still fairly early, the Ward was empty. Cedric looked down the hallway, which was a line of white doors on each side that were unmarked except for a single golden number etched onto the middle of each one.
‘Where did they go? How am I supposed to find them before Nissel or Venturini find me?’ Cedric heard one of the doors creak, and he yanked open the nearest door and ducked into the room. After shutting the door, he looked around and realized the only other person in the room was a sleeping man with his forehead and half of his face wrapped in bandages.
‘Close. I just want to know who he’s visiting. I don’t remember dad having anyone to visit in the hospital. I just . . . just need to do it without them seeing me, that’s all. Nothing impossible, considering that I could just walk in on someone, and if “ ’
“Jack, mate, did you bring me a beer?”
Cedric spun around, mid-thought, when the man from the bed called out in a raspy, but fairly loud, voice. “Uh . . . uh, no. I didn’t.”
A tall oil lamp cast the only light in the room, and the shadows played across the bandages and navy bedspread. ‘Maybe he can’t see me. That light is awfully dim,’ Cedric thought as he stood awkwardly on the opposite side of the room. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his house coat and rocked back on his heels, unsure of what to say. The man craned his neck forward a little before he said, “Uh . . . you are Jack, right?”
Cedric shook his head. “No. No I’m not. I’m sorry for waking you.”
“Do I know you?”
‘I actually hope you don’t because everyone who ‘knows’ me seems well aware that I’m a criminal.’ Cedric bit his lower lip, but regretted it when he tasted blood. He quickly wiped it away with the sleeve of his grey robe. “Sorry . . . I don’t believe we’ve met. I just, uh, needed to duck into a room.”
The man in the bed wheezed, and at first, Cedric looked around for a glass of water. However, the man’s voice gained a bit of strength, and the wheezing turned into a chuckle. “Sure, I get that,” the man replied as he raised his head to look at his visitor with his one un-bandaged eye. He squinted and strained to see Cedric, who shuffled closer so he fell within the boundary of light from the bed lamp.
“You’re, uh, a patient, too?” the man asked, and Cedric nodded as he approached the nightstand. “You from this floor?”
“I am, I ““
Cedric’s response died in his throat when he caught sight of the man’s face. The motley, stretched skin that covered the man’s cheek spoke of a severe burn that had been healed too late to reverse the cosmetic damage. ‘I wonder what the part of his face that is bandaged looks like,’ Cedric wondered as he found himself transfixed on a burn more severe than he had ever seen a wizard have.
“I can see, you know,” the man replied, and Cedric blinked rapidly and adverted his gaze.
“I’m sorry. Why haven’t they fixed . . . ” Cedric stopped himself from saying ‘your face.’ “I mean, there is magic to fix burns that severe.”
“Hmm, not really. They used Fyrefiend to burn the stadium. Have you been living under a rock, mate?” the man asked.
“I . . . I’ve been here for a while. I . . . I’m here for a memory charm,” Cedric spit out the lie. However, the man bought it with a quick nod.
“That explains a little. I don’t remember much of it myself, and a shame, too, because after Midgen let in six hundred points, I was finally the starting Keeper . . . I suppose you remember Quidditch? That would be a bloody hell of a memory charm if you didn’t.”
“A little,” Cedric said, and the man nodded.
The man stopped to breathe, because as he spoke, his voice got raspier and weaker. Cedric stared down at the nightstand and the stack of cards sitting upon it. ‘I wonder if he has a wand,’ Cedric thought as he felt around the stack of papers and various boxes of unopened candies.
“Help yourself,” the man said, and Cedric withdrew his hands and shoved them back in his robe.
“I was just looking for your wand. They . . . it would be nice to have one again,” he told the man, who nodded in approval.
“I don’t need one now, though, so I guess it’s not here, but Barnes says I’m starting to heal up now that I’m awake. They told me I was out for four months! I remember falling, heading straight for a goal post, and that was it until I woke up here.” He paused to catch his breath. “I suppose you don’t remember losing your memory? It probably just happened, real quickly, and you just didn’t know what hit you. That’s the way it was with me.”
“Yeah, that’s the way it is,” Cedric said, but he wasn’t thinking about losing his memory. Instead, he remembered the brief minutes he had spent in the graveyard with Harry. ‘He’s right, it is quick,’ Cedric thought as he looked down at the man, who still managed to crane his neck forward to look up at Cedric.
“Very quick.”
“You, uh, you said “ ”
The turning of the doorknob caused Cedric to scramble up and over the bed. He tried to avoid moving the man, but he heard him grunt as Cedric hit his legs. Diving down and huddling close to the bed, Cedric hoped enough shadow covered him to avoid being spotted. ‘He’ll probably turn me in anyway. All I’ve done is rummage through his room.’
“Oliver, has a man been in here today?” Healer Barnes asked.
There was a pause. “No, Barnes, I’ve been alone.”
