Ok but you can't leave with a cliffhanger 😭 what does she do when she leaves the room? Also as a sidenote, why have they let it happen before? Were they entertained by it?
Of course I can leave you on that cliffhanger, it's funny and I like hearing responses asdlkfhkljasdhf
Okay, okay — So in regards to them not stopping this type of thing that had happened before? honestly, I don't even have a good explanation because it would be a mixture of entertainment ( ah that pure-blood woman is going to be harmed? what's going to happen to that family, how much will they pay to keep it quiet? to make that person pay? )
Abraxas especially would be thinking about that side of things, he keeps track of the money and favours that they're owed / collecting for power. Reinhard and Balthazar would probably be the strongest who look away and ignore what's happening. Nikolai and Marcel are 50/50 on if he'd intercept things. Thaddeus ... It'd depend on if he wanted to look like a hero / have that woman indebt to him emotionally. Basically; there's no real reason, it can't be justified because that type of thing always happens at parties / social gatherings / galas and they're not noble or sweet in the slightest (but apparently, sometimes they even have a fucking limit ??)
ANYWAY WHAT HAPPENS BACK IN THE HALLWAY ??
As soon as Artemis is outside of the room? That smile / facade drops instantly and she starts practically marching down the corridor — her head is turning left to right, down each hallway to try and find something that might be a bathroom, and she looks at the castle in a silent question because the castle and artemis? the castle fucking loves this woman, she talks to it, she scolds it, she thanks it constantly even though people look at her like she's an idiot for it. So, the castle torchers dim and brigten to help her get to the closest bathroom.
This? This makes all of them fucking stutter. Hogwarts is a thousand years old, it tolerates students, it is a building that shifts and moves for the headmaster. And it's choosing to help a muggle woman with no family, no magic, and no history — If their brains hadn't flagged her before, they were now because that's not fucking normal. What the fuck is she? spolier: she's just nice
Artemis — we stan one capeable woman by the way — turns a corner and she's clocked that someone is following her. It's one of those responses that come from years of paranoia and being in a hostile enviroment. That being said, she doesn't know if it's the person who drugged her or not but her priority? It's the bathroom. Artemis makes the choice that her body is the bigger threat than the person following her.
Eventually, she reaches a bathroom and she pushes inside — but she uses too much force, she stumbles and her knees hit the tiles with a crack. The type of pain that makes you want to throw up. It doesn't stop her, she's almost thankful for that nausea, she's beside the toilet before that pain can properly register — Artemis has ripped off her jacket, her glasses have been pulled off, she's pulled out her hair tie and redone it so it doesn't get in her face. And she's hovering over the toilet with fingers so close to her mouth, because she needs to throw up, she needs to get whatever she can, out of her system.
Artemis can't do it. Artemis freezes (because she's never had to make herself throw up, her body refuses to let her experience that)
Now, these men have been following her — Marcel took the upper level to watch the corridor from above. Nikolai was leading point / tracking her from about twenty meters away with Reinhard. Balthazar took the east wing. Abraxaus had moved on his own / his own route. Thaddeus— Tom ordered him to stay because he'd scare her with his intensity, he sat still for about twenty three seconds before bolting. Tom stayed. Tom's watching the guy who did it and making sure that face is burned into his brain.
All of them heard her fall, the frustrated 'fuck' that she mutters and they all arrive at different points, they all co-ordinate without communication.
NIKOLAI — He's the first to reach her, he's bent down at her side and switching between treating her like a mission and a woman in distress. Nikolai asks her what she needs— he reaches out for her (along with Thaddeus and someone else)
Artemis? Artemis snaps at them;
"Don't— Don't— Don't—" the words were sharp against the damp tiles as soon as she felt another warmth reach at her body. A touch to comfort. A touch to help. A touch to say that she wasn't on her own. "Sorry—" the apology followed, the hand that had been hovering near her mouth started to move. "Not you— Can't—Don't—" she tried to form the words, to tell Thaddeus and Balthazar that touch made her body recoil when she was sick, that it wasn't personal——
Artemis, even in this state is trying to tell them that not wanting to be touched isn't personal, it's her body that recoils when she's in this state. This is a woman who is unable to be comforted by human touch when shes' sick and has had to tell people multiple times.
Druing all of this, Artemis has also ripped off her shirt and now she's on the floor in a bra and jeans; because the singlet she was wearing feels like it's suffocating her, her flesh is burning up, she doesn't give two shits if there are a bunch of men around her. They can deal with the indecency because she won't tolerate it. Then? God;
"If there's a spell to make me throw up. Use it now," the words were forced from her lips, her tone demanded for someone to act without hesitation —— the muscles in her shoulders constricted, the bones of her spine visible from the the way she sat up straighter to prepare herself— "Someone fucking do it now—"
That's not a soft question, that's a demmand for someone to act because she can't do it herself.
Nikolai is the one who does it — Drumstrang teaching and field medicine / magic. It's a spell that goes to her throat and triggers the reflex and— Oh gods above, the result is not fucking pretty and Artemis knows this; Artemis knows how her body reacts and how she sounds when she's throwing up, it sounds like she's actually dying, as if she's been gutted on the floor from the sounds of pain / partial groans and screams. It's not a special medical thing, it's just her own body and how it responds.
NIKOLAI — This man has heard the gargled gasps of punctured lungs and dying wizards, but this sound is going to live in his nightmares for the rest of his life. There's guilt because he was the one that cast the spell, he inflicted this on her but, there's also the understanding that she asked for it, she knew it was going to be bad and that even drugged, she's made so many smart tactical choices, there's respect.
ABRAXAS — He's been standing outside and making sure that the hallway is clear / nobody comes for her. That sound makes him flinch however and this is a man who's watched torture with a bored expression during the wars. This man has spent years being bored by everything because he's seen it all. Instead, there's something akin to anger? Toward his nephew / draco for not being here and noticing but towards the person who did this. The person who made one woman bouncing and laughing, to someone fighting for survival.
REINHARD — He has a constant running commentary within his head; he likes to point out how people are responding and acting.
The commentary tried to restart—that's an interesting response, the rejection of comfort during physical distress suggests a pattern of self-reliance that might indicate——but it died in his throat when started making those noises.
BALTHAZAR — He's trying to ignore those sounds, he's picked up her glasses and has made himself busy - he restores / conserves magical artifacts and he's treating her glasses like it's something he works with. later, he also picks up her jacket and singlet, folds them carefully because that's the least he can do. Preserve her things. Make sure she gets them back.
MARCEL — He's been watching from the upper level and something cracks — he watches her throw up and he practically runs to the lower level, two steps at a time, out of breath (Abraxas notices this because Marcel? Marcel Rosier doesn't run) Marcel enters without listening to Abraxas tell him what's happening.
THADDEUS — This man is about to claw out of his fucking skin because she's said that she can't be touched and that's the opposite of everything he wants to do. He's already spiralling, he's the most volitile member of the knights (high yandere coded) he wants to wrap her up, he wants to hold her, wants her to know that she's not alone, even if he scares her, even if he's too much. A part of him even see's her refusal for touch as rejection (before she tries to explain it) but he's still there, just kinda awkward and spiralling and trying hard not to touch her
Eventually, Artemis throws up for a second time - then she reaches for the water, Nikolai hands it to her and she takes a moutful, gargles and spits (which again, they've all clocked that this isn't exactly a normal response??) then she collapses against the floor, her head resting on the toilet seat and artemis;
Artemis fucking apologises to them ; she says that she's fine (underneath that tone is also a 'you can leave now') because they were strangers, she doesn't want to be an incovience
Absolutley not — Nikolai has already thought about a safe room / safe house (not sure if I want it in Hogwarts or outside) to transport her to because they don't know where her dorm is, he's also ordered Thaddeus to pick her up. Reinhard has put his jacket over her so she's decent and not sitting there in a bra. Balthazar has her things and will probably kill anyone who tries to take them. Abraxas is still keeping guard but now mentally making a route to the safe room / safe house.
Marcel? I'm just gonna post what's written;
Marcel crossed the bathroom in three strides. Dropped to his knees in front of her—not beside her, in front of her, where she could see him even without her glasses.
"Look at me."
The words came out harder than he intended. More commanding. The consultant's voice, the one that said chin up, shoulders back, let me see what we're working with.
But this wasn't about posture. This wasn't about presentation.
"I don't know if you can see me clearly right now. But I need you to listen." His voice softened—fractionally, the smallest crack in the professional veneer. "You have nothing to apologize for. Nothing. Do you understand? You did exactly what you should have done. You recognized the threat. You removed yourself from the situation. You asked for help when you needed it. That's not weakness. That's—"
His voice broke. Actually broke. Marcel Rosier, who hadn't lost control of his voice since he was fifteen and his father had told him he'd never amount to anything.
"That's the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of things."
He held out his hand. Not touching—she'd said don't. Just offering. A choice.
"We're taking you somewhere safe. Somewhere close. You can sleep there. And then—when you're ready—we're going to have a conversation about who did this to you. And I'm going to explain to them, in very precise terms, why that was a catastrophic mistake."
Whatever the fuck Marcel is feeling is made worse when she tries to rteach for his hand and it just drops from exhaustion.
Thaddeus? Thaddeus acts, he apologises but he picks her up before she can argue or make excuses (because she said she needed a few minutes and she'd be able to walk) and ???
That's pretty much where I'm up to with writing this entire thing; I have switched to brush buddy stuff bC MY HEART NEEDS FUCKING SOMETHING RIGHT NOW BUT AGOD DAMNIT THEY'VE BEEN AFFECTED
