late october, 1996 ; @aurordora
Katie woke slowly - a nice change of pace as of late, what with all the night terrors and gasping herself awake, which always scared whoever happened to be in her room at the time - and squinted around in the low light of her hospital room. she shifted around in her bed, trying to get as comfortable as she could, glad that whatever pain managing spells they were using on her hadn’t fully worn off yet today.
She was alone in her room, but she could hear hushed voices outside her door. It almost sounded like one of the nurses was arguing with someone. Judging by the light coming in around the curtains that someone had pulled closed over her window, she had slept for a few hours after her breakfast - or what she could manage to eat of it, anyway - so visiting hours were far from over. She caught a snippet of a reply as the nurse raised her voice - “...curse damage is plenty for her, she doesn’t need the bloody Ministry bothering her...” - before she lost track of the conversation again.
Sighing, she leaned back against her pillows. All sorts of people, from school and the Ministry and Merlin knows who else, had been in and out of her room since she’d arrived two weeks ago. She didn’t really want to answer the same questions again, but maybe it would be more interesting than staring at nothing or having her parents fussing over her. The argument outside had stopped, and someone knocked on the door, far too spirited of a knock to be the nurse.
“I know you’re going to come in whether I invite you or not,” Katie said, voice rough with sleep, “so you may as well just get on with it.”