Chapter 36: Recovery, Plan, and Rage (1/2)

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The stone-grey eyed boy sat on a Hospital Wing bed, with his feet stretched straight and his back leaning against the headboard. He was reading a book on cold-related injuries and maladies.

Quinn had borrowed the book from Madam Pomfrey. She had given it to him because Quinn was bored and was disturbing her by trying to talk to her.

Just in front of Quinn's torso laid a bed table with multitudes of notes and papers on cold-related dangers that Quinn had read in the medical book he was given. If he was going to enter the vault, he needed to know the dangers. Reading upon the medical viewpoint was an excellent place to start as any.

”Hmm... I have to worry about hypothermia, frostnip, chilblains, immersion foot, and frostbite.” Extreme climatic conditions didn't suit the human body. The low temperature could do severe damage to the human body.

”Oh, there are more... psychiatric and psychosocial disorders, snow blindness, dehydration,... and constipation?” Quinn heaved a heavy sigh as he picked up another sheet of paper and found the most worrying thing he had discovered while researching.

”Prolonged stay in the extreme frigid cold can cause the magical activity in the body to become sluggish and hindered because of the effect cold can have on the body.”

Quinn's primary asset was magic, and if the extreme coldness in the Icy corridor could hinder his magical capabilities, then Quinn was in big problem.

”I need a way to keep my body warm in there, or else I am screwed,” murmured Quinn. If he could keep his body from being affected by the cold, he could keep his magical prowess in there to work on getting to the gate and open it.

Picking another paper, Quinn read the core problem he needed to deal with while in the Icy corridor.

”Blood,” whispered Quinn.

Blood was the problem and solution to his survival in the vault. Blood was everywhere in the body; it was deep inside the bones, and it was present just under the skin. To keep his body at a proper temperature, Quinn needed to keep his blood warm so that it could flow throughout his body and keep it warm.

When body temperature fell on exposure to cold, several protective mechanisms were recruited to generate additional heat. For example, the muscles produce additional heat through shivering. Peripheral vasoconstriction diverted blood flow to organs, such as the heart and brain. However, as less warm blood reaches the skin, body parts such as the fingers, toes, ears, and nose cool more rapidly. If body temperature fell much below a certain point, these protective mechanisms would stop working, and the body couldn't rewarm itself.

As tissue began to freeze, ice crystals were formed within the cells. Rubbing the frozen tissue would promote cell damage from these crystals, leading to more damage Quinn didn't want.

Additionally, as intracellular fluids freeze, extracellular fluid enters the cell, and there is an increase in the levels of extracellular salts due to water transfer. This caused damage even after exiting the frigid region as when the ice melts, there would be an influx of salts into the tissue, further damaging the cell membranes.

Blood got its heat mainly from the energy given off by cellular metabolism, and the cold in the Icy corridor would slow all down the cellular metabolism throughout his body. The moment that happened, hypothermia would set in, and most of his organs, especially the heart and brain, would become sluggish and eventually stop working.

'Blood magic. I need to research upon blood magic,' thought Quinn. Blood magic was classified under Dark Arts, which meant that they did not teach it in Hogwarts. 'All of these problems could be subverted if I can keep an even flow of warm blood throughout my body.'

'I have some books on Blood magic from the travel collection, two that I bought after that, three medi-healing books,' Quinn thought. Quinn tapped his chin and continued, 'There might be some in the restricted section in the library.'

”I might have to search the Room Of Requirement for books on Blood magic,” muttered Quinn as he charmed all the pages with dangerous material so that no one could read them.

”Woa-ho! You have no hair.” a voice bought Quinn out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Eddie and Marcus looking at him with big grins on their faces.

”You have no eyebrows,” said Marcus, moving closer to his bedside.

Quinn grinned and tapped his fingers on his bald head, ”Yeah... all of it was damaged beyond repair. Madam Pomfrey had to vanish all of it. It will grow back to their normal length in a day or two.”

Eddie lightly squinted his eyes and commented, ”Your skin is peeling, looks mad creepy.”