“He’s very dangerous, so after we’ve checked the Ward, we’re going to lock it down. Have a nice day, and I’ll send Violet in with your lunch.”
“Thanks,” the man said as Barnes shut the door.
Cedric remained crouched beside the bed. “Criminal, huh?” the man asked after a moment of silence, and Cedric forced himself to stand up and stare down at the man’s face. ‘I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I just thought . . . I’ve been spot on with recognizing people I knew.’ This time, Cedric walked around the bed to stand by the nightstand.
“What did you do?”
Cedric picked up a card on the nightstand and opened it. “I don’t know,” he replied as he read the message that began ‘Dear Oliver.’ “I’m not sure what they think I did.”
“Not your fault you had a memory charm put on you.” Cedric put down the card and riffled through the pile until he found a letter that still was in the original envelop. He ran his fingers across the scrolling words that said ‘Oliver Wood, Sanguine-Levette Ward, Saint Mungo’s.’
“I told you to help yourself to the sweets. Barnes will probably just pitch most of them sooner or later.” Cedric nodded deftly as he continued to finger the envelop. ‘What do I say? The truth sounds like rubbish, and I can’t say anything that wouldn’t be considered crazy. Everything I could say seems very . . . very lame.’
Cedric put down the letter. “Your name is Oliver Wood?”
“That would be it. I kind of assumed you might not know your name,” Oliver said, and Cedric nodded slowly. ‘That’s close enough to the truth.’
“So, you don’t know what you did, huh? They haven’t told you?” Oliver asked as he leaned his head back down against the pillow that had a well worn spot in the middle.
“No, they haven’t told me much. I don’t even get to read the paper.” Cedric looked around for a good place to sit, but found no chair in the room, so he continued to stand by the nightstand and forced himself to look at Wood’s burned face.
“Barnes threw out a bunch of old Prophets yesterday. Sorry I can’t help you out there.”
“What year is it?” Cedric asked.
“You have been here a while. Are you sure you haven’t been out for a bit?” Oliver asked. Cedric waited until Wood caught his breathe again. After a moment, Oliver continued to talk. “It’s October 1998. I got knocked out on April 7, 1998. I woke up this past February and realized I’d almost lost a year!”
“I-I . . . I’ve lost more than that,” Cedric stammered. ‘That’s . . . over three years? A little bit more actually. It’s only four years, but it feels like centuries ago.’ He looked back down at Oliver. “Thanks. No one has wanted to tell me anything. Also . . . why didn’t you tell Barnes I was in your room?”
Cedric couldn’t detect any signs of movement from Oliver, but he thought he might have shrugged if he could have managed the motion. “This is the most excitement I’ve had in months. Apparently, I’ve got more than a couple bones that need re-growing, so I have to lie in this bloody bed all day. If you’re a crazy killer, you could kill me, but hell, why bother?”
The seething anger in the last question sent a shiver down Cedric’s spine. He ran his hands through his hair and down across his face because the words stayed choked up in his head. He stared down at Wood, who kept his one good eye trained on Cedric, who stood there, barely containing the slimy feeling that crept through his body and settled in his stomach. Now, Cedric found it difficult to breathe, but it had nothing to do with weakened lungs.
“I’m sorry,” Cedric muttered. ‘That’s so pathetic, but what else do I tell him? I know how you feel because I’m in someone else’s body? There’s . . . there’s just nothing I can say. There’s nothing I can do that’s going to get him walking around again.’
“Yeah, aren’t we all,” Wood muttered. “I suppose they keep you locked up all day, right? They don’t seem happy you’re roaming around.”
“They’re not.” Cedric’s thoughts focused on Venturini. “I should probably leave soon so they don’t count you as some kind of accomplice.”
Wood chuckled. “Once again, what more can they do to me?”
“No, it’s just better if I go,” Cedric said. “I was . . . I was just trying to find someone else in this wing. I didn’t see which room Barnes went into, though.”
“I suppose you don’t know who you wanted to see?”
Cedric shook his head. “I have no idea who it is. That’s why I wanted to know,” Cedric said as he turned and looked at the door. ‘Giving myself up to them is a disgusting thought, but if Venturini finds me with Wood, he’ll never leave him alone. The less people Ventruini can interrogate on my behalf, the better.’
Cedric walked over to the door and put his ear against it, but he couldn’t hear anything in the hallway. Squeezing the door handle, he looked out into the empty Ward. ‘Well, they must have locked it off already.’
As he stepped into the hallway, Cedric turned around, but he could think of nothing else to say besides, “Good bye.”
Cedric walked back up to the double doors, which didn’t move when he pushed them. He knocked on the doors, but heard no answer from the other side, so he pounded on them with his fist. This time, he heard feet shuffling on the other side of the doors before someone said, “Alohamora.”
