Magical Hogwarts

April 3rd 2005

The girl was still there.

Aglaya didn’t even bother to call her by her name although she knew it, of course. How could she not know the daughter of Vadim Nikolaevich Raskolnikov? He was rich and would do anything for his daughter that money could buy. Athletes at the school were already betting on how long it would take for anyone to lose patience with Polina and tell Vadim Nikolaevich that it made no sense to keep her on. So far, however, nobody had had the guts.

Aglaya had once considered talking to her to tell her that she would never become any good and should better seek a different career but sadly she had been stopped. Now she ignored the younger witch best she could. Ignoring her only worked on the ground, though. When she happened to end up in a training session, ignoring Polina was hardly possible because she had to keep an eye on her. The girl had little control over her broom when she tried actual elements and never seemed to look out for others. Aglaya wasn’t sure if she felt so entitled or if she just wasn’t able to keep control over her broom and watch out that she didn’t fly into other people.

While she fortunately didn’t often train with her, Aglaya had one training session per week when she had to deal with the talentless athlete’s company. She had yelled at her several times that she should at least stay with both feet on the ground and out of the way when her music played as Aglaya needed to get her programs ready for the new season and couldn’t focus on this flying obstacle when she was working on her new choreography. Most of the time Polina listened to the multiple time champion when it came to this.

Today, however, she didn’t seem to have heard Aglaya’s instruction. As ‘Nuvole Bianche’ started to play for Aglaya’s new technical exercise, there were not only those athletes in the air that were in control of what they were doing but also Polina. Unaware of her presence, Aglaya performed her routine at a great speed, taking sharp turns and steep dives as planned in the choreography. Her diagonal sequence of difficult jumps and steps included a backflip and was supposed to end with another sharp turn but before she could get to that she saw someone fly in her way.

She was going way too fast and in the middle of a jump sequence with no realistic chance to do anything to get out of the way. Any other athlete from her training group would have tried their best to get out of the way. Polina, however, was like a deer in headlights and did nothing to avoid a crash.

Aglaya’s attempt to steer out of the way came too late and the two athletes collided heavily in the air, both falling off their brooms. The fall softening line prevented injuries from simple falls as it slowed down the falls but in this case the harm had been done before they even reached the line. For a moment Aglaya felt dazed as she lay on the ground. Then she heard voices coming closer and tried to sit up.

@Cezary Kowalczyk

With Algaya’s mother Alyona on business in Mexico for a continuing education, Cezary had been asked to step in as interim healer and was actually rather proud of himself for being entrusted with Alyona’s patient’s care. He was a trained healer himself, though his specialization was in Morbiwizardry, so it made sense that he could do the job. It had been awhile since Cezary had seen any (live) patients. Of course, the injuries he saw at Artistic Flying practice were (usually) flying-related and athlete-related injuries and not curses, hexes, or bugs. That made things a bit easier to deal with, as patching up a broken or sprained limb was relatively low-level medical magic.

He was getting a little anxious about this season. There was speculation that his muse, Aglaya, would be having this as her final season, and Cezary was concerned in his stupid fiancee making the win rough on her. If Aglaya was truly tired and distracted this season, she might underperform which might allow Sveta to take her title–though Cezary understood she could not keep it forever, it hurt more to think of Aglaya losing the title while she was still trying to compete for it. Sveta would never shut up about that, and Cezary might have to kill her sooner than he meant to, in hot rather than cold blood. Cezary had been planning Svetlana’s accident for a while yet, but it would not do for her to be filled with knife-shaped holes until she looked like a sieve. That would not look accidental.

Of course, despite Cezary’s loathing of his bride-to-be, the wedding was getting increasingly close at hand and Cezary would have a harder time being away from her once they were wed. He was running out of reasons to put it off. Things with Aglaya had not developed as he wanted them to so far. He had spoken to her a few times but she seemed uncertain about him in some ways. She never wanted to talk to him or confide in him, and he knew Sveta was the problem. She was reluctant to share anything with someone in bed with the enemy. Cezary wished she could know a little bit of how much he loved her and how much it hurt.

