12. FURNUNCULUS
Hecate Lafay, Potions Professor

The boils had spread beyond her forehead as she leaned against the unforgiving cold of the dungeon wall just outside Professor Lafay's office. The pain was excruciating, but the fifth year couldn't tell if it was the throbbing of her forehead or her heart that hurt the most.

She couldn't bring herself to go back to the dorms just yet. Not until she had collected her thoughts a bit more at least. She was fairly sure that Selina would try to beat the Potions Mistress over the head with Mortimer for inadvertently making it look as though Kurumi had been jinxed with Furnunculus. No, the Gryffindor didn't want this made into an any bigger deal than it already was.

It had been her first real academic failure at Hogwarts and her first time really being ridiculed by a professor. Dragon Lady, nonetheless.

There had been a glimmer of someone else as well. A more compassionate Dragon Lady, but Kurumi wasn't about to believe that the woman was becoming softer. Especially after the woman's suggestion to slip potions into her mother's drink without telling her.

"They just are," she repeated softly, wiping tears from her cheeks. "They just are..."