Crying on the bench

[Rue Undersee]

Rue felt alone. Not physically, but in her mind. She had nobody to comfort her, tell her she was imagining the pain and actually, she was going to be fine. That's what she wanted. That's what she needed if she didn't want to be driven to the brink of insanity.
A sharp stab of pain in her abdomen caused her to double up in agony. She brough her knees to her chest, and buried her face in them. She had cried too much. She didn't want to embarass herself any more than she already had. She resisted the temptation to scream as another stab of pain made her feel sick. She was shivering as usual, despite the fact it was a warm day.
Rue let out a small agonising scream. She couldn't face going to the hospital wing. She was too afraid of what they'd say. Or if they wouldn't believe her.

A figure approached her, and she kept her head in her knees. She didn't want more critisism about how crazy she was. She wanted to be by herself, away from the tormenting children. She thought about running, but was scared she would collapse. She trembled, hoping the person wouldn't notice. Why was she shivering? She was hot. She didn't understand anything anymore. Instead, she let the pain take over her body.

 

[Sergei Ivanov]

Sergei was tired. Between studying and Head Boy duties, it seemed like he hardly was able to sit down and be an eighteen year old boy, which he was supposed to be. Katerina had written to him the other day, and Sergei had only just been able to read it over breakfast that morning. Of course, she hadn't written him much of any consequence, merely an update on her life, how there was a man she was interested in, how there were elections going on in New Zealand, but she was his own sister and it kind of upset him that he barely even had the time to communicate with her, life was so busy. Sergei was never the genius of the family - it was generally acknowledged that while Sergei was more personable, Katerina had more of the brains - but he was working himself ridiculously hard in order to do as well as possible.

Walking in a zombie-like state, Sergei was jerked back to reality by a tiny scream, and looked around to see a very small girl, who barely looked big enough to even be a first year, doubled over in pain. Now, Sergei was by no means a typical Durmstrang bully. He may have been stubborn and proud, but he was also very kind and responsible. So when he saw this girl in pain, he instantly knew he had to do something. Gently placing a hand on her shoulder, Sergei crouched down to look at her. "Hello," he began in tentative English, his Russian accent very obvious. He was never sure what language to speak around here, but English always seemed to be a safe bet, and he'd practiced that and his French a lot while at Beauxbatons in his sixth year. "What is wrong? What is your name?"

 

[Rue Undersee]

Rue jumped as a hand touched her shoulder. The boy looked so.. Old. Slowly, her eyes reached his. Her tiny pale face wet with tears. She didn't want to speak, she was far too afraid. The boy seemed kind enough to even bother seeing what was wrong, but Rue never trusted anybody. Ever.
She slowly uncurled from her little ball, wincing as her head thumped with pain. She looked at him properly. For a second, her mind thought about him being rather handsome, but she quickly banished that thought to the back of her mind just as another stab of pain struck her stomach.

Rue let out a long, loud agonizing groan, keeling over and nearly ending up on the floor. She swallowed down the sick feeling in her throat, hugging her stomach with her arms, trying to push the pain away. There were no tears left in her eyes, and she could barely make a noise. The lump in her throat felt like it was getting bigger, as her face turned a pasty green colour.
She looked to the boy for help. Her eyes showed her pain, her helplessness. She put a hand over her mouth, begging not to be sick. She had already got rid of most of her breakfast, and she was planning to hold on to the rest. Her stomach churned, although she wasn't sure if that was from fear or sickness. What was going wrong? She tugged at her long wavy hair, actually pulling out some strands. Her hands shook, and she knew something bad was happening to her. And she knew nobody would believe her. They never did.
Rue swallowed again and again, trying to calm herself down and stop her sick feeling, but it wasn't working.
'H..help.' Her voice trembled like her body. 'I don't f..feel- I don't' She started to sob, not wanting to admit how she felt. She was scared, embarassed, and worried what this boy would think.