I'm not sick but I'm not well.

Tick... tick.... tick.... She listened to the hands on the clock tick away, they felt so loud every noise in the empty room amplified. Battys huge owl like eyes watched, unflinching at the woman across from her, the only time her eyes shifted was after it each new minute changed. It felt like so much time had passed. Was he not coming? Had she not realized it was the end between them. And that she had essentially given Noel his dream of vengeance, by notifying him that she was dying in a hospital at the hands of psychopath.

he's not coming... hes not coming. why would he. I ruined his life, why in the world would he want to save me again? And then--- he came. Admittedly batty teared a bit catching his smoldering glare, it felt so warm and familiar. He was here to rescur her.. at last!

Until Poppy caught on.

"b-Boyfriend?!" she gaped and would have flailed her arms up dramatically had she not been restrained. "Does he even LOOK like my boyfriend" she choked. "I don't even know him. My boyfriends back in class I told him not to bother coming because you're such a great nurse _{that ties me against my will and doesn't let me pee}." she mumbled the last bit under her breath but nonetheless tried to act offended. Because Noel had a plan and this probably wasn't it. and if he didn't have a plan and just came here to yell at her like he usually did she didn't want him thinking she was that kind of psycho chick who spread rumors about being his girlfriend when she couldn't even be sure if they were still friends. 

"My girlfriend," Noel repeated with difficulty as the Head Nurse explained the situation, understanding all too well the shortness of her tone. Batty had that effect on people. In fact, for a long time, he had regarded her in much the same way, going as far as being altogether malicious towards the Hufflepuff girl he carried a tumultuous relationship with. He offered Batty a seething glance before stopping abruptly. "Batty... babe..." Insert internal cringe.  "Hush, I think you're confused. Frightened. I mean, no one likes being bound against their will," he jabbed pointedly and turned to the nurse. Hopefully she hadn't picked up on the resentment in his tone, though Noel wasn't the best actor. He was, however, your standard well-mannered (or at least selectively well-mannered) pureblood boy that could flex his entitlement and see how far he could push the Nurse. 

"I'm afraid I can't stay very late. It's just not the best time for me Ms. Paxton... but I don't want to leave my... dearest Bathilda here if she's frightened," he explained calmly, wishing Batty had instead opted to write Judge or literally anyone other than him. Judge was at least affectionate for fucks sake. "Couldn't you just... you know, give her a little shock spell and send her on her way? I promise she is entirely harmless," he pleaded, summoning the best glassy-eyed delivery he could possibly muster. Harmless in the sense that she almost had him killed, but who was holding onto grudges? Not Noel. Nope. He was here after all, wasn't he? 

Poppy shook her head as Batty rattled on as she had expected the girl to do. She eyed the boy, not jumping into the exchange between the two, opting to just assessed the situation. It was hard for her not to laugh at the obvious charade between the two young students. There was Miss Riggs going back on her written words and Mr Backett trying to salvage the situation. She took no mind at his obvious jab or the girl Riggs’ mumbled words, even when she could hear it loud and clear. What pair the two teens make, one’s off her rocker and the other was the type Poppy had probably met a little too often throughout her life. Well, at least he seemed loyal to his mad friend.

“Mr Beckett,” she said, ignoring the girl Riggs. She was at her limit of bullshit tolerance for the day and even when she knew she couldn’t blame the girl for her wandering mind, Poppy couldn’t help feeling resentful. “I understand you are terribly concerned for the love of your life her. But, if I were to let her leave for the evening, what guarantee would you give me that she wouldn’t harass her housemates?” Poppy’s eyebrow arched, pretty much asking for some sort of assurance that there wouldn’t be any kind of incident if she was to concede to the young students.

She had very little faith, really, that if she allowed the girl to leave she wouldn’t be woken up in the middle of the night for some sort of a chaos caused by the girl. It wasn’t that Poppy was the judgemental sort, but the girl Riggs certainly had warning signs glaring over her head, in bright neon, reminding her the worse of what could happen. Seriously, she can only take so much of being woken up at odd hours to mend students due to their crazy antiques. She certainly does not need to be woken up to fix up a bunch of students because one of them lost her mind when she could have prevented it.

“And as for the restraints, Mr Beckett,” said Poppy with a tight smile. “It was more for her own safety than anyone else. I was informed the professor she was causing a scene in class, leading to some students feeling distress.” That bit was true, before the girl arrived, an owl was sent in advance to warn her. She could’ve only imagined the madness that took place during lesson for a professor to be so uncharacteristically annoyed in her words. “If you feel like you want to keep an eye on your girlfriend, you’re welcome to stay, Mr Beckett. Plenty of beds you can take.”

"J-just a shock?" w-what? Her large horrified eyes turned to face Noel what in gods name he was thinking if he thought something like that would remedy the already increasingly worse situation. But what she saw in his face was worse than she could imagine, almost worse than the Nurse's ravenous eyes. It almost looked like he was grinning. As if he knew very well that he was harming the situation more than helping. No..... he wouldn. He.. was so not over it. And now here he was in the perfect position to enact his vengeance. no...

no.......

nooooooooooooooooooooo

.................

