Her very first thought, upon awakening, is that she’s in an unfamiliar bed.
She opens her eyes, instantly notes the bright yellow color of her unruly hair, and finds herself suddenly thankful that she’d never shapeshifted it into a better-behaved state. Had she done so, she wouldn’t have known nearly so quickly that her disguise had held through her unconsciousness. Though…
She sucks in a deep breath. She’s completely full- but she feels some kind of barrier, keeping her from absorbing more. Exactly what she’s been trying to make for herself, but-
“You’re awake.”
She lets out a very high-pitched scream, practically flying out of bed and away from the voice. She doesn’t actually fly, though, so she promptly crashes to the floor next to the bed.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” The girl that had spoken, invisible behind the bed, sighs. “Whatever.”
She lies quietly, eyes wide, where she fell. She makes a quick glance down at herself; yes, she’s still wearing her robes, and still looks exactly like Morning Sun. Nothing suspicious.
“Ahh… Morning?” the girl continues. “You still awake, or did you knock yourself out again?”
“Um-!” she begins, scrambling to free herself from the blankets. Morning Sun doesn’t get trapped, ever.
“Okay.” The girl sounds relieved. “You okay over there?”
“Yeah!” she yelps. “Yeah, I’m fine, just…” With a little wave of magic, she shoves the blankets off of her, before she scrambles into a sitting position to look at the girl. “I’m-!” She freezes.
Of course, it’s another important person. Ginny Weasley, the Equestrian liaison, according to the newspaper she’d read last week.
Ginny blinks. “Uh… You okay?” For some reason, she’s holding a closed, unlabeled book in one hand, and her wand in the other.
She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and lets it out, before opening her eyes again. She can handle this. “I’m… I’m okay,” she mumbles, averting her eyes.
Her gaze then falls on a clock on the wall.
It’s just before noon- about two hours earlier than it had been when she’d ‘discovered’ Justin and Nick.
She decides to hazard it, and looks at Ginny. “What… What happened?” She almost blinks, and does stiffen, when she realizes that Ginny is one of the ones with crazy love output, but she isn’t feeling it. Not in any overwhelming way, at any rate- and it’s not blinding her empathy sense, either.
“Well,” Ginny mutters uncertainly, pocketing her wand and moving the book to her lap. “How much do you remember?”
She winces, flinching away from the girl. What can she tell? What can’t she tell? What will-
“Nevermind,” Ginny states suddenly, shaking her head. “Pretend I never asked that. Um, you remember finding Justin and Nicholas, right?”
She forces herself to nod. Her head moves very jerkily, but that’s about the most she can do right now.
Ginny shrugs. “Well, once everyone else started arriving on the scene and investigating…” She flinches. “I was… out of action, at the time, but Harry tells me you hyperventilated and passed out. Then wouldn’t wake back up again, so he took you here, to the Hospital Wing- where nobody’s been able to get you to wake up.”
“H-How… How long?” she stutters, inwardly terrified.
Ginny scowls, and rubs her chin. “That was about… Two weeks ago, I think.”
She gasps. Two weeks? That’d be way long enough for her to die from love overload at this place! Yet, if she’s alive now- especially with that odd block that feels like it’s not there- her secret is almost certainly out, even if she somehow maintained her disguise throughout.
Ginny’s not done talking, though. “Madam Pomfrey apparently had a lot of trouble, the first few days, with getting your magic to behave- kept going overboard, I hear. Like, dangerous buildups inside your body type thing… It got to the point where she regularly drained it out, dumping it into the atmosphere- but as near as anyone could tell, there was no reason for you to be out cold.” She shrugs. “So she had Doctor Horse come help. He apparently found a couple more oddities in your magic, but nothing that should have kept you asleep.
“After that, they came to us.” She grins. “You know, even Lyra couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Silver tried, but even with her talent, she couldn’t do it. After that… Well, I technically wasn’t supposed to come, but Madam Pomfrey let me in. And Ariel… Well, apparently even Lyra can’t see magic nearly as well as Ariel can.” She shudders. “She tells me your magic looked to be so badly damaged she was surprised you were even still alive at all, let alone coherent, before you passed out earlier. And even now…”
“D-Damaged?” she asks.
Ginny nods. “Yeah. She’s… not exactly an expert, but she’s had a chance to see quite a few magic matrices of various sorts… and yours looked like somebody had taken one of those to the chopping block with a blunt knife many, many times.” She shudders. “One of those damages took your magic resistance right down to zero, though, so I thought I could do some repairs with the Whiskey Tango. Got permission, took it up here, used it… and you woke up, like, two seconds later.” She looks up. “Do you know what happened to get your magic… like that?” She gestures at the bed.
She doesn’t move. Two emotions are battling with each other in her head. One, relief- it would seem that she hasn’t actually been ousted as a changeling. The other, fear. She’s most definitely been noticed to be unique. Even Lyra, in whose backyard the Gate is located, had looked at her!
Oh, and worry. What exactly is this ‘whiskey tango’- sounds like some kind of alcohol dance- and what exactly did it do to her?
She shakes her head weakly. At this point, she has no idea what to do. Her Queen would be sorely disappointed that she put herself in this situation… Though, if ever she does get back to the Hive, her Queen would no doubt love to hear not only about Hogwarts… but also about just how dangerous it seems to be to hyperventilate here.
If only she could get back to her Queen at all. At this rate, she rather doubts she’ll ever see her Queen again- or, even, summer.
“Ahh…” Ginny sighs. “Well, since you’re up, Madam Pomfrey will probably want to look you over at least once more- and I need to go put the Whiskey Tango away anyways. It’s a bit too dangerous to carry around unnecessarily.” As she speaks, she puts the book into her bookbag and rises to her feet. She then gives her a small nod, and turns to leave the room.
She lets out a relieved sigh. The scrutiny of the liaison has ended.
Then she blinks, and looks to her left.
There’s Madam Pomfrey, waiting patiently, though with a confusing expression.
“Uhh…” She begins. The school matron isn’t on her list of people to avoid like her life depends on it, but she also doesn’t want to interact with her any more than she has to.
After all, the main reason she isn’t on that avoid list is because she’ll only ever meet if she does something that would take her up here. And if she does, it’s unavoidable.
“Hi?” she finishes.
Madam Pomfrey sighs. “Any funny feelings? Everything in its proper place?”
“Er…” She blinks. Why is she asking that? Maybe it has something to do with how Madam Pomfrey is holding her wand rather casually by her side. Had she already done all the scans she wanted to? “Yes?” she guesses. “I mean… I feel fine?”
She raises an eyebrow. “You seem a lot calmer, since Weasley left,” she observes.
She winces. “Ahh…” She rubs the side of her head, racking her brain for a plausible explanation. “I… I do that?”
Madam Pomfrey’s scowl tells her instantly that wouldn’t do.
“Er…” She looks away.
“Whatever,” Madam Pomfrey scowls. “You’re physically fine, so if you’re feeling fine as well, you can go. Just don’t hyperventilate on us again, alright dear? That Whiskey Tango only works once.”
She blinks, hardly believing her luck. Isn’t Madam Pomfrey normally obsessed with her patients? “Ahh… Got it,” she states, and starts for the exit.
“Oh, and before it surprises you,” Madam Pomfrey announces, drawing her attention again. “Most of the school went home for the winter holidays three days ago. They can probably get you back to Equestria separately, if you want to go too.”
She blinks. “Ahh… Thanks, but I think I’ll stay here for the holidays.” It should be easier to avoid detection amongst a few wizards that- apparently- know nothing of changelings, than in a no-doubt overpopulated Equestrian town, where everypony is almost intimately familiar with her kind.
Besides, she doesn’t want to single herself out any more than absolutely necessary- and going to Equestria separately sounds like an excellent way to single herself out.
Morning Sun hasn’t gone two steps when a sudden cough- and corresponding spike on her empathy sense- catches her attention. She whirls around to face the cough- and Madam Pomfrey traces it as well, before charging forwards.
“Ugh…” The girl that had coughed grumbles, sitting up in her bed. “That hurt. A lot. Um…” She looks around, blinking confusedly. “... What happened?”
Then it hits her. That’s one of the people that had been attacked!
Madam Pomfrey reaches her bed. “You’re awake,” she greets.
The girl- Morning can’t see her nametag- looks at Madam Pomfrey. “What happened? Was I…?”
She nods. “Petrified.” She scowls. “Must say, though, we didn’t expect anyone to recover on their own…”
The girl shrugs. “Huh… ‘Spose it might be related to how I saw it. Might also be an Equestrian thing, but Tree Hugger doesn’t look to be recovering. Um…” She looks up. “Can I help you, Morning?”
Morning only stares, paralyzed by fear and shock. This girl either already knew her… or had been able to read her nametag from across the room. And, even, had named the first girl that was attacked- and said she doesn’t look to be recovering- without even glancing.
The girl shrugs, before flopping back down on the mattress. “Whatever. Um… Where’s Lyra? I wanna say she can speed my recovery with her ‘reset magic’ wildcard. It feels like that kind of thing.”
“You… saw the attacker?” Madam Pomfrey asks.
She nods. “Yeah… it was swimming through pipes at the time, but I saw it. It was…” She raises one hand into the air in front of her- and an image appears, floating in the air. An illusion spell. “Donno what it’s called, but it’s some kind of giant snake.”
Morning recognizes the image from some of the research she’d done early in the year, back when she’d been searching for any possible clue as to what the wizards would think of what she really is. Their Being vs Beast debate had been very interesting… and this thing is very definitely on the Beast side of the equation. “Basilisk.” The word found its way out of her mouth without prompting.
The girl on the bed rises again. “What was that?”
Madam Pomfrey also turns to her, raising an eyebrow.
Great. Now she’s attracted their attention again. At least she doesn’t recognize the girl on the bed at all, so she’s probably not anywhere near her avoid list. “T-That’s a Basilisk,” she stutters. “I f-found it when I was b-browsing the lib-brary…”
The girl nods. “And it would seem you don’t work well under pressure, too. Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you. You know any more about it, or should I send Index Eye after it?”
“Uhh…” She looks away, trying to remember. “N-No.” She hadn’t been all that interested in it, beyond what it looked like and what wizards did to it. She knows it’s rare enough that she hadn’t been able to find anything.
The girl winces, then her hand comes up to the black thing clipped to the front of her robes. “Index Eye.”
Madam Pomfrey watches expectantly. Morning, seeing this, also waits, intrigued. Is it possible she should be avoiding anyone with one of those black things as well, not just the important figures and the Guards?
Ten seconds pass silently, before the girl goes for the black thing again. “Index Eye, do you copy?”
“We are in the middle of the winter holidays,” Madam Pomfrey scowls.
The girl winces. “Then she’s probably gone home, and may or may not be wearing her radio. Well-!” She freezes suddenly, then smiles… and, eventually, goes for it again. “It’s Hidden Light. Can you reunite Index Eye with her radio- and have her look up basilisks?” Pause. “Thanks.” She looks up, hand dropping from it. “Turns out she didn’t go home, but everybody else did, so she’s not wearing her radio. Got lucky, though, because Quick Skill is not only wearing her radio but near Index Eye.” She shrugs. “I wasn’t aware we had a third local recruit… but I guess stuff happens when you’re petrified for, what, a month?” She looks up at Madam Pomfrey, who nods.
“Right about, yeah.”