Quinn nodded as he stroked his face, ”Yup, that too was damaged, so she had to grow a new layer. The old one is going to come out slowly.”

”What else got damaged?” asked Marcus as he sat down.

”A lot of my muscles, outer part of my bones, skin, my vocal cords, ears, and some of my organs,” Quinn listed things off.

”Wicked! Here you go,” said Eddie, ”This is the homework for this week.” He handed Quinn a parchment roll with all homework topics listed on it.

Quinn noticed Marcus staring at the bed table with a slight frown on his face.

”What's up, mate. Why the frown,” asked Quinn.

”How did you get all this stuff? You are the only person I have seen using muggle quill and parchment,” asked Marcus, pointing at the paper on Quinn's bed table.

Quinn smirked, ”I asked one of the house-elves to bring them to me.” Quinn looked proud and continued, ”It took praising them regularly, but now they sometimes respond if I call them. I asked them to bring my stuff here.”

Eddie sighed and asked, ”How did you even see them. I haven't seen a single one in all my time here.”

Quinn shrugged but didn't reply. Quinn didn't want to reveal that he regularly visited them at the kitchens and sometimes found house-elves while he was scouting through Recon and greeted them.

Quinn didn't dare the West family house-elf, Polly, because he didn't want his grandfather to know about his current state. Calling Polly would be doing just that. Quinn was sure she would pop here at Hogwarts, take a single look at him, and then pop back to the Manor to inform his grandfather.

”How long are you going to stay here,” asked Eddie as he popped a grape from Quinn's bedside stand.

”Three to four more days, and I will be fully healed, back to my usual charming and remarkable self,” replied Quinn as he put all his research material so that Marcus and Eddie won't pick them up for a read.

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- (Scene Break) -

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”You are bald!” Quinn sighed as he looked up again to see the two familiar girls standing in front of his bed.

”And, you have no brows! Oh, Merlin, you look mad hilarious!” said the bubbly brunette as she moved closer to him.

Quinn smiled and greeted the two Slytherin girls, ”Davis and Greengrass, what caused you two to come here in the Hospital Wing?”

Tracey put her hand on Quinn's bald head while speaking, ”We wanted to see how you were doing.” She gave his bald top a good rub, giggling all the time she did it.

Quinn shook his head and said, ”Thank you for coming. I appreciate it.” He looked at Daphne and said, ”Greengrass, I haven't seen you since the ball. How are you doing?”

She nodded in return, but Tracey grinned as she danced her way back to Daphne's side, ”Oh, yes! The ministry ball where you two danced. A real pity that there weren't any photos.”

Daphne rolled her eyes and simultaneously thought, 'Believe me, mother tried to have the photographer click some, but thankfully father prevented her.'

A silly smile appeared on Quinn's face as he recalled Sophie Greengrass from the ball, but then he felt Daphne's glare and cleared his throat and put on a mischievous expression, wiggling his hairless brows, ”Oh, fates! To think it would embarrass the great Daphne Greengrass to be seen with someone like me.”

He turned to Tracey and asked, ”Aren't I pitiful.” Giving his best pitiful expression.

Tracey nodded rapidly, siding with Quinn. She turned to Daphne, giving her the same look.

The blonde Slytherin looked at her best friend and at Quinn, showing the same expression. She looked at them as if asking if their expressions were supposed to do something.

Quinn and Tracey deflated and looked at each other.

”Her defenses are quite impregnable,” said Tracey.

”We would have to develop a better attack strategy,” replied Quinn

Then both of them shook hands like they were lifelong comrades on a journey towards truth.

”Okay, stop this foolishness,” said Daphne as she tapped on her wristwatch. ”We need to go if we want to reach the class on time.”

Quinn nodded to Tracey, who waved him goodbye. He turned to Daphne, who was looking at him.

The blonde opened her mouth and addressed him for this first time, ”Get well soon West.”

Quinn smiled and replied, ”Thank you, Greengrass. I will.”

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- (Scene Break) -