The doors swung open, revealing an agitated Healer Barnes, who, upon seeing Cedric, let her face scrunch up as a frown pulled her lips down. Before he could say anything, Barnes pulled her wand out and levelled it at him. “Get out of my ward,” she hissed and beckoned him forward. Cedric held up his palms, but the gesture of surrender seemed lost on the Healer.
As she marched him back down to the Gregel Ward, Healer Nissel saw them and sprinted down the hall. Nissel, flushed and sweaty, wiped the sleeve of his robe across his face as he, too, half-heartedly drew his wand.
“I-I can take it from here,” Nissel panted.
Barnes shook her head. “I’m going to walk him back with you.”
“But “ ”
“Emery, this is no time to argue with me,” Barnes snapped as she prodded Cedric’s back with her wand. The three of them made their way down t o the Gregel Ward, and as Cedric turned to enter the first curtain that would lead him to his room, he heard a familiar voice.
“Well, the prodigal son has come home.”
Cedric turned his head to look at Venturini, who, although not anxious and sweaty like Nissel, somehow seemed all the more terrifying because he was perfectly calm. A frown pulled his mouth downwards, but it managed to make him only look more like a magazine cover model. “I found him on the Sanguine-Levette Ward,” Barnes said as Venturini approached the group, wand drawn and ready.
Cedric turned to face the handsome Healer directly. However, Venturini seemed to only look through him. Nissel put his wand in his pocket and rubbed his sweaty palms on his robe. “Sir, I “ ”
“What, Nissel? You found the patient? No, you did not. You attended the patient with utmost care? No, you did not. You let the patient escape for the entire morning? That, you most certainly did!” Venturini’s voice crescendoed as he finished his admonishment.
Nissel ducked his head downwards and stared at the floor tiles. Venturini, however, didn’t seem to care, and in a steely voice, told his apprentice, “I don’t feel I ask too much of you, Nissel, but you can’t follow those simple orders. We don’t even have a full ward, and the one patient we have that is a top priority, you let escape.”
“I-I was trying. I mean, I thought he was with me “ ”
“Until he wasn’t!” Venturini shouted as he threw his hands up in the air. “What do I have to do to get you to do your job? You’re careless! I am not Healer Strout, who lets her patients roam wherever they please! Until you can do your job, get out of here. I don’t want to see you again.”
Each word in the last sentence pounded the air like nails driven into a coffin. Cedric realized his mouth had dropped open, and he promptly closed it. Nissel’s jaw had also fallen open, and he stared dumbly at Venturini, waiting to see if the last pronouncement had been in jest. However, Venturini prodded Cedric in the back with his wand. “Let’s go,” he snapped, and Cedric began to walk.
“Adam “ ”
“If you want him, you take him,” Venturini cut Barnes off as he disappeared with Cedric behind the first curtain. The pair walked through two empty rooms before they reached Cedric’s bed chamber. Once there, Cedric noticed another Healer standing inside the bubble, but when he climbed into his bed, the other Healer scampered away and drew the curtain.
While Cedric sat in his bed, Ventruini went over and rested his head against the window. “It wasn’t his fault I escaped,” Cedric offered a defence for Healer Nissel.
Venturini didn’t move when he said, “It takes two for this kind of thing to happen. If you thought I was harsh with Nissel, you, my nameless patient, have no idea how I feel about you.”
‘Oh, fantastic,’ Cedric thought as he swallowed the lump in his throat. Ventruini turned away from the window and went to stand at the foot of Cedric’s bed. For a moment, the Healer contented himself with studying Cedric. Then, he asked, “Where did you go?”
“I went for a walk,” Cedric muttered.
Venturini slammed his hands down on the edge of Cedric’s bed and leaned towards him. In his eyes was the look of a hawk ready to dive down on its prey. “We searched every bloody space on this floor, and you were nowhere to be found, and then, you magically appear in the Sanguine-Levette Ward? No, I don’t think so! Who did you see? Who covered for you?”
“I saw no one,” Cedric spat. Venturini, however, leaned closer.
“You will tell me who you saw. You will tell me why, on today of all days, you found a good enough excuse to take a walk.”
Cedric unflinchingly met Ventuini’s predatory stare. “It’s none of your concern,” Cedric said in a soft, subdued voice. Venturini reeled backwards and stood up. He paced back towards the window, and then walked around the room, looking like a man who might explode.
He whirled back around to stand at the foot of Cedric’s bed. “I am not playing with you anymore,” Venturini snapped. “If you won’t tell me anything . . . Fine! Go to bloody Azkaban! I’m all you have between this bed and a life sentence!”
Cedric pursed his lips together. When Venturini saw he had nothing to say, he walked to the curtains. Before he shut the curtains, he paused and turned on his heels to face Cedric. “I will get answers,” Venturini pronounced. “I’m going to let the Aurors have their way with you. Then we’ll see how you cooperate.”