He had been planning another little gift, but was still working on decorating the doe skull he would be sending her. His doe… he thought that sounded sweet. He had surrounded the skull with a flower crown made of black ranunculus flowers. He had written her almost a manifesto’s worth of love letters, detailing some of his painful suffering. He thought he might publish them in a magazine that he knew she would read. She would recognize his writing and know it was him. She would know, know it was for her. She would love the doe skull, too. He was certain that this time he had planned something she would like. The doves were too sloppy to impress her. Too freshly dead, he assumed.

However, as much as Cezary hated Svetlana he certainly detested Polina. The new girl was haughty and talentless and terrible to look at. She thought she owned the place, though, and he did not appreciate that about her. At least Sveta did have talent and looks going for her. She was not the best, but not the worst. Polina needed to be taken behind the artistic flying school and removed from existence. When he saw Aglaya involved in the head-on collision, he ran towards them on the pitch. Polina was already coming to, too, and Cezary very quickly decided that she had done the last thing she would get to do. He would escort her out when they left, to the hospital, or so she would think–and then suspiciously would not make it back to practice the next day.

“Ladies….” He greeted, trying to not stare at Aglaya and throw himself at her in worry. He took a deep breath. She seemed conscious, too, which was a good sign. “What happened up there?” He knelt on the ground to examine them closer. “Tell me what hurts. One at at a time. Aglaya?”

Why was her mother not here today? Not that Aglaya appreciated Alyona’s company a lot. In fact, she avoided her most of the time. However, she trusted her mother to deal with any injuries efficiently. Now Cezary, Svetlana’s fiancé, knelt next to her and acted as the healer in charge.

Aglaya put one hand on the ground to steady herself in her sitting position and lifted the other hand to touch the side of her head which had collided with Polina’s elbow. She bit her lips to stop herself from wincing.

“What happened,” Aglaya said, her voice a little weak and shaky, “is that Polina doesn’t understand and respect the rules of a training session.” She wanted to say more but didn’t quite feel up to it now. Everything was spinning and she felt nauseous.

“My head hurts a little,” she said. It was clearly an euphemism for the  throbbing pain she was experiencing and Aglaya just hoped that he would not ask her to get to her feet just yet. She thought that, if she could just sit for a little while longer, she’d be able to get up and go home.

“Not sure if anything else is wrong,” she admitted. Aglaya was used to training through some pain and ever since she was taking a cocktail of potions on a daily basis she barely noticed minor injuries such as bruises or slight sprains anymore.

Cezary watched Aglaya carefully for a moment, checking for some signs of being out of it–a concussion, maybe? He noticed she was not looking the best he had seen her and immediately knew there was something off. He paused, listening to her talk and looking over at Polina when the girl accused Polina of being careless. Cezary had been watching. He knew it to be true.

“Oh goodness.” He started. He let her sit a little longer when he glanced over Polina, who also had some cuts and what would turn to bruises. He didn’t care if she was concussed, but of course he had to check her. He let the girl speak about her own injuries and excuses, and nodded. He could tell she had a concussion too, probably, but he had already decided that she would not be long for this world. It wouldn’t matter, and would only make it easier to kidnap her later.

“Perhaps both of you should escort me to the medical room for a better look?” He asked, offering a hand to Aglaya to help her up–he was giving Polina minimal attention. “If you can stand,” He explained. “If not, I can levitate you to the office for now. I worry you might have a worse head injury than you think….”

Cezary looked at Polina now and Aglaya closed her eyes for a moment. She wished her surroundings would stop spinning and the nausea would pass but to no avail. If only she could lie down on the spot for a while without getting any unwanted attention…

Aleksandra Viktorovna had approached them now, too. The elderly witch spoke to someone, probably Cezary or Polina. Aglaya didn’t pay a lot of attention to their brief exchange, though. She was more focused on staying conscious.

Cezary addressed them both again and Aglaya nodded. She looked at his hand for a moment, unsure if she was able to stand and walk but unwilling to let him levitate her. She took his hand after a moment of hesitation and let him pull her to her feet. She swayed dangerously but stayed on her feet - for now. Glancing at Polina she saw that the younger athlete was on her feet again, too.

“I can walk,” she said. She wasn’t entirely sure that she’d really make it to the medical room but she figured she’d rather collapse in a more or less empty corridor than in the main arena where fellow athletes and her coach watched her.