*INSERT PANIC ATTACK*

"Just A---A SHOCK? T-THATS INSANE. n-no.. Y-YOURE INSANE. Y-YOU'RE ALL INSANE. GET ME OUT OF HERE.... please OH GOD PLEASEEEEE" she shouted loudly, maybe a bit too loudly, her body wriggled to break free, head lobbing around in any and all directions anything that could move, moved. From her finger tips, down to her toes. Whatever had been holding her together over the last few minutes was broken, smashed in a million pieces at the suggestion of shocks. SHOCKS. Oh god. What did a little shock mean anyway.

After several minutes of virtually ineffective struggle, she finally stopped, her head hung limply in defeat, her hair a scattered mess, sweat dribbled down her forehead and she sat there panting.. heaving, thinking.. thinking. oh. There was an idea.

"I..... think I need to write another letter" .... "to my erm. other boyfriend. Victor" she winced. If only he'd known she'd used his name "sorry Noel. Its not you its me"

He could understand the Nurses concerns and happened to agree with her. They were warranted. His current condition was, after all, a direct result of her unhinged behavior. For someone who seemed so concerned with the safety of others, Batty sure did a poor job at controlling herself. The morning Batty and Judge had ambushed Noel after a particularly brutal transformation was still a fresh wound in his mind, and this entire situation acted as a bitter reminder as to why he'd been ignoring the fiery haired Hufflepuff all this time. He had opted to cut her out of his life even when he had no one else, and for good reason. Forgiveness did not find its way into his heart easily, and Batty certainly wasn't helping. 

But he had a weakness, and that weakness was helping those in need. Even if the need was imagined, Noel's heart still bled for her all the same. And Batty... still called for him, even if her reasoning was absolutely asinine. He would never learn. He was a fucking idiot. 

Teeth clenched as Batty entered panic mode, the skin tightening and pearling over his jawline. The irritation, although not plain on his face, certainly existed as he tried to keep it all together. His fists balled. His shoulders rose up towards his earlobes. He could kill her. Literally. What an ungrateful little... 

He heard the name Victor and reached for his wand.

"Langlock."

Well, clearly he had heard enough. He offered no apologies to Nurse Paxton, as Noel was certain he was doing them both a favor. His wand was slid back into the deep pockets of his robes and he let out an elongated sigh. 

"I actually agree with you, Ms. Paxton," Noel admitted with a contrite disposition. He turned his back to Batty altogether and now faced the Nurse head on, voice lowered so it traveled less through the wing and out of earshot of the panicked girl. "and I know better than anyone else what sort of damage she can do. But I also know that keeping someone locked up against their will when they're frightened does much more harm than good... and I can't leave her like this. Alone and afraid." 

Noel scratched his chin and took a moment to glance backwards, gauging the amount of light that filtered in through the windows and cast harsh dark shadows across the Hospital Wing floor. 

"I won't leave her here, by herself... but I promise if I stay here you will have much bigger problems than a scared little girl," his voice dredged with a pleading undertone. 

From the way the girl Riggs was acting, Poppy was glad she had opted for restrain earlier. It would’ve been tremendously troublesome if she had left the girl to her own devices. The school could’ve possibly been set on fire judging from how the girl was reacting. No, that wouldn’t be the worst. Fires can be put out, but the girl could have done serious damage to herself and her classmates. She shook her head, pitying the girl unsure if it was what deserved. The boy himself didn’t look all too pleased with his friend and her antiques leaving Poppy to wonder what had transpired between the two. Young people and their dramas, just a few years ago, she was one of them, actually treating like everything was the end of the world. Little did she knew that the real world was a lot harsher.

She arched an eyebrow when the young man in question cast a charm which was all too familiar. For a split second, Poppy wanted to chuckle in amusement, but the shackle of professionalism kept her from doing so. She kept her expression schooled to indifference as the boy spoke and the girl Riggs tied down by both the physical and magical restrains. It would’ve been comical if it wasn’t highly disturbing.

“Mr Backett,” Poppy said, sighing deeply. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea to discharge Miss Riggs for the night.” She was still wary at the thought of letting someone so unhinged back into general population, it could spell serious disaster and it wasn’t just being woken up at the wee hours that was troubling her. “Judging from her behaviour, I’m mostly concerned that she would ended up setting something on fire and injure herself further. Is there any chance that there could be someone other than you that could accompany her for the night?” She tried, though she didn’t want to be responsible for a head case. At the very least, she hoped the girl had more than one friend that could calm her down.

Batty sat there, unable to speak let alone move, her eyes watched fearfully as Noel stepped up to the Nurse and spoke so inaudibly she could only get the gist of it, which was completely and totally incorrect... not that Batty would know.

"I actually agree with you, Ms. Paxton, and I know better than anyone else------------ keeping someone locked up against their will---------- does much more ------ good... ----------- leave her like this. Alone and afraid."

Her eyes widened, heart sunk. wh..what???

She turned to the nurse

“Mr Backett I ----- think it’s a good idea ------- setting something on fire and injure her---- Is there any chance that there could be someone other than----- her”

Yes. yes.. someone else. Anyone else. She could think of five million other girls who maybe wanted to get lit on fired and injured. If only she could speak...

"mmrrrrrrrrrrLAAAAAAHFJK" she groaned loudly and made whatever noise she could possibly summon. MIDGE, LAURIE, EDWARDS


(LOL. THE BEST I CAN DO. Now I can totally sympathize with u critter when you were bound and unable to speak XDDD)