章 33: Aftermath

I regain consciousness, albeit barely, with my ears ringing and my world spinning. I look around but can't see anything specific. My vision is hazy and the sounds I hear are muffled and masked by the piercing ringing that I can feel in my soul.

I close my eyes and attempt to remember what happened, but my memories are hazy. I can tell my current situation isn't that great, and I'm feeling pain in places I didn't know I had nerves to feel pain, to begin with.

Slowly moving, I try to gain some understanding of my surroundings by moving my head around. I am held down by a hand that seems to be shaking a bit, and the muffled shouts grew slightly louder.

I stop trying to move around and instead focus on recovering my distorted hearing, so I can at least understand what is happening. While I am doing this, I start to remember what I was doing before I ended up in such a state.

'I was experimenting with the runes against Nargles, before the rock I used went supernova and detonated,'

This shouldn't have been the case, as the absorption rune I used was only enough to power the shield and didn't build up a buffer, to avoid exactly this scenario. I frown and start to think deeper about what happened. The runes themselves should have been stable, so just by eliminating that I can assume the rock was the problem.

Using a common rock found around the Forbidden Forest seems like a bad idea in hindsight, but even a rock around Hogwarts should have some degree of magical properties to it. I guess there are some more rules and principles of Runes than I thought.

I didn't have too long to think to myself, as my nose was suddenly pinched, interrupting my breathing. I wait for them to un-pinch my nose, as I can still barely move my hands to flick their hands away. The hand eventually gave up and left my nose and me very confused. Just as I was breathing normally again, a smaller set of hands landed on my mouth and attempted to open them.

I understood what they wanted and co-operated by opening my mouth. As I do that, a glass bottle is shoved in my mouth, and I drink a vile mix of goop. I want to throw it up, or at least suggest the maker artificially change its taste.

The effects were immediate though, and my ears and eyes slowly recovered to a somewhat acceptable state. Opening my eyes, flakes of dead skin threatened to become hell in my eyelids. I attempt to move my arms to clear this danger, but they are still unresponsive. I close my eyes and start shaking my head to get rid of the skin flakes. I open my eyes again and see most of the flakes have fallen off, with the remaining ones still hanging onto my still very much alive skin.

During this period of head shaking, my ears slowly recovered, and I began to hear the conversations around me.

"And how exactly did this happen?" I heard a very angry, female voice shout.

"We don't know Professor, it wasn't us," The receiving end of the angry professor spoke up.

Judging from the voices, it's probably Professor McGonagall yelling at the Weasley twins.

"You mean to tell me that a year one student *suddenly* exploded, and it had nothing to do with you two?"

"…Yes Professor,"

'Ahhh, how messy. I'd rather stay unconscious than deal with this. That's actually a good idea,' I thought to myself

"You can't pretend to be asleep…" I heard a voice whisper to me.

"How do you keep knowing what I'm thinking?" I asked Luna in a low croaky voice.

I didn't get a response back, but Professor McGonagall seems to have realized I'm awake and has walked to be just at my feet. It should be noted that I feel like I'm in a crater, with both my head and legs conforming to the curve.

"Student Zanithy, just how did this happen?" Professor McGonagall asked.

'Im not even sure myself, how would I know,'

"He is in no condition to speak, I've only just given him the most powerful healing potion I currently have," A new voice said. "I am going to take him to the hospital ward now, I'll call you when he can answer questions,"

I resisted the urge to speak because I don't want to deal with this, however, Id feel guilty leaving the twins to deal with McGonagall. With all my current strength, I open my mouth.

"Not, their, fault," I said deliberately slow, to prevent any further questions.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Professor McGonagall didn't have a chance to ask questions, as the new voice chanted a spell at me, or more specifically at my clothes. With my clothes lifting me, my head was supported by presumably Luna, and I was floated into the hospital bay.

We eventually reached the Hogwarts Hospital, where I am placed on a bed that is a mix between concrete and feathers, and become the target of a few scanning spells, since I can feel the magic spread over my body and report back to its caster. I am given a few more potions before I slowly start to lose consciousness and enter a deep sleep.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed before I woke up, but opening my eyes proved to me it was nighttime. The moon was hanging in the sky, bright yet somewhat dark at the same time. I stared at the moon, admiring it for what felt like an eternity before I had an idea.

'What if I went to the moon?'

Such an idea helped me ignore the dull pain that seemed to be coming from my soul. I began to consider how feasible it was to go to the moon, considering that humankind has already been to the moon, using technology. Firstly, you would need a rune or some type of magical artifact to isolate the effects of space and the absence of an atmosphere to prevent you from suffocating or dying from asphyxiation.

Letting my thoughts run wild, I remained to stare at the moon, and it felt like the moon stared back. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath before sinking back into a semi-awake state. I take stock of my current condition, which is much better than I expected it to be.

My pink uniform is in shreds, and my feet are charred. I'm sure if I was wearing shoes they would be gone, which is convenient depending on how you look at it. My actual limbs are all connected - which is a relief, but they seem to be somewhat more pink than usual. Did my uniform blend in with my limbs? I don't know.

Looking at where the pinkness of my limbs abruptly ends, I wonder if I will get any scars from this. I haven't seen anyone with a scar in my magical journey so far, so maybe it can be healed with magic. The urge to pick where it ends is overwhelming, but I know it would probably cause more problems.

My wand is also nowhere to be seen, and it seems to have been flung off into the distance from the blast. Since my wand is an extension of me, I'll be able to find it easily. I just got to get out of the hospital. It was at this moment that I felt like I was being watched.

I surveyed the room and found hiding behind some curtains were the three stooges, Hermione, Harry and Ron. Staring right at their feet that are exposed at the bottom of the curtain, I speak up.

"I can see you, you know," I projected my voice to where they were hiding.

Seeing that they were exposed, they slowly came into view and pulled off a cloak that had been draped over them - yet provided no means of obfuscation, something that was worthy of study.

"How did you see us?" Harry said, with a tinge of exhaustion in his voice.

"You weren't hidden," I replied. Frankly, I have no idea why I can see them, but I'm not going to tell them that.

This earned a sign from Hermione, for whatever reason, and Ron just stared at me in disbelief.

"What happened today?" Harry asked.

'Why does he care?' I thought to myself.

"An experiment that went nuclear," I said in vague terms. I don't know if experimenting with magical runes is prohibited, and I couldn't find anything about it, but I want to maintain plausible deniability. Better safe than sorry.

"Do you know the scene that it caused? All classes were suspended because it was thought that a rouge wizard had attacked a first year!" Hermione said, practically shouting the last part.

I smiled, thinking about the chaos that was caused unintentionally.

"I didn't really think about that, to be honest," I said.

'It's just an experiment,' I added internally. If I spoke that out, I'm sure Hermione would pop a brain vessel.

It wasn't long before they ran out of questions and left me alone. For the most part, I just stuck to my story of 'just an experiment that went wrong', because I didn't want to worry them to care too much. The only thing I'm worried about is how Luna reacted to this whole thing. From what I remember she seemed to be shaking while holding my head down.

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Author Corner:

Hello.

Here's your chapter. :D

It's somewhat slow but it deals with the aftermath of the explosion, there's some more I wanted to write but I ran out of time for today, yes I'm limiting myself to time since Mondays will suck ass and I don't want to do a Monday on 3 hours sleep.

I started a job recently so it's weekend releases now. The good news about me getting a job is that I no longer have to worry about my incredibly unstable situation and - in theory - can survive by myself, which is great